You have to watch this series up to the closing credits, that’s for sure.  It likes to throw big tonal shifts at you right at the end, and it’s happened too often now to be a coincidence.  For the most part this was a fairly low-key Botan-centric episode, as she deals with the aftermath of what’s happened and the upheaval in her routine it brought about.  That’s complicated everybody’s life – a measure of how unique and important Botan is – but of course she’s the one who’s stuck at the center of it all.

Kadamori-san is becoming an increasingly important figure as the series progresses.  Not an ally, not an enemy, a politician as much as anything.  He’s in charge of Botan’s life at the moment whether anyone likes it or not, and he’s clearly both tempted by the opportunity that provides and wary of the risks she brings with her.  It seems to me that Taiju is at least sincerely trying not to make Botan any more miserable than necessary.  He explains his theory on what happened to her – how she “tagged out” with her marebito when she was kidnapped, and how that marebito may have become a “signal flare” to tsukumogami like the paper umbrellas that it was time to get aggressive.  But he also makes it clear that what happened to Hyouma’s siblings may have had nothing to do with her (despite clearly believing otherwise himself).

Taiju is also becoming something of a master of spit-takes, and Botan’s behavior this week gives him plenty of practice.  Deprived of her daily routine of college and looking after her trousseau, she volunteers herself to work at the dining hall.  Then the talisman development office, then the training hall (treating the many injuries Hyouma causes).  His initial surprise notwithstanding, Taiju takes all this in stride – in the big picture, he has nothing to lose by letting Botan do as she pleases.

With her tsukumogami off to defend themselves to the Yachimata, it’s up to Hyouma (with Nagi’s blessing) to protect her.  They decide to go by car, in the interest of not calling attention to their absence.  But the local tsukumogami still act to take advantage, creating plenty of work for the Bureau of Traditional Music.  And the ones the Nagatsuki would have most wished to keep in the dark are aware too, and they ambush the group on their way to the meeting.  That bunch can take care of themselves, but it’s certainly a brazen display of confidence.