All's well that ends well.
The episode was essentially split into two parts: one focused on the idea of trust, while the other was about Taku's inner conflict; the former was filled with mostly action, while the latter was dialogue-driven. With this, at least fans of both types of content are satisfied, even if only for half the episode. The pacing for the episode was decent and the happy (but also cliché) ending at the end wrapped it up quite nicely.
Taking a look at the Silver Crow/Aqua Current vs. Sand Duct/Nickel Doll duel first, it was a perfect example of a typical shōnen battle. The overconfident protagonist (Haruyuki, in this case) always starts off the clash by getting utterly humiliated by his strong opponents. But soon, after he gives some "inspirational" speech while obviously suffering, manages to overcome the odds to earn the victory. The "inspirational" speech this time had to do with trust—trusting your partner (Aqua Current)—but also indirectly referred to Haruyuki's strong trust/faith in Taku. In terms of the duel, it felt extremely unrealistic. Apparently, getting shocked by electricity (which was part of a "special attack") for an extended period of time doesn't drain all of one's HP, but getting "falcon kicked" (Note: Not a special move) once does. Anyways, the post-battle prank by Aqua Current was really convincing and it's unfortunate how she had to erase all of Haruyuki's memories about her afterwards.
As for the "lots 'o talk" battle, Kuroyukihime really drove home her point both physically and mentally, causing Taku to seriously think about his current state. Even though I mostly agree with what Kuroyukihime said about Taku's self-degrading behaviour of late being a way for him to eventually lose all his Burst Points, forcing him to uninstall the Brain Burst program, and allowing him to forget about all the sins he has committed as a Burst Linker, I did feel sorry for him as he must have been extremely conflicted as to what he should do. But I think that it's because of this confrontation with Kuroyukihime that Taku was finally able to realize the pointless path he was so set on trudging along and change his ways. And with that, my doubts about him have all but disappeared.
Lastly, as shown in the preview, the mysterious, red-haired loli in the OP will most likely make her appearance in the next episode, effectively becoming another member of Haruyuki's unlikely harem and causing a jealous rage to rise inside both Kuroyukihime and Chiyu. It's going to be really amusing to see how Haruyuki deals with all the ladies that want him. It's not every day (actually, this is almost exclusively limited to anime) you get to see a short and fat social outcast struggle with choosing between three average (or above average) girls.
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