A Sister Working Hard for Her Brother...

Watching the Matou siblings, who walked one ahead of the other without much interaction, gradually disappear into the distance until their figures were too small to make out, Taiga finally turned to Shirou and asked.

"Shirou, why did you interrupt me before dinner? Don't tell me you really have feelings for your friend's little sister..."

"I told you, it wasn't that," Shirou sighed helplessly, then looked in the direction the two had left. "If I had to say, it was probably a younger sister making that kind of request because she wanted to become closer to her brother."

"Hm? Sakura-chan wanted to get closer to Matou?"

"That's right. You noticed it too, didn't you, Fuji-nee? Shinji's attitude toward Sakura is a little cold."

Taiga nodded. "Now that you mention it, it did feel that way. Even though she's his little sister."

"That's why Sakura asked me before if I could teach her household skills like cooking when I had the chance. Maybe she wanted to ease the tension between the siblings."

"I see." Taiga suddenly understood. "That's what they mean when they say that if you want to win a man's heart, you first have to win his stomach."

"That feels a little off, but I guess that's roughly it."

"But isn't that too troublesome?" Taiga continued with a frown. "Wouldn't it be easier if I just had a proper talk with Matou?"

"Probably not. I've told him countless times, but as you can see, it never did any good. Shinji doesn't seem to like talking about this kind of thing. It seems to be related to his family."

"I see." Taiga nodded again. "Come to think of it, I found it strange too. I called his father before about Matou's absences, but he was extremely impatient. He hung up every time before I could even finish speaking. Looking at it now, there really does seem to be something wrong with Matou's family."

"We'd better not pry into such sensitive matters."

"True. I just hope Matou realizes his little sister's good intentions someday soon."

"Shinji will understand someday," Shirou said hopefully, his thoughts drifting back to a morning nearly three years ago.

Sakura, still an elementary school student then, had lowered her head and asked him to teach her cooking and other household chores whenever he had time. Her reason had been that her brother seemed to like the food Shirou made.

Pulling himself back from his memories, Shirou shook his head and sighed. "Shinji really is lucky."

A week passed in the blink of an eye. During that week, Sakura went to Shirou's house every morning and after school, helping out with the housework little by little under Shirou's guidance. She did not even take weekends off.

Though she had still been rather flustered at first, as time passed, Sakura's handling of housework and cooking visibly grew more skillful.

Meanwhile, after joining the Archery Club, Shinji trained day and night for only four days before entering the rookie tournament with Mitsuzuri and decisively taking first place.

In Mitsuzuri's words, Shinji had been like a monster that never got tired during training, and his concentration had been frightening.

For four days, he trained an average of around twelve hours a day, seemingly without any idea of rest. With his natural talent combined with such intense training, Mitsuzuri, watching from the side, developed the same question as Isshin.

The person before her, drawing his bow, truly seemed interested in archery. After all, his eyes held nothing but seriousness and the target. Other than genuine interest, she could find no reason for someone to work so hard at something like this.

But...

"Well, um..."

Standing in the middle of the corridor outside the classroom, Shinji looked calmly at Mitsuzuri, who had stopped him to inform him that he needed to attend club activities after school.

"Didn't we agree it would only be until the tournament was over? Besides, I'm not interested in archery anymore."

"ε=(´ο｀*))) Sigh..." Mitsuzuri held her forehead and sighed. "You really are exactly like the vice student council president said."

"Isshin? What did he say?"

"Nothing." Mitsuzuri raised her head and stared directly at Shinji, asking seriously, "Tell me, have you ever had any genuine interest in archery?"

"Why are you asking that?"

Mitsuzuri explained with a helpless expression, "Because it's strange. If you weren't interested, what was the point of working that hard? But if you were interested, why give it up so decisively just when you started seeing results? What a waste."

"Is that so?" Shinji pinched his chin and frowned in thought. "But I don't think it's a waste. I can't really agree with the idea that some things are meaningless unless you stick with them until the end. Maybe, for me, simply taking part in many things is meaningful enough."

"You really are strange, aren't you?"

"Am I?" Shinji looked entirely unconcerned, then shrugged. "Anyway, my trial membership in the Archery Club is over. I'll leave the club president and Fujimura-sensei to you."

"I'm not handling that! And if you're quitting the club, at least write a proper withdrawal form!"

"Too troublesome. Besides, you were the ones who asked me, weren't you? Then handle the aftermath yourselves."

Mitsuzuri sighed softly and held out one hand. "Well, even if the club president agrees to this, do you think Fujimura-sensei will?"

"Who knows? In any case, this is the karma you brought upon yourselves, so make sure you carry it properly."

Looking at Shinji's indifferent face, Mitsuzuri could only shake her head helplessly. "You really are..."

"No, wait." Suddenly remembering something, Shinji abruptly leaned close to Mitsuzuri's face and grinned. "Could it be that Ryougi-san can't bear to see me go and wants to attend club activities with me? If that's the case, I can give it some serious thought."

"Before discussing that, please remember people's actual names. My name is Mi-tsu-zu-ri A-ya-ko," Mitsuzuri reminded him with a smile, then sighed again. "Besides, your personality is probably the worst possible kind for a girl. Even if a girl dated you, you'd probably dump her the moment you got bored."

Listening to Mitsuzuri, Shinji retorted speechlessly, "What exactly gave you that impression of me?"

"Everything."

"That really hurts." Shinji pursed his lips, then folded his arms and continued irritably, "I wouldn't do that. My attitude toward that kind of thing is completely different from my attitude toward everything else."

"Really?" Mitsuzuri looked somewhat surprised.

"Of course... uh..." Shinji suddenly remembered something, and his words came to an abrupt stop. Holding his forehead, he lowered his head and let out a hopeless sigh.

Shinji finally remembered that, because he had been busy with all kinds of System missions, he had not dated or even gone on a date with a single girl in this life!