In Between the Sea and the Land.Former students of Nami Junior High School, Hikari Sakishima, Chisaki Hiradaira, Kaname Isaki, and Manaka Mukaido are forced to attend a school on land called Mihama Junior High School. Hikari's short temper towards Manaka leads to a series of events that culminate in her being caught by Tsumugu Kihara, the grandson of a fisherman, who also attends Mihama Junior High. Introducing themselves on their first day, they are met with disgust for being sea people and Hikari bites back just as harshly. This is an early sign showing the rift between the land and sea people descendants of a sacrifice (Ofunehiki) to the sea god. After school Manaka and Hikari visit Uroko-sama, the sea god messenger. Manaka brings an offering and after Uroko-sama tries to seduce her, she hits him in the face and is cursed with a fish growing out of her knee the next day. After class, some of Manaka's classmates start to invasively question her whereupon she hits her knee attempting to escape causing a fart sound. Her classmates laugh as she runs away into the forest in embarrassment. Lost, Manaka collapses due to being out of the water for too long and her ena, skin that allows them to live in the sea, begins to dry and flake off. Hikari and the others go looking for her. Luckily Manaka is found by Tsumugu who brings her to his house to rehydrate her. Once awake, she immediately becomes embarrassed as Tsumugu has just seen the fish on her knee. To her surprise he thinks it and her ena are beautiful. Later that evening after searching all day, Hikari meets up with Manaka and Tsumugu and misunderstanding his role, tries to pick a fight with Tsumugu. Manaka intervenes, and Hikari angry at how she was comfortable around another guy, pulls her into the sea with him.