[relentlessflame]

(In this week's round of OP changes, Kirino kicks Kyousuke and he goes flying, and he literally "gives up the ghost" while Manami tries to shove it back in. Also, Kuroneko sitting at Kirino's computer.)

Spoiler for Very Rough Summary:

So in today's episode, the Video Game Club decides the new members are going to produce a new game and enter it into a contest. The two girls are enlisted, and Kyousuke volunteers to help. Kyousuke runs into Akagi (imouto) at the Library (book store?) checking on some BL, while he is looking on some books for advice on game creation. She chastises him rather harshly for not being of much use, but he's used to much harsher criticism from you-know-who, so decides to accept it and find something he can do to help. When her BL book is exposed, he starts teasing her a bit about it, and she asks him if he's interested in that sort of thing -- somehow there's a line to be drawn between showing he accepts her hobby and her having him embrace it himself. Eventually, he asks her if she gets along with her brother, which she flatly denies, but he remembers her sobbing thanks over the phone from the other day, which she insists he must forget.

Later at home Kyousuke's thinking of Kirino, and notices the Sis x Sis box, so the next day at the club he proposes: "Let's make an eroge!" much to the shock of all the other club members. Sena objects that they shouldn't be making an eroge in High School, but the President -- being a comrade-in-arms -- won't object. Sena continues her outrage and tries to solicit Kuroneko's agreement, but surprisingly she says that she's fine with it if it's what Kyousuke wants to do. She just doesn't know about "those sorts of scenes" from a guy's perspective, to which Kyousuke says "he'll help"... which causes a huge misunderstanding. Looks like that idea is out.

Later on, Kyousuke sees Kuroneko eating her lunch alone in the courtyard, and he and Manami look on in concern before moving along...

Back to the club room, Sena presents her proposal to make an RPG game. Despite the complexity of making a good balanced battle system, she seems quite confident that they can do it well. Sena thinks things are going well for her plan, when suddenly Kuroneko drops a huge stack of papers in front of everyone and presents her proposal of a NVL game. But unlike Sena, Kuroneko doesn't seem to have that much confidence, when Kyousuke decides to step in and vouch for Kuroneko's skills. Sena starts a little argument accusing Kuroneko's work of basically being self-gratifying (a work only for her), but this provokes Kuroneko's "black mode", and she goes into a rant for two minutes about doujin artists first satisfying themselves in the creation process and devoting 100% of themselves to their work, and it basically culminates in (roughly) "If they're going to accuse this of being a masturbatory work, then I'll show them one hell of a masturbation scene". Innuendo intended... She then catches herself realizing she said something extremely daring... but anyway, suffice it say, the club decided unanimously on Kuroneko's project. When Sena questions it, the president shows the contents of her disc, which are full-to-the-max of BL concepts and innuendo. She wanted to make a BL RPG, of course. After losing the vote, the club president gives her an ultimatum to either help Kuroneko with her game, or not come to the club anymore... and from that day forward, she never came again.

Some time later, back at Kyousuke's house, Kuroneko is lying on his bed with her laptop working on her novel and invites Kyousuke over to ask for his opinion. He immediately thinks this is a bad idea, but she bites back that he's willing to play an eroge with his sister but not write a novel game with her. Kirino told her. "Nii-san, let's play a game together", she says... He wanders over and tells her that she should be a bit more leery of doing things that would cause a boy to misunderstand, "unless... you like me?" "I do. I like you as much as your sister does." Of course, Kyousuke totally misses the point here. Later, Kuroneko asks him whether he'd prefer to be called Senpai or Nii-san, and Kyousuke chooses Senpai since Nii-san is a bit weird coming from someone who isn't a sibling. But Kuroneko chooses Nii-san all the same, claiming it's more interesting, and she teases him a bit.

All of a sudden, though, Kyousuke discovers a bug in the game, and after investigation with the rest of the club members they are concerned that given the amount of bugs they won't be able to complete the game in time for the contest. Kuroneko runs off to Sena's classroom. She approaches her to ask for her help in fixing the bugs, since Sena's earlier demo demonstrated that she had great programming skills. Kuroneko bows her head and begs for Sena's cooperation in front of all her classmates, which causes her to be embarrassed and go outside. Sena asks why she'd go that far to ask for her help, and she explains that she learned from a "hated friend" about never giving up on the things you decide to do, but the most important thing here was working together with a friend. Sena asks whether the data's in the classroom, but when Kuroneko asks if she's willing to help out, she says she's not helping out, but they'll make the game together.

Basically, all's well that ends well -- the two work together at super-speed, with Kyousuke helping out as a tester, and they made the deadline... and it looks like they even won the prize... for "Best of Kuso-ge"... ("Best Awful Game", basically.)

So basically this week was about further developing Kuroneko's character, showing her gain confidence through her interactions with Kyousuke, and perhaps falling for him even more. We also see her develop a friendship with Sena (another fellow "Otaku" of a different flavour) building a little bit on what she learned through her interactions with Kirino (about appreciating other people's strengths and the value of camaraderie in spite of differences). Kyousuke was worried that Kuroneko'd be all alone and unable to make friends, but he discovers in the end that his fears are unfounded. (I'd say that he's been pretty important to her in more ways than he realizes, and he's as clueless about her feelings as he is about Kirino's.)

Next time is the last episode, but according to the title of course, "not".

Edit: I think the main thing I missed in my first viewing but see now was the connection between the reason she's willing to ask for Sena's help, and the way she's behaving with Kyousuke. She doesn't want to lose to Kirino, whether it's in Kirino's remarkable aptitude at everything she does (and so the need to not fail at making the game), or her relationship with Kyousuke (hence why she's even calling him Nii-san now). She surely knew when Kyousuke suggested an eroge that it was sort of in memory of Kirino, but she agreed to go along with it anyway because she's okay with playing the substitute-sister for now if it means staying close to him. But I don't think it's out of pure rivalry to Kirino, but more out of a sort of envy/jealousy of what Kirino has and I think we can safely say some level of feelings for Kyousuke. And, of course, it's no surprise that she has better insight into Kirino's feelings for Kyousuke than either of them have (or will admit to having). I think I understand now the way the story is headed, as this episode fills in a lot of gaps.