Jigoro puts his special frog balm on Yawara's injured hand, assuring her that it will take away the pain so that she could take the exam (in fact, he purposely gave her wrong medication (for hemorrhoids) so that she would fail her test). Yawara is desperate as she is unable to write, but her injury is discovered by a concerned Matsuda, who sneaks into the testing site to check up on her by skipping out on an important assignment to cover "Mike Bison" (a stand-in for Mike Tyson). Yawara initially distrusts Matsuda and rebuffs him rudely, and it is only after he confesses a "personal interest" in her that she allows him to fix her hand with a makeshift handkerchief (allegedly borrowing from an injured tennis player's technique). Yawara asks her mother if she was "attracted to many men at the same time" when she was younger. Mistaking her surprisingly good mood for having given up on Mitsuba College (because she must have failed the entrance exam), Jigoro takes her to visit Saikai College to visit Coach Yuutenji and the college president, but Yawara bursts their collective bubble by categorically stating that she will not attend Saikai. She goes to the newspaper office to return Matsuda's handkerchief, but meets Yuniko who lies about Matsuda being out and pretends to take a message for him. As she leaves, Yawara is fooled into thinking that Kuniko might be a good person after all.
Meanwhile, Shinnosuke wakes up after bedding a new woman and delightedly reminds himself that he can sleep with both Sayaka and Yawara once they enter college.
柔道大会で優勝を果たすも、右手を捻挫してしまった柔。滋悟郎に薬を塗ってもらったがそれはにせの薬で、受験会場に着いても手がうまく動かせない。そこへ訪ねてきた松田は、彼女の状況を聞いて協力を申し出る。