During work at Junk Shop Mediocrity, Aoba Seragaki goes out on a delivery with his Allmate, Ren, and encounters his childhood friend, Koujaku, and his Allmate, Beni. After a short conversation, Aoba makes his delivery to Yoshie and is forced to stay until nightfall. On his way home, Aoba is harassed by members of the Ribstiez group, Bug Bomb, but is saved by his friend and leader of Dry Juice, Mizuki. Mizuki voices his concerns of Ribstiez being overshadowed by the popular cyber game, Rhyme, and tells Aoba of the mysterious disappearances of several Ribstiez groups, rumored to be the works of the mythical group, Morphine. As they part ways, a Rhyme battle soon starts near Aoba and he observes it before meeting up with his old friends, Virus and Trip. The game is soon interrupted by a police officer, Akushima, causing Aoba to hurry back home.
