Toono Sayo lives with her older brother Touya, a novelist. He tells her about his next book — a story about a lonely shinigami and a girl searching together for the most beautiful word in existence. Shortly after, Sayo looks up at a stopped clock tower and finds a man in white standing there. He has no memory of who he is. He knows only that he is a shinigami. Sayo gives him the name "Ao," after the color of his eyes.