"Go ahead, I have to take this call," Mutsumi said to her sisters, pulling out her phone as they got ready to go to their course for the third day. After being outed, Miku and Nino had no choice but to let the others join them on the course that took them around the studio park; Ichika seemed particularly pleased with this outcome. She watched as they left their hotel room, going into the elevator and descending down to the lobby. "So, did they let you change?"
"Yeah. They did. You better make this worth it." Fuutarou's voice answered her question through her phone speakers. "I'll have to apologize to Takeda and Maeda now." He groaned, hanging up on the call as Mutsumi looked around her bag for something that would finish her wardrobe.
"I owe him one..." She muttered to herself, making a note on her phone in order to track her debts. "But the next thing to do. Oh, boy!" She sighed, dialing a number she seldomly called.
"Mutsumi-kun. I received your email. What is this absurdity? Would you care to explain yourself?" Maruo answered the call, his voice his usual cold and unfeeling tone. The sixth sister could imagine his lifeless stare piercing through her soul.
"Disregard that. I was..." She paused, thinking of an excuse to get out of this situation. "Fatigued. I wasn't of the right state of mind when I sent that."
"Mutsumi-kun. You make a lot of requests to me, yet you show me disrespect." Maruo threatened his daughter, using his authority to put pressure on her over the phone. "I will forgive you, this time. But know that your next request will fall on deaf ears." His statement was non-negotiable, and he hung up once he finished speaking. Mutsumi sighed, putting on a hat to guard herself against the sunlight for the day.
"Tsk...I guess I pissed him off." Mutsumi clicked her tongue, grinding her teeth against themselves as her brows furrowed. She moved out of the room, her mind still harboring some resentment toward the doctor; he didn't even give her the chance to have a proper conversation.
"Ugh, what's taking her so long?" Nino groaned, watching people board the bus that would take them to their destination. The redheads opted to board last in order to wait for Mutsumi, or at least that was their plan. Tsubaki's group of friends was causing a small jam since they were busy taking pictures in the doorway of the vehicle.
"Hey, move it! You're holding all of us up!" Maeda yelled at the girls, getting all of their attention.
"Back off, Maeda-kun. We're just trying to have fun." Matsui stomped up to him before Takeda placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her and Maeda separate.
"Hey, let's just get on board, yeah?" He said charismatically, diffusing the situation with his smile. "After all, we're almost all here. Let's all take our seats so we can get going." He gently ushered everyone on, calming the dispute before it made an even worse jam. "Aren't you going on board?" He extended a hand, helping each of the sextuplets get on. "Looks like that's everyone." He smiled, sitting down in his own chair as the bus started to move.
"Everyone's here? What about Mutsumi?" Miku looked around the bus for any sign of her sister. "And Fuutarou's not here either..." She pointed to Takeda's seat, Maeda to his right while the one to his left was unoccupied.
"Mutsumi! She tricked us agai-" Yotsuba grumbled as the sound of a camera shutter caught the sisters' attention.
"Woah, this place is so cool! Hey, Matsui-san, strike a pose!" The tour was going without a hitch, for the most part. The students were all relatively quiet as they walked around a studio set that looked like an old Japanese village, complete with people dressed like daimyo, ninja, and the like. Aside from that, there were other things of note that the sisters wanted to see, especially Miku.
"Looks like we're free to walk around at our leisure now."
"But where the heck do we go? And why'd Uesugi ditch us?" The rest of his group was having a conversation, overheard by the sextuplets as they walked around the place. "Ah, it doesn't matter. Let's just get back to business." Maeda groaned, walking away with Takeda to peruse the studio.
"So Uesugi-kun really isn't here," Itsuki muttered, looking around while taking in the scenery. "And I'd rather not go over there just to be with him; all of us vanishing would draw a lot of attention. We might as well enjoy what we have now." She suggested, much to the annoyance of the second sister. She was about to ask for suggestions for their first activity when Ichika pointed toward a building that allowed people to borrow costumes.
"That looks good on you, Miku!" Yotsuba exclaimed, pulling off a ninja mask while adjusting the sandals that came with the costume. Miku walked out while wearing a kimono with a floral pattern, accompanied by a floral hair ornament.
"If people see us together, won't they call us weird?" Miku asked, looking at the rest of the girls. Nino was dressed as a geisha, complete with all of the makeup; Ichika was in armor akin to that of the samurai Sengoku period; Itsuki was dressed like a traveling merchant, adorned with gold and trinkets and carrying a prop that looked like a bag full of maps and rations. They shrugged, sending away the third sister's worries with smiles as they headed to the next place; the sound of another camera's shutter reached their ears again.
"...Are we really going in there?" Itsuki asked, reaching over to grip Yotsuba's hand tightly. "The scariest haunted house ever..." She whimpered as Nino and Ichika nudged her inside. They spent two minutes walking inside, the fifth sister shrieking in horror at everything that popped out at their group. After some time, they emerged a bit worse for wear, catching their breath while they calmed the fifth sister down. She looked up as another photo was taken.
"Hey, can you take my picture?" Miku handed her phone over to Ichika before she ran after someone else in a costume.
"Am I not enough?" Ichika commented, looking down at her samurai costume since the person Miku ran after was in the same getup. Nevertheless, she called her sisters over, all of them taking turns with the samurai cosplayer before they walked around again.
"Wanna have a contest?" Yotsuba grinned, ushering everyone toward a game stall of some sort. It was an archery game, though the size of the bow made it a bit tricky to handle. Try as they might, only one of them could land one on target; it was Yotsuba. They left that game corner to view a small animatronic attraction in a small pond.
"Look! It's Nessie!" Nino screamed as she took a few steps back to avoid getting wet.
"Isn't that from Scotland? Why would the loch Ness monster be here?" Miku chimed in, taking a photo on her phone before they walked off to rest their feet. They sat on a long bench with a paper umbrella giving them some shade. "I wonder if Fuutarou is having fu-" Miku smiled as another photo was taken. "How many does that make, Mutsumi? Don't you think you have enough?" She chuckled, looking over at her sister as the youngest of them held her phone out.
"This would be the...fifteenth." The sixth sister brushed her hair with her hand, whipping it around her own ninja costume; Yotsuba's was meant for women while Mutsumi's was for men. "And, no, let's get some more!" She smiled, standing up to get a better angle for her next picture, a group shot with all six of them. "Say cheese!" Laughing so hard that she closed her eyes, she pressed the button on her phone as they all struck poses behind her. "Aw man, I blinked!" She looked at the photo. Ichika gave a small smile, but her body was slightly slouched over; Nino was in the middle of removing the geisha makeup and her pose wasn't flattering; Miku shifted the umbrella over, merging it into a nice pose that matched her costume; Yotsuba did a pose she saw from an anime about ninjas; Itsuki was shocked at the sudden request, the surprise making her ahoge shoot up.
"Hey, Mutsumi-chan, Miku, can we go to the restroom?" Ichika stood up, walking away while beckoning to her younger sisters with her hand. The two looked curiously at her, and then at each other, before reluctantly following after her. The three of them turned the corner, the latter two getting surprised as Ichika turned on her heel and bowed down. "I really am sorry! Everything that went wrong on this trip is all my fault! If only I hadn't donshh..." She felt a pair of hands squish her cheeks together.
"You know, even though I'm still not happy that it turned out like this..." Mutsumi stared off, her gaze shifting between the two girls with her. "If our roles were reversed, if situations were different and I was in your shoes, I...probably would've done the same." She said. "I think all of us would, what do you say, Miku?"
"Maybe. Now that Fuutarou's not here, I feel this kind of...pain in my chest. Is this what you felt, Ichika?" Miku said, walking up to Ichika to pull her into a hug. "I can kind of understand now. How about you, Nino?" She added, glancing over her shoulder at the other three girls who were peeking around the corner.
"This is...everything has been pointless. We're not enemies..." Ichika muttered, her eyes getting slighter moist as the emotions kept flooding back to her. "I mean...it's the first time we can all chat about something we all like." They all huddled up, and whatever feelings they harbored for each other were calmed by the act. Then a shutter echoed through the air.
"Mutsumi, enough with the pictures!" Nino groaned, but Mutsumi fidgeted in response.
"That one...wasn't me..." She said, shooting her head up to glance around. People were walking by, and many of them were holding up their phones for their own pictures, but there was one that looked out of place. It was a hand with the sleeve of one of the ninja costumes they had in the costume rentals. "Over there!" She broke away from the huddle, running off toward the direction of the stalker shinobi. Yotsuba ran after her, easily catching up to Mutsumi as the pair of ninjas tracked down their target. They heard his camera go off one more time, snapping a photo of the chase before he turned the corner.
The two girls rounded it too, bumping into someone they knew very well. "Mutsumi-san, Yotsuba-san, what seems to be the trouble?" Takeda asked, dressed in a bald cap and wig that made him look like an old lord.
"Takeda-san! Did you see a ninja run through here?" Yotsuba asked, looking around but finding no trace of the sneaky photographer.
"A ninja? Aside from you two, I haven't come across one for the last five minutes." Takeda said, walking away. "But please take care of yourselves. I've heard that there are some people taking some unsavory pictures around. Ta-ta." He scurried off, heading toward the costume rental to change out. He seemed to be under some stress, rushing off slightly faster than his normal walking pace.
"Yuusuke-san..." Mutsumi muttered to herself as the others caught up to her and Yotsuba. "Maybe we should return these, It's getting kinda hot in this thing." She tugged at the collar of her costume, the black fabric making it even hotter than her usual clothes. They went to change back into their uniforms; Mutsumi found no sign of Takeda in the building. Setting aside the whole stalker scenario, the six of them continued to enjoy course E until it was time for them to get back on the bus.
"Hey, Mutsumi. Uhm, about yesterday. Maybe I was a bit too hard on you. Sorry." Nino said as they took their seats. Mutsumi looked over at her, adjusting her fedora so that it covered her eyes.
"Don't sweat it, Nino. I deserved it." Mutsumi muttered, placing her hands in her pockets as she readied herself to nap on the return trip to the station. The trip was long, the bus filled with idle chatter from all of the students on board.
"First, you gave Miku some more confidence. Then, after our trip to grandpa's inn, Yotsuba started to get a lot closer to Fuu-kun. And now, this thing for Ichika. When am I going to get your help?" Nino joked, smirking at Mutsumi, who just looked back with a serious smile.
"You don't need my help. If anything, you need to hold back a bit." Mutsumi shut her eyes, leaning back in her seat to get comfortable. "If there was one person I'd be scared of beating me, you know, if everyone was the same as they were when I first got back, that person would be you." She tilted her body slightly, resting her head on Nino's shoulder as the others took their sleeping spots on the bus. Eventually, slumber took hold of all of the Nakano sisters. Meanwhile, on the bus returning from course B...
"Uesugi-kun. Class rep Uesugi-kun. Wake up, we're almost there."
"Huh? It's over already?" Fuutarou sighed, pocketing the few souvenirs he got in his lonesome from the gardens. "I hope she cleared things up." He thought as he got his things ready to return home.
"What's this?" Mutsumi asked, leaning against the wooden barrier that stopped people from falling into the lake. She stared down at what was in her hand, a small book filled with photos.
"I'm too poor to buy six presents. So, I made that with Takeda and Maeda's help. It was a record of the memories you guys made on the trip." Fuutarou scratched the back of his head, looking at the pictures as Mutsumi flipped through the pages.
"So you three were the peeping toms." She sighed, flipping through more pages. "Hey, Fuutarou-san, thank you. You...didn't get mad at me...and you helped my sisters get over what I did. Thank you for trusting in...why is there a picture of me sleeping in Kyoto station!?" Going from somber to furious at a drop of a hat, she gripped the album tightly, holding it as if she was about to chuck it at his head.
"That was Maeda! And if he didn't take that, Ichika never would've found you." He scrambled to cover his face. He heard a sigh from the girl as she dragged him away from the lake and into the street.
"Thanks...I guess..." She turned her head away, walking over to a small vending machine to get herself and Fuutarou a drink. "And here...for all the trouble we caused." She handed him a can of coffee.
"Thanks." He said, taking the can and watching Mutsumi tuck the album under her arm. "I'll see you soon." He waved as the two parted ways for the day.
"'Til next time, Fuutarou san." She smiled, looking down at the album before she took a sip of her drink. "I love you." She said nonchalantly, grinning as he turned a bright shade of red.
"I'm home! Fuutarou-san got us a late birthday gift."
"Mutsumi. There's something you should know."