"I heard from their father; he chose you to be their tutor because of your reputation for being the top student. It wakes sense, seeing as they're quite academically challenged." Disregarding the fact that they were conversing inside of the restroom, this conversation put an immense amount of pressure on all three people that could hear it. Takeda, the one delivering the message, seemed the most relaxed out of them; his regular dazzling aura faded as he tried to intimidate the black-haired tutor into resigning. Next was Fuutarou, who stared back with a stoic and unfeeling expression, through the beads of sweat betrayed the facade and showed that he was worried about everything that was going on. Mutsumi, who was eavesdropping using a microphone she planted on Takeda, bit her lip as she waited outside the restroom with her phone up to her ear, more curious than anxious but still feeling the weight of Takeda's words.
"Why the heck are you acquainted with their father?" Fuutarou asked, not moving his eyes to face Takeda due to circumstance, though he'd have liked to stare him down to see his reaction.
"My father is the chairman of the school's board. He's been on good terms with the doctor for a long time now." Takeda gloated, holding his head up with pride before his mind returned to the topic at hand. "But that shouldn't concern you. More importantly, you're also working a part-time job, aren't you? It must be tough, doing both. I'll take over for you. I almost feel obligated to take over in order to give you a break."
"As much as I appreciate your concern, I don't need your pity." Fuutarou stood firm, declining his offer. "And the sextuplets themselves employ me, not their father. It ultimately becomes their decision whether you replace me or not."
"You seem convinced that they wouldn't let you go." Takeda finished up, walking past him to get to the sinks. "But don't they already have Mutsumi-san, who scored better than you?"
"Even still, it's not..."
"But you have much more pressing matters, no?" He said, leaving Fuutarou stumped as to what he was talking about. After the latter inquired for an explanation, Takeda scoffed and went to the exit. "I'm disappointed. I'd rather not continue a conversation with someone with so little spirit. If you'll excuse me." He walked out, finding a certain platinum-haired girl talking with someone on her phone. He just chuckled to himself as he made his way down the hall.
"Yotsuba. Emergency! Get everyone together, we need to talk before Fuutarou-san arrives!" Faking a frantic tone to get her sister to worry, Mutsumi left the school grounds at a slightly faster pace than usual. The sixth sister cut through as many streets as she could, pulling up a map on her phone to guarantee that she took the shortest possible route. Thankfully, Yotsuba had listened carefully, gathering the family around the kotatsu before she got home, she even managed to pry Ichika away from the preview of a movie. "Dad did something again!"
"What is it this time?" Ichika asked, yawning and rubbing her eyes. The rest of the sisters all looked at Mutsumi expectantly, eyes showing their growing irritation and concern.
"Haven't you wondered how we got put into the same class?" Mutsumi started off with a rhetorical question. "He was definitely involved with that. But notice who else is in the class with us."
"Uesugi-san?" Yotsuba asked, slowly working her mind down the wrong train of thought. "That makes more sense. If he's in the sa-"
"Not Fuutarou-san. I'm talking about Takeda-san." Mutsumi got to the point, joining her sisters around the kotatsu and resting her elbows on its wooden top. "I don't know if you remember, but I got a higher score than Fuutarou-san during those last big exams before we went to grandpa's."
"Right...so Fuu-kun got lower than you. What's so important about that?" Nino crossed her arms, grinding her teeth at the repeated information.
"It means Fuutarou isn't the top student anymore..." Miku added, speaking in a contemplative way that soon spread to the other girls.
"Bingo. Now, why did dad hire Fuutarou-san as your tutor again? Why him?" Mutsumi snapped her fingers. It was then that Itsuki's ahoge stood up with an audible "ffftung~" sound.
"Because he was the top student of our grade level. If Mutsumi's score was higher, then she'd now be the current top student." Itsuki arrived at the truth, all eyes now shifting to the top student of the year. "If that's the case, then how does Takeda-kun fit into all of this?"
"Well, the last piece of the puzzle is something he told me. Fuutarou-san is actually the third student in terms of scores. The first and second place are me and..."
"Takeda-kun." In a rare instance of sextuplet telepathy, all six of them blurted out the name of the sparkling student. "Do you think papa will replace Fuu-kun?"
"It doesn't matter, right? We're the ones paying Uesugi-san, so he can't do anything, right?" Yotsuba tried to lift everyone's spirits as a knock came to their door. "I'll get it!" The fourth sister got up and quickly opened the door, allowing the rest to see the visage of the third smartest student of their year.
"It's rare to have all seven of us here recently, huh?" Fuutarou asks, seeing his students already gathered around their kotatsu. The young tutor quickly joined the girls, pulling out a set of worksheets for each of them.
"You can't blame us for that. We all have jobs now." Mutsumi replied as her sisters began working on the exercises given out to them. It was quiet, the message from Takeda now an everpresent distraction for everyone. "Ichika, sorry about keeping you here. If your manager gives you a hard time, just tell me, okay?" Wanting to keep her mind from the eventual conversation regarding Takeda and the sextuplets' father.
"D-Don't worry about it. Uhm...Itsuki, have you found a part-time job yet?" Ichika was nervous as well, deflecting the conversation away from her while silently apologizing to the fifth sister with her eyes. It was clear that this news was weighing heavily on them, the seven of them unable to hold a conversation without the thought passing through their mind.
"Please give me a bit more time." Itsuki bowed, slumping forward to give her undivided attention to the questions she was answerings. "It's quite difficult since we also have the national mock exams to prepare for."
"I've finished mine. Can you check them, Fuutarou?" Miku spoke up after a few minutes of silence, scooting over to sit behind the tutor while handing him her papers. Fuutarou quietly took them from her as Nino also completed hers, with Ichika finishing up only a few seconds behind her.
"You made these quite hard, huh?" Mutsumi looked over his shoulder, using her finger to trace the words she was reading.
"Yes, but I don't feel as anxious as I felt during our previous exams." Itsuki cleaned up her paper with an eraser, removing her answers before filling up the spaces with new ones.
"Well, you've all been studying a lot, and your grades have been improving," Mutsumi commented, smiling while waving her finger around. "The final exam last year, if you managed that, then I think you'll be fine." Both she and Fuutarou smiled proudly as their students finished their practice tests.
"Do you remember what I said a few minutes ago? Yeah...I rescind my praise." Mutsumi frowned, sighing with Fuutarou as the two finished grading the review sheets. Disheartened, Fuutarou just stared at the papers without speaking.
"They're pretty much all F's..." Finally breaking his silence, Fuutarou went pale just reading the answers written out before him. "Don't screw with me...Do your brains reset when you advance a year? Is that how they were made?" Something had snapped inside his head, releasing all of the sass and sarcasm he'd been wanting to unleash since he'd been appointed class representative.
"Ah! That makes sense!" Yotsuba jokingly agreed. Even she knew that their brains don't have a reset button. "Wait, that's just a joke, right?" She whispered into Ichika's ear.
"I thought I did well..." Downtrodden and forlorn, Miku seemed to regress not only academically but also emotionally.
"Fuutarou-kun. It's probably because we all have jobs now," Ichika chimed in, noticing that her and Itsuki's scores didn't change as drastically. "See, Itsuki and my scores didn't change much."
"I'm sorry..." Wilting away, the fifth sister soon shrunk down as the prospect of her employment resurfaced as a topic of conversation.
Fuutarou sighed, calming down to keep a level head. "Right after saying that you weren't scared, this happens...and I have my own mock exam prep..." He adjusted his collar to let some air in. "Come on. Let's go over what you guys don't understand. Mutsumi, can you hand me those notebooks?"
The sixth sister obliged, reaching into his bag to pull out a very worn-out bundle of papers that could barely be considered a notebook. "Speaking of the mock exam, want to have another contest?" Mutsumi asked as she handed off the review material. Fuutarou declined, starting the lecture with the rest of the sisters with Mutsumi providing assistance. This continued for half an hour before the sound of the doorbell interrupted them.
"I don't really care if you get higher scores than me. I just want high scores." Fuutarou said, using his finger to point out Yotsuba's mistakes.
"I'll get it!" Itsuki offered, getting up to see who was at the door. The others paid no mind to this, even as footsteps approached them.
"Pardon my intrusion." A voice broke through their chatter, cold, calculating, and filled with disdain. The sisters were surprised by the sudden visit, but then they instantly thought of what the youngest had told them earlier and became a bit more cautious. "I heard it's almost time for the national mock exams, so I came to introduce him to you."
"Takeda-san," Mutsumi said as Takeda walked in. "We've been expecting you." Mutsumi glared at him, turning her hands into fists while frowning at him.
"Ah, Mutsumi-san, I thank you for the warm welcome." Takeda reached for his collar, removing the device that Mutsumi used to listen to him. "I can assume that you know what your father and I are here for." Mutsumi didn't reply, but the rest of her sisters stood up to meet him
"No. We decline." Ichika spoke first. "Even if Fuutarou-kun isn't the top student anymore, he's still a good tutor. The decision to hire him is our choice since we are the ones paying for him."
"Yeah! You can't just barge in here and-" Nino was about to go off on Takeda, but the latter ignored her and began talking to Fuutarou.
"I've finally surpassed you, Uesugi-kun." He said with a jubilant smile before his face turned sour. "Our long-standing rivalry ends here, but it isn't over." He turned to face Mutsumi. "I will rise above you as we-"
"Seriously, who are you?"
"Huh? You know...I'm your rival, Takeda Yuusuke...the one that was always behind you in the second rank spot..."
"So that's why you've been butting in. I didn't really know until now. I've only gotten perfect scores until recently, so I didn't really care about anyone rank two or below."
"Rank two or below!" As they shared the sentiment, both Mutsumi and Takeda blurted out their surprise, though Mutsumi's was less of a shock and more of a confused one. However, that moment of levity didn't last as Itsuki walked up to Maruo.
"I understand. If you only see the most exceptional students fit to be our tutor, that's perfectly fine by me." She said, placing a hand on her chest while staring her father with the conviction of six people. "However, I have my own thoughts on the matter. I shall achieve the best grades of all third-year students!"
"I see..." Was all the doctor said in response, his cold stare directed towards the fifth sister.
"You've been ignoring us for all this time!" Nino had burst, her thoughts silently ruminating in the background of the loud arguments between the top three students. "And now you come here and throw a wrench in our lives. What are you thinki-"
"Don't you get it?" Takeda asked, his gaze passing over the six sisters. "Having Uesugi-kun quit as your tutor is for his own good. It's your fault that he's fallen from the top and become an ordinary person."
"He has his own life to live, why not set him free?" The doctor's statement ran chills up his daughter's spines. They were right that his grades had dropped because of them. They were right that his schedule had been more demanding of him ever since he started tutoring them. They were right that he wasn't the top student any longer. And Fuutarou backed that up.
"You got that right. Honestly. I understand that you're overestimating me. What you said isn't wrong either. But until the previous summ-no. If I hadn't accepted this job, I never would've become ordinary." He said, his eyes looking fondly at something that was playing in the back of his mind. "I thought I could know everything just from reading a book. But I never would've imagined that idiots like these six could exist."
"Six! Why you little!" Mutsumi rolled up her sleeve, stomping up to him before her sisters pulled her away.
"Or how big of an idiot I was, too. As long as they want me to, I'll stick around."
"You're not obligated to go that far."
"That may be the case, but my pride is telling me that I'm the only one capable of seeing this through to the end." Had the wind been blowing his hair to the side, and a band of musicians been playing along with his speech, he'd be right at home in an anime. "I won't allow their grades to drop, and mine will return to normal soon enough. Because I will be number one again. And I'll get the top spot of the national mock exam!"
The sisters' eyes widened as they scrambled to stop him from making another ridiculous declaration. "What are you doing? Don't you believe in him?" One voice stoped them, whispering just loud enough for the sisters to hear." Mutsumi stopped her sisters, extending her arms to act as a barrier between them and Fuutarou.
"And I'll be sure to get them to graduation without any of them failing!" In the meantime, Fuutarou pointed his finger skyward to strike an inspiring pose. His declaration finished, Mutsumi walked up behind him.
"Go for it! We've got your back." She placed her hand on his shoulder before turning her gaze to their two unwanted guests. "It's seven against two. We'll show you what we can do...together!"
"Top score nationally...it's obviously impossible. Even with the two of you, if you're helping those five then I doubt you'd even be able to make the top five." Takeda taunted, though it seemed a bit more playful and less serious than it was before.
"Don't underestimate me, Yuusuke-san." Seeing the implications of Fuutarou and Takeda's competition, she smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we were in the middle of studying."
"Uesugi-kun." Maruo got everyone's attention. "Should you accomplish this monumental task, I will once again recognize that you are suitable for my daughters." With that, he and Takeda left the apartment. The tense atmosphere stayed for a few minutes, the seven of them unable and unwilling to pick up their worksheets.
"Alright, I think that was a long enough break. Let's get back to work." Fuutarou sighed, finally free from the paralysis he got from all of the intense statements thrown away. Mutsumi put her hands on his back, nudging him towards the door.
"Yeah, let's. The first order of business, you go home and review!" She shoved and shoved until she had him at the doorway. "Don't come back until the weekend. Then we'll go over everything together. You have to get the best score you can, I won't let you lose to Takeda-san and dad."
"But what about you guys?" Fuutarou asked as the rest of the sisters joined Mutsumi in kicking the tutor out of their home. "Guys!?"
"Mutsumi-chan can handle what we can't teach each other." Ichika smiled before she placed her hand on the door. "We'll teach each other, so just focus on yourself. Do your best, Fuutarou-kun."
"Good luck Fuutarou."
"Fuu-kun, you can do it."
"Uesugi-san! Uesugi-san!"
"Uesugi-kun. I wish you the best of luck."
Mutsumi didn't cheer; she only gave him a sly wink while doing a finger gun. Then they shut the door in his face.
A/N: Sorry for the delay. I might be making excuses, but here are two reasons.
1: I got sick a few days ago. (I hope it's not the coronavirus. It's been making its rounds in my country)
2: I worked on a short novel on Webnovel. (It's called "You Will Marry Me" if anyone would like to read it. It's a bit mature though)