Shuzo "Shu" Matsutani loses a kendo match at his dojo, where his opponent criticizes him for his lack of defense. Walking across town later in the day, Shu finds a girl, Lala-Ru, sitting on a smokestack watching the sunset. After a short amount of time talking to her, time suddenly freezes as a green beam of light covers the surrounding area. Lala-Ru ends up being captured by officers controlling snakelike machines and transported back into a stationary battleship named Hellywood, but Shu is accidentally brought there as well. The two, after being chased by more soldiers, are separated at an operating bridge in the water tower, where Shu grabs Lala-Ru's pendant before he plummets into a tunnel to the outside, one of a barren wasteland.