Anti-Rin Noble Phantasm Shows Initial Results (Please Support the New Book!)

"Wait."

Rin called Shinji to a stop.

"What is it now?"

"Well, that..." With her hands behind her back, Rin fidgeted on the spot for a long while before finally stammering in a tiny voice, her face red. "Th... thanks."

"What was that? I didn't hear you. Could you say it louder?"

"I said..." Rin's voice grew even quieter. "Tha..."

Before she could finish, Rin suddenly realized what was happening. She raised her head, face flushed red, and glared resentfully at the amused-looking Shinji before her.

"You... you... bastard!"

"Well, well. I never thought I'd hear something like that from you. It's really..." Shinji deliberately folded his arms and shivered. "Colder than every bad joke I've ever heard put together."

"Can you be any more obnoxious?!"

"Are you reflecting on yourself?"

"You bastard, just go die already!"

Furious beyond measure, Rin pounced on him.

Looking at Rin straddling him, tugging at his clothes with gritted teeth, Shinji thought, Does this girl not see me as a man at all?

Only then did Rin realize what she was doing. She froze, then blankly looked down at Shinji's strange expression.

"I... I'll let you off this time." Turning her face away, Rin slowly got up and spoke as though she did not care. "But next... next time, I definitely won't let you off so easily. Remember that."

"Yeah, yeah, got it."

Shinji braced himself against the ground and slowly stood up.

"Also, well, lately, if there's nothing important, try not to go out at night."

"At night?" Shinji frowned slightly, but quickly understood. "Oh, that war thing? What, are you planning to take part?"

Rin did not answer, but Shinji knew that her silence was an answer.

"I see. Then I'll leave Sakura to you—you should tell her yourself. It's a good chance to get closer, right? Well then, goodbye."

As she watched Shinji turn away and leave with a raised hand, Rin suddenly sensed that something was off—or rather, that something seemed to be missing.

"Wait. Don't you have anything else to say?"

Rin frowned as she spoke, feeling somewhat dissatisfied. At the very least, as an acquaintance, shouldn't he tell me to be careful or wish me victory?

"Anything else?" Shinji stopped and turned back in confusion. Propping his chin up, he pretended to think for a moment before speaking as if enlightenment had struck. "Oh! I almost forgot! When you're taking part in that war and fighting, you'd better choose somewhere farther from my house. I'm a light sleeper, and even the faintest noise wakes me up, so please."

As she listened to Shinji, Rin's expression grew darker and darker, while the corner of her eye twitched uncontrollably.

At that moment, Shinji, who had just turned around and begun walking away, seemed to think of something else. He waved a hand and continued speaking to himself. "Oh, and don't worry about no one burying you if you die. For Sakura's sake, I'll contact a funeral home for you. But I'd appreciate it if you transferred the money to me in advance. If you survive, I'll give it back. And rest assured, in principle, I won't embezzle it."

"You bastard, you did that on purpose, didn't you?!!" Rin exploded for the third time.

"And..." Shinji, who had just opened the rooftop door and was about to step through, added seemingly casually, "be careful, you idiot who likes to mess up at critical moments."

Rin froze at his words. ...Why does this guy know I occasionally mess up at crucial moments? No, that's not the point. The point is, was this guy just worried about me?

Shinji had just descended the rooftop stairs when, at the landing, he passed three girls who happened to be walking by and continued down to the next step.

At the same time, Rin had just stepped out of the rooftop entrance, closed the door, and turned around. When she saw the three girls below—or rather, her classmates—her expression instantly froze.

Makidera—a short-haired, tan-skinned girl—glanced at Shinji disappearing around the lower stairwell landing, then looked up at Rin. After a long moment, she finally reacted, her face filling with horror.

"Toh... Toh... Tohsaka Rin, you skipped class to secretly meet a man on the rooftop?!"

"Miss Makidera, you've misunderstood. We merely ran into each other by chance." Rin instantly switched back into her usual model-student mode and replied with a smile, while inwardly deeply regretting her actions.

...If I'd known this would happen, I should have waited a while longer before coming down.

"That's enough!" Makidera pointed at Rin, grief-stricken. "I'll never believe you again, Tohsaka Rin! Just selfishly go pursue your happiness!"

"Makidera, calm down." Himuro, the gray-haired girl with glasses, spoke blandly.

"In any case, you've misunderstood," Rin said as she walked downstairs. "Our families had some connections in the past, and Matou has recently had some things happen at home, so we only chatted together on the rooftop. We're absolutely not in the kind of relationship you're imagining."

"I see." Saegusa Yukika, the brown-haired girl who looked the most well-behaved of the three and always wore a sweet smile, spoke up.

Makidera immediately retorted, "Yukika, don't just believe her so easily! Those two definitely have something going on! They've had something going on for a long time! I saw through it ages ago!"

"Nothing of the sort." Rin continued smiling.

"Ah—!! Damn it!! I never expected my enemy to be this strong!! The school's genius heartthrob and all that—I can't do it!! I can't possibly win!!"

"Haven't I already said it? We're not in that sort of relationship at all." Rin maintained an exceptionally elegant smile.

After the morning classes ended, it was time for the lunch break.

The one-hour lunch break allowed students to eat or take a short nap.

Emiya, however, spent his lunch break in the student council room.

Isshin had just finished his lunch, set down his hot tea, and looked at Shirou, who sat cross-legged on the floor repairing something. "Emiya, if you don't eat your lunch soon, the break will be over."

"No rush. It's almost fixed." Shirou did not even raise his head.

"Isshin!!"

Accompanied by Shinji's furious roar, the student council room door slid open with a screech.

"Please knock before entering. I've reminded you many times already, Matou." Isshin turned toward Shinji, his tone calm.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" Shinji walked in directly with his lunchbox in hand, irritation evident in both his expression and voice. "When you cut my anime club's budget down to practically nothing, I put up with it to support my friend's work! When you demoted it from an official club to an interest group, I put up with it! When you changed our activity location so we could only use an abandoned classroom, I put up with it! But now you're making us share an activity room with the fortune-telling interest group? What does that mean?! Do you have no humanity?!"

"Matou, would you like me to show you the contraband confiscated from your anime interest group?" Isshin said unhurriedly. "The fact that I didn't disband your group outright already counts as showing you mercy."

"You...!" Shinji glared furiously at Isshin.

"More eighteen-plus comics, I suppose?"

Shirou spoke as he set down the machine he had finished repairing and stood up.

"And eighteen-plus games and magazines," Isshin added.

Shirou sighed. "Shinji, I told you long ago not to bring that kind of thing to school."