Runner

Runner
Statistics
Episode #:	8
Airing:	August 22, 2010
Manga:	23, 24, 52, 45
Episode Position
Previous:	You Can't Help what you Love!?
Next:	Santa Claus is my Eccentricity

Runner (RUNNER) is the eighth episode of Mitsudomoe.

Plot Summary

Imprisoned

Trapped in the shed.

Class 6-3 is in P.E class. The activity of the day is a game of Cops and Robbers. Futaba is the most excited about it and, as the cop, starts chasing everyone. To avoid being captured by Futaba, Mitsuba and Hitoha make a plan; Mitsuba will run to get the attention of Futaba while Hitoha releases the hostages. When Futaba discovers them, however, Mitsuba throws Hitoha down and runs off, assuming she will be able to escape. Futaba chases her instead because she "loves to run." Mitsuba hides in the gym equipment shed. Futaba enters and knocks some things over trying to find her, but Mitsuba was hidden inside a vaulting horse.

After Futaba leaves, Mitsuba tries to get out, but one of the shelves has fallen and is blocking her in. Mitsuba calls for help, but only Hitoha is there and she refuses. At that moment, the class ends and Yabe locks the door to the shed, not knowing the girls where in it. The girls start panicking and Hitoha asks Mitsuba to lend her a hairpin to unlock the door, to which Mitsuba says she will only give her one if she lets her out. Upon being released, Mitsuba tells Hitoha that she never had a hairpin and calls her an idiot. Time passes and the classes end for the day. Hitoha begins to shake. Mitsuba, concerned, asks her if she is feeling sick and covers her with her jacket. In desperation, she bangs on door with a bat trying to get out, but it’s no use. As she starts crying, the janitor apparently hears the noise and opens the door.. Still concerned, Mitsuba tells Hitoha that they are free now, only for Hitoha to slowly turn to her and then call her an idiot: it was revenge for what happened earlier. As a triumphant Hitoha walks away, Mitsuba is crying on the floor, as the janitor asks her to leave.

Depressed

This is what Yabecchi actually believes.

Hitoha was absent from school for a few days. When she returns, she tells Yabe that actually she was faking it (in reality, she is actually lying about this just to annoy him). While Yabe scolds her, Hitoha notices that Chikubi’s cage is empty and overhears Futaba, who claims that she trained Chikubi to do a trick. When she snaps her fingers, the hamster does a backflip. Hitoha tries to do the same, but she is unable to snap her fingers. She glares at Futaba, claiming that she has been betrayed and scaring Chiba and Satou, and leaves. Futaba then notices that Chikubi is gone.

Hitoha is angry under Yabe’s desk. She says, more-or-less to herself, that she is mad that Futaba got close to someone while she was away. Of course, Yabe misunderstands this and believes that Futaba stole Hitoha's boyfriend. He panics, because he is unable to understand about love matters, not to mention the fact that the two girls seem now to be more advanced in romance than he is. To make her get out from under his desk, he claims that he is going to fart on her and make her smell his feet. This is overheard by Principal Noda, who scolds him.

While Noda scolds Yabe, Hitoha goes to wait for her teacher outside the office. Futaba appears and tells Hitoha that Chikubi is gone, but it turns that she was in Hitoha’s pocket all the time. Futaba points out that Chikubi prefers Hitoha over her, to the delight of her sister. Hitoha tells Futaba that she take care of and pet her Chikubi it if she wants and if she's gentle. Yabe overhears the conversation and he is relieved to hear that Hitoha was talking about Chikubi the whole time and that she made up with Futaba. Noda also overhears, however, and he believes they are talking about actually fondling each others' nipples and scolds Yabe again. In the classroom, Hitoha is unable to snap her fingers and gets depressed, even though Chikubi backflips to console her.

Initial G

Hitoha is almost honest about the Gachi Rangers.

Yabe is about to go to sleep. As he walks to turn off the light, his finger connects with a cockroach on the switch. The next day, Yabe is shown to have had little sleep because of the cockroaches at his apartment. Hitoha understands him, because she is also afraid of bugs. Futaba offers to help Yabe with the roach problem, but Hitoha refuses to go. She soon changes her mind, however, when Yabe tells Futaba that they can watch the Gachi Rangers DVD that he just bought. The next day the two sisters go to Yabe's house. Hitoha claims that she only came to supervise Futaba. Futaba tries to punch the roaches to death, but she misses and starts destroying everything; Yabe yells at her to stop, because the room is rented. Futaba then tries to kill the bugs using a hammer, much to Yabe's dismay.

Hitoha is amazed by Yabe's Gachi Rangers collection. As she touches one of his figures, Yabe takes it from her, believing she is going to make fun of him. She tries to explain that she actually likes them, but at that moment a cockroach lands on the figure, so she throws a magazine at it. Yabe is less than amused, believing that she did it on purpose. Meanwhile Futaba kills the cockroaches by trhowing nails at them. Yabe tries stops her and tells her to swat them with magazines, but they are porn magazines and Futaba is distracted by the boobs. Hitoha opens the Special Edition Gachi Rangers DVD box, but a cockroach appears and she reflexively closes the box on it. After a misunderstanding, Hitoha and Futaba leave and then Yabe opens the DVD box, which still has the cockroach in it. He screams as Hitoha drags Futaba down the street.

I am a Nanny, by God!

I bet Choumage did this.

The triplets are at the department store. Hitoha is trying out a foot massager, Mitsuba is looking at another exercise machine, and Futaba is juggling some dumbbells. She drops one of them, though, and then goes chasing it around the store until it bumps into a little boy. The boy is lost and can’t find his mother. Futaba offers to help him by carrying him on her back and jumping into the air to spot her. The boy is amazed by how high she can jump. Back where Mitsuba and Hitoha are, the boy's mother is looking for him. Mitsuba is also wondering where Futaba went, although Hitoha is too engrossed in the foot massage to care.

Futaba, following the commands of the boy, begins to run across the town with him until she stops and realizes she doesn't know where they are. The boy starts crying and blames Futaba for getting them even more lost. Futaba decides to draw the boy’s mother to calm him, as he describes her. She ends up making an identical drawing of his mother on the asphalt, calming him so much that he falls asleep. Futaba and the boy sleep on the ground until a cop finds them. The information gets to the boy's mother and the other Marui sisters that they found them in the neighboring town. Futaba apologizes for the problems and says goodbye to the boy, promising to play again someday. The boy tells his mother about the drawing and the mother is interested in seeing it. However, after she finds out that Futaba drew her with big breasts, she erases it with her foot as she tells her son that he won’t see that girl anymore.

Characters & Cast

• Mitsuba Marui: Takagaki Ayahi
• Futaba Marui: Akesaka Satomi
• Hitoha Marui: Tomatsu Haruka
• Satoshi Yabe: Shimono Hiro
• Shinya Satou: Sanpei Yuuko
• Yuudai Chiba: Yamamoto Kazutomi
• Noda: Takaoka Binbin
• Chikubi: Saitou Momoko

Manga differences

• In the anime, a part of Futaba's character song ABC yori DEF ssu!! plays while Futaba travels around town with the boy Kazuya, showing how they got from the department store to a rural area. This is not in the manga, and it instead just cuts to them far away from the store.

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You Can't Help what you Love!?	Santa Claus is my Eccentricity