Dependence - an Original Quintessential Quintuplets Story

10b - The Field Trip of a Lifetime, part 2

The ride to Kyoto brought forth many wallpaper-worthy photos. The trees were slowly turning warmer colours; some were even shedding their leaves.

(Y/N) gazed out the window and watched as they passed by what were probably thousands of trees. The bus they were taking to Kyoto had rows of three seats on either side of the aisle. (Y/N) was sitting with his other group members, Yotsuba and Itsuki. (Y/N) had the window seat, and Yotsuba had the aisle seat.

Yotsuba, suddenly fascinated by the view, climbed onto Itsuki to get a better view. "Woah! It's so beautiful!!"

Itsuki, moderately annoyed that she was being climbed on, nodded in agreement. (Y/N) noticed Yotsuba on top of Itsuki and gently pushed her back to her spot.

Yotsuba must've been sleepy because she fell asleep only about half an hour into the ride. She leaned her head on Itsuki's shoulder. Itsuki was startled, as she wasn't really paying attention to her groupmates — she was reading a book — though, granted, there wasn't much to pay attention to.

Yotsuba had been playing cards with some girls from the row across from theirs. (Y/N) had quickly gotten bored of looking at the trees pass by so he started playing chess on his phone. He did ask Itsuki to play, but she politely declined, knowing there was no way she could win.

Soon enough, Itsuki, too, fell asleep. This resulted in Yotsuba leaning on Itsuki, who was herself leaning on (Y/N). Now his left arm was immovable, lest he wanted to wake up the two sleeping girls. (He tried to continue his game one-handed but immediately misclicked and blundered.)

After the two-and-a-half-hour ride, they arrived at their hotel in Kyoto. The school stumbled upon an excellent deal from this hotel: they could rent a whole floor for half the price it would normally be. They were desperate for whatever reason and ended up renting the floor for the second years.

The hotel was not small, either; the whole floor had more than enough space for all the students and chaperones (teachers). And, it was the seventeenth floor! The lucky students could see many shrines and the majority of Kyoto around them directly from their rooms.

All was good for (Y/N) until it was announced that group members would be staying in the same room. For whatever reason, he didn't put it together and was a bit surprised by it.

Now he had to organize the sleeping arrangements, as there were only two beds per room (as I said, the school was desperate). (Y/N) didn't want to force Itsuki and Yotsuba to sleep in the same bed, so he decided to sleep on the floor– just kidding! He brought his air mattress.

The trip was really special to (Y/N), who had never been to Kyoto. This was his third demonstration of Japanese culture, after the two festivals.

The first highlight for him was the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. They made wishes and drank from the streams: Ichika, from love and longevity; Nino, one big swig from love; Miku, from wisdom; Yotsuba, from longevity; Itsuki from wisdom (as well as Fuutarou from wisdom, obviously).

(Y/N) took some time to decide from which stream to drink.

Wisdom? Nah, I'm smart enough.

Longevity? Nah, I've probably already lived my life.

Love?

...dang, maybe I should. I mean, at this point, multiple Quints are waiting for my answer, I have to choose one soon...

Thus, (Y/N) drank from the stream of love (which immediately got Nino talking and teasing).

The second highlight was the Ten Thousand Gates at the Fushimi Inari-taisha Temple. Yotsuba challenged (Y/N) to a race to the top. She immediately started sprinting up three steps at a time, while (Y/N) took it slow. It must have paid off, as he passed her only about five minutes in; she was panting and having trouble doing any more. (Y/N) just kept walking with a smug face as Yotsuba glared at him.

Around halfway up, (Y/N) decided to wait since he had left every Quint behind at that point. They eventually reconvened and took a slow pace ascending together.

Ichika had told (Y/N) a few months before that she was planning to confess to Fuutarou right here, at the top of the steps. She even had a plan to disguise herself as Miku if she felt she needed to. This was, of course, before her love for Fuutarou greatly diminished in favour of someone else.

But something unexpected was about to happen. (Y/N) had been thinking about {Quint}'s confession to him, as well as Ichika's plan, and decided that it was time. It had been long enough, and this was the right time and place.

(Y/N) was going to return the confession.

- = + = -

hello great people. I know it isn't long, but I haven't had much time to write, as you probably know. hopefully, the next chapter (another choose-your-story) will be out by next week. after that, possibly one more chapter and then we're done (excluding future specials).

hope you enjoyed the chapter! feedback is always appreciated. thanks for reading!

- Niko-kun