Tomozaki?
You wanted advice?
You're always messing with Tama,
so I figured you might be able to give me some tips.
Now hang on, Tomozaki! That's simply inexcusable!
I'm not messing with Tama—
I'm simply expressing my love!
Uh, sure...
What a weak response!
C'mon, work with me here!
Oh, um...
Y-You sure have a funny way of expressing your love, Mimimi!
Pulling out Tama's signature move? Leave it to you, Brain!
Y-Yeah?
Totally!
You're the only comedy partner for me, Brain!
Now you're roping me into doing stand-up?
Anyway, what is it about Tama that you target for your teasing—
er, your expressions of love?
Hmm... Her cuteness and her tininess?
I figured...
Okay, have you seen any good comedy routines lately?
Huh? Where'd that come from?
I was just thinking...
if Tama had an obvious vulnerability like Takei,
the class could get used to it as part of her character.
It's for research.
Aha.
I mean, I have a bunch of ideas, but...
Oh, Tomozaki.
You're a sneaky one.
So quick to get embarrassed, but when push comes to shove... boy, can you shove.
Hah!
What the—
Your hero complex has earned you a piggy-nose punishment.
I don't know what any of that means!
You don't have to!
Oh, man! You're so ugly!
Y-You can be ugly on the outside with a beautiful heart... probably!
Yeah, I know.
Comedy routines, was it?
Let's see...
Wait... what the hell was all that about?!
2nd Stage: Lv. 4 Villagers have their own way of life
Oops. Sorry.
The Konno girls' harassment of Tama continued.
But Tama kept on putting up with it,
which made the class seem to grow more and more sympathetic.
Hinami, too, kept on creating a protective atmosphere for Tama.
And what's more...
Hinami did what?
She asked me not to hang out with Shuji for the time being.
Not even outside of school. Erika might see us, she said.
I guess it would get pretty messy if Erika saw you.
Right? When I told Shuji, he got all huffy,
like, "Fine by me."
And that's why
I've been thinking I'd knit or sew him something
to get on his good side.
Would that even work on Nakamura?
Maybe I'm just being selfish.
I always dreamed of giving a boyfriend hand-knitted presents,
but...
Could you stop being all shy about it? You're the one who brought it up.
Oh, sh-shut up!
Still, it doesn't strike me as very Hinami-like to make such a big ask of Izumi.
She must be at her wits' end, too.
Old AV Room
Then came lunchtime.
Hey! Sorry I'm late.
Took me a while to blow off Shuji.
Sorry for all this.
Don't sweat it. How's the practice going?
Well... how is it going, professor?
"Professor"? You can't mean me?
That's right. You coach me at every break.
I-I guess so.
Um... I think practice is coming along nicely.
Really?!
Good. Then let's see you in Takei Mode.
Got it.
Bring it on!
Ooh, nice.
Right? I spent a lot of time practicing!
Yeah? What did that involve?
I recorded myself talking, compared it to how Takei and Minmi talk,
and corrected my own speech!
So you modeled after Takei and Mimimi? Good choice.
And Tomozaki didn't come up with that—I did!
Awesome, right?
Totally awesome, yep.
Hey! Say it like you mean it!
Oh, right. Sorry.
That too!
So what do you think?
I've been trying to speak more cheerfully than before.
Oh, yeah—you're a lot easier to talk to now,
and I think your charm is coming through.
Really?!
Okay, Tama, try that other thing next.
Oh, there's more?
I used these comedy routines Minmi told me about as reference.
If you would, Tomozaki?
Here goes!
Huh? Why are you so far away, Tama?
I only look like I'm far away— I'm just short! It's called perspective!
Oh, really?
Yes, really! It's an optical illusion!
But listen, this room is bigger than I thought, too.
I told you, it's because I'm short!
It only looks bigger in comparison!
What the heck?
We thought this was an easy way
to get the class used to Tama's specific vulnerability.
Not bad at all. You had me wanting to join in.
That's our Fumiya.
The teacher and his brilliant student.
Well, y-you know.
Ahem! "Brilliant" is right!
Y'know what's sad, though...
seeing the teacher left completely in the dust by his student.
I g-guess...
Tomozaki?
Too bad for you!
I'd say Tama can start mixing with the rest of the class now,
but maybe be a little careful at first.
Uh... so a little more practice in a setting where it's okay to fail.
Bingo.
I'd like to bring someone in for a dress rehearsal of sorts,
but everyone's avoiding Tama right now.
Oh, right... This is gonna be tough.
Aoi and Mimimi are on our side, but they're too friendly with Tama.
It'd hardly be practice.
So that leaves...
Izumi?
If Erika happened to find out, Yuzu's standing would suffer.
Right...
Oh!
Did you think of somebody?
Ooh, ooh! Who is it?
Let me check with them first.
Library
I'm nervous...
I-I get that.
I just talk to Hanabi normally, right?
Right. You haven't spoken with her much, have you?
No. I've thought of her as one very strong girl...
But no, I've never actually talked to her.
What do you think about Konno harassing Tama and everyone avoiding her?
Well...
I feel sorry for Hanabi. I think it's unfair.
But I can't bring myself to blame Konno or the rest of the class.
What do you mean?
Um... well, I don't agree with harassment
or with going along with the crowd to shun any one person.
But I think Konno and the class must be doing all this because they're weak.
Weak?
There must be a kind of uneasiness inside them that they can't resolve on their own.
If they don't vent it somehow, it gets to be too much to bear.
And they worry about how they look to others, so they join the crowd.
It might be something like that.
I think Konno and the others are acting like this
in order to run away from something they can't fix.
Even though it's wrong.
Running away, huh...
Yes.
Which is why I get the feeling, out of Konno and the class and Hanabi,
that Hanabi must be the strongest of them all.
You may be right.
And I wonder if Konno and the others aren't relying on that strength.
Because you can lean on it and lean on it—and Hanabi still won't fall.
Still...
his problem needs to be solved somehow.
Which is why I'm glad I can be a part of it, thanks to you.
Right. Let's solve this together.
We'll do our very best.
It's from Tama. Volleyball practice is over, she says.
Old AV Room
Nervous?
Uh-huh.
What, don't you trust Fumiya?
Nuh-uh.
This is all me.
Kikuchi?
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki S2
Hello, Fuka.
Y-Yes, hello.
Is Kikuchi who you had in mind?
Yeah, that's right.
Hmm...
Well, she is a neutral party with no ties to Konno,
and not especially friendly with Tama...
I'd say she's ideal.
R-Right?
Did Fumiya talk to you, Kikuchi?
About our strategy for helping Tama?
Yes, he has told me about that.
Okay. Er, why such formal speech?
Um... we're not close yet.
Well, whatever. Now, shall we?
A-All right.
There's more to you than meets the eye, Fumiya.
What's that supposed to mean?
Nah, it's just...
She may not stand out much, but that Kikuchi is awful cute.
What?
Nothing.
Hmm...
Thank you in advance.
Same here.
It's like some kind of competition.
Yeah. I mean, it kind of is a real contest for Tama.
Um... where should we begin?
I didn't know you were friends with Tomozaki.
Yes, I've had the recent pleasure of his friendship.
Don't you think he's cheered up lately?
I do. And I find it so wonderful when people work to change themselves
to be who they want to be.
Wonderful...
You heard her.
Y-Yeah...
It's wonderful to change yourself?
Do you really think so?
Yes, and if that's what a person wants to do,
I think that's just spectacular.
I mean,
this is for Mimimi, after all.
Uh-huh!
It's been rough lately, huh, Hanabi?
Sometimes I'm like, "Ugh," but I'm okay—honest.
I have Aoi and Minmi in my corner,
and Tomozaki and Mizusawa are helping out, too.
Thank goodness.
I appreciate your concern, though!
You have so many friends on whom you can rely. I'm jealous.
Yeah, everyone but Tomozaki is a real rock.
Hey!
If all these people will flock to you even in such a terrible situation,
it must mean they really care about you.
N-Now you're just making me blush!
You're a wonderful person, Hanabi. And cute, too.
No! I'm just short, that's all!
Short?
No, wait! Forget I said anything!
Good thing we did this dry run.
Yeah.
Hey, Tama!
Don't go running so far away just because you're embarrassed.
I'm short, that's all! I only look like I'm far away!
Oh, really?
Yes, really! It's an optical illusion!
You're cute, all right.
Look, it's like I said...
Old AV Room
I think that's enough practice for today.
How was it, Kikuchi?
It was very easy to talk with Hanabi.
I'd call that a success!
Now we have to see if Tama can start to care about her classmates.
Right.
If you're anything like first-semester me,
I'm betting your thinking goes like this:
Whatever happens in class, it's a world that has nothing to do with me.
I can't be a part of any of that.
That's...
Yeah, maybe.
Back when I felt that way,
I could be surrounded by fun,
yet that reality seemed less relevant to me than fiction.
Everything was just... gray.
But once I took that blind leap,
color came into that gray world, slowly but surely.
I began to be able to take more of an interest in the people around me.
Tama, you probably think people don't like you very much.
But truly bad people are rare.
The way I see it, if I may...
Konno, say, is a sore loser, and she hates when people look down on her.
But to the people she decides are her friends, she can be compassionate as well.
Kamimae and Akiyama must have very little confidence,
and so they make confident friends to fill that void in themselves.
Yet that's also a lovely way to take the initiative
and change the situation around them.
Izumi puts others before herself and tends to be on the losing side because of it.
But that's kindness, too, that has her feeling others' pain as if it were her own.
Each character in the story that is our classroom
has their own worries, their own growth, their own faults.
There's not a person alive who is truly thinking nothing at all.
I wonder if that realization might spark your interest a little.
Uh-huh.
I've been thinking.
You—and Kikuchi, too, who knows—
for as slow as your progress may be, it's careful as hell.
The complete opposite of me.
Tama!
Here I am!
Wait...
Now you've got Kikuchi with you?
H-Hello...
What kind of match-up is this?
Kikuchi's temporarily assisting Team Tomozaki today.
She was pals with Fumiya and decided to lend us a hand.
Oh, okay.
I didn't see that coming.
You're cute.
How could I have overlooked such an adorable girl?!
Welcome... to Nanami World!
N-Nanami... World?
C'mon, Mimimi, dial it down a notch, would you?
She's not used to your brand of... enthusiasm.
You're the worst! How could you take Kikuchi's side and not mine?
That's not the issue here!
Yikes! I forgot to hand in my journal entries!
Will you come with me, Mimimi?
Huh? Me?
Okay, I'll tag along!
You too, Tama!
Me too? Why?
Just... c'mon!
I forgot something, too, back in the classroom. Be right back.
Sure...
Today Takahiro: We're heading home! Good luck! Read Hey!
I've been hornswoggled.
This is the first time we've gone home together.
I-I guess so.
Um... how did today go for you?
Well...
I was kind of nervous being around so many people I hadn't talked to that much before.
But it was nice to see you chatting with everyone for a change.
Was it?
I thought it was nice having a front-row seat
to see you enjoying yourself with everyone for a change.
Nice... and a lot of fun.
R-Really?
You're always showing me things I've never seen before.
Finally, the next day,
Tama put her lessons to work in the classroom.
Don't stand so far away, Tama—c'mere!
I'm not far away! It just looks that way because I'm small!
It's called perspective!
Hey, was this desk always so big?
It only looks big because I'm so small!
Hinami helped out here, too.
You're funny, Tama!
She gathered the girls who were her and Mimimi's friends around Tama.
Hey, this group should hang out sometime!
Sure—how about tama-rrow?
Yes!
Hey, don't shoehorn me into this!
Cheers!
Thanks, gang!
Great job, Tama!
Keep it like this, and Konno should knock off the harassment, too.
You think so?
Once the class is on your side, people will start getting irritated with Erika
if the mood in the classroom goes sour.
And she's super sensitive to that stuff,
so she'll give it a rest.
Oh, okay.
Mimimi said she'll join us once her club meeting's over.
Aoi's still got student council work, so she's a no-show.
What about Fuka?
Oh, uh, apparently she has work today.
Hmm? What's this about Kikuchi?
Ask Fumiya. They're friends.
Oh? Is Army Boy finally growing up?
It's not like that!
You're blushing, Tomozaki.
Hello, Erika?