Kagerou Daze III -the children reason-

Kagerou Daze III -the children reason- (カゲロウデイズIII -the children reason-) is the third light novel volume.

Konoha's State of the World

 * Konoha observes his surroundings, but he can't sense the world in any other way. As he "converses" with an unknown being, he watches a girl staggering across a crosswalk as the traffic signal flashes. He tries to push the girl aside, but he merely passes through her body. As he laments his powerlessness, the girl is run over, and a scream is heard. His view of the scene blurs, and then he discovers that his body stopped existing. The unknown being once again speaks to him, telling him that his existence is supported not by himself. Konoha, acknowledging this, makes a requests of the unknown being before wishing to himself that he could reach out to "that girl who kicked my dumb ass all the time."

Kagerou Daze 01

 * Hibiya muses to himself as he rides the bus from school to his home in the country. He expresses his disdain at how his parents see big-city life, and wonders if he could get away with buying himself a cell phone despite not knowing much about them himself. As he wonders who he could ask about getting a cell phone, he thinks of Hiyori.


 * He continues to think about Hiyori and her personality - that she is moody, but very cute and extremely popular with boys her age (Hibiya included). He notes how he himself is the 'ultimate Asahina fan', dismissing the futility of other boys who try to strike up conversation with her. Suddenly, Hibiya is snapped out of his thoughts as the bus reaches its destination. As per his routine, he scrambles to show his bus pass to the driver, but finds that it's missing. He begins to panic, but the driver lets him off, saying that he trusted the boy.


 * When he returns home, Hibiya spends hours finishing his work on sewing a "Talking Hiyori Doll" that he has been working on for more than three months. Inside the doll is a small tape recorder with voice samples of Asahina that Hibiya has collected over the past few weeks. Just as he is about to sew the final stitch into the doll, his mother yells out that he has a phone call. The sudden sound makes him lose his concentration and pierce his sewing needle through the doll, suddenly causing him to imagine a horrific scenario where Hiyori, with a thick iron rod pierced through her, dies in his arms. After he recovers, he answers the phone call, and he is surprised to hear that Asahina is on the other line.


 * Asahina expresses that she has a "business transaction" to discuss with him. She apparently found his missing bus pass in the school hallway, but Hibiya, remembering that an embarrassing picture of Hiyori was in the bus pass, denies his ownership of the pass despite his name being plastered on it. But instead of being disgusted like he expects, Asahina says that she'll "fulfill his passionate feelings" on the condition that they go to the city together without telling their parents during summer vacation. Hibiya, thinking she had seen the image, misunderstands her, but she merely wanted to go in order to get an autograph from a famous 16 year-old idol, who is a student of her older sister's husband.


 * Realizing that the trip is for nothing else but the autograph, Hibiya expresses doubt that she'll fulfill his "wish". Confused, she asks if he didn't want a cell phone, noting the flyer advertisement for a cell phone in his bus pass case. Hibiya, realizing the image wasn't in the bus pass, realizes Hiyori hadn't seen image and that she had been referring to something entirely different to what he was thinking. After he works out the misunderstanding, he quickly agrees to Asahina's request.

Children Record 1

 * Shintaro watches a stretcher loading into an ambulance. He tries to chase after the vechicle for the sake of Ene's desperate request, but concedes that his legs would temporarily be useless due to the fact that he only uses them when he goes to the bathroom. While envisaging to what is up with her mind, he discloses that he will never understand. When he finally reaches the hospital, Ene orders Shintaro to leave his phone with a person he did not know at all. He comprehends that her behavior is ridiculous. Afer reflecting on the confusion of the past two days, he resolves to return to his old life after he got his phone back.


 * The unknown person appears beside Shintaro, surprising him. When Shintaro questions Ene regarding the man, the cyber girl glares at him, which astounds him as he is used to her playful attitude. As Shintaro comments on her mistake and her interfering, Ene snaps at him. Apologizing for being the cause of her attitude, the white haired youth tells Shintaro that when they were talking, Ene told him things like ‘I miss you’ and ‘I thought you were dead’, but he didn't know what she was talking about. After Shintaro returns his attention to Ene, the two fire insults at each other until noises of metal falling could be heard from the examination room. Shintaro rushes into the room, finding the boy who was on the stretcher on the ground.


 * On closer examination, the boy, seeming to be around 11, was struggling to lift himself. Shintaro tries to lend a hand but the effort is in vain as the boy slaps it away. While muttering about trying to get to a girl named Hiyori, the kid escapes the hospital with tears in his eyes but not before sending a deadly glare towards the white-haired man. Arguing boisterously regarding the runaway child, Ene and Shintaro waste precious seconds giving the kid time to get as far away as possible. Shintaro turns to the man, who asks for assistance in chasing the boy, revealed to be Hibiya. The man picks him up, then uses superpowered leaps to find the boy, aggravating Shintaro's stomach. When Shintaro looks up at the man, he is distracted with the man's eye color, which reminds him of the Mekakushi Dan. His attention is returned to Hibiya after Ene's urging.


 * As Hibiya gets away, Shintaro resorts to calling Momo to stop the young boy. After catching to the captured boy, he explains the situation to Momo, allowing to boy to slip out. The boy insults Momo, enraging her, but after being prompted by Shintaro, he explains that a girl might have died. Hibiya then turns to the white-haired man and blames him for watching the girl die but not doing anything. The man tries to explain his inability to help, but he is dazed by the accusations. Hibiya walks off, then collapses, but he is caught by an invisible Kido.


 * Kido explains that the boy had red eyes, which marked an ability acquisition, and that they needed to bring him to the hideout. The man, revealed to be Konoha, is told to come along as the group needed information on the situation. Ene, acting differently, asks Shintaro if they could return home, but is refused. Shintaro questions her behavior, but fails to get at the crux of the matter, and Ene quickly returns to her usual behavior.

Kagerou Daze 02

 * During a train ride to the city, Hibiya is enthralled by the view of the city, much to the annoyance of Hiyori. After an awkward conversation, Hibiya recounts the events before he met up with Hiyori, which included staying up in the hallway to wait for calls from Hiyori and a long negotiation with his parents to allow a trip to the city. He is jolted from his thoughts with a reminder from Hiyori about getting off the train. When they finally get off, Hibiya is surprised by the city and ends up constantly embarrassing himself.


 * When the duo finally reach Hiyori's relative's house, they are greeted by a young, white-haired man. Hiyori immediately develops a crush on the man, and Hibiya, noticing this, angrily questions the man, to which he responds in a way that validates his being in the house. The man introduces himself as Konoha. Hibiya, desperate to turn Hiyori's attention away from Konoha, suggests that Konoha might've been trespassing, but Hiyori, infatuated, refuses to consider Hibiya's statement and proceeds to walk inside. Hibiya, jealous, glares at Konoha as he follows Hiyori into the house.

Children Record 2

 * Sometime before 9 pm at the hideout, the Mekakushi Dan relax after eating dinner. After Kido finishes washing the dishes, she lugs a sleeping Momo off the coach and into another room. Konoha, sitting on coach, falls asleep, and Shintaro, watching him, notes that Hibiya and Ene had some sort of history with him. Shintaro turns to his phone and watches Ene get into a futon. The remaining three conscious members of the group (Kido, Shintaro, and Ene) talk about Konoha and Hibiya before addressing the subject of Hibiya's ability and the group's eye powers. As the mood turns more serious, Shintaro grows more uncomfortable about why he was asking more about the group, thinking that he didn't have anything to do with the Mekakushi Dan. However, he was stopped in his thoughts with the feeling that someone was asking if he was running away again. As he is visibly affected, Kido asks about his state. Shintaro reassures Kido before prompting her to begin her explanation.


 * Kido explains her ability, the 'Concealing Eyes', then reveals her past, her death and a vision of a huge mouth swallowing her, and her ability acquisition. She reveals that her sister, who died with her, had disappeared, and that Kano and Seto had similar situations. Shintaro, remembering Momo, tells Kido that Momo had drowned in the sea with their father, but her father could not be found despite search parties being sent out. Shintaro and Kido piece together that everyone who gained an ability might have been swallowed by a mouth and everyone had died with someone else, who mysteriously disappeared. Shintaro realizes that Hiyori might have disappeared because Hibiya had gained an ability, and remembers that Hibiya had mentioned that Konoha had been there when Hibiya's incident occured. Kido, excited, goes to wake Konoha up, but Shintaro stops her, telling her that they should continue the topic the next day.


 * Kido leaves the coaches for her own room, leaving Shintaro alone. After placing a blanket on Konoha, he searches for a light switch to turn off the lights in the room. Marie walks into the room, suspicious of his actions, but they clear up the misunderstanding, and Marie returns to her room. As Shintaro lies on the sofa in a now dark room, he thinks about his encounter with the Mekakushi Dan, falling asleep.


 * In his dreams, he speaks to an unknown being, different from the one in the beginning of the story. The being asks Shintaro about his new friends, noting how he's been having fun in the past few days. The unknown being then asks Shintaro to say his/her name, to which Shintaro fails to respond.


 * Shintaro jolts up shocked, and surprises Momo with his awakening. Momo turns on the lights, and Shintaro explains that he woke up due to a dream. Momo urges Shintaro to go to sleep, and he agrees, before explaining to Kano that Momo acted differently from how he tried to portray her. Kano deactivates his ability, and Shintaro questions his motives. Kano, dodging the subject, turns away from Shintaro and tells him that he might have been forgetting something important. Shintaro angrily responds, clearly still affected by the dream before, but Kano does not cease his provoking. When Shintaro stands up and turns Kano to face him, the light flickers, and he is greeted with the sight of Ayano.


 * Shintaro starts to break down, and Kano, disguised as Ayano, asks Shintaro if he had forgotten her. Shintaro is overwhelmed, and Kano, as Ayano, gives a farewell. The lights flicker, and Kano is shown to have disappeared. Shintaro, affected heavily, collapses on his hands and knees and cries, thinking about how the events which had just unfolded were his punishment for never reaching out to Ayano when he had the chance. He starts to apologize, despite there being no one in his vicinity that he could apologize to.

Kagerou Daze 03

 * Hiyori and Hibiya visit a cemetery after shopping in a supermarket. Hibiya, heavily affected by Hiyori's diminishing attention toward him, reminisces about how he failed to get a cell phone and was forced to stay with Konoha. Hibiya asks why they were visiting a cemetery, so Hiyori reveals that that day was the anniversary of her sister's death. As they approach the grave, they see a boy clad in black hoodie standing in front of the grave. Hiyori questions the boy, who professes that Hiyori's sister was a major part of his life. After the boy leaves, Hibiya and Hiyori pay their respects. As Hibiya follows the ritualistic tradition, he thinks about how Hiyori's sister was.


 * After they exit the cemetery, Hibiya follows Hiyori to do more shopping. Hiyori buys a gift for Konoha and passes a small box to Hibiya. Hibiya, initially estatic at receiving a gift from her, creeping out Hiyori, opens the box to be greeted by a terrible smell. Hibiya questions Hiyori, which allows him to realize that he was merely being harassed. As they turn toward the road that would lead them home, Hiyori spots a black cat. The duo chase the cat, but when they finally catch up to it in a park, Hibiya notices the crimson red eyes the cat has and senses a primal danger. He warns Hiyori, who in her surprise, lets the cat go. Hiyori, frustrated by losing the cat, starts verbally abusing Hibiya, asking him why he even cared to be worried about her and wishing aloud that she had Konoha with her instead of Hibiya. Hibiya tries to respond by telling her his feelings, but Hiyori, realizing his intentions, walks away.


 * As Hiyori walks away, she encounters Konoha at the park gate, and surprised, she asks him when he had been around them. Konoha hesitantly reveals that he had been around them for a while as he was worried about the two due to them not alerting him where they were going. Hiyori, panicked, asks him if he had heard the earlier conversation with Hibiya, to which he affirms. Hiyori runs from Konoha, out of the park and into the street. Hibiya runs after her, and noticing the red traffic light lit, he desperately tries to warn her. He lunges after Hiyori as a truck advances, but fails to reach her in time.

Involved Characters

 * Ayano Tateyama
 * Ene
 * Haruka Kokonose
 * Hibiya Amamiya
 * Hiyori Asahina
 * Konoha
 * Kousuke Seto
 * Marry Kozakura
 * Momo Kisaragi
 * Shintaro Kisaragi
 * Shuuya Kano
 * Tsubomi Kido

Illustration
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