"Mutsumi-chan!" Having scrambled to get into some proper attire, Ichika ran around the dim Kyoto streets in search of her sister. She tried everything she could: phone calls, asking the police, contacting everyone she knew in order to find any sign of Mutsumi. "Where is she?!" She moped, finding herself back at square one: the hotel. She was tired, returning to the room to see if her sister had returned; she had not, and Ichika noticed that her luggage was also missing from the room. "No! I have to keep looking! If I were Mutsumi-chan, where would I go?" She pondered, tapping her foot up and down as she glanced around the room for any hints.
After a minute of thinking, she pulled out her phone, using the internet to search for nearby stores that would capture her sister's fancy. With her list typed out on a memo, she called for a cab and started to tour the city on her own. Tech stores, hardware supplies, even some strange foreign food restaurants that she wasn't brave enough to eat at; none of them saw hide nor hair of Mutsumi. It was past midnight, nearing one o'clock of the second day, and it was looking more and more bleak with every passing second.
"What am I going to do?" She arrived back at the lobby, head in her hands as she felt tears start to form. "I hope she's safe..."
"Ichika-san?" A familiar voice called out to her, coming from the entrance of the hotel. Coming in from the outside, Maeda ran one of his hands through his hair while the other was stuffed into his pocket. "Did that punk say something wrong?" He asked, stopping the moment he noticed the eldest sister's damp face. "H-Hey. What happened..."
"Mutsumi-chan...she's missing. Even her bags are gone. I don't know what to do." Ichika said, breaking down from her grief, worry, and exhaustion.
"Stay here. I'll see what I can do." Maeda pulled out his phone, sending multiple texts to a certain set of people, calling a few. "Alright, they're coming." In a few minutes, a small gathering of familiar faces had gathered around them in the lobby.
"Maeda...you better have a good reason to wake me up so early in the morning!" A voice she was even more familiar with exited the elevator, walking up to the group while rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Ichika..." Fuutarou said, blinking himself awake.
"Maeda-kun filled us in. Mutsumi-chan went missing. We'll be going out to look for her." Matsui said, standing with the rest of her group as they went out to look. "We'll come back in an hour if we don't find her." She yelled, splitting off from her group to cover as much ground as possible."
"Uesugi, there's something I want you to see." Maeda, his tone serious as he walked up to Fuutarou, pulled out something from his pocket and showed it to Fuutarou.
"The train station...but they're not running anymore." Those words from Fuutarou reached Ichika's ears. Without a second thought, she sprinted out of the hotel and ran toward the station, arriving in half an hour.
"Mutsumi-chan..." Ichika ran up to Mutsumi. The sixth sister was lying on one of the benches, in a shallow sleep while shivering under the cold of the night. Wearing one of her multiple hoodies wasn't enough to stave away the cold, Ichika's slightest touch enough to disturb her. The eldest Nakano's legs gave out from all the running, her body falling beside the bench as her arms wrapped around Mutsumi's sleeping body. As her hand reached over to touch the youngest's stomach, the contact sent signals to Mutsumi's brain.
"Ahhh! Get off me! Kidnapper! Get away from me! I'll call the police!" Throwing Ichika's hands off of her in a panic, Mutsumi instantly shot up, raising her arms up in an aggressive stance. "I'm warning you! Stay away from me or your life will be..." Her adrenaline levels slowly began lowering themselves as the familiar sight of her sister calmed her down. "Onee-chan?"
"Let's go back to the hotel...please..." Ichika said, pushing herself up against the bench. "I'm sorry, Mutsumi-chan..."
"Onee-chan...I...I don't know how to feel anymore." Mutsumi let her arms down, leaning her head on Ichika's shoulder as a few tears started to stream down her face. "I'm happy that what happened to me didn't happen to you...but everyone...I..."
"Mutsumi-chan, it's okay." Ichika wrapped her arms around Mutsumi, pulling her close. "Let's...talk somewhere else."
"Okay...onee-chan." Bringing her arm up to wipe her tears on her sleeve, Mutsumi picked up her bags. "Thank you...for coming to get me." She said, her voice trembling as she struggled to hold back the rest of her tears. They returned to the hotel, meeting up with the others in the lobby to put them at ease. They were let into the elevator first, riding it up to return to Mutsumi's room, just the two of them.
"Mutsumi-chan, I'm sorry. If only I had listened to you..." Ichika said, sitting down on the edge of one bed while Mutsumi lied down on the bed in front of her. "But...why? You didn't have to do this... Why did you go so far for me?"
"Because we're family. And family won't let you go off the rails..." Mutsumi said, having pushed her emotions back due to her tiredness. "And...I promised Yotsuba that I wouldn't let it happen again."
"Let what happen again?" Ichika asked, her gaze transfixed on Mutsumi.
"Do you remember the last time we went here? Yotsuba got lost and came back with a friend. A blonde boy."
"Yeah..." Ichika lowered her head. "Was that really Fuutarou-kun? I had some suspicions ever since I saw him in that blonde wig but-"
"Yeah, it was. And the two of us saw it. She was devastated, you know..." Mutsumi's voice was cold, sorrowful and filled with regret. "I'll have to think of a way to talk to Miku tomorrow...but I'm scared."
"..." Ichika was speechless, still trying to process everything that came out of Mutsumi's mouth. They saw her steal Fuutarou away from Yotsuba that night six years ago, and she was about to do it again if Mutsumi didn't intervene. All the eldest could do was stare in disbelief at her youngest sister. "I'll help you. You can rely on Onee-chan." She said, finding some drive deep within her right before the two fell asleep. "Good night."
The next day arrived and, after a harsh scolding from their teachers for running off in the middle of the night, Mutsumi and Ichika left the hotel in search of the rest of the class. "Woah! I can see the station from here!" Yotsuba's voice was distinct, easily heard from their location as they approached the Kiyomizu-dera. Standing beside her were the others, though Miku seemed preoccupied and in search of someone.
"...Hi everyone." Mutsumi slowly walked up to them, falling under all four of their gazes; only Itsuki's eyes weren't openly hostile. "Umm..."
"Mutsumi. What do you have to say for yourself?" Yotsuba asked, her anger rising as Mutsumi lowered her head apologetically.
"Yotsuba, let's hear her out," Itsuki said, trying to prevent another argument from popping up. "She has to have some reason for doing what she did."
"So, why did you do it?" Miku asked, still clutching the paper bag full of her bread tightly as her eyes were silently telling Mutsumi to commit seppuku.
"I..." Mutsumi looked up at her sisters, their faces sending a shiver down her spine.
"It was my fault, if you have to be mad at someone, be mad at me!" Ichika interjected, standing between Mutsumi and others. "I...was going to do the same thing. I'm sorry, Miku." She bowed her head, joining the youngest in apologizing.
"I feel betrayed by both of you," Miku said, looking down at them. "But I can't keep letting things like these get to me. So let's just put all of this behind us." She smiled, walking away from the others as a certain boy came into view. "I may be a bit scared since everyone is giving their all and pulling no punches. But that means that I should give it my all too, right?" She glanced around at others, glaring at everyone with the same look. "You're all my rivals."
"Well, if you forgive them, then there's no point in me holding my grudge against them now..." Nino said reluctantly, returning Miku's gaze before staring daggers back at the two. Though she said that, her heart was still slightly bitter toward her two sisters. They were willing to throw away their family bond, all for Fuutarou. She would never go that far, that's what she thought to herself.
"This is..." The six of them were with the rest of the class as they continued walking around the city. "So awkward." Though the others say that they'd forgiven them, there was still a rift between Mutsumi and her sisters, only Ichika was in the same boat.
"We should find somewhere to eat lunch," Itsuki suggested, slowing down in order to talk to Mutsumi. "How are you feeling?"
"It doesn't feel like I've been forgiven yet," Mutsumi whispered into Itsuki's ear. "I...was expecting this."
"What was your plan after your...stunt yesterday," Ichika asked, joining in on the conversation while the other three walked a few feet ahead of them. "Why the train station?"
"I was going to move out of the apartment and live alone in the highrise for a while, at least until..." Mutsumi said, causing Yotsuba to stop walking. The sixth sister swallowed her fear, looking for the courage to reveal the rest of her scheme. "Until I finished the paperwork to transfer to a school overseas." She muttered under her breath, quiet to the point of it being inaudible. "N-Nevermind. You mentioned lunch?" The sixth sister quickly changed the topic, pointing to a spot where they could sit down. A few other students were already there, so they figured that it was okay for them to take a break now.
"So, let's eat." Miku sat down, slightly dejected but still ready to eat with her sisters. Mutsumi caught sight of this, taking note of her face and her line of sight; it was focused, but not on them. She quietly pulled out her phone, sliding it over to Miku's side with a certain app open.
"He's the black dot..." She mumbled. "Go...and I'm sorry, again." Mutsumi lowered her head as Miku took her phone and left their table. She garnered gazes from Nino and Yotsuba, though neither of them acted or spoke about it. They quietly ate, letting time pass by like the clouds that flew overhead. The day soon became overcast, Nino going out to find Miku as the others returned to the hotel to avoid the imminent downpour.
"Where is she?" Nino grumbled, walking around for five minutes before something pulled her toward the direction of Fuutarou's whereabouts.
"The handmade bread was a popular item in our little cafe. Pops and I used to love it." Fuutarou's voice echoed through the silence as Nino took care to not disrupt it with her footsteps. "Ah, sorry. I guess my little story isn't relevant now."
"That's not true. Keep going! I want to hear more about it!" Miku's voice followed after his, making the second sister twitch in slight annoyance. "We spend so much time together, but I've only recently realized that we, that I don't know a lot about you. I want to learn more about you Fuuta..." Miku stopped herself, glancing down at the phone Mutsumi handed her. "Nino, you can come out." She said, shocking Fuutarou.
"Ah, right...we show up on that too." Nino said, coming out with her hands up. "Hi Fuu-kun." She purred.
"Why are you here?" Miku asked, pocketing the phone as she and Fuutarou walked closer to Nino."
"I came to get you. It looks like it's going to rain soon, so the others went to the hotel already." She said, inviting the two to join her on the walk back. It only took a few steps for her to change her mind. "Fuu-kun. Can you go ahead? Miku and I have something to talk about."