It's now morning, and we're introduced to the "empty girl" from the previous chapter. She's a five-year-old girl named Ibara Naruse, and she's hiding out in a tree in the forest. We learn that Ibara is the same age as Coppelius, and that she was kidnapped as a child by the first couple of years of the novel. We're also introduced to some of the other characters in the novel, including the narrator, who's kind of a jerk. He's super-annoyed by the fact that the narrator doesn't seem to know what he's talking about when he says things like "I'm going to take a brief detour" and "I don't want to wait here" and so on. The narrator is super bummed that he can't be with his friends, but he also knows that he'll be stronger by the end of the chapter.