1990, and Tatsumi Mondo Hakase disappears, leaving his wife to raise their five children on her own. 1992, and Mrs. Tatsumi goes to search for her husband. She makes her children PROMISE to watch out for each other, and her daughter gives her a charm, a ringing protective bell. And the airplane she boards crashes, or explodes. Her body is never found. 1999 to 2000.... Matsuri was 20 years old and worked for the National Seaside Hospital. She was born on December 21, 1979. She was an ambulance driver, a nurse, and in the heart of the action at all times. She had a best friend and they were very close. They both fell in love with the same doctor. Matsuri did the only thing she could think of as right. She stepped aside and left the field for her friend, though it nearly broke her heart. She made certain neither of them had a clue as to the depth of her feelings for him. Until her brothers unwittingly exposed the fact to the doctor in question. But things were settled, and they attended the wedding and wished the couple well. It is safe to say, that as the youngest and only girl among the siblings, she was the one the others had always looked after. But as they became adults it went the other way around, more often than not. When they lost heart, she tended to be the one to remind them of their mother's words, that if they stuck together and took care of each other, they could overcome any obstacle. Those words carried them through many a hard time. Still, it was Matsuri who was the most determined not to forget their mother, the hardest put to accept the fact that she was dead. And ultimately, it turned out that she was right.