Heart to Heart

**Episode Information**GalleryTranscript

Heart to Heart

Release Information

**Release Date**
November, 13 2020

**Viewers**
228K+ Views

Credits

**Written by**
Kevin LerdwichagulJeffrey Yang

**Directed by**
Luke LerdwichagulKevin Lerdwichagul

**Heart to Heart** is the 5th episode of Meta Runner Season 2, and the 15th overall.

Synopsis
Tari finally meets with MD-5, but under the strangest circumstances...

Characters* Tari
* Belle Fontiere
* Masa Shimamoto
* Lamar Williams
* Sofia Porter
* Derek Lucks
* Evelyn Claythorne
* Lucinia Porter
* Theo

Others
Minor Characters* Kizuna AI
* Satsuki-Chan
* TAScorp. Workers

Locations* Masa's Apartment
* Belle's room
* Tari's room
* Sheridan's lab

Games* Pocket Gakusei

Plot
The episode starts with Tari gifting a duck to Satsuki-chan, maxing out her relationship meter. This prompts the option for a "Heart to Heart" moment with Satsuki-chan. After rejecting Satsuki-chan in-game, Tari is offered by Satsuki-chan the option to seek out someone else. Tari uses this to track down Lamar in-game, with Tari sending a friend request to Lamar.
Cutting to MD-5's base, Sofia finishes installing Masa's new arm. During the process, they discuss their plans against TASCorp. However, Lamar's phone alert keeps interrupting them, leading him to check his phone. Upon picking up, it is revealed that Tari managed to reach out to Lamar.
Upon reconnecting with each other, Sofia starts to tell Tari about their plan, and after a short time, Lamar shows the camera to Masa, everything goes silent, except for Tari saying she doesn't know what to say.
Tari tries to explain everything, but Masa says it's okay, and tells them they'll talk about everything when the plan is done.
Lamar opens his Meta Runner menu, and the game starts to scan his face, showing his character in-game for Tari. Lamar offers 2 other Pocket Gakusei tablets for Sofia and Masa, and they start doing the same, also setting up their nicknames. Sofia enters with some black clothes and a red tie, using the nickname GenkiBunny3. While Masa enters with the same clothes (in male variant), completely annoyed using the nickname Masa6.
Masa says they'll get Tari out of there in the Show Match, and the scene cuts to Belle, sitting on a chair to watch the video Theo extracted from the server.
The video shows Lucks in his short-sleeved suit, calling for Dr. Sheridan and also saying he's a coward.
An employee notices a horrible smell, and Lucks checks out the source, just to find Lucinia presumably unconscious. Lucks calls for a medical team, and the video ends. Belle, shocked at the footage, expresses her frustration with the fact Lucks always knew and never told anyone about Lucinia's fate. Extremely upset, she leaves her room, looking for Tari.
Cutting back to Tari and MD-5, Sofia explains she found a backdoor to the firewall in the show match but says she'll have to take the phone from Belle. At the exact moment, Tari disappears from the game, and back to her room, Belle takes the tablet. Tari starts to panic, but Belle explains she just wants to talk. Belle says she doesn't think Tari killed Lucinia anymore, and Tari tells that's what she was trying to explain. Belle, confused, says Lucks was always good to his Meta Runners, and he never lied to them. She also blames herself for not listening to Masa about Lucks knowing about Lucinia. Upset, she says everything will probably stay horrible, and nothing will never turn upside down anymore. Tari tells she's actually serious when she doesn't know anything about Project Blue or even herself, and that she wants to know as much as Belle wants about her past.
Tari thinks of a plan immediately and says Belle could help save Theo, while she and MD-5 hack into the server. Belle expresses that she cares little about Theo as if he's just a videogame character. Tari says either they save Theo, or they won't do this at all. Belle agrees, and Tari thanks her. Belle hands her the tablet and asks Tari to tell Masa she's in.
Tari agrees and goes back to the game.
Lamar, worried about her absence, says that Lucks must've caught Tari, and now she's getting tortured, but Sofia says they shouldn't jump to conclusions yet. Tari comes back and says she was just talking to Belle, leaving all of them surprised and confused. Lamar asks her to start talking, and Tari says Belle actually wants to help them. Lamar, traumatized by what happened before, says it has to be a trap and explains why. A short scene shows Belle's reaction to all of this, and Lamar calls her a Red Dragon Lady, a title which Belle actually seems to approve of. Sofia starts explaining why they should trust her, even if she made mistakes, she's a good person deep down and says that of course, she's angry, but it's not a bad choice. Belle thanks Sofia for that, and back in the game, Lamar is still worried and doubts Belle's sudden offer. Tari says that it's up to Masa, and he curtly declines. Tari gets seriously surprised and tries to explain that even if they had their history, Belle is a better person now. At the exact moment, Belle's screen opens, and she starts chewing Masa out, calling him an "arrogant, edgy jerk" and ranting about Masa's supposed track record regarding such matters. In response, Masa simply mutes her.
Cutting to Masa's screen, it shows Tari's character with a sad expression, lowering their relationship meter. Masa tells her to not look at him like that, and explains that they wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for her, even if she changed he still says he can't trust her. He just doesn't want what happened to him to happen once again. Cutting to Tari's screen, she's able to use a Heart to Heart on Masa and she starts explaining that she knows Belle hurt him in the past, but Belle is hurting just like him. She says Belle offered this help to Masa because she trusts him, and asks Masa if he's going to let her down. Lamar still doubts Belle's help, and Sofia makes an expression as if she's asking for that too. Masa says Belle's in, and Tari, very happy, says he won't regret it. Masa unmutes Belle, who was still yelling, prompting her to ask if she was on mute this whole time. Masa explains to Belle that if she's on his team, it's his orders, and she simply agrees to do whatever he says, calling him Captain. Masa starts explaining the plan and says Tari's show match game is Hidden Heroes, explaining he and Lamar got a cartridge that can extract the server files. He also distributes the roles in the team, explaining that Sofia will hack into the server using the cartridge while Tari enters the show match with Lucks and Evelyn. The episode ends with Belle turning her game off and smiling.

Trivia* This episode's title is also a video game reference, but it is actually an original term by Glitch Productions. It is a reference to "Heart to Heart", a game mechanic in Pocket Gakusei after a player fills up their relationship meter with their date.
* This is the second episode where Theo is absent, the first being Unreal Engines.
* When Tari is briefly disconnected from Lamar, Sophia, and Masa, Lamar yells, "Tari, whats wrong? Tari?! TAAAAARIIIII!!!!" referencing a popular quote from the *Metal Gear Solid* series where Snake's teammates will yell Snake's name in the same way as Lamar when Snake dies.
* When Tari mentions she talked to Belle, Lamar says, "Say Sike right now!" referencing a meme where an image of a Piranha Creeper from *Super Mario Maker 2* is shown with the quote as the headline.

Sources