A/N
Ryder: I simply based the magic system in this fic off Nasuverse magic lore because that's the one I'm most familiar with, which, for a nerd like me who barely watches sports, is like saying I know basketball the most because I happen to watch that the most. However, I may "customize" Nasuverse magic elements to better fit this story...whatever that means.
Quick apology for the unintended break, I've been working on rebooting another one of my fanfics, Fate: Recourse Light. Do go check it out if you're able.
"Hello, sir, welcome to Starbucks! What can I get you today?"
"Uh, yeaaaah...let me just get a, uh...let's go with the Smoked Butterscotch Latte, please."
"You got it. What size would you like that in?"
"Uh...make it short, please."
"Alright, that's your total right there. What's your name, sir?"
"Fuutarou."
"Thank you, just wait for your name to be called for your order."
"I'm, uh, paying by gift card, if you don't mind..."
"Certainly not. There you go, sir, enjoy the rest of your day."
"Thanks..."
Taking his receipt from the coffee chain cashier, Uesugi Fuutarou treads slowly away to take a seat at an empty, high-standing two-seater table nearby the orders counter where another worker is distributing finished orders to customers waiting for their drinks and other purchases.
It's been a long while since he's set foot in a coffee shop like this. Fuutarou has always enjoyed coffee establishments such as this, for the smell of coffee is very pleasing to him. It's a heavy scent, but at the same time relaxing and calming. If only coffee as a drink were just as effective in what it's supposed to do as well - his body doesn't seem to understand what on Earth it's supposed to do with caffeine. But on second thought, given how long his days normally are and how infrequently he drinks coffee or other beverages with such stimulant agents in them, caffeine is practically pointless...
But it would appear that today is one of those once-in-a-blue-moon occasions, as his last six hours at the hospital assisting Dr. Nakano with another surgery operation has netted him an old Starbucks gift card, passed onto him by the Doctor. He said that one of the nurses gave it to him as a thank-you gift for a lunch that he'd bought for her the previous month when the nurse accidentally forgot her purse, but Dr. Nakano himself naturally didn't really see himself putting it to use, as he's perfectly content with the coffee he makes in his own office. So Fuutarou found himself leaving the hospital with a new Tokyo Black Starbucks giftcard preloaded with 3000 yen.
As it was only roughly four in the afternoon at the time he left the hospital for home, Fuutarou decided to treat himself and stopped by a Starbucks chain in the city before heading home, and now here he finds himself, sitting at a small but tall table for two, waiting for his Smoked Butterscotch Latte. He's never had anything other than a simple coffee, from free coffee counters at hotels or coffee shops alike, so he's rather curious about how this "latte" drink will taste...he's only ever heard about these kinds of drinks from classmates, schoolmates, or random passersby during his city travels.
While he waits on his name to be called, Fuutarou lets his mind wander, as it often does whenever he needs to wait for something. Nino, as expected, did not take kindly to learning that Miku had accidentally returned to her own room in the middle of the night after using the bathroom and mistakenly slept with her tutor (nothing X-rated, mind you) thinking she'd returned to Nino's bedroom, and it took Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba a full half an hour to calm Nino down and make her see reason that Fuutarou couldn't be held liable for the mishaps that unfolded yesterday morning, although they couldn't defend him when it came to how he so mercilessly teased Itsuki for posing as Miku under peer pressure from her own sisters.
Speaking of Itsuki, she certainly hadn't been in a talking mood with him for the rest of that Saturday. After they ate breakfast, Ichika suggested they go to the library to study for a nice change of pace, which everyone, including Fuutarou himself, agreed to. But even when they got there, Itsuki remained quiet the rest of the day, not asking any questions during his tutoring or the like. It were as if both Nino and Itsuki reverted to their pre-tutoring attitudes towards him, with the caveat that they still reluctantly came along with everyone else to study with Fuutarou, despite the shenanigans that he may or may not have been directly responsible for.
Fuutarou reaches his right hand up and rubs the middle of his forehead, right in between his eyes. Nino's wrathful punch to his face was a goddamn good one, the young mage is forced to admit - for how fast Nino flew up the stairs to pop him in the face like that, her punch was wonderfully executed, packing a fearsome amount of power streamlined with incredible accuracy to deck him square in the middle of his face. It was so strong, in fact, that Nino's middle knuckle managed to break the skin in between his eyebrows and draw a bit of blood.
He already knew about Nino's hidden strength before, back when they first met, when Nino threw a barrage of punches at his back in an effort to chase him out of the penthouse, but this last punch he's received from her serves to refresh his memory on this fact. Just how and where the hell did Nino learn to throw hands like that? Perhaps he's already thought this before, but Nino really doesn't come off as a girl who'd be able to pack a monster of a punch like she can. Sure, she's got the emotional drive and personality for it, and Fuutarou's already heard from her sisters that she's the one who usually went out of her way to make sure her sisters were safe from bad guys around the city back when they were still attending Kurobara, but her punches are like those of a seasoned fighter, and it's not like Nino goes out every night looking for street fights. The only exercise she really puts herself through is yoga or something, if what he remembers hearing her sisters say about her is correct, and that's certainly no Yotsuba levels of exercise, or even Ichika's, who he knows normally goes jogging every Saturday morning.
Could it be Nino's hidden talent as a mage bleeding through and manifesting in that form, in the ability to throw potentially deadly punches like that with no prior martial arts or even plain fighting experience? Eh, Fuutarou hesitates to make that leap of a conclusion...and even if that were true, that'd be a colossal waste of magic talent. Not that he even wants any of the girls, much less Nino, to try to actively develop their magical talent, assuming the rest also have their own...
But a small part of his mind doesn't want to let go of this seemingly ridiculous notion, because if he wants to talk about ridiculous, all he needs to do is look at himself. In a world like this where those born into very old magical families whose bloodlines run hundreds, even thousands of years into the past enjoy incredible innate magical power and talent, an ordinary person like himself who just happened to find that he could utilize magic at a young age would have never been expected to make anything significant out of it, yet here he is, using magic to oversee this city and work at the city hospital. So what's to say that the same couldn't be happening to Nino right now? He might laugh at this rather odd manifestation of Nino's undiscovered magic talent, assuming that's really what it is, but who knows...
...well, as he's mentioned before, he'd rather not let things get to that point. These girls...the quintuplets would not survive in the world of magic; they're far too sweet and kind for such a cutthroat, lawless side of the world. But now that he knows that both Nino and Miku very well may possess Mystic Eyes, a rare form of innate magecraft renowned for the potential power that they provide, and that those two girls in question also are aware of it themselves, Fuutarou isn't confident that he'll be able to keep the gates shut on them forever. Even still, though, even if his own confidence alone isn't adequate regarding this situation, he has the added assurance that Dr. Nakano will be royally pissed if he ever finds out that he's allowed his daughters to delve too far into the magic world. While the girls' father has never explicitly discussed such an outcome with him, Fuutarou knows him well enough to predict what his reaction would be in such a situation. And for as much as he can't get along with him, while Fuutarou doesn't really care to be on his good side, he certainly would rather not be on his bad side.
So engrossed is Fuutarou in his own thoughts, as sometimes tends to be the case whenever he lets his mind wander like this, that when a sudden but soft stream of artificial wind brushes into his ear, the young mage tenses up immediately and jolts upright in his tall seat, whipping to his right to identify the source of the potential threat.
"W-Whoa! Ahaha, I didn't expect you to have that kind of reaction! I guess there really is a first for everything, huh?"
Nakano Ichika, giggling at a reaction she's never seen her tutor make before at her surprise attack, stands beside the small two-seater circular table at which Fuutarou has seated himself waiting for his latte.
"...it's just you, huh," Fuutarou scowls a little at the eldest quintuplet, calming his somewhat rattled nerves down once he sees who's responsible. At this, Ichika, too, pouts lightly at him, which Fuutarou notes is also a rather rare reaction on her part too, since her sisters are the ones more prone to defaulting to that type of facial expression whenever they deal with him.
"We happen to run into each other at a Starbucks of all places, and that's all you've got to say? You're no fun," Ichika feigns a grumpy mood, but she still hops onto the other seat across from her tutor to join him.
"No fun? But you had fun just now seeing me react like that."
"Shucks, you found me out."
"Well that didn't take long."
"It's not like I was going to stay grumpy with you for a long time. My name isn't Nino, remember?"
"Yeah, but you are still quintuplets."
"Aw, c'mon, you know we all have our nuances and differences by this point. You're a super observant guy, too - and you kinda have to be, so you can tell us apart, can't you?"
Fuutarou gazes back at the pleasantly smiling Ichika, remembering the private chat that he had with her on Friday night out on her veranda, about how she really does feel like the oldest quint. And now that he's found himself running into Ichika - or perhaps it's the other way around - he notices that this kind of environment, the inside of a coffee shop, matches her personality and the atmosphere she puts up about her perfectly. Little wonder, then, that he sees her frequently with a frappucchino or another coffee-based drink outside their home.
Ichika notices that his gaze at her is lasting a little bit longer than usual and widens her smile.
"What is it, Fuutarou-kun? Does Onee-chan look a bit cuter to you today?" she begins to tease him a little.
Fuutarou closes his eyes. So that's how it's going to be, huh?
"...what if I said yes?" he counters.
This unexpected response takes Ichika by surprise, but remembering how he'd acted towards Itsuki yesterday when they got her to try to pose as Miku, the eldest quint doesn't let this sudden out-of-character moment from her tutor shake her.
"Then I'll have to keep doing whatever I did, because clearly it's doing its job if it's even got someone like you to notice," she responds in kind.
"But you just said that I'm a pretty observant person, didn't you?"
"Normally, normally. But when it comes to girls, you just don't give much of a crap, do you?"
"Got me there," Fuutarou concedes.
"Then there you go. But no seriously, do I look cuter today?"
"You're the same as always. But now that you mention it, your voice sounds a little strained today."
At this, Ichika really gets rattled as she, too, sits up straight in her tall chair in a bit of alarm.
"Er, y-yeah...I just got off work, you see. A coworker buddy of mine usually gives me a ride back home, but today he had to other things to take care of, so I had to walk home today. I decided to stop by and pick up a drink, and to my surprise, here you were."
"Similar story with me; I got called into the hospital to help your dad, so I was there for the last six hours and just got off. Your dad gave me a Starbucks gift card that he got from one of the hospital staffers, and he said he didn't need it and so he passed it on to me. Figured I'd use it here on my own way back home."
"I see, I see. This is what they must call fate," Ichika nods sagely, crossing her arms to assume a pose of self-informed wisdom. "Though, I think Yotsuba's better with this kind of thing..."
"You say fate, I say happenstance."
"What, like randomness?"
"Yeah. Random number generator, RNG, as westerners would say..."
"Random...number...generator...what, does it spit out a bunch of numbers or something?"
"I guess. What do the numbers mean, Mason...?!"
Fuutarou hears his name called at the order counter, and leaving briefly to collect his order, the young tutor returns with his latte in hand.
"Whoa ~ ! A butterscotch latte, huh? I thought you only ever drank straight black," Ichika remarks, able to identify her friend's drink with a single glance.
"I decided to be a bit fancy today. I've always been a bit curious about all these other fancy drinks that places like this have..." Fuutarou, still standing by the small table, takes a sip of his latte through the straw. Ichika, watching him take a sip, leans in a little, suddenly becoming very curious as to how her classmate would react to a drink he's never had before.
"So? How is it?" she asks, carefully watching his face, which doesn't really change much, so she'll have to rely on his words instead.
"Mm...not bad. It's quite good, in fact."
"Aha! You must really like it then!"
"Well, I don't know about really liking it, though..."
"No, no, you do, you do. Because you usually just say stuff like 'not bad' or 'I don't mind it' or something; you've eaten dinner with us at our place after tutoring enough times for me to notice. The only other time you've actually taken the time to say that something was good was when Nino made curry udon one night for dinner. And you said it just now, too!"
Fuutarou, taking a slower but longer sip of his latte while listening to Ichika's observations, lowers his drink once she's done saying her case.
"Curry udon is my favorite dish, after all." The young mage gives his student a small, wry grin. "Talk about being observant; you're quite good at it yourself."
Unused to receiving a genuine complement from Fuutarou, Ichika hesitates a little, her eyes shifting a bit away from her tutor.
"Ahaa...it's...it's nothing special, um...you've been hanging out with us for long enough that I just kind of...naturally pick up on stuff like that, you know? I didn't really do anything..."
Initially having planned to leave the store immediately after grabbing his drink, Fuutarou silently changes his mind and resumes his seat across from Ichika. Even he's a bit surprised at himself, as it's not like him to stick around in a place like this just to talk to someone he knows, but the combination of factors on hand - his unusual visit to a coffee shop, his unconventional choice of beverage, his "fateful" encounter with Ichika who also happened to stop by the same coffee shop that he entered for a drink of her own, and his perception of Ichika fitting satisfyingly well into a coffee shop ambience - compel him to stay so as not to waste this chance. Though, a chance to do what, he's not really sure of himself.
"Well, you say that, and then you have Yotsuba who's got just about as much observational skills as a goldfish sometimes," Fuutarou snorts with a sarcastic little smirk that he casts to the side.
"Oof...using Yotsuba as a bar, somehow I feel like you're making fun of me instead."
"Let's just say that was collateral damage."
"I bet it was intentional, too."
"I cannot confirm or deny."
Ichika's name is also called, so Fuutarou waits for to her return with her own drink, just as she'd done for him, and she promptly rejoins him.
"What kind of drink is that?" the young tutor asks, tipping his own plastic drink slightly towards Ichika's.
"This? It's a grande non-fat milk pistachio deep mocha deep cream frappuccino with chocolate syrup," the oldest quint smiles brightly. "It's my favorite!"
"...sorry, say that again?"
"The drink name? A non-fat milk pistachio, deep mocha, deep cream frappuccino, with chocolate syrup, grande." Ichika makes sure to decelerate her speech and partition it into segments so that Fuutarou can better follow.
"Why the fuck does it sound like you're studying for a test when all you're doing is ordering a drink?"
"Gosh, you don't have to put it so bluntly!" Ichika yelps lightly, immediately latching her lips onto the top of her straw to take a big sip of her loaded frappuccino in indignation. "You're a real meanie sometimes, you know that?"
"Sorry, but I can't help but think that when you have trouble memorizing Japanese warlord names that aren't even a quarter as long."
"Th-Those are different, okay!? Sengoku-period warlords and Daimyo aren't coffee names!"
"What if we pretended that you were ordering coffee drinks the next time we study, except instead of actual drink names, we replace them with names of Sengoku warlords?"
"Ew. That'll ruin my image of coffee forever, so please don't."
"I'm going to tell Miku you said that."
"Don't you dare."
Snorting louder this time, Fuutarou ducks his face and hides it with his right hand, much to Ichika's chagrin, and she reacts by turning in her seat a little to face away from her classmate, grumpily sucking through her straw to drink her frappuccino.
"You girls are still studying hard, right?" the tutor asks Ichika, once he's gotten over his own joke. "Remember, midterms are this week, on Friday.
"Yes, we are. We are taking these midterms seriously, you know," Ichika grumbles, still clearly miffed at Fuutarou.
"And what about you? You sound like you've spent some time at your part-time. Hopefully that hasn't cut into your studying today."
"It won't. As a matter of fact, you just reminded me."
Turning swiftly to face Fuutarou wholly again, Ichika drops her grumpiness to tell him, "Would you like to come over to help us with an overnight studying session again, just like on Friday?"
"Another one? Ugh..." Fuutarou rolls his eyes just a bit. "It's not that I'm against it, but - "
"Of course you're not. You got to sleep with one of my precious, cute sisters, after all ~ " Ichika teases her classmate back a little.
"Goddamn it, I thought we already explained ourselves yesterday about what happened..."
"Hahaha, I know, I know, I'm just messing with you."
Sighing, Fuutarou takes another sip from his latte. "Anyways, it's not that I'm against it, but I'm worried that if we keep doing that, you girls are going to end up relying on study sessions like that where I have to stay over. And besides, that won't always be possible for me schedule-wise, I just want you to know that."
"I know, you don't need to tell me. But I just wanted to put the idea out there."
Leaning back in his seat, Fuutarou takes a deep sigh. "And now that you have...the studying we did on Friday and Saturday certainly did have some positive results when I tested you girls at the end on Saturday. So there is merit to doing a cram session before Friday..."
"I thought you told us that cramming isn't an effective way to study?"
"Normally it's not, but everyone learns differently. Some people actually can get away with cramming the night before and pull off high scores on tests, and while I wouldn't exactly say the five of you would count as them, you did show some improvement when we blitzed through the study material in the library yesterday. So I'm willing to give it a second shot to see if it might actually work. I highly doubt it, though."
"All we need is a chance, Sensei. Just give it to us, and we'll work our magic!" Ichika winks at Fuutarou, pumping her left arm in a flex not unlike Rosie the Riveter.
"Well, at least your spirit's commendable. Fine, I'll bite - tell your sisters that we'll have a last-minute overnight cram session the day before midterms. But don't let that be an excuse for everyone to suddenly slack off, I'll still be showing up every day before then."
"Yeah, yeah, as always." Ichika also sips from her own decorated coffee. "How's your face, by the way? Nino punched you really hard, didn't she? It was a bit scary when we realized you were bleeding because of it, Miku looked like she was just about ready to make her catch some hands of her own."
"I'm fine, mainly because I already know by this point that Nino can throw a mean-ass punch. Remember the first day I showed up?"
"Oh yeah, right, she kept punching you in the back, I remember, I remember. Even still, her going up there and then hitting you like that was a bit extreme..."
"Yeah, Nino and extreme go hand in hand."
"Ehehe...yeah, sorry that you need to keep dealing with her like that..."
"It's fine, I just assume it's part of the job description by this point."
"What, that you're dealing with five potentially dangerous high school girls?"
"I mean, yeah, in a sense."
"How so?"
"That you'll drain me of all my sanity because I can't get over how dumb all five of you are."
"Aaaaaaaah, Fuutarou-kun went off and said it again! Fuutarou-kun, you meanie! I bet you secretly enjoy calling us dumb, huh? You sleep at night dreaming of all the chances you can get that you can call us stupid in revenge for all the hours you have to spend tutoring us, huh?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ichika, of course I wouldn't do that."
"You wouldn't?"
"Yeah, because I call you and your sisters dumb all the damn time, so I don't need to dream about it at night!"
"Geh! F-Fuutarou-kun, you're - you're the worst villain I've ever met! I hope you swallow a thousand needles, wherever you can find them."
"Wow, talk about harsh when you're out here practically telling me to go kill myself."
"Hey, like you said, I'm not the oldest for nothing. Gotta have a few fangs myself handy in case I need them."
"You sure didn't have them a month ago."
"A month ago...? Oh, you're talking about..." Ichika suddenly frowns deeply at her tutor. "C'mon, you're really gonna hold that against me? That was something else entirely, okay..."
"Sorry, didn't mean to bring up old scars like that. Forget I said anything."
After glaring a little bit at her classmate, Ichika relaxes a little with a small sigh.
"Speaking of old scars, actually, how's your chest doing?" Ichika taps her own chest, just above her breasts, and this draws a piercing look from her tutor.
"...how did you know?" he asks, though he can guess the answer.
"Nino told us about it on accident after we were done studying in the library, when we got home. I asked her a second time why she hit you so hard like that - "
"You didn't need to, c'mon, I said it was fine. Sure, it might've come as a surprise at first, but we all know Nino was gonna act like that the moment you all realized Miku spent the night with me on accident."
"Ugh, okay, I get that, I know, but just listen...! I asked her a second time after we came back home from the library because I wanted to make sure I could get an honest answer out of her, since the last time I asked her at that point, you were still with us. And so while we were talking, she happened to mention how you got yourself hurt at some point, and then Miku confirmed it, saying that she told you to show it to her that morning."
Scratching his head a bit more roughly than usual, Fuutarou lets the corner of his mouth contort uncomfortably. "You really shouldn't be making a big deal out of this. Especially not with your sisters."
"I'm not, I never said I did." Ichika glares a little back at her tutor, and this time Fuutarou can sense real anger being thrown his way from her direction. "If anyone, it's you who's making a big deal out of this. All I did was ask you how you're doing, but when I first mentioned it just now, you gave me that same look that you had a month ago when you went around beating up the guys who were, you know."
"Weren't you the one who said not to bring that shit up?"
"Yes, but I think it's a little bit more relevant here, don't you think? Besides, you're trying to change the subject."
"Says the girl who does that constantly when we study, but I get the point." Fuutarou sets his half-consumed drink down on the small table calmly. "If you must know, it's almost fully healed at this point. You don't need to worry about it for me, and I'm not saying that just to get you off my case."
"Well, now that you have that kind of attitude, it's kinda hard not to think that you aren't," Ichika points out.
"And so what am I supposed to do about that, then? Just not get hurt? Kinda tough with the kind of shit that I have to deal with outside of tutoring."
Sighing exasperatedly, Ichika leans forward in her seat towards her tutor. "Look, I'm not here to try to make any comments about your other job and what kinds of dangers you get yourself into, that's none of my business and I understand that. You show me the same courtesy in regards to my own part-time job, after all. But the fact of the matter is that you're still our tutor, and if you end up hurt, you might not be able to come by to tutor us. You missed two days of school last week, right? Along with a day of tutoring on Thursday, and I'm betting it was because of whatever happened that hit you on the chest like Miku said had happened. What if the next time you get hurt, it's serious enough where you have to stop coming over to tutor us for a while? Not only are we gonna fall behind in our studies, but you can't do your other job of, you know..." Ichika lowers her voice so that the other customers in their area won't hear her, "...making sure we're safe, and all that..."
"First you tell me you're not trying to comment on my job, and then you end up doing it anyway," Fuutarou drawls dryly. Luckily he's got a drink to rejuvenate his dry voice.
"I know, but in this case I have to, because when you get hurt, you're not just affecting yourself, but you're affecting the rest of us," Ichika gestures at herself. "Whatever it was that you were doing before you met us, that can't fly now. You're not just working or fighting or whatever just for yourself and your family; you have me and my sisters on your hands too. Don't you realize this?"
Fuutarou doesn't answer for a moment; instead, he merely narrows his eyes down at Ichika, who returns the favor.
"Yes, I have. Thanks for letting me know, Ichika," the young mage murmurs solemnly and slowly. "Is there anything else you wish to add?"
"Yeah, there is, in fact, just one more thing. I think by this point, Fuutarou-kun, we've known each other and spent enough time together that we're not just student and tutor anymore. Like, you can tell with how we talk and treat each other when we study; ignoring what she did to you yesterday morning, even Nino's been getting more manageable around you these days as long as you don't do anything to provoke her, whether it's your fault or not. What I'm trying to get at with this is that while I can't speak for my sisters, to me personally, you're a friend. So of course if I hear that you've gotten hurt, I'm gonna ask you about it. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't at least do that?"
Folding his arms, Fuutarou tilts his head somewhat. "So you're basing that off the notion of friendship. Then it makes sense why we're having this bit of a standoff between each other, because as you can imagine, I don't have this thing you call 'friends'."
"And you're sure you're not saying that just to be edgy?"
At this, Fuutarou swiftly pulls his left hand out from his chest and places it quickly on the tabletop between him and his student, and a faint blue rune suddenly expands and passes through the two of them to create a small, simple bounded field in which the words that both of them speak will be confined to their immediate vicinity only, within the boundary of the rune that he's deployed.
"Do I have to remind you what I do mainly for a living, Ichika? I'm a mage-for-hire, essentially a modern-day mercenary who freelances his magic and skills to the highest bidder. I always ensure my clients the best possible performance I can offer, and to do that, I make sure to let them know that I'm willing to do whatever they ask of me by any means necessary. What does that mean? I kill people. I steal things. I do things that would immediately antagonize me in the eye of the public if people were to find out. As a result, this job of mine doesn't normally allow for the luxury of having friends, because the risk of having your friends one day turn into enemies the next is too real and too big to justify trying to make them in the first place."
"What about your family? Raiha-chan, your dad?"
"They're my family, of course. Then sure, fine, let's say that they're my friends, and I suppose they are. But saying my family are my friends is like saying you graduated elementary school, like, no fucking shit, I sure as hell hope you managed to graduate from there."
"I don't know...there are some families where being friends with your family isn't always an option."
Fuutarou rolls his neck slowly in frustration as Ichika stares back at him defiantly.
"I would hope that you only think that towards your dad and not towards the rest of your sisters," he sighs heavily.
"Well, yeah, obviously, that's what I was trying to refer to."
"Then at least we're on the same page there. But everything else, I don't think we are. I imagine that you'll take some serious offense at this, but while you may think of me as a friend, I can't say the same."
"Why, because to you, we're just your clients? Your customers?"
"Clients, mainly, yes. I'm a mage first and foremost; that's how I earn my keep. Even if this contract that I have with your family to tutor you and protect you is quite unusual for me compared to my usual spectrum of magework-related contracts, at the end of the day, it's still a job, and I intend to treat it as such. And as such, I'm not here to make friends; I'm here to do my job."
"Bold of you to say that, with everything that happened so far, and especially yesterday."
"I won't claim liability for that. Might I also remind you that me staying over at your house was your idea; if you never asked me to come over, none of that would have ever happened."
"But you still came over anyway, even though you could've refused."
"Part of the reason for that was because after the incident that happened that gave me my chest wound from last Wednesday night, I realized that there was a chance that you girls could've been in danger, so you asking me to stay over lined up perfectly with me wanting to keep a better watch over the high-rise to make sure nothing happened to you. It was basically just a really convenient set of circumstances. So yeah, strictly speaking, you're right, I could have refused, but it was more efficient for me to just stay the night with everyone so that in the event of an emergency, I'd be literally right on the scene if anything happened."
Ichika gives herself a moment, peering down quietly at her standing frappuccino, before looking back up at her tutor.
"You don't think of us as friends? Like, at all?" she mutters irritably. "Maybe we've only known each other for two months, just about, but you've taught us for all that time, day in and day out, spent hours and hours with us, and you still have that attitude of treating this like a job? What's with that..."
"I believe I've already explained to you why that is. I'll spare you a repeat of it, though."
"But do you have to be so...so caught up on treating this as a job? We're classmates, Fuutarou-kun. Doesn't that...like, doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"I have roughly twenty other classmates; I just happen to spend a lot more time with you five."
"Yeah, exactly! And you don't think that difference in time spent with us compared to everyone else means anything?"
"Not when I can't be sure that what we've got going on right now is going to last for any significant amount of time."
"...what do you mean by that? Dad told us that this was going to be a year-long contract, at least."
Fuutarou taps his chest, where his almost fully recovered wound is located.
"I thought you knowing about this would've given you some perspective on this, but I guess not, so I'll lay it out straight to you: I'd rather not get myself involved in the process of making friends when I live a life where I don't know if I'll be coming home in one piece. And not to mention, what friends I do have, in my case my sister and my dad, I don't know if something might end up happening to them too."
Setting his elbows on the table to lean a bit towards his student as well, Fuutarou icily narrows his eyes back into Ichika's defiant blue ones.
"I get that our situations differ to the extent that I don't expect you to understand where I'm coming from or even what I'm getting at exactly with this; our paths just happened to cross at some point in time and because of that, now we have to deal with each other for the next year, tentatively speaking. But while I'm not against you seeing me as your friend, I'd like to ask that you don't try to force your opinion of me or your viewpoint on 'friends' down my throat like this. It's not like I'm trying to be mean to you and your sisters by calling you all my clients; I only mean that in a professional business sense, because that's what you are, and you shouldn't be getting any unnecessary implications from that. Because the moment I start seeing you all as something more than just clients, and more of like, say, friends, that's when the trouble starts; that's when I won't be able to do my job as I'd like to, and not to mention in this case, your dad's going to probably fire me instantly the moment he hears about us being a bit closer than we should."
Still not terribly impressed by Fuutarou's speech, Ichika slouches in her chair somewhat while taking yet another sip of her drink.
"You're really that much of a loner, huh? Scared that if you make friends, you're gonna lose them or something? Or maybe you're scared that if you get too close to us, we might betray you or something?" she scoffs loudly, rather...obnoxiously.
"Scared...if that's how you want to put it, then sure."
"Sheesh...you sure as heck seemed like one when we first met you, but I guess I wasn't really expecting you to actually be one, too."
"...did I not just explain to you why that is?"
"You did, don't get me wrong. But you said it yourself, didn't you?"
Fuutarou keenly watches Ichika sit up in her chair again, and her piercing blue eyes widen slowly, unblinking.
"'I don't expect you to understand where I'm coming from'. That's what you said, wasn't it? So if you never had any expectations from me in regards to this, why are you so surprised right now? I'm just a normal high schooler who loves sleeping, drinking frappuccinos, and hanging out with my sisters. I don't know about anything magic-related or shit like that, outside of a few instances. So if you yourself don't even believe that I have the capacity to understand the kind of situation you're in right now, why should I bother? That'd be a giant waste of a time, right? And didn't you say that you didn't want to get us involved with your other job, or just magic in general because it's supposed to be, like, super dangerous and stuff? Then why should I care about that edgy stuff you keep talking about when I could be spending my time being what I've always been, a carefree schoolgirl?"
Ichika's face is frozen in place, eyes wide open, with only her lips moving - lips that are slowly curling into a distorted smile of sorts.
"Weren't you supposed to be the smart one, Fuutarou-kun? Or did I catch you trying to bamboozle me with the way you like to talk, making yourself sound like you have some sort of moral high ground, just because you come from a less fortunate background and set of circumstances? Because I don't give a fuck about all that, Fuutarou-kun, partly because you were the one who said that we shouldn't, and the rest because I also know what it feels like to come from a shitty situation; my sisters and I all do."
"Oh, sorry, I wasn't aware that you had to live through your younger years knowing that one mistake would mean the end of your life," Fuutarou retorts, controlling the amount of venom that he himself injects his words with.
"But does that matter? What, are you trying to compare our situations now? Trying to rank them to see who suffered more? All that does is further prove my point about how you like to talk in the way that you do, doesn't it?"
The longer Ichika talks like this, the more Fuutarou feels his own fists clench, as his fingers flex slowly but dangerously, as if preparing for a fight. His own rising emotions aside, why is Ichika suddenly acting like this? She's never been this antagonistic towards him before...
"Then why are you so adamant about this whole friend thing? Yeah, we got along just fine, at least before today, and I guess get your whole friend thing a bit better, but you've said a few times before that I'm always being a dense bully who likes yelling at you and your sisters for getting a question wrong while we study."
"Oh, so you are aware of it..."
"Like I had a fucking choice, Ichika. Why are you trying so hard to get me to see you as friends?"
"Because you already do!" Without warning, the eldest quintuplet slams her drink on her side of the table, causing a few globs of deforming whipped cream to jettison themselves out through the top hole of the plastic cover. The distorted smile on her face is now instantly gone. "Don't you fucking get it, Fuutarou-kun!? Why I'm so angry at you right now!? It's because you keep saying one thing and then doing another; you say you don't think of us as friends, yet you teach us, hang out with us, buy stuff for us sometimes, whatever! And it's not like you've only been over once or twice, no, you've basically been with us every day outside of weekends, and nowadays you've been coming over on weekends too because of midterms! Okay, maybe you - you've never had that many friends so maybe you don't really know what friends usually do or whatever, but come on, you at least know what 'friends' are, so hasn't it ever crossed your mind that maybe, just maybe, we're all friends here?"
"Not Nino or Itsuki," Fuutarou laughs scathingly.
"That's besides the point! They've been getting better recently, actually, so if you keep this up, I'm sure they'll slowly start treating you like a friend too!" Ichika jams a finger in Fuutarou's direction, pointed straight towards his face. "I can't stand people who pull the kind of shit that you're pulling, saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite or something else entirely that they didn't make any mention about. And in your case, you're treating us like friends, but you're saying that you don't want to think of us like that. Seriously, what gives, Fuutarou-kun? Does your job seriously scare you to the point where you can't make any friends? Like, at all? Surely you can find some people whom you can call friends, people whom you don't need to worry about turning against you or...or hurting you or backstabbing you or anything like that? Like, you already have some people like that, and they're your family! So if your family are people you can trust, then that means you can do the same for other people! I'm not saying you should just go around making friends with anybody, obviously you're not that type of person, but at least for us, you can't trust us, not even a little bit? Not even with all the time you've spent with us and stuff?"
Quietly sipping his latte all throughout Ichika's rant, Fuutarou waits for her to finish.
"And what exactly do you seek to gain from it?" he asks in a low voice, still holding his latte close for a quick follow-up sip. "What does getting me to call you and your sisters my friends going to do for you?"
"What do I seek to gain from it...? Oh come on, it's not like everyone needs to be one of those 'friends with benefits' types!"
"I'm not even talking about being friends with benefits; the fact that you're getting so worked up about this whole thing seems to me that there's something in store for you, something that you stand to gain from getting me to call you my friend. It's most likely not anything physical, like, clearly you're not trying to get money from me or get any kind of favor from me, so it must be a personal one. Or am I wrong?"
Ichika crosses her arms hotly back at her tutor. "Fine, you're not wrong, it is a personal reason, but it's because I'm trying to look out for you. It's what I was saying in the very beginning!"
"So much for not caring about what I do for a living."
"Is there something wrong with being concerned for the safety of someone I consider my friend, Fuutarou-kun? This has nothing to do with your job as a mage; since you got hurt on the job, can't I express my concern for you and check on how you're doing? I'd do the same thing for any of my other friends! So why do you feel like you have to keep everything to yourself? You look after us, you work to keep us safe, you even treated Itsuki when she got her nose hurt from back then - hell, you work in the damn hospital, doing surgeries and whatever else with Dad, right? You do all these things, you work so hard for both us and other people, and yet you can't even handle a girl like me asking you if you're alright from the cut you got last week? I can't believe you right now, Fuutarou-kun."
As she's wrapping up her spoken sentiments, Ichika smoothly slides off her chair to get on her feet and gathers her bag and half-drunk frappuccino with the very long name to turn around to face in the direction of the door. But just before she exits the range of Fuutarou's boundary rune, she stops.
"If that's how you're going to be, then stop coming to teach us in our home. Since we studied together in the library yesterday, we can meet there from now on, but I don't quite fancy the idea of letting people who refuse to call themselves my friend into my house, no matter the circumstances. If you show up at our house again, I will call Dad to tell him to call off your tutoring contract and tell him that your work isn't satisfactory, and that we need a new tutor."
Fuutarou lowers his latte. His seat is already facing the same direction as Ichika, so he doesn't need to move much to see her off.
"...is that a threat?"
Ichika turns her neck slightly so that Fuutarou can see a portion of the right side of her face.
A bright golden gem shines where her blue eye is supposed to be.
"Try me, Uesugi."
Fuutarou's body locks up instantly. Like rigid joints of a machine that have rusted too much to move, Fuutarou's joints refuse to budge, and this includes his vocal chords, preventing him from even speaking. So he's forced to sit in his chair, immobilized, and watch the eldest quintuplet remove herself from the scene, with the jingling of the doorbells at the exit sounding her departure.
It takes a good five minutes before the immobilization effect finally wears off, and Fuutarou quickly checks himself to see if anything else is wrong, which there is none, at least not that he can tell. Draining the rest of his latte slowly, Fuutarou dispels his boundary rune and pulls out his phone to send a quick text message to Dr. Nakano, typing in the message with one thumb.
Once he's sent this message, Fuutarou eyes the door briefly, his own eyes narrowed, before getting up to toss away his empty cup and head home himself.