Konoe demands 120,000 kan for the imperial court to recognize Yoshimoto as the new shogun. As such, Nobuna and Yoshiharu travel to the neutral merchant city of Sakai to ask its trade union to contribute to their cause. However, Sōkyū Tsuda, convinces other union member to contribute only under one condition: Yoshiharu and Jubei must compete in a cooking competition. The winner takes the 120,000 kan. Nobuna achieves what she is after anyway, but Sōkyū Tsuda and the union leader, Sōkyū Imai, respectively bet on Jubei and Yoshiharu, the stake being Imai's monopoly on the city's takoyaki stands. Imai and Nobuna both expect Tsuda to bribe other merchants and rig the competition in favor of Jubei. Indeed, Jubei is announced winner even though the judges are impressed with Yoshiharu who uses mayonnaise on his takoyaki but finds Jubei's horrible as she cooked it too quickly. Imai feels the event went better than what he hoped as he has the better recipe. Jubei, however, who had taken the competition more seriously than she should, demonstrates too much arrogance and is surprised to see Nobuna's cold disgusted reaction.