Mutsumi sat at the table, the weather was fairer than the day before; not a cloud in the sky. Nino, Yotsuba, and Itsuki were beside her. She was in the middle of screwing in a small metal joint into a tiny robotic snake when there was a thud from upstairs. The two remaining sisters emerged from their rooms shortly after, smiles on their faces. "So, Mutsumi. What was it like overseas?" Yotsuba asks.
After some thought, and mental translation, she responds. "It wasn't too exciting." She said, shifting her chair slightly when Ichika joined them for dinner. "It was all work, if that's what you're asking." She added, returning to her work and flipping on the tiny battery powered toy.
"All work? What did you do?" Itsuki stops eating for a moment.
"Nothing much, really. I studied in schools all over the place, getting treated in a new hospital every few months or so." Mutsumi powers up her phone, loading an app on it that caught Yotsuba's eye. "It was a pain, but it's over now."
Handing Yotsuba her phone, she got a plate of food for herself: a steamed fish and some rice. She returned, finding the snake slithering up Nino's arm and wrapping itself around her wrist. "Now that you mention it, how did you get so smart?" Miku asks, taking a green can of soda from the fridge.
Mutsumi stood still for a few seconds, trying not to recall her studies. "I was surrounded by doctors, I guess I learned from proximity." She sat, looking at her food and poking at it with her chopsticks.
"That sounds horrible. Being forced to study so much, I can only imagine how that feels." Nino says, taking her dish out to the sink.
"Isn't that what Fuutarou-kun is doing to us now?" Ichika points out.
"Speaking of your tutor, tell me about him." Finally beginning to eat, she waits patiently for an answer. The sisters all ponder this in their own ways. Ichika kept a stoic face, but her eyes darted around as if looking for an answer. Nino said nothing, just clenching the plate she was washing a little tighter with a tremble. Miku had a smile on her face at the thought, hiding it behind the can she was drinking from. Yotsuba took her time with her answer before spouting off an endless stream of adjectives. Itsuki kept composed, listing off the short list of his accomplishments in regards to him.
"Are you really going to get Fuutarou fired?" Miku asks, causing Yotsuba to stop her rambling. She hides her cheeks with the cups of her headphones, yet a bit of pink still breaks through the top.
"Wouldn't it be better for your tutor to be someone you know?" Mutsumi said, analyzing her sister. "What would you do if he suddenly left?" She adds.
"Fuutarou wouldn't do that!" The third retorted. "He's..."
"He's an outsider. He'll leave sooner or later." Mutsumi said, eyes in a thousand yard stare out the balcony. "They always do."
"What do you mean?" Ichika asks as Mutsumi's phone beeped. "I have to get that, be back in a bit."
The sixth sister exited the apartment, taking the elevator down to the lobby and meeting with a man with a box in hand. "Thank you." She says, receiving her delivery and taking it up to not only their apartment but also her room. "Alright, one should be enough for now." She mutters to herself as she turns on a desk lamp and gets to work.
She stayed up all night, attaching wires and trying to make it fit in as tiny of a space as possible. Holding something the size of a fingernail, she walked out of her room stretching. "Mutsumi. Perfect timing, what do you want for breakfast?" Nino asks, wearing a pink and purple striped garment.
She glanced over to the wall clock, 9:00. "Breakfast, we're late for school!" Mutsumi said exasperated, running down to find the others eating calmly.
"School? It's a holiday today." Itsuki calmed her down. "Labour thanksgiving day."
"What?" Mutsumi asked, glancing at everyone at the table. She sits at the table, on Yotsuba's left. The smell coming from Itsuki's plate intoxicating; A cutlet sandwich and some thick liquid in a glass.
"It's a holiday where we show appreciation to the people who help us. Teachers, police, and more." Yotsuba said through a spoon full of a sugary cereal.
"Oh yeah! I forgot." Mutsumi exclaimed. "Mom used to come home with some gifts when this happened." She was about to bring up more memories when Itsuki's phone rang.
"Excuse me." She said, going off to the balcony to get the call. "Oh...alright! Can't wait!" She had a smile on her face, talking to the person on the phone.
"First Miku, now Itsuki..." Mutsumi thought silently as her sister went up to her room. "Looks like someone has a date." She joked, causing Ichika and Miku to drop their heads. "What's up with you, Miku?"
"I...had plans to go out shopping today, but..." She muttered, hiding her head in her arms as she set her head on the table.
"You too? Well, do you want to go together?" Ichika shook her sister slightly. Mutsumi eyed the two, raising an eyebrow.
"Ichika...I'm not letting you out of my sight." She grit her teeth. "Shopping? Mind if I tag along?" She forced a fake smile.
"Hey, let's grab a bite to eat. It's been some time now." Ichika suggests.
"You hungry Miku?" Mutsumi looks over, seeing Miku still dejected. "What happened? Did you ask someone out today?"
"N-No." Miku said, flustered. "I was just."
"Cancelling plans for no reason? Alright, tell me. Who's the guy?" She leaned in, teasing her sister. "Please, don't let it be him." She wished silently.
"I wonder what Fuutarou-kun is up to today, now that you mention it." Ichika chimes in as she spots a fairly quiet cake shop.
"Honestly, what do you see in him Miku?" She said bluntly, taking a seat across from the two of them.
"He's cool." The shrinking violet blooms slightly, before shrinking into an even smaller form.
"Cool? I'd hardly call a poverty stricken gold-digger cool." She furrows her brows. "He's just in it for the paycheck."
Her eyes narrow, their anger magnified by the shadow cast by her hair in the sunlight. The hatred was palpable enough to give the other two chills. Time seemingly froze in the shop, the stillness unnatural as Mutsumi mulled on her thoughts.
"Why are you so against him, Mutsumi-chan?" Ichika asks sheepishly, receiving a scowl from the sixth.
"Well, I don't trust him. Acting all buddy-buddy like that. They always have something behind the scenes." She scratches her nails against each other. "And they betray you when you trust them the most." She stares down her earing wearing sister.
Miku looks on as Ichika rubs the back of her head, wiping some sweat from her brow. They get some cake before Ichika suggest they watch a movie. It was a zombie flick, a pretty generic plot too.
"Wait, is that you!?" Mutsumi whispered, sitting in between the others. Ichika responded with a subdued smile and a nod. "I...wow." She smiled back genuinely, the shock breaking through her hatred of the elder sister. The three return to the movie, wincing as Ichika dies and gets zombified.
"Ichika, that was great." Miku said as they walked out of the cinema. Blinded by the light outside, they walked away just as a new set of people entered the building behind them.
"Wait...is that?" Mutsumi caught a glimpse of a ribbon before she was pulled away by the other two. "The plot was kinda generic though. I could've written something better." She says, keeping up with the conversation while having her mind elsewhere.
"Well, I'm just an actress. I don't have a say while they're writing." Ichika chuckles as they stroll through the city.
"Congratulations, you're a professional liar." Mutsumi returns to her scornful ways when they walk past a park.
"Mutsumi, why are you like this?" Ichika asks as they take a seat on a bench. Miku sighs, putting on her headphones and pumping the volume to max.
"Whatever can you mean?" She says sarcastically. "Don't tell me you've forgotten?"
"Forgotten? Forgotten what?" The wind blew Mutsumi's hair as she stood up, obscuring her face from her sisters.
"So you did. Alright, let's get going. I need some new clothes." She walked off, heavy footfalls resonate through the ground as her sisters trailed behind her.
"Haa...I just don't know when to give up. She wasn't one of them, they're too dumb...wait..." Fuutarou thinks as she watches Yotsuba run around the store to get some clothes. "What if...no. I mean it couldn't have been her. But she's the most probable one out of them." He absentmindedly follows his bunny buddy as she finally holds out something he could buy as a present for her.
"Finally found it~ I've been looking for this." The fourth sister is giddily holding it up, examining the clothes she had picked out. Finally, their date ended with something she wanted.
"Yay! I'm glad. Nino wanted this. So I bet she'll be happy." Or not...
"W-Wait a minute. Yotsuba, what is it that you wanted?" Fuutarou said. The girl stopped, turning around to face him with her best contemplative face.
"Huh? The restaurant, the spa, the movie, the shopping." Yotsuba said, confusion in her face.
"Wrong. The restaurant that was one of Itsuki's favorites, the spa that Miku's a member of, Ichika's movie, and clothes shopping for Nino." He sighs. "None of them involved anything you want."
"Oh you're right! Give me a minute. Let me think...Uesugi-san, just what do I want?" She puts on a goofy laugh.
"It should be around here, right?" Mutsumi asks.
"Yeah, this is the store." Miku says, pulling out her phone to read a text from Nino.
"I think I found it." Ichika said, holding up the clothes Nino asked to get.
"How do we know if it fits?" Mutsumi asks as Miku walks over and picks out a few hats.
"You forget that we're sextuplets. We have the same body." Ichika says.
"Well, Itsuki and Yotsuba probably..." Mutsumi began muttering as the fourth sister stuck her head out from a changing room.
"You were gonna call me fat like Itsuki! So mean!"
"When did you? Why are you here, Yotsuba?" Mutsumi asks. "Nevermind."
"Guys, what do you think. A fedora or a cap, which would suit Fuutarou better?" Miku walks up to them. Mutsumi smirked, though behind her lips were the gritting of teeth.
"Oooohh someone's in love~" She teases as she takes the cap and puts it on.
"Give me a sec." Yotsuba quickly retreats back into the changing room. "He apparently doesn't wear hats." She says with a chuckle, giving Mutsumi suspicions.
"Anyway, Yotsuba. Can I go in that room?" Ichika asks.
"What? Why? There's nothing in here." The fourth says in a panic.
"Isn't that the point though? You use those to fit clothes. We were out here to get something for Nino." Mutsumi says. "We can fit it for her."
"Then..." Yotsuba mutters.
"If that's the case, I'll try it on." A high pitched voice says, without Yotsuba moving her mouth. Mutsumi chuckles.
"How nice of you. Here. Yotsuba, you're such a scatterbrain." Mutsumi hands over the garment, messing with Yotsuba's ribbon afterwards. "Too easy." She thinks.
Yotsuba returned wearing the clothes. She almost breathed a sigh of relief when Ichika held out something she was shopping for, asking her to fit it as well. A few minutes of fitting and testing later, the three sisters leave to go to the register.
"So you bought both." Miku notes as Mutsumi places the fedora in her bag, wearing the cap out.
"I like it, okay. Nothing more." She sighs, checking her phone. "You guys head out without me, I'll see you at home." She waves them away, looking at her phone.
"Hmm, I guess this'll work." She thinks as she enters a restroom. She goes in wearing a plaid button up and jeans that stop just above her ankles. A few minutes pass before she exits wearing a black tee shirt and an orange hoodie, ripped jeans that stop with a flare out at her ankles, a pair of shades and the cap from earlier. She pulls the hood over the cap, looking at her phone again.
She passes by Miku and Ichika meeting up with Nino, who had left home out of boredom. She then came across Itsuki playing with a young, black haired child. "Oh, how cute." She said in passing before she picked up her pace. "What are you two doing?" She muttered to herself, looking at the circle on the map of her phone.
A/N: Chapter 2 of the revision. As I said before, I will take this series and rewrite this with (hopefully) better pacing. I'll also make some adjustments and add some details here and there, but the main plot will remain the same as the first version.
In regards to that, I think that'll be on the backburner. I'd like to focus on the revision first, making this the focus of the story. The first version will basically act like drafts from now on.