Hearing so many confusing clues, Heiji Hattori rested his chin on his hand and fell into deep thought.
By this time, the police had already been called, but there were no detectives on the island, only two patrol officers who functioned more like security guards.
A formal investigation required personnel from the Fukui Prefecture Police Headquarters to come over, which would take about two or three hours.
This was normal for small islands far from the mainland; Mermaid Island was actually better off.
Due to the legend of mermaids, there had always been many tourists, especially during the annual festival, which was why there were two young and strong officers.
Back on Moonlight Sonata Island, there was only one elderly policeman who could barely walk.
While Heiji Hattori was deep in thought, the people around him also came back to their senses and began to ask about his identity.
Heiji was very unhappy about his train of thought being interrupted, but he had to explain.
Fortunately, because of Saori Kaori's letter, he had made contact with the people on the island in advance.
When he introduced himself, the doubts quickly disappeared, and many people even actively cooperated with his actions.
Being a high school detective was secondary; the most critical factor was his identity as the son of the Osaka Prefecture Police Chief.
There were always some people on the island who paid close attention to news and detective matters.
In fact, in the world of Conan, quite a few people followed detective-related news.
Heiji didn't actively mention his identity as a second-generation police officer, but his family background was still known to everyone on the island.
After understanding his identity, naturally, no one would obstruct his investigation.
Watching the dark-skinned detective fall into deep thought again, Yuu Hoshimiya, hiding at the edge of the crowd, quietly revealed a playful smile.
Heiji's ability was still a notch below Conan's; in the original timeline, he couldn't deduce the truth, and now that Yuu had secretly tampered with things, it was even more impossible for him to discover the truth.
In Yuu's view, Kimie Shimabukuro was not at fault for avenging her mother, and the people she wanted to kill indeed deserved to die.
Most importantly, Yuu wanted to subdue this shrine maiden who had superb disguise skills and was proficient in changing her appearance and voice for his own use.
Therefore, he was willing to go through a little trouble.
With clues collected, everyone soon brought Sumi's body down.
When Sumi's father saw the body, he instantly burst into tears.
At this time, the person who called the police came up and said: "The Fukui Prefecture police said the waves and wind are too strong tonight, so they can't come over."
Others felt regretful and found it hard to accept, but Heiji, who shared the same virtue as Conan, chuckled: "That's great; this way, the culprit won't be able to escape."
Some people felt his words were harsh and hard to accept, but they couldn't refute them.
After all, the person was already dead; catching the murderer was also a good thing.
With a homicide, the festival naturally couldn't continue.
As time passed and the night grew darker, most people returned to their homes or hotels.
Only a few people very concerned about the case and two patrol officers remained with Heiji to investigate.
Among them, Yuu and Kimie were naturally included.
As the crowd dispersed, Heiji naturally noticed Yuu, but because of Kazuha Toyama, this dark-skinned boy probably still held a grudge and didn't actively greet Yuu.
Yuu didn't mind; rather, this suited his wishes.
He had no interest in this dark-skinned boy; after harvesting interaction rewards upon their first meeting, Heiji had completely lost value to him.
Well, now that the system had upgraded, even interaction wasn't necessary.
Besides Heiji, Kimie naturally also noticed Yuu, and the two went back to the shrine together first.
Kimie found it inconvenient to move in the shrine maiden attire used for the festival; whether out of common sense or for the upcoming murder plan, she wanted to change back into regular clothes.
After investigating for another half hour, a patrol officer couldn't help asking: "Detective Hattori, have you found anything?"
"No, nothing found, not a single clue."
Heiji naturally couldn't find any useful evidence; the swimming ring used to hold the body had long been destroyed by Yuu.
He frowned: "Damn, this murderer is too cunning."
"However, I always feel it has something to do with Saori Kaori who wrote the commission letter. Maybe we can go check the Kaori house!"
The patrol officer pointed to a drunk man nearby and said: "That is Miss Saori's father, Benzo Kaori, but seeing him drunk like this, I'm afraid we can't ask anything!"
At this time, Kimie, who had changed back into casual clothes, and Yuu reappeared in front of everyone.
She said: "Detective Hattori, are you still going to Saori's house? I'm free now and can lead the way."
Heiji also noticed the deeply intoxicated Benzo Kaori and shook his head: "No, let's visit him tomorrow when he sobers up."
At this time, Heiji said again: "However, I want to visit the Elder. This case is related to the mermaid legend, maybe the Elder knows something."
Kimie was stunned for a moment, then quickly replied: "Of course."
Everyone followed Kimie into the shrine to wait.
After a long time, when everyone was getting impatient, the wooden door of the shrine reception room was pushed open.
An old person leaning on a cane appeared slowly, full of wrinkles, extremely old, the whole person aged to the point of shrinking; the appearance was really scary.
A strange arc hooked up the corner of Yuu's mouth; Kimie's disguise skills were truly terrifyingly impressive.
Heiji frowned: "You are the Elder?"
The Elder spoke in a hoarse voice: "Kid, being so impolite is not okay. I heard my loyal fan wanted to see me, so I painstakingly came out from communicating with the spirits."
Kimie's voice-changing skill was commendable, without any flaws.
The visitors this time were all young people who naturally didn't know the Elder's background, so they could only watch in silence.
The atmosphere fell into a stalemate; fortunately, before long, Kimie's voice recorded on a tape recorder appeared.
"Great-grandmother, the hot water is ready, you should come take a bath."
The Elder immediately turned and walked towards the corridor: "I'm going to take a bath. If there's nothing else, you guys go back."
Before Heiji could ask anything, the Elder disappeared into the dark corridor.
Heiji muttered in his heart; he admitted his tone was a bit aggressive and disrespectful to the elder, but he always felt something was wrong.
Heiji's aggressive tone had become a habit, caused by years of spoiling by people around him, difficult to change.
Soon, everyone bid farewell to the re-emerged Kimie and went home.
It was very late; although unwilling, Heiji could only wait for tomorrow to try investigating clues at Saori Kaori's father's place.
Yuu, who had been living in the shrine, naturally stayed, but to avoid trouble, he chose to pretend to return to the hotel first and then sneak back to the shrine secretly.
Kimie, who hadn't slept, heard the movement and came to the courtyard with a flashlight.
Seeming to have telepathy, she subconsciously felt the visitor was Yuu.
Originally, she wanted to keep Yuu from the beginning, but having just killed an enemy and with many doubts in her heart, she didn't say it.
Sure enough, the visitor was Yuu.
The two stood facing each other; the shrine maiden had many things to say but didn't know how to say them.
Finally, under the complex gaze of the shrine maiden, Yuu smiled first: "Miss Kimie, I have nowhere to go, so I can only disturb you for another night."
Suddenly called intimately by her first name by Yuu, Kimie's heart trembled; under the pitch-black night, a layer of blush covered her fair cheeks.
"Yuu... Hoshimiya-kun, as long as you don't mind the shrine being simple, I welcome you anytime."
The shrine maiden wanted to return the favor, but ultimately couldn't do it.
A girl's reserve plus shyness made her choose to use the previous address, but she didn't object to Yuu calling her intimately by name.
In fact, because of Yuu's arrival, the shrine maiden's mood was unexpectedly joyful and happy.
Clearly only two days of contact, yet Kimie felt the happiness and joy from when her mother was alive after a long time.
The huge and quiet shrine also gained a trace of warmth because of Yuu's arrival.
If not for the revenge hanging in her heart, the shrine maiden even wanted to take the initiative to attack, trying to reach a lover's agreement with Yuu, or even become life partners.
Feelings can grow over time, but love at first sight is also possible.
And feelings from long-term interaction aren't necessarily love; maybe friendship or kinship.
But love at first sight must be unreasonable love like soul-stealing or a violent storm.
Childhood friends losing to newcomers is just like this.
Of course, if excellence is equal, time spent together is still very important.
Similarly, compared to time spent together, personal excellence and charm are the most critical.
As long as one is charming and excellent enough, a day or two of interaction is more favored by the opposite sex than more than ten years of companionship.
Looking at the somewhat reserved shrine maiden, Yuu smiled slightly and strode forward.
"Then I'll intrude."
"Hai."
Kimie followed closely behind, like a virtuous wife following her husband, or a loyal shrine maiden following her god.
After washing up, in a somewhat ambiguous atmosphere, the two chatted for a while and then returned to their rooms.
During this period, neither the death of Sumi Ebihara nor the ghost-like Elder was mentioned by anyone.
A speechless night.
The next morning, with the arrival of the Fukui Prefecture police, the investigation of the case officially began.
Yuu and Kimie got the news and came from the shrine to the inn where tourists gathered.
Just entering the door, they saw three police officers conducting routine inquiries.
Obviously, they were officers from Fukui Prefecture.
The officer in charge was balding, with a rather bad attitude.
The balding officer looked at Yuu, raised his eyebrows slightly, looking arrogant: "I heard you were also at the crime scene last night. Name, purpose on the island, explain everything to me one by one."
Yuu was low-key, but not cowardly.
Dealing with police officers who felt superior, the simplest way was to present a status nobler than his.
However, because he had always been low-key, Yuu didn't have an identity he could use to suppress others.
If he had to say, it would probably be his relationship with the Suzuki family.
But unless necessary, Yuu didn't want to publicize it.
Currently, being "kept" by Sonoko Suzuki conveniently covered his relationship with the Suzuki family.
As his strength increased, he was already planning to turn the "kept" relationship into an engagement relationship.
In this way, not only would he complete a class leap directly, but his relationship with the Suzuki family would also be more reasonable and concealed.
The only thing to worry about was probably the issue with the organization.
But it wasn't without benefits.
As the husband of the next head of the Suzuki family, Yuu's importance would definitely increase significantly, and his status within the organization would surely rise as well.
Thoughts racing, Yuu glanced playfully at the balding officer and already had an idea.
He walked to Heiji Hattori and smiled: "Student Hattori, didn't you explain to this officer for me in advance?"
Heiji, who was planning to watch the fun, twitched his mouth; although very unhappy in his heart, it wasn't good to pretend not to know him at this time.
There had been some unpleasantness before, but ultimately the two didn't have much interaction; it was just his unilateral unhappiness with Yuu because of Kazuha.
Seeing Yuu actively greeting him, Heiji said somewhat unhappily: "Why are you here? Is Kazuha not with you?"
"I came here alone this time because I'm quite interested in the mermaid legend."
Yuu shook his head, "As for Student Toyama... probably playing in Tokyo with Ran and Sonoko. After all, since returning to Tokyo, those girls have been together all the time."
Yuu didn't lie; even during the fierce battle last night, Kazuha had been with Aoko.
Hearing Yuu's words and knowing Kazuha didn't continue to be with Yuu, Heiji felt much better.
Seeing his reaction, Yuu secretly found it funny.
If Heiji knew Kazuha already belonged to him completely, wonder what expression he would have...
Thinking of this, he inexplicably felt somewhat amused.
No wonder there are so many people with bad taste; this feeling is indeed indescribable.
Yuu quickly corrected his thoughts; he wasn't a good person, but not bad enough to toy with people's hearts.
Looking at Heiji, he almost couldn't help wanting to confess.
But for this kind of thing, it was better to let Kazuha, the person involved, explain it clearly herself.
Otherwise, given Heiji's personality, he probably wouldn't believe it.
The balding officer on the side watched the two chatting, very unhappy in his heart but daring not to express it.
After all, in the previous inquiry, he had learned Heiji's identity.
The son of the Osaka Prefecture Police Chief was not someone he could offend.
Unexpectedly, this handsome pretty boy turned out to be a friend of this dark-skinned high school student; what bad luck...
The balding officer cursed in his heart, but on the surface, he restrained his arrogant expression.
Seeing this, Yuu knew the goal had been achieved.
He intended to stop there, but unexpectedly, Heiji was quite honest; after the conversation, he really took the initiative to explain Yuu's identity.
Heiji didn't know much about Yuu's intelligence; the only deep impression was his relationship with the Suzuki family.
Naturally, he emphasized this point.
Just somewhat vaguely.
Even so, it made this snobbish balding officer instantly sweat profusely, hurriedly showing a flattering smile.
"Sorry, Mr. Hoshimiya, I was too rude just now; please forgive me."
"I said so, a distinguished young talent like you is completely a noble guest; how could you be a suspect? It's all a mistake by the subordinates; please don't take it to heart, Mr. Hoshimiya."
Yuu was quite surprised: "Suspect?"
At this time, Heiji explained from the side: "Because of the police investigation, some tourists who visited the shrine last night testified that the deceased Miss Sumi got the wooden plate number one hundred and seven, and coincidentally that wooden plate is missing, so these police officers started questioning all tourists present at the lottery as soon as they arrived."
The balding officer hurriedly explained: "It's all a mistake by the subordinates; Mr. Hoshimiya, please don't take it to heart. Go, go, go, let's investigate elsewhere."
This guy directly pushed his two subordinates left and right, and then walked out of the inn.
Heiji couldn't help rolling his eyes; this kind of police officer was too irresponsible!
Yuu had already eaten breakfast with Kimie at the shrine; seeing the police leave, the two also planned to leave.
Seeing this, Heiji said: "Teacher Hoshimiya, the mourning for Sumi has started at the Ebihara house today; let's go over and have a look later."
Setting aside the unhappiness caused by jealousy, Heiji remembered chatting with Conan about Yuu, knowing his ability was extremely strong, and wanted to invite him to help solve the case together.
As for the address, his good friend Shinichi Kudo called him teacher, so naturally, he followed suit.
Facing Heiji's invitation, Yuu agreed decisively.
Even if Heiji didn't invite him, he had to accompany Kimie.
Since a childhood friend she grew up with passed away, reasonably, Kimie had to go mourn; for this, the two specifically changed into plain black clothes early in the morning.
Yuu's clothes were specially found by Kimie; although somewhat old, it could be seen they were new and unworn.
The shrine maiden was alone now, but after all, she ran a shrine, so it wasn't strange to have a few sets of male, or rather neutral, clothes prepared.
Maybe they would come in handy one day?
Like for disguise, or like the current situation.
"Teacher Hoshimiya, I always feel this case isn't an accident. What do you think about this case?"
Yuu nodded: "It indeed doesn't look like an accident, but it was too dark last night to find any clues, and it rained today, fearing traces on the mountain were washed away; investigation will be quite difficult."
He glanced at Heiji; it seemed difficult to make him accept this case as an accident, so he had to find a scapegoat.
Soon, Yuu had an idea.
Talking along the way, the three headed for the Ebihara house.
Soon, they arrived at the Ebihara house and registered at the entrance.
There, Yuu also saw Kimie's other two childhood friends, Naoko Kuroe and Rokuro Fukuyama.
Incidentally, the shrine maiden changed into a black suit skirt today, looking more gentle, very different from the usual cheerful and lively shrine maiden image.
Seeing Kimie, Rokuro Fukuyama immediately trotted over and asked: "Kimie, how have you considered the matter I told you last time?"
A ball of heat appeared in Rokuro Fukuyama's eyes.