"Are you sure about this?"
"It's something that has to be said."
A pair of people were seen walking together in the park on a particularly windy day. The sun shone down on them, reflecting off of the lake's surface. "Why here?" One asked the other, watching as her ribbon swayed in the breeze.
"There's something I want to tell you..." Yotsuba said, taking her companion by the arm and dragging them to a boat so that they could have a bit of solitude. "It was six years ago, we were really indistinguishable back then."
It was a quiet afternoon for the Nakano sisters. Walking around aimlessly, just enjoying the sunny day as they pranced about the city. "Our sensei once told me that that idiom... two gourds... it came from how a gourd looks the same if you cut it in half." One said, brushing her hair to the side as the sunlight got in her eyes.
"What's a gourd?" Another one asked, brushing her dress clean as their group moved through the streets. The people they passed all stared in awe as six young girls, all with the same face and figure, passed by them like a procession of redheaded fairies.
"I dunno..."
"I think it might be food."
"Now that you mention it, I'm kind of hungry."
"How about we buy some snacks after we're done with..."
"Hey! You sextuplets! You came at a good time." A man called out to their troupe, dressed in a soccer jersey and waving his hand out to greet them.
"Oh, it's the coach." One of the girls said as they all approached him.
"The useless coach." Another added, her blunt comment not going unnoticed.
"Hey, that's some greeting! Even us adults get hurt too, Nino." The coach said, wiping away a few tears that had collected under his eyes.
"Bzzt. Wrong. I'm Miku." The sister that slung the insult said, the sister beside her identifying herself as the true Nino.
"Uwaahh! To this day, I still can't get it right!" The coach screamed in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it, it happens to everyone." Another unidentified sister said. "It's like a compliment to us whenever someone says we're so alike."
"We're grateful to be identical sextuplets."
"Should we have used that gourd saying there?"
"Nah, I think that was gourd enough."
With that joke, they started to walk away. "Yotsuba, don't forget to bring the wallet."
"Okay!"
"H-Hold on for a sec. I need a favor from you." The coach scrambled to get their attention as the six of them began walking.
"Oh, again?"
"Yeah. We're about to have a practice match, please join us as ringers." He clapped his hands together, begging the girls to comply with his request. They reluctantly agreed, getting some spare jerseys and getting ready to play. With preparations in place, all that was left to do was start the match. "Go!"
The blow of the whistle sent everyone into action. Ichika rushed up to the person with the ball, nabbing the ball and running it away from the opposing team. "Nino!" She yelled as she passed, the ball flying in front of Miku before landing right in front of Nino.
"Yotsuba!" Nino yelled, kicking the ball forward toward the sister who was already running circles around everyone else.
"They sure are having fun..." Another sister, one that wasn't playing, said to the coach, standing on the sidelines as everyone else ran around.
"Mutsumi, is it still painful?" Coach asked, looking down at the girl as the ball was walked out of a goal and put into play for a second time.
"Not painful. But I just... can't do things like that." She frowned, staring at her sisters as they tricked and toyed with their opponents for the remainder of the match. "I'd collapse." She said, covering her ears as the coach blew his whistle to signal the end of the game.
"Hahaha! We won again! Thanks to you again, girls." He chortled, smiling wide as he thanked the team. "It's like you can all communicate telepathically, the way you move in sync and work together is astounding. Confusing your opponents is just an added bonus!"
"There he goes again," Ichika muttered, shaking his head as Yotsuba walked around the area. "How many times does that make? We keep telling you, we're not good at sports."
"That's not true. You guys have gotten pretty good at this, especially Yotsuba." The coach turned his head, finding a shocked Yotsuba looking back at him.
"Huh, me? I'm not so sure..."
"We're sextuplets, so that can't be true," Nino said.
"Stop spouting nonsense, you useless coach," Miku added, hurling another snide remark at him.
"I'm not. My eyes never deceive me. You should use Yotsuba as an example and practice hard." The coach walked away to talk with the rest of his team as the sisters continued to rest up.
"Let's get back on track...we still need to go shopping for mom." Mutsumi clapped her hands, kicking the dirt in a fit of envy toward Yotsuba. "Yotsuba, do you have the wallet?"
"Ah, you were out shopping?" The coach overheard the conversation between them.
"Yeah! We were out shopping for gifts for mom since she got over her illness." Mutsumi smiled, her mood brightening up. "And that means that I'll be next. That doctor guy has been talking to me a lot, so I think I'll be okay soon too!"
"Well then, let's go!" Ichika took the initiative, walking away before a yelp emerged from Yotsuba's lips.
"Where did I put the wallet?" Yotsuba said, her voice filled with worry and guilt. The sun moved across the sky as the sextuplets searched in the grass for their money. They had saved up for this day; for it to go to waste would have been devastating. "This is all my fault! What do I do?" The fourth sister muttered to herself as she ran off to search another patch of grass. "Hmm..." She hummed, noticing something in the corner of her vision before they all called it quits.
"No good, it's nowhere here," Itsuki said, dropping her head.
"I'm sorry everyone. Because of me..."
"It's not your fault, Yotsuba. I'm sure it would've gotten lost anyway, no matter who had it."
"Because we're sextuplets. Any of our screw-ups will be divided into six."
"About that...It's not much of a replacement, but I found this while I was looking." Yotsuba sheepishly pulled out a flower she picked. The others stared at her, unable to speak. "I guess that'd be too easy." She was about to stow it away when five more of the same flower graced her eyes.
"We all found the same flower too. I guess we really are sextuplets." Mutsumi said, laughing as she put the flower into a pocket. "...oh. I found the wallet." She said, somewhat dumbfounded that it was right under their nose and nobody noticed. "Right, you gave it to me since I wasn't going to play." They all shared a laugh as they went off to buy a bouquet of flowers for their mother, adding the ones they picked to the collection when they got home.
"I'm home." Rena called out, shutting the door behind her as she searched for the light switch with her fingers. "Are they not here?" She asked herself as the small sense of worry started to grow. Her fingers happened on the switch, illuminating the room to reveal her six daughters waiting for her with countless flowers in their hands.
"Congratulations mom! We're glad you got better." They presented their gifts to her, finding her face as stoic as usual. "Looky, we got these for you. Thanks for working hard again. Thank you for everything you do...huh, she froze." They all murmured as Rena stared at them without so much as a fidget or a flinch from the surprise.
Without warning, the six of them were scooped up into her arms, pulled into an embrace in an instant as Rena squeezed them all. "Seeing you six live healthily, to me, is the greatest happiness I could ask for." She pulled them all closer, holding onto them as if her life depended on it.
"Itsuki! Mutsumi! Hurry up, the train is arriving." Miku called out, turning around to find the two youngest sextuplets clinging to their mother; Itsuki was sad, not wanting to let go, while Mutsumi seemed elated, barraging Rena with question after question.
"Come on! Just a bit longer! I want to know how they cured her!" Mutsumi whined as she and Itsuki were dragged away by the others.
"You can ask that when we come back, we have to go..." Ichika said, her eyes turning to the side and catching a glimpse of a black-haired doctor that walked towards Rena. "Isn't that the doctor?" At those words, Mutsumi struggled fiercer than before breaking away from Ichika's grip and running to Rena's side.
"Mom! Mom! What's his name? Did it hurt? How long did it take? Am I going to get cured too?" She continued with her questions until she was eventually wrangled away for a second time. The six of them boarded the train, playing cards to pass the time as they waited to reach their destination.
"That doctor guy. Do you think mom likes her?"
"Maybe he's her boyfriend?"
"Dad, huh? I wonder what kind of person he is." The six of them skipped out of the train, the doctor still on their mind even as they arrived in Kyoto. "I bet he's super cool!" Mutsumi ran ahead, walking backward and twirling due to her elation. She shut her eyes for one twirl, bumping into someone and falling down with a throbbing pain in her forehead. "I'm sorry!" She apologized, bowing her head to the dark-haired girl she collided with.
"Don't worry about it. It was my bad for not paying attention. Sorry." The girl replied, rubbing her head as she got back to her feet and rejoined with one of her friends, a boy with spikey hair and glasses.
"Huh, wait! What's your name?" Mutsumi scrambled to get out the words, but she said them with a smile.
"My name's Takebayashi. Yours?" The girl replied, turning around with a smile.
"Mutsumi. It's nice to meet you. I hope we can meet again!" She waved the pair off, turning to look at her sisters. "Look, I already made a friend in Kyoto! Wait...where's Yotsuba?" She asked, pointing to the empty spot between Miku and Itsuki.
"Hmm...not here either." Yotsuba muttered to herself, looking around desperately. "I've really done it this time..." She said, continuing to walk aimlessly in hopes to find her sisters by sheer luck. She was scared, they had to be together, that's what Rena always told them... But is that really true? "Ah! No! That's a bad way of thinking!" Yotsuba squished her cheeks, purging those thoughts from her mind. "I wish I had the courage to travel alone, like that boy..."
She looked down, finding a young boy with blonde hair sitting alone on a set of steps below her. Soon enough, somebody came to his side, then more people arrived, though none of them were any of his friends. An old lady in some strange clothes, and a pair of policemen, they all surrounded him and questioned him.
"He's innocent." Yotsuba moved without thinking, walking down the stairs to come to that boy's aid. "I saw everything."
"Who the heck are you?"
A/N: Another delay, because I need to re-read this to look for some details I forgot. I want to get it right, so I'll be reading everything over again.