With the D-pilot team incomplete, Elle and Hisone struggle to come to terms with what they're feeling and what they need to do about it.
Haruto performs a ceremony to determine who the Key Girl is, and Sosoda, Remi, and some of the men vent frustrations about Hisone and Elle being in love.
Maezawa feels they could've saved some difficulty if they kept the women away from men, but Remi and Sosoda recount that Iiboshi told them love it inevitable, and in a way necessary for the OTF bonding, which is why they tried to break the girls' hearts. Remi says this obviously wasn't possible, because Hisone didn't even realize she loved Haruto; the group realizes she'll probably freak out when she realizes the truth. Some of the men worry as Mayumi and Liliko (I've previously written her name as Ririko) practice perching on Mitatsu by landing on a carrier. Though Sada feels they'll do fine, Futomomo lands by latching onto the ship, unlike Liliko's calm dragon. Mayumi tells Liliko that something is odd about Futomomo. Liliko hypothesizes that he feels the loss of Masotan and Norma, and Mayumi sadly agrees.
At the base, several men mock Hisone and Elle for having fallen in love. Nao shrugs them off, but Elle vents that she wishes she could tear out this feeling.
An unnerved Hisone compares this desire to a splatter film, but admits she understands to an extent since she's mixed up in this as well. Elle is angered when the maidens arrive and Misumi latches onto Haruto after seeing Hisone, calling the base sacred. She and Nao are surprised Hisone isn't mad. Nao helps Hisone by taking her to Masotan, but Hisone is saddened to find he still has difficulty with her. Nao says it's the anastomosis, comparing it to jealousy. Hisone numbly explains she felt Masotan's confusion at the recent incident, and says even she is unsure what to do; she cries and begs for Masotan's forgiveness. Nao visits Ikushima and explains her own confusion, as her mom being a D-pilot made her want to do so, but now she understands why she'll never fly Masotan. Ikushima explains she must be independent, as although she has a youthful appearance, she has a mature mind. She's unsure about that, but says her time spent helping with Masotan's maintenance helped her understand him. Feeling she'll never know him the same way as Hisone, she says the situation seems hardest on him, yet also difficult for Hisone as she's forced to simply watch. To her surprise, Ikushima says it's finally time to give her a junior sizing.
Zaito catches Elle outside, and she shares how hard it's been being unable to fly Norma. Noticing her sadness, he suddenly goes into his macho persona, saying how weak to love she is and suggesting they just be friends with benefits.
The furious Elle kicks him, snarling about having been fooled by his charm. He sits somberly, as we learn Iiboshi told him he had to break her heart or she'd have to quit. Though he didn't want to intentionally hurt her, he now sits happily remembering how hard she worked, certain she'll get to achieve her dream. She rages at dinner with the others, getting drunk and scarfing down food while declaring she'll stay a virgin forever. She passes out later, and Hisone volunteers to help her get back to their room; Liliko says this is fitting, since they're the ones in love. While sitting with Elle, Hisone is surprised to see Sada, again selling yogurt, and the old woman stops in to give her advice about continuing on a path. She reveals she too had a love in the past, but says people and the system will betray you eventually, while OTFs won't, which is why you can't betray them, either. Elle wonders why this happened with her, as only Norma has her heart. She declares her intention to focus on getting to fly to the end of the world with Norma. Pleased, Sada says she passes and gives her a yogurt. Although Sada's words sounded true, Hisone remains unconvinced.
Hisone decides it'll be better to talk to Haruto face-to-face, though she realizes she's taking extra care to look nice when she does so.
Haruto is with Misumi, who suddenly requests that he kiss her, bringing up an old promise he made to d something she wanted if she became the key maiden. Embarrassed, he simply breathes in her face and starts laughing, but suddenly cries, claiming his tear ducts are just weaker now that he's older. He suggests Misumi give up being the Key Maiden, but she angrily says it's been her goal all this time, as it's what she was born for. A voiceover from Haruto says he has realized there might not be such a thing as "normal," because some people struggle to achieve what others take for granted, like Hisone always working hard. He visits the droopy Masotan, who perks up when Hisone enters the hangar. She rants that they're the same, visiting Masotan for advice, but calls him naive. She demands he let her consult Masotan, otherwise she'll die, as she saw him kiss Misumi. Masotan grows bored as they argue, until Haruto says what really happened. He explains Misumi's mom taught it to him; when she was a baby, blowing on the tip of her nose would get her to stop crying. As he tells of his past with Misumi, Hisone comes to term with how she feels, and a plan from Ikushima causes her to come to another decision.
Honestly there wasn't a whole lot that happened in this episode, but the characters went through a lot for personal growth, especially Hisone.
Having only recently realized her true feelings for Haruto, Hisone is in a tailspin, especially since she's always been quite an outcast. I was a bit surprised the characters seemed to be unaware she already realized her feelings for Haruto, but the fact they knew exactly how she'd react was definitely a sign they know her well by this point. I like that she didn't just immediately buy what Sada was telling her and Elle, as throughout this series she's been one to reach conclusions with different thinking. She seemed to be seeing through what I also felt was an odd bit of advice from Sada, though Hisone doesn't have the knowledge we do that something from Sada's past is clearly haunting the old woman. To this point, Sada has seemed upset as she helped the girls learn how to be better pilots, and whenever she saw the maidens. Because of this, I got the feeling this particular set of advice was something another person, probably Iiboshi, suggested she give. Beyond this, Hisone even comes up with a shocking decision at the end of the episode, that to me feels like exactly the sort of thing the others should expect. Elle had a reverse situation from Hisone, I think partially because she's not as naive as her friend and is more prone to anger. Elle was already painfully aware of her feelings, though she denied them for a while, and now wishes she could get rid of her feelings. Hisone, on the other hand, didn't realize for a while that she liked Haruto, and she just doesn't seem to know what she should do. For Elle, things get worse for her heart due to Zaito's actions, which were quite a step up from the character we were first given for him. In acting like a jerk again, Zaito is able to make himself the bad guy and fuel Elle's rage, which fulfills exactly what the higher-ups wanted before. Of course, this is painful for both, and I'd say worse for Elle, who feels stupid for having opened up to Zaito thinking he was nice, only for his new act to suggest otherwise. After having been guarded for so long since men constantly mocked her, having the one guy who seemed different pull such a move had to be shattering. At the same time, this puts Elle right back into the sort of situation as past pilots must have been, as now she's focused solely on her dragon again. I have to wonder if Liliko could potentially be a problem given that the higher-ups claimed love needs to happen, then be taken from the pilots. Liliko has had no prospects for this series, focusing more on manga, so I wonder if they'll find it okay that she hasn't experienced romantic love, or if it matters somehow. We get some progression for Misumi, despite her barely showing up, and it's a way of showing another kind of "love" that will leave her hurt as well. She's been adamant that she loves Haruto, but in this episode we see exactly why he hasn't been returning her feelings. He explains everything to Hisone, but without going to into detail about what he says, the fact that his mom shared a tip about blowing on Misumi's nose, something from the girl's time as a baby, suggests he's been around her for a long time. With such a relationship, it must be weird for him to have her pursuing him romantically, as he first saw her as a baby and might've taken care of her at times. We don't yet know much about the Key Maiden, which we learn Misumi has been chosen to be, but it seems that for this ritual, at least, the Key Maiden might experience the same kind of heartbreak as the pilots. One of the characters I've most enjoyed seeing the changes in is Nao, and we see exactly how far she's come in this episode. Initially a bully, she shows a lot of empathy and maturity when she talks to Ikushima, explaining how she's come to understand both Masotan and Hisone. She's even come to accept that Masotan doesn't want her to be his pilot, and realizes that it's because Hisone understands him in a way she can't. Considering he longstanding desire to be a D-pilot like her mother, this makes her similar to Elle, as both had their dreams swept away. Also like Elle, Nao has come to accept the position she was assigned instead, and seems to have found a kind of satisfaction she didn't expect from it. ​Despite this starting out as a rather lighthearted series, we're really getting to a dark and serious story, especially now with the group incomplete. Elle's heartbreak put her back on track with Norma, but Hisone is coming to another conclusion, and Haruto doesn't seem to want to hurt her. With time running out before Lord Mitatsu awakens, all of Japan will be in peril unless those at the airbase can find a solution to the incomplete group.
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