Noisy Chaos Is What Youth Is All About

My good grandson, don't rush. What's meant to come will come.

Shut up! Isn't this all your fault?!

"I told you, Matou. You can't deny that possibility yourself."

"Mitsuzuri," Shinji said, propping up his chin with a grave expression, "I just suddenly felt that, as a boy in the prime of adolescence, a high school life without even a single romance would be far too much of a failure."

"Another sudden whim of yours?"

"Anyway, I've decided!" Shinji clenched his fist, his expression utterly serious as he announced the following plan.

"Starting now, I'm going to confess to the first girl who walks up behind me! Whoever she is!"

"Your whims are really..." Mitsuzuri's mouth twitched, but then she suddenly noticed something. "Oh! She's coming, Matou! A girl!"

"Leave the rest to me!" Shinji gave Mitsuzuri a thumbs-up, then took a deep breath. As he turned around, he immediately spoke. "I don't know your name, but please believe that this is fate! So please go out wi—"

Before he could finish, Shinji suddenly realized that the girl before him looked somewhat familiar, especially those highly distinctive twin tails.

Sensing that the situation was not looking good, Shinji immediately turned back around, cleared his throat, and said, "Well, you know, practicing a confession in the hallway really isn't appropriate, is it? Don't you think so, Mitsuzuri?"

"Huh? Practice? When did it become practice?" As though she could not understand Shinji's meaningful look at all, Mitsuzuri asked in confusion, "Didn't you just say you were going to confess to the first girl who came up behind you?"

"Mitsuzuri, did you do that on purpose?"

"No, I was just telling the truth."

"Ma, tou, Shin, ji!!"

Hearing Rin's teeth-grinding voice from behind him, Shinji suddenly regretted what he had just done.

Why did it have to be her, of all people?

Seeing Shinji lying on the floor clutching his stomach, Mitsuzuri crouched down and kindly asked, "Are you okay, Matou?"

"Yeah, more or less." Shinji clutched his stomach as he shakily raised his head and answered.

"Looks like that rumor was true."

"A rumor? What rumor?" Shinji asked as he got to his feet.

Mitsuzuri also stood, turning to look at Rin's retreating back as she stormed off in a huff. "That the most popular boy among the girls at school once confessed in middle school to the most popular girl at school now."

"Huh?" Shinji asked doubtfully. "So who are this most popular boy and girl?"

"Seriously? You don't even realize it?" Mitsuzuri's eye twitched as she shot back.

"Realize?" Shinji thought for a long while before finally catching on. Pointing at himself with one finger, he asked with a baffled expression, "You mean me?"

"You really didn't know?"

"I hardly ever came to school, after all. But that really is strange."

"Is it strange that you're so popular with girls despite rarely coming to school?"

"No, it's strange that those outdated twin tai—Tohsaka is the most popular girl."

"I'm suddenly starting to understand why Tohsaka hates you."

"Hey, what do you mean by 'outdated twin tails'? Could you explain that, Matou?"

After hearing the question from behind him, Shinji answered instinctively, "Isn't it obvious? The appeal of twin tails as a character trait only works before a girl reaches her teens! After that, they're not cute at all! Mitsuzuri, why are you glaring at me? Am I wrong?"

"Ahem. Well, I need to go to club activities. I'll explain your withdrawal to the club president and the teacher."

With that, Mitsuzuri walked away without another word. At the same time, Shinji finally realized who had asked him that question from behind.

Turning around, Shinji looked at Rin, whose eyes were curved in a smile and whose face wore a pleasant expression. Several dark lines slowly appeared across his forehead and beneath his eyes.

...This was really bad.

And so, Homurahara Academy's high school division officially gained a pair of "sworn enemies" people would talk about with relish for a long time afterward.

From then on, the seasons turned, and three months passed in the blink of an eye. As autumn faded away, Shirou's injuries also more or less healed completely.

The cool—rather, crisp—weather gradually departed with autumn's footsteps as well.

On a morning carrying a faint chill, Shirou had just reached the school gates when he saw Shinji standing outside in a daze, wearing a brown wool coat over his school uniform. He walked over.

"Shinji, I want to talk to you about Sakura—"

"Emiya." Without turning around, Shinji cut Shirou off and murmured his name.

"Hm? What is it?"

"The girls' autumn school uniforms." As he spoke, Shinji turned his head, looking utterly serious. "The skirts are still too long! Twenty centimeters shorter would be just right!!"

Seeing Shinji's dead-serious expression, Shirou silently broke into a cold sweat and retorted, "How can you say something like that with such a serious face? Were you standing at the school gates just now thinking about this?"

"Emiya, don't you think I'm right?!"

Shirou flushed bright red as he argued with all his might, "You're completely wrong! Why do I have to answer a question like that?!"

"Any man would agree with me! Especially since this school is full of boys going through puberty!"

"Isn't your definition of men a little off?"

"Aren't they always holding onto sticky pink fantasies?"

"They are not!"

"Hey, you. Do you want a girlfriend and a rosy high school life?"

The male student Shinji had suddenly addressed instantly turned red, his whole body growing awkward and fidgety.

"See, Emiya? There's your proof!" Shinji said, throwing an arm around the unfamiliar boy's shoulders. "Everyone is just like this guy! They're all simply too embarrassed to say it out loud!"

"I said they're not!" Shirou retorted, his face red. "And can you at least look at the time and place when talking about this? Are you seriously saying things like that so openly at the school gates? Because of you, people are looking at me like I'm some kind of weirdo too!"

"Emiya, that's just a man's nature! When will you accept your true self?! Stop lying to yourself, Emiya!"

"Just shut up already—!!" Shirou shouted in exasperation.

"What kind of behavior is this, shouting and carrying on at the school gates first thing in the morning, Emiya, Matou!"

Seeing Isshin approach and stop before them, Shirou raised a hand in a helpless greeting. "Morning, Isshin. Shinji was just saying some strange—"

Before Shirou could finish, Shinji immediately stepped forward and looked at Isshin with a serious gaze. "Isshin, I'd like to make a suggestion regarding the school uniforms."

"Oh?"

"Whether it's the summer or autumn uniform, don't you think the girls' skirts are all a little too long?"

"Is that so?" Isshin adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, then reached behind his back and pulled out a ruler. "Have you forgotten all your training at the temple, you bastard?!!"

"You even brought a ruler?!"

"I prepared it especially for you!"