Season 1 · Episode 3

Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow: Balut

Minko and Nako discover Ohana has gone missing, as she has been confined by Tarō, who admits he was trying to come up with a sex novel to pay his hotel bill. When he discovered by Nako and the others, he attempts to make a run for it by stealing one of the inn's vans, so the staff give chase. They eventually find him at a seaside cliff where he jumps into the sea, but Nako manages to save him from drowning. As Tarō laments his lack of talent, Ohana tells him that, even though his novels were perverted, they showed a side of Ohana she never knew before. Afterwards, they arrange for Tarō to work at the inn to pay off his bill, and Minko eats the revenge meal Ohana prepared for her. Later that night, Ohana finds notes Minko wrote on devising an alternative insult to 'die', and also receives a text from Kōichi.