A/N I'm not sure if this is a bug or not but now my pages in Microsoft Word are black so when I write at 2 am my eyes don't end up burning. Anyway, same as usual, hope you guys find this chapter's reference(s) and to answer you, Guest Reviewer, yes, this might be the plot of Assassins Pride, but I have no idea what that is, so any similarities aren't on purpose.
"Right, I'm your new tutor. My name is Uesugi Fuutaro".
The girls all paused for several seconds with expressions of shock planted on their faces. The girl from the door was the first to come back to her senses, jumping out into the door, grabbing Itsuki's hand and rushing back inside.
"We don't need a tutor! Especially one from our own class!" She screamed, before slamming the door shut. But right before the door could close though, Fuutaro quickly shoved his foot between the door, making a cracking noise as the door slammed his foot into the wall. As all the girls cringed from the noise, Fuutaro spoke up in a monotone voice, as if his injury were but a scratch.
"Look, I understand you might object to a student in your own year level tutoring you, and especially you, Itsuki-san, after what I said to you. But you all need to understand that I was hired by your father to make sure you girls pass your exams. I'm certain your father will force you all to listen to me. So, either you can let me in and let me prove myself, or your father will have to force you."
Hearing what the boy was saying, the girl at the door opened the door slightly and prepared to slam it into his foot again and teach him a lesson. A hand grabbed onto her shoulder before she could, making her look back and see a girl with bunny ribbons looking at the boy.
"Nino, let's give him a chance, I mean, we really need it, right?" Hearing her sisters' words, Nino's scowl grew even more, she threw open the door and rushed to the stairs.
"Fine, Yotsuba! If anyone wants to allow this bastard into their lives, then go ahead!" Itsuki quickly followed Nino up the stairs, then a girl with headphones, and then a girl with a pixie cut, leaving only Fuutaro and Yotsuba.
"Well, this is a problem Uesugi-san. Come on, let's sit down, do you want some water?" Yotsuba turned back to see Fuutaro with a scowl "U-Uesugi? W-Whats wrong?" Yotsuba asked, fear in her voice after seeing the boy's glare.
Unexpectedly, the boy didn't scream or shout. Instead, he crouched down and held onto his foot.
"I thought that'd be cool, I didn't expect her to slam the door so hard…" He muttered, replacing Yotsuba's fear with a light chuckle. Yotsuba went ahead, picked him up and brought him to a table with some water and sat him down.
After Fuutaro recovered, he began to plan his next move. So far, only one of the five sisters has accepted his tutoring, how will he get the others to join? In his head he was calculating hundreds of outcomes, considering every option he had. But from every calculation, there was one factor that would ruin everything. He. Knew. Nothing. Absolutely nothing, nada, jack, about any of the sisters. After a few more minutes, he decided what his only course of action was.
"Hey, Yotsuba-san," The girl who was sitting at the table in silence for the past few minutes jumped up, "can you help me get your sisters to join us?" Yotsuba's smile grew even more, and she saluted the tutor.
"Will do, Uesugi-san! By the way, you might wanna drop the 'san' with us, it'll be a bit strange. Now then, follow me!" The boy got up and followed the bunny ribbon girl up the stairs and to a door. "Itsuki studies a lot and has been talking about needing a tutor. I'm sure she's over everything by now!" Fuutaro took a breath and knocked on Itsuki's door.
"Hey, Itsuki, I'm sorry about earlier today. I know you're mad but please let me h-"Before Fuutaro could finish, Itsuki opened the door, making the boy smile, only to instantly close it with a loud slam. She did this twice more before finally stopping. Fuutaro gave a deadpanned look to Yotsuba making her sweat.
"W-Well, Miku's next, she gets the best grades out of all of us. I'm sure she'll join us!" The pair went to the next door, Fuutaro repeated his steps, breathed in, knocked on the door and shouted for Miku. Surprisingly enough, a bored girl wearing headphones opened a door for a second, letting Fuutaro glance inside her room. In the corner of the room, Fuutaro spotted a desktop on a desk, after a second of focusing he could barely make out some text on the screen 'Sengoku … … Simulator' interesting. Before he could make anything else out, the door began to close.
"I refuse. I don't need your help." The door shut leaving Fuutaro and Yotsuba standing outside the door in awkward silence. Yotsuba let out a sigh and began to walk to another door. Reaching the next door Yotsuba turned around and showed off a depressed smile.
"This is Nino's room, she's a social butterfly, I'm sure she'll join us." Before Fuutaro could even reach Nino's door she already opened the door, glared at Fuutaro with a death stare. Fuutaro fought back the urge to reply to her with his own stare, before eventually moving on to the next door. Yotsuba spoke again, this time with a nervous voice.
"T-this is Ichika's room, please, don't be shocked…" This time, Yotsuba knocked on the door. After several seconds with no reply, Yotsuba opened the door and walked in, Fuutaro following behind. What Fuutaro saw horrified him. An absolute dump, clothes everywhere, a fan sitting on a chair, a bed with no mattress. Hell, Fuutaro could've sworn he saw a raccoon scuttling around somewhere! Behind him, a large pile shuffled, and something made a groaning noise. Fuutaro quickly turned around and put a hand in his pocket.
From the pile, a young girl with a pixie cut got out, calming Fuutaro down, and then immediately making him jump again once he realized she wasn't wearing any clothes. The girl rubbed her eyes and looked around, waving at a blushing Yotsuba and Fuutaro, before realizing the situation. Ichika jumped back into her pile, rustled around and came out wearing a yellow shirt and jeans.
"Hey there! What are you two doing here?" After Fuutaro slightly opened his eyes to make sure everything was safe and saw Ichika was finally wearing clothes, he spoke up.
"Ichika, would you like to join us in our tutoring sessions? It could be useful for you to get out of this place." Ichika began to chuckle and stepped through the mess until she was no more than a meter from Fuutaro.
"So you're in a girl's room, and rather than thinking of anything else, you think about studying?" Fuutaro nodded. "Hmm, you are quite the interesting one, Uesugi-kun, alright, let's go."
Fuutaro mentally began shouting out of happiness. Yes! I've finally got one more student! Success. Fuutaro marched out the door with a hop in his step, leaving the two girls in shock. Surprisingly, one of the sisters was waiting outside the door. He took a look at the girl, 'She has a monotone expression, her hair goes to her back and covers her eye, and around her neck is a pair of blue headphones. That must mean it's Miku!'
"Yes, Miku?" Confusion covered the girl's face, and Fuutaro could've sworn he saw a smile on her face before it was covered by another monotone expression.
"It's impressive you can tell us apart. But tell me, Fuutaro, where is my tracksuit?" Now it was Fuutaro's turn to be surprised. He raised his eyes in confusion. "You see Fuutaro, my tracksuit's gone missing. The last time I saw it was before you came." Fuutaro realized what the girl was insinuating and groaned in disgust.
"First off, I wasn't even able to get into your room, second of, I would not do something so disgusting!" Miku looked like she was about to retort before she suddenly threw her head to the ground floor. There, a girl with ribbons in a tracksuit was baking what seemed to be cookies. Miku rushed down and instantly started fighting with her.
"Nino! That's my tracksuit! Why are you wearing it?"
"Not like you were ever going to use it!"
The two girls fighting slowly became background noise for Fuutaro as he noticed the two girls who were willing to learn from him were already seated at their tables. He sauntered towards the table and took out the tests he had prepared, fortunately, he had prepared three, expecting no more than that. He handed the girls their tests and began copying down two more tests for the other girls.
"This is a test to test your abilities, so although I'd love to answer any questions you two could have, I can't. You can have as much time as you need to complete it." Over the next hour, Fuutaro finished the sheets while the two sisters continued their test. Nino had given back Miku's tracksuit and continued to bake her cookies. Fuutaro noticed that Ichika regularly stopped working and Yotsuba tried to work but would spend several minutes at a time on one question.
Fuutaro waited for the girls to finish for another 15 minutes before checking the time, '7:33, I should get going to that meeting' Fuutaro noticed Nino preparing a glass of soda and putting a green pill into it, a pill Fuutaro had all too much experience with. Rohypnol. 'What is up with that girl?' He thought to himself, 'I hope that's just for sleep issues.' Fuutaro decided not to pry into what Nino was doing and instead leave.
"Alright girls, you guys continue with that, for now, I have to leave, and also…" Fuutaro handed Yorsuba three more tests, "Give these to your other sisters and have them do it. If they refuse… tell them that if they get more than 55 percent, they can refuse my tutoring." These words surprised Yotsuba. He'd been so hellbent on getting the girls to join him, on the first day even, and now he's willing to accepted defeat? She knew none of her sisters would be able to do it, but Fuutaro didn't know that. As Yotsuba looked back up, Fuutaro was already gone.
"Eh… EH?!" Nino and Ichika both stared at Yotsuba before realizing Fuutaro had completely disappeared. Nino nearly dropped her glass, while Yotsuba and Ichika began to think of how he could've gotten out so quickly, as well as so silently.
"Great…" Nino muttered, "What a waste, guess I'll have to throw this out then…"
Fuutaro marched down the pristine white stairs of the building that was so well kept it looked like no one had ever walked on them before, or maybe they weren't considering everyone would rather use an elevator. The boy undid his hair and unbuttoned his school shirt, revealing a black t-shirt with a white rose embroidered on it. The light in his young, yellow eyes seemingly disappeared and he sprinted down the stairs, quickly reaching the lobby without a hint of sweat on his body.
Exiting the lobby, the boy began running to his destination, a popular street among the poorer and younger people, known for the great-tasting and cheap food. Within a matter of minutes, the boy reached his destination. A small, Korean restaurant, built into a large building with several other restaurants. Instantly, he noticed the man that would be his client. Sitting at the restaurant was a young Korean man with an undercut, wearing a black yukata with a grey triangle pattern. His hands were covered by leather gloves with a gold stud on each finger. He was slowly eating a large bowl of bulgogi. The boy slowly approached the man, analyzing the scene.
"I assume you're my client. You know, your outfit isn't helping deter any attention." The man chuckled and motioned for him to take a seat next to him.
"I'm not your client, my name is Yeong Soo, I'm, let's say, a spokesperson, for your client." The man's words confused him. "I understand this might be a strange experience, but this is an offer you can't refuse." The boy finally sat down and began to listen to the man.
"You see, my leader is looking for the perfect assassin, so he has set up a competition. The best of the best from your company have been hired to take down some targets, and whoever can take down all or most of them will not only get a nice 100,000,000 yen but they will also permanently be hired by him, with very, very high pay." Hearing these words, the boys' ears instantly perked up from hearing the words "100,000,000 yen" and "high pay", but the man motioned for him to calm down.
"Of course, with every competition, there comes rules. Whoever can kill the most targets wins, if 2 people get a draw, they fight to the death to win. You are allowed to kill any other assassins if you can discover who they are. The leader would also prefer it if you can take the targets out secretively. We understand your style, young man, but to have these targets be murdered would cause an unnecessary amount of attention. Try to make it look natural or hide the bodies. It's easier to cover up a disappearance than murder. I know that information dealer you all talk with, Orihara of Shinjuku or whatever he calls himself, also handles body disposal."
The assassin nodded at everything the man said, slowly losing focus the more the man went on about the competition.
"Now, on to the targets, there are only 5. The targets are the daughters of Nakano Maruo." The young assassins' eyes flashed in shock for a second before going back to his usual lifeless stare.
"That's all, everything else you'll have to find out yourself, after all, it is a competition." The boy stood up and walked back to his home, lazily fixing his look on the way
Once Fuutaro made it back home, he lazily opened the door and walked up to his room, ignoring his father shouting at him because of what happened in the morning and for not calling him after finishing tutoring. He walked past Raiha's door, slowly he snuck inside and kissed the sleeping girl's forehead, she must have been worried. Fuutaro walked out and down the corridor, entering his room he jumped onto his book, not even bothering to turn on the lights.
'He wants me to kill children, not any powerful figure, a CEO of a rivalling company, a corrupt government official, no he wants me to kill children.' Fuutaro made his hands into a fist, he was applying so much pressure into his hands that his nails began to pierce his skin 'Why do I even feel so bad about this?! I barely know those girls, but something feels so wrong about this…' Fuutaro took a deep breath and did his best to calm down. He picked himself up and grabbed some bandages from a drawer, wrapping them around his bloodied hands. 'Steel yourself, fool, you've done far worse.'
The next day, Fuutaro got up at his usual time, taking a folding knife and a small pistol from his shelf, placing them into his school bag. Fuutaro went his usual route and arrived at school, although later than usual due to him taking his time to sort things out in his mind. As he was about to enter the school gates, a black limousine pulled up right next to him. Fuutaro was about to go off on the driver for almost hitting him, but before he could, 5 familiar faces exited.
"Uesugi-san!" Yotsuba shouted with a smile on her face, while the others looked at Fuutaro with either awkwardness or hatred. As the others walked off without even uttering a hello, Yotsuba let out a sad chuckle, handed Fuutaro his tests back, and walked off. He looked over the tests only to suffer at the sight, Miku 32, Itsuki 28, Ichika 17, Nino 15, Yotsuba 8. Fuutaro shook his head in disappointment, only to see on his side the driver of the limousine.
"You're fucking kidding me." Another familiar face, just what he needed.
"My apologies for almost hitting you, Herr Uesugi. I understand it may be a bit rude, but if you do not mind, I recommend you take my advice." The old man got up close and personal with the young boy, "Don't hurt the young masters." The old man walked back into the limousine and drove off, recklessly driving all the way.
"Well, nice to see you too, Herr Ebata."
Fuutaro spent the whole day trying to talk to Itsuki, as well as her sisters, only to be ignored each time, even by Yotsuba and Ichika. The more time passed, the more annoyed Fuutaro got 'Why am I even bothering!? They'll be gone soon!' Once lunch came around, Fuutaro was about to sit at his usual spot before a certain boy grabbed his attention, Maeda.
"Oi, oi, Fuutaro, wanna have lunch together, it's been a while since we talked." Fuutaro simply smiled and nodded, taking his seat, and beginning his lunch, Maeda too sat down, but rather than eating he looked around, watching.
"So, how goes your jobs, anything new?" Fuutaro gulped and stopped eating, giving Maeda the signal to start eating. As Fuutaro looked around and watched, he tried to find the words to say.
"Well, my latest job, it's… I have to kill those new girls…" Maeda choked on his food and coughed several times. Fuutaro continued, "… it's strange, whenever I've gotten a job, I've never felt bad, I've never had a doubt, maybe it's because they're so young, or maybe because I've met them, but…"
The two sat in silence for a few more minutes, both subconsciously taking turns eating and watching, eventually, Maeda spoke up.
"Well, do what you must, but if something happens, and you decide to betray the organization, I'll be with you…" Fuutaro thanked Maeda with a sad smile and left for his next class.
After school, Yotsuba found Fuutaro and annoyed him about walking with the sisters, with the boy eventually accepting. As the six walked on, only Yotsuba and Ichika talking with Fuutaro, while the other 3 talked amongst themselves, occasionally calling out to the other sisters but never to Fuutaro. Once they made it to the apartment and reached the top floor, Fuutaro instantly attempted to get the girls to sit and review their tests, expectedly, Itsuki and Nino refused, with the former going to her room and the latter going to the kitchen. Unexpectedly, Miku sat with the group.
"I accepted your challenge, and I lost, I'll go through with this, but if I find that your useless, I'll tell father." Miku answered Fuutaro, without him ever asking a question. As Fuutaro went to sit at the table, he took note of the windows 'Bulletproof glass, their father must be really careful. Thank God I didn't decide on the sniper path.' Fuutaro went over each girls' abilities, Ichika was best at math, Nino at English, Miku at Social Studies, Yotsuba at Japanese and Itsuki at science. Every question the other girls got wrong; one girl got right. Interesting.
'Dammit, what am I doing? Let's get this over with!' Fuutaro grabbed onto his pistol in his bag and grabbed onto the pins in his hair, preparing to let them loose.
"Hey everyone! I have some food for you all!" All the girls rushed to the table taking sandwiches and chocolate bars, even Itsuki rushed out. "Come on, Uesugi, grab a bite." Fuutaro just shook his head.
'Why is she being so kind? Does she know? It won't matter soon.' Nino kept going.
"Come on, don't you want a drink at least?" Nino offered Fuutaro a glass of soda, with one in her hand and 4 others on the table. Finally, he relented and accepted the drink. As he guzzled it down, Fuutaro felt something powdery down his throat. Realizing what it was, Fuutaro threw the glass in the air, but he finished it long before he realized it. The glass hit the ground, shattering into thousands of pieces, sending shock into all the girls.
"Nino! You, you fucking drugged me?!" Fuutaro slowly crumbled onto the floor, becoming hundreds of times weaker after every second. After getting through the shock of Fuutaro knowing what Nino had done, she finally spoke up.
"Uesugi, we don't need a tutor." Fuutaro's vision slowly disappeared, before falling into darkness.