Prior to the start of the series. Takane Enomoto and Haruka Kokonose are both classmates tasked by Kenjiro with creating a special project for their school culture festival, deciding to go with a shooting video game. During the festival, Shuya (Kano) brings Tsubomi (Kido) to Takane's booth to play the game Kenjiro designed, with Tsubomi showing exceptional skill in the game whilst Takane finds her experience mysteriously hampered, which Shuya later reveals was cheating on Tsubomi's part. Later, Takane tries to hide from people interested in playing against her due to her ranking 2nd in a gaming tournament, but Haruka gives her the confidence to face them. However, she becomes shocked when Shintaro comes by the booth and completely defeats her. Afterwards, Takane is introduced to Kenjiro's daughter, Ayano, who reveals she and Shintaro will become her schoolmates, and the group get to know each other over the following year. On August 15th, during summer classes, Takane decides to ignore Haruka as he sleeps, unaware that he is actually in pain.