A/N
Possibly the last chapter for around two weeks. There is a small chance that I'll squeeze in another chapter within that period but don't expect too much.
Monday morning, 7 o'clock. The moment the second hand on Nino's alarm clock that sits next to one of the numerous stuffed dolls that keep the second quintuplet company in bed, the clock goes wild, blasting its routine fanfare all throughout the room.
Nino's right hand comes swinging down on the snooze button on top of the clock, swiftly terminating the ringing. The clock also expects its owner to simply roll over in bed and go straight back to sleep, as she almost always requires more than one round of alarms to convince her to get out of bed, so it has a second and even a third round of alarms stocked for just that occasion.
Strangely, today is not one of the usual days, for Nino's right hand also shifts behind the clock and switches off the follow-up alarms set in five-minute intervals, one after the other. The second quintuplet does not in fact go straight back to sleep - instead, having woken up and stretching her arms out in bed, Nino lets herself stay in bed, gazing up at the ceiling with her near-sighted blue eyes.
The events of the previous night are still vividly fresh on her mind, as it is on everyone's, she's sure. So many things happened all at once, and so quickly, too, especially during that last hour. Her blunder of trusting her drug dealer enough to meet with him at a shady warehouse in the abandoned boondocks of the city, her detainment at the hands of her dealer and his cronies, the capture of the rest of her sisters even though she'd warned them not to come for their own sakes, Fuutarou's dramatic entrance and fight against the thugs, and then the reveal of his true identity and secret role behind his tutoring job - it's so much to take in, so much to process. It almost feels like the events of last night could be packaged into one very long, very bad dream.
The one thing that keeps it from being a dream for Nino, though, is the pain. The wildly vacillating emotions. She's had dreams before, of course, but dreams don't leave her with such strong and clear memories of what transpired in them. But even now, as she dwells on each memory while staring up at the ceiling of her room, Nino recalls the anger she felt throughout the night - anger at her dealer for tricking her, anger at the thugs for mistreating her sisters, especially Itsuki, anger at that one guy who tore her clothes in an attempt to violate her, and right in front of the rest of her sisters too...
...anger at Uesugi for having to get involved. Anger at him for arriving too late to stop Itsuki from getting punched in the face and getting hurt. Anger at him for making her feel like she and her sisters owe him for bailing them out of their dangerous situation. Anger at him for being the usual bossy classmate who's thinking about how to do his job all the time without fail, even during an emotionally turbulent time like this. Anger at him for being so...so...
...cool.
"Hnnnnnggg...! ! !"
Stifling a miserable groan by grabbing the pillow behind her head, hugging it tightly, and forcing her mouth against the top of the pillow, Nino throws a tiny tantrum with her legs that kick up and down on her bed. Nino is the type of girl who can sometimes kick her own blanket off herself while sleeping, and since she's done that over the night, she doesn't need to worry about kicking off her blanket now, since it's already hanging off the side of her bed frame.
Now that her mind has brought up the topic of Uesugi Fuutarou, Nino suddenly finds herself unable to get her mind off him. And what makes her feel so extremely embarrassed at herself is that she was like this all last night too, after Fuutarou rescued her and her sisters; while he was driving them back to their penthouse, Nino, who ended up sitting shotgun because she felt too ashamed to sit with the rest of her sisters for the trouble that she'd put them through, couldn't bring herself to look at Fuutarou during the drive home, though she did steal a few glimpses of him after trying her best to talk to him to get him to explain what was going on and how he managed to find them at that particular warehouse.
The way Uesugi made his entrance, saving her from the thug trying to assault her, the way Uesugi fought off all the thugs with such confidence and skill...even when they arrived back home and Nino briefly watched him treat Itsuki's bloody nose, the way he looked so serious and concentrated on taking care of her...
Rolling over to her right side, still hugging her pillow, Nino buries her face into her pillow.
"...I can't believe it..." she finds herself whispering with agitation, her pillow muffling her words unnecessarily. "...a guy like him...Uesugi's seriously...my type...?"
Not even Nino can believe herself and the unbelievable proposition that she's telling herself. Uesugi Fuutarou...it's barely been a full week yet that he's become anything relevant in their lives, and on this Monday morning, she can't seem to get him off her mind, and she's internally furious with herself at this inability to purge him from her own thoughts.
But what can she do against her own words that speak her truth? As much as she tries to deny it mentally to herself, Nino has always had a strong affinity for delinquent guys ever since she was old enough to know that she had a type. Delinquent boys who could hold their own in a fight, meaning that, if she were to ever hook up with one, they would be able to protect her physically from potential problems. She also has an unabashed taste for traditional love stories, stories of the white knight in shining armor riding into danger to save the life of a damsel or princess in distress.
And much to her chagrin, Uesugi Fuutarou has ticked off almost every box in this list. A freelance maverick, perhaps even a vigilante, dressed in street clothes that not even Nino could have ever pictured him wearing before last night, with his snapback cap, hoodie jacket, and the half-kilt behind the legs, equipped with superior street fighting skill and prowess that clearly included honed martial arts skills and even the ability to throw playing cards and use them as weapons. Swooping down on the bad guys without proper introduction and eliminating them with impunity for the sake of keeping her and her sisters safe, even taking them home and healing Itsuki's injury and giving her his jacket in consideration of her ripped shirt last night.
What makes Nino feel even worse about it is the fact that up until now, up until last night, she has never met someone who fit her type as well as Uesugi did. Delinquents are delinquents for a reason; seldom are kids who are delinquents or have streaks of delinquency good people. Sure, they might look cool and carry themselves with an air of rebellion that Nino finds herself attracted to, but when push comes to shove, most boys like that simply run away or fail to stand their ground in the face of pressure or hardship. And they certainly aren't good people to be with either, doing bad things and being a nuisance or even a danger to society. Ideally, Nino wants the best of both worlds; a boy who may carry himself like a delinquent and do relatively harmless delinquent things like smoking cigarettes while underage, but inside have enough integrity to man up and face adversity head-on, whether it be for himself or for someone else's sake like hers.
So with Uesugi stepping in to finally fill that void that she's subconsciously been looking for all these years, Nino finds herself extremely flustered and at a total loss for what to do, what to think. Here's a boy whom she's known for exactly one week with whom she's never had good relations because she was so fiercely opposed to his tutoring, to the point where she even tried to drug him just to show him that he wasn't welcome in their household, which ultimately ended up not working, as the boy himself revealed to her last night. And even if it ended up being part of his other job of being their bodyguard or whatever, Nino can't help but feel completely miserable at the fact that that same boy still came to their aid when she and the rest of the quints needed it the most. No matter what she may feel about the whole tutoring situation or how absurd that everything that's happened so far seems, the fact is, Uesugi Fuutarou bailed not just her, but all of the quintuplets out of what could have been a terrible fate, and he did so in a manner that she'd sometimes secretly dreamed of in her idealized visions of adolescent romance.
"...just why did it have to be you...?" Nino whispers again, gazing absentmindedly across her room, still laying on her right side in bed. "...you don't even have blonde hair..."
At her own mention of blonde hair, Nino immediately tries to envision Fuutarou with dyed blonde hair before she can stop herself. His haircut with the two tufts of hair in the back seem odd, but if she just gets rid of that...
Cringing in embarrassment, the second quintuplet stuffs her face back into her pillow. It's not that she tried thinking of such a sight that makes her angry at herself, it's the fact that she wants to see Fuutarou with blonde hair that she can't deal with.
But then...what does she think about his true identity, that of a mage?
Perhaps that's the one thing about him that Nino is truly not sure of, and to her relief, because she is unsure of what to think about this particular aspect of Uesugi Fuutarou, she is able to calm her erratic thoughts and finally have a coherent train of thought about this unknown side to their tutor that, before last night, they would have never guessed existed.
A delinquent mage who's self-proclaimed to specialize in medical fields of magic and is able to fight off multiple bad guys at once and beat them all?
Wait a minute, doesn't that just make him...even more cool?
"...waaaaaaah..."
Moaning with embarrassment again, Nino lets go of her pillow finally to hide her reddening face with her hands instead. She'd never thought much about magic at all - if any one of them, the quintuplets, were into that, it'd more than likely be either Miku or Yotsuba. And even then, before last night, if you were to bring up the topic of magic to Nino, she'd probably just think of your stereotypical witches and wizards running around in weird hats and waving wands or brooms around, perhaps, if she had to decide.
Even with the preconception that actual magic doesn't exist, she's never even considered the possibility that if magic really were to exist, it didn't just need to be people in long robes with big pointy hats and chanting spells and all that kind of stuff, because Fuutarou couldn't be further from that kind of stereotype if he tried. Besides, as Nino recalls sheepishly to herself, Fuutarou didn't even have to chant anything to use his spells, those blue rune-looking circles that showed up a few times whenever Uesugi was around. And more often than not from what she saw last night, Fuutarou didn't even rely on that much magic; he just went around beating people up with his bare hands, though admittedly her near-total lack of understanding about magic could mean that there was more going on behind the scenes than she or her sisters realize.
The scene of Uesugi walking up to the big thug and delivering the fatal one-inch punch straight to the heart, with his succinct but lethal line of "You're done" flashes before Nino's eyes, and Nino once more flops over to her other side in bed, trying to wave the sight out of her eyes. It's as if her own mind is knowingly trolling her by showing her memories of Uesugi's gallant actions that it knows Nino will swoon over, despite Nino not wanting to do so over someone she's supposed to hate to stay in character.
Having had enough of constant flashbacks to the events of last night, Nino compels herself to get out of bed, lest she stay there and constantly torture herself with embarrassment. She should already be up by this point anyway in order to start fixing breakfast for herself and the rest of her sisters; it's just that with Uesugi's instructions to stay home for their own safety in the aftermath of last night, Nino's allowed herself some extra time to sleep in. She's sure that her other sisters will take advantage of this forced day off and enjoy their brief luxury of being able to sleep in on a school day, so Nino takes her time changing clothes and combing her hair. She debates with herself whether or not to put on makeup, but decides against it, since it would be a waste when she isn't even supposed to be headed out anywhere.
As she sits at her desk in front of her make-up mirror, Nino pauses briefly.
"...what the heck, why am I being so comfortable with what Uesugi told us to do," she wonders aloud to herself.
But it's not like she can even answer her own question with how she's been acting to herself so far this morning, so Nino, shaking her head and pinching her cheeks to help her mind refocus, gets up from her desk and leaves her room, freshly dressed and combed, to head downstairs to the kitchen to start working on breakfast.
But to her surprise, someone is already seated at the table, and it's one of the two whom Nino didn't expect: Miku sits with her legs pulled up so that her knees hug her chest and her feet grip the edge of her seat. Still in her pajamas, she sits as if sleeping in her chair at the dinner table, with her eyes closed and her blue Audio Technicas over her ears as usual. Nino actually can't tell if Miku is legitimately sleeping like this or if she's just so engrossed in her music that she hasn't noticed her sister walking down the stairs. Why go to sleep here, of all places...
Walking carefully so as not to make a sound in case Miku really isn't sleeping, Nino inches past the dinner table to reach the kitchen - well, then again, Miku will know that she's here once she gets to work on making breakfast, so what's even the point of sneaking past her here in the first place? Nino does glance over at Miku's phone, since it is sitting on the table in front of Miku, but while it's been left with its screen unlocked, there's nothing about it that catches her interest.
As Nino is about to move on, she stops in her tracks to glance back over at Miku's phone. The wallpaper - it seems different. Usually Miku has some sort of crest on her phone as her wallpaper; all of her sisters know about it even if Miku herself thinks that she's keeping it a secret from them, though for what reason exactly, no one's really sure.
Instead of a crest, the wallpaper now displays a picture of some kanji that Nino doesn't even remember ever reading before, at least not in this combination. Something about it is familiar -
The back of Uesugi's jacket, Nino remembers suddenly. Those exact same kanji were on the back of his hoodie; that's why it looks familiar.
Remaining where she's stopped, Nino drops her gaze once she comes to this revelation. As far as she knows, Miku appeared to be the most neutral out of the quintuplets in regards to their stances on Fuutarou and his attempts to tutor them, though Yotsuba had told her the other day about how she and Fuutarou had a bit of a standoff on the day that she tried drugging him, while she was baking cookies for her sisters, when the topic of their old school got brought up.
Nino feels her own hands ball themselves into fists, but slowly, because it's not out of anger that they do this...not outright anger, anyway. But Nino doesn't know what she's feeling. On one hand, she's secretly relieved to see that at least one other sister of hers was awed enough by Uesugi's appearance and actions from last night that it's visibly showing; in Miku's case, it appeared to be enough to compel her to change her phone wallpaper, which she hadn't done since middle school, even when the quintuplets all got new phones somewhat recently. It means that Nino isn't weird or too caught up in her romantic ideals, that she isn't the only one who feels embarrassed just at the thought of the boy who's saved her life. At least, she hopes this isn't the case.
But on the other hand, Nino feels this creeping sense of annoyance at the possibility that Miku is perhaps experiencing a similar train of thought and emotions regarding Uesugi. Although she and Miku don't always get along due to their polar opposite personalities and lifestyles that couldn't be more different even if the two tried, Nino is fully aware of her protective instincts over her sisters that are kicking in as these particular thoughts are running through her head. If Miku is also finding herself being slowly drawn to him for one reason or another, then that doesn't sit right with Nino. Even if her opinion of him is changing against her will, Nino still manages to maintain the sense that Uesugi, no matter what he's done for them, is still an outsider, and that's how he ought to remain. And Nino isn't about to let some random outsider who's barely known them for a week come in and steal one of her sisters' hearts.
Even thinking this, though, Nino can't help but to grin sheepishly a little. Such tough thoughts coming from a girl who was freaking out silently in her own bedroom over how cool a boy who's supposed to be their tutor first and foremost seemed while fighting off bad guys. Out of the five of them, if Nino, the one most vehemently opposed to Fuutarou's tutorship, suddenly starts having a change of heart, how's she supposed to set an example for the rest of her sisters?
If she can't resist Uesugi - no, her own rose-studded romantic fantasies - and allow him to permeate into the rest of the aspects of their daily lives, whether it's part of his "job" or not, then how can she keep the promise she made to her sisters all those years ago...the promise that she would keep them all together, keep them all safe?
Nino's grips on her fists tighten more and more. Finally, she's able to tap back into the original source of antagonism she's initially had towards Fuutarou, and she's able to do it because she's realized that if her sisters end up fully accepting him as their tutor, then the daily lives between just the five of them would be forever shattered. Coming in every day, or if not every day then frequently every week, hanging out with her sisters, interacting with them, teaching them...
Yotsuba is already on good terms with him; Ichika doesn't seem so opposed to the possibility either, even if she's merely teasing him. After last night, Itsuki certainly seemed to have a change of heart of her own; Miku here clearly has been affected. And if Nino herself can feel her own opinion of Uesugi changing, if only a little, that means any of her sisters can and perhaps will open up more and more to him.
And in the worst case scenario, her sisters will end up wanting to hang out more with him. They'll start to enjoy his company more. They'll want to be with him more than her. And...slowly, slowly but surely, Nino will find herself isolated from her sisters. She'll be the only one left behind, because she's the one who needs to maintain her front of opposing Uesugi as their tutor.
And then what? She'll simply end up as an extra. A foreigner in her own home. She'll just be her sisters' cook, that's all. She'll be the Cinderella of the household - just doing the chores while watching her sisters move forward with their lives, with an intruder to her home that they never asked for, that Nino didn't ask for.
Uesugi Fuutarou will eventually invalidate that promise with his presence and time alone, the precious promise that she holds dear to her heart. And isn't that more or less the same as breaking her heart?
But...breaking her heart would imply that Nino would have to accept him as their tutor first for their relationship to get anywhere. So it's not like she needs to worry about it, with how she plans to behave towards Uesugi now.
Nino still feels terribly bitter about this possibility. No way can she afford to accept him - not yet, not now. This is more than about just herself - she has a promise to keep, a promise to protect, and sisters to make proud. She cannot afford to succumb here.
Her resolve steeled, Nino raises her eyes - only to find Miku, turned her way, gazing at her hesitantly. Miku's phone is turned off, and her headphones are back down around her neck.
"...is something wrong, Nino? What did I do...?" Miku asks timidly, unsure of why Nino was looking so angry for the past few minutes.
Her cheeks flushing, Nino quickly turns to hide her face, having totally forgotten that Miku was right in front of her this whole time and paying for her neglectfulness with a fresh wave of embarrassment.
"I-It's not you. I was just...I've got a lot on my mind right now, is all..." Nino mumbles back.
"Just to make sure, you're not...mad at me this time now, are you?"
"No, you idiot, I'm not. You're about to make me mad at you though."
"Well, it'll happen one way or another..."
Miku turns away, but Nino doesn't walk away either, so the two sisters simply sit or stand still, not knowing what their next course of actions should be. For as academically challenged as they are, the quintuplets do at least make sure to attend school diligently, so being able to simply stay at home on a school day has admittedly thrown a huge wrench into their usual behaviors for the morning.
And to carry on this theme of unusual occurrences, Miku speaks up first.
"...have you been...thinking about Fuutarou a lot over the night, Nino?"
"H-How do you know..."
"You're pretty easy to read."
"That doesn't tell me anything."
"You're acting like that first thing in the morning. That's not like you, Nino," Miku clarifies quietly. "Your alarm goes off at 7 in the morning every day, even on weekends, and by 7:15, you're down here making breakfast. And right now is..."
Miku presses the power button on her phone to make the screen light up with its digital clock.
"...7:30. And after what happened yesterday..." Miku glances back over at Nino. "...I can only assume it's because of what Fuutarou did for us."
"A-And what about you? I saw your phone as I was walking by, and...and you changed your wallpaper to that kanji that Uesugi had on the back of his hoodie," Nino returns fire quickly, causing Miku to swiftly lock her phone screen and hide the phone itself with her hands.
"No, that's...that's not it. You saw wrong..." Miku stammers.
"Then fine, let's call it even. How's that?"
"...sure. For now, though."
Miku beckons for Nino to come sit at the table next to her.
"Everyone else's sleeping in, since Fuutarou said we shouldn't go to school today," she tells Nino. "So you don't need to make breakfast so soon, it'll cool off anyway and you'll need to reheat it when everyone wakes up. And...I want to talk with you, Nino."
Recognizing the validity of her younger sister's words, Nino, suddenly having nothing better to do, somewhat reluctantly takes a seat next to Miku.
"...so what did you want to talk about?" Nino asks, folding her arms. "I have to admit, this is kinda rare, coming from you."
"Given how we usually are? I know," Miku gives a tiny smile, but it disappears quickly. "But...you probably already have an idea of what it is that I wanted to talk to you about."
Nino breathes deeply, as if giving off a sigh. "It's about Uesugi, isn't it."
Miku nods. "When we went to bed last night...you kept moving around in bed."
"Ugh...that's right, I keep forgetting our beds are literally on opposite sides of the same wall..." Nino closes her eyes while her hand presses against her face for an irritated facepalm.
"Yeah...so I kinda already knew...that something was bothering you."
"I mean, come on, who wouldn't be...?" Nino clicks her tongue in slight annoyance. "Think about it, Miku. A guy we haven't known for more than a week suddenly came into our lives, literally, might I add, when he snuck into the house before we did last week. He's in the same class as us, too. And then last night, some shit goes down, and he's the guy who saves us. Of course something's bothering the crap out of me about that."
Miku nods slowly in agreement. "So...we do see eye to eye on this."
"W-Whoa. When's the last time we've agreed to something right away like this?" Nino says in a hushed voice, staring at Miku in authentic amazement.
"Don't know either. But...anyways..."
Resting the bottom half of her face against her tucked knees and wrapping her arms around them to help hold them in, the middle quintuplet gazes down at her phone on the edge of the dinner table.
"I've...decided to take Fuutarou's lessons," Miku says softly.
"...and what's that got to do with me, exactly?" Nino narrows her eyes back at her sister.
Briefly, Miku's and Nino's eyes lock gazes.
"...I'd like it if you would take them, too," Miku murmurs.
Nino keeps gazing at Miku for a few moments, then finally turns her face away.
"And why should I do that..." she mumbles, gazing straight ahead at their aquarium and the fish swimming about inside.
"Because," Miku says, raising her voice a little bit, "I want you to...be with us, when Fuutarou teaches us."
Nino says nothing at first, so Miku takes this as an opportunity to keep talking her piece.
"I still remember the promise you made us...right after Mama died," Miku says in such a soft voice that she's almost whispering, but Nino's used to Miku talking like this so she picks up everything Miku is saying anyway. "How...you wanted us to all stay together. I know that you still...really feel strongly about that promise from all those years back."
"But taking Uesugi's tutoring lessons together...that's not what I had in mind when I made that promise to you guys," Nino replies.
"But it's still us staying together, isn't it?"
"You can think that if you want, but that's not what I think is right for us. That's like saying...oh I know, like last night, when you all showed up to the warehouse anyway even though I warned you all not to come. If you wanna say stuff like that, Miku, you might as well say that it was a good thing that we all ended up being together, despite the fact that we were about to have God knows what happen to us."
"That's not what I'm saying. You're just using an extreme example..." Miku points out.
"Extreme example or not, nothing will change the fact that Uesugi is an outsider. Plain and simple. He won't be able to do anything for us anyway, as far as tutoring goes, with how dumb and how bad at studying we all are."
"But he always says to give him a chance," Miku reminds her sister. "And so far, we haven't given him any."
"Yotsuba's already told us that enough," Nino scoffs quietly. "Don't need to keep repeating what she says, I get it already..."
"Is that so? Then start studying with us this afternoon."
"That's not what I meant by that!" Nino turns suddenly to her sister. "Then let me flip the question on you, Miku. What changed about you? Last I checked, you weren't exactly gung-ho over him either. What gives? What, did him saving us from those crooks sway you? Did he steal your heart away or something?"
The words she's spitting at her younger sister are among the hardest words Nino has ever had to utter.
And to her mild surprise, Miku slowly shakes her head.
"...it's not that...not exactly. I mean, if...if I had to say something about it, then...obviously I'm grateful, that he came in to stop those guys before anything bad happened to us."
"Grateful? Just grateful? C'mon, surely there's more than just that."
And again to Nino's surprise, this time Miku nods her head.
"There is...but it's not what you might think. Remember that day when you drugged Fuutarou? Or, tried to..."
"Yes, yes, I remember very well, thanks very much..."
"Then you also remember Yotsuba telling us about how hard he's been working, right?"
Her face contorting somewhat with discomfort again, Nino turns away, facing the long fish tank underneath the bookshelves for a second time.
"At first, I didn't think much of what Yotsuba was telling us. I thought that...Fuutarou could just be one of those super smart people, natural geniuses, if you will, who just ace all their tests and don't care about school because they're busy doing whatever they want to outside of school. Even when Yotsuba pointed out to us that the reason why he's been sleeping in class all the time is because he's been busy with whatever he needs to do, I didn't really believe her. I thought, like, how busy can he really be? He's just a freshman in high school, like we are. Even if he is really smart, and we're super dumb...just how much of a difference could there be between us?"
Miku hugs her knees against her chest a little bit more tightly.
"Last night...really drove home, at least to me, just how big of a difference there is. Fuutarou doesn't sleep in class because he's lazy, he doesn't sleep in class because he has nothing better to do or because he's trying to be rude - he sleeps in class because that's the only time of the day that he's got to sleep. And...the reason for that is because..."
"...he does stuff like what he did for us last night," Nino uncharacteristically finishes Miku's thought.
"You knew what I was going to say," Miku smiles again briefly. "Maybe we really are quintuplets."
"As if we weren't before...!" Nino once again turns to her sister, this time resolving not to use the fish tank as a source of distraction. "Okay, I get that Uesugi's a busier person than any of us could've imagined. But that's not our problem, is it? Whatever he's doing as a, what, a mage or whatever - that's got nothing to do with us. Don't let that bother you or change your stance on this! Whatever he's doing, that's his problem, not ours. He chose to be in that position, and so those are his responsibilities. We already have enough problems of our own to worry about, let him handle his own."
"Oh?" Miku's smile is erased once again. "Tell me, Nino, exactly what kinds of problems do we have right now? What kinds of problems do you think we have?"
Nino opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out of her throat, so Nino ends up softly biting her lower lip. Miku sees this as an opportunity to continue talking.
"We're five teenage girls, living in a penthouse of a luxury high-rise, on the thirtieth floor that we own, even the crow's nest on the other side of the floor. Even if we don't get to see him every day, Papa pays for everything and even gave us all credit cards to his name so that we can go buy whatever we want without even needing to ask him for anything."
Gazing straight back at Nino's eyes with those exact same eyes, Miku pauses in case Nino has something to say, but for now, she still doesn't.
"The only problem we have is the fact that we're all about to be high school dropouts if we don't do something about our grades soon," Miku answers for her unusually silent sister. "And it just so happens that this problem that we have is also a problem that Fuutarou shares, because now it's become his problem too, thanks to Papa hiring him to be our tutor."
"But we never asked for him to be our tutor. We should've at least visited Papa at his office to have a talk with him!"
"And you honestly think that would've done anything?" Miku challenges. "We all know how he is, and yet you're the only one who keeps acting like talking to him will change anything. Why, Nino?"
Gritting her teeth back at Miku, the second quint struggles for the right words in her head.
"Y-You never know until you try!" she finally blurts out, finding nothing better to respond with.
"Then feel free to try, if you insist," the third quint simply shrugs.
"Then...you're just gonna let Uesugi tutor you? Just like that? Just after a single night?"
"To tell you the truth, I figured at some point Papa would do something like this," Miku sighs exasperatedly, as trying to have an extended conversation with Nino always stresses her out like this. "I mean, we might all be book-dumb, but even we should've seen this coming. Especially you out of all of us, Nino. It just...happened a bit sooner than I thought it would."
Miku breaks eye contact with her sister slowly, finally putting her legs down properly on the cold floor.
"And I don't know about you, but I've tried studying by myself. You know, to improve my grades and such. Or at least I tried, I really did."
"I don't know, don't you usually just play games or watch anime all day in your room anyway?" Nino snickers, finally having something to say that doesn't put her on the back foot immediately.
"I'll admit to doing that a lot, yes, but - but I really do study sometimes...!" Miku pouts back at her sister.
"Clearly not enough, then."
"Yeah, and...that's exactly my point. Either I'm just not doing enough studying, or...I just suck at studying. And we've always taken tests throughout school, so it's not like any of us get super nervous during examination weeks, either, so it's not really about being nervous. Whatever the case, clearly by my test scores, whatever I'm doing isn't enough...and maybe a tutor is what I need, even if I might not agree with it."
Miku then gazes up at the second floor, towards the directions of her sisters' rooms.
"And if I'm having this kind of trouble, and I'm still the highest scoring of us five on average even with the studying that I do, I can't imagine anyone else doing better or improving on their own, either." Miku once again sets her piercing blue eyes back on Nino's. "And in this instance, you can't use your 'you never know until you try' excuse, because we've all tried already. Studying by ourselves doesn't work; something needs to change. Whether it's us directly or not."
Briefly pausing to stretch out her arms to ward away her morning drowsiness, Miku puts her hands on her lap.
"And...one last thing," she says, easing the tension in her voice. "You saw Fuutarou's house when we stopped there so that he could leave your dealer in his garage, right? He doesn't have much. We might not know exactly what he does on a day-to-day basis, but it's obvious that he works hard, way harder than we might ever know. Itsuki told us too, didn't she? After she had dinner at Fuutarou's place...that their situation didn't seem all that great."
"Ugh, see, this is what I'm talking about, what I was afraid of," Nino groans, rolling her eyes.
"No, you only said that about how he came in and saved us from those bad guys. I'm not talking about that - forget about the whole rescue part," Miku mutters assertively. "Personally, what bothers me more is the fact that Fuutarou seems to be so hardworking to the point where class time is the only time for him to get any sleep, while the only problem we need to deal with is whether or not we're going to graduate school. You've seen how bloodshot his eyes are all the time, right?"
"But again, like I said, that's not our problem. Why let it bother you?"
"I can't help it, Nino. It didn't bother me before...before last night. But now that we know a bit more about him, I...can't stop thinking of it this way. How long as Fuutarou been doing this, working all night long and still having to go to school, and still somehow finding the time to study on his own to get good grades? And then now Papa's hired him to start teaching us, so that's yet another responsibility he needs to take care of. And despite all that, despite how much work Fuutarou seems to be doing, his situation doesn't seem to be making much of a progress, and he and his family's still poor. While us, on the other hand - "
"We don't even know much about him for you to say that. Just because he and his family look poor doesn't mean you should let that guilt-trip you into feeling bad for him," Nino replies. "I do feel bad for Raiha-chan, but since it looks like they've been in that kind of a situation for a while, clearly they should be used to it. Let Uesugi handle his own family problems, like I keep saying."
"And for him to do that, he needs to tutor us to get paid and support his family," Miku points out. "You weren't there when he told us this because you left to go hang out with your friends afterwards, but on the day he made us take that evaluation test, he told me, Yotsuba, and Ichika afterwards that he doesn't want to force any of us to take his lessons; we need to take them willingly. We're the ones who're paying him, even if Papa's the one providing the actual money. If you really do feel bad for Raiha-chan, then let Fuutarou tutor you, too. It's the least we can do, isn't it?"
Getting up slowly from her seat, Miku pushes in her chair and turns to face Nino.
"And you might not believe me, but I'm not even considering Fuutarou's whole mage identity right now. He's even told us last night that he doesn't want to get us involved in anything like that; remember when I asked him to explain to us about magic and stuff, he clearly didn't look like he wanted to but he did it anyway. So for his sake, let's not even take that into account - I just want to graduate school without having to make anyone worry, and now I've come to the conclusion that I need help to do it because I'm too incompetent to do it alone."
Miku leaves Nino at the dinner table to start heading to the kitchen nearby.
"And if I'm the one saying I feel incompetent at studying, like I said earlier, what does that mean for everyone else?" she finishes. "I'll make breakfast today, by the way. I need to practice making omurice..."
"Oh no you don't, you're gonna give everyone a stomachache again!" Nino immediately bolts up from her chair and chases her sister into the kitchen. "We really don't need that first thing in the morning!"
"I've been practicing while you weren't here, don't worry. I've gotten a bit better..."
"A bit better isn't good enough when you already sucked at cooking! Also, is that why I've been finding dirty pans and plates and stuff in the kitchen every time I came back this week from hanging out with my friends!? You could at least wash them for me!"
"Sorry...I'll start washing them next time..."
"Ugh. Fine, since we don't need to worry about school today, let's help you practice making some omurice...no one else's even awake right now anyway..."
"Thanks, Nino."
"Sheesh, I can't believe you. First you drag me into some monologue of yours, then you want me to help you make omurice..."
"Hehe...sorry about that."
"That'll be it for our first tutoring session for today, thanks for joining me. I've already given you all the class notes I made for you today, along with your homework, so make sure to review those and complete your homework assignments for school tomorrow."
Back in his normal school uniform, Uesugi Fuutarou concludes his first successful tutoring session with the quintuplets, only three of whom are actually present at the low glass table in the living room: Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba. Itsuki is in her room, having elected to study by herself, as told to Fuutarou by Yotsuba, and Nino, while she hasn't officially joined the tutoring group, has spent the last three hours sitting at the empty dinner table on her phone, but Fuutarou considers that good enough for now since Nino can clearly listen to the entire lesson anyway; he did say that he'd rather have everyone be willing to be taught, so if that's what Nino is comfortable with for now, he'll just have to roll with it.
"Wow, that wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it'd be," Ichika laughs, stretching out her arms and yawning greatly, having skipped her usual afternoon beauty nap for the sake of taking Fuutarou's lesson. "Though I'm still getting really sleepy, haha."
"That's just your narcolepsy acting up, Ichika..." Miku says, organizing her papers surprisingly neatly.
"It's only been the first day and I feel like I learned more today than all of my school years combined!" Yotsuba cheers in relieved celebration. "I'm already feeling confident about graduation and that's not even for another two years, assuming I don't get held back because I'm stupid, haha!"
"L-Let's not go around saying worrying things like that," Fuutarou hesitantly remarks, putting away his own papers and files into his messenger bag. "And you're exaggerating, Yotsuba."
"Hm? What am I exaggerating about? I'm being serious, you know!" Yotsuba pouts back.
"Well, about the whole 'I learned more today than all of school' thing you just said."
"No, yeah, I - I'm serious. I don't know if it was because all the teachers I've had sucked or if it's just me being dumb, but having a tutoring session like this, I can already tell that this is what I'll probably need," Yotsuba says with complete seriousness so that there is no room for doubt in Fuutarou's head about her sincerity. "But it's most likely just me being a dummy, ehe ~ " She rounds out her thought by knuckling herself on the side of her scalp, causing Fuutarou to let out a small sigh.
"It's true. Even we can tell that you're a good teacher, Fuutarou," Miku smiles kindly to Fuutarou, and while it's not a big smile by any means, it's certainly the warmest one their tutor has seen her wear.
"Though, we've still got a long way to go, don't we. And this's just the beginning..." Ichika yawns again. "Not to mention, we've got two other girls we need to convince to join us. The more the merrier, after all ~ "
"I'm fine staying right here. It should be good enough that I'm even listening at all," Nino calls over dryly, not even looking up from her phone that she's using to text her other friends from school.
"Let them be, we'll work on convincing them to join over time," Fuutarou agrees. "Just because some of you girls don't want to get tutored, doesn't mean I shouldn't go ahead and start with everyone else who does."
"I guess you're right. But man, Uesugi-kun, you were just like an actual teacher there, it's honestly kind of scary," Ichika chuckles, also offering him a friendly smile. "Did you have to tutor other kids like us before?"
"Technically, yes. I tutor my younger sister all the time," Fuutarou nods. "So I guess you can say that I've already had lots of prior tutoring experience."
"Oooh, I see. Yeah, that makes sense - what was her name again? I know Itsuki mentioned it, but I think I forgot - "
"Raiha."
"Right, Raiha-chan. And how much younger is she than you?"
"Three years, she's in elementary."
"Aha, then that's why," Ichika pulls on a sharp look of understanding. "You're used to explaining things."
"More importantly, I know how to explain stuff to people who aren't on the same level mentally," the tutor says, taking a swig of water from his glass that Nino did not poison, now that Fuutarou has confiscated the rest of her Heisei. "And before any of you start, I'm not saying that to insult anyone here. It's just that, whenever I need to teach Raiha, I have to try to think about stuff from her point of view, from a perspective that she's familiar with; that way, she can easily grasp whatever it is I'm trying to teach her. Obviously there'll be times and material where that doesn't work as well, and all I can really do is just teach her how to do something and hope that she catches on, like with some of the more technical subjects like math and whatnot."
Yotsuba nods fervently. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"But it's a lot easier with Raiha since, y'know, she's my sister and all that, I know her very well. But I don't know the rest of you all very well, so it'll be a learning process for me too as I figure out each of you and how best you'll learn the material on an individual basis."
"But for us to all feel like you taught us really well today, better than any of our teachers ever did..." Miku looks up at Fuutarou.
"That so? Black Rose isn't exactly the prestigious all-girls' academy that everyone makes it out to be, then..."
"You're telling us...it wasn't any different from just your average middle or high school, honestly..."
The extraneous voice of Nakano Nino calls from the dinner table, and Fuutarou, Yotsuba, and Ichika glance over at her sudden interjection. Realizing that their attention is now on her, Nino shrinks a little in her seat.
"W-What're you all looking at me for? I'm just adding on to what Uesugi said," Nino grumbles, quickly looking down at her phone.
"Well, if you'd like to talk with us that badly, maybe next time you should consider joining us," Fuutarou suggests.
"Over my dead fuckin' body, Uesugi."
"Hah, didn't think so, huh. Worth a shot."
"There, there, better luck next time," Ichika pats her tutor on the back. "But still, great work today. It's really clear now why Dad hired you as our tutor. Though I wonder how he found out about you? You don't exactly seem to be the type to put out advertisements for your tutoring work or whatever."
"Hm, I guess I can say that much. I know your dad through my work as a mage," Fuutarou reveals. "I'm a medic mage, remember? So he has me come into the hospital every now and then to assist with stuff. Operations and whatnot."
"Oooh, so you're like an assistant surgeon! That's amazing."
"I don't actually do live operations like that very often, it's actually on the rarer side of things; I mainly help with technical stuff - hospital IT, for the most part. In exchange, since his hospital's one of the best in the country with the latest state-of-the-art medical technology, he lets me use some of the hospital equipment for my own work whenever I need to use it. He figured that I could tutor his daughters, so he offered me this as a side job - along with making sure that nothing happens to any of you, of course."
"Speaking of which, Uesugi-san, um, did you tell Dad about...yesterday?" Yotsuba asks worriedly, shedding her happy-go-lucky persona temporarily, and Fuutarou nods.
"Yeah. I'm contractually obligated to report whenever something like this happens - needless to say, he wasn't happy with me. Like, at all," Uesugi chuckles awkwardly. "Gave me the whole 'why the hell do I pay you' speech and all that..."
"But - you still helped us, why did he - ?" Miku protests, but stops when Fuutarou raises a hand to silence her.
"Don't worry about it. And I already mentioned this yesterday, part of why everything happened last night was because I was somewhere else where I didn't need to be. I even knew about Nino's meeting with that guy on Sunday night, yet I didn't act on that, or at least not quickly enough. My neglect almost made you all get into some deep shit. I'm glad I didn't lose my job entirely because of my mistake."
"Well, no harm no foul, right?" Ichika asks reassuringly.
"If only that's how things were all the time..."
"Yeah, didn't think so. Sorry that Dad's being harsh on you - he's just always been like that."
"I know. Though..."
Taking a deep breath, Fuutarou gazes down at the papers he's given to the girls, specifically the set of papers sitting in their neat stack in front of Miku.
"...it really makes me wonder how on Earth he let the five of you get to this point..."
None of the girls respond at all to this; something about his voice sounds off.
"But enough of that." The young tutor looks back up at his students. "I know I said I wouldn't try to bring this up, but just out of concern, how are the five of you holding up?"
"Well, nothing happened to us, so we're fine for the most part, I'd say," Ichika answers first, perhaps by age obligation. "Though...you have to agree that everything that happened last night - it was just a lot to digest."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"It's nothing that you need to apologize for. I mean, if you think about it, the rest of us should've known that Nino was doing something shady to get that drug."
Still able to clearly hear the ongoing conversation, Nino, wanting to defend herself so badly, barely manages to keep her mouth shut, focusing intently on her phone to keep her distracted.
"What about the fact that I killed those four guys back at the warehouse?" Fuutarou brings up. "Maybe this wasn't something I should've brought up, but I still am curious to know, if morbidly. Does that not bother any of you?"
Miku is the first to respond by shaking her head. "No, not really."
"Wow, you're ruthless."
Pouting back at Fuutarou, Miku leans forward a little to emphasize her pout.
"I'm just trying to make you not worry about me. Besides, it's not like we could concentrate on those guys when we were watching you the entire time."
"And not to mention, it was pretty dark for the most part except for a few lights around the warehouse," Yotsuba points out.
"Hmm...yeah, fair enough..."
"And besides, even if we did have a problem with you killing people, in this case you had to do it to defend us, so what can we say against it, exactly?" Ichika gives a slight shrug of her own. "Though, if there were one of us who'd be most affected by that, it'd have to be..."
The quintuplets, excluding Nino, all gaze up at the second floor, at the furthest room door to the right.
"Makes sense that Itsuki would be a bit disturbed by everything from yesterday," Fuutarou sighs. "I really hope she doesn't hate my guts after all that. Though I can understand if she does."
"We've been trying to get her to join us, but she hasn't said anything," Yotsuba says with concern. "The weird thing is, she won't talk to us. Even at breakfast and lunch today, she hasn't said a single thing. She's never acted like that before..."
"Probably because of me, I'll bet. Not a surprise that I'm coming in frequently to tutor you girls, and one of your sisters starts behaving in a way that you haven't seen before."
"Geez, not everything is your fault, Uesugi-kun!" Ichika leans over and bops her tutor lightly on the head. "You're gonna sound like a depressed old man if you keep talking like that all the time. Girls don't like that, you know."
"They don't?" Uesugi flashes a thumbs up back at Ichika. "Good. I like acting like a depressed old man."
"Y-You alright? Saying that with such seriousness, you sure you don't need to go see a therapist?"
"I did that already, actually. Later on, I found out that the therapist I went to had to go see his own therapist."
"I...don't know whether you're serious about that or not."
"It's not. But what is true is that I feel like a depressed old man sometimes." Fuutarou raises his hand and waves it around, miming an old man waving his walking cane around, and with a strained, stereotypical old man voice, he croaks, "All these young'uns needing tutors to graduate school - back in my day, we were all Ninomiya Kinjirou, carrying firewood and reading from home to school, both ways!"
Both Ichika and Yotsuba crack up at Fuutarou's ridiculous acting, and Miku turns her face, trying to hide a growing smirk on her face.
"But no really...I hope Itsuki is doing alright. I'm willing to give her about a week to calm down, but if she still keeps this up, I'll have to talk to her myself," Fuutarou declares softly. "It won't even be about tutoring, I just want to make sure she knows that I'm here to help."
"We'll do our best in the meantime too. Like we said earlier, you've gotta believe in her," Yotsuba nods emphatically. "Everything will be okay, Uesugi-san! If the mighty Yotsuba says so, it'll be so!"
Fuutarou grins back up at her. "Thanks for the confidence boost as always. Oh, and before I forget, I've spent last night after leaving making sure that the city is safe again, so you girls are safe to leave the house now."
"Awwww, can't we just stay home from school? Today was so relaxing, being able to sleep in and alll ~ " Yotsuba whines, deflating and sprawling over her side of the table.
"So much for that confidence boost, Yotsuba!" Fuutarou exclaims indignantly, and this time Miku can't hide her smirk and laughs out loud, joining Ichika who can't stop herself from laughing either. "I believed in you, Yotsuba! And now you just wanna stay at home like a shut-in?!"
"Yeaaaaah...! And watch anime in bed at nine in the morning, ahahaha ~ " Yotsuba drawls contentedly.
"And you're a freaking otaku to boot! I've never felt this level of betrayal in my life!"
Then, Yotsuba's hair ribbon spikes up on her head, much like a light bulb going off over someone's head.
"Oooh, oh oh oh oh! I just got the bestest idea!" Yotsuba announces, snapping up her posture. "How about we just quit school altogether, and just let Uesugi-san home-school us?"
"Then what's the point of trying to get you all to graduate?!"
Reaching over, Fuutarou pinches Yotsuba's cheeks and tugs on them lightly, but even still he's unable to force Yotsuba's beaming grin to subside.
"Ehehehe, iss aass aarsss a haaaa..." Yotsuba says incoherently.
"What?" Fuutarou stops tugging on her cheeks.
"It was worth a shot ~ " Yotsuba repeats.
"No it wasn't! Do your homework and make sure to show up at school tomorrow!"
"Awwwww, Ichikaaaaa, Uesugi-san's being mean to me nowwwww!"
"Yotsuba, just because you don't like doing homework doesn't mean Uesugi-kun's bullying you over it," Ichika giggles.
"Oh, speaking of which..." Fuutarou glances up at the clock behind him built into the wall, which now reads 4:14 PM. "Ichika, you have your part-time at 5, right? We should get going."
"Goodness, you're right. Yeah, let me get ready real quick," Ichika also notes the time and gets up, hurriedly gathering her notes and papers to take back to her room. "But since you said it should be okay for us to leave the house, you don't need to follow me anymore, right?"
"Hmm...yeah, you've got a point," Fuutarou nods back at the eldest quint. "You won't be late to it, will you? I feel like I've kept you for a bit too long."
"It's fine, it's actually not that far from here, so assuming traffic isn't too bad, I'll be okay."
"Don't lose those notes I gave you in your room, either! I know what your room's like!"
"Then feel free to visit me in my room to see if I still have them ~ " Ichika coos seductively, causing Fuutarou to just shake his head and look away, and she giggles again at his reaction. Once Ichika heads into her room, Fuutarou himself stands up with his packed bag.
"Well, since that's it for me today, I'll get going too. Good work for today, you two and Ichika," Fuutarou nods, and as usual, Yotsuba, getting up from the table, trots after Fuutarou to see him off as usual. After he puts on his shoes, Fuutarou looks up and blinks at Yotsuba.
"Hm? What's up?" she asks him with a friendly smile.
"No, it's not you..." Fuutarou stands up straight, still looking past the fourth quint. "You need something, Miku?"
"Eh?" Yotsuba spins around, and sure enough, her older sister is right behind her, having followed the two of them to the door. "Ah, it really is Miku!"
"...I just want to see you off too," Miku says simply, dropping her gaze shyly. "It's...the least I can do..."
"You don't have to force yourself," Fuutarou replies simply.
"I'm not..." But Miku does force herself to look back up at her tutor. "...and...Fuutarou, you didn't sleep at all today, did you?"
His cover blown, Fuutarou gives off such an exhausted chuckle that Yotsuba feels Fuutarou's chuckle sapping even some of her own strength.
"You can tell, huh? Yeah...I need to get home and catch some sleep," he groans slightly, rubbing his eyes with the back of his right hand.
"U-Uesugi-san! You need to take proper care of yourself!" Yotsuba pouts, but her voice is filled with genuine concern. "Teaching us is great and all, but you can't keep doing this to yourself! You won't last long doing this, you know!"
"Can't I...I've been through worse, so I can handle this much at least."
"Um, Fuutarou?"
"Yeah, Miku?"
"...just out of curiosity...do you sleep in class because...you don't have time to sleep during the night?"
"More or less." Fuutarou grins tiredly at Miku. "You're really good at figuring people out, huh?"
Miku shakes her head. "It's just...kind of obvious, I thought..."
"Ouch, I'm that transparent of a person, huh. I'll work on that for next time."
"Well, no, it's just..." Miku hesitates.
"Just what?"
"...just...please...take care of yourself."
Betraying a small smile in response to Miku's request, Fuutarou takes a step towards her and, just like with Yotsuba the previous week, puts a hand on Miku's head.
"Thanks for worrying about me. I'll be fine."
Turning to Yotsuba, he repeats the process.
"And thanks to you again, for supporting me all this time so far," Fuutarou nods, and bidding the two of them goodbye, he closes the door behind himself to head home.
"Geez, that Uesugi-san...!" Yotsuba pouts lightly, blushing in his wake and shaking her fists a little. "Giving us headpats all willy-nilly like that - the hearts of us girls are more delicate than you could ever know! Right, Miku?"
Yotsuba turns around to find Miku hiding her lips behind the earcups of her Audio Technicas, her bangs draped over her most of her eyes and her cheeks, which are beginning to brim with red.
"...Miku?"