Conan and Gin are both my brothers, what's wrong with meeting them once?

Upon seeing who it was, Kadokawa Saori was clearly taken aback.

But when she noticed that there were three police officers following behind them, her expression changed immediately, and she became somewhat wary.

"do not come!"

Facing everyone's gaze, Kadokawa Saori forced a smile that was half-crying and half-laughing: "It's all fake... The mermaid is fake, the old woman is fake, but they still made me believe them for three years. It's so ridiculous... so ridiculous..."

Shimabukuro Kimie, disguised as Kadokawa Saori, seemed to be rambling incoherently, as if she had been provoked by something, but as she spoke, everyone eventually understood what she was saying.

It turns out that three years ago, Kadokawa Saori, Kuroe Naoko, and Ebihara Tomi deliberately set fire to the warehouse where the longevity woman lived in order to test whether she really could not die.

Although they didn't know what the skeletons in the warehouse were all about, seeing the Longevity Granny appear made the three of them deeply believe in the power of mermaids.

That's why Saori Kanojo panicked so much after losing the Dugong Arrow. She remembered that she had tried to burn the old woman alive and was afraid that the mermaid would come after her. That's why she sent the letter of entrustment to Heiji Hattori.

The mermaid didn't kill Kadokawa Saori, but she accidentally killed Ebihara Toshimi during an argument on the night of the mermaid festival. After that, she targeted Kuroe Naoko, who had drawn the dugong arrow and had also set fire to the old woman with her, killed her, and stole her dugong arrow.

She originally didn't intend to kill Shimabukuro Kimie, but for some reason, Shimabukuro Kimie ended up impersonating her.

After hiding away for several days, paranoid and showing signs of mental breakdown, Kadokawa Saori took advantage of Shimabukuro Kimie going to the warehouse to look for the register and approached her, trying to find out the reason. However, she blurted out that they had tried to burn the old woman alive, which made Shimabukuro Kimie's face change.

"It's fake... After Junhui found out that we started the fire three years ago, she completely broke down. She said that I killed her mother... Her mother clearly died at sea five years ago..."

As she spoke, Kadokawa Saori shook her head in disbelief and backed away.

“She told me everything, she told me everything. The longevity granny is all fake… The mermaid power I always believed in, the mental illness that drove me to kill, it’s all fake!”

"The real longevity woman is long dead! It was her mother who was impersonating her all along! The one we burned to death three years ago was her mother! The current longevity woman is an imposter! This whole family has deceived us!"

In the end, she appeared to be on the verge of a breakdown, screaming as if she were trying to release some uncontrollable emotion.

After understanding what Kadokawa Saori meant, the police officers following behind the group immediately tried to grab her. However, Kadokawa Saori, while saying "It's all fake," turned around and jumped into the sea without hesitation.

When the group reached the rock where Saori had just stood and looked down, all that remained were the bubbles from the waves crashing against the rocks...

Upon seeing this, several police officers quickly contacted other officers still on the island via walkie-talkie, preparing to call upon the islanders' fishing boats to go out to sea and retrieve the person—whether it was a person or a corpse, they needed to be able to prove that Kadoya Saori had not taken the opportunity to escape.

Just as the police and some fishermen familiar with the water were making a fuss about going into the sea to search for the person, a woman, soaking wet, suddenly climbed up the deserted beach about two hundred meters away from the rocks.

After the woman removed the disguise that had been smudged by seawater from her head and face, what was revealed was Kimie Shimabukuro's face.

Meanwhile, the Yang clone that Kudo Kazuma released was disguised as Kurosawa Hidden and was waiting for her there.

Seeing Shimabukuro Kimie come ashore, he gestured to the somewhat feminine travel bag at his feet: "I have disguise materials, women's clothing, and some cash inside. Everyone is currently salvaging Kadoya Saori, so no one will come here. Just disguise yourself as a tourist who has come to the island and take the next ship to Tokyo."

Kimie Shimabukuro nodded: "Thank you. How can I contact you when I get to Tokyo?"

After thinking for a moment, Kudo Kazuma gave her Kurosawa's Bond account.

The cash he gave her was enough for Shimabukuro Kimie to pay for the boat ride, rent a temporary place, and buy a cheap mobile phone.

After watching Shimabukuro Kimie reach the back of a rock and confirming that the other could not see him, Kudo Kazuma withdrew his Yang clone.

That afternoon, the police recovered Saori Kadoya's body from the sea.

Of course, this corpse was a puppet body that Kudo Kazuma created using the [Puppet Technique] with 100 points, based on the appearance of Kazuma Kanojo. However, it was enough to deal with the police.

The Mermaid Island case has now come to an end.

The only thing they didn't expect was the island's residents' reaction when they revealed the fact that "the real longevity woman had long since passed away, and in fact, the longevity woman was played by Shimabukuro Kimie's grandmother, mother, and Kimie herself generation after generation."

On this island, anyone of a certain age knows that the Longevity Granny is a tradition passed down from generation to generation. Even when Junhui's mother was burned to death three years ago, they thought the Longevity Granny would never appear again. But who knew that at the next Mermaid Festival, Junhui would once again dress up as the Longevity Granny and continue to preside over the event.

"Now that Junhui has passed away, the Mermaid Festival will probably never happen again, right?"

Older people might reminisce about it, but the younger people on the island don't really care about things like the longevity goddess or the mermaid festival. They prefer the island's scenery and the cheap and delicious seafood.

So in the end, the only ones trapped by the "Longevity Granny" and the "Mermaid Power" were the Shimabukuro family, who had dedicated their lives to it, and the three who had committed evil deeds because they doubted the mermaid's power and were then consumed by it...

Shimabukuro Kimie, disguised as an ordinary tourist, witnessed the scene of "Kadono Saori" being pulled up from the water and also heard the islanders' thoughts about mermaids and longevity women.

So it turns out we don't need the longevity granny, and this island doesn't need her either. Good, this way I can be freed from her responsibilities and start a new life in Tokyo...

Shimabukuro Kimie left on the same ship as Kudo Kazuma and the three-person team from the agency.

As for Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha, since Fukui is closer to Osaka, the two did not travel with the group from Tokyo.

To Kudo Kazuma's surprise, the next day, while he was at the company asking Tsugami Yuuki when the skincare product test results would be available, he received a call from Hattori Heiji.

"What the heck? An opening reception for a restaurant? What's so great about that?"

Kudo Kazuma was speechless: "Besides, didn't we just separate yesterday? You feel like you miss my brother terribly if you don't see him for a day, right? Just call him directly, why are you calling me?"

"I just called Kudo. He's planning to go because his idol is there. I heard you two aren't together, so I called you specifically to ask if you want to come along."

Kudo Kazuma paused slightly upon hearing the word "idol," but after a moment he still said, "Then I won't go. I was seriously ill on Mermaid Island and I'm still not fully recovered. I need to rest for a couple of days, don't I?"

"Well, that's true. Never mind then. You should get some rest. Your body is really... tsk tsk tsk..."

Heiji Hattori clicked his tongue a few times in an exaggerated manner and then hung up the phone.

Kudo Kazuma, however, was somewhat worried about his brother, the Grim Reaper.

His brother's idol...

If he remembers correctly, in the Osaka + Conan idol series, there will be a story about his brother's idol committing murder, and then he personally sending the idol to the police station, right?

It's better for him not to go at a time like this.