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The Distant Dawn

A collection of sixteen short stories by Yukinobu Hoshino, spanning genres from science fiction and fantasy to psychological drama and romance. The tales explore a wide range of themes, including adventure, mystery, and the supernatural, often set in imaginative and thought-provoking scenarios. From a distant dawn and a steel queen to escape from wastelands and a funeral convoy, each story presents a unique conflict. Characters face challenges such as a call from afar, a whiteout, amazons of the river, and the Carneades plan, navigating through algae, lightning strikes, and the emperor of winter.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

At Kamome Academy, students whisper about the Seven Mysteries, supernatural phenomena tied to the old school building. One of them is Hanako-san, a ghost said to haunt the third stall of the third-floor girls' bathroom and grant any wish to whoever summons her. Nene Yashiro, a first-year student obsessed with the occult and desperate for romance, dares to call on Hanako-san hoping for help with her love life. But the spirit who appears is not the girl from the rumors: Hanako-kun is a boy, and he has no simple magic to offer. When Nene's attempts to win over her crush lead her to swallow a mermaid scale and turn into a fish, Hanako-kun saves her. In exchange, she becomes his assistant, and

The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria

Kazuki Hoshino treasures his ordinary, uneventful life above all else. He spends his days carefree with his friends at school, content in the predictable rhythm of his daily existence. That peace is shattered by the arrival of Aya Otonashi, a mysterious and aloof transfer student. On her first day, she makes a cold, dramatic declaration: she is there to break him. She claims this is the 13,118th time she has transferred, and she has met him thousands of times before. Aya declares war on Kazuki for a crime he cannot even remember. As her puzzling words plunge his life into turmoil, the unseen mysteries surrounding his seemingly normal friends begin to unravel, centered on the discovery of m

Bakemonogatari

Koyomi Araragi is a third-year high school student who, after a fateful encounter during spring break, was turned into a vampire and then saved by Meme Oshino, a mysterious wanderer. Though human again, he retains lingering side effects like superhuman healing and enhanced vision. Trying to live a normal life, he one day catches his classmate Hitagi Senjougahara when she falls down the stairs, only to discover that she is unnaturally weightless. Senjougahara reveals that an encounter with a mythical crab stole her weight. Despite her blunt protests, Araragi insists on helping her and takes her to Oshino, the man who once solved his own supernatural predicament. What begins as a single case

Bakemonogatari: Monster Tale

Koyomi Araragi was once a vampire, and though he has returned to a human life, the scars of that experience remain. Now a student again, he tries to live normally, but the supernatural world keeps pulling him back. His attention turns to Hitagi Senjougahara, a classmate who is always ill, arrives late, or skips school altogether. Behind her distant attitude lies a mysterious affliction that has taken something essential from her. Araragi offers to help, and with the guidance of the enigmatic Meme Oshino, he begins to unravel the strange cases affecting the people around him. Each one is a supernatural malady, yet deeply tied to the human heart.

The Voynich Hotel

Kazuki Taizou, a Japanese tourist with a dark past, arrives at the Voynich Hotel, a rundown resort on a nearly deserted island in the South Pacific. The hotel is owned by former Mexican wrestler Kandre Umeda and run by two mysterious maids, Elena and Beluna, along with a homicidal chef named Amelia. Taizou hopes to lie low, but the island proves stranger than anything he left behind. As he gets drawn into the lives of the hotel's unusual residents and the island's supernatural affairs, he tries to help them, often making his own situation worse. When his past finally catches up with him, his new acquaintances are the only ones he can turn to.