Chapter 7
The looks on all of their faces showed extreme happiness, especially for Nino since she thought she would be rid of me already. But all their smiles turned into frowns when I showed them their test results.
"You all got a score of 100... if you add all of them together! Ichika got a 12, Nino got a 20, Miku got a 32, Yotsuba got an 8, while Itsuki got a 28. I knew you guys were in serious need of a tutor, but not to this extent! None of you even got half of the items correctly!"
None of the quints spoke up and guiltily looked at their results. I sighed, got their results and laid them down on the table. "Now tell me, there's a trend here that I want you all to notice. That trend alone tells me that you all have the potential to do better, I just need you all to know what it is."
After a bit of staring at each other and the papers, Itsuki's face lit up as she told me just what I wanted to hear. "Oh! None of us had a correct answer on the same problem... but I don't see what that has to do anything with how we can improve."
I smirked at the comment, "At first glance it doesn't look like anything but a coincidence, but this just shows me that if one of you can do it correctly, then that means everyone else can do it correctly as well. And obviously this also means that if everyone else could do it, then you can do it too. You all have the potential to be great, not just at studying, but in other aspects of life as well."
After giving out that explanation I looked at their faces and saw mixed reactions. Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki all looked to be hopeful, while Ichika and Nino appeared to be skeptic about it.
Nino stood up and scowled at me, "Is that all? I have better things to do than hang out with you, Uesugi. Thanks for all that useless talk about potential by the way!" She turned the other way and walked towards a group of students, probably some of her classmates, and headed out of the cafeteria.
Miku shook her head and sighed, "Nino's still angry about what happened last night, please don't pay her much attention, Fuutarou."
"Yeah! Just give her some time, she really isn't the type of girl to hold grudges for too long after all." Added Yotsuba
"I think you mean she doesn't hold grudges against us for too long." Replied Itsuki. "Remember those bullies we met when we were younger? Nino and I saw them the other day and I swore I could see one of her veins about to pop out of anger!"
Yotsuba shivered at what Itsuki had said, "Okay... so Uesugi-san might not be safe after all... I guess I'll be praying for your safety then, Uesugi-san!"
I shook my head. "I don't think it'll come to the point that my life will be in danger, Yotsuba. You're just overreacting, and regardless, I can hold my own if ever Nino really does something diabolical, not that she ever will though."
The quints all shared a troubled look before standing up, since classes were about to start again, they rushed back to their respective classrooms, except for Ichika, who was fast asleep. It seemed that in the rush of things none of her sisters noticed her sleeping. I took off my cardigan and draped it over her, with everyone but the staff staying the cafeteria had gotten considerably colder. I was about to head back to my own classroom too but thought that since I knew what was being taught, I could afford skipping a class or two. I sat back in my seat and took out a pen and some paper, and started writing down some notes for Ichika, who obviously would be missing her next class.
Half an hour had already passed, and Ichika had finally woken up. She rubbed her eyes and looked around, confused as to why no other students were around until she saw me. "Fuutarou-kun? what happened?"
"Oh, you're finally awake! You took your sweet time taking that nap, Ichika. Honestly that job of yours really is taking a lot of energy out of you, but I guess you love your job too much to give it up, don't you?"
She then raised an eyebrow at my comment "How did you know about my job? I never told you about it all. Unless... were you by any chancing stalking your onee-san? I get that I'm an attractive girl, but you simply could have asked me about it, Fuutarou-kun."
My face reddened at her accusation. "N-no! Itsuki told me that you had a job after your butler dropped you off at the gate earlier this morning! And besides, with how busy I am taking care of the five of you as well as my own little sister at home, I wouldn't even bother to stalk you."
Ichika laughed at my response, nothing had changed with how much she liked to tease people, that's for sure. I sighed and handed her the notes I had made. "Anyways, here are the notes for the class you missed. I already know everything in our current curriculum, so I decided to skip class and help you out."
She took the papers and scanned through everything. "Gosh, Fuutarou, thank you! But I don't understand a single equation here!"
"Of course you don't understand, that's why I'm here to tutor you. Now we have 25 minutes till next period so you ready for a one-on-one session?"
An anxious look appeared on Ichika's face as she reluctantly agreed, it started off pretty rocky, with Ichika having little to no knowledge regarding the topic. Eventually, Ichika started showing progress, she started doing the sample problems with me giving her less clues, until finally solving the sample problems on her own. The look of excitement that she had after answering the final question was enough to put a smile on my face.
Ichika noticed my smile and smirked, "You know, you've got a really nice smile, Fuutarou-kun. You should smile more!" Ah yes, the teasing never stops with Ichika, so I thought I'd give her a taste of her own medicine.
I placed my hand on her cheek and smiled, "Maybe If I see your smile more often, then maybe I'll smile back too... onee-san."
She was definitely caught off-guard by what I said and couldn't say anything, "I... uh... ah.. um... Fuutarou-kun?"
I laughed at her reaction, clearly, she wasn't expecting me to fight back, and I finally removed my hand from her cheek. "Not so fun being on the receiving end, isn't it? Although I do see the appeal to teasing people every so often!"
Ichika's face was still bright red as she pouted. "You got me good, Fuutarou-kun, but that'll be the first and last time! Hmph!"
I continued to laugh at Ichika's expense before calming down, "Alright, alright, I guess that's enough fun for now. It's time to head back to our classes, we only got a few minutes left so we better hurry. See you later, Ichika!"
I stood up and waved goodbye to Ichika, leaving her in the cafeteria as she also said her goodbyes. She tenderly held her left cheek as she watched me leave. "Honestly... that guy..." With that she stood up and headed for her classroom, wondering what that weird feeling in her chest was.
I got back to my classroom just as the previous teacher was exiting. A look of annoyance shown on his face as I had the gall to show myself after skipping his class, and I have to admit, his bald head and buckteeth made his face quite a sight to see, and it took every fiber of my being not to laugh. I apologized for skipping and headed into the classroom. Itsuki saw me and immediately questioned me on why I didn't attend class, and obviously I told her what transpired in the cafeteria.
Itsuki breathed a sigh of relief when I finished explaining. "So that's where you've been... I was worried you might have gotten yourself in trouble!"
"Well I kind of did, our teacher reprimanded me just before I entered." I replied as I scratched the back of my head. Seeing as our next class was about to start, I walked over to my desk.
Right before I sat down, the person beside me, I believe her name was Matsui, poked my shoulder and handed me something. "Hey Uesugi-san, some girl with earphones came here earlier and told me to give this to you. Guess you weren't much of a loner after all, huh?" She teased.
I took the envelope and smiled, "I guess I no longer am... thanks Matsui." The look of surprise she made showed she wasn't expecting me to be this nice, given that in my past life I would have just wordlessly taken the envelope, so I understand what she felt.
I opened the envelope to see a message written on a card, it simply said "Meet me at the roof after class" which was weird, since she could have told me that before leaving the cafeteria. I then looked at the message and noticed that this wasn't even written in Miku's handwriting, and more closely resembled Nino's. This was probably a plot to get back at me for ruining her plans the previous evening. I sighed and placed the envelope in my bag and struggled to pay attention to topics I already studied about.
After a couple of hours of endless boredom I said my goodbyes to Itsuki and told her I had an errand to do before heading over to her place. I made my way up to the roof, and memories of my last night in my old life came flooding in. I pushed the thoughts away first and opened the door leading to the roof, to reveal Miku, or at least Nino disguised as Miku, waiting for me.
I planned to play dumb for a minute before foiling Nino yet again, so I came up to her with a confused look. "Miku? What did you need to tell me? You know you could have told me about it at your place instead."
Nino smirked and took the bait, removing her wig and snapping her fingers. Suddenly two people appeared and constrained me from behind, I recognize that they were part of the group Nino hung out with at the cafeteria. I tried to get out of their grasp, but their hold was too tight, "Hey! Let go of me!"
A third person arrived and punched me in the gut, causing me to keel over. The man who punched me spat on my head, "This is seriously the guy who drugged you, Nakano-chan? Talk about being a creep! Know your place, trash!"
He punched me in the face, then the torso, the back to my face. He continued hitting me as his lackeys kept me constrained, all this time, I kept looking at Nino, watching her expression change from that of satisfaction to that of horror. She grabbed the guy's hand before he could land another hit on me. "Wait! I told you just to rough him up a bit! At this rate you'll kill him!"
The guy looked annoyed but yanked his arm out of her grasp. His lackeys let me go too as their leader turned towards Nino. "Fine, I think I've 'roughed him up' quite a bit, now what kind of reward do I get for helping you out? Will you be my girl."?
Nino looked as if she was about to smack the living daylights out of him, but bit her lip then glared at him. "Huh? you must be pretty stupid to think I'd ever be your girl, and besides who said I'd reward you? I never said you'd get a reward for helping me out."
I swear I could already see several veins pulsing on that guy's head as Nino berated him. He grabbed Nino by the wrist and sneered, "I guess I'll have to force you to be my girl then, there's no way I'd waste my time for something I won't benefit from!" With his free hand he caressed Nino's face, making her shudder, and put her on the verge of tears.
Seeing as how this was going to lead to something that Nino would be traumatized about, I decided enough was enough and stood up, cracking my knuckles. "Wow, never thought I'd ever have to resort to violence, but I guess you idiots just got unlucky today."
The lackeys looked at me and wondered how I was still standing, and within seconds I bashed their skulls against each other, knocking them out cold. Their leader looked behind him and saw what I had done. "What the... how are you still standing? I nearly killed you!"
I stretched a bit in front of him to taunt him. "Oh you mean those weak-ass punches? My little sister could hit harder than you, I'm pretty sure even Nino can hit harder than you."
In a fit of rage he rushed towards me, seeing as how he was positioned, it looked like he was going in for a grapple, I sidestepped and stuck my foot out, causing him to trip and face plant on the floor. He got up and tried to hit me with his right hook, I ducked and landed a punch on his torso, causing him to keel over. "You feel that? That's how much it's supposed to hurt, dumbass."
He shakily stood up, just one hit away from getting knocked out. "You little prick... you'll pay for this!"
I pointed at the CCTV camera mounted on the edge of the roof, "I don't think you will, given how all of this is being recorded, you'll probably be expelled for assaulting multiple people, this might even get you arrested now that I think about it."
He screamed in anger and charged at me, he clearly didn't learn from his mistake earlier as I easily dodged him, and without any delay I roundhouse kicked the back of his head, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious.
Nino looked at me in awe, she wasn't expecting me to beat up three men singlehandedly, yet her I was. I approached her and helped her stand up. "You're not hurt right?"
Nino shook her head, "No, thanks to you that creep didn't hurt me. I have to admit you were pretty awesome back there, I still won't accept you as my tutor though, all you've done is make my sisters doubt me! Can you believe the stares of disgust Miku and Itsuki showed me when I woke up? It's all because of you!"
"It seems more like a you problem though, if you didn't plan to drug me that night, we wouldn't be in this situation! Anyways, I've got to head to the infirmary, then to the principal's office to report what happened."
I turned away and headed for the exit, leaving a silent Nino on the roof. I had just made it to the door when I suddenly felt lightheaded, "Oh crap..." was all I could say before my knees buckled and I collapsed on the floor.
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Author's Note:
Hey there! Thought I'd give Ichika and Nino some more exposure during this chapter! And also, I know that canonically Fuutarou isn't exactly the type of guy who can brawl with others, but to make the story more interesting I decided to make him at least be able to hold his own in a fight! :D
