This story is told from the perspective of the mother of two young sons, narrated as if she is writing a letter or a diary entry, possibly to their father. The older of the two sons, who is in high school, constantly "slips up" and mentions things that makes the mom think he's gay. He will say things like "when I get a boyfriend -- I mean girlfriend!" The mom records their interactions as she tries to piece together who her son may have a crush on. She also wonders how the younger son feels and if he has put it together yet or not. The father isn't home much because of his job, but the mom wonders how the dad would react to knowing his oldest is gay. In the end, the mom hopes her son will tell her when he's ready, but she decides not to pry or force him to admit anything he isn't ready for.

Chise and Alice Christmas shop in London, and both are stuck when it comes to finding a present for their masters. While walking around, they run into two men from Alice’s past, which prompts Alice to share some of her tragic backstory with Chise. When Chise returns home, she finds Elias is fairly miffed about her leaving without asking, but it turns out, he has been keeping tabs on her through her necklace and a contraption that can see her but not hear anything.  Chise initially admonishes Elias for spying on her and not trusting her, but she comes to understand his fears for her safety and wellbeing.

Sakura continues to collect Clow cards with her fabulous outfits, only in this volume, she has a rival: Syaoran, a transfer student from Hong Kong who seems to hate Sakura right off the bat. Kero figures out that Syaoran is a descendant of Clow on his mother’s side, and thinks he has a claim over Clow’s cards and magic. However, since Sakura released the deck, Syaoran can’t collect the cards on her behalf. Some of the cards in this volume are more difficult to capture. Sakura runs into an entirely different card - one that she has to call by its name in order to capture. There’s also another thing about Syaoran - he also seems to like Yukito, making him Sakura’s rival for magic and love.

In the beginning, there was the World Flower, spouting planets and stars into existence like pollen. On one of these planets (Earth) is the hive in which we find ourselves. In it, Dvorah is capping the cell of young larva Nyuki, who is scared of metamorphosis and what the rest of life will mean for her. After metamorphosis, Nyuki emerges as an adult bee but is rather scared of the outside world. That is going to work out poorly because there is a new queen in the colony, which means the old queen must lead some of the colony away to a new site. Dvorah is going, and Nyuki must decide. It turns out, Nyuki loves flying, but there are many perils of the outside world, including praying mantis, spiders, and birds! As Nyuki grows up, she finds a special flower with the best nectar and helps cross-pollinate it with a flower across the field. Nyuki inspires a younger forager, Melissa, to become a great forager for the colony.

Hana is a precocious young girl who doesn’t usually do as she’s told and has many adventures with her friends. First, Hana prepares her emergency “rations” of choco-puffs, which she leaves at her school. When a typhoon hits her town, she takes her cat down to her school to retrieve the rations in the storm. In another adventure, Hana and her friend sit in an abandoned VW Bug, when a dam breaks and carries them downstream to the sea. Later, Hana gets stuck in a hammock and her friends have to get her out before a corporation, bent on reclaiming some derelict fields, torch the whole place and Hana along with it.  

Volume 13 starts off giving us insight into how Scar ended up running away with a (seemingly) unconscious Winry from the end of volume 12. Ed and Al hatched a plan to get Scar, Dr. Marcoh, and everyone else back to Fort Briggs safely without drawing the attention of Kimbley. A heavy snow storm covers the groups’ tracks and they slowly make their way back while the two Elric brothers try to steal Kimbley off their tracks. Then, Central Command pulls Major General Armstrong away, removing the fierce ally in the Fort that should be protecting the fleeing group. Alphonse trudges through the snow storm to warn them, but he falls victim to an odd sensation - the sense that his physical body is pulling his soul out of the armor. Later, we delve into Van Hohenheim’s backstory, and how he’s tangled up with the Father of the Homunculi.

Naho is a typical girl in Grade 11, with a solid friend group and all the worries of a high-school student: passing tests, what the future holds, boys, etc.  One day, she receives a letter, from what claims to be her future self, warning her about what's happening in her life and trying to steer her away from bad choices.  The letter comes just as new student Kakeru joins the class and her friend group.  As the things. in the letter start to happen, Naho has no choice but to believe her "future self" and try to make up for regrets and missed opportunities that haven't happened yet.  To further tangle things, Takano also embeds chapters from the friends' future selves, and more clues as to what lies in store are revealed.

Shirayuki is proceeding with her duties as a court herbalist despite the fact that Prince Zen's older brother, Izana disapproves of their friendship.  Shirayuki is also dismayed to learn that the prince of Tanbarun, the guy who ran her out of her own country, is coming for a royal visit! She tries desperately to keep out of his way and Zen tries to keep the prince away from Shirayuki.  At one point, Izana tries to get the prince to take Shirayuki back with him, but remembering Zen's threat in the woods in the first volume, the prince declines.  The two do come face to face eventually, and Shirayuki stands up for herself and her friendship with Zen.  Later, Zen tries to settle a dispute between a lord and his subjects, stemming from the nobility hunting special birds the villagers hand raise and train for their livelihoods.   

The cells are still hard at work, this time against a few different attackers. First, the blood cells have to fight off food poisoning from bacteria but also a tape worm hidden inside sushi, and it threatens to break through the stomach wall! Next, the body undergoes heat stress, which makes it difficult to fight off bacteria, especially ones that have their own heat protection. Red Blood Cell gets lost on a delivery (again) and finds herself in the Bone Marrow where red and white blood cells are nurtured through their young lives before they become mature red or white blood cells. This detour takes Red Blood Cell down memory lane, to her own upbringing. Lastly, the immune system must fight off the deadly, mutated cancer cells that trick the body into bringing it nutrients so it can multiply faster.

Shirayuki has achieved a status of court herbalist apprentice, and her mentor is a twelve-year old prodigy named Ryu, who has vast amounts of knowledge that can’t be found in books. Zen’s envoy from a fort under his jurisdiction hasn’t reported back, so Zen decides to personally investigate. The Court Herbalists need some medicines in that direction, so Shirayuki tags along. It’s a good thing she does, because all of the soldiers AND the envoy have become sickened, and all the weapons in the fort have been stolen! Shirayuki must suss out the problem and find a remedy for all the men before she becomes afflicted. After Zen and friends return to the palace, they discover that Zen’s older brother, Izana, has returned, and he doesn’t particularly care for how close Zen and Shirayuki have become.