Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls - Episode 9 - Konomi's New Hairpin

Konomi denied that she started wearing another puzzle piece hairpin because she was attracting fanboys.

Konomi has been climbing and winning everything for six months. Her analysis mode got its own name – "Murder Observation." At her latest competition she met Anne Kurusu, The Princess of Climbing. She made many fanboys on purpose. Konomi prefers the lily garden of her all-girl school. Anne wanted to put on a show too, so she asked Konomi to participate in her exhibition climb as a dueling partner.

Konomi quickly learned that her Murder Observation is too slow, since the rules let Anne and her only read the wall for one minute before climbing. Anne was much quicker actually climbing the wall too. It was a good lesson to see the difference in skill and experience a pro climber has compared to Konomi's eight months of sport climbing.

In a scene where I wanted to read in as much sexual tension as ordinary tension, Anne tried to rock Konomi's confidence in herself and her team going into the Combined Cup. Konomi got under Anne's skin too, because she now felt motivated in crushing Hanamiya High in the team classification. They both had lovely skin to get under, over, on, through, in, out...

Sayo explained the rules of the Combined Cup and identified Konomi's need to work on her speed. Their team nominally had a resident speedster, but she has not been climbing with the other girls for six months. Jun hasn't even been talking to Konomi. Jun wasn't endearing herself to fans of Iwakakeru! at all.

Jun has been working at the sport climbing shop for six months, using their facilities to train. She even learned how to smile. For customers, but that's something. On the day Konomi came over to ask advice on speed climbing, Akane the Rookie Killer started working there too. Coaching a class of young children should have been an easy task, but the socially clumsy Jun had difficulties. They were exacerbated by her former rival Akane. Through a regimen of social manipulation, Akane helped Jun break through her performance anxiety and become the climber who always beat her as a child and teenager.

Akane claims to herself she helped Jun get her groove back because beating her in her current state wasn't satisfying. She didn't sound convincing, even to herself, but it is a common rival's lament to beat an enemy at her best instead of her worst. Akane suspects she made a huge mistake.