"You know, Yotsuba, you've always been the most difficult of us," Nino said bluntly, looking at Yotsuba with the same glare she looked at Fuutarou with the first time they met. "disrupting the harmony among us sisters by trying to be different, pushing us away during our time at Kurobara, wanting to stand above the rest of us using whatever method you could find."
"Nino, I'm sorry you feel that way, but I..." Yotsuba paused, taking a deep breath before resolving herself to complete her thoughts. "I wanted to be different. To be known as Nakano Yotsuba, instead of Yotsuba...one of the Nakano sisters. Even now, even though all of you also love Uesugi-san and are dealing with your feelings in your own ways, a part of me is still happy to be the winner, to be a little selfish this one time." Speaking as if she had given up on trying to reconcile with Nino, Yotsuba put on a stern face that was a rare sight for the fourth sister.
"Tch! If that's what you wanted to say then why do-"
"But the other parts of me can't take this." Dropping the aggressive stance she took for a more somber one, Yotsuba reaffirms herself. "I can't continue with this if you all don't give me your blessing to go out with Uesugi...with Fuutarou-kun." She bowed her head, asking cordially for the permission of the second sister. The permission that, frankly, wouldn't come.
"What are you doing?" Fuutarou asked as Itsuki discretely shuffled back to his side from her little attempt at opening the door. "They'll hear you if you do anything. We need to find a way to distract them." Disguising Itsuki's blunder with a squeaking sound, Fuutarou asked the fifth sister for her phone.
"What? Oh, I see...call them to distract them, then run out of the room..." Itsuki muttered before deciding against it. "No...if we turn on my phone, then the light will alert them of our presence."
Itsuki and Fuutarou sat silently, having no choice but to listen in on the other two's conversation. Silently, unbeknownst even to Fuutarou, Itsuki's mind raced. Mutsumi's question, Shimoda's fanatic statements, and Nino's question just a few minutes prior, all of them made her nervous and unsure of herself. In the meantime, the heated exchange of emotions continued.
"What more do you want from this?" Nino turns, returning fire with the embers of her anger shining in her eyes. "Why don't you two just ignore me and start going out?"
"I...I don't think this is something that just concerns the two of us." Yotsuba said slowly in a low voice. "The relationship you had with him. The time that everyone spent with Fuutarou-kun is something we ca...I can't ignore." She balled her fists, gripping so tightly that her arms began to shake. "So that's why I'm here. To ask for your permission like how I'll ask everyone else."
"It's not going to hap-" Nino's fury flared up, the fervor of her frenzy threatening to overwhelm Yotsuba.
"It doesn't have to be now." Yotsuba interrupted Nino with an unshakable determination. Her words filled with the conviction to see this through. "It can take weeks, months, or years; I don't care how long. I want you to see that I love Fuutarou-kun with all my heart. How strong my feelings are. I won't lose."
"Yeah...like you said, I don't see myself letting you run away with Fuu-kun the way things are now." Nino sighed, crossing her arms in a less harsh way than how she usually does it. "No matter what you do, you'll never be able to convince me to be okay with this. If you go down this path, it's going to be painful and you might never see the end of it. You still want to do this, despite knowing that."
"I do; because I love Fuutarou-kun as much as I love my sisters." There, right there, Yotsuba put her priorities out for the world to hear. She had grown, though her behavior had reverted to be somewhat similar to how it was back in their previous school, it was different. Now more mindful of the others, she had contained her selfishness and had become more tactful and mindful of her sisters' feelings.
"You really are an idiot, Yotsuba..."
Fuutarou's head shot up in surprise, rattling the desk it collided with and forcing Itsuki to cover his blunder with more squeaking. "What are you all shaken up for?"
"I-I'm not... does it look like I am?" Fuutarou covered the lower half of his face, hiding his cheeks which were slowly turning a shade of pink. He had become flustered during Yotsuba's speech, feeling his heartbeat get slowly accelerate.
"But that's just like you, Yotsuba..." Nino chuckled at something she thought of. "Seeing you break free from us, flying away from the sextuplet nest, I wasn't happy... but I was jealous. Do you see me as competition, even now?" She grinned at the fourth sister, who returned the gesture in kind.
"Always have, always will. It's the truth that we'll always be conscious of each other. Sometimes like friends, sometimes like foes...sort of like" Yotsuba straightened her back, smugly staring at the runaway train that was her sister.
"Being rivals." The second, upon witnessing this side of Yotsuba again after a long time, felt obliged to rise up and challenge her. "You talked to Miku already, right?" She asked, to which Yotsuba nodded. "Did she say anything?"
"She was mad."
"Fufufu~ She's not good at expressing herself." Nino joked at the third sister's expense. "If it wasn't for what you said the other day, I think I would've congratulated you, but if you feel that way, then I think I should change what I want to tell you." Nino shut her eyes, raising her finger to point at Yotsuba. "I'm not stopping here! My feelings for Fuu-kun won't be contained so easily! If you give me an opening, I'll use it to steal him away from you!"
"It's on."
"I think it's about time..." Nino sighed, both she and Yotsuba calming down. "Come out n-" She didn't have to say anything more, as Itsuki's phone pinged with a text notification.
"Itsuki...and Uesugi-san? How long have you been there?" Yotsuba looked over, her face turning white from shock. "Did you two hear everything?" She didn't need to hear a reply, finding out the truth just by seeing their guilty faces.
"Sorry..."
"N-Nino! You knew they were there?" Yotsuba cried like the younger sister she was. She pouted Nino's way, whining that the elder quint had tricked her.
"Huh? I thought you said all of that stuff knowing they were there~" Nino teased, turning her attention to her love interest. "You heard what I said right, Fuu-kun? That's how it is. So make sure you keep your guard up." She looked as if she was a beast staring at cornered prey, looking at it expectantly with a slight hint of sadism.
"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Fuutarou, not wanting to let his choice become invalidated by one of the girls he rejected, returned her words with an unwavering tone.
"That's just like Nino...you picked some difficult sisters to make the moves on." Itsuki joked, rubbing the soreness from her joints that she got from sitting on the floor for so long
"All of you are difficult in your own ways. And please, return to your formal speech." Fuutarou chided the fifth sister's casual tone, staring at the two even ordered sextuplets present. Itsuki imitated him, thinking about how she fitted in within all of this.
"About your recommendation...I said all that back there but..."
"No...it's true. I do get approached a lot." Yotsuba laughed jokingly.
"Don't say that! It's all because of your effort!" Nino slung an arm around Yotsuba pulling her sister closer to her. The two continued their playful banter as the four of them walked out and went to their next class.
"Mutsumi, Shimoda-san... it appears that you were wrong..." Itsuki thought, forming a small smile as she trailed behind the other three.
"Wait, what did Mutsumi send you?" Fuutarou asked, standing still to walk beside the fifth sister.
"Oh, I still haven't checked. Let's see..." She pulled out her phone, unlocking the screen and swiftly opening up the text.
"We're going back to Shimoda-san, right? I have something I'd like to discuss with her."
"That's it? Maybe it's about the movie..." Fuutarou asked, remembering the scenes that were still unrecorded.
"Perhaps..." Itsuki replied.
Due to her keen senses, someone else had been listening to this conversation. Her face formed a frown, her hands turned into fists, and her ribbon drooped down. "Mutsumi..."
"He's already going out with a girl from my class..." A young kid cried, wiping away the unending stream of tears that ran down her face. The two youngest sisters stood nearby as Shimoda scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
"Do you remember the story I told you?" Mutsumi asked, bending down in front of her.
"Yeah... you were right, it didn't change anything..." She continued wailing until Itsuki placed her hand on her shoulder. "I never should've told him! It didn't matter in the end!"
"Perhaps this time wasn't the best, and it might never even get better, but don't you look fondly at the memories you have with him?" Itsuki said, getting the sixth sister's attention. "Because these moments, these experiences...the memory of them will surely help you grow. Which is why you should never let go of these memories of your love, even if you do let go of the love itself."
"Itsuki..." Mutsumi muttered, sniffling slightly at her older sister's words. She scratched her nose with her finger, finding it suddenly itchy. "Err...ehem...Shimoda-san..."
"Right. Follow me." Shimoda led the last sextuplet away, entering another room and handing her a manila envelope. "You can go into photography, cinematography, or anything with computers with relative comfort. In that envelope are all of the local universities that would fit your needs..." She then bent down to reach for a different envelope. "And this...well, I think you already know..." Mutsumi took both in her hands, passing her gaze over them as she thought about what to do.
"Thank you, Shimoda-san..." Mutsumi muttered, placing them in her bag. "Please send me the dates when you're free so that we may record your scenes for the movie."
After meeting up with Itsuki and going to a cafe to get some drinks for the walk home, the two arrived after most of their sisters had already gone to sleep. Most.
"Mutsumi...can we talk for a bit?"
A/N: It's almost over guys! :( It's been an honor reading gotoubun with all of you! I'll keep this up until the revision also reaches the ending, I hope. Thank you Negi!