Kanami is the owner of a roadside restaurant, Chigusa. Kanami's mother dies due to anemia and becomes a Shiki. After finding her way back to Kanami's house, the mother is too helpless to kill and survive on her own, so Kanami keeps her alive by feeding her glasses of her own blood, not wanting her mother to kill innocent people. Kanami's friend and co-worker Maeda Motoko finds out about Kanami's secret and promises not to tell anyone. However, Motoko becomes jealous of Kanami getting her mother back (while Motoko's entire family died at the hands of her father-in-law, who became a shiki) and reveals this to the villagers, who broke into Kanami's house and killed her mother. After this incident, Kanami is seen leaving the village when the Shiki extermination continues.
