Chapter 6
I looked at my phone and sighed, "Crap... I spent a bit too much time at the quints place... Raiha's gonna kill me for being late!" I rushed to the train station, trying to think up of a good excuse when I accidentally bumped into someone, a man in a white business suit.
I bowed my head low and apologized before turning the other way to start heading to the station, but I noticed something strange. I looked around and saw that no one, and absolutely no one else was around. Just a second ago the street was filled with people on their way home, and suddenly they all vanished, as if they were spirited away by something.
"So... how was your first day back, Mister Uesugi? I believe you've had quite a day, haven't you?" A shiver had rolled down my spine as I looked back to see the man in white, still looking rather curious, and all the more annoying.
I sighed, "Should've know it was you, the whole dressed in white gimmick really should have given it away, guess I was a little tired from all this time traveling you made me do to notice."
"Well if you were so against the time travel you could have declined on the deal I proposed."
"You never said anything about time travel!"
The old man chuckled at my comment, "Oh I believe I did..." and with a snap of his fingers, a recording of our conversation in purgatory started playing right in front of me.
It started with "Miku" saying "You could prevent that from happening, Mister Uesugi, that is if you accept my offer. I'll bring you back to life but you won't be brought back at the same time you died, some relationships may differ by the time you return, and some may remain the same, so are you willing to take my offer? This is your one and only chance to see your loved ones again." and abruptly ending with static
"See? I said it right there that you wouldn't be returning to the time you died, I just never specified when you'll be returning."
I clicked my tongue in annoyance, "Tch, can't believe I didn't notice it, what is up with you deities and being vague about everything? Like I never understand why you put us through this when you could just give us the answers right away!"
A creepy smile formed on the man's face, "Well, where's the fun in that? You see, we also need a source of entertainment, Mister Uesugi, even deities get bored after all! And don't you think that you're contradicting yourself? As a tutor you know that giving answers outright doesn't result in any learning, yet you asked me to give you the answer? Talk about being hypocritical..."
"This is different, you prick! My entire life is on the line, you can't expect me to move forward with only vague guides from you!"
"Oh but you did move forward, Mister Uesugi. If I recall, on your first day you only got one of the quintuplets to study with you, and today how many of them seemed willing to study with you?"
"Three... four if you include Ichika not falling asleep during the test."
"See? I've given you the best guide you could ask for, your past life. You made full use of it earlier to gain the trust of your students quicker and also to prevent that Nino girl from drugging you. Don't you think that saved you quite a bit of time? Seeing as how it took months to actually get that red headed one to join you."
"That's... fair I suppose. But is there anything else you want from me? It doesn't seem like you came here to just check up on me, you've been observing me this whole time after all."
The old man smirked as he disappeared and reappeared right in front of me, "Ever the detective, aren't you? But you're right... I just wanted to warn you about something, nothing major. Be careful with what you do, events won't happen the same way in your previous life if you alter anything major—"
"So you came here to warn me about the general rules of time travel? I pretty much know the whole domino effect thing that you're talking about so don't even bother."
The old man was too stunned to speak, but after a few moments he cleared his throat and spoke. "I... I believe that is it for now, Mister Uesugi. Congratulations on your new life, I'm looking forward to how you use it, till the next time we meet, then!" And with a snap of his fingers I was suddenly sitting in a train bound for the station close to my home.
I checked my phone to see if the old man made me time travel again, only to reveal that the date was still April 2nd, 2018. "Guess he won't be making me time travel this time..." I murmured to myself as the train stopped at my station.
Exiting the station, I made my way to my home, a small little place on the second floor of an abandoned bakery. I opened the door and walked in. I looked down and saw that only one pair of shoes were at the entrance, Pops was probably out doing a double shift, with the little money we had, this became a common occurrence for him.
Before I could even get my shoes off, a speedy black ball came rushing towards me, I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact, only to feel someone hugging me. "Welcome back, onii-chan! How was your new job?"
"It was interesting, to say the least. Did you know I was going to be teaching quintuplets?"
Raiha's eyes widened at what I said, "Wait, what? Quintuplets? That's amazing! What are quintuplets though?"
I smiled and brought her into our cramped living space. After heating up some leftover curry I told Raiha everything about what happened earlier today, all the way from meeting Itsuki to foiling Nino's plan to drug me. Obviously, I couldn't tell her about the man in white, it's not like she would believe me anyway, plus knowing he was watching everything I do made it difficult to even talk about him.
Raiha's eyes were sparkling by the time I had finished relaying my story. "Holy moly, onii-chan! I never knew you could be that cool! I wish I could have been there to see it. That Nino girl seems like such a bully!"
I reached for head and patted it, "I'm sure the girls would have loved to meet you, and Nino isn't really such a bad person, trust me, just give us a few months and we'll be good friends! I promise."
"Says the guy who had exactly zero friends when the day started."
"Really going in for the kill there, weren't you?"
"Well the truth hurts, onii-chan."
"Fair point."
Dinner went by pretty quickly as there really wasn't much to eat. After I finished washing the dishes, Raiha had asked me to help her with her homework. We had gone through most of it till I noticed that Raiha fell asleep midway through the final question. I saw that she was doing pretty well, and almost got the answer right had it not been for her suddenly sleeping. I smiled grabbed her pencil and finished the last problem and helped her get into her futon. Seeing as all my work for the day had finished, I decided to take a breather and head on to the park near our home.
The place was really nostalgic for me, I could still remember the days when my mother would bring me and Raiha out for a picnic, back then we were still able to afford such luxuries, and aside from the times I spent with the quints, those were probably some of the best days of my life. And all of that was taken away from me because of some stupid, incurable disease. I was sitting on one of the swings when someone called out to me.
"Yo."
I looked back to see my Pops smoking a cigarette across the playground. "You know those are bad for you, right? And where do you even get the money to afford those? We're already low on money as it is!"
He shrugged his shoulders and puffed on his cigarette"A buddy of mine owed me a pack, and who am I not to indulge in it? And besides, what's got you thinking over there, buddy? The only time you ever come here is when you needed time to think."
I looked back at the area we usually had our picnics in the past and sighed, "Nothing much really, aside from the fact that I have to tutor five incredibly idiotic girls, one of which tried to drug me by the way. I can already tell that this is going to be hell."
I told Pops everything about what happened, and all he could do was nod. "You say you hate it, but the way you said it seemed like you enjoyed every bit of what happened today, especially that time you met this Miku girl. For a girl you just met it sure does seem like you've known her a long time."
I froze in my seat, despite his rather delinquent-like appearance, my father was actually pretty cunning. I couldn't just blurt out that I was reincarnated from my previous life for the same reasons I didn't mention this to Raiha, but I couldn't just lie to him, that'll just lead to a slippery slope of lies that I wouldn't wanna be a part of.
A few more moments of awkward silence ensued before Pops spoke up. "I guess you're pretty confused yourself, huh? Well you are at the age where you can't stop thinking about women, so I don't blame you. To be honest, I'm proud that my son, who seemed to have no chance of ever getting a girlfriend, or even a friend for that matter, talk so passionately about some girls he just met."
"What is up with you and Raiha emphasizing my lack of social interaction?"
"Well you kind of brought this upon yourself, kid. You were a delinquent not too long ago, and that attitude of yours pretty much made it nearly impossible for you to make friends."
"I guess that makes sense..."
"But regardless of that, I'm still proud of who you are, and who you're about to become. I'm sure your mother would feel the same way if she were still here, Fuutarou."
I looked at my dad, not because of admiration or anything, but because of what he said. "Who you're about to become" sounded like he knew what was going to happen to me. I tried looking for a sign, anything that could confirm what was on my mind... but I just couldn't find it.
With all the staring I was doing my dad started to get concerned, "What's wrong, Fuutarou? Do I have something in my teeth?"
"No... I was just wondering about something I could do for the quints during tomorrows tutoring session. Don't mind me."
"If you say so..."
After a couple more minutes of reminiscing about the times we spent with my mom, we headed back home, it was already well past midnight and I was pretty tired from today's events, yet I couldn't sleep well at all.
The following day I groggily got myself to school. I was already at the school gate when I nearly got ran over by a care. Luckily the car swerved away at the last minute. In my sleep deprived and cranky state of mind, the only reasonable thing to do was to obviously argue with the driver and make myself late to class.
I rushed over to the car, a fist raised in the air, "Hey, what's your problem man! You nearly ran me over!" I banged on the heavily tinted windows, hoping the driver would get out, but after a few more moments the windows rolled down, only to reveal a scowling Nino.
I sighed and shook my head, I should have known this car was familiar, although they only used it a few times, I should have noticed that this was the quints' car. "Ah! Hello Nino, got any good sleep last night?"
Nino scowled and gave me the middle finger, "Screw you, Uesugi! If only Ebata didn't swerve away, I'd be rid of your annoying ass!" She then hurriedly exited the car and made her way to class, dragging Miku and Yotsuba with her
Itsuki the got out of the car and handed me everyone's test papers, "Good morning, Uesugi-kun! Here's the tests you had us answer, and all things considered, I think we did pretty well!"
I took the tests and smiled, knowing all too well that they certainly did not do well on this test. I peered in the car and saw that Ichika was sleeping soundly in the back. "I guess Ichika's habit of sleeping extends out of your home too, doesn't it?"
Itsuki giggled at my comment, "Yes, ever since getting her mystery job, she's been sleeping whenever she gets the chance. Don't worry though, our butler, Ebata, will wake her up after a few more minutes."
With that, Itsuki and I said our goodbyes to Ebata and headed out our classroom. Morning classes were pretty boring, all the stuff being taught was something I already knew, even before being brought back to life, so I took this chance to grade the papers that were given to me, and as expected, they got the same exact scores as compared to the first time they did this. Once lunch time started, I gathered all the quints for lunch, much to Nino's dismay. Once everyone was there, I gave them the news.
"Congratulations! You all got a score of 100!"
Author's note:
Hi! I received a comment saying that I was providing too much dialogue, and I tried my best to try and explain the situations a bit more, hopefully, it seems better written compared to the previous chapters! Also regarding chapters, I'll try and release at least one or two chapters every week, so stay tuned! :D
