Transfer student Yuuichi Tate arrives at Fuka Academy and discovers it's under attack by monsters called Orphans, fought off by girls called HiME who wield elemental powers. Yuuichi learns he's the Key, the one person who can unlock a HiME's full strength, for not one but two rivals, Mai Tokiha and Natsuki Kuga, dragging him into their conflict. This manga tells its own version of the story, on a storyline separate from the TV anime it grew out of.