A/N

Yoi Narukami: Thanks for reading. I know it might be a while before you see this A/N since your review is back in Ch 51, but I felt the need to address it since you are not the only one who has brought this issue up, even though you left another review soon after your first saying that it might be resolved.

I've mentioned in several A/N's throughout the fic that my main focus was always intended to be the social interactions among the quints and Fuutarou, so other aspects of the fic, in this case the action, must take a back seat. In addition, previous fics I've written have received backlash for putting characters from one franchise into a completely different setting than the fanbase is used to, so I was aiming to avoid the same outcome by having this fic follow as similar of a formula to the original source material as I could while still incorporating my own custom elements of magic and action into it, further contributing to why the action may seem a little lacking so far.

But this isn't to say that I'm entirely blameless in this situation; certainly I could have written more thoughtfully to better incorporate the action elements so that they don't feel like just an afterthought. There's a good chance that I let myself get corralled by the bad impressions I'd received in the past and ended up holding this fic back in favor of playing it safe.

The good news, however, is that the fic has now entered a critical point in its story where I feel that cranking up the action a bit is appropriate. I may be spoiling my own story to my own viewers in saying that, but it's a risk I'm willing to take to explain my thought process behind this fic. Though, knowing my own pacing, it still might be a hot minute before what I say here actually comes to pass.

Shutting the door behind her quietly, Nakano Itsuki stands still in the shoe lobby, resting her back against the front door that she's just closed.

Her face is still pulsing with a warmth that she's felt only once before today. Raising a delicate hand up slowly to her collar, Itsuki awkwardly pulls up the collar of her blouse in an attempt to cover her mouth, as if doing so will hide whatever odd expression that she's got right now from the rest of the world, or at least her sisters in her house. Ordinarily, she would be questioning what this sort of feeling is, or why her face is acting this way, but with what she's been doing and the person she's just spent the last several hours with, she at least knows what this feeling is supposed to be.

Staying here at the door to bask in the afterglow does at least provide Itsuki something of an emotional respite to get her bearings at least somewhat back on track, so she stops trying to cover her lower face with her collar to rest the back of her head against the front door. As mentioned just earlier, she's only felt this sort of feeling once prior, and that was during the conversation she and Fuutarou had under the moon, the night she and Nino stormed away from home as a result of their brief falling out. But she had never given it much thought since that day was a very stressful one, and she couldn't be sure if it wasn't something else that she was feeling at the time. Even when she was able to figure out on her own that she had feelings for her tutor, Itsuki had forgotten about this warm little feeling until it resurfaced earlier today, back when they started walking home together after their impromptu dinner date.

Love is a curious thing.

The closest thing Itsuki can compare it to is the warmth she felt when their mother was still alive, whenever she gave her a hug or tucked her into bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead or the cheek. Both of these feelings, Itsuki finds, are rooted in her trust towards the person in question, either her late mother or Fuutarou now - trust in them that they cared for them. It's a feeling that Itsuki hasn't felt since her mother passed - admittedly, as much as she loves her sisters with all of her heart, Itsuki just cannot find herself deriving this same feeling from her own siblings. She loves them, but...it's a different kind of love. It would be weird if she were to get that sort of sentiment from them, after all.

This afterglow, due to its nature, has compelled her to recall memories of her mother. Itsuki isn't upset by this - while such memories inevitably cause her to dwell on the death of her mother and the stressful events that followed for years after, in this case, her newly budding affection for Fuutarou manage to shield her from the bad memories of her mother's death and instead have floated up this feeling she is now basking in that she had long forgotten about, a feeling that she forgot even existed.

Of course, the feeling is not exactly the same, as Fuutarou is obviously not the quints' late mother and therefore brings a radically different dynamic to her emotional sphere. Because Fuutarou is not one of her sisters, she can behave in a totally different manner around him than she does around her sisters, and more and more recently she's been doing just that. At first it would seem awkward to have two different sets of mannerisms around the same person, but Fuutarou himself doesn't seem to mind - either that, or he simply hasn't noticed, though someone like him should have definitely picked up on such a cue by now, so Itsuki feels that it's safe to assume that he is aware of this situation. So the fact that she feels like she has this small freedom to act how she normally would, how she was before the quintuplets' mother died, is like a huge breath of fresh air that Itsuki never knew she needed until very recently. Being able to talk to Fuutarou about things that she doesn't feel as comfortable talking to her sisters about, being able to act a certain way around him that she'd prefer not to around her sisters...and best of all, Fuutarou has not judged her at all for any of this, even though she feels like he very easily could. The only area in which she has been judged is her academic performance, as is his obligatory contract as her and her sisters' tutor, and aside from all the teasing he likes to do, he has adhered to that very faithfully.

Underneath that hardened, endlessly tired facade lies a gentle, patient, and compassionate soul who cares for her and her sisters as more than just students. Someone like Uesugi Fuutarou wouldn't show that side of themselves to just about anybody, so the fact that he's done so for her makes her feel quite special, indeed.

However, as her afterglow finally begins to fade, the myriad thoughts of her sisters being involved in her sentiments towards her tutor and classmate take deeper root into her mind, and inevitably they begin to poke holes in her warm emotional bubble. Why does she, out of all her sisters, get to claim this privilege of having gone out on a date with Fuutarou? Miku likes him too; this is no secret amongst the quints. And unlike Itsuki, Miku has always been cooperative and supportive of Fuutarou's tutoring ever since the beginning; Itsuki wasted much of the initial month or so rejecting Fuutarou's assistance and tutelage and only fully devoted herself under his teaching since midterms. And all this isn't even taking into account what her other sisters besides Miku may feel towards Fuutarou as well; because if both she and Miku can develop feelings for him, surely there's a chance that the others may have something for him as well, given how much time he's spent with everybody.

Thinking about her past behavior and the potential relationships that her sisters must also have with him cause Itsuki to begin to feel that she almost doesn't deserve to have been the first one to go out with Fuutarou, and the fact that their date today was completely last-minute and impromptu doesn't help her muddying thoughts much either. All the warmth she felt today, all the small joys she had today spending time with Fuutarou - at what cost was she able to enjoy all this today?

And lest she forget, there is Yotsuba to consider. Itsuki is the only one who knows about Yotsuba's past with Fuutarou, but under Yotsuba's own request, Itsuki cannot reveal this to the others. Now that she has the time to deliberate on this extenuating circumstance, Itsuki feels her chest tighten up more and more tightly at an alarming rate. The conversation that she had with Yotsuba that one night is rushing back as though it were only yesterday - the pained look on Yotsuba's face while she was explaining her situation in regards to Fuutarou, and all the self-depreciating things she's said and is doing, including setting up this date between her and Fuutarou. What was she thinking, doing something like that? More importantly, what was she feeling while she called him to tell her that Itsuki wanted to go out on a date with him? All this, just because she wants to atone for all the bad things she'd done over the past several years, things that the rest of her sisters, including herself, barely even remember or think of as big deals these days?

Thinking about Yotsuba's situation compels Itsuki to put her own sentiments right now into perspective. These feelings of inadequacy, these conflicting thoughts of deserving something mutual to both of their interests, in this case their tutor - perhaps Itsuki knows a little better now what Yotsuba has going on in her own mind, or at least what was going through her head that one night.

And just like that, Itsuki finds herself feeling sharply miserable from this self-inflicted emotional whiplash. All these thoughts crashing against each other inside her head and she can't possibly put a firm foot down on them because of her very clear inexperience in dealing with things like this, which leads her right back into feeling even more miserable than before since all the time she's spent studying over the years for school have done her so little when she could have used her time differently by building her own social and relationship knowledge like how Ichika and Nino have.

Knowing at least that standing here alone against the front door will do her no good, Itsuki pulls off her shoes and shuffles slowly into the living room. Ichika is sitting on the couch in front of the big television that is currently showing another one of those talk shows that she and Nino like to watch with the volume set to very low, but she's fast asleep, snoring lightly with her head resting back against the couch pillow behind her. So as not to disturb her, Itsuki gingerly sets down her belongings on the empty dinner table and tiptoes into the kitchen to fix herself a cup of warm green tea, despite the fact that summer is in full effect. She even wonders to herself why she wants green tea right now - it's not like her to go specifically for green tea, too, let alone warm green tea at that.

"Itsuki? Is that you?"

The sudden voice from the stairs almost makes Itsuki jump, and the latter turns around to find Miku approaching her from the stairs to join her in the kitchen.

"Oh, you're back. Yotsuba said that you were going to be a little late," Miku explains. "Though it seems like you certainly took your time. What were you doing today?"

"I - "

Just as she starts to answer, Itsuki shuts herself up almost instantly, realizing the potential awkwardness she would cause between the two of them should she tell the truth. And to make matters worse, in her preoccupation with her date with Fuutarou this evening, Itsuki hadn't thought to call Yotsuba to know where she is right now, so she doesn't know if she's already back home or not or...well, actually, on second thought, Yotsuba clearly didn't tell Miku what Itsuki was doing today if Miku is asking her that very question right now. Even still...is this something Itsuki can just casually talk about? She ought to just lie about this, right? Because what if she ends up hurting Miku's feelings for being the first one to go out with Fuutarou? Not to mention, it's not like this date was her idea, seeing that Yotsuba set the two of them up, but would Miku accept that? Probably not, right? Itsuki's mind races - the more she thinks about her situation, using up the precious little time that she has to respond in at least a somewhat normal manner, the more she rationalizes lying to her sister to keep her date with their tutor a secret.

But...

" - Miku, um...will you...get mad at me if I tell you the truth...?" Itsuki murmurs feebly, almost hanging her head as she pours herself a cup of hot green tea.

Understandably, Miku gazes at her with a slightly stumped expression.

"...mad? What should I get mad at you for?" she asks while trying to think about any grievances she's had with her younger sister as of late.

"Well..." the fifth quint lowers the teapot. She briefly considers telling the whole truth, specifically the detail about how Yotsuba played matchmaker for the two of them today, but she decides against it, lest she ends up dragging Yotsuba down with her. "...I...went on a date with...Uesugi-kun."

Complete silence ensues between the two of them, and it would have completely taken over the entire first floor of the Nakano penthouse if it weren't for Ichika's light snoring drifting in from the spacious living room and the ambient buzz of the television. Itsuki is petrified, too scared to turn to her older sister; Miku doesn't show this much but she does have a much darker side to her, as perhaps would befit a quiet and oftentimes brooding girl like her, that she occasionally uses to much better express her disappointment or irritation with her sisters whenever the situation necessitates it. So Itsuki stands there in the kitchen with her sister, teapot handle in her hands with the teapot itself resting on the stove, unsure of what to do and still not finding the courage to make eye contact with Miku.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Itsuki hears her older sister sigh lightly.

"...I suppose it's only fitting. You did score the highest on our midterms, after all," the third quint reasons as she rummages through the cupboard above her for a cup of her own. "I want some green tea too, since you made some already."

Finally able to break out of her self-inflicted petrification at Miku's prompt, Itsuki pours gree tea into Miku's cup too. "But...you were the one who scored the highest on our finals for first trimester."

"I know." Miku sips her hot green tea gingerly so as not to scald the tip of her tongue. "Which leads me to ask...was this date really your idea, Itsuki?"

For a second time, Itsuki freezes. She forgot that Miku is deceptively insightful, probably second after their eldest sister Ichika, so of course she'd be able to tell, even if the two of them have only recently been spending a lot more time together.

Slowly, the fifth quint shakes her head. "...n-no, it...it wasn't...I mean, it...was not..."

Miku smiles faintly, staring down into her own cup of green tea. "Yeah, I didn't think so. I don't mean to sound like I'm dissing you, but...seeing that we both have more or less the same amount of dating experience before today, which is to say none at all, I didn't really think that you were the one to ask him out."

Thinking quickly to make sure that Yotsuba is kept out of the picture, Itsuki manages to put together a fake alibi in her head. "U-Uesugi-kun, I - I ran into him at the hospital when I was walking back home from lunch with Yotsuba today, and...and we talked for a little bit, and then he asked me if I had dinner yet and offered to treat me if I had not. He said that since we always bother him to take better care of himself, he ought to do that now that one of us was around when he had some free time."

"Free time? Fuutarou? That's about as rare as Nino drinking green tea with us," Miku remarks with a slight smirk. "But I actually don't mind. If it takes one of us to be with him to make sure that he can relax, then...then that's all that really matters, honestly."

"...are you not angry or anything at me about...going on a date with Uesugi-kun first?"

"Well, it's not really a date when Fuutarou himself probably doesn't even think of it as one, right?" the middle quintuplet sighs with a small shrug. "Well, I say that, but...if I were in your shoes, I guess I would think of it as a date too, even if he doesn't..."

"Yeah, exactly. Which was why I was a little scared just now telling you what I was doing earlier today, and why I came home a little later than Yotsuba did. Yotsuba did come home, right?"

"She did, but she said she got a call from one of her friends asking her to help her out with something, so she's out again."

"As usual, huh?"

"As usual. By the way, why do you say you were scared?"

"W-Well, because - because I thought you would be very angry with...with the fact that I had gone on a d-date with Uesugi-kun! Even if, you know, it could not have been a real one..."

Chuckling and picking up her cup of tea, Miku begins to lean a little against the side of the kitchen counter opposite of the stove, facing Itsuki and taking intermittent sips as they continue talking.

"I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little jealous right now. But...that being said, I...I want to feel like I've earned it. I want to work towards it and have Fuutarou watch me improve so that he can see how hard I'm working."

"...somehow, it almost sounds like my date with him was undeserved..." Itsuki mutters, fully knowing that she's speaking for herself.

"Not entirely, no. Like I brought up earlier, you and I scored the highest among the five of us, both for midterms and for finals. So I can't say you being able to go out with Fuutarou was undeserved, per se."

Itsuki gives her cup of tea a slightly troubled look. She's not put off by the possibility that Miku is calling her date with Fuutarou undeserved, since Miku probably doesn't mean that, but...something about her talking about working to improve their relationships with their tutor so that they can feel like they earned it...it should be totally reasonable, especially to someone like herself, but...

"I'm curious to know what he was like, though," Miku asks slowly, and Itsuki can tell that her sister is starting to grow a bit shy about this topic. "...was he any different than usual? Or...?"

Itsuki shakes her head. "He was...mostly the usual. Making bad jokes, making fun of my eating habits..." She frowns at her older sister beginning to crack up in the middle of her talking. "Oh, please!"

"Fuutarou teasing you is a good thing. That means that he's enjoying himself because he's comfortable being around us enough to tease us about stuff," Miku explains. "He does that for the rest of us, you know."

"That may be, but he always makes fun of me the most!"

"Well, you already know why."

"I know, but - but knowing why does not necessarily help me feel better about it!"

"Not even knowing that Fuutarou is just having some fun?"

At this, Itsuki cannot respond, so she just pouts a little and takes a big gulp of her tea in retaliation.

"...we...we did talk about some things that...we normally would not, though," Itsuki mentions quietly.

"Oh? Can you tell me about what you two talked about? I'm curious, naturally."

"Just..." Itsuki gulps, but not for her tea. "...I just...asked him what he felt about...about...me."

"Oooh. What did he say?"

"What do you think?" It's Itsuki's turn to smirk with amusement. "Just the usual 'you have been studying hard lately' and 'I think you are one of the more studious girls' and such."

"Oh, so you went out with Fuutarou just to ego-boost yourself? I see how it is."

"I did not try to EGO-BOOST myself, Miku!"

Holding one hand over her mouth, Miku tries her best to contain her laughter as Itsuki quickly sets down her cup on the counter behind her to rush up to her sister and start pouting massively right in front of her.

"Okay, so, besides that, did you two talk about anything else? Or was it just the usual?" Miku asks once she's calmed down.

"Well...he did tell me that...he admired my, um, my work ethic, and...and how hard I study," Itsuki once again tones her voice down as the conversation shifts back to being more intimate. "He said that despite my initial resistance against his tutelage, he was glad that things turned out this way, and that we are able to work together much more smoothly now than before."

Itsuki looks up to find her sister smiling warmly back at her.

"...look, it was...it was rather embarrassing hearing that from him..." she stammers a little.

"But it was nice hearing that from him, right? Given how much you've studied over the years and having to deal with all the frustration you've had from not being able to produce results on your own."

"Eh, wait, h-how did you know...?"

"Well, not only have we studied together a few times before, but I remember all the times when we used to talk about our test scores from middle school, and you always wouldn't want to really talk about it. We only did that a few times since we all kept getting such bad scores and grades that eventually we just kind of stopped since there wasn't much of a point, but I still remember."

Listening to her older sister, Itsuki joins her side and leans against the side of the kitchen counter just like her.

"Um, so...you would not prefer it if I asked Uesugi-kun to spend some time with you alone, right? With what you said earlier."

The thought of being able to spend such time with her tutor, especially in the context of Itsuki's date with him today, makes Miku even more reserved and quiet, but she does shake her head to agree with her younger sister.

"...right. I want to, um...become strong enough on my own to...eventually ask him out with the things that I've done that would make him proud. I know that you are probably just trying to help, and, and...I appreciate it, but..."

"Please, do not worry about it, for I understand completely. As a matter of fact...I...I too, would have preferred if my date with Uesugi-kun today could have been under slightly different circumstances too," Itsuki nods wholeheartedly. "Because...all throughout the time I spent with him today, I could not stop myself from thinking about whether or not I...I deserved to be able to spend time with him. I thought to myself, surely any one of my sisters would be better qualified to take my place, because everyone else has achieved something that is worth praise, a talent that is worth demonstrating. Ichika is already working a consistent part-time job that she spends so much time at these days that it may as well be a full-time job, Nino is an excellent cook and baker, you are the best student among us, and Yotsuba very athletic and excels in any sports team or club that she joins, pretty much."

"I-I think you're giving me way too much credit, seeing why we even have Fuutarou around in the first place..." Miku awkwardly reminds her sister.

"Okay, then shall I put it another way? You have the most potential in our academic future among the five of us. I have spent many, many hours studying for the same tests, the same material as you - we have been attending the same schools, after all - yet I had nowhere near the same consistency in results as you did, and you did not spend as much time studying as I. So - "

"But with Fuutarou here tutoring us, your test results have gotten so much better. In fact, out of all our test results, you've improved the most. So knowing that, how can you say that I have the most potential?"

"Because you would have been able to graduate from school even without Uesugi-kun's assistance. If you put more hours into studying, you would have been able to to do it. That would not have held true for the rest of us; the rest of us needed Uesugi-kun's guidance to get us to where we are now. Yes, you are correct, I am well aware of how much I have improved my test scores, but that would not have been possible without having him as our tutor and working with him for many hours over the past several months. And if that were not enough, your test scores have also dramatically improved along with mine, as you demonstrated properly in our midterm results recently."

Starting to grow a bit uncomfortable with how Itsuki is almost shoving her own academic achievements in her face like this, Miku takes a tiny micro-step to her left in a feeble effort to put some extra distance between her and her younger sister.

"...you sure you're not just saying this just because I beat you in our finals scores?" she asks lightly. Itsuki lifts her head up somewhat, but merely gazes straight ahead, not at her sister as she usually has so far.

"There was another thing that I talked to Uesugi-kun about, Miku. Something that...I have been keeping to myself. Not necessarily because I was trying to keep it a secret from everyone, just...something that has been in my head ever since I accepted Uesugi-kun as our tutor, as my tutor. And that is that...I have come to realize that Uesugi-kun is essentially the culmination of everything that I strove to be for everyone after Mother died."

Miku stays silent for a moment. She remembers that Itsuki, much like Nino, had also made a similar promise to the rest of her sisters following their mother's untimely death, a vow to protect them and to keep them together, but Nino's was what stuck in her head more since the latter was much more adamant about it thanks to how their personalities developed over time. Miku can only assume that this is what Itsuki is referring to.

"Think about it, Miku. Uesugi-kun is a boy our age who has been able to achieve the methods and the means to provide for and care for his own family, something I myself promised I would do in due time. While of course our circumstances are obviously different, there are enough parallels between the two of us that I cannot help but to compare myself to him. Naturally, you can kind of see how I would begin to feel in a position like that."

"I don't think it's a good idea to do that, though. Comparing yourself to him or vice versa, that is."

"I know, I am well aware. Even Uesugi-kun said as much himself, but...but again, it is...all too easy to fall into such a trap." Itsuki lets off a heavy, emotionally charged sigh. "Especially earlier today, when I was spending time with him, I could not stop myself from seeing myself in him, as in what I could have been had I been just as talented and diligent as he is - excluding all the magical stuff, of course. I look at him and I think to myself, the kind of person Uesugi-kun is...could have been me, if only I were better at my studies and excelled in it as I intended to be."

Listening to her younger sister share these insecurities with her quietly compels Miku to inch back closer to her and slowly hook her right arm around Itsuki's left.

"But at the end of the day, those are just what-if's and speculations," she reminds her younger sibling. "Sorry for being blunt about it, but...we have to work with what we've got now. And besides, the important thing is that we're all in this together, just like what Mama wanted."

"I know. But...now, I also cannot help but think if that is truly enough for us, merely to be together."

"...what do you mean?"

"As in, the five of us would be able to overcome everything just by being together. Is it really that easy, I wonder?" Itsuki glances sideways at her older sister. "I do not mean to sound so...so downhearted about this, but...if all it took for us to achieve everything we wanted was to be together, which is what we have done for the most part ever since Mother died, why is it that we face problems that we clearly cannot solve on our own, both old and new?"

"Itsuki, of course it's not as simple as just sticking together. I'm sure that Mama assumed that we'd figure out the part that we still needed to work hard to make it all work out in the end."

"Then what about the problems we face from a magical perspective? If we did not have Uesugi-kun to protect us and watch over us to make sure that we do not fall victim to Shirazumi Rio and his gang, how would we ever hope to defend ourselves? Sure, it turns out that we have a touch of magic in ourselves as well, but not only do we not know the reasons why we are mages ourselves, but we also are completely inept at magic, so it is as though we are not mages at all, for all intents and purposes."

"But we can't help that; that's a problem that we can't really do anything about. That's why Papa went out and found Fuutarou so that he'd be able to handle that."

Itsuki raises a delicate finger.

"You said it yourself: 'we cannot help that'. That is exactly how I feel whenever I see Uesugi-kun these days: I compare myself to Uesugi-kun and all that he's been able to achieve and realize just how...not only how much of a strong person he is, to be able to do all that he's done, but also...how little I have done in the same amount of time. I know that making such comparisons will do me no good. You've told me as such, and Uesugi-kun himself the same. But the fact of the matter is that all I have been able to do is merely talk about how I wish to provide for my family, dream about how my efforts in studying will one day produce tangible results that actually mean something...while Uesugi-kun is already doing that."

An empty smile creeps over Itsuki's face as Miku watches.

"So with that in mind, what right did I have to spend time with Uesugi-kun like I did today, when - "

Miku suddenly tightens her armlock around Itsuki's to interrupt her.

"Don't say that. Please," Miku almost hisses at her in a soft, hushed voice. "I know that the two of us don't know much about dating and stuff like that, but...surely you don't really believe that, do you? Like you...like you need to feel like you need to be someone or have done something just to go out with someone you like?"

"Not directly, but like I said, it is something I cannot help but think about." Itsuki meets Miku's gaze again. "Besides, is that not more or less along the lines of what you were saying before? When you were talking about how you wanted to prove yourself to Uesugi-kun in order to earn his attention or something of the sort?"

Miku's heart sinks as if trying to dodge the piercing words of her own sister, and her chest gets dunked into an imaginary tank of cold water hearing her own words get used against her like this. But following Itsuki's logic, Miku can't find anything to refute this.

"...look, I...I know I said that, but..." the third quint inhales somewhat sharply through her teeth. "...but just what exactly are you getting at here? I don't mean to be an asshole about this, but...are you not happy with the fact that you were able to go on a date with Fuutarou? Are you acting like this because you're unsatisfied somehow? Or is it just because you felt like you didn't deserve to be there? Because if it's the latter, then you shouldn't even have to worry about that! I know I said that I want to work towards having Fuutarou recognize me, but it doesn't have to be that way for you!"

Miku's words thankfully strike true; Itsuki nods once with a slightly bigger and certainly brighter smile as she leans her head against Miku's right shoulder.

"Thank you, Miku. You are really too kind."

Caught off guard again by Itsuki's sudden reversal in stance, Miku silences herself again, having expected to have some kind of small argument with Itsuki after being conditioned by Nino's standoffish and belligerent mannerisms of speaking for so long. She still hasn't fully learned the nuances of talking with Itsuki yet, either, which slightly complicates things further.

"Actually, the reason why I was saying all this was because I felt like I was almost stabbing you in the back for going out with Uesugi-kun first, when it was you who had feelings for him before me," Itsuki reasons. "In fact, when you came down here to join me, I almost did not want to tell you what I was up to today. I think you could tell, given how long I took to answer your question in the beginning."

"Then why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"B-Because I thought you would get mad at me! I did not want to alienate you like I did to Nino, and we only just began to talk together a lot more often recently, so - ow, ow ow ow ow!"

Miku gives Itsuki a small knuckle sandwich on the top of her head.

"Geez, getting me all worked up like that...it's like I'm talking with Nino all over again..." Miku groans.

"I-I'm sorry, I'll be more direct next time...!"

Miku quickly rubs the top of her younger sister's head and instructs her to leave their empty cups with her so that she can wash them and have Itsuki return to her own room to put away her things and prepare for a bath. As Itsuki does as she's told and Miku rinses their cups in the sink, though, the third quintuplet can't help but dwell on what Itsuki was rambling about.

The biggest thing, naturally, is the point that Itsuki made about working towards being recognized by their tutor and what the point was behind it in the first place; Miku can't deny that her sister does have a point about that whole thing, a point that even Miku herself inadvertently agreed to, at least partially. Does it really matter, trying to prove herself to her tutor? Miku imagines that it's likely for Fuutarou to be pleased by the girls getting better and better test scores, as they would be a clear indicator of the quintuplets improving in school, as would be Fuutarou's primary objective as their tutor. But this is about having a relationship with him that they're talking about - ordinarily, if they did not know their tutor better, Miku would have assumed that Fuutarou did not care at all for such trivial matters with how strict and hardworking of a tutor he is to her and her sisters, so being able to prove herself to him with academic results would have been the way to go. But given how much he clearly cares for them even beyond the scope of their academics, now, is focusing on getting results so important?

Miku shakes her head quickly to clear her murky thoughts sown with doubt by Itsuki's words. No, she cannot stray from what she wants to do so easily. Sure, maybe having something to use to prove herself to Fuutarou isn't the most necessary thing in her desire to establish a closer relationship with him, and sure, she's said something different to Itsuki to calm her down, but she would still feel more confident having something of substance to show him to let him know that she's serious about deepening their relationship. It's something that sets Miku apart from the others, from the rest of her sisters - a sense of confidence, or more accurately, a lack of it. Miku is fully aware of this, and so she has resolved to make up for her lack of self-confidence by doing well in school to help validate Fuutarou's involvement with the Nakano family, in part to demonstrate to their father that he made the right choice hiring Fuutarou to be their tutor and to show to Fuutarou himself that he isn't wasting his precious time and effort on them and is actually being a great tutor and mentor. At the very least, it would certainly be easier and faster to produce such results than for Miku to grow a spine and develop a strong sense of security about herself.

Then what was it that Itsuki was trying to get at? It was peculiar enough for her to talk like that manner in the first place, but taking a step back to think about their conversation at large, Miku also finds it strange that Itsuki would have such an attitude after going on a date with Fuutarou. Shouldn't she be a bit happier than that? What sort of reason would she have to end up talking like that after having a date with a boy she has feelings for?

Is Itsuki hiding something from her? From everyone? Or was it just something that happened during the date itself today? There is a way for Miku to find out, and that would be by contacting Fuutarou directly herself and asking him what happened that would make Itsuki act like she did. But if she does that, then Miku would feel bad about it, since it's like she doesn't trust Itsuki somehow or suspects that something's wrong with her. But given their Mystic Eyes and such, what if this is some kind of new development that is affecting Itsuki without anyone realizing? Miku doesn't remember sensing any ambient magical energy resonating from Itsuki so far today, and neither of them had their Mystic Eyes appear randomly, so it shouldn't be because of their special eyes, but Miku feels a small sense of urgency to not let this be overlooked just in case.

Speaking of Mystic Eyes as the third quintuplet finally finishes rinsing their cups, which took an abnormally long time with how engrossed she's been in her own thoughts, Miku realizes that it's been just as abnormal that she's gone this long without having another one of her nightmares. It's not like she's been keeping a detailed record of her nightmares, but Miku has had them enough to get a mental grasp on roughly when she can expect them. Even when Itsuki began sharing her nightmare, it still continued at just about the same pace as before - but ever since the particularly disturbing nightmare when those frightening mass of shadowy hands rose up from the bloody water to grab Itsuki and drag her beneath the surface, Miku, and by extension Itsuki, has not had another rendition of this nightmare since. Could it have miraculously stopped? No, that can't be, things can't possibly be that convenient. Then what is going on? Is there anything going on? Miku hasn't been feeling any different lately, so it's not something she could be aware of herself. For some reason, this situation reminds her of the crude jokes that her classmates from her former school made about missing their periods and possibly being pregnant, and while obviously these two situations are much different, Miku still can't help but feel a certain kind of urgency that something may be off.

Unfortunately, there's not much she can do about this, so the quiet quintuplet just sighs lightly and lifts up one of the cups out of the sink to put on the dish dryer rack. She looks down at the cup.

There's a jagged black line that stretches from its rim down to its base.

Miku doesn't process what she sees right away. Her brain is still on auto-pilot mode, and since she's just gotten done washing and drying these cups, she actually thinks this jagged black line is some kind of stain. So she turns on the sink faucet again and reaches in with her left thumb to try to rub this "stain" off.

So when her thumb presses its nail into the black line, to Miku's sudden shock and subsequent horror, her thumb sinks right into the jagged black line. And because of the force with which she pressed her thumb against the cup, her thumb slides swiftly down the crooked line, straight down the side of the cup as though she were opening a sealed letter with a very sharp letter opener.

Miku almost screams from what she's just seen, but she barely manages to stifle it. What she can't stop herself from doing, however, is dropping the cup out of terror back into the sink, where it smacks against the bottom much more noisily than she would like it to and knocks against the other cup before rattling quickly to a stop. Thankfully the noise this has produced still seems like Miku just dropped a cup on accident while rinsing dishes, so it shouldn't arouse suspicion from the rest of her sisters, though it might have woken Ichika up depending on how long she's already been asleep by now.

After looking around and making sure that no one's coming down to check on her, Miku slowly turns back to the sink to look down at the cup she was just holding. Sure enough, the cup in question is lying at the bottom of the sink with a large, thumb width-sized laceration running down its side. Thankfully the cup itself is built well enough so that the impact of the drop didn't cause it to shatter into pieces, but Miku can deal with that; what she can't deal with is the fact that she saw what should not have been seen outside of her nightmare.

And it only gets worse. Miku then notices a small black spot on the side of the cup, partially obscured by the angle at which the cup rests. Out of morbid curiosity, Miku reaches down with a trembling hand to turn the cup over to confirm her fear - and sure enough, there is a small, shirt button-sized black dot placed eerily on the side of the very same cup.

Miku blinks, unable to believe what she's seeing - and that proves to be a fatal mistake. One blink, and the cup now suddenly sports another jagged black line running down its side that Miku knows was not there before. Not totally understanding what is happening right now, Miku makes this same mistake again before she realizes what it is that she's doing - and another jagged black line is born.

Inhaling sharply and holding her breath, Miku staggers backwards to tear herself away from what she's seeing and forces herself to stare straight ahead into the wall over the kitchen sink.

Her eyes feel cold. Unnaturally cold.

"...Miku? I heard something over there, did you drop something?"

Ichika's voice is the last straw as the sleepy eldest quintuplet gets up from her nap and notices Miku in the kitchen. Hearing one of her sisters call out to her but failing to listen to the words themselves, an extremely spooked Miku immediately bolts out of the kitchen and rushes up the stairs to barricade herself in her own room.

But as she darts behind the dining table to make her retreat, Ichika, noticing Miku react strangely to her call, manages to steal a glance at her as she passes, and she spies a pair of chillingly beautiful, mesmerizing pearls of deep blue light streak across her cone of vision. This, combined with the very faint but still telltale trail of residual magical energy that Miku leaves behind, is all Ichika needs to piece together the picture, so the eldest quint doesn't bother calling out again to Miku and leaves her be.

Still not saying another word, now that she's starting to get what's going on, Ichika quietly gets up from the couch and slowly trudges over to the kitchen to see what Miku was doing. She can't sense any magical energy here in the kitchen, strangely enough - but when she peeks down into the kitchen sink, she sees the very same cup that Miku was holding, the one with the very strange jagged cut down its side.

"...she's finally awake, huh?" Ichika murmurs to herself.

"...huh!? Ha...wha...what the...?!"

A young man in a tiger-spot shirt, black jacket, and course jeans jerks suddenly in his seat, waking suddenly as though he just had a jolt of electricity passed through him. Before he can even wonder out loud where he is, though, another voice speaks first.

"Hello, Maeda. I know we haven't really talked much before today, but I've got a few questions to ask you."

Sitting in front of him in a folding chair of his own in the dark garage lit only by the single incandescent light bulb hanging over Maeda's head is Uesugi Fuutarou. A baseball bat with very old, dried bloodstains stands next to him, leaning against his chair.