Live A Hero Midsummer Hero Festival Episode 3

No title card is included this episode so the episode title is Transform! The Water Gunman of Justice

Anyways, things tune in at night time as Barrel runs up calling to you and apologizing for making you wait. You guys are over at the booth area of the festival where agencies besides your own have set up stalls to put out that specific summer festival vibe. The place is lively, and Barrel is carrying a plastic bag as he comes over. He passes you a bottle of juice for you saying he'll pay for it, and you ask if that's okay since you feel bad about that. Barrel says it's fine since you invited him to hang out, so he felt bad about making you go out of your way to cheer him up. He also bought some food while he was at it, and he excitedly shows you some red rod-shaped thing on a stick.

You ask Barrel what it is he's holding and guess that it's a tomato or something, so Barrel tells you it's the spiciest sausage he bought from a nearby stall. It's got grounded pepper in it that's spicier than any pepper native to Earth, and Barrel asks if you wanna give it a bite. You decline whether it be as casual as you can, mildly freaking out at the idea, or expressing an interest but deciding it's probably too much for you. Barrel is a little surprised, but he accepts it and suggests checking around the place while eating. When he takes a bite of his sausage, he describes his mouth as being on fire but liking it as he smiles and wags his tail happily.

A quick flashback pops up of Barrel sighing and wondering what he should do. He pretended to be cheerful in front of everyone else, but he definitely was depressed. Seeing him so down was what gave you the idea to try inviting him to hang out so he can take his mind off things. Back to the present you think to yourself about how it doesn't address the core problem, but you're hoping he'll at least feel better. Barrel laughs and talks about how the food is great and everyone is having fun, which is why he likes the summer festival mood. It's great how summer brings all that together.

You ask Barrel if he likes summer and/or comment that summer seems to suit him. Barrel responds affirmatively as he says he calls himself a summer man. There's tons of fun things to do in the season like going to festivals, swimming in pools and oceans, and camping in the mountains. Since he likes swimming and playing outside, there's no reason for him to hate the season. He also starts saying it lets him visit a festival with you before he cuts himself off and stops saying any more about it. You ask Barrel if he said something, so Barrel quickly changes the subject by pointing at a shooting gallery that uses large water guns instead of toy guns and has its prizes in hanging bags. You find the stall interesting, which Barrel agrees with as he suggests trying it out.

The two of you walk up to the stall, and Barrel pays the stallkeeper for an attempt. He offers to get you whatever you want there, which you are happily surprised by as you decide to point at something you'll just have to fill in with your imagination. Barrel starts concentrating and lining up his shot, at which point you remember that Barrel is a terrible marksman.

Flashback

Instructor: Welcome to target practice! Fire!

Barrel: Raaaagh! ...wait, what!?

Instuctor: You missed every single shot! God you suck!

Barrel: B-but I was aiming at it...

End flashback

Whenever Barrel isn't in hero mode, he actually has terrible accuracy. His stray bullets don't hit anything either, and he just has no talent for gunplay.

You question whether Barrel will actually get anything and decide to keep your expectations low. Barrel assures you that it'll be fine since he's great at using water guns, and he fires a powerful shot at his target, knocking it off in one hit. The stallkeeper congratulates Barrel, and Barrel cheers about winning. You express your own amazement, especially since he's such a terrible shot otherwise, so Barrel brags he's confident he's never missed with a water gun ever. When he was a kid he practiced with them in his hopes of becoming a gunman, though he admits he'd be happy if he did as well with actual guns and sighs about how they just work differently.

Barrel hands you the stall prize you wanted, then stares at the water gun some more as he thinks about something. He talks aloud about how he feels he can win if he could use water guns, so you ask if he wants to use them in a battle. Barrel responds affirmatively, citing that Furlong racked up tons of ratings points in his fight. He likes water and summer, and he brings up that the audience wants something in that vein too. In that case, if he could somehow use them for battle he feels he could do a lot better in the competition. Your phone glows at this point, popping up a search window saying a path has been found for Barrel with a faint connection. You take notice and think on it a bit, which Barrel doesn't notice as he laughs about how it isn't that easy to switch out weapons. He comments on needing to think of something else, but you turn to talk to him and ask if he'd like to try out making his wish come true, surprising him.

Time skips to the first battle of the next day, Refreshing Heroes vs. UEHA Japan, with the heroes of both sides almost about to come to the stage and get things started. Victom asks Okitaka if it really is okay to put Barrel up after what happened in his last match. Gammei admits he's worried too after seeing how depressed Barrel was yesterday. Okitaka says he knows, but you told him you have a secret plan for today you wouldn't explain to him. You did say you wanted to pair up with Barrel though, so Okitaka OKed the idea saying it'll be good if it gets Barrel's confidence back. Furlong gets curious as to what your secret plan can be.

Out in the field, Barrel is confused as he asks you if wishing is all he needs to do. You nod and prompt him to think about what he was wishing for last night, so Barrel concentrates on wanting to do as well as he did at the shooting game, like Furlong did at his match, and becoming his own style of summer hero with a chill appearance and water skills. He speaks aloud about not really wanting to let go of his guns, but he'll be okay with the idea if he gets water guns and wants to do great at the contest as a beachside gunman. Your phone glows brightly as the window says a strong path has now been found for Symphonic Trigger, so you excitedly say it's working. Barrel is surprised and asks you what's going on with the light on your phone, so you tell him it's time to transform and ask if he's ready to be a beachside gunman. It takes him a second to process that, but he says he is as he turns to pose and face off against his opponent.

The mob hero going against Barrel is shocked as Barrel essentially transforms magical-girl style since narration describes the transformation light as weaving into threads that wrap around Barrel, putting him into his swimsuit hero form with accompanying water guns. Barrel announces his transformation is complete before he starts reacting to his new outfit and weaponry in surprise, asking you to explain what happened. You either cheer about this working, be amazed at how bold Barrel's swimsuit is, or say Barrel's new outfit is cool. C gets an extra line of him been embarrassed but pleased.

Over in UEHA's waiting room, Gammei is shocked to see Barrel in an alternate outfit. Furlong notes that it's a swimsuit, which looks a lot like the one Barrel wore when they went to a pool one time. Okitaka is surprised but quickly understands that you've transformed Barrel off of a temporary wish, commenting that you are rather talented. Victom asks Okitaka if all Observers can pull this off, but Okitaka denies it. Apparently only a handful of Observers can do this, so you aren't the first. Okitaka says he's been heroing for a long time, but up until now he's only heard about it in rumors. Victom thinks on this, and Okitaka wonders aloud if Barrel's variant came from him wishing to switch out his guns for water guns. That's going to weaken his attacks, but in this situation it's much better at getting ratings points and a good chance to show off some skill.

Back on the field, Barrel is getting his mind blown as he inspects himself. He starts getting psyched as he says he can win with this, yelling out his thanks to you. Barrel's opponent gets annoyed at him and demands to know how much longer he's gonna gawk at his things, so Barrel remembers he's supposed to be in a fight and gets ready. You wish Barrel good luck, so he smiles as he thanks you before facing the other hero with an audacious grin. He asks if the guy is ready to get wet, and the announcer declares the start of first half of the fourth preliminary battle. Barrel then says it's time to get splashing as the episode battle begins, and more happens after that.

Things tune back in midway as Barrel cheers about how much fun he's having, zooming around the stage and taking pot shots at his opponent while toying with them. The water tank supplying Barrel's guns fill up in response to his excitement to the point that they're about ready to burst, and the opposing hero gets mad at being flexed on as he fires off his own attack. You call out to Barrel that it's coming and tell him to counter, so Barrel obeys and uses both guns to put out the fireball thrown at him.

The trainee hero is surprised Barrel stopped his giant fireball with just one attack of his own. Barrel laughs about it being a drop in the bucket, though he feels he got his expressions mixed up and brushes the thought aside. He figures it's time to end the match, so he points his guns down and blasts water through them to push himself up into the air. Furlong is surprised as he recognizes Barrel as imitating what he did the other day, and Gammei is excited at the idea since it should pick up tons of ratings points. Okitaka says there's plenty of Views too, so he urges you to go on. You call out to Barrel to fire his ultimate, so Barrel yells back affirmatively as he opens up his valves to full blast for Excalibur Vivian his variant ult.

Barrel fires off a giant stream of water at his opponent, deluging him. He's not actually moved anywhere, but once the attack ends the guy is sopping wet and falls to his knees as his hero form cancels out. Victom is pleased to see that Barrel won the match, and the event announcer starts tallying up the points. UEHA gets 100 victory points and then another 216 ratings points while Refreshing Heroes gets 46. They cite Barrel's new form rolling out as part of what led to UEHA outright destroying the other side in this match, and the crowd starts going wild.

Barrel starts cheering like crazy, and you congratulate him, tell him he did great, or say he was so cool. He thanks you saying it's because of you and everyone. When he comes down from the stage still in hero form, he grabs you into a hug to your shock, either because he's getting you wet now or because he's doing this in public. Barrel apologizes, saying he's just so happy he can't help himself. Furlong tries telling Barrel to stop wagging his tail since he's flinging water everywhere with it, and Gammei gets mad telling him to not get so worked up after looking so cool. Okitaka just laughs about how Barrel's so open with his emotions, then compliments both of you for doing so well and showing him something nice. And off to the side, Victom has his arms crossed as he looks at the group, thinking aloud to himself about transformations based on situational wishes and how mysterious Observer abilities are. On that note, the episode ends.