[Conan Doujin] The Mystery of Theseus

Puzzle18's hypothetical next step is to fight.

Reason... It seems that everything needs a "reason".

Before the universe was born, did you consider any reasons for "it must be born"?

Sitting at the table for a long time without any activity, Edogawa only felt the cold in his blood, and even his limbs became stiff.Thinking for a long time without reaching a specific conclusion is like watching a movie in a foreign language without subtitles, making the overloaded brain dizzy.

Shaking his head and jumping off the seat, Edogawa walked back and forth in the office to recover the temperature of his limbs.Only then did he feel that the room was really too dark.

It's so late, has the uncle's case not been settled yet?

Even if they have long been accustomed to the dimness of the room, human eyes do not have the excellent night vision function of animals.Edogawa turned on the lights in the office.The electric light flickered twice, and the bright white light filled the entire space in the room amidst the uninterrupted sound of small electric currents.

Standing alone in the middle of the office, even Edogawa himself felt that the picture was a bit discordant.

According to the usual practice, he should be at the "incident scene" where the client is, and under the guise of Kogoro Mori, he will perfectly present the search of the scene and the reasoning of clues.If the time is well managed, they may be able to have a good meal with the entrustment money they just got before returning to the office.Uncle will drink at least six cans of beer, and Lan will definitely frown and complain...

But none of this happened.Even if the sleeping Kogoro hadn't danced a strange dance and suddenly sat down and pretended to be deep, the case would have been solved stumbling in the end, which was more vivid than imagined and more real than reality. Nothing would have happened—because Conan Edogawa didn't Appeared at the scene of the case.

I don't know when, the existence of "Edogawa Conan" has occupied an indispensable position in reality.If it is forcibly peeled off, it will definitely leave a terrible and abrupt hole.

And that hole cannot be easily filled by the return of "Kudo Shinichi".Different shapes, different sizes, different everything.

Realizing that the discord in the picture at this moment came from himself alone in the office, Edogawa stopped moving from side to side to warm his body.

If at that time, do I still need to create some fragments of information, so that those who want to see them can use their imaginations to stitch them together into the existence of "Edogawa Conan"?

Thinking too far... Thinking that he is clearly still at the stage of "creating Kudo Shinichi's intelligence fragments", Edogawa can only laugh at himself.But in the next second, his smile froze at the corner of his mouth.

A series of information collations that did not come to a definite conclusion just now were hooked up with unconscious delusions. The two seemingly unrelated things were mixed together and produced a dynamic chemical reaction.

There is no "reason" nor "necessity" for Kudo Shinichi to know Kuroba Kaito.

—But they did know each other.

Kudo Shinichi realized that Kuroba Kaito's channels were all indirect side contacts.

——With the information provided by others, the image that cannot be directly observed was pieced together.

Now they can see each other unhindered.

——But in the absence of a definite "reason", it still cannot be observed.

At this moment, the sudden realization is indeed the mood that occupies all of Edogawa's energy, but he can't feel relaxed or happy through this mood for the time being.

Combined with the hypothetical conclusions deduced before, is Kaito Kuroba just a collection of fragments of intelligence for me?

Other people's cognition is too subjective and unreliable, and what you see with your own eyes is not the truth.Is the Kuroba Kaito who has been patched together and recognized through these various methods really "Kuroba Kaito" himself?

Mirrors reflect light back at the same angle, so the mirror image is indistinguishable from reality.Then consider this assumption in reverse, what about me for him?

For him, is my existence just an aggregation of information and settings?

There is no doubt that he is standing here at this very moment.But how to prove all this?

He couldn't unilaterally prove the existence of "Kuroba Kaito", and even to some extent, he couldn't prove his own existence.

Such thoughts made Edogawa feel chills all over his body.He found himself still standing in the middle of the office.

It's probably already arrived, a season when you will feel cold if you don't move for a long time.

"Can't recognize it directly?" Kuroba had been home for quite a while when he received Edogawa's call.After dinner at Qingzi's house, he was flipping through the news on his phone to pass the time.Edogawa's series of unprovable hypotheses were telegraphed to him, sounding like God knows if a TV commercial was made up, based on scientific theory.

"That's it." Leaning against the window but feeling the coldness of the glass, Edogawa pouted and left the window pasted with the word "事". "That is, there is no way for us to see each other normally without some specific 'reason'."

"But now we're talking 'normally' too, aren't we?" The information that was too surreal squeezed together, making Kuroba a little dizzy. "According to what you said, if there is no reason, even the phone should be—"

"That's because I have good enough reasons."

"...for what reason?"

"The reason why I want to see you."

Hei Yu on the other side of the call was silent for a full three seconds.

"Detective."

"please say."

"...Do you know that there are some things that you can't say casually?"

"What's the problem?"

"Forget it, when I didn't say anything..." Probably because that guy can easily say the words "you can't say it casually", people around him will have nothing to do with him... Kuroba, who realized this, simply followed Continue to talk about the topic just now, "But according to what you said, the last time you ran to the gate of our school, the reason was already sufficient, wasn't it?"

In the end, I couldn't see it either.

"My reason here is indeed sufficient," Edogawa recalled every moment of that day in detail.The experience of that day can indeed serve as a very typical example if it is to provide support for the hypothesis that they can only contact each other through indirect cognition. "It's you who's in trouble."

"Why am I here..."

"My understanding is...if the reason is not known to both parties," through the window of the office, you can see the figures of the uncle downstairs and Lan returning.Leaving the window and running towards the door, Edogawa said anxiously, "There is no way to see him."

"Even if you say so, I-"

"I can't explain it on the phone," the sound of footsteps walking up the stairs and the crying complaint of an adult uncle can be heard in the corridor, "I will discuss it face to face at the doctor's house tomorrow."

Feeling faintly that the other party was about to cut off the phone, Kuroba closed his eyes knowingly.

"Shouldn't this also be part of...the reason for 'wanting to meet'?"

Having already opened the door of the office, Edogawa, who was about to hang up the phone with a slight movement of his finger, was stunned for a moment.

"clever."

Following what Edogawa said, Kuroba came to the doctor's house after that - although he still had doubts about the agreed place.

"Why are you staying at the doctor's house every time?" He felt unfair because he was the only one who had to travel long distances every time. "Occasionally change the base. Usually there is no one in my house."

"There is no need for that," Edogawa walked in front of him, "Besides, you can still discuss with Huibara here."

Although it is not clear whether the issue they are currently discussing belongs to the field of expertise of this young scientist, if there is one more person to discuss, it is more likely to be closer to the truth.not to mention……

Compared with the mirror-like "two people" who can only go straight, the addition of a third person can form a more stable structure.The intervention from the perspective of a third party will undoubtedly enable the two people who cannot prove their existence to have a down-to-earth "proof of presence".

Before knocking on the door of the doctor's house, Edogawa's hand was hanging in the air.His gaze shifted to the back, and he could see Kuroba standing there for sure. "Speaking of which, I haven't told Huiyuan about your coming today."

Kuroba shrugged indifferently. "…so?"

"So it's a fantastic timing for validation."

A few seconds later, the door of the doctor's house opened, and Hui Yuan, who was wearing his usual overalls, floated his hands on the door frame, his eyebrows half raised, as if he was waiting for some explanation.

"Yo," raised a hand and greeted briefly, Edogawa pointed behind with a thumb, "Can you see this guy?"

Hei Yu stood there nervously, not daring to make a sound, not even to breathe.

"There must be a limit to fooling people." Without any sign, Huiyuan turned around and walked back to the back room, "If Mr. Thief is trying some new type of optical camouflage, I can answer directly - he failed."

The expected reaction made Edogawa a little frustrated. "Sure enough, the people around me can't..."

Daily connections and exchanges are inextricably woven into a messy web. If you want to pick out a tiny slender thread without involving others, it is faster and faster to dismantle the entire web.

"I said, is there such a person?" Realizing that the process of verifying the hypothesis is much more complicated than imagined, Edogawa began to talk nonsense recklessly, "I don't usually meet him very often, but when he is needed, he It will definitely be there. Even if you tell him that the rules of the world will be rewritten tomorrow, he will not think that your brain is funny, but seriously accompany you to think about the solution..."

He was really just talking nonsense.But in the process of continuous superimposition of this description, the non-existent image became more and more concrete.

Thinking hard following Edogawa's description, Kuroba looked up at the sky, secretly slandering who was being taken advantage of.But when he looked back, the answer in his heart was clearer than the untouchable blue sky.

And in Edogawa's eyes, he seemed to see the same epiphany like waking up from a dream.

The two spoke at the same time and pronounced the same name.

"... Hattori!"