PROLOGUE.

April 17 2008, Overcast.
A man, into the business of making dainty heart-shaped sponges, lost the batch to a mischievous, pilfering boy. The boy soaked them in a bucket of black paint, and scattered them around in the neighborhood. Furious, the man scoured high and low for every single hand-made sponge, and resolves to wash them clean...