Episode 17 - Tsuzuri's Summer Vacation
Tsuzuri Tessou is normally a mild-mannered schoolteacher, but she leads a double life as... a mild-mannered (and not very competent) Anti-Skill officer. Over the course of several days, she proves to be (even) more lacklustre on patrol than usual, until her friends Aiho Yomikawa and Komoe Tsukuyomi suggest she find herself a hobby in order to stay motivated.
At a video arcade on her patrol route, she keeps noticing a boy named Kounoe from Sakugawa Middle School who is constantly playing an old fighting game, Gekisho 9 — a game Tsuzuri used to be crazy about. When she runs into him on her day off as well, she impulsively decides to teach him some techniques, including how to unlock a hidden character. However, she is called away and leaves him to play the game by himself, mentioning that the hidden character has an ending that's worth seeing.
The next day, Tsuzuri has an especially difficult time on patrol, trying to assist a number of odd people such as a silver-haired nun in white, an eccentric girl in a shrine maiden's outfit, and a rather spacey junior high school girl who is searching for her locket. She is also frightened by a brief earthquake, but fortunately it's only a small one.
After work, she goes to the arcade to play the fighting game again. A challenger joins partway through, and manages to defeat her with some clever moves. It's Kounoe, who says he played through the entire game to the end after Tsuzuri left the previous day. It being dark, she walks him home; he rather awkwardly thanks her as he leaves.
Some time later, Tsuzuri and Yomikawa run into Saten and Uiharu, who tell her that Kounoe has just transferred to a different school — one that's known for training video game designers. It seems the school is sponsored by the same company that manufactured Gekisho 9. Saten remarks that it's kind of a washed-up company nowadays, but Uiharu says they made some of her favorite games. Tsuzuri just smiles, realizing that Kounoe is pursuing his dream, while Yomikawa wonders why she's suddenly so cheerful.
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: For Tsuzuri Tessou.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Komoe orders increasingly bizarre dishes from the food stall as the episode progresses (culminating in an entire pig's head), to the point that Tsuzuri wonders just what kind of stall it is.
- Call-Back: Saten recognizes Aiho as "that scary teacher". Uiharu also recognizes her and Tsuzuri as the Anti-Skill officers who helped her back in episode 12.
- Continuity Cameo: Tsuzuri finds herself trying to deal with Index and Aisa Himegami in separate incidents on the same day. (Index mentions Touma, which indicates that the timeline is now concurrent with the events of A Certain Magical Index.)
- Chekhov's Gunman: The schoolgirl Tsuzuri helps to look for her locket is Erii Haruue, who will become an important character in a few more episodes.
- Continuity Nod: Komoe mentions "a poor young girl" (Index) who blew a hole in her roof. Tsuzuri actually meets her the very next day (unknowingly).
- Early-Bird Cameo: Haruue, briefly appearing here three episodes before her proper introduction.
- Foreshadowing:
- The earthquake is the first of many that will be appearing over the next several episodes.
- We don't get a full look at the photo inside Haruue's locket, but sharp-eyed viewers may notice something familiar about the person in it...
- Letting Her Hair Down: Both Tsuzuri and Aiho in the bathhouse, multiple times. With both her hair down and her glasses off, Tsuzuri is hardly recognizable.
- Lower-Deck Episode: The episode centers around Tsuzuri Tessou, who's been little more than a nameless background character up to this point.
