The Split-Actress in Conan's World

She seemed to realize that she had been a little rash, and she blinked her eyes and bowed slightly to them, which seemed like the etiquette of the nobility in the old times.

"Sorry to interrupt you with my own words."

"I'm Ariana Lilith, and this is my buddy, Fish."

The blue-haired girl beside her followed suit and saluted.

"Ah, it's okay." Hattori Heiji stared blankly at the girl she called Xiaoyu. For some reason, he always felt that she was familiar, but he couldn't remember what was familiar about her for a while.

He quickly recovered and smiled, "I just didn't expect you to know so much about mermaids. Are you a historian who studies folk mythology?"

"No, I just happen to have some impression of these things." Lilith lowered her eyes slightly, and her tone seemed to be a little emotional.

The fleeting hint of nostalgia in her words almost made Hattori Heiji think it was an illusion.

"Oh, two beautiful ladies, are you also going to visit the Mermaid Island?" Uncle Maori had dressed himself up at some point, the decadence in his eyes was gone, and even the hair hanging in front of his forehead seemed to be bright and energetic.

"Dad!" Mao Lilan looked at her father with dissatisfaction.

Lilith looked towards the island in the distance.

"Yes."

"On the one hand, it is to choose a familiar place as the starting point of the journey, and on the other hand..."

Her hair fluttered in the sea breeze, adding a touch of tranquility to her temperament.

"It's a date."

"Keep a date?" Uncle Maori asked curiously.

"Don't ask so many questions, Dad. It's very rude!" Mao Lilan looked at Lilith apologetically, then hugged her father's arm to stop him from asking too many questions and invading other people's privacy.

Lilith shook her head to show that she didn't care, but she didn't intend to go into details.

"I'm sorry to bother you for so long. I'll excuse myself now."

After a while, the two mysterious girls disappeared from their sight.

Hattori Heiji was still immersed in that strange feeling of familiarity until Conan beside him quietly pulled down the hem of his clothes, and he came back to his senses.

"What are you thinking about?" Conan looked at him sideways.

"Sorry, I just felt that the girl who didn't speak just now looked a little familiar." Hattori Heiji touched the back of his head and smiled.

"But I can't remember why for the moment."

Conan was too lazy to listen to his vague sense of déjà vu and urged him to turn the topic back to the letter of commission.

"It's strange."

Hattori Heiji leaned down slightly and whispered in his ear: "Although the address and recipient are filled in with my information, but when I opened it, it turned out to be your name!"

"It says Kudo Shinichi!"

Hearing this strange situation, Conan's face suddenly became serious.

"You have to thank me. When I saw the letter, I thought it was a prank and planned to tear it up, but then I thought I should tell you about it, so I invited you to come along."

Conan squeezed out his dead fish eyes and said: "Could it be that you are using my name to cheat people outside?"

"How is that possible!" Hattori Heiji was speechless.

Uncle Maori at the side suddenly thought of something and said to Hattori Heiji: "Hey, have you contacted the client?"

"Of course." Hattori Heiji answered as a matter of course.

"The letter had the sender's phone number and her name, 'Kadokyo Saori' written on it."

"The first time I called, the call was connected, but it was hung up within a few seconds. After that, I never got through again."

"I still remember the voice I heard when the call was connected..."

He lowered his voice a little, which made Mao Lilan and Toyama Kazuha feel a little creepy.

"It was the sound of a woman moaning and the sound of waves."

"Could it be that the person has been taken away by the mermaid..." Mao Lilan's face turned pale.

Conan thought about it.

......

"Lilith, are there really mermaids on that island?"

"Who knows."

"It would be nice if there were any. This is the first time I've encountered other magical creatures."

"If it was five hundred years ago, there should have been a group of mermaids here, but now..."

In a guest room on the ship, Professor Lecter was flipping through a book on psychology. He vaguely heard a conversation coming from the corridor outside the door. He stopped turning the pages as if he had sensed something and raised his head. His deep eyes seemed to see through the heavy door and saw the two slim figures outside the door.

He gently took off his gold-rimmed glasses, wiped the lenses with the handkerchief, and then put them back on.

Looking at the cursive English embroidered on the corner of the handkerchief, Professor Lecter was silent.

Ariana Lilith.

He put away his handkerchief as if nothing had happened and continued to flip through the book in his hand.

As time passed, the cruise ship gradually approached the island with a wonderful legend.

Finally, the ship docked at the only pier on the island, and passengers disembarked one after another.

Mermaid Island.

Residence and Travel Office.

"What?" Maori Kogoro looked at the fat clerk sitting at the front desk and said in surprise, "Monkyou Saori is missing!"

"Is this true?"

"Yes, I heard that she stopped going to work in the store three days ago."

The fat clerk smiled politely and said to him, "The neighbors nearby are wondering if she has already taken a boat to the main island."

Three days ago...

Hattori Heiji touched his chin. Wasn't this the time when he received the letter?

At this time, an old lady with gray hair and a solemn dress shouted to the fat clerk from behind: "Assistant!"

The fat clerk turned around and responded, waving his hand at Maori and the others: "Sorry, I have to go prepare for the festival-related activities."

"Festival?"

"Today is the island's annual 'Dugong Festival'." The fat clerk explained to them with a smile.

He pointed to a nearby street and said, "If you want to know more, you can go to the gift shop on the corner where Saori works and ask."

After saying that, he trotted away, leaving Kogoro Mouri standing in front of the counter with a confused look on his face.

"So it's because of the festival." Yuanshan Heye suddenly realized and looked back at the crowd walking out of the pier.

"No wonder there are so many tourists." Hattori Heiji also looked at the dense crowd.

They didn't linger for too long and soon came to the gift shop from the office.

There are many local souvenirs and specialty snacks here.

"Mermaid amulet, mermaid belt..."

Mao Lilan walked past a shelf and looked at the dazzling array of gifts on it.

"Wow, there's even something like dugong buns!" She stopped in front of a shelf piled with rectangular gift boxes and said in surprise as she looked at the food with the strange name.

"It seems that the people on this island really love mermaids." She said to Conan beside her with a smile.

Conan grinned: "After all, even the name of American Island has been replaced by the nickname of Mermaid Island."

Toyama Kazuha held a dugong keychain and poked Hattori Heiji on the shoulder: "What exactly is a dugong?"

"It is said that it looks very similar to humans and is a kind of mammal in the sea."

"So it's a mermaid?"

"No, it's just the prototype of the mermaid, a real animal." Hattori Heiji touched his hat, not knowing how to say it so that Kazuha would not confuse reality with legend.

While the young people were strolling around the street with great interest, the reliable adult, Uncle Maori, was diligently finding the owner of the gift shop.

"Dugong's arrow?"

"Yes, it's the amulet that symbolizes immortality." The proprietress nodded.

"Saori lost the arrow she drew at the festival last year, so she has been living in fear that the mermaid will punish her."

"That arrow is very important. Almost all of the tourists here today come here for it."

Uncle Maori said it was hard to understand: "But, it's just a lost amulet, can it really cause me to disappear?"

Before the proprietress could reply, a sharp female voice sounded behind him.

“There really are mermaids!”

Uncle Maori turned around when he heard the voice and saw a woman with a mushroom head and thick lips with a mocking face.

"This was said by the priest who ate mermaid flesh and became immortal."

"The Dugong Arrow is tied with hair that has been endowed with divine power by the High Priest. Anyone who possesses this arrow will be able to realize their dream of immortality!"

She laughed sarcastically and said, "Saori lost the arrow, so she was scared and fled the island in an attempt to avoid the mermaid's punishment..."

Uncle Maori narrowed his eyes and asked the proprietress in a low voice: "Who is she?"

"Her name is Naoko Kuroe, and she's Saori's childhood playmate."

"So who is this priest she is talking about?"

"She is the priest who presides over this festival and is also the representative of this island - the great-grandmother of the Shimabukuro family."

Hattori Heiji also came over with interest: "So how old is that old lady actually?"

"Well...some say it's 180 years old, others say it's 200 years old."

The proprietress thought for a moment and said, "But actually the people on the island don't know much about it. If you are interested, why don't you go to the shrine where the festival is held?"

"Ms. Kimie, who lives with the priest, is also in that shrine. She was also Saori's childhood playmate. You may be able to learn something from her."

Conan was standing at Uncle Maori's feet, with a dead look in his eyes, complaining: "We are just like headless flies, spinning around..."

“It feels like playing an RPG game.”

Under the guidance of the proprietress, the few people quickly left the gift shop and headed towards the shrine.

Inside the gift shop, behind a shelf, Adam, who was dressed in a low-key manner, raised his sunglasses and watched their backs as they left.

After a while, he walked around the shelf in front of him and came to the other side.

Professor Lecter stood in front of a row of amulets, seemingly selecting them carefully, with a serious expression.

"It would be nice if mermaids really existed."

Adam picked up a small sculpture, which was a mermaid girl breaking through the waves.

"I heard that they not only have beautiful figures and stunning looks, but also heavenly singing voices."

"And it is said that eating mermaid meat can make you immortal."

"It must be very popular with those big shots."

Professor Lecter just smiled faintly when he heard his words, without any fluctuation in his eyes.

"Mermaids themselves cannot achieve immortality. The so-called longevity from eating meat is nothing but the wishful thinking of greedy people."

"As for the graceful figure, beautiful face, and heavenly singing voice..."

He seemed to have thought of something, the corners of his lips curled up slightly, and a smile flashed in his eyes.

"Perhaps the legend is too embellished, giving you some kind of illusion."

"Mermaids are not the beautiful creatures in fairy tales."

"A real mermaid actually has a fish upper body and a human lower body."

Adam tried to imagine the scene of this mermaid, and he couldn't help but shudder and feel a little sick.

"Adam, look."

Noah suddenly spoke up, controlling his phone to vibrate twice.

Adam pulled out his phone.

The first thing I saw was a big picture of a mermaid on the phone screen.

The kind with fish on top and people on the bottom, and it's very realistic.

He turned off his phone expressionlessly, pressing and holding the power button.

However, the phone turned on automatically again soon after it was turned off.

"What's wrong, don't you like it?"

Noah said innocently, "Noah specially drew the most suitable mermaid for Adam."

"Shut up Noah."

Adam and Noah were in dire straits every day.

It didn't take long for Maori and others who had set out from the gift shop earlier to arrive at the shrine located in the center of the island.

Dugong Shrine.

"Born on June 24, the second year of the Meiji era!"

"My great-grandmother just turned 130 this year."

Shimabukuro Kimie was wearing a red and white shrine maiden costume, holding a short banner in her hand, with a serious expression on her face.

"If you check the household registration information, it will be clear immediately."

She carried the short banner on her shoulder in annoyance, "Really? It's just that I'm a little longer-lived, why are people making such a fuss about it?"

"Live a little longer...that's all?" Mao Li Ran blinked, feeling that the shrine maiden in front of her seemed to have some misunderstanding about the lifespan of ordinary people.

Conan also laughed in his heart.

This can even be included in the Guinness World Records, okay?

"So where is that great-grandmother now?" Hattori Heiji looked around at the entrance of the shrine but didn't see anyone.

"She is preparing to give the three arrows divine power in her room. She will give them to the lucky tourists during the festival in the evening."

Shimabukuro Kimie explained.

"Did that old lady really eat mermaid meat?" Uncle Maori asked with his eyes wide open.

"Haha, how is that possible!" Shimabukuro Kimie couldn't help laughing and thought he was joking.

"How could there be mermaids in this world..."

Uncle Maori was stunned.

"But the dugong's arrow..."

Shimabukuro Kimie stopped smiling and talked about the history of the festival: "My late mother once told me that the dugong arrow was actually called the 'cursed arrow' in the past. It was a talisman used to remove bad luck."

"Later, because my grandmother lived so long, the island residents made a far-fetched claim and called it the 'Dugong Arrow', which sounds the same as the name."

Mao Lilan was a little surprised: "Is your mother already dead?"

"Well...died at sea five years ago along with my father, and my grandparents were the same way, lost at sea before I was born."

She looked a little sad.

"Now it's just me and my grandma who are left to depend on each other."