Hey everyone, thank you for your patience as I write this second arc, I personally think it's going well and I think you all will hopefully enjoy it too. Make sure to click "follow" so you don't miss when the chapters are published!

Also I wanted to say thank you for reading this story, as the Quintessential Quintuplets Fanfiction scene has experienced some rapid growth since I started this story. There are so many talented authors and stories already and a few more that I know are in the process of being made. So I feel really blessed that even with the growing variety of quality content that people still choose to read this story as well as my other one.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Quintessential Quintuplets, they are owned by Negi Haruba, please support the official manga and the anime

Chapter 8:

The first thing Fuutarou decided to do as he started his walk home was to call Raiha and tell her he was on his way. He also asked her to make a plate for him and put it in the fridge for later as he was still full from the assortment of pastries Itsuki had ordered. While Raiha was a bit bummed out she would be eating dinner alone tonight, she perked up when her brother informed her that he had successfully given her contact information to Itsuki, and that the redhead was super excited to have it. After finishing their conversation, he placed his phone in his pants pocket and let his mind wander as he was still a good four or five blocks from home.

"That numbing feeling, what exactly was that?" he thought to himself, trying to see if he could find any reason for it or if this was simply a coincidence. After all that has happened the past few days, he was dubious of coincidences but until he could discover the what, why, and how to this sensation, it may as well just be two unrelated circumstances. For now, he decided to go over what he had experienced so far from this phenomenon.

When he agreed to tutor Itsuki during the second loop, he felt a numbing tingle engulf his hand and shoot up his arm before disappearing. However this was the only time during any of those six loops that he remembered such an odd sensation. Then, just mere hours ago, that same numbing sensation replicated itself when he and Miku grabbed for the same dessert, which resulted in their hands colliding with each other. The logical conclusion to take from these instances would be that this was some kind of event trigger. By making physical contact with them, those girls' grades were bonded to his "power," yet there were a few problems with that:

The first problem was how it could work as a trigger when it occurred in the second loop? If this feeling was supposed to signal some kind of connection, then what exactly caused him to reset during the first loop? He remembered pretty clearly that he had aced the social studies test during his initial go, while it was Itsuki that failed as one would expect when a student is forced to take a test on material they didn't previously learn.

However, there must have been a trigger during his first loop to create a second one. It's possible something else could have been the initial trigger but that wasn't worth hypothesizing because there wasn't enough evidence for the existence of a different possible trigger at this time. For now, it made more sense to think he did experience this distinct tingle during the first loop even if he had no solid recollection of it. Usually that would be a dead giveaway that this line of thinking had no legs to stand on, but the explanation was that he didn't remember feeling anything from that loop. In fact, that had always been the case until his second loop with Itsuki, which is why he always assumed these were dreams in the past. Though now he knows for certain that those also must have been previous loops. He had no idea why he started to remember how he felt in past loops, but there were much more pressing issues.

One such bigger and more important issue was how he activated this trigger during his first run. Trying to understand this led to his second problem: what were the exact circumstances necessary for this contract? The obvious part of this puzzle was "physical contact" but it had to be more than that. Specifically, an "agreement" for his help was Fuutarou's working theory. It would align perfectly with why he only had responsibility over Itsuki's grade in addition to his own. It would also make sense why Miku caused the same sensation.

The reason this was still just a theory is because he actually never accepted her idea to tutor her during the first loop. At least, he wasn't serious about it. From what he could recall from their first ever meeting, the two got off on the wrong foot and already were at each other's throats from the beginning.

Yet, through the existence of their shared interest in earning academic success, the conversation became a little more civil, to the point where Itsuki did ask him to help tutor her. He agreed in a very sarcastic tone, but it seemed Itsuki thought he was being serious as she stuck on her hand like she did in the second loop. Ashamedly, Fuutarou recalls swatting her hand away before making it clear he wasn't being serious.

Whether or not he was serious or was just being a sarcastic jackass is unknown since he didn't remember how he was feeling during the first loop. But logic seemed to indicate that specific interaction was most likely the first trigger. Was he actually serious at first and then changed his mind? Or was it that Itsuki completely believed him when he said he agreed?

The only other possible theory was that he had a special link to Itsuki and her sisters, which activated upon first physical contact. Yet this had to be wrong since he had physically touched Itsuki's oldest sister Ichika on multiple occasions and nothing happened. It's possible that maybe he didn't need to worry about her because she would never ask him to tutor her, but that led down a dangerous path where it meant all possible futures were pre-determined, which seemed to contradict the purpose of his power.

Regardless of how it occurred in the first loop, his third problem was that there were definitely loops he didn't trigger this event in and yet he still looped. Specifically, why was he still responsible for Itsuki after the third and fourth loop when both times he made zero contact with her? Did this contract transcend time? If so, why the need to repeat it during his second loop unless it was necessary? After all, even in the sixth loop when he made contact with Itsuki, he...

"Wait!" Fuutarou let audibly slip through his mouth as he stood still for a moment. There were very few people around and none of them were paying the boy any attention. Realizing he had gone unnoticed, he continued walking as his brain wrestled with the realization he had just made.

That unexpected hug Itsuki gave him out of gratitude before she left his house on that final loop. A lot of feelings and emotions were swarming both his body and his mind at that moment but he did distinctly recall one of those sensations being numbness. He had paid it no mind at the time because he was too busy sorting out his emotions, but there was no doubt that her hug brought back that tingling sensation he felt when he shook Itsuki's hand during the second loop and touched Miku's hand a few hours ago. He understood why it would need to trigger for Miku but why multiple times for Itsuki? Did it possibly lengthen how long he'd need to help Itsuki?

Which led to his last problem regarding this phenomenon: What was the length of this contract and was it still even in effect? Was he now responsible to make sure Miku, along with Itsuki, passed their tests? Was he even still responsible for Itsuki or was it a one time thing?

Part of him really wished that it was just a one time thing. He'd still want to do his best to help the two girls because Itsuki was his friend and Miku was a nice girl who stood up for him during that misunderstanding with Nino, but the idea of repeating a day over and over again that many times made Fuutarou unsettled. How would this affect him psychologically? Fuutarou wasn't afraid of many things, but losing his superior brain that he had worked so hard for was one of them. For this reason, along with the fact he truly wanted to help those two girls, he planned to make sure he'd never need to know the answer to that last question by making sure they passed all of their tests going forward.

The boy noticed just in time he had walked past his apartment, being too absorbed in his analysis to keep track of his surroundings. He quickly turned around and headed inside. Extremely exhausted, both physically and mentally, he hastily undressed and threw his laundry into his clothes hamper before taking a bath. Outside of a quick question from his sister about if it was okay to put his laundry in the washing machine, which he said was fine, the young man allowed himself to finally relax for the first time in a long while.

Fuutarou awoke from his futon to the sound of Raiha's voice yelling at him from another room. Apparently, it was almost noon, which caused the young man to panic. He was supposed to wake at 9am, a time he decided upon as being enough time to make practice tests for the two sisters while also being a nice reward for the boy as he still would get to sleep in a few hours more than usual. He checked his phone to see why the alarm didn't go off when he felt a pit form in the bottom of his stomach.

"Where's my phone?!"

He scavenged his brain for when he last remembered having it and came to a horrifying conclusion: he had left it in his pants.

Sprinting out his bedroom door and over to the laundry area, he searched his hanging pants and found what he was looking for. The young man breathed a huge sigh of relief upon seeing his flip phone as it appeared there was no structural damage to it. That calmness disintegrated as he flipped it open and saw it unresponsive. He tried powering it back on, and even charging it, but it was as good as dead.

Fuutarou decided to take inventory of his situation to help lessen his hysteria. Not having a phone for a while was going to suck but thankfully he did give Raiha's information to Itsuki yesterday. As long as they had gotten in contact already the young man still had a method of communicating with the sisters. Even if she hadn't yet, it would only be a matter of time until Itsuki tried to call Raiha after several failed attempts at contacting Fuutarou. The bigger problem in his eyes was his lack of time, as he had nowhere near the amount necessary to make two practice tests and answer all of Miku's questions from yesterday, which were gone anyway since they only existed as texts between him and Itsuki.

Fuutarou was stirred from his thoughts by the sound of agonized groaning that came from their couch. Unable to ignore his curiosity, he found his father, or rather a ragdoll that used to be his father. The usually lively man was spread out over the entirety of the couch wincing in pain with every involuntary movement he made. Fuutarou was tempted to make a snide remark about his grunts along the lines of "Sounds like you've finally reverted back into a monkey" but could tell that his father was in serious pain so now wasn't the time to kick a dead horse. Also, he had a lot more pressing issues to deal with at the moment.

Regaining his focus, he swiftly began making the practice tests he planned to give the two sisters today. Raiha, worrying about her brother possibly passing out from not eating anything, would periodically shove food in his mouth to make sure he wouldn't keel over. Fuutarou's assumption came to fruition at 12:45pm as Raiha got a text from an unknown number that turned out to be Itsuki. As he expected, she had tried calling his dead phone many times and was now contacting his sister in an attempt to get a hold of the boy.

Taking his sister's phone right out of her hands, Fuutarou quickly texted Itsuki about his current situation and that he still needed some time before he was ready. After sending the message, he went back to work as he awaited her reply. It took a few minutes, but Itsuki did send a response, which Raiha read aloud for her brother's benefit so he could continue working.

[Hey Fuutarou, sorry to hear about your phone but am glad you are okay. Miku and I are already here at the library. We'll just study by ourselves until you get here :) ]

As Raiha finished, she saw that her brother had stopped working and instead was giving her a puzzled look. When she asked what was the matter, she was given an answer that made her unable to hold back her laughter.

"What do you mean 'smiley face'? Is that supposed to be a nickname? I don't get the context behind why she ended the message that way," replied Fuutarou in a serious tone. He then became flustered by his sister's laughing.

"Onii-chan, it's just an emote, did you seriously think she said 'smiley face' at the end of her text?" Raiha then regained her composure and showed Fuutarou the message. "See, it's a smiley face! It means she's telling you not to worry."

"I mean I guess," Fuutarou said with a skeptical face, "Why wouldn't she just say not to worry, and instead speak in code."

"Ughh Onii-chan, this is common sense!" Raiha sighed at her older brother. "How do you know nothing about emotes? They've been around for a long time!"

Fuutarou just shrugged as he went back to working on making the two practice tests, having given up trying to understand this trivial matter. However, Raiha wasn't done with this conversation.

"Listen Onii-chan, I love you. I want to see you succeed with being friends with Itsuki-san and other people your age. So when you return home from the library tonight, I'm going to tutor you in the language of emotes so you can properly communicate with people your age."

Fuutarou just looked at his sister in amazement and couldn't help but consider her proposal. He admitted that it would be helpful to know this type of information but a small pestering thought held him back. What if by agreeing to be taught by Raiha that he somehow dragged her into this looping curse? Even if he was being irrational, he didn't want to do anything that would potentially have her go through what he did this past week. Until he had more information on the circumstances of his power, he would have to decline any future offers.

He told his little sister that he would pass on her offer but would make an effort on his own to get more knowledgeable with texting lingo and emotes. This seemed to satisfy Raiha enough as she left to go fold the drying laundry. Meanwhile Fuutarou furiously quickened his pace to make up for lost time.

Even though Miku heard Itsuki explain Fuutarou's current situation in perfect detail, the middle sister couldn't help but wonder if this was all her fault.

Having now waited an hour at the library, Miku had become restless and was starting to let her anxiety and lack of self-esteem corrupt her thoughts. She began speculating that Fuutarou's story was nothing more than an excuse so that he wouldn't have to spend as much time tutoring her.

Usually she would snap herself out of these types of thoughts, but too much lined up for her to dismiss this feeling. For one thing, what was the likelihood that the smartest kid in the school would be dumb enough to leave their phone in their pants? Sure everyone has mental lapses, but from what she saw and how Itsuki described him, this felt more like a cleverly crafted lie than something that would actually happen. It was quite convenient that he would not be able to answer all of the questions that she had her sister text him. It also seemed to work out for him as he would end up having less time to tutor her overall.

Though the number one thing that stuck out in her mind was her father's words. She had taken Itsuki's praise of the boy at face value, and even let herself be wooed by his cheap flattery during their meeting at lunch. Miku desperately wanted this guy to be her Sengoku warlord that would lead her conquest towards improving her academic status. Yet she now knew the "truth" after analyzing their study session yesterday under the lens of her father's warning about high school boys:

"Fuutarou has no interest in me," Miku thought. "I'm just a pawn for him to grow closer to Itsuki."

Not that she blamed him for it. After all, this was technically her fault as the middle sister selfishly tried to wiggle her way into their partnership in hopes of receiving the same benefits. Yet it was clear that Fuutarou didn't hold similar interest, from how he spent all of his time helping Itsuki, to the fact he even recoiled when their hands happened to touch.

After another hour of waiting, Miku could no longer sit there and study on her own, especially since she had very little idea if she was doing any of these problems correctly. She turned and saw that even Itsuki had moved on from practicing using the formulas and was reading a book... a history book to be precise. This was the final straw as she quickly pulled out her phone and texted Nino about whether or not she was still at the mall. Miku immediately got a response from her saying that she and Yotsuba were just about to catch a movie. Miku looked one last time at Itsuki, who had her head buried in the history book, and sighed before asking them to buy her a ticket as she would meet them there .

By the time Fuutarou had arrived at the library, it was already 2:30pm. That meant by the time he found them and set everything up, the two girls would have waited two hours from when he first contacted them and nearly three hours overall. While he wasn't one to typically care what others think about him, Itsuki was a different story. Not only was she his first friend in years, she was also his student and Raiha's friend as well. He felt he could eventually become friends with Miku too once he got to know her better. That's why this delay hurt even more as he had planned to get better acquainted with her today. Well, even if it was less time than he wanted, he was going to make sure he answered all of her questions and began to make her trust him.

So when he spotted Itsuki all by herself in the library, he felt a heavy pain in his chest.

"Hey Itsuki, sorry about the long delay but I'm finally here. Where's Miku?" Fuutarou called to his friend, forgetting he was in the library. Thankfully it went unnoticed as this public librarian was just glad there were people here to justify her having to work on a Saturday afternoon. Itsuki perked up at the arrival of her friend but immediately became depressed when he mentioned Miku.

"Hey Fuutarou... sorry about what happened to you and also sorry that Miku isn't here, she just left like ten minutes ago."

"Wait, she left?!" Fuutarou again raised his voice, this time getting a stern warning from the librarian. He apologized and then continued in a hushed tone. "Where did she go?"

"She got tired of waiting," Itsuki said weakly, almost as if she was ashamed of her sister's impatience. "She went to the theater with my other sisters to go watch some action fantasy movie. I knew you'd eventually come so I didn't really mind waiting, but she's not one to study on her own. Don't worry, she said she'd come back if I informed her you came." Right as she finished saying that, she texted Miku that Fuutarou finally arrived before putting her hands out to receive her practice test.

While he was annoyed Miku decided to ditch, he could understand why, considering she barely knew him as well as the fact he was still unable to answer all of her questions. He was also relieved she would at least be open to coming back.

He stared at the cute face Itsuki was making as she started opening and closing her hands like a book to indicate she wanted the test now. Fuutarou really admired Itsuki's strong constitution for studying and was enjoying the fact that she not only took it seriously, but was also able to have a little fun too.

He handed the practice test to her as she quickly went to work. Fuutarou asked Itsuki if he could borrow her phone so he could look over the questions Miku wanted answered, which she obliged.

He was surprised by how complicated Miku's questions were, as they were very problem-specific and would be extremely hard to answer if he hadn't brought yesterday's practice tests with him today. Using them as guides, he was eventually able to understand which questions she was referring to even though she forgot to leave problem numbers.

Halfway through answering them he saw Itsuki was nearly done, and from what he could see from his seat he could tell she got the majority of the questions right. She must have studied last night as well as during the couple hours she waited. He was then jolted from his musing as the phone vibrated, indicating there was a new text. It was from Miku.

While he truly didn't want to pry, he was curious to know when Miku was coming back so she could catch up to Itsuki. Plus the owner of this phone was still in the middle of a test so giving her a phone would ruin the learning atmosphere he had created, or so he rationalized as he opened the text. What he read made his heart skip a beat.

[I think it's best if I don't return, it can't be a coincidence he showed up right after I left. As much as you don't want to admit it, dad is right. The way he gives you special attention, the way you two interact, the way you are able to learn and understand things you had trouble doing before. I gave you the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was that special, but all I received was confused and disappointed eyes when I arrived with you at the cafe yesterday and the rest of the day was awkward as if I was intruding on some date. He's not special, you two just see each other as special. In fact, he's really impatient as he didn't even try to get to know me, instead just throwing me in my studies and hoping I learned the same way you do, which I don't. Anyway, hope you have a good time together and I'll see you tonight.]

Fuutarou's world started to come crashing down on him as he just kept staring at the message. Eventually he just shoved the phone in front of Itsuki's face, and after a few seconds of confused staring, she ripped the phone from his hands and started dialing. He could only hear Itsuki's side of the conversation but that didn't matter as it sounded garbled anyway.

The young man rubbed his eyes as he experienced a familiar feeling. He could even call it nostalgic. When he opened his eyes, he was no longer sitting at a table in the public library, but at his desk at school. On that desk was the practice math test... no wait this was the real one. If circumstances were different, he would have congratulated himself on coming up with a test that would end up being so similar to the actual test's first page.

However, he knew what was going to happen next. Which is why he was shocked to look over at a confident Itsuki finishing up her test. Unlike Social Studies, Fuutarou couldn't just tell if a question was right or wrong at a glance but he trusted the look Itsuki was presenting as it was the exact same one she showed when she earned her 78 on Thursday.

Then things got really weird.

He found himself hovering above a different classroom, and by that he meant he was observing from above like a security camera as no trace of his body could be found. It was like he wasn't even there, which made sense since this wasn't his classroom. He scanned the desks and had his fears realized when he spotted a despondent Miku, struggling to finish her test.

Fuutarou understood what this meant and prepared himself for the reset, which for some reason was taking its sweet time. He started to wonder where he would reset to. How much would he have to redo? All of a sudden he heard the sound of a bell. He was expecting it to be the usual sound that announced the end of class, but this one sounded more like a chime. It was then he realized his surroundings had finally changed, as he was now seated at a cafe booth. The boy looked up and saw two very familiar red-haired girls approach, one hauling a backpack, and the other clutching a math textbook.