Episode 19 - Midsummer Festival
Today is the Tokiwadai dormitory's midsummer festival, when it's open to the public for all kinds of special exhibits. Mikoto is nervous about a performance she'll be giving that afternoon, despite Kuroko's best effort to encourage her.
Saten and Uiharu arrive amidst all the visitors, and are very excited to see everything. Mikoto and Kuroko meet them, but Kuroko is abruptly dragged off to the kitchens by Maika Tsuchimikado, who is helping with the cooking and demands her assistance. Mikoto ends up showing Saten and Uiharu around the various exhibits, which keeps them rapturously entertained. They eventually find out that Mikoto is going to give a highly-anticipated on-stage performance later, although they don't learn what it is. Their excitement makes Mikoto increasingly nervous, and she grows even more so when some children from Asunaro Park appear and say they're looking forward to it. The Dormitory Supervisor, who is chaperoning the kids, tells Mikoto that she'd better live up to their expectations.
Mikoto eventually excuses herself, leaving Saten and Uiharu to wander outside where a charity auction is being held. They run into Mii Konori, who has just bought several designer handbags. They find Kuroko as well, who has escaped from Maika in order to buy some auction items donated by Mikoto. They subsequently encounter Kongou, who is visiting along with Wannai and Awatsuki. The fact that they're guests confuses Saten and Uiharu briefly, since the three are Tokiwadai students themselves, but they explain that they live at a different dormitory.
It's eventually revealed that Mikoto's performance is a violin solo. As she frets backstage, she unexpectedly encounters Touma, who is wandering around anxiously. He doesn't appear to recognize her, but asks if she's seen a short girl dressed in a white nun's habit. Thinking he's come to make fun of her, Mikoto yells at him and threatens him with a chair until he beats a hasty retreat. However, this actually releases her anxiety, and she is able to go calmly out onto the stage and play. Her superb violin performance leaves the crowd enchanted as the festival wraps up.
Tropes
- Breather Episode: This is basically a cute side story with no real impact on the overall plot.
- Continuity Cameo: We briefly see Index near the end, indulging with abandon at the buffet, although her face is obscured.
- Continuity Nod: Touma doesn't appear to recognize Mikoto in this episode, thereby placing it chronologically some time after episode 6 of A Certain Magical Index.
- Friend to All Children: Near the end, Kongou can be seen tending to one of the Asunaro Park kids, smiling sweetly as she does so.
- Meido: Besides Maika, all of the Tokiwadai girls at the dorm (including Mikoto) are dressed up this way. Kongou tries to get into the spirit by wearing her own novel interpretation of a Japanese-European fusion style maid outfit (even though she's actually a guest).
