Chapter 68 (Vigilantes)

The scene Kazuho Haneyama witnessed reveals itself immediately: Koichi Haimawari tripped and Makoto Tsukauchi caught him before he hit the floor. He pulls back and apologizes, and she answers that her arms are open for him whenever he likes. Baffled, he asks what she means, and she says she meant exactly that, then reminds him he had needed the bathroom.

He returns a few minutes later and Makoto keeps describing the future she wants. Assuming she means her career, Koichi is corrected: she is talking about love, about building a family. He protests that he is far too plain for that kind of talk, and she tells him ordinary is nothing to apologize for. She has weighed her prospects many times, the ways things could go right or wrong, and no matter which version of tomorrow she pictured, Koichi was always in it, smiling. That is why she wants to be with him.

The confession leaves him without an answer. Makoto says it can wait until she returns for good in the fall. Koichi doubts he needs that long, but she disagrees, because Kazuho's feelings belong in this too. Makoto is certain Kazuho loves him. Rather than force a choice between the two of them, she gives him room to work out where he and Kazuho stand before deciding. Koichi resolves to raise the subject with Kazuho indirectly, says goodbye, and leaves practically jumping with joy. Makoto is pleased as well. Kazuho, who overheard every word, is left confused and unsettled.

The next morning Kazuho meets each of Koichi's attempts at conversation with prickly deflection. By nightfall she recognizes that dodging solves nothing, that she needs to organize her thoughts and tell him she is in love with him. Measured against Makoto, though, she cannot find a single category where she comes out ahead. Her recent years went into Narufest as Pop☆Step and introduced her to countless people, yet all of it traces back to Makoto, who is the reason Pop☆Step exists at all. She pulls up footage of her earliest days, when she was only a kid, and although the sight makes her cringe a little, the clip of that first performance steadies her. Nothing she started has been finished yet, she decides, so it is time to cheer for herself and refuse to lose.

Makoto Tsukauchi confesses her feelings to Koichi Haimawari and asks for no immediate answer, deferring it until her permanent return in the fall.

Makoto states outright that she believes Kazuho Haneyama is in love with Koichi, and deliberately declines to force a choice, giving Koichi time to understand what is between him and Kazuho first.

Kazuho overhears the entire exchange. After a day of avoidance she resolves to confess as well, drawing resolve from footage of her first performance as Pop☆Step despite feeling outmatched by Makoto in every respect.

Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court's nineteen-page chapter was released on December 27, 2019 within the Final Performance arc of volume 9. Makoto Tsukauchi appears on the cover.

Serialization ran the chapter as Partner, written パートナー, a title changed for the collected volume.