Kinoshita Ippei

Sean Dingling and his older brother Ken were abandoned by their parents when they were children. Russell Berry, the ringmaster of the Berry Big Circus, took them in and later employed them as acrobats. Ken and Sean became known as "Acro" and "Bat," respectively.

Bat developed a crush on the ringmaster's daughter, Regina Berry, and they would constantly play pranks on each other.

One day, Bat made a bet with Regina that if he successfully stuck his head into a lion's mouth, Regina would go on a date with him. Unfortunately, earlier that day, Regina had covered Bat's scarf with pepper to make him sneeze. Bat didn't sneeze, but when he stuck his head into the lion's mouth, the lion sneezed and bit Bat, critically wounding him. His older brother, Acro, tried to wrestle the lion off Bat, but was injured and became paralyzed in the process.

Bat remained in a coma, and Acro was confined to a wheelchair. Regina, being too naive to understand what really happened to Bat, quickly got over him and moved on. Angered at this, Acro devised a plan to kill her six months later, which resulted in her father's death instead. The resulting trial of one of the circus performers led to Acro's implication as the killer.