April 19, 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara is taken to the emergency room at Yomiyama Hospital due to his heart condition which was referred to as a pneumothorax attack. He then begins to narrate on his situation, stating that after he was put to sleep by anesthesia he begins to have a strange dream where he sees a mysterious girl and soon sees his deceased mother Ritsuko. Before he could walk further he was stopped by the mysterious girl with the a doll's eye. Kouichi wakes and the doctor tells him that he must stay for an extra 10 days until he can leave. After taking a walk around the hospital, Kouichi meets the same girl from his dream and asks her what is she looking for in the basement, but she does not answer and continues to walk with a doll in hand.
May 6, 1998, Kouichi starts class at Yomiyama North High. As he introduces himself to his new classmates, he then notices the girl from the hospital in the back of the classroom. Throughout the first day Kouichi continues his concern on the girl and seemingly empty desk until Kazamyo gives him a seating chart and Teshigawara asks if he is smart and if he believes in abnormality which he denies. He quickly asks about the girl in the back to which they quickly state that the desk is empty causing Kouichi to question the situation from dream to reality.
Back at his grandparents' house, Kouichi sees a picture of his mother while unpacking, after which he notices his aunt Reiko walking towards the house. The two share a brief bonding moment as Reiko states that she will become his teacher and tells him of the four school precautions: 1. "If you hear a crow on the rooftop, you must take your left step first when you leave", 2. "3rd Grade students cannot tumble at the ramp outside the back gate", 3. "You must obey the class rules" and 4. "You must make clear separation between the school and home lives."
The next day, during P.E. Kouichi has a small talk with Yukari about the second precaution, until he suddenly looks up and sees the girl on the rooftop. Yukari tells him that no one is there, but Kouichi believes that she is and runs straight up to the roof where he once meets the girl. He reads her nametag which says "Misaki" and asks for her first name. She said her name is Mei. Kouichi then begins to have another pneumothorax attack to which Mei tells him to "be careful, it may have begun."
Kouichi goes to hospital for a checkup to which the results states as normal. He was unsure of what causes this. The next day, Kouichi continues to notice Mei until he sees Chibiki in the next window and Mochizuki states that the librarian is creepy. As Kouichi heads to class with Teshigawara and Kazamyo, he decides to check out the library and finds a sketch book with a drawing of a doll, the one Mei was carrying, but Chibiki suddenly appears and tells him to go to class. Teshigawara and Kazamyo tells Kouichi about the student named Misaki who suddenly died in 1972 and how the students couldn't accept her death and pretended that she was still alive until graduation. After learning this, Kouichi begins to yet another attack while remembering Mei's warning. He returns to the hospital for another checkup and runs into his ward, Sanae Mizuno, and asks her if she knows about a girl named Misaki. She asks why he wants to know which he replies that he had heard that a girl passed away in the hospital on April and wonders if it was real or not.
The next day, Kouichi takes a stroll through the town and finds a doll shop. Once he made his way inside and looking at all the life-sized dolls, Mei suddenly appears asking if he likes the doll. She then asks why is he in the shop which she then takes off her eyepatch and shows him her doll's eye. A bit shocked, Kouichi asks who is she and she is really a student in Class 3.
The next day, Kouichi decides to investigate the empty desk, but Teshigawara calls and tells him too stop talking to a non-existant student or there will be consequences. He was still a bit confused, but then asks about the incident twenty-six years ago, but they did not answer, further confusing Kouichi. Back at his house, he tells Reiko that everyone in his class is acting strange, but she states that the truth will be revealed when the time comes.
