Title: 13歳のハローワーク (13-sai no Hello Work)
Aired: January 13th, 2012 - March 9th, 2012
Back in the present time, Kogure's life was more or less back to normal, with the cases that he found rather meaningless. He got a call from a mysterious person who asked if he would like to return to the past. Since he haven't yet achieved his goal of changing his life, he said that he wanted to return. He was told that the rules are simple - he wasn't to tell anyone that he's from the future. At the police station, he met a girl who was charged for compensated dating, he told her that money was something to be earned through hard work, not realising that he was holding a book on horse racing at the time. She called him on his BS and said that he looked just the same as "that guy", referring to a man on television who appeared to be a ruthless corporate type. Less than impressed with the man on television, Kogure went to the washroom, where discovered that he had gone back to the past, and not just anywhere - he was in the female washroom of Teppei's cram school. He was discovered by Teppei's classroom teacher and taken to the staff room for a scolding. There, he discovered that the classroom teacher had been receiving disturbing "love letters", and advised her not to dress so provocatively all the time. (>.<)
In Teppei's class, Kogure discovered that his younger self had attached himself to Murayama, a classmate whose father is a banker. Murayama has a head for business and had Teppei help him make money through auctions in the classroom. Impressed by Murayama's ability to make emoney, Teppei was interested in getting into finance himself. Talking to Murayama, concerned about the boy's influence on Teppei, Kogure realised that Murayama was the man he had seen on television in 2012.
Soon after, Kogure was called by the school principal who reminded him that he's indebted to her (he owed her 60 million for the interest she lost out on for waiting a year to buy the bookshop in the last episode) and that she had a job for him. The job was to infiltrate a factory that made nuts and bolts, to figure out if they had other side businesses going on.
On the way to the factory, he was found by Takano, who insisted that he was Kogure's "follower" and would go work at the factory with Kogure. Takano revealed that he was a Tokyo University graduate and came from a rich family, but was working odd jobs because he couldn't find work that he found fulfilling. At the factory, they learned that the only suspicious thing was that everyone who worked there were passionate about what they did, and worked hard - including the daughter of the factory owner, who was a young school girl. Apparently while making regular nuts and bolts, they had another dream - to make a "super nut" that would be used in huge projects like the building of Rainbow Bridge.
Touched by their passion, Kogure brought Teppei and Murayama to the factory to see what it was like to have fulfilling work. It was revealed that Murayama and the daughter of the factory owner knew each other when they were younger, and it appeared as if Murayama might have had a crush on her. She included both boys when she called the workers to share some red bean porridge together. It would have been a warm moment, except for the fact that Murayama's father appeared, to remind the factory owner that he was behind on his loan repayments. He was surprised to see his son hanging out at the factory, and when he was walking by his son he "accidentally" knocked the bowl of porridge from his son's hands, so that Murayama couldn't eat his.
Upon learning that the factory had money problems, Kogure and Takano were talking about it, when they ran across Teppei's classroom teacher, who was running from someone - it seemed like whoever who had sent her the love letters might have been a stalker. She pressganged them into walking her home, where Kogure quickly found that her room had been bugged by the stalker. He used it to catch the stalker, but instead of taking him to the cops or anything like that, he told the stalker that it was okay to keep on sending the teacher letters, but that's about it. Returning to her and Takano, he told them that the stalker had run away, and to call the cops if he came back, but being afraid, she told them that they could stay at her apartment (Takano had told her that they were both homeless) in exchange for protection and rent money.
Having settled the matter, Takano asked both of them to go to a disco with him. The depiction of bubble era Japan here is funny - had it really been like that, then? Anyway, at the club they found both Murayama's father and the factory owner, who was begging for a loan extension, and giving a bribe to Murayama's father.
The next day at work, though, Murayama's father showed up and told everyone that there would be no grace period for the loan. He gave back the bribe, and even after hearing the explanation about the "super nut" which had yet to be completed, exclaimed that it was just an imperfect nut that costs so-and-so yen per piece, to him. Incensed, Kogure yelled out to Teppei if that was really the sort of man he wanted to be. Murayama had been there with Teppei, and I found myself hoping that the incident would change the person Murayama was going to be.
Still, Kogure went to the cram school principal to ask if she could help out. She refused, telling him that a woman who wastes money on a man in hopes for romantic life is the same as someone wishing to win on a horse racing bet. At her words, he was reminded of the horse racing book he had been reading back in 2012. Remembering the results of the race (he was reading up specifically on the 1990s races), he bought a betting ticket using Takano's money. They won, of course, but after cheering, he carelessly placed the ticket into his pocket, and it fell to the floor instead, without him noticing. He received a call from the mysterious caller, who didn't say anything once he picked up. During that time someone walked past him, and when he couldn't find his ticket, he thought that the person must have pickpocketed him. Takano and Kogure chased after the guy, in vain. Returning to the factory, they found the factory owner's daughter all by herself. She told them that the factory owner and workers were all already searching for new jobs, since the factory would be closed down if they couldn't pay the loans. He took out the notebook he had seen her father use to record their progress with their super nut, and gave it to her, telling her to write down all her sadness, and to remember this setback, but not to give up. "You're still only thirteen", he reminded her, not realising that both Murayama and Teppei were also there in the background, listening on. His words seemed to have reached the other two, as well.
The next morning Takano and Kogure were having breakfast with Shoko, who was on the way to a job interview. Takano asked her what kind of job she was looking for, and she admitted that she didn't know. He asked if she was just going blindly to interviews without knowing, to which she replied, there was nothing wrong with trying various things while looking for something that suited her. Kogure looked at the paper, and remembered that he had to tell Teppei something, but as he walked out of the door of Shoko's apartment, he found himself back in 2012, walking into his office. He looked at the television, where Murayama was still on, saying "what's wrong with wanting to make money?" Kogure was a little let down, and said that nothing changed, in the end. But after Kogure left, the Murayama on television continued to say that there are companies that needed investors to succeed, that he wanted to see succeed.
The daughter of the factory worker, too, was all grown up, and still trying to perfect the "super nut". While talking to her two workers/colleagues about how to move on while they weren't making any money, Murayama came, telling them that he could help out, if she granted him one wish. When asked, he said that his one wish was to have a bowl of red bean porridge that she made.
Kogure, hoping for any kind of change, went to Takano, and asked if he remembered that in his youth he had looked up to a guy, and that they have put in a large bet on a horse race together, and won. Takano didn't seem to remember him, and just said that there was no way anyone would've won such a bet.
So, yet again, Kogure had changed someone's life, but not his own.
I enjoyed this episode, and am really loving both Matsu-ni and Yoko here, but can I just say that Kogure telling Shoko not to dress provocatively was so... ugh. I would write a long, long rant about that, except that I have a headache right now :/
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