"Hello?" Goro's voice said, accompanied by knocking. "Is anyone there?" He asks as he and his brothers stand in the hallway. The door slowly opens to the eerily quiet apartment, the light of the mid afternoon filling the place. "What took so long, Uesugi-ch...hello?"

"What is it? You're her tutors, right? I think I know, take a seat." Raito says, going into his room.

"Who was that?" Sanzo asks.

"Uesugi's brother." Futaji says, noticing a pile of papers on a nearby table. He goes to investigate, finding it to be a quiz of sorts.

"It's rude to snoop in people's houses, Nakano-san." Raito says, looking down at the redheads from the second floor.

"Raito-kun, right? What are these?" Shin asks, meeting him at the bottom of the stairs.

"A few of my classmates asked me to make reviewers for them. It's a pain, but they're my only friends in school."

"So they're keeping you for grades, with the promise of friendship." Goro says. "How awful, this is why I hate people."

"Or you just don't have any social skills." Shin mocks his brother, causing Goro to slam his book shut. "Still, I'd get rid of them. Friends are overrated, all that matters is your goal."

"Shin, he's a kid." Futaji covers his mouth before he can talk any further. "Let him have fun."

"You've gone soft Futaji." Sanzo remarks, furiously mashing buttons on his game. "You're letting your feelings overtake your voice of reason."

"Still..." Futaji glances at the papers and reviewers again. "All 100's, in every subject. That's nothing to take lightly." His mind wanders.

"I'm impressed. When we were his age we could barely get 100 in one." Shin comments as he pulls free of Futaji's hands. "If she has a brother this smart, does she really need me to tutor her?"

"Oh, so you don't want the money. Okay then." Raito slowly turns up the stairs.

"I never said that! Anyway, want me to help make those reviewers?" Shin pulls out a pencil.

"I'm not paying you for this." Raito groans, handing all of them their pay for the month and taking a seat by his work.

"Doesn't matter. Let's have a race to see who can do the most."

"If you say so. I have 30 requests left, it should be divisible by all of us. First to finish their quota is the victor." Raito says, igniting a spark within all of the brothers.

"Yeah, I'll see you there. Okay...Okay, sheesh, you'll see me later girl, chill!" Fuuka says with her phone to her ear as she opens the door. "Of course I'm going! I'm not missing this festival." She locks it behind her as the brothers, including hers, all look up from the desk.

"What festival? You'll be here catching up on your studies. With your abysmal scores, you'll need to start reviewing now if you even want a chance to pass midterms." Shin says coldly, setting down the last paper for his quota. "By the way, I win."

"You'll be with me today. You skipped out on our Science review in the library last lunch." Goro says, finishing his bunch after Raito.

"Guys, go easy on her." Futaji tries to speak with his brothers.

"You really have gone soft. How amusing." Sanzo comments. "You can't run this time, no festival until you finish your work."

"You'll be fine sis, knock when you're done." Raito yawns, heading for his room. He could only catch a glimpse of Fuuka being dragged to her personal hell as he closes his bedroom door.

Fuuka is glued to her chair for hours, her progress slower than usual due to her distractedness. "I can't go on..." She cries out.

"No leaving this table until you perfect this test, I made it especially easy for someone like you." Sanzo says, handing Fuuka two papers, one unanswered and the other with a score of 93. "With your current score, you'd be right before first year, intelligence wise."

"No slacking off on me. You only got 69 on mine. Go again!" Goro scolds her.

Another hour passes, her score somehow getting worse with every attempt.

"What was she so excited about anyway? There's a festival today?" Shin asks as...

FFFFFFWWWWWWWWWWSHHHHHHH BOOM!

"Ah, the fall fireworks. I'd assume that's it, right Uesugi?" Futaji glances at his student. "Uesugi?"

The brothers all glance at her, hunched over with her hair obscuring her face.

"Is she dead?" Sanzo asks as Shin points at the worksheet she was answering, stained in spots as the ink spreads around.

"Fuuka? Did you leave without me? Uncool!" Raito comes out after hearing the explosion. "Onee-san?"

"Uesugi-san? Are you okay?" Shin pulls on her shoulders, leaning her back in her seat to get her hair out of her face. Fuuka's eyes melancholic and misty, soaked in tears. Her mouth trembling as she glances out to find another rocket explode and illuminate her face, causing her to cry a bit more.

"I'm...uhh...sorry?" Goro says on autopilot, uncomfortable with the situation.

Sanzo stays silent, looking away and packing his things. He only talks once he reaches the door. "I'm going home..." He says, his usually cold and calculating voice now holding some...pity? remorse? Nobody knows.

"No you're not! We can still make it to the festival if we run!" Shin yells, pulling himself away from looking at Fuuka to scold her brother. "We have to make this right! It's our fault she missed it!"

"There you go again, always trying to go the extra mile." Futaji chuckles, glancing at Raito. "You coming?"

"You okay Shin?" Futaji asks, noticing his brother slowing down. "If you're getting tired, let me carry her."

"No...I can take it. She's being unusually quiet." Shin answers.

"True, she usually gets mad or runs away, from my knowledge at least." Sanzo remarks, glancing at Fuuka's subdued and reposeful demeanor. "She's like a corpse."

"Sanzo, don't you feel guilty? This is partly your fault too, you know." Goro turns as all of their attention is directed at Sanzo.

He grunts, buying time to think of a response. "Why should I? She's just another idiot we have to teach, another challenge we have to-"

Fuuka fidgets and wriggles out of Shin's grasp, running into the festival as the final firework rocket fires off and explodes in the sky.

"Sanzo! Look what you did!" Futaji grabs him by the his shirt, pinning him by a tree. "You made her cry again!" He lets go with an arm and pulls it back with a clenched fist.

"Futaji, not now! We have to find her! Everyone split up!" Shin says as they run off, leaving Sanzo with Raito. The child says nothing, he needn't to. His eyes stare into Sanzo's own emotionless ones as he walks to leave the Nakano alone.

Fuuka runs through the festival as the various stalls and their owners start packing up. Blindly dashing through the people and errant boxes, she goes further and further away from her tutors. "I...I think that's far enough." She says, panting and resting on a nearby lamp post. She looks around, the streets covered with the litter from the festival and the people working hard to pack up before it gets even later in the night.

Wiping her eyes and wandering a little slower, she takes in the atmosphere. It's quiet, the aftermath of a great celebration always is, and the night's cool air turned harsh as she was still dressed as she was for the day: A red blouse and a black skirt. Moving to a place to sit, she finds purchase on a bench by a building with it's lights still on a ways away from the festivities. "How far did I go?" She thinks silently as she looks down at her hands, beginning to get wet as she has a memory enter her mind.

"Dad...I'm sorry." Fuuka buries her face in her hands, silently sobbing as the clouds block out the moonlight. She hears nothing but can feel the vibrations as someone takes a seat on the bench with her.

"Another failed audition...oh well." A familiar voice comes from that person. One that she had reluctantly memorized.

"Hitonari?" Pulling her hands away, she turns her head to find the choker wearing redhead sitting beside her, holding some papers in his hands.

"Fuuka-chan?" He asks in response, noticing the droplets running down the side of her cheek. "What happened?"

"..." Fuuka turns away. "Nothing. You guys wouldn't care anyway." She stands up, putting on a mask of apathy to try and form a dam for her tears.

"Fuuka-chan, do you trust me?" He asks, causing her to shake her head. "I see. Can I trust you with something?"

"..."

"Don't tell me brothers. But I'm...well, you heard me earlier didn't you?" His words cause her to face him. "This would be my fourth audition that I botched. I want to be an actor."

"Why keep trying?" Fuuka asks, clenching her fists. "If you can't do it the first time, if you mess up...why do you go back again?" She's trembling. "Why do I keep trying?" She thinks to herself, slamming her fists down against the armrest of the bench.

"Because there's a next audition. And maybe, just maybe, that next will be the right one." Hitonari says, looking at the paper again. "I have an idea that might cheer you up, read this."

"Your script?"

"Let's go! It'll be fun."

"Hitonari...I'm not in the mood for games...your brothers just...ruined the night for me." She says, her mask cracking easily tonight.

"Onee-san!" Raito calls out, walking about the remains of the festival. "Onee-san! Let's go home!"

"Did you find her?" Shin asks, panting as he runs up to the child. Raito shakes his head, noticing him holding something behind his back.

"Any luck?" Futaji regroups with them shortly after, greeted by distraught faces. "Where could she be?"

"Where'd your brother go? The one in the hoodie." Raito asks.

"He texted us a bit ago, said he was going home to catch a tv show." Futaji sighs. "Honestly, that guy..."

"I just got a call from Nari, she's with him." Goro comes to join them, his phone to his ear. "What? Okay. Alright, let's go."

"Go? Go where?" Shin asks, throwing away an empty envelope into a nearby trashcan.

"He can't carry her, she fell asleep on a bench."

"All this over a festival. What's so important about it anyway?" Shin asks.

"We used to go all the time with dad..." Raito says, stopping all the Nakanos in their tracks.

"Used to?"

"Yeah...after he...left, Fuuka kept insisting that we go together with mom. But then mom remarried and she's not around much..." Raito looks at the box of spare fireworks that are heading for storage, carried by workers.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It doesn't bother me." He lies. "Apologize to Fuuka."

"Hey, don't say that." Goro interjects, kneeling down to be level with Raito. "She's just trying to keep your dad's memory around. I'm sure you know it too, you're a smart kid."

"So what? All that matters is my goal, right?" His words send a shiver up their spines.

"...let's go." Futaji says, unable to look at the child. "And, Raito-kun...don't be like us."

"Hitonari? What're you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing." He turns, laying Fuuka down. "You've been watching us since we got to the second scene, Sanzo."

"What of it?" Sanzo scoffs, putting his earbuds in.

"I'm not dense, I can see that look of guilt in your eye. What did you do to her?"

"I...I just spoke the truth."

"The truth being?"

"That Fuuka's just another obs-" His words are cut short by a fist to his jaw. "What the hell?"

"Do you really believe that?" Hitonari's words weren't angry, or curious; they were fueled by disgust.

"What?" Sanzo wipes his face. "Of course I do."

"Then why did you follow her all this way? To say it again and rub it in?" Hitonari lowers his head, leaving only his scowl visible. "If so, then you should go home."

"Hitonari! Is she okay!?" Futaji says as they turn the corner. "Sanzo." His tone turns cold at the sight of the third.

"Let's just get her home, it's pretty cold." Hitonari tries to keep them on track. "What's that Shin?" He asks, noticing his brother holding something behind his back.

"I...wanted to apologize. So I bought some fireworks." He grunts as he and Goro get Fuuka's sleeping body on his back.

"You too?" Goro pulls out his own pack hidden in his shirt.

"Great minds think alike." Futaji chuckles as he takes out his own.

"Where did you guys even get the money?" Nari asks as Sanzo hands him a small envelope with his name on it. "Oh...that was today?" The eldest laughs as the six boys walk off into the night.

"Fuuka? Raito? Aren't the fireworks pretty?" A woman says as her finger follows a rocket up into the sky. "It's not every day this happens you know."

"Yeah, they're very pretty mama." Raito says, holding on to the sleeve of their mother's yukata. "I want to light one of my own!"

"Raito! That's dangerous! What if you get hurt." Fuuka says before a hand rests on her head and messes up her hair.

"Why not? Come on, I'll get some for us." A man's voice says as Fuuka turns to him with a smile.

FFFFFFFFFFFFSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH CRACKLE CRACKLE!

"Dad...mom...Raito...? RAITO!" Fuuka shoots up, her face illuminated by a small candle.

"Onee-san. You're awake." Raito says, crouching over the candle with five familiar faces with him.

"Hey Sanzo, isn't there something you want to tell her?" Futaji puts a hand on his brother's shoulder, squeezing it tightly as the other three stare on.

"Ow, ow! Alright fine. Fuuka, I'm sorry." Fuuka just looks on melancholically until she notices that her foot is resting on something.

"Hey! Shin! Stop that, you'll catch my clothes on fire." Goro says as the fourth brother swings around a sparkler overhead.

"Stuck up as always! Learn to take a break, we have fireworks!"

"That's even more reason to be careful, dumbass!" Goro takes a few steps away, lighting a black snake and setting it on the ground.

Fuuka looks at her feet, taking what they were resting on and walking over to the group. She holds out a stick maybe a foot long and lights it, pointing it skywards.

"I'm sorry we made you miss the festival, if we had only known how important it was to you." Futaji starts, but stops when he sees a smile on Fuuka's face.

"There's always next year. Plus, this...isn't so bad." She says as her roman candle shoots out five colored flares, first yellow, then purple, blue, green, and finally red.

A/N: Been waiting to write this one for a while. What do you think? Is the time with just the quints and Raito making review sheets too short and rushed? I honestly couldn't find a way to make writing the same thing over and over entertaining.