Itsuki:"It's okay, Nino, it's just for today. I'm sure Uesugi-kun's lectures are far more punishing."
Fuutarou:"What's that supposed to mean?"
Nino:"But it's with Fuu-kun! I love being around him. Here, I'm gonna have to stare at some washed out old man going off about their third grandson."
Itsuki:"There there."
Itsuki tried patting Nino's head.
Nino:"Don't try to comfort me."
Itsuki:"But you would always feel better when mom did this."
Nino gave an angry pout.
Nino:"T-That was a long time ago!"
Yotsuba was thinking of Takebayashi.
Yotsuba:[Have I seen her before? He mentioned having someone he looked up to during our trip together, could it be her?]
Miku:"About that girl, I assume you two simply went off to different schools."
Fuutarou:"I wonder about that…"
Miku:"What do you mean?"
Fuutarou:"If I remember correctly, she just moved away one day with no explanation. I just went to school one day and she wasn't there."
Miku:"...Not even a goodbye?"
Fuutarou:"Nope."
Yotsuba:"...That's horrible."
Fuutarou:"Maybe so, but at least she's doing well now."
Itsuki:"Come on, we should go to our first class."
Yotsuba:"R-Right...Let's go learn...wooo…"
Nino:"It's bad when even Yotsuba can't gather up any excitement for it."
And so, the day of pain started
…
Throughout the majority of the day, everyone was subjected to a marathon of classes. It really was just like any day, simply with the classes being a more disconnected style for the students to learn in only one class. First was English, the teacher had the students not only recite different sentences but then had them act with each other. Despite Miku being the best at acting, she was against the idea of having to go up. She did her best to blend in with the crowd. Fuutarou remembering that English was Miku's worst subject, participated both him and her to do a segment together.
Miku:"I wish I could curse you."
Fuutarou:"You can do it once we finish this, right now is a time of learning."
Nino found it easier than ever.
Next up was a math class. The teacher went into the history and creation of the different types of Calculus and proceeded to test out how far each student was in their ventures. Fuutarou requested that he and Yotsuba received the highest and most difficult amount of questions. Halfway through the questions, Yotsuba was already a dried husk.
Yotsuba:"Uesugi-san...why must you torture me?"
Fuutarou:"It's only gonna get harder, so use that energy of yours to pick up the slack."
During the next lecture, being Science class, Fuutarou does the same thing, this time directing it towards Nino. Nino, looking for any chance to study with Fuutarou, agreed with this only to be met with questions she had never seen before. Her time with Fuutarou came at a price.
Nino:"Fuu-kun, why did you ask for so many?"
Fuutarou:"It's our time together. You, me and these sixty-five wonderful questions."
Itsuki was astute in her attempt.
Next was Social Studies, having seen the pattern before, Itsuki participated knowing she was Fuutarou's next target. Trying to keep track of so many events almost fried her brain.
Itsuki:"I feel like my head is going to explode."
Fuutarou:"Better learn it now, the older we get, the worse this subject becomes."
Miku:"A shame the Sengoku period was robbed of any more time on this planet."
Nino:"A shame my time on this trip is getting robbed by these lectures."
Miku passed this section with flying colors.
Finally, it was Japanese. Ichika wasn't there to take the bullet on this one, so the remaining four sisters were all put on as the same target, although Yotsuba had a better grasp.
Yotsuba:"Wonder how Ichika is doing?"
Nino:"I hope she can feel our suffering."
Miku:"Maybe we could telepathically send our emotions."
Itsuki:"Hopefully she doesn't have an urge to eat."
…
Nino:"Great, now I'm hungry."
Yotsuba:"Maybe we're telepathic!"
Miku:"I'm thirsty, who's fault is it?"
Itsuki:"I'm so sorry!"
…
Fuutarou:"Alright, that was the final class, you girls still alive?"
The girls were limping.
Miku:"I lost the battle of wits long ago."
Nino:"There are times where I wonder where I went wrong."
Yotsuba:"I feel down."
Itsuki:"T-This is nothing if I'm to follow my dream."
Fuutarou smiles.
Fuutarou:"You girls worked hard. You all deserve a break."
It was after school. In the time where they were waiting for the bus back home, they took in the scenery as it was getting dark. Out of the corner of her eye, Itsuki saw two familiar figures, it was Yae and Sandy.
Itsuki:"It's the part-time duo!"
Sandy:"Yo! If it isn't Itsuki-chan! Come on. Yae, take off your earplugs."
Nino:"Those two from the trip who you also saw during summer break?"
Nino quickly stepped away from Sandy as she caught a whiff of his makeup.
Nino:"You really need to lay low on that stuff."
Yotsuba:"What are you guys doing here?"
Sandy:"We're doing our new jobs. I actually go to school here with my girlfriend. We were taking classes over in the building over there."
Yae:"...Did you enjoy that cake?"
Itsuki:"We did! Thank you very much."
Nino:"That's right…"
Nino goes up to Sandy with a menacing aura.
Nino:"Itsuki told me about you. Were you the one that ordered 130 cakes?"
Sandy:"Y-Yes?"
Nino:"You bastard, you took away my free time with Fuu-kun."
Sandy:"I'm sorry?"
Itsuki:"Free time?"
Miku:"She's talking about when Fuutarou was sick. I was the only one that could go."
Itsuki:"Oh, right."
Fuutarou turns away.
Fuutarou:"I never did apologize for getting you sick."
Miku:"It's fine, I knew the risks. Let me know if you feel bad, or if you get lonely. I'll come visit you anytime."
Fuutarou:"You really shouldn't. Although, I guess something good came out of it."
Miku:"What's that?"
Fuutarou:"You getting sick means that you're not an idiot anymore. I'm so proud."
Fuutarou wiped off a fake tear.
Miku:"Fuutarou!"
Miku tried to get back at him while Fuutarou just chuckled.
Nino:"Miku, stop flirting with him while I'm threatening this guy with way too much makeup!"
As they continued to talk, the buses finally came to pick them up.
Irigaku:"Alright, everyone in!"
Yae:"That voice..."
Fuutarou:"It's time to go. Let's go, girls."
The girls said their goodbyes and got into the bus with Fuutarou.
Yae:"We keep running into them."
Sandy:"They get around a lot."
Yae:"They're pretty rich, aren't they?"
Sandy:"I like them, so we should keep that a secret. You know how he gets around wealthy people."
Yae:"I agree."
…
Itsuki:"That reminds me, you didn't say goodbye to your friend."
Fuutarou:"Takebayashi? It doesn't really matter, we hadn't seen each other in such a long time, it's not really important."
Miku:"Going away without saying goodbye again is a little sad, isn't it?"
Yotsuba:[We can always ask Rito-san if he knows her…]
Fuutarou:"I guess so. I'm more happy with how you girls were getting the hang of your lectures. You've all come so far."
Yotsuba:"I'm glad I tried!"
Miku:"...Yeah."
Fuutarou looked out the window while grabbing Miku's shoulder.
Fuutarou:"Thinking about Ichika?"
Miku:"Yeah…"
Fuutarou:"I'm sure she misses you too…"
Miku:"...Say, Fuutarou."
Fuutarou:"Hm?"
Miku:"About her not going to...I mean...I wanted to tell you that...You know…"
Fuutarou:"I have no idea what you're going on about."
Miku:"...It's nothing…"
Itsuki:"?"
Fuutarou:[She really seems down...I wonder if it's really about Ichika or something else, but I don't know how to possibly bring it up. Right now, I should just focus on bringing up the mood...I got it.]
Fuutarou takes out his phone.
Fuutarou:"Let's send Ichika as many memories as we can."
With that option brought up, the girls agreed. They took many pictures of themselves and the lit up city to show to Ichika later. As the calendar turned to the end of September, the Sunrise Festival was getting closer by the day."
…
Takebayashi was leaning on a window as she saw the bus drive away.
Takebayashi:"To think Fuutarou would end up being a tutor, he's gotten really smart...So those were the sisters. I almost got confused since there were only four of them. Family is a wonderful thing, isn't it?"
End of Chapter 33
