With Saki’s help, Sakuta has Ikumi moved to the school infirmary so that she can recover from her encounter with the so-called “poltergeist”. As Ikumi starts to feel better, she explains to Sakuta that she believes her Puberty Syndrome is somehow connected to her relationship with him. To get the poltergeist to disappear, Ikumi has to either forget about Sakuta completely or Sakuta has to remember a specific and important day from their middle school days. Ikumi is already keen on taking the former path but she nevertheless proposes that Sakuta try to beat her to the punch. The funny thing about Sakuta saying he’s quite good at remembering things is that he actually can vouch from experience. After all, this is the guy who managed to remember Mai as she disappeared from people’s memories and remembered Shoko even after she rewrote the timeline.
As Ikumi returns to the nursing majors’ food stall, Sakuta reunites with Kaede’s best friend Kotomi (Miho Okasaki), who recognizes Ikumi as her former senpai in high school. Kotomi tells Sakuta that there were rumors of Ikumi of living with an older boyfriend during her senior year, which got her in some trouble with the guidance counselor’s office. At first glance, it sounds at odds with her leading a largely fulfilling high school career doing volunteer work. The next day, Sakuta has his usual discussion with Rio. While Rio feels there isn’t enough information to work with, she does speculate that Ikumi was actually in love with Sakuta during middle school. Sakuta doubts that since he and Ikumi hardly interacted with each other until recently. Still, the theory would explain why Ikumi is adamant about forgetting him and it’s hard to deny that Ikumi has strong feelings of some kind towards him.
The following day, Sakuta asks Tomoe about #dreaming during her break at the diner. Frankly, the scene doesn’t reveal anything new but hearing Tomoe’s experience with is pretty funny at least. Sakuta also gives Tomoe some fancy new earbuds as a preemptive gift for getting accepted into college. Asking Uzuki for favors continues to pay off. As simple as this scene is, I appreciate that the show is acknowledging such a major turning point for Tomoe. The poor girl barely gets to do anything these days so I’ll take what I can get. Not that I ever doubted that Sakuta does care about Tomoe but it is really nice to see him put his teasing aside and give such an earnest gift to her for once.
Before leaving the diner, Sakuta runs into Kaede’s middle school counselor, Tomobe (Aya Endō), who reveals that she provides counseling for Ikumi’s volunteer organization. What a small world these characters live in. I hadn’t thought about it before but in hindsight, it’s awfully on the nose that the organization aims to help students who struggle to go school. That’s something Kaede would’ve absolutely benefitted from. It really seems like what happened with Sakuta stuck with Ikumi and she hadn’t been able to let it go. Funnily enough, Tomobe comes to this exact theory when Sakuta asks her what she thinks might be plaguing Ikumi.
Aware that Ikumi would be trying to avoid him at this point, Sakuta asks Tomobe to secretly schedule him an appointment with Ikumi’s volunteer organization. Before Sakuta can confront Ikumi about her guilt and her attempts to address the #dreaming posts, the poltergeist strikes again. This time, it leaves some peculiar notes on her arm. The conversation is cut short again when Ikumi’s ex-boyfriend, Seiichi Takasaka (Hiroshi Watanabe), appears the premise, prompting Ikumi to leave. Seiichi explains to Sakuta that Ikumi was sympathetic towards his struggle to get a job and the two of them broke up when it became clear that he was unappreciated of the support she’s giving him. I was curious what could’ve prompted Ikumi to have a live-in boyfriend and risk her reputation at school and it sounds like that too factored into how she’s too selfless for her own good.
Seiichi also tells Sakuta that he tried to approach Ikumi because she wrote on social media that she dreamt of getting arrested after an incident involving bodily injury. Definitely a concerning matter in light of the whole #dreaming trend. It also doesn’t help that the projected date of the event happens to the same one as the middle school reunion. My guess is that this prompts Sakuta to show up at the reunion and it’s then revealed that he’s the one who gets injured. It wouldn’t be the first time he gets caught in a self-fulling prophecy.
On his way out of campus, Sakuta is greeted again by Touko. On the surface, it’s not a terribly productive conversation, which admittedly wouldn’t be surprising given Touko’s playfulness. It does however establish a couple details. One “rule” to Touko’s Puberty Syndrome is that while she may be the one giving out “presents”, it’s ultimately up to the recipients what they do with them. Case in point, Touko gave Puberty Syndrome to Ikumi but had no idea about the poltergeist. Another thing to note is that #Dreaming is indeed Touko’s doing and similar to how her presents work, she has no control over what people dream of. Unrelated but I had a good chuckle when Sakuta asks Touko for her phone number. That’s something Rio brought up last episode and it’s admittedly Sakuta would do in general. A pity however that Touko decides to be sly again and only show her number very briefly. It’d be funny if Sakuta actually has a better chance reaching out to Touko by writing her a letter, like with Santa Claus.
Sakuta reunites with Mai right as Touko disappears. Having run out of leads, Sakuta decides that he may as well visit his parents for any more clues. Mai accompanies him since she’s only met his parents once before. There’s a very charming moment here where Mai offers to help Sakuta’s mother with cooking dinner and the latter remarks that it feels like Sakuta has gotten a wife. Wait until she sees the marriage certificate. Anyway, Sakuta learns that his parents are acquainted with Ikumi’s mother, who works as both a lawyer and a member of the middle school’s PTA. I’m starting to see where Ikumi got her work ethic from. Sakuta’s father also provides him with his middle school yearbook, something which he thought had throw out. It’s a good thing his parents kept it as it allows him to verify his graduation essay.
There’s an interesting technicality to the essay (and I kind of feel stupid for not realizing it last post). It does echo Shouko’s advice but because Shouko altered the past, Sakuta doesn’t remember meeting her until he reunites with her in the new timeline. In other words, there’s actually no way he could’ve written the essay. The simple conclusion to make here is that Ikumi’s Puberty Syndrome is showing what she wants to “remember”. But given the essay’s similarity to the one Sakuta originally wrote and Ikumi’s appearance in the alternate timeline, I think what’s actually going on might be a lot grander than that.
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