At the same time Shimabukuro Kimie was frozen mid-existential crisis, and the Tengu was busy rolling up little cotton-candy balls of murderous aura...
A hand silently reached out from the river.
The mermaid ghost grabbed the lifebuoy Kimie had casually left by the bank, and stealthily dragged it into the water.
—This had been a prop in Kimie's murder plan, meant for moving Toshimi Ebihara's corpse. It was no longer needed.
The mermaid took advantage of Kimie being distracted, shoved the lifebuoy into the current, and paddled off with it, hard at work destroying the evidence.
The river was narrow in places and easily got clogged. The mermaid let the lifebuoy drift off the waterfall, then dove in after it. She planned to escort it all the way to sea and sink it like a loyal little ghost intern.
After swimming for a while, she realized the inflated lifebuoy was way too bulky and slowing her down. So she bared her fangs, ready to bite it open and deflate it.
But before she could chomp—
A hand reached over and snatched the lifebuoy away.
Jiangxia had arrived. He looked at the stubborn mermaid ghost, sighed deeply, and muttered, "It's a lifebuoy, not a chew toy."
He wiped off the water and fingerprints, re-inflated it slightly for aesthetics, then quietly returned it to the shrine's warehouse.
As he turned to leave, he noticed something.
There was a corpse in the warehouse.
It was Kadowaki Saori, the previously drowned girl. After her body had washed ashore, Shimabukuro Kimie had dragged it here and hidden it. Like a very grim Easter egg.
Jiangxia turned to the mermaid ghost and pointed. "Take her. Swim out, find something heavy, and toss her back into the sea."
The ghost nodded obediently and got to work. You don't get this kind of helpfulness from standard haunted girls.
Having cleaned up the side quest, Jiangxia dismissed his puppet and returned to his main body.
…
Which was still flopped in a hotel room, stiff as a board.
Next to him, his classmates were cheerfully chatting about what they'd seen today.
It was already pitch dark outside.
After dinner, the group headed together to the base of Mermaid Falls to watch the festival ceremony.
There were already tons of tourists there. Locals were bustling around setting up the stage and lighting the ceremonial flame.
Before the ceremony began, Shimabukuro Kimie appeared in front of the sacred fire.
She stared into the flickering flames, looking dazed and out of it. But her nerves weren't bad—at least on the surface, she looked totally composed.
Once the event officially kicked off, Kimie had already recovered. No cracks in the facade.
She held up three sacred arrows and called for the winners of the dugong arrow lottery to come forward.
Naoko Kuroe and a middle-aged uncle climbed over the fence, showed their number plates, and received their arrows.
But the third "lucky winner" never showed up.
Kimie closed her eyes and involuntarily glanced toward the waterfall behind her—where the third "winner" was currently hanging.
She paused for a second, then, sticking to the schedule, called out again. No response.
In the crowd, Suzuki Sonoko sighed with regret. She vaguely remembered Toshimi Ebihara as the girl who'd drawn the third arrow earlier. "Ugh, if I'd known that sister didn't want the dugong arrow, I should've made her sell me her number ticket... Such a waste."
Jiangxia shook his head thoughtfully. "She looked pretty happy when she got it. Doesn't seem like she didn't want it. Something must've come up."
Sonoko sighed again and, with Ran Mouri and Kazuha Toyama, stared enviously at the two winners who had received their sacred arrows. Shiny-eyed FOMO radiated in waves.
Conan and Hattori Heiji were also fixated on the missing third winner—but for less wholesome reasons.
They exchanged a glance, then both looked toward Jiangxia. A bad premonition started to take root.
Hattori Heiji leaned in and whispered, "You think something happened?"
Conan replied in a low, gravelly voice, "Don't jinx it..."
Then they both fell silent. Hard.
Because this exact conversation had already happened earlier—on the boat here.
And right after that, two corpses from the Hatamoto family had turned up.
Both boys went quiet, faces slightly pale. The déjà vu was too strong.
…
Cases where a winner was called but ghosted the Miko were rare—but not unheard of.
They waited a few more minutes. When the sacred fire began to burn low, Shimabukuro Kimie announced they'd skip the third arrow presentation and proceed with the next part: the "Blessing Light" ceremony.
The "Blessing Light" was basically just a ton of fireworks, launched from under the Mermaid Falls. When fired upward, they'd light up the entire cliff face and waterfall in radiant sparks.
Locals began setting off the fireworks.
As the colors burst into the sky, Shimabukuro Kimie chanted the blessings aloud.
But before she could finish, murmurs and gasps started spreading through the crowd, growing louder than her voice.
Jiangxia looked up with the others.
And saw Toshimi Ebihara—who had drawn the third arrow—dangling high above, tied by a thick rope around her neck, suspended in front of the waterfall.
Water splashed around her limp figure, which swayed slightly in the wind.
Her soaked dress clung tightly to her slender legs, making her look eerily like a mermaid raised into the air.
…
Ten minutes later.
Jiangxia and the others were hiking back up the mountain to the spot they'd visited earlier—right above Mermaid Falls.
A fresh corpse meant detective duties, and as a "surface-level" detective, Jiangxia had to show up for appearances.
Hattori Heiji and Conan, of course, came too. Since they didn't know the terrain well, they pulled Kimie along to guide them.
When Shimabukuro Kimie had left the scene earlier, she'd been very careful about erasing her tracks.
She even helped clean up after the suspected "mermaid," just in case. While tidying up, Kimie had hoped she might find a couple of scales as souvenirs—but no luck.
Youkai really were something else. Not only did they commit crimes better than humans, they didn't even shed.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 21/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*
Glossary:
Yokai: Basically monsters of Japanese folklore.