"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA! ! ! !"
Perhaps predictably, Nino is the first to react substantially, and she does so with an appropriate scream that wouldn't be out of place in a horror film while taking a few big steps backwards, inadvertently pushing Itsuki and Miku behind her backwards too. Ichika and Yotsuba remain where they're standing, though they, too, display looks of stunned bewilderment, but not for long.
"Ooooh! I remember you!" Yotsuba jabs her index finger at Fuutarou. "You're our classmate! You were the one sitting in the middle, looking bored all class long!"
"While you're not wrong, I'd appreciate it if you didn't remember me like that," Fuutarou replies dryly, giving Yotsuba a darkly incredulous look.
"More to the point, how did you get in?" Ichika asks curiously, now that Fuutarou's element of surprise has been used up and is wearing off. "This is the thirtieth floor penthouse; we're literally the only ones on this floor because of how new this high-rise is. Nobody except us five should have any reason to be here."
In response, Fuutarou reaches into his back pocket and flashes out a passcard - an exact replica of the one Ichika used just a moment earlier.
"Your dad was kind enough to give me a copy of your house key when I visited his office after school today," Uesugi informs her. "He called me in because your new school uniforms had been delivered straight to his office for whatever reason, so he asked me to take them with me here."
"Huh, that so. How long were you waiting for us, just out of curiosity?" Ichika asks after removing her shoes and approaching Fuutarou.
"Not that long, maybe like ten minutes or so."
"Oh, so not that long, then. You're pretty punctual, unlike me, haha."
"I mean, this is my job, so being punctual should be my modus operandi."
"Modasu...oparandi? Is that some kind of foreign saying?"
"Yeah, it's an English phrase that's used to describe a pattern of procedure. Most commonly used in English-speaking law enforcement organizations to describe behavior of criminals."
"Wow, you sure sound like you know your stuff. That's our tutor for you, teaching us something new already."
"Yeah, says the goddamn criminal right here!"
Ichika, Yotsuba, and Fuutarou glance over at Nino, who's positively fuming as she regains her senses to stomp her way over to them.
"This guy just happens to have the key to our place, shows up out of fucking nowhere, and now you're being all friendly with him!? What part of that makes ANY sense to you, Ichika?!" Nino hollers with little restraint at her older sister.
"Hey, now, he just explained all that, didn't he? Besides, we know him already like Yotsuba said, he was the guy sitting basically in the middle of the classroom when we got introduced to our new class."
"Er, sorry to interrupt, but...was I, uh, were you girls not notified of me coming, or...?" Fuutarou asks cautiously.
"No, we - we were, but that's not the point!"
Nino takes one last threatening step towards Fuutarou and stabs him in the chest with the sharp nail of her index finger.
"You could've at least waited outside our home! Outside!" she hisses angrily like an aggressive house cat on the prowl. "What kind of guy just barges into another girl's house like this to wait for them? That's fucking creepy, dude!"
"No, like, your dad was the one who said it was okay for me to wait inside - " Fuutarou tries to explain, but Nino is having none of it.
"Bullshit! Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit! Get out, you creep! Out, out, out, out!"
Shrieking obscenities, the second quint lodges herself behind Fuutarou, trying to push, shove, and finally punch him out, but to her dismay, Fuutarou remains as still as a boulder, not budging an inch despite Nino's best efforts that leave her huffing and puffing for breath after a few minutes.
"...so, uh, are you done?" Fuutarou scowls down at Nino, who's trying to catch her breath with her hands on her knees after all the punches she's thrown. Nino simply bares her clenched teeth back up at him.
"Wow! To be able to handle one of Nino's tantrums like that, you must be some kind of Super Tutor, huh?!" Yotsuba concludes excitedly, with sparkles flying out of her eyes.
"...and what is with you and coming up with these weird impressions of me," Fuutarou sighs, cringing a bit at the title of "Super Tutor". "I'm not some sort of superhero, if that's where you're going with that."
"Hm, well, maybe not now then. But if you manage to actually help me raise my grades, then you really will become a Super Tutor!"
"Can't wait."
"U-Uesugi-kun!" Finally coming to terms with this wonky turn of events, Itsuki also approaches Fuutarou with Miku in tow. "So - so you were the tutor who was supposed to show up today...?!"
Fuutarou nods shortly. "Yep, that's me."
"Then - then why did you not tell me at lunch about this?"
"Ehhhhh!? It was this loser you ate lunch with?!" Nino exclaims again, by this point having caught enough of her breath to spare the energy for this spoken revelation.
"Oh my ~ " Ichika coos on the sidelines, covering her mouth with one hand. "Could this be ~ ?"
"It is not, Ichika! Please do not misunderstand!" Itsuki shouts, already embarrassed enough as is. "Well, Uesugi-kun, what say you? Why did you not simply inform me of this when I was at lunch?"
"Hmmm, let's see..." Fuutarou feigns a pose of thought before grinning directly back at Itsuki. "...to surprise you, I guess?"
Hearing these words, Itsuki instantly hits her emotional breaking point.
"T-T-To surprise me?!" the youngest quint explodes. "H-How - how dare you! Not only did I suffer some embarrassment having to sit with a boy I never knew before today, both from myself and others walking by, not only did you call me a glutton, and not only did you purposefully show me your quiz score to rub in the fact that my own studying skills are subpar, but you sneak into our house just to surprise us? Just to surprise ME? We didn't even KNOW each other before today, and you thought SURPRISING ME was a good idea?!"
Listening to Itsuki's tirade, Fuutarou is coming to understand that, at least between Itsuki and Nino, these girls are most definitely quintuplets.
"Itsuki, you shouldn't be yelling like that to our - " Ichika tries to make her sister lower her voice, but Itsuki completely ignores her, and Fuutarou talks over Ichika anyway.
"To be clear, you were the one who made the decision to sit with me at lunch today, I did not call you a glutton, merely a 'big eater', I did not show you my quiz score on purpose, and I had explicit permission from your dad to enter your house to wait for you all. That, and like I said, he asked me to deliver your new uniforms anyway," Fuutarou counters swiftly and efficiently. "While you've made your point that I shouldn't have said I wanted to surprise you like this, you need to learn how to take a joke."
"But we literally did not know each other until today! And you thought it was appropriate to pull a joke like this on me? On us!?"
"I didn't know that people needed to be lifelong friends to make jokes to each other."
And now Itsuki reaches her limit. Clenching her fists and her teeth in a manner very reminiscent of Nino behind her would-be tutor, she closes the distance between herself and Fuutarou one more time to confront him.
"Fine! Very well! It appears that I simply cannot take a joke, while you, Uesugi-kun, have no tact!"
"That's right, that's right! You tell him, Itsuki!" Nino snarls at Fuutarou's back. "Fucking creep!"
"It appears I was wrong to think of you as an appropriate tutor for me - for us, rather," Itsuki continues, still glaring daggers back up at Fuutarou, "If this is how you wish to behave, then I hereby retract my request to have you act as our tutor."
And to finalize her statement, Itsuki walks straight past Fuutarou over to the stairs leading up to the girls' bedrooms.
"But you can't do that, I've already been hired by your dad to tutor you. And my little joke aside, you haven't even given me a chance to even tutor you," Fuutarou calls after her while Nino, too, follows after Itsuki.
"And I have no desire to give you any such chance," Itsuki spits back. "I was willing to overlook your 'little jokes' from earlier today at lunch, but this - you have gone too far, not only deceiving me but also being in our house before we ourselves arrived, saying that you wanted to 'surprise' me. If you are truly a tutor, you ought to know how to act like one!"
With a quick tussle of her long peachy-red hair, the fifth sister tears her eyes away from her would-be tutor.
"At least take your new uniforms up with you," Fuutarou calls after them.
But the second sister sticks her tongue out at Fuutarou in reply, bidding him goodbye with her right middle finger before they disappear to the second floor of their penthouse.
Once the echo of Itsuki's door slamming shut dies down, Fuutarou turns to the remaining quintuplets.
"Well then," he sighs quickly, "there goes my dramatic entrance, I suppose."
"I mean, Itsuki...isn't wrong, you know," Ichika chuckles awkwardly. "Even if it was a joke, waiting for a girl, or I guess in our case girls, in her own house is kinda weird, don't you think? Thankfully we're all in the same class, so at least I can give you a pass on this, even if Dad did give you permission to come in, but..."
"I was just trying to make an impression, that's all. But like you said, I guess I did take it too far," Fuutarou clicks his tongue in muted frustration.
"No, no, I get it, I totally get it, Uesugi-san!" Yotsuba says quickly, sensing the need to cheer their (unwanted) guest up. "You mean like one of those 'park debuts' right? But instead of being at the park, it's here at our house!"
"Yotsuba, that's not what a park debut is..." Miku mutters.
"O-Oh, it's...not? Ehehe...I guess I mixed it up with something else again..."
Sighing softly, Miku also takes her leave without another word, now that Itsuki has flat-out rejected Fuutarou as their tutor and thus removed any reason for Miku to be down in the living room as well. Ichika lets out another big yawn and waves goodbye to Fuutarou.
"I'm feeling pretty tired myself, so I'll go take a nap. Since Dad probably did give you permission to wait for us in our house, you can stick around if you want, but whether or not we'll actually bother take tutoring lessons from you is...another matter..."
Soon, the door to Ichika's room closes shut, and the penthouse is peaceful once more. Fuutarou stands alone in the living room, with only one last quint remaining by his side.
"Er..." Yotsuba, suddenly realizing her solitary situation with her new classmate in the wake of this heated first meeting, at first feels subdued and awkward, but her sympathy at Fuutarou's own situation fuels her with the motivation she needs to resume her usual bubbly self. "Don't worry about it too much, Uesugi-san. I'm sure they'll come around in due time."
But Fuutarou shakes his head.
"No, this was my mistake. It's not often I get the opportunity to really interact with other people, so...I decided to step out of my comfort zone to make some sort of memorable entrance," he admits, scratching the back of his head. "You noticed how my shoes were placed? I put them there so that it was hard for you girls to miss when you walked in. I predicted that someone would see them and realize they'd never seen those shoes before, and I would pop out and make a sort of cool entrance. But, as you can tell, that...didn't really work out so well."
"B-But I thought it was cool!" Yotsuba blurts out half-heartedly, but only in an attempt to lighten up the mood.
"Do you now? Or are you just lying to me?"
That second half of Fuutarou's question freezes Yotsuba in her tracks.
"Thought so," Fuutarou sighs again. "Again, I shouldn't have done that. Now I've gotta figure out a way to actually start tutoring everyone because of how badly I fucked this up..."
"Then you can start with me!" Yotsuba offers. "I'll be your first student, Uesugi-san!"
This time, Fuutarou can tell she isn't lying.
"I appreciate it," he grins slightly back at her. "Then I'll start with you, this time with a proper introduction."
Planting his feet together and straightening up, Fuutarou gives Yotsuba a quick bow.
"I'm Uesugi Fuutarou. I'm your fellow classmate at school, and I'll hereby be your tutor for the rest of our first year."
"And I'm Yotsuba! Nakano Yotsuba. I'm the fourth of us quintuplets ~ " Yotsuba grins widely back, beaming with the infinite radiance of a star. "Pleased to meet you, Uesugi-sensei!"
"You can just call me Uesugi, no need to be formal like that when we're in the same grade."
"Ehh...but you were the one who just bowed to me as your 'proper introduction'..."
"Hm, that's right...it's my loss, then."
"Aha, I won in something that I didn't even know!"
"You sure did. Anyways, since this's our first meeting, we don't need to go straight into tutoring, so let's just talk."
"Okay ~ Then I'll get us something to drink, you can sit on the couch over there ~ "
So Fuutarou obeys and takes a seat on one of the long couches in the living room, reopening his thick manila folder to go through the stack of papers inside while waiting on Yotsuba. A door creaks open somewhere on the second floor at some point, but Fuutarou elects to concentrate on going over the papers until Yotsuba rejoins him, placing a glass of Shirley Temple before him before sitting down across from him on the other long couch with a can of sparkling clementine Izze.
"A Shirley Temple? I've never drank one of these before..." Looking astonished, Fuutarou sets aside the manila file he's been looking through again to pass the time and picks up his glass.
"Ehehe ~ it's one of my favorite drinks," Yotsuba explains with a cheery smile as always. "I'm terrible at cooking - in fact, with Nino as the exception, we all pretty much are - but I did manage to learn how to mix a Shirley Temple because I wanted to try it so bad. I just love carbonated stuff - soda, sparkling juice, even sparkling water, I just love the fizziness ~ " She takes a swig of her clementine Izze, letting out a satisfied sigh while Fuutarou gingerly tries out his Shirley Temple. "Yeah, that really hits the spot!"
"You even put a cherry on top, too, sheesh," Fuutarou chuckles slightly, noting the cherry resting among the rocks at the top of his glass.
"I mean, hey, you can't have a Shirley Temple without the cherry on top, otherwise it just won't be a complete Shirley Temple!" Yotsuba pouts quickly. Fuutarou notes the immediate similarity between her pout and Itsuki's, even if Yotsuba's is done playfully. "Actually, Uesugi-san, you said this is your first time trying this out, right? How did you know the name of it, then?"
"I've seen people drinking it before. Like, people at bars or at restaurants, in their outdoor eating patios or whatever. So I picked up the name from walking by every now and then." Fuutarou takes another sip of his beverage.
"I see, I see. So how is it?" Yotsuba leans in in anticipation.
"The drink? It's great. I don't get the chance to drink stuff like this often, so it's automatically really good by my usual standards."
Yotsuba watches her new tutor take another sip of the drink she's mixed for him.
"Uesugi-san, you don't need to lie to me about the drink if you don't like it," Yotsuba says. The tone of her voice is, alarmingly, devoid of the usual Yotsuba-trademarked bubbliness. "Especially after...you were the one to tell me not to lie to you."
"...what do you mean? I really am enjoying it," Fuutarou gives his new student a confused look.
"Then why are you just taking tiny little sips of it every time you drink?" Yotsuba asks. Another smile is creeping up to her face, but it's much smaller and a pitiful shadow of the ones she usually makes. "If I didn't mix it well, or if the flavors are off, you can just tell me. I've screwed up lots of times before to get where I am now, and I understand I'm not perfect even still."
Taking another small sip of his drink, true to Yotsuba's accusation, Uesugi sets his glass down on the table that separates the two long couches.
"I'm not lying to you, Yotsuba," Fuutarou shakes his head slowly. "The reason why I'm taking these small sips is because I want to savor the taste for as long as I can. When I said earlier that I don't get the chance to drink stuff like this all that often, that was an understatement. This is the first time in a long time that I've drank something that's not water."
Yotsuba blinks at Fuutarou.
"...eh?" is all she can say at first.
"So just off that, it's objectively impossible for me to say that your drink is bad. Even if you mixed it wrong, I physically wouldn't be able to tell," Fuutarou continues, lifting up the little cherry Yotsuba has placed on the rocks for him, as if to inspect it. "I think it's safe to say that it's the best drink I've had in recent memory, or what memory that matters. Maybe if you were to serve this to one of your sisters, they'd be able to tell where you did wrong and how you can improve, but I can't. I guess that's something I can't teach you as your tutor, haha."
Fuutarou puts the cherry back into his glass where it belongs and looks directly back at Yotsuba.
"Therefore, I want to take my time with this drink, even if it does mean the ice's all gonna melt by the time I'm done with it. Not because you did anything wrong, but because I want to make the most out of something you've given me for everything that it's worth." Fuutarou picks up the manila file again that he's set next to him on his couch. "And even if you did mix a bad drink, I'd still drink it all anyway...would be a waste to just toss it as long as I can still drink it...so long as my stomach doesn't blow up, of course..."
"A-Aha...I don't think that would, uh, happen..." Yotsuba forcefully laughs, but it just comes out as a few miserable coughs instead. Dropping her gaze down to her lap, she pauses for a moment - then mumbles, with her hair ribbon drooping down over her eyes,
"Well...then...I can...I can...make more for you anytime...if you'd like..."
"Thanks. But for as much as I do like this Shirley Temple, I would rather not drink it too much. Carbonated drinks aren't exactly all good for you, especially if you drink a lot of it..."
"Awww c'mon, Uesugi-san, way to break the mood!" Yotsuba cries out suddenly, pouting hard at Fuutarou, who reels in reaction to Yotsuba's sudden outburst.
"Whoa, whoa, what did I do? What did I say?" Fuutarou blinks in shock at his new student.
"Nothing! Nothing at all! Hmph!" Still pouting, Yotsuba crosses her arms and turns her head in another direction.
"Then why are you acting like your sisters towards me right now?"
"No particular reason ~ "
Sighing, Fuutarou busies himself again with reviewing the contents of his manila file in hopes that Yotsuba will return to form, which she does when she notices Fuutarou taking more sips of her Shirley Temple in exactly the way he described to her. A small smile, this time filled with warmth, returns to her lips.
"I'm just happy that you're the one tutoring us, honestly," the fourth quintuplet speaks, picking her can of Clementine Izze back up again and holding it with both hands on her lap, not taking a sip from it herself just yet.
"I was just about to ask," Fuutarou nods, still perusing the contents of his manila file.
"Ask what?"
"Why you didn't run away like the others."
"Well, that's...that's obvious, isn't it?" Yotsuba's smile widens and expands back to its usual state. "It's because I want to be taught by you!"
Those words grab Fuutarou's attention, and his eyes look up from down at his folder back at Yotsuba and her radiant smile. Taking her right hand off her drink and placing it on her bosom, she lets her smile fade a bit so she can explain herself.
"Yesterday night, after we came back home from touring school all day, Papa sent the five of us a text telling us that starting today, we'd be having a tutor work with us to get our grades up for the rest of the year. At first, I was scared at the thought - I was like, well, what if, what if I didn't like this tutor? Then that would mean that all five of us would have to put up with them for an entire year. It's bad enough already that I'm the dumbest out of everyone...so that whole idea was, um, pretty scary to me. I-In fact, everyone was so against the whole tutor idea that - that Itsuki and I were supposed to be the ones to tell you to not come back, because we didn't like the idea of you being here for a whole year."
"Uh huh...so that's why everyone acted the way they did?"
"Well, that, and..."
"Yes, yes, I get it, no need to mention it again."
"I-I'm sorry!" Yotsuba chuckles awkwardly again. "But, um, yeah, I didn't...I hated the idea too, because of that."
"But now you're here with me as the only one who's giving me a chance to do my job right," Fuutarou remarks, sipping from his glass of Shirley Temple again. "What changed from yesterday to now?"
"So, the moment you told us that you'd be our tutor, I was relieved, like, super relieved." Yotsuba finally takes a sip from her carbonated juice to refresh her throat. "Because if our tutor's gonna be someone from our grade, and even from the same class as us, then I figured, you know, this whole tutoring thing might not be so bad. It might even be fun, I thought!"
"True. I think your dad had the same idea, because given how your grades are now, and by 'you' I mean all five of you," Fuutarou sighs, raising the manila folder up so that Yotsuba can clearly see its contents, "I don't think a normal tutor's going to cut it. I can see why you said earlier that I'd become a Super Tutor Hero if I managed to help you raise your grades."
Yotsuba's heart plummets in her chest when she realizes what Fuutarou's showing her: test papers from all five quintuplets throughout their intermediate and even elementary school years back at Black Rose Academy. Check marks, check marks, check marks as far as the eyes can see, with low double-digit numbers and an alarming number of single-digit numbers, even, interspersed among them. The markings are so red and so bright that Yotsuba's partially shocked at herself for not noticing even once what Fuutarou's been reading over all this time.
"Let me be honest with you, and I don't mean to say this to offend your feelings or any of your sisters' feelings," Fuutarou says with a firm voice as he closes the manila folder, sets it aside next to him on the couch, and picks back up his own glass. "Ordinarily, if all you needed was a little help to get your test scores back on track, I wouldn't be called here. Your dad should've and would've called in a normal tutor who would probably do a good enough job in my place. But it's now very clear to me why he didn't do that, and why he offered me this tutoring job that's supposed to be year-round. You and your sisters need help, serious help - help that a normal tutor just can't provide on a number of levels."
The tutor takes a pause of his own to take another tasty sip of his drink.
"The tutor you girls would probably benefit more from would have to be someone who's in the same school, doing the same work and taking the same tests as the rest of you. Your dad understands that, and so he took a risk and asked me if I were willing to dedicate this next year to helping you all raise your scores as much as possible, by any means necessary - barring anything unethical, of course."
Yotsuba has long since locked her gaze down at her lap, as if refusing to return her tutor's gaze. Fuutarou assumes the reason is because he's been looking through her test scores, which, understandably, would be quite upsetting to his student.
"If you're upset that I've looked through your test scores from a long time ago, I'm sorry. It's just that your dad gave me these tests that you and your sisters took to show me the extent of help that I would have to give you," Uesugi explains quietly.
"...it's...it's not because of that..." Yotsuba mutters softly.
"Sorry, say that again? I didn't quite catch that..."
Yotsuba shakes her head strongly, as if trying to wake herself up, and finally looks intently back at her new tutor.
"N-Never mind, I'm okay now, Sensei! I'm ready to learn!" she proclaims loudly, snapping up a fierce salute. Fuutarou is mildly impressed by how crisp her salute is for a civilian girl like her. "Please teach me everything that I need to know to improve my grades!"
"Good attitude. Likewise, I'll do everything in my power to get you and your sisters there. But actually, that'll be it for today."
Yotsuba's hair ribbon droops down again as a confused look of her own slides onto her face.
"E-Eh? Even though I got so fired up just now...?" she asks awkwardly.
"Truth be told, I didn't expect your situation to be this bad. That, and your dad barely contacted me yesterday for this job, and I didn't exactly have a ton of time to think it over on whether or not I would accept it. I'm just as woefully unprepared as you girls are."
Fuutarou glances over his shoulder over at the long fish tank that's even longer than the couch he's sitting on against the far wall behind him, underneath a row of bookshelves, to watch the exotic fish swim about calmly inside.
"Now that I do have a better understanding of your girls' situation, I'll need some time to prepare materials of my own. And because this is going to be a long-term thing, I'll also want to get to know every one of you a bit better, since it doesn't make sense for a tutor from the same class as you to be as stiff and formal as the teachers you listen to every day. Or, at least, that's what I think."
"Then that won't be a problem with me!" Yotsuba gives Fuutarou her usual toothy grin. "But I'm not sure how well that'll go with everyone else..."
"Yeah, same. Speaking of the others, initially I'd intended to just talk to everyone here, tell them what I told you for the past half-hour. Today wasn't meant to be a full-blown lesson or anything when the school year's barely started and I have no idea where you all currently stand as far as your academic ability goes, that's absurd."
"Currently? I mean, you can just tell from our past test scores, can't you? It's not like we're going to suddenly skyrocket our scores over a single vacation."
"But it's always nice to have an indicator of where you're all at now. To that end, I'll make a mock test of my own and bring it back later so I can have you all take it at some point this week. As for actual lessons, though, it'll probably have to be like starting next week or something..."
"Next week? Why next week, any reason?"
"Other than the evaluation test, I need to spend this week repairing relationships." Fuutarou groans to himself, taking an unusually big sip from his drink. "And I'll admit any day of the week that...social interactions aren't my forte, as my so-called 'dramatic entrance' proved earlier. Nonetheless, I can't call myself your tutor if I can't even bring you girls to willingly take my lessons, and your dad would certainly start having his own doubts if he finds out."
"Then I'll help you out with that!" Yotsuba jumps up to her feet like an elated house bunny who's spotted food.
"Ah, thanks, but leave it for later."
"Awww, why not now?"
"I'd rather just leave them alone for today. For as bad as my social awareness skills are, I can at least tell that me going to see them again now won't do me any favors. Give them a day, and I'm hoping that maybe they'll have cooled off at least a little bit."
"Mmm...okay then, if that's what you wanna do."
"By the way, how do you like your new school? The uniforms you and your sisters were all wearing are from Black Rose, right? That prestigious all-girl's academy on the other side of the city?"
"It's great! Super duper great ~ " Yotsuba livens up again to Fuutarou's relief. "It's such a big school, and there're so many people and so many clubs and sports teams, I really love it. Black Rose...well, let's just say that it didn't really click with me. So I guess transferring actually worked out great, ehehe ~ "
"That's good to hear. You mentioned clubs and sports teams in particular, do you like sports? Are you good at them?"
"Oh yeah, for sure! I loooove sports, and while I don't know if I'm any good at whatever I'm playing, people always tell me that I am! So I'm hoping that maybe the same goes for our new school too. That, and..."
Yotsuba's radiance fades again slightly.
"...and...the thing about sports...well, it's not studying, right? All I have to do is move my body around...kick a ball, shoot a ball, throw a ball, hit a ball, you know, do something. I don't have to use my brain at all; it's not like I'm going to be given a score based on my physical performance, right?"
"Well, in the Olympics, judges give scores to evaluate performance, don't they?" Fuutarou points out.
"O-Okay, but, but, but, I'm not exactly planning to go compete in the Olympics or anything, am I?!"
"I mean, you never know. Also, that was just me nitpicking, don't dwell on it too much."
Standing up and picking up his manila folder, he stashes it away in his school messenger bag and clasps the bag flap shut. He also takes the glass of Shirley Temple and, to Yotsuba's surprise, chugs the rest of the drink down, even eating the cherry and crunching through some of the few ice cubes that have managed to survive melting in the drink itself.
"I-I thought you said you were going to take your time with it?" Yotsuba asks, reaching out her hands for the glass.
"I would, but time doesn't really allow for that, and I can't just take this glass with me," Fuutarou shrugs indifferently as he hands Yotsuba the glass so that she can put it away for him.
"So you're gonna get going now?"
"Yeah. I told Itsuki earlier, but I'm actually a pretty busy guy outside of school as is, and now I'll have to use whatever time I got left over to get stuff ready for you girls."
"I-I see. I'm sorry that...that we have to be such a big burden on you," Fuutarou's sole willing student apologizes, bowing her head a bit to match her words.
As she keeps her head bowed, Yotsuba suddenly feels a large, warm hand rest softly on top of it, pressing down on her hair ribbon.
"As busy as I am, now that I've accepted this tutoring job, I won't let that get in the way of doing my job properly," she hears Fuutarou's resolute voice say. "I have bigger problems that are bigger burdens to me, both in the past and right now. And if anything, this is a burden that I've chosen to take on myself, because unlike most others, at least I'll be able to help other people out with it."
Pulling his hand off Yotsuba's head so that she can look back up at him, Fuutarou gives her a tiny smile of his own, the best that he can give.
"And I don't like the word 'burden'," he says. "I prefer to call it...a responsibility."
Regaining her smile slowly but surely, Yotsuba nods back at her new tutor.
"Then - as your new responsibility, I look forward to working with you! Please take care of me - and the rest of my sisters too!" she affirms with a stiff bow of her own, probably to match the one that Fuutarou gave her earlier.
"But you said not to be so formal just earlier..."
"Oh come on, you're ruining the mood again, Uesugi-saaaaaan!"
"S-Sorry. No, really, I am, I told you that I suck at socializing!"
As Yotsuba slaps her hands lightly against Fuutarou's back as the latter begins to walk out of the living room, Fuutarou suddenly stops, causing the fourth quint to almost crash into his back.
"Also, I would've appreciated it if you came down here to join us if you were just gonna sit up there eavesdropping on us all this time," the tutor says in an uncharacteristically loud voice.
"H-Huh...? Eaves...dropping?"
Yotsuba looks up at the second floor railing, but there's no one there, and no one responds, either.
"But...no one's there," she tells her tutor, who scratches the back of his head again.
"Hm, that's odd. I thought I heard someone's door open while I was waiting for you to make me that drink...maybe I heard wrong."
Brushing off his mistake, Fuutarou heads to the front door as Yotsuba tags along to see him off.
"Tell everyone that I'll be coming back tomorrow - and not inside the house this time," he specifies with a dark grin, signifying recognition of his mistake from earlier while pulling on his shoes. "In fact, you can go ahead and tell them that I don't anticipate giving them any actual lessons until next week, like I mentioned, other than the mock test."
"Okay ~ see you tomorrow at school, Uesugi-san ~ !"
"Yeah, enjoy the rest of your evening, er - " Fuutarou pauses. "Should I call you Nakano, or...would that be too confusing...?"
"Just Yotsuba is fine any time! I'm used to it, what with going to school with my sisters all time and all."
"Got it. See ya later, Yotsuba."
Waving goodbye to her new tutor, Yotsuba closes the door once Fuutarou's turned to head for the elevator lobby.
But she doesn't leave the door just yet, even after closing it. Instead, she leans against the door, looking down at the floor as her hand rises up to hold the top of her head, where Fuutarou had put his hand a few moments ago. Smiling with a blush blooming quietly in her cheeks, Yotsuba closes her eyes.
"...just like that time..." she whispers to herself. "...even if...he doesn't seem to remember me..."
While Yotsuba stays at the front door for a few moments more, up on the second floor, behind the covered railing, sits a girl with blue headphones with tri-point emblems on the cups.
After hearing the door shut, Miku, wiping a cold sweat off her brow, silently gets up from the railing and slips back into her room stealthily, (mostly) undetected.
Waiting for the elevator to arrive, Fuutarou buckles a bit and puts his hand against the wall to keep his balance. His back is aching quite a bit - for an uptight little bitch that Nino is, she can sure throw some goddamn good punches. She doesn't seem like the type to practice martial arts or anything, so where and how the hell did she learn to throw some hands? It's not to say that he hasn't taken worse blows in the past, but at least during those times he was able to defend himself and adrenaline was giving him a hand in ignoring the pain, two things that are noticeably absent here.
He decides to concentrate on the girls to give his mind something else to dwell on rather than the pain. Yotsuba is clearly the only one who's willing to work with him, despite being the dumbest out of the five, as he noticed from the girls' previous test scores. Normally he'd appreciate the fact that the student in most need of help is reaching out to him like this and accepting his help, not to discredit Yotsuba herself, but it pales slightly when it turns out all five quintuplets are in similarly dangerous positions. After all, being the dumbest out of the group doesn't mean much when the entire group is downright stupid, at least academically.
But how on earth is he going to round up all the girls to take his lessons? Never mind the fact that he hasn't had the time to put together lessons of any kind yet, no thanks to just finding out about how bad the girls' situation really is today when he received their Black Rose Academy test scores from their father, he needs to win their trust first. He figured he would've needed to do that, but shooting himself in the foot with that lame "dramatic entrance" he tried pulling off as a joke just to have some fun made that trust-winning job a thousand times worse than it should've been.
Sighing through his nose, he clicks his tongue in annoyance and stands back up straight as the elevator arrives on his floor and chimes to indicate its arrival, walking inside once it opens. But he doesn't reach for the button panel right away.
Instead, he fishes out his passcard and waves it once in front of a small sensor at the top of the panel, then hits the roof access button. The button confirms with a green light, and the elevator shifts upwards directly to the roof of the high-rise, spitting Fuutarou out to a tiny elevator lobby with a small flight of stairs leading up to a door with the same sensor as the one in the elevator. Again flashing his passcard in front of it, Fuutarou waits for the door to click open, then pushes the door open to step out onto the roof of the luxury high-rise apartment.
High-altitude winds whip past his clothes, skin, and hair the moment he steps out onto the roof. Being a luxury high-rise, the roof is equipped with plenty of antennae for satellite communications, a lightning rod, and even a helicopter landing pad.
Fuutarou makes a quick round of the rooftop. Due to the city's rapid expansion and growth and the resulting wealth that it's producing for the city, affluent and rich families are flocking here in unprecedented droves, increasing the demand for luxury housing like this to be built, but in recognition that too many such high-rises could potentially come off as negative PR for their non-bourgeoisie population, in addition to preserving at least some of the suburban landscape, the city government has allowed only one such luxury high-rise to be built in this vicinity. Not only did this mean that the prices for flats and suites in this particular high-rise skyrocketed, but it also means, more relevant to Fuutarou, that this high-rise is a perfect vantage point that he can use as a magical surveillance station.
Pulling out his phone, Fuutarou thumbs through his texts and pulls up a file sent to him by one of the high-rise's administrative staff containing the high-rise's schedule of helicopter arrivals and departures, just to make sure that there isn't one assigned today, which there is not. Once he's double-checked that, he lowers his phone down to his side but doesn't put it away before reaching out his free hand before him, towards the large red H that denotes the helicopter landing zone.
"Fate is in heaven; armor is on the chest; and accomplishment is in the feet," he chants calmly, focusing on the helipad. "By my authority, by the authority of Bishamonten and the Seven Gods of Fortune, craft my spear and build this pagoda."
Clenching his outstretched hand into a fist to end his chant and lowering it, Fuutarou watches as a bright blue magic circle etches itself all at once like a stencil into the landing zone, covering it in its entirety. Once the huge rune is set in place, the newly fledged tutor and teenage mage raises his phone again, this time thumbing a number that he calls before putting the phone next to his ear.
"Yo, kid! What'cha need?"
"I'm at the roof of the high-rise, ready to transmit the coordinates."
"Copy that, gimme one second...a'ight, send 'em."