Umi was walking around the school with two other female classmates. At the girls’ request, they had wanted to give Umi a tour of the school as well as suggesting to join the crochet club with them. The transfer student accepted the offer of the tour, while wanting to know more about each available club. As she arrived at a fork in the path, she noticed on one end was someone wearing a familiar blue sweater walking with three other boys.

“Oh, I didn’t get to show you the computer club in this hallway. These classrooms are usually used by 8th graders,” explained one of the girls as she excitedly dragged the transfer student in the opposite direction.

After discussing all the clubs in school and traveling through every hallway they could access, the girls finally decided to go home. Umi thanked them kindly and waved them goodbye at the front gates. At the same time, the little girl noticed three older boys run wildly past her. All of them were injured in some way with one bleeding from their face, mumbling profanities angrily. Umi looked behind her to see where they had ran from and a familiar face soon emerged from around the corner, walking casually towards the front gates staring at their hands.

“Hello, Akane. We meet again,” Umi called out, appearing in front of the other who was lost in thought. “What are you still doing here?”

“Uh,” Akane looked at the boys who were still running in the far off distance. “Just cleaning…”

The tomboy shook her head, redirecting the question back to the little girl. “W-why are you still here?” 

“You see, some girls in our class wanted to show me around the school. For real this time,” Umi chuckled. “This is great though, I was hoping to talk to you more. Let’s walk around.”

“...Are you sure you want to keep talking to me?” asked Akane, but walking alongside the small girl. “By now you must’ve heard the rumours. I’m a violent, no-good problem child. Hanging around with me will only ruin your good reputation.”

“I don’t care about reputation,” Umi replied, abruptly. “And rumours don’t mean much to me, either. A person’s actions and beliefs are what matters the most. I just think...you’re not a bad person.”

“Huh. How so?” inquired Akane, coldly.

“Simple. You pulled me aside and took the hit from that man, remember? You saved me."

"Well you saved me first," mumbled Akane to herself, recalling the girl pushing her just barely out of reach from the strike of the intruder.

"I think people don’t give you the opportunity to help them because their preconception of you prevents them from understanding who you really are. In other words, they only look down on you because everyone else looks down on you. They don’t see the real you."

...That sounded so damn mature…I don’t even know what preconception means!

“But more than that” the girl continued, putting her hands together. I prefer people who are true to themselves rather than pretend to be someone else just to fit in with others, you know?”

At that moment it felt like a bell rang inside Akane’s mind. 

Oh. She gets it.

“And that’s why...I want to ask you for help,” requested Umi.

“Hm? My help?”

The two stopped at a nearby park as Akane sat down on a bench wrapped around the circumference of a large tree. Umi took a breath as Akane placed her school bag beside her. "I'll get straight to the point. This world is in danger of being completely eradicated by an underground organization using an unknown force known as CHAOS. And I've made it my duty to stop this from happening. To do that, I need to find these powerful items called Jigsaw Crystals to stop them, but it's those Crystals that the organization is after. So...I would like it if you could help me search since...you’ve already experienced the, uh, situation."

As Umi attempted to explain herself, she slowly realised it still sounded ridiculous and grew less confident in everything she was saying. Nervous to see the other’s reaction, she carefully peered over to the taller one currently sitting on the bench with her legs crossed and an arm outstretched on the backboard.

"I see.” the tomboy replied indifferently.

“Eh?” Umi blurted out uncouthly. “W-what’s with that reaction? Shouldn't you be like "Ehhh?!" or "You're joking, right?!" or even, "No way!"? 

The little girl wiggled her arms around as she imitated the responses she was expecting.

“Oh no, I’m still surprised. But I did have a whole day to think on everything and what you said clears up a couple questions I had from before. See, at first I thought you were going to blackmail me. You had more than enough chances to do it but you didn't. So the only other option I could think of was that you needed me for something. Oh, and another thing,” Akane calmly explained her thought process as she pointed towards the mildly flabbergasted child. "You're pretty bad at lying."

The little girl made a comical sound as if she had been stabbed. The tomboy, on the hand, changed positions and sat with her elbows resting on her legs. She looked down on the ground as a strange smirk appeared on her face. The air around Akane had changed and the once shy individual who stumbled on her sentences suddenly became more confident.

“Ok, tell me who or what that man was,” Akane directed, thinking back to the incident.

Umi calmed down and collected her thoughts again before speaking smoothly. “Well for starters, that “man” is no longer human. They’re called Fragments.”

“Right, you said that before,” Akane nodded.

“Basically, they are created from the power of CHAOS by reanimating the corpses of other CHAOS users.”

“Heh...so they’re dead bodies.”

Oiii! That’s kind of serious, isn’t it?!

“So, uh, when that guy faded away, I didn’t...kill it, right?” asked Akane, sheepishly.

“No, if anything, you’ve finally let them rest,” a sudden dark look appeared on the small girl. “It’s cruel to use the dead to fight for you.”

In momentary surprise, Akane looked away as if not to pry. “Ok, and who’s doing all this again?”

“An underground network of dangerous criminals, the Sea of Crows.”

“Weird name...sounds like a cult or something,” blurted Akane, realising for a moment she was forgetting an important emotion.

“It pretty much is one,” Umi replied seriously. “Apparently their goal is to “rewrite the world by cleansing it of evil”, but it’s just an excuse to kill people. There’s not a lot of information on them, but the reality is that they’re searching for the Jigsaw Crystals to attain its incredible power. Naturally, it makes them-”

Umi stopped talking, which made Akane look up at her. The little girl froze, her large blue eyes fixated behind Akane. Quickly twisting her body around, Akane looked at a tall adult woman dressed in a gaudy dress and a large fur coat on her shoulders, strutting towards them with a malicious smile on her face.

“-our enemy.”