Team Zero

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.

Dandadan

Momo Ayase is a high school girl who believes in ghosts but thinks aliens are nonsense. By chance, she befriends a boy at school who is obsessed with the occult and UFOs, but rejects the existence of spirits. She nicknames him "Okarun." To settle their argument, they make a bet: Momo visits a spot known for UFO sightings while Okarun heads to a haunted tunnel. Their separate excursions prove both of them wrong, as they discover that aliens and ghosts are very real. The encounter leaves them marked by bizarre powers and throws them into a chaotic world of yokairaqs and extraterrestrial threats. Together, they must deal with the surreal dangers now disrupting their everyday lives while navig

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

Spirit Circle

Fuuta Okeya is a second-year middle school student who can see ghosts. He hides a strange birthmark on his left cheek under a bandage. When Kouko Ishigami transfers into his class, he is immediately drawn to her, but she wants nothing to do with him. After Kouko sees his birthmark, she declares Fuuta her mortal enemy. She claims the mark is a curse she placed on him in a past life and attacks him with a flaming object called the spirit circle. As Fuuta falls, he is thrown into visions of his previous lives. He begins to travel back and forth through his reincarnations, trying to understand the long history of hatred that binds him to Kouko.