"Then...please come forward to the three lucky winners!"
Toyama Kazuye, a short-haired woman, and a middle-aged drunkard man set up a cordon and walked up to the shrine maiden who was surrounded by four fire altars, preparing to receive the award of the "Dugong Arrow".
As the miko Shimabukuro Kimie solemnly handed the three arrows to the hands of the three people, the staff of the festival committee also lit up boxes and boxes of fireworks.
Fireworks are shooting out, lighting up the night sky.
Everyone saw it, and saw the figure hanging in the waterfall behind the festival venue under the light of the fireworks.
It was a woman. Her long black hair was flowing elegantly under the wash of running water, her body was swaying slightly, and her sad and pale face seemed to be telling something.
…
The next day, Ebihara Hisumi died in the waterfall.
"Huh? Why don't you see Naoko? Her name is clearly there..."
Mouri Kogoro's eyes wandered around the mourning hall, but he did not notice the gift shop clerk whom he met on the first day on the island.
"Naoko is already here!" Naoko's good friend, the miko Shimabukuro Kime heard this and said with some confusion.
"Climb——"
Suddenly, a bright light lit up outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the mourning hall. Under the reflection of this strong light, a shadow with arms spread high and hands drooped came into view.
When they hurried outside the house, what appeared in front of Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji was a woman with her hands, wrists and neck hanging on the fence, her eyes wide open, and she was dead.
It was the missing Kuroe Naoko.
…
"ah!!"
Suddenly hearing the screams of Ran and Kazuha, Conan and Heiji, who were checking the list of participants of the Dugong Festival in the past years, changed their expressions and rushed out of the room.
"What happened? What are you shouting for?" Heiji asked urgently.
"Here, in the yard, there was a man with dyed brown hair and glasses who was staring at us just now!" Xiaolan and Kazuye described what they saw.
"Is it Miss Saori?"
Kadori Saori, the beginning of this incident, sent a distress letter to Hattori Heiji with the header of Kudo Shinichi, claiming that she was going to be killed by a mermaid.
"Where's Miss Kimie?" Conan looked left and right, but couldn't find the figure of Shimabukuro Kimie who went out with Xiaolan and Ye.
"She went out through the back door and headed to the converted warehouse..."
Before he finished speaking, several people looking towards the warehouse behind the shrine saw at the same time that the night sky was dyed red.
That night, the fire in the warehouse was exactly the same as the fire three years ago.
The same burned to the ground, the same... charred bones.
Half a day later, the identification results came. The tooth shape of the corpse was completely consistent with the record left by Shimabukuro Kimie when he went to the dental clinic not long ago.
…
"Is that so...Jun Hui is also dead..."
"I'm sorry, old lady... Jun Hui was killed just after she left our sight for a moment..."
Hattori Heiji, Conan, Kazuha, and Ran sat on their knees at the door of the room. They looked at the long-awaited Shimabukuro Yikoto who was lying in the room, covered with a quilt, and apologized with a heavy heart.
"Another young life has disappeared into the invisible, but this useless old guy like me is still lingering on... I can really understand the mood of the bhikshuni..."
Shimabukuro Yaqin sighed.
"I'm sorry, can you leave me alone for a while?"
After hearing the other party's eviction order, the four of them no longer insisted on staying and stood up to leave.
With a heavy heart, they looked at Shimabukuro Yakoto who was lying down and looking at the sky. They sighed and closed the door.
After waiting for a while, he saw that several people had gone away. Shimabukuro Yaqin was just about to get up, but he heard footsteps coming from outside the door again, so he had to lie back down again.
Then, a figure stood outside the door and knocked gently on the door.
Without waiting for her to respond, the person outside the door pushed in and closed the door behind her back.
"Hello, my name is Yuan Huaiyu from Fishman Island."
The person came straight to the point and announced his name.
Shimabukuro Kimie turned her head to look, and saw a man who seemed to like him just by looking at him, standing calmly by the door, looking at him.
"Young man, are you here to see me? What are you here for?"
she asked calmly.
Yuan Huaiyu sighed: "I came here but there was a cause and effect."
"Huh?" Shimabukuro Kimie didn't understand what he meant at all.
"Oh... let's talk slowly. We still have a lot of time."
Yuan Huaiyu shook his head slightly, walked into the room, pulled up a chair and sat down.
"I heard that the island has not been very peaceful recently."
Although Shimabukuro Kimie was confused, seeing that this man seemed to want to talk to her, she did not call anyone, but answered:
"Yes, several little girls were killed..."
Yuan Huaiyu stared at her old face: "That's really sad."
"But don't worry, these cases will be solved soon. After all, there are two detectives who are as sharp and courageous as eagles."
"Although Saori Monori is dead, the only right thing she did during her lifetime was to send that letter for help."
Hearing this, Shimabukuro Yaqin finally spoke after a period of silence:
"It would be great if the case could be solved... But sir, one thing I want to remind you is that among the three deceased people who appeared on the island, there was no such person as Kadori Saori."
"No?" Yuan Huaiyu looked as usual, "But wasn't that the person you killed with your own hands?"
"Are you kidding? What can an old woman like me, who is over 130 years old, do?" Shimabukuro Yakoto's voice was slightly trembling.
Yuan Huaiyu didn't pay attention to what she said, but changed the subject: "In college at that time, the five people who grew up together were still classmates. They also joined the film club together and filmed the movie "Bhikshuni Story"
》……”
"At that time, because of Saori Kadari's photography skills and Shimabukuro Kimie's makeup skills, the film won first place in the competition."
"Haha, the Eight Hundred Bhikshuni... she lived to be eight hundred years old because she ate the flesh of a mermaid entangled in a fishing net, and her appearance is still young and beautiful. This legend has existed hundreds of years ago."
"Immortality...that is something that many people dream of pursuing."
"If it weren't for the dream of immortality, there wouldn't be the Mermaid Island that is so crowded with tourists now, let alone the tragedy that happened on this Mermaid Island..."
"Are you right? Miss Shimabukuro Kimie."
Seeing that the other party had figured out his identity, Shimabukuro Kimie, who was dressed as "Shimabukuro Mikin", stopped pretending to be stupid, sat up straight and looked straight at Yuanhuaiyu.
"Yes. But how can immortality be so easy to achieve?"