The Search

After reporting the anomaly to Headquarters, Love and Thousand Blades pressed on, visiting the addresses on their list.

The next few homes belonged to ordinary employees who had gone missing.

At one home, an employee's wife held their child in her arms. Her eyes were red, and she answered every question they asked.

"He was working overtime the night before he disappeared... When he came home, I casually asked if he was tired. He just smiled and said he was fine, that he was used to it."

"I'd been meaning to say... maybe we should take the child and move back to our hometown... But then..."

"What am I supposed to do now...?"

Love comforted the woman and left her a flower petal.

At another employee's home, his elderly mother rambled as she leafed through photographs of her son.

"He always said the company treated him well and told us not to worry... But I could see him coming home later every day, getting thinner every day..."

After visiting several homes, they found nothing unusual.

The families told them everything they knew, but that wasn't much. As far as they had seen, their loved ones had simply been "busy with work."

No grudges, no disputes, nothing that would explain why anyone had vanished into thin air.

It did, however, confirm that this company had treated its employees terribly.

With the ordinary employees' homes covered, the company's management came next.

The first stop was the employees' supervisor.

According to his file, he was a balding man with a large belly.

He looked rather shifty, too... Love wasn't judging him by his appearance. He genuinely looked like someone who was up to no good.

The two arrived at an upscale residential complex and went up to a spacious, fully furnished apartment.