Chie gets pushed into a corner and becomes extremely anxious. And when she gets anxious, her “talent” kicks in, the tragic talent from Chapter 1 that makes her do absolutely anything to get rid of that anxiety.
So she literally goes all-in on “local development” to boost tourism. She begs and even sheds tears in front of hundreds of stubborn old locals until she gets their support. She even puts on a bunny suit to win them over.
Then she boosts tourism by improving local products and making the shops more photo-friendly. She pulls all-nighters making videos and even DMs 100 influencers, paying them to promote the area.
She also opens a second All-or-Nothing Donut location there, only to end up so understaffed that she has to help the employees make donuts herself.
And then comes her ultimate move: she gets Nito to write a new novel set in the area to promote the town. Of course, it becomes a massive hit. She also exploits a loophole in Nito’s contract. The contract says she can’t help Chie’s ryokan, but promoting the surrounding area doesn’t technically violate it.
All of this brings so many tourists to the area that, no matter how many customers Daiya steals, some of them will always make their way to Chie’s ryokan. As long as Chie doesn’t go bankrupt, Daiya can never win.
Faced with Chie’s sheer insanity, Daiya finally gives up and admits that Chie really is more capable than her. She had underestimated Chie, thinking she was only successful because she had talented friends. In reality, Chie was the most capable of them all.
Daiya honors the deal and gives Chie the 110 million yen, which is the money Chie had spent buying her friends back.
Lapis comes to congratulate Chie on beating her sister, which prompts her sister to tease her like, “You really like Chie way too much, huh?”
Then Daiya invites everyone to celebrate together, complete with a projector showing collection of 10,000 Lapis’s childhood photos. LOL.