A/N: This is gonna follow the American school system (starts in fall, ends in summer) mostly due to my inability to understand the Japanese school system, and also using first names without honorifics because I understand honorifics even less.

-September 4th, 2010-

Kanade was nervous, if she was to be honest. It was the first day of her second year of preschool for the four-year old, and unlike her twin sister Hibiki, who was already excitedly chatting with a couple of her friends, she didn't exactly see who she was looking for, and for a moment she worried he wasn't going to arrive, but that quickly vanished once she heard the voice of her friend behind her.

"Hey, Kana!" The brown-haired boy waved at her, his silver eyes gleaming.

She waved back. "Hi, Rikuchi!"

Rikuchi Mori, an orphan born on August 9th, 2005, was Kanade's first and best friend, meeting each other on their first day of preschool last year, but they didn't really interact much until April, where an undisclosed event happened that sealed their friendship.

But that's not what you're here for, so let's skip ahead a bit shall we?

-November 11, 2013-

Kanade groggily made her way to the kitchen, with no sign of Hibiki or her mom anywhere. She found a plate of toast and a note. Hi sweetie, I am taking Hibiki to the park for her birthday. -Mom. The letter had no love in it, like always. Her mom always preferred Hibiki, doting on her while ignoring Kanade. She was used to that. Her dad was much more preferable, but she rarely got to see him after her parents divorced and he was currently on a business trip, though he sent a letter the day before wishing Kanade a happy birthday, because he knew his ex wouldn't, and some money came with it.

She finished her breakfast and headed over to where she and Rikuchi would meet, next to the drain pipe in the open sewer by the hill. When she got close, she noticed something odd. The edge of the hill was usually fended off because if someone were to fall, they'd be falling pretty far onto solid concrete and would likely break a bone. Instead, there's a staircase by the drain pipe for people going up and down. What she noticed was that part of the chain link fence was lying on the ground. Shrugging it off as just the fence being old, she made her way to the drain pipe, but instead of Rikuchi, the local officers were there, and a couple doctors and nurses. The area was surrounded in police tape and it smelled worse than usual, so she peeked under to see what the commotion was.

Lying in a pool of blood with a knife plunged into his back was the body of the eight-year old Rikuchi Mori.

Kanade screamed.