The Ace is never gone, he was just busy! Yep, sorry about that, everyone. In addition to writing this and two other QQ fics, I'm collaborating with three other authors in writing 'Tenkei no Tensei', another QQ fic that we have high hopes for. Check it out if you haven't, because we are working hard for it, hehe. ANYWAYS, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT?! More than 30 chapters ago, I swore that I will take this fic to the very top of the Gotoubun archive, and I did! I have finally beaten 'Burning the Midnight Oil' in favorites, and only a few follows remain before I truly defeat it! I know I have said it many times already, but thank you all for continuing to shower me with your support, because I wouldn't have been able to get this far if it weren't for all of you! I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL I TRULY TAKE THIS FIC TO THE VERY TOP, BECAUSE I AM THE ACE OF THIS ARCHIVE AND NOBODY CAN DENY IT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

I want to give a shoutout to LucXelf, one of the most hardworking QQ authors out there as of late. The dude joined our Discord server coming off of a pretty-average Nino oneshot but right now, he's writing a damn good fic by the name of 'The Tutor we all came to love'. He's also one of my co-writers in 'Tenkei no Tensei' and he's also working hard for it too. Give him your love and support as well if you are a real QQ fan! That guy's been working hard to give us quality content!

Discord link: [discord . gg / 4y5QVPj]

P-a-t-r-e-o-n link (for early access to the next chapter and those willing to donate): [h-t-t-p-s-:-/-/-w-w-w-.-p-a-t-r-e-o-n-.-c-o-m-/-lancesennin]

Disclaimer: I don't own the Quintessential Quintuplets, or any of its characters...

Despite putting on a calm look on the outside, Maruo heightened his voice to show how serious he was at the moment, which immediately caused the girls to go silent upon hearing it. He even sent them a deep frown that acted as the punctuation mark, warning them that if they try to continue to speak, there's going to be trouble.

Of course, the guy was their father, so he knew how to silence them. If a death glare wasn't going to work, his voice was his best weapon!

"Seeing as how you are all aware of things that you are not supposed to know, there is no point in hiding it any longer," he narrowed his eyes dangerously for a moment, before taking a deep breath to brace himself for his next words. "Your mother and I are indeed friends with Uesugi-kun's parents. In fact, the reason your mother and I were together is because Isanari helped me. That is all you need to know."

The frown on Maruo's face slowly disappeared as he said those words, calming down somewhat while his daughters needed a moment to take in his words.

It seems like he gave in to defeat and just admitted the truth plain and simple; it's not only him who was acquainted with Fuutarou's parents, but their mother as well. Naturally, all of the quintuplets were both amazed and surprised upon knowing this, especially Yotsuba and Itsuki. Everything that Isanari told them yesterday turned out to be true, and they felt bad for even doubting that man in the first place.

"But he said that you asked him for advice…" Miku spoke, remembering one particular detail about what her sisters told them last night.

Maruo scoffed, folding his arms before shifting his gaze to the side. "That was him taking things out of proportion as always. I did not ask him for advice, nor will I ever do such a thing. He offered to help me in approaching your mother, and that's it."

Everyone else nodded, seeing the logic behind their father's words. Of course, he would never ask someone for advice unless it was their mother, mainly because of his pride in his own self to be able to deal with problems. Furthermore, in Yotsuba and Itsuki's case, they sweat-dropped, personally knowing how true that statement turned out to be from visiting Fuutarou's home yesterday.

"Looks like you two weren't really kidding about Fuutarou-kun's family and ours being connected," Ichika said, nudging Yotsuba's shoulder with a smirk on her face.

Yotsuba grinned innocently. "Hehe, why would we even do that?"

The older man observed the reactions that his daughters had, and they all seemed happy that they finally knew about this after being kept in the dark for so long. A part of him wanted to smile along with his daughters as a father but alas, there's no time for him to do such a thing.

"Now then, I can already tell that all of you have various questions you want to ask me, but as I have said earlier, I don't have the time. You can ask me all the questions you want the next time I visit."

Upon hearing those words, the girls suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over them. Yeah, their father was supposed to be on his way to the hospital right now, until they chose to bring up those things about Isanari and their mother, which forced him to stay. They were only lucky right now that he's not angry, but what if he is? They couldn't shake off how nervous they were because of it…

"We're sorry about bringing this up right now, out of all times, Father…" Itsuki mumbled as they all bowed their heads in apology.

Seeing them do this only caused Maruo to frown deeper, not that he was angry, but because he felt conflicted. Should they be apologizing to him, when all they wanted was to know more about his past, especially things about Rena? Because of the fact that he was always busy with work, he could never do such a thing and as a result, his daughters only knew a thing or two about their own mother. It should be obvious that they wanted to know more than that but they didn't know what to do, and so Isanari gave them that but he wasn't their father.

The only one who can tell them about such a thing was him, and it only struck him just now.

With his next words, he shook his head and bore a dismayed expression, not towards his daughters but more to himself.

"No. None of you are to be blamed and I am not angry with any of you. It is Uesugi-kun's father who is not capable of zipping his own mouth even if it kills him but then again…" His serious look faltered, before he released a deep sigh out of disappointment. "…it isn't right of me to hide such a thing from my daughters for many years, either. Therefore, I am also at fault here."

The five girls were regretting their actions even more now, just from seeing the state in which their father was in. They were used to him being overly serious, never letting anything phase him, and simply being detached from his emotions. They didn't know how to take this in, especially how he admitted that he also holds part of the blame.

Nino chose to speak up, since she was the one who brought up the issue earlier and caused all of this to happen. "We understand why you didn't talk about it, Papa. You were sad about Mama being gone, so you tried to cover up what you really felt inside by working as hard as you can."

"Be that as it may, that does not excuse myself from telling you about your own mother. You are my daughters and you have the right to know more about her," he explained while shaking his head, before putting on a more serious look that caused the girls to stiffen up in their place.

He knew what he needed to do, and it was something that he should have done long ago.

"That is why the next time I visit you, I will tell you everything that you wish to know about your mother and I."

Naturally, everyone else was caught off guard with his words, not expecting something like this to transpire. How did things go from teasing their own father to this again? Time flew by so quick that it felt like they were just getting scolded by Maruo moments earlier.

Ichika looked at the rest of her sisters for a few moments, before they all shared smiles on their faces afterwards. They turned towards their father again, who was observing all of their expressions with a look of regret on his face.

"We'll be waiting for you, Dad."

Maruo nodded. That was all that he needed to hear. "Until that time comes, I expect all of you to do great while learning under the tutelage of Uesugi-kun. Seeing as he can tutor two of you at once, I trust that he can also manage teaching all five of you at the same time. However, that is only if you choose to cooperate with Uesugi-kun and work with him without any problems. After all, he is only a mere student like the rest of you."

The smile on Ichika's face fell as quick as it appeared, being reminded of what was going to happen once again, and how it conflicted with her own intentions. Her father wanted all of them to work with Fuutarou for their tutoring sessions while on the other hand, she was busy with something else. Thus, it would make things a lot difficult not only for her, but for the young man as well and she didn't want him to go through that.

Ichika had two choices; either tell Fuutarou about what she's been up to lately and work something out with him, or don't tell him at all and keep her secret to herself, which would make his situation a lot harder. If that happens, she'd be the only one among her sisters who would be a burden to Fuutarou since everyone else had no problems with him being their tutor, not even Nino. She didn't want that, however. The guy was working hard to help her sisters, and it would be like spitting on his own efforts if she became a burden to him.

Well, she couldn't make a decision right now, but she knew that she had to soon.

She only had roughly about a week to decide.

"That is all I wanted to tell you, girls. I will see you soon," Maruo sent one more nod towards all of them before finally turning around to leave.

"Bye, Dad/Papa/Father!" All five sisters exclaimed with smiles on their faces, while also waving their arms in farewell.

As soon as he was out of the penthouse after closing the door, Maruo released a deep sigh to himself and started massaging his forehead out of total stress. Okay, he was able to deal with that situation well, all things considered. But to think he'll be doing that again the next time he comes by to visit his daughters… talking about Isanari and all that…

He'll end up making a trip to his own hospital eventually.

Okay, as hard as it is for him to admit it, the guy did end up being a big part of his life. From the moment that Isanari saved him from those bullies, the idiot never left his side and as much as he was annoying most of the time, he was the reason why he gained the initiative to ask his senior out on a date and from there, they became an inseparable couple. As tiresome as he was, Isanari was also adept in giving advice that may have helped once or twice throughout the years, and there's no way he can forget that.

It would have never happened if Isanari wasn't always there to bother him and all that.

"Rena, give me strength…" he thought to himself, having no other choice but to count on his love for his deceased wife to get him through this.

Call him crazy, but what would you do if you were in his position?

Between him and Rena, it was always her who had no problems with Isanari and as proof, it was her who ended up inviting him to their wedding and arranged for the idiot to be his best man. If that's not enough, every time they would go out for drinks, his wife would reveal that she had invited Isanari to join them and then the guy would surprise him out of nowhere with his annoying wisecracks. What made this very surprising is that she didn't like him at first, because she thought Isanari was one of those who picked on in the past!

Urgh, either way, this would be way easier to deal with if his wife was still here…

Maybe if he tried to focus more on what Rena would have wanted, it would be easier to do this kind of thing, but it doesn't seem like it. Hell no, that's almost impossible for him to do and he was not going to be unrealistic about this.

He can't just change overnight and take back everything he felt towards the damn buffoon!

"I am not supposed to be letting this distract me. What am I even doing?" he sighed at his own foolishness and walked towards the elevator and pressed a button, before waiting for the doors to open. "After all, it isn't like I will be visiting them again right away. I have to focus on my work."

That wasn't the end of his despair, as sad as it is.

In fact, by the time Maruo had exited the building and was currently heading to his car where Ebata was patiently waiting for him, the man was still palming his face in order to hide his frustrations.

Yep.

He can't stop thinking about it!

His performance in the hospital will definitely be affected badly if he lets this continue any longer! The thought of talking about Isanari in front of his own daughters was too much for his mind to handle, especially after that guy basically sold him out!

"Is there something wrong, sir?" The elderly driver spoke with concern in his voice, because it's been a long time since he has seen Maruo in a state like this. There's also the fact that there's almost nothing that can phase through his superior, maybe except for one particular person…

"I need a drink. Take me to the nearest bar and get that buffoon on the phone. I have to give him a lecture about revealing private matters to people who are not supposed to know about it," Maruo told Ebata before quickly taking his seat inside the car, not even bothering to look at his driver in the eye because he was still angry with what Isanari had done.

And so, it marked the first time that Ebata had laughed in Maruo's presence ever since the day when he was struggling to propose to his wife.

~~XoXo~~

Even though their father was gone and will likely not show his face for a few weeks, all the quintuplets were left smiling in their places after that last discussion they had. If anything, they couldn't be more excited when he comes by again, because they'll finally be able to learn more about their own mother from Maruo himself.

Quite frankly, this was a long time coming. Up until now, they knew very little about Rena even though she was their mother. All of them looked up to her above all else, and her passing left a huge impact on all of them. Despite this, however, none of them remember anything from her other than what they already see her as because they didn't know a thing.

Because of this, Ichika sent an amused smile at Nino's direction before folding her arms across her chest. "It's a good thing you brought up that little bit about Dad, Nino. Seeing him getting all embarrassed just because of Fuutarou-kun's dad was something I never expected to happen."

Nino shrugged, failing to hide the smile of amusement that also appeared on her face. "Well, honestly, it just popped up in my mind out of nowhere. When Papa said that he was leaving, I thought about what Yotsuba and Itsuki told us about him and I wanted to know if it was really true."

"We told you we were telling the truth," Yotsuba grinned as she gave them a victory sign. "But it was really funny to see Papa getting embarrassed! Uesugi-san's Papa wasn't joking when he said that Papa doesn't want to admit it to anyone that they were friends when they were still in school, shishishi!"

"You said it, Yotsuba-chan. I guess we should thank you and Itsuki-chan again for telling us about it, because I'm definitely not forgetting about this anytime soon. I mean, who would ever believe that Dad can actually got embarrassed, of all things? It almost felt like I was dreaming!"

"But don't forget," Miku cut in with a smile of her own, feeling happy with this turn of events. "He said that the next time he visits us, he'll finally tell us everything we want to know about Mom. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm looking forward to when that happens."

It was also at that exact moment where Itsuki decided to join the conversation, completely forgetting about her earlier situation with her sisters before Maruo showed himself.

"Yes, you're right, Miku. For so long, we've known so little about Mother that it almost seemed like we weren't her children. However, we'll be able to turn that around when Father comes by again to tell us all about her!"

Itsuki turned towards Miku, expecting her sister to give an answer, only to see that everyone else was just staring blankly at her, all except for Yotsuba. This made Itsuki nervous almost immediately because once again, she became the center of attention even though just earlier, their father was the one going through this.

"W-What…?" she stammered, gulping deeply as she suddenly had a feeling on what this was about.

Oh, no.

She was already thinking that should have just stayed quiet…

Maruo can't catch a break recently, huh? Dude just got embarrassed right in front of his own daughters and he will embarrass himself again soon when he talks to them about their mother, kek. This is just the beginning of his troubles, guys. More Maruo moments will come soon because I like writing him as someone who tries his best to maintain his cool, but can break easily when sensitive topics are involved. Oh, and that ending... sorry, Itsuki. Looks like you're not off the hook yet, and you'll have to confront your sisters about that hug you gave Fuutarou! Poor girl, she's gonna get hounded for answers... which will be touched upon next chapter. Yeah, that's all I have for you guys today, but remember! I have a collab fic going on with three other authors, so give it a read! :)

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance