Volume 1 (Novel)

Otherside Picnic: Their Strange Exploration Files (裏世界ピクニック　ふたりの怪異探検ファイル) is the first novel in the Otherside Picnic series. It was released in Japanese on February 23, 2017 and September 23, 2019 in English. The series is written by Iori Miyazawa and illustrated by shirakaba.

Synopsis
Her first encounter with Toriko Nishina was on the Otherside after seeing "that thing" and nearly dying.

Ever since that day, exhausted university student Sorawo Kamikoshi's life changed. In this Otherworld, full of mystery, which exists alongside our own, dangerous beings like the Kunekune and Hasshaku-sama that are spoken of in real ghost stories appear. For research, for profit, and to find an important person, Toriko and Sorawo set foot into the abnormal.

A tale of two girls' bizarre exploration and survival, brought to you by an up-and-coming Sci-fi author!

Chapters

 * File 1: Kunekune Hunting
 * File 2: Hasshaku-sama Survival
 * File 3: Station February
 * File 4: Time, Space, and a Middle-aged Man

Additional Content

 * Works Referenced (Vol. 1)

File 1: Kunekune Hunting
Broad Chapter Summary: Sorawo meets Toriko on the Otherside. They defeat a Kunekune and recover a strange artifact from it. A week later, they return to hunt Kunekune for more artifacts, and though Sorawo nearly goes insane in the process, they succeed.

Characters in order of appearance: Sorawo, Toriko, Kunekune, Elevator Girl, Skittering Clawed Creature

Locations: Kunekune marsh, Oomiya gate, Saitama university, Jinbouchou gate, Interstitial Space

Summary of Parts:


 * 1) Sorawo Kamikoshi is rescued from drowning by Toriko Nishina after an encounter with a Kunekune, a creature which is said to drive you mad by observing it. Toriko defeats it by throwing rock salt at it.
 * 2) Sorawo and Toriko, back on the surface, discuss the Otherside, Toriko's missing friend Satsuki, whom she is looking for, and the artifact dropped by the Kunekune. The gate mysteriously closes, with a field of ultra-blue.
 * 3) Toriko convinces Sorawo to hunt Kunekune for profit. They go through a gate using a Jinbouchou elevator, and Toriko gives Sorawo a gun.
 * 4) Sorawo and Toriko discuss the Otherside and trust. Toriko says that the two of them are accomplices, and thus share the closest relationship in the world. They discover a strange corpse, and a kunekune attacks.
 * 5) The salt and guns don't work on the Kunekune, and Sorawo realizes that she needs to stare at it to defeat it. In the process, she nearly goes insane, but is rescued by Toriko, then they successfully defeat the Kunekune.

File 2: Hasshaku-sama Survival
Broad Chapter Summary: Sorawo and Toriko discover that they've gained powers from the Kunekune. They meet Kozakura and talk about Satsuki, who's missing. Searching for her on the Otherside, they discover glitches, and then they are lured into a trap by Hasshaku-sama, who they must defeat with their mutated hand and eye.

Characters in order of appearance: Sorawo, Toriko, Kozakura, Abarato, Hasshakusama

Locations: Saitama University, Kozakura's house, Jinbouchou gate, Glitch Fields, Hasshaku's building, Chichibu

Summary of Parts:


 * 1) Toriko confronts Sorawo at university and reveals that Sorawo's eye has turned bright blue, while Toriko's fingers have become translucent. They plan to visit an Otherside researcher to examine the changes to their bodies.
 * 2) The girls meet Kozakura, who tells them that they've had an encounter of the fourth kind.
 * 3) Kozakura and Toriko talk about their missing friend Satsuki, who introduced them both to the Otherside but went missing a few months ago. Kozakura buys the mirror cube but doesn't know how to treat the mutations. Toriko wants to go searching for Satsuki with Sorawo.
 * 4) Sorawo and Toriko go to the Otherside, and come across a man who saves them from being caught in an invisible trap.
 * 5) The man calling himself Abarato reveals he's searching for his missing wife Michiko. Toriko sympathizes with him.
 * 6) Abarato shares his experiences and conspiracy theories about the Otherside. He and Toriko spot "footprints" heading towards a building, both suspecting it may be Michiko or Satsuki, and make their way over there.
 * 7) Sorawo realizes the footprints aren't human at all, and the three come across a very tall woman in a white dress, who Sorawo recognizes as Hasshaku-sama. Her blue eye, however, sees her as a strange construct emitting ultrablue light, which swallows up Abarato. Toriko then begins heading towards it, and it's revealed that this was an illusion- Toriko was behind Sorawo all along. Guns don't work on Hasshakusama, and Sorawo realizes that they need Toriko to touch the ultrablue light to defeat her. As she's defeated, she drops her hat and transports the girls to Chichibu on the surface.

File 3: Station February
Broad Chapter Summary: Unarmed at an afterparty, Sorawo and Toriko find themselves in the Otherside at night, and take refuge with a military battalion trapped on the Otherside. During a battle, their mutations are discovered, and they manage to flee to the surface.

Characters in order of appearance: Toriko, Sorawo, Waiter, Walking Gallows, Face Dogs, Lt Drake, Horned Man, Sgt Maj Greg, Palehorse Battalion, Maj Ray Barker, Kozakura, Killer Apes

Locations: Shinjuku Pub, Wild Things Territory, Train Tracks, Station February, Kozakura's house

Summary of Parts:


 * 1) Sorawo and Toriko catch up on their recent adventures while drinking in a Shinjuku pub. Toriko dons Hasshaku's hat briefly.
 * 2) Things begin seeming strange in the pub. As they walk through Shinjuku, things seem stranger and stranger, until the two discover they've arrived in the Otherside.
 * 3) The girls survey the situation. Toriko spots a scary-looking monster approaching them.
 * 4) Fleeing the monster, and some strange face-dogs, the girls discover train tracks, and are rescued by Marines from Palehorse Battalion.
 * 5) The marines introduce themselves and take Sorawo and Toriko to Station February, their base.
 * 6) Kisaragi Station's lore is explained, and the girls meet the commander of the unit, who are stranded due to a high density of glitches in the area.
 * 7) Sorawo and Toriko manage to call Kozakura, but the call begins to become twisted, and activity begins occuring at the station. Lt Drake cautions the pair that a battle is starting.
 * 8) Sorawo and Toriko watch over the battle's beginning. Sorawo recognizes the monster attacking, and manages to defeat it, but her blue eye is exposed and discovered. The trigger-happy Marines begin to turn on them, and they flee to the station and find a gate on the incoming train. After a scary sight of monstrous apes, the girls black out.
 * 9) Sorawo reawakens at Toriko's call, and they find themselves back on the surface near Kozakura's house. They check in on her to ensure her safety, and discover the call was weird but in the other direction.

File 4: Time, Space, and a Middle-Aged Man
Broad Chapter Summary: Toriko goes into the Otherside, and Kozakura is dragged in with Sorawo to look for her, leading to a close encounter with something pretending to be Satsuki.

Characters in order of appearance: Sorawo, Kozakura, Toriko, Time-space man, Doppelganger (image and real), Satsuki (image and illusion), Middle Aged Women, Kunekune, Windmill Woman

Locations: Otherside, Pub, Toriko's apartment, Interstitial Space, Kozakura's house, Kunekune marsh, Jinbouchou gate, Flower Village Glitch, Deep Otherside

Summary of Parts:


 * 1) Sorawo and Kozakura are standing among the Otherside. Before that, Sorawo and Toriko had an argument due to Sorawo not wanting to continue searching for Satsuki.
 * 2) Sorawo receives Toriko's address from Kozakura, and goes to check in on her, only to encounter a series of strange phenomena, including Toriko's apartment being filled with ultrablue.
 * 3) Sorawo recognizes the phenomena as the "Time-space man" story, and discovers strange pictures on her phone, appearing as evidence that Toriko went to the Otherside alone. Sorawo resolves to go there to retrieve her.
 * 4) Kozakura refuses to accompany Sorawo to the Otherside. Strange women appear at Kozakura's house, demanding to be let in, and a gate appears and sucks Sorawo and Kozakura into the Otherside.
 * 5) Kozakura tells Sorawo that she's very suscepible to fear, and Sorawo casually recounts her disastrous backstory. Kozakura informs Sorawo that Toriko's parents were soldiers from Canada.
 * 6) As the two traverse the kunekune marsh, a number of Kunekune appear, and are defeated. They hear two gunshots from Toriko, off in the distance.
 * 7) Kozakura discusses the strange cognitive effects of the Otherside, including the twisting of language recognition.
 * 8) Sorawo overcomes her fear to climb the Jinbouchou gate's ladder alone, and spots Toriko in the distance. Mysteriously, Kozakura wanders off without her shotgun.
 * 9) Sorawo follows Kozakura into a large but apparently harmless glitch, where she encounters the Time-space man again. Her eye reveals a flood of strange plants, and Kozakura appears before her some time later. Kozakura refuses to head back home alone, as night falls.
 * 10) Sorawo "shifts" Kozakura into a plant to keep her safe and contemplates the nature of this glitch. She follows her doppelganger to Toriko's apartment, where she finds Toriko being tricked by a strange windmill-like woman that looks like Satsuki to Sorawo's left eye. Toriko begins vanishing into the Ultrablue, and Sorawo shoots the windmill woman. The two reconcile and talk as they begin the journey home.