"What's the situation?"

"She's making tea. I'm sitting a bit away from her."

"Alright, you'll see a small silver button on the mic I gave you. Press it and sit a bit closer to her, that'll let me listen." Mutsumi directed him, rubbing her leg as the elevator reached the right floor. She walked to right beside the door, keeping her head down and staring at her phone.

"Ugh...why must you always be so annoying?" Nino said, pouring some water into a cup.

"Like you're one to talk." Fuutarou responded, his cup clinking against its saucer. "Weren't you supposed to be free now that you're here on your own?"

"First, I'm not alone, I have Mutsumi. Second, I am free!" Nino grumbled, kicking something under the table. "I can watch TV whenever I want, I have control over the AC, and nobody makes a mess of the room." She said, puffing her chest with pride. "Being here with Mutsumi is all I need."

"And when she's not here?" Fuutarou asked. Nino paused, thinking of a reply while her pride vanished. "What do you even do here?"

"I...I fix my hair!" Nino retorted, turning her body away in denial. "I have tons to do." She glared at Fuutarou, noticing his unchanging apathetic and distraught face. "What's with that look?"

"Something happened, I'm still...trying to take it all in." He said, looking wistfully at the curtains that covered the window. He scratched his head, bit his lip, and pulled his hair, sullen. His hand caught Nino's attention, causing her to grit her teeth.

"Why did you go here instead of your home?" Nino asked. "Have your sister help you!"

"Have Raiha help me?" Fuutarou thought momentarily. "I can't do that."

"Raiha. She's smart, but she doesn't have a connection to this." Fuutarou dropped a hint. "But she does need to know about this, one day."

"You two should talk about it while you get a haircut. That hair of yours is irritating."

"This is the only way Raiha knows to cut it. But I do think it's gotten a bit long." Fuutarou twirled his finger in his hair.

"You let her cut your hair!?" Nino walked over to get a closer look.

"You should get someone to cut yours. Mutsumi's coming over, right?" Fuutarou suggested.

"Never." Nino got a section of her hair in her hands. "Hey...what exactly happened? I've never seen you this depressed."

Fuutarou paused, leaning back in his chair and putting his hand to the side of his head. "...It all started five years ago."

"She disappeared, leaving me to just think of ways of saying sorry that I failed her."

Mutsumi sat up, typing a message on her phone. "Hey, I'm still kinda far. How are things with Fuutarou-san?" She hit send, staring at the screen and waiting for a reply. Soon ellipses pop up.

"Yeah, things are fine here. I think I can handle it on my own now, you can go home. Thanks for the warning."

"What happened in there?" She sent another as a rustling sound came through her ear piece.

"You fixed them? Did you have Mutsumi tea-"

"She doesn't know about that." Nino said. Mutsumi smiled before leaning into her shoulder and speaking into her mic. "Fuutarou-san. I'm leaving this to you." She said before removing her ear piece and heading home as the sun began setting on the horizon, stopping to get some dinner and reapply her makeup.

"Where have you been?" Ichika greeted her, her expression hazy. Mutsumi thought about what her face tried to convey, was it concern? Irritation? Whatever the case, she couldn't identify it.

"Tried to talk to Nino again." Mutsumi replied, stepping past her sister and sitting down in front of the TV. "Are Miku and Yotsuba home yet?" Pressing the button on the remote, Mutsumi glanced up towards their rooms. Yotsuba's door was left ajar and the lights were off, meanwhile Miku's was left wide open as Miku walked out with a notebook in hand.

"Is it time to study?" Miku asked, going back into her room and walking out with Yotsuba behind her, a white foam around her mouth and a half-eaten onigiri in her hand. Soon enough, the four of them continued to prepare for their exams, idle talk filling the air.

"So, what did you guys do today?" Mutsumi asked, the others trying to fill in their review sheets. Their expressions were focused on their work, yet occasional glances towards the door plagued all of the girls as they sat at the table.

"Not a lot." Miku said.

"Hey..." Mutsumi tried to start another conversation, but found herself at a loss for words. "Nevermind." She put her hand to her face, mulling over what just occurred. "Why can't I talk to them? It was fine when I was teaching them but when I want to talk about personal things..." She analyzed herself, her speaking patterns, her choice of topics, her sisters. Her sisters? "What...what do I even know about them?"

"Mutsumi."

"I've been gone for so long..." Looking at it retrospectively, it would be logical that she would be unfamiliar with their habits and preferences because of her time away. Though it may be logical, Mutsumi was still ashamed of it. They were her sisters. To be so distant, so disconnected with them...

"Mutsumi?"

"Perhaps..." She thought. Disbelief filled her mind. "That can't be it. After all, I saw through Ichika in school." Not wanting to believe that she could be this...this crass, she deluded herself.

"Mutsumi!"

Mutsumi felt someone breathing up her neck. "Huh? What?" Snapping out of her trance, her eyes fell on the scene of her sisters all looking up at her, concerned looks on all their faces that faded once her mind had returned and had been grounded. They presented her with their worksheets, all fully answered and awaiting her review.

"We're done." Ichika said, stretching her back. "If you need me, I'll be in my room." Getting a set of papers from a drawer, she walked up the stairs and entered her room. Yotsuba followed, refilling a few bottles with water before clocking out in her room.

"I heard from Yotsuba. I've noticed it too." Miku set up some hot water.

"Noticed what?" Taking a seat after pulling out a pitcher of coffee from the fridge and pouring herself a glass, Mutsumi turned and tilted her head curiously at her sister.

"You and Ichika."

The two look at each other as moonlight gets covered by the clouds. The starless sky, the still air, the stinging cold only being fought off by the wisps of steam from Miku's tea. "What about...nee-chan...and I?"

"Mutsumi." Miku sipped her tea, looking at her sister with caring eyes. "Why are you so against her? It's only her that you act this way to."

"Ichika-nee is just the type of person I hate. Liars and traitors, those who betray people's trust. They're the worst of the worst." The chill air dropped around them, beads of water condensing on Mutsumi's glass.

"Mutsumi." Her sister stood, walking beside the youngest and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you going to forgive her?"

"No. She's-"

"She's different from five years ago." Miku turned, walking towards the stairs. "We all are." With a somber smile, she resigns herself to her room.

"...don't rub it in Miku." Mutsumi muttered under her breath as she walked past her sisters' rooms. "How I've become a stranger."

"Ichika-nee!" Mutsumi called out. "Wait for me." Running and reaching out her hand, she managed to hold a few strands of her sister's long flowing hair as the two entered an empty room in their home. "What's that?"

"There was some candy on the table, so I got us some." Ichika turned to face her, a wide smile on her face as she handed Mutsumi a lollipop. "Don't tell anyone." With a sly wink, the two sneaked their snacks away as their mother called them for dinner.

"Ichika." An older, perhaps wiser, Mutsumi walked around their home. "Why did I let you get away with this? Perhaps it was because I looked up to you, or that you always gave me a share when I'd catch you." Ignoring her younger self, her still well mother, and most of her sisters, she made her way to the younger Yotsuba, wiping the residue of her crying. "I'm sorry. I won't let her do anything like...that...ever again." Taking her sister's hands in her own, she closed her eyes as the sound of waves reached her ears.

"Mutsumi. Come on, you're going to miss it." A voice said, in a language foreign to her sisters. Instead of Yotsuba's hands, she held a small trophy as well as a medal. The squawking of gulls only confirmed her suspicions. Stepping above deck, she saw a group of people. Various faces and features, but they all had medals around their necks. "Here's to us! And to Mutsumi! Thanks to her, we took first this year!" They put their hands together in a cheer. Mutsumi's face contorted as she stood there.

"Thanks to me? Yeah, you should be thankful. I wrote all the code while you all sat on your asses playing video games." She grit her teeth, heading back below deck and into the room assigned to her for winning the competition; locking herself in.

"You know what happens after this right? You remember." An echo of her voice said from somewhere in the room.

"They throw me under the bus once they don't need me anymore." Mutsumi replied. "Like everyone else." She huffed, falling backwards towards the bed in the room. Air escaped her lungs as the biting cold sent shivers all across her body. She sat up, back in her room in the present day; light outside still coming from the moon as the clouds gave way to it and the stars. Grabbing her sheets, she looked towards her bedside table, closing a bottle of pills and hiding them away before going back to sleep.

"Hey, there's something I want to talk about." Nino's text was the first thing she saw in the morning the following day. "Meet me after school."

Climbing out of her bed, she walked about her room. Walking to a small desk, she pulls out a drawer and pulled out her clips before she looked at her reflection in the mirror fixed to the door of her varnished ebony closet. Her skin slowly gaining color with every passing day, less and less frail with every breath. She saw her leg; as she predicted, a bruise began showing itself. She sighed, getting some gauze that Maruo had left her in an emergency kit and wrapping not only the bruised leg, but the other as well.

Getting her uniform from her cabinet, she quickly changed and got ready for school, deciding to wear a pair of black thigh high socks to help cover her bruise. Slinging the jacket over her shoulder, she grabbed her bottle of pills and took her morning dose. "Alright, time to go." Deciding to leave her arm sleeves, she pulled up the hood of her hoodie as the four girls left for school.

"Hey Mutsumi-chan." A classmate greeted her as she entered the room. Itsuki and Fuutarou were already in their seats, so she had to get him to go away on her own.

"Hey." She replied, walking up to them. "Move it." Without breaking her glare into her classmate, she leaned back in an annoyed stance.

"Mutsumi." Itsuki said, turning in her chair to face her sister. "Must you always be so rough around the edges?" With a tilted head, her elder sister voiced her concerns. "Having friends other than us wouldn't be so-"

"I can make that choice myself, sis." Mutsumi averted her eyes, looking at the door and silently wishing that the teacher would appear. "How are you adjusting at Fuutarou-san's place?"

"Splendidly." Itsuki beamed. "Uesugi-kun's sister is really cute. His father can be quite amusing at times." She started; Fuutarou's grumbling could be heard in the distance.

"You're really...wow." Mutsumi was speechless. "If you like it there so much, can I have your room?" She joked, smiling wide. "What if she doesn't want to come back? She seems to be enjoying their company more than ours. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" She thought behind her joyful expression.

"Soon, perhaps. I heard from Uesugi-kun that Nino apologized to him yesterday. I doubt that it happened though." She fixed her bag, pulling out notebooks and pens. "How did the plan with Yotsuba go?"

"Oh." Mutsumi looked at Fuutarou. "Not...as expected. But I think that he'll be fine." And with that, the door swung open as the teacher arrived. School passed in a blink of an eye, Nino occasionally glancing towards her during lunch. After classes ended, she split off from her sisters, ducking into an alley and into a small store. Inside were wires, small screens, microchips, among other things. Picking up a small handful of supplies, she gave the shopkeeper a wave and headed for Nino's hotel.

"I still don't understand why she changed her mind during our talk, but she taught me one thing..." Fuutarou's voice could be heard from the other side of the room as Mutsumi slowly and silently opened the door. "There's no stopping people from changing. You just have to accept it and let go of the past."

"...Fu." She thought on his words as she walked in. "Fuutarou-san. Do you really think that?"

"I don't have to think it. It's a fact that everyone is a little different after some time." Fuutarou turned, surprised at her arrival.

"Mutsumi, do you remember when we were kids?" Nino said, taking a seat at the desk in her room as Mutsumi sat across from Fuutarou.

"How could I forget?" Mutsumi chuckled, empty and forced. "We used to dress the same, act the same. Nobody else in the world could have that experience."

"It was comforting, like we shared the same consciousness so we could always understand each other." Twirling a quill that was on the desk, Nino said with her back turned to her guests. "But everything started changing five years ago."

Their attention now fixated on the second sister, Fuutarou and Mutsumi fell silent as she stood up. "We started to grow apart, little by little. First, Mutsumi had to go overseas. Then I was surprised when Ichika became an actress. I didn't even find out until you told me." Untying her ribbons and parting her bangs to mimic her hair from her childhood, Nino leaned in on her arms. "It was like you left the sextuplet nest, leaving only me behind." She turned to look at the other two, the earnest intent in her words reflected by the longing in her eyes.

Fuutarou looked at her, his eyes going wide before turning to Mutsumi for a moment. Mutsumi hid her leg, gesturing with her eyes to tell him to focus on her sister.

"I'm the only one that can't let go of that time." Nino began again. "I even kept my hair the same length as back then." Clenching her fists, she sat a little closer to the others. "That's why I'm going to leave the nest, no matter what it takes. Before I'm the only one le-"

"I'm not going to let you leave me behind. Nino." Mutsumi spoke up, taking the others by surprise. "You're not the only one that's clinging to our past. And after listening to Fuutarou-san, I think I'm going to let go soon."

"Are you two really okay with that?" Fuutarou asked, looking on at both girls.

"I am. I have to let go of the past to move forward...all that's left is. If I had any regrets, it would be...from the field trip:" Nino looked at her arm. "Kintarou-kun."

"Well. I'd love to meet him, but I have something to do." Mutsumi went into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. The sound of running water and splashing emanated from the room before she walked back.

"...it looks like I'll never be able to let go." Mutsumi returned, seemingly at the tail end of Nino and Fuutarou's conversation.

"If I told you that you could meet him...what would you do?" Fuutarou asked, catching the girls off guard.

"Good luck, you two." Mutsumi decided to excuse herself from their business. "I'll see you later." Waving the two away as she opened the door, a smile formed on her bare, pale face.

There was a knock on a door a little bit later in the day. Slowly swinging open, the one inside looks to her visitor. "H-Hey." Mutsumi said, looking into the room. "Can we talk? Onee-chan?"