Himari and Yuuki’s duel starts out well, with them scoring a hit on Yachiho before she can complete her pose and catchphrase (thus exposing a key curiosity in virtually all magical girls – Why does the enemy give them time to transform?). However, Yachiho counters with Golden Hour, which is a weird name for a power that can only stop or rewind time for five seconds.
When Himari and Yuuki get Yachiho into a state where she believes it’s time to freeze time, they bolt away quickly enough to be out of her range. In this way, they compel her to waste a valuable Golden Time, but she counters by using Prime Time, which freezes time for a full ten seconds, allowing her to close their distance and shoot them while time is frozen.
Yachiho then deploys her second-most powerful weapon, her words, insisting the wounded Himari give up and come home. It’s an old pattern of abuse and tough to break out of, but Yuuki is there to snap Himari out of it. They’re not as bad off as it seems, and they use one more trick—having Yachiho stop time while Yuuki is in the middle of transforming back to a human—that Yachiho is blinded.
She couldn’t see Himari slip under the blast of light and smoke, so when time resumes, Yachiho gets a bullet to the neck. Since she’s exhausted from using Golden and Prime Time, it’s enough to bring her down and award Himari her first victory against her sister, and put the 7th Squad up 1-nil.
Yachiho, whom we learn from her inner monologue actually does love and care about Himari (in her way), is happy to admit she’s gotten stronger, but still asks her to come home with her, not as a slave but as a sister. Unfortunately, Yachiho dished out a bit too much over the years, to the point Himari doesn’t consider their home home anymore. She’s where she belongs, and Yachiho can pound sand.
Back at the barracks, Yuuki’s reward kicks in just as he and Himari are grabbing drinks from the fridge, and she transfers the water form her mouth to his. She also pecks, nibbles, noms, and tongues Yuuki’s lips mouth as she presses on him (witnessed with great interest by a spying Shushu), all while thanking him earnestly for helping her defeat her sister. As Himari puts it, “sometimes boys are okay.” Truer words.
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