All the participants of the concours are gathered by Kanazawa-sensei, where they are given printouts with the information they need about the upcoming concours. The theme for the last competition is “Something you’ve let go” (something like that… ^^;; ) And well, based on the past episodes, we could see how Hino, Hihara, Tsuchiura, and Tsukimori relate to this theme… Then, Kanazawa-sensei tells them that since this is the last concours, they should do their best in their performance so that they won’t have any regrets. Hino thinks about what Kana-yan said…

After that, Hihara, who was together with Hino and Tsuchiura, mentions about whether Yunoki is practicing or not at that very moment. Hino says that because of the time difference, he must be asleep already, and Hihara asks about the time difference between Japan and England. As they arrive in the music school building, they were surprised to see a lot of female students are down and depressed (and gives of this purple aura of depression ^^;;; ) These students are all Yunoki’s fans, and still couldn’t get over the fact that Yunoki has already left. They bump into the “trio” head of Yunoki’s fanclub, who tells them that the final concours has no meaning now that Yunoki, who they consider to be the “lead actor”, is not around anymore. They also say that the same goes for Seisou Academy, that there’s no meaning in staying there because of Yunoki’s absence… >.>;;;

Hino thinks about what they said about the concours not having any meaning, and feels down… Tsuchiura tells her not to mind what they say, since they’ll be rendered speechless once they see their performance on stage Hihara agrees, and tells them that they have to do their best in the last selection, for Yunoki’s sake as well. Then Hihara tells them that he believes that Yunoki will someday come back into the world of music again, and Hino agrees.

Hino practices on the rooftop, and gives out a sigh as she makes some mistakes again… Tsukimori hears her playing and goes to the rooftop. He tells her that the way she’s holding the violin is too light, and that there’s something wrong with the positioning of her elbows (not quite sure about this, what Tsukimori said was something like, “your elbows are way too outside”.. something like that). Then, he advises Hino to better correct this [proper positioning]. Tsukimori asks her about the condition of her violin, and Hino tells him something like “It is up to my skill (and not the violin’s) as to whether she will perform well or not”. Then Tsukomori asks her “Are you not afraid? I’m sure you have felt how the eyes of the people around are on you (or how she’s being scrutinized by the people around her)… Are you not afraid of going up the stage in such a state?” Hino tells him “I will be lying if I say I’m not afraid. But since I’m with this violin, which has paved the way for me into music, and allowed me to meet Tsukimori and everyone else, as well as gave me wonderful memories, it makes me want to go up the stage together with it.” Then Tsukimori notices Hino’s hand trembling as she holds on to her violin… “looks like I still haven’t improved much up until the end / up until now”, she says. As Tsukimori looks at Hino, he admires her for her courage, as she’s willing to fight and not give up on the competition despite all that.

Tsuchiura on the other hand, is sitting on a bench, thinking about the theme for the final selection… then tells himself “Looks about time for me to make a comeback, if not…” [then thinks about what Hino told him, about not rushing things, and improving little by little, one step at a time] “…I’ll be laughed at by her. In the final selection, I will play that song”

Hino finishes practicing and was going down the stairs when she see a film case along the stairway. She picks it up and gives it to Amou, for which Amou is so thankful for, as losing it would mean losing a big scoop She places it in a case together with other films to be developed. She closes the cabinet door too hard, and the box on top of it ended up falling… Amou goes to clean her camera lens as it was dusted when the box fell. Hino comments on how Amou herself maintains her camera. Amou tells her “Of course, since it’s with me wherever I go… This camera may be old, but for me, I consider it a great partner / buddy”. Hino thinks about “being partners”, and says that she wants herself and her violin to be buddies / partners as well.

As Amou was picking up the stuff that fell, she notices a cassette tape, and wonders what it was, since it’s quite old and the text on label is already distorted… She goes to play it, and they hear the sound someone singing what appears to be an opera song… Kanazawa-sensei hears this, and quickly runs off to the room where Hino and Amou were. Both of them were surprised, as Kanazawa-sensei barges in, and quickly takes away the tape. “Don’t tell anyone about this tape!”, said Kana-yan, which leaves both the girls in surprise and wonder. They notice the sad look on Kana-yan’s face, then he leaves the room. Hino realizes that the person singing on the tape they heard must be him (and the sad look on his face was because of something from his past)

Tsukimori arrives home, and was greeted by his mother as he came. Tsukimori asks her mother about the charity concert that she told him about before, and expresses his wanting to participate in the concert. His mother tells him “So you’ve finally accepted it.”, which he corrects by saying “No, it’s just that there’s someone I want to hear my music” His mother was quite surprised by this (since it denotes that he has found a ’special someone ), and wonders who was that person who opened up his heart… As Tsukimori walks away (on the way to his room perhaps), he tells himself that he has to overcome / get over [this] (more like overcome himself… his own devils… perhaps the way he pressures himself and shuts himself from people).

The next day, Tsuchiura practices in the old uncle’s (sorry, don’t know his name ) music store. He notices that the piece Tsuchiura was playing was the one that he played in the concours before. Tsuchiura tells him that it was the song he chose, since it is the final selection, and he wants to play the best song. The store owner smiles as Tsuchiura has gotten over that event in the past and has come to terms with playing it again. And then he asks about Tsukimori (whom he has seen together with Hino as they went to buy some stuff for her violin), and wonders if he was a friend of Tsuchiura. Tsuchiura corrects him and tells him that he’s just someone he knows from school

Tsuchiura wonders why he asked this, and the store owner tells him that his face seemed familiar to him… wondering where he was seen him before. Just then, Hino comes to the store to buy a tuning fork. Tsuchiura tells her “So you’re going to tune your strings? It’s quite late buying that now” Hino agrees, and thinks to herself “Tuning strings and maintaining my violin… I have to [gradually] keep in mind these things, because this violin is my partner”. Then, Tsuchiura tells her he’ll be helping out in tuning her strings (temporarily, for that day)

That time, Hihara who has just came out from a fastfood, thinks that he heard someone playing just then.. and runs off to follow where it’s coming from. He sees the music shop, and was surprised to see that there was such a store there. Hihara feels as though he was been there before, but couldn’t quite remember it. Just then, Tsukimori walks in front of the store, and was greeted by Hihara (he was dazing around as he walked, so he wondered where he was when Hihara called him out). Hihara tells him it’s unusual to see him spacing out.

Tsukimori realizes that he’s in front of the music store and Hihara asks him if he knows / has been there before. Tsukimori tells him he’s been there once, so did Hihara, he just doesn’t quite remember it well. As they were talking, Hino and Tsuchiura comes out of the store, and sees Hihara and Tsukimori outside. Seeing Hino and Tsuchiura made Hihara remember about the time he went to that store, it was during his first year in junior high. At that time, he was wondering about whether to continue on with the track and field, or enter the brass band instead. He was dazed out, as he walks in front of the store.. and bumps into Tsuchiura (of course they still don’t know each other that time )… Hihara sees the trumpet display outside the store, and his eyes widen in astonishment of how great the silver trumpet looks. “What am I being confused about? The answer lies within here [my heart]“, Hihara tells himself. And then after that, he quit the track and field and joined the brass band.

After Hihara remembers that event from his past, the store owner rushes outside to tell Tsuchiura that he has also remembered where he was seen tsukimori. Then, all of them watches the video of the concours where Tsukimori was part of… Tsukimori asks him why he has that video, and says “Enough of this”, as he didn’t want to see himself in the past. Hino tells Tsukimori that this chance doesn’t come that easy, so they better watch it thoroughly. Then Tsukimori tells them “It’s not as good as you think (or it’s not that great)” Tsuchiura remembers that it was Tsukimori’s video that prompted him to join the concours.

Way back elementary, the store owner was persuading him to join the concours, seeing the great talent that he had. A lot of people are telling him to join it too, but then Tsuchiura didn’t have any interest in joining such competition. He also says that he’ll be thought of as stuck-up since he’ll be joining at that early age. And so the store owner decided to show him a video of the previous concours, where a boy of the same age as his, performed really well. Tsuchiura was in awe as he saw how good Tsukimori was…

As they were now watching the video, Tsuchiura thinks that at that time, he thought that there was actually someone like him [tsukimori], who was that good, at his age. And seeing someone like tsukimori take part in the competition made him think that the concours is interesting. He never thought that it was Tsukimori.

Hihara praises the store owner, since this video he has is a “jewel” And then, he tells them that he also has Tsuchiura’s video. Tsuchiura was greatly embarrassed by this, since he doesn’t want anyone to see that video of his anymore He tells the store owner “Didn’t I tell you to get rid of that?!”, with which the owner tells him he can’t possibly do that, since it’s a precious collection of his… And then, Tsukimori says “I [absolutely] want to watch that too”. Hihara tells the store owner that he’ll hold Tsuchiura so that he won’t be able to resist, and let them watch his video.. ^^;;;;

After that, they take a walk to the park. Tsuchiura tells Tsukimori that Tsukimori is sure to win in the competition. Tsukimori tells him “Of course”, and Tsuchiura replies “But I will not lose to you”. Tsukimori accepts the challenge

Then they see Ousaki-sempai together with some kids, who are having a volunteer concert. The kids are all sad since no one is accepting the invitation they’re giving, and was about to lose hope when Hihara thought of an idea when he saw some band setting up in the park. Tsuchiura quickly understands Hihara’s idea, and thinks it’s great.

They started playing ‘Entertainer’, which gathers up quite a crowd ^^ Hino says she heard this song before, and Ousaki-sempai tells her it’s “Entertainer”, by Charlie Chaplin. “What a relaxing feeling [makes you feel free and relaxed]… I like this kind of performance”, Hino says.

The kids then gave out the pamphlets regarding their concert and all the people gladly accepted it. Ousaki sempai then says “Music sure is a mystery…. those kids who were all feeling down before, has become all happy because of music.” With those words, Tsukimori remembers some words from her mother “Ren, music is something that you should enjoy / find happiness with, and is also something that will bring happiness to other people.” Tsukimori finally understands those words from her mother and gives out a gentle smile *sigh* =P

Tsuchiura and Hino walks home (I wonder why.. ), and Hino says that she had fun. Tsuchiura asks if she’s going to play “Ave Maria”, and Hino says yes. Hino then asks if he’s going to play that piece he was playing in the MInami music store, and Tsuchiura was quite surprised that Hino heard him play. Hino tells him he heard it outside… Tsuchiura tells her it’s Liszt’s “La Campanella”, the piece he played in the concours he joined way back elementary. He has never played it again after that… until now. “I decided to get over my past and make a comeback. Seeing how you work so hard has made me realize how I’ve been running away from my past, and it’s such a pitiful sight” Hino tells him she couldn’t have possibly been working hard to affect him to such extent…

Then, Tsuchiura tells her “That piece, was originally / borrowed from a piece Paganini composed for violin (Paganini’s Violin Concerto No.2). During Paganini’s recital, Liszt, who was so impressed with this piece Paganini composed, was inspired / decided to make a piano piece of this work of Paganini” Hino was in awe as she learns about those things… and walks forward when tsuchiura stayed standing… “I never thought this time will come when I will be able to play that piece again / anew. Just like how Paganini was to Liszt, a violinist named [you] / [such as you] is here in the midst of my piano” (awww >o<)… Tsuchiura’s such a poet :3