Just as the Kato household's night tipped into a warming, ambiguous "three-person world" with Rei Ao's arrival—
—in another corner of the same city, a different home was shrouded in gloom.
In the Nakano family's spacious but slightly messy living room, five nearly identical, adorably delicate faces were all scrunched into matching little grimaces.
They were the Nakano quintuplets:
the mature, languid eldest sister, Ichika Nakano;
the stylish and forthright second sister, Nino;
the quiet, reserved third sister, Miku;
the lively, sunshiney fourth sister, Yotsuba;
and the earnest, hard-working yet perpetually inefficient fifth sister, Itsuki.
The five sisters sat around the coffee table.
Spread out before them were textbooks, study guides, and exam papers—densely packed notes and red X's silently telling the story of their shared academic plight.
"Uggggh—nope! I don't get any of this!"
Nino cracked first, flinging her math book onto the table and collapsing into the sofa.
"Why does math even exist? It's a crime against humanity!"
Yotsuba drooped as well. The usual bright smile vanished, replaced by dejection.
"Classical Japanese in language class is hard too… I can't remember those grammar rules at all…"
Miku stared at her test paper in silence, fingers tightening on her headphones.
"The character relationships are so complicated…" she murmured.
Itsuki hugged a thick world history tome, brows knit, muttering under her breath—trying to brute-force it through rote memorization, with predictably poor results.
Even Ichika, who usually looked most at ease, was rubbing her temples.
"At this rate, we really might all flunk the year together…" she sighed. "Dad's reaction is one thing, but that new Academy we transferred to—the classes are even tougher…"
At the mention of the new school, Itsuki's eyes suddenly brightened.
"Isn't there a legendary top student at our school?"
"That senpai named Rei Ao!"
"I heard he gets perfect scores on every single exam—never missed once!"
"Perfect in every subject?!"
Nino snapped upright, incredulity written all over her face.
"No way. That's gotta be a lie. Is he even human?"
Miku looked up too, curiosity flickering in her eyes.
"Mm… I've heard about him. He's mysterious and rarely comes to school, but he shows up for every exam—and the scores are… unbelievable."
Hands clasped, Yotsuba gazed dreamily.
"If only we could borrow just a little of his study skills!"
Ichika sighed with a self-deprecating smile.
"That kind of genius world is probably beyond us mere mortals. Let's just hit the books the old-fashioned way…"
Just as the five sisters were lamenting their coursework—both admiring and finding the legendary upperclassman Rei Ao impossibly out of reach—
—something strange happened.
Without warning, a soft yet utterly pure, unlookable holy radiance bloomed out of thin air in the middle of the living room! It wasn't blinding, but it carried an ineffable majesty and sanctity, sweeping away every trace of gloom and defeat in an instant.
"W-what is happening?!"
Nino practically sprang off the sofa.
The other four froze, staring dumbfounded at the light.
The glow swiftly drew in and condensed, finally taking the shape of a slender figure that alighted lightly on the carpet.
A girl with cascades of brilliant golden hair.
She wore a gown of immaculate white, its hem floating, untouched by dust.
A pair of white wings folded slowly behind her, shedding a faint glow.
Above her head, a golden halo shone.
Her features were so exquisitely perfect they seemed inhuman.
Sapphire eyes as clear as the purest sky—and within them an otherworldly aloofness, a cool, detached gaze from above.
A serene yet exalted aura wrapped around her.
It was the distinguished angel from the heavens—Gabriel's elder sister, Zelel White!
"!!!"
The five Nakanos were utterly stupefied.
Mouths agape, eyes round, minds blank—they simply couldn't process what they were seeing.
An… angel?
A real, living angel was standing in their living room?!
After a brief, stunned silence, the most guileless—and often a bit scatterbrained—Itsuki reacted first. Joy flared in her eyes; she clasped her hands and blurted out:
"A-an angel! You must have heard our wish to do better in school and descended to help us! Right?!"
Her voice brimmed with expectation and certainty, as if that were the only possible answer.
The others were swept up by Itsuki's conclusion; for a moment, they looked to the golden-haired angel with a mix of skepticism and hope.
But under the gaze of five almost identical pairs of eyes—wide with shock and expectation (and perhaps a touch of silliness)—a rare, distinctly out-of-character expression surfaced on Zelel's flawless, doll-like face… embarrassment?!
Her fine brows knit slightly; a flicker of confusion crossed her blue eyes.
"Odd. The coordinates should be correct—Gabriel's location—so why is there such a massive deviation in the descent node? Directly manifesting inside an ordinary human residence?"
She murmured, her cool, melodious voice carrying clearly to the five sisters.
Sensing the space around her, she quickly detected an invisible yet overwhelmingly powerful barrier enveloping the area—one that was interfering with the normal passage between heaven and the human world.
"This barrier is no trivial thing—it can actually warp an angel's descent trajectory…"
She lifted her gaze to the five girls before her and confirmed they were as human as could be.
Revealing an angel's true form before ordinary humans was a serious violation of the heavenly code—especially for her, the angel academy's top graduate known for excellence and rule-keeping. A twinge of vexation and urgency surged in her chest. She had to address this mishap immediately.
With little hesitation, Zelel made the judgment befitting her station and duty. Looking at the Nakano quintuplets, she spoke in a cool, unmistakably authoritative tone—like stating a predetermined protocol:
"According to regulations… I should erase their memories now, shouldn't I?"
"!!!"
The words weren't loud, but they struck the five sisters like a bolt of lightning.