A/N: With Mangadex unable to show the older chapters, and with my "winter" (living in the tropics) break over, I might slow down a bit. Sorry in advance if that becomes the case...
With the six of them together again, the apartment returned to the norm of having her busy tinkering with things. Mutsumi took post at the kotatsu, setting up a soldering station by using extension cords. "A speaker...now, where did I put those?" She thought aloud, glancing over at the sister sitting across from her. Itsuki was watching a documentary on the TV, munching on some cookies between taking notes on bird migration patterns. Yotsuba was out for her daily jog, Nino was doing her nails in the bathroom, and Miku was making a fuss in the kitchen; none willing or able to assist her with this predicament.
"What are you making, if I may ask?" Itsuki switched her attention once the program ran into an intermission.
"I was thinking of a way to prevent things like...that...from happening again. I've made some trackers before, but I want everyone to have one so we can find each other in case something comes up." Mutsumi said, getting up from the comfort of the kotatsu and dusting off her shirt clean of some of Itsuki's wayward crumbs. "I need to finish this to test if my code works."
"Why would you need a speaker?" Miku asks, entering the room with a batch of matcha and white chocolate cookies; they smelled edible. "Can't you make them silent?"
"The speaker is for emergencies. In case we really need help, like we're stuck in a fire or something."
"That certainly sounds like an extreme scenario," Itsuki says, curiously reaching out for some of Miku's warm cookies.
"But it is a possible scenario." Mutsumi rebuts as the fourth sister returns home with a loud greeting. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I have to find them in...the room." Mutsumi shuddered, gesturing to the bedroom where Ichika was currently napping. The four sisters currently present shuddered, knowing that the eldest's habits tend to leave disarray in her wake.
"Onee-san..." Mutsumi called out, slowly opening the door. Unexpectedly, the room was quite tidy, the futons neatly folded up and stacked in one corner of the room.
"Is something wrong, Mutsumi-chan?" Ichika replied, surprisingly awake and getting dressed to go out. "Do you need more photos?" She asked, making Mutsumi wave her hand dismissively.
"You're awake? What's the occasion?" Mutsumi joked, walking over and picking up one of the boxes she stuffed in the corner. Her supplies for some gadgets she's been tinkering with. Her entire first paycheck was spent on stocking up, as such the box' contents will probably last her until the end of the year lest she needs something specific for a certain invention.
"I was just thinking...that maybe I should be a bit more selfish." The eldest said, somewhat uncertain.
"Selfish?" Mutsumi asked, thinking of times where the eldest thought of herself before others.
"Yotsuba..." Mutsumi said, pointing to something she could see illuminated in the moonlight.
"What?" Yotsuba asked cheerily, turning over to see what was going on. The fourth sister felt her chest tighten as her eyes brought an uncomfortable truth to her. Standing in stunned silence, Yotsuba's eyes let out teardrops that dripped down and wet her feet.
"Selfish in what sense?" Mutsumi raised an eyebrow, growing somewhat concerned.
"I'm just going to ask if they could help pay for the rent. Truth be told, I'm getting a bit overwhelmed having to shoulder every one of our payments." Ichika said, giving Mutsumi some relief. Mutsumi glanced over at her sister's face, Ichika's eyes seeming to look different in this light.
"If it's just that, then...I guess it'd be fair. Let's go and tell them." Mutsumi quietly got her speakers, beckoning the eldest with her free hand. "Better tell them early so they can go job hunting, right?"
"You have a good point." The eldest stepped out, clapping her hand to hold a sextuplet meeting. "Everyone, meeting, now!" She yelled, exerting her authority.
"What's up?" Nino asked, looking at her freshly done nails. The six of them were positioned around the kotatsu, all paying attention to Ichika except for Mutsumi who was working on her gadget. "You never call for meetings."
"When was the last time we had a meeting like this?" Miku asked, tasting her cookies and smiling contently. "With all six of us together..."
"Now that you mention it, we haven't really done stuff with all six of us since Mutsumi got back. Studying doesn't count." Yotsuba's ribbon flopped to the side as the second sister rocked back and forth. "But since we're all third years now, I'm sure we'll get to hang out more!"
"Is something the matter?" Itsuki asked to bring the conversation back to Ichika, cleaning up her crumbs and shutting off the TV. On the kotatsu, aside from the cookies and Mutsumi's latest project, were a few empty bottles that were probably Yotsuba. And, soon, a pile of job advertisements was added by Ichika.
"Starting next week, we're splitting the rent six ways." Ichika's statement silenced the others' idle chatter. "Whoever can't pay will be evicted and forced to live in the old apartment."
"You didn't say anything about that!" Mutsumi stopped working, slamming her hand down on the kotatsu's firm top. "N-Not like it affects me, but..." She muttered out, glancing at her sisters who were already looking through some of the ads. "Don't worry guys, I'll he-" The ping from her phone interrupted her train of thought, also getting everyone's attention. They all curiously stared at their blonde sister as the sixth sister checked her notifications. "Oh, it's from Fuutarou-san." Perhaps she had a lapse in judgment because Mutsumi forgot the company she was with.
"What! Why are you meeting with Fuu-kun?"
"Didn't you basically live with him for a while? Did you do..."
"H-H-Hold on everyone, aren't you exaggerating things a little bit? There's no way Mutsumi would go that far with a boy."
"Ara ara~ I see Mutsumi-chan."
"Alright! Hold your horses!" Mutsumi yelled to quell her sisters. "I'm just going to return the clothes I borrowed, relax!" She huffed, picking up her things and stomping out to change clothes. "Gosh, I can't believe them! I haven't done...anything with Fuutarou-san..." She paused to think, imagining the scene her sisters were implying. "H...haa...no!" She screamed out. Her mind playing tricks on her, only assisted by the fact that she took off her clothes to change. "Damn it! Why!?" She groaned, partly blaming her sisters for this mental image.
Looking at her fairly samey selection of clothes, she stood stumped for a moment. She pulled out a white sleeveless crop top, putting it on and wondering what to wear with it. "Need some help?" Nino asked, peeking into the room and finding Mutsumi's clothes scattered everywhere. "What a mess..." She muttered to herself, stepping around the shirts, shorts, and pants on the floor.
"Yeah, a bit..." Mutsumi said, tracing her figure with her hands. "Dressing up used to be so much easier when we were younger." She said, looking in the mirror and noticing that her roots are starting to show.
"Yeah, because all we wore was that one...dress..." Nino said, looking down at a neatly folded white dress. "You still have it?"
"Yeah..." Mutsumi replied, getting red in the face. "I-I didn't have a lot of things to remember you by, so I kept everything I could..." She turned, finding Nino grinning at her. "S-Shut up! I know it's kinda stupid, but it meant a lot to me, okay?" She yelled, flustered, scrambling to hide that piece of clothing away from her sister's glare.
"Right, right..." Nino smiled, picking up some of Mutsumi's clothes. "Let's get you dressed up." She said, moving Mutsumi in front of the mirror again. Selecting a pair of jean shorts and black thigh high socks, she handed them over to her sister while her own hands tied Mutsumi's dyed hair into a long ponytail that nearly reached her back. "Now, about your roots..." Nino muttered while Mutsumi put on a black, leather, mini-sized jacket. Nino looked around, finding a large selection of hats that Mutsumi had bought.
Fedora doesn't work with the outfit; beret, to be returned to Fuutarou; sun hat, clashes; beanie, too warm for the weather. "My cap? Maybe I should get some more hats." Mutsumi made an offhanded comment as she adjusted her headwear. She looked at herself in the mirror, turning and bending her body to examine her voluptuous figure. Perhaps because of the fact that she's now with her equally curvaceous sisters, or maybe because of their somewhat risque comments earlier, she's now starting to appreciate the sight of her curves.
"By the way, did it hurt?" Nino asked, getting Mutsumi to redden once more.
"W-We didn't do that! I'm still a vir-"
"Not that!" Nino blushed too, the two of them feeling their cheeks get hotter with each passing second. "I meant the piercings! The piercings! Geez!" Nino pouted, trying to hide her embarrassment; it didn't hide it very well.
"Oh...yeah...a little. But Raiha-chan was surprisingly good at it." Mutsumi said, laughing her shame away as she looked at the holes in her earlobes. "Have anything I can wear?"
"Did I make you wait long?" Mutsumi asked, approaching the tutor who was sitting inside of a coffee shop.
"I just got here myself, don't worry about me. More importantly..." Fuutarou replied. "But why here, of all places?" He asked, looking around the crowded store and taking comfort in the silence; an unseen creed between cafe goers.
"I was curious about their coffee, I saw some good things online by some up and coming critic." Mutsumi sat down across from him, glancing at the menu from her seat. "Do you want a drink? I'll pay for you." She smiled, her joy visible through the lenses of her glasses. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table between them.
"I'm not a big fan of coffee; too bitter for my tastes."
"Coming from the person that enjoyed Miku's...early work..." Mutsumi stopped herself, noticing some blue peek out from the table behind Fuutarou. "Maybe you should add some sugar or something, maybe you'll enjoy one if you mix something into it."
"No thank you." He raised his hand, humbly declining. "Now, let's get to the point..."
"Right, here you go." Mutsumi shut her eyes and sighed, handing over a paper bag of dresses and accessories. "Can I keep the beret? I kinda like it." She asked, trying her best to make puppy dog eyes.
"No."
"Aw man. Well, while I have you here, I've got to ask something for my sisters. Do you have a shift today?" Mutsumi asked, telling him to hold his answer while she ordered herself a drink. Fuutarou shook his head as she turned to look at him. "Perfect. Because there's a lot we have to talk about."
Mutsumi sat back down with a shot of double shot espresso and a cappuccino, passing the latter to Fuutarou along with some sugar. "Well, first up is the most important one. Ichika is making everyone get jobs. Is there an opening at Revival?" She asked, getting a sigh from the boy.
"It was bound to happen. And yes, we have a job open in the kitchen." He said, looking into the bag that the blonde handed her. "Anything else you want to talk about?"
"Well, even after everything that's happened, I still don't really know how things got to this point. So, can you tell me how you met them? I'm curious." She said, sipping down the bitter liquid slowly while gazing at him. "How did everything start?"
"It started off while I was eating my lunch. I was about to sit down at my usual table when I collided trays with a new transfer student. Red hair, stupid star clips, and a large ahoge that seemed to have a mind of its own."
"And carrying probably ten times the food you were." Mutsumi joked, looking around the store and finding a cowlick sprouting from another customer who was seated in the corner.
"Yes. We got into an argument during that short break until I resigned myself to my review slips." Fuutarou said, hiding a small smile with his drink. "But she wouldn't let it rest there. She snatched away my test, dumbfounded by my..."
"Perfect score...what a shocker!" Mutsumi said bluntly. "Then what happened?"
"She asked me to be her tutor. I wish I was a bit nicer; the trouble that would've saved me later down the road..." Fuutarou muttered, mixing in the sugar. "Because Nakano Itsuki held a grudge, probably because I called her fat, it made my job harder once I started the day after.
"After a good night's sleep to think things through, I wanted to apologize to her. Luckily, I found her during lunch; unluckily for me, she was eating with a group. So I decided to try again later. However, things never go my way."
"What happened? Who was it?" Mutsumi leaned forward, brushing her hair back and showing some gold huggy earrings.
"Calling herself my Onee-san, even though we were in the same grade, one of Nakano's friends walked up to me. This girl liked teasing me, and she thought that I took an interest inItsuki. I kept telling her she had the wrong idea, but she didn't buy it. Nakano Ichika..." He said, taking a sip and being pleasantly surprised. Mutsumi looked past his face, finding a local actress drinking a frappuccino. "If only I knew what kind of trouble messing with the Nakano family would bring me."
"Hey, you make it sound like you were...nevermind."
"Anyway, after that encounter, another person came up to me while I was eating. The first thing that got my attention was how close she was." Fuutarou placed his hand an inch away from his face. "She was this close when she called out to me, which made me jump. The next thing was her large green ribbon." Mutsumi glanced over to some of the potted plants placed around the establishment for decoration, noticing two leaves that looked a bit different. "She showed me two tests, one was mine and the other..."
"Was a test with few correct answers, it was Yotsuba after all..."
"Few? Try none at all. Anyway, this girl followed me around for a while just because I didn't thank her for returning my test." Fuutarou played with his bangs. "Nakano Yotsuba..." He muttered to himself.
"Something on your mind?" Mutsumi asked, reading his face. Just from that quick glance, she could tell that he was still thinking of the impostor incident.
"It's nothing. Where was I?" Fuutarou asked, taking another sip of his drink. "Right, just after Yotsuba...let's see. Classes were finished by this point, but I still haven't apologized properly. Wanting to not make a scene by arriving at her house, I followed Itsuki out as the one with butterfly ribbons assaulted her by grabbing her...love handles..." He visibly blushed as he muttered those last few words, getting embarrassed by proxy.
"Love handles, that's awfully mean, isn't it?" Mutsumi commented, glancing over at her sister's hiding spot. Itsuki tightly pressed her sides together, frowning while pushing a plate of cake away from herself.
"Perhaps that wasn't the best idea..." Fuutarou said, moving on with his tale. "because someone called me out for staring and threatened to call the police." He said, lifting his drink only to realize that he'd already finished it. "Long hair, cold aura, and a pair of headphones. She was quiet, only saying the bare minimum needed to get me out of her hair before she joined Itsuki and butterflies. Nakano Miku, ever the mystery she was, puzzled me."
"And then there was one." Mutsumi said, glancing over at the table where Miku was seated and noticing her sister's companion. "Tell me, how did your interaction with the most aggressive go?" She said, causing someone behind Fuutarou to flinch reflexively.
"Poorly. She instantly called me a stalker the moment I approached the building. Though I did try to trick her, Miku noticed my lunch order and reasoned that I couldn't afford to live in such a luxurious apartment." He said, opening his wallet while sneaking glances at the menu. "Then I made a break for it. Barely missing the elevator, I had to take the stairs..."
"Lying isn't good Fuutarou-san. There's no way you'd be able to..." Mutsumi said, teasing him until she saw complete seriousness in his eyes. "You actually...walked up to the thirtieth floor?"
"Ran. I made it up before the second elevator arrived with your sisters. The moment I got there, it was just me and Itsuki." He said, rubbing his thighs as if he'd just done the task he was talking about. "And the light draining from her eyes when I mentioned that I was the tutor she was waiting for was almost funny, in a sadistic sense."
"I bet you had a similar look when you found out that your workload just quintupled with the arrival of the others." Mutsumi taunted, to which he nodded. She paused, thinking over what she wanted to hear from him next.
"How did you feel at the time, Fuutarou-san?" She asked as the chatter in the cafe became silent.
"Well, I had just climbed up thirty floors, so..." Fuutarou thought about pushing through with the joke, deciding not to when he heard Mutsumi's finger tapping on the table. "Alright. I'll admit it. I hated it. I was only taking the job because of the pay, but it was beyond reasonable. I would've quit if I weren't desperate for cash." Mutsumi looked down, a cold and familiar air hanging around her as she melancholically stared at the glass in her hands.
"Do you still feel that way?" She asked, somewhat scared of his reply.
"...after everything. Well, I can't say that I hate where we are now." He smiled, glancing out the window. "Is that everything?"
"Almost, here's the last thing..." Mutsumi reached into one of the tiny pockets of her jacket, pulling out a familiar glass bottle. "I...wanted to make it up to you, so here..." She extended her arm out, offering the perfume to the boy.
"Mutsumi...where did you? How? I...thank you." He sat flabbergasted for a while. Gently tucking it away, Fuutarou messed with his hair for a bit. Reaching into the bag he got earlier, he pulled out a white beret and tossed it to the girl seated across from him. "Keep it. And, I guess I'll see you guys once school gets started again." He said, getting up and walking out of the coffee shop.
"Do I not have any privacy, geez!?" Mutsumi groaned, following after him six minutes later, accompanied by multiple footsteps. "Learn to hide better, you stuck out like sore thumbs."
"We're not ninjas from some anime." Nino commented as Mutsumi swapped out the cap for the beret.
"Now you remind me, there's a show I want to watch! Let's hurry home." Yotsuba said, taking Miku and Ichika by the arms and running ahead.
"Now that I think about it more, I wonder what classes we'll be in next year." Itsuki said as the three remaining sisters slowly followed Yotsuba's trail.
"Our classes next year? The only ones who would know that ahead of time would be school staff..." Mutsumi thought silently, suddenly remembering her last checkup with their father. "Don't tell me..." She wondered as they returned home. The sisters dispersed, the four unemployed redheads scanned more ads while Ichika left for a shoot. Mutsumi finished up her device, coding an app and uploading it to her phone based on her previous tracker.
"He fucking did it..." Mutsumi just stared at the class listing, seeing six names all lined up. "Dad...really?" She sighed, walking away and giving Fuutarou and Ichika a wave and a grin. Surprisingly, she was the first in the classroom, quickly followed by her sisters. "Hey." She said with a smirk as the six of them joked about the chances of this happening; Mutsumi decided to keep her info hidden, it was more fun this way.