Burning the Midnight Oil

Chapter 19

The Replacement

~Futaro~

Futaro swirled his iced tea, momentarily mesmerized by the vortex consuming pebbles of ice into its depths like a black hole slowly swallowing the universe. He wondered if this was how the universe would end, swallowed into a single immeasurable mass, crushed into particles too dense for modern science to comprehend. Then he remembered where he was, and he realized his companion was still drolling on, trying to do the same with his attention.

"So then when that didn't work, I moved onto irrational numbers, and oh, that was a mistake. I thought that since they were having this much trouble with numbers that made sense, maybe numbers that didn't make sense would be a better starting point. Like how multiplying negative numbers makes them positive. Makes sense, right? What was I thinking? Ignorance times ignorance equals a society of ignorance. Well after that failed I decided to move on to contemporary history and social studies."

"Social studies? That's Miku's best subject."

"Quit pulling my leg."

"I'm dead serious. She loves it."

"I refuse to believe that."

"Then live in denial, I don't care."

"I wish I could deny today, I really do," Takeda sank into his espresso, a triple shot with a dollop of cream, and drank deeply. "I had to throw out all my prep material after seeing how far behind they were. I kept having to simplify, then simplify again, and it was never good enough! I couldn't make it simple enough! We barely made it through math and social studies, and that was only because I all but forced their heads into their textbooks!"

Was he still going on? It all sounded familiar, Futaro though. Then he realized this had been his stream of conscious all through September. He asked, "Ah, were they giving you any trouble?"

"Have you been listening to a word I said? Trouble is too tame a definition. They were deserts without a puddle of knowledge, forests without any fruit! It was like scaling Mount Everest with a canoe." Takeda fumed. He rapidly tapped the table in an irascible beat, Futaro wondered if it was from frustration or too much caffeine.

"Hmm, I wonder. Did they appear distracted to you?"

"With what, exactly? Is there anything in their heads to be distracted with?"

"Just answer me."

Takeda huffed and said, "Yeah, especially the quiet one."

"Miku?"

"Which one was she?

"Long hair and headphones."

"Her, then. She hardly said a word all day. The other wouldn't shut up, she kept changing the subject. Keeping her on topic was like catching a grasshopper in a pond."

Futaro nodded, trying to picture the scene. It didn't sound like Ichika at all, she as usually so mellow during studies, silently scribing along with her sisters. And Miku, she had always peppered his canned lecture with questions. Was she so distracted because of today? Or had she only been asking those questions to get him to answer? To focus on her? Was that the only reason she'd studied? He didn't want to believe it, because it would mean that all her efforts had a hidden motive, and that she didn't care about bettering herself for her own benefit. But after today he realized how little he really understood these sisters. Especially Miku.

He'd felt their bond was different from the others. There was a connection, a reliance and imbued trust between them that didn't exist with the others. She was the first to throw herself into her studies under him, and she followed his lead like reading a map promising treasure. She'd come the furthest of them all. He thought she saw him as a role model, an inspiration, and it flattered him to think that someone could see something inside of him that they could strive to achieve. It fulfilled his purpose, to have meaning to others. So he worked diligently to craft lessons that would help her achieve that dream to be better than she was before.

Only, her dream hadn't been solely for academics. There was a hidden motivation, or at least hidden from him. Had romance been the buried driver of her success? Had he only seen the illusion of purpose? And now that it was crushed so finally, if accidentally, would that drive come to a halt? Miku deserved better than that. Ichika, too. He shouldn't be the cause of their failure. He wasn't worth it, he thought.

Takeda continued, "What the hell did you do with them all these months?"

"Teach them, what else?"

"For six months, and this is the best they can do!?"

"They've come a long way, you'd be surprised."

"Maybe you're just a bad tutor. I can't really blame you, it's hard to think on their level when you're at the top."

Takeda spoke as a defeatist, but his off-handed comment was like a jab at Futaro and all his effort. He said, "I did my absolute best with them, all of them, and it shows. They've come a long way from before."

Takeda shrugged, "I believe it, on second thought. After all, if you can't get them passing within standards, what else can be done for these morons?"

"Shut up," he snapped.

Takeda blinked, "Excuse me?"

"Don't call them that."

"But they-"

"You don't know the first thing about them. Any of them. They might struggle, they might be behind, but they are as talented and hardworking as anyone, and if you call them morons again, I'm leaving. I came here because you asked, not so I can hear you bitch about my friends."

Takeda seemed confused. Futaro understood, he felt the same way his first day as their tutor. He'd thought them stupid, idiotic, and every synonym delittling their intellect. But he'd been wrong, their intellectual strength was academically unorthodox, not nonexistent. And they managed to teach him something else, something he was missing, a connection to others. They deserved to be acknowledged for that. Takeda may not understand, so he'd set the record straight now.

Takeda rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, I guess you're close, after all. It isn't productive to think that way, anyways."

"Speaking of unproductive things, am I supposed to keep listening to you complain?"

"No, I need to know what I'm supposed to do with these two! It'd be easier to teach a parrot than these girls, at least the bird can repeat back what I say! How can I teach them when everything goes in one ear, passes through a quad-shredder, and tumbles out the other like sawdust?"

Futaro sipped his tea and said, "Well, first off, always remember that you can go simpler. They need a better foundation in every subject. But you do have one thing going for you."

"What's that?"

"You have the smartest of the five."

Takeda went rigid as a waterfall flash-frozen in a cold snap, his eyes shrinking in fear of something far away. It was the moment hope truly died. "Those two...are the smart ones?"

"That's right, highest test scores of the quintuplets," he paused, "Ah, well if I bomb this mock exam, I guess you'll get to see what I mean once you take my job."

Takeda malfunctioned. He stared into his unfinished caffeine and appeared ready to drown in it. Futaro saw him imagining the possibility of that fuller table, and all the questions and blank stares and endless reminders that yes, it can get worse, he'd have to endure. Futaro knew, he'd lived it for such a long time. But Takeda had wanted his job so badly, let him enjoy all the consequences, he mused.

Then Takeda looked up at him with horror inside of him, saying, "Uesugi, you must not fail!"

"Huh?"

"You need to win this wager with Mr. Nakano, you need to place in the top ten!"

"So you're switching sides?"

Takeda pointed to his espresso, "You see this? This is so I can finish my own homework and studies tonight! I haven't even started!"

"Yeah, been there. What do you think happened to me?"

"If I have to tutor the other three as well, I can't...no, that can't happen. So here's what we'll do: you're still tutoring those three after school, right? Well let's meet afterwards and we'll study for the mock exams together."

"Why would I need your help?"

"Because you're slipping! You need someone to get you back on track, or you won't place in the top ten and then I'll be stuck with all of them!"

"Okay. Or, here's a thought, you just say you don't want to tutor them anymore. Done."

Takeda sharply shook his head, "I can't do that."

"Why not? Just-"

"Uesugi, I cannot do that!" Takeda almost screamed, pointing his finger in fury. Then he caught himself, lamely laughed it off, and said, "I mean, I already gave them my word, I can't back out now. But if you can do it, then it's moot anyways. So do what you do best and we'll all be better for it."

Something was off, even a man with the sensitivity of a door knob like himself could sense that. Takeda's smile was back, radiant as sunshine on a window. It was as Futaro remembered him every day in class, like a glittering bulb illuminating the room that he swiftly ignored. But now he wondered, as natural as it looked, if it was manufactured like industrial plastic.

Futaro said, "Fine, we'll give your idea a shot. And I am going to place in the top ten, but not for you. I'm doing it for them, and for me. And one more thing."

"What's that?"

"You're their tutor now, too. So I expect you to give them all you can. They're relying on you now."

Takeda sighed, "But what's the point? I doubt they'll show any improvement."

"I don't care what you think. They will. I've seen it. I'll even help you, I'll teach you how to teach them."

"Hm, can't hurt. Certainly can't make things worse. Why do you care though? What's in it for you? They ditched you."

"I promised I will see them graduate together. And I don't care if I'm not their official tutor anymore, I'm going to keep it. And since I have you now, I'll do it through you. So I'll show you how to teach them, how they learn, and you'll make sure they succeed. And in exchange, I'll keep you from living the last six months of my life. Deal?"

Takeda looked at him questioningly, seeking out something Futaro kept out of sight, a hidden motive that would make his actions make sense. When he failed, he decided he didn't care and agreed, "Fine, give me what you got and I'll see if I can make it work."

Ninety minutes, two iced teas and four espresso shots later, they left the cafe a little wiser and parted ways with barely a goodbye, only a promise to continue this tomorrow. Futaro pulled out his phone and saw half a dozen missed texts. He called the sender before looking at any of them. The phone barely reached its second ring when she answered.

"Hey babe!" Nino said.

"Babe?"

"I'm trying it out! What do you think?"

"Back to the drawing board."

"Come on, it's cute."

"We've been dating publicly for, let me check, ten hours, and you're already inventing ways to embarrass me?"

"When have you cared what others think? Besides, a girlfriend totally gets to give her boyfriend cute nicknames."

"Babe. Meaning baby."

"Cute."

"Generic."

"And adorable."

"Sounds strange to me."

"Fine, be picky then. I'm just giving you another one."

"I look forward to shooting it down."

"Hold on," Nino paused, then returned, "It was Itsuki. She told you to stop flirting with me and tell us what happened."

"That was flirting?"

"Yeah. Or, I think so."

"Wait, I'm on speaker?"

"No, but," another pause, "you are now."

"Hi Futaro!" Yotsuba's cheer exploded over the line.

"Hey guys," he said.

Itsuki said, "So go on, what happened?"

Futaro checked his watch. He had a fifteen minute walk home. He had time. "Sure, just settle in first. You're not gonna believe this."

~Yusuke~

What a day. What time was it? Nine? Wonderful! Six hours flushed away without profit. All that time he couldn't bring back to the stables of productivity, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time. The mock exams were weeks, no, days away, and every minute counted. Minutes were bills and seconds were change, all to be spent on betterment. How much irreplaceable currency had he burned at the alter of the inept?

You're still not good enough, he said. Still so far to go, he said. He could hear his words in his head.

So why was he stuck tutoring these imbeciles? What could possibly be worth retreating to a primary level to bring just two of these five academic marvels for all the wrong reasons to the standard of acceptability? He couldn't understand. But Yusuke gave his word, and he wouldn't allow him to give it back. He'd insist, even if Yusuke couldn't understand why this was suddenly so important. But had he known what he was forcing him into? Did he have any idea the stepping stone he'd ordered him to cross was as rugged as the Himalayas? Of course not. He never bothered to check.

But he'd expect results, not excuses. Starting tonight. Takeda took off his shoes and stepped up to the door as he did every night. Ornate oak imported from overseas and installed at immense cost, purely because he could. Takeda rapped on the door and reported, "I'm home."

"Come in."

Takeda opened the door to the study and closed the door softly, mechanically, behind him. Then he waited quietly to be called. His father, a lumbering man in his fifties, was perched over a pile of papers like a hawk swooping the prairie for prey. Time is a razor slashing men down with endless, withering cuts, until they collapsed like a house of cards into old age and wheelchairs rolling towards the best nursing home savings could afford. But some men were made of stone, and until they crumbled they were cut into imposing statues of mortals. His father had weathered those blows and emerged a distinguished figure. And until time toppled him at last, he would remain nothing less.

"Tell me, then."

Takeda's response was rote: slow, mellow, official. "It was only the first day, father."

"And how were they?"

"They're incredibly behind. They should've been held back years ago."

"Good, then it will be even more impressive once you have them graduating above their average peers."

"I don't think that's possible."

"Make it happen."

"But-"

"Make it happen, Yusuke." His father sorted the papers into a courier folder and looked up, a volcano stirring from sleep, "Or, are you saying you're not capable?"

He knew better than to share the truth, "It's not that, just, I can't control-"

"You're a leader, Yusuke. A leader brings those following him to heights they never imagined possible, and rises higher for it. So you will get them within standards, you will have them graduate in the top half of their class, and you will show Doctor Nakano that he should have trusted those five in your care in the first place."

"Five?" Takeda asked.

"Is that a question?"

Takeda realized his mistake immediately, "Ah, Doctor Nakano didn't tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"I'm only tutoring two of his daughters. The other three are still with Uesugi."

"Uesugi," his father mused, his dark eyes like coals catching a flame. There it was, he'd opened Pandora's box."I wish I never learned that name."

"I know, father."

"So why do you keep forcing me to see it? In every report, I look to the top to see your name, and I must always lower my gaze in shame after seeing his. I give you everything you could need. I gave you the best schooling, the best tutors, the best environment to achieve greatness, and you still place second to a nobody."

Takeda reddened with shame as familiar as those perfect scores he achieved so consistently, and still it wasn't enough. Not for him, or his father. Because wasn't he right? He'd been given every opportunity to succeed, every resource his father could provide was given towards his improvement, to be the best that he was meant to be. And still, his name was sandwiched within the masses. Number two, a destined salutatorian, a failure.

His father paced the room, musing, "Or perhaps, yes, this can work in your favor. This could be the chance you've needed. Your students must outperform his while you outperform him on the exam, and then you'll prove that you are the superior academic."

Takeda's shame deepened because he knew he couldn't do it, not alone. How would his father react if he knew Uesugi was planning to help him? Why was he offering to help anyways? What was his angle? Takeda couldn't see what was in it for himself, he doubted Uesugi really cared about their graduation as much as he claimed. Hadn't they abandoned him? Why would he care about them after that? Unless he was trying to get close to Doctor Nakano as well. But why would that matter to him?

"My students are already the two smartest sisters," he said.

"Then make sure they show more improvement, show the Doctor that his students are better off in your care."

Takeda looked at the clock on the wall, a gift to his grandfather from some royal he was sure his father had drilled into his head at some point. Nine-twenty. When was he supposed to find time to study in all this?

"Father, I have a question."

"Go on."

"Do I really need to spend my time helping those girls? Wouldn't my time be better off on myself?"

"No."

"If I spend all my after school hours with them, I'm not going to be ready for the exams."

"You'll make it work."

"But what if I can't."

His father glared, "You will, Yusuki. Just like always."

"Okay, please, just listen. They're really, I spent hours wasting time trying to get them to learn, and if I keep doing that, I won't have time-"

"Then make time, if you have to."

"I don't think I can, do you see-"

It stung. White, tingling pain bursting like a firework consuming the night, until it dimmed into a lingering scar against the black. His cheek flushed again. Takeda gingerly brushed his wounded cheek. He grit his teeth and swallowed his shock, and his response. Like he'd trained himself to.

His father withdrew his hand and whispered, "You are done speaking back to me, is that clear?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Good." His father rubbed his chin and paced away. "You will make it work, Yusuke."

He breathed, "Okay. I will."

"Do you not understand why I'm having you do this?" Yusuke was silent, and his father sighed, "You should have. Doctor Nakano is held in high regard among very powerful circles. I can give you the names of dozens of members of the National Diet, businessmen and influencers who are in his debt thanks to his expertise. They hold him in high regard, and they listen to him when he needs a favor. That's why his hospital is never short on funding. I can only imagine what else he could request with only a word. If you can win his support now, you'll have the right headwind when you step into the political stage. Do you remember why I pulled you from the best prep school in the city to place you into a public run institution?"

"I do."

"These are the common people, Yusuke, and you need to learn to lead them. You need to inspire them and gain their support. Without that, you have no chance. But with it, you have no limits. But for now, your limit is Uesugi. Have you heard that name in the history books? No, because that name means nothing. It comes from the earth. Farmers, laborers, the commons. You are a Takeda. Your ancestors served Shoguns and Daimyos, Emperors and Ministers. But you, you have the talent to be more. You will carry our name to the highest echelon of the elites. Or you might. You might. But first you need to cement yourself as the brightest and most promising of your peers."

He made it sound so simple, but Takeda had heard it over and over, it was practically an anthem of their time together. How was he closing the gap? What was he trying to sharpen his edge? Then again it was never supposed to be this difficult. He was top of his class all through primary and middle school, but here, at a public school of all places, he slipped. It was all because of Uesugi, the abominable anomaly. A glitch in the program that prevented progress.

He'd beaten him once, this last final exam. But both he and his father knew the reason. He had to outclass him in every area and prove it wasn't a one time occurrence. He was the best, he had to be, because he'd been given everything he needed to. Uesugi wasn't his ceiling, he was a stepping stone into a life Uesugi could never hope to have.

But…

"I will," he said, because nothing else was allowed. That was his father's will.

"Good. Now go, Yusuke. You have work to do."

His father returned to his desk and their conversation was done. Takeda excused himself and walked upstairs to his room. He looked over his bookshelf, custom built into the wall and filled with everything his father could think to supply, and wondered if his own room was larger than the home the Uesugi's shared. He set himself up at his desk and prepared for a late night. The first of many, he realized. Then he wondered how many more he would have? He still needed the right amount of sleep to maximize his effectiveness, or all his studies would be wasted because his brain wouldn't recover and store it, all while balancing these two imbeciles and their success, and he might not even be able to do that even with Uesugi's help-

He blinked. A tear dripped onto the page, then another. Takeda growled and wiped his eyes, telling himself to get it together. There was too much left to do. He sat down and got to work.

A/N

So.

It's been an interesting few weeks. Certain revelations in the story deserve addressing, but I won't do it here as to avoid spoiling anything for those who haven't caught up with recent manga chapters. But now seems the perfect time to pick this story back up and carry on.

It's been a long delay, and not without reason. It was all personal, a vacation and then a move, both of which took a good chunk of my time. But things are finally settling down in my new place and I'm in a good position to continue writing. So it's back to two weeks, though I think I will make an exception to my usual Thursday updates and try posting something on Christmas Day.

Chapters 13 through 19 all have something in common: they take place in the same 24 hours. It's been a whirlwind for these characters, and we're going to start the flow of time again starting in chapter 20. I've been waiting to bring Takeda into the picture and give his character the depth I imagined him having when he was first introduced, and I hope it works in the given context of the story. His part in the story, centering in the 70's, is quite short and he's quickly shuffled to the sidelines. It's a shame, as I see him as a potentially interesting foil to Futaro. His struggles are largely going to mirror, and in some cases reverse, Uesugi's own.

This is a chapter I have mixed feelings about overall, and I might come again in the future once I've had time to separate myself from it a bit and re-write some of Takeda's section with his father, given it's importance to his character and motivation. But today, I'm happy with it and ready to publish, so please let me know what you think of it.

My goal is to have the next chapter out in just over 10 days, ready for Christmas. Call it Holiday spirit, but it feels appropriate to update around then and share my work on a holiday. So check back then and I hope to have the next chapter up. Until then, please review, favorite and follow me through the rest of this story.

Chapter published: December 14th, 2019.