"What? You didn't see the village chief, but instead went to see that fisherman representative, Shimizu Masato?"

Later that day, when the three groups met again outside the village office, Kogoro Mori heard about Yoruichi Toyama's unexpected itinerary.

Therefore, they openly expressed their contempt for the young colleague's work ability.

"I'd say you're just lucky, kid, you've struck gold with that rich kid from the Metropolitan Police Department..."

Yoruichi Toyama knew that he was particularly dissatisfied with his status as a "special advisor," but she just smiled.

"What did Mr. Mori and Mr. Amuro find out?"

"Just like I heard before, nothing special." Amuro Tooru and Conan exchanged a glance, then nodded and said.

"That Mr. Nishimoto reeked of alcohol and seemed rather sober. When we mentioned the name Keiji Aso, he became very agitated, shouting that it was a curse..."

"However, under our persistent questioning, he admitted that he, Keiji Aso, the current village chief Kuroiwa, and the wealthy Kawashima were all childhood friends."

When Yoichi Toyama saw Conan's slightly twitching lips, he knew what kind of questioning this was. This damn spy was taking advantage of the fact that the other party was a penniless wretch and a drunkard, so that he couldn't settle accounts with him afterward. He was probably going to use some kind of coercion and bribery.

"Since they're friends, how could he call it a curse?"

Although she knew the truth, Yoruichi Toyama made the suggestion without any evidence.

Thinking about it this way, Mingmei's suggestion to split into three groups might not be a bad way to quickly search for evidence.

Amuro Tooru and Conan exchanged another glance, and this time Conan spoke up: "That Mr. Nishimoto kept repeating that it's a curse on the piano..."

He also said that the former village chief, Kameyama Isamu, who died two years ago, also died on a piano.

"piano?"

"It's the piano that Keiji Aso played in the fire. It's now in the village activity center, but since the former village chief was found dead on the piano, no one has dared to touch it."

These are the clues that Amuro Tooru obtained; they are not entirely useless, but they are quite limited.

Kogoro Mouri's visit to the wealthy Kawashima was even less noteworthy.

“Mr. Kawashima is a very magnanimous person,” he said at the end, “and he didn’t look guilty at all when he mentioned Keiji Aso.”

"By the way, he also mentioned Keiji Aso's son, Narumi, who was hospitalized when the tragedy occurred, but when he went to look for him later, he found that he had been taken away and raised by relatives."

Kawashima...? ...

Yoruichi Toyama suddenly realized that Asai Narumi's true identity should already be known to these people.

At the very least, Black Rock, the village chief, and the candidate for the next village chief, both of whom wield considerable power on the island, have probably heard about it from the police who came to investigate.

Kawashima's current stance could be because he genuinely has nothing to hide from the Aso family, or it could be a deliberate act for show.

The behavior of the Black Rock Village Chief is even more likely to arouse suspicion.

"Hey, you second-rate detective brat!" Yoruichi Toyama thought to herself when Kogoro asked, "The one who said he sent us the letter of request, is that Asano Minoru?"

"He disguised himself as a man and stayed on the island for two years, but he still couldn't find out the cause of his family's deaths, so he asked us to investigate."

"I'm starting to suspect that Chief Heiyan is hiding something, otherwise why wouldn't he dare to see you?"

Yoruichi Toyama thought that Kogoro's intelligence was actually quite good when he wasn't drinking.

But out of caution, he shrugged.

"The police can't find Asagi Seishi right now, so they can't investigate the letter of authorization for the time being."

"As for Village Chief Blackrock..."

According to Shimizu Masato, one of the village chief candidates, Kuroiwa was not elected as village chief through a public election.

He was appointed as acting village chief two years ago after the unexpected death of the former village chief, Kameyama.

The Black Rock, Kameyama, and Kawashima families wield considerable power on the island and have always maintained a close relationship. Black Rock's acting village chief position was secured by these families working together.

For some reason, the relationship between the Kuroiwa and Kawashima families deteriorated rapidly within just two years.

As a result, Hideo Kawashima openly declared that he would run for village chief and oust Kuroiwa from office.

“These days, fishermen have been protesting at the door of the village chief of Heiyan Village every day, exposing his collusion with developers and his betrayal of the fishermen’s interests,” said Shimizu Masato.

"Is what they said true?" Yoruichi Toyama pressed.

"That's true, but no one has ever dared to mention it before. At this critical juncture, someone is organizing a protest. I always feel..."

He gave an awkward laugh halfway through his sentence.

"It seems too presumptuous to say that, after all, the public opinion surrounding Black Rock is also in my favor."

"However, it was definitely not something I organized in secret, or rather, the matter was exposed before I even had a chance to do so."

These words seemed like an attempt to distance herself, after all, Yoruichi Toyama had just experienced the incident with diplomat Tsujimura, and naturally distrusted those involved in politics.

But I still asked another question.

"So, what was the cause of death of Village Chief Guishan two years ago?"

"I heard it was a sudden heart failure," Shimizu Masato replied, then chuckled when he saw the flicker in Toyama Yoruichi's eyes.

“I know, you’ve all heard about that ‘curse’…”

"...What, did he also say it was a 'curse'?" Amuro Tooru couldn't help but ask when Yoruichi Toyama relayed this.

Yuanshan Yeyi gave a helpless smile.

"What curse? Later, the Kameyama family sent the former village chief to a major hospital in Tokyo for an autopsy, which confirmed that he died of sudden cardiac arrest. They only buried him after ruling out homicide."

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