Chapter Twenty-One: The First...

The First... (初めての..., Hajimete no...) is the twenty-first chapter of Dengeki Daisy. It is published in volume five of the series.

Synopsis
Teru is feeling upbeat in spite of recent events as she writes a message to DAISY, but loses some self-esteem at the thought of how Kurosaki sees her. Meanwhile, Kurosaki reads Teru's message and recalls his recent conversation with Riko at the hospital. It's revealed that Kurosaki realized that Teru had learned his identity as DAISY, but pretended nothing had changed because he had seen how upset she was. Kurosaki ruefully thinks that he can't figure out if he's protecting Teru or vice versa.

At school, Teru spreads the word about how there is a fake DAISY who was also responsible for injuring Kurosaki. Haruka notices how Teru's behavior is for protecting Kurosaki; when Teru mentions how Kurosaki has been acting around her lately, Haruka advises her on how to advance her relationship with Kurosaki.

Riko's investigation of the website sending out the spam emails yields no results, so she leaves the rest to Kurosaki. After she threatens him to progress appropriately in his relationship with Teru, Kurosaki asks Riko to give Teru a necklace from DAISY and reveals how he's struggling with what Soichiro had wanted when he told Kurosaki to remember the sins of DAISY. When Teru suddenly arrives at Kurosaki's apartment, Riko immediately gives her the gift and takes off for work.

Teru happily wears the necklace and tells Kurosaki she always keeps her treasures close when he notices how she hasn't taken it off since receiving it. After Kurosaki runs a search program in his spare room, he finds Teru has fallen asleep on the sofa with the necklace on her pillow. He thinks about how he's the same about wanting to keep what's precious close to him.

The next day, Teru reads a message from DAISY, who promises to tell her face to face some day all the things he has been hiding from her. As Teru reads the message, Kurosaki hopes that when that day comes, he won't lose his resolve not to ask her to forgive him for his crimes.