Shape of the Heart – Four-leaf Clover
By Fox McCloude
Disclaimer: The Quintessential Quintuplets and all related characters belong to Haruba Negi. All rights reserved.
Chapter 22: Welcome to Class 3-1
Asahiyama High…
In all his life, Fuutarou wouldn't recall a first day of class that was so much of a ruckus. Or rather, that he was in the middle of said ruckus. When he got to the classroom, he found to his surprise that not only the Nakano quintuplets would be his classmates, but also Maeda and Takeda, both of whom waved at him upon entering. He returned the greeting in the same fashion, and to be honest he was glad to see them as well.
Of course, seeing his two recently-made friends ended up being a background thing, compared to the students presenting themselves in front of the whole class. When the Nakanos' took their turns, absolutely everyone's eyes were drawn towards them, either because they'd met them before during the school trip last year, or because they were seeing them all together for the first time. The sisters quickly became the center of attention, as everyone wanted to meet them, and when they found out some guys tried to approach him to act as middleman and introduce them (which he staunchly refused, as he had little interest in playing matchmaker).
Nothing could have prepared him, however, for the biggest of surprises coming at the day's end. The quints told him their father wanted to talk to him, allegedly about "serious business", and now they were all in a lonely classroom as the boy held up his cellphone awaiting the tone.
He was extremely nervous, which only shot up tenfold when he heard Mr. Nakano's voice on the other side of the line.
"Hello?"
"Good afternoon, Mr. Nakano?" he said, doing his best to keep composure and not to stutter. "Your daughters said you wished to talk to me?"
"Ah yes, of course. I was waiting for your call. I have… a business proposal for you."
The boy gulped, wondering what his former employer would have in mind. He'd already fulfilled his contract in helping Yotsuba so she could return to her former school, albeit in the end that did not happen. Instead, the rest of the quintuplets had come to Asahiyama.
Could he be thinking about…?
"As you know, I am very pleased with your work with Yotsuba. However, and given the current circumstances, the rest of my daughters convinced me to transfer them to your school. Something that has given me no small amount of trouble."
"Yeah, I can imagine it so," he said, trying to stay on his good graces and not make him angry.
"As a concerned father who wants what's best for his daughters, I agreed to their terms on a simple condition," Mr. Nakano continued, now sounding more serious. "All of them promised me they would graduate whatever it takes. And while I wish to have faith in them… I'd like to take precautions to ensure they will fulfill their end."
Fuutarou swallowed harder. He saw it coming. He could see what was about to happen a mile away.
"So, I wish to offer you a new contract as a tutor. This time, I'd like you to help all of my daughters. I'll leave them in your care, and I'll expect good results from you."
The boy stared at the quints, whose expressions, despite varying amongst each other, all looked rather attentive to the conversation. They'd forced him to put the phone on speaker so they could hear both sides, so they wouldn't miss any details.
"I'm flattered by your trust, sir," Fuutarou said. "Though I'm not certain if I can… handle all five at once."
"If you see yourself in the need to ask for help, you are free to do so," Mr. Nakano replied. "As long as you fulfill your end of the contract, I'll fulfill mine by paying your due. However, and I want this to be very clear, I demand that you keep your relationship with my daughters within proper limits. I don't want to find out you're incurring in any behavior that I deem inappropriate with them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Fuutarou once again gulped hard. All quintuplets had the expected reactions: Ichika and Yotsuba giggled in amusement, Nino puffed up her cheeks, Itsuki looked concerned, and Miku… simply shrugged.
"Y-yes, sir. I understand perfectly."
"Good," the icy voice replied from the other side. "Now, let's talk about your payment."
Although he wouldn't say it out loud, that was what mattered to him the most at the time. All by itself, he'd gotten plenty of money with the past contract, to the point he could separate a slice to open a bank account once he turned eighteen.
"Since you will have more work in your hands, it's only fitting that I raise your payment. What do you say about 50% more than your previous fee, for teaching each one of my daughters?"
At that moment, it was like Fuutarou's brain got frozen. For starters, the last he could process were the data he was just given: previous pay, 50% increment, and now multiplied by five. Out of pure instinct he did the calculation, doing an estimate of five days a week on average, for all the duration of the school year… and the result left him stiff.
Sounded like too good of a deal to be true. Was he hallucinating? Did he misheard?
"Hey, Uesugi-kun? Are you still there?"
"Fuutarou-kun… what's the…?"
At the moment he knew nothing else; it was like all his world went white and then blacked out all of a sudden. The last thing he recalled was Ichika tapping his face softly, and Yotsuba's voice screaming "Look out, he's falling, catch him!"
He could only imagine he fainted in shock upon calculating all the money he could earn.
As the first class week went by…
Recovered from the initial shock, Fuutarou finally had time to process the information. He learned from the Nakanos later that they had to apologize to their father and explain to him that Fuutarou had fainted in shock upon learning how much he'd get paid for his services. It wasn't a surprise; if his estimation was correct, he'd have enough to pay the last of his family debts, and plenty more to himself, to do whatever he wanted with it.
Problem with that, he was still unsure about what he'd do with the rest of the money. He figured he could save it for his eventual bank account to pay for his studies, but if he got a full university scholarship thanks to his high grades, that would be redundant.
'I envy those five; they have so much money, yet they always seem to know what to do with it,' he thought.
The first week of class had gone with nothing particularly outstanding. Except the time during homeroom when the class representatives would be chosen. Much to his astonishment, Yotsuba stepped forward and nominated him, not even asking whether he wanted the post or not. The ribbon girl insisted he'd be the best for the job, but the rest of the classroom seemed to disagree, and some nominated Takeda. Before a fight could break out inside the classroom, and not wanting to assume more responsibilities, Fuutarou proposed to decide it with a voting, which Takeda agreed.
The result surprised him: there were fourteen votes for Takeda, and six for Fuutarou. By elimination, and since he didn't vote for himself, he could deduce that five out of the six votes on his favor were from the Nakanos, and with the sixth… he didn't think Takeda would vote for him, given that he looked like he wanted the spot when he was nominated. Which only left…
"It was you, right?" he asked Maeda once homeroom was over. "The sixth vote was yours."
"I couldn't care less who won, but I didn't want you to look so bad," the brown-haired boy replied, as he leaned back on his chair and rested his feet on the desk. "Though I'm surprised the five of them voted for ya. You guys have grown quite close, huh?"
"I guess so," Fuutarou admitted. He was mostly surprised at the fact that even Nino voted for him, though maybe she did so to avoid being the only one who disagreed. But it didn't mean he wasn't at least a bit happy over that sign of trust.
When the female representative was chosen, Fuutarou wanted to get revenge by nominating Yotsuba to get even, but the ribbon girl refused, even though almost everyone in the classroom knew and liked her, thanks to her charisma and cheerful personality. In the end, the chosen one was someone called Emi Ohyama, the third best student score-wise behind him and Takeda, thus settling all the representative business for good.
That said, during the in-between classes break, he couldn't help but wonder what made her change her mind so quickly.
"I don't know why you refused," he told Yotsuba as they walked back to the classroom. "You seemed rather eager when you nominated me."
"It wouldn't have been fun without you," the ribbon girl replied. "Besides, that would look great on your student resume, don't you think so? In case you needed extra credits."
"I'd say someone else needs extra credits here," he replied as he looked at her through the corner of the eye. The orange-haired girl pouted at the remark, which brought a half-smirk to his face. "I mean, you can easily get it by joining a sports club full time."
"Don't know if I can. I managed to get through last year by the hair, and it was all thanks to you."
"Nonsense," Fuutarou declared bluntly. "Considering how bad you were at the start you did pretty well. It's all a matter of balancing your schedule so you can get everything done, and that you don't bite more than you can chew. Besides, keep in mind who's your tutor."
Yotsuba gave him a look. The girl seemed to still hesitate, but he'd seen how motivated she was whenever he encouraged her, so he decided to keep feeding that. Of course, he did know he had to set a few limits.
"One thing though; make sure it's a club with trustworthy people. We don't want a repeat of the swimming team's fiasco, do we?"
"Hmm…" Yotsuba placed a finger on her chin, becoming thoughtful. He could swear he saw her ribbon twitching like bunny ears for a moment. "Ah, I got it! I know exactly what to do! Be right back, Uesugi-san!"
And before he had time to ask any questions, she ran off across the hallway, instead of entering the classroom with him. All he saw was her entering one of the other classes beyond, but he hoped she wouldn't be late as the next class would start in less than five minutes.
Inside the classroom he saw the other Nakanos minding their own business each. Nino was talking to the other girls in their class, Itsuki had sat on her desk and was wearing her reading glasses, Ichika was signing the boy's notebooks (was she already giving out autographs?) and Miku was playing with her Tablet.
After the eldest sister gave him a "I'll be with you shortly" look, followed by a wink that earned him several glares from the boys, Fuutarou went to take his seat. Even about two chairs away, he noticed Miku as she played Sengoku Wars Online, and seemed very focused on it.
"Still playing it?" he asked.
"I'm trying out the new DLC," the girl replied. "Besides, my rival's in the local area, again."
Come to think of it, Miku's rival had been at the school trip last year, and Fuutarou then learned that Takeda also played the game. Takeda had also attended the school trip, right when he was telling Miku how to beat her rival in that specific map so she could get some revenge.
Right then, she couldn't help but smirk maliciously. It'd probably be fun to watch what could happen should they meet.
"I have a… slight idea of who it may be," he said.
The quiet middle sister paused her game. She didn't utter a word, but her look clearly said "Tell me more".
For a moment, Fuutarou almost gave out the name. But then he thought, should it be okay to give away a friend that way? While Takeda self-proclaimed as his rival and they continued to compete academically, he'd always behave in a cordial and polite manner. And of course, he had not forgotten the time he and Maeda saved his neck.
"It's just a hunch, but… I think it's someone from our class."
"You think?" Miku asked, raising her eyebrow almost imperceptibly.
"Sorry, I'm not saying any names." He shrugged. "I don't think you'll have it hard to find them; there aren't many to play that game in our class as far as I know."
Miku pouted slightly, but he refused to give any more details, so she resumed her game. Maybe, meeting her rival face to face would help her interact more with the rest of the class, and not just him and her sisters.
Someone with Takeda's social skills could probably help bring her out of her shell easily, if she dared to take the first step.
A bit later…
When Yotsuba escaped Fuutarou before the next class hour, she headed for Classroom 3-5 at the end of the hallway. Despite the urgency, she knew this wouldn't take more than a few minutes, as she just needed to find Matsui and ask her if there were available slots in the volleyball team.
It goes without saying that the brunette was quite surprised, to the point she thought she'd misheard it the first time. Yotsuba then learned she'd been named team captain after the previous one graduated, and she was naturally excited to have someone with so much potential talent in her ranks. She'd already suggested entering the previous year, but Yotsuba had refused then.
"What made you change your mind?" Matsui asked, as they headed for the school's gym. "Last year you weren't interested in joining a sports club full time."
"Well, many things happened." The ribbon girl scratched the back of her head. "Truth is, I feel I can balance out my activities, so long as I'm compromised with what I'm doing."
"I don't think I understand, but I'm glad we can count on you," the brunette replied. "However, as team captain, I need to test you. You must earn your slot in the team, just like everyone else."
"I'll do my best then!" the Nakano assured, pumping her fists with determination.
As they approached the gym, they could hear the noises of balls being hit, and upon sliding the door, Matsui entered first and whistled, to get everyone's attention.
"Listen everyone! Line up, as we have a potential new member who wants to join the club!"
With the discipline of a troop of well-trained soldiers, the other club's players obeyed their captain, standing firm on a straight line in front of them. Naturally, there were some surprised expressions and mumbles upon seeing her, as almost everyone in school knew of her, either from seeing her or hearing rumors, or in the worst case from that incident with the swimming club.
Matsui however, wasn't paying attention to that. "Alright, I'm sure you all know who she is, but introductions are still in order. Yotsuba, please go ahead."
"I'm Yotsuba Nakano, pleased to meet you all," she said as she bowed. "After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to join the team full time, if that's okay with you guys."
"Hey, is that true?"
"This is awesome!"
"We saw you run and jump with the basketball team! It was impressive!"
"I heard you led your former school's volley team to the nationals, did you really do that?"
"Whoa, whoa!" Matsui interrupted. "There'll be plenty of time for questions later, but like any new member, first thing you should do is introduce yourselves. Each one of you, step forward and state your role in the team."
The first one stepped up, a girl with light brown hair tied in twin pigtails, of average height. "I'm Kotomi Ishihara, third year and wing spiker. It's an honor to have you with us, Nakano-san."
The next girl had black hair, very short at that, and seemed the tallest among all. "Rin Tanokura, also third year. I play center blocker."
Then another black-haired girl, but hers was much longer and she wore glasses. She looked to be the shy type, reminding her a lot of Miku. "Michiru Aizawa, second year. I play outside hitter."
The fourth was the shortest in the team, also with black hair longer than Tanokura, but shorter than Aizawa. "Iruka Nanase, third year. I'm mainly a defense specialist, but I can switch to attack when necessary."
The fifth had the most extravagant look. She had a pair of blonde locks framing her face, while the rest of her hair was dyed a bright red. She also had notably darker skin, making her stand out even more. "Takiko Takeda, Takki for my friends. Second year, and I play libero."
Yotsuba was a little surprised to hear the last one's surname, wondering if she was related to the Takeda in her class. But, she'd have plenty of time to know them better later.
"The team's tryouts officially start tomorrow. We'll have several first years, but we can give you a non-official trial run today," Matsui explained. "If you already have previous experience, we'd like to see what you're capable of."
"Alright, it'll be a pleasure!" the ribbon girl enthusiastically exclaimed.
Matsui asked to find her some practice clothes, and she headed for the dressing room to get changed. Once she was ready, she was asked to get into the court and she started receiving balls served by Matsui and Tanokura from the other side. Despite not playing in over a year, her reflexes were as sharp as ever. She didn't let even one ball to hit the ground, and whenever she had to dive to save any, she'd manage to stand up and catch the next.
"Awesome reflexes," Tanokura said. "Now let's switch places; we need to see how good you are for serving."
After picking up the stray balls and putting them back in the box, Matsui asked Nanase and Takki to go to the other side of the next. This time, the trial consisted in Yotsuba serving the ball in many ways, to gauge her power and control. Everyone in the team was surprised of how good she could pump the ball with her underhand serve, but that was nothing compared to her jump serve. Invariably, whenever she did it, neither of the two could move fast enough to return it.
"Wow, what power. You'd be great to serve at the start of a game," Nanase said. "Don't you agree, Captain?"
"No doubt," Matsui nodded. "This'll notably improve our offensive power. But we're not done yet, as we still have to prove her skills in defense. Ishihara, you're up now."
The pigtailed girl nodded. The next trial consisted in blocking, with Matsui setting the ball for Ishihara to spike, and Yotsuba had to try and block it. While she wasn't too tall, Yotsuba made up for it with her jumping ability, same one she'd shown with the basketball team before. Out of ten spikes she got, only three pushed through, and it was only because Ishihara was forced to hit the ball at full force to break her defense.
"Ouch, I had forgotten how much this hurts," Yotsuba chuckled, as she rubbed her sore hands.
"Even so, I'm impressed," Matsui commented. "Ishihara was our best scorer last year, so making her get serious to push through you is quite the achievement."
"Looks like you got competition for the title of ace, huh?" Nanase commented, elbowing Ishihara. "If you get careless, you could get knocked off your throne."
Ishihara just rolled her eyes, and Yotsuba giggles. She wasn't planning on becoming the team's ace actually. So long as she could help them, it would be enough for her.
The last two trials allowed the others to see that Yotsuba's spikes were as good as her jump serves, making her a real offensive machine. On the other hand, her only weak spot was that she couldn't set the ball well, ash she would often send it too high giving their opponents a chance to raise a defense, or if she tried to send it backwards, it's go too long and they couldn't get the timing to spike. But having Matsui as the team's setter, that was not an issue.
"So?" Yotsuba asked once they finished checking her results.
"Well… I'd say we have no complaints," Matsui said. "You can play just about any position barring setter, and you'd surely make a great addition to our team. What do you think, girls?"
The rest of the team's response was a unanimous "Yes". It was clear they all wanted her in their ranks. None of them seemed to be jealous, or feel threatened that she would steal their position, neither did they seem the type to exploit their capacities. They'd just welcomed as one more among them.
Despite seeing that many times, in all of the other teams she previously played for, Yotsuba couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride for that.
"The only downside is that we can't sign you up officially today," Ishihara commented. "You'll have to do the tryouts tomorrow along with everyone else in front of the coach, but after seeing you today, that'd be just a formality."
"Then that means…"
"If you play as you did today, no doubt you'll have a spot secured in the team," Matsui said. "So you better not disappoint us. Last year we fell in the regional semifinals, but this year we want to go beyond that."
"No kidding!" Nanase intervened, taking on a rage expression. "Ugh, you have no idea how much I wanna get my revenge on Hayakawa, for those remarks about my height last year."
"You said it, Sis," Takki grabbed her by the neck. "We shorties are also useful in this sport!"
Both of them started yelling "Revenge, revenge!" as they raised their fists up in the air, somewhere between enthusiastic and angry. The others started either laughing or feeling embarrassed, so Yotsuba glanced at Matsui, looking for some explanation or context.
"They're talking about Sanae Hayakawa," Matsui explained. "She was the number one player in the Aichi prefecture last year, and led her team to the Top 4 in the nationals. This year aim to defeat her and win the regional championship so we can go to the nationals."
"We've got confidence; this year we'll have a better team if you join us," Ishihara said. "And rest easy, we can assure you we're not like those jerks from the swimming club who just wanted to take advantage of you. We do want to go to the nationals for real."
Yotsuba giggled nervously. She didn't need the reminder of that incident, but the reason to come to this club was because Matsui was in it, which gave her hope that the rest girls would be trustworthy. For now, they seemed quite nice, and shared a huge enthusiasm for their sport, thus a group that would be fun to be a part of.
The ribbon girl felt quite well at that; being part of a team was an amazing sensation, and she'd almost forgotten what it was like. Then again, it was her own fault for trying to do too much, getting into too many clubs at once. Not to mention that back then, she was out to get personal glory, and actually didn't care much for the teams' own goals.
Fuutarou was right: to do things right, she needed to know her limits and compromise herself at heart. And that was what she would do from now on.
Two weeks after…
The school days continued with the expected normalcy. Fuutarou was surprised at how easy the Nakanos fit into the classroom and their new school, as less than two weeks of class after they'd gotten pretty known and popular among their classmates. This also had the side effect of him being to go-to guy to act as middleman if they required something of one of them. At first he didn't mind much, but then it grew repetitive, to the point he wondered why they couldn't go seek them out directly.
That aside, there were some announcements over the events for that year, like the national mock exams that would take place in a few months, which was important for Fuutarou. If he managed to get high scores, he could get a scholarship for any university in the country. Most of the class, however, was more excited about a trip to Kyoto. For Fuutarou, that trip had a completely different meaning.
'Kyoto… it's been almost six years since then.'
While he'd done everything to avoid thinking about Rena since Christmas, it was inevitable to remember her when the trip's destination was announced. After all, that was the place where they met, where everything begun.
Rena had told her to forget about her, and never let go of that girl who loved him now. At first he seemed to be okay with that: Ichika was a really nice girl, and he couldn't deny he liked to hang out together with her. But since what had happened under the bell… there was a sensation he couldn't quite shake off.
Was he really okay with dating Ichika, or was he just doing it to forget Rena for breaking his heart? And more importantly, when he thought about Ichika kissing him under the bell, an uncomfortable feeling took over his chest?
"Uesugi-kun?" Takeda's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Were you listening to me?"
"Sorry, got distracted for a moment," Fuutarou apologized. "You were saying?"
"I was talking about the national mock exams. I thought maybe you and I could compete. Maybe, see who can make it to the top 10 with a higher ranking?"
Fuutarou raised an eyebrow. The pretty boy sounded quite sure of himself, and that made him give out a smug smirk. Whenever he felt confused or disturbed by something, thinking about his studies always kept his mind busy and focused, so he could do that just now.
Except that, for him, Top 10 sounded too low of a challenge.
"Better yet, how about the Top 5?" the blue-haired young man suggested without hesitation. "Since we're at it, why not aim for the highest?"
"Sounds good to me." Takeda offered a handshake. "May the best man win."
"Geez, I'll never understand you guys," Maeda said. "What's with that obsession of yours with grades? You're a pair of study freaks, the two of you. The year's just started for crying out loud!"
"You shouldn't rest in your laurels," Fuutarou replied. "We third years will be busier than ever, and time will go flying. We need to think about our future."
"I know, but you'd do well to chill off just a bit," the brunet insisted. "All work and no fun is bound to drive you mad. At any rate, I have my plans for when I graduate."
"Oh? If that's the case, why don't you tell us?" Takeda requested.
Maeda let out a chortle, and explained how his father had a repair shop for cars and motorbikes. Not the biggest deal, but it was the family business and he'd learned a bit of it. So he planned to attend a technological institute to study mechanics engineering.
"My old man has done a good job carrying the business for years, but I think we can improve it," he concluded. "Who knows, maybe we'll get hired by professional racing teams one day?"
"Sounds like a great goal, Maeda-kun," said Takeda. "For my part, I aspire to enter Tokyo University, and study in the science faculty. It won't be easy, so I hope to achieve good results on the national mock exams to raise my chances."
"And what do you plan to become? A doctor, a lawyer?" Maeda asked.
Takeda simply shrugged, flicking a lock of his hair as he gave of sparkles. "No, my goal, or should I say, ambition, is way above any of those occupations. I aim to become… an astronaut."
For a moment, Fuutarou and Maeda remained speechless. In many ways, that was a goal way above any other. Once upon a time, Fuutarou would have even mocked it, but Takeda spoke seriously and with conviction, so he couldn't help but admire him for it.
"Well, then you should bring us rocks from the moon or something," Maeda said, half joking, half to encourage him. "What about you, Uesugi? You going to Tokyo U too?"
"That's my short-term goal," Fuutarou said. "It's the best university in Japan after all. Although… I've yet to decide a career. I have many open choices."
"Oi, I'm hoping you're not planning to go into space like this lunatic here."
"No way," Fuutarou replied. "I'll keep both my feet firmly on Earth, thank you very much."
The three shared a few laughs, even Takeda himself seemed to find the joke at his expense funny. That said, while it was a hard goal, Fuutarou wasn't mocking him one bit. It wasn't an impossible dream; in fact, he respected Takeda for having a clear goal in mind.
Come to think of it, Fuutarou didn't seem to have his own end goal as he used to believe. When he set his mind on being the best student, he set his goal to enter Tokyo U, only because it was the hardest university to enter in the whole country, where only the best of the best were admitted. But he'd never stopped to think of his career choice, beyond getting a well-paid job to support his family and become independent.
He could study law, and become an attorney to help people with legal problems. He could go for medicine; being a doctor would give him the chance to save many lives. Hell, after these months he was Yotsuba's tutor, he even considered the possibility of becoming a teacher. If he could handle such a troublesome pupil before he even graduated from high school, he could probably do well with regular students in a few years.
"Hey… isn't that one of the Nakanos at the door?" Maeda suddenly asked, snapping him from his inner monologue.
"Huh? Ah, that's Miku." Fuutarou quickly recognized her by the headphones and the dark brown hair. She was staring at them intently. Or rather, and Fuutarou knew it, she was staring at Takeda.
"You know, I'm not sure why, but lately I've had the feeling that… she's been following me," the pretty boy stated. "I often see her from afar around school."
"Oh? Could it be that… she's got a crush on ya?" Maeda suggested.
"I don't think so. The looks she gives me are… a little unsettling," Takeda replied with a slight shiver. "Uesugi-kun, do you know something about this?"
Fuutarou stared at him for a moment. Surely enough, at this point Miku probably discarded the rest of the class in her search for her online rival, and deduced who it was. Although he already knew her enough, and she was just really shy around strangers. The truth was, she was really nice once she opened up, but never was one to start a conversation.
"Maybe, you should ask her yourself," Fuutarou suggested. "She probably just wants to talk."
After a minute or so, Miku gave them one last glance and left. The three boys continued talking, paying little attention to the rest of the students.
This would have been unthinkable for him one year before, but now… it didn't feel so bad. It was good way to kill time between classes. Better than being alone with nothing to study, at any rate.
Days later, at the Nakano apartment…
"*Ahem*, alright, now everyone is present, I hereby declare our first study reunion begins now!" Fuutarou proclaimed, standing in front of a portable blackboard and with a manual pointer in his hand.
At long last, the time had come to start his new contract. This time not with one, but five students simultaneously. The identical five faces of the Nakanos looked back at them, each in her own way: Itsuki and Yotsuba were attentive, Miku had a serene expression, Nino frowned and rolled her eyes, and Ichika leaned on the chair's armrest looking like she wanted to take a nap.
"Is this really necessary?" Nino asked. "I mean, I know Papa hired you again, but the first term's barely begun."
"Nino, we can't let schoolwork to stack up," Itsuki said. "Uesugi-kun, I mean, Uesugi-sensei knows that he's talking about, right?"
"No need for formalities," Fuutarou said, even if he felt a little proud of being called sensei. "From what I learned about you five, you barely scratched through your subjects in your previous school, even having to take recovery exams. That being the case, I want to evaluate how each one of you is going on each subject, and focus on where you need help the most."
"This is ridiculous," Nino said. "Why should we worry about this when the school year's just started?"
"Come on, we shouldn't make things harder for Uesugi-san," said Yotsuba. "He wants to help us after all. Besides, he's a great teacher; harsh, that's true, but you do learn with him."
Fuutarou smiled. It was good to have the fourth sister's support as she did, in case he had difficulties with some of the others. He couldn't imagine how things could have turned out if he had to teach all five during the previous year.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's never too early to think about the future," the boy continued. "Some of you have already chosen your careers, once you finish high school. Isn't that right, Ichika, Itsuki?"
Both the aforementioned sisters exchanged glances, then looked at the others. The eldest in particular seemed to wake up when she was called, and her desires to doze off seemingly vanished from her face.
"Well… I had already decided it a while ago. That's been my dream for years, to be a professional acress," said Ichika. "I want to finish high school so I can focus full time on it."
"As for me, I know I'm not the best student, but it's my goal to be a teacher as good as Mom used to be," Itsuki continued. "I know in my current conditions I'm not up to the task, so I hope I can count on your help, Uesugi-kun."
"You both will make it, I'm sure of it!" Yotsuba exclaimed. "We'll do our best to support you!"
"Speaking of, what are your plans, Yotsuba?" Nino asked. "You've never told us of any dreams or goals of your own, have you?"
"Ah, about that… hehe, well…" The ribbon girl seemed to flush. For some reason, Fuutarou wasn't too surprised; she'd only think short term and that played against her.
"Can I give a suggestion? You should find a way to make use of your stronger points," Fuutarou said. "Your capacity for sports can give you many chances on that field, and you could even become a P.E teacher, or a professional trainer."
"Why limit to that?" Nino said. "If you manage to stand out this year, maybe a sports university will take notice of you, and scout you for a scholarship. You could make it far."
"That's right, Yotsuba," Itsuki added. "Back in our old school you did pretty well at sports. You may have gotten many offers from prestigious schools, had you focused on only one discipline instead of trying too many at once."
The ribbon girl blushed even more, if that was possible. She still seemed to feel bad about that. Talented as she was, trying to bite off more than she could chew backfired on her, so Fuutarou made a note to help her stay focused, and find a better defined goal. Much as he hated to admit it, Eba's words echoed in his head, and now he felt obligated to help her develop her full potential. Along with the rest of her sisters'.
"What about you, Nino? Do you have an idea of what you'll do after graduating?" Fuutarou asked, trying to draw the attention away from Yotsuba so she wouldn't feel more uncomfortable.
"Me? Well…" The girl started fiddling with her ribbons. "Maybe… I'm not sure…"
"You said once you wanted to open your own restaurant," Miku intervened, surprising everyone.
Especially the other three sisters, who turned around as if this was the first time they'd heard of it. They looked quite interested.
"I… may have mentioned it once," the second sister answered. "It was just a stupid childish dream, not that I was serious about it."
"No? But you're a great cook, you'd do pretty well at it," Yotsuba said. "That's one of your strong points, isn't it? You should exploit it, as Uesugi-san said. Isn't that right?"
Fuutarou nodded. He could see some merit on it, and to be fair, he could draw some parallels between Nino and his own mother in that sense. She happened to be good at baking all kinds of bread, and found out she could sell it well, so she made it her way to make a living.
Come to think of it, there wasn't much difference between a bakery, a restaurant or a café. It was all similar business, where they had to prepare and serve food.
"You may ask my mom for some help a bit. You worked for a while in our bakery, so it would serve as experience for what awaits you, should you choose that path. Of course, it's not the same to manage an entire establishment as it is to just work at one."
"Or you could also visit the restaurant that belongs to my friends, the Aldini brothers," Itsuki suggested. "They're full-fledged professionals at it."
Fuutarou glanced at the youngest sister. He recalled her mentioning how she'd been frequently going to that Italian restaurant, and he couldn't help but feel curiosity. She'd even said their food was even better than Nino's, which has hard to believe, and even more when she said the ones who owned the place were barely a couple years older than themselves.
"I'll think about it," the second sister replied, before turning to Miku. "Well, since you ratted me out, how about you tell our teacher what's your goal or dream?"
Miku gave Nino a glance, looking somewhat uncomfortable, but she ultimately shrugged. "I… don't have any. Not yet."
"You sure about that?" Fuutarou asked. "Surely there must be something you're good at, you must have a strong point."
"I don't know," the middle sister said with full sincerity.
An awkward silence fell upon them. Come to think of it, among all of them Miku was the most passive, rarely taking interest in anything other than her videogame and the Sengoku Warlords. But if all of the others had shown some vocation or strong point, she surely had one of her own.
Should he say something? He needed to motivate her somehow, as he didn't want to make her feel excluded or falling behind the others.
"If… you want a suggestion, you should try different occupations," Fuutarou suggested. "Over the years, I've had many part-time jobs before I became a tutor. Not all of them were nice, but I did learn a bit in each of them, and experience always helps in the future."
"Fuutarou-kun is right," said Ichika. "You just need to try until you find something you're good at. And don't worry, we'll all be here to help you, 'kay? You won't be alone."
Miku smiled. "Thanks…"
The remaining sisters approached to give her some pats on the back, cheering her up a little. As always, seeing how close the sisters were among each other brought a warm feeling to the Uesugi boy's chest, motivating him even further to succeed in the goal he'd set.
And speaking of that, it was about time to start working on it. No more distractions. He cleared his throat and called for silence among the sisters.
"Alright, that was enough for an introductory chat," said Fuutarou. "Leaving the goals and dreams for the future aside, it's time to focus on the here and now. Even though the school year's just begun, first thing I'll do is giving you a mock test."
Next, he grabbed a folder with five identical sheets, handing one to each sister. All of them looked between confused and intrigued, so he proceeded to explain:
"This is a mock test made with questions from the make-up tests, covering all the second year program. I want each one of you to solve it, and based on the score, I'll know where we stand as of now."
"Hey, hey, but wait a minute!" Yotsuba intervened. "You haven't told us yet your plans for the future!"
"That's right, Fuutarou-kun," Ichika added. "You must have already an elaborated plan, right?"
"Er… well…"
"C'mon, you need to tell us!"
"Spill it, spill it!"
"They must be very ambitious plans!"
A noisy ruckus started, with all the sisters almost screaming out for him to tell everything. Even Miku, despite remaining silent, gave him an icy glare that she was clearly dying to know as much as the others. There was no escape.
Unless…
"There, there, there, quit it!" he yelled out so they'd calm down. "If you girls really wanna know… my short term plans are getting a high ranking in the national mock exams, and go to Tokyo University. I want to secure a spot at least in the Top 5 of Japan."
There was a collective "Ooohhh!" from all the sisters. It seemingly was enough to shut them up. And that was a good thing, because he really didn't want to get into details over the fact that he'd yet to choose a career. Unlike Ichika and Itsuki, who were clear on it, he still didn't have a definite goal.
But then again, they didn't need to know that for now, so he quickly reassumed his stern teacher demeanor.
"That's all I'm going to say for now. If you want to know more, you'll need to score 60 points or higher in these exams," he declared.
"Eeeeeeehhh?! But that's too high, it's not fair!" Nino protested.
"If you're good enough as students, you shouldn't have trouble with this." Fuutarou crossed his arms. "Take it or leave it. You have two hours to solve it all!"
The second sister was quite annoyed about it, but she was forced to comply, and immediately all five got a hold of their pencils to start filling up their sheets. Time started running and they'd have a lot ahead of themselves if they wanted to pass. For now, Fuutarou was content with watching them.
Little did the boy know, for everything he said about focusing on the here and now, he'd have to deal soon with issues from her past, both recent and distant. And said issues would make his mind and heart give spins he'd never imagine before.
To be continued…
Author's notes:
Okay, we're back on track. Now officially the third year for Fuutarou and the quints has begun, and you can see which things have changes. For starters, I removed Fuutarou and Yotsuba from the positions as class representatives, in favor of giving them something different to do, particularly the latter as she now will have her own subplot as you can see. I've been watching a lot Haikyuu! in the past months to get more familiar with volleyball (I'll tell you guys that it was never my favorite sport when I was at school, I wish that series had existed back then), so you can expect in the near future some chapters of Yotsuba training and playing matches (and as promised, Matsui will be a more relevant character from now on). The basketball chapter was well-received in its moment, so I hope those with the volleyball team will also be to your liking.
On Fuutarou's side, as you can see here the bell kiss has left him quite shaken, and that'll continue to be noticeable in the next chapters. He's already questioning his feelings, and the reminder of Rena with the future trip to Kyoto hasn't helped. That said, there's still a long way before the sentimental and emotional drama converge, so I advise you to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts. I'll try my best to ensure it won't feel like filler, since there's still plenty of events like the birthdays of Fuutarou and the quints, some volley matches with Yotsuba, the national exams, and other things.
Thanks for the reviews to TheMist33, Honored Oak, Random Reader Guy, Guest and DRSM, in the previous chapter, as well as bobalon and Super Kamehameha in the previous one (hope you can catch up soon). Lastly, I'd leave you guys with this small omake that, while it doesn't have much impact in the story as of now, was written as a tribute for another member of my family who has departed; my aunt Hortensia, "Tencha" for us, the eldest among my mom's sisters. Truth was, she was quite sickly the last time we met, and when Granny died, we were having difficulties to contact her to break the news, so she was among the last to learn of it. I can only imagine the impact it must have had to find out in such an already fragile state. But at least they can be together now. Just so we're clear, the name "Hortensia" in Spanish refers to Hydrangea flowers, and in Japanese they're called "Ajisai", which means I'm naming the character here after her. Thanks again and until next time, sayonara.
OMAKE #2 (Canon): In memoriam
As everyone, the Uesugis would visit the graveyard to pay respect to their departed loved ones. Isanari Uesugi was no exception.
"Morning, Aji-neesan. How have you been?"
He poured some water over the gravestone, which had the name "Ajisai Uesugi". His older sister, who'd passed away almost six years before in a traffic accident. Even to date, he missed her dearly.
Isanari had a very good relationship with his family, but he'd been particularly close to his older sister Ajisai. She had her own rebel phase during her time, and he got into it in order to follow her footsteps. He always admired her and wanted to emulate her. While both of them matured over time, they didn't leave that stage behind completely, and they'd sometimes engage in antics just for old time's sake.
Yeah, good times…
"Wish you could see Kintarou right now. I bet you'd be very proud of him."
Somehow, looking at his nephew made him feel that a part of her still lived on through him. That was good, considering that she ended up marrying a police officer, a man who was very respectful of law and order. While they'd separated one year before the accident, at least they weren't quarreling with each other.
He would have gladly taken in his nephew, hadn't it been because back then he and Kazane were still struggling with Fuutarou and Raiha. Thus, he had to let Kintarou go with his father, even though he wasn't very happy for it.
The separation had clearly affected him, and even to date, Kintarou still seemed to hold some resentment for his father for 'walking out', to the point he preferred to go by his mother's surname Uesugi rather than take his father's.
"Kintarou still has issues with his father, but… I'm sure they'll manage to sort them out. Wish I could so something, though."
Isanari knew his ex-brother-in-law, Sakaguchi, wasn't a bad fellow, but he couldn't force his nephew to change his mind. Whenever the topic came up he'd get defensive, so he finally decided not to press it anymore, lest that he could make the tension worse.
That really saddened him. Even after they separated, Ajisai didn't want her son to be holding grudges against his dad. Because, while he wasn't her husband anymore, he'd always be her son's father, that was what she said when the divorce was finalized.
Isanari lamented that things turned out that way. Both really loved each other, but Sakaguchi was too married to his job to spare time for his family, so they ended up separated. The last time they talked, he'd even come to ask for advice on how to be a good father and get close to his son, but Isanari wasn't exactly sure what to say.
After all, he didn't have that kind of struggles with his own children.
"If you were here… what would you tell me to do? What do you think I should do, Neesan?"
If she were here now, she'd probably know what to do. He looked up to the sky, as if hoping to see her or hear her voice. He wished she was here, to tell him what to do. Whenever he had a question, she seemed to have the answer.
Isanari sighed. All in all, there was no point in dwelling on it. All he could do was wait and hope for the best. Maybe one day, something would happen that would bring them together again, if only for the memory of his late sister.