Between 1986 and 1998, Ange leads a harsh, isolated life at St. Lucia Academy, a boarding school Eva sent her to. Between classes, Ange learns about magic from Maria, whose soul is kept alive in her old diary. Maria shows Ange how she was often left at home by Rosa and forced to care for herself with Sakutaro, a stuffed lion doll Rosa made her for her birthday who was brought to life by Maria. In 1998, Ange discovers that she is being hunted for her fortune by her aunt Kasumi, Kyrie's sister, and escapes with assistance from her bodyguard, Amakusa. She begins her journey to Rokkenjima, where she enters Purgatory and becomes Battler's ally against Beatrice under the name "Gretel". To make things more fair for Battler, Ange convinces Beatrice to let Battler use blue text for when he makes his theories. During the family conference in 1986, Kyrie theorizes that Kinzo is already dead, which is why none of them except for Krauss and Natsuhi have supposedly seen him, and that there are actually seventeen people on the island. Battler adopts this theory and states it in blue, but after Krauss and Natsuhi are sent by Kyrie to prove that Kinzo is alive, Kinzo agrees to attend the family conference and settle the argument himself.