The others failed to notice the glint of cold light in the distant woods. They continued onward, searching for the two missing people whose whereabouts were unknown.
A few minutes later, Yoshida Ayumi spotted something and jogged over to a patch of grass. "Why is there a potato chip here?"
"Hm? Let me see." Conan immediately ran over. Looking down, he saw that there was indeed a potato chip on the ground. It was still quite crisp, clearly having been taken from a sealed package not long ago.
"Isn't this the brand we bought just yesterday?" Conan sniffed it and immediately understood. "Jiang Xia and Haibara aren't the type to crave snacks... at least, not enough to forget what they're supposed to be doing. They came into the Hunting Zone to look for people. They wouldn't have the leisure to open a bag of chips."
Professor Agasa froze, then understood. "You mean this chip wasn't dropped by accident, but deliberately left here?"
"That's very possible." Conan lowered his voice. "Maybe Jiang Xia guessed that someone would come looking for them, so he deliberately left behind something that couldn't naturally appear in the woods, to show us the route they took."
Professor Agasa's eyes lit up. "Then if we just follow the trail of markers and hurry along, won't we catch up to them?"
Conan thought it over, then hesitantly shook his head. "Jiang Xia definitely knows plenty of tricks for finding his way in the woods. He wouldn't get lost like Ran and the others—if they really wanted to meet up with us, wouldn't it be better to just head out a little, or even stay put and wait for us to catch up, rather than scatter potato chips?"
"That's true." Professor Agasa grew puzzled. "Then why did Jiang Xia