"Mutsumi? You're home already?" The eldest of the sisters rubbed her eyes. Her posture and clothing, or lack thereof, suggested that she was sound asleep before she arrived. "What time is it?"

"Not important. Can I come in?" Mutsumi said as the door slowly swung closed.

"If you're just going to get mad at me, then I'm not having it. You've been nothing but mean to me since you-" She groaned before sighing, retreating into her room.

"I made us some frappes. Please, listen to me." Mutsumi said as the door slammed shut and the lock clicked into place. "Ichika! Come out here! I'm not done with you." She set the drinks aside, balling her fist and knocking louder and louder before she stopped. "Alright...you need to calm down..." She said to herself, taking a few steps back and breathing heavily to relax herself. "Getting angry won't get you anywhere." She thought, walking up to the door and resting her head against it.

"While I was abroad, I joined a bunch of competitions. You saw the photos." She said, pressing a hand on the single bar that marked it as the eldest's room. "But, even then, I wasn't happy with that. "Her other hand pulled out her phone, opening the gallery to look at photos from some time ago. Mutsumi looked down at them, swiping to the next after a few seconds of bitter recollection. "Because I was lonely."

"It's dumb for me to say that. I pushed people away, and I have the audacity to say that I'm lonely. I know it's my fault that I felt that way, but..." Slowly falling to her knees, she leant against the door. "But they were just using me. They were like parasites, using me to get themselves to a better place before leaving me once I've fulfilled my job." She clutched her phone with both hands, looking at a photo. "Traitors, they made me think they cared about me. They used me like a tool!" Now looking at the door, she took a deep breath.

"But they weren't the first traitors I've met. It was you, five years ago. But...I'm being unfair to you." She paused, waiting for a response, any response; nothing. "The way I've been acting, I was ignoring your changes. I don't know if you're still that traitor I saw when we were little, or if you're not. If you can forgive me, I'd like to find out. Truth be told..." She looked at the photo again, one of them and their mother. "I...I'm not sure if I really know any of you anymore. It's been so long. So please..."

Taking one of the glasses, she chugged it down and set it in the sink. Taking one glance at Ichika's room, she turned away and put on her shoes, deciding to go on a walk. "Where are you going?" A voice called out to her from behind.

"Just going on a stroll. Want to come along, Miku?" She responded, her tone somewhat dejected.

The two left the building under the light of the stars. Step after step, they closed in on Nino's hotel, saying nothing on the way until.

"Mutsumi. Just be patient, okay." Miku said out of the blue.

"I know..." She replied. "I'm sorry too."

"For what?" Miku stopped, turning to look as Mutsumi kept walking.

"I don't know. I just felt like it had to be said." They kept walking at a steady pace until they arrived at the hotel, with Nino pulling her luggage out the exit. "Where is she going?"

"Do you think she's going home?"

"No. That road leads nowhere near the apartment. She was supposed to have a meeting with a guy named Kintarou, but..." Mutsumi looked through the glass on the first floor of the hotel. "Miku, can you follow Nino. Find out where she's going."

"What? She'll notice me and get mad." Miku hid behind the muffs of her headphones.

"Hmm, what can I do to convince her to do it." Mutsumi paused for a moment, remembering Miku's grades. "History...huh? And mostly Sengoku stuff." She grinned. "Be as hard to know as the shadow. So take this." Mutsumi gambled, taking off her dark hoodie and handing it to her sister. "Text me if something happens." She took Miku's hands in her own before they split up.

"What happened here?" Mutsumi thought as the sound of her shoes skidding on the tile squeaked throughout the place. She walked over to Fuutarou, passed out on a table with an empty glass before him. "Hey, Fuutarou-san? Where's that Kintarou guy? Hey!" She grabbed his wrist, limp and heavy. Fuutarou sat motionless, the sound of his breathing rhythmic and calming. She sat across from him, poking his face to try and wake him before catching a whiff of his breath. "Ugh...it smells like dad's office." She muttered. Her eyes shot open, quickly grabbing the glass and smelling that as well. She sighed, lifting his head by his hair with one hand and winding up the other.

"Ow! What!? Where? Mutsumi!?" Fuutarou awoke, hair still held by Mutsumi. "Where's Nino?"

"She left. You might be surprised by this, but she slipped a drug into your coffee that made you pass out." Mutsumi let go, crossing her legs and leaning back in the chair. She didn't know what she expected from him, anger, surprise, perhaps that depressed look from the boat. She got neither, instead she got an annoyed look as Fuutarou grit his teeth.

"Again? I can't believe I fell for it twice." He sighed, getting up and dusting himself off. "Why are you here?"

"I came to meet the Kintarou guy. I...didn't want to stay home for a bit. Where is he?" She asked, watching as his eyes darted around the room.

"Well, it's a long story. Come on, let's follow her." Fuutarou tried to change the subject, walking towards the exit. Mutsumi stretched out her arms, stepping in front of him to block his way.

"We can deal with Nino once we think of a plan. Now tell me, where is that Kintarou?" Shifting her weight to a more stable stance, she asked while looking at his face for a sign.

"He's...not real." He muttered. "It's a long story. So can we just go after her?" Fuutarou turned away as Mutsumi relaxed herself.

"No. We're not going to follow her. You are going to tell me what this is." Mutsumi crossed her arms, turning to head out. Fuutarou was about to walk past her when her phone pinged with a notification. "I know where she is. Let's go to her another time. Come on, let's talk in the library." Leading the way, Mutsumi brought the two of them into a library, getting seated in a quiet corner that could see the moonlit sky.

"Talk."

"Well, how should I put this? It all began when she saw my photo." Fuutarou, almost instinctively, pulled a reference book from a nearby shelf; Quadratics. "She saw the younger me, the one with blonde hair, and said that that was her type. Of course, she asked me who this was. I lied, saying it was a cousin, since saying it was me would only open Pandora's box even wider." Flipping through as he talks, he notes down a page number as Mutsumi sighed and grabbed a book of her own.

"Well, that's how the name came to be, but how did she come to like Kintarou, but hate you?"

"It was the school trip, before you arrived. My class was doing a test of courage, or more accurately, I was. I was wearing a clown costume with a blonde wig when Itsuki and Nino came. They ran off down the wrong path, so I had to chase them. Thing is, I forgot to take off the wig." He grumbled, getting another book. "What a pain."

"Tell me about it. Now we have to deal with it, it's annoying." Mutsumi complained, a small smile on her face. "Does she know now?"

"Yeah. Right before she put me to sleep, she said she saw through my disguise." Fuutarou chuckled, noting down the book he was reading to come back to it later. "How are the others?"

"One question, how do you do it?"

"Do what?" Fuutarou put down his book, looking at her curiously.

"Teach them. I didn't know that this level of stupid could exist." Mutsumi grumbled, a grin showing her true colors.

"Hey, don't say that. They're your sisters."

"It's just a joke. Relax." Mutsumi waved her hand, a finger from the other skimming through the text on the paper. "Though...I must admit, I'm not that familiar with them anymore."

"It takes time, don't let it get to you." Fuutarou said after a few seconds of silence. "If I could do it, then their sister should be able to."

They stay for a while, studying and making more notes for the elder sisters. The clock ticks away as the library slowly empties into the cold night. "How did your plan go?" Fuutarou asked, yawning and arcing his back. Mutsumi looked up at him, standing up and stretching her arms, fixing the few things she brought with her to the building.

"I don't know. Ichika...I don't know if she'd forgive me." The girl worried as the two left the building.

"Why did you treat her like that in the first place? She said it was something from five years ago." Fuutarou rubbed his hands, his breath visible in front of him.

"Do you remember that day we met in Kyoto?" Mutsumi asked, holding onto his wrist as they approached the sisters' home. "I...I wasn't the only one that met you that day."

"More than one? It's starting to make sense..." Fuutarou pondered, putting his fingers to his chin to think.

"Fuutarou-san, can I stay with you and Itsuki tonight? I'm...scared of Ichika." Mutsumi looked up, rubbing her eyes as they tried to see the 30th floor. "And there's one more thing I'd like to tell Itsuki."

"Onii-san! You're late! What kept you out so...oh." Fuutarou's sister met them at the door to his house, she was dressed and ready to sleep when Fuutarou had called out to her.

"Good evening. I'm the sixth sister, Mutsumi. I came by a few days ago, right Raiha-chan?" The girl smiled as another set of footsteps came down to greet them, Itsuki. "May I use the bathroom?" And with that, the two enter the home. Mutsumi beelined for the Uesugi's lavatory, running the sink and washing everything off.

"Mutsumi?" Itsuki called out to her from the other side of the door. "Uesugi-kun said you wanted to talk to me abou-" She was interrupted by the door being opened, revealing the sallow, dull state her sister was in.

"I...let's talk over some food. Can you ask if I can have some dinner?" Mutsumi steadied her sister's trembling hands, Itsuki still reeling from the sheer difference of the current Mutsumi to the one she saw just minutes earlier. They sit around the table, just the two of them and Fuutarou. "As you can probably guess, I'm not at my best yet."

"Why didn't you tell us? You said that everything was over, back when you first got home." Itsuki asked, holding a bowl of rice in one hand.

"I didn't want you to worry. I thought that if I came clean from the start that you'd...you'd treat me like they did." Mutsumi set her chopsticks aside, finished with her food as Fuutarou listened while reading his notes.

"Them?" He asked, closing his notebook and glancing at the girl. "Who?"

"My old...frie-acquaintances." She grimaced at her words. "Once they found out, they began to distance themselves from me unless they needed me, which made me resent them and distance myself from them." Mutsumi chuckled. "In the end, it was partly my fault. But that doesn't matter now." She smiled, a mixture of regret and relief fixing her muscles into place. "Back to the topic at hand." Mutsumi rummaged in her pocket, pulling a small pouch. "I have my bottle at home, but I keep this on me if I can't get to it. Like sleeping over, for example. Once that bottle is empty, I should go back to looking...like this." She ran her hand up Itsuki's arm.

"How long will it take?" Itsuki asked, finally finishing her meal.

"With my current dosage, around new year." She said, raising her hand to her face. "Please, don't tell the rest of our class. I don't want to cause trouble."

"What about the others?" Fuutarou got everyone to turn to Mutsumi.

"...I'll tell them once Nino and Itsuki go home." Stretching and standing up, she said without any emotion. "I'm going to sleep. Thank you again, Fuutarou-san."