People in Detective Conan are going crazy over the comments section.

"What exactly do you guys mean by this?!"

Hattori Heiji's voice came from beside them, tinged with annoyance.

At this moment, everyone came to their senses. It turned out that Hattori had been right next to them all along, but for some special 'reason', they hadn't seen him.

"Heiji! Um... so you're here! I thought you'd run off somewhere, ahahaha..."

Kazuha tried to bluff her way out of it, but clearly, Hattori Heiji's mind was exceptionally sharp at times like this, and he wasn't fooled at all.

"Do you think I didn't hear anything? I've been standing right next to you the whole time, okay?"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Upon hearing the laughter, Hattori Heiji slammed his head around and said, "What are you laughing at, you idiot?"

Hattori stared at Conan with a deathly gaze, the resentment in the air seeming to materialize.

"Alright, alright, aren't you supposed to be investigating? Why are you arguing here?"

At the critical moment, Asakawa Yu stepped up and eased the situation. Sure enough, this proved the saying: Asakawa Yu can always save his teammates from dire straits, but don't ask why he is in such a predicament.

"Hmph, I'll settle the score with you later." After saying that, Hattori walked over and started investigating again, with Conan following behind him.

“Look, the two types of shoes on the sand are slippers and boots. Miss Naoko is wearing slippers, so the boots must belong to the murderer.” Hattori’s reasoning was convincing.

"What a tragic death." Looking at Naoko Kuroe's miserable state, Kogoro Mori couldn't help but sigh.

“Look, this mark over here should be from stepping on a dugong arrow. Since it was stepped on by a sandal, the arrow was probably dropped by her while she was fighting the murderer, and then Naoko accidentally stepped on it,” Conan analyzed, looking at the marks on the ground.

"Later, the murderer took the arrow, which means that as long as we follow these footprints, we should be able to find where the murderer is hiding," Mori said, looking at the footprints on the ground with a flashlight.

"Look at these footprints, they lead directly to the sea."

“Really, there seems to be something shiny next to the footprints… What is this?” Hattori said, picking up the shiny object from the ground.

"This...this is...fish scales."

"Actually, Naoko also has two or three of the same fish scales on her body," Conan added.

"Is it possible that they were all killed by the legendary mermaid?"

Just as the three were carefully examining the fish scales on the ground, Asakawa Yu's voice came from behind them, carrying a sinister tone that sounded exceptionally real.

"Please, how is that possible? How could mermaids really exist in the world?" Hattori scoffed upon hearing Asakawa Yu's words.

"Is that so... Well, just take it as a joke." Hearing Hattori's words, Asakawa Yu didn't refute them, but just smiled and replied, then walked away to the side by herself.

"Hey Kudo, is that guy really that good? He seems even less reliable than that old man to me."

Seeing that Asakawa Yu had walked away, Hattori Heiji lowered his head and whispered to Conan, but to his surprise, Conan did not refute him as expected, but instead pondered alone.

"Hey Kudo, you don't actually believe that mermaid thing about killing people, do you?" Hattori was dumbfounded to see that Conan actually believed it.

"Of course not, but I know Asakawa very well. He would never say something like that without a reason. He must have found some clues that we haven't found and has a vague answer before he said that."

It has to be said that after so many cases with Asakawa Yu, Conan has long understood that what Asakawa Yu says is all reasonable and well-founded. But even though he already knows something, he just likes to remind them in this way.

So, can the riddle teller just leave?

But this is for the best. It's better than Asakawa Yu saying to them directly, "I already know who the murderer is." Otherwise, they really wouldn't be able to compete.

Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that Asakawa Yu already knew who the culprit was, but he simply chose not to stop it. If Conan knew, he would probably give him a good scolding...

But so what? Conan can't touch him.

"Hey! What are you guys doing over there?"

Just then, a large group of people carrying flashlights and dressed in police uniforms walked towards them.

"Oh, we are investigating this case."

"This is the responsibility of the Fukui Prefecture police."

It was only then that they realized they were the police officers whose arrival had been delayed due to the storm. "Fukui Prefectural Police? You've finally arrived!"

-------------------------------------------

"You're saying the killer's footprints disappeared at the beach?" While the police were still investigating, Hattori and the others came to the house and talked to Kazuha and the others.

"That's right, and there were even a few fish scales that fell off nearby."

"There are... there are fish scales!"

"Could the murderer be a mermaid?"

As they spoke, Ran and Kazuha's bodies began to tremble slightly, looking terrified.

"Fool, how could a mermaid wear thigh-high boots?"

Miyano Akemi came to Asakawa Yu's side and asked in a low voice, "Boss, could it really be some kind of mermaid?"

"Mermaids? Heh, maybe they really exist, who knows."

Upon hearing this, Miyano Akemi knew that her boss probably already knew something, which meant she no longer needed to worry. After all, if even her boss couldn't solve the problem, then no one here could.

"What is this? He's spouting nonsense again. There are no mermaids in this world."

When Hattori saw Asakawa Yu spouting that mermaid-related crime theory again, he couldn't help but scoff.

?

For some reason, Hattori's attitude towards him seemed a little off today.

Oh well, adults won't argue with kids, let them be.

"Hey, can you stop saying that all the time? People might think you have a problem with him," Conan whispered to Hattori.

"I...I know, I don't need you to remind me!"

Haha, with you like this, I really don't know if you've actually listened to anything...