Credit to Kobayashi for doing whatever she had to in order to settle the situation. If it meant seriously bribing Elma then that is exactly what had to be done. And frankly good on her for realizing that simply believing in someone isn't normally a power-up
. And good call in general since Tohru was reaching her boiling point.
Based on this I think we can discount Elma's power-level judging power. I'm starting to think that Elma just downgrades Tohru's power in order to keep herself on the same level as Tohru. Not that Ilulu isn't relatively powerful. It wasn't as if Tohru could both handle her and protect the town at the same time. She wouldn't have won, but she certainly would have made sure that Tohru lost. Doesn't mean she wouldn't have gotten killed if Tohru had legitimately lost it though.
And with this character we get another fetish added to the show
. I'd say she's pushing it, but we have Lucoa. Once you have her making uncomfortable advances on a young boy...you've opened the door to just about anything.
It was a nice return anyways for Kyoani. It was a fun episode.