"Ooo... How scary..." Ichika smiled at the scene. Now this was a rare sight, Nino backed up into a corner. The girl had dug a grave with her own words, and humiliation was at the bottom.
"I....Tch!" Nino scowled and snatched the paper. "Fine! I'll do your stupid test! You'll regret challenging me, Uesugi!" She grumbled, borrowing one of Miku's pens before she started answering.
As the quintuplets silently we through the test, Fuutarou went on analyzing mode. The point of this test wasn't about evaluating their grades, it was signal extraction. He'd personally design it to expose how each of them thinks, not what they remember.
It had the same topics, same difficulty, but it had questions that forked into different cognitive traps, problems that rewards intuition, punishes memorization, tests endurance and tests confidence under uncertainty. He'd analyze which of the five sisters would freeze, rush, checks others' answers or give up halfway.
The quints were all too focused on the paper before them to notice Fuutarou taking notes about them. He'd notice how Ichika would strategically skip questions she knows will cost time and energy, how Yotsuba has a sudden burst of speed followed by a total drop in accuracy, and how Miku hesitates before committing answer, possibility being that she has the correct reasoning but low confidence in it.
Then he'd notice that for Itsuki, her posture gets rigud when she's unsure, like she's bracing for judgment while for Nino, how quickly frustration turns into disengagement.
He also included a section where every single one of them would fail on purpose. A question slightly beyond their level. To Fuutarou, how someone reacted to being stuck told him more than a correct answer ever will.
This was extremely good data for him. From this alone, he'd learn more than weeks of lectures could reveal. These notes aren't judgment. They're a map for the girls' improvement.
Meanwhile, Nino's mind wasn't on the test at all. She was staring at the glass of water near Fuutarou. 'C'mon Uesugi, drink it already....' She complained in her mind as if it would magically make him drink it. One would wonder why she was so adamant on Fuutarou getting hydrated? It was because the girl had slipped a sleep inducing drug in the water. Evil, right?
'Yes!' Nino cheered silently as Fuutarou went for the glass of water. 'Wait no! Why are you staring at it! Drink it already!' Unbeknownst to Nino, Fuutarou could already tell that the water was drugged due to his enhanced sense of smell. He stared at the water, an unreadable expression on his face.
'No! Don't drink it, Uesugi-kun!' Itsuki bit her lip nervously. She had long noticed the weird powdery texture in the water but didn't pay it too much attention. That was until she noticed Nino staring at it obsessively. That was when she figured out what was happening.
'We do a little trolling.' Fuutarou internally smirked to himself. This kind of drug was not something that his constitution couldn't handle. Nino would need more than 20 kilograms of this stuff before it would barely start having an effect on him.
A shadow loomed over Fuutarou's eyes as he started chugging down the water. The quintuplets minus Itsuki and Nino looked up at the strange scene before them. Fuutarou exhaled as he set the glass down, before noticing that all eyes were on him.
"What? Can a guy not get thirsty now?" Ichika giggled a little before she continued with her test. The rest soon followed, with Itsuki breathing a sigh of relief as she saw that nothing immediate was happening to her tutor. Nino meanwhile, was confused and frustrated.
'What?! Why isn't he asleep yet?! Did I not put in enough?!' She shouted in her mind before she quickly went back to answering her paper. She can't afford to give him another glass now, as it would only raise suspicion. 'Tch! I'll play your stupid game for now, Uesugi.' She thought. Fuutarou sensed what she was feeling and did a victory dance in his mind.
Not long after, the quints finished answering the tests. Each of them handed it to Fuutarou for him to mark. 'Wow, he doesn't even have to look at the answer sheet to mark it. That's the top student for ya...' Ichika thought before yawning again.
"Fuutarou-kun, can I take a nap?" Ichika asked. Fuutarou nodded, his red pen gliding over the test paper. "Sure, but be sure to wake up for the review later okay?"
"Okayyy~" She smiled as she leaned on his shoulder without hesitation. Her four sisters all stared at her i disbelief, mouth agape.
"I-ichika! Th-that's improper! Put your head on the table!" Itsuki scolded, blushing at the sight. Why was her sister so touchy with him? Does she have no manners?
"I don't think you can wake her up anymore , Itsuki." Miku muttered. Ichika was out like a light, lightly breathing as she slept leaning against their tutor. She looked at Fuutarou, seemingly unaffected by the sudden move.
"Sorry about her, Fuutarou." Fuutarou smiled at Miku and shook his head.
"It's fine. I don't mind. She reminds me of my own sister." Fuutarou replied. He glanced at Yotsuba to see her pouting at the sleeping Ichika and resisted a chuckle.
"You... have a sister?" Itsuki raised an eyebrow, a little curious. Fuutarou nodded, as he started marking another paper.
"Yup, 4 years younger than me. Just started middle school this year." Fuutarou chuckled, remembering that Raiha declared to him that she would be the number 1 of her class just like her brother.
"Lemme guess, number 1 student like you too?" Itsuki smiled at him. Fuutarou smiled.
"Not without her own challenges though. She used to not be able to understand the syllabus and her body wasn't exactly endurable like she is right now. Cramming stuff in all at once doesn't suit her, so she decided to do short consistent sessions."
He continued. "I remember she would ask me questions over and over again on something she doesn't know until she got it down. She's not particularly ashamed to admit that it's difficult. Most students lose time protecting their pride instead of spending that time learning. Thankfully she realized that quite early."
"Are your family geniuses at studying or something..." Nino grumbled, swiping through an online shopping website. He shook his head, chuckling a little.
"Not even the slightest. We're not talented at all. I used to be so close to flunking when I was in elementary. But when I found the studying methods suitable for me, everything just kind of clicked."
"Hm...." Nino hummed, not replying. Then she paused for a moment, her swiping on her phone stopped. 'Hey wait! Why am I getting all chummy with him?!' She pouted behind her phone. Fuutarou was still the enemy here.
"Is it really that simple to get good results?" Itsuki muttered. It all sounded like a fantasy to her.
"Of course. If you give enough honest effort that's applied correctly, good grades just stop being an impossible thing to reach. I believe that effort without method is noise, while method without effort is fantasy." Miku, who was originally focusing on her mobile game, was now focused on Fuutarou's explanation.
" So we just have to work hard?" Yotsuba questioned, having the same thoughts as Itsuki. Putting in effort was all their teachers said. She really doesn't listen to them anymore, because even though she put in the effort she still failed horribly anyways.
"With the methods that suit you, that is. If you keep doing the wrong thing harder, it doesn't become right." Fuutarou corrected.
"Studying is really just a journey to learn more about yourself. It reveals your reaction under pressure. For example, some people reread to feel safe. Some rush to feel competent. Some quit to avoid feeling dumb." He'd actually stopped marking, now focusing on talking with them.
"None of that is about intelligence, it's about temperament meeting resistance.Textbooks don't teach that now do they? That's why I gave you girls this test." He held up the pieces of paper, making sure not to move to much so as to not disturb the sleeping Ichika.
"I see, so you were conducting a pattern recognition test, and in turn you can figure what methods best suit us." Itsuki nodded. Fuutarou smirked and nodded.
"Yes, but it's only a first hypothesis. I wouldn't overclaim by giving a final diagnosis now. I'd test this in future sessions."
"Woah! You got all of that just from us taking this test?" Yotsuba was impressed. Fuutarou smiled. He remembered he still had papers to mark, so he quickly picked up his red pen and continued.
"Yup, this test wasn't about measuring how much you know. It's measuring how you five collide with difficulty. " Okay, Miku was impressed. He wasn't half-assed at all like she thought, maybe being under his tutelage wasn't that bad after all. Nino stayed silent, not meeting Fuutarou's gaze. It was unclear what the girl was thinking about, but Fuutarou could tell that she was conflicted.
"I believe you five have the potential to become straight A students. It'd be hard, but nothing in this world is easy to attain. So how about we start reviewing?" He grinned, holding up the papers.
"Wake up." Miku shook Ichika a little. The girl groaned, shaking her head. Fuutarou chuckled and shook Ichika himself.
" Ichika, wake up. You can sleep more after we're done reviewing." He resisted laughing when Ichika groaned louder and shook her head again. Just then, Ichika sat up straight, smiling at him.
"Just kidding. Ehe!~ How much did we get, Fuutarou-kun?" She asked. Fuutarou smirked at them.
"Heh. You girls sure are amazing. You got 100..." The girls widened their eyes, before his gaze became devious.
"If you combine them all! HAHAHAHA!"
Fuutarou laughed before looking at the quintuplets, only to see all five to them pouting at him.
"Hehe, sorryyy~"
"Meanie!! Hmph!!" They all shouted together before huffing, turning their heads away from him while crossing their arms.
"Aww don't be like that, c'mon let's review!"
"Hmph!!!!!"
To be continued...