My Dear Hero/Summary

Preparing for school and taking off from home, Alice and Shino chat about summer weather, bringing up how unpredictable the weather back in England was before Karen joins them. She shows off her summer variation of her normal outfit, and while Alice doesn't care much, Shino is pleased and asks how she got it. Karen claims to have made it (by ripping the sleeves off of her shirt at home). Continuing on, the girls spot Yoko and Aya further ahead to find them discussing how cool the evening is, compared to the warm daytime. They comment on Karen's new summer attire, though they point out that she would probably get into trouble showing up with an outfit like this, so she digs through her items and goes off to change after arriving.

Karen returns with Yoko remarking her "new attire" doesn't look much different than her past one, causing Karen to grow anxious and worrying that she will be told on for it. For the rest of the school day Karen attempts to suck-up to Yoko, much to her confusion.

Once school ends the group discuss the current situation further, with Yoko promising not to rat out Karen. This relieves her, but she grows uneasy after Alice brings up how scary her mom can be when angry. They recall one time when her mother punished Karen by eating a super yummy cake in front of her.

The following day the girls start discussing summer vacation, up until they are reminded that they still have about two months until it comes. Further up is Sakura and Akari, greeting the students as they walk by them into the school area. They comment on how everyone has changed into their summer uniforms, though Sakura asks Akari about her own outfit, which resembles her normal suit. Akari claims it is her summer uniform though, causing Sakura to claim that she'd think she would look better in cute clothes. Akari gives it some thought when she suddenly sees Sakura in a rabbit mascot costume. She found it in a locker and wants to see if she can wear it during hot weather, which Akari finds to be careless. Sakura still wants to try and she pops the head on as they resume greeting children; which seems to go find until Akari realizes Sakura is now on the ground and panics.

After class, Karen gets a text. She reads it before excitely leaving from the classroom, saying bye to Honoka while she runs past her. She heads down to Yoko and Alice's class to inform them that she will be leaving early and takes off, just as Aya and Shino arrive to question what may be going on. Yoko fills them in on the news that her dad got her a necklace she had really wanted, causing Alice to remark how close Karen is with her dad.

To their shock, as evening approaches Alice and Shino find an upset Karen on the other side of the door and invite her inside. Angered she yells in english, which is only understood by Alice until they can get her to calm down. Alice fills Shino in on what happened, saying that Karen got into an arguement with her dad, and now she hates him. Calmed, Karen recalls what happened, with her dad being unable to get her the necklace and not wanting to hurt her, he lied instead. Alice tries to tell her that she can just go and reconcile with her dad, but Karen refuses to go home. She has already called her mom to tell her that she wont be going home for the night, and quickly locates Shino's mom to get permission to stay. Seeing no harm in it, she agrees, though Alice is pretty upset.

They are joined by Isami, who just got home from work. She sees Karen and is informed that she will be staying with them for the time being. Then she watches as Shino gets Karen something to change into, commenting that the dress she chose didn't look good on Shino anyway. With that, Karen offers to just stay in the restroom for the time being to avoid inconviencing anybody.

Everyone sits down for dinner and starts eating while Karen mentions how much she usually just eats western foods; given that her mom is English. She quickly finishes and gets up from the table to help Shino's mom do the dishes, but Alice, feeling envious over this also finishes and proceeds to get up and do the same. As the girls bicker with each other, Isami simply tries to determine where they picked up such a habit.

Later, Shino decides to take advantage of Karen being there by trying to find her two blonde friends to ask them to share the bath with her. But she is horribly depressed after she sees they have already got into the bath and they didn't bother to find her first. Isami points out that the bath isn't big enough for all three of them, but this does little to console her.

After they finish the two blondes tend t their hair when Alice mentions that Karen can take as long as she wants to stay there, but she still believes that she should talk things out. Karen agrees and steps out to call her father, and she is surprised to learn that due to his influences, he was able to find the necklace and get it for her after all. Delighted by the news, Karen quickly shares it with Alice, then calls the others to inform them of the news. Once she finishes, Alice and Shino rejoin her and they all voice delight by the turn of events. Karen claims that it's because of Alice that she was able to fix everything with her dad, then the girls sit down to play a game of cards.

Around ten, Shino is too tired to keep playing and offers to share the bed with Karen. Alice is quick to claim the bed is too small though, stating that Karen moves too much in her sleep. Shino sees no flaw in this however, pointing out that she can put Karen against the wall, so if she gets kicked out of bed, she'll wind up next to Alice. To her it's a win-win, though Alice refuses to take part in this. With that, Karen and and Alice decide to their the bed Alice uses, while Shino keeps her bed and they begin to chat about how much fun they had. Karen promises to let Shino stay at her home in England the next time she goes there, then mentions wanting to invite Yoko and Aya too- even one-hundred people if she wanted. Shino comments on this before turning out the lights and the girls go to bed.

The next morning, Alice awakens to find out that Karen stole her blanket. She chastises her before getting up to try to wake Shino and Karen, but in the process of counting ten more seconds, she passes out within the first. The girls are then woke up by Shino's mom, who shows up right after.

Aya and Yoko make their way to school while discussing Karen's call the night before. They don't get very far before the three show up, and they comment that Karen usually doesn't show up until later, since her house is in the opposite direction. With that, Karen informs Aya and Yoko of what happened the night before.

Later the girls sit down for lunch and Karen decides to talk about her past with Alice. She starts by describing the game they used to love playing, which wasn't house or anything simple, but a game of hero and monsters; which surprises the other three since Alice got to play the hero, as the older of the two. Karen remarks that by now, Alice looks like she should be her little sister, much to her annoyance. It's then Shino brings up that she would like to hear more and Karen thinks about an event that occured after Shino left back for Japan.

One day, Karen came to visit Alice to find her practicing her Japanese writing. Karen comments that she has been doing this a lot lately and claims that because they don't have any lessons with her dad, they don't need to bother with it. She tries to force Alice to come outside and play but Alice refused. Frustrated, Karen attempted to think of a way to get her to play with her when she recalled owning a Japanese Game. She ran back home to go and get it, knowing Alice would want to play.

Later on in the day, Alice has finished her writing practice. She gets up and checks around the house but is surprised when she doesn't see Karen. She asks her mom, who tells her that Karen stormed out a while earlier but she never came back. Worried over Karen, Alice runs out of her house and tries to find her. She keeps going, only to spot Karen's shoe on the ground, held by a cat who happened to find it. Alice grabbed the shoe while panicking and unknowingly ran past Karen while calling out for her.

From the bridge Alice was on Karen lays unconcious on the grass hill to the side of it. She slowly awakens to see where she is and tries to figure out how she ended up there, recalling that she had decided to walk on top of the bridge. She got distracted by the cat and when she turned to get a good look at it she slipped and lost one of her shoes. Pained, Karen sits up to see how battered she is and tries to get up, only to panic as she realizes she might have broken her ankle.

As the time goes by, Karen sits while thinking about Alice. She starts to think that she doesn't care about her, only thinking about Japan lately and obsessing over it. But to her surprise she happens to hear Alice overhead, but she is unable to call for her after she tries to stand up again, forgetting about her ankle. She forces herself up as much as she can, using a nearby brick wall for support and tries to call for Alice as she runs by again. Trying to get her attention, Karen thinks about an all-purpose word used by the Japanese that Alice taught her and starts to yell it out, which catches Alice's attention. She runs back to the bridge and is horrified to find her, but relieved. She ran off to get help and she soon returned after with some help from their parents.

Karen ends the story by bringing up how Alice left for Japan right after that, effectively bringing down the mood. Alice claims that she tried to tell Karen, but she was away on a trip at the time and was not able to, causing Karen to taunt her by calling her reckless. However, she knows she shouldn't talk since she forced herself to learn enough Japanese so that she could join Alice in Japan.

Later, Alice is surprised to see that Karen has bandaging on her ankle and foot. She worries until they explain it was an accident during PE. While reassured, Alice still worries a little and she decides to walk home with her to make sure she is okay. Shino wishes to join, though Yoko stops her by saying they need the time alone.

As they walk, Karen claims that Alice is still her hero, and Alice gets fussy, insisting she's the big sister. Karen asks what Shino may be then, and Alice claims she is a hero to them both.

After thirty minutes Alice arrives home and she overhears Shino on the phone. She approaches to hear her talking to a search group, describing Alice's physical features in a panic. Alice attempts to catch her attention, worried over what she is doing.

In a flashback, Alice and Karen are going to play their game again. Karen asks to play the role of Hero this time, since she is tired of always being the monster, and Alice agrees. But in her attempt at defeating Alice, she accidentally hits Alice's mother, causing them to both get chased by her while they yell out that she is a monster and apologize several times.