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.

Vol 4: Seasons of Mist, illustrated by Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner, Dick Giordano, George Pratt, P. Craig Russell
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We open up on the Garden of Destiny, who is visited by the Three Fates. He is unsettled by what they reveal, so he calls the rest of his family to a meeting: Despair, Desire, Delirium, Death, and Dream. The family chides Dream for his short temper, particularly in the case of his former lover, Nada, who he condemned to torment in Hell for not agreeing to become his queen. He eventually sees their side, and decides to re-enter Hell to free Nada. This might be the end of him, as Lucifer told him so on their last encounter. He says his goodbyes and readies his kingdom, but when he enters Hell, he finds it eerily empty. Lucifer meets up with him and tells him he’s let all the demons go, he’s released all the tortured, and the dead have gone back to wherever they came from. He gives the Key to Hell to Dream and peaces out, knowing the possession of the key is going to make Dream’s life miserable. Shortly thereafter, hosts of deities show up at Dream’s castle, all with a claim to the Key to Hell.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll Do Anything to become a Librarian! Part 1: If there aren't any books, I'll just have to make some!, illustrated by Suzuka
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Myne continues her quest to make paper and books even though her first several experiments have failed miserably. This time, she wants to try making washi, a traditional paper method in Japan. She enlists the help of her friend Lutz, and she repays him by getting him an introduction with Mr. Otto. Lutz wants to become a traveling merchant, and Mr. Otto used to be, but instead, Otto brings along Mr. Benno, who is a merchant in town. Benno sees talent and wants to make both kids his apprentices when they are baptized in the next year, but their test will be to make paper and make him lots of money.

Senzou the black fox was a terribly powerful bakemono - a magical beast - but he was finally brought down by the sun goddess and a legion of wolves. He was imprisoned for 300 years while the goddess siphoned his power away. Now, he’s been released, and he must serve out his penance: raise a little tanuki to be a good servant of the gods, or be constantly tormented by a magical pearl necklace that delivers pain kind of like a shock collar. In addition to raising the tanuki, whom he calls Manpachi, the pair must help 8 million gods with whatever problems they have.

Tetsuo is starting to lose control on his power, and it's causing his body to bulge and grow exponentially. Kaneda and Kaisuke pilot a modified robot with lots of guns on it; Joker pilots his flying scooter also with lots of guns; Kei has been imbued with the power of Lady Miyako, Kiyoko, and Masaru; The American soldiers arrive and use an airborne chemical to take out anyone with psychic powers; and Kaori continues to worry about Tetsuo's state, but is powerless to help him. As Tetsuo is attacked from the multiple fronts, his body expands to absorb the bullets, Kei's psychic attacks, and the America's poison gas. The Americans also start to drop bombs on the city from their jets. Tons of destruction rains all around our characters as they have a final psychic showdown that pulls in Kaneda and Kei, threatening to wipe them from existence.

Twilight intrudes upon a private moment between his target, Donovan Desmond, and his son, Damien, but plants the seed of recognition. After that chapter, we get some glimpses into the lives of the other characters. We follow Yuri, Yor's brother, on a secret police mission to apprehend a journalist who is spreading lies about the country. We get a pretty hilarious chapter featuring Bond, where he has a premonition that he will die in several different was (one of which is if he eats Yor's cooking). There's also one chapter dedicated to Damien and his friends as they experience some of the wilderness of Eden Academy. In another chapter, Yor and Franky try to find a missing cat, which obviously gets more intense than it needs to. In the end, the Thorn Princess (Yor's assassin name) is given a job on a cruise ship, the same voyage Anya happens to score free tickets on, so the whole Folger Family is off on a vacation where they'll continue to try not to blow their cover in front of one another.

Hideki and Minoru use all the tricks they know to find who kidnapped Chi. They’re sent a cryptic photo that turns out to be a map of a neighborhood of Tokyo, and the search leads them to the house of a user named Dragonfly who posts on the same forums as Minoru. He has Chi plugged into several other persocoms, but the attempt to break her defenses backfires, and he ends up strung up by wires. Hideki takes the man’s laptop persocom as proof that he kidnapped Chi, and Dragonfly becomes fairly cooperative. Hideki and Chi return to the bakery, and they are unknowingly followed and observed by Yumi, a girl who used to work there and was in love with the bakery’s owner, Ueda. After running away and being chased down by Hideki, she tearfully reveals that Ueda used fo be married to a persocom, and the thought of him comparing their relationships makes her distraught.

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.

Based on Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka

Geischt chats with one of the other seven deadliest robots, a young boy robot name Atom. Geischt is there to warn him about the deadly attacks and murders, but Atom thinks he can help the investigation. He asks Geischt for his memory chip and becomes entangled in the investigation of the murder of Dr. Junichiro Tasaki, a professor of law who was instrumental in writing and passing the Robot Laws. Atom discovers that, in his final moments, Dr. Tasaki was trying to contact Professor Ochanomizu, a man who was on the Survey team into Persia with Dr. Tasaki before the war broke out. The group was tasked with finding the deadly Persian robot army, but found nothing, and its remaining members also seem to be targets as well as the deadly robots.

Illustrated by Hikaru Uesugi

Deadpool takes a trip to Japan and becomes deputized by Captain America to protect Japan from the evil-doers there. Immediately, we get a Spider-Man stand-in, Sakura Spider, and later, another Venom-type symbiote who achieved stasis with a super popular Idol named Neiro. Neiro affectionally calls her symbiote Kage (Japanese for Shadow), but he seems to not want nicknames nor to get attached to anyone. Through plenty of fourth-wall breaks and lots of references to other manga and anime series, Deadpool and his two compatriots try to thwart the plans of the supervillain Loki.