Conan's Beginning was Picked Up by Xiaolan

Mermaid Island souvenir shop.

Kojo and his group got clues from relevant personnel and came to the shop where Kadokyo Saori worked.

"What is a dugong?" Kazuha looked at Heiji beside him in confusion.

"Oh... that's what's commonly known as a mermaid. It's a mammal that lives on the seabed. You can also find them in southern Japan. Since ancient times, dugong meat has been considered an elixir of immortality," Heiji explained.

(Dugong, also known as mermaid, is a herbivorous marine animal of the family Dugong in the order Sirenia. Don’t ask if it can be eaten. In addition to mermaid, it is also called prison beast. It is one of the endangered species in China and a national first-class protected animal.)

"Dugong's Arrow?" Kogoro was asking the shop owner about Monkyo Saori's condition.

"Yes, it is a talisman for immortality. Three dugong arrows are awarded to villagers every year at the annual dugong festival."

"Saori accidentally lost the arrow she got at the festival last year, so she was very scared a week ago, fearing that the mermaid would take revenge on her."

Xiao Cheng listened to what the shop owner said, a week ago? Afraid of revenge from the mermaids? It seems that the people here believe in mermaids.

"There are no mermaids in this world." Kogoro expressed his thoughts, he didn't believe in this thing.

But at this moment, a different voice came into everyone's ears: "There are indeed mermaids in the world."

"It's you, Naoko." The shop owner greeted the visitor.

"Because there are real cases in the world where people have become immortal after eating mermaid flesh." Naoko Kuroe couldn't help but talk about the longevity lady on the island.

"And the dugong arrow made by the hair that the longevity woman grew with her telekinesis can make anyone who gets it realize the dream of immortality. It's natural for her to be afraid of the mermaid's revenge and flee the island after losing such an important arrow."

Xiao Cheng watched Kuroe Naoko leave after she finished speaking. Immortality? Mermaid? Was this speech meant to attract tourists or something?

She listened to the shop owner introduce that Naoko Kuroe was a good friend of Monkyo Saori, and also talked about the longevity lady who was the symbol of the island, the old lady of Shimabukuro, whose actual age was between one hundred and two hundred, but she was not sure exactly.

Then he said that if you want to know more, you can go to the shrine on the island.

This attracted the attention of the people in the small town, who wondered why this place was a very touristy place.

From the staff there just now, I got to the souvenir shop, and now it’s a shrine?

This couldn't be the policy of the island, Xiaocheng thought about it and it seemed impossible. Seeing that neither Heiji nor Conan said anything, he had no idea what was going on in these two minds.

Soon they arrived at the shrine on the island and met the shrine maiden, Shimabukuro Kimie. At the first sight of her, Xiaocheng's eyes lit up. She was beautiful, indeed very beautiful.

"How could my great-grandmother be 130 years old? In fact, my great-grandmother turned this year. You can find out immediately if you check the household registration." Shimabukuro Kimie carried a bundle of coins on her shoulder.

"He just lived a little longer than ordinary people, but he caused such a big commotion." Shimabukuro Kimie said with a helpless tone, and took the bundle of coins that was originally on her shoulder in her hand.

Conan's dead fish eyes appeared. 130 years old can be applied for a record.

"Then may I ask where your great-grandmother is now?" asked Heiji.

"She is in her room praying for the arrows she will send out tonight," replied Shimabukuro Kimie.

"Hey, let me ask you, did your great-grandmother really eat mermaid meat?" Kogoro immediately asked the question he was most curious about.

"Ah?" Shimabukuro Kimie seemed surprised, then she smiled, and her crisp laughter reached everyone's ears: "There is no such animal as mermaid in this world, those are just nonsense made up by others."

"What about the dugong arrow?" Kogoro wondered.

"In fact, the arrow before only represented a forbidden arrow that was cast with a spell to exorcise demons and ward off evil spirits. However, because of the mermaid, the underworld people arbitrarily changed it into a dugong that lives in the sea. This is what my mother told me." Shimabukuro Kimie explained patiently.

Xiaocheng listened, something's not right, how come the topic has gone off topic, shouldn't we be talking about Menxie Saori?

But soon, Shimabukuro Kimie talked about how her parents died at sea five years ago, but from her expression she seemed to have let it go. There was a flash of heartache in He Ye's eyes, and she asked her the reason.

"There's no reason. I also took a boat to the mainland with Saori before, but nothing happened." Shimabukuro Kimie still had a smile on her face.

A flash of light appeared in Kogoro, Heiji and Conan's eyes. She and Saori had been on a boat before, and they hurriedly asked when it was.

Xiao Cheng listened to Shimabukuro Kimie's answer, six days ago? Because there was no dentist on the island, he had to go off the island to see a dentist because of the toothache, and Monkyo Saori was afraid of revenge by the mermaid, so she asked Shimabukuro Kimie to accompany her.

"You are so stupid. You say that because you don't believe in your great-grandmother's power at all." A voice interrupted Shimabukuro Kimie.

"Sume." Shimabukuro Kimie turned her head and looked towards the voice.

"She really has magical powers, and she has indeed eaten mermaid flesh before. You also know that a mermaid's corpse appeared three years ago, right?" Ebihara Sumi said with certainty.

Three years ago? The body of a mermaid? Xiao Cheng's eyes flickered. Based on his experience, he immediately suspected that it was a cyborg.

He didn't know whether there were such creatures as mermaids in the world, but based on his perception, mermaids really existed.

Just rely on modified humans. After all, the scientists in this world are crazy, and there is nothing they dare not try.

But he remembered that he didn't succeed. It was not difficult for those people to transform a mermaid.

The difficulty lies in how to make this modified mermaid live on the seabed and fully adapt to the ocean. The respiratory system is the first problem, followed by the stomach, skin, the pressure of the sea that squeezes the organs in the body, and so on.

Later in the research and development, they found that if these were broken, then humans could live underwater, so this was abandoned because it was basically impossible to achieve.

Initially, this mermaid transformation was intended to gain the initiative in the sea.

The world's three major territories are territory, territorial waters and airspace. There are always things going on in secret and beyond ordinary people's cognition in this world.

Meanwhile, the old man at the scene, Sumihara, was still talking nonsense, when a man appeared behind him.

"Sume, stop talking."

"Rokuro?" Sumi Ebihara looked at Rokuro Fukuyama who was resting his hand on her shoulder.

"There are many things that are not convenient to say in front of outsiders. If you are here to find Saori, you should go to Saori's house to find out the situation." Fukuyama Rokuro looked across at him with a vigilant look in his eyes.