With their tutor departed for the night, the rest of the girls have prepared for bed, but rather than secluding themselves to their respective rooms, Nino, Miku, and Itsuki have gathered in Nino's room to bunk there for the night at Nino's insistence. She had Fuutarou rig her room again with sound-insulating runes so that the sisters can talk freely for a while before going to sleep, which he obliged before he left, so now the three quints are sitting on Nino's bed in their pajamas. It's only now that the second quint realizes how much she takes her own bed and the beds of her sisters for granted, for the three of them can comfortably fit in this single bed. She'd always wondered why their father bothered getting them beds this big when realistically they'd only ever accommodate one of them at a time, but it would appear that on a night like tonight, Dr. Nakano's foresight has been rather convenient for the girls.
"If there's something you want to talk about, Nino, don't make it too long. Itsuki needs to get some sleep," Miku murmurs out of concern in a low voice, even though she can just talk normally thanks to Fuutarou's runes. But Itsuki shakes her head.
"I'm...I am actually alright. If Nino has something to talk to me about, then I would rather that we discuss it now so that we do not need to talk about it tomorrow."
"Are you sure? But you were held hostage for hours in a situation like that. I know we'd all been in a hostage situation before, but what you had to go through is a different story, wasn't it?" Nino chimes in.
Itsuki awkwardly scratches her forehead. "I am not lying or trying to act tougher than I am, I really...I really do not feel too disturbed. Obviously I may...still be in a small state of shock, but...I really do think I will be okay." The youngest quintuplet takes a short sigh. "But I do agree that it is...it is strange that I am not more affected by my ordeal more than I am now. Even I find it strange. If I were Nino, then perhaps my attitude would be understandable, but..."
A short silence occupies the room as Miku and Itsuki struggle quietly to think of something to continue the conversation. Nino, who has no such trouble and instead must only deal with a slight bit of hesitation on her part, speaks up in their stead.
"I don't know about that one, honestly," she mutters a bit dejectedly. "When Fuu - er, Uesugi-kun and I charged into their hideout to rescue you, the whole time I could feel like heart beating in my fucking neck. Like, I was just so nervous."
"But you've been in these kinds of situations before - " Miku starts up, only to have Nino cut her off swiftly.
"Yeah, but not as bad as this! I'm used to dealing with guys who back down when they've got an angry bitch like me on their ass for trying to flirt with my sisters. They're just guys our age, they don't know how to deal with that so they'd rather not deal with it at all. But tonight's a different story: these were guys with weapons who probably didn't care about punching girls like us in the face or something or doing something worse, and there were a lot more of them than there were of us. I can't say I've ever been in a situation like that, with maybe the exception of the time when all five of us got taken as hostages because of me."
Miku snickers briefly but scathingly. "Yeah, it seems like you have a habit of getting us into some trouble, huh?"
"Shut the hell up, Miku, I've already explained myself multiple times so I'm not gonna let you fucking gaslight me."
"Oh, so are we just going to conveniently ignore all the gaslighting you've done to me?"
"Yes, actually, since none of the gaslighting I've done's related to anything serious - at least, not as serious as something like this, so you can go fuck yourself." Despite her harsh words, Nino merely clicks her tongue in annoyance. "Just my luck that the stuff I've been doing ends up not working out, I guess."
"Yeah, then, well, maybe stop doing them."
Nino glares at her immediate younger sister but manages to refrain from additional comment directed her way, intending to make good on her earlier declaration. So she shifts her focus back to Itsuki instead with a much softer, pensive expression.
"So anyway, like, I'm...blown away that you can even say that. And I wasn't even the hostage, you were."
Looking down at her sister's bedsheet over the top of one of the pillows that she's hugging, Itsuki blinks slowly in the relative darkness of the room.
"...if I may share something...this is not the first time I have felt this way, of not feeling that nervous in a high-intensity situation," the fifth quint reveals to her siblings. "I have told you already of the incident when Uesugi-kun protected me from that Shirazumi person he talked to us about; that was the fight in which Uesugi-kun was injured on my behalf because of my carelessness of practically walking into the middle of their battle. At first, I was shaken by the fact that he sustained an injury because of me, and normally, knowing myself, I am the type of person who would not live something like that down. If there had been someone at school who got hurt because of my actions, I simply would not be able to sleep well at night until I had done something to compensate them somehow. But in Uesugi-kun's case, it...once he reassured me that his injury was not serious and that he would recover fully from it, I just...never thought about it again. It simply ceased to bother me past that night."
"Well, there's gotta be a chance that, you know, Uesugi-kun's just cast a spell on you or something to calm you down? Surely he can do something like that, right?"
"I don't doubt it either, but what're the chances that if he really did put a spell like that on Itsuki, that it's lasted all the way until now? It's been, what, a good month or two since that incident?" Miku asks Itsuki quickly, who slowly nods. "And besides, both of our magic senses have been improving slowly, Nino. Maybe we would've been able to sense a spell like that on Itsuki by now?"
"I don't think so. Think about it, Uesugi-kun knows about us being potential mages. So if he wants to put spells on us, ones that he doesn't want us to know about, then naturally he'd make it so that we can't sense them at all ourselves. And I can't imagine that's terribly difficult to do, seeing as we're virtually novice mages and all who don't know a damn thing about magic yet other than, oh hey, we have these cool magic eyes that keep bothering us for reasons we don't get."
"Some more than others," Miku dryly remarks with a bitter twist of her lips into something of a moody grin.
"I do have this feeling that...I should be more affected by this hostage situation than I am, if this helps at all," Itsuki clarifies quickly. "Tonight's situation was by far the worst situation I have ever been in, and I am really happy that we were all able to get out of it safely. But now, now that we have been talking about this for a little while, honestly, I am more scared of the fact that I am not scared, if that...makes sense...?"
Miku nods in understanding. "Yeah, it's certainly weird that Nino seemed to be more nervous in that situation than you were."
Itsuki hugs her pillow a little bit more tightly. "And I do not think it is a result of Uesugi-kun casting a spell on me or anything like that. I genuinely believe that he has nothing do to with how I am feeling, or more accurately, the fact that I am not more affected by this situation than I should be. I believe that...it may have something to do with my, um...my 'power'..."
The two elder quintuplets take in Itsuki's words to process them seriously.
"You know what," Nino declares softly, her eyes having shifted down to the bedsheets as well in thought, "you might be right. Miku's eyes've been giving her trouble ever since she got them in the form of her nightmares. My eyes made my vision go bad to the point where I have to wear glasses or contacts. So just between the two of us, our eyes affect us directly in some way, so since we're quintuplets, it's only natural for us to assume that your eyes have got to affect you in some way too."
"Itsuki got lucky then, if her only side effect so far is the fact that she can handle being in hostage situations much better than us," Miku remarks with a small smile. "How nice."
With a complicated look on her face, Itsuki matches Miku's gaze uncomfortably. "...if this really is the nature of whatever side effects I may have due to my own Mystic Eyes, I do not think it is all roses and sunshine for me either. And I am not saying this just to make the two of you feel better, too."
"Because you're not exactly thrilled about the fact that your side effect might be causing you to respond to things in ways you don't think is natural to you, huh?" Nino infers.
"Precisely. I cannot help but wonder if this anomaly in my behavior in response to a high-intensity situation like the one I was in tonight is merely the start of something more serious. What if it develops to the point where it begins to affect our relationships? What if it gets to the point where I am no longer acting like the Itsuki you all once knew? Nino, you have always made it a point of your own to have us stay the way we are for as long as we can. What if years from now, I am no longer behaving like how I should anymore?"
A troubled Nino nods slowly in agreement. "That's arguably worse than anything else we've been going through..."
"Well, Miku, she..." Itsuki tries to point out meagerly, but Miku shakes her head back at her.
"I've learned to deal with my nightmares at this point. And now that you've mentioned this, I guess the one silver lining I can take away from my nightmares is that I've never once felt like I've acted out of character," the third quintuplet answers confidently. "So no, I actually agree with Nino on this one. Even though I hate these nightmares I'm having, I would still take them over any potential sense of losing my own identity. The worst part about it is being scared of how hurt the rest of us would be knowing that you aren't the same Itsuki as you used to be, right? I don't know if I'd be able to handle knowing something like that. I mean, I've already told you that I don't like how my nightmares seemed to have dragged you into them with me."
"You know, now that you mention it, those nightmares might be playing a part in this, too!" Nino exclaims shortly, keeping her voice down all the while.
"Maybe, but then that leads to the question of how you aren't getting dragged in either," Miku reminds her sister. "Why is it only Itsuki so far who's gotten dragged in? Why hasn't this happened to anyone else? Not that I want it to, but it bears asking either way."
Nino simply shrugs back. "Unfortunately, I don't think any of us are in any position to answer that one."
"Hmph, so it seems. And it seems like that's what we eventually have to conclude whenever we have questions about anything magic-related that concerns us."
The three sisters all go back to gazing down at Nino's bedsheet, the air heavy with unanswered questions and melancholic uncertainty.
"Um, Nino? If I may..."
Her name called suddenly, the second quintuplet looks back up at her youngest sister, who is already gazing at her with furrowed brows of concern.
"...you said earlier that...the reason why you wanted to go with Uesugi-kun was because you wanted to see if you could learn anything about magic from him, right?" Itsuki asks.
"Yeah, but...clearly it didn't work out, like I said," Nino snorts lightly, not terribly keen on having to defend her own actions again.
"No, no, I - I do not mean to bring it up to make you apologize again. I am talking about when, um...when you hit that one guy..."
Nino blinks once in confusion at Itsuki, but by the time her eyes open again, she suddenly remembers what she's talking about.
"Oh yeah, you're right! I completely forgot!" Her face brightening rapidly, the second quint gasps as she briefly facepalms. "I spent the better part of the last hour and a half constantly apologizing that I totally forgot about that part."
"Besides the fact that you still probably haven't apologized enough, what are you talking about?" Miku inquires, a little perplexed about this sudden shift in Nino's attitude.
"There was one point during our attack on the bad guys' hideout when while Uesugi-kun was going around beating them up, one of them approached me since I stayed with Itsuki to make sure none of them went after her," Nino explains swiftly, almost giddily as she recalls the events of earlier that night. "He looked like he was gonna try to take one of us captive, probably to put Uesugi-kun in a bad spot. But he didn't expect me to try to punch him, and when I did, I sent him fucking flying!" Nino then frowns back at Miku, who's wearing a look of suspicious disbelief. "I'm not lying to you, I swear I did! Itsuki saw me do it too!"
"Nino is telling the truth, Miku. I did in fact see her hit him across the floor we were on straight into a wall," the fifth quint confirms.
"And how long were you hiding this from us for, huh?" Miku scowls slightly, but her expression relaxes considerably now that Itsuki is willing to back Nino's claim.
"I never did! I literally didn't even know until I threw that punch at the guy. I just saw the guy rush at us, and I stood up to fight back since I sure as hell wasn't just gonna take it lying down if I can help it, you know? But I didn't expect to send him flying like I did."
"Then so much for trying to learn a thing or two from Fuutarou when you had your own power all this time."
Nino frowns at Miku, but she merely shifts around in her spot on her bed a little bit.
"I'll admit, I didn't exactly get what I was looking for, but I did unintentionally find out that I can pack a punch. So I'll call that mission accomplished for my part anyway."
"I suppose it suits a gorilla like you."
"Yeah, keep trying to gaslight me, bitch. But the bigger point I wanna make here is that if I have this sort of power, there's a chance the two of you can do something, too, right now. It might take some time to find out what they are, but at the rate things are going now, I'd say we'll be better off finding them sooner rather than later."
"But I can only imagine as well that Uesugi-kun will not like this," Itsuki groans softly.
"Yeah, he might not, but what's he gonna do, stop us? He's only ever said that he won't ever teach us magic. But what if we can try to learn it ourselves? Or at least whatever other proxy power we find ourselves having? Surely he won't object to us doing something like that?"
"Yes, but he probably would actively discourage us from exploring whatever such powers we may end up discovering...most likely because he would cite them as a distraction to our studies."
Frowning and crossing her arms, Nino rolls her eyes slowly. "I guess so...we'll just have to do what we can in secret, then."
"But surely we cannot keep something like this a secret from him? Uesugi-kun would surely know if our magic or our powers in general are getting stronger, right?"
"Then if it comes down to it, we'll just do our studies and ace our tests. If we can do that, then he won't have any excuses."
Itsuki balks back at her oldest sister in the group. "Y-You of all people saying such a thing...?! Nino, did your power mess with your head too, or is there something I missed...?"
"Oh shut the hell up, I'm perfectly fine! I still don't care for studying, I'll have you know, I'm just using this as a means to an end, goddamn it!" Hissing irritably, Nino reaches over and pinches both of Itsuki's cheeks with her fingers to tug on them lightly. "You really ought to take this more seriously. Tonight was my mistake, like I've said over and over. But that doesn't mean that a situation like this could repeat itself, and no matter how fast we let Uesugi-kun know that one of us is in trouble, that might not guarantee that we'll all be safe by the end of it. I really do mean it when I say that the five of us need to get a hold of our powers so that we don't need to make Uesugi-kun do all the heavy lifting...even if we don't exactly know where Yotsuba and Ichika are at magically. Besides, if nothing else, you know how much I hate being a burden on other people, and I know you two also feel the same. All five of us feel that way."
Nino turns her neck in Miku's direction while rubbing Itsuki's cheeks apologetically for the tugging she's done.
"What about you, Miku? You've been quiet for a bit. Thinking about something?"
Hearing her name called and snapping out of her small stupor, Miku quickly shakes her head. "N-No, not really...it's late, and, uh, I was just getting sleepy..."
Nino squints back at her younger sister in suspicion, but she decides to take Miku's words at face value and nods.
"Yeah, you're right, we should really be asleep by now. C'mon, Itsuki, under the bedsheet..."
So the middle quintuplet turns off the lamp on Nino's desk and slips under the covers with her sisters, with Nino in the middle.
"...kinda cramped, actually," the second quintuplet remarks, changing her mind about earlier when she was grateful to their father for getting everyone beds that could accommodate all of the quintuplets. It turns out that having just three of them is already maximum capacity. "Itsuki, you haven't been eating too much, have you?"
"W-Why must you make a joke like that now of all times...?!" Itsuki cries, clamping onto her sister's left arm even harder than she already was.
"At this point, when won't Nino make a fat joke about you?" Miku points out, and the three quintuplets deliver other such exchanges until one by one, they all slip into a much needed sleep, with Nino falling asleep with her head cradled over Itsuki's.
Uesugi Fuutarou watches the heavy rain pour down onto the sidewalk from an alleyway that happens to be roofed from the rain, providing some shelter from the bad weather. His right hand holds a warm cup of hot chocolate that he picked up from a nearby Starbucks, using up yet another gift card passed his way courtesy of his boss at the hospital. Normally he's not one to choose a sweeter option, but after several shifts of research at the hospital several days in a row, Fuutarou has been feeling a crave for sugar and decided to indulge in it for today.
"Yo, dude. Hope I didn't keep ya waitin'."
Fuutarou turns around, still in the midst of taking a careful sip from his hot chocolate to not burn his tongue or lips, to find a heavily hooded figure approach him carefully, and as the young mage lowers his cup, so too does his visitor lower his hood, revealing his identity.
"You're good. I was just having some hot chocolate...haven't had some in a while. Pretty nice while watching the rain," Uesugi explains briefly as Maeda shakes the sleeves of his big puffy plastic raincoat to get some of the rainwater off. "You don't have an umbrella or anything?"
"Nah, I prefer these raincoat things. Doesn't bother me," Maeda shrugs. "Water in general doesn't bother me too much either, so rainy days're okay by me. Just kinda annoying, that's all."
"I would agree with you, but with how much rain there is today, it gets annoying to move around."
"Sounds like your problem, but I get where you're comin' from. Anyway, 'nough 'bout the weather, I gotta get to work after this so I can't piss around for too long."
Maeda hands from his protected pocket a cheap-looking phone, which the young mage takes.
"Should have some info on there that should interest ya. It's about as best I can do while makin' sure I wasn't riskin' my neck doin' this for ya," Uesugi's classmate explains shortly. "Oh, I ain't got the right charger for that, so you might have ta charge it up yourself."
Sure enough, the phone won't turn on when Uesugi tries to press the power button, most likely due to a lack of juice.
"Then mind telling me what sort of info's on here so I know what to expect?" he asks his newly recruited informant.
"People close to Shirazumi. Let's call 'em his lieutenants if ya wanna get fancy," Maeda replies. "You already know that Shirazumi manages his big-ass gang in different parts, so he's got a network of people who answer directly to him for a more efficient chain 'a command."
"I figured this was the case, but I haven't been able to get concrete evidence to prove it somehow, and I've spent all this time doing my best to investigate them," Uesugi sighs, slipping the phone into his own pocket.
"That's 'cause despite most of the crackheads working for his gang bein' fuckin' turds most 'a the time, Shirazumi actually picks out competent motherfuckers who'll follow his orders to a tee. The gang as a whole only seems disorganized at its lowest levels 'cause his lieutenants're all under strict orders ta keep all their important business under wraps, as in they won't have written records anywhere most of the time, they're all talk only. Makes everythin' a lot less traceable."
While Maeda is elaborating, Fuutarou hands him a blank, ordinary white envelope, which the informant receives willingly and deposits into his own pocket underneath his raincoat.
"That would explain why I haven't been able to get any leads on Shirazumi so far. I've been trying to hunt down anyone who's got ties to him but so far no dice," the young mage mulls, mainly to himself. "So then how'd you get this intel?"
"Spent the last few weeks bein' more active around our boys. Hangin' out at key places they like to hang out at. Called in a few favors 'n cut a few deals with other grunts like me to find out who knows who and what goes where, that sorta stuff. You might not think it, but I'm actually one 'a the tougher grunts in Shirazumi's gang," Maeda smirks. "Lots'a the other grunts are just straight up beta bitches who back down once you put a bit 'a pressure on 'em, and for the others who won't, they've all got a price tag on 'em, just a matter 'a figurin' 'em out. Almost a lil' too easy, makes me wonder why ya didn't think of doin' this yourself."
"My acting skills are subpar, unfortunately. And for someone like me who's used to getting jobs done within a few days most of the time, trying to infiltrate the gang by posing as one of them and having an alibi and all that takes a long time. Actually, the biggest reason would be that Shirazumi would instantly know that I'm trying to infiltrate his gang just from detecting my magic signature, so it just isn't an option for me."
"So you'd rather have someone who's already in the gang be the mole, huh, makes sense. How much experience do ya got doin' this sorta thing, just outta curiosity?" Maeda asks.
"More so than average kids our age, but that doesn't say much. Admittedly, this is my first time going after a big gang like this; like I said, I've done previous jobs going after smaller circles and drug rings in isolated cases, and they don't have anywhere near the level of competence as Shirazumi and his boys apparently do. The most I can really do is keep an eye out for potential trouble and try to intercept as soon as I see it, but that strategy hasn't been working out as well as I'd hoped."
Maeda shrugs. "Well shit, then hopefully everythin' on that phone can help ya out. Just keep in mind that this is intel other grunts in the gang've compiled, so it might not all be accurate, just sayin'."
"Got it. And besides, it was actually a big help in the sense that now I know what I'm doing wrong, or in other words, I know what I need to do be doing now. I've got a bad habit of sticking to a plan a little too much since just because a plan doesn't initially work out doesn't mean it's inherently flawed. But sometimes it's better to take a step back and analyze the methods from time to time to make sure the whole game plan is still sound."
Taking a look back at Maeda again, Uesugi lowers his cup of hot chocolate a bit.
"Sorry for asking, but what convinced you to help me out with this? This is only our second time meeting in person outside of school, and I can't imagine that us being schoolmates is a big part of the reason why."
Grimacing when he hears this, Maeda gnashes his teeth a little in silence.
"Nah, don't be sorry, dude. I don't wanna get all mushy 'n shit, but...I got a girl, ya know? She goes to our same school 'n all, you might'a run into her a few times, I dunno."
"What's her name, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Matsui. Recognize it?"
Uesugi does in fact recognize the name - it matches the name that he saw on the school ID card of the girl he saved in the back alley some time ago, assuming she's the same person.
"I think so, yeah. Clean hairline like yours, hair going off to the side like this?" Fuutarou uses his hands to indicate the direction of her hair.
"Yeah, then you know her. She told me that there was this one night when she felt like she got abducted somewhere but found herself back home all of a sudden with her clothes all messed up. Now, I ain't got shit to prove that it was our own guys who kidnapped her that night, but given that we'd known about parts of our gang goin' around kidnappin' people for drug tests, I can't imagine it could'a been anythin' else but that. When she told me about it, I got so fuckin' pissed off, you have no idea, man. Granted, it's probably partly my own fault for not tellin' her about any of it, but it's not like I fuckin' expected her to get nabbed by people who're basically my fuckin' colleagues or coworkers, y'know?"
"Does she know about you being in a gang, or did you not tell her that much yet?"
"Nah dude, she's gonna fuckin' dump my ass if I ever tell her, and I don't want that since, well, I feel like we got somethin' good goin', y'know? And I never joined this gang to do bad shit in the first place, I just wanted some easy money to help pay for havin' her as a girlfriend and figured so long as I keep my ass down, they won't have me goin' around doin' crime 'n shit, until the night I ran into you."
Maeda coughs a little, probably because of the rain.
"Anyway, all that leads me to what I'm tryin'a say: that I know it had ta be you who brought my girl back that night. I don't know who else it could be, with the kinda shit you're doin'."
Letting his eyes drift away from his informant slowly, Fuutarou takes another, much slower sip of chocolate.
"She alright now? Any lasting side effects or symptoms she's having since then?" he asks in a low voice.
"Nothin' I can see, which admittedly isn't much 'cause I know I ain't the best boyfriend, but...she'd let me know if somethin's botherin' her, I can tell you that for sure," Maeda sighs, having received this confirmation from the man who saved his girlfriend himself. "So I'd say she's a'ight now. They really tried druggin' her, huh?"
Uesugi nods again. "I got to her just in time. I don't know if you wanna hear this, but the only reason why they didn't before I got to her was because they were having a little 'fun' with her, if you know what I mean."
"Fuck...yeah, I figured with what I remember her complaining about back then," Maeda hisses as he turns and kicks the brick wall behind him in frustration. "Fucking bottom 'a the barrel trash doin' whatever the fuck they want...I guess that's just what'cha gotta expect outta the guys Shirazumi and his boys hire as their bottom-feeder shitstains."
"Aren't you one of them too, though?"
"Look, I know I dress and talk like one of 'em, but I got standards, bro! I told you already, I only joined to make some cash so I can spend it on my girl. Sure, you can say that I'm still a gangster and I do criminal shit, but I don't go around fuckin' kidnappin' my own classmates from school and draggin' their asses to a back alley where I can drug 'em and then stick my cock down their throats or somethin'! I ain't about that!"
Stuffing his hands deep into his pockets, almost crushing the envelope he's received from his secret employer, Maeda narrows his eyes darkly down at the moist pavement of the alley the two boys are occupying.
"As much as I hate some 'a the shit they're doin', I was just gonna keep quiet about it and keep a low profile since the gang's at least a steady source 'a income for me. Even after I learned that they went after my own girl, I had ta keep my trap shut, but you know I was lookin' for a way to get back at these fools. So when we ran into each other and you asked me to do this shit for ya, I saw the perfect opportunity. I ain't a mage like you, bro, and while I can hold my own in a fistfight, I'm just one ordinary dude in a whole city, what the fuck am I gonna do against a whole fucking gang of shitters? The best I can do is work with someone who can fuck 'em up so that he can do just that. Plus, the icin' on the cake's that you're even payin' me a lil' for doin' this informant shit for you. This is my best option, I feel like."
"My only problem with all this's that I can't pay you more to cover what you're gonna lose once you leave the gang, either when you leave on your own or when they find out what you're doing and kick you out instead, or worse."
"Nah, don't even worry about that, bro. Hell, I'm goin' off to my new part-time after this."
"Alright, then. If stuff doesn't work out and you need another job, let me know, I know a few places that might need part-timers or something."
Turning his back even as Fuutarou is still giving his parting words, Maeda raises his right hand up to bid him goodbye as he pulls his hood up over his head and ventures back out into the pouring rain, in the direction of his new part-time job. Once he is sufficiently out of sight, Fuutarou pulls out the phone his informant has given him and puts his right hand over it, placing a scanning rune over the device to reaffirm that it isn't magically booby-trapped or otherwise tampered with in any way. Once the scanning rune comes up with nothing threatening, he pockets it again and finishes the rest of his hot chocolate in relative silence, watching the downpour in the meantime.
Maeda's words linger in the back of his mind. Enacting revenge but not being strong enough to on his own...how nostalgic, but for all the wrong reasons.
Once his cup is empty, he, too, emerges from the alley to discard his plastic cup into a nearby recycling bin standing next to a lonely beverage vending machine and goes on his own way back to the hospital.
"Okay, next question: who seized power after the Battle of Sekigahara?"
"Ummmm...O-Oda Nobunaga...?"
"Incorrect. Yotsuba, we've gone over this question so many times, it's Tokugawa Ieyasu..."
"I-I blame the fact that you were playing that one mobile game on your phone and you rolled Oda Nobunaga in that game! She had long black hair and had flames all over and looked super cool!"
"...Yotsuba, video games are not supposed to be your study material for school exams..."
"But I didn't mean to use it as study material..."
Nakano Miku leans back from the glass table in the middle of the living room in exasperation, having spent the last several hours studying Japanese history with Yotsuba, or more accurately, helping her younger sister study Japanese history. All five quintuplets have made substantial progress in raising their scores in subjects that they are not traditionally proficient in, but they all still have a bad tendency to relapse into boneheaded moments while studying.
"Ugh, my head's pounding. Let's take a break," Yotsuba suggests exasperatedly, leaning back against the bottom of the long couch behind her and her sister, and Miku copies her younger sister, silently consenting to a well-deserved break from their studies, though Miku has a wholly different reason to do so than Yotsuba. Following her tutor's suggestion, tutoring her sisters in Japanese history herself has been nothing short of challenging; the rest of the quintuplets can't seem to retain the knowledge they need to do well on their mock tests and quizes that they've been taking as part of their studies, with only Itsuki doing acceptably well on them. It makes sense, actually, seeing that history is almost entirely just memorization, and Itsuki being the most gifted in science already has the memorization skill and only needs to adapt it for a different subject, while the others still frequently mix up names and events.
To be fair, ever since the girls took Fuutarou's advice to tutor each other in his absence, they've made strides in their studies in the sense that they're able to maintain what they learned with their tutor and, arguably more importantly, retain the progress they've made up until this point. But it's the next step that they need to take to make further progress that's proving to be quite the roadblock, especially without Fuutarou's tutelage, and Miku is experiencing for herself firsthand just how difficult the job of tutoring or teaching in general is turning out to be just with her trying to teach Yotsuba alone. She wonders to herself if this is how Fuutarou constantly felt in the first few weeks, teaching five idiots like them who previously had very little motivation to study, which only serves to impress her even more how he was successfully able to get them all the point where they're at now. Of course, part of this should rightfully be attributed to external factors beyond their school activities, but that still fails to take away from his achievement.
After a minute or two of silence of both quintuplets resting their heads against the couch seats and staring up at the ceiling of the living room, Yotsuba finally breaks it with a wistful thought that she lets loose into the air softly.
"...I miss studying with Uesugi-san," she mumbles, closing her eyes tiredly. "Studying just...isn't fun without him."
Miku lets out a soft chuckle of her own in response, and Yotsuba, suddenly realizing how her words could be misinterpreted, quickly scrambles upright to appease her sister. "N-N-No, wait, I-I-I didn't mean it that way! You're a really good tutor too, Miku, you really are!"
"I know you didn't mean it that way, don't worry about it," Miku nonchalantly waves her younger sister down to calm her. "As a matter of fact, I totally agree. I'm just not as good at teaching other people as Fuutarou is, so..."
Yotsuba slowly goes back to leaning against the couch, this time resting her head on its left side so that she can gaze at her older sister.
"Well, to be fair, none of us are anywhere near as good at tutoring as Uesugi-san is, so...I don't think you should beat yourself up over that so much."
"If you're trying to use that as an excuse to explain to me why you somehow can't remember Tokugawa Ieyasu for the life of you..."
"N-No, I'm not, I swear...!"
Miku, too, turns her head to face her younger sister.
"How are you feeling so far?" she asks quietly.
This unexpected question swings and catches Yotsuba off-guard; she knows Miku isn't referring to their studies when she's asking this, so she takes her time in answering.
"...other than feeling the obvious, um...I'm...looking forward to the summer festival, I guess...?" she responds slowly, almost uncertainly.
"It's a good thing we made Fuutarou promise to come with us to the summer festival, huh."
"Yeah. I really don't want him to spend literally his entire summer break doing nothing but working, even if his work is super important. At the very least, even if he can't spend time with us, he should be able to spend time with his family at the festival."
"You already have your yukata for it, right?"
Yotsuba nods.
"I wonder if we can get Dad to join us this year," she wonders softly.
"You probably have a better chance at acing your Japanese history final next trimester than Papa leaving his office."
"Y-You didn't have to put it that way..."
Miku's blue eyes glance out the glass veranda door, watching for a few moments the downpour still going on outside.
"Are you still helping out all those sports teams like you were before summer break started, or did you finish all your obligations to them?"
Yotsuba shakes her head. "I've already finished everything. I would've liked to keep helping out, but...Uesugi-san's lectured me a lot about them, and given what we're already been through since that time with the track team...I've learned my lesson."
"But are you fine with that? Because that's how you've always been, always helping out other people at school and wherever. I'm sure you already know that you needed to stop out of necessity so that you can concentrate everything onto our studies, but...seeing how you've been ever since we started summer break..."
The fourth quintuplet gives her older sister a small, almost pained smile.
"I'll be okay, Miku. I do miss all the friends I made while I was in all those clubs, but I know that they'll be able to take on whatever they need to without me. Even the track team, hehe." Yotsuba's brief, ephemeral smile only sticks around for a few seconds. "...but I will say this: I miss the feeling of being, um...relied on. Without helping out all those sports clubs, I just feel like I'm back to square one again of...of relying on everyone else to get through the day. Relying on Ichika to help me pick out what yukata I wanna wear to the festival...relying on Nino to make me food at home...relying on you to teach me Japanese history...relying on Itsuki to teach me science."
"But you're teaching the rest of us Japanese Language Arts, right?"
"Yeah, but...I feel like that's one subject where I don't really have to do much. Not only that, but I'm not exactly confident in my ability to teach you guys. And even if I were, that's one thing I'm confident in versus all these other things that I'd still need to rely on others to do for me." Yotsuba buries her head a little deeper into the seat cushion of the couch. "It makes me feel like...at least when it comes to me, that...nothing's really changed. Going around and helping other people was what let me pretend like I was growing as a person, but now that I can't do that, I've been...forced back to square one."
"...well, you can at least put part of the blame for that on Fuutarou, since he's the one who insisted that you quit those clubs you've been helping to make sure you're studying."
Again, Yotsuba merely smiles softly back. "But you know I can't do that."
"I know." Miku brushes some of her hair out of her face. "But you can't say that you haven't grown at all, either."
"What do you mean?"
"Well...I think this's been brought up before, but you changed a lot ever since we transferred schools. Considering how you changed from then, I would call that a growth process, though I don't know how you think of it."
Yotsuba pauses for a moment, and for that moment, Miku is unable to read the exact kind of expression her sister has on her face.
"...I'm not sure either," the fourth sibling concludes quietly. "I want to say that it was more of a reaction than a growth process...since I don't really feel like any better a person now compared to then."
"Not even when you consider how you started going around helping people?"
"I know it seems like that on the surface, but...honestly, that was more of me wanting to make up for my mistakes. Treating you guys better wasn't enough after I forced the five of us to transfer; I wanted to treat everyone better, and what better way to do that than to help everyone?"
Yotsuba's eyes droop slightly downwards, away from her sister's own eyes and down at the edge of the couch seats.
"...at least, that's what I thought, until Uesugi-san showed up. Even from early on, he asked me to stop helping everyone so much...I remember him talking to me about something called opportunity cost, I think, where the gist of it was that since I was going around helping everyone else, I didn't have time left over to take care of myself. I took his words seriously but I didn't act on it until recently, when it became clear to me what he meant by what he told me. Or, I guess, what he foresaw would happen if I didn't listen to him."
The fourth quintuplet falls quiet again but soon follows up with,
"While I don't mind not having the time to take care of myself as much, what I did come to realize was that since I was spending so much time doing what I could for those other clubs like the basketball club and the track team, I didn't have as much time to spend with you guys, and Uesugi-san helped me realize that, especially with the whole incident with me quitting the track team. And the more I thought about it, the more I then realized that how I was behaving compared to before our transfer wasn't much different...in fact, I'd argue my behavior hasn't really changed all that much, and the only major difference is that I went from being hostile to my own sisters to being friendlier."
"I mean, that's still a polar opposite switch though, so it still has to be a pretty major change, right?"
"It is, but that doesn't change the fact that I still wasn't spending as much time as I probably should have with you guys, definitely nowhere near as much time as we used to as kids. Basically, Miku, I'm saying that I was obsessed with trying to atone for all that I'd done to get us to the point of transfer, and that it was just as bad as when I was obsessed with trying to be the best out of us quintuplets at something...anything."
A silent Miku is slowly browsing her memories from middle school in tandem with Yotsuba laying out her thoughts. She had her own thoughts regarding Yotsuba's behavior back then, and now that she's hearing what Yotsuba has to say, they more or less agree with what Miku had in mind.
But before she can respond, the quints hear the doorbell ring, and Miku and Yotsuba glance at each other in slight confusion.
"...it's nine o'clock, who the heck is visiting us at this hour?" Yotsuba wonders aloud as the two of them get up from the couch and head over to their front door. To their surprise and delight, when Miku turns on the video screen to see who their sudden visitor is, they find their tutor standing outside holding a large reusable bag, the same one with the recycling logo that he's used before to bring other supplies.
"Hey," he says curtly as usual when the girls open the door eagerly to welcome him. "I just got off my shift from the hospital for tonight and your dad wanted me to drop this off on my way home."
"What is it?" Miku asks, closing the door behind him once he's stepped inside their penthouse.
"Doughnuts. There's apparently a new doughnut shop downtown that opened up recently called Modo Doughnuts, I think? They apparently make these circle mochi doughnut things. A hospital patient's family bought a ton of them to celebrate her discharge earlier today and they overbought, so they gave some to your dad since he was in charge of her treatment, and seeing that your dad doesn't like sweet stuff, he told me to pass it on to you all. You've had dinner already, right? Don't wanna spoil your appetites if you haven't yet."
"We did, don't worry."
"W-What's the occasion tonight, though?" Yotsuba asks in surprise after Fuutarou calls up to the second floor for the rest of the girls to come down and have some snacks, knowing that the girls should be able to hear him.
"What do you mean?"
"You're like, super busy these days, right? Normally if you drop things off for us, you give them to us and go, but...I mean, I don't want to make it sound like we don't want you here or anything..." Yotsuba frets, getting nervous at her own seemingly questionable word choice.
"Yotsuba's right. You said that the next time that you'd have time to hang out with us would be the summer festival," Miku says, backing up her sister. "Are you just taking a break right now like we keep telling you to?"
Fuutarou sighs defeatedly. "In fact, yes, I am, but not because I made the decision to. Your dad made me, and seeing that he's my employer, I can't exactly say no, even for something like this. Also, it gives me a good chance to see how much you girls've been studying while I wasn't here." He eyes the Japanese history textbooks and study materials on the glass table where the two sisters were studying prior to his arrival.
"Just pray that he doesn't ask you about Tokugawa Ieyasu," Miku whispers into Yotsuba's ear, and Yotsuba can't stop herself from blushing from ear to ear and pouting at her older sister.
"So what's the occasion tonight?" Nino asks as she trots down the stairs, being the first one out from her room, and spying the doughnut boxes that Fuutarou is pulling out of his bag, she squeals in delight. "Oh my God, those are from that new mochi doughnut place from downtown, right? I heard they have like, hellishly long lines because they're so popular! When'd you get these?"
As Fuutarou is explaining his circumstances to Nino and the others as Ichika and Itsuki, too, emerge from their rooms to see what's going on and join in on the fun, Miku discreetly pulls out her phone to send their father a text message thanking him for getting Fuutarou to take a break from his work and relax for a night.
"Who are you texting?" Yotsuba asks, seeing Miku on her phone as she returns from the kitchen with two glasses of juice cocktails she's made to go along with the mochi doughnuts that the quints and their tutor are enjoying, with Itsuki gorging herself on already her second cookies 'n cream mochi doughnut to nobody's surprise.
"Papa, just wanted to thank him for getting Fuutarou to actually take a night off," Miku giggles, and Yotsuba too chuckles as she hands Itsuki her drink.
"Hey, Miku, there's a few green tea doughnuts you might like," Nino calls over, pointing at one of the open boxes.
"They even have a green tea flavor? Surprising..." Miku remarks as she takes a green tea mochi doughnut that Nino fetches for her.
"They had some pretty unique flavors that I don't really see. Like this peach flavored one; I've seen stuff like peach cobbler and peach filling in pastries, but never as a glaze flavor on a doughnut before," Fuutarou comments. "There's also this plum and salt flavor that I'm not sure what to make of? It seemed pretty popular, though."
"Itsuki seems to like it a lot, at least," Ichika points out, and sure enough, Itsuki has picked out a plum and salt doughnut and is thoroughly enjoying it with her glass of mixed juice.
"Yeah, of fucking course she is, holy shit!" Nino laughs, and her sisters all follow suit, as usual to Itsuki's chagrin. "Stop hogging all the doughnuts; at least let Uesugi-kun pick one for himself!"
"It's fine, I'll just have one of these churro-flavored ones..."
"Fuutarou-kun, you aren't using this as a way to butter us up for something else, right? Seeing that you went on and on about how you wouldn't have time to hang out with us until the summer festival..." Ichika chuckles warily after a bite of her own cookies 'n cream doughnut.
"He said that he wants to check up on our study progress while he was away!" Yotsuba blurts out quickly, swallowing her mouthful of plum and salt doughnut almost too quickly, and both Ichika and Nino groan loudly.
"It's time for an educational audit!" Fuutarou exclaims like an auction announcer with a completely straight face to go with it. "Though, judging by your reactions, it seems like I'll only need to audit you two."
"Fuck you, I've been studying!"
"How do you say 'byouin' in English?"
Nino pauses, then answers:
"Hospital."
"Very good. Just need to be faster next time."
"Th-This isn't a damn speed quiz! It's not like how fast we answer matters on a test!"
"Maybe not per individual question, but over the course of a whole exam where you only have an hour to complete it, if you hesitate like that for a lot questions, then it really adds up, but admittedly I'm nitpicking..."
As Fuutarou goes around giving each of the girls sample questions in their respective areas of relative expertise, Miku feels her phone vibrate and pulls it out to see who's sent her a text. As much of a surprise as their tutor's visit was tonight, so too does her father's reply text come as one as Miku opens it to read it.
I never told him to take a night off, but he does not have a shift tonight anyway.
A/N
Updates will still be slow, but I managed to get this chapter out in between my other side projects. No ETA on when I will return to consistent uploads. Thanks to everyone who's checked out this fic because of the extra Quints chapter or the movie that released recently in JP.