In the middle of the dark night, a fire was raging so large that it consumed a house with a girl crying in front of her burning house.
"No, no no no! Please save my parents!" she cried as she sobbed.
Her body looked injured, with several small explosions in the burning house. She wanted to do something to save her parents who were still inside the house, but she couldn't do anything because she was only 13 years old.
She kept shouting for help while calling her parents but because her house was quite far from the other houses, help came quite late.
"Mom and dad! DAAAADDDD! MOMMMYYYYYYY!!!"
*****
6 years later...
The same girl took some bread out of the oven and placed it on her kitchen counter.
She had now grown to 19 years old, and was in a bakery that had been passed down from her family for generations, Nozomi Bakery.
Her long green hair was curled up so as not to disturb her concentration when she was making bread or other cakes.
As she was waiting for the bread to cool slightly so she could put cream on top, she heard the doorbell ring. That meant a customer had come into the shop.
DING!
"Welcome!" she said cheerfully as she walked out of the kitchen and stood by the display case.
There was a tall man, with brown hair and bandages wrapped around his arms and body.
"Oh, good morning and Dazai-san!" she greeted happily.
"Good morning Aiko-chan~ You're looking very beautiful today as usual~" Dazai replied as he always teased the women around him.
Aiko chuckled at Dazai's teasing which she was used to. They had known each other for almost a year, and Dazai always said sweet things to her.
"So what kind of cake would you like to order today? Is there a party today at the Agency's office?" asked Aiko eagerly as she had been there two to three times to deliver their cake orders.
Dazai nodded his head, saying that it was just a small party to celebrate the success of their Agency's mission.
Hearing that, Aiko nodded in understanding as she put the cake in the box and gave the bonus of warm bread to the number of members in the agency office.
"Then congratulations! I'll give you these buns as a reward for your success!"
"Ahahaha... Thank you, Aiko-chan~ Won't you come to the office to celebrate with us? I'm sure the others won't mind that," Dazai invited.
He knew that the other agency members had also started to get close to Aiko because the girl was very open with everyone and quite innocent. It was the innocence that made them like Aiko so much as well as the cheerfulness on her beautiful face.
"I'd love to come. But I can't leave my bakery without anyone to look after it. I've made a lot of cakes today so I can't possibly close the shop any sooner," she replied rather listlessly.
As the two of them were chatting together, there was a sudden smell of smoke from a kitchen appliance that made Aiko panic.
She reflexively ran into the kitchen, worried that some bread might be burning in the oven.
Dazai who saw this also immediately entered Aiko's kitchen because he was worried that Aiko herself would have to handle something in there.
"AHHHHHH!" the sound of her scream was heard which made Dazai immediately enter the kitchen and was surprised to see one of the ovens bursting into flames.
"Aiko, back away from there!" he said sternly as he grabbed a wet cloth to cover the fire and close back the oven.
He unplugged the electricity from the oven so it wouldn't get any worse.
"That was close, it's dangerous if she has to handle things herself-"
When the detective agency man turned to the shopkeeper, he was surprised to see Aiko who was so panicked and so scared.
The most surprising thing for Dazai, however, was when he saw the tiny sparks that appeared around Aiko as the girl visibly trembled.
He frowned, feeling confused and wondering, where the sparks were coming from?
'Could it be an ability that Aiko has? So she's also an ability owner. But what ability does she have?' he thought.
Dazai was very sure that the ability Aiko had must be related to her current emotions.
Worried that the sparks that appeared would create a fire in the kitchen again, he immediately touched Aiko's shoulder and neutralized her body with his ability.
And sure enough, the sparks that were like small firecrackers instantly disappeared when Dazai touched them.
"Hey calm down, the fire has been put out. You better find a repairman to fix your oven because I believe this is a short circuit from inside the oven. It will be very dangerous if you use this oven again before you fix it," he said.
The 19-year-old girl nodded her head no, while wiping away the tears that came out of her red eyes.
"Thank you, Dazai-san. I feel very lucky that you came to my shop and helped me put out the fire," she said.
Aiko admitted that she was very afraid of large fires because she was traumatized by what happened to her family when she was 13 years old.
Hearing this, Dazai, who had become curious about Aiko's past, began to listen to the girl's story.
She said that when she was 13 years old, her parents had a huge fight because her father kept flirting with the female customers in their cake shop.
They kept fighting, even throwing things around and it made Aiko really scared and depressed.
"All of a sudden, it appeared and set my house on fire. I heard a small explosion before the fire burned the whole house. I was so scared that I ran out of the house without realizing my parents were still there," she said with a sad face and head bowed.
People thought that the fire must have started because of an argument between Aiko's parents that ignited the fire that burned the whole house.
Dazai who was listening to that looked so serious, especially since his eyes kept glancing at their surroundings where a small spark kept appearing.
Aiko herself actually didn't understand what spark had appeared around her. But she didn't dare to ask anyone about it.
Touching her hand, Dazai seemed sympathetic to her. Though he only intended to neutralize Aiko's unknown ability.
"You are a strong woman and I'm sure you can get through anything. Especially since you made it this far alone," he said.
She smiled and nodded her head.
"Thank you, Dazai-san."