Hoshimiya Yuu believed that even if Ran hadn't asked for directions, Asai Narumi, who happened to be leaving the clinic, would have proactively come over to greet them.
She would then intentionally bring up Tokyo and her birthplace, and finally, regardless of the other party's interest, forcefully educate them about the village chief election.
Hoshimiya Yuu looked at Asai Narumi with interest for a moment, then intentionally said, "Dr. Asai seems a bit disappointed. Did you fail to find the person you were looking for?"
"Ah… no, no."
Asai Narumi suddenly snapped back to attention, realizing the handsome man with black hair and red eyes was staring at her with a knowing smile.
"Then what is Dr. Asai disappointed about?"
"No, I am not disappointed. Mr. Hoshimiya must be mistaken."
Asai Narumi put on her previous innocent smile and said warmly, "The two of you should hurry and find a hotel. If you go late, there might not be any rooms left."
Hoshimiya Yuu persisted, stepping closer and staring at her beautiful face. "Dr. Asai, are you urging us to leave because you feel guilty?"
Looking at Hoshimiya Yuu's red eyes, which held a mysterious meaning, she trembled delicately and instinctively looked away.
Being stared at by Hoshimiya Yuu, she felt as if her thoughts had been completely seen through.
Just as Asai Narumi felt flustered and didn't know how to respond, Ran's voice chimed in.
"Hoshimiya Nii-san, don't tease Dr. Asai."
Ran had a very favorable impression of the warm and gentle older sister, Asai Narumi.
"Ran, I'm not teasing her. On the contrary, I'm helping her."
After confirming that Asai Narumi was female, Hoshimiya Yuu was determined to save her.
In front of the two women, he directly pulled out the request letter and said, "Dr. Asai, this letter must have been sent by you to Mouri Oji-san, right?"
Asai Narumi stared at the letter for a moment, then shifted her gaze back to Hoshimiya Yuu.
"It really is you. But why isn't Detective Mouri here?"
Asai Narumi didn't answer directly, but the answer was now obvious.
Ran covered her mouth, looking astonished.
She hadn't expected the person they randomly encountered on the road to be the hidden client behind the commission.
She was even more shocked that Hoshimiya Yuu had figured out the truth so quickly.
"Mouri Oji-san has already gone back."
Hoshimiya Yuu waved the letter in his hand, raised his chin, and gestured toward the clinic. "Now I've taken over this commission. Aren't you going to invite us in to talk?"
Without hesitating for too long, Asai Narumi led Hoshimiya Yuu and Ran into the clinic, then locked the door and hung an "Out of Office" sign.
After ensuring no one would disturb them, she slowly asked, "How did you find out?"
Because I knew from the start.
Hoshimiya Yuu naturally couldn't answer that.
"That's not important. What's important is that I know what you plan to do next."
Changing his previous mild demeanor, Hoshimiya Yuu said solemnly, "I know you want revenge, but that will ruin your life too."
"Wouldn't it be fine as long as the police don't find out?"
No longer pretending after being exposed, Asai Narumi spoke easily. "Just like how those four people killed my entire family back then."
Ran was completely bewildered, listening to Hoshimiya Yuu and Asai Narumi speak in riddles.
It wasn't until the words 'killed my entire family' came out that she belatedly realized Asai Narumi was the one who requested the investigation into the true cause of the Asou family's death.
And by the looks of it, her connection was quite deep.
"Dr. Asai…"
Ran wanted to persuade Asai Narumi to give up on revenge, but she didn't know how to start.
Asai Narumi sensed Ran's sincere emotion and smiled gently. "Do the two of you have time to listen to a story from twelve years ago?"
Although she asked, she started narrating without waiting for Hoshimiya Yuu and Ran to respond.
"Twelve years ago, I was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Tokyo…"
The story Asai Narumi told was nearly identical to what Hoshimiya Yuu remembered, with the only difference being that Asai Narumi was indeed female.
Keiji Asou had two daughters, but driven by the desire for a son to inherit the family business, and the serious gender bias on the small island—where a family without a boy was often looked down upon—the Asou couple always claimed their first child was a boy.
The original plan was to have another boy and then swap the identities of the two children.
But unexpectedly, the second child was also a daughter.
So, Asai Narumi lived under the identity of a boy.
Since the difference between boys and girls is negligible in childhood, and the Asou couple deliberately cut Asai Narumi's hair short and dressed her like a boy, others didn't notice.
The plan was for the entire family to move to Tokyo once the two children were older, especially after Asai Narumi's health improved.
At that time, Asai Narumi could resume her female identity.
The Asou couple had even picked out a new name for Asai Narumi: Narumi Asou.
However, they were tragically murdered by the four men shortly after returning from abroad, simply because they refused to continue their involvement in drug trafficking.
Only Asai Narumi, who was in poor health and hospitalized long-term, survived.
In fact, her fabricated gender was partly why she survived.
She couldn't use a false gender while receiving treatment at the hospital; in the hospital records, she was always listed as a girl.
After murdering the Asou family—the three on the island—the four perpetrators naturally didn't forget the last remaining child, Narumi Asou.
But they sent people to search various hospitals in Tokyo and couldn't find her.
They were looking for a boy, but since Asai Narumi was actually a girl, she escaped the massacre.
The rest of the story was exactly as Hoshimiya Yuu remembered.
She was adopted by an elderly couple named Asai. After her adoptive parents died, she returned to the island under the identity of a female doctor to investigate the true cause of her parents' and sister's deaths.
She had been on Tsukikage Island for over a year. Not long ago, unable to contain herself, she revealed her identity to the former village chief.
Seeing that Asai Narumi looked almost identical to her mother, the former village chief couldn't deny the truth and was so frightened that he suffered a heart attack.
After muttering the truth from twelve years ago to himself, he died from cardiac arrest.
Knowing the truth, Asai Narumi wanted revenge. She planned to kill the other three perpetrators, but she also wanted to clarify the truth of the twelve-year-old case, which is why she anonymously commissioned Kogoro Mouri to investigate Tsukikage Island.
Asai Narumi's original plan was that her murder methods wouldn't be seen through, and Kogoro Mouri would find clues from the three murdered individuals, allowing him to investigate and clarify the case from twelve years ago.
This way, she would not only complete her revenge but also clear the Asou family's name from the injustice of twelve years ago.
Hoshimiya Yuu could only say that she was beautiful, and her ideas were equally beautiful.
The case from twelve years ago was arguably harder to investigate than the newly committed murder.
Furthermore, while the four men were the direct perpetrators of the Asou family's tragedy, the other older residents of Tsukikage Island were also partially responsible.
The drug trafficking profits of the former village chief and his three associates didn't only benefit them, but that entire generation on the island.
How could such a suspicious fire not have raised suspicion? Everyone simply chose to ignore it.
Because Keiji Asou's choice threatened everyone's interests, apart from the four main perpetrators, others were also afraid he would leak the secret.
Even after Keiji Asou's death, though the four men subsequently stopped out of fear, some on the island were still conducting drug deals in secret.
And what they used to hide the drugs was Keiji Asou's only remaining heirloom: the piano.