Transmigrated into Conan, his ability is Rhodes Island

After telling the police the clues he had, Akihara felt he had done more than enough as a helpful citizen. He still hadn't prepared a business card for his identity, even if he had one, he wouldn't prepare a hastily made-up one. So he left his phone number with the police, telling them to call him if needed. After saying goodbye to the police, he headed towards the American Shrine in the center of the island.

The scenery along the way slowly overlapped with the images in my memory, but the locals' spirits were completely different from when Yamamoto Kazuo had visited a few weeks earlier; everyone on the island wore a friendly smile. Although the legend of the mermaid wasn't as well-known among outsiders as it would be a few years later, the mermaids still brought considerable income to the island, boosting the economy around the shrine.

Street vendors set up tables and parasols, and the tables were filled with all kinds of cultural and creative products—although the term doesn't exist yet—such as mermaid amulets, mermaid bookmarks, and a kind of pie called "Dugong Mantou" filled with minced fish.

Nearby was a group of young people who were clearly tourists. One of them, a young man who looked like a college student, was showing off his knowledge of mermaid-themed merchandise to his companions.

"Do you know what a dugong is? They are a type of marine creature similar to a manatee. When they are nursing their young, they hold their babies with half of their bodies above the water. If they also have some seaweed on their heads at this time, they look like a woman feeding her child from a distance. So they are the prototype of the mermaid!"

"Wow, senior, you know so much, you're amazing!" His companions praised him enthusiastically.

Hearing his companions' praise, the young man could barely contain his glee, his lips practically curling into a wide smile. He spoke even more enthusiastically. "Actually, in the beginning, Japanese mermaids didn't look like they do now. They weren't beautiful at all; in fact, they were mostly grotesque. The earliest Japanese record of mermaids dates back to the reign of Empress Suiko, about 1,300 years ago. It's said that the mermaids hanging there were over a meter tall and made a baby-like cry. At that time, there wasn't a term for mermaid; they were called 'lingyu' or 'fayu'..."

That's quite a description. Congratulations, you might even get to see mermaids from thousands of years ago on this trip.

Akihara stopped at a stall next to them, picking out a few bookmarks and amulets to bring back to Amiya and the others as souvenirs when she returns to Rhodes Island someday. Hmm, but we Terra have our own little mermaid, the kind whose appendages can even be grilled and eaten.

Savoring the local dugong buns, Akihara continued walking towards the American Shrine in the center of the island. He had actually wanted to complain about the island's name for a long time, but "beautiful" here was probably just an adjective and didn't represent the country that Terra Colombia was based on... However, to those who understood Chinese, it was still increasingly amusing.

In the open space in front of the shrine, a girl dressed in a classic white and red shrine maiden outfit, who looked to be around Akihara's age, was registering names and distributing number tags to guests who had come to draw lots. Seeing that there were still people in line, Akihara joined the end of the queue.

However, when it was Akihara's turn, the shrine maiden said apologetically, "I'm sorry, sir, only 108 number plates are issued for each festival, and there aren't any left for you..."

Akihara had an "I knew it" look on his face. He nodded to show his understanding and prepared to check into the hotel that Yamamoto Kazuo remembered.

He didn't say anything, but the people behind him were unhappy. The middle-aged man shouted, "I clearly saw you hide a number plate in your sleeve! Do you know how hard it was for me to come all this way? Sell me this number plate now!" As he spoke, he threw five yen to the shrine maiden and tried to grab the number plate.

Akihara clicked his tongue and tripped the man. The man fell to the ground and kissed the American soil. Akihara couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

The man angrily scrambled to his feet, not even bothering to brush off the dust, and lunged at Qiuyuan with bloodshot eyes. Qiuyuan didn't dodge; he excitedly told the system to quickly teleport the gloves he had just put back into the system space and hadn't had time to throw away to the man's face.

System: ...There is an old saying in the far East, "If the mop is covered in X, Lü Bu is alive"...It has a similar meaning.

However, before the system could even retrieve the gloves, the man had already been taken down, and the kind-hearted person who came to his aid was one of the police officers who had been on the boat earlier.

He smiled at Akihara and said, "We guessed that Dr. Akihara was here to attend the Mermaid Festival, so we called Ms. Shimabukuro in advance to leave you a number as a thank you for your help."

Akihara was quite moved, but he would have been even more moved if the policeman had arrived a few seconds later. He closed the warehouse panel with a touch of regret, then thanked the policeman and the shrine maiden.

The shrine maiden's eyes sparkled as she smiled and said, "So you're Dr. Akihara! My name is Shimabukuro Kimie. I heard you assisted the police in solving a case on your way here. You look about my age... You're amazing!"

As Akihara listened to Shimabukuro Kimie's praise, he thought of the young man who had just been flattered and was beaming with pride. This moment was just like that moment.

He could only twitch his lips and say "Thank you for the compliment" as he accepted the number plate handed to him by Ms. Shimabukuro.

Seeing Akihara accept the number plate, Shimabukuro Kimie winked at him and gave him a sly smile. She said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "This number plate is imbued with my blessing magic, it will definitely help you draw the Dugong Arrow."

Before Akihara could respond, she raised her voice again: "After you take the number plate, please register your name in this booklet so that we can confirm the identity of the lucky guest later."

Akihara took the ink-soaked brush and the roster. He caught a glimpse of three familiar names on the left side of the roster: Shiho Miyano, Saburo Uozuka, and Jin Kurosawa.

Gin's calligraphy is quite good; Akihara is focusing on the wrong thing.

Aside from Shiho Miyano being her real name, he figured the other two were most likely just random pseudonyms, because the Japanese kana for "vodka" was the same as "Uozuka," and the katakana for "gin" was the same as the "jin" in "Kurosawa Jin." And since she wasn't Tom Riddle, that guy who liked to rearrange his real name using code names, the probability of them being pseudonyms was much higher.

It seems that only Shiho Miyano is honestly writing her real name. Akihara thought to himself, "This girl is really honest. If she continues like this, she'll be completely exploited by this evil organization."

He signed his name, handed the register back to Shimabukuro Kimie, thanked her, and then, with the curious look often seen in tourists, began to inquire about the island. "Miss Shimabukuro, I heard that this shrine is inhabited by a long-lived woman who ate mermaid flesh. Is that true?"

Shimabukuro Kimie looked surprised, as if wondering how a professional doctor like Akihara could believe such a thing. Then she covered her mouth and laughed, "Hahaha, Dr. Akihara, how come even you... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you. You should know that there are no such creatures as mermaids in the world. The long-lived woman you mentioned was my great-grandmother. She just lived a little longer than the average person."

Akihara smiled and replied, "Oh, is that so?" But in his heart, he was thinking that it might not have been like that before, but it might not be now.