The establishment of the Time Travelers Alliance began in the first year of Conan

Chapter 202 After this battle, I'll go back to my hometown to get married (Three chapters combined, please vote at the end of the month)
"Heiji Hattori has boarded the plane. Once we receive the message, we will immediately try to lock Heiji Hattori's arrival time in Beika Town at 8:30 a.m.

"【Eternal First Strike】Received."

After receiving news that several members of the [Plot Guide] task force had successfully boarded the plane, the three [Eternal First Strike] members who remained at the airport exchanged glances.

Then, they immediately brought up that familiar interface on TDD, and the button displayed on the screen had an incredibly futuristic name—"Timeline Travel".

The leader of the three-person team reminded everyone of the precautions once again.

"3:33 a.m., don't get it wrong, we need to borrow the symbolic meaning of [Shinichi Kudo]."

"Then, according to the plan, only one person will be selected. Once the others find that their timing does not match the TDD, they will immediately start the exit procedure."

"Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the next backtracking to be pulled out of the possibilities."

Even the Alliance's many rewinds were due to this shortcoming of the magical timeline technology.

After all, "eternity" is a common state for magical timeline technology.

But for the task force members who used the technology, it was a pathological condition.

After all, who would say that a rock or a breeze has a lifespan?
Like those lingering "ghost cats," they are more like a phenomenon of "living"—

This kind of idealistic life chooses to take full control of their own time, which also means that every step of their subsequent historical progress must be done by themselves.

Of course, this is also its greatest advantage, just like it is now.

All members of 【Eternal First Strike】 can pass through the keyhole constructed by time sequence, leap out of that river of time, and find a precise time-space node in the eternal tranquility and infinitely divisible space-time.

As long as they believe they are in that place, their timeline-constructed bodies will autonomously shift their temporal scale according to their beliefs.

Of course, this is on the premise that they do not get lost in those non-existent possibilities, or become bound by their own endless cycle of the "present".

"Therefore, just like pulsars, the most precise timekeeping instruments in the universe, the time information carried by time crystals and the symbolic meaning of [Shinichi Kudo] will guide you."

The strategic operations command at the operational level has marked all the details in the contingency plan.

"Based on the previous rewind, the time coordinate of Toyama Kazuha at 3:33 AM has been preset into your TDD. However, due to the magical field effect of yours, you must confirm for yourselves whether you are still in the normal timeline."

"Once a discrepancy is detected with the actual timeline, the loop generator will be activated. A small loop will return you to the airport to ensure your safety."

However, at that time, the task force member who successfully "teleported" to Kazuha Toyama's room had his "result" fixed by Shinichi Kudo's "choose one of three".

Then, without the slightest hesitation, the task force member immediately began to set up the dream-construction ritual of red magic.

The "Sands of Time" composed of APTX-4869 fell three times on Kazuha Toyama's forehead.

Guided by the CYZ effect, the forces that should have been independent began to intertwine, and the abnormal effects on Koizumi Akako became intertwined with the brilliance of [Kudo Shinichi].

“To Moirai”.

—The task force member recited in a low voice, and his voice pierced through the veil of reality.

As the words fell, the six hands of the clock on my wrist trembled slightly at the number "three" before coming to a complete stop.

An invisible wave surged from the void towards them. The task force member closed his eyes, letting his consciousness sink into the symbolic imagery constructed by TDD—

As a result, the boundaries of time began to dissolve, and the distinction between dreams and reality began to crumble.

The red magic swallowed up Kazuha Toyama's room, replacing it with a quiet and deep cave. Kazuha Toyama lay quietly on the stone slab, dreaming in her dreams, her breathing long and peaceful.

The CYZ effect began to guide the red magic and the radiance of the pale sun to choose an alternative future.

"Clotto holds a golden shuttle."

A shadow appeared, and Clotho, one of the three Fates, stepped into the cave. She slightly raised her hand and pulled a golden thread from Kazuha's body.

"Lachsis measures length."

A second figure appeared, Lachesis sitting beside Kazuha Toyama, holding a silver ruler, beginning to define the scale at which dreams and reality would merge.

"Atropos dropped the scissors."

Atropos's figure appeared, but her hand, which was about to bring down the scissors, suddenly stopped.

A faint glow gathered around the golden thread, resting against the edge of the blade.

"Atropos" looked up at the special operative standing next to Kazuha, her gaze deep and dark.

Her outline became blurred, and the lines of her face began to dissolve and distort.

Then—Clotto and Lachesis's figures also changed, their faces gradually taking on the characteristics of special forces members.

For Red Magic enhanced by the CYZ effect, the [story timeline] reveals its "form".

Fate... at least for Kazuha Toyama, fate has become tangible at this moment.

"But now this scorching net—"

"Every single thread is hand-twisted by us!"

The imagery of the three goddesses became blurred, and at the very moment the ritual ended, the Alliance imposed a piece of future "historical inertia" onto the present.

And so it happened just like the last time the alliance rewound.

Kazuha Toyama fell from her dream into reality with a strange sense of unease and worry for Heiji Hattori.

The first thing she did after waking up was, after much internal hesitation and inner turmoil, to dial the satellite phone with Hattori Heiji.

Her phone call will determine the fate of the "golden thread" that the league has just replaced, a thread stained with the league's glory.

……

"The success of this ritual proves that it is indeed stable."

After receiving the latest intelligence, one of the councilors responsible for communicating with the Department of Magical Research once again proposed:
"In other words, the idea proposed by the CYZ Effect Research Institute is not a pipe dream—it is possible to try to build a magic system that belongs exclusively to the Alliance."

Although the conditions for using these rituals are extremely demanding.

The user must be a magical timeline life form, capable of using red magic, and have a sufficiently high CS value to complete the ritual.

Moreover, the ritual requires the user to "pay" a certain amount of their CS value over a certain period of time.

Red Magic - Ritual Design Bureau used a game as an example:
"For example, the 'Detective's Three Goddess Ritual' used this time will cause the user's CS value to decrease by one-third semi-permanently for at least one day after the ritual is completed, and it will only slowly recover when the fate of ritual interference arrives."

In addition to the user's prior requirements, the conditions for initiating the ritual are equally stringent—

The "Detective's Three Goddess Ritual" requires a time related to the number "3," and the more "3"s it contains, the more effective it is.

Therefore, its greatest effectiveness is fixed at 3:33:33 every day.

At the same time, it is necessary to consider the ideal environment, that is, the object of the ritual and the disturbances in the world background.

For example, the "weaving destiny" ritual used on Kazuha Toyama this time needs to be performed during a period when Shinichi Kudo subconsciously yearns for "everyday life".

At the same time, users need to have a deep understanding of Kazuha Toyama's "persona" and "historical trajectory", and also need to have certain characteristics of Koizumi Akako's "witch" persona.

However, one advantage is enough to outweigh all the above disadvantages—

The CYZ effect consumed by this ritual is negligible.

Before this ritual was adopted, the cost of simply using the CYZ effect to enhance red magic and stabilize a future trajectory was astonishingly high.

A full 0.05 string CYZ effect!

It's important to understand that the CYZ effect on a standard TDD chip in the alliance is less than one millionth of a string.

During these seven days of weakened timelines, it only takes one string to rewind one day!
Therefore, after the seventh backtracking, the execution layer requires the research layer to find a more economical method:

"Let the Red Magic Research Department find a more economical method."

"The CYZ effect we used will not be brought back due to retrospection; its constancy and benchmark are calculated based on the alliance's time."

"If each backtracking requires so many CYZ effects to repeat and stabilize that trajectory, even in the most optimistic scenario, based on the same number of backtrackings as yesterday (one hundred times), we directly lose five backtracking opportunities."

……

Fortunately, after the tenth retrospection, this ritual—

The ritual, which at least only applies to the "love story" between Kazuha Toyama and Heiji Hattori, can finally be used reliably.

And so, just like a small segment of the future fixed by the ritual, Kazuha Toyama awoke from a dream specially woven for her.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her somewhat dazed gaze told everyone that her thoughts were still immersed in the afterglow of that dream.

She dreamed of Heiji again, but not with those warm memories; instead, it was somewhat... somewhat cold.

Curled up on the soft mattress, Kazuha wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, but the inexplicable unease brought on by the dream kept her tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

That dream felt like it really happened.

Heiji desperately reached out to grab him as he plummeted down a steep cliff, the wind whistling through his ears. In the end, they both fell into the icy waters of the stream...

Is this really just a dream? Why, why does it feel so real?

A strange fear gripped her chest, and Kazuha's heart began to race slightly. The phone call she'd had with Heiji the day before yesterday resurfaced in her mind—

On the phone, Hattori Heiji was unusually serious, and Kazuha could even hear a hint of anger in his voice.

"Kazuha, you need to be careful during this time... You should just take a few days off and not go to school."

"I've already spoken to Uncle Yinshilang."

Heiji would never remind himself to be careful for no reason, to the point that he had to stay at home.

However, when she asked her father, he didn't tell her what Heiji was doing. Yesterday, he even unusually took a day off to stay home with her.

The night was deep, and the moonlight outside the window shone through the half-open curtains onto the wall.

Kazuha glanced at the clock on the wall; it showed 3:34 a.m.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and finally, this somewhat uneasy girl got out of bed to the moonlight streaming through the window—

She still couldn't shake off the unease in her heart.

Kazuha Toyama picked up her phone from beside her pillow.

Her fingers hesitated for a moment, but she finally dialed the number Hattori Heiji had given her.

……

"Ding-a-ling-ding-a-ling--"

Just as the contingency plan stated, at 3:36, the satellite phone on the plane rang.

The task force member responsible for maintaining contact with Heiji Hattori quickly answered the phone.

He whispered a few words to Toyama Kazuha across from him, then said calmly:

"Yes, Mr. Heiji has already given the instructions. Please wait a moment while I go and get it for Mr. Heiji."

As he spoke, he slightly raised his head, looked at the three team members waiting to the side, and made a gesture.

—The mission has begun.

For these "plot guide" task force members who boarded the plane with Heiji Hattori, the current objective was very clear:

Ensure the plane lands at 7:00 AM Tokyo time, and ensure Hattori Heiji arrives in Beika Town on time at 8:30 AM.

This sounds simple.
If we don't consider one thing—

The plane took off from New York, and the journey across half the globe theoretically takes about thirteen hours. ...

This problem was discovered after the eleventh backtracking.

In the final hour of the meeting before the rollback, the execution team finally identified the key factor that led to the mission failure—

"Time is still too tight. If we follow the [real timeline], Hattori Heiji will arrive in Tokyo in the evening."

On the holographic projection in the center of the conference table, the records of the first two rewinds were reproduced.

In that city where the sky glowed yellow, all of the alliance's actions that day were reviewed and analyzed once again.

"Moreover, due to the timing, by the time Heiji Hattori arrived in Tokyo, the historical momentum carried by the ceremony had already ended."

"This will allow the [real timeline] to take over again, and he will turn to dealing with the Tokyo headquarters investigation department's matters instead of going to the Mori Detective Agency."

“In the last flashback, we tried to get ‘Science Frontier’ to change his itinerary through an emergency, but even so, his arrival time in Beika Town was still delayed until 7 p.m..”

“It will take time to guide him to meet with [Shinichi Kudo], and we must make them aware of Shiho Miyano’s location through hints without alerting the two timelines.”

Clearly, there is absolutely not enough time.

"We must get Hattori Heiji to Beika Town by morning so that the Narrative Studies Department can come up with a feasible plan!"

Therefore, the space where the RSI value is below 50 and has no concept of time was brought out again.

The members of the Narrative Studies Department, like firewood being added to a stove, donned that thick protective suit and began to "burn" their wisdom in that distorted spacetime.

"We need to finalize Hattori Heiji's confession plan. We can't just rely on the emotions induced by Gehrman. We must let Toyama Kazuha add weight to this [historical process]."

"The only solution we can think of."

"The idea is to have Hattori Heiji decide on Beika Town as the location for the planned confession, and he has to make the decision on the plane. Only in this way can the flight be considered part of the 'love story'."

Through meticulous derivations and calculations, the timing sequence was simulated again and again.

The Research Department ultimately confirmed that the plan proposed by the Narrative Studies Department was indeed feasible.

"While it's clear that the [story timeline] doesn't want to 'waste' its resources on this, we can lend it a hand."

“By leveraging the historical momentum of this ‘love story,’ we can use a reality aperture device to make the story briefly appear in reality.”

the most important is--

"Because to some extent, this borrows the power of the [story timeline]. Most of the pressure from reality will be handed over to the storyline itself, and only a small amount of CYZ effect is needed to achieve this."

The timelines in the story that are unrelated to the case are ambiguous.

Just like Conan riding a big dog in the kidnapping case of the chairman's daughter.

Because the story required the detective to arrive at the crime scene, Conan appeared there at that time.

"In this way, we don't need to make large-scale omissions within GSSRA, thus avoiding the possibility of direct conflict with the [real timeline]."

"Moreover, the [story timeline] will proactively clean up the mess for us. Its 'rationalization' prevents Hattori Heiji from discovering the alliance's actions and from questioning his own behavior."

……

So, while Hattori Heiji was staring at the photo in his hand, lost in thought...

The GSSRA staff rushed over and handed the phone to Hattori Heiji.

"Mr. Heiji! It's Ms. Toyama on the phone!"

Is this a call from Kazuha? It's probably early morning in Osaka, right?

Heiji paused for a moment, then immediately took the phone and lowered his voice: "Hello, Kazuha?"

What a coincidence!

The two children, who missed each other, began to confide their worries about one another.

The unusual timing of the call made Heiji Hattori feel inexplicably nervous.
"What's wrong? Did something happen to you?"

On the other end of the phone, Kazuha Toyama was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I...I'm a little worried about your safety, Heiji. Dad and you are both keeping this from me..."

"Kazuha...I..."

Kazuha didn't give Heiji a chance to explain; her voice was a little lower than before.

"Heiji, I had a dream."

"Dream?"

So Kazuha Toyama began to confide in Heiji Hattori about the unusually vivid dream she had.

Heiji Hattori heard Kazuha Toyama's voice coming through the phone, as she softly recounted the details of the dream.

“I fell off the cliff… You were holding onto a tree branch with one hand and me with the other… Then, the branch broke, and we both fell…”

For Kazuha Toyama, it was just a dream that was too real.

But for the other three task force members who were beginning to prepare to bring the [story timeline] to the surface—

One of the team members reported in a low voice:

"The ceremonies on both sides have been communicated, and the third group of nodes from the Star Tower has already sent over."

Their next task was to ensure that the plane's landing time was anchored at 8:30 a.m. during this thirteen-hour flight.

Their gaze fell on the terminal in front of them, where the TDD displayed the parameters of the instrument.

The RSI value then decreased in a steady manner, and the fluctuations in the real PLS value began to gradually align with the historical inertia of the "love story" provided by the Alliance.

This will be an active attempt to lower the RSI stability value.

The Reality Pipeline attempts to "steal" a portion of reality, and the missing parts are filled in by other things.

For example, the story timeline, and a subtly planted element of the plot by the Alliance.

……

In fact, after the eleventh retrospective analysis confirmed the plan's feasibility, the most discussed issue among the implementation team was—

How to wrap things up.

“A ‘love story’ needs a suitable ending. It’s best if we confirm the location first, otherwise the ‘story timeline’ might very well turn around and use us against us.”

—After the Möbius Timeline War, the Alliance is more cautious about any possible actions that could hand over leverage to the dual timelines.

In the end, the alliance chose the Star Viewing Tower in Beika Town as the ending point of this "love story" narrative.

"Both the Star Viewing Tower and the Black Organization's abandoned laboratory are located in the western suburbs of Beika Town, and if the Alliance hadn't intervened, Shiho Miyano would have been moved there directly."

"This means that if our plans go astray, we can still use this position to make adjustments, providing some redundancy for historical inertia."

"After all, before we can truly define today's history, we must consider the possible course of action for the next day."

"Seconded."

"agree."

After a few minutes of discussion, the participants expanded on this idea, and the executives quickly revised and improved the plan.

"Then, we can even consider more than just the intersection between Shinichi Kudo and Heiji Hattori."

"We can try to have Professor Agasa guide Shinichi Kudo today and finalize Conan Edogawa's schedule for tomorrow."

This will be a more complete script.

……

For Heiji Hattori, this was an unusually long-awaited conversation where no one would disturb him.

He almost forgot how much time had passed.

They continued talking until they had exhausted all the topics they could chat about during that time, until they could both hear each other breathing.

And so, just as the alliance had guided, Kazuha Toyama heard Heiji Hattori's voice become somewhat tense.

"Kazuha, listen to me. I should be able to finish things here in about two days, then I'll come to Osaka to see you. I have something very important to tell you. Do you remember that tree—"

"Director Heiji!"

The GSSRA liaison officer who had just left then rushed in, seemingly oblivious to the atmosphere.

"Chief, the Japanese National Police Agency has sent us all the video footage and related information about Masami Hirota at the Beika branch that we requested!"

The meaning behind Hattori Heiji's words was on the tip of his tongue, but then he stopped himself from saying them.

— Clearly, things related to the "boundaries of science" are now more important.

Although Kazuha Toyama didn't quite understand, she knew that Heiji Hattori was likely to be delayed by another case.

In the past, she would have been understanding and stopped asking, and told Heiji it was okay, she could wait for him to talk about it next time.

But for some reason, this time, the vivid dream he had just experienced prompted Toyama Kazuha to take a step forward as well.

The night was still, and the voices of distant mountains and leaves came through the phone, gentle yet firm, carrying an unyielding persistence.

Heiji Hattori heard Kazuha say this—

"Then I'll come to Tokyo to find you!"

Heiji Hattori had never been so nervous.

He began to think rapidly, almost instantly—at a speed even faster than when he solved a case.

Now that there's been a new development in the case at the harbor, let's go find Kudo today to discuss countermeasures.

more importantly--

There should always be a gift when you confess your feelings!
In that case, Heiji plans to ask Kudo for his opinion.

He quickly sketched out a map of Beika Town in his mind, while a ray of moonlight shone through the plane window onto Hattori Heiji's face.

Stars, moon...

This should be considered a suitable place to confess your feelings, right?

I was thinking about it.

"Heiji?" Kazuha's slightly puzzled voice came from the other end of the phone.

Taking a deep breath, Hattori Heiji finally made up his mind.

In his mind, Gehrman's admonition to "leave no regrets" suddenly took root, along with the feelings he had always held for Kazuha, and sprouted forth.

After confirming the plan with Kudo today, I'll go there and confess my feelings tomorrow!
"Kazuha!" Heiji's voice held an unprecedented certainty. "Then let's meet at the Star Viewing Tower in Beika Town tomorrow!"

"It's right there at the highest glass observation deck!"

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a response that was tinged with joy and a hint of barely perceptible nervousness.

"Okay!" Kazuha Toyama replied softly, "See you at the top of the Star Viewing Tower tomorrow!"

(End of this chapter)