In the near future, due to an unusual rise in criminal activity, it has become legal to possess firearms in Japan so lawful citizens can protect themselves. At the same time, the government established the Recently Armed Police Taskforce, whose methods are exterminating criminals rather than arresting them.

The story opens with Kyohei Tachibana, a student at a culinary arts school with dreams of someday becoming a patissier, motorcycling down an inner city street and becoming caught up in a shoot-out between a mysterious silver-haired woman and a psycho gangster. Kyohei escapes unharmed and ends up working as a cook for Jo, Meg, Amy, and Sei in an effort to gather up enough money to travel to France. The girls, ranging in ages of eleven to nineteen, turn out to be pseudo-mercenary agents for a larger international group known as Bai Lan.

Chronos, an organization bent on world peace, rules one third of the world's economy. To maintain the balance of the world, Chronos is therefore essential, and there is a need for people to protect Chronos. Thirteen special elite assassins each possess unique orichalcum-forged weapons and are called the Chrono Numbers, assassins who work for Chronos. When the thirteenth Chronos Number (Train Heartnet), also known as the infamous Black Cat, meets a Sweeper (licensed bounty hunter) named Saya Minatsuki, Train's morals and values are changed from those of Chronos's to those of his own. Instead of killing his victims like he is ordered to, he merely uses Hades (his orihilcon gun) to stop them instead. This leads to tension between him and the Chronos Elders, the leaders of Chronos, and eventually culminates in Train's departure from the organization. Creed Diskenth, a Chronos assassin, resents the way that Saya changed Train's life, and murders her. Two years later, Train is an easygoing Sweeper, traveling with his partners Sven Vollfied and Eve, when Creed appears before Train once more. Creed, who Train believed dead, now holds awesome power, using ancient spells of Tao, something Chronos believed no longer existed after the War 20 years earlier. Creed, now with followers and power that rival anyone alive, including the numbers, vows to get Train to join him. Train must choose his friends and new life, or revenge, as Creed threatens to undermine Chronos and start his own World Revolution.

The storyline follows Nanoha Takamachi, a nine-year-old Japanese girl attending elementary school, who lives with her parents and her older siblings. Nanoha's regular everyday life ends when she rescues an injured ferret who reveals himself as a young shapeshifting mage named Yūno Scrya. An archaeologist from a parallel universe, Yūno came to Earth to collect a set of twenty-one dangerous ancient artifacts named the "Jewel Seeds" that he first discovered in his own world. Jewel Seeds give living beings who come into contact with them unnatural powers, often turning them into monsters, and Yūno, injured while trying to collect them, must now rely on Nanoha while he convalesces in ferret form. He gives Nanoha an "intelligent device" (magical wand) called "Raising Heart" and she unexpectedly shows strong aptitude for magic. As the two gather the Jewel Seeds, Nanoha learns magic from Yūno while continuing with her ordinary everyday life.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is the general name for a series of light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito, and subsequently adapted into other media. The story follows the title character, Haruhi Suzumiya, a high school girl who can unconsciously change reality, and her strange antics with her school club, the SOS Brigade, which she founded to investigate any mysterious happenings. Haruhi forcibly drafts her cynical classmate Kyon who narrates the series, and similarly recruits three additional members into her club: the silent bibliophile Yuki Nagato, the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, and the friendly "mysterious exchange student" Itsuki Koizumi. These members soon reveal themselves to Kyon as the extraordinary characters Haruhi is seeking, sent by their various organizations to observe her and hold her reality warping powers in check by maintaining the illusion of a normal life.