Hello everyone, you may be wondering why I'm writing a second story? Well, it was an inspired idea that just wouldn't die, and thanks to tons of encouragement, especially from the Ace himself LanceSennin, I decided I'd go ahead and publish it here.
Just know ahead of time that Quintessential Honeymoon takes priority so this story's updating will be more sporadic. However I think you are in for a treat so if you enjoy please follow so you'll be notified when I get a new idea for this story.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Quintessential Quintuplets, they are owned by Negi Haruba, please support the official manga and the anime
Chapter 1:
Fuutarou Uesugi awoke from a hellish nightmare. Well, at least it was hellish to him. After all, the mere thought of failing an exam for a young man like himself, who's greatest weapon was his ability to learn from his studies, was akin to witnessing the Great Old Ones from Lovecraftian lore.
Though this wasn't the first time he had this nightmare, it had been years since he last had it. Yet he still remembered them all so vividly. They were never exactly the same. They would show a possible future eerily similar to the one he would soon live through, but where he usually passed with flying colors on a daily basis, these would show him struggling during the exam and after turning it over to the teacher, it would flash forward to him receiving a failing grade before abruptly ending as he woke up.
Fuutarou checked his phone to see it was 6:45 am, and seeing how it was Wednesday he got up and got dressed for school. Yet even as he went about his morning routine, he couldn't help but think about why his returning nightmare would come back now. After all, the last time he had such a dream was during his second year of middle school and even that one was an anomaly. Other than that one-time occurance, the last time he had the surreal nightmare was a couple times during the second half of his last elementary school year, right around the time he started getting serious about his studies.
The young man pushed his inquiries out of his head as he enjoyed the breakfast his little sister had made for him. Yet they lingered as he remembered an interesting detail that was especially different from the previous nightmares.
Where it would always be about him failing a test, this time in his dream it was some unknown redheaded girl who failed a test. Why he should care that this person he didn't even know failed a test was beyond him, other than the fact that in the dream she asked for his help studying but he declined.
The young man just shook his head in confusion before finally succeeding in pushing out those thoughts right as classes began for the day. They wouldn't re-enter his mind until lunch time.
As he finished ordering his usual, barbecue beef combo without the beef, he found an open table only to suddenly have his eyes widen in absolute shock.
Just barely arriving after him to the two-person table was the red-haired girl he had seen in his nightmare. Everything was the same, the physique, the hair-style, the clothes she wore, all exactly as he remembered.
"Oh sorry, do you mind if I sit here? I couldn't find another spot," said the mystery girl to Fuutarou, who was just sitting there, staring a hole into the girl's face, causing her face to redden. "Uhhh, also could you please not stare, it's rather embarrassing."
Fuutarou finally recovered and motioned for her to sit down, which she obliged. He tried desperately to shrug it off as a coincidence and return to studying but couldn't help stealing glances at the girl as she began to dig into her expensive lunch. Even the arrangement of luxurious food items were the same from his dream. Next thing that would happen would be…
"I see you're studying even during lunch, how diligent of you. What score did you get?" asked the girl, who had finally come up for air after stuffing her face.
Still in disbelief at this deja vu, he decided to do something slightly different from what he did in the dream and just handed the piece of paper to her.
"Oh wow a perfect score, really impressive! Yet not surprising as you're even reviewing a test you got a 100 on during lunch."
Then the girl got an idea as she handed the paper back to him.
"Do you think you would be able to help me study after school? Even though I'm new here, I heard I'll still have to take tomorrow's social studies test."
Fuutarou's demeanor suddenly changed as he was no longer freaked out, but instead intrigued. After all, by showing her his test results, he had skipped all of the annoying back-and-forth that came with acting coy during his dream. Eventually the dream also arrived at this question he was now presented with, but in reality he had the added bonus of saved time and the girl being in a better mood.
Maybe what he had was a premonition and now he was about to help someone in need. After all, he did think it was rather unfair she had to take the test when she didn't learn any of the material. Plus, he had deduced from how she carried herself that she was a serious person who would be willing to learn. Feeling pride from the good deed he was about to do, he accepted her request.
"Awesome, thank you so, so much," the girl said as she bowed her head in appreciation before raising it and extending her hand. "I apologize, I haven't introduced myself, my name is Nakano Itsuki, but you can call me Itsuki."
"Nice to meet you, Itsuki, I'm Uesugi Fuutarou, you can call me Fuutarou," he replied as he took her hand to shake, thus sealing the deal. He felt a numbing sensation go through his hand and up his arm but paid it no mind as it quickly went away. He wasn't used to shaking hands, so he probably figured he did it wrong.
As he released his hand, he noticed Itsuki holding back a giggle. He raised an eyebrow, indicating he wanted to know what she found so funny.
"Oh it's nothing," she said as she composed herself, "just that I already knew your name because I saw your test."
Fuutarou had a slight chuckle himself as both returned to eating their respective lunches.
At this point during his dream, he had declined her request and was fast forwarded to the social studies test where he saw the girl he now knew as Itsuki struggle her way through the test before he woke up. However, since he was awake in reality, time kept going normally.
He returned to his homeroom and was greeted by a nice surprise that his new "acquaintance" would also be joining his homeroom. Without thinking, he waved to her after she gave her introduction and proceeded to look for a place to sit. Seeing the boy that would be her savior for tomorrow, she returned the wave and chose a seat right next him, getting the entire classroom buzzing about the new girl seemingly having weaseled her way into the heart of the student that some classmates swore had to be a robot.
Fuutarou realized what he had caused and was about to apologize to Itsuki, but she just waved it off and smiled at him, letting him know that it didn't bother her at all.
Classes would finish and the two went straight for the library. There, he got out all of his social studies notes and his textbook, and prepared to give the girl a little tutoring session.
Sadly it took but 10 minutes before Fuutarou's patience had reached its limit. He understood and was willing to deal with the fact he would basically be teaching her an entire two chapters worth of events, but he was not prepared for her overwhelming lack of awareness of simple events she should definitely know by now. Explaining one event by using an earlier event only opened a can of worms as he'd then have to explain the event he was using for the comparison.
It also didn't help that the gentle and nice girl he had seen until then had become very combative with him over her getting questions wrong. This finally escalated into a shouting match that got both students kicked out of the library. With him not willing to put up with her stupidity, and her not willing to put up with his insensitivity, they agreed to call everything off and walked away.
Fuutarou did feel a little bad that he couldn't end up helping her, but figured that at least he tried, but she was going to need someone else to help her. It's not his fault she couldn't handle his legitimate criticism.
As he walked back to his house his surroundings started to blur before he felt like he was being rocketed forward until he found himself at his desk again. Looking to his side, he saw Itsuki struggle with the piece of paper in front of her before ultimately giving up and handing it over to the teacher, even though half of it was blank. Fuutarou's guilt started to build as he looked down at the paper on his desk. It was the social studies test he was supposed to have tomorrow.
As the young man raised his head back up, he suddenly realized he was back in his bedroom and tucked into his futon. He hurriedly checked his phone.
It was 6:45am on Wednesday again.
