Kagerou Daze -in a daze-

Kagerou Daze -in a daze- (カゲロウデイズ -in a daze-) is the first light novel volume of the project.

Kagerou Daze I (カゲロウデイズI Kagerō Deizu I)

 * In the midst of the world that has turned black and white, in tears, Hibiya stands by Hiyori's blood-covered body that is sprawled on the ground, refusing to admit the death of his friend. Within the loud voices of the cicadas, the swaying heat haze stands close, seemingly laughing at him. All he can do is to tell her, even though it is too late, that he had loved her.

Jinzou Enemy (人造エネミー Jinzō Enemī)

 * Shintaro Kisaragi, an 18-year-old hiki-NEET, is awoken by the sound of sirens on August 14th at 3AM, falling off his bed and hitting his shin on his side table in shock. Ene, a cyber girl living in Shintaro's computer, bursts into laughter, informing him that she was the one who set up the alarm. While working on creating a song to post on a certain video-sharing website, he narrates how Ene was downloaded onto his computer and the annoyance she is to him in his mind. Shintaro realizes that Ene had changed his passwords yet again as a prank. As Ene continues to tease him, he accidentally spills his soda onto his keyboard and mouse in despair, breaking them. However, because Obon is taking place, none of the stores that sell replacements will deliver for at least two days. Desperate, he leaves to buy the replacements in person, much to Ene's surprise, and she tags along in his cell phone as he leaves his room for the first time in two years.


 * After some lighthearted banter with Ene, Shintaro reaches the department store, where he accidentally bumps into Kido, only to express confusion when she disappears almost instantly. He shrugs it off and continues on to the electronics department of the store when a loud explosion goes off and security shutters lock down the building. A group of terrorists take the shoppers (Shintaro included) hostage by gathering them, binding their hands with tape and demanding a ransom of 1 billion yen from the police. Next to Shintaro, Kano chuckles and asks him if he has a plan to escape if he got the chance. Shintaro confirms that he does, and Kano informs him that an opportunity will come up soon. Annoyed with Kano's carefree attitude about the situation, Shintaro's voice raises to a volume that catches the terrorists' attention. While their attention is on him, a line of display TV models drop to the floor seemingly on their own. Taking this as the "opportunity" that Kano told him about, Shintaro slips away while the terrorists are distracted and plugs Ene into one of the computers in the PC electronics section.


 * Suddenly, Shintaro is struck in the ribs by an unseen force and passes out. After an undisclosed amount of time, he wakes up on a bed in a room full of books, unable to find his phone. He bolts up from his bed suddenly, frightening Marry in the process, who was taking care of him while he was unconscious. In the commotion, Kido, Kano and Momo (carrying Shintaro's phone with Ene inside) enter the room. Momo scolds him and Kido briefly states that they brought him to that room to avoid any trouble. The chapter ends with Shintaro smiling slightly, saying that "their long, long August 15th had begun".

Kagerou Daze II (カゲロウデイズII Kagerō Deizu II)

 * Hiyori states that she experiences the same moments in her dreams over and over again, walking in the the same park, and talking about the same things with Hibiya, but every time he dies in the end, then the dream ends up repeating itself. She notes that she used to talk about her dreams to him, but decided to stop as it was pointless. At 12:30pm, she offers for them both to return home, grabbing his hand to which he blushes at, which she finds quite uncomfortable yet inevitable. Thinking about how she hates the noisy cicadas, the swaying heat haze, and summer itself, she looks up, as an iron pole comes down towards her.

Kisaragi Attention (如月アテンション Kisaragi Atenshon)

 * While rushing to school, Momo counts the number of people who tries to take up conversations with her. She states that she would have saved time if she took the path that most students used to go to school. While walking through the deserted shopping district, the street becomes more lively due to her being there. As the streets were finally overflowing with people, Momo flees to a smaller lane. She glances at her watch, estimating that she had enough time to make it to school before the gate closes. However, Momo realizes the naivety of her thoughts when a man standing at the back of a line at the bus stop raises his voice, which results to everyone's simultaneously staring at her. She glances at the clock that hangs above the bus station; her face taking a pale like appearance, and she cries out in discontent.


 * When Momo finally reaches her school at 9:10 am on the 14th of August, the school gates have been shut. Her agent, who helped her escape from the crowd before, disciplines her, despite her efforts to explain. She then tells her manager that she needs to get going, as she might miss her supplementary classes. Just as she is about to reach the break in the gate, the chime begins to ring, signaling the 10-minute break before the second period of supplementary classes starts. Momo then jogs to the faculty and staff entrance, disclosing her reason through an intercom to enter the school at that hour. She states that the lady clerk's voice might have been the person she talked to the most at school. As the gate opens, Momo proceeds to walk to the staff room.


 * There, she meets with Mr. Tateyama, who scolds her for her terrible test results. She complains, stating that she had 'put in effort', only to be chided by Mr. Tateyama again for her ludicrously thought-out answers. She thinks about her life as an idol, and that, strangely enough, could catch the 'attention' of others easily. She apologizes after being informed that there will be a re-testing the week after, and mistakenly states that she would be on her way for her supplementary classes. However, she is told by Mr. Tateyama that because the Obon festival is coming up, there will not be any classes in the following 3 days.
 * As she exits, she attracts the attention of three girls, who quickly leave. Worrying that they were laughing at her, she buys a drink from a vending machine, refreshes herself, then examines her schedule as an idol for the day. Think about her idol activities for the day, she disposes of her drink, then leaves the school grounds.


 * After leaving her school, she changes into her regular street clothes so as to not draw attention, but this fails, and the surrounding people quickly take notice of her. As the crowd quickly grows larger, she tries to escape, and a hand pulls her out of a crowd. She takes this chance and runs away from the crowd, but she hits a dead end. There, her frustrated manager calls her, but Momo abruptly tells her that she couldn't take it and quits. She starts to cry, but to her surprise, a girl appears out of nowhere. Momo, misunderstanding the girl's intentions, tells the girl that she quit her idol job, which only confuses her. The girl, having her own agenda, leads Momo into a room, which leads Momo into believing that the girl was a TV producer trying to drag Momo back into her life as an idol.


 * At the room, Momo meets a boy named Kano, who explains the group and what Momo was being pulled into. Momo, confused, questions them, which leads Kido, the girl, to ask Kano what was going on, as she believed Momo was someone else. Kano reveals that he lied to Kido about a new member, which starts an argument. Momo, confused, interrupts the arguments and asks if they weren't TV producers. Kano and Kido quickly deny that they were involved with TV, so Momo asks if she could leave. As they had revealed everything about their organization, Kido and Kano decline. As they converse even more and clear up the misunderstanding, the group discovers that Momo herself has an ability, which causes her to attract large amounts of attention. Kano offers that if she joins the group, the Mekakushi Dan, they could help her suppress her powers, and after Kido displays her ability of concealment, Momo accepts.


 * As they converse, another girl, Marry, peeks in timidly from a door. After being noticed, Marry closes the door and seemingly runs off. Kido opens the door, and Marry is revealed to be still there. After some convincing from Kido, Marry comes into the room and introduces herself. Unable to handle conversations, she runs off to make tea. When she returns, she trips and spills tea over Momo, who was using her cell phone to explain the situation she was in to her manager, spilling the tea on her cell phone as well. The chapter ends with Momo, drenched in tea, exclaiming that she would do her best for the Mekakushi Dan.

Kagerou Daze III (カゲロウデイズIII Kagerō Deizu III)

 * Hibiya reminisces about how his ordeal begins and remembers how he was supposed to go to Hiyori's relative's house, but since he experienced the cycle over and over again, he is rather indifferent about it, not caring enough to remember most of the details.


 * While in his thoughts, someone speaks to him and tells him to follow him, commenting about their eyes. Hibiya, confused, is told to "never forget about [that day]."

Mekakushi Chord (メカクシコード Mekakushi Kōdo)

 * Momo, after getting drenched in tea, is in the shower, thinking about how unusual the circumstances were. After she comes out of the shower, Kido, Kano, Marry, and Momo decide to go to the department store to buy Momo a new phone and Marry a new tea set (it had broken just a little before). Before they leave, Kano teases Marry over her socks, and out of anger, Marry activates her ability and freezes Kano. After Kano unfreezes, Kido promptly knees him. After Marry heads to her room to switch socks, Kido explains to Momo that Marry was actually part Medusa.


 * As they head to the department store, Kido uses her ability to hide the group as a countermeasure against Momo's ability and Marry's nervousness of being outside. As they walk toward the store, Kano tells the group to stop for a bike, despite it being highly improbable for him to be able to spot the bike from his apparent viewpoint (it is later revealed that he was using his ability to show an apparent calm facade to the group while in actuality, he was on lookout). At the entrance to the store, Momo notices her brother, and in her surprise, she trips and falls into Kido. Kido, losing her balance, falls into Shintaro, who nervously apologizes to her. Embarassed, she hurries the group into the store complex and goes up to the seventh floor, while convincing herself that she and Shintaro wouldn't have anymore meetings. Much to her dismay, she sees her brother come into the same floor of the same store.


 * After separating from Kano, Kido, Momo, and Marry walk an unusual customer with a backpack. Kido notices guns and explosives in the man's backpack and tells the other two that they should escape. However, before they could react, they hear a gunshot ring out and see the iron shutters of the store close. They notice the other customers and employees herded into a group as hostages, but since Kido had concealed them, the terrorists did not notice them. Momo, realizing her brother was in the crowd, starts crying. Suddenly, the Kido's phone rings out, and after inspecting it, Kano had sent them a text with a ridiculous picture. Momo, with her mind cleared, questions how Kano was able to send that picture despite being tied up. Kido promptly explains that Kano was using his Deceiving Eyes ability to disguise himself. Momo, remembering their respective abilities, formulates a plan to defeat the terrorists.


 * As the group approaches the terrorist group, Momo notices Marry holding a hand massager and tells her to return it. Marry goes back to return it, trips over the wire, and accidentally sends the device flying to the back of a terrorist's head. The terrorist flies into a rage and starts punishing the other terrorists. As this occurs, Kano sends the trio another text regarding how Shintaro had a plan himself but needed a chance. The trio, deciding to do so, make their way to the TV sets on the opposite side of the terrorists, with the hostages in between them. After they get there, Momo sees Shintaro being picked up by a terrorist and starts to panic. Marry forcefully reassures her, and immediately, Momo's ability reacts, giving her information about where everyone in the room were looking. Momo leads them behind a TV set and times the push so that the toppled television would draw everyone's eyes toward the set. They start pushing more objects over until they reach they shelf behind the terrorist leader, which they topple over the terrorist.


 * Shintaro sprints toward a computer past her and plugs in his phone so Ene could deactivate the shutters. A gunshot rings out, but their concern was unneeded as the shot was a graze. As the shutters open, Momo uses her ability to draw the crowd's and the terrorists' eyes toward her. Immediately, Marry activates her ability to lock them in place. After the attack is dealt with, they escape with the unconscious Shintaro to avoid questioning. The chapter closes with Momo stating that she would never forget this August 14th.

Epilogue (エピローグ Epirōgu)

 * The chapter starts with Shintaro summarizing the events that had happened in the morning, which are how he met the Mekakushi Dan. The timeline then switches to present-day, while the Mekakushi Dan is walking home from a day at the amusement park. As they cross a road, they spot a crowd gathering in the front of a park. Curious, the gang creeps closer to see what is happening. In the middle lays a young boy on the ground and another, older one, sits next to him. Knowing they cannot do anything, the gang passes without too much notice. However, Shintaro notices how Ene, with a shocked face, recognizes the sitting boy and mumbles, a name: Konoha. Shintaro looks down and asks what she said. When he looks up again, he sees an ambulance picking up the young boy and the other following. As the ambulance leaves, Ene tells Momo to hurry and follow the car. Some confusion goes between Momo and Shintaro, before the novel ends.

Afterword: A Story that Makes You Want to Cover Your Eyes (~あとがき『目覆いたくなるような話』~)

 * To be added.

Illustrations
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Trivia

 * The English digital release came out May 19, 2015, a week before the physical release.