A/N. You guys ask, I'm here to deliver. To be honest, I didn't get to do this chapter because there were so many cool ideas floating around. Plus I waited for any Ichika development (kinda, didn't get to use).
"Yeah, I do. It's been a while, Fuutarou-kun." Ichika's words made Fuutarou freeze.
[It's her... she remembers.] "Ichika, you..." Fuutarou formed a smile.
[... Why am I doing this? Itsuki-chan likes this guy, right? Even Yotsuba-chan... I shouldn't trick him like this.] "You know, you looked a lot cooler back then. I was so cute too."
"Ichika! So you still remember. I've wanted to see you again for the longest time..." Fuutarou grabbed Ichika's hands, confessing his heart out.
[This is unfair to them... I'm sorry...] "Good acting, right?" Ichika suddenly cut him off.
"Huh?" Fuutarou, dumbstruck, loosened his grip. Ichika then took her hands away.
"What do you think? They told me impromptu acting was very useful." Ichika smiled.
"But you said... You even recognized the picture, right? You saw the whole thing, right?" Fuutarou tried to show her the entire picture.
"Yes, Fuutarou-kun. I couldn't believe it, so you met one of my sisters back then, huh? Who knew?" Ichika stared into the clouds.
"Ichika... what are you talking about?" Fuutarou pointed to the little girl in the picture. "So, this girl isn't you?"
"I don't think so? I mean, I would have remembered you for sure, right?" Ichika feigned ignorance.
"Then who is it?" Fuutarou was desperate. Ichika just kept dropping bomb after bomb on him.
"Who knows? We're quintuplets, so we all look alike. More so back then, we were practically the same person." Ichika explained the past to him. She showed him a picture of five identical girls, all the way down to their dresses.
"... I see..." Fuutarou accepted Ichika's statements. "I'm sorry for bothering you."
"Is that why you've been trying so hard to help us?" Ichika changed the conversation. "All because one of us is your childhood friend?"
Fuutarou was caught off guard. It's not like Ichika was wrong. "Of course! She helped me a long time ago. I want to pay her back."
"Is that so? So you haven't been teaching us because you wanted to, but because you owe something?" Ichika frowned at him.
Fuutarou saw her face, as if she was about to cry. "That's not it. I'm not..."
"Ahahaha! Fuutarou-kun, come on, we just went through this!" Ichika quickly changed her frown to a smile. "I'm just messing with you."
[This girl...] "I want to help you girls. I promised that I will be useful, if I can't help you when you need help, what good am I?"
Ichika's heart skipped a beat. [Right, he's the one they fell for... No wonder...] "I'm sorry Fuutarou-kun. Onee-san just wanted to play around. I'll be serious now."
Fuutarou took her hand and started walking. "Okay then." Fuutarou held her hand while talking to her.
"We all saw that picture of you... You were with one of us. As I've said, I'm not sure who it was, since we all looked the same back then." Ichika gripped her bag.
"..." [So someone else must remember...]
"When was this, by the way?" Ichika tapped his shoulder and asked.
"It was during elementary school, in Kyoto." Fuutarou remembered the day he was rescued. "It was only for a day..." Fuutarou remembered that there was only one day's worth of memories with her.
"A day, huh?"
"That's right, one day." [One day... I don't even know her name... Does she even remember mine?]
"I'm afraid I can't help you with that. I don't think you met the rest of us, or else they would have recognized."
"Is that so?"
"But the fact remains that you met one of us. If that's the only reason you're helping us, then don't. None of my sisters want to accept that kind of half-assed help."
"It's not half-assed! I want to help you girls. That's it, I'm not doing this because I expect any one of you to remember, I'm doing this because..." Fuutarou stopped to think.
"Because?" Ichika stared him in the face.
"Because... you girls need my help. I don't want to see you struggle. Call it selfish, but that's what I really want."
[Yeah. His help can't be half-assed if he's willing to go so far.] "You're cooler than you look, Fuutarou-kun."
Fuutarou blushed. "We're here."
"Ichika! There you were!" Yotsuba quickly stood up from playing with sparklers.
"Everyone..." Ichika was moved to tears by her sisters. It was already so late, yet they waited for her. Raiha already fell asleep on one of the nearby benches.
"It's not as grand as the big ones, but this is pretty special in its own way right?" Fuutarou urged the eldest sister to meet with the others.
The quintuplets enjoyed playing with the sparklers. In the end Ichika gave Fuutarou a treat for his troubles. She gave him a lap pillow to help him sleep more comfortably.
"Let's talk with them another time okay? I'm sure she has her reasons..."
Fuutarou's eyes suddenly opened. "Huh? Wha?"
"Enjoying yourself?" Ichika smiled from beyond her thighs.
"What happened? Crap it's so late, I have to get Raiha home." Fuutarou stood up and picked up Raiha.
"Be careful on your way home, Fuutarou-kun. Your face is really photogenic, ahaha." Ichika showed him a photo of his sleeping face on her phone.
"Ichika, you..."
"Don't worry, I'll help you find out from them."
"..." Fuutarou went home while carrying Raiha. [Right. Does she even remember, I wonder?]
The next day, they received notices of the upcoming mid-term examinations.
"Alright, I guess we're going to have to study a lot for these exams." Fuutarou reviewed the girls' recent test scores. He was not happy.
"That's going to be such a big hassle. Can't we just study the day before?" Ichika was sleepy after all the tests they just had to answer.
"No can do. If we don't study now, you girls won't understand anything." Fuutarou splashed some water on her face.
"We have a whole week. I'm sure that's enough time to study and enjoy ourselves." Nino looked at her phone.
Fuutarou showed her her scores in response. "You've been enjoying yourself too much. At this rate, you won't pass."
"Tch." Nino clicked her tongue.
"I'm sure we can study and still enjoy ourselves. Right, Uesugi-kun?" Itsuki proved that by studying her notes and enjoying a cookie.
*bzzz *bzzz Itsuki's phone suddenly rang.
"It's dad." She answered. "Good afternoon, dad. Yes, we're all together. Yes, Uesugi-kun is with us. Alright." Itsuki handed her phone to Fuutarou.
"Good afternoon, Father."
{Don't call me that. I have heard that the midterms are close, correct?} Nino wanted to hear the conversation, so she stealthily pressed the loudspeaker button.
{Forgive me for testing you, but I want to be sure. If any of my daughters fails the midterms, you will be dismissed from being their tutor.}
"Eh?!" The other line then hung up the conversation.
"So if any of us fails..." Nino realized.
"... you will no longer be our tutor?" Yotsuba's eyes went from a bright shine to a dull glimmer.
"There's no way that's going to happen, right?" Itsuki stopped eating, shocked at the sudden ultimatum.
"..." Fuutarou was sweating beads. Looking at the girls' scores again, there was no way he was going to pull this off unless he stayed up late teaching them.
"It's going to be alright. I trust you Uesugi-kun. You're the first person that made us study this hard, I'm sure you can make us all pass." Itsuki handed him a cookie to munch on.
"Itsuki..." Fuutarou gratefully took it.
"Besides, you've managed to double our scores ever since you started teaching us. I'm sure you can double them again." Yotsuba counted her to her score of 16 from her initial score of 8.
[That's not how studying works, Yotsuba...] Yeah! If you girls can maintain that attitude, I'm sure you will all pass!
That was the first night they spent studying. Fuutarou wasn't confident, but it was better than doing nothing.
A/N. Sorry for the short chapter, I'm finding it hard having to rewrite the manga's plot. I don't want to say I'm too lazy to do it, it's just that I don't want to develop the story the way Negi did his. Sorry about that.
Anyway, what do you guys think? And before you ask, the first scene had already been drafted since the last chapter was written, I was just too occupied to finish the other scenes (i.e. I ran out of Itsuki jokes).