Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow

While sorting through a mess of books in the staff room, Ohana happens upon one of Denroku's log books from long ago. Within it, it recounts a story of Ohana's mom when she was the same age as her.

Upon returning from school one day, Ohana Matsumae learns that her mother is going on a moonlight flit with her boyfriend to escape from debt and they are sending her to live at her estranged grandmother's hot spring inn in the country. When her best friend, Kōichi Tanemura, hears of this, he confesses his love for Ohana before running off, not seeing her off when she leaves. As Ohana arrives at the Kissuisō inn, she makes a bad first impression with one of the employees, Minko Tsurugi, before being informed by her grandmother, Sui Sujima, that she is to work at the inn to earn her keep. She is shown around the inn by the head mistress, Tomoe Wajima, and another employee, Nako Oshimizu. When Ohana notices the hard work Minko has to do, she tries to do something nice for her by airing out her futon, but it ends up falling off a window and landing near some customers. As Minko is slapped by Sui for Ohana's mistake, Ohana demands to slapped even harder, though Minko doesn't particularly thank her for it.

Sui instructs Nako to train Ohana to become a housekeeper, though she is quite shy about it. When Nako has to attend to another duty, Ohana, having been taught to only rely on herself, she cleans another room where the author Tarō Jirōmaru is staying by herself. When the staff's breakfast is cancelled due to an error by Minko in the kitchen, Ohana makes breakfast for everyone, though this only serves to irritate Minko further. Afterwards, Tarō complains that some drafts for his story have gone missing from his room which Ohana had cleaned earlier, having not been informed by Nako beforehand. After Sui instructs the others to go to resume their duties rather than search for the draft, junior chef Tōru Miyagishi takes Ohana to pick up some luggage. As Tōru mocks Ohana's ability to take care of herself, Ohana inadvertedly tells him to 'die' which nearly causes him to crash. Feeling guilty about it and taking a walk to reflect upon herself, Ohana decides to speak her mind against Minko and Nako, wanting to cook them their least favourite foods tomorrow as payback. The next day, Ohana finds some of Tarō's discarded works, which turn out to be erotic stories using her as a character.

Minko and Nako discover Ohana has gone missing, as she has been confined by Tarō, who admits he was trying to come up with a sex novel to pay his hotel bill. When he discovered by Nako and the others, he attempts to make a run for it by stealing one of the inn's vans, so the staff give chase. They eventually find him at a seaside cliff where he jumps into the sea, but Nako manages to save him from drowning. As Tarō laments his lack of talent, Ohana tells him that, even though his novels were perverted, they showed a side of Ohana she never knew before. Afterwards, they arrange for Tarō to work at the inn to pay off his bill, and Minko eats the revenge meal Ohana prepared for her. Later that night, Ohana finds notes Minko wrote on devising an alternative insult to 'die', and also receives a text from Kōichi.