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"Here's a news story. A giant football suddenly appeared in the sky over Tokyo. According to reliable sources, this giant football has appeared all over the world. Next, let the reporters on the front line bring a more detailed introduction..."

At noon, the daytime news was playing on a bus on the road. There were not many passengers on the bus, and the driver was driving at a leisurely pace. He didn't seem to care at all whether he would be late. He didn't even lift his eyelids to read the explosive news in the news.

A few passengers on the bus raised their heads. Among them, a man in a light blue hoodie looked like he had just woken up. He rubbed his soft white hair hidden under the hood, then lowered his head to open the news push on his mobile phone. At this time, the hot search headlines around the world were all about football, as if the World Cup was about to begin.

Twitter was full of conspiracy theories for a while, with many speculating that it was a marketing campaign for the World Cup. Some people immediately refuted that it was unnecessary given the popularity of the World Cup. Some people had already marked the locations where the footballs were spotted and were ready to explore them one by one. Some people had already been stopped near the footballs and found that people who looked like FBI agents were trying to block the area, so they simply started a live broadcast...

Similar scenes appeared around the world, with the giant football becoming the biggest focus on the Internet.

Noel scrolled through the news on his phone, then paused for a moment and turned off the phone.

———

The night before the final battle,

Noel had walked back to his home in a trance, as if it had become a muscle memory. When he was still playing the role of Natsukawa Sora, he had walked back to his home from Miyano Akemi's flower shop countless times. Then, when he opened the door, there would be someone waiting for him at home.

Standing at the door, Noel unconsciously stroked the fabric of his clothes, feeling a little awkward. He took a deep breath and pushed open the unlocked door.

No one...

That’s right, everyone is very busy tonight, especially...Xiao Guang.

Noel looked at the empty living room, feeling an inexplicable sadness in his heart.

But then he noticed a note on the dining table, which simply read: The meal is in the refrigerator, heat it up yourself.

Like a machine that had suddenly been injected with fuel, his limbs began to move smoothly. Noel quickened his pace and walked towards the refrigerator, where the food was neatly stacked in containers:

Soft and delicious rice, fried meat with sweet and sour sauce, delicious and refreshing miso soup, and a non-spicy version of mapo tofu. There is also a sweet strawberry cake placed further inside, probably because they are worried that Noel will not be able to resist eating the cake first and not enjoy the main meal...

A few very simple dishes, a rice, a soup, a meat, a vegetarian meal and a small dessert, are quietly lying in the refrigerator waiting, just like the owner who made them, not urging but tempting the visitor to make a choice.

Noel paused for a moment, took the lunch box out of the refrigerator and put it in the microwave.

It took several minutes for the room to heat up, and he stood in front of the table looking at the house where he had lived for a long time.

This place has not lost its breath of life just because the owner has not been back for a long time. Every corner of the house is clean and tidy, and the sockets are wrapped with insulating tape. Xiaoguang wrapped them one by one when he found out that he was afraid of electricity.

There are several brightly colored animal ornaments in front of the TV, a game controller in the cabinet, a small stool in the kitchen, and a rolled-up plush carpet on the edge of the stairs, which is where the children from the detective team play games when they come. There is also a cat climbing frame in the corner, where Akemi Miyano occasionally brings the kitten named Peanut Butter to play. The cat is very attached to Noel, so the cat climbing frame is of little use and is left idle in the corner.

“Ding Dong——”

The rice in the microwave is ready.

Noel reached out and took out the lunch box and placed it on the dining table. He stared at the steaming rice and said softly, "I'm starting." Then he picked up his chopsticks and started eating slowly.

This is not his habit, but Xiaoguang often says it seriously, but he has no intention of forcing Noel to learn it. Usually when the two of them eat together, Noel will jump at the food the moment it is served on the table.

Soon, the rice was cleared away. After swallowing the last mouthful of rice, Noel put down the lunch box, looked at the note left by Xiaoguang, stood up, found a pen, and wrote on the blank space above:

As expected of Xiaoguang, today’s meal is super delicious.

The slip of paper was not big, and there was no space left after writing this sentence. He turned to the back of the paper and saw that it was blank, wanting to write something else...

He started writing, then crossed it out, and impatiently lay down on the table, wanting to wait for a while.

It seems that as long as I keep waiting, an angel will come with a miracle, and it seems that the ending of the story will finally bring happiness...

But soon, he straightened himself up, wrote a few more sentences, then reached out to pick up the lunch box, took it to the kitchen, washed it skillfully, and put it aside to drain.

Then he spent some time walking around every corner of the house, went back to his room to change his clothes, gently opened the door, walked out of the house and walked away without saying goodbye.

——

On the morning of the crackdown, Miyano Shiho sat at the door of the flower shop, quietly waiting for the patients to come on their own. Unfortunately, no one came until the sun was already high in the sky.

"He probably won't come."

A man's voice came from behind. It was Inoue, a man who looked very silent, who came back with Kudo Shinichi and Noel.

"Inoue Shin, I've seen you before." Miyano Shiho glanced at the man and spoke.

"You actually remembered me..." Inoue was surprised and said, "You should also know that I worked under Murakami for a period of time, but obviously, he didn't recognize me."

He had arrived early this morning, and after a special tour of the laboratory, he discussed the treatment process with Dr. Aso, who had also hurried over. During the process, he passed by Murakami several times, but the other party did not react.

"When Grappa was still in charge of 'treatment' in Murakami, I helped in his laboratory, although it was all chores, such as tying Grappa to the operating table and injecting drugs into other test subjects, which I also did."

These people who defected from the organization in the later period were more accustomed to calling him Noel Grappa, Miyano Shiho thought silently, but Noel actually hated being called that, and would probably get furious if he heard it now.

"In order to survive, I was very obedient, submitting like a walking corpse. At that time, I thought that compared to the experimental subjects who would occasionally resist, we accomplices were the ones who were truly brainwashed." Inoue, who seemed to be somewhat familiar with others, found a stool and sat next to Miyano Shiho, and talked about his own experience somewhat self-centeredly.

"Until one day, Grappa broke free of the straps and punched Murakami. That punch knocked Murakami unconscious, but it sobered me up a little."

"I went to the organization's hospital. It wasn't that hard to escape from there. Murakami didn't care about us assistants. I could just take the opportunity to be eliminated when someone else came up. But those who came up were just like me at the beginning. They just thought they were in some special and confidential medical team. In fact, they could never leave."

"Later, I was pulled into the White Alliance by Ms. Miyano, your sister, in the hospital, and then stood in front of you."

He spoke of these more briefly, as if he were hastily summarizing his life, and it was difficult to be detailed enough.

"What do you want to express by saying this?" Miyano Shiho turned her head and looked at the man and asked.

"Nothing, just thinking that it's nice to be here and help, and I'd be happy if I could make a small contribution to Grappa's recovery, but now it seems there's no chance."

This sentence made Miyano Shiho beside him look at him with some dissatisfaction, and she was a little impatient.

Inoue smiled and said:

"It may not be appropriate for someone like me to say this out of nowhere, but I can understand his choice."

After he finished speaking, he stood up and walked towards the underground laboratory, saying casually:

"I'm going to go see Dr. Murakami."

Miyano Shiho did not stop him, but just looked down at her phone. The page was a group chat of the White Alliance, which read:

The roundup was successful.