A two-and-a-half-year-old girl named Nina Bishop lives with her mother, Laura Bishop, in an ordinary family that is not financially well-off. Laura has to work alone to support her daughter, and she has long endured the financial control and domestic violence inflicted by Brandon. At the start of the story, Brandon, desperate for money, empties out Laura's old handbag in front of Nina—cash, loose change, and bills scatter all over the floor. He not only wants to take the last of Laura's money, but also sets his sights on the heirloom pendant hanging around Nina's neck, which looks quite valuable. Little Nina pulls out her pink toy water gun and stands in front of her mother to shield her, but she can hardly stop a grown man. After being shoved, Laura still holds onto Brandon, buying her daughter time and letting Nina escape alone to seek help. Wearing her yellow duckling outfit, Nina runs out onto the street, injures her knee and forehead, and finally collapses by the roadside from pain and fright. The Whitlock family elder, Walter, happens to find her and takes her to the hospital. The Whitlock family crest on the pendant around Nina's neck catches Walter's attention, but he does not rashly claim kinship based on a mere piece of jewelry—instead, he begins investigating the child's identity. It is there, in the hospital, that Nina first sees the Guardian Fairy. This mysterious being, which only she can directly touch, tells her that she will glimpse fragments of the futur
