Hakumei and Mikochi are on their way home from the market (with an overloaded wagon), when suddenly… their house explodes! It turns out that Sen had given them a bag of gunpowder, and while it was tucked away in a safe place, a clear vase had been left in the window nearby, and you know…. cue the magnifying glass effect.
Sen offers to help rebuild their home using a small crew of large reanimated skeletons (which she controls uses bongo drums, which is super neat IMHO), but it will take a day so Hakumei and Mikochi need to find a place to stay for the night. To Mikochi’s horror, Hakumei decides that they will camp outside that night.
I feel like this episode really highlights the strong friendship that Hakumei and Mikochi share with each other. “Yin and yang” come to mind, to be honest. Where 
Mikochi is flustered when it comes to doing things outside, Hakumei is totally in her element. Using skills she picked up when she was homeless, Hakumei quickly assembles a leaf tent and a portable cooking stove for Mikochi. Then Mikochi takes over and whips up delicious dinner for them. I guess opposites really do complement each other sometimes eh?
That night after overstuffing themselves with Mikochi’s cooking, Hakumei drags Mikochi outside to look at the beautiful starry sky. She tries to point out to Mikochi that the night sky can be considered a roof too, something which the girls will have to keep in mind as a ponkan falls from the tree they’re camped out under and squashes their tent flat. Smart move Hakumei! o.o;
In the morning the girls re-load their wagon and head home. Sen has completed all the repairs, and the girls give Sen a ponkan as a thank you for her efforts. Sen takes the girls inside their new home, pointing out all of the new features. My favourite is the new “laboratory” space downstairs. I can’t even see the girls using it as an actual lab, maybe more of a coffee room? But Sen was so excited to have come up with that idea, and seeing her excitement made me giggle.
Anyways, Sen has saved the best part of the tour for last. Their new entryway now features a ribcage embedded into the tree above their front door! o.O The girls say thank you of course, but it’s obvious that they’re less than thrilled with this odd addition. And really who can blame them? I would be too. >_>
The second half of the episode starts off with a flashback to how Hakumei met her carpentry boss, Mr. Iwashidani (Hakumei casually calls him Iwashi, to his great annoyance). In the present day, Hakumei still works for him.
Her current task is to repair a pin on a cog in the local windmill. While Hakumei works to fix it, Iwashi will make some repairs to the windmill’s roof. Hakumei is brave and prepared to do the job, even though it will be a little dangerous working in a precarious location way up high. Plus the weather forecast calls for rain that evening, so they need to finish their work before it starts raining.
As the day progresses, their work goes as planned. It’s clear that Hakumei is a very skilled carpenter, and her boss Iwashidani thinks highly of both her and her work. In what I assume is the late afternoon, it starts to rain as Hakumei installs the pin on the cog. Suddenly her hammer falls out of her belt and causes Hakumei’s foothold to shatter. Hakumei grabs the rope for the windmill’s bell and tries to hang on as Iwashidani runs to save her, but she’s unable to hold on until he can reach her. Just as Hakumei lets go of the rope, Iwashidani breaks in through a window and breaks Hakumei’s fall.
Hakumei is really upset, even though the foothold breaking was not her fault. It was just a freak accident; she had no way of knowing that her foothold had that weak spot. She feels worse when she sees that the strap on one of Iwashidani’s sandals has broken. He tells her that if she can fix it for him, that will be enough “atonement” for her “mistake”, and then they can fix the window together the next day. Hakumei still feels horrible though, and makes no effort to hurry home out of the rain.
Mikochi is annoyed with Hakumei for not getting in out of the rain faster, and she pushes Hakumei into the tub for a hot bath. After her bath, Mikochi makes some ponkon tea to drink so she’ll be warm. We can see that Hakumei has uses some new fabric to fix Iwashidani’s sandal strap.
I am not quite sure why these shorts resonated so much with me, just that they did. :3 I really liked seeing the girls’ new home in the first episode, especially their new lab space by the tree root. It looks like Sen incorporated a lot of storage space for the two girls, something I know I’d love if I were in a new home too. (Oh man, if you could see my book collection alone… ^^;; )