After meeting with Hattori, Mashiro and Takagi continue working on new submissions, and Mashiro writes notes to Azuki in class. Azuki cries after Mashiro asks her if they have to wait to be together until they have fulfilled their dreams, and she gives him her email. Mashiro is anxious to submit a work for the Tezuka Award so that Azuki can smile again, but Takagi suggests that they should proceed more cautiously and make their manga as good as it can be. Hattori calls them, and tells them that the work they submitted did not even make it to the finalists, but Takagi and Mashiro resolve to keep trying and go for the next Tezuka award, much to Hattori's pleasure. Nizuma receives a visit from his editor and the editor in chief, and agrees to move to Tokyo to write his manga if he gets the right to cancel one series after becoming the top-ranked manga artist.