Neighborhood Story

Tsutomu! (1x12)

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While the Yawaza student body speculates the circumstances around Mariko terminating her romance with Tsutomu, the former paramours are actually good friends now that they understand what they can expect from each other. Aside from Mariko's crass comedy driving Yuusuke bananas, Mikako is bewildered when Tsutomu signals an interest in undergoing the training to legally operate a motorcycle and explains that he is not as fragile as she thinks. While Mikako computes her perspective of Yuusuke's budding relationship with Mariko, a daydream sequence illustrating the epilogue of the amusement park outing sets the stage for Mariko's gratitude to Yuusuke for transporting her home but not so much to accept his »tutelage« as payment. Tsutomu summons the other Akindo members the next day after school to explain about a high-school dance party and appends the admonition that it has to be conducted with much greater dexterity than the amusement park outing; a flashy entrance later, the Akindo members waste no time getting down to business. Jiro encountering his old friend Chika Ishida, Yuusuke dancing with a girl that felt put out by all the action, Mariko concurrently flirting with many different guys, and Tsutomu explaining about his trip to Ibaraki over the winter break for motorcycle training to both Risa and P-chan's delight...none of these things ultimately does anything to set Mikako's mind at ease.