A flashback kicks in as some rando neighboring inn manager talks to Nessen's grandmother and asks about Nessen being her grandson from Shizuoka. Granny Mochizuki says that's true and prompts Nessen to greet the neighbor, so he does so with a bit of awkward mumbling.
Nessen then takes over narration as he talks about how he came to this
place where his grandmother lives while he was in elementary school from
Shizuoka. Half of the reason his family moved is because Kaibutsu
destroyed their home, so they had to leave anyways. The other half is
because Nessen was bullied. At that point of his life, other people were
afraid of him. Between his horns and his grim looking face, the other
children would say he looked like a monster from old picture books and
avoided him.
But when Nessen came to this town, the other children here welcomed him and offered to show him around. Some of them thought his horns were cool and asked to touch them, which he agreed to with some surprise while the inn manager from before tells the kids to stop bothering the new guy.
Nessen talks about how the people of this town never said anything about his horns against him and called him cool. When he asked about it, he heard that Earth was progressing in stages to having aliens come in, so the town stopped thinking of them as unusual. He wonders if it's because the place was always a resort town, so they had less of an issue with outsiders. But whatever the case was, they accepted him. Since then, the horns that made him hated now made him popular. He regained his confidence and optimism, and he spent his days in happiness. Compared to the big city in Shizuoka, this place was rustic and backwater as hell, but still Nessen came to love the place.
Eventually Nessen came to think of the town as his true hometown. And it's because of his love for this town that he couldn't stand to watch it die out. And so he steeled his determination, both to protect this place, and to fight against villains who would threaten the peace.
Title card pops up, and this episode is called Disappearing into Steam.
The story then tunes back in to the present on the same day in the banquet hall in the Mochizuki Inn's third floor. Some suit tries to sound ingratiating as he invites Subaru for a beer, but Subaru politely (but still with some irritation) declines saying he doesn't like alcohol. Whatshisface Tanaka persists in his attempt to wheedle Subaru into joining as he talks about how Subaru's new book is already printing a second edition. The book he announced last year Romance of the Fireflies is now apparently coming to theaters next summer to all of Japan, and Overly Friendly Suit credits Subaru for all the profits their company's novel sales publishing have gotten.
Subaru continues trying to keep his distance as he says he wasn't planning on setting the literary world on fire when he was writing that, so he passes on accepting his thanks. All that's happened is that their publishing company gave him a good convenient deal. Insistently Extroverted Desk Dork whines and pleads for Subaru to be a little more cheerful, but he gets cut off by some other office man telling him to stop before he ruins Subaru's mood and affect his work for next year.
Subaru sighs as the second man bows apologetically before dragging the first man away, knowing how annoying Man A was. Subaru talks to himself about hating these parties. He came because he likes hot spring inns, but he could have gone without the congratulation party by the publisher employees as he wonders if they were trying to be sympathetic. Subaru sighs again as he complains about wanting to go back to his room, and if this was how things were going to go he'd have had more fun writing at home. Then he sips his glass of oolong tea.
At that point, someone quickly thumps in towards the banquet hall and slams the doors open, and some man in a yukata is in hysterics about someone disappearing from the baths. He was with someone, but now he can't find them anywhere. One of the publishing workers tries to get the guest to calm down and ask who disappeared and if he did a thorough search yet. Subaru stays quiet as he watches, and the panicked guest starts trying to remember who he was looking for, only to forget who it is and why he was making a fuss at all. The publisher thinks the dude just got drunk and tells him to get a grip.
The sudden tension in the banquet hall melts away back to the quieter
mood it had before, and Subaru starts spinning the gears in his head as
he watches with his sharp eyes and messy hair. Subaru notes that this is
the fourth incident of someone running in yelling about how someone
they were with had disappeared. At this point it's hard to dismiss it as
someone being off on a bender, so what could be happening? Subaru also
wonders if it has to do with the weird feeling he's been getting since
he got to the inn. He mutters reluctantly to himself that he ought to
investigate the first floor bath at least once, and while he feels he
should do it he still takes the time to say how bothersome being a hero
is.
One of the publishers notices Subaru talking to himself and asks if he's okay. Subaru says he's done here, so he'll be leaving. He won't need any more food either. The office man tries to protest since the main star of the banquet, the roast chicken, hasn't come in yet. Subaru bluntly says he has more important things to do than waste time at the party, and he also makes a point of saying he doesn't care about getting friendlier with them as he excuses himself before quickly leaving.
Camera then shifts to your end of things at this same time period with you guys in the hallway. You've finished the business meeting with Nessen about tomorrow's show and are now heading towards the big bath that is the pride of the inn at his suggestion. Nessen says the meeting went a bit long, but he thanks you all for your work so far. He explains that the baths in the inn are great at helping with fatigue, so he invites you guys to try it. Akashi sighs about how tired he is and is glad for the idea. Toshu caught up with him earlier and lectured him for an hour, and then the meeting with Nessen went on for two. You either express sympathy for Akashi and say being a college student is tough, or you ask if Akashi is at all repentant. C gets an extra bit with Akashi blustering in embarrassment saying he knows and that he's tired to the bone.
Mokdai exhales after taking a drink, saying having something sweet really does refresh the self after having to use his head. Akashi said he noticed Mokdai left earlier and is incredulous that he went to go buy some fresh juice from the store up front. Mokdai says he saw it when they passed it by in the shopping district earlier and got interested, so he decided to go for it after the meeting finished. Akashi is amazed Mokdai spent like all day eating and drinking, but he does grant that Mokdai spent the whole meeting talking. Mokdai gets self-important as he says he's in charge of directing tomorrow's show, so he needs to put in the effort for it.
Huckle says Mokdai is always handling special event plans and productions. He admires how Mokdai always has a good handle on the process of catching the hearts of fans in a neat way. Ryekie agrees, saying that when he and Huckle did it the events did bomb out often, but that's never happened when Mokdai ran them. Huckle is embarrassed at Ryekie mentioning this and says he just wasn't used to doing the planning since he had always been a hero.
Mokdai laughs and says it's not that big a deal. He just crammed the events with things he wanted to see when he was just a fan. Sui thinks aloud about the idea of things turning out well because you like them and the idea that people can make the things they like for the same reason. It's something her teacher and clients have said when they were complimenting her work. She tells Mokdai he could stand to have some confidence in himself. She might not know much about hero shows, but she can tell Mokdai is making a show that he likes.
Mokdai is embarrassed at first, then thanks Sui. He comments that having his work complimented makes his drink taste even better. The juice was good to begin with though with what he describes as a refreshing, clear sweetness. Nessen laughs and thanks him for his comments, then mentions that half the fruit used in the juice served by the bar is grown in town, so the farm manager will be happy to hear that.
Akashi is surprised that the resort town grows fruits too and comments that they do everything here. Nessen explains that while this is a resort, it was originally just a village that did tourism and farming. Those two industries kept going on as the town became what it is now, so the farmer from then is the farmer now. Mokdai burps and says that the large size bottle is larger than he anticipated, so he offers some to Akashi. Akashi sighs about this being why he told him to stop buying the large sizes, but he accepts the drink.
Akashi comments on how good the juice is after he takes a drink, saying it's got that perfect bittersweet flavor to help his tiredness and prompting you to have some too. You either decide to accept, wonder what kind of juice it is, or start thinking aloud about this being an indirect kiss. In A, Akashi says there's still a bunch left and warns you not to drop the bottle. In B, Akashi says he doesn't know since there's a whole bunch mixed in, but he suggests you try it out. Ryekie asks to have some next after you because the scent of the juice has been making his nose twitch. In C, Akashi starts thinking about that too and blushes as he goes quiet. Mokdai asks why he's getting so red, so Akashi blusters that he isn't and tells you to stop being weird. A and C then group together to have Ryekie say the juice smells great and asks to have some after you. Something about the scent is making him crave it.
In any case, Ryekie says he's been talking the whole time too, so he's feeling thirsty now. Huckle sighs a little and says Ryekie probably wouldn't be feeling so thirsty if he lowered his voice a lot more. Mokdai says it's okay since there's a lot of juice left, then asks you to give Ryekie the juice bottle. You either go okay and do so, or you think out loud about this being an indirect kiss with Ryekie. B leads to extra stuff as Akashi tells you to stop being weird because it's making him think about it now. Sui is surprised as she asks why he cares when this situation would be with Ryekie. Akashi sputters in shock before loudly denying that he's thinking about it, so Sui says he did say he was and calls him incomprehensible.
Anyways, Huckle notices the smell of the juice by this point. Ryekie is about to take a drink when Huckle tells him to stop and snatches the bottle out of his hand. Ryekie is shocked by this of course and asks what gives, and Huckle pants as he tells Ryekie to have some more self-awareness before saying it's true Ryekie's body would react to this scent. You are taken aback as you ask Huckle what's wrong with the juice, so Huckle turns to Nessen and asks if the juice contains kiwi. Nessen is surprised by the question but confirms it, saying it gets used since kiwi is a local specialty.
Huckle hangs his head as he says he's glad he took the drink away. Mokdai is surprised as he asks what's going on with the kiwi. Huckle is surprised himself as he asks if Mokdai doesn't know about the special trait of Ryekie's race. He explains that they have a fondness for the aroma of things like kiwi fruits and what's classed as actinidia genus plants (kiwi, catnip, silvervine etc) on Earth. If you give them a little bit of it, they go nuts. You ask a bit more into this before you get a brainwave and ask if a kiwi fruit is enough to trigger this.
Huckle talks about how Ryekie's race has a lot of commonalities with Earth felines, but while Earth cats will almost never react to a kiwi, Ryekie is a lot more sensitive to it due to being an alien. Ryekie is shocked as he tries to argue that he should be fine if it's just a little. He does admit that he sometimes blacks out in his memories, but he remembers how nice it tastes. Huckle points out that having a memory black out is a problem, and he starts to ask him if he has any idea of the crap the rest of them have to deal with when that happens when a scream cuts him off.
You get shocked by the scream, and Nessen picks up that it's coming from the big baths and asks what's happening. Ryekie says it's not a normal voice and says to Nessen that they should go since something has to be happening. Nessen collects himself and leads the way, and Akashi says you guys should go too since he's getting a bad feeling. You either agree or ask if it's okay to suddenly barge into the baths. B gets Akashi to admit he thought of that too, but he points out now's not the time to be caring about it.
Huckle stops you all for a second and gives Mokdai back his juice. Mokdai is surprised and slow to react, but he asks you guys to wait since he's coming too. He then chugs the rest of his bottle, and the juice is apparently really cold because he gives himself brain freeze because of this.
Time passes as the party runs into the bath area, but when you get there you find no one there. Nessen finds that strange since he's sure the voice came from here. Sui says she checked the changing room, but no one's clothes were in there. The restroom was empty too. Akashi reports that the sauna was empty and wonders what's going on. Ryekie thinks aloud about how you guys could hear someone screaming but not find anyone. He starts to dismiss the idea he comes to since it might be a stretch since this isn't a city or a place like Southern Kanto.
Everyone turns to look at Ryekie as he talks to himself, but you start to sense something bad around. As you look around, Huckle notices that you've picked up on it too before trying to pinpoint it himself. Eventually the both of you focus on the same point, and you point to the bushes. A small Kaibutsu pops out at being noticed and screeches, surprising Mokdai. Huckle is also in some disbelief, since even if this is a tourist spot it's also not a big city. Ryekie points out that there is a monster in front of you guys though, as much as he'd rather not believe so.
You either wonder what's happening or ask about Kaibutsu not normally appearing in places like this. Huckle explains that Kaibutsu normally have a tendency to appear where lots of people are. While this place is a tourist spot, it's unusual for them to be here. Huckle would like to explain some more, but he sets it aside for now so that you guys can get rid of the monster first. Nessen is shocked by the Kaibutsu's presence since as far as he knew, none of them have ever showed up around here before.
Nessen is so shocked that he stands there paralyzed as the Kaibutsu starts turning towards him. Akashi tells him to get away from there, but Nessen is too distracted to do so in time before the monster jumps at him. Before it actually gets him, someone narrates that Nessen suddenly slips and falls. The recited sentence glows in green lettering underneath Nessen and then causes the stated event to happen. This in turn lets Nessen avoid the attack by a hair. You turn around and asks who's there and if they're a hero.
Subaru reveals himself in his hero outfit, commenting that he wasn't just imagining things and that this is trouble now. He gets described as a hero with a glowing pen dressed in old school clothes like a hakama, a school cap, and an overcoat. Nessen refers to him as Nobeyama-sensei and thanks him for helping, and Subaru apologizes for how rough the assist was since that was all he could think of at the time. You ask if Nessen knows him or comment that Subaru looks great on a closer look. C gets an extra bit where Subaru asks what's wrong before he asks you to stop staring at him in embarrassment since he's not a showpiece.
Anyways Subaru introduces himself, describing himself as a novelist and a hero. Ryekie starts to thank Subaru in surprise and starts to say who he is, but Subaru preempts him on that since he recognizes him. Subaru also asks if it's fine for him to be spacing out like that since the Kaibutsu is calling for its friends. More arrive in the area, and Subaru describes them as creepy crawly, pushing for you guys to help him if you think it'd be hard for him to deal with them alone. You are either taken aback at how roughly he's talking to you guys, call him scary, or say he seems like a sadist.
Akashi comments that Subaru's harsh speech patterns is reminding him of someone. Sui takes offense as she asks him who before telling him to stop standing there. Akashi scrambles to get ready as he says he'll go fight, then asks you to transform him. Mokdai says he'll go in too and asks you to do him too, so you nod and tap through the command window to get things going.
Akashi gets himself fired up as usual when he transforms while Mokdai announces himself as Mighty Knuckle, telling the monsters to eat his fists of justice. Akashi is surprised as he asks Mokdai why he's calling himself Mighty Knuckle, which shocks Mokdai as he says he's trying to make that his hero name and asks him not to ruin it so fast by using his actual name. Akashi goes oh at that and says they should go, but he still refers to Mokdai by name instead, leading Mokdai to pout about it. You either comment on Mokdai having thought of a hero name, say how sad this is, or wish him luck as you call him Mighty Knuckle. C gets an extra bit where Mokdai is happy and says he knew you'd understand. Akashi insists that he understands too and just messed up.
Subaru is already done with the comedy act as he describes the banter as and asks if they're done yet. Akashi is shocked at the description and denies that's what they're doing before calling Subaru rude as hell. Huckle says the camera is running so the live has started, though he notes that Subaru's agency's camera drone is already active. Ryekie says he's counting on you all as he urges you on, and the episode battle starts as Nessen dejectedly asks how this could be happening. More story happens afterwards.
After the battle, Mokdai pants after things have settled down, but Akashi points out that several of the Kaibutsu managed to run off. Since the battle has ended, everyone reverts back to civilian form. The monsters' victims start reappearing and waking up again, wondering how they got there. At least one guy remembers being attacked, but everything past that is a blur. The rescued guests then start processing that there's a crowd of people there and that they themselves are naked.
Nessen is preoccupied about needing to do something about the Kaibutsu before he remembers he needs to help the customers. He asks if they're okay and apologizes as one of the hotel staff for all the trouble. If any of them are hurt, he offers to take them to the nurse's office, though he asks everyone to get dressed first. Huckle offers to help people too and asks them to be careful not to trip as the two of them lead the randos to the changing room.
Subaru comments on how the Kaibutsu running away could be a problem, especially if their origin point is around here. Even if it isn't, there's still the possibility that there's repeated appearances of them elsewhere within the resort. Mokdai sadly agrees, saying it doesn't seem possible with all the people around and Ryekie says that means you guys will need to sweep the whole resort. You'll also need as much help as you can get, so he yells in frustration about his inability to fight.
Mokdai asks Ryekei to not let it get to him since he should focus on his recovery. Ryekie knows that on a logical level, but it still bothers him. Sui expresses sympathy for him. At that point your phone gives off a little bit of light, so when you look at it a new alert is on it. A path has been found for R__, although the strength is at the weakest possible level. It's the same window you saw when Akashi and Mokdai transformed for the first time, but this one closes on its own the second you look at it.
You wonder what that was all about, and Ryekie asks you if something is on his face in surprise since you were staring at him. Akashi says it would be nice to have Ryekie join you guys if he could fight as Justice, but since he can't Akashi suggests asking the other heroes in the area for help. Mokdai agrees, though the only people around he can think of would be the Heroic Educators. Akashi is sure Kyoichi will help since he likes taking care of other people.
Subaru is surprised and dismayed as he asks if Kyoichi is here in town, clearly frowning at the idea. You either express surprise at his expression, note that Subaru can look like that, or observe that Subaru speaks of Kyoichi in a familiar tone. Akashi is also surprised by Subaru's reaction as he confirms Kyoichi is around and starts to ask if he knows him. But before Akashi can finish that thought, Huckle runs out yelling about there being trouble with Nessen, except he trips on a rock. Sui attempts to warn him about it, except she does so after he's already tripped, and Huckle ends up falling on Sui.
Huckle apologizes to Sui and asks if she's okay. Sui is mostly fine and apparently fell into a puddle since she mentions that she got a little wet. Ryekie is alarmed and asks why Huckle was panicking so much, so Huckle remembers his original thing and tells you all that Nessen said he'd deal with everything himself. A flashback kicks in as Nessen apologizes for causing you all trouble and asks you to go back to your rooms. He says he'll handle everything on his own since he can't cause you guys any further issues. He calls the inn and town his responsibility, so he'll protect it all.
You either express shock that he'd do so despite not knowing the scale of this incident, comment on how strong his sense of responsibility is, or say he's the type to take on everything himself. Subaru notes that that is something Nessen would say, and Akashi says that's crazy talk with how big the resort town is. If something goes wrong, then Nessen will just get eaten himself. Subaru agrees, mentioning that Nessen is a hero but is too reckless to be doing this. It takes Akashi a moment to process that fact, and you express shock at the idea that Nessen is a hero too.
Elsewhere at the same time, Nessen is running around the place with a frantic, merciless look on his face. He talks to himself and drops his polite persona as he says he has to do something about all this. This is the town that he said he'd take full responsibility for and his hometown, the most important thing in his life. And on that note the episode ends.
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