At a young age Shiki Tohno was able to see lines that, if hit, immediately destroy the objects (including people) they were situated on. He was given a pair of glasses that blocked the lines from his sight by a mysterious sorceress, and was able to live a normal life. Years later, he moves back into the house of his sister, Akiha Tohno, after the death of their father. After talking about the strange serial killings in the city with his friends at school, Satsuki Yumizuka, Arihiko Inui, and Ciel, he sees a woman on his way home from school, and after falling into a dreamlike sequence, kills her. He awakens in his sister's house, but on his way to school the following day, he sees the woman again.