All Alone

Then, two days passed after Kururu disappeared.

The search for Kururu lasted half a day, but just as Menou had expected, they couldn't find Kururu. Kururu was treated as the prime suspect in the storeroom break-in.

That was because, when Kururu disappeared, Menou and the others claimed they had no idea why and insisted they had nothing to do with it.

They said Kururu had acted on their own and that they hadn't helped ransack the storeroom. As a result, Kururu was presumed to have gone into hiding to make off with the stolen food.

The search for Kururu was still underway. Since the only way out of Noa was through the lift, Kururu was believed to be hiding somewhere inside.

“Kururu-san... I wonder if Kururu's all right.”

“I don't know, but all we can do is hope Kururu's safe. Come on, don't look so worried. Everyone will lose heart if you, of all people, look so gloomy—you’re always smiling.”

Parna stretched Alice's cheek and forced a smile onto her face, trying to ease her worry over Kururu.

There was little the others could do. They needed to identify the enemy hiding among them as soon as possible or find the facility where they could uncover the enemy's secrets, but they had made no progress.

They had searched nearly everywhere they could. With Yuki and Merry's help, they had even searched the building called the Central Tower, Noa's main facility and the place they considered most suspicious, but they hadn't found anything out of the ordinary...