Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

After cleaning up the scene, Chu Ming thought for a moment and then asked someone from the organization to come by boat so that he could quietly take Shimabukuro Kimie away.

After the memorial service ended, the screams, though late, finally arrived.

Ran and Kazuha clasped hands tightly, staring at Naoko Kuroe, who was hanging from a fishing net on the beach: "She...she has fish scales!! Could she really...really have become a mermaid...?"

Hattori took Kazuha's other hand, his face serious: "Kazuha, remember, never leave my side."

Kazuha was being held by Ran with one arm and led by Hattori with the other. Her face flushed bright red, and she looked very embarrassed.

Chu Ming snapped a picture of the two holding hands and gazing deeply into each other's eyes, and sent it to Xiao Lan, who was standing next to him, looking on with excitement.

He realized that Sonoko was the leader of the Shinichi/Ran pairing, while Ran was the leader of the Heiji/Kazane pairing...

Seeing Conan looking at Hattori and Kazuha with some envy, Chu Ming couldn't help but tease him, transforming into Ran's voice and whispering in Conan's ear: "Conan, remember, never leave my side."

Conan turned around, touched, only to find Chu Ming grinning mischievously behind him. He couldn't help but grit his teeth and say, "Brother Chu Ming, you're so boring!"

Chu Ming shrugged: "Miss Shimabukuro just said she's going to look for the list of people who attended the Dugong Festival before. Do you want to go take a look together?"

Chu Ming begins to help Shimabukuro Kimie with the storyline.

"Great, let's see if we can find any clues."

In the study, Shimabukuro Kimie searched every corner but couldn't find the new sign-in book. Chu Ming, on the other hand, looked through the sign-in records of dignitaries from previous years.

"Kishida Yukijiro, Nakatani Komasu, Oyama Itsuki, Furuya Masaaki... Tsk tsk, they're all big shots. Foreign Minister, Home Minister, Bank of Japan Governor, so many people have been here."

While sighing, Chu Ming secretly took a picture of the list using the system camera. This must be part of the organization's network of relationships, right?

It feels like the whole of Japan is about to be taken over by the organization.

Chapter 265 Being a Scoundrel

Hearing what Chu Ming said, Hattori leaned over and looked at the roster as well.

Chu Ming handed him the roster, then leaned over to Conan and used the system to take a picture of the page in his hand. Putting everything else aside, Vodka's handwriting was actually quite cute.

Just now, Shimabukuro Kimie couldn't find the roster in the room and said she would go to the warehouse to look for it. After the three of them finished looking through the two books they had, they waited in the room for Shimabukuro Kimie to bring the latest roster. Unfortunately, instead of seeing her, they were greeted by Ran and Kazuha's screams once again.

"Ran-neechan, what's wrong?" Conan ran out the door as soon as he heard the sound, and asked anxiously when he saw Ran standing at the door with Kazuha clinging to her.

Hattori quickly ran to Kazuha's side.

"Heiji, just now, just now there was a brown-haired woman wearing glasses hiding behind a tree and watching us!!!" Kazuha saw Hattori arrive, quickly grabbed his hand, and hurriedly pointed behind the tree.

"Wearing glasses? Could it be Ms. Saori? Did you see Ms. Shimabukuro return?"

Ran pointed behind the shrine: "No, Shimabukuro-san said she was going to look for something in that newly built warehouse in the back, right there—wait, why is it so bright there all of a sudden?"

The group quickly ran over there, and after passing the shrine, they saw the warehouse engulfed in flames, with fire shooting into the sky.

"Quickly call the people on the island to put out the fire!!!" Hattori and Conan took the lead and ran over there, while Ran and Kazuha also hurriedly went to call for help.

However, the fire was too intense to be extinguished by water cannons. The fire burned all night until the entire warehouse was completely burned to ashes. Finally, the police found a charred body in the warehouse.

"I asked around. Although the body was burned, it's still possible to tell that the victim was wearing glasses and blue clothes. It should be Ms. Saori..."

After Hattori went to the scene to inquire, he returned and discussed it with Conan and Chu Ming.

Chu Ming frowned: "But where did Miss Shimabukuro go? Didn't she say she went to the warehouse? How come Miss Saori's body suddenly appeared there?"

Conan looked at the two of them: "I suddenly have a bad feeling. Ms. Shimabukuro mentioned that she had her teeth fixed before, right..."

Hattori immediately understood what he meant: "You wouldn't be thinking of saying..."

Chu Ming immediately stood up and went to find Kogoro Mouri. It was better for Kogoro Mouri to ask about this kind of information; the police would give him some face.

"Okay, thank you for calling to inform me." Kogoro Mouri put down the receiver, his expression grave. "The police investigation has revealed that the teeth of the charred corpse in the warehouse match the teeth left by Ms. Shimabukuro at the dentist."

"...How could this be, how could this happen..." Xiaolan's eyes were a little red.

"Should we inform Grandma Changshou about this news... after all, she's his granddaughter..." He Ye pouted, her voice trembling with a hint of tears.

The group nodded, but after searching the entire shrine, they couldn't find the old woman.

"Damn it, where could an elderly person with mobility issues go? Quickly notify the police and keep searching! Also, ask the islanders if they've seen any trace of the old man."

Hattori was a little anxious. After all, he was over a hundred years old and had difficulty walking. The shrine was also located by the sea. What if something went wrong?

*********************

"Have you seen the Longevity Granny? — Sigh, to be honest, Junhui is gone, so there's no way there's any Longevity Granny left..."

Upon hearing the three people's questions, one of the islanders stopped what he was doing, his face filled with the weariness of time.

"What do you mean?" Conan quickly asked.

“Actually, we older islanders all know that there is no such thing as the Longevity Granny. It’s all played by Junhui’s mother and Junhui. When the warehouse burned down three years ago, we all assumed that the Longevity Granny would never appear again, and we all decided to never hold the Dugong Festival again. But the next day, we saw Junhui dressed up as the Longevity Granny at the entrance of the shrine, so we were naturally willing to cooperate with her.”

The islander let out a long sigh.

Conan was dumbfounded: "So the Old Woman of Longevity and Miss Junhui are the same person? The skeleton from three years ago was actually the skeleton of Miss Junhui's mother?"

They asked a few more people, and indeed, most of the older islanders knew about it. The island made money by attracting tourists through the dugong festival, so why wouldn't they object if Shimabukuro Kimie was willing to continue playing the role of the longevity granny?

"When we first arrived on the island, we met Ms. Kotobuki, Naoko, and even Ms. Saori, who had previously disappeared. The three of them had one thing in common: they firmly believed in the existence of mermaids, and even thought that mermaid remains had magic that could grant immortality. In particular, Ms. Kotobuki was still searching for the mermaid's tomb..."

After a pause, Conan continued, "Now that we know the Mermaid's Grave is the grave of Miss Kimie's mother, is it possible... that Miss Kimie is the real culprit behind all of this?"

Hattori retorted without hesitation: "But we have already confirmed that the tooth marks on the charred corpse match the tooth marks Miss Kimie had when she went to the dentist."

"Hattori, think about it. Miss Kimie also said that Saori accompanied her to the dentist. What if it wasn't Miss Kimie who actually went to the dentist?"

"You mean..." Hattori understood what Conan was trying to say, but he was reluctant to believe it. "If it's really as you guessed, then where is Shimabukuro-san now? Shouldn't she appear as the Longevity Granny? After all, she doesn't know that others already know the truth. If it's really as you say, the Longevity Granny shouldn't have disappeared."

"This is also a problem I'm considering now."

Seeing that the two couldn't reach a conclusion, Chu Ming took out his phone: "Guessing is just guessing. We'll find out by verifying it. As long as we can confirm who saw the dentist that day, we can call the dental clinic to ask."

Chu Ming dialed the dental clinic directly and asked which of the two girls who went to the dentist a month ago had actually had their teeth checked.

The dentist on the other end of the phone confirmed that it was the long-haired, gentle-looking young woman.

After hanging up the phone, Conan fell into deep thought again. So, the body in the warehouse must be Shimabukuro Kimie's...

Chu Ming looked at Conan's pensive profile and silently put away his phone. All the evidence and clues related to him had been arranged. Shimabukuro Kimie had also been taken off the island last night and given a new identity.

Xiaolan suddenly ran out of the shrine, saying that she had just received a strange phone call at the shrine, saying that the dugong arrow she bought for 100 million yen was very useful and that her son's surgery was out of danger. The person who sold her the arrow had a stubble beard and was quite tall.

Hattori immediately identified the culprit. He believed that the murderer must be the drunkard, Mr. Monkyo, who was also Saori's father. The arrow he sold must be the dugong arrow that Saori lost. Perhaps it was because of this that he tasted the benefits and then killed the other two recipients in order to sell the arrow.

Conan, however, felt that since the culprit wasn't Shimabukuro Kimie, it was very likely Saori, who had written to Hattori before. Neither of them could convince the other.

In the end, the two decided to split up. Conan continued to look for evidence of Saori's murder, while Hattori, along with Kazuha, went with the police to the mountains to search for Mr. Kazuha's whereabouts.

Seeing that the two had decided on their target in the blink of an eye, Chu Ming was taken aback: "So, I'll just continue being a slacker?"

Chapter 266 Tetanus

In the end, he didn't even get to be a scoundrel. Hattori grabbed Chu Ming by the neck and dragged him over to go with him to find Mr. Menxie.

"Kudo—ahahaha, Uncle Mori, Ran, and that brat Conan are a trio, while Kazuha and I are just the two of us. With Chu Ming, we're a trio too! So Chu Ming, don't even think about being a slacker!"

Chu Ming also grabbed Hattori's neck and said, "Are you stupid? Wouldn't it be better if the two of you had some alone time? Why drag me into this?"

Hattori loosened his grip slightly: "Uh, why don't you go to sleep—"

Chu Ming grinned at him and said, "No! I want to stay by your side and be a third wheel."

"..." Hattori felt like he had shot himself in the foot.

Hattori let go of her hand, his face dark as he offered a lame excuse, and grabbed Kazuha's wrist as he walked away: "Kazuha, let's go first, and let Chu Ming follow behind. That way, if I miss any clues, Chu Ming will still be able to find them."

It was rare for Hattori to suddenly understand, so Chu Ming didn't force himself to stay by their side, but simply followed at a distance.

As a result, Hattori walked too fast and tripped over a stone. He stumbled and was about to fall off the cliff. He decisively let go of Kazuha's hand, not wanting her to be in danger as well. However, Kazuha was just as quick-witted and grabbed Hattori's hands, throwing him up with her other hand. The two instantly switched places.

Hattori staggered to his feet, his eyes wide with fury as he watched Kazuha fall backward. He rushed forward a few steps, jumped down, and grabbed Kazuha's hand firmly. His other hand clung to a tree on the edge of the cliff, and the two of them teetered on the brink of collapse.

"Brother Chu Ming!!!! Help me!!!!" Hattori shouted desperately towards the cliff.

Soon, Chu Ming poked his head out, tried it out, and then, clinging to the cliff edge, grabbed Hattori's wrist.

"No, Brother Chu Ming, you have nothing to hold onto like this. When this tree stump breaks, you'll be pulled down by the weight of both of us!" Hattori looked up and saw Chu Ming's posture, and shouted anxiously.

Kazuha was also getting anxious. The tree Hattori was holding onto was about to break, and she said in a tearful voice, "Heiji, let go of my hand. If you're all alone, Chu Ming can pull you up."

Hattori ignored Kazuha's self-deprecating words and instead scanned the ground to see if there was anywhere to step on, thus relieving Chu Ming's pressure.

Seeing that Hattori wouldn't let go, Kazuha took out the dugong arrow that he had been hiding, intending to stab Hattori's hand. He thought that the intense pain would make Hattori loosen his grip, and once he fell, he would be saved.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and Kazuha bit her lower lip, saying, "I'm sorry, Heiji, bye-bye—"

Just as she raised her hand to stab Hattori, Chu Ming spoke up at the right moment: "That arrow is rusty. If you just stab him like that, Hattori will get tetanus."

The raised hand froze in mid-air, and Kazuha looked completely bewildered: "But...but..."

Chu Ming chuckled lightly: "Don't underestimate me. Ready to take off?"

After saying that, he used his wrists and waist to pull the two people up from the bottom of the cliff without any leverage.

Hattori and Kazuha felt themselves being lifted into the air, and in the blink of an eye, they were lying on the grass on the cliff.

Hattori, panting, said, "Idiot, never give up!!"

Kazuha blinked, holding back the tears that were about to fall: "It's all your fault! You're so careless when you walk, leading me off the cliff even though there were signs! If it weren't for Chu Ming, you idiot, you would have been done for!!"

Because both Kazuha and Hattori were scratched by tree branches when they fell, Chu Ming disregarded Hattori's objections and protests, forcibly ended the mountain search, and took both of them back to get medicine.