Last week, we left off with Arata telling Chihaya that he’s stopped playing karuta. In this week’s episode, we see that Chihaya has taken the calm and rational approach in reaction, which involves immediately setting off with Taichi to go see Arata (way to keep your cool). On the way, Taichi starts to rekindle the feelings he had for Chihaya.
When they get to Fukui, Arata’s neighbor tells them they can find him at the bookstore. They start to rush over and run into Arata while he’s on his way home. Although Arata allows them to get cleaned up at his place, he quickly asks them to leave. Chihaya suggests they play karuta, but Arata continues to reject karuta.
Chihaya realizes that Arata’s grandfather has died (pretty much like I figured), but Taichi quickly drags her out of the house. Arata’s neighbor explains how Arata’s grandfather originally had a stroke, and eventually died of a relapse while Arata was away at a Class A tournament (well…again, like I predicted).
Meanwhile, Arata reads the letter that Chihaya leaves for him, as well as the memos she leaves for herself. As Chihaya and Taichi are leaving on the train, Arata chases them on his bicycle (they can’t really do much because the train window doesn’t open, though). Chihaya finally realizes that Arata doesn’t really hate karuta and truly does care about the two of them. Taichi then offers to help with the karuta club.
Well, it looks like all of the background stuff is over and done with, so the actual story can start. I suppose some of the things that have happened (and are going to happen) have gone down a pretty predictable route, but I figure those sorts of things can’t be helped in stories about games. Naturally, I suspect that Arata’s in a “Hikaru after Sai leaves” state that will have to be broken. Still, the game itself isn’t particularly overbearing in the plot, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I don’t really mind it so far, so I’ll keep watching.
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