There's a girl in a standard Japanese school uniform who looks lonely. She's out here on her own at night, not wanting at all to return to an empty apartment, where there would be no one to care for her.

If her father wasn't always so busy with his research, she would have been home with him. She's going through a really hard time, especially after the recent death of her mother. Just what is it that's so important about his research? Why does he seem to be so dedicated to his work, over her?! ... She doesn't have a clue, and this frustrates her. And he never really shares with her any specific details about his research, keeping it a secret from her.

Mai Kashiwagi is also a wary girl who doesn't trust strangers easily. She might not be in the best of moods, either, after having left her dad in a car with some guy at the wheel she doesn't know. This was earlier in the afternoon, after having been sent to the principal's office, over a fire she honestly swears she hasn't started! All she remembers about the incident was waking up, kneeling next to a pile of burning garbage, alone in an alleyway...

The biggest problem of hers that she doesn't at all understand is that she has an ability she hasn't learned to control yet. She hasn't yet realized that the source of that fire she saw from earlier...came from Mai herself.