The Split-Actress in Conan's World

"It's just as Miss Kimie said, only this year's roster is missing." Conan said as he flipped through the roster of festivals in recent years.

“There are quite a few celebrities…”

Looking at the famous people on the roster, he couldn't help but sigh.

Suddenly, his eyes stopped on a familiar name.

James Lecter.

It's the professor...

He recalled the time when he was caught eavesdropping in the mountains not long ago.

Not only have you been here this year, but have you also been to this island in previous years?

And he looked very familiar with Miss Lilith.

While he was still daydreaming, he suddenly heard the girls' screams of fear outside the house.

"what!!"

"What's wrong? What happened?" Hattori Heiji reacted quickly and rushed out.

Conan also hurriedly put down the list in his hand and followed.

"There was this person with dyed brown hair and glasses, and she, she kept staring at us!"

"It's right here in this yard!"

Hattori Heiji murmured, "Could it be Miss Saori?"

Conan noticed that the starry night sky was suddenly stained with a hint of frosty red, as if it was bathed in dark blood.

Thick dark clouds obscured the eyes of the moon.

There was an abnormal dryness in the air, which made his throat dry.

He suddenly had the illusion that he was burned.

"Hey...where's Miss Junhui?" Conan clenched his teeth, and his whole body was in an indescribable state of impatience.

For some reason, he heard a strange piano sound.

Mr. Cheng Shi's painful yet relieved expression is still vivid in my mind...

Mao Lilan didn't know why there was a hint of sadness in his eyes, but she still said honestly: "She said she was going to the room to see her grandmother, and then she would go to the warehouse."

Hattori Heiji also had a bad feeling in his heart and asked quickly: "Where is the warehouse?"

Yuanshan Heye looked up at the increasingly blood-red sky and pointed behind the shrine: "I noticed it when I came here this afternoon. It seems to be right behind the shrine!"

Conan and Hattori Heiji immediately broke away and ran towards the back of the shrine.

Mao Lilan looked at them in confusion as they left quickly, and asked Xiang Yuanshan and Heye in confusion: "Hey, Heye."

She pointed at the night sky that had turned blood red and whispered, "I don't know why, but from the beginning, I always felt that the color of the sky was a little strange..."

“It’s like it’s bleeding.”

This small island, which is bathed in sea breeze all day long, was unusually calm with no wind all night.

It was a beautiful summer day, with no cicadas chirping and no birds flying.

There was only a quiet sound as the raging fire burned the old wooden house that had stood for many years, gradually devouring the old building, slowly and calmly.

The old building did not seem to be wailing because of this. The wood that had been air-dried for decades looked so peaceful after being eroded by time, and it made a faint "hissing" sound under the licking of the flames.

The fire finally covered the entire house, dancing gently in the night. The old building was very tenacious. It did not collapse seriously. Instead, it was digested bit by bit in the arms of the flames until only an empty wreckage was left.

The flames seemed to take its dignity into consideration and preserved its frame intact, so that its original shape could be barely seen.

The sky did not bleed.

It's just crying.

Conan stood outside the fire, his head lowered, and his expression could not be seen clearly.

Hattori Heiji faced the sea of ​​fire, opened his hands, but could only let them hang down weakly.

The fire lasted for a full three hours before it was put out by the late-arriving fire brigade just as the warehouse was about to be burned out.

The blood color faded and the night sky returned to its deep state.

Thick smoke drifted over the ruins.

Afterwards, the fire brigade found a charred body that was beyond recognition in the ruins of the warehouse.

Whether it was the face, hair or fingerprints, they were all completely destroyed, and we could only roughly determine from the skeleton that it was a young woman.

"Um, Miss Kimie hasn't come back yet?" Mao Lilan timidly pulled the silent Hattori Heiji and asked worriedly.

She turned around and saw the hunchbacked old priest leaning on a wooden staff, trembling as he moved in the corridor, shouting in a hoarse voice: "Jun Hui, where are you..."

Hattori Heiji also saw the old priest's appearance, his eyes struggled for a moment, and then he shook his head silently.

Mao Lilan let go of her hand in a daze.

Hattori Heiji walked to Conan's side with heavy steps, and they both looked at the charred corpse.

"Hey, Hattori."

Conan said in a low voice: "I remember Miss Junhui told us before that she had just gone to the dentist not long ago...right."

"If we check, we should be able to find out which hospital it is and get her tooth shape."

"What are you talking about..." Hattori Heiji's eyes twitched slightly and he forced a smile.

However, Conan raised his head, his eyes were calm enough to be called indifferent: "Don't fool yourself."

He took off his glasses unconsciously and wiped the lenses frequently, as if there was some indelible mark on them.

But the doctor had just repaired his glasses not long ago, and the lenses were spotless.

Only then did he realize that the burn mark that had been indelible no longer existed.

His breathing was disordered for a moment, and then he slowly put his glasses back on.

"Hattori."

Conan took a deep breath and looked at Hattori Heiji, who had a grim expression on his face, with an unprecedented seriousness in his eyes.

"As detectives, we cannot be afraid of the truth, and we cannot be afraid of the death of the dead."

"No matter how hard it is to accept."

Hattori Heiji was silent for a moment, closed his eyes slightly, and let out a long sigh.

They told the police this important news, and quickly contacted the hospital through the Metropolitan Police Department's search system.

Conan and Hattori waited quietly for the police's comparison results, like prisoners waiting for sentencing.

Uncle Maori, who was woken up shortly after the accident, hung up the phone after hearing the result.

"What, what's going on?" Hattori Heiji came closer, looking nervous.

"According to the information the police collected at the hospital and after comparing the bodies at the scene, the tooth shapes of the two were..."

Kogoro Mori paused, then announced the bad news with regret.

“It is an exact match.”

"How, how is it possible..."

Tears were already welling up in the corners of Mao Li Ran and Toyama Kazuha's eyes, and they covered their mouths in disbelief.

Even though they were chatting together not long ago, Miss Junhui still misses the old times so much.

Obviously...

Conan and Hattori Heiji can no longer hold out for luck.

thump--

Fukuyama Rokuro, who had been following the fire brigade and helping to put out the fire, fell to his knees.

"Impossible, this can't be true!!"

He punched the ground with a painful look on his face, and his hand soon turned red and purple.

No one could help him, and no one was in a position to say anything to comfort him.

Happy events rarely come in pairs, but bad news often comes in pairs.

"Oh no! The priestess has fainted!" A member of the fire brigade rushed in and shouted to them.

"what?!"

Everyone hurried to the room where the old priest was resting.

At this time, the old man was lying weakly on the low couch, and his aging face looked even more haggard.

"That's right."

She stared at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, her expression neither sad nor indifferent.

"Is Jun Hui dead?"

Hattori Heiji knelt outside the door and decided to tell her the news.

However, just as he was about to bow and apologize, Uncle Maori patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm so sorry. Everything is my fault. I was drunk and unconscious under such circumstances. I failed to protect Miss Jun Hui. I can't shirk my responsibility."

Kogoro Mori spoke in a heavy tone, bent down, and performed a standard dogeza posture.

The old priest tilted his head slightly and looked at them outside the door.

"I don't mean to blame anyone."

"It's just that I have more or less experienced the so-called curse of the mermaid..."

"One after another, vibrant lives gradually fade away with the passage of time. Friends and relatives gradually drift away in the ups and downs of fate, and I am just able to linger on in this body."

"People are moving forward slowly, and Japan is also moving forward bit by bit. Old guys like me who are left over from the old times can only catch up with the new era in a mess."

"First it was Jun Hui's parents, then it was Jun Hui herself. My life has been nothing but watching important things slip away from me."

She felt a little disappointed: "In the end, this island will gradually be abandoned by people, right?"

"In recent years, fewer and fewer young people are interested in these old-fashioned traditions. Not only are young tourists unwilling to come to the island, but young people on the island are also unwilling to stay here."

"There's probably no other way, but I just feel a little unwilling..."

The old priest smiled with relief, a tear oozed from the corner of her eye. She wiped it away and looked at Hattori Heiji and Conan.

"Thank you for listening to an old woman like me. I don't think Jun Hui will blame you."

"You two, do you have anything to ask me?"

"Huh?" Mao Lilan was stunned and looked at the two people beside her.

"Because there is a dazzling light in the eyes of these two young men." The old man's narrow eyes curved.

Hattori and Conan looked at each other, and then Conan asked: "Old woman, didn't you entrust someone to move the mermaid's tomb to that mountain?"

"Who is that person?"

"It's no use asking."

"Because even that person has left me..." The old man's voice gradually became much softer, as if he was talking in a coma.

Soon, she closed her eyes and seemed to have fallen asleep.

"It seems that your emotions are fluctuating too much and you are not in a good mental state." Uncle Maori saw that the old priest had fallen asleep and stopped disturbing him. He led a few people out of the room.

"The whole incident is really weird." He sighed as he watched the police officers coming and going in the shrine.

"It is difficult to identify the murderer, and there is no conclusive evidence to prove that the three cases were committed by the same person."

"The only person who might know something about this, Ms. Saori, is also missing."

Hattori Heiji and Conan also lowered their heads in thought and did not speak for a while.

The two girls looked somewhat sad.

"If we had been with Miss Jun Hui at that time, would she not have gotten into trouble?"

Yuanshan Heye's eyes were red and her voice was nasal because she was sad.

Jingle Bell--

The landline phone in the shrine nearby suddenly rang.

Uncle Maori looked around and saw that no police officer was available at the moment, so he reached out and answered the phone.

"Ah, hello, who are you?"

After listening to the conversation on the other end of the phone for a while, his expression suddenly became serious.

Not long after, the call was hung up.

Hattori Heiji asked him, "Did you say anything?"

Uncle Maori nodded solemnly: "The man over there said, 'Thank you for selling me the arrows. My son's operation just now was successful. I am very grateful, so I called to express my gratitude.'"

"The person on the other end of the phone claimed that a man who claimed to work at the shrine sold them a dugong arrow the morning before yesterday for one million yen."

Hattori Heiji quickly asked: "Did they say what the man's name was?"

"No," Maori Kogoro shook his head, "but they said that the other party's voice was strange. Not only did he speak with a big tongue, but he also hiccuped frequently."

As soon as he said this, a figure immediately appeared in the minds of Conan and Hattori Heiji.

It is Monkyo Benzo......

The morning before yesterday, wasn’t that before the Dugong Festival?

Thinking about the fact that Miss Saori lost the Dugong Arrow, Conan and Hattori Heiji immediately understood the whereabouts of the Dugong Arrow.

If the father and daughter lived under the same roof, it should be easy for them to take away the dugong's arrow.

Hattori Heiji squatted down and whispered beside Conan: "He was the one who stole Ms. Saori's dugong arrow and sold it to the person on the phone, right?"

"Well, and it's also strange that he was lucky enough to be hit by the dugong's arrow later." Conan nodded.

"Because I clearly saw Ms. Sumi looking very happy at that time, if nothing unexpected happened, she should have been the winner, but I don't know why it became that man."

Hattori Heiji curled his lips slightly: "Plus this year's roster mysteriously disappeared..."

He stood up suddenly and shouted to several people: "I'm going to take a look at that mourning hall."

Having said that, he ran out of the house.

He didn't run far before Yuanshan Heye caught up with him.

Hearing footsteps, Hattori Heiji turned around in confusion and saw her following behind, panting.

"Why did you follow?"

Yuanshan Heye tilted his head: "Didn't you tell me not to leave your sight?"

"...Forget it, then you just have to follow me closely." Hattori Heiji wanted to say something but swallowed it and just said this.

"Don't worry!" Heye laughed, "I have the Forbidden Arrow with me. Even if you are in danger, I will protect you, so don't worry."

The two soon arrived at Miss Naoko's funeral hall.

"what?!"

Hattori Heiji looked at the guests who were keeping vigil in surprise: "You said that at midnight, Mr. Menxie went out immediately after we left?"

Didn’t he remember that the uncle was also very drunk?

"Yeah, he looked very panicked."

"Because he was so drunk, Lu Lang was worried and chased him out."

The guests at the wake said one after another.

Hattori Heiji understood it in his heart.

Sure enough, it was that uncle who took advantage of this time to run to the shrine and stole this year's roster.

It was he who replaced Miss Shoumei and pretended to be the winner!