Disclaimer: The Quintessential Quintuplets (Gotobun no Hanayome) and all its characters are the intellectual property of Mr. Negi Haruba. All rights reserved.
Tokai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. September 4th, 2017.
It was a sunny summer morning in the small city of Tokai, a city of some hundred thousand inhabitants in Aichi Prefecture, about a half-hour away by train from downtown Nagoya, the biggest city in the prefecture and 4th biggest in Japan. The hustle and bustle of that town is far from the scene in this quiet, residential working-class neighborhood.
It's about 7:00 AM, and you can start to see some movement in the streets of people already coming and going, mostly heading to work or to take an early morning stroll. It's still summertime, so early in the morning or in the late afternoon are the best times of day to do such a thing.
Inside a small apartment, atop an also small two-story building a young man is about to wake up and get ready to face the day. His name is Inejiro Nakamura, a 20 year old man, 1.90 meters tall (about 6.2 inches), weighing 80 kg (about 175 pounds). He's currently sleeping inside a futon fit for a man his size, awkwardly placed in the small living room of his apartment, which can barely accommodate it.
Today will be a pretty important day for this young man. Believe it or not, he is still in high school. The reasons why are neither here nor there quite yet, a mixture of painful circumstance, apathy and financial necessity. The current high school he attends, Asahiyama, is just the latest one he had to transfer to after failing his second year again last time.
The list of high schools that are willing to accept a man (not even a boy by any measure) who has spent more time just in his second year of high school than most Japanese students spend in high school in total, is quite slim. But Asahiyama is no regular institution, it's quite lax with the requirements for prospective students and...well...there was a little help.
And today, other failing students, closely related to Mr. Nakamura, are also transferring there. He knows this part, but what he doesn't know, is how the events that transpire on this day, will radically alter the trajectory of his life going forward.
But enough rambling. It's about time for his day to start.
Nakamura residence
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
Inejiro, hearing his phone ringing, starts awkwardly moving inside his futon.
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
Finally, he barely opens his eyes and starts reaching for the cell phone lying in the floor next to him.
*Ring*
He lets out a loud yawn. "Erm...yeah? Hello?"
A polite middle-aged man responds to him from his phone's speakers. "Nakamura-san, hello, good morning".
"Eh? Ebata-san? Hello, is everything alright?"
"Oh, yes, very much, don't worry. I assume you are already awake"
"Well...I am now. What time is it?"
"Oh it's about 7:05 AM. Sorry to wake you this early, I know you like to sleep until 7:30, but it's a special day".
Inejiro put up a confused face. He is aware Ebata notices every little detail, but how he knows at what time he wakes up in the morning...
"How do you...? Anyways, yeah, aren't the girls transferring today?"
"Yes, that is correct. That is what I wished to speak to you about".
"Ah, come on, I already spoke of every little detail about their transferring with you, Maruo, the girls themselves...or, well, some of them...is this good enough reason to deprive me of my last 30 minutes of beauty sleep, Ebata-san?"
The older man let out a chuckle. "Yes, it is. Our plans have changed slightly".
Upon hearing this, Inejiro finally stood up from his futon and started pacing around the room while he spoke with Ebata.
"How so? Did something happen? Could Yotsuba not-".
Ebata cut him off.
"I know what you are going to ask. Yotsuba-kun, and all of her sisters, were accepted without a problem into Asahiyama High School. You have no reason to be concerned".
Inejiro let out a sigh of relief.
"There is something else. As you know, we have been trying to find them a suitable tutor for a long time", continued Ebata.
"Heh, yeah, good luck with that", responded Inejiro, sarcastically.
"And luck we've had. Apparently, late last night Maruo-sama arranged for his daughters to be tutored by the top student in your grade. Someone your...", Ebata cleared his throat, "...their own age. Are you acquainted with that young man?"
Inejiro thought about it for a couple of seconds.
"Yeah, I think I know who he is. That guy from my class that doesn't get along with anyone and always studies by himself at lunch. What was his name?"
"Fuutarou Uesugi".
"Oh, Uesugi, right. Well...I have nothing against that guy truth be told. He definitely seems like the responsible sort, if anything. But, he's kind of..."
"What is the problem?"
"Not the most sociable. And that's an understatement. Never seen him have a conversation with anyone. Are you sure he can handle the girls?"
"From what Maruo-sama told me, he trusted him to do so".
"And you said he just arranged this last night? How?"
"Apparently Maruo-sama is acquainted with the young man's father".
Inejiro could hardly feign shock at what seemed as yet another example of brazen nepotism and/or cronyism surrounding this family. He can't complain, for reasons that will become apparent in a short while, but he never thought Maruo Nakano would go so far as to let some associate's kid tutor his daughters.
"Ah. So that's it. Well, say no more. What was it that you needed me to do?"
"I don't know what conclusions you just arrived at, Nakamura-san, but they are most likely wrong. Regardless, I wanted to ask you, since you are classmates, if you could introduce him to the girls".
"Well, we're not exactly best buds, but I'll try".
"Thank you. Also Maruo-sama wishes you to participate in the tutoring sessions. Both as a student and...as a co-tutor of sorts".
Inejiro stood still.
"Wait, what? When did my job description change to "tutor"? And...I mean, yeah this Uesugi is as sociable as a piece of marble, but he IS a great student..."
"You know as well as I do that you have the potential to be an excellent student. There are many subjects you excel at, even as of now. Social Sciences, English, Japanese..."
"Yeah, that 90 in English doesn't really matter if I also get a 15 in Math".
"That is why you will be student as well as co-tutor. You will help Uesugi-sama when he's teaching the subjects you excel at, and you will be learning with the girls when it comes to the subjects you are...challenged with".
"But, Maruo and especially you, are well aware that I do well in Social Sciences, languages and the like. Yet you have never once asked me to tutor the girls, or help them with anything academic".
Ebata chuckled again.
"Well, clearly asking is not necessary on some occasions".
"Oh Ebata-san, my good fellow, that sarcasm is quite unbecoming of you. And that didn't work out all that well, now, did it?"
"I understand Yotsuba-kun did...not as poor of a job in Japanese as in the other subjects. There was only so much you could do".
Inejiro started to get somewhat uncomfortable by the direction the conversation was going, so he attempted to cut it short as quickly as possible.
"W-well, Ebata-san, I do have to get ready for school. I'll do anything you and Maruo require, don't worry".
"Oh, I am sure you will end up having fun. And it is a good opportunity for you to actually move forward with your studies. Well, I will leave you to get ready for your day".
"Sure Ebata-san, have a nice day!"
"Same to you".
And with that, Ebata-san hung up the phone.
Flashback
Well, our readers are probably missing more than a fair bit of context. Inejiro Nakamura has been closely acquainted with the Nakano family for a very long time, about eight years to be exact. In fact, they weren't even the 'Nakano family' quite yet when he met them.
Inejiro was quite the rambunctious young boy when he was a kid, so he spent the bulk of his free time in the streets, hanging out with friends from his neighborhood and/or from school. They were all kids with pretty absent parents, whether from irresponsibility, lack of care, or overwork. Inejiro's case was mostly the third. He lived with his grandparents and his father. His grandmother has always been a stay-at-home wife, his grandfather never could find well-playing employment when he was young and therefore had a pretty low pension, and his father had to work his ass off to sustain the four of them. Not the most glamorous jobs either, since he could barely finish high school himself, Inejiro having been born only a few months after his graduation.
Well, since his father was away most of the day, and his grandparents could barely control the comings and goings of the boy, he spent hours on end killing time with his friends, more often than not finding some playground in which to kick a ball around, hanging out in the swings, that sort of thing.
One day, Inejiro was hanging out with his friends in one of these playgrounds, though sadly they had forgotten to bring a ball, so they were just lazying around in the swings. Suddenly, he saw a group of five little girls being bullied by some older kids. They also liked to kick a ball around, and a group of kids about Inejiro's age wanted to rob them of their ball for some reason. Probably some local young delinquents. Inejiro was enraged by this, so he went and confronted this group of kids, with his own friends in tow.
Back then he was also quite big and strong for his age, so when it came to picking up fights or defending themselves from other boys, his friends usually just followed behind him. He just went up and basically ordered the other group of boys to leave the girls alone. Most of them, when seeing a bigger, menacing kid speaking to them in such a commanding tone, immediately cowered. But one of them, probably their leader, tried to stand up to him. Asked him what the hell he thought he was doing, it was none of his business, he and his friends wanted to play soccer but they didn't have a ball, so they just took that one. It's a game for boys anyways, not girls, he said. And if Inejiro didn't like it, he could go elsewhere and leave them alone.
At that age, Inejiro already didn't take very kindly to the strong preying on the weak and defenseless just because they could. His grandfather's influence, no doubt. He immediately moved forward and forcefully grabbed the ball from the other boy's hands. At this point, the five girls were already all standing behind Inejiro, close to his group of friends, teary-eyed and scared by the whole situation. Inejiro handed one of them the ball, and told the other boy that if he wanted it back, he'd have to go through him.
That other kid was clearly enraged, but it seemed something in the back of his mind reminded him of the impossible odds he would face if he and his scared little posse tried to fight Inejiro and his gang, so he ran off with his friends. Truth be told, even though Inejiro clearly could wallop most boys his age in a fight if he wanted to, his appearance was menacing enough that he almost never had to.
After this, the five little girls let out a scream of joy. It was the first time someone had defended them from any bullies, something with which they did have to deal with somewhat often. Five little girls hanging out by themselves made themselves a target for the more unscrupulous and predatory kids in the playground, especially with little or no adult supervision.
It was at this point that Inejiro was shocked. He didn't get a look at them before, but now he noticed: they were all completely identical. They all were the same height and size, they all had the exact same pinkish hair at exactly the same length, and the exact same blue colored eyes. He'd never seen or heard of something similar. He had heard stories of twins or even triplets from his family and friends or on TV. But these weren't two identical girls, not even three. They were FIVE.
He didn't want to mention anything, since he thought it would be rude, but one of the girls clearly noticed his shock. She said that indeed they were quintuplets, and proceeded to introduce herself. Her name was Ichika, and gave herself the title of the 'eldest sister'. Inejiro, still a young boy, didn't quite understand how there could be an 'elder' in a group of girls all born at the same time, but he did notice she seemed like the leader of the bunch.
Ichika proceeded to introduce the rest of her sisters, by order of birth, according to her. Nino, was the second; Miku, the third. The fourth sister didn't wait for her elder to introduce her, and raised her hand and shouted out her name. "Hi, I'm Yotsuba!", she yelled. "And that is Itsuki!", she also said, pointing at the girl standing to her right, which Inejiro assumed was the 'younger' one.
Inejiro then asked them how old they were, to which Ichika replied that they were nine years old. That caused the boy to ask another question, why were they all by themselves in the playground. Ichika answered that their mom has to spend most of her time working, and they all live in a pretty small apartment, so they like to go outside to have a bit of fun.
Inejiro could relate quite closely to their situation. It was not exactly the same as his, but similar enough. He empathized with them immediately, even more so having seen them being picked on by those bullies.
While Inejiro and the girls were speaking, his friends still stood around, quite visibly bored and annoyed by the whole thing. It was never their choice to go and rescue these girls, and frankly, they didn't care about them or what they had to say. They just wanted a fun afternoon out like they usually had, and Inejiro just had to go and get them into these strangers' business. They weren't even particularly interested in the fact that they were identical quintuplets, they just wanted to move on with their day, and hanging out with little girls didn't seem like a good plan.
Yotsuba seemed to notice that the group of boys didn't have a ball of their own, so she told Ichika to invite them to play. The sisterly hierarchy was clearly at play here. "Hey, Ichika, mom always tells us we need to be kind to strangers. These boys helped us, why don't we play with them?", she said.
Ichika nodded and repeated to Inejiro the last part of what Yotsuba had said. It was at this point, that one of Inejiro's friends chimed in. "You don't seriously think we're gonna play soccer with a bunch of little girls, do you? Come on Jiro, you saved the day already, tell them to leave us alone", he said. "Yeah dude, they're a bunch of little babies, let's just go on elsewhere", another chimed in, clearly emboldened.
The smile in Ichika and Yotsuba's faces quickly wiped away, and was replaced by a sad frown. Their younger sisters just shared a look of disbelief between themselves. They all thought to themselves some variant of boys being rude. Then Inejiro spoke out. "Boys, come on, we can't just leave these girls here! Also, we were just doing nothing until just now, we forgot to bring a ball, can't play anything without one. Well, they have one! Playing with them surely beats doing nothing, doesn't it?"
Most of the girls thought it was somewhat insulting to be called "better than nothing", especially Nino, who was starting to look visibly aggravated. But Ichika, being group leader herself, noticed he was trying to convince his gang, and just watched.
"Oh you're serious, aren't you? You really want us to play with these bunch of little girls, don't you? Well, screw this, I'm going home", one of his friends said and turned to leave. "Yeah, what is wrong with you? Girls are boring, and these ain't even our own age! What are we gonna do, play house with them? I'm off too", said another.
"Well screw you guys! If you don't wanna play with us, we don't either! Let's go girls!", a very angry Nino said. "Oh look at miss potty mouth right there, you kiss your mommy with that mouth?", one of the boys said. "I can kiss your ass!", Nino yelled back.
Yeah, she hadn't quite gotten the hang of the whole 'insults' business quite yet.
The whole group of boys, except for Inejiro, laughed out loud. That only made Nino more angry, and at that point Ichika started getting angry as well. But before she could say a word, Inejiro spoke.
"I thought you guys were my friends, but it seems you're just a bunch of assholes. I am not going to leave these girls alone. And really, I quite like the idea of playing a bit of soccer. Any of you who wants to stay is free to do so, the rest, I don't care".
"Hah! Jiro, what, are you in love with them or something? Do you have a thing for nine year-olds?", the boy who was fighting with Nino said.
Inejiro clearly did not like his comment one bit. He walked up to him, stared him straight in the eyes, with his face tensing up. He forcefully grabbed the boy's shoulder, which started to hurt him.
"Hey, Junichi. Wanna say that one again?", Inejiro asked.
The other boys stood in shock, while the girls just watched.
"Ow Jiro just let me go!", Junichi yelled, starting to tear up. That startled the rest of the playground, and other kids and the few adults there started to stare. Noticing that he could get into trouble, Inejiro let go of the boy.
"Junichi, I'll let you off this time. But from this day on, we're no longer friends. You're no better than those other idiots that we ran off. And the rest of you", he stared at the rest of the group. "I don't wanna play with you anymore today. You pissed me off. I'll just play with them, they're way more fun than you", he said as he pointed at the girls. "Bye, see you at school".
Having said that, Junichi and the rest of his friends (if you could even call them that at this point), left the playground, with Junichi grabbing his shoulder, which clearly still hurt.
"Whoa, you're so cool! You defended us again!", Yotsuba yelled out as she ran towards him. "Are those boys your friends? They seemed really mean...".
"Eh, they're just kids from class. Don't really feel like hanging around them much anymore". As he stared at the girl, he realized that he wasn't aware who she was. He could mostly remember their names when they were introducing themselves in order, but now...he did remember their names, but not which was which.
"Erm, sorry, but...which one were you?", Inejiro asked sheepishly.
"Yotsuba! Can you not tell? Look!", she said as she tried to look straight at his face, so he could see her clearly. Not an easy task, since he was about two heads taller than her. Inejiro wondered if the girls even knew that they looked the same to everyone but themselves. He really had no clue what having a set of identical siblings must be like, and whether at nine you're even smart enough to realize how weird this whole thing is.
"Ah, Yotsuba, yeah, the fourth one", he replied. Yotsuba's re-introduction reminded him that he never actually told the girls his name. He told them that he was called Inejiro, his friends called him 'Jiro', and he was 12 years old. The girls were really excited that they would get to play with someone else. Being five sisters, and identical to boot, they usually just hung out by themselves, they weren't used to making friends. And an older boy no less. At that age, kids tend to look at older kids with a degree of respect and admiration, like they're a step above them. Even more so with this being Japan, where respect based on seniority is taught to children from an early age.
To sum up the rest of the day, the gang of 6 (or 5+1 if you wanna look at it that way) spent the whole afternoon playing soccer together. All being aware of the obvious physical superiority of Inejiro, the arrangement they came to was that the girls would divide themselves in two teams, one of three and one of two. Yotsuba and Ichika on one side, being the better players of the bunch; Nino, Miku and Itsuki on the other, not being quite as good. They would play against each other, and Inejiro would be the goalkeeper.
Well, truth be told even like this neither team could get a ball past Inejiro with ease. Being big and tall gives you an advantage as a keeper at any level, but being a twelve year-old facing up against a bunch of nine year-olds, took it to a whole new level. But the girls he was facing were all identical, he could hardly differentiate the lot of them, and every now and then, they could take advantage of his distraction. In the end, the Yotsuba-Ichika side managed to beat their sisters 3-1.
As the afternoon wound down and the Sun started to set, most other kids in the playground started to leave, some of them by themselves, some picked up by their parents. Eventually, Ichika told her sisters that it was time to go, that their mother would be home from work anytime and she'd get angry if they were still away from home. Despite the "older sister"'s repeated assurances that they could walk home by themselves just fine, Inejiro remained worried. He remembered the group of kids who tried to rob them earlier, and he knew how these groups of thugs could be. They might be hanging out nearby and might go after the girls again if they saw them walking alone. And you never know exactly what kind of kids they were, what they would do to the girls as revenge for what happened earlier.
Somewhat too paranoid and wary, especially for a boy his age, you might say. Perhaps it is true. But having grown up in a troubled context, he was more aware of a lot of dangers than most. Some kids his age he knew, or a couple of years older, already started hanging out with actual gangs. He didn't wanna take any chances, especially considering it was getting dark. So he offered to walk the girls home, to which they happily obliged. They would get to spend more time with their new friend, after all.
As they got on their way, Itsuki, who had not talked much throughout the day and had seemed to keep a distance from the boy, asked him how his parents would know where to pick him up, if he wasn't scared of worrying them for staying out too late, that sort of thing. Inejiro didn't really want to share much about his home life, so he didn't say much. He just explained that, on the contrary, if he let them go home by themselves, his dad and grandad would probably give him a piece of their minds.
As they carried on, the girls mostly chit-chatted by themselves, while Inejiro walked behind them. He tried to be on the look-out for any dangers nearby, but there was no one to be seen. Maybe those kids had left for good, or they were around but still scared of him or something. Regardless, it was a peaceful walk. Tokai is a small city, nothing is too far away from anywhere, so the walk from the playground to the apartment building where the girls lived took somewhere between 10-15 minutes.
As they arrived, Inejiro noticed from afar a tall brown-haired woman standing by the building. He said so to the girls, after which they all started running towards her. He figured that was probably their mother. They all hugged the woman, who crawled on her knees so her daughters could embrace her, while Inejiro stood, unsure if he should say hi or not. She noticed the boy standing there, and she looked at him curiously. It wasn't common for her daughters to arrive home late, and even more rare, with a boy in tow.
She stood up and approached the boy, and asked his name, and what he was doing with her daughters. He responded, somewhat nervously, that he was called Inejiro Nakamura, and before he could explain what had happened, her daughters ran closer and took turns to explain to her the whole story that had transpired that day.
Having listened to her daughters, the woman changed her expression, and smiled at Inejiro. Told him her name was Rena, and she was the mother of the quintuplets, and was very grateful that he took such great care of her daughters. Rena was a tall brunette, blue-eyed (same as her daughters), pretty tall and with a slim figure. She was wearing a white buttoned-up shirt, and a long black skirt. Inejiro thought a couple of things. First, that she looked exactly like a teacher. In fact, he would soon find, he was correct. Secondly, that this was very likely one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, even on TV. At that age, young boys start noticing these things.
At that point, having fulfilled his mission, Inejiro waved the girls and their mother goodbye and turned to leave, but at that point a chorus of the quintuplets asked their mother if they could invite Inejiro in to have some snacks or something. Rena could hardly say no to her daughters, and was also sincerely grateful to the boy, so she agreed. Inejiro, not being able to withstand the pressure from his five companions, also obliged. He figured his dad would agree. In fact...he was worried about the reaction his dad would have for other reasons, which we'll leave to the readers' imagination for now.
Inside their apartment, which was small but tidy and well-kept, Rena served everyone some milk and cookies. The girls continued happily telling their mother about the events of the day, how Inejiro defended them not once but twice (from his own group of friends no less), how they played a soccer game which Yotsuba and Ichika won, that sort of thing. Inejiro mostly just ate and drank from his glass silently at first. He couldn't help but feel like he was somewhat intruding on someone else's home, he barely even knew any of his friends' families and they never invited him over. Also...yeah he still couldn't tell a single one of the girls apart. He felt somewhat guilty over that, even though it's completely reasonable that he wouldn't.
However, he soon started being won over by the atmosphere, he started feeling quite happy listening to the girls telling their mother about their day, and Rena listening with such honest enthusiasm. It was such a loving atmosphere that he felt right at home. Eventually Rena, clearly curious about the boy she had just let into her house, asked him about his parents' name, where he lived, which school he went to. Not wanting to be rude to the woman, and also having let his guard down a little bit, he told her.
He lived some seven blocks away from her apartment, in an even smaller one which he shared with his grandparents and his father. He also said that he sadly didn't get to see his father too often. Rena started looking at him with a worried expression, already starting to imagine in her mind what kind of man Inejiro's father must be, clearly drawing from her own lived experience. So she asked him what his father did for a living. He told her that he used to work construction, but for a year or two he had greatly struggled to find employment, so he did odd-jobs here and there wherever he could find them. For some context, this took place in the year 2009, and Japan was dealing with the effects of the Great Recession, which caused levels of unemployment and poverty similar to the burst of the bubble in 1993 and the lost decade that succeeded it.
Back on topic. Inejiro explained that between whatever jobs his father could find and his grandparents' pensions they scraped by a living. But that not to worry, his dad always found a way out eventually, and everything was gonna be fine. Rena had been ready to picture his father as a worthless lecher who didn't care about his son, but changed her mind having listened to the boy. She understood well enough the situation a lot of families around the country had been going through. She was, after all, a single mother of five.
Time went by, and soon enough, it started to get quite late. And the quints had school the next morning (so too, by the way, did Inejiro). The girls were quite tired and sleepy already, since it was a pretty eventful day after all. Inejiro was going to leave by himself, but Rena wasn't happy to just allow him to leave alone that late. She asked him to give her his father's number so she could call him to come pick his son up, but Inejiro told her his father didn't have a mobile phone. He had sold it a couple of weeks ago for a little extra bit of cash. She thought about inviting him to spend the night at their apartment, but it was clear to her that it was completely uncalled for to do that without permission from the boy's father, or grandparents. So begrudgingly she let him leave by himself, not before writing down her phone number so he could call when he got home safe. And also, arrange other play dates with her daughters some other day, since they all seemed to hit it off really well.
Inejiro was struck by the sincere kindness the woman was showing him, him being nothing more than a stranger to her. Yeah, it could be reasonable to think that she was just grateful he stood up for her daughters, but, it just seemed different. He just felt safe and comfortable. And he also never in his very young life thought he'd have as much fun as he did, playing with a bunch of girls three years younger than him. He just felt good all around: he felt like he did a good deed standing up for them, and he had a great time afterward. He liked the idea of hanging out with them again some other time. He did not have the slightest clue of exactly how intertwined his life would become with those quintuplets.
A routine developed. A couple of times every week, he would call Rena, and arrange to meet with the quintuplets either in some playground, the beach, the pool, their home, whatever they fancied. He did still have his group of friends in school, in fact he was decently popular, being good at sports as he was (he played for both the soccer and basketball teams in his middle school), but he hardly ever saw them outside of school. He just preferred to hang out with the girls a whole bunch more than with the kids from school.
Now, as we discussed, Tokai is not a big town. You're bound to run into people you know every so often. It became a well known fact that the star center and striker for the school's basketball and soccer teams respectively used to spend a lot of his free time hanging around five...quintuplets, which made it even weirder. Obviously, rumors flew around. Were they his long lost sisters? What relationship did they have? No one really understood.
Of course, nobody was gonna tell him anything to his face, they didn't wanna get on his bad side. Inejiro wasn't particularly violent or a bully or anything like that, far from it. But still, most kids have some somewhat primitive respect and/or fear for the bigger, physically strong kids.
Anyways. Years went by, and a lot happened. Some three years after Inejiro met the quintuplets, their mother, Rena, passed away. She overworked herself to an early grave. It goes without saying how much of an earth-shattering event this was for the young sisters, who were at that point 12 years old, in their first year of middle school. Not only did they have to deal with the fact that their mother had just died, there was a lot of uncertainty hanging over them. Who would take care of them now?
Their biological father abandoned Rena when she was pregnant, and was nowhere to be found. The girls never met him nor knew of him. Their grandfather was alive, but he ran a ryokan all by himself in Himakajima, and was getting up there in age. He was hardly in a position to take in all five of them, although he'd have been more than happy to provide for his dear granddaughters. Where would they go? Would they be sent to an orphanage? And the worst fear of them all: would they be separated?
Inejiro at the time was 15, in his first year of high school. His literal first year, by the way, he hadn't been held back yet. He too grieved Rena's loss greatly, in those three years he had almost become part of the family. He was close to the quints' mother, and the quints were close to his father too. She was almost like an adoptive mother to him, the mother he never had.
He also hated seeing how much his friends were suffering. As it was on the day they met, he had seen himself somewhat like their protector, he would do anything to save those girls from harm. And there was nothing he could do to help them. They were basically orphans. He was just a 15 year-old boy, he was powerless. His family was poor, even poorer than theirs. He knew that his dad would have been more than happy to even take them in if he could, but Inejiro was smart enough to understand that wasn't possible.
That's when Maruo Nakano came into the picture. He had been a student of Rena in high school, and was the president of her fan club. That admiration he felt for her with time turned to love, and he gave it his all, having become a doctor as an adult, to try to cure Rena of her ailments. Sadly, as we've discussed, there was nothing he could do, Rena's body had become too weak, and eventually, it gave up.
However, there was one last thing that Rena asked from him: that he take care of her daughters. She was well aware of what would happen to them after she died, if there wasn't an adult to take care of them. So she married Maruo, not long before she died, so he would become stepfather to the quintuplets, and therefore their legal guardian. He agreed to it, as his last favor to the woman he had loved for so long.
It goes without saying that Inejiro was quite relieved when he heard about this. How did he hear about this, exactly? After all, if he didn't know Maruo, it stood to reason that Maruo wouldn't know of him. Well, a day after Rena's funeral, Inejiro's dad got a phone call from a man called Ebata (yes, he is that Ebata). Apparently, Rena had left Maruo the Nakamuras' contact information, as she wanted her daughters' only true friend to be made aware of everything, and that he and his family would get all the help they needed from Maruo.
Of course, it was Ebata that communicated this. Then as now, a man of the people Maruo was not. But, he was kind in his own way, and a man of his word. A man of great wealth and well connected with the local elites, he managed to hook up Inejiro's father with a good job that was well-paying enough to cover all his family's expenses. That was a huge breath of fresh air to the Nakamura household, which had been piling up debts for years, barely managing to make ends meet, with even eviction and homelessness being a real threat. That was no more. They would not live any life of luxury, but they would get by.
As for the quintuplets, they became members of the Nakano family, being Maruo's legal daughters now. They moved into an apartment in one of the most luxurious buildings in town, called The Pentagon (no relation to the one in Arlington, Virginia...I think). They transferred to the prestigious Kurobara Middle School, one of the most exclusive, strict, and frankly, pretentious, girl schools in the whole Prefecture. After having spent their childhoods living while not in poverty, in humble conditions, it seemed they were gonna spend their puberty and adolescence in the lap of luxury and privilege.
Now, the Nakamuras and the Nakanos lived quite far apart from each other, belonged to completely different social classes and moved in very different social circles. And, also, they were all going through complicated stages in the life of any human being: Inejiro was a teenager, and the girls were just about to hit puberty. They couldn't just be the group of kids who had fun play dates in the playground anymore. So, they did drift apart at first.
Don't get me wrong. They did continue to get together from time to time. You can't just break such a bond so easily. In fact, some of the quints developed interests and hobbies that they could enjoy together with their childhood friend, and so they did. He played sports with Yotsuba; discussed Japanese history with Miku; watched classic movies with Ichika. Itsuki and Nino, on the other hand, proved to be more difficult. Itsuki, out of all of the sisters, was the one that took their mother's death the hardest, and seemed to take refuge in her studies. And Nino...she's a story for another day.
When it comes to his school life, he settled into high school quite well. He got grades that went between average and great depending on the subject, excelled physically as always, and he even started having a love life. He met his then girlfriend when they were both freshmen in high school.
The quintuplets also settled into their new lives, and they were changing, growing to be more different from each other as time went on. They were no longer the five little girls Inejiro had met in the playground, they started going through the long and difficult process of becoming grown-ups. But even though economically they were more than secure, in everything else they mostly had to take care of themselves. Their mother had just passed away, and their new stepfather was remarkably emotionally distant. Not everything that glitters is gold, and they had their growing pains, which in one sisters' case in particular, would end up making these arrangements impossible to sustain. But, we'll talk about all that at a later date.
In Inejiro's case, if his first year went without a hitch, his second couldn't possibly have been more different. This will also be touched upon further in the story, but various circumstances, some of his own making and some not so much, led to his academics deteriorating mightily. Granted, he did get decent grades in the subjects he liked, but in the others...let's just say getting a 5/100 in science or 10/100 in math was not uncommon. So he got held back a year for the first time, having failed all his exams. You have to get at least 30 in all subjects in order to pass, and getting a 50 in one and a 10 in another wasn't gonna fly.
His third year was even worse. He was still allowed to attend the same school, since it wasn't all that strict. But he could no longer compete in sports teams, at least for a year. Those were the rules. So he had little to no motivation to even go. He couldn't play soccer, couldn't play basketball, so who cares. He made sure to attend just enough classes not to be kicked out entirely, but when it came time for the exams, he even did barely worse than last time. Held back again. And this time, all of the friends from his generation he had made, were graduating. Some even going to college.
So if he had little motivation to go to school in his third year, his fourth was just impossible. He could have stayed in school, but he had no clubs, no friends, no nothing. And he was also now 18 years old, could join the workforce if he wanted. And that he did. You might be very surprised to hear that this involved the Nakano family.
As mentioned earlier, Maruo Nakano was a greatly influential man, and he was very much aware of the comings and goings around town. If there was anyone or anything he was interested in, all he had to do was ask the right person and he'd be made aware of anything he wanted. And he was aware of Inejiro, and his situation. He had not forgotten that he had promised to Rena that he'd help this boy and his family if they required it. And as luck would have it, Maruo had something he needed from him as well.
Ebata was Maruo's most trusted employee. He employed thousands of people in the hospital. From janitors to security guards; from nurses to doctors. But Ebata worked personally for him, and for his family. He not only had hospital-related duties to attend to, he also drove the quintuplets to and from school (or anywhere they fancied), made sure their apartment was clean and tidy, helped them study, even cooked for them from time to time. And this was just completely unreasonable. Ebata was the very definition of overwork. Maruo trusted the man with his and his daughters' lives, which he couldn't say about anyone else. So despite how overworked Ebata was, he could not replace him in any of his duties. Now, it is true that some of those duties are the duties of a father, which he did not fulfill, but his life was synonymous with work. There was space for nothing more, not even his family.
That's where Inejiro came in. For a while, Maruo had made sure Ebata found out what kind of man Inejiro was, if he was fit to take care of his daughters. Rena did hold great affection for him, and he used to be his daughters' childhood friend, but time had passed. He was now a high school failure, soon-to-be dropout. Yeah, he was their childhood friend, but time had passed. Something didn't feel right to Maruo about a young adult male being surrounded by his teenage daughters day-in and day-out. He wasn't sure if their having a history made Inejiro more suspect, or less.
Eventually, Ebata managed to convince him that Inejiro was suitable enough for the job, so he hired him. He would replace Ebata in a lot of the family-related duties, but was gonna be kept under Ebata's watchful eye to make sure he behaved and did a good job. And that was how he reconnected with the now Nakano quintuplets, as a family employee.
And that brings us back to the present, after this rather large recap. In early April, 2017, Inejiro rejoined high school, taking a third shot at the 11th grade. He joined Asahiyama High School, where the Chairman of the Board was acquainted with Maruo, who made sure to overlook Inejiro's past academic performance and current age (he was 19 years old at that point, not exactly in line with his would-be classmates). It's not like his enrollment broke any of the school's rules, but greasing the wheels a little sometimes does help.
Little did anyone know that five months later, the quintuplets would be joining in. And with that, our story can finally begin...
Author's notes: Well, I'm finally dropping the first chapter of this! Wanted to write something QQ related since I first finished the anime, I thought this universe had so much potential to be exploited. So I'm really glad to finally be doing this.
First of all, scheduling. I wanna commit to dropping a chapter once every two weeks. I want that to be set in stone, unless I need to change that, of which you'd be informed. This doesn't mean that I won't be publishing once a week from time to time, or even more often, but I want "once every couple of weeks" to be what you can reasonably expect.
Some other things. English is not my mother tongue, so if I make a mistake here and there, be it spelling or grammar, yeah, that's why. If you wanna inform me of any screw-ups, please do so in the reviews or private messages, whatever you fancy, and I'll see if I can edit the chapter, if it doesn't disrupt the flow of the story too much.
Some final things. I'm gonna be using the English order for character names. Name first, surname second. For instance, Inejiro is the name, Nakamura the surname. And if there's any Brits out there that get their feelings hurt, I called the sport 'soccer' because in Japanese it's called 'sakka', easy to tell where it comes from. It just seemed like it made more sense. Don't worry, I also think the Yankees are ridiculous for making up that name.
Well, nothing more to say, other than I hope you enjoyed this prologue, and that you'll enjoy the rest of the story! Drop a review if you liked the story, or if you hated it, or anything in between. You can also just contact me if you wanna talk about...well, anything really, as long as it's not *too* personal. I'm quite new to this fanfiction business, not just as a writer, but also as a reader, so any sort of advice or just support would be very welcome. Now I am done rambling, have a good one y'all!
P.D.: For any VERY early readers, apparently I had forgotten to save some last moment tweaks I did to some punctuation and the format, so I re-uploaded the chapter. Excuse the amateurish nature of this issue, hopefully won't happen again!