Sakumai Bloom/Sypnosis

## Before the Hero Heightening Project

Before the events of the Hero Heightening Project, two years ago, Kaiya Yoshioka was dealing with both identity and friend issues. She decided to tell her friends her new name. Shortly after this, she's asked to sit with the popular group of her school. However, this popular group uses Kaiya as a joke and completely bullies her, and because of them, her old friends left her. She regrets trusting them and telling them about her identity, and goes to sit by herself from then on.

A year later, two months before the events of the Hero Heightening Project, Kaiya's father passes away, leaving her feeling numb.

## The Hero Heightening Project

### Dreams and Riddles

At the beginning of Chapter 1 - Rabbit Hole, Kaiya is running down a staircase, chasing a crystal floating ahead of her. She follows this crystal to an ancient temple, and inserts in into the altar. When doing this, a mysterious figure holds a hand out to her, calling her name, and Kaiya awakens.

Kaiya then walks along the footpath, walking past an Android. She notes that something is off about them. She then heads to the city square, where she listens to a newsanchor talk about 'beings with mystic abilities', or Heroes, questioning if they are here to help or harm.

Next we see Kaiya receiving peculiar messages, jumbles of dots, lines and letters. She clears the newest one before another one files in, the second one in 5 minutes. She is about to delete that one, too, when she realises this one is in morse code. She translates it to discover that it says 'NOBODY IS SAFE'. Despite regarding it as spam, she responds nonetheless. Anonymous tells her to 'save them', and when Kaiya asks how, Anonymous asks if she agrees to save them. She agrees, and Anonymous sends her Riddle 1, before asking Kaiya to 'find the gem'. As Kaiya's laptop begins to act strange, Anonymous again begs Kaiya to save 'them', and that she is wrapped up in a far greater mystery than she knows. The laptop then glitches and shuts off.

### Decoding Riddle 1

Kaiya, unable to sleep due to thoughts about the riddle, takes a walk at night to clear her head. She reopens her messages with Anonymous to see that all of the messages have been deleted, except for Riddle 1 and Anonymous' message of finding the gem. She then realises that she may know someone who could help her out.

Kaiya, now at school, goes to a girl sitting alone at a table, reading and eating her lunch - Liling Xīn. She asks Liling for her help, and Liling asks what she needs help with. Kaiya asks her if she likes riddles, to which she agrees. Liling then asks what the riddle is about, and Kaiya says that she does not know. Liling then asks her to recite the riddle, but Kaiya declines, asking that they solve it somewhere safer. Liling gets suspicious and asks why, to which Kaiya responds that she doesn't want anyone else to know about the riddle. Kaiya asks her if they can meet outside of school, and Liling suggests that they meet at her house. Kaiya agrees, and is about to leave when Liling calls her name, and tells her that she expects some answers.

At the beginning of Chapter 2 - Hunt, Kaiya is waiting outside of Liling's door. Liling quickly goes to answer it, and invites her inside. She introduces Kaiya to her grandmother, Pei Xīn. The duo are about to head to Liling's room before Kaiya notices a splash of colour on the wall. It turns out to be a small shrine, with an oil painting of 7 figures hanging above it. She recognises one as being the girl from her dream. Kaiya asks Liling who they all are, but Pei is the one to respond, saying that they are the Realmkeepers, the equivalents of gods. Kaiya asks who the girl from her dream is, to find out that her name is simply V. Liling then brings Kaiya up to her room. Kaiya says that she didn't expect Liling's room to be so dark and punk-themed, and Liling chuckles about how it clashes with her school nerd persona. When asked what she means, she says that this hobby of hers is a guilty pleasure, and that she thinks she'd be ridiculed if she brought it out at school. When Kaiya tells her that just means she'll know who is a good friend and who isn't, Liling shrugs. Kaiya is suddenly hit with the realisation of just how much Liling is like her, and tells her that she shouldn't care what others think, and that Kaiya knows this, having been judged a lot. Kaiya then says that she will never judge Liling. Liling thanks her, and the two turn their attention to Liling's laptop. Liling asks her a few questions about Riddle 1, and Kaiya responds that someone sent it to her, and she assumes that they got it online. Kaiya shows Liling the translated riddle, posted onto a document on her phone.