Chihayafuru Season 2 Episode 5

Having scouted Hokuo during the semi-finals, Sumire reports that they plan to target Taichi, Tsutomu and Kana to secure three wins without much effort, which pushes them to become more serious about their match. To everyone’s surprise, Hokuo’s Hiro Kinashi decides to arrange the order to have a fair match up using their full strength. As Sudo is chosen as the speaker for the final match, motivating Hokuo not to slack off, Taeko brings Misuzawa some tasuki to help them cool down. Whilst Kana manages to perform well against her opponent thanks in part to Sudo’s reading rhythm, Chihaya struggles against her opponent as she focuses too much on emulating Shinobu’s technique. However, after Yusei ends up losing his match, Chihaya starts to make her comeback.