"Xiuzou-san, the exams were so hard!" Yotsuba said as she sat down on her bed after shutting her door. "So, Uesugi-san is going to retire soon, at least according to the next chapter..." She added, looking at her phone as the prophetic chapter lit up her screen. She paused for a moment, looking around the room as if she was waiting for something, but nothing happened. "I guess he's not here." She mumbled to herself, walking out of the room and finding her sisters going about some unusual things. Ichika was at the table overlooking a piece of paper with her phone on one side and her savings in another. Nino was doing her usual thing of cooking food for them, but Miku decided to help out in the kitchen that day, and Itsuki...

"Father, has Uesugi kun said anything?" She asked as she stepped out onto the balcony of their highrise apartment. One thing was shared between the five of them, the sense of unease that showed on their face meant that they had read through the current arc of their lives: what the manga called seven goodbyes. It was an odd sensation for the lot of them, knowing the events that were to come. Itsuki stepped back inside soon after with a disappointed look on her face. "Father already received his resignation, it appears that we couldn't stop him."

"I'm just glad that we avoided that fight that started things off." Ichika sighed, stretching her back. "But to think that his retirement was still going to happen. It's strange." She added. Yotsuba looked around at all of her sisters, their faces all dower from the news; at least they weren't surprised by it this time.

"Hey, as long as we do what the story showed us, we'll be able to stay with Uesugi-san!" She said, trying her best to keep everyone's spirits up. "We just have to make sure we move into that apartment before Christmas, we have time to prepare. But for now, why don't we just relax and enjoy ourselves. We just finished the exams." She walked over, setting up their TV with a display of the fanfiction site they used previously.

"This didn't end well last time." Miku muttered, her eyes falling toward the floor as the sisters reluctantly walked over to Yotsuba's side. "I hope that you don't pick any of the weird ones." She watched as Yotsuba the cursor to a certain author's username. "Xiuzou? Why him?"

"I uhh, have a feeling that this will be better than last time." She said, pushing her fingers together as she averted her gaze. "There are no sex scenes, at least." She added as they picked the first story that caught their fancy...

Chrono-cles of the Nakano

The first story they had was a time travel story, one that piqued nobody's interest in particular. "Oh, I see. That's how he's doing it." Ichika commented as they read through the first few paragraphs. "That's going to be confusing." She added as they got to the nickname assignment portion where they separated their past, present, and future selves into groups and gave them nicknames.

"He's not good with names, is he?" Nino commented, chuckling to herself as she read out the titles given to their future selves.

"I agree, but my main concern would be how he deals with continuity." Itsuki said, getting everyone's attention. "What would happen to the present or future versions of us if our kid selves saw something that they weren't supposed to see?" Yotsuba's ribbon instantly shot up as she asked her sisters if they would be willing to skip over to the next chapter. They said no, but they finished the first chapter quickly and managed to get to the next part that answered the fifth sister's question.

"That... this is confusing." Miku spoke out, reading a few paragraphs again. "I don't think that he knows what he's doing." She added as they made their way to the next chapter. Things only got harder to understand as it progressed, with the author eventually dropping it to work on something else; the story was left unfinished.

"That was a letdown." Ichika rubbed her eyes. "What about this one..."

Limited Screenings

"This one's about you." Yotsuba said as the page loaded and the words flooded the screen. It was short, only consisting of one chapter that was only a few hundred words long. "This was one of his earlier works, so it's pretty bad." She added, taking note of the grammatical errors and the inconsistencies in Ichika and Fuutarou''s personalities.

"But for someone that just started, I kind of like it." Ichika smiled, reading a happy end to her story that she hoped for. "It feels weird to read these types of stories, now that we know who wins." She said, turning her gaze toward the fourth sister as Yotsuba started turning beet red. "But it does make me smile."

"He made one for each of us, right? Let's read them all together." Nino said, taking control away from Yotsuba to read his story about her. They were all short, barely classified as stories and more like footnotes or writing prompts, but they each made them feel a little bubbly on the inside. Yotsuba chose to leave as her sisters read the next story...

Side's Stories

"These ones are about our friends. And it looks like the first one is about Ebata-san." Miku looked over at the chapter title as they started reading. It was a slower story, one that assumed the things that Ebata would do in the coming weeks once they left their luxury apartment. She looked over at their pet fish, walking over to it to feed it a little and check its water tank.

"Do you think that Ebata-san would really do this when we move out?" Ichika asked, looking up at her bedroom door as she felt a small wave of guilt run down her spine. "Because if he will, then..." She wordlessly walked up the stairs and peered into her room, seeing the mess that always seemed to follow wherever she slept.

"Are you going to do it or not?" Nino walked up behind her, taking a look for herself as her eyes shifted to her elder sister. "Oh..."

"We can discuss the move and things relating to it at a later time, let's read the next story, shall we? It's also good way to practice our English." Itsuki called them all over to read the next chapter of the story. "Who's Tsubaki? I don't recall anyone by that name." Placing a finger on her head as her ahoge drooped and swayed in confusion. Nino was the one to pipe up, offhandedly mentioning that her friends knew who she was.

"I see, so the broadcasting club. Still, I find it strange that we haven't run into her a lot, especially with Ichika here." Miku wondered as they started reading. "I wonder when she shows up in the series; we're around the events of the 40th chapter or so, yet we've seen no sign of her in school and in the manga."

"3rd year, maybe?" Ichika chimed in, leaning forward as she read the chapter first. "She seems to be a very minor character, there's not a lot to go off of from here." She says.

"Still, this chapter is all over the place. It seems like were jumping from one month to the next." Itsuki rubbed her eyes and adjusted her glasses. "One event to the next, with very little substance." She added, sighing. "But it does give us some insight into the future events, though I'm not sure if these will actually come true." The four of them continued reading, finishing off the chapter as Itsuki started thinking about their strange situation. A dower expression found itself on her face as she lowered her head. "Why do you think these people make these stories and artwork of us?"

They all turned their attention toward the youngest sister as Itsuki put her phone on the table, a collage of artwork of the five of them on her screen. "What do you mean?" Miku asked, looking at it as she opened up her own phone.

"I just find it odd. Is it self gratification? These will never be part of the canonical timeline, yet they make it anyway." She asked as Yotsuba walked out of her room. A smile slowly started forming on her face. "These really are beautiful." She started scrolling down the collection of art with her sisters.

"They are." Ichika said, pointing to one that caught her eye. "And I think that they do it because it's beautiful. What other reason do they need?" She added, stretching her back as she looked out the window. "I want to thank them for it."

"We probably won't be able to." Miku put her feet up on her seat as she hugged her knees. "It's a strange feeling. Is this how you feel whenever a movie comes out, Ichika?" She turned to the first sister, seeing her nod in acknowledgement. "It's getting late. the exams might be over, but I have things I have to do." She got up, walking toward her room as Nino called out to her.

"Are you going to practice your cooking?" Nino asked, getting a smile from Miku in response. "How far ahead did you read?" The second sister asked as the room fell silent.

"I read as far as I could." Miku answered, standing by her door with her hand ready to open it. "But it wouldn't show me the last few chapters. I don't know why though." She added as her sisters got up to walk after her, all except Yotsuba who only opened up her phone and swiped the screen a few times.

"We should probably go to sleep." Itsuki said after a few minutes of a heated conversation. "Everyone. I think that we should stop reading this manga, at least not so far ahead. It's dangerous to know about the future, and we don't know what will happen if we change something that we weren't supposed to." She coughed to get everyone's attention as she entered her room. The sound of the other four doors shutting echoed in their apartment. The clock ticked away as sleep seemed to evade each of the quintuplets. Despite her words, Itsuki opened up her phone and started reading the manga; she stopped right before the story arc of their third year festival. As the screen faded to black, she sighed; certainly the others were doing the same in their own rooms.

She was right. Curiosity got the better of them all, and they all arrived at the same end. "What? How come I can't see this?" They asked themselves as they took a closer look at their screens. Instead of the first chapter of the festival arc, a grey screen with black text greeted them. "Failed to load." With that, the sisters sighed and put themselves to bed, all except one.

"I..." Yotsuba mumbled to herself as she sped through to the ending of the story, skimming through most of it in a curiosity fueled binge. "Xiuzou-san, did this ending make people happy?" She asked to nobody in particular.

A/N: Yeah.

"Did it make people angry?"

A/N: Yeah. You really can't please everyone, so I kind of expected it to happen.

"Wait, wasn't this supposed to be about us reading your fanfics, why'd you not let them read the big one?" She asked, pacing around her room and stopping by her mirror, her fingers feeling around her ears.

A/N: I, well, it's been a while and I kind of forgot how my stories went. And I haven't written any fanfic about you guys in a while, so It'd probably be hard.

"What are you doing now?" She asked again.

A/N: Experimenting.

"Are you going to stop writing about us? The manga ended, right?"

...

...

...

A/N: There are still stories that can be told about you guys, and I will try to write what I think of.

"I see. Anyway, shouldn't you end this chapter soon?" Yotsuba smiled, heading for her bed again as she looked over at her ribbon. "You left this one with a lot of loose ends, you know."

A/N: Yeah. Gives me a reason to come back to this, and a place for me to start the next chapter on if I make it. Anyway, thanks for reading.

"Bye bye, see you next time!"