Once upon a time, in classroom 2-9 of Kisiragi Academy, seven friends gathered around a candle to hear their friend's ghost story. They all quaked in fear. Satoshi in particular was not taking well to the story. He shivered, jumped in his spot on the floor, and chronically rubbed his goose bumps that prickled his whole body. When their teacher arrived and was mistaken for a ghost, his nerves were shot and he jumped pretty far into the classroom. His friends laughed at his reaction and his little sister greeted him from where he stood, delivering his forgotten umbrella.

He wanted to join his friends and laugh, but he heard something- saw something. It had sounded like a person. A young girl perhaps. He went back to the front of the room and told his friends of his suspicions.

"Awwww! She must be shy!" Seiko exclaimed clasping her friend's waist.

"We should help her." Naomi tried to shake Seiko while she said this.

"Wonder who it could be" Yoshiki wondered. It was almost like he hadn't realized he had said this.

"Why don't you go ask her yourself?" Satoshi pushed him forward. He had a mischievous look on his face. They all nodded eagerly, going along with Satoshi.

"No…" He began to refuse but everyone pushed him forward, and then took a step back. He sighed. He obliged, knowing it would not be easy to back out. So he went with it as well, wanting to get it over with.

He walked calmly toward the back of the room. Before, with only a candle as a light source, Satoshi could barely see. But now the light s were turned which made seeing her much easier. He found her quickly and easily but she would not look up or make eye contact. To add to that, her long dark hair covered her face and concealing her identity.

"Hey… are you ok?" He tried to get her attention but she winced at his voice. At least, she did at first. Then she recognized it and looked up. Yoshiki saw big silvery eyes. He recognized them easily.

"You…" she said. Yoshiki was stunned and couldn't say anything.

Pretty soon, Yoshiki found himself overwhelmed by her sudden embrace. He caught his balance and hugged her back. "I was so worried" she said.

Everyone else was baffled by this sight. Just who was this girl? Obviously they knew each other but what was this girl to Yoshiki? They could see she had long dark hair and lightly tanned skin. In a brief glance, they saw two silvery eyes. They thought her pretty cute.

"Um…e -excuse me" Ayumi said and Satoshi stood near her.

"Oh" the girl looked confused and even disappointed that there were more people.

"Kishinuama…" Ayumi turned to Yoshiki,"Who is this?"

He remained quiet. Ayumi waited, and then turned to the girl.

"Hey, my name is Ayumi Shinozaki. What's your name? Maybe you could introduce us to him" she jerked her head in Yoshiki's direction.

She remained mute for the longest time before she said, "Hello. My name is Miki Kishinuama," she paused while everyone processed her name and all it could signify, "This is Yoshiki Kishinuama. He's my big brother."

The class did not blink at all. They didn't breathe. They couldn't. They were in shock and could not be shaken out of it. For them, it was unbelievable that the delinquent, Yoshiki had a little sister. Much less such a formal and polite sister. Morishigue scoffed at the thought quite brusquely.

Eventually they were able to recover from their shock and Ayumi suggested they do a charm. She explained it was a friendship charm in honor of their friend who was moving away. Ayumi offered Miki to join in but she declined.

"No, it's ok. You have fun and don't worry about me."

"Besides, what would be the point of being best friends forever with someone you've just met" Ayumi thought she heard her say.

The charm did not take long and soon they were saying their goodbyes. Miki looked almost relieved. Everyone was about to leave when the ground began to shake. No one could stay still. The teacher who was with them had to yell to be heard, telling them to get under the desks. Out of all of them, Miki was the quietest, only grunting every now and then.

The floor opened up into a hole that looked so deep. Miki couldn't see the bottom and she frantically looked around for her big brother. The hole in the floor widened until everyone had fallen in. Mayu's scrap of paper from the charm fell from her hand. Mayu didn't notice because she had closed her eyes in fear. It fluttered around in Miki's face and she grabbed it. Then, she too was falling, straight into the darkness that had swallowed all ten of them.