Elsewhere, Haibara Ai watched the fleeing rabbit from afar and sighed softly. "Just as I thought, that person planned to wait until we showed ourselves, then pretend to mistake us for prey and shoot us."
She looked again at the small figure among the crowd. "Even if we take a wide path and call out in advance where there's no cover, making everyone realize we're human... that murderous hunter could still grab Yoshida nearby, take her hostage, and kill everyone else with her as leverage—after all, in such a vast forest, hiding one person is no different from hiding ten."
Jiang Xia looked down at her and tilted his head. "..." Did the murderer's preference for taking Ayumi hostage count as common knowledge among all of you?
Thinking of the blood-soaked scene the Mini Scientist had imagined, Jiang Xia patted her head. "They aren't using Organization guns. These Hunting Rifles can't fire continuously; after every shot, they have to manually eject the casing and reload. Even the fastest hunter would need another two or three seconds to fire a second shot. That's enough time for Ran or Conan to do something."
But Haibara Ai could not relax. "But that also means he can at least fire one shot and kill one person. We need to find a way to prevent that tragedy. Besides..."
She turned around and looked behind them. At some point, a little bear had appeared there, peeking around nervously. "Why do you think this bear has been following us?"
"Maybe it wants to come home with me." Jiang Xia suddenly reached out, grabbed the Black Bear cub that had tried to duck back too late, and lifted it into his arms for a couple of rubs. "It's pretty cute. It'll be very capable in a fight when