Yotsuba stomped over to Mutsumi, pulling her sister upright by the collar of her clothes."Yotsuba? What's gotten into... Never mind. I think I know." The sixth sister raised her hands up to grab hold of the fourth's arms but relaxed them as she let her sister vent her frustrations by shaking her around; it was somewhat enjoyable, like a ribbon powered rollercoaster.
"You're leaving again!?" Yotsuba yelled as Ichika and Itsuki stepped in to try and pry her away from Mutsumi. All eyes were on the two of them, waiting for the next part of the conversation with bated breath. "Couldn't you have chosen a university here?" She released her grip on Mutsumi's clothes, being pulled away by Itsuki and Ichika as Mutsumi fell back onto the couch.
"I'm sorry sis, but this is what I want to do." Smiling up at her sister, Mutsumi placed a hand on her chest as she rose to her feet. "I finally know what I want to do, and it never would've happened if you didn't give me a push." She took a step forward, earnestly thanking her sister for inspiring her with the scene from the park from earlier that day. "Thank you; you and Fuutarou-san."
"Eh? I don't get it..." Yotsuba took a few steps back, looking puzzled by her sister's statement. "How are you... what about what mom said? What matters is that we're together, right?" She looked over at the rest of her family, seeing that they were agreeing with her.
"Yeah. Mom always wanted us to stick together. After Yotsuba, you were the one that disrupted our order. You're going to do that again, Mutsumi?" Nino chimed in, walking up to Mutsumi.
"I wonder if that's what she meant..." Mutsumi said, turning around to head for her room. "After all, it was inevitable that we'd all go our separate ways sooner or later Somehow, though, I feel like she won't be mad at me for leaving. I know, and I'm sure that you guys do too, how I'm not the only one that's going to leave." She winked at her sisters, looking down at them from the second floor. The rest of them looked at each other, shooting glances between themselves as what Mutsumi pointed out ran through their thoughts. One by one, they returned to their rooms for the night, their paths for the future plaguing their dreams.
"What's important isn't where we are, but that the six of us are together..." Yotsuba muttered to herself, repeating her mother's words as she tossed and turned in her bed.
"I wonder if that's what she meant..."
"Mutsumi, do you know something that I don't?" Yotsuba wondered, sitting up in her bed as she looked at her dimly lit room. It was dark, the only light coming from a single desklamp she had on to keep it from being totally dark. Her eyes instantly drifted toward a pot that was new compared to the rest of her plants; Mutsumi's daisies. "Together..." She thought to herself, getting up from her bed to rearrange her plants. Most of the room was filled with simple-looking ferns, though there were cacti and aloe pots scattered about; a lot of green save for the white of the daisies.
She walked around the place, moving some of the daisies into individual pots to spread the color around. It took a few minutes of moving things around for her to be satisfied, with three groups of daisies on two of the walls. Breathing a sigh, she looked around again, running her hand across her desk as she felt something brush against her finger.
"Soil..." She grumbled, moving toward the door to get something to clean it with before she stopped and took another look at her room. It was everywhere, connecting each of the pots like a web; Yotsuba wasn't as bothered by it as she was before. "I... see." She thought to herself, going out to get something to deal with the particulate before she returned to sleep with a smile on her face.
"Mutsumi?" Yotsuba walked out of her room the one morning, finding the sixth sister already eating breakfast while silently stuffing something into her schoolbag. Aside from the sixth sister, another person was seated at the table. "And dad?"
"Good morning, Yotsuba," Maruo said, looking up while holding a manila envelope. He flashed his daughter a smile before returning his attention toward the sixth sister, speaking in a quiet voice that Yotsuba couldn't hear. Mutsumi finished her food, calling Yotsuba over with a wave of her hand.
"About last night. I was just thinking... I was pretty selfish, especially since I didn't tell anyone." She said, pausing as the sound of the others' rooms opening temporarily stole her train of thought. "I... I can try looking for a university nearby that will teach me the same things, but..."
"Mutsumi, it's okay." Yotsuba gently placed her hand on Mutsumi's shoulder, giving her a contained smile.
"But what mom said. It's important to you; it's important for everyone." The sixth sister tried to contain her smile; having the others see her enjoyment on this development would only lead to complications. For now, she had to play up the act until the others would admit it themselves. "We won't be together anymore..."
"I've been thinking about what you said. And I've been wondering if we really have to be in the same place to be together..." Yotsuba listened as everyone else's footsteps made it out to her that they were watching from the second floor. "We won't be together in the same school, but as long as we care about each other... I think we'll be together in spirit. I think that's what mom meant."
"Yeah..." Nino spoke up, leaning from over the railing and looking down at the three people on the bottom floor. "It was going to happen eventually. And you're not the only one; we're all going our separate ways."
"Thanks... everyone. I..." The sixth sister lowered her head, hiding her smile from her sisters. "Dad, I'll be counting on you too..." She turned, seeing the doctor scan the documents again before he slid one of the sheets over to her. "This one?" Mutsumi asked as her phone vibrated, an alarm she set in order to get ready for school. "Guys! We're going to be late!" She yelled, looking up while showing Yotsuba her screen. Without any more time to talk about their future, the six of them scrambled to prepare for school.
"Ah, it's Fuutarou-kun." On their walk to school, more of a brisk jog than a leisurely stroll, Ichika called out to her sisters as she cupped her hands around her mouth. "Good morning!" She raised her voice slightly, seemingly breaking him out of a trance. He looked up at the six of them, picking up the pace to catch up with the sisters.
"Sup..." He smiled, looking over everyone as they continued their walk to school. He looked somewhat out of it, his eyes looking off into the distance as his hand moved up to his cheeks. Mutsumi softly nudged Nino's arm, gesturing with her own hand toward her own cheek to get the second sister to pull out some bandages for the tutor.
"What's up with you? Is something on your mind?" Mutsumi asked, looking over her shoulder at him. Fuutarou paused for a moment, shaking his head dismissively as he silently kept pace with them.
"Oh, it's already this late. I have to go." Ichika muttered, looking at her watch while taking a few steps to the side.
"Itsuki, Ichika's leaving," Miku muttered, getting the fifth sister's attention as Itsuki rubbed some sleep from her eyes.
"I see... d-do your best." With her ahoge wilting like a disheveled plant, Itsuki hoarsely bid her eldest sister farewell. Fuutarou's eyes instantly narrowed as he looked at her face.
"What happened to you?" Fuutarou asked, leaning slightly closer the moment he noticed some bags under the fifth sister's eyes. Her hair was disheveled and her face seemed paler than usual.
"Whatever do you mean?" Itsuki replied, refusing to admit to her actions the night prior.
"She stayed up late studying... again." Mutsumi yawned, walking over to Itsuki to hand her something to eat. "Don't overdo it, sis. I know what sleep deprivation can do to you; it's not pretty..." Shuddering at some not-so-recent memories, the sixth sister reached for her flask of coffee, taking a swig as Ichika split off from the group to get to work.
"Thank you for your concern. But I have to do this! Nothing will get in my way after coming this far. I'll be counting on the two of you after school again!" Itsuki pumped her fists against Mutsumi's back as they reached the door to the school building and entered their classroom. The usual lessons became mundane, the faces of their peers blending together for the fifth sister in her delirious state. One thing was a bit different, however.
"Sumi-chan..." Tsubaki whispered into the sixth sister's ear, moving her desk closer to hers for their lunch break. "Are you doing something?"
"Nothing really important..." Mutsumi replied, pulling up her bag and pulling out a small device that looked like a chameleon that was made of frosted acrylic plates; it was hollow. "What about you?"
"Well, there was something earlier that I needed help with..." The girl with the side-tail said, placing her lunchbox on her desk. Mutsumi returned the chameleon robot back into her drawstring bag, smiling excitedly at her companion as she pulled out her notebooks.
"Those two seem to be getting along." Yotsuba chuckled to herself, walking out of the room to go to the cafeteria with the rest of her sisters. "They're kinda cute." She laughed with her signature laugh, making her sisters and Fuutarou concerned since they knew nothing about what was going on. Even with all of the changes recently, their classes stayed the same, along with some certain quirks between them.
"Like I've said!" Fuutarou yelled in the school library, but he was fortunate enough to be there when nobody else was. "I've explained it to you hundreds, if not thousands of times. You don't eat lice! It's rice, not lice!" He grabbed the fourth's ribbon, pulling it tightly as Yotsuba apologized profusely.
"They're the same as always, how boring..." Nino commented. "It doesn't even feel like they're dating." True to the second sister's words, the young couple would appear as normal to anyone that wasn't aware of the development in their relationship.
"I agree. It was quite a shock to hear him propose, though." Itsuki, having taken some time to rest over the course of the school day, was back to her usual self and was studying religiously. "Honestly...he truly is inept when it comes to matters of romance."
"I think it's nice that they're both like this," Mutsumi said, her attention currently elsewhere save for having an ear out to listen to everyone else's conversation. "Not every couple is as lovey-dovey as TV dramas." She turned in her seat toward the table where her sisters and Fuutarou were studying, herself seated at another table with Takeda, Maeda, and Matsui.
"Still can't believe that the punk actually got together with someone..." Maeda whispered, burying his face in one of Takeda's notebooks in order to copy the important bits.
"You're one to talk." Matsui, Mutsumi, and Takeda replied, glaring him down as the others at the other table continued their conversation. Miku was seated there, eyes glued to a cookbook as her face showed discomfort; discomfort that Nino would bring to the others' attention.
"Ah well, since I won't be taking any entrance exams, I don't need to study anything. So I was wondering if it's okay for me to be here." Miku lowered her head, blurting out her thoughts as everyone's eyes turned toward her. Though it was true that she needn't be there, her feet found themselves walking with the others into the school library of their own volition.
"Why would you need to worry about something like that? It's already close to the end of my tenure as your tutor, but even if our teacher-student relationship ended today, I'm sure we'd still meet up like this tomorrow." Fuutarou said, sitting down at the table with the others, Yotsuba following shortly behind him.
"Plus, it's reassuring to have you here, Miku."
"I concur. You're so knowledgable when it comes to Japanese history, so having you here allows us to ask for your guidance."
Fuutarou scoffed gladly, leaning forward to catch his breath before he spoke. "No matter what goals we have, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to get this far if we were alone. More importantly..." He looked around at his students, also imagining Ichika in the empty chair that they had subconsciously left for her. "The days where we put our desks together like this have been the most enjoyable.
Everyone smiled, returning to their study session with renewed vigor after his speech. The hours passed them by as the day transitioned to the night on their way home.
"Hey, Ichika sent us something." Yotsuba exclaimed, checking her phone as a similar messaged arrived for each of them.
"It's about the drama she told us before." Miku examined the message. "Looks like she got the role."
"Wow! She passed the audition!" The fourth seemed to have even more skip in her step. She excitedly read the message over and over as she ran circles around her sisters to release some of her excess energy.
"Let's try our best as well," Itsuki spoke. "We can't let Ichika leave us behind, after all."
"There's something I have to tell all of you." Fuutarou clenched his fists, staring at the five sisters standing in front of him. "This whole time, I haven't...been able to tell you which university I applied to..." He paused, looking for the confidence to reveal his choice. "It's Tokyo U! After graduation, I'll be moving to Tokyo, and I won't be able to be with you all like this anymore..."
"Huh? We knew that already..." Nino said bluntly, dispelling any intensity that Fuutarou brought with his statement. "Even though you didn't tell us, we figured that it's something you'd do, Fuu-kun."
"Yeah." Miku joined in. "We're not bothered by that at all." The sisters nodded, turning to face him.
"Oh...really. So I was the only one worked up about this. How embarrassing." Fuutarou scratched his head, his face turning red from shame.
"Ahaha. It's not like we're saying goodbye forever. We'll be cheering you on no matter where you are, Uesugi-san, just like how you did for us."
"Do your best." Itsuki already started giving her moral support, her head bobbing side to side as he ahoge waggled around like an excited dog's.
"I'll come to visit you whenever you want." Nino crossed her arms, grinning cheekily. As she declared, she was still looking for an opportunity to have him to herself.
"..." Mutsumi paused, hiding her face as she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie in frustration. She bit her lip, swallowing something in her throat before she turned around with a smile on her face. "Do your best there. After all, you don't want to be left in my dust, right?" She joked, taunting him with one last challenge for the day.
"Thanks. I'm really glad to have met you all." He gave them a wholesome smile, turning the other way as their paths home diverged. "See ya." He waved as he watched the sea of red hair slowly shrink into the distance.
"It was just like we thought." Miku muttered as the sisters continued walking home. "Was it just me, or did he look kind of lonely back there?"
"I saw it too..." Itsuki said. "But he also seemed happy. Which is a rare sight, perhaps we were lucky to see that kind of face on him."
"I..." Mutsumi sniffed up a lot of air through her nose before she rubbed her nose with her hands. "I... why am I crying... I'm going to be doing the same thing..." She brought an arm up to her eyes as her lips started trembling.
"Mutsumi...you're such a crybaby..." Yotsuba teased, though her voice also seemed to be faltering like Mutsumi's. "We promised each other...that we weren't going to cry..."
"It's going to be lonely soon," Nino said grimly. "We'll be graduating soon, won't we?"
"A bit too soon..." Mutsumi commented, wiping away a tear that dripped down to her cheek. "It all flew by so fast." She took a few steps to the side, leaning her head against Yotsuba's shoulder as the tears continued to stream out of her eyes.
"Alright... let's go."
The days passed by in a blur, the seven of them simultaneously thinking that it was too little time and too much time. Fuutarou threw himself into his studies, putting his all into preparing for Tokyo U. Ichika had already taken her steps toward her future, long before anyone else had, and she was overflowing with energy in any role that was given to her. Nino, having been uncertain much like Mutsumi was, had a talk with Miku one day as they were washing up after lunch. "Dreams and goals, huh... Do you think that I can be like you one day?" She asked, turning on the tap as Miku handed her a bowl.
"If it's you, then I'm sure you can. If it's us..." Miku paused, turning to her sister with a smile as she pulled her bangs back. "Then I know we can."
"Hmph." Nino scoffed, but she smiled as her eyes drifted toward a piece of paper that Miku had set aside: a pamphlet of some sort for a culinary school. "I guess I'll give you a bit more of my time." She said, imagining herself and Miku working in the same kitchen.
Yotsuba would spend a day visiting the university that reached out to her, getting interviewed in order to see if she was up to their standards. Itsuki spent her days studying, having many nights sleeping on the living room table if she slept at all; Mutsumi, Ichika, and Yotsuba would often put blankets on her or help her check her notes. Speaking of the sixth sister, she had been busy with paperwork and planning, getting everything ready for her plane trip. "And... done..."
"Very well done, Mutsumi," Maruo said, breathing a sigh of relief as he set down another pile of papers. "Keep these safe. And this..." He then showed the girl what he was looking at on her laptop. "Is when your plane departs. You still have some time here. Do your best. I'll be cheering for you." He stood up, throwing his coat over his shoulder as he started to make his way over to the door.
"Dad..." Mutsumi muttered, rushing up to him before she wrapped his waist in her arms. "Thank you... thank you for everything! You're the best..." She said, slightly teary-eyed as she felt the doctor turn around and embrace her back.
"No, thank you for giving me a chance. And I'm so proud of you." He said as the two broke apart and he left to return to the hospital. Mutsumi waved him off, smiling wide as she wiped a tear away from her face.
"Furisode..." Mutsumi muttered, slightly red in the face as she walked up to the shrine while staying slightly behind her sisters. Itsuki stopped, turning around to look at her sister.
"I thought that you were okay with showing your feminine side?" The fifth sister asked, noticing the deepening of the hue on Mutsumi's cheeks. "And you look great, so why are you so worried?"
"That's not what I'm embarrassed about," Mutsumi muttered, hiding behind Itsuki as the six of them caught sight of some familiar faces. Fuutarou and Raiha were reading their fortunes, but there were other people with them.
"Mutsumi!" Takebayashi ran up to her, taking the sixth sister by the arm as she dragged her away from her sisters. Her friend brought her to Fuutarou and Raiha's side, Sanada silently walking up to them with his own fortune in his hand; he seemed happy. Takebayashi saw his fortune and went to get hers with Mutsumi in tow. "Oh I have a good one, what about you?"
"It says that my travels would be good. And... uhh... romantically, I..."
"Sumi!" Tsubaki's voice reached the sixth sister's ears, getting her cheeks even redder than before. "Oh, you got your fortunes, and your love life looks..." A few days after their shrine visit, Tsubaki and Mutsumi met up to resume filming the movie that kept Ichika eligible for graduation.
"Yotsuba-san! Uesugi-san! Are you ready?" Tsubaki called out to them, holding out a copy of Mutsumi's script. "If you guys get hurt, just say okay!" The scene they were recording was one where Fuutarou had to carry a log.
"Alright! Yotsuba, do you remember your lines?"
"Yeah!"
"Ready? Action!" With the clap of those striped movie things, Tsubaki switched on the camera. The scene was from the part of the movie where they were on a school trip. In the background were a couple of their classmates, who pretended to also be doing work in order to not have the awkward absence of bodies in the shot of a packed camp. They had been working with Tsubaki and the rest of the broadcast club to record the movie in the days where their schedules were loose, though some days were meant for the movie from dawn 'til dusk. "Maybe you should ask Sumi... ask Mutsumi-chan to add a kissing scene?"
"Ah, that's..." Both of them turned red from something other than the fatigue of carrying the log. Meanwhile, the fifth sister walked toward a large notice board with a heavy heart as she started to worry.
"Congratulations!" The fifth sister returned home to a surprise party that her sisters organized.
"How did you know?" She asked as one of her stars lit up, Mutsumi holding her phone as the screen showed... herself from Itsuki's point of view. "Ah, I see." She said, laughing with resignation. Yotsuba rushed over to her side with a slice of cake.
"Come on, don't sweat the details! Let's have fun!" The fourth sister beamed, offering the cake to her sister as Nino and Miku returned from the kitchen with their dinner in their hands.
"Hey! Don't skip right to dessert!" The second sister scolded them, putting down the savory food before she snatched the cake away from Yotsuba before Itsuki got her hands on it.
"I'll be leaving soon." Mutsumi muttered to her sisters. The party had died down a few minutes earlier; Nino, Miku, and Itsuki were fatigued from their full stomachs. "To be honest, I'm a little scared and a little excited."
"I'm sure you'll be fine." Yotsuba placed her hands against the railing of their balcony, looking up at the starry sky that shone down on them. "I'm sure we'll all be fine, even if we're apart. I mean, we're all..." She said as Ichika placed her hands on their shoulders, one each.
"Come on. Don't go pushing yourselves too hard. We still have a lot to do." She smiled as Mutsumi pulled her sister's hand off of her shoulder. The sixth sister went to her room, she had a lot to do in the coming days.
"Thanks for dropping us off, Mutsumi-san." Takeda said, shutting the door of the black car of the Nakano family. He and Fuutarou currently stood outside of a train station, with Mutsumi sitting shotgun with her window down. "So, I guess this is goodbye."
"For now," Mutsumi replied, putting her hand out to point at her intellectual rivals. "I better not hear anything about you two flunking out! And you!" Her gaze narrowed on Fuutarou, brows furrowed as the tutor just looked back at her. "If I hear anything from my sisters about you treating Yotsuba badly, I will get on the first plane to Tokyo to personally kick your ass!" She said, grinning as she gave a playful salute to the two of them.
"I wouldn't have it any other way. Good luck, Mutsumi." Fuutarou replied as he and Takeda entered the station to wait for their train.
"Ebata-san, let's go to the airport." Mutsumi shut the window, bowing her head solemnly as they continued on their route. She took her luggage out of the car, walking to the entrance of the building before some people stopped her in her tracks.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Takebayashi asked jokingly, an arm on her hip as Mutsumi walked up to them. "Come back once you're done, okay? We'll be waiting."
"Of course I will. I'll get through this as fast as I can. I'll keep you updated, like last time." Mutsumi hugged her, resting her head on Takebayashi's shoulder before her friend pushed her away.
"Mutsumi..." Another voice called out to her. Walking out from behind Takebayashi, Tsubaki twirled her fingers together as she looked into Mutsumi's eyes. "Don't leave for too long... I'll be waiting."
"Tsubaki, of course... I lo... I... ah, fuck it!" Mutsumi took a quick step forward, pecking her on the lips before she hurried off into the airport to catch her flight; leaving her friends looking on in bewilderment.
"Honestly, she can be such a kid sometimes..."
"That's what I like about her..." Tsubaki's fingers traced her lips as a smile curled on her face.
"Uesugi-kun?" Takeda turned to his rival, his friend, seeing his face express something that was seldom seen in school. "Are you feeling nervous? That's not like you."
"Maybe I am. But I'm not alone." He turned his gaze up, the cherry blossoms falling down from nearby trees dotted the serene blue sky with splotches of pink. "And I'm sure that they...Nah, nevermind."
Fuutarou gazed up at the sky from the station.
Ichika looked up as the script directed her to.
Nino lied down and glanced up at her phone.
Miku pried her eyes away from a book to stare at the passing clouds.
Yotsuba reached out towards the sky after a tiring jog in her tracksuit.
Itsuki leaned back after some mid-day studying.
And Mutsumi gazed out the plane window, the city of Tokai below and the clouds above as she ascended into the sky; a taste still lingering on her lips.
"Ah, a contrail."