Nishida points out that Taichi's strength and weakness is seeing karuta only as a mental contest. He says Taichi needs to start taking practice swings, so he can learn the distance to the cards. At the eastern qualifier, Sudō tells Chihaya that colleges give scholarships to students who place first or second in national tournaments. Chihaya inadvertently bets Sudō that the first one of them to lose must shave their head. In the first round, Chihaya faces Ririka Tachikawa, a child prodigy hailed as the next Shinobu...