voidtreckernet | Voice; Request

[Ran's not sure she's comfortable with being seen for this one, as it's a subject that's touching a little deeply for her, so for the moment she just sticks to voice.]

[She pulls in a soft breath.]

I . . . need some help.

I know a lot of you have met Conan-kun. He's been here for a while. There's another girl here from my world now too -- Ai-chan. If you haven't met them yet, I hope you get to soon.

What I need help with . . . They're both seven. They're both smart -- really smart -- for their age, but. They're both seven. And not fighters. The train doesn't seem to discriminate about who it takes, and yet the missions that it sends us on are dangerous.

[A pause, wrestling with her words.]

I need them both to be safe. This past time Sera-chan and I were able to be with them. But what happens if we're not able to do that? How does their safety get guaranteed?

I need a better guarantee. Please help me figure out how to keep two kids safe so I can get them back home? I'm teaching both some simpler self-defense, and that will help, but . . . I already know it's not enough.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Another . . . place like this?

[You mean there's more than one place like this? She's just getting used to the idea of the one, and that seems like too many.]

. . . Was Conan-kun there for three years too?

How is it even possible? I don't ever remember him not being at home.

[Starting to wonder if worlds like this could possibly be a reason for Shinichi being missing. (Is it possible to pop in and out? Communicate via phone?)]

Well, it was a castle instead of a train, but like the VoidTreker it'd grab people from all over with no memory of how they got there. So pretty much the same thing.

Yeah. He was there when I arrived. [And was a rude, annoying brat.] And I saw him on the day we left.

[She had made sure to check in on him then. Leaving Paradisa had been harder than she would have expected, mainly because of her few remaining friends. But Dairine had known that Conan would return home. He had people waiting on him, just like herself.]

Oh, the castle would return folks right back to the time and place they left. So as far as anyone back home was concerned, we were never gone at all.