"Why'd we have to go here for this Yotsuba?" The spring breeze rustles the trees. "To make sure nobody hears, only this isn't exactly something people would be happy to hear." Yotsuba says, her ribbon blowing to the side as their reflection shakes with the ripples in the water. "It all started six years ago..."

"We were indistinguishable back then. Not only our faces, but our personalities were identical. It came in handy a few times, especially when we played with the other kids...but even back then, I had a feeling I was different from everyone else." Yotsuba says, a wistful look in her eyes. "I was better at sports compared to everyone. It felt nice being better than them, people looking up to me." The wind dies down and the air is still. "But, that means I had my weak points too. I made the most mistakes among the six of us."

"One day, the six of us went out to get some flowers for mom. She had just gotten over her illness, or so we thought. We saved up our money and Ichika lead us around. But I lost the wallet, making all our effort go to waste." Her head hangs low, hands clenched. "I was stupid. It was my fault, and because of that, we all had to look for it. We never found it too, but came across six of the same flower. Mom didn't smile though, even when we got enough to make a bouquet of them. She stood there and looked at the six of us, and then she suddenly pulled us into a hug." The fountain spouts water in the distance. "Then came the trip."

"Itsuki, come on! We're going to be left behind." Mutsumi says from across the barrier. "We're going to be late. I know how you feel, but we have to go." Ichika says as she pries Itsuki off of their mother. "Oh is that..." The seven of them turn, seeing Maruo walking up to them. "Well, I was going to introduce him to you eventually...He's like a fan of mine." Rena says as her six daughters board the train to Kyoto.

"Could they be dating already?" Nino asks, holding a pair of aces in her hand. "Dad, huh? I wonder what kind of guy he is." Itsuki says, revealing her royal flush. "Hey, don't get ahead of yourself." Miku says as they leave the train. "Still, what would it be like if he was our dad?" Mutsumi walks ahead of everyone, her head tilted back to glance at her sisters. It was only for a moment, but she couldn't see where she was going.

Bang

"Oh, sorry. Are you okay?" She says, looking at the dark haired girl sitting on the ground in front of her. "It's my bad, don't worry about it. I wasn't paying attention." The girl says, standing up and walking off with one of her friends. "Is she from another school?" Ichika asks. "It's really crowded, let's hold each other's hands. Yotsuba..." Itsuki reaches out.

"Oh no...I've really done it this time. I'm lost." Yotsuba says, stranded in a city she didn't know.

"I really panicked back there. I had to get back. The six of us had to stay together...right? That's what mom used to say, but I was starting to think about it. I caught myself, getting at myself for thinking about it. That's when I saw a certain boy, and I was jealous of him. Or would it be envious? Either way, he was alone and seemed to be fine, I wanted to be like him, even a little."

"Sorry, but could you lend that to us? What's wrong?" A cop says to a certain young blonde. "He's innocent. I saw everything." Yotsuba says, coming down the stairs. "Who the heck are you?" He says in response, the cops leading an old hag away from the kids.

"Look! You can see Kyoto station from here! We were just there earlier!" Yotsuba says. "Woah! Seriously!?" The boy says, looking through his camera. Catching a glance and posing, Yotsuba starts smiling. "Huh? You're not gonna take it?" She asks as he starts to march away. "Don't follow me anymore." He says in a huff.

"Wooooooow! Look at the charms! Let's go buy some!" Yotsuba calls out to him. "Why are you following me around? Go away!" He says. "You're looking for someone, aren't you? So am I." She says, smiling. "I can do it by myself. Go bother someone else."

"It has to be you. Since we're both by ourselves and feeling lonely, we should try to get along. Because you're...you're necessary to me." Yotsuba says, leaving him stunned. In his daze, she walks over and takes the camera from him, they take a photo before Yotsuba leaves to buy six charms. They walk down a path surrounded with trees, the sky dark before they reach it's end. "Ah, it's already this late." Yotsuba exclaims. "Geh- It's already the middle of the night..." They boy says as the two of them walk to a shrine of some sort.

"It's because you kept dragging me everywhere..." He grumbles to her. "But you were pretty gung-ho about it too, Fuutarou-kun." Yotsuba says, following behind him. "Whatever. Arguing about it now would be pointless. You don't have a cellphone, right?" Fuutarou says, his eyes closed in thought. "Yeah...the teachers might be looking everywhere for us..." Yotsuba replies. "For now, let's just go catch a bus." He starts walking off. "Okay...ah." Yotsuba checks her wallet.

"I might've used all the money I had buying those charms this afternoon." Fuutarou turns to face her. "It's all because you bought six of the same damn thing like a dumbass! At least think it through!" He snaps at her. "Ahaha...oops..." She laughs it off. He pulls something from his pocket. "Just so you know, all I have is this 200 yen coin here. I'm not lending you anything." He says. "Okay, I understand. Then be careful on your way-" Her face is shocked with the sound of the coin hitting others as Fuutarou offers it to the shrine.

"Oh. Now it's gone." He turns to her, somewhat shocked himself. "Huh?" Was all she could say as he slumps over and sits down. "Since my family's poor, we've always just used a five yen coin. Pretty cheap, right?" He says. "Wait- I could've used that money to make a phone call. Well, I'm sure someone will find us." He says, realizing his mistake then shrugging it off. Yotsuba looks at him with concern. "Fuutarou-kun… You don't find it tough being poor?"

"We talked and talked, making a certain promise to each other. Just the two of us." Yotsuba smiles faintly, holding something in her hand. "I promised to work hard for mom. We both promised to study hard to make life easier. Then, later that night...we were found by dad and brought to the inn where everyone else was."

"Yotsuba..." Mutsumi says, pointing at something. "What?" She asks, the last thing she could let out before her breath left her. "That's..." The two of them looked on, seeing Fuutarou with Ichika, smiling as if nothing happened. "Ichika..." Mutsumi clenches her fist, turning to Yotsuba. "Yotsuba, are you alright?" She places her hands on Yotsuba's face. "It'll be okay, I'm here." Mutsumi says, pulling her out of their view and hugging her. She turns her head and glares at Ichika.

"After that night, I started changing. I started wanting to be different, so it wouldn't happen again. Looking back, I may have gone overboard. It started simple, with one of these, but I wanted more; I wanted to win, to leave everyone behind. I had an edge ever since that trip, based on my grades" Yotsuba says, taking off a hat she got from Itsuki and pointing to her ribbon. "I showed mom, to find out what she thought. She dismissed me as Itsuki came up. This was when she started wearing her pins, and mom called them cute." Her fists tighten.

"...Even if you weren't number one, each and every one of you is special. As a parent, I wish for you all to stay together... No matter what happens... What's important isn't where you are, but that the six of you are together." Yotsuba quotes her mom. "Now...I can see that she said that because she knew she didn't have a lot of time left, but in the moment I was angry. It's like she just threw away everything I was proud of, everything I tried so hard to do. Was studying so hard really not important? I wanted to prove her wrong. She couldn't see any of it though, she died not long after that visit to the hot springs." She looks down at the water. "Then, mom's last wish didn't come true either..."

"Mutsumi! Don't go!" Miku says, crying and clutching onto Mutsumi's arm. "Please! Don't leave us too!" Nino falls to her knees, her head in her hands and droplets of water slipping between her fingers. "Mutsumi! Come back!" Yotsuba reaches out her hand as Maruo and Mutsumi walk off, meeting up with a man in the boarding area of the plane. "Mutsumi!" Itsuki cries out as the five remaining sisters watch as she boards the plane.

"After that...we moved to the apartment, and school started in Kurobara. We were under a lot of pressure, after all, if you failed the make up of the make up test then it's over for you. You already know what happened, I was the only one that failed among the five of us, what you don't know is how and why." Yotsuba hides her face with her hands.

"After everything that happened, I wanted to leave my sisters behind even more. If Mutsumi did, then why shouldn't I?" She said. "At first, I tried to do it with my grades. I crammed every chance I got to try to be the smartest of the five of us. I even taught them a few times. I was happy, I was a bit more different, more special than them. I even got the best score in a test, as hard as it is to believe after what you've seen of my grades. I showed it to dad and he...dismissed me like mom did." She says.

"Even after all that, all the studying I did, I even refused club activities and gave up my video games; after all that, I still didn't feel like my efforts weren't being rewarded. I started to wonder why nobody was proud of me." Yotsuba rubs her eyes. "Then, it suddenly felt like it wasn't good enough. Even when I tried my best, Miku got a better grade than me in a test. I tried and tried harder, but my grades weren't getting any better; they were slipping actually, until I realized it when I saw a failed test with my name. I started wondering why I tried so hard, after all, the message I got from mom was that being special didn't matter. I gave up on my grades when we got to first year, instead I'll be special at something that they couldn't, I knew they couldn't."

"I accepted every club that wanted me, being able to stand on a stage they couldn't made me so happy. I started pushing them away, I was finally different and I wanted it to stay like that. I was getting praised, getting recognized; my sisters left in my dust. I was number one, I was special...for a time." Yotsuba starts rowing the boat. "You know how our story with that school ended. I flunked out, on my own. On my own...I was almost left on my own...almost. Even after my friends from the clubs left, when the teachers gave up on me; when I wanted to be special, I had pushed them away but they still stayed with me."

"That's when I realized what mom meant, or at least that's what I thought. Mom said that we shouldn't be special, we should just stick together; that's what she meant right?" I started to work, to live, for everyone else. That's the Yotsuba you met. I may have made too big of a correction, though. I had to hide my feelings from everyone, I didn't want to be special. It would've been like that, until that night..."

"Why?! Why hide the truth from him?! What gives you the right to say what he does and doesn't know!" She asks, somewhat frustrated at the roundabout way Yotsuba did things. "You wouldn't know! You weren't here! You left us Mutsumi!" Yotsuba slowly stands up, but her head is still facing the ground. "I shouldn't tell him, everyone else worked so hard so I shouldn't be special just because we met years ago!" Yotsuba gives her reason, though Mutsumi isn't convinced.

"Shouldn't be special?! Yotsuba, stop speaking nonsense! You're special, you'll always be, so let's let him know that so you don't have to keep lying to yourself." Mutsumi puts her hand to Yotsuba's arms, facing her.

"I think I realized now why I wanted to be different, why I wanted to be special. If I was different, then Ichika wouldn't have been able to pass herself off as me that night. After mom died, I lost my purpose for studying. I tried being special, but it ended up hurting me and the people around me; I tried to not be special, but I ended up hurting myself and others. Now I think I've found the right way though. And it's all thanks to you." Yotsuba smiles as the fountain in the lake sprays water on the boat from above. She rows to shore.

"Where have you been? It's late." Itsuki asks as Yotsuba walks through the door. "You're soaking wet, go take a shower or else you'll get sick." Nino points to the bathroom.

"How'd it go?" Mutsumi says, waiting inside the bathroom, looking in the mirror. "The fountain sprayed us." Yotsuba smiles. "Good job sis. I'm sure that your efforts will be rewarded someday. Now get in, I got the bath ready for you."

A/N: I'll wait til the whole vacation arc is over to write the next bit of this. Any suggestions of what to do in the meantime?