As Shizuka goes in for her first audition at Prussia Studio, she becomes nervous about going up against popular voice actress Rina Sōma. When she is the next one to audition, her nervousness gets the better of her, although the director is impressed. Meanwhile, Aoi receives a call from her mother, who congratulates her on her work on Exodus! despite her confusion about the story, and informs her that her father was also impressed. The scene then flashes back to the time Aoi, Ema, Shizuka, Misa, and Midori presented their club's anime back in high school; although the students were unimpressed by it, the five of them still found pride in their work. The next day, Aoi, Ema, and Shizuka meet up with Misa, now a 3D computer graphics operator, and Midori, a college student who is aspiring to be a scriptwriter. Together, they watch a movie, visit the park, go shopping, and get some drinks. While at Shizuka's workplace, Aoi, Ema, and Misa tell each other about the hardships they are experiencing at work, while Shizuka laments that she has not done anything significant in her work and that she did not do too well on her audition. Later on, Aoi receives a call from Tarō, who asks for her help, but when he goes off-topic, she hangs up on him. When the get-together ends and Aoi and Ema ride the train home, the former remarks that she does not have a concrete anime-related goal in mind. While walking home, Aoi receives a call from Tarō, who again tries asking for help, but she hangs up on him. The next day, things become hectic at the office with Seiichi being behind on storyboards and Ryōsuke deciding to drop out of directing the eighth episode following an argument with Tarō.