The Mizusawa karuta club has won the team championship, becoming the number one team in Japan. The players reflect upon the path they took to the championship. After Chihaya remembers the pain in her finger, she is taken to the hospital.

Chihaya has advanced to the quarterfinals. Her opponent is the Queen, Wakamiya Shinobu. Chihaya decides to go all in and use her injured right hand. How will Shinobu respond? How will Chihaya fare?

The Class A Finals pit Arata vs Shinobu, Class B is between Taichi and Rion in the same area where Komano is participating in the Class C Final. Chihaya is stuck between supporting Taichi and Komano or experiencing the match between Arata and Shinobu.

With a packed house watching who could be the new King and Queen, Chihaya and Taichi are ushered in by Sakurazawa. The atmosphere is tense; who will win?

Chihaya, Taichi, Tsuboguchi, and Dr. Harada, all members of the Shiranami Society, have made it to the top 8. They approach the next round with the mindset of playing in a team match, but Chihaya is matched against Inokuma Haruka, the former Queen who won the title four times in a row. Inokuma's unique play style is like nothing Chihaya has seen before, causing her to struggle in their match.

Inokuma, who won the Queen title four times in a row; Sudo, who can throw an opponent off with his words alone; Murao, the fourth seat in the Nagumo Society; and Arata, who ended the Queen's undefeated record. The Shiranami Society members are faced with four powerful opponents, but Harada's insistence brings the other three back to the mindset of playing offensive karuta. How these four matches will end is anyone's guess!

The audience at the Yoshino Tournament is taken for a wild ride with so many unexpected twists: Arata, the focus of high expectations, has been defeated, and Taichi, who only just reached Class A, advances to the finals. And now it's time at last for the final round between Chihaya and Taichi, teammates who have been practicing together since they were in elementary school. The odds are in Chihaya's favor, but Taichi isn't playing his usual karuta since he declared that he would defeat her in an official match.

Taichi has nothing but Chihaya on his mind as he constantly updates his strategy during their match. Chihaya has a bit of trouble since Taichi isn't playing like he usually does, but this just might be the best match they've ever played against each other. As the final round nears its end, Chihaya's desire to be the Queen battles against her dreams for the future as she's forced to choose between the Queen tournament qualifiers and her class trip.

Chihaya chooses to go on her class trip in hopes to come closer to fulfilling her dream of being a teacher, but she spends the entire time lost in space, wondering how Taichi is doing at the Master tournament qualifiers. Harada and Inokuma are also participating in the East Japan qualifiers, but as Taichi tries to quietly psych himself up, someone unexpected shows up to get in his way. Meanwhile, at the West Japan qualifiers, Master Suo makes a surprising comment to Arata.

The veteran players Dr. Harada and Inokuma were the winners in the first round, but Dr. Harada chose to yield the second round to preserve his strength for the third. Arata starts to feel sucked into Dr. Harada's pace, but after receiving some advice from Chihaya, he remembers how his grandpa, the Eternal Master, used to play. Both of them enter the third round with one win and one loss as the battle to determine who will challenge the Master begins!

Arata's playing becomes reminiscent of Eternal Master Wataya Hajime's, allowing him to take control of the match's pace. Harada recalls the one match he played against Hajime when he was young and becomes painfully aware of how much his game sense has faded since then. But he sticks with the offensive play style that he teaches in the Shiranami Society, turning the match around in a way that leaves everyone in the hall holding their breath.

The Master and Queen matches have begun. Harada faces Suo fully prepared, thanks to the Shiranami Society's support. The Queen match is between the current Queen and a former Queen: Shinobu versus Inokuma. Master Suo, having declared that he'll retire after his fifth consecutive win, appears as relaxed as ever, and Shinobu enters in a heavy, long-sleeved kimono provided by her grandmother.

Both the Master and Queen matches come down to luck of the draw in an intense first round, ending in wins for Shinobu and Harada. Shinobu is shaken after learning that her grandmother, a politician, sees her as no more than a walking advertisement, as well as the fact that Chihaya chose her class trip over a chance to play in the Queen match, and she begins to break down in the second round.