Editing Characters/Ayano Hasegawa (section)

== Backstory ==

Ayano grew up in Nishino City. At age ten, an [[Erasure]] event devastated the town; she and her father Kei were both injured and contracted an illness only treatable in [[Special Zone New Tokyo|New Tokyo]]. During treatment at the Nishino lab, doctors identified her strong latent Artifact affinity and suggested she become a Stacker, but she initially declined to return home to her mother.

At fourteen, with her father's condition still not fully resolved, Ayano chose to leave for New Tokyo to become a Stacker, promising Taki she'd return to protect everyone, but he declined to come with her. 

After arriving in New Tokyo, she rapidly became a top student, winning the NST and becoming Japan's first-ranked Stacker on the strength of her unusually high Artifact affinity.