The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

Afterwards, Jiang Hang and Hattori Heiji went to the neighboring houses near the Kadowaki family to gather information.

Kadowaki Saori's biological father, Kadowaki Muzou, has never had a good temper, but in the early years he was able to go out fishing with the fishermen on the island and his family managed to get by.

But ever since his wife, Kadowaki Saori's mother, left home many years ago and never returned, he has become a drunkard who only knows how to drink all day.

It was precisely because of his personality that his daughter, Kadowaki Saori, would run away from home every few days after she came of age.

However, she was just a girl who grew up on a small island. Kadowaki Saori herself didn't have any special skills or ambition. She would usually wander around outside for a month or two, and only return to the island to live off her parents when she couldn't make it there anymore.

This kind of drama happens three or four times a year, so it's no wonder the island's residents have no reaction to her disappearance.

The only thing that might give these neighbors something to say about Kadowaki Saori is that she lost the dugong arrow that they worship every year on Mermaid Island.

Although it wasn't exactly an antique or cultural relic, it was still a treasure created by the island's over-100-year-old immortal with spiritual power, and it was one of the few things that could attract tourists to their sparsely populated island.

When the other side learned of the loss of the Dugong Arrow, they did not blame Kadowaki Saori. Instead, they took out a few more Dugong Arrows to continue this tradition that had lasted for decades.

They even want to include the tourists in this tradition, so that those who obtain the Dugong Arrow will come back to the island the following year, which will also attract more tourists.

The island's residents seem to approve of this propaganda approach.

After all, you can only earn a little money by fishing.

Apart from the fishermen who perform specifically for tourists, which fisherman on the other islands doesn't have a side job?

Even though Kadowaki Mu, who was drunk every day, still had a share in the souvenir shop on the island, he received a small amount of money each year, but it was enough to cover his daily expenses on the island.

If the island can attract more tourists, the island's residents will naturally be able to earn more money from them.

"So, in the past year, Kadowaki Saori has run away from home a few times?" Hattori Heiji asked the neighbors.

They counted on their fingers and finally gave an uncertain answer: "It's been about two or three times. At first, Kadowaki Saori was quite happy when she drew that arrow at the festival last year. She stayed on the island for half a year, saying she wanted to research the power of mermaids. However, after searching for several months, she didn't find anything useful, and then she ran away again."

Hearing that Kadowaki Saori had been going out two or three times in the past year, Hattori Heiji thought it was perfectly normal for her to lose the arrow.

Perhaps that dugong arrow was left behind in a rented room in the city by the other party every time they ran away from home, and then the landlord there threw it away as trash.

But as Hattori Heiji thought this, he glanced at Jiang Hang, whose expression seemed completely unchanged, and naturally suppressed his guess.

Since Jiang Hang has already guessed the truth, then the truth is definitely not that simple.

He pondered whether he had overlooked any clues.

But even after some of them said goodbye to their kind neighbors and returned to the shore to find the girls who were sightseeing with a tour guide, Hattori Heiji still couldn't figure it out.

"Did you finish investigating what you were looking for so quickly?" Toyama Kazuha glanced at Hattori Heiji, who was deep in thought, with some doubt. "How come it seems like nothing has changed at all?"

Jiang Hang briefly explained the situation on the client's side to them, which made them sigh that the client's family situation was indeed quite complicated.

"Actually, it's because she herself couldn't make up her mind to really leave her hometown," said Yoshino Kiharu, who seemed to be thinking of herself.

Someone like her, with no education or work skills, stayed in Tokyo entirely because of her yearning for big cities.

If it weren't for Jiang Hang's job interview that completely changed her life, she would probably have already returned to her hometown.

Jiang Hang waved his hand at the other party, saying, "I think if you hadn't stayed with me, you might already be a tourism ambassador for some declining tourist town."

This was originally the other person's story, but he intercepted it.

Yoshino Kino rolled her eyes at Jiang Hang: "There are plenty of people like me out there, what place would want a publicity ambassador like me? Jiang Hang, you're really joking."

Now that she's gotten used to being Jiang Hang's detective assistant, she's quite satisfied with her current life.

With a generous salary and relatively low work pressure, Jiang Hang's benefits are definitely among the best in Japan. Her family is happy for her.

Moreover, she could follow Jiang Hang and see a wider and more wonderful world. She couldn't imagine what better life she could have now.

Jiang Hang didn't dwell on that topic for long, but instead continued talking about the client's family.

It was only at this moment that Hattori Heiji suddenly realized what was happening.

"I understand. So Jiang Hang, you mean that the arrow wasn't actually lost by Kadowaki Saori, but that her father secretly disposed of it to someone else while she was away from home?"

Thinking about how Jiang Hang had been mentioning the Kadowaki family's financial situation and her father's constant drunkenness, Hattori Heiji became much more certain about it.

"Judging from Kadowaki Saori's strong reaction to losing the Dugong Arrow, even if she were extremely bold, she would never have taken that arrow off the island."

"Therefore, the arrow must have been lost on the island for some reason, and her father is the prime suspect!"

"I saw it online before. Because of the mermaid remains case three years ago, there have been many more tourists to Mermaid Island in recent years, and many of them want to receive the blessing of the Dugong's Arrow."

"Before, because the Dugong Arrow lottery was only drawn from the island's residents and not from tourists, some people even asked the shrine if they could pay to rent the Dugong Arrow."

"If that's the case, it's not surprising that the people on the island would have the idea of ​​selling the dugong arrows for profit."

Recalling how the drunkard's conversation had been relatively normal until he became extremely agitated upon hearing that they were investigating the disappearance of Kadowaki Saori and the loss of the Dugong Arrow, Hattori Heiji felt that his reasoning was probably correct.

He looked at Jiang Hang and asked if he had already figured this out before.

Jiang Hang nodded slightly, indicating that Hattori Heiji's reasoning was correct.

"However, this is not entirely speculation; I did smell some alcohol on the other person."

"You've seen the Kadowaki family's situation. They can only say that they're doing alright by fishing and receiving dividends. They're definitely not considered wealthy on the island."

"And the other party is the kind of old alcoholic who drinks every day. If we really judge based on the other party's family background, the alcohol he drinks should be the cheaper kind of beer."

"But I have recently learned a little about this, and the smell of alcohol emanating from the other person is clearly not the smell of beer, but at least mid-range sake, which has that kind of smell."

To be precise, it can't be considered something he learned, but rather a skill reward recently given to him by the system.

Although he doesn't really like drinking, because it affects his reaction speed and concentration.

However, it doesn't matter in the system space.

He spent two nights improving his wine appreciation skills from beginner to advanced. He could now identify the type of most wines in the world just by smelling them.

In cases like Kadowaki Muzo, where the pungent smell of sake emanating from someone standing right in front of them is impossible to conceal, he could tell what kind of sake the other person was drinking even with his eyes closed. He could even tell which brand of sake it was and how much it cost.

With his eagle eye, he could easily determine the net worth of Motokō Mitsuzō and what kind of alcohol he could afford to drink.

It is clear that the alcohol he is drinking now is not commensurate with his current family situation, and the difference is significant.

Just like someone who only has tens of thousands of yen would never buy expensive liquor costing tens of thousands of yen a bottle every day to satisfy their drinking cravings, even if they want to drink, they would only buy cheap beer that costs a few hundred yen a can.

Given his current situation, it's as if he suddenly made a windfall, so he suddenly started spending money extravagantly, specifically buying alcohol that he couldn't normally afford to satisfy his drinking addiction.

After considering the other party's family situation, Jiang Hang could only draw one conclusion.

That means the dugong arrow wasn't lost at all, but rather taken by the penniless Kadowaki Muzo to exchange for money.

Jiang Hang could only shake his head slightly, thinking that Kadowaki Saori probably lived in constant fear because her father sold the arrow, and might even have lost her life because of it.

"If all of this is because of that guy, should we tell Ms. Shimashiro Kimie?"

Upon hearing the name of another woman, Kazuha Toyama's expression clearly changed, and Heiji Hattori quickly explained the identity of that woman, Kimie Shimashiro.

Upon learning that the other party was a shrine maiden and the granddaughter of the creator of the dugong arrow, Toyama Kazuha's expression returned to normal.

"Actually, there's no need for that. When I was chatting with her before, Miss Junhui already said that the Dugong Arrow itself has no value, and starting this year, the lottery scope will be expanded so that more people will have the opportunity to obtain the new Dugong Arrow."

"The main issue is that Kadowaki Saori can't get over her own inner conflict and is still panicking about losing the Dugong Arrow. We need to find her as soon as possible to prevent her from doing something foolish or having any accidents."

Hearing Jiang Hang say that, Hattori Heiji also realized what the focus should be now.

"In any case, I should go and inform Ms. Shimashiro Kimie first, and then see if I can get more useful information from her. After all, judging from the current situation, Ms. Kadowaki Saori probably hasn't returned to Mermaid Island since accompanying Ms. Shimashiro Kimie to the dentist three days ago. She probably wrote your SOS letter around that time."

"I wonder if Ms. Shimashiro Kimie knows where the other person usually goes after leaving Mermaid Island?"

It seems that Hattori Heiji is planning to investigate separately from Jiang Hang.

After all, he felt that the pressure of investigating with Jiang Hang was too great.

Although the other party's almost abnormal observational skills do indeed allow them to find problems in the case more quickly.

But he felt he still had to save face and couldn't always be outdone by Jiang Hang.

Jiang Hang simply nodded in agreement with his idea of ​​leaving the team to investigate on his own.

It would be more suitable for him to conduct the investigation alone.

So after Hattori Heiji voluntarily left the group, Toyama Kazuha also felt it wasn't good to leave him alone, so she also left the group.

Jiang Hang continued to follow Shizuka Sakaki and Yuno Koharu on their tour of Mermaid Island.

Although Shizuka Sakaki and the others felt that this might not be a good idea, they didn't ask any more questions after Jiang Hang said it was fine and that he already had some ideas about the case.

The three of them relaxed and played until evening before returning to the hotel.

After enjoying a fairly delicious seafood feast, and watching Hattori Heiji, who had been busy all day and was now organizing various clues in his room, Jiang Hang felt that it was about time for him to take action as well.

There was no attempt to conceal anything, nor did he greet anyone; he was simply walking on Mermaid Island in ordinary clothes.

There are indeed quite a lot of tourists on Mermaid Island.

Jiang Hang and his group arrived on the island a day early, but by then the hotels on the island were almost all fully booked.

Even at this time of night, there were still quite a few tourists who had just arrived on the island to participate in tomorrow's festival, making it look quite lively.

However, thanks to his eagle eyes, Altaïr constantly circling in the sky, and his own ability to conceal his presence, no one could secretly track or spy on his actions.

Without anyone noticing, Jiang Hang took advantage of the darkness to arrive at the warehouse behind the Mermaid Island Shrine.

Compared to other parts of the island, these warehouses are clearly newly built.

If Jiang Hang is not mistaken, the fire that occurred here three years ago resulted in the death of a middle-aged woman.

However, due to some accidents during the fire, others believed that the remains were actually those of a mermaid, which eventually attracted reports from television stations and news media around the world, making this originally little-known island a popular tourist destination in recent years.

Reflecting on his interactions with several young people and older folks on the island today, Jiang Hang could actually discern some rather obvious differences in their perspectives.

Among the older generation, the reality of mermaids is not really believed; they are more often seen as a marketing tactic used to promote the idea to tourists.

Therefore, when they talk about mermaids, they deliberately exaggerate the legends and stories of people who have seen mermaids somewhere.

It felt as if the story of the mermaid was a lie deliberately fabricated by the elderly people in order to revitalize the island.

Because they are fully aware that they are fabricating stories, they do not genuinely believe in the existence of mermaids; they simply tell the tourists stories.

The young people he met today were different.

Naoko Kuroe, whom I met at the shop, and Toshimi Ebihara, whom I met at the shrine.

Having grown up on the island, they seemed to have more faith in the legend of mermaids than the older generation.

Even Fukuyama Rokuro, who was reluctant to discuss this matter, seemed to believe in the rumors about mermaids.

Didn't the elderly people on the island mention these things to their descendants?