Vol 3: Limit, vol 1
Taichi and Kōhei are together to some degree, without a label just yet. Taichi has begun working at Sig-N, a company that trains folks to use sign language. Kōhei is still going to school, studying to become a labor lawyer. The two are supposed to go on a romantic getaway weekend trip, but Taichi gets called away to go on a retreat for his work. His boss is gruff but caring, which makes Kōhei jealous. While Taichi’s away, Kōhei gets a checkup, where he and his doctor talk about his continuing hearing loss. Later, he and his friend Maya sort of stumble upon a group of Deaf athletes playing soccer in a special aparatus . Kohei has a pamphlet of cochlear implants in his bag, which enrages some of the members of the group.
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Nicola is a human girl and a struggling witch, saved by the demon Simon, who now finds herself traveling incognito in the Demon World, where humans aren't allowed. The two of them make a bit of an odd couple as they travel around. Simon peddles trinkets and some possibly fraudulent pieces in his attempt to make a living in what can sometimes be a hostile world. He tells Nicola about the stereotypes in the demon world and she successfully finds beings who buck his stereotype, which encourages Simon to be less judgmental. While searching for rare mushrooms, Nicola finds a little clough and tries to keep him as a pet, but the call to rejoin his kind is stronger than their little bond. In a Demon Hotel, seeing ghosts is thought of as good luck, but that doesn't mean Nicola isn't scared of them.
While watching the news, Takemichi finds out his middle school girlfriend and her brother are killed by by a fierce gang, the Tokyo Manji. He goes about his day, has another horrible time at work, and his on his way back home, he falls onto the subway tracks and gets transported back to his middle-school self. He comes back in time to be jumped into the Tokyo Manji gang with a few of his friends. He runs into Hinata, his girlfriend, and is determined to use this time-jump power to save her. Later, he finds Naoto, Hinata’s little brother, and he becomes connected to Takemichi’s power to time leap between present day and his past. The two of them must work together to stop the gang and save everyone.
Vol 2: Theory of Happiness
After Kōhei kissed Taichi, the two don’t quite know how to act around each other. Taichi is still willing to take notes for Kohei, but then Maya comes along - another hard-of-hearing person who thinks Taichi is just taking advantage of Kōhei and his seemingly endless supply of lunches. Taichi stumbles upon a business called SIGN that helps train people in some basic sign language and works with other companies to be more inclusive, and Taichi’s impassioned plea to not exclude the hard-of-hearing from their company’s work impressed the owner so much that he offers Taichi a job. While he’s mulling over the offer, Taichi realizes he would probably be better off working full time instead of wasting money going through college without direction. But will Kōhei be ok with another note taker? 
Eijun Sawamura and his middle school baseball team fail to win their championship game based on a wild pitch from Eijun. After he recovers from his disappointment, he’s content to head to the local high school with his friends and continue to play baseball with them. Then, Rei Takashima turns up, scouting Eijun for Seido High, a top baseball high school in the country. Eijun feels guilty for leaving his friends behind, but a trip to watch the team practice mostly solidifies Eijun’s decision. He doesn’t make a great first impression on the Coach, however, after showing up late for the first day of practice. The coach gives him an ultimatum to be able to throw a ball over 300 feet or give up pitching all together, and Eijun of course can’t back down from a challenge.
Kaori signs Arima up for his first piano competition in two years, and she coaches/berates him into practicing and getting back to the level he was once at. She tries to get him to put his own emotion into the pieces, but this is something Arima has always struggled with. Similarly, it's time for all the sports tournaments, with Tsubaki competing in softball and Watari competing in soccer. Tsubaki becomes jealous of how close Kaori is to Arima, and she relives some of their childhood memories when she supported him through physical and mental anguish, including carrying him home after he hurt his ankle. She's pleasantly surprised to see Arima come out to support her in her tournament, and even more pleased when he carries her home after she hurts her ankle.
Haruhi attends the prestigious Ouran High School on a scholarship. Most students at this school are from well-to-do families. One day, while trying to find a quiet place to study, Haruhi enters a music room and finds a Host Club, a group of male students who provide companionship, conversation, and flirtation to bored female students. Haruhi accidentally knocks over an $80,000 vase and is forced to work for the Host Club to pay off the debt. The hosts make-over Haruhi and provide an actual school uniform suit, since Haruhi has to get 100 customer referrals in order to pay back the debt. Club "king", Tamaki, takes special interest in Haruhi and delights in piling on the torture and teasing. At some point, Tamaki finds Haruhi's ID, and realizes Haruhi is biologically female, but the Host Club assumed Haruhi was male. Haruhi doesn't care for the gender binary, but is rather more worried about working off the debt and maintaining good grades to keep the scholarship.
This volume picks up at right at the moment Volume 1 ended, which means the recruits are still in the middle of their entrance test. All hell broke loose right at the end as a very powerful kaiju started sabotaging the test and bringing dead monsters back to life. Kafka and Leno come to Kikori’s aid as a humanoid Kaiju takes her to her limit. Kafka transforms in front of her but ultimately saves her life. The test concludes and the recruits get their results - Leno is in as an officer, but Kafka nearly fails. The review panel brings him in as a cadet as some feel he is a hard worker and can provide some comic relief to the squad. Kafka now has to work twice as hard if he’s going to catch up to Captain Mina, his childhood friend.
Kōsei and Kaori head to the competition, despite Kōsei’s incredible nerves. The two begin their competition piece, and all is well for a little bit. There is lot of audience commentary questioning Kōsei being the accompanist instead of the soloist. But, the same problem Kōsei has been experiencing happens during the performance - he can’t hear the piano, the notes disappear from the page, and he becomes lost. They stop their playing, which disqualifies them, but when Kaori starts again, Kōsei plays from the heart and what he remembers the piece to be. The audience still erupts when they’re done, even though they won’t get to move on in the competition. Afterwards, Kaori faints and ends up in the hospital for a few days. As part of her “gift” for leaving the hospital, she tricks Kōsei into agreeing to enter a solo piano competition.
Illustrated by George Schall
A company in Korea specializes in creating “proxies”, life-like robots that have taken the place of some human children for families where conceiving has been difficult. A programmer, in his spare time, has possibly unlocked a key of artificial intelligence. He experiments with one unit and sends it out into the world. As she is later named, Jesse is sent to a family in Texas, where she starts to devour every book in the house, and quickly move on to the library where her mom works. She decides she wants to try going to school and being a “normal” child. Jesse’s innocence quickly gets her swept up with the wrong kids, and she finds herself an accessory to a school shooting. The programmer comes back to reclaim Jesse and raise her as his own daughter, but back in Korea, Jesse struggles with her identity and wanting to not be a girl child. Some short stories are also included that are supposed to bring more to the world of proxies |
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