Chapter 9

Let's Play Tag (鬼ごっこしましょう) is the ninth chapter of The Promised Neverland. It is adapted into episode 3 of the anime.

Synopsis
Krone and the children play tag. Both Krone and the older trio will take advantage of this situation to analyze each other.

Plot
Following the events at the end of the previous chapter, Ray asks why Krone wants to play with them, she says she wants to be friends with everyone. Ray is bothered by this, but Norman claims she will not be able to find out anything. Emma changes her serious expression to a happy one, as she would act before discovering the truth, acknowledging that this was the opportunity of them knowing their enemy. Krone states that the time limit is 20 minutes and she will be the catcher, cheering the children. She counts to 10 and the game begins, with the children scattered in the forest.

In thought, Krone says so far he's only been a watchdog, but he would use this little test to find out who the targets are and be a step ahead of Isabella, determined to discover them and steal Isabella's charge. In a part of the forest, Norman deduces that Krone's plan is to come after the five older ones first and then behind the smaller children, which was true. However, Krone realizes the false traces left by children, understanding that all children are different from normal. She changes plans and leaves her radar aside, deciding to use the information of each child she memorized, stating that it was time to be serious.

Krone places a trail with marked leaves, these leaves attracted the attention of several children, who followed the trail and were caught by it, surprising the older trio. Then she picks up some older kids, like Nat, Anna, and Thoma. Krone chases Lannion through the forest, which enters a log to try to escape, but she breaks the trunk easily with a punch. Lannion runs to the other stuck children and claims that her sister is sinister, being surprised to see that Don and Gilda have already been caught. He asks if there are only 3 left, but Nat says Phil and Marnya are still missing. Emma runs to the two and prevents them from being caught, jumping to a deep part of the forest. Emma hides behind a rock and asks them to be quiet. Krone follows her and begins to look for her, Emma is surprised that she is not tired. Krone points out the weaknesses of the three: Norman's is the breath, Ray's that he gives up too fast and Emma's would be the naivety, being extremely optimistic, wanting to save others before him. She tells Emma that if she saw the harvest, she was at her side, finding it and picking it up next.

The children despair of missing only 2. With 8 minutes and 40 seconds left, Krone plans to pick up Norman and use the remaining minutes with Ray. The two go in opposite directions and Krone chooses to follow Norman. She is confident that she will catch him, but as she approaches him, he quickly leaves her, surprising her. She does not understand why she cannot catch him since she was clearly superior to him. She finally understands that Isabella's children are not special by their notes, being caught by Ray while she was distracted. All the children celebrate their victory. Krone compares the farm to a zoo of unpredictable dangers, she is sure that Norman and Ray are the targets, but she can not help but notice Emma. In thought, Emma is annoyed because she could not get away with the two of Krone, Stating that it was nothing compared to the demons. Norman and Ray decide they should escape in small teams, led by the three. Seeing that the strategy to get Krone worked, Norman says they can kill her without problems.

Research Elements
In this chapter we have the following Research Elements:
 * 9.1 - Krone seems to have a great amount of strength and vigour

Trivia

 * The chapter ends the Introduction Arc.
 * In the chronological order of the series, this chapter takes place on October 27, 2045.
 * There is a small mistake during the game of tag. When Nat claims that 5 children are missing to be caught, Emma is shown saving Phil and Marnya from getting caught up with Krone immediately. However, before that happens, it is possible to see that who was next to Phil was Sherry, but later was changed to Marnya.
 * The tag scene was not present in the prototype. The big difference between the serialized version and TPN prototype was that the prototype story showed an attempt to escape with only three people instead of escaping with everyone, so it was written without bothering about ways to escape with young children.
 * The concept for chapter 9 was making Norman and Ray look cool. At first, Shirai couldn't decide on who to focus on in the second half of the chapter. Sugita suggested focusing on Norman and Ray, as there were plenty of scenes focusing on Krone already. Sugita likes them so he remembers feeling happy to see it.
 * On the page of Norman looking down, Shirai put a side note that said “domination”. Sugita compared that scene to Lion King, and the revealing moment of Norman’s unsettling and scary side that wouldn't hesitate to kill Krone with a fork. Initially, he didn’t smile in this chapter. But in the finalized version he did. It was different from the misleading direction that Shirai had initially aimed for but he figured the readers would absolutely love Norman like this and the story would become more interesting.