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.

64. Second Goodbye

"I'm going to make some tea. Want some?"

Inside Nakano Nino's hotel room, three out of the five possible quintuplets have gathered for a second time, at least these three in particular. Itsuki has taken an awkward seat on the couch by the large glass windows that constitutes as one of the room's walls, not knowing what else to do now that she's in the presence of the one sister of hers that she's supposed to be at odds with. In her defense, Itsuki is still somewhat emotionally fried from the events of the previous night, so having to deal with another potentially stressful situation isn't exactly letting her recover, but the fifth quintuplet feels that she's had both enough time and enough emotional support from both Fuutarou and Miku to be able to take this situation head-on. Now that she's here and it's time to do the deed, Itsuki isn't so sure anymore, so she sits with her head bowed and her profile shrunk miserably on the couch, trying feebly to think of something she should do to kickstart what will inevitably be the most awkward conversation of her life.

The feeling is mutual for that sibling too, for Nino has simply walked up to the glass windows to peer out to the rest of the city's downtown, checking her phone absentmindedly to pretend like she's busy checking social media or the like when in reality she has no idea what to do either. She's spent a good amount of time since her tutor left her here in this hotel room that he's booked for her until now thinking about what her course of action following everything that's happened so far should be, and every reasonable choice she can take, as few of them as she can find, leads to her going back home. The combination of her newly self-acknowledged feelings for her tutor and her unwillingness to cause him any more hardship as far as his jobs are concerned regarding the quints also support this, so she can't deny that she's been in the mood to go back home, and thus Nino has subconsciously been preparing herself for such an outcome. It's just that now, with Itsuki and Miku here so suddenly with only a mere five minutes' advance notice from her tutor himself, Nino feels her grudge against Itsuki bubbling back up somewhat, just not as viciously as it would have if Fuutarou had never intervened. If it were still there, then Nino would have slammed the door in Itsuki's face without question, but thankfully that's not the case here. It also helps that Itsuki is acting withdrawn and apologetic, which forces Nino's residual grudge to cool off significantly...but it's not enough to bring the two together just yet.

Only Miku seems to be active in this tense atmosphere, taking the liberty to go over to the tea set in the hotel room to prepare some tea for herself and her sisters, even though she doesn't have the best expertise to operate it. For someone who was racked with guilt for accidentally dragging her youngest sister into a bloody and terrifying nightmare the night before, Miku has recovered rapidly and is taking on this situation with another sister of hers in stride, but her inability to use the tea set is bugging Nino, who does know how to use it, so inadvertently Miku forces Nino to chip out of her standoffish stance in front of the glass windows as the latter glances over in slight annoyance to the former, wondering what on Earth Miku is doing with the tea set.

Nino watches Miku fumble around with the tea set for a minute. Thinking about it, even though she knows that she shouldn't act hostile towards her sisters anymore, the second quintuplet realizes quietly that her sisters may figure out themselves that something must have changed about her if she didn't treat them with a believable degree of hostility, so Nino prepares to act as though she's turned back the clock forty-eight hours or so. It's one thing for her to finally accept her real feelings towards Uesugi Fuutarou, but it's another thing entirely for her own sisters to learn of them as well, and Nino doesn't feel like making that known just yet.

"Listen, I'm not going back home no matter what you're gonna say," Nino calls, testing the waters to see how her sisters will react. "So if you came here to do that, you're wasting your time."

"We'll get to that in a second. First, did you want some tea or not?" Miku asks calmly.

"This is my room, and you're asking if I want tea...?" Nino rolls her eyes rather dramatically. "Ugh. First it was Fu - Uesugi-kun yesterday, now it's you two...just why can't people realize that I just wanna be left alone, goddamn it?"

Internally, though, Nino is kicking herself for almost giving herself away for addressing her tutor in a much friendlier manner than what her sisters are used to. That was a close call.

"Yeah, Fuutarou told us about it," Miku nods, still fumbling around with the tea set as best she can to mostly no avail.

"Did he, now?"

"Mhm. But he didn't really go in much detail about it. What happened?"

"What do you mean, what happened?"

"Like, what he did tell us was that apparently, you ran away from this hotel room somewhere, and Fuutarou had to track you down and bring you back here. What happened between you two for something like that to happen?"

Nino pauses, for the direction mention of her escape to the amusement park outside of the city causes memories of her time spent alone with the boy for whom she has feelings to resurface. Fighting the blush that threatens to appear on her face, Nino successfully composes herself and sneers back at Miku a little, glancing down at her phone to look nonchalant about it.

"Oh ho? So you wanna hear about what happened between us, huh? You really wanna know that bad? I wonder if I should really tell you now..."

But Miku, unimpressed by Nino's usual facade, shrugs her sister's teasing attitude off. "Well, if you don't want to talk about it, then that's that. Doesn't really bother me..."

And she returns to trying to get the tea set to work properly, making Nino frown a little, not that she was expecting much herself either. Honestly, what's more annoying to Nino by this point is the fact that Miku still can't get the tea set to work, so groaning rather loudly, Nino stomps a little over to Miku at the tea set.

"God, you're so annoying! Move it, I'll handle this." Nino puts her hand on Miku's left shoulder to shove her aside, but remembering that this is just an act that she's putting up, Nino deliberately restrains herself and slowly but assertively pushes Miku to the side a bit just to make room for herself, and Miku complies smoothly.

Miku then spies some papers stacked neatly on the wall shelves to her left that is supporting the TV, and the writing on those papers is familiar. She wonders to herself why the papers seem to be all taped up for some reason, but then she understands why.

"You're alright with black tea, right?"

"Green tea for me," Miku corrects her sister.

"Oh for fuck's sake!"

As she gets to work with the tea set, Nino pauses again, remembering that there's still Itsuki.

"...what kind of tea do you want, Itsuki?" Nino calls over, but she doesn't turn to see Itsuki's reaction, which is to look up from where she's sitting on the couch over to Nino's back.

"...um, just...just green tea too, please," Itsuki responds lightly.

For some reason that she can't quite explain to herself, Nino feels a bit irked that there are more people in the room who prefer green tea over black tea.

Nonetheless, Nino finishes preparing tea for her last-minute guests, and all three sisters sit on the couch together with their three cups of tea, one black and two green, sitting on the small oval table sitting before them. Nino sits in between her sisters, having made Itsuki scoot over to make room for her and Miku.

"...you'll get sick if you put in that much sugar," Miku remarks, watching Nino tear open a sugar packet to add to her black tea.

"Oh, shut it, that's my choice isn't it. Besides, the best part about black tea is how much you can customize its taste by adding all sorts of things to it, like sugar," Nino explains shortly, mixing the sugar thoroughly into her tea with a teaspoon.

"Yeah, I don't really get it. That, and at least with how you make black tea, it's too sweet for me."

"That's because you drink green tea, and frickin' boomers drink green tea all the time, don't they? So it's no wonder you wouldn't get the appeal of black tea."

"Not that I ever wanted to. Besides, you're just a zoomer who has no knowledge of what having refined taste is like."

"My own sister? Calling me a zoomer?" Nino scoffs with an amused tone.

"Well, if you're going to compare to me to old people and make fun of me for it..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Nino pulls up her teacup to drink her black tea. "I'm not in the mood to fight with you too right now."

Silence follows the second quint's last spoken thought, only broken by the same quint's sips, which invite the two other quints next to her to do the same, as Miku's and Itsuki's green teas don't necessarily need anything else to be enjoyed.

"I'm assuming either Yotsuba or Uesugi-kun told you where I was, and I'm going to assume it was Uesugi-kun given that he texted me about you two coming here. He's the only reason why I'm even letting you two be here right now thanks to what he's done for me and Yotsuba the other night," Nino says quietly.

"Well, if you'd never gotten into that fight with Itsuki, none of us would even be here right now in the first place," Miku points out coldly.

"Yeah, well, that's besides the damn point. The point is: if you came out all this way just to sit here and drink tea with me, then get the hell out once you're done," Nino demands in turn, retaking the initiative and setting the ball firmly this time in her sisters' court. "You don't have a lot of time to waste now, do you?"

Miku lowers her own teacup to lean out and peek over at their youngest sibling. "Itsuki?"

Knowing that it's her time to talk, Itsuki clears her throat quietly and politely and sets her teacup down on the table before her before clasping her hands on her lap. She takes a deep breath and -

"Nino, I've...um..."

Itsuki's face reddens when she finds herself already messing up what she wants to say, but she maintains her own composure and takes it back a step.

"Please come back home with us so that we can study for finals together."

Nino takes another sip from her teacup. She doesn't do so out of apathy, but out of quiet, masked surprise that Itsuki has somehow reached the same conclusion that she did. It shouldn't be surprising, though, since Fuutarou straight up told her that he'd go over to Itsuki and talk to her again, but Nino didn't really expect him to actually change Itsuki's mind, unless Itsuki is somehow a lot less stubborn than what she last remembers. Then again, it's Fuutarou they're talking about here, though it really feels as though Itsuki is being genuine about this matter, and not just a matter of her acting this way only because Fuutarou told her to or because it'd benefit him the most.

"Alright."

Amidst another sip of sugared black tea, Nino listens to her sisters flanking her simply gawk at her in total surprise, her simple, straightforward answer having left them both stunned. The second quintuplet can't help but to let out a small, amused grin, despite her best attempts to suppress it.

"...just like that, Nino?" Miku breathes, beside herself with disbelief. "You're not going to, like...argue with us? Yell at us for bothering you?"

"I mean, I already did by telling you two to get out of my room after you're both done with your tea," Nino shrugs.

Miku slowly puts her hands on Nino, who at first lets her do so but then looks over at her with a raised eyebrow because Miku is in the middle of feeling her all over like she can't believe what she's seeing.

"...who are you, and what did you or Fuutarou do with the real Nino?" Miku asks hoarsely.

"You friggin' idiot, you can't even be sure that it's your own sister after only two days of not seeing me? Did you really miss me that bad?" Sighing exasperatedly, Nino closes her eyes for a moment, then reopens them to display her royal purple Mystic Eyes at her younger sister. "There. I don't even know why I'm doing this, but just in case you're being serious about me possibly being fake, that should clear it up now."

"Nino, are...are you serious? You really will go back home with us today?" Itsuki also asks lightly, unable to believe her insane luck that Nino is apparently fine with going back home with them. "But...w-why? We...Miku and I came here expecting to get into another argument with you here. Even though we have had two days apart from one another to calm down...you usually do not let go of things like this so easily, right? What changed your mind so quickly this time?"

Put back under the spotlight, Nino sets down her own teacup on the table.

"...wait, Nino, could it...could it be because of..." Coming to a bit of an epiphany on her own even before Nino starts to explain herself, Miku goes wide-eyed at her older sister. "...Fuutarou?"

"Surely he has to've told you about how he spent all of yesterday tracking me down and bringing me back here and stuff? I don't know why he'd hide something like that from you...I certainly didn't tell him to hide anything from the rest of you either," Nino says calmly. Even the stable calmness with which Nino carries herself comes off as rather eerie to her pair of sisters.

"Well, yeah, he did, but...like we said earlier, he did not tell us much about what the two of you did. What did he do to get you to change your mind for us?" Itsuki asks.

Nino glances back and forth at both of her sisters.

"Remember that one amusement park we went to as kids with Mama?" she asks them.

"You went there?!" Miku exclaims, plunged in even deeper disbelief. "Fuutarou - you made Fuutarou find you all the way out there...?"

"I sure did. And he sure as hell found me."

"But why!?" The third quintuplet can't help but to leap up to her feet, and both Nino and Itsuki look back up at her, though Itsuki does so much more in alarm. "Why did you make him go all the way out there?! That's not even in the city, that's a whole two hours' train ride from here, and not by bullet train, too! Fuutarou saved you and Yotsuba from that bad guy who hurt you and kidnapped you, booked a hotel room for you two so that he could treat the two of you, and then you just up and took off for the amusement park?"

"Yes, because I had a lot of shit going through my mind and I wanted to go somewhere where I thought I could be by myself for at least a little while before Uesugi-kun found me. And sure enough, he found me just fine, am I right? Now sit your ass down, Miku, we're not going anywhere if you start yelling at me like that."

Glaring down at Nino, Miku slowly sinks back down onto the couch, but she doesn't break eye contact with her older sister.

"...that place is very far away, Nino. Why did you make him go all the way out there just to find you...?" Itsuki repeats Miku's question but with a more composed demeanor, for she too is curious about the events that took place involving just her and their tutor.

"Didn't I just fucking answer that? Because I needed some time alone, and so I went to a place that would take him a bit of time to find! What part of that did you not understand?" Nino's voice starts to rise along with her growing frustration at her sisters.

"Even though you and Yotsuba were attacked just the night before? And you still thought that going out by yourself was a good idea?" Miku hisses; it's quite clear that the third quintuplet is not happy about hearing this particular detail. "Because when Fuutarou told us about that, he didn't tell us that he had to track you down to a freaking amusement park! So Itsuki and I just thought that you'd gone to another hotel to try to run away from him or something!"

"If I stayed in this city, then he would've found me just like that, so of course I traveled out!" Nino snaps her fingers for emphasis. "And if he's saved us three or four times before, he can do it again, can't he? That's his job, right?"

"But you don't need to make it even harder for him than it already is!"

Nino flashes her eyes towards Miku angrily, wanting to fire off another bitter retort at her, but none comes. Instead, Nino reaches down to grab her teacup and take another careful sip.

"...I know I made his job harder, even after everything that I've made him do, and I do feel bad about that. For what it's worth, though, he wasn't angry at me at allfor making him go out all that way, so if he didn't get triggered by that, neither should you. Don't go being mad for him, alright?"

"Well, being mad or not aside..." Itsuki tries her best to intervene as she senses sparks beginning to fly between her two sisters. "We are assuming that Uesugi-kun talked to you before bringing you back to this hotel, and that is why you have told us that you are willing to return home with us today. What did he tell you? What did the two of you do to make you change your mind?"

"And how in the world did he even find you out there of all places...?" Miku wonders aloud, though mainly to herself.

"I don't know, but c'mon, he's a mage, he's probably got his ways, but never mind that..." Nino sets down her teacup for what seems like the last time. "Long story short is that...well, he...he..."

Taking the deepest breath that she's taken in all of high school thus far, Nino jumps up from the couch like Miku did and turns around to face down at her sisters still sitting.

"Uesugi-kun...that guy, I just don't get him! I don't get him at all!" the second quintuplet declares hotly, starting to act more like the Nino the two other quintuplets are familiar with. "I pull all these dumb shenanigans, right? I get into a fight with Itsuki, run away from home, drag Yotsuba with me on accident, get the two of us kidnapped and stabbed or whatever and force Uesugi-kun to come save us, keep us safe here in this hotel room, and take care of our injuries, and then I just run out on his ass all the way to the amusement park and force him to come looking for me to bring me back. And when he finally finds me, you know what he does? You wanna know what he does?!"

Miku and Itsuki, having realized as Nino is in the middle of her rant that their tutor might have done something less than savory to Nino that he may not have informed them about, tense up while listening to their sister.

"...w-what did he do?" Itsuki asks nervously, gulping a little.

"Get this, okay?" Nino leans in a little at her sisters with her hands on her hips. "He APOLOGIZES to me!"

A different kind of silence grips the three quintuplets. Itsuki blinks a little up at Nino, as if she's unsure of what she's just heard come out of Nino's mouth, while Miku simply narrows her eyes a bit.

"...uh, okay?" Miku replies back abruptly.

"W-What kind of a weak-ass reaction is that?!" Nino cries; now it's her turn to take a dip in Disbelief Lake. "C'mon, you two know me, you're my fucking sisters for God's sake! Why the hell would someone like Uesugi-kun think that apologizing to me after all the bullshit I've pulled on him was the right thing to do?!"

"I mean..." Miku lowers her own teacup after taking a sip of her own, "...that's...that sounds like Fuutarou...doesn't it?"

"That is correct. Uesugi-kun...when it comes to any of his responsibilities involving us and not academics, he has always treated us very kindly," Itsuki reminds Nino gently. "He has never gotten angry at us or scolded us for the things we have done to get ourselves in trouble. It might seem hard to believe with all the scolding he has given us over our test scores and our collective inability to study, but if you think about it, he has never once yelled at us for anything else."

"Yeah. Even three months ago, on the night we first found out that Fuutarou was a mage, he saved us from those kidnappers at the warehouse, took us back home, healed Itsuki's bloody nose, explained to us who he really was and what his other job was, and then left. All the other incidents that everyone's been through...he's never held any of them against us. Maybe it's because he just has a strong sense of professionalism when it comes to mage stuff or he just takes his job as a mage super seriously, but him reacting like that to you isn't a surprise at all, to be honest."

"Weren't you going to rip me a new one for basically dragging Uesugi-kun all the way out to the amusement park? Why're you so nonchalant about this now?" Nino points out.

"Because that's another matter entirely. I'll admit I'm a bit tilted that you forced Fuutarou to find you all the way out there, but as for him saying sorry to you even though it should've been the other way around? That I'm not terribly surprised by."

Itsuki offers a small smile up at her standing older sister.

"Uesugi-kun really cares about us a lot, Nino," she says softly, gazing back down at her teacup. "On the first night, the night that we both ran out of the house, when he found me, he said that the most important thing that he cared about was to keep us together. He did not care so much about our finals this week, or that we were going to lose out on a lot of studying for it because of everything that has happened. Rather, he...he wanted me to reconcile with you, Nino."

Nino blinks down at Itsuki. "But...that's gotta be because that way, we get back together faster and he gets to teach us most efficiently, right? Like, of course he'd say something like that!"

"No, no, not for the sake of teaching us. He was genuinely worried about us...about our relationship as sisters, or...or so I feel."

She doesn't know it, but Nino's jaw is going somewhat slack as the second quintuplet sees the moments she spent with her tutor and classmate on that bridge at the amusement park flash through her eyes, and the words that he spoke to her that time.

He's always cared about us.

He's always cared about us.

Nino knew that. Of course she knows that. Especially now, after coming to terms with her feelings for him. But up until now, Nino had only thought of herself; she'd only considered her own personal relationship with him. Only now, with two of her sisters here to point it out to her, does she realize that it wasn't just her that Fuutarou was working so hard to protect.

Why didn't she realize this herself sooner?

"...Nino?" Itsuki asks apprehensively while raising her hands uncertainly at her sister. "Are you alright...?"

Nino has hunched her back and clenched her teeth, her normal blue eyes cast down at the base of the couch.

"...all this time..." Miku and Itsuki can hear Nino begin mumbling to herself. "...all this time...all this fucking time..."

A loud sniffle then suddenly shocks the relative silence of the room apart from Nino's mumbling, causing both of the other quints to sit up in alarm to find Nino, to their surprised horror, begin to flat-out cry.

"I can't...forgive him..." Nino chokes through her tears. "...I can't...I can't, I just...I just...fucking...can't..."

Before either Miku or Itsuki can decide what to do with a crying Nino, that crying Nino who's doing her best to suppress as many of her tears as she can sinks back down onto her seat on the couch, wiping what tears she can away with the backs of her hands.

"That fucker...he told me something along those lines, too," the second quint says as Miku returns from the mini-fridge near the tea set with a chilled bottle of water to give to Nino, which she takes gratefully and swigs to help fight her tears. "He told me when he first found me at the amusement park...that he wasn't angry at me or anything for any of the shit I'd done, but that...he was just relieved to know that I hadn't gone out that far because I hated any of you. Itsuki, mainly."

Miku's eyes grow wide again as she sits back down next to Nino. "He did...? He said that...?"

Nino stares down at her water bottle, which she's chugged half of in one go.

"Well, I guess in case it's not obvious enough already, I think it's fair to say that my, uh, opinion of Uesugi-kun has changed by this point," Nino declares loudly again, though in a more positive tone than before. "I actually don't think of him as some loser who's been trying to break up my family or change our status quo anymore. Because..."

Miku and Itsuki wait for Nino to continue her thought, which is interrupted by Nino herself in the form of a markedly long pause.

"...because?" Itsuki asks to urge Nino along.

"...because I entrusted the promise that I made to everyone to him now," the second quintuplet informs her sisters quietly, dropping her voice to match. "The promise I made to you guys back when Mama died."

"What do you mean by 'entrusted'?" Miku asks.

"I mean that I've come to realize that I can't keep that promise to you guys anymore. I'm not strong enough - scratch that, I'm not strong at all. I'm too dumb and I'm too selfish. For the longest time, I kept rejecting Uesugi-kun because I thought he'd do nothing but pull you guys away from me when in reality, he was the one who'd keep us all together. So I told him that at the amusement park, and I asked him to keep that promise for me."

The three quintuplets fall silent again, until Itsuki pipes up softly.

"...so...if you feel this way...do you feel that you are ready to return home to study...?" the youngest quint asks uncertainly and rather sheepishly.

"Do I? Fuck, I don't know." Nino sighs heavily. "I know I said that I'd go back home today with you, and I'm serious about that. But like...even before you two arrived, I'd been giving it some thought, and I just can't help but worry that if we do go back, we'll just go back to having another big fight and having another big falling out like we almost did, between the two of us."

Sitting up, Nino again glances back and forth at her two sisters.

"We've been getting stressed lately living together under the same roof. A big part of it is because of me, I know, I'll own up to it. But so many things've changed since we were little, like our preferences, our behaviors, stuff like that, and the differences among us now are because of that, am I wrong? What's to say that we won't have another big incident like this, and we make Uesugi-kun run around trying to glue us back together again or something? Because as much as I don't want to do that after what I've already made him do the past two days, knowing me, it very well could happen again!"

"No, you're right. We could very well have these big fights again," Miku agrees quietly.

"Right? So...as weird as it is that I'm asking this now, what's the point of us getting back together if all it's gonna do is inevitably lead to another big-ass fight that ends up like this, or worse?"

"Didn't I tell you before, Nino? Because we're family. And that should be reason enough for us to get together again." Miku smiles gently at her older sister. "We've...had this conversation before, didn't we?"

Nino's eyes meet with Miku's for a moment.

"...yeah, we did," Nino murmurs, looking away again. "You don't need to go over it again, though."

"I wasn't planning to, since I figured it might annoy you."

"You know me so well, don't you."

"Well, enough to know that you've been changing alongside with the rest of us. You didn't always drink black tea, for example."

Nino squints at Nino incredulously. "...and that's the best example you could come up with? So much for knowing me so well, I guess."

"It's just an example," Miku pouts a little at Nino. "You all knew about me liking Sengoku warlords and stuff, didn't you?"

"We didn't really have a choice, not with you having that one emblem as your phone wallpaper and all, you know?" Nino snorts, and Itsuki throws up a hand over her mouth to hide her sudden grin, so Miku pouts at both of them at once.

"My point is that we're all just five parts of one person, figuratively speaking," the third quintuplet continues. "So think of each of us as twenty percent out of a hundred. We all contribute our own twenty percent with our personal likes, dislikes, thoughts, emotions, feelings, and experiences and share them among us for everyone to share. For instance, here's my twenty percent right here."

Reaching over to Nino's teacup, Miku picks it up and drains the rest of the remaining black tea in it with both of her sisters looking on. Just as expected, Miku cringes a little from the taste of black tea that she's not accustomed to.

"...like I thought, this is way too damn sweet," she groans softly after putting the teacup back down and wiping her mouth.

"Yeah, like, what did you expect after drinking nothing but green tea all this time," Nino scoffs.

"I know that. But even though I didn't like it, the fact that I got to experience this taste is thanks to you. So by sharing these kinds of things with each other, we'll come across things that we might end up liking that we never would have gone out of our way to try if it weren't for each other. It's just that...black tea isn't quite it for me, unfortunately, haha."

Miku tussles her hair a bit.

"Think about it, Nino. Yes, back when we were kids, we were all the same, so we always got along. But if we'd stayed that way, we would have never grown; we all would've been stuck at that 20% that I mentioned us being. Everyone's got their own opinions on this, but me personally, I've come to realize that part of growing up is about handling conflicts and managing them effectively. It would be nice if we could all grow up and change in ways that didn't cause us to be at odds with each other, but I think we can all agree that that's an unreasonable thing to expect; at some point, we'll run into hardship or difficulty. But thankfully for us, we're quintuplets; we don't have to face what lies ahead alone, now, do we."

"Mother told us to share everything that we felt with each other, after all," Itsuki mentions, finding a time where she can finally contribute something to the conversation. "Whether we laugh or cry, gossip or argue, every one of us has grown up a little differently. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses; strengths that we can share with each other and make up for each other's weaknesses. Yes, our differences can certainly result in clashes in preference or even ideology, but if we can navigate those moments correctly, then we come out of them all the stronger and a little more grown up each time. So there should be nothing wrong with how different we have become, Nino."

Nino listens patiently to her two younger sisters. Normally she'd get bored of her sisters lecturing her like this, even if it's not really lecturing per se, but being back together with her sisters and knowing that they are all safe and sound and spending time with each other brings a certain peace and happiness to Nino that she's been missing the past two days. Even this past day without any contact with her sisters is enough to make her appreciate being back with her sisters all that much more.

Once Itsuki's done talking her part, the second quintuplet decides to reach over to Miku's teacup to try out her sister's green tea. But just like Miku, Nino sticks her tongue out in a bit of disgust in reaction to drinking this green tea.

"Bleeeehhh, this shit's so bitter...on second thought, everything you said up 'til now was fine and all, but goddamn, green tea is disgusting as shit," Nino snorts loudly, causing Miku to pout a third time. "But I guess this is good in the sense that now I know for sure that black tea is the way to go."

"You do know that black tea still has bitterness in it, right?" Miku challenges. "But you don't know that since you overdose your black tea on sugar additives."

"Fuck if I care!" Nino spits back lightly, but merely in banter. "The bitterness in black tea is more elegant! How much you wanna bet that black tea's extracted from higher quality tea leaves than green tea?"

"Green tea's bitterness has more depth to it," Miku counters swiftly. "And I bet the opposite; green tea has got to be from better leaves."

"Er..."

Nino and Miku turn to their younger sister at the same time to find Itsuki giving them quite the awkward smile.

"...I do not mean to ruin the competition, but...as a matter of fact, both black and green tea are derived from the same tea leaf, the Camellia sinensis," Itsuki explains quite cheerfully, perhaps because this is a subject that she can speak confidently on. "The only difference in how they are made is their fermentation process: leaves intended to make black tea are rolled and exposed to air, triggering an oxidation process that gives the leaves their dark color. Green tea leaves are processed so that they do not oxidize. That is all."

Nino scowls over to her youngest sister. "That's a load of bull, there's no way in hell these two kinds of tea could come from the same leaves! How the hell do they taste so different, then?"

"Because the oxidization process that makes black tea leaves is what gives black tea its strong flavor. It is a biochemical process, so naturally it may not be very reminiscent of green tea or vice versa," Itsuki continues to explain patiently.

"Geez, since when did you learn so much about tea - " In the middle of her own thought, Nino slaps her hand against her own face. "Goddamn it, I forgot, your best subject is science, isn't it. Of course you'd know about stuff like this..."

"She does drink tea with us, in case you forgot," Miku reminds Nino. "And unlike us, she doesn't mind either. Right, Itsuki?"

Itsuki nods with an earnest smile. "I like both black and green tea! I have never had a distinct preference for one over the other."

In the meantime, Nino whips out her phone to fact-check Itsuki on her knowledge of black and green tea production, and sure enough, Google confirms this, so Nino decides to just shut up and hold this L.

"Whatever. I bet you black tea's healthier or something," Nino remarks offhandedly, but naturally Itsuki picks up on this.

"Actually, studies have shown that both black and green tea have very similar health benefits, and there has not been much evidence that heavily favors one type of tea's health benefits over the other. Essentially, it comes down to preference in the teas themselves - though black tea does typically have more caffeine in it than green tea."

Nino glances over at Miku for a moment, and Miku gazes back, wondering what Nino is looking at her like this for.

"More caffeine, huh? That sure explains the difference between us two," Nino smirks a little.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean," Miku pouts again, causing Nino to let out a much needed giggle before the latter stands back up to fix more tea for her sisters.

"So what've you two been up to? Now that I've told you about I've been doing," Nino asks her sisters as she sets everyone's refilled teacups back down on the table table in front of the couch.

"Er...well..." Miku leans over to look over at Itsuki. "...is it alright if we talk about it, Itsuki?"

Itsuki nods. "I believe it is for the best, given that...the three of us have talked like this before."

"Why, what happened? Sounds pretty serious," Nino remarks after a quick sip of some more black tea.

"That's because it is. Remember the nightmares and the panic attacks I'd get randomly sometimes in the middle of the night?" Miku says. "Well...yesterday night, I asked Itsuki to show me her Mystic Eyes, and while nothing happened then, when we went to sleep yesterday, we...I think I dragged her by accident into the nightmare that I usually have."

Nino merely narrows her eyes because she doesn't understand the significance of what her sisters are saying. "...so you made Itsuki enter one of your dreams? Is that it? How's that even...ugh, never mind, that's not even worth asking because this is all some magic bullshit that none of us understand except for Uesugi-kun..."

"Nino, this is serious. I don't know how something like this could happen to Itsuki but not to you," Miku insists, dropping her voice to assume a more serious tone. "You and I have shown each other our Mystic Eyes several times before but nothing happened. The moment I look at Itsuki's, all of a sudden, I find her inside my own nightmare. I didn't want to do that! She should never have been there!"

"Well, like...I don't know what to tell you either, you know! I'm going to be honest with you, did you really expect me to help with any of this when I have no idea what's going on? And how bad is this nightmare anyway that you're even telling me about it? It's just a bad dream or whatever, right? Sleep paralysis is a thing, you know, and Itsuki's supposed to be the scientist here, right?"

Miku leans forward closer to Nino, who subconsciously leans backwards on the couch.

"Nino, this nightmare that I have...it's a world filled with nothing but blood," Miku whispers through tightened teeth.

The mental image that Miku's words induce in Nino's head when the latter hears them immediately grips Nino, given that she's not the biggest fan of seeing open blood either. So while she would like to give a snarky response to this saying that Miku is just being a little too edgy or something, Nino can't, so she simply takes another uncomfortable sip of tea.

"You don't really like the sight of blood too, right? Even if you don't have full-blown hemophobia like she does. But she was there somehow, and...and she was literally screaming her head off," Miku describes, and her voice begins to shake a little when she does, for the memory also brings with it the trauma that both quints felt at the time. "You've seen me one time right after I had one of those nightmares, right? Then you should imagine how Itsuki must've been like."

Starting to feel bad for her youngest sister, Nino eeks her neck in her general direction out of growing concern, since it's starting to dawn on Nino that this must have literally just happened earlier this morning before the two sisters came here to the hotel.

"...was it really that bad, Itsuki?" Nino asks reservedly, and Itsuki nods slowly, casting her eyes down at the floor.

"...I do not think I can describe it adequately, what I felt in there..."

"Don't tell her to remember it, Nino...!" Miku says quickly, earning the rapid ire of her older sister.

"I wasn't going to! I just asked her if it really was as bad as you made it out to be!" Nino scowls again at the older of her two younger sisters. "Like, seriously, you gotta understand that this isn't something I can really help out with!"

Itsuki takes her own sip of some more green tea to calm her rebounding nerves. "I can say that it was bad enough where...when I woke up, Raiha-chan had to call Uesugi-kun to come check on me and...and calm me down."

The sudden mention of their tutor seizes Nino's attention, and Nino has to check herself before she gives off too strong a reaction.

"...what did he do? To, uh, you know...calm you down or whatever," she asks as calmly as possible, unable to resist her surging curiosity that risks revealing her own newly established feelings towards the boy in question.

"Uh - "

Having failed to think ahead that far, Itsuki, now tasked with detailing the intimate moments she's spent with their tutor earlier this morning that she only now realizes would be quite embarrassing to share with her sisters, trails off and falls silent, and when Nino and Miku peer over at her to see what the holdup is about, they find a steaming, glowing Itsuki with her face in her hands.

"Oh ho ho, this's starting to sound pretty juicy with how you're reacting," Nino grins with a touch of sadism as she leans in towards Itsuki.

"N-Nino, don't tease her over something like that..." Trying to salvage what's left of Itsuki's dignity, Miku attempts to stop Nino from further teasing their younger sister.

"Hey, let's not forget that it was you two who came to my hotel room today. So - "

"But you didn't book it, Fuutarou did, didn't he? When he brought you and Yotsuba here to look after you two."

"I bet he's just using Papa's funds or something to pay for this, there's no way his broke ass would be able to afford a luxury suite like this one. So that means it's just as good as me having paid for it!"

Miku cringes at her sister. "Yikes, I can see why Fuutarou calls you a spoiled bitch sometimes..."

"You're sisters with that same spoiled bitch, I'll have you know!" Nino whips back to Itsuki quickly. "And you, Itsuki! Tell me the deets, now. I'm not letting you leave until you do."

"Again, don't pressure her! And besides, Nino, didn't you always give Fuutarou some crap about getting too close with us? Whatever happened to that?" Miku points out.

"I know, I know, but this is Itsuki we're talking about; she's the one who's always been all, 'oh, we shouldn't have personal relationships with our own tutor' and shit like that."

"Implying there's a difference?"

"Yes, actually! I already said earlier that I've changed my opinion on Uesugi-kun, right? Because if it weren't for that, I should be freaking the fuck out right now that he's been messing around with one of my sisters, but I'm not. Whereas Itsuki over here's always said shit about not getting too close with Uesugi-kun since he's supposed to be our tutor and all and that we shouldn't have private relationships with boys until we're in college or some nonsense like that. So? Cough it up, Itsuki, I wanna hear all about it."

Whining like a shy puppy, Itsuki manages to drag her hands off her face.

"...he...he..." Squeezing her eyes tightly to brace herself for what she's about to say, Itsuki has to force herself to commit. "He h-hugged me...!"

Nino and Miku both watch Itsuki glue her hands back to her face. Nino merely blinks in disbelief.

"...that's it?" she asks flatly.

"...well, it is Itsuki we're talking about here..." Miku shrugs a little and goes back to her own tea.

"N-Neither of you believe that doing such a thing with Uesugi-kun is embarrassing?!" Itsuki cries, practically drowning in her own heavy embarrassment. Her face is starting to match a similar color tone as her own hair. "Even with everything that I have said about relationships and all that aside, how is something like that not embarrassing to you?!"

"Because unlike you, I actually go out and talk to people and hang out with them instead of staying at home all day studying," Nino sighs, a little disappointed that this is all to Itsuki's "juicy" moments with their tutor. "And Miku has no social skills to begin with, so she doesn't count."

"I-I've been getting better, so you take that back," Miku pouts yet again.

"So that's it, then? Nothing else happened? You woke up from Miku's nightmare or whatever, and Uesugi-kun came over and gave you a hug? That's it?"

Nodding slightly, Itsuki drinks some more green tea; she's actually feeling a little relieved that Nino was expecting more out of this and thus isn't making such a big deal out of it.

"...he just made sure that I was feeling better before we left to pick up Miku and Ichika from the house," Itsuki adds. "In fact, it...it was not just this morning, either. The night when the two of us ran out of the house...Uesugi-kun actually tracked me down to his own house, since...since that was the only place I knew of where I could stay, since I had forgotten my purse to book a hotel room somewhere. He took me aside to talk to me and calm me down from our fight, too."

"What, did he hug you then, too?"

"Well, n-no...not that time..."

Letting off a sigh, Nino starts twirling a lock of her own hair with her fingers.

"...if it makes you feel any better, when Uesugi-kun found me at the amusement park yesterday...he gave me a hug too," the second quintuplet reveals quietly, still wondering if she ought to share this sensitive detail with her sisters even as she's doing just that.

"Okay, Nino, it's not good to lie to your own sisters," Miku smiles amicably at Nino before taking a markedly long draft of her green tea.

"I'm not lying! You can even ask him yourself!"

"You do know that you saying that is really, uh...like, how do you expect us to believe that?" Miku frowns. "You spent all this time hating on him, and he just completely ignores all that to give you a hug?"

"Y-You could say the same fucking thing about Itsuki here, no? Itsuki used to hate on him too! The two of us were the Anti-Uesugi Fuutarou Coalition, after all!"

"Yeah, but Itsuki started cooperating with him since midterms, while you've been pretty on and off about him."

Growing angry for reasons she doesn't quite understand herself, Nino grumpily chugs the rest of her black tea in her teacup. "Look, I was down in the fuckin' dumps yesterday, and Uesugi-kun could see that, so...yeah!" Not knowing how to end this thought, though, Nino just ends it abruptly and leaves it at that.

"So basically, you made Fuutarou run around all over the place just to have him give you a hug at the end?" It's time for Miku to perform the Nakano-patented eyeroll. "Is this what they call 'hard-to-get'?"

"I-I wasn't trying to be all hard-to-get, shuddup! It just happened to end up that way!" Nino fumes, her face turning just as red as Itsuki's. "You're just jealous that Uesugi-kun made us two feel better after all this crap while you were just off in the sidelines!"

"True, I was for the most part. But yesterday night, I actually went to Fuutarou's place to give Itsuki some of her school stuff since we were still under the impression that she'd be staying over there for a bit longer, and after we were done talking, Fuutarou took me back home. Guess how he did it."

"...how?"

Miku also raises her hands to her face, but instead of covering them, she presses them against her cheeks.

"With, um...he...he gave me a princess carry," she answers.

Nino thinks she can hear something explode in the back of her head. Oh, that must be her jealousy.

"Yeah, I bet you enjoyed that," the second quintuplet scoffs. She knows she can't fully suppress the jealousy that she's starting to get flooded with, so she uses part of it to fuel her next few remarks to her sister.

"Of course I did. It's not like it was much of a secret to everyone that I like Fuutarou," Miku smiles. "Well, Yotsuba might still be clueless, but that's just her being Yotsuba."

"E-Eh!? Wait, wait, Miku, you - you like U-Uesugi-kun...?" Itsuki exclaims in genuine surprise.

"And there goes the one with no social awareness..." Nino laughs dryly.

Miku nods over to Itsuki. "I don't know starting from when, but...it was fairly early on. Probably after Golden Week vacation, if I had to say..."

"Ever since then!? W-Wow...I never knew..."

"Well, back then I think you still weren't so sold on him yet, so you never noticed..."

"Hey, do you really not mind the others knowing about how you like him and all?" Nino asks Miku. "Like, I always kinda knew, since it was pretty obvious with the way you act around him these days."

Miku shakes her head. "We were talking earlier about how we should share everything we do and say and stuff with each other, right? With us being quintuplets and all? This counts too, right?"

"Uh...I...I guess it does, yeah..."

Nino can't believe that Miku, of all the quints, is freely expressing her feelings for their tutor out of the five Nakanos. How the hell did Miku beat her out in something like this?

Meanwhile, Itsuki, having let Miku's feelings for their tutor digest in her mind for a short while, looks back at her two older sisters.

"...Miku, um...do you think that...maybe...maybe I have, um...feelings...for Uesugi-kun, too...?" she asks extremely shyly, putting moderate pauses that break up her thought into several pieces.

"Well, you're certainly acting like you do," Nino chortles.

"Hey, she wasn't asking you," Miku reminds her sister. "But anyways...I don't know if I'm the best person to be asking that to, Itsuki. In fact, the two of us are the ones who're the least qualified to talk about something like this, right? But what I know is that I want the best for Fuutarou, and I want to work to make sure that he gets it. Whatever I can do to help him, you know? And if - "

"Naaah, that's some grade-A simp shit right there that I'm hearing," Nino drawls right over her sister to cut her off. "Here's how you know you like him, Itsuki: did you like it when he hugged you and spent time with you? And now, do you want to see him and be with him again, or even have him hug you again and stuff like that? Forget all this helping crap that Miku's spewing for now, that can come later. Just for now, do you know for a fact that being with him makes you feel a certain kind of happy that you don't get with anyone else? Not even with us, as in your own sisters?"

Miku certainly isn't pleased about being snubbed like this, but for Itsuki's sake, she swallows her pride and remains silent for the youngest quint to deliberate on Nino's inquiry. After a minute or so, Itsuki slowly nods in affirmation.

"Then there you go, you probably like him," Nino shrugs widely.

"But, but...!" Itsuki begins to protest. "I've...you both know that I have never felt this way about anyone else before, so this...this is my first time. How do I know if, um, my feelings are not misplaced, or...or if I am simply jumping the gun on this too early?"

"Oh, as in like, you're only thinking that you have feelings for Fuutarou because he's the one who comforted you after our nightmare today?" Miku points out.

"Yes, exactly. What if I am just confused...? Everything...everything that has happened in the past few days...it is a lot to take in, and...and I am not so sure if I still understand it all...what if I sort out my thoughts and feelings and realize that perhaps...perhaps my feelings were misguided after all and only circumstantial?"

"Then that's that, you didn't like him that much after all. Look, Itsuki, you don't need to overthink stuff like this," Nino advises. "In fact, you shouldn't. Realistically, people can go through lots of relationships because they don't work out in the end or something; as much as you guys've heard me gush about meeting my own Prince Charming one day, I don't even expect that to happen myself, just seeing how things end up for my own friends at school and such. If your feelings for Uesugi-kun don't work out, at the very least you've learned a bit more about relationships with guys that you can take with you going into the future so that you know what you're looking for if you want to get into another one."

Miku finishes the rest of her own green tea that has cooled off considerably since it was first poured. "Nino actually giving us relationship advice...I never thought I'd see the day."

"Oh shut up, you. And why are you the one making all these sarcastic remarks today? Isn't that my job?"

"Well, now you know what the rest of us feel whenever we need to put up with you."

It's time for Nino to pout back at Miku, the reverse card Miku is playing on her still going strong, and Miku smiles smugly back, enjoying this rare look of muted frustration on her older sister's face that is more precious than diamonds.

"Fine, if that's how you're gonna be!"

The second quintuplet scoots over closer to Itsuki and throws her arms around her, pulling her in close and sticking her tongue out at Miku.

"Friendship officially ended with Miku! Now, Itsuki's my favorite sister! Bleeeeh!"

"Eh?! W-Wait, hold on, I was your favorite sister all along?!" Miku cries out in shock, half fake but also half real. "Since when?!"

"I mean, c'mon, the two of us've spent more time with each other than anyone else, right? We just never acknowledged it out loud. But ya blew it now, Miku! We ain't never goin' back to how we used to be! It's time for the Nino-Itsuki redemption arc to last the rest of this season!"

Starting to pout back, Miku stops partway to transform it into a smile of relief instead.

"So that means you've officially made up with Itsuki, right?" she asks.

Itsuki, who after receiving hugs from two other people she cares deeply about today is now basking in Nino's warmth this time, snaps out of her coziness at this spoken revelation, having totally forgotten about their original purpose of coming here to visit the isolated Nino.

"So this means...!" Itsuki starts to speak, her voice filled with hope, but again Nino gives her the same treatment that she gave Miku and cuts her off too.

"I should say this first, Itsuki: that fight we had, it wasn't your fault, since like, I started it by being all aggressive towards everybody that day. So for that, and for everything that's happened since then because of me...I'm sorry."

Before she knows it, the youngest sibling finds herself fully locked in Nino's own embrace. With this being the third such gesture she's received today, and this being from one of her sisters, Itsuki is now properly warmed up to appropriately reciprocate such a gesture and hugs her older sister tightly back.

"...you didn't need to both slap me and then punch me in the face, though," Nino chuckles darkly under her breath while still hugging her sister. "And they both really hurt, I'll have you know."

Having totally forgotten about what she'd done to Nino as well, Itsuki begins to panic and fret, which tips her over the edge back into tears. "Oh my gosh, I - I totally forgot about that - ! I-I-I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry...!"

"Oh, so now you realize, you idiot? And when did you learn how to throw such a good punch like that? I'm the one who's supposed to know how to throw hands in the family, haha! Wait, why are you crying, you big ol' crybaby!"

"Uuuuuu...!"

Getting a good laugh out of this, Nino lets Itsuki bury her face into her chest apologetically and dry her face against it too while she pats her younger sister on the back. While the two sisters are reconciling warmly, Miku has been watching the reconciliation in silence until now.

"For some reason, I feel like there wasn't really a point for me to have come here," Miku remarks dryly, sounding like she needs an extra cup of green tea that she probably won't get.

"I mean, they don't call people like you 'third wheels' for nothing," Nino fires off swiftly, causing Miku to return to her ever-present state of pouting.

"Bad Nino, bad! Only Yotsuba should be allowed to make puns that bad!"

"Haha, gotcha good that time, didn't I, though?"

"No you didn't! Shut up!"

Having laughed the most that she's laughed in the past several weeks, Nakano Nino finally lets go of a comfortable Itsuki and glances back at her phone.

"Whoa, it's already two in the afternoon? How long were we just hanging out like this for...?" she wonders aloud. "We need to get going if we're going to go back to studying together...but before we do..."

Getting up from the couch first, Nino heads over to her suitcase standing in front of the shelves. To the horror of both her sisters who are looking on, Nino turns around with something in her hand that she's pulled out of her suitcase - a long pair of scissors.

"Uh...N-Nino, what are you going to do with that...?" Miku asks hesitantly.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Walking back over to her sisters, specifically Miku, who backs away on the couch as her older sister approaches, Nino hands the pair of scissors down to her seated sister, with the scissor handles facing Miku.

"I'll give you the honor of cutting my hair, Miku," Nino declares.

"Your - your hair?! Wait, Nino, wait!"

Finally, Itsuki jumps up to her feet herself to join her sisters in the Jump-Off-The-Couch-In-Surprise club.

"Your hair - you kept it that long on purpose for a reason, right?" Itsuki points out quickly.

"Oh, so you had an idea, huh? I guess that makes sense, seeing that you have the second-longest hair out of us after me..."

"Yes. Because...you always complain to us about how annoying it is to maintain it, like washing it, drying it, brushing it, etc. Normally you would not let things like that always bother you, but for some reason you always put up with it. So...so for you to cut it now..."

Nino smiles over at her youngest sibling.

"I'm glad that at least you get the gist of what I'm about to do. Yeah, I kept my hair this long as a memento to myself of our younger days, when we were all truly identical quintuplets. But as much as I'm not a fan of just cutting my hair short like this, the fact of the matter is that I entrusted something far more important than the length of my hair to Uesugi-kun."

"...your promise to us," Miku answers softly.

"That's right. Now that I'm not letting myself stay chained down by that anymore, I don't have a reason to keep my hair this long anymore either. That's why, before we go, I'm leaving it behind."

Nakano Nino takes a deep breath to steel herself.

"...I have to."