Golden Week, Day Two.
Sakurai Saki finally remembered he had a standing tutoring gig.
He'd flaked multiple times recently due to unavoidable supernatural incidents—a poor excuse, but a true one.
Standing at the entrance to the Nakano quintuplets' apartment, he glanced down at his own shadow. Becoming part-vampire hadn't been a total loss. With the specialized "treatment" from the aberration expert Oshino Izuko, he was now a vampire iteration remarkably close to human. His regeneration was largely intact, while his weaknesses had been neutralized. A net power-up.
Different fields require different specialists, he mused. When it came to the truly esoteric, even a Superpower User was an amateur.
"The sunlight is still… irritating," he muttered, adjusting his umbrella. He'd always disliked sunny days; now he had a biological justification. As for classic vampiric thirst or garlic aversion? None. He was immune to silver, could consume garlic bread with impunity.
The only notable side effect was a slight but measurable decrease in his resistance to feminine charm—a solid step toward becoming the protagonist of an ecchi series. Vampires carried inherent succubus traits; it was an occupational hazard.
It was 10 AM. He'd scheduled intensive tutoring sessions for the entire break, a marathon from today until the holiday's end. His mission: to guide these five academically-challenged sisters through the stormy seas of Literature, History, and English. With enough effort, humans could master anything.
Except math.
"Today, failure is not an option!"
He pushed up the black-framed glasses he'd donned for the occasion, a surge of confidence flooding him. Not without reason—today's Superpower User was academically inclined.
[Today's Superpower User: Nudging Nourishment
Effect: By feeding a target, you can compel them to perform actions they are normally incapable of.
Side Effect: None]
What kind of name is that?! …Right, he was the one who named them.
'My pockets are stuffed with snacks…'
Heh. These mere quintuplets of ineptitude will be crushed beneath my pedagogical might! He would tutor them through all five subjects for the post-holiday monthly exams!
This confidence lasted precisely until he stepped inside their apartment.
Only one of the five was in the living room.
"Hiiii! Sakurai-kun! Long time no see! You're super early!" Nakano Yotsuba greeted him with her trademark, boundless, and academically void energy.
"…Where are the other four?" Sakurai hefted his bag, heavy with textbooks and worksheets.
"Still sleeping!" Yotsuba rubbed the back of her head, grinning sheepishly. "We stayed up way too late last night!" The first day of Golden Week excitement, apparently.
"Could you go wake them? I'm… a male guest. It wouldn't be appropriate."
"No way! Sakurai-kun is our teacher! C'mon, let's go! They're all lazybugs!" She cheerfully shoved him from behind, propelling him toward the stairs.
Says the 'early bird' whose test scores are consistently in the worm-digesting range.
They stopped outside Itsuki's door. Sakurai gave Yotsuba a look. "You knock."
As an outsider, barging into a teenage girl's room felt like a social landmine.
Yotsuba rapped on the door.
"Who is it?" Itsuki's sleepy voice filtered through.
"It's me! Yotsuba!"
"Scam calls start like that too," Itsuki retorted, slipping into a classic, infuriating routine.
[Who is this?]
[It's me!]
[Oh, which 'me'?]
[The usual 'me'!]
Exactly the kind of riddle-speak Sakurai Saki despised.
"It's almost noon! And Sakurai-kun is here too!" Yotsuba added.
A faint rustle came from inside. The door creaked open a sliver.
Sakurai caught a glimpse of a disheveled Itsuki, her hair undone, her signature star hair accessory notably absent.
The moment her eyes met his, the door slowly, firmly, slid shut.
A moment later, her voice came through, slightly muffled. "…I'll be out in a minute." The sounds of frantic primping followed.
That's not 'a minute.' That's 'indefinite cosmetic reconstruction.' Girls' routines were a mystery; even "light makeup" seemed to involve half a pharmacy's worth of products.
Resigned, the two moved on to the next room. Yotsuba knocked on Nino's door.
After a short pause, the door swung open. Nino stood there, already fully styled, makeup impeccable, hair perfect.
"…" Her eyes landed on Sakurai Saki.
The contrast between the prepared Nino and the disaster zone that was the other sisters was stark. A silent, judgmental energy filled the hallway. The tutoring session hadn't even begun, and the battlefield of wills was already drawn.
For a moment, she simply stared, processing lag evident in her wide eyes.
"Y-You… why are you here?!" Nino finally blurted out, then immediately softened her tone into something falsely demure. "I… I haven't gotten changed yet…"
Her gaze dropped to her own pajamas—specifically, to the conspicuously unfastened buttons at her chest. Her face, already fair, began to visibly flood with crimson.
She'd assumed he wouldn't arrive so early!
"Nino, you should… probably button up," Yotsuba offered helpfully.
The blush on Nino's face deepened to a spectacular shade of scarlet. "…P-Pervert! Don't look!" she shrieked, crossing her arms over her chest and squatting into a defensive ball, her entire being radiating mortified heat.
Sakurai Saki, the picture of stoic chivalry, reached out and slowly, firmly, closed the door on the scene.
From behind the wood, a muffled, agonized wail echoed into the hallway.
"Sakurai-kun! You go wake Ichika! I'll get Miku!" Yotsuba declared, dividing the labor with terrifying cheer.
Sakurai Saki nodded stiffly. What a minefield. This was worse than a gacha pull. At least gacha had pity systems.
Then again, perhaps he'd already drawn the 'guaranteed' common card—Yotsuba—right at the start.
He knocked on Ichika's door.
Ten seconds of silence. He glanced at Yotsuba, who was getting no response from Miku's room either. She gave him a helpless shrug, then simply turned the handle—Miku's door was unlocked.
Fine. If that was the precedent.
While the 'earphone incident' in Miku's room last time made him wary of invading a girl's private space, Ichika was the responsible big sister. Her room would surely be tidy and appropriate.
With this reassuring thought, Sakurai Saki pushed open the door.
He was wrong.
He had opened the gates to a special kind of domestic chaos.
'Huh. Confirmed.'
She's a slob.
The room was a disaster zone that put a certain lazy angel's apartment to shame. Clothes formed geological strata on the floor. A stray bra was visible atop one pile like a flag on a summit. Cosmetics, half-empty water bottles, and general debris completed the landscape.
And in the corner, nestled in her bed, Nakano Ichika slept soundly, only her head poking out from the covers. Her sleeping posture was, at least, normal.
Sakurai Saki felt a wave of relief. He approached cautiously.
"Ichika. Time to wake up."
"…Mmm?" Ichika's eyes fluttered open, hazy with sleep. She stared at Sakurai's face, her brain slowly booting up.
Then she did something he absolutely did not anticipate.
In one smooth, sleep-softened motion, she reached out, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him off-balance, pulling him straight into the warm, dark sanctuary of her bed.
Under the covers, Sakurai Saki's body went rigid. His hand, which had instinctively moved to brace himself, froze mid-air.
He had not accounted for the fact that Nakano Ichika slept in the nude.
"Ichika. It's me." His voice was a strained whisper, trapped against her skin. He didn't know where to put his hands. He didn't know where to look.
Ichika's steady breaths ghosted over his face, sweet with sleep. She had, impossibly, dozed off again.
"Sakurai-kun? I got Miku up!"
Yotsuba's voice echoed from down the hall, growing closer.
Sakurai Saki's blood ran cold. Without a second thought, he curled his body inward, making himself as small as possible beneath the quilt.
If he was found like this, it was social execution. No trial.
"Huh? Where'd Sakurai-kun go?" Yotsuba's footsteps entered the room. "Whoa. It's a mess in here…"
She padded toward the bed.
"Mmm…?" Ichika, stirred by the familiar presence of her sister, began to surface from sleep once more. Yotsuba was her usual alarm clock.
But there was an unusual weight on her chest. A warmth. Still half-asleep, Ichika reached a hand down… and her fingers slid through Sakurai Saki's hair.
Sakurai Saki flinched.
"!!!"
Nakano Ichika was now, suddenly, and catastrophically, wide awake. The hazy memory of her own actions moments ago replayed in high-definition clarity.
Oh. No.
Sleep-addled idiocy!
"Ichika? What's wrong?" Yotsuba asked, peering at her sister's suddenly panicked expression.
"N-nothing!" Ichika squeaked, pulling the covers tighter.
Yotsuba's eyes narrowed. She studied the lumpy shape of the duvet. Did it seem… fuller than usual today? Or was it her imagination?
"Ichika… is there something in your bed?" Yotsuba's hand, innocent and deadly, began to reach for the edge of the blanket.
Beneath the covers, Sakurai Saki held his breath, his world reduced to the sound of his own pounding heart and the approaching fingers of doom.