[$20] Five Buns Full: Chapter 6 (Beta copy) (Patreon)

Itsuki was fat.

Miku was fat.

Nino was fat, but she didn’t know it yet.

As the three sisters ate roughly twice their fill, none of them noticed that they were approaching an Itsuki-sized meal. They cheerfully chomped in unison, three very different girls with an almost singular hunger. But it wasn’t the growling of bellies that made them eat on.

It was the laughter. The wide smiles and happy noises that came from the Quintuplets table filled the restaurant with a familial air that was as comfy as if they really had stepped backwards in time.

Only one of the girls had noticed this though, who kept her feet while the drunken atmosphere that only true happiness gave swept over their table. Ichika Nakano’s cheeks were pink, her lips were smiling, but only the eldest noticed the power that atmosphere had on each of her sisters.

It was a comfy air that an unseen force was desperate to keep.

In the restaurant kitchen, its most illustrious chef had been summoned on his only day off, and was now running his staff with a knife in his hand and a robe on his shoulders.

“Cut that seaweed, check the rice! You call this fried?” his voice cracked like a whip in the air. “May will have our scalps if this isn’t perfect!” His finger stabbed out, as deadly as any blade. “You!!”

The woman he gestured toward, a newbie in the kitchen, yelped before standing stock straight.

“Do you like your scalp?” the head chef barked.

“Y-yes chef!”

“Then why in the hell are you cutting those avocados like that?”

The newbie twisted, wanting to look him in the eye but not daring to. Instead she faced her trembling fingers. “T-this is how you-”

“With pride! You’re hesitant, you’re worried! Have some strength!” He slapped her on the shoulder before turning away and the woman resumed chopping, though now cleaner, quicker. “Turn up that oven, get that chicken deep fried! If you think it’s hot, you’ve not even seen what she’ll get for dessert!!”

From her spot at reception, young Miss Byoel Moon could hear everything from the kitchen. She peaked tentatively around the corner, watching the workers in their complicated dance, worker bees that flittering around their busy hive.

An hour ago, the kitchen had been nearly dead. Workers moving at a casual pace as only a few patrons had stopped by for lunch. But now the staff seemed to have doubled, and every single chef was in full concentration.

Such was the power of Mama May. 

Byoel checked her phone for the eighth time in ten minutes. May hadn’t written anything on her blog, but she might update it at any second. Her grandmother had warned her, the blessed bovine who was shaped like a woman. Her grandmother told her that it was people like May that made others worship cows.

She tiptoed away from the kitchen, coming up behind her grandmother and joining her as she looked into the hall. Her grandma was whispering something in Korean, something that sounded a lot like good fortune, or maybe a prayer.

Then she saw them.

Byoel had lived her entire life in Japan. She had even seen a couple of fat girls in school, and she’d always thought they were lazy do-nothings that could barely be bothered.

But May couldn’t be lazy. Her sisters couldn’t be lazy. 

They were moving too much, eating too quickly, talking too loudly. May was massive, yes, but there was a bubbliness that flowed from her blubber. Even the other fat girl, who was twice as large as any woman Byoel had ever seen, reflected this radiance in her own cheerful movement. 

Then there was the one with the pigtails, the girl who at as if she were three times her size, who dunked her fingers into the dip with her sushi before knocking it back and eating the entity of Sumo Sushi’s biggest rolls. And then following with another, then another.

Even the reflection that looked the most different, strong and shapely rather than fat and doughy, Byoel watched as she lifted the small bottle of sake, gulping down the alcohol for several seconds before replacing it on the table and with rolls in her mouth.

It was hardly past two, but the muscular girl was quite clearly drunk, and as a waiter swiftly replaced the empty bottle, it was more than evident she planned to drink more.

And then… the truest oddity came, when Byoel realized one girl wasn’t stuffing her face. They were each talking, sure, like a family at dinner, but this girl wasn’t just thin like the pigtailed woman. She was thin, in both body and mind, her finger tracing over a glass filled with water while she smiled at her sisters heady enjoyment.

“Where does it go?” Byoel asked her grandmother. “They’ve eaten so much…”

A terrific crash came from the kitchen behind, but both Moons ignored it, caught in the glow of the quintuplet feast.

“Look at their bellies,” the elder Moon whispered. “See how they’ve changed? The one with the long, darker hair, you can see hers the most.”

Byoel looked. The girl between May and the hungry Pigtails ate her food at a more leisurely pace, actually using her chopsticks rather than her hands like some farm animal. She dunked another roll, which looked like swordfish, into her helping of ginger before lifting up to her mouth.

The reserved girl chewed three times before swallowing, her hand guiding over the slope of her chest before reaching the larger mound that was her fat tummy. But rather than spill over skirt like her belly once had, it was now pushing her sweater out with all of it’s might. Byoel remembered when the girl had walked in, a high waisted skirt had divided her gut.

But her belly was free now, wobbling up and down as she ate still more food, the tight skirt clinging desperately to her thick hips. A deep red sweater was crawling so slowly up from her waist, and the pale inch of her stomach was beginning to sag.

She looked so much more solid now, an overstuffed pillow rather than a sagging lady of lard. It made her look heavier, fatter than before, and Byoel imagined how many calories would soon be spreading through her body, adding more fluff to the already fat pile.

Byoel then looked at Pigtails. She didn’t wear her weight on her waist. Rather, it seemed to be all in her face, with flecks of ginger and ranch lightly dotting her lips and a smile as heavy as each of her sisters. Byoel remembered, this woman had been curvaceous when she walked in, but the way that she ate, the pleasure that the food so obviously gave, Byoel began wondering if she’d fit out the door. Even beneath her red cardigan, Pigtail’s body looked soft and pale, as if freshly prepped dough that was ready for baking. And with one look at May, Byoel knew what shape she would take.

May’s gut was pinched in the center by her highly tucked pants. A mountain of flab perched in two chairs, May’s ridiculous hips were suffocated beneath the swell of her belly. The red tube top didn’t fit well, but Beyol couldn’t imagine that anything could look reasonable on a girl whose breasts were quite literally as fat as her head.

But her hair… The absolute width of the woman was more than impressive, but May’s hair was what really showed she’d gone even further beyond. It was draped, quite literally, over the back of her chair, reaching down near the legs and almost down to the floor. It curled inwards, as if affected by the gravity she must be exhuming and gave the woman the out-of-shape physique that made her look as if she’d been sculpted from clay.

Her grandmother whispered something else in Korean. It sounded excited.

“H-how could you offer they eat for free?” Beyol asked.

Grandma Moon turned down and pat Beyol on her head. “May always pays,” she grinned, “As long as she has enjoyed the meal.”

Beyol made a face before thoughtfully nodding. “Ohhh… I see…”

A faint call from the table brought back her attention, May and Pigtails speaking animatedly. The thin girl said something, with which the fat girl agreed, while the muscular drank another pull from the sake.

“I hope that everything goes well…” Beyol muttered.

The interior doors to the kitchen opened. Five members of the waitstaff scooped up five separate plates and, in perfect synchronization with the hellish laughter that came from behind, marched out of the kitchen to serve their five most important customers.

******************************************************************************

Ichika Nakano noticed how none of them even needed to get up for seconds.

She was served first, a small plate with only five rolls, of which she might only eat one. She also noticed that Nino was served second, and Miku served third, and somehow, even though it made absolutely no sense with how they were sitting, Yotsuba’s plate was set down before Itsuki’s was served.

It was another little thing that made Ichika just smile to herself, enjoying her own private joke.

“They’re just second graders!” Itsuki was saying, her tremendously wide arms lifting up before falling, briefly exposing the fat from her breasts puffing over the side. Her tube top fit about as well as a bra, which was fortune because she quite clearly lacked one.

Ichika blinked, realizing that she was admiring her sister’s rack and not really paying attention to the conversation. She looked up from her breasts to see her full pout.

It took a moment for her to realize it wasn’t directed at her, letting the eldest sigh back with relief while Itsuki and Nino hashed out their argument. “It’s not fair for us to ask them for their careers so early!”

“That’s when I picked out what I wanted to do,” Nino tilted her head to one side, her arms half-consciously held over her tummy. “I wanted to run a café, and now I do.”

“Well congratulations to you!” Itsuki countered, lifting up her nose. “Some of us had to wait till we were almost twenty to figure things out. We should at least be waiting until fifth grade before we start pushing such questions on them.”

Nino rolled her eyes, reaching for another sushi roll from her refreshed plate. “You’re so superstitious! You were seventeen when you figured yours out! Not everything happens in fives!”

Itsuki narrowed her eyes and adjusted her glasses. “They absolutely do.”

“Psh!” Nino sounded as if she wanted to argue more, but her mouth was too full with her fifth plate of sushi.

Miku, sitting between the two titans, took the brief reprieve to change the topic. “How are things with Tsukuyo?” she asked Itsuki.

A hesitant moment passed before her words registered, and suddenly each of the sisters were sitting three inches higher while Itsuki’s double chin sunk into her chest. Heat touched her face and a dribble of sweat rolled down from her bangs. “Oh.. they’re goooood...” she mumbled.

“Who?”

“Who’s Tsukuyo?”

“You got a boyfriend?!?!” Nino practically hopped in her chair, a giddy little bunny that was filled with excitement.

“H-he’s… well, we are, I mean, it’s not, but we’ve…” Itsuki fidgeted with her hair, her glasses trying to conceal the panic in her eyes. “I-I’m twenty-five! I can date-”

“Pictures!” The table clattered as Nino stood and placed all of her weight onto its surface. “I demand to see pictures!!”

“Awe, look at her blush,” Ichika smiled at her sister’s discomfort. “Little Itsuki’s all grown up.”

“S-shut up!!” Itsuki whined, turning on Miku and batting the air like a beleaguered fat cat. “I wasn’t gonna say anything! They’re still getting used to how fat we got!”

Miku’s gentle teasing grin vanished as a panicked look came to her blue eyes. She crossed her arms self consciously over her stomach, “I-it’s not that bad-” she cut off, only then realizing how her belly had shoved down her skirt. She immediately began trying to adjust, shoving her ill-agreeing belly down and tucking in her red sweater. 

“Oho?” Ichika stroked her chin. “He’s new, then?”

Itsuki colored three shades redder, again matching the color of her bright hair. “We’ve only… it’s been a… a few weeks.”

“Well, well,” Ichika leaned forwards, her fingers shaping into a steeple. “If it’s only so new, then why are you so worried?”

Itsuki’s blush began to spread from her face, as if intent to color her whole body red.  

“Did you really?” Ichika asked, asked airily.

Itsuki’s hands were knit over her belly, her knuckles white from the strength of her grasp.

Nino and Yotsuba were perfect reflections, looking from one to the other with the same confusion while Miku took a long, long sip of her soda.

“You did, didn’t you~” Ichika’s grin sharpened. “Did you like it?”

“Ahhhhh! Shut up shut up shut up! You’re such a jerk, Miku!!” Itsuki’s arms assailed her sister, making Miku sway back and forth and risked collapsing her chair.

“Wait…” Nino cut in, then suddenly brightening up herself. Her hand smacked the table and she leaned forward. “You had your first kiss?!?”

Yotsuba sprayed sake over her plate. “Itsuki kissed a boy!!”

Itsuki’s wide eyes found Ichika’s, true panic showing that she’d done much, much more, but she sat back and smiled with an extreme forcefulness. “Y-yes! My first kiss, yes we-we kissed! Aha.”

Nino made an excited, high pitch noise while Yotsuba laughed and Miku tried, very hard, not to. “You’ve got to tell us about him!” Nino demanded. “Pictures!!”

Itsuki began sweating again. “I-it’s... we were... blaaagh you are such a jerk,” she said aside to Miku, earning a soft smile from her fat older sister.

“Tell us~” Ichika called. “You’re twenty-five.”

“Alright. Okay. Fine!” Itsuki reaches down into her pocket. She had to rise into a half-stance, her breasts smothering her top while she struggled to bring out her phone. “W-we’ve only been dating for a few weeks... this was our first date.” She was sweating heavily as she passed the phone to Miku.

“Eeee!” Nino fell back in her seat, wearing a huge smile. “You’ve set your first date as your background?! Oh my gosh he’s so cute!”

Itsuki’s face couldn’t be any more red. Even so, embarrassed as she was, the girl still grinned. “T-thanks. Yeah... he took me to Hokkaido, to see the cherry blossoms, for my... err... our birthday...”

“Look look!” Nino leaned to the other side, gesturing to Ichika.

“Alright, let me see-” Ichika broke off as she leaned closer.

It was 2:35 in the afternoon. Beneath those numbers, her massive little sister wore the world’s largest Yukata, which was almost as large as the smile on her sheepish, chubby face. Red and gold with a Geisha pattern, Itsuki’s extremely large dress fit perfectly with her long scarlet hair tied in an ornate ponytail.

Behind her, with his arms over hers and reaching partway around her middle, was a tall young man with short dark hair. He wore a blue and gold Yakata, plain and more formal than Itsuki’s, but he had a strong jaw and piercing green eyes that seemed so sure and intense. His smile was more of a smirk, a soft grin that immediately gave the impression a more reserved personality.

“W-wow,” Ichika swallowed, trying very hard to focus on the difference brought by the green of his eyes. “He’s-”

“He’s so handsome!” Nino took the phone back, again bouncing as she brushed her hair from her face. “I’m so excited for you! Do you have any more pictures? Where did you meet? What was his name?”

Itsuki groaned, leaning over for her phone. “No more pictures, now give it back.”

“Awe,” Nino seemed genuinely disappointed. Then another drop of excitement. “You should have invited him!”

“We’ve been dating for less than month!” Itsuki clutched her phone to her chest. “And he knows where we are. He let me take his car. But this is a family dinner!”

“Lunch,” Miku corrected.

“Whatever!!”

Ichika’s eyes widened. She had his car?

That didn’t sound anything like the boy that… No, Ichika shook her head. This was different. Tsukuyo, Tsukuyo. She tried to banish the other name from her head.

Nino, who seemed intent on giving the nervous Itsuki a heart attack, good-naturedly added, “Well maybe soon he will be family~”

“Oh my God,” Itsuki buried her red face in her red hands.

Tsukuyo. Tsukuyo.

“Tsukuyo is nice name,” Ichika tried to help her sister.

Itsuki continued to hide. “It’s short for Tsukuyomi...”

A second of silence before Nino burst into laughter. Itsuki shrank into her body, her chin in her cleavage.

The young man’s black hair vanished from Ichika’s mind. It was a lot easier to see him behind Itsuki now. “Like... Tsukuyomi, the Shinto-”

“Yeeees,” Itsuki groaned. She sagged back into her double seats, her hands going up to either side of her bangs and nervously played with her two golden stars. “His full name is Tuskuyomi Hoshi. Moon Reading Star.”

Nino’s held her tummy as her laughter made her food-packed belly bob up and down. Her feet were kicking back beneath the table. “Y-you’re dating-” she cut back as more laughter came.

Itsuki made an embarrassed grumble, leaning into her hands.

Ichika couldn’t help but grin for herself.

Leave it to her soft little sister to find a guy whose last name meant ‘Star.’

“Hoshi...?”

Ichika turned to see Yotsuba stroking her chin, as if trying to remember something she’d clearly forgotten. It lasted a moment before her mouth realized she was holding a sushi roll. She opened wide for her chopsticks, taking in the piece and closing her mouth with an uncaring, “Mhmmmm.”

Miku patted Itsuki thrice on the shoulder, comforting the girl before turning away. “What about you, Yotsuba?” she asked. “Are you still working at Kirena’s?”

Yotsuba, was still catching up on her meal. She had only seemed to get into the sushi after her fourth glass of sake, but she’d cleared two full plates and was now on her third. “Ehh?” she blushed. “Oh, umm... no. I left the janitorial position a while back. But I got a new job!” she grinned and gave a thumbs up.

“Oh?” Ichika questioned. “What are you doing now?”

“I’m working with kids. Err,” she shook her head, the short braids waggling against her shoulders. “With children.”

“You’re okay to say kids,” Itsuki said looking down at her phone, her fingers picking the last piece of sushi clean from her plate. “I call my kids kids all the time.”

Yotsuba blinked at her, at first very slowly before her bright eyes began fluttering before looking at Itsuki’s tummy.

“W-what?” Itsuki asked. Then her face returned a bright cherry red. “You don’t think I have kids, do you?! We met like five weeks ago!! We only jus- I mean,” he long hair waggled back and forth rapidly. “I meant my classroom!”

“O-oh...” Yotusba swallowed. “S-sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Nino said, leaning forward and flashing a taunting smile. To Itsuki she said, “You do look like you’ve had a couple, yourself. Maybe even five,” she stuck out her tongue.

“You have changed a lot since we saw her last,” Miku agreed.

Itsuki huffed, crossing her arms protectively over her fat belly, each of the chairs protesting from beneath her fat ass. “I’m just fat, okay? I’m not the one who is pregnant!”

Nino chuckled ruefully as she lifted another sushi roll up to her lips. “Uhhh,” she sighed, raising a hand to her lips. “Give me a ‘ew months. I’ll ‘e r’ght behind you.”

Miku’s eyebrow lifted, her head tilting to the side. “You think you’ll gain that much? She’s nearly five times your size!”

“I am not!” Itsuki denied.

The table ignored this, as she quite clearly was.

Nino shrugged. “Not really, at least, God I hope not.”

“Hey!!!!!”

“But some stuff I was reading said I might gain, like, twenty to forty? So…” Nino shrugged. “Whatever keeps the baby happy, I guess.

“Well, Mom’s got to keep happy too,” Ichika reached over and patted Nino’s tummy. She was half-surprised to see Nino smiling at herself.

“You’re pregnant?”

The voice was completely unfamiliar. A frozen wind that blew into this sisterly place, causing the warm glow of the table to dim a few shades and the comfort receded.

It was Yotsuba.

“Oh. You got here after.” Nino shook her head. “Sorry, Miku made me forget to do an actual announcement.”

“I did no such thing...”

“Yeah, so. Umm...” Nino paused for a moment before standing up from her seat. She crisscrossed her fingers, then moved them to the side, then placing them both over her stomach as if she had no idea what to do with them. “I’m pregnant. Me and Fuutarou… um…” she blushed. “W-well, the article said, ‘we’re pregnant,’ but that… Ugh…” she put a hand to her cheek. 

Itsuki was the first to respond. “I always thought that sounded weird,” she laughed.

“I know!” Nino gestured. “It’s… weird! And it’s not like we were planning on this!!” From beneath her maroon cardigan, Nino lifted up her sapphire shirt to expose her tummy. “It’s not much, but I think you can sort of see it now?”

All Ichika could see was the impressively large food baby her sister had gained from her fatty fish meal.

“I think so too!” Itsuki affirmed. “How far along are you?”

“Ummm. Seventeen days!”

Miku, quicker than the others, was the first to blush. “Y-you had… on our birthday…?”

Suddenly five pairs of cheeks were all glowing pink. Nino wiped at her brow, taking a step back from the table and crossing her arms. “W-well… it was really romantic, okay?!”

Despite themselves, the girls seemed to relax, bringing with them that comfortable glow as Miku and Ichika both laughed at her embarrassment. Itsuki lifted up her glass towards her sister. “Congratulations. To both of you.”

“Yeah!” Ichika nodded and lifted her un-drunken shot, trying to take hold of that comfortable air. “Absolutely. I’m happy for you!”

Miku lifted her glass a fraction as well.

Nino took a breath and rested half a beat. Her stiff posture relaxed, and she put a hand on her chair, the other still wrapped over her belly. “Thanks. Yeah, it’s... daunting, but-”

“What are you going to do?” Yotsuba asked. Another wind that blew on the coals.

Nino hefted uncomfortably. “W-well, we were talking about moving out of our apartment. We only have our bedroom and the living room, and we can’t really put our daughter in the bathtub.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but there was hardly a response. 

“N-no,” Ichika agreed after a beat. “An apartment like that is too stuffy for a kid.”

“What about the others?” Yotsuba asked, as if she’d only partially heard Nino’s response.

Nino was quiet before asking, “Others?”

“Yotsuba? What do you mean, others?” Miku asked.

It took Yotsuba a moment to realize that she’d been addressed, and Ichika didn’t think it was because of the alcohol. She looked around, seeming to really see her sisters and started, “W-well, Nino is having quintuplets. Isn’t she?”

Silence emanated from the quintuplets table.

Ichika could vaguely hear someone shout something panicked from the kitchen.

“N-no,” Miku slowly shook her head. “Yotsuba, just because we were... I mean, Nino...”

They looked at Nino, who now only had eyes for her own tummy. The noticeable curve outlined beneath her nice blue shirt, hugging her pregnant and foodie packed belly.

“I need to sit down,” Nino said. She sat down. Then she stood up, gripping herself. “No, no way. I can’t be... we can’t afford...”

“It’s... so unlikely,” Itsuki said. “I mean, even us...”

“I-it skips a generation, right?!” Nino asked. “That’s how that works!” Her chest was heaving now, panic setting in as she began huffing and puffing.

Miku stood up, taking her sister and guiding her back down towards her chair.

“M-mom was an only child… But grandma and grandpa...”

Weren’t quintuplets. Weren’t even twins. Each of the girls knew that their mother’s family didn’t have twins in their tree.

But each also knew that they had another tree, one they had never looked into.

“It’s so unlikely...” Itsuki said. “L-like you said, it’s all superstition, right?”

“Are you going to keep them?”

The frosted wind became a stormy torrent, blowing directly onto the fire and bringing it down to miniature coals. 

Everyone turned to Yotsuba, who only seemed to see Nino. Or, rather, seemed to be looking through her older sister.

Nino had frozen, a rabbit that heard the call of a hawk. She starred across at her sister and, very slowly, wrapped both of her arms fully around her belly. “Yes,” she said with the weight of her world.

“Y-Yotsuba, you don’t think she’d get a...” Itsuki started. She left the word unsaid.

“It’s the alcohol,” Ichika supplied. “Yotsuba, you’re drunk, aren’t you?”

Again, a few seconds passed before Yotsuba was brought back from her far-away stare. She blinked, looking up at Nino, then Miku and then her other sisters, her head twisting quicker with each look. “O-oh... sorry...” Ichika hadn’t noticed how eerily still her sister had been until Yotsuba’s arms finally moved, folding into her lap as her head drooped. “I said something bad again… didn’t I…?”

Nino’s shock melted, replaced by extreme aggression. She pushed away from Miku’s hand on her shoulder. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” she demanded. “How could you even suggest that!!”

Yotsuba’s eyes were fluttering, immediately overloaded as Nino’s scorn washed over her.

Nino continued to glare, her nostrils flaring. “About your own niece?! Or... or nieces?!?!”

“Nino,” Miku rubbed her sister’s shoulders. “Calm down. She didn’t mean-”

“Didn’t mean- oh my God...” Nino looked sick. She leaned forward, as if suddenly feeling a pain in her stomach.

Ichika made to stand up but Yotsuba beat her to it. The young girl was circling around the table, moving towards her sisters.

She walked right past them, making for the entrance without looking back.

“Oh my God,” Nino’s blue eyes were huge, her pupils dilating. “Oh my God...”

“D-do you want me to call Fuutarou?” Miku asked.

Itsuki and Ichika looked at each other before getting up and chasing their other sister. Itsuki was in front, calling “Yotsuba, wait!” when the first of the serving team exited the kitchen in a confident march. He caught a fatty hip-check to his center and toppled backwards into several other servers.

The staff tried to catch him, letting several dishes of sushi and glasses of drinks fall to the ground in a terrific cacophony.

Itsuki held her hands over her mouth before shouting “I-I’m so sorry!” She locked eyes with Ichika before looking back towards the retreating redhead before blurting, “I’ll be right back I promise please don’t be mad I’m sorry!!” and then hurrying away.

Ichika barely managed to scramble around the groaning pile of man, fish, and rice. Two of the servers seemed to be completely out cold.

That killed the entire idea of trying to pass up Itsuki as her giant butt waggled like a dangerous weapon. “Yotsuba! I said wait up!!”

“Yotsuba!” Ichika called too.

They exited the restaurant, coming out into the Hachinomori marketplace proper. It was busier now, the market giving off a true buzz as people walked along the sidewalk and down the main street.

“I said wait up!” Itsuki shouted, her voice sounding strained. “I can’t run that fast!”

What she was doing could hardly be called running, though she certainly sounded like it caused quite a strain. Her fat arms up near her shoulders, Itsuki’s body made a weighty slapping noise as she strained against gravity to keep up with Yotsuba’s powerwalk. 

“W-waait!” she cried.

Her swooshing hair came to a rest and she stepped to the side, revealing to Ichika that they had caught up to Yotsuba, hands on her knees and standing just over the gutter.

She looked as if she were going to throw up.

Itsuki was panting too hard, sweat giving her body a glossy fat sheen, so Ichika spoke up for the pair. She put her hand on Yotsuba’s back. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Day nine-hundred fifty-six. Only eight-hundred and seventy-two. Eight seven two,” Ichika heard Yotsuba mumble. As much as Ichika wanted to believe, Yotsuba didn’t sound as if she’d drank a drop.

“Hey...” Ichika swallowed. “Come back inside. We can-”

But Yotsuba was already shaking her head. When she straightened up, Ichika could see tears that were brimming in her sister’s eyes, but she was already looking away. Towards the parking lot. “N-no, I need, I should go. I can’t...”

She straightened, her nose twitching and her eyebrows lifting back. The sound of the marketplace dipped away from them as a figure lifted himself off the parking lot wall where he had been sitting.

A young man with dark hair, a strong jaw, and piercing blue eyes. With the sunlight behind, they shined from the shadow with remarkable intensity. It was only because she saw the blue that Ichika could see the blue scrubs he wore, with his hands were across his chest and judgement in his eye.

“T-Tsukuyo?” Itsuki stepped forward. “What are you-”

“Fuutarou,” Ichika spoke over her sister.

Itsuki froze. Her mouth opened, then closed, a very small noise escaping as Fuutarou Uesugi walked past the scarlet puffball.

He stood straight in front of Ichika and Yotsuba. His glare had teeth, as sharp as a wolf, but there was only enough room for one quintuplet.

“Are you really running away, again?” he asked.

Ichika made to cut in, but she was silenced as Yotsuba stood straighter, shrugging her off. She took a step closer, a huge and false smile taking up most of her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Uesugi-kun!” she brightly chimed, even as tears began to fall down from her eyes. “Congratulations for you and your bride!”

And then she was brushing past him, pressing against the still frozen Itsuki, before entering into an open sprint for the parking lot.

He didn’t say anything. Just watched her run off while Ichika felt like a pit had opened inside of her stomach, trying to pull each of them in.

She wanted to say something. To demand he do something, change something. Help her help her sister. But all Ichika could do was frown at the little tear dips that now stained the sidewalk.

Itsuki, very slowly, began turning around. With a quavering hand she pointed at him. “I-is that you... Uesugi-kun?”

Fuutarou finally uncrossed his arms. He pushed a hand back through his hair as he looked away from the parking lot and down to Itsuki. His eyes then seemed to finally register her, going down to her toes to the top of her hair. She fidgeted as his gaze met her timid eyes.

“Didn’t I warn you that you’d end up fat?”