Once they had a lead, Conan and Hattori Heiji immediately sprang into action. Sure enough, they quickly got results. They found an elderly resident of the island, then pretended they already knew the truth and bluffed them. Sure enough, the old man soon revealed what had really happened.
But the truth still stunned Conan and Heiji—throughout the island, aside from the younger generation, everyone with a few years on them knew that the Longevity Woman was being impersonated by Shimabukuro Kimi's family. They also knew that the one who had died in the warehouse fire three years ago was not some mermaid, but Shimabukuro Kimi's mother.
In fact, the islanders had wanted to find Shimabukuro Kimi back then and tell her she did not need to keep going. But...
"Seeing Megumi appear before us again as the Longevity Woman, we simply couldn't bring ourselves to say it..."
Hearing the villager's answer, Hattori Heiji and Conan fell silent, utterly at a loss for words. Now that they knew the truth, they felt it was all an absurd farce. Shimabukuro Kimi had worked desperately to play the Longevity Woman and sustain everyone's lives on the island, while the islanders, unwilling to destroy her efforts and worried about their own livelihoods, had tacitly gone along with it. It was like a silent play where both sides knew the truth, yet each believed the other did not.
At this point, they had almost figured everything out!
After confirming the information with the villager, Hattori Heiji excitedly took Conan back to the inn.
"Hey, listen to me!"
However, just as the two ran up the stairs, Ran suddenly let out a soft moan from a guest room nearby.
"Ah... mm... I can't take any more..."
"...?"
Hearing that, Hattori Heiji and Conan both froze. Before