Shimabukuro Kimie crept closer to the reef crack, suspicious. When she saw what was wedged inside, her eyes widened in shock—it was a woman.
The woman wore a blue dress and had short brown hair… no matter how you looked at it, she was clearly Kadowaki Saori—the very person Kimie had planned to kill today.
This was a plot twist Kimie had absolutely not accounted for.
She stared blankly at the corpse for a moment, stunned. Then, regaining her senses, she glanced around cautiously.
No one was nearby.
Kimie gritted her teeth, rolled up her sleeves, and quietly dragged the corpse away to hide it—after all, this body had been a critical part of her murder scheme.
Now that Saori had mysteriously dropped dead on her own… well, whatever. For the sake of the plan, Kimie decided to press on as if everything was normal.
…
Jiangxia Tongzhi woke up and was immediately briefed on the incident by the ghost who'd let him out.
He thought it over and shrugged it off.
Sure, hiding a corpse wasn't exactly legal, but the mermaid had told him the pier was under surveillance to prevent boats from disappearing. Yesterday, the cameras had clearly captured Kadowaki Saori stealing a boat and heading out to sea.
And no matter how hard you investigated, her death still counted as an "accident." It'd be tough to throw that pot of murder onto Shimabukuro Kimie. So for now, the body could stay with her a couple more days.
…
To lure out the new ghost, there were still two targets to go. After all, three people had been involved in burning the mermaid.
After waking up, Jiangxia tagged along with a few classmates to wander the island. As he strolled, he kept tabs on his own level of murderous aura.
Because they'd run into Shimabukuro Kimie and Kadowaki Saori on the boat earlier, the group had become very curious about the local mermaid legend. They asked around, gathering all kinds of info.
A local specialty shop saw the opportunity and enthusiastically recommended they visit the shrine.
The group followed the suggestion and arrived at the shrine, where they were greeted by a vision: Shimabukuro Kimie in full shrine maiden mode.
She wore a red and white miko outfit, held a ceremonial coin in her hand, and had her black hair tied back in a neat ponytail. She paced in the courtyard, looking appropriately ethereal.
When a group of guests arrived, she turned—and her eyes landed on Jiangxia. Instantly, she thought of the corpse she'd hidden earlier and felt a twinge of guilt.
Fortunately, she was a seasoned actress. Her expression stayed flawless, revealing nothing suspicious.
Kimie warmly welcomed them in, introduced them to the shrine, and patiently answered the three girls' enthusiastic questions about "eternal youth."
Just as they were about to leave, something clicked in Kimie's memory.
She smiled brightly at the girls. "If you're so curious about the dugong arrows, want to try getting one yourself?"
Suzuki Sonoko lit up. "Are you selling them to us?!"
Kimie chuckled and shook her head. "Oh no, even if I don't personally believe in them, the rules are rules. Dugong arrows can't be sold. I said 'try' on purpose…"
She pulled out three numbered cards. "This is what I meant—these are lottery tickets for the festival. The Mermaid Festival is actually a big raffle. We release 180 numbered tickets in advance. During the festival, we'll announce the winning numbers. Whoever holds one of those numbers wins a dugong arrow."
Each ticket only cost 5 yen—not even enough to cover printing.
It seemed, just as Kimie said, selling the tickets wasn't for profit, but more about forming a "fated" connection between visitors and the mermaid.
This explanation made the previously skeptical girls warm up to the whole mermaid thing even more.
They left the shrine with numbered tickets in hand, visibly excited.
Kimie watched the high schoolers walk away, feeling conflicted.
To execute her murder plan, she needed people who were enthusiastic—but not too familiar with Kadowaki Saori—to accompany her.
These out-of-towners were perfect.
...But some of them were detectives.
Should she really involve this group?
…
That night, the Mermaid Festival began.
A costumed "life-like" appeared at the shrine—it was actually Shimabukuro Kimie in disguise.
She hunched in front of the door, waving a long wooden staff with a burning tip, setting the paper door alight.
As the treated door burned, three numbers appeared, glowing with fire: "3," "107," "16."
Toyama Kazuha, Suzuki Sonoko, and Mouri Ran were already at the shrine.
The three of them looked at the flaming numbers, checked their tickets, and sighed in unison. "We didn't win."
Jiangxia blinked.
In the original timeline, Toyama Kazuha had drawn the winning ticket.
But this world had already diverged in a number of ways. He couldn't tell whether it was the butterfly effect… or if the world had its own sense of humor.
Since the group had arrived early, they were standing right up front.
Shimabukuro Kimie, still in disguise as "Immortal" heard their disappointed chatter. She peeked at them from behind her mask and felt another wave of guilt.
After giving out the tickets yesterday, she'd stayed up all night reading Jiangxia's collection of crime-solving case files. In the end, she chickened out and decided not to involve the high school students in her scheme.
So when she painted the numbers on the door, she deliberately avoided their ticket numbers and just picked a random one.
There were three dugong arrows total. Besides the random one, the other two were prearranged—Kimie had already picked them for her "friends" Toshimi Ebihara and Naoko Kuroe.
Like Kadowaki Saori, these two were her former childhood friends… and also the people who had helped torch the warehouse and kill her mother three years ago.
Toshimi Ebihara, oblivious to the complicated gaze from the "immortal," looked at the winning numbers and covered her mouth with delight. "I won!"
The people nearby looked on with envy.
After the numbers were announced, "immortal" used the distraction to duck back into the room.
She shed the disguise and returned as regular Shimabukuro Kimie, still in her shrine maiden outfit.
She reappeared at the door and addressed the crowd once more.
Her gaze swept the attendees but didn't linger on her two former "friends."
Once things settled down, she spoke solemnly: "The dugong arrows will be awarded in one hour. Please make your way to Mermaid Falls."
This was a traditional part of the ceremony—at the open terrain beneath Mermaid Falls, the arrows would be awarded, and the crowd would light "blessing lanterns" into the sky.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 17/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*