The second episode of the new anime “My Home Hero” picks up right where the first left off, but with a twist. Tetsuo kills Nobuto, Reika’s Yakuza boyfriend, in the first episode and is now on the verge of getting caught.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 2: Cutting The Cake
The spy, Kyoichi, who broke into Reika’s apartment, finds Tetsuo disguised as a cleaning lady in the house but doesn’t recognize that it’s a man. He buys the act and is directed by the superiors to ignore the cleaning lady and try Nobuto’s cell. With Nobuto’s body in the closet, Tetsuo panics a little bit but relaxes when the phone doesn’t go through. Kyoichi is instructed to follow the daughter.
Tetsuo breathes a sigh of relief and gains composure. Kasen arrives with the items Tetsuo asked her to bring. Tetsuo explains he will move the body from Reika’s apartment to his house. Kasen says she sent Reika to his house and asks how he will move the body. Tetsuo plans to cook the body in the bathtub by attaching heating rods to it. He builds an apparatus for it and successfully brings the shrunken body home in a suitcase.
Curious, Reika inquires about the state of her apartment and whether it is clean enough for her to go back. Tetsuo dodges her question but gives her a hint that it isn’t. Tetsuo suggests she stay in his home for a week. Kasen nods her head in agreement. Reika agrees and shows a card trick she learned in school. She then goes to watch a violent show on TV titled ‘Psycho Splatter.’ Reika enjoys it, but Tetsuo glances at a few scenes, and we later see him having a nightmare where Nobuto chokes him to death. He wakes up petrified. He worries about the unbearable odor the corpse will start producing in a few hours. He intensely ponders over how to get rid of it so that no one ever comes to find out.
The following morning, before Tetsuo leaves for work, Kasen makes him aware of a suspicious car that’s been parked since the day before. Tetsuo remembers the car being present even when he arrived home carrying the corpse in the suitcase. He concludes that they are being spied on. Kasen suggests Tetsuo stay in and ditch work. He declines and wants to check the spies’ behavior. He steps out and goes to the supermarket. Seeing no one follow him, he concludes that he is not the one under suspicion just yet.
He buys gardening items from the supermarket. Meanwhile, his car is being checked by the spies for clues. Tetsuo comes back, knows his car has been tampered with, and gets fearful for his family’s safety. He ruminates on the fact that he wasn’t stopped the previous night and correctly guesses that the spies aren’t sure of Nobuto’s death, considering the possibility that he is alive.
Tetsuo arrives with compost, chemicals, and a planter. He tells Kasen about the possible surveillance they might be under. He explains his plan to decompose the flesh using compost. Meanwhile, the spies try to distract Tetsuo and Kasen by sending a property appraiser to their door. Kyoichi breaks into the house while Tetsuo and Kasen are distracted. He sees the gardening items in their bedroom and suspects something fishy.
Later in the evening, Kasen discovers a surveillance device. Tetsuo breaks open a plug and finds it active there. He warns her of more such devices in the house, and they begin communicating by writing notes on their mobile. They break their silence only when they have prepared an entire script to throw the spies off their path. They feign discussing Reika and her boyfriend and how she hasn’t been in touch with him. They try to deflect attention to a ‘stalker’ who might have done something to Nobuto. Kasen continues with the script and asks Tetsuo if this stalker is the one who has planted surveillance devices in the house and whether they should call the police, telling them about a suspicious car outside their house.
The trick seems to work as the car leaves. Kasen, confounded by Tetsuo’s ingenuity, asks whether this was his first murder. Tetsuo says he learned all this by reading mystery novels. He breaks down, thinking of the burden of guilt he will have to bear even if he successfully gets rid of the evidence.
He goes to work the next day, overthinking each detail. In the evening, Kasen is attacked by Kyoichi’s men, and Tetsuo is abducted by Kyoichi on his way home.
‘My Home Hero’ Episode 2: Ending Explained – Why Did Kyoichi Abduct Tetsuo?
It is unclear, but the main reason behind it seems to be that he was unable to gather any clue about Nobuto’s whereabouts. With him having disappeared for more than a day, the only way to find him now would be to torture Tetsuo to get information out of him and threaten him with Kasen’s life if he resists. Another reason could be that Tetsuo made a mistake by planning a script and mentioning the police in it. It raised suspicion as Tetsuo and Kasen didn’t speak all evening and broke their silence only to talk about Nobuto and Reika’s stalker, making the conversation seem highly unnatural. All this made Kyoichi jump the gun and abduct Tetsuo.