The Split-Actress in Conan's World

Mao Lilan quickly ran to Yuanshan Heye and asked softly, "Do you have your dugong arrow with you?"

"Yes, I'll keep it with me." Yuanshan Heye patted his pocket.

While Ran Mouri was away, Conan sneaked to the registration desk to check the guest list.

After turning a few pages, he saw the name of Menkyo Benzo.

The drunkard is here.

There are several cushions placed in the center of the mourning hall for people to kneel and sit on while keeping vigil.

When Maori and others walked into the mourning hall, they saw three people already sitting there.

They are the drunkard uncle Monkyo Benzo, the dark-skinned Fukuyama Rokuro, and the shrine maiden Shimabukuro Kimie.

At this time, all three of them were wearing formal black suits.

Seeing the figures of Mori and others, Shimabukuro Kimie stood up from the futon and pulled up the skirt of her suit.

"Ah, Mr. Maori, you are here too."

"Yes, it is."

Uncle Maori nodded slightly, beckoned Shimabukuro Kimie to come closer, and whispered to her, "By the way, that Menxie didn't seem to go home last night. Do you know where he is?"

Shimabukuro Kimie shook her head slightly. "I'm not sure, but he seems to often pester tourists in izakayas."

Been drinking all night?

Conan was slightly surprised, his strength was comparable to that of the uncle.

"Hey, why don't I see Miss Naoko?" Uncle Maori looked around and asked in confusion, "I clearly saw her name on the roster."

"Naoko?"

Shimabukuro Kimie was stunned. "She's here already? But I was just here and didn't see her."

Hattori Heiji walked to the window, and a vague outline suddenly caught his eyes.

"What is that?!" He quickly opened the window and jumped out.

Conan realized something, his expression suddenly became very ugly, and he immediately followed.

The others looked at each other in confusion and walked out of the room.

After a while, they saw two figures, one big and one small, standing in front of the fishing net hanging outside the house.

In front of them was a body trapped in a fishing net.

Like a bug caught in a spider's web.

That was exactly the Naoko Kuroe they were looking for.

Conan quickly turned on the flashlight on his watch and shone it on the corpse.

Seeing this, Yuanshan Heye realized something, turned around and ran back into the house, and soon came out with a large flashlight.

"Oh, thanks, Kazuha." Hattori Heiji took the flashlight and smiled heartily.

He then devoted himself to the investigation of the body.

"It looks like the time of death has not been more than an hour."

He gently pinched the joints of the corpse and checked the skin temperature and came to this conclusion.

Uncle Maori opened the fishing net wrapped around the neck of the corpse and observed the strangulation marks. "It was probably strangled to death and then transferred to this net."

Hattori Heiji nodded and shone the light at the feet of the body: "The footprints left on the sand are those of sandals and boots."

"Ms. Naoko was wearing sandals, so the marks from the boots must have been left by the murderer."

"But why did Miss Naoko die?" Uncle Maori looked at the beach not far away through the hole in the fishing net, with a sigh.

"I think it's because of this thing." Conan pointed to a mark on the ground.

"Look, is this the mark left by a dugong's arrow being stepped on?"

I saw a footprint strangely covering a long, straight mark in the sand.

"It's true." Hattori Heiji looked over.

Conan reasoned: "Judging from the traces, it is very likely that Miss Naoko had an argument with the murderer, and the dugong arrow fell out and was stepped on by herself."

"Could the murderer's target be that arrow?" Hattori Heiji guessed, stroking his chin.

"You see, it's possible that the murderer didn't notice that the dugong arrow had fallen out, and after killing Miss Naoko, he searched her body for a while, but found nothing."

He shone the flashlight on the body and saw that Miss Naoko was indeed a little disheveled.

"You later found it on the sand and took it away?" Uncle Maori nodded, thinking it seemed to be the case.

Hattori Heiji stood up and shone the flashlight along the trail of the boots: "Anyway, following this trail of footprints, we should be able to find out where the murderer fled."

However, under the illumination of the flashlight, something was faintly gleaming in the footprints on the sand.

"This, this is..."

Conan frowned, picked up a piece of the glowing object, and put it under his nose to smell it.

"They are fish scales."

Toyama Kazuha shouted to the three people, "As for fish scales, there are also a few on Miss Naoko's clothes!"

"what?!"

Hattori Heiji was stunned for a moment, then looked at the footprints that stretched all the way to the sea, and murmured in disbelief: "Disappeared in the sea, and these fish scales..."

Uncle Maori squinted his eyes and complained: "Could it be that the murderer is a mermaid?"

Not long after, the police finally arrived at the Mermaid Island’s dock by boat and took over the scene.

The body was sent for autopsy.

The police quickly launched an investigation into the people in the mourning hall, checking their alibis one by one.

Hattori Heiji and Conan were still thinking about the case that had just happened. The footprints that disappeared into the sea and the strange fish scales were very concerning.

When Toyama Kazuha and Maori Ran heard the clues they had discovered, they hugged each other in fear.

"Could the murderer be... a mermaid?!" Mao Lilan's big watery eyes melted, and the horns on her head drooped weakly.

"How can a mermaid wear long boots..." Hattori Heiji looked at her speechlessly.

"It's obvious that this is just a trick used by the murderer to cover up his tracks."

He thought carefully: "As for things like fish scales, we just need to prepare them in advance and then sprinkle them along the way after killing Miss Naoko."

"As for the footprints, it's easy to do as long as you have a boat. Even if you don't have a boat, if you leave along the edge of the beach, the extra footprints will disappear due to the tide, and then you can just walk back to the island from other places."

Uncle Maori asked the others, "By the way, has anyone seen Miss Naoko leave this room?"

"No, she wasn't here when I came." Shimabukuro Kimie shook her head slightly.

Fukuyama Rokuro looked at Benzo, who was burping beside him, and said, "Mr. Benzo, your name will be signed behind Naoko."

"No, this place was empty when I came. I was the only one here." Menxie Benzo said incoherently.

"So, Miss Naoko was the first one to arrive here to register, but she never showed up?" Uncle Maori looked at the guests with some embarrassment.

"Hey, could the murderer of Naoko be the same person who killed Sumi?" Fukuyama Rokuro's face looked ugly and he seemed a little angry.

After all, playmates who grew up together died one after another.

"We can't be sure whether it is a serial murder or not." Uncle Maori shook his head and did not jump to conclusions.

"But it is certain that the murderer took away the dugong arrow from Miss Naoko's body."

"What? Dugong Arrow?!" Yuanshan Heye clenched her clothes tightly, her palms were sweating. She touched her pocket unconsciously, and felt a hard touch from her fingertips.

Shimabukuro Kimie seemed to have thought of something, she covered her mouth, her eyes trembling slightly: "You said that Saori, who is missing, also lost the dugong arrow, didn't she?"

"Doesn't that mean..."

"Well, she may have been killed by the murderer." Hattori Heiji did not hide his guess and expressed it.

Shimabukuro Kimie's pupils suddenly shrank, revealing a sad look.

However, a fat woman among the guests attending the funeral interrupted them.

"Are you talking about Saori?"

"I saw her around the Mermaid Falls not long ago."

Not only did the fat woman say this, but an old man in his seventies also echoed: "Yes, I also saw her in the forest over the waterfall, although I only caught a glimpse of her from a distance."

The fat woman nodded. "She was nearby. As soon as I tried to call her, she ran away."

Hattori Heiji looked at them suspiciously: "Is that really Miss Saori?"

Could it be that these two people are seeing things?

"There's no doubt about it, because she's the only one on this island who dyes her hair."

Two silhouettes suddenly appeared in Hattori Heiji's mind. Thinking of what happened on the mountain not long ago, he twitched his mouth: "The woman you saw was not a woman with blue or purple hair?"

"certainly not!"

The fat woman glanced at him with dissatisfaction: "Saori's hair is dyed brown, and she also wears glasses. She especially likes blue clothes."

“That’s the image I saw.”

What she said was so specific and detailed that Hattori Heiji believed that she was not mistaken and lowered his head to start thinking.

If Saori really appeared near the waterfall, but was unwilling to show up...

"I think she is hiding from something, and at the same time she really hopes to find someone she can trust to ask for help?" Conan's innocent childish voice sounded beside him.

He looked at Conan's meaningful eyes and suddenly understood something.

Uncle Maori didn't notice the flirting between the two guys and went to find the drunk Monkyo Benzo.

"So do you have any clues? As Miss Saori's father, you should know more, right?"

"Even if you say so..." Menxie Benzo stuck out his tongue, the redness on his face not fading at all.

"That girl often runs away from home. I don't know what she does outside."

He burped, and his thick and short eyebrows raised frivolously, looking at Kuroe Naoko who was hung on the fishing net: "But just don't become a mermaid like this girl."

"Mermaid?" Kogoro Mouri looked back at the corpse, not understanding what the drunk was talking about.

"Haven't you heard of the legend of the eight hundred nuns?"

Monkyo Benzo spoke vaguely, his eyes narrowed into slits, "She is a nun who lived for eight hundred years because she ate the flesh of a mermaid caught in a net."

Uncle Maori showed no expression when he heard this.

The distant mountains and leaves nearby changed color.

Could it be that what the old woman said was true...

"Men will return to dust and become mindless hungry ghosts, while women will be lost in the ocean and become speechless mermaids..."

The old priest's creepy words echoed in her ears, and He Ye's face turned pale.

The police are conducting an autopsy on the body, and the clues are broken by the disappearing footprints and strange fish scales. It is undoubtedly unrealistic to finish questioning the suspects all night and find the murderer.

Perhaps it would be more reliable to find the "missing" Saori Monkyou.

"Anyway, after the wake is over, let's all go look for Miss Saori together. I don't want anyone else to die because of being alone." Uncle Mori frowned and announced seriously.

Hattori Heiji's expression was very solemn.

Miss Sumi mysteriously appeared at the Mermaid Waterfall where the festival was held, while Miss Naoko was strangled to death and the Dugong Arrow was taken away. Miss Saori, who lost the Dugong Arrow, was suspected to be being chased and was trying her best to hide...

He couldn't help but look at the pale-faced Yuanshan Heye.

"He Ye."

He gently took off his baseball cap and put it on her head, staring into He Ye's eyes and said word by word: "Don't leave my sight."

He Ye touched the hat on his head which was still slightly warm in a daze, his eyes moving slightly.

Then he nodded blankly.

After the police took control of the scene, the funeral was held as usual and everyone stayed in the mourning hall as if nothing had happened.

Even though no one said anything, everyone felt a gloomy mood in their hearts.

Most people were in a heavy mood after two people were killed in succession.

"From the clues we have so far, it seems that Ms. Sumi and Ms. Naoko, who have been killed, and Ms. Saori, who is missing, all firmly believed in the existence of mermaids. Their persistence is truly astonishing."

Conan held the cup of hot water in both hands to warm them, and sorted out the suspicious points in the whole incident.

Hattori Heiji also added: "And these people are more or less related to the so-called 'Dugong Arrow'."

He sighed softly, "If only we could figure out the list of tourists attending the festival and the list of winners, maybe we could find a more logical connection behind it."

"there is."

He turned around when he heard the voice and saw Shimabukuro Kimie holding a cup of water and slowly sitting next to them.

"To prevent fraudulent claims, I write down everyone's name and the number plate they hold in the shrine's register every year."

"It's just that a lot of things happened this time, and I didn't have time to check the winners and numbers."

She took a sip of warm water and gave the two of them a gentle smile: "If it can help the case, do you want to go and take a look?"

"That would be great." Hattori Heiji looked at her in surprise.

"Um, Hattori!" Just as he and Conan were about to leave, they heard Ran Mouri's somewhat embarrassed call from behind.

She pointed at Maori Kogoro, who was lying on the table drooling and unconscious, and said, "Can you please help my dad?"

"He seems to have drunk too much..."

Hattori squeezed out a pair of dead fish eyes.

Benzo Monkyo, who was sitting opposite Kogoro Mori, burped and raised his glass: "Haha, the famous Detective Mori is just like this!"

As he said this, he took another big gulp of the wine, then simply lay down, snoring loudly.