Back to the future with five Nakano kids!

Chapter 5: Confrontations

Yotsuba managed to get through to them and told Futaro they had taken the bus back.

"Let's take the bus as well then," Futaro decided.

"Can we come with?" Aiko asked, still looking very shaken. Rina was holding onto her right arm, making sure Aiko didn't collapse, as she looked so pale that she might faint.

"We'll stay with Mom and Aunt Ichika," Ren said, and Sora nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later, Yotsuba, Futaro, Rina, and Aiko were sitting on the back row of the bus. An awkward silence hung between the four.

Hesitantly, Yotsuba started talking, her voice unusually quiet. "Uesugi-san, you heard what I said at the peak, right?" she asked.

Futaro, unable to look her in the eyes, answered, "I didn't hear anything."

"Ah! You definitely heard!"

"I said I didn't hear anything," Futaro insisted. "Just leave it at that."

"Still, it's a fact that my reckless comment hurt Miku. She's been working so hard. And I'm the one who gave Ichika the idea to do this, too... during our family trip..."

"You're right. It's your fault," Futaro agreed. "Consider the time and place before saying something like that," he scolded her.

"So you did hear me."

"I mean, I knew, I guess."

"You knew? You knew what?"

"I mean, you know, that..." Futaro stuttered shyly. He covered his mouth with his hand. Aiko and Rina noticed that gesture; he always did that when saying something he was not used to saying or embarrassed to say out loud.

"M- that Miku has had feelings for me." A blush spread on his cheeks as he spoke.

Yotsuba's eyes widened. "Am I hearing things? Could you say that again?"

"Stop it! I'm not saying it again!"

"Uesugi-san the Dense... I can't believe it."

"Well, a lot's happened," Futaro said, remembering how Ichika had talked to him disguised as Miku back at the onsen. Then he pointed at Aiko and Rina next to them. "Also, those guys showing up made me realize it too."

Aiko and Rina flinched as their father's and Aunt Yotsuba's attention suddenly turned to them. Having been caught eavesdropping, they looked like they had their hands caught in the cookie jar.

Rina immediately tried to deny it. "We weren't eavesdropping!" Aiko was absentmindedly staring out the window.

Before they knew it, they reached the hotel. Everyone gathered in the hotel for dinner.

Nino, Yotsuba, and Itsuki sat together at a table with Ren, Sora, and Rina. Aiko had immediately gone upstairs to check on Haru and Aunt Miku.

"Listen up, everyone," Nino said seriously. "We're being tailed by a sneak photographer. I noticed it ever since we were at Kyoto Station." Nino explained, "I'm sure of it."

Ren and Sora's faces turned serious as they entered their well-known protective mode. Being two of only three men in a family of eleven, their father had told them it was their job to protect their girls.

Rina chuckles, thinking how stupid the two boys looked.

"Don't worry, Mom!" Ren reassured her, his hand confidently on his chest.

Sora nodded, mimicking his half-brother's pose. "We'll protect you, Mama, Aunties!"

"Quiet down, would you?!" Nino hissed at the two boys when other people stared at their proclamation.

"You can't just call us that out in public!" Yotsuba stressed, and Itsuki waved off the people shooting them weird looks.

Yotsuba changed the topic. "Anyway, Miku and Ichika are back at the hotel, right?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Both of them seem worn out after all that walking. They're resting in our room," Itsuki clarified.

"The girls are with them," Ren added, referring to two of his three half-sisters.

Yotsuba got up determinedly. "I'll go check on them!"

Nino told her to wait, that they'd go together once done eating.

Futaro, who was sitting with his group, watched the girls and his sons leave. He pretended he needed to go to the bathroom and followed them.

Once at their room, Nino knocked. "Miku, Ichika, I know you're in there. Open the door."

No response.

"They aren’t responding."

"They’re ignoring their phones, too."

"Miku, I'm sorry! I ruined everything! But there are still two more days on our school trip. I want you to let me make things right," Yotsuba pleaded with her sister.

"Let me try," Rina suggested and stepped forward. "Haru, Aunt Miku, it's us. Let us in."

"Mama doesn't wanna see anyone right now," came the prompt answer from Haru.

Nino, Yotsuba, and Itsuki flinched when they heard yet another click.

Itsuki chuckled unsurely. "After what you said, Nino, now I'm hearing things, too!"

"Y-Yeah, right?" Nino stuttered. "We're just hearing things. There's no way he'd be in the hotel."

The three girls turned around and saw a camera peeking around the corner.

All three screamed in terror.

"Mama! Get down!" Ren, Sora and Rina ordered their moms as they protectively stood in front of them.

Down the hallway, Futaro heard the screams and started running. "What was that scream?" He ran into Ichika, who had Aiko hot on her heel.

"What's—"

"Ichika. You..."

"Futaro-kun! You heard that too, right? Those sounded like my sisters. You have to go check on them! I can't face them, not yet..."

Futaro nodded numbly and ran towards the quintuplets' room, from where the screams had come.

As he reached it, he saw Nino, Yotsuba, and Itsuki hiding around a corner.

"Are you alright?" he asked them worriedly.

Immediately, the three threw themselves at him, crying.

"Futaro!"

"Fu-kun!"

"Uesugi-san!"

Futaro looked down at the three girls, crying and hugging him, wide-eyed. Unsure of what to do, he looked at his sons for help.

"We saw someone was taking pictures of them!" Ren explained while Sora huffed angrily.

Futaro still looked lost, and his sons chuckled. Rina facepalms "Stupid Papa, you gotta comfort them!"

That snapped Futaro out of his trance, and he hesitantly wrapped his arms around the three girls, who were slowly calming down.