The Five Chain Links Of The Heart

Part One: Set The Stage

This story has a strange beginning and weaves a tale unlike the one you've come to know. A journey of friendship, struggle and love. Our story begins one morning, a young man dressed in blue trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt unbuttoned at the top. He held a blue bag over his left shoulder and in his right hand carried a small red book.

He was focused on his book, not bothering to look where he was walking. This young man's name is Uesegi Fuutaro and he is headed toward school for another day. Fuutaro stepped through the front gate, crossing the threshold between the outside world and the day he was about to begin. After climbing the stairs he paced past a small line of gardens and into the main classroom building. Funnily enough the young man was still to look up from the textbook in his hand.

"He studies even on his way to school? What a loser."

Fuutaro for his part ignored the comments made by his peers keeping his focus on his studying and whilst also avoiding a collision with anyone on his way to class. The usual rumblings of their comments toward Fuutaro were nothing new for him and it was no trouble to force them aside to focus on things he actually needed to think about. The young man holding the textbook breached the doorway entering the school building.

Fuutaro ignored the rush of idle chatter going on about him and maintained his pace directly walking through the school building's first floor and aiming a beeline toward the staircase. The second floor was far different to the first; mostly it looked to be a large hallway with tiled flooring. Fuutaro's journey ended at the room halfway down the hall, the number '2-1' above the entryway but it must've been ordinary for the boy since he didn't look up toward it once on his way inside.

He took his usual seat near the back of the room and still did not raise his gaze from the textbook in his hands. Ignoring the looks from the students spread out through the class, Fuutarou read on right up until the arrival of his teacher. The teacher was a tallish woman outfitted in business attire complete with a long grey skirt and white shirt beneath a blazer the same shade as the skirt. She pushed ovular spectacles along the bridge of her nose then turned her attention to her students, "Good Morning everyone. I will begin the morning by handing back your recent exam results."

As if on cue Fuutaro's eyes lifted away from the pages of the textbook in his hands. His interest had been pulled into the teacher's young man was not concerned about the result being bad but by the intense focus on his face it was evident that he was keen to witness the results of his efforts.

"Yakiniku set. Without the Yakiniku."

"Here it is."

The cafeteria worker handed a tray across the counter to the young man, who took it from her hands and nodded curtly as a way of saying thank you. Once again ignoring the looks he got from the students around him Fuutaro collected his tray.

"What's with that guy?"

'People tend to think the cheapest item on the menu is rice for two hundred yen, but it's not. If you order the Yakiniku set for four hundred yen without the Yakiniku for two hundred yen you could for the same price get miso soup and fresh fruit as dessert! The School Canteen is the best!'

"Oy, hurry up!"

Fuutaro's head was pulled out of his thoughts, the sharp voice caught his attention and he turned his head slightly to the student in the queue behind him, "Ah, my bad." He turned away from the counter finally and started his way through the cafeteria. Several tables were spread out across the room and each of them were filled to the brim with students. Fuutaro maintained his fast pace, seeming to ignore every table along his walk across the floor.

"The school canteen is the worst," someone could be heard saying.

"Uesugi-Kun is alone again, huh?"

"No way-"

"Hmph," Fuutarou said to himself quietly, "These people don't know how wonderful it is to be alone. Well, not like those fools have anything to do with my life…Everything's gonna be alright!"

Fuutaro had been in the process of sliding his lunch tray onto the empty table he'd chosen but all of a sudden the corner of the boy's tray collided with another and his eyes widened slightly. His eyes narrowed on the edges of the miso soup watching it closely. Thankfully none of the soup had spilled out from the collision. He looked up rapidly intending to give the person a piece of mind but he was taken aback by the girl's appearance. a serious looking girl with medium-length reddish-orange hair and an ahoge sticking up from the top of her head.

'Who? It's not our school uniform? Oh Well.'

"I found this spot before you did!" the girl said angrily, "The next table is wide open. I think you should move."

"This is the table that I sit at every day, why don't you move?"

The battle ended in both of them taking seats at the table, the girl with red hair on the side closest to the wall and Fuutaro on the side closer to the cafeteria's walkway. Fuutaro hadn't expected the situation to turn out this way but it could've gone worse he supposed.

"Look, Uesugi's eating lunch with a girl."

"Is she stupid?"

"Seriously?"

'She's all red? You could've switched seats. Huh? Two fifty for udon, two shrimp tempura would be three hundred, the other varieties of tempura cost a hundred yen each, add the pudding and that's - who just drops a thousand yen on lunch?'

"Well, you do you."

The boy tells her then he reaches in his pockets and grabs his flashcards from inside..

The girl raises her hands together in a prayer motion, "Time to eat."

She collects some noodles on her chopstick and looks over to the boy, seeing that he was reading while eating. She scolds, "That's a little rude, don't you think? You're studying in the middle of lunch?"

"I'm reviewing my exam," Fuutaro tried to explain, "It wasn't my intention to come across as rude. Apologies."

"Is your score really that bad? Here let me take a look."

"Hey, wait a second!"

Fuutaro attempted to prevent the girl from grabbing his test, but to no avail. He watched on as the girl lifted it to her eyeline and said, "Let's see, Uesugi Fuutaro with a score of a-a hundred!? How is that possible!?"

"Oh no, I'm so embarrassed."

"Y-you wanted me to see it! I hate to admit it but I'm not good at school stuff, I envy you." The young woman paused and clapped her hands together, "You know, it must've been fate that brought us together. D'you wanna help me study?"

Fuutaro clapped his hands together, "Well this has been great."

"Ee! You're already done? You didn't eat much, are you sure you got enough? If you want more I'd be happy to share mine."

Fuutaro was about to decline when a loud rumbling caught his and to his dismay the girl's attention. A smug little grin on her face told the story and Fuutaro knew he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of this one. Curse his stomach.

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm! Positive, sit back down already, okay?"

After berating his stomach a second time Fuutaro returned to his seat opposite the girl and placed his tray back down. He wasn't certain but it looked that students from earlier were throwing even more strange looks his and the girl's way. The red-head girl didn't seem to notice and placed one of the shrimp and another piece of tempura in Fuutaro's now empty bowl.

"Thank you erm-"

"How rude of me to not introduce myself! My name is Nakano, Itsuki. It's a pleasure to meet you, Uesugi-Kun!"

Fuutaro was still not convinced by the girl but free food was free food after all. He couldn't help but be drawn to the statement she'd made earlier. She needed someone to help her study? He guessed he was the best person to ask considering his high grades but the problem layed in the fact that Fuutaro had never taught anyone before. Was he really capable of tutoring this girl?

Itsuki was looking at him expectantly and after a sigh Fuutaro reached out his chopsticks and collected the shrimp. He lifted the shrimp to his lips and reached his mouth out a tiny amount, biting the end off. Immediately the young man's eyes widened and stars comedically exploded in his eyes.

'This is so good!'

Having just finished some of her remaining shrimp pieces, Itsuki's ahoge bounced happily and she smiled broadly at the boy opposite her. The two ate in silence for a moment then finally, Itsuki decided to broach the subject of her studies once again.

"As I was saying earlier, I was wondering if you would please help me study Uesugi-san. You would be compensated for your work of course." There was a hopeful note to Itsuki's voice and her cerulean eyes watched Fuutaro closely as she awaited his answer.

Compensated? That could really help us out with our debt situation. It would be nice to finally be able to afford proper meals. Regardless of my feelings on the matter, I need to accept. I need to improve our financial situation and tutoring this girl couldn't be that difficult, surely?

End Chapter

Poor Fuutaro doesn't know what he's in for. Will he agree to become the tutor of Itsuki? What else will come along with this? I want to add my sorry that this chapter is so short. I wanted to do a little test of this fanfiction ahead of fully committing to the idea. I've seen this premise done a few times and wanted to throw my own spin on it. This chapter mostly followed the anime and manga with a little twist at the end to have Fuutaro and Itsuki's first meeting end more positively. Future chapters will be larger.

My other works will slowly be getting updates also but I really wanted to step into this fandom.

Next: Five Petals of A Single Rose.

See you next time folks!