The literal cold open with two unidentified young girls crouch in the snow and record the sounds of an oncoming train, an obvious hobby, is an enticing way to start the episode. Turns out of those girls is Sasshou Mari, a former classmate of Takayama’s who’s joining the OJT.
It looks like a relatively quiet week for Defense 4, with Koumi bailing out Takayama with her decent English skills and Sakurai having to hand-write and apology for using excessive force on an alleged perp (glad that last part, and Sakurai’s general ruthlessness, is still in force here). But Sasshou provides them their latest “mission” when she reports her friend Kaori is missing.
With that…it’s time to hit the binders of incident reports, illustrating just how diligent and detail-oriented the operation is; but there’s nothing in them on Kaori. When Kaori’s phone shows up at the lost-and-found, Sasshou’s super-sensitive ears are able to pore over the last sound recording on the phone’s memory and identify the quayside station where she was abducted.
From there, Defense 4 conduct a thorough search of the station’s environs, finding a bound and gagged Kaori in a dark warehouse. When the drug dealing gangsters who captured her return, The Railway Public Safety Crew is ready for them with extended batons. Unfortunately the battle isn’t shown, but Takayama apparently doesn’t embarrass himself in it, as Sasshou proclaims he was “cool back there” when it’s all over.
And when this episode is all over what we had was, again, a scenario in which the unique skill sets of certain characters prove decisive in winning the day, from Koumi’s English to Sasshou’s ears. I also enjoyed the pleasant chemistry and subtle flirting between Takayama and Sasshou that overshadowed whatever lingering passion Takayama and Sakurai still bore from last week’s crisis.
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