We pick up where we last left off: Ranmaru, the manager at Orio-ya, has come to retrieve his employees. But that’s not all, folks! 

All of a sudden, the Orio-ya airship is bathed in a golden light. Out comes that mischievous blonde girl!

She’s none other than Ougen-doji, the founder of Tenjin-ya, but at the moment, she’s the head of Orio-ya. Hm, so she left her old inn to Odanna, and now she wants desperately to surpass it? Or is that just what her employees want? In any case, she’s apparently a big deal, because everyone in the vicinity immediately kneels to her. I don’t know why. They don’t really say why. I just assume that she must be really, really important and powerful. I hope it’s not simply because she used to own Tenjin-ya; that alone is not a good reason to kneel. Then again, I would never kneel to anyone to begin with. Unfortunately, Ougen-doji isn’t just here for her two employees, because she’s also here for Ginji. Something about a personnel move. Supposedly, Ginji was only supposed to work at Tenjin-ya for 50 years. Now that his time is up, she wants him back because…? I mean, he’s just an employee, right? How goddamn important are employees in this world?

As you can tell, Aoi’s not the least bit happy about this. After all, Ginji was the first friend she ever made in the hidden realm. Here’s where the story really misses the mark, though. We’ve only ever seen Ginji help Aoi out with Moonflower and specifically Moonflower. Sure, they’re friends, but it’s never implied that they were that close. It’s not as if they’ve become BFFs or emotionally intimate. Honestly, this anime hasn’t really been all that romantic. Aoi has yet to deepen her relationship with any of the bishies. So back to Ginji, all he’s really done is shop for the girl. As a result, it’s really weird to me that she’s getting so worked up over this. The rest of Tenjin-ya has known him for what? 50 years at most? But for Aoi, she’s known him for about what…? A few months at most?

She’s really, really worked up over this.

I guess everyone at Orio-ya has to wear a stupid mask, because Ginji immediately puts one on when he returns to the other side. Of course, this sets Aoi off again:

Oh, now she wants to ask him about the past. She had so many opportunities to question both Odanna and Ginji about that incident, but only now does she really, really need to know!

Look at Aoi! She’s super distraught over this! Again, had Ginji been portrayed as a potential lover — or even just a super close, personal friend — I would understand her extreme reaction. But as it currently stands? I don’t get it. She’s acting as if she’s losing her lover. After Aoi’s pleas fall on deaf ears — Odanna even tells her that it is Ginji’s choice to walk away — the girl does possibly the dumbest thing she could think of. First, she lures the ugly pug-thing away from the airship:

Then she takes it hostage and threatens the entire Orio-ya staff with her pot leaf!

All this for Ginji! It’s not like the fox guy is even being taken prisoner against his own will. It’s not like he’s going to be water-boarded over at Orio-ya. He’s just switching employers. God forbid anyone ever leaves a job in the hidden realm! Sure, Ginji may not want to leave, but he’s still doing it on his own accord. Nobody’s dragging him back to Orio-ya in chains. Nobody’s dragging him back kicking and screaming. And yet, Aoi wants to make enemies of a powerful rival inn because of her feels. She’s not just endangering herself; she’s also endangering her newfound friends. All because she’s about to lose her fox friend and personal shopper as if they couldn’t just talk over some magical device or some shit — as if he’s going super far away, and she’ll never see him again. Like wow, I’m just amazed at her reckless and selfish behavior over such a minor setback in her already relatively carefree life (does Odanna even charge her rent?). If she needs a personal shopper that badly, someone should just hook her up with an app for online deliveries. It’ll blow her fucking mind.

But hey, everyone freaks out over nothing in this show. Look at Ranmaru lose his shit over the ugly ass dog.

Well, Ougen-doji has had enough. Before you know it, Aoi’s surrounded by wisps of light. Odanna tries to save the girl, but he’s too late. She’s been spirited away again.

So this is where the show plays a dirty trick on us. Usually, if an anime wants to a recap episode, it has the courtesy of warning us ahead of time. Like call it episode X.5, y’know? Not here! As Aoi floats through La La Land — or wherever the hell she is — she thinks back to how this whole zany story first started. Well, I don’t have time for that nonsense, so I skipped to the very end. Seriously, the recap takes up nearly nine minutes of this episode’s runtime.

When Aoi wakes up, she finds herself surrounded by a bunch of masked jerks. Yep, since she doesn’t want to lose Ginji so badly, she gets to come along with him to Orio-ya. Good job, girl. I hope your restaurant is still standing when you get back.

Ranmaru starts threatening her…

…but this just sets off a stupid staring contest between the fox and the hound. Well, we all know how that story ended. Luckily, this episode is also over, so I don’t have to deal with Aoi’s stupidity for at least another week. Man, I hope the summer season has something decent to watch on Mondays, because I honestly want to drop Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi now.