Summary:

Kazehaya arrives at school to find a huge crowd gathered around the girls’ restroom because of the supposed fight between Sawako and some girls from another class. Finding out that it’s about the rumors, Kazehaya defends Sawako in front of the crowd, and it just so happens that Yano and Yoshida arrive just then. The two end up rushing into the restroom just as Sawako is telling the other girls to take back their words. Sawako is surprised when she gets blamed as the source of the rumors, and the girls suggest that Sawako got close to Yano and Yoshida because her goal was Kazehaya. Sawako denies this and tries to clear up the misunderstanding, and she ends up saying that she loves Yano and Yoshida. Hearing this, the two girls step in to defend Sawako and force the other girls to back off and take back what they said. As he sees the other girls emerge from the restroom, Kazehaya makes it a point to say loudly that he hates worthless rumors.

Sawako then confesses all her feelings to Yano and Yoshida, and she states that she wants to be friends with them. To her surprise, the two hug her and reveal that they’re already friends, and the entire situation ends on a happy note. Kazehaya is happy to see the girls getting along, and Sawako is grateful to him because of his encouragement from before. In the aftermath, everyone finishes with their exams, and Sawako’s notes helps improve her classmates’ scores. She spends more time now with Yano and Yoshida, and when they ask, she reiterates that she loves them, causing them to start calling her by her real name Sawako instead of Sadako.

「身体が、熱いんです……」 (Shintai ga, Atsuin Desu……)
“My Body is Hot……”

All this talk about Gentou and Akiho kissing on the legendary rendevous cape (ouse-misaki 逢瀬岬) during the first sunrise of the new year, and all we get from Yuuto and Haruka is a peck on the cheek. It was the perfect moment with the perfect setting. Can you say, weak sauce? -_-;

I jest, but it’s hard to overlook the opportunity they let slip by. It was also New Years of all things, following their first shrine visit of the year (hatsumoude 初詣で), where they both received awesome fortunes (courtesy of Mika and crew). While this outcome does keep things innocent between them, Haruka was feeling all hot and bothered lying on top of Yuuto in her underwear. Why she had to take off her kimono completely just to re-tie her obi is beyond me, but it did allow the two of them to get caught up in the moment. It’s a shame they’re never able to go through with a kiss though, and even more of a shame that I already know it’s not going to happen. They’ve teased us with this routine long enough that I’ve long given up on expecting anything out of it. Instead, I simply wait for how they’re going to be interrupted. Consequently, it was a banner falling on Yuuto’s head this time. Next time, it might be an airplane. Now that would be a real shocker!

The rest of the episode was pretty standard affair, with Haruka being dragged around by her juniors before finally getting to spend some time with Yuuto alone. The biggest surprise to me though was the appearance of Himemiya Miran in the actual show. For some reason or another, I’ve been under the impression that Himemiya Miran and the Chocolate Rockers are an actual pop group, but it turns out she’s a character created for the Nogizaka Haruka world. My misconception here has blinded me from realizing that it’s been Nabatame Hitomi singing the opening theme for both this series and the original. It’s pretty sad that I only realized this now too (and not a year ago), but I’ll cast that off as simply “not caring enough to bother taking notice”. Hitomi voices Yuuto’s alcohlic sister Ruko as well, so the thought of her being this anime persona as well was the farthest thing from my mind. In my defense though, Hitomi wasn’t explicitly credited in the original opening single. Anyway, Miran has a cameo here more than anything else, running into Yuuto and Haruka while hiding from her manager.

Lastly, it looks like Shiina isn’t completely down and out quite yet. Her new year’s fortune has her re-energized over a prospective sudden development in the romance department. Hopefully this translates into some more screentime for her at the very least, since she’s been sidelined for most of this sequel. In any case, it looks like the pace of the series has drifted well back to its season one roots, which is a nice change from their early flurry of fan-service.

Summary:

One day, while Kobato is trying to read to the children a story about fireflies, Ioryogi observes Sayaka get a worrying phone call. Unaware of this, Kobato spends her time trying to improve her reading abilities, and while in the park, she’s approached by an older man who strangely tells her to stop reading the firefly book. He doesn’t give a reason though, and when Kobato tries to approach him afterward to figure out his problem, he leaves. The next morning, Kobato arrives at the nursery to find three thugs there demanding that a loan be repaid. Kiyokazu steps in after one of them assaults Kobato, and Sayaka tries to get them to leave. They only do, however, after seeing the determination in Kobato’s eyes and after hearing one of the kids crying for the police. Kobato really wants to do something to help the money situation, but she’s unable to because she doesn’t have any money herself. On her way home, she runs into the older man again, and he asks her again not to read the book.

Kobato finds out from Kiyokazu later that the older man is actually the author of the firefly book, Mori Soutarou. Wanting to help him, she does some research on fireflies and tracks him down again to tell him to meet her that night to watch the fireflies. He does indeed show up when the time comes, and he tells her the story of how his lover, who was also the illustrator of the book, had once asked him to go watch the fireflies with her. At the time, he was too busy with work and hadn’t gone with her. When he finally had the time, he found out that she had gotten into a bad accident, and he’s felt guilty ever since that he didn’t go with her when she originally asked. Having finished telling of his past, Mori gets up to leave, and in trying to stop him, Kobato falls. He ends up catching her, and in doing so, he realizes that the area they’re in is the exact same place his lover had gone to draw the pictures for the book. At that very moment, the fireflies all light up, and he finally sees what his lover had wanted to show him. In the aftermath, Kobato finds that she’s gained a konpeitou, and Ioryogi gives her a passing grade.

Summary:

One morning, Kobato comes across a girl in front of a church who is staring up at the falling leaves and crying. When Kobato asks why, the girl thinks that it’s because the leaves are pretty. Kobato then introduces herself, so the girl reveals that she’s called Kohaku, and this triggers Ioryogi’s memory. He recognizes her as being from Heaven and is fine with speaking in front of her, and she eventually recognizes him as Iorogi. After Kohaku excuses herself, Kobato heads to the nursery school and spends the day staring at the trees because she wants to understand why Kohaku was crying. She doesn’t figure it out though and decides to go see Kohaku again the next day. Instead of running into Kohaku, Kobato overhears Kohaku with a doctor named Shuuichirou, and the two seem happy together. She follows them home, and after Shuuichirou leaves again, Kobato watches as Kohaku uses her powers to water her garden. Once Kohaku realizes that they’re there, Kobato tries to find out again why Kohaku had been crying, and the way Kohaku describes her feelings makes Ioryogi conclude that it’s love.

Eager to heal Kohaku, Kobato tries to figure out what’s troubling her, and Kohaku thinks that it’s the fact that Shuuichirou is always busy. Since Shuuichirou and Kohaku haven’t been on a date, Kobato decides to help them out by getting them tickets to an amusement park. This proves to be harder than expected though because Kobato has no money, but as it turns out, Kiyokazu happens to have a pair of tickets. Kobato is able to convince him to give them to her if she helps him with his newspaper delivery job, and she brings the tickets to Kohaku. Kohaku doesn’t accept them because the bigger problem is that Shuuichirou is busy, but Shuuichirou then returns and asks for the tickets. He ends up taking Kohaku to the amusement park, and Kobato watches from outside the park. In the middle of this, a flying rabbit from Heaven appears, and it conveys a message to Ioryogi that Kobato has to fill the bottle in four seasons’ time. Unfortunately, Kobato finds out later that she didn’t get a konpeitou from Kohaku because Kohaku didn’t actually need healing, but she doesn’t let this faze her and remains determined to do her best.

Summary:

On this very rainy day, Sayaka brings Kobato to her friend Chitose’s apartment building so that Kobato can have a place to stay. After Kobato sees her new room, she rushes to go help at the nursery school, and in the process she accidentally bumps into a girl. This girl is nice enough to clean off the dirtied Ioryogi, and afterward Kobato continues on her way. The next day is a day off, so Kobato decides to try to collect more konpeitou, but it turns out to be raining again, and Kobato neglects to bring her umbrella. Fortunately, the owner of a bakery lends her one, and Kobato is able to go look for people to heal at a convenience store. She isn’t able to find anyone though, and to make things worse, the borrowed umbrella is gone by the time she emerges from the store. By chance, Kobato runs into the girl from before, and when Kobato explains her situation, the girl decides to lend her an umbrella. The girl then runs off after a boy who likes to tease her.

The next day, Kobato waits at the girl’s school to give back her umbrella, and finds out that the girl’s name is Tadokoro Mutsumi. She runs into Mutsumi again later that afternoon when it’s raining again, and she also finds the umbrella that had disappeared. While together, the two girls see the boy who teased Mutsumi sharing his umbrella with another girl, and Kobato notices how sad Mutsumi looks. She thus wants to try to cheer Mutsumi up, and her method for doing so is to track down the boy the following day to directly ask him to share his umbrella with Mutsumi. By chance, Mutsumi overhears them and interrupts, so Kobato tries to explain everything and encourages them to share an umbrella. The boy is actually willing and reveals that he isn’t going out with the other girl - he was just helping her because she had just forgotten her umbrella. Mutsumi and the boy thus walk off together, and in the aftermath, Kobato discovers that her bottle now contains another konpeitou. Unbeknownst to her, she’s sensed by a certain someone nearby.