Mutsumi walked silently, knocking on the door to the Uesugis' room. "Hey." Fuutarou opened the door, looking down at her after looking up and down the hall. "What's up?" He asked, twirling his hair between his fingers. Both dressed in the clothes provided by the inn, Mutsumi's hair tied into a simple ponytail for the night. It was quiet, most of the guests of the establishment were already asleep.
"This is going to be harder than I thought." Mutsumi said, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind them. They whispered, as the father and daughter were snoozing inside. "I don't know why, but..." She turned to face him, skittish and eyes darting occasionally back towards the door.
"I think they might be on to us." Fuutarou sighed, slightly annoyed. The two sat down, a fair distance away from both the door and the sleeping family members, and Fuutarou pulled out a slip of paper. "Itsuki wants to meet with me, for some reason." Mutsumi read the message that called for a meeting at midnight; it was the fifth's handwriting.
"The courtyard?" Mutsumi thought aloud. "Are you sure that they've found us out already?" She spoke worriedly, checking the time on Fuutarou's phone. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"That might be helpful." Fuutarou replied. "Who knows what she might ask? Come on, let's get ready. It's almost time." Fuutarou said as the bugs outside began to break the silence. The moonlit sky, partly cloudy and spattered with stars, served as the backdrop to their short walk towards the courtyard.
"Hey, Fuu-kun. Tell me about them sometime, okay?" Mutsumi said as they passed by some staff doing some cleaning.
"What's this about?"
"Keeping up the disguise. It would be awkward if we just walked in silen-" Mutsumi was interrupted by a set of footsteps as Itsuki descended from a set of stairs onto the creaky wood floor. Mutsumi walked backwards, hiding herself behind the corner to leave Fuutarou with her sister, whoever she may be.
"Uesugi...kun?" Itsuki rubbed her eyes, seemingly distracted by her thoughts.
"You said to meet you in the courtyard, I was on my way there. What did you want to discuss?" Fuutarou walked up to her, his voice tired and exaggerated, trying to hide his worry.
"Let's go to the courtyard first..."
"No. Tell me now. It's late, and I have things I have to worry about." He sighed, yawning to emphasize his point. Itsuki gulped down a lump in her throat, looking around before gazing into Fuutarou's eyes with her own.
"Uesugi-kun…" She paused as Mutsumi crept in closer to hear better. "If knowing the truth would hurt you, would you still want to hear it?"
"What?" Fuutarou stood dumbfounded. "What do you mean? Is there something I should know?"
"No. Forget I said anything. If you found out, then everything as it is now will end." She said ominously, turning away to walk somewhere else. Fuutarou shot out his arm, grabbing her wrist and keeping her in place.
"You're not making any sense. I know we haven't had any proper lessons recently, but I'm sure that me knowing something won't change how we study." Fuutarou argued, raising his voice slightly.
"...Uesugi-kun. It's because I don't want you to go that I have to keep this a secret from you. We can teach each other, so you might not be hired as a tutor again; you don't have a reason to be with us anymore... We're no longer student and teacher." She said sadly, looking down at her feet while her fingers twirled around themselves.
"Itsuki! What are you saying? Did you father put you up to this!?" Panicked, the black haired boy tightened his grip, using his other arm to grab her shoulder. The momentum of his body sent the both of them backwards, Itsuki hit her thigh and let out a yelp. It was short-lived, as he soon found himself looking up at the ceiling and at the old man running the place.
"Fuu-kun!" Mutsumi ran out, kneeling down to check on him. "How many fingers am I holding out?" She hovered an open palm above his head. She glanced up at Itsuki, who was staring at the two of them with a shocked expression of her own. "I'll bring him back to his room. Goodnight." She said humbly, dragging Fuutarou by his shoulders around the corner before helping him back to his feet.
"What the hell was that?" Fuutarou rubbed his back, hunched over and resting his body against the wall. "That old man is a lot stronger than he looks." He winced as they arrived at Fuutarou's room.
"Or maybe you're just weak. Grandpa may have known some Judo back in the day, but martial arts don't suddenly reverse the aging process." Mutsumi took a stab at him, trying to bring some levity back into the night; it didn't work. Her face turned down as the two stood by the door. "At least they haven't figured us out yet. So I just need to get Yotsuba alone and talk to her."
"Well, at least we can solve that problem. Now I'm worried about what Itsuki said." Fuutarou opened the door, waving the girl goodnight. "Let's put a pin in that for now. One problem at a time." He said.
"Goodnight, Fuutarou-san. God it feels so strange to call you Fuu-kun." Mutsumi chuckled, leaving to go into her own room to bed down. She shut her eyes, trying to sleep before she was interrupted by a knock at her door.
"Who is it?" She asked, sitting up before slowly striding towards the handle.
"Mutsumi-kun. It's me." The voice came from the doctor, slow and somber. "May I come in?"
"Oh. Uh sure." She quickly opened the door and let him in, turning on the lights. "Hi dad."
"How are you?" Maruo asked, pulling up a chair and looking up at her. "Have they treated you well?" He looked aloof, unlike what his words would imply. Attempting to keep his distance, the man crossed his legs as Mutsumi pulled up her own chair.
"Yeah. They've done everything they could to help me." Mutsumi looked at the wall in the direction of the Uesugis' room. "But I want to end this as soon as possible. I'd hate to trouble them any more than I already have."
"I see. Well, if you're doing well." Maruo cleared his throat and stood up, walking out of the doorway. "I believe there's nothing else to discuss. Goodnight." He said, the atmosphere awkward and uncomfortable. He almost seemed to squirm with each step.
"Dad." Mutsumi called out. "Thank you...for doing this for me, for letting me do this." Maruo turned back, a small smile on his face. Mutsumi hit the switch and slept until morning, worrying about what was to come. Waking up at the crack of dawn, Mutsumi quickly tied her hair once more before heading to see Fuutarou and company.
"Ah, hi cousin!" Raiha greeted her, coming into the hallway. "Onii-san is still sleeping, come inside." She waved her over, startling the other guests and some staff that were passing by. The two entered the room, finding both males face down on futons.
"Good grief." Mutsumi walked over, kneeling next to Fuutarou. "Wake up! We have to do this as soon as possible!" She shook him violently, like a kid who just got a pair of maracas, to no effect. Raiha got a call on her phone, joining the effort once she picked up. They gave it two minutes, giving up as he wasn't responding in the slightest.
"What was that about last night? I give up." He muttered, his voice muffled by his pillow. Mutsumi crossed her arms, slumping over and reeling her arm back to smack him.
"Geez. Hello...looks like onii-san's flying into the future. Sorry about wasting your time..." Raiha returned her attention to the phone call. "Itsuki-san." The two teens in the room both shot up, Fuutarou snatching the phone away from her sister.
"Itsuki! What the heck was all that about yesterday!? Explain yourself!" He screamed into the mic of the device.
"That's my line. Why did you not come to the courtyard?" Itsuki's voice escaped the speaker, shocking both Mutsumi and Fuutarou.
"What...hold on. Let's talk about this face to face." Fuutarou suggested.
"I would like to, but I'm being watched. Father doesn't want the two of us meeting unless he's there to supervise it." Itsuki said. "He did the same thing at the boat, right?" Itsuki said in a low whisper.
"Yeah. In that case, I know the perfect place." Fuutarou said his plan, getting raised eyebrows from Mutsumi as he stood up and walked to the door.
"Fuutarou-san. Do you think Itsuki can help me get Yotsuba alone?" Mutsumi asked, her face in deep thought. "If we get her on our side, then..." She muttered, following him out into the hallway.
He sat in the mixed baths, soaking his body in the water as he left his phone on a nearby rock. From his spot he heard a door slide open as footsteps entered the bath area beyond the wall. "Demiglace." He yelled out.
"H-Hamburg steak." Itsuki replied, meekly. Fuutarou pressed a button on his phone as he heard her body get into the water.
"Alright. It's the real Itsuki this time." He said, sighing in relief.
"Isn't talking across the hot spring fencing a bit..." Itsuki expressed embarrassment at the current situation. Her tone was less composed compared to usual, more fragile and prone to getting derailed.
"Well, it's not like we can both be in the same bath."
"That's not what I meant!" She yelled.
"But we should be able to talk in private here." Fuutarou returned to the topic at hand, calmly directing the flow of conversation. "I ran into Itsuki at the lobby last night. She said that we might not be student and teacher anymore. I'm worried for my job, but I'm mostly just curious."
"Huh?" Itsuki said surprised, the water splashing as she moved her body.
"So that wasn't you. Then the only ones who could do that was..."
"Yes. One of my sisters. All of them are suspects." Itsuki added. "All except for Mutsumi."
"Were any of them acting funny?" Fuutarou asked. "And what was the point of dressing up as you." He leaned back, letting more of his body submerge into the hot spring.
The door to the mixed bath slid open quickly, another of the sextuplets walking in to find the boy immersed in his bath. "What's this? I sure run into you in the bath a lot." She said. "Why are you in the mixed bath?" She asked, stepping closer without a hint of hesitation.
"I...I just had to" Fuutarou replied, stiffening up as she stood by the edge of the water and leaned in closer to his face.
"Well, whatever. Since we're both here, how about I give your body a scrub?" She looked him in the eye, intent shining through her own.
"Wai...Wait a second...Can I ask you something?" He turned, blankly staring the girl in the face. "Who are you?" The atmosphere died, replaced with awkwardness as the sextuplet just got more and more flustered with every second. "You're not Itsuki...which means...but then..." He began mumbling as the girl gripped a bucket tightly in her hands.
"Dumbass!" She yelled, hurling it at Fuutarou's head. She stomped away, bumping into someone on the way out.
"That was your fault just now." Itsuki said from the other side.
"Don't be unreasonable. You all look the same. It's like playing concentration with all the same cards." Fuutarou rubbed his head, feeling a small bump where there was none before.
"It's not like everything about us is the same. We are able to tell each other apart. I'm sure you can too." Itsuki said, relaxing into her own bath. "As long as there's love!" She said, the sound of splashing water suggested that she just jerked a part of her body in a gesture nobody could see. "But I do have a question...Nino used to hate you so much. Whatever brought on that change? It's not just Nino, the others have all been acting differently ever since spring break started."
"Is that what you wanted to talk about last night?" Fuutarou asked.
"As much as I want to know the answer to that question. There is something more pressing." She said seriously. "Uesugi-kun. Do you know what happened with Mutsumi? You've been acting strange ever since we met at the dock. Not only that, but father allowed you to stay with us while your family had a sudden addition for this trip." Fuutarou remained silent. "Speaking of her, who exactly is your cousin?"
"Why don't you ask her yourself." Fuutarou said, pressing a button on his phone.
"H-hello..." Mutsumi entered the woman's bath, leaving her phone next to her change of clothes. "So...it's been a while..." She walked up, getting into the water.
"Did you really have to go this far?" Itsuki asked, pulling her sister into a long overdue hug. "We were worried about you. We started panicking when Yotsuba came home and said she couldn't find you."
"Yotsuba...did she tell you about what happened?" Mutsumi stared into her sister's eyes, scanning for any semblance of deceit as she denied knowing anything; she found nothing.
"Did something happen between the two of you?" The fifth sister asked.
"I'll explain later. While we have Fuutarou-san here, let's talk about the impostor Itsuki last night." Mutsumi relaxed her body, letting the warm water wash her stress away. "Haaa...I needed this again..."
"Actually. I can somewhat agree with my impostor's argument." Itsuki spoke confidently, calmly resting her back against the rocks. "I don't know her true intentions, but we're no longer teacher and student, nor are we just partners. After everything that has happened, all the things we've been through together..." She stared at the wall, in Fuutarou's direction. "Would you not call us friends?"
"Saying something like that, so nonchalantly." Fuutarou said from the other side. "Alright. Let's talk."
"Hey! Where are you going?!" Mutsumi yelled, grabbing onto Itsuki's arm as she stood up in a rush of emotion. "Don't tell me you were planning on going to see a naked teen, while being dressed in only a towel!" She said, turning her sister's face redder than her hair.
"I'm done." Fuutarou groaned. "Let's meet up somewhere and talk about the fake Itsuki later. Mutsumi's room is quite secluded, so that could work." He said, getting out of the bath and leaving the sisters to their own business.
"They're all dressed like you?" Mutsumi and Fuutarou stared at the fifth sister as the three sat down in Mutsumi's room. "What are we supposed to do about your impostor? Not only that, but I also have to talk to Yotsuba one on one." Mutsumi sighed, laying down on the floor.
"I'll help Uesugi-kun find the Itsuki from last night. You should be able to talk to Yotsuba, right?" Itsuki clapped her hands together. "You were able to tell me apart last night."
"Uhm…" Mutsumi flushed. "I...I'm not really confident about that. I couldn't identify the fake Itsuki last night when she talked to Fuutarou-san."
"I'm sure you can do it. As long as there's love." Itsuki was enthusiastic, pumping her fist and striking a pose. Mutsumi and Fuutarou stared at each other, worry in their eyes. "If you're having trouble, maybe grandpa can help you."
A/N: Felt kinda out of it at the start of writing this, a little sick. Now I'm wondering how to write the next part, because I originally had a chapter each for Fuutarou and Mutsumi's plans for this day. Probably will do it again, so Fuutarou's chapter is next, him dealing with the imposter Itsuki.