"I'm surprised you know a place like this." The stars lit up the sky, watching over the two of them. Fuutarou had his hands on his knees, out of breath trying to escape Yotsuba's siblings. The air was still as they walked towards the swing, conversing with themselves with every step as they boarded the contraption.

"Haha...how childish." Mutsumi mutters silently as she watches from a distance. "Yotsuba..." Seeing her sister smile lifts her spirits a little, making her hide herself in a tiny hut-like play place behind the swings to watch the two of them. "She's so happy...does she know that she's being used?" She asks herself, her attention shifting to the poverty-stricken boy beside her sister. "Fuutarou-san, how dare you? I know you're just in it for the money, but do you need to manipulate them this much?"

"Despicable."

Mutsumi left just as Fuutarou lost one of his shoes trying something on the swings. On her walk home, she pondered her question from earlier. The night was cold, so she was glad to be wearing a hoodie at least. "They know he's just in it for the money, right? At least Nino does, I think." She thinks aloud as she turns a corner, finding a group of friends walking home from a shopping spree. A small pang of envy filled her chest momentarily, but she dismissed it. "Wait, that one was Nino, right?" Asking herself silently, she arrives home and calls the elevator to the 30th floor.

"Where were you?" Her sister answered the door, a concerned face greeting her. Her hair was long and she was wearing nothing but a towel, still somewhat wet from their evening bath.

"I was out on a walk..." Mutsumi scanned her. "Long hair...so it can't be Ichika or Yotsuba. But..." The fact dawned on her like lightning striking the waves. "I can't tell."

"Well, have you seen Yotsuba? She still hasn't come home." She asked just as the intercom rang them up again. "Never mind."

"Hey sis..." The sister turns, getting a hair dryer and turning it on.

"What is it?" She yells over the noise.

"It's...nothing, I'm going to my room. Goodnight..." She ponders for a bit. "Nino." With that, the door to her room was shut.

"Well, she hasn't kept in touch, I was hoping it wasn't the case. She...can't tell us apart." The sister says, her hair dry and her ahoge sprouting as she walks up to her room, the one between Mutsumi's and Yotsuba's.

"I have to protect them. People like him are only trouble. They're..." She mutters to herself, her fatigue finally coming to her after tracking those two in the afternoon. Sleep takes her as a memory shows itself to her.

"Mutsumi! Don't go!" Standing before her, five children wearing the same clothes and with the same hair. Their faces twisted with grief, tears rolling down every detail that they shared

"Please! Don't leave us too!" To her side, her step-father. He seemed to be biting his lip as he gestured and turned around.

"Mutsumi! Come back!" Mutsumi followed after, a look of powerlessness on her own face.

"Mutsumi!" She turned, eyes flowing with tears. Her vision clears as she is left stunned and in awe.

The children, her sisters, have all grown; their visage blurred and shrouded in a fog. "Welcome home." A voice said as robotic as an actual machine. She felt something in her chest, a feeling that she hadn't felt in a while: pure, unbridled disgust.

"Of course she wouldn't be happy to see me. Ichika, right?" She turned to the fog, seeing one of the figures come into focus slightly. Her face still veiled in the mist, but a small glint shone where her right ear is.

"Mutsumi, let's go." Another figure says.

"Go where? Who are you?" She asks.

"Are you really their sister?" A voice cuts through everything. Still blurry but without the fog that surrounds her sisters, Fuutarou walks up. He stations himself between her and her siblings. "Come on. Like Yotsuba said we have somewhere to be." They all turned, walking away as the fog spread thicker than before. She reached out, her voice desperate and angry.

"I'm going to stop you before it's too late. I won't let them get hurt when you..."

"Mutsumi! Come on, let's play!" A new voice said, different from the others. As Fuutarou and her sisters vanished, Mutsumi turned to it's origin. "We're going shopping again today. Do you want to come?" The voice spoke, in a language neither Fuutarou, nor her sisters would understand.

"Not again! I'm not falling for that again." Mutsumi replied, her accent changing slightly as she swapped languages. "You...you're just using me! You lied to me, you all did!" Screaming in confusion, her breathing grew raspy as the voice chuckled as it faded away. "I thought I could trust you!"

Mutsumi shot up from her bed, a cold sweat making her want to want to take a bath. As beads of water dripped down her head, she clutched her chest. "I...not again. They're gone..." She says to herself, grinding her teeth and biting her lip. Getting up and grabbing a bottle from her desk, she heads down to the bathroom.

"Mutsumi-chan. Good evening." The eldest says, staying up late to look at some papers. Ichika's hairs prickle a little under Mutsumi's cold gaze. Mutsumi paused for a moment before continuing on her way.

Entering the bathroom and looking at herself in the mirror, she holds her fingers up to her right ear. "I can't take them both on, I won't get anything done with my attention divided." She thinks, holding a pill in each hand. Her eyes dart back and forth between them. "I'll deal with Ichika later. That guy, Fuutarou-san, I won't lose to him. I can't let him have his way. He's just using them."

The next day, classes returned. Fuutarou seemed to be sneaking glances at her throughout the day, which she returned with glares and an occasional flipped bird. Itsuki, as well, seemed to be keeping an eye on her, her face twisted with the process of thinking. "Mutsumi. There's something I want to ask you." Recess started off with Fuutarou calling out to her in the hallway.

"What do you want, Fuutarou-san? Forfeiting on our bet?" Greeting him with clenched fist and chained up irritation, she forces out a smile. "If so, I'll call dad right away." Mutsumi reached for her pocket, but Fuutarou grabbed her by her wrist.

"It's not that. I just want to ask you so-"

"Don't touch me!" Mutsumi grabbed onto his collar, pushing him up against the wall. "That was surprisingly easy." She chuckled silently as his fragility.

"Sorry, but..."

"Shouldn't you be worrying about keeping your job? I'm going to study. Don't follow me." Mutsumi shook him and pushed him against the wall again, leaving him in the hallway.

"Uesugi-san, are you okay?"

On her way to the library, she had run into Nino and Itsuki. The former trying to convince the star wearing one to join her for a movie after school. "Mutsumi. Do you want to join me? Itsuki doesn't want to go, and I have an extra ticket." Nino offered, but Mutsumi raised her hand in refusal.

"I have to study. I'm not letting that guy be your tutor anymore." Filled with jealousy, she sat down silently.

"Good luck. Mutsumi, you better win." Nino suddenly turned serious, giving the fifth sister chills.

"Why do you two want Uesugi-kun out anyway?"

"He's just in it for the money." The both of them replied, as if stating the obvious. "I don't trust him. I know his type, they leave once they get what they want. There's no lengths they wouldn't go for a few extra zeros on their next salary." Mutsumi added, opening a Japanese literature book. "By the way, how are you guys going to study?"

"Uesugi-kun said he was going to make us some reviewers."

"Do you think he'll actually do it? I wouldn't be surprised if he prioritized his pay over actually doing his job." Mutsumi countered. "The only person you can rely on is yourself. I learned that the hard way."

"Let's go Nino. I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Recess ended without much interference after that point, letting her read through not only this semester, but half of the next semester's lessons. Heading back to the classroom, Fuutarou looked up to glance at her before returning to a paper on his desk. Itsuki was copying some of his notes from the previous class, waving to her before their attention was grabbed by their teacher. Their classes passed as an afterthought, each of the three of them focused on something else entirely.

"What's up sis?" Mutsumi asks as she exits the room for lunch. Confronted by one of her long haired sisters, the two stood at the doorway. "It can't be Itsuki, she's behind me in her seat. So it's either Nino or Miku, right?" She thought, trying to think of as many ways as possible to avoid saying names.

"Do you have plans later?" The sister spoke, a hint of fear in her voice. Mutsumi's hand twitched, almost instinctually, and she furrowed her brows. Reaching for her sister's head, she put her hand on her hair.

"I don't even know why you'd need this. Ichika." With a scowl and a slow, menacing pull, the wig came off to reveal the eldest sister. "How can I...huh, I guess gramps was right." She walked past her sister, heading down to the cafeteria to get her food. "But he never told us that hatred works too."

"Maybe you were just imagining things Itsuki."

"Maybe..."

She ordered some karaage and udon, sitting next to Yotsuba who was already eating. "You really want to beat Uesugi-san, huh?" The fourth sister comments. Mutsumi doesn't reply, pulling out some flashcards and reviewing.

"I'm getting Deja Vu." Itsuki says, setting her tray on the table. "Uesugi-kun was doing this when I first met him."

"Don't lump me in with the likes of that lowlife. I'd rather die." Without even looking up, she speaks harshly.

"That's just...wow." Even Yotsuba was stunned at the hostility, her optimistic aura unable to combat it.

"Be quiet. I'm trying to study. I'm not going to stop until he's gone. It's for the better if people like him stay away from us."

"People like him? What do you think Uesugi-san is like?" Yotsuba asks, rolling up the sleeves of her track jacket as she started on her soup.

"Like everyone else that knows who we are. They butter us up, then leave once they get what they want. Most of the time, it's money." Flipping through, she doesn't even look away from her cards as she slurps down her noodles. "Plus, that act he's putting on is getting on my nerves. Manipulating people, betraying their trust is the absolute worst." She mumbles with her mouth full, her words uninterpretable.

"Uesugi-san isn't like that!" Yotsuba suddenly clenched her fist, dragging one of Mutsumi's flashcards with her fingers.

"Care to explain why? Yotsuba." Mutsumi leaned in closer. "Or don't. I already know. I've never forgotten that night." She whispered into the ribbon wearing one's ear.

"Then why? Why don't you trust him?" She whispered back.

"Other than what I've said? Time. He's a different person now." Staring into her sister's blue eyes with her own, she saw no fear nor anger. She saw...regret in Yotsuba's eyes. "Even you guys are. Don't think that just because you were friends before, you'll be all buddy-buddy after school."

"I'm sure that if you get to know him, then you'll-" Yotsuba tried a different angle, but was shot down with Mutsumi's next statement.

"Mutsumi, you've changed quite a lot yourself." Itsuki murmurs into her sandwich between bites. This entire conversation had mostly been held in whispers between the other two, yet Itsuki had kept an ear for it; hearing only of how Fuutarou had changed, apparently.

"Not gonna happen. Better safe than sorry." Mutsumi finishes her food, pulling out her phone as it vibrates in her pocket. "I know from experience."

A/N: Thanks Jellyjace for reviewing the draft before I released it. Thanks Yotsubrain for talking with me and giving me advice from time to time.

Odd question. I currently have an idea for my own story that I want to turn into a book, I only have one chapter thought up. Would it be better if I make it into a comic (can't draw), or into a novel (meaning I need to write think of the rest of the plot before I look for a publisher)?