Misaki and Kōtarō

Summary
Tetsu barges into the Sket Dan's clubroom with a request. He tells them that a childhood friend of his moved away, but he started an email-relationship with her without revealing who he was. This childhood friend now wants to meet up, but Tetsu can't go himself because she doesn't know it's him.

Seeing that the Sket Dan doesn't understand the circumstances, Tetsu reveals the whole story. When he was young, his best friend was a terminally-ill girl named Misaki. Tetsu visited her often and promised to fold a thousand paper cranes for her in pink, the color of sakura flowers. One night, Tetsu took her to see the sakura trees, but Misaki tripped and fell into the river. Her condition worsened, and her father declared Tetsu a curse, never allowing him to visit again. A few months later, Misaki moved away, but Tetsu began to send her emails under an alias--Sakurakōji Kōtarō, a popular honors student. Now that Misaki has returned to her hometown, she wants to meet up with this "Kōtarō."

Bossun ends up posing as Kōtarō to meet Misaki. Himeko, Switch, and Tetsu tag along, instructing him through an earpiece whenever he gives a signal (his 'weird' face, as Himeko calls it). Bossun and Misaki visit key places in the city. Misaki then requests that they go find a time capsule she and her childhood friend, Tecchan, had buried under the sakura trees. Inside was one origami crane, though Tecchan had promised to return every day until there were a thousand. Upon finding the time capsule, they discover that the box is indeed filled with thousands of pink cranes.

Misaki then reveals that she will be leaving for America the next week for a life-or-death operation.