543 The Missing Miko

Asai Narumi was not idle. He took the purse he got from Akane Tada and rented a medium-sized fishing boat for sightseeing purposes in the evening.

The next morning, they boarded the ship. The ship, painted bright white like a swan, still had the smell of paint, and the harmonious sound of the engine showed its health; the waves separated by the sharp bow showed an elliptical arc, like the shape of long hair being tossed by the sea breeze. Winette stood on the deck, one hand pressed on the side of her forehead, the floating hair shone with a scaly brilliance, and the little warmth left in autumn was scattered here without reservation.

Kuriyama Midori leaned against the railing of the deck, lying back comfortably.

“Don’t fall down accidentally.” Looking at her childish appearance, Hibiki reminded her with a smile.

“Lawyer Fei, you should also relax!”

Midori Kuriyama complained that cases were piling up and that official leave like this was rare.

Fishing and fishing tools were placed in the storage of the boat. Akane Fantian took out the fishing rod and bait and stood on the side of the boat. The speed of sailing was not fast, so she fished to kill time until a fish the size of a woman’s arm was caught, which aroused the interest of the other two women. While they were studying fishing, they also thought of asking the hotel owner to help deal with the catch.

It was also the first time that Winnet knew that Qian Fantian had this hobby, and it seemed that she was quite good at it. She taught them in a very professional manner.

She enjoyed the light sea breeze.

Asai Narimi approached as if nothing had happened.

He handed her a rope, which was very considerate.

Winette tied her hair up and looked down at the sea. The sound of the surging waves drowned out the engine. The hull that was repeatedly hit looked very slippery, and the water that the boat had opened up looked like a black crack. She looked out quietly and listened to Dr. Chengshi talk about his experience of traveling by boat. There was a time when the wind and waves on the sea were so strong that he almost died at the bottom of the sea.

“Disasters cannot erase a person’s will.” Winnet murmured softly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you died at sea now.”

“My atonement has not yet been completed.” Asai Narumi held the hem of his windbreaker with both hands and wrapped himself in it.

“In the story, God will give gifts to those who redeem their sins.”

“Miss Winnet, will you atone for your sins?”

“No, but if it wasn’t for me, it’s hard to say,” said Winnet.

“For someone other than myself.” Cheng Shi said with a chuckle.

Winnett did not deny it. Her eyes swept across the sky. Far ahead, in a slightly foggy place, a brown-green landscape appeared – a blurry island. The captain, wearing a navy-like beret, walked out of the cabin. He looked at the island, his face unable to hide his joy and happiness.

This business made him a lot of money, and he could also take part in the festival on the island, which was really a double blessing.

“This is America Island,” he shouted.

In the distance is a triangular island, with a gentle mountain in the center. At the foot of the mountain, you can vaguely see a group of white buildings built around the mountain. When you get a little closer, you can see a wooden dock. After the captain mentioned the immortal woman who ate mermaid meat, he went back to the cabin and said that he had some connections with the local district office and could directly use the dock to dock.

Akane Takata’s bucket was already full. She kept two relatively large fish and released the rest back into the sea, tidying up her aqua blue women’s suit and open-collared shirt. Although still dressed in a professional outfit, she changed her shoes to hiking shoes, which had a firm grip. With her help, Eri Kisaki and Midori Kuriyama changed out of their professional suits and put on casual clothes, at the cost of an extra travel bag.

She first got off the boat from the aluminum ladder, then half-carried and half-carried the two ladies. Winnett didn’t need this kind of treatment, and Dr. Chengshi also showed his rare masculine side. After they landed on the island, the captain said he had to go to the district office. They went straight to the hotel. Because it was still early and the local area was in a trend of developing tourism, the hotel that was part-time as a tavern still had rooms available.

The hotel was a standard Japanese-style building. The rooms were ordinary, and the sleeping place was a floor mat, but the space was spacious. Somewhat rude requests for food were also accepted. Akane Fantian volunteered to take them around the island. This was something Winnett had told them in advance, and Akane Fantian had already studied the promotional pictures of the American island tour, so she was very steady.

Seeing that Winnet had no intention of moving, Kuriyama Midori asked:

“Won’t Miss Winnett come along?”

“No, I think I’m a little seasick,” said Winnet.

Although she did not show this on the boat, their attention was focused on fishing at the time, and Winnet was very quiet, so Fei Yingli and the others imagined that she was not feeling well and did not suspect anything. At least on the surface, Miss Winnet was a kind of weak deception.

“I’ll stay and take care of her,” suggested Asai Narimi.

His identity is a doctor, even a female doctor, and Winnet is the boss’s boss, so it is only natural.

Originally, Hibiki Eri wanted to wait until she recovered before going on a tour together, but Winnet used her family as an excuse and asked her to take Xiaolan and the others on a tour to build up their relationship. This time, they just wanted to get to know each other first.

“OK then.”

She accepted Winnet’s thoughtfulness and agreed with a smile.

After they left for a while, Winette and Asai Narumi went together and headed straight for the American Shrine on the island.

The shrine is located close to the mountain. When viewed from the town, it looks like an isolated building, yet it also has a central feel.

After the early morning, thick clouds blocked the sunlight, so that the blue sky looked a little gloomy. Winette was wearing a modified dress, a long loose skirt, which matched her gentle manners and cold face. Asai Shigemi was dressed more neutrally. He was taller, wearing a beige coat, with his head slightly lowered, looking forward. The two took a detour, from an unmanned path to the mountainside, and then took an arc-shaped route to the shrine.

The shrine was built on a flat land, with a flat marble road in front of it. With this road as the center, a wide square that can accommodate hundreds of people is located here; in the front is an old wooden building, which is well maintained and has a light golden surface. When they came here, there were only a few couples of tourists visiting. They were really just watching, because this place looked bare.

Not very attractive as an attraction, Winnet thought.

However, they did not see the shrine maiden.

Where did she go? This question was written on Cheng Shi’s face, and a bad premonition was brewing in his heart.

“There’s nothing surprising about it. We’ll know once we walk around the island. Are there any famous places here?” asked Winnett.

“Aside from the American Shrine, the most famous place is probably the Mermaid Falls where the Dugong Arrow is fired.”

……

544 Miss Winnett joins the game

“I remember you said that the girl traveling with you lost the dugong arrow, right?”

“Yes, her name is Kadowaki Saori.”

“Since the witch is ready to take action, this must be part of her plan. Even if we can’t be sure that she stole the arrow, she is definitely related. If she lost the dugong arrow and wanted to find it back, where would she go?”

“I think it should be the Mermaid Falls…”

“Well, maybe, but it wasn’t the person who lost the arrow, but ‘Kadowaki Saori’. No matter how much she feared the legend of ‘revenge by mermaids for losing the arrow’, she wouldn’t disappear for a few days without any news. She would have done this to make people believe that she was still hiding somewhere on the island. Since she hid the girl, it means that she hated her to the point that even death would not be enough – it would be more appropriate to make her bear the crime of murder, right?”

“I think it’s difficult to do this,” said Asai Narimi, “but it’s not impossible. Let’s go to the Mermaid Falls and take a look.”

“Go to the top of the waterfall.”

Winnet made a decision, and the two of them climbed over the shrine and entered the forest. Although there was nothing special about the island, they could feel a strong sense of humidity as soon as they were surrounded by trees.

“There are quite a few tourists here,” Asai Narimi looked down from the mountain. “Compared to tourists, there are more locals. There are people fishing downstream, but most of them just come to worship the waterfall.”

“What does the girl look like?” said Winnett.

“Ms. Shimabukuro?”

“No, the other one.”

“Ms. Kadowaki wore glasses and had shoulder-length hair that was a shade of brown and yellow. She was wearing an indigo sweater when she came to the hospital.”

Winnet went around to the back of the waterfall and climbed up a tree nimbly. She looked around for a while and continued to speak.

“Is that the one at four o’clock?” she asked.

Asai Narimi turned quickly with a look of astonishment.

“Yes, exactly the same. Maybe we guessed wrong, she is the real one.”

Winette turned a deaf ear.

After locking onto the target, she landed with a diver’s spinning motion and darted out at high speed. Asai Narimi was shocked by her speed and could only see a tiny silhouette when he reacted. He had no choice but to chase her in the direction Winnett had directed him. The forest was a maze, but fortunately there was a waterfall as an exit and benchmark, so it was not easy to get lost. Finally, he saw her figure, and Kadowaki Saori, who was grabbed by her collar and lifted up.

“Who are you?” she cried, with an angry attitude and a vulgar look.

Seeing her face clearly, Cheng Shi was sure that she was Saori Kadowaki. His criminal imagination became a castle in the air. He was like going through an extreme sport, breathing out a breath of exhaustion and relief. Winette slowly put her down and inhaled her slender white neck with her nose.

The glare turned into a look of looking at a psychopath. She was still waiting for them to explain, but the way she stepped back slightly revealed her budding intention to retreat.

“She smells like the shrine. Perhaps it’s in preparation for the Dugong Festival. There’s a faint smell of sulfur in the air. In addition, there’s also the smell of detergent. Obviously, the shrine had undergone a thorough cleaning not long ago. The person who has these two smells is actually someone who disappeared three days ago. Doesn’t that mean she’s hiding in the shrine? What do you think, doctor?”

“Maybe Miss Shimabukuro is helping her…”

The next part progressed in a direction he could not have expected. It was so fast, in just a moment, as if Winnet had done it countless times. Kadowaki Saori’s “face skin” was torn off, and some glue remained on the cheek of another beautiful face, like the stickiness of tape. Under the skin was a face he was particularly familiar with – the face of Shimabukuro Kimie. Then Winnet took off her wig, her face calm, as if nothing had happened.

“We meet again, Dr. Tono.”

Shimabukuro Kimie smiled calmly, took off her mismatched glasses and the remnants of her facial skin, and gave Miss Winnet some applause.

“Defeated! I was quite confident in my disguise, but I still couldn’t escape the hound’s sense of smell. Are you really a human?” She stared at Winnet’s cheek, her pupils full of doubts besides sarcasm.

“Shouldn’t we welcome guests with our true colors?” asked Winnett.

“An uninvited guest is not a guest. How can you assume that I am going to carry out a murder plan based on a message that sounds like a prank? You even came to the island, and then found this place as if you predicted my actions… I really have to admire your imagination. Now, what do you want to do? Hand me over to the police?”

Asai Narimi choked up and said, “What did you do to Miss Kadowaki?”

“She’s dead,” she said bluntly.

Then he explained the reason, and it was just as Cheng Shi thought, a revenge drama.

“You should have heard about the mermaid corpse found in the shrine warehouse three years ago. That was actually my mother. In order to continue the symbol of the longevity woman, she dressed up as a grandmother and held a festival. After the festival, she went to the warehouse to organize the festival utensils. Saori, Sumi, and Naoko saw her enter the warehouse after getting drunk, and set fire to the warehouse for the ridiculous reason of “wanting to see if the longevity woman is immortal.”

“Thank you for telling me.” said Asai Narimi.

Shimabukuro Kimie was stunned.

“I have committed murder.”

Asai Narumi slowly approached her and helped her straighten Winnet’s messed up collar.

“It’s nothing. We have all killed people. Do you remember the story I shared with you? In fact, the protagonist in it was me. My real name is not Tono, but Asanari Minoru. I killed four people for revenge, and Miss Winnett next to me was a cold-blooded blood angel.”

Winnet looked at him with an idiotic expression, completely sneering at such a description. She continued:

“That is to say, there is no one here who can condemn you, Ms. Shimabukuro. I am more curious about your makeup skills than the death of an insignificant woman.”

Shimabukuro Kimie frowned as she looked at them. This development was beyond her expectations. Just now, she had already accepted her fate, thinking that her anger would be drowned in cheap justice, thinking that this was God’s punishment for her. She never thought that she was submerged in the abyss of borrowing dark power.

“What is your purpose?”

“He wants to help you,” Winnet said bluntly.

“Help me? We only met once, and I thought she was a good person at the time.”

Asai Narimi was speechless. Winette rushed to Shimabukuro and said:

“Don’t worry about him! I’ll help you kill them, how about you teach me your disguise technique? You’re the only one who can’t escape the punishment of ‘justice’ because you made a mistake, starting with lending the medical insurance to that woman named Saori. A quick check will show that the person seeing the dentist was not actually you.”

After seeing her superb disguise skills, Winnet naturally guessed her plan, which was to fake her own death and get away with it, so that others would mistake Saori for her – using her teeth as proof.

Shimabukuro Kimie sneered and said:

“I was too naive at the time, thinking that as long as they were willing to repent, they would give up their revenge. However, after returning from the main island, Saori pestered me to ask where the ‘Mermaid’s Grave’ was. She said that she wanted to be like the longevity woman and survive in the flames… How can I forgive them? I can’t forgive them!”

Miss Winnett has seen all kinds of perverts. Strictly speaking, she herself should be classified as one of them. However, a pervert like Saori Kadowaki is considered the best among them. Saori Kadowaki not only burned someone’s mother to death, but also asked where the grave was in front of the person, and then openly expressed her intention to rob the grave and even eat the ashes, in order to achieve immortality that even elementary school students don’t believe in.

There was no repentance, but instead things got worse.

Justice lives forever, but justice – after hearing these words, Shimabukuro Kimie realized that justice was dead. She wanted to punish the evil born of morbidity with evil, and she wanted them to accept the real suffering of mermaids and take over the malice born of their dreams of eternal life.

“I like your rationality. I believe you won’t say things like ‘revenge must be taken personally’ or ‘it doesn’t matter if caught’,” Winnett opened her unfocused eyes. In her vision, a devil was synchronizing with her. “Unrelated criminal accomplices will be the nightmare of detectives.”

Shimabukuro Kimie was attracted by her evil spirit. At this point, there was no point in them lying to her, so in this state of mind, she told her plan – which was actually quite perfect, except for the challenge she issued to the detective.

Miss Winnett could understand the sense of accomplishment of defeating a famous detective. To be able to hide one’s true identity from a famous detective was the greatest reward for one’s criminal plan and disguise. Shimabukuro Kimie had already sent out a letter of challenge to the detective. The recipient was Hattori Heiji, and the challenge target was Winnett’s old friend, Kudo Shinichi. Shimabukuro Kimie saw the passion of this pair of good friends and thought that only the famous detective in Osaka knew the location of the famous detective in Kanto. It turned out to be completely correct. Winnett looked at her with awe, like a primitive man.

This ability to see the truth is almost on par with Sonoko’s.

Their opponents will be three detectives.

Miss Winnett completed the plan from a third party’s perspective, aiming to bury them all in a form that could not be verified.

Her plan sounded a bit far-fetched to Jun Hui, but her strange abilities and physical strength, as well as her absolute confidence that she didn’t know what failure was, infected her. This also let her know that in this rumored mermaid town, there was another witch who could play the role of a mermaid, or more precisely, a shapeshifting devil. She wanted to take them back to hell, and a grand evil murder was about to begin.

Jun Hui felt a kind of demonic nature, and the world seemed so unnatural for a moment. But she was neither worried nor regretful. She was still the core of the plan, operating the lottery system that manipulated fate, giving them the dugong arrow they expected, and the direction of the arrow tip did not bring eternal life but destruction. She discussed with Winette and excluded Cheng Shi from the plan. The two reached a wonderful tacit understanding that he was not the right person to know this elaborate murder plan.

Although Asai Narimi felt that it was too late to reverse the situation, he did not support the idea of ​​making a mistake. However, he saw the fire burning in Jun Hui’s eyes. It was a bright fire on a moonlit night, burning fiercely, coming from another person and also from himself. There was nothing to regret, and everything was just a postponed responsibility.

“After everything is over, what will you choose, Miss Shimabukuro? Will you stay or leave this island?” Cheng Shi asked before they parted. Jun Hui was about to return to the shrine. She had achieved her purpose of being spotted, and now she just needed to follow the plan.

“Stay,” she said.

This is something that feels like both fate and a curse.

She thanked Cheng Shi but was rejected. He said he could not help at all and Winette was only interested in the disguise technique, not out of kindness or malice, and even participated because it was fun.

“Let’s go.” Winette said to Cheng Shi.

They moved quickly. Since they won the first guess – finding Junhui, they returned to the hotel early, and there was still a long time before lunch. Winnet and Chengshi stayed in the room playing karuta. After staying in Japan for a long time, they were exposed to such traditional games. To be honest, it was difficult for her to regard him as a member of the opposite sex. Image is only one aspect, and temperament is the decisive factor. Winnet lost again. She hasn’t memorized all her haiku yet.

Then they switched to chess.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” he asked casually.

“I’m having a blast doing it,” Winnett said.

“I kind of regret letting you take on this task, but after hearing the whole story, I feel that their lives are just numbers. I plan to continue my studies in clinical medicine.”