and Gen get themselves "fired" from the sign painting shop where they weren't being paid in the first place, for objecting to the militaristic talk of Mr. Nakao, the owner. Gen catches sight of the girl and follows her home. It turns out that her father is Mr. Nakao, who forbids her from having anything to do with him. Musubi stays out late, being pepped up by a bar owner with an energy shot. Ryuta asks Mitsuko, the girl Gen loves, to go out with him on a date, and shows her Gen's sketchbook filled with pictures of her and declarations of love. She explains that her father has forbidden it, and Ryuta goes off angry, spitting insults. This leads to Ryuta and Gen quarreling, and when Musubi arrives and fails to explain his absences, more fighting, which Katsuko can't stand. Musubi goes off to get back his good mood. Mitsuko is impressed by Gen's sketch book. Her father tells her she's the one important thing in his life, his dream being to see she's married to the perfect husband and providing grandchildren. She hates having his dreams forced down her throat. Musubi goes back to the bar for an energy shot, which he's told is full of vitamins. Mitsuko gets Gen's address from the store to come thank him for the sketch book, and agrees to model for more sketches. On July 27, 1953, an armistice is signed for peace in Korea. The dresses are selling well, but Ryuta and Katsuko wonder why Musubi is the only one not working, and where he is. Gen and Mitsuko go to the Itsukushima Shrine of Miyajima and lament that the deer there were nearly all killed off for food at the end of the war. Mitsuko confesses that she thinks she's a murderer because when the Bomb was dropped, she, a small child, was unable to carry her injured mother and ran for her own life. Gen also left his father, sister and brother. On his way home, Gen runs into Musubi on a street car, looking unwell. He shoves Gen and runs off to the bar for another shot, but can't pay. They tell him he'll be in agony for days, since he's totally addicted. Only now does he learn that the "vitamins" were actually illegal drugs. He steals money from the postal savings passbook of the orphans' savings toward