Five Equal Angels

by Hieda no Akyuu

Alternate retelling of the original manga. With more than just tutoring skills at his disposal, Uesugi Fuutarou is hired to guide the Quintuplets to graduation, but this time there is more to it than just tutoring and more at stake than simply avoiding academic failure.

48. A Small Promise

A/N

Kuman: Judging by the fact that you're the first one so far who I can recall has made a complaint about the profanity in this fic five months and 450k words into me writing it, unless this is an issue that others have as well and they just haven't bothered bringing it up, unfortunately I'm going to have to chalk your critique up to personal preference. I've met and worked with people who do not like profanity of any degree IRL, so I understand that my liberal use of it comes off as disagreeable, but that's a tick you're just going to have to put up with if you wish to continue reading, especially because you're only on Chapter 20 as per your last review as of me writing this A/N.

On the subject of me writing Fuutarou to swear a lot, I don't think this is a problem personally. In this fic, not only does he still have the poor financial situation that he's got in the manga, but he's had to lead a rough life as a mage on top of that, dealing with people who are far more profane than either Nino or himself is, and it's not like Fuutarou's original disposition itself was doing him any favors. So it's not as if Fuutarou himself would care what others might think of his speech when he's got too many other things that he's got to worry about that demand his attention far more, whether he swears around close friends or his clients, since he's not there to be polite, he's there to do his job, and it's not like there's anything in his contract that forbids him from having a potty mouth.

And if you think that just because someone swears a lot their insults can't still have as big of a sting when it matters, you'd be quite mistaken. Granted, in print format like this fic, it's tricky to convey varying degrees of vocal seriousness so it's easy to believe in the "misconception", dare I say, of extensive profanity equaling cheapened insults, but I don't think you've met someone who swears a lot casually just because they can (and for your sake, it's perhaps best if you never do) and can still be just as frightening with the same insults that they use casually. I don't know about you, but I'm plainly able to differentiate between someone just joking around with me by saying "what the fuck, man" and someone who's legitimately angry with me by saying "what the fuck, man!" That's why I don't quite subscribe to the whole notion of "excessive swearing cheapens the insult", because that tells me that you are either unable to discern what real insults sound like or you simply don't like it when someone swears more than what you're comfortable with. And I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt that you have enough social experience to be capable of the former.

Or, even better, hopefully you've noticed by now once you get to this point in the fic that Fuutarou actually swears less (at least, if I recall correctly) when he needs to talk his way through situations he deems serious enough. So in this case, curiously, I feel his liberal use of profanity works in his favor, because when the person who normally swears a lot suddenly stops swearing as much, you know it's something to take note of.

Regardless of our little disagreement here, I appreciate your feedback. Contrary to your belief, I do in fact take the time now to go back and make slight revisions to fix things that I can see are a bit too OOC or grammatical errors that I happen to catch when going back to certain chapters for reference for chapters I'm currently writing. As a matter of fact, your last review as of this writing was made on Chapter 20, where I even have a small A/N to that fellow RedGlasses saying that I took his feedback into account and changed one part of a previous chapter because I agreed with his bit of critique there, though I understand if you only said that because the story has advanced far past that chapter by now.

And I'd like to extend the same treatment to you, because now that you brought it up, I also agree that even Nino wouldn't go so far as to drop F-bombs around Fuutarou's little sister who's still only in elementary school. You'll be pleased to know that I've removed profanity where Raiha is involved in Chapter 20 (which is basically the whole chapter), though naturally you won't know about this until you see this A/N.

---

Stepping out of the bathroom, having gone to use the toilet and put her contacts back in for the time being so that she can get herself something to drink, Nino steps into the kitchen with the light in the short corridor leading to the bathroom illuminating her way so that she can turn on the kitchen lights and turn off the hallway light behind her. The second quintuplet doesn't feel like fixing herself anything fancy to drink, and she likes plain old room temperature water anyway, so she opens one of the many cupboards in the kitchen to take an ordinary bottle of water. The cupboard that she stoops down to open is on the side of the kitchen facing towards the rest of the living room, so Nino stands back up perfectly to see Miku sitting silently on the long couch in the living room.

"...not even gonna tell me that you're there?" she snarls over at her younger sister, but her voice is weak and hoarse, worn out from her mental exhaustion and roughened from the lack of use for the past two days. Miku raises her head in response, but her eyes don't look over.

"You already knew I followed you down here, Nino," Miku points out quietly. "So there wasn't any need for me to tell you I was here."

"And how the hell do you know that?"

Miku's eyes slowly sink back down to her lap.

"...just a hunch," the third quintuplet murmurs softly, tightening her cardigan around her neck and shoulders to keep herself warm in the relative chill of the first floor compared to her cozy bedroom, even though it's well into the middle of June.

Nino continues to glare at her from the kitchen. "That's not supposed to be some kind of roundabout way of telling me that you've actually gone and asked Uesugi-kun to start teaching you magecraft, now, is it?"

"No. Though...I'll admit that yesterday, I came close to asking him."

"Came close?"

"Yeah. But I remembered what you told me last time we talked in the middle of the night like this...remember, exactly two weeks ago? So...I didn't end up asking him."

"Hmph. Surprised you'd take my advice."

"Oh, bring me a bottle of water too."

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Nino throws another quick scowl in Miku's direction.

"You've got some nerve asking me to do something like that when I'm like this, you know...?"

But Nino still stoops again to grab another bottle of water to bring over to her sister at the long couch, on which she also sits to have the two quintuplets together in this early Sunday morning.

"So? How was it yesterday?" Nino grumbles, twisting the plastic cap off her bottle of water and taking a quick swig once she's handed one of the bottles to Miku as well.

Miku, also taking a sip of water, slowly twists the cap back onto her bottle. "It was fun. We ate a whole ton at Saizeriya, and when we came back, Fuutarou took some time to teach me how to cook, and then Yotsuba joined us and we made homemade onigiri together for dinner. It was some of the most fun I've had in a long while." The younger quintuplet points at the microwave in the kitchen. "Fuutarou made some for you, too, in case you were hungry. Did you see them?"

"Huh? Why would I want some mediocre fucking rice balls that he - "

Grooooowwwwwwl.

Sighing lightly as Nino clenches her teeth, wallowing in her own slowly rising embarrassment, Miku finally turns to her older sister, the living room currently illuminated only by the lights that Nino left on in the kitchen.

"Nino, be honest with me, when's the last time you ate?"

The second quintuplet, not wanting her embarrassment to be seen by her younger sister, already has her face turned away so that Miku can't see.

"...since...since Friday night..."

"Please go eat."

"I don't need it."

"Please eat."

"No. I don't want anything that he's made."

"Nino."

"I said - "

"Nino."

Nino's skin crawls as Miku's voice douses her ears, which makes her whole body feel like it's just gotten doused by a bucket of ice water. Such a mental shock chills Nino into glancing back at her own younger sister instinctively to find herself staring straight into Miku's active blue Mystic Eyes that shine subtly, even against the lights from the kitchen.

"I tried asking nicely, but it seems that won't do," Miku quietly whispers, her icy Mystic Eyes boring directly into Nino's through her Mystic Eye Killer contacts. "This is not a request, Nino. Go eat the onigiri that Fuutarou made for you."

Having managed to compose herself in the shock of Miku pulling them out on her, Nino silently retaliates with her own Mystic Eye activation, which, with its recent development, now allows for her own sizzling purple Mystic Eyes to glare back with equal intensity.

"...is that a threat?" Nino whispers back.

"If that's how you want to see it, but you're not leaving this floor until you've eaten."

The siblings hold their magically charged glares at each other for a few minutes, but exhausted emotion and her body's physiological reaction to the mention of food like her salivation and constant rumbling of her stomach from the lack of nourishment burns through what little magical stamina she has left and forces Nino to withdraw from their little staring contest prematurely. So Miku, to her own silent surprise, watches as Nino's Mystic Eyes fade unwillingly from view from her lack of magical energy to support their upkeep, something she's never seen before.

"Starting to sound like me now," Nino grumbles, her Mystic Eyes flickering softly before disappearing behind the veils of their Mystic Eye Killers, as though struggling to stay afloat but resigning themselves to sinking back down into the dark ocean of smoldering embers that is Nino's tired but still volatile thoughts and emotions.

"Are you referring to those times back in middle school when you yelled at me to eat my tomatoes, otherwise I couldn't go back to my room?" Miku asks.

"You still remember that?"

"How can I forget, is the better question. I hate tomatoes."

"So you should learn to get over that and start eating them."

"And you should get over yourself and stop hiding in your room all day."

The swiftness and ease with which Miku delivers her verbal impunity catches Nino off-guard, and it leaves her stunned for a moment into silence. Miku could take advantage of this and press her point, but she relents and waits to hear what her sister has to say.

"...you really have changed. I don't remember you sounding quite like that before," Nino hisses slowly. "Have you been learning from Uesugi-kun or something?"

"Implying that he was the one who got me to change? No, not quite, when I know someone who sounds like that on the regular much longer than him."

"So you're telling me that you learned from the best..."

"Not sure if I'd call that the best. I think I learned how to talk better from Fuutarou."

"Yeah, just like how you're learning cooking from him too, right?"

Miku raises an eyebrow. "Does that bother you too?"

"You'd feel the same way, if someone you've been teaching something to suddenly starts to take lessons from someone else."

Hearing this, the third quintuplet lets out a small smile that Nino misses because she isn't looking at her.

"Then let me bother you some more about it. He teaches cooking just as well as he tutors, you know? He doesn't talk to me like everything that I'm doing is wrong, he doesn't say things like 'How do you not know this?' and 'This is so obvious, why don't you get it', and he works with me and does the same things I do so that it feels like we're both learning together."

Feeling the weakened but still smoldering embers inside her heart get slowly reignited, Nino grows more and more irritated the longer Miku talks, to the point where as soon as there's a break in her sister's thoughts, Nino jabs back with, "If he's such a good teacher, why don't you start learning from him from now on? Just like how you suck him off with all his stupid tutoring and crap. You clearly don't need me."

"No, we do," Miku says simply. "Even Fuutarou said so himself yesterday. Because for as good of a teacher as he is, he just doesn't have the same level of experience or the sheer breadth of cooking knowledge that you do."

Nino is surprised at herself at how easily her re-bubbling anger got defused with just two sentences.

"It makes sense, right? Fuutarou's always busy with his mage stuff, and he only really worked and got any cooking experience when he was younger, probably before he started working as a mage full-time like he is now. And he said so himself that he's still largely out of practice; that's why he's been helping you out cooking dinner sometimes for the past month or so, to practice cooking again."

"Sounds like that's his problem. And he's smart enough where he can figure out how to cook better stuff on his own."

"Yeah, I'm sure he can do that, but right now he can't. After all, who the heck eats nothing but onigiri for dinner?"

"It's not like we don't know what that feels like from before."

Miku smiles softly again. "It did bring back memories with Mama, for sure."

Glaring a little over at Miku with just the turn of her eyes, Nino grumpily folds her arms, her neck barely moving so that her head is still facing straight ahead from the long couch on which the two siblings sit.

"What're you getting at here? You're not the type to sit here and just gloat about everything that's happened to me."

"Yes, because that's your job."

"Shut up, I'm not in the mood for this right now."

Miku takes another methodical drink from her water bottle.

"Fuutarou said yesterday that he also wants to learn cooking from you," she reveals quietly. "He said that the times he's cooked dinner with you was fun, even if you're always harsh on him like you are to me. He said that it's only natural because of how strict he is when he tutors us, so...he wants the three of us to learn how to cook together."

Grimacing with discomfort, Nino waves her hand a little. "No way. I only let him help me out with cooking because cooking for five people can get pretty annoying sometimes - make that six with Uesugi-kun around if he stays for dinner. But straight-up teaching him, too? When you're already a handful?"

"Well, you can't deny that he'll be a much better student than me."

"That's true, but no, I don't wanna. He couldn't even pay me to teach him."

"But he's poor, Nino."

"That's the point, it's not gonna happen."

"And why not? You seemed to be pretty happy to have someone helping you out who wasn't a complete stooge like me or Yotsuba."

As soon as Miku asks this, Nino realizes the direction in which she's trying to take this conversation. But perhaps the two of them meeting in the middle of the night like this, following the events of the past two days, would have inevitably driven their conversation in this direction without Miku's guidance, so Nino reluctantly indulges her. At the very least, she can use this as an opportunity to prepare herself for what she'll eventually have to do for the rest of her family anyways.

"That's certainly true; I guess that saves me the trouble of having to tell you that myself," Nino manages a small smirk, but it doesn't last long. "Besides...I can't stand him...for what he's done to me. For what he's done to us."

At this, Miku wears a concerned look of suspense. "W-What did he do to us...?"

Turning to her younger sister, Nino purses her lips together for a moment before letting loose.

"He's been making us change, all of us. Ichika, me, you, Yotsuba, and Itsuki - and there's no doubt about it. He's interfering with our lives, Miku! Can't you see that?"

"Uh-huh."

Nino blankly watches her younger quintuplet sibling take another calm drink from her bottle of water; it would appear that Miku is rather parched too.

"Th-That's all?" the second quintuplet asks, blinking with her fake blue eyes at her sister, whose Mystic Eyes have also since faded back into obscurity. "You know he's interfering with our lives this much, yet you're just...letting it happen?"

Setting the water bottle down before her on the glass table, Miku turns back to her older sister.

"Well...the thing is, even without him, we would have slowly changed over time anyway. And if you want to talk about having our lives interfered with, we can always talk about what would've happened to us if Fuutarou never showed up to save us from those guys back at that warehouse. And I don't think I need to remind you why we ended up in that situation in the first place?"

"You could've just left me there! I even told you guys to stay, so by that point you can't put the blame for you all showing up on me!"

"And you really think we would've done that? When Mama told the five of us to stick together no matter what?"

"But she obviously didn't mean that when our lives were at stake!"

Miku frowns more deeply back at Nino. "Maybe not, but that still won't change the fact that when one of us is in trouble, the rest of us won't hesitate to jump in to help out."

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Nino takes her chance to turn away in indignation. "Stupid. Absolutely stupid..."

"Hey, they didn't call us the Five Stooges back at Black Rose for nothing. So you could say that this is just par for the course."

"We're book-dumb, not absolutely braindead. At least have some semblance of street smarts, will you?"

"Street smarts? That's a bit much to expect out of rich, spoiled girls like us, don't you think?"

"We're quintuplets, okay. If I've been able to do that for the past four years, the rest of you certainly can."

"But eventually, even your street smarts couldn't keep you safe. Not just once, but twice."

"Shut up."

Again smiling a little, this time at this lack of response from Nino, Miku also turns away to look straight ahead at their large flatscreen TV.

"We were all going to change eventually, Nino, with or without Fuutarou. I'm sure you know that too because you're the one who thinks about this the most, because of your promise to us back then and whatnot. Once we get out of high school, assuming that we can do so safely, by that point you're all likely to have paths you want to take, paths that most likely aren't going to overlap or cross much. So inherently, the promise you made to us is...flawed from the start. If it were clear that you only made that promise to us because you wanted to make us feel better after Mama died, then I wouldn't feel the need to bring this up to you. But clearly because you said that you have a big problem with Fuutarou and what he's done for us, you feel much more about that promise than just it being a coping mechanism."

"Your point?" Nino snaps back.

"You would have reacted like this at some point. You might not agree now, but eventually when our sisters get boyfriends or they start moving out of the house to pursue their own dreams or careers once they get them, you'll eventually end up being as miserable as you are now. All Fuutarou did, in my opinion, was accelerate the situation. Maybe a lot faster than what any of us anticipated, to be fair, but...that's what I think."

"Well, you're wrong. Uesugi-kun isn't just an accelerant, he's a whole damn catastrophe. You are right that...maybe my promise was always going to be a hopeless one; I get that we're all gonna change over time and there's nothing much I can do about that. Like, I get it, the rest of you are going to have your own dreams and stuff that you wanna pursue, like you said, and you're gonna get boyfriends, get engaged, get married, blah blah blah. But that's natural, that's organic. Those are things that happen eventually with time, and I don't mind that; those are things that I can accept and come to terms with...at least when I'm older, when...when I'm hopefully a bit more grown-up to handle those kinds of things happening."

Miku turns her neck slightly in Nino's direction, a bit surprised to hear such a mature outlook from her sister.

"But Uesugi-kun is not natural; how he came into our lives is anything but."

"Why not? Papa wanted to hire a tutor for us to help us get our grades up, and he went with someone he felt was most qualified for it."

"Most qualified, my goddamn ass, Miku, he's not even a professional tutor. He's the same age as us, for God's sake!"

"So? What's age got to do with anything here? There are child prodigies out there who graduate college at early ages, the exact antithesis of people like us."

"Tch, okay, fine, he doesn't have any kind of teaching degree or anything! There are plenty of tutors out there who have years of teaching experience, people who, like you said, graduated from university and got their teaching credentials and all that!"

"And yet somehow he's teaching us better than our own teachers are at school."

"Th-That's because he only needs to deal with the five of us instead of a whole class!"

"That's the point of a tutor, is it not? For more personalized teaching. That's why Papa figured that Fuutarou was the best for the job: he's our age and he's in our same class, so not only does he have direct access to the same material that we do, but he knows how to cater to our needs and work with us better than some thirty or forty-something year old professional from Tokyo U or something."

Nino tightens her folded arms into her chest. "You can tout Uesugi-kun's tutoring all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that Papa could've easily hired two separate people for his contract. I told Yotsuba this on Friday night, did she already tell you this or do I have to tell you, too?"

"She did, yeah, so you don't need to go on about it again."

"Good. Then what do you think about it? Isn't that the more efficient way to handle this? Both Papa and Uesugi-kun are all about efficiency, aren't they? So why was someone like me able to see that but not them? Shouldn't they have figured this one out on their own?"

Miku brushes some of the long bangs away from her face, the portion that typically covers her right eye.

"By that point, we'd just be going into hypothetical territory because that's something we know almost nothing about. The terms of Fuutarou's contract is his and Papa's business, and we shouldn't pry into that."

"Then why's Uesugi-kun prying into our business? Tell me about that!"

"Because that's what he's being paid to do, by our own Papa, no less. And if we weren't all so bad at studying, maybe we would've never been in this situation in the first place, have you ever thought of that? It's not Fuutarou's fault that we're all so stupid!"

For the first time tonight, Miku lets her voice rise until it hits its muffled climax at the end of her last spoken thought, and the two quintuplets remain silent to let the figurative dust settle in her wake.

"If you want someone to blame, Nino, blame the five of us. Blame us for not being smart enough, not being diligent enough, studious enough, whatever. Blame us for not wanting to study when we were supposed to. Blame us for ignoring the signs that we needed help, for not recognizing the facts that we needed help on our own and we all just ignored it to the point where Papa had to take the time out of his own busy schedule to make sure that we wouldn't continue like this into high school."

Miku then turns her head slowly to her older sister. While her Mystic Eyes do not resurface, her regular blue eyes are still cold and piercing.

"You think you're going through a lot just because of how you think everyone's changing because of the tutor Papa hired for us? Imagine what Yotsuba must've felt when we all transferred schools with her."

Beginning to clench her teeth back at her younger sister, Nino does her best to stand her ground. "...as mean as this sounds, that's got nothing to do with what we're talking about right now, though."

"Yeah, you're right. But then again, you can't get much meaner than you were on Friday when you hit her like that."

"Shut the hell up!"

"Hey, you set yourself up for that one." Miku merely reaches for her bottle of water again.

Nino watches her younger sister take yet another swig of water with muted anger, but she does manage to swallow most of it back by the time Miku screws the cap back on.

"...for the record, I do feel bad about hitting her. A lot was going through my head that night, and Yotsuba trying to intervene between me and Uesugi-kun when I was telling him off on the roof that night got on my nerves enough to make me hit her. Not to mention I still had that stab wound in my shoulder..."

"While that's good to hear that you feel bad about it, I'm not the person you should be telling that to, you know?"

"I know, damn it, you don't need to tell me. I'll make sure to apologize to Yotsuba...once I've calmed down enough."

"Still not quite there yet?"

"...well, having to talk to you tonight didn't do me any favors yet, so no, not yet."

Miku sighs defeatedly. "I was hoping it would. Sorry I couldn't get you to feel better."

"How the hell were you expecting me to feel better after all the shit we've talked about? Some counselor you are."

"Kind of a tall order for someone like me who hardly talks to people and makes friends as easily as you do at school, though."

"Then why did you even try?" Nino scoffs.

"Because we're sisters, Nino," Miku returns swiftly. "We're family. Is that a weird reason?"

The sisters exchange a quick and unexpected glance at each other before both looking away again.

"It sure doesn't feel like it as much anymore to me," Nino mumbles.

"With all that stuff you said about us changing, I can see that," Miku concedes. "But that doesn't change the fact that we're still siblings. That's what you want, isn't it? Something that's impervious to change, something that stays constant about us that you can rely on? That's it right there. Nothing will change the fact that we're sisters...quintuplets, even."

Miku leans back in her seat on the long couch, letting her head rest into the top of the couch pillows behind her as she looks up at the ceiling.

"I'm not good at talking with people, to people, so I'd probably never do this for anyone else, even if I somehow did have friends at school. But it's clear to the rest of us that you're going through something that's really bothering you, and so even if I'm not good at it, I wanted to do what I could to help you get back on track. Especially now that we have something in common...that the two of us share."

Nino's right ear involuntarily twitches a little as she senses Miku's Mystic Eyes resurface momentarily. The feeling is slight and easily passable if she hadn't felt it a few times before, but it's to the point now where Nino knows when her sister's Mystic Eyes are active even without having to look at her.

"You could even say that it's thanks to these that we can even have a conversation like this, conversations that only the two of us have like this in the middle of the night." Miku smiles to herself a little. "Kind of ironic, though, that it'd be the two of us to end up like this, given how much we'd usually butt heads. But even still...despite all the change that you see in us, despite us getting these Mystic Eye things and learning about the existence of magecraft and such...despite even getting to know Fuutarou, I still want to have the ability to talk to you like this like family."

Nino says nothing.

"It's true that Fuutarou's become a big part of our lives now in a short amount of time; no one's denying that. And I get that you don't like it, especially now that Itsuki's joined us in studying with him even after midterms two weeks ago, so now it probably makes you feel like you're on your own while no one else sees the problems that you might. Even still, all of this doesn't mean that you can't keep being a big part of our lives as well."

Miku raises her left arm slowly to point over to the kitchen, making sure not to hit her sister accidentally in the process.

"When we were eating lunch yesterday at Saizeriya, we talked about what we'd do about our meals since you weren't making them for us. That's why Fuutarou offered to teach me what he could about cooking, because we'd have to rely on him for our meals every day if we didn't want to keep ordering delivery three times a day until you start feeling better. And you wouldn't want that now, would you?"

Rolling her eyes, Nino manages to pout a little. "Isn't that exactly what you'd want? You get to spend more time with him that way, right? And I'm sure Uesugi-kun can get to the level that I can in a short period of time. It's not like you need to wait long for him to get there."

"Maybe so. But just because I can spend time with him doesn't mean that I won't miss being able to learn how to cook with you."

"Weren't you complaining about my way of teaching you, though?"

"I was, yeah. That doesn't take anything away from the fact that you're still a better teacher than Fuutarou is at cooking."

Tussling her long peachy-red hair in annoyance, Nino purses her lips together again. "...you can stop flattering me now, you know. It's not going to get you anywhere."

"It's not flattery, though. It's the truth."

"Oh, is it now? You'd rather go with the truth than Uesugi-kun, huh?"

"Again, there's nothing that says I can't do both. Why should there be a need to abandon one or the other?" Miku sits back up on the couch again. "At the end of the day, Nino, you already know without me having to tell you that we're all going to change eventually; we can't stay the same identical quintuplets that we used to be when we were younger, specifically from six years ago. But as long as we can keep in our hearts that we're still quintuplets, as long as we don't forget how we all came to be the ways we are and how we will be in the future...I think that's what's most important."

Listening to her younger sister, Nino feels the tensed muscles in her face slowly begin to relax.

"...remember the past, but don't deny the present or the future," Nino mutters mainly to herself, though she knows Miku can hear this plainly. "That...would the logical way to think of this, huh."

"The question is will you, though."

"You don't want me to? Then what was the point of saying all those things?"

"Of course I would like you to. But just like how Fuutarou never forced you or Itsuki in the beginning to study with him, I'd rather that you come to that conclusion yourself. Forcing you to do it would defeat the purpose."

"Yeah, if only Papa thought that way too."

"Well...like I said, we had that one coming from a kilometer away."

"Make that five kilometers."

Miku turns to give Nino a funny look, which Nino herself returns. Without warning, the two of them begin to giggle at Nino's lame quintuplet joke.

"When you said even you were changing, I didn't know it was because you started making dumb quintuplet jokes like Yotsuba does sometimes," Miku smirks a little at her older sister.

"Shut up, I'm not a clown like she is. What do you want from me..."

"To stop sulking and apologize to Yotsuba. Oh, and to eat those rice balls in the microwave."

"Yeesh, so this is what you must feel whenever I talk to you like that, huh? This medicine's bitter as hell."

"I've certainly never heard of sweet medicine."

"What? We used to take those gummy vitamins during middle school, remember?"

"Bleh...you know I didn't like those. Not only do I not really like sweet things, but those were just...weird."

"You're the weird one for liking bitter things at our age! And who the heck likes matcha soda?! Talk about something weird to eat or drink, huh!"

"Funny you mentioned that, but yesterday at lunch, I got a matcha parfait, and it was delicious."

"M-Matcha parfait..." Nino holds her hand over her mouth, pretending to vomit. "I-I think just thinking about it made me lose my entire appetite..."

"Not only is that a lie, but even Fuutarou said it was good too," Miku pouts back at Nino. "So you take that back."

"He was only saying that just so that he wouldn't offend you, you do know that, right?"

"How would you know? You weren't even there with us!"

"Well gosh, sorry for that, I was busy doing my best impression of you being holed up in my room all day."

That statement ticks Miku off a fair bit. "That so? Then I guess we really don't need to have you cook for us, we can just wait until Fuutarou gets good at cooking and just have him cook for us from now on."

"So much for all that sweet talk you were giving me a few minutes ago, then!" Nino gripes while Miku continues to giggle back at her.

"Then what will you do now? Clearly I wasn't really able to get you to change your mind about anything that's bothering you, but...is it safe for me to say that you're at least willing to talk to the rest of us?" Miku asks once she's done with her giggling. Nino leans forward in her seat and rests her elbows on her knees slowly.

"Even I don't want to be like that, all barricaded in my room like that for a full day. I almost couldn't stand it...I didn't know just not talking to people outright could be so tough," Nino transparently admits. "I don't know how you do it, Miku. And I'm not trying to diss you, before you say anything."

"I know, don't worry. And I'm sure Itsuki could probably give you a scientific explanation for why people can't normally handle being isolated like that. I guess I can handle it better since...I just avoid people on my own, ever since I came out of the hospital."

Nino raises her head somewhat. "So I'll wake up at the usual time tomorrow. Er, sorry, today. I'll suck it up and apologize to everyone for making them worry about me, especially to Yotsuba for hitting her."

"Honestly, you should apologize to Fuutarou too for having to deal with your behavior as well."

"Hell no. He's the one who's giving me the most trouble, you know." Nino sighs heavily, hanging her head again. "But...I'll try to get myself in order. If nothing else, I'll do whatever I need to do to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."

"...is it wise for you to keep something like that to yourself, though?"

"As much as it might not be, it's something I have to handle myself." Nino sits up again. "Talking with you like this may have helped me feel better to the point where I don't feel the need to turtle myself up in my room anymore, but...Uesugi-kun is still a concern for me that I feel like I need to come to terms with on my own."

"So you're still angry at him, then."

"Not angry. I don't actually hate him, if that's what the rest of you think, because I know that there's no way for him to know everything that I feel about him at the moment, so hating him for something he has no idea about feels unfair, even for me. But even though you're right about how all of us are bound to change and go our separate ways and that all Uesugi-kun did was accelerate that process, his involvement with us still doesn't feel genuine to me, as in it wasn't meant to happen this way. Not to mention, seeing all of my sisters grow all close to him like you all have been for the past few weeks...gets under my skin. All those times that I've chased other guys off from making moves on you, only to have one get all close to everyone just because he's our tutor - it's frustrating, to say the least, like all the effort I've made to keep everyone safe's just...gone down the drain."

"Well, Fuutarou isn't a bad guy like the others were."

"I know he's not. Probably. But I still can't help but feel that way."

"Then that'll have to be another thing for you to come to terms with."

"Tch..." Nino lifts her left leg over her right and refolds her arms across her chest. "I wanted just the five of us to grow up together. I don't want a sixth wheel who's an outsider to grow up with us, because that's just as good as calling him part of the family when he's not."

"I mean...with how much time he's been spending with us and how he keeps us safe, it wouldn't be too far from the truth to consider him as such..."

"That's exactly what I was afraid would happen!"

"I'm just kidding, kidding."

"Are you, though..."

After this little chuckle, Miku clears her throat and lets her amused smile drip away.

"Besides that, I want to discuss one more thing with you, if you're okay with it. It is pretty important, especially for the two of us."

Nino looks sideways over at her younger sister. "What, our Mystic Eyes?"

Miku nods. "That, and - "

But Nino raises a hand.

"Hold on. Because before you start, I think we need to address the quiet little mouse upstairs that's been listening in on us having our little heart-to-heart talk..."

Turning to look up at the second floor railing, Nino frowns deeply in that direction as Miku, suddenly alarmed at this potential intruder, also snaps her gaze up in the same direction; the second quintuplet knows that she doesn't even have to raise her voice to make herself clearly heard to whichever sister of theirs is hiding from view behind the second floor railing. And sure enough, their youngest sister, Nakano Itsuki, easily identifiable by her tall ahoge that emerges first, slowly stands up from beneath the top of the railing. She is visibly trembling.

"Nino...how did you...?" Miku asks quickly and in a low voice to her older sister.

"Seems like holing myself up in my room wasn't completely pointless," Nino murmurs, looking up at Itsuki on the second floor with her own Mystic Eyes, which have managed to activate once more, though only briefly. "Itsuki, come down here and explain to us what the hell you're doing eavesdropping on us like that."

Standing up from the couch, still in quiet shock that Itsuki has been listening in on them this whole time, Miku watches Itsuki timidly climb down the steps in stunned silence, and when Itsuki nears them, Nino jabs her left index finger over at the short couch to wordlessly instruct their youngest sister to be seated. Poor Itsuki, sweating nervous bullets now that she's been found out, still trembles occasionally, even when seated before her two older sisters as Miku also compels herself to sit back down, too.

"And how much of our conversation did you hear, exactly?" Nino asks quietly, her eyes narrowed dangerously at her youngest sister.

"...a...all of...it..." Itsuki can barely get herself to squeak, petrified of having to look straight into Nino's eyes. "I...I apologize for...for this..."

"I never asked you to be sorry, I just asked for an answer. Though it feels to me like you somehow knew we'd have this conversation, seeing that you didn't just accidentally stumble upon us talking like this. So is it safe to assume you've been listening in on the two of us talking in the middle of the night like this for a while now, or is this really your first time?"

Itsuki manages to raise her head a little, though she doesn't look any less miserable and uncomfortable. "...I...I listened in on the last time you two talked like this too, but...but that was the first time, and that was on accident, I swear. I didn't...I did not mean to come off like I was...trying to be up to no good, I really mean it..."

"Don't put so much pressure on her, Nino. Itsuki isn't the type to lie to us like that," Miku says softly, wanting to come to her younger sister's aid now that Itsuki has explained how she's ended up in this situation.

"Maybe not, but that doesn't explain why she'd want to listen in on us," Nino points out. "Just because she didn't mean to doesn't mean she doesn't have her own reasons. Because if you really did accidentally stumble on us talking like this, you'd just stop eavesdropping on us past the first time, right?"

"But that's probably only because she was curious as to what - "

"Miku, shut up. Itsuki should be explaining this herself, not you." After shooting Miku a warning glance, Nino turns back to Itsuki. "So? Was Miku right? Or is there anything else you wanna add?"

"M-Miku was...she is right for the most part," Itsuki stammers, trying to calm herself down as much as she can to converse properly. "Curiosity was what drove me tonight to...to listen to your conversation in secret like I was, in part because...I was there the last time you two talked like this, too, like I said."

Nino turns to Miku briefly. "When was the last time we talked like this? Do you remember?"

"Um...I believe it was...right after midterms. I mentioned it earlier, the Sunday before we got our midterm results back."

"Right." Nino turns back to Itsuki. "So is it safe to assume that you know that the two of us are mages? Because you should've heard us talking about mage stuff for part of the time last time."

The youngest quintuplet nods uneasily.

"Hmph. I suppose that saves us the time of explaining everything, at the very least."

"Um...but...how did you know I was...eavesdropping? I didn't make a sound coming out of my room because I think you were in the bathroom, and I heard Miku who came out of her room after you just sit here on the couch..."

"Yeah, that's...I want to know how you knew she was there, because I didn't even know," Miku supports Itsuki's question by paraphrasing it to their older sister, who raises her hand and scratches the side of her head, a tic she probably picked up from their tutor at some point.

"I just...sensed someone there. I don't want to sound all...all chuunibyou and stuff...but that's what happened. I don't...I don't know how to describe it. I don't really get it myself either, just so the two of you know."

"So when you said earlier that holing yourself up in your own room wasn't completely pointless..." Miku murmurs, "...were you...like, developing your magecraft or something?"

"Like I said, I don't know!" Nino tosses up her hands briefly in frustration. "I wasn't doing anything in particular, at least! I was literally just sitting in bed all day, not doing much except look at my phone every once in a while! That's it!"

Miku looks uncertain, however. "I don't know...things don't just...happen because we sit around all day...that doesn't sound right."

"Well...this is magecraft we are talking about, yes?" Itsuki points out. "When we have so little knowledge of magecraft and how it works, anything is possible."

"...maybe..."

"Then for now we'll just assume that somehow my magecraft developed on its own to the point where I knew that Itsuki was peeping on us," Nino shrugs while Itsuki balks a little at her sister's use of the word "peeping". "How about you, Itsuki? Is there anything that you're keeping a secret from us in regards this whole magecraft bullshit or what?"

"M-Me? No, nothing, I do not possess any such - " Itsuki pauses in the middle of her defensive claim, frowning deeply as she realizes that this might not exactly be the case. "Um...actually..."

"So you do have something to tell us," Nino grumbles scornfully.

"Well, um, it - it is not what you think! Miku, please vouch for me when I say this, but...but yesterday, when Uesugi-kun took us to lunch, he mentioned that he sensed a strange difference in higher temperature just outside your room when he went up to try to talk to you before we left. He also brought it up at Saizeirya where we went to eat lunch, asking us whether or not we noticed that same slight increase in temperature just outside your room. Initially I said that I did not feel it, but upon returning home and heading to my room, I remembered what he told us and tried looking for what he was talking about, and sure enough, I, too, felt that slight increase in temperature just outside your room. It was...very odd, and I did not know what to make of it, so I simply went back to my room to study. I...I stayed up late studying, so...so that was why I was able to listen to the two of you talking tonight, because I was just about to go to sleep when I heard you two come out..."

"The first part of what she talked about is true, Nino. You should know, right? Didn't you hear Fuutarou try talking to you in your room?" Miku asks.

"...I did, yeah," Nino admits slowly, folding her arms for a third time tonight. "Fine, I'll believe you, Itsuki, since your alibi seems strong enough. So if you know about the two of us being mages and us having these Mystic Eye things and all, how about you tell us what's going on with you? Do you have Mystic Eyes too?"

Itsuki shakes her head. "I do not have anything of the sort. I was shocked to learn that you two were mages as well, and...perhaps by extension, because we are all quintuplets, that I could be one too. Like I said, I did not think too much of it because I have experienced nothing in the way of magecraft that would suggest that I am a mage like you. Literally yesterday was...was the first time when I felt like I had any semblance of being one when I was able to sense that odd difference in temperature outside your room. And even then, that could very well have been a placebo effect."

"You're sure about this? No weird panic attacks at night? Nothing your eyes are doing to you that's bothering you or anything?"

"Huh? Uh...no, nothing," Itsuki shakes her head slowly. "W-Why, were...were those things that...that you two have experienced?"

Nino clicks her tongue in annoyance again. "Listen to her, Miku. She doesn't know the struggle..."

To Itsuki's shock, Miku also sighs with Nino, nodding in disappointment.

"H-Hey! I thought you were on my side, Miku!" Itsuki cries in a small voice, since it's still in the middle of the night and their other two sisters are still sleeping.

"I'm just kidding. But seriously, Itsuki, you haven't had any issues at all? Your eyes haven't ever given you any issues?" Miku asks again, and Itsuki shakes her head in response once more. "Huh..."

"These...'Mystic Eyes'...what are they, exactly?" the fifth quintuplet asks slowly. "I have heard you two discuss them, but I do not know what they are, other than the implication that they have something to do with your eyes, of course..."

"They're magical eyes, basically. According to Fuutarou, whom we asked to tell us more about these eyes, he said that they're supposed to be very powerful magical abilities that have powers vested in them," Miku explains concisely. "And for some reason, Nino and I have them. That's why we're interested to know if you had them too."

"Though I want to be clear that I'm not thrilled at the fact that we have them," Nino clarifies quickly. "And I don't know if Miku is, either, given what she's been through."

"Been through? You mean...those panic attacks or something?"

Miku smiles weakly at her youngest sister. "It's...not something you have to worry about, but...do you remember that one time I got hospitalized? After those girls at our old school punched me in the back of the head and knocked me out?"

"Er...y-yes, I do remember that..."

"Long story short, I started having these...panic attacks after I got discharged, and I've been having them ever since, every so often. As it turns out, they were because of my Mystic Eyes."

Miku closes her eyes as she gives her explanation, and at the end, in closing, she reopens them, putting her blue Mystic Eyes on display for Itsuki to see. The moment Itsuki gazes into the younger of her older sisters' active eyes, she feels a small chill tingle down her spine that causes her to sit upright subconsciously.

"...so...so those are Mystic Eyes..." Itsuki finds herself whispering.

"We don't know what our Eyes do yet exactly because they're still immature, but...they're probably developing on their own even still," Miku says softly. "But the biggest piece of evidence that we have to know that they are is that Nino and I now know how to show them at will like this. Two months ago, I had no idea what was causing my panic attacks, and Nino didn't even know that her nearsightedness was because of her Mystic Eyes."

"Eh? Her - her nearsightedness is because of them?" Itsuki repeats in hushed revelation.

"I don't know if you remember exactly the day when I started wearing contacts, Itsuki, but one day I suddenly lost my vision in the middle of class during our first year in middle school," Nino recounts for her youngest sister. "And I don't think you've ever seen me without my contacts since then, partly because I never wanted to show anyone what my eyes looked like without them on."

Itsuki watches Nino this time as she, too, activates her Mystic Eyes briefly to show her, and when her purple Eyes emerge, Itsuki feels her own eyes flush with sudden warmth.

"When I lost my vision, I asked Papa to get me contact lenses because I didn't like how glasses looked on me - and I still don't. But he specifically got me contact lenses that hid my eyes when they turned like this. I thought these were just colored contact lenses at first - but recently, I've come to believe that maybe they're a little more than just that."

"What do you mean?" Miku asks curiously, and Nino turns to her.

"Remember that day when you dragged me into that alley and made me lose my phone? I had to take out my contact lenses to show you that I had Mystic Eyes too. Because back then, for some reason, I couldn't bring them up while I still had my contacts on. But now, I can just show you my Eyes like this even when I've got them in."

"So...so your contacts actually blocked them somehow?"

"That's what I figure." Nino lets her tired Mystic Eyes fade away again, probably for the last time tonight since her body is quite burnt out on magical energy, no thanks to her lack of proper nourishment and her weakened mental state. "So that's how my Eyes've been developing on their own, I guess."

Itsuki has since lowered her gaze down to her lap, wearing a somber and guilty facade.

"...I never knew...I never noticed that...that these were things that you were dealing with all this time..." she mumbles sadly. "I apologize for never noticing. If I had known, maybe - "

Miku parts her lips to stop Itsuki, but to her surprise, Nino responds first.

"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault that you never knew when we both tried covering our problems up as best we could," she answers quietly. "Sure, maybe if you were a bit more attentive you could've noticed that we were trying to hide something, but there's no point in bugging you about something like that now."

A break in the conversation falls among the three quintuplets on the first floor, with Miku starting it again.

"You said that you also sensed what Fuutarou told us about at lunch yesterday, right, Itsuki? Then that probably means you're a mage too," Miku notes quietly.

"L-Like I said, it...it could have been a mere placebo effect, something that I only think I notice simply because someone else said it exists," Itsuki shakes her hands quickly back at Miku. "I did not notice it the first time before we left the house yesterday but noticed it when we came back. It could merely just be a coincidence, or some convenient timing."

But Nino shakes her head. "I don't think it's just convenience; I think that there's a big chance the five of us are all mages," she declares. "Because think about it, right? Remember when we were young, towards the last few years before she died, Mama was almost never home, and when she was, she'd be too tired to talk to us or even take care of us towards the end. If you think about it, what's Uesugi-kun been doing? He sleeps all day during school, most of the time, anyway, tutors us in the afternoon, and then goes to do his mage stuff or whatever, rinse and repeat. Don't you think there was a chance that Mama was a mage herself and never told us? Because she had that same kind of exhausting schedule that Uesugi-kun has now?"

Blinking at their older sister, Miku and Itsuki exchange a quick glance of stunned epiphany.

"And speaking of convenience, not only that, but after she died, Papa just conveniently showed up to take care of us and pulled us out of poverty, and later when my Mystic Eyes started developing, he got me these contacts that used to stop me from activating my Eyes while I was wearing them."

"But...are you sure that something like magecraft is something that can be inherited? That it is hereditary?" Itsuki asks uncertainly.

"Fuutarou mentioned to us once or twice about how there are old mage families and such, right?" Miku tries to recall aloud. "So it should definitely be a hereditary thing, yeah."

"But we have no idea what Mother was doing for a career when she was taking care of us. We did not even bother trying to find out, in part because she was almost never home."

"And when she was home, she always seemed so tired, so we figured it was for the best if we just didn't bother her," Miku adds with melancholy.

"Exactly. So...so what proof do we have that Mother was indeed a mage as well?"

"None, but you can't deny that some things about our lives are suspicious, like the things I mentioned. And the biggest question mark of all is Uesugi-kun himself: not only is he a mage himself, but the timing of when he started tutoring us - well..." Nino points at Miku shortly. "...as in, you, Ichika, and Yotsuba at first - lines up a little too conveniently with when our Mystic Eyes started really putting themselves out there."

"Well, in that case, I do not think it is because of Uesugi-kun's timing, because Father may have hired him in response to when Ebata-san was killed," Itsuki points out. "If anything, you should suspect whoever is targeting us of somehow knowing that your Mystic Eyes are beginning to mature."

Nino twists her lips, unable to think of anything to say to refute Itsuki's argument. "...I suppose that's true...but in any case, clearly, I think we have a good reason to believe that someone, at some point, decided to keep it a secret from us that we were actually mages all this time. While I'm not thrilled at the fact that I'm one, like I said to Miku earlier, I'm even less thrilled at the fact that we've been kept from the truth this whole time and it's only just now that we're finding out about it. Was it Mama who made the call to keep it from us? Or was it Papa? I don't know. But you best believe when we find out, as long as it's not Mama, I've got a lot of questions to ask, some of which I'll be asking with my fucking fists. Now there's a promise and a half for ya."

Nino starts cracking her knuckles ominously after she says this.

"P-Please do not say such things towards Father. Like him or not, like you yourself said, he is the reason why we are even living in this penthouse today," Itsuki warns, albeit rather reservedly.

"Yeah, I know. That's just the frustration in me talking."

"Frustration..." Itsuki nervously gazes back at the older of her two older sisters. "...speaking of which, Nino, um...are you feeling better now?"

"What? Weren't you listening in on us this whole time?"

"Er, um, y-yes, I have, but - but I just wanted to...ask you myself."

Nino sighs deeply through her nose. "Yeah. For the most part. There are still a few things that I've still got to come to terms with, but...they're things that I have to handle on my own, and letting the rest of you guys get affected by my problems isn't right, now that I've taken some time to isolate myself and calm myself down." Nino returns Itsuki's gaze for a few seconds before looking down at her own lap. "...sorry about my behavior the past two days. I know you've missed my cooking, too."

"Even at a time like this, you STILL bring up food?!"

Both Nino and Miku start cracking up, holding their hands over their mouths to try to stay as quiet as possible while giggling hard while Itsuki pouts so hard she could turn rice into diamonds.

"And speaking of food, you should eat those onigiri in the microwave," Miku reminds their older sister.

"I'll eat them for breakfast, eating in the middle of the night is - "

Groooowwwwllll.

" - weird," Nino finishes her thought quickly, taking her turn now to turn red with embarrassment.

"I will go warm them up for you. You did not eat at all the past two days, have you?" Itsuki asks, getting up from the short couch to prepare the riceballs that Fuutarou has set aside for her the previous day.

"N-No...but seriously, it's...you should just let me worry about that..." Nino tries calling after Itsuki, but the latter is already headed for the kitchen, ignoring Nino's request.

"Just eat them, Nino. They're good, I can guarantee you that," Miku smiles, but her smile doesn't last either as she drops her voice down to a whisper, though it's not because she doesn't want Itsuki to hear since she'll be rejoining them soon anyway. "And...before you caught Itsuki eavesdropping on us, I wanted to tell you something that Fuutarou told me."

Nino's ears perk up. "Oh? And what's that?"

"It's about Ichika. Fuutarou told me that she's a mage too, and most likely she's been one a lot longer than any of us have been."

Hearing this, Nino's eyebrows at first rise, then furrow as she processes this information.

"Oh ho, is that so...man, this just keeps getting better and better," Nino sarcastically drawls, rolling her eyes.

"You believe him, Nino?" Miku is surprised at Nino's willingness to believe their tutor's words.

"In this case, I'm willing to trust his word, yeah, since that sounds just like what Ichika would do. Plus, you're the closest to Uesugi-kun too, so if there's anyone he'd tell that kind of info to, it'd be you."

"Um...I-I...guess so..." Miku stammers, blushing at the notion. "But...but there's...there's more to it, too. Not only has Ichika been keeping it a secret from us this whole time, whenever it was that she knew she was one, but she also has a Mystic Eye of her own, and she even knows what it does and how to use it, because she used it on Fuutarou once before."

At this, Nino turns to Miku to give her her full attention. "Interesting. Tell me more."

"Er..." Miku hesitates, "...that's...that's it, basically. Fuutarou just wanted me to know that he found out that Ichika was a mage like us. But he doesn't want us to tell Ichika that we know about her now."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best, since I wanna find out why the hell Ichika's been keeping that a secret. And judging by the fact that I knew Itsuki was hiding from us earlier, that must mean Ichika should surely know about us; no way she doesn't." Nino glances over at Itsuki, who's checking the onigiri to make sure that they're at just the right temperature for her sister. "If that's all you wanted to tell me, should we tell Itsuki about this too?"

"Erm...I...don't know..." Miku's face is contorted with pained uncertainty. "I'd...feel bad for leaving Itsuki out of the loop...like, we know that she knows that we're mages now, and she's probably one herself too, all things considered..."

"Yeah, good point, let's tell her. So that way, in case Ichika's up to no good, we can have Itsuki on our side and make sure Ichika doesn't find out about us knowing prematurely."

Miku still looks painfully uncertain, though. "...I really don't like how this is all shaping up to be, Nino. I agree that it's pretty suspicious that Ichika's been been holding out on us about her being a mage too, but...I don't want this becoming another situation like we had with you, no offense."

"I understand that, but...I don't know if we can confront Ichika about something like that without some kind of conflict coming out of it in the process, I really don't. I'll admit that the crap I've pulled could've maybe been preventable if I'd just kept my cool on Friday night, but this is Ichika we're talking about, you know? Who knows what she's got going on."

At this point, Itsuki returns with the warmed onigiri and delivers them to Nino, who accepts them, putting the plate on the glass table before her.

"You two can have one too," Nino offers her sisters, noticing that there are a total of three seasoned, reheated rice balls on her plate, but both Miku and, surprisingly, Itsuki shake their heads.

"I don't feel hungry, we ate a ton yesterday between lunch and dinner," Miku says.

"As much as you all are fond of teasing me over my eating habits, even I do not like eating in the middle of the night like this," Itsuki explains.

"Fine, then I'll be helping myself. Miku, tell her about Ichika while I'm eating."

Nino bites into the first riceball, seasoned with nori komi furikake and with cooked salmon filling, while Miku explains the situation quietly to their youngest sister, who listens with concerned attention.

"...so even Ichika too..." Itsuki notes aloud, raising her hand up to her chin in thought. "Given that it is Ichika, perhaps it is no surprise that she is the most experienced in magecraft."

"Even so, I'd still like to know how long she's been a mage. If what Uesugi-kun told Miku is a hundred percent true, that means for Ichika to know what her Mystic Eye does, she must've had it for a while and practiced using her Eye frequently or something like that. Because if you look at the two of us, neither of us know anything about our own Eyes because we just found out about them, even if technically we've both had them for a while now." Nino points out as well before moving onto her second riceball. Now that she's eaten one, her raging appetite compels her to continue eating to provide her body with the nourishment she's been denying it and she gets to work immediately on the second, this time a plain riceball with a small crunchy tempura shrimp inside. Even after eating the first riceball, Nino feels so much better already.

"This may be an offtopic question, but...what about Yotsuba?" Itsuki mentions. "The two of you are mages for sure, though it is likely that I am one too, Uesugi-kun claims that Ichika is one...which leaves only Yotsuba."

"If the four of us are either mages or likely to be one, then let's just assume that Yotsuba's one too just to make this easy on us. If only one or two of us were mages, sure, maybe there could be a chance that the others aren't, but that's not the case for us," Nino replies.

"We just have no evidence to suggest that Yotsuba is aware of herself as one," Miku adds.

"Right. So I say for now, we leave her alone. She's the kind to just let it slip on accident, which would be risky now that we're trying to keep Ichika from knowing that we know about her being a mage too."

The two younger sisters nod slowly, but they both independently think to themselves about how doing so brings them considerable discomfort that they're keeping a secret from one of their sisters.

"It's funny, though, Nino, how you wanted to keep us from changing, yet here we are, agreeing to you to keep all this a secret from Yotsuba," Miku mentions aloud.

"Didn't you say that we were all going to change eventually? And Uesugi-kun's been accelerating the process, so what difference does it make if I throw my own hat into the ring, so to speak?" Nino scoffs lightly, already working on her third riceball.

"Whoa - you are really wolfing those down. Are you a twin of mine or something?" Itsuki smirks a little, in revenge for the food joke that Nino made earlier.

"We're quintuplets, not twins, get it right, Itsuki," Nino gripes shortly at the younger of her two younger sisters, who smiles back at her with the satisfaction of a joke precisely delivered. "In any case, I think we're just about done talking here; it's already been almost an hour and we risk waking the others up the longer we stick around down here and talk. Remember, keep everything we talked about here a secret from Ichika and Yotsuba."

"What else should we do, though?" the fifth quintuplet asks, to which Nino simply shrugs.

"Just act like everything's the usual, I guess. Ichika shouldn't confront us with anything because we know that most likely she's been keeping her own magecraft a secret from us on purpose unless we let it slip first, so as long as none of us leaks any info, we should be safe."

Taking one final bite to finish her third and last onigiri, Nino stands up finally, her stomach filled with food thanks to the sheer size of the riceballs that Fuutarou made that caused them to be almost twice the size of regular convenience store riceballs.

"I'll put away my plate; you two get going and go to bed," she advises, and Miku and Itsuki get up from their seats to comply and to go use the bathroom while their older sister journeys back to the kitchen, where she is about to wash her plate but then decides against it, as the noise might wake up their two sisters upstairs. Then again, the flushing of the toilet in the bathroom might be loud enough to wake them up, but Miku oftentimes goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so neither of them should suspect anything is afoot.

Once Itsuki is done with her business and Nino's removed her contacts, the three quintuplets venture back up to their rooms together.

"Make sure you get some actual sleep, Nino," Miku advises her older sister in a small whisper now that they're slowly tiptoeing their way back up the stairs. "I know you haven't been sleeping much."

"Tch, this whole magic stuff's really annoying, I swear..." Nino grumbles back. "But yes, I'll make sure to go to sleep now."

Arriving at her room first, Nino puts a hand on the door handle but stops, and her two younger sisters, noticing her hesitation, also halt to see what's wrong.

"...I know I can be hard to deal with sometimes," Nino whispers to them, glancing at them one more time for the night, "but...even though I still need to sort things out on my end...thanks for putting up with me. I know you all wanted to talk to me, but leaving me alone was...probably the right thing to do."

Both Miku and Itsuki nod and offer warm smiles back at their older sister.

"Just make sure to apologize properly to everyone later in the morning," Itsuki reminds her.

"I will, geez, I get it."

"Good night, everyone," Miku nods, and the sisters bid each other good night and each retire to their respective bedrooms.

Once inside her own room, the second quintuplet silently pushes the door closed, making sure to hold the handle down while the door is fitting into its frame before slowly letting it return to its upright position to make sure it closes without a sound. She trudges back over to her unkempt bed with one more big sigh of the night before making her bed properly and then getting back into it with a satisfied stomach. The thought of going to sleep on such a full stomach is disturbing to Nino, who normally makes sure not to eat anything for at least two hours before going to sleep for fear of gaining unnecessary weight, but she has no room to worry about such niceties now.

As she snuggles underneath her sheets, Nino remembers what Miku said, that Fuutarou was the one who made those riceballs that she ate for her, which then leads her to remember that Fuutarou had offered to bring her lunch yesterday.

Hold on a second - did he make riceballs specifically for her because he still had that in mind? Since riceballs aren't exactly something you'd eat for dinner; even Uesugi-kun should know that, for all the times he's gone without feeding himself properly...and even if he's not as good at cooking as she is, he should still be able to make a more appropriate dinner...

"...there's no way," Nino mumbles softly into the top of her blanket, beginning to grip the top of it with both hands to press her lips against its underside as she feels her face heat up in the dark. "There's no way..."

But this is Uesugi-kun in question; he's definitely smart enough to remember what he said and make good on it. No, actually, it's got less to do with his intelligence and more so with him as a person.

The bags of clothes he carried around and then back to their hotel for her on foot during their Golden week vacation.

The surprise fireworks that he treated them to.

The dango that he gave her the day she managed to sabotage his weekend tutoring lesson, and the grape Ramune he bought for her the same day when Miku pointed it out to her later, most likely because he knew that Miku would just grab a drink that Nino wouldn't like, probably because he noticed that she likes sweet things.

The times they spent cooking together, however teeth-clenched and unwilling their cooperation may have been at times.

The day that he injured himself even more getting them to school on time for their midterms because of a prior injury he sustained from keeping Itsuki safe, even if he was the reason why they were about to be late in the first place.

The night he treated her injury and meticulously and completely healed it, not even letting a scar form where it should have on her shoulder, despite Nino herself giving him an especially hard time; not to mention the fact that he saved her a second time from a dangerous situation just before that, even if he was a little late to the party.

The time when he came to her room not to ask her if she was okay, but just to tell her that he intended to keep his promise to her by bringing her a parfait and lunch.

The time when he made good on that promise, at least half of it, by making her riceballs to eat.

And, of course, all the tutoring that he's done for them.

Unable to help herself, Nino begins to softly bite the inside of her lower lip with her front teeth.

"I hate you," she whispers, again into the top of her blanket. "I really hate you..."