Rainy Night Stayover (New Book, Please Vote!)

Watching Shinji and Sakura's retreating backs, Shirou wanted to say something, but in the end, nothing left his lips.

The relationship between his friend and his ever-present younger sister was distant, and they barely spoke. Their usual dynamic was basically one walking ahead while the other followed behind with her head lowered. It had always been like that.

Shirou had reminded Shinji before that he could be a little warmer toward his sister, but it did not seem to help. Shinji also seemed unwilling to talk about such things.

Probably because of complicated family issues, Shirou thought. After all, Shinji had mentioned more than once seeing his father enter hotels with other women in his arms.

Late at night, a fine rain fell without pause.

Seeing Shinji and Sakura standing motionlessly beneath the school building's eaves, Shirou, who had just arrived, kindly offered, "Since it's raining, do you want to stay at my place? We can't make takoyaki today, but there are plenty of spare rooms."

"Emiya, I..." Shinji said, putting on a terrified expression and covering his chest. Half-jokingly, he added, "It'll be my first time! I'm not mentally prepared yet!"

"Quit it." Shirou punched Shinji's shoulder and replied helplessly, "The buses back to your place stopped running ages ago. Either you come to my house, or you sleep at school."

Glancing at Sakura, who stood silently beside them with her head lowered, Shinji thought for a moment before replying, "All right. After three whole seconds of deliberation, I'm mentally prepared. It was bound to happen sooner or later, anyway."

"I told you to stop joking." Shirou curled his lip, but the next instant, Shinji moved close with an affectionate look and lifted Shirou's chin.

"I'm serious, you know~"

"You can make jokes like that so naturally in front of your own sister?" Shirou irritably slapped Shinji's hand away. "Anyway, we need to hurry. I didn't expect to stay at school this late, so I didn't bring an umbrella. Now we can only run home through the rain."

"Ah, right." As he spoke, Shinji casually took off his jacket and tossed it over Sakura's head.

Sakura suddenly froze and blinked unconsciously. She seemed surprised by her brother's action, but quickly thought of something. This was probably just like the birthday present from before.

—He was only putting on an act because he was worried rumors would leave him with a bad reputation.

"Follow me and your brother," Shirou said, casually holding his bag over his head.

"C-Can I?" Sakura timidly asked Shinji. "Can I come...?"

"Do whatever you want," Shinji said casually, with no emotion in his eyes. Then he held his bag over his head and stepped into the rain.

"Emiya, I'm bathing first!"

"Don't worry, my house has more than one bathroom. Besides, even if there were only one, shouldn't the girls go first in a situation like this?" Shirou said with a frown.

But Shinji had already run far away and clearly could not hear him. Shirou could only shrug helplessly and turn to look at Sakura beside him.

"Let's go too."

After hesitating for a long time, Sakura finally seemed to make up her mind and followed Shirou into the rain.

Emiya Residence.

"I'm home."

"Why are you saying that? This is my house, isn't it?" Shirou said irritably from beside him.

"Welcome home." Shinji turned and bowed to Shirou.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you? At a time like this, you're supposed to say, 'Sorry for imposing!' Say it with me: sor-ry-for-im-pos-ing!"

"It's fine, please come in." Shinji shook his head and made an inviting gesture.

"You!!"

Soaking wet, Shirou pounced directly on Shinji, and the two started roughhousing in the entryway.

Watching Shinji laugh and wrestle with Shirou on the entryway floor, Sakura felt an indescribable sense of strangeness in her heart. Or perhaps it was a sense of disparity.

To put it simply: her brother was only ever that cold toward her...

Then there was the Tohsaka surname she had heard outside the clubroom. Another school, combined with the person her brother liked and had confessed to—at that moment, certain seeds of negative emotions that had long lain dormant in Sakura's heart began to take root and sprout.

Of course, Shinji knew nothing about this. He foolishly believed Sakura would fall for Shirou sooner or later.

As for the section concerning Sakura in his conquest mission, he had basically ignored it.

Shinji did not know that after watching his striving figure countless times, a certain seed had long since quietly grown in Sakura's heart. Whether it was good or bad, no one could say yet.

"Ah, that feels so good~"

In the bathroom, Shinji closed his eyes, a towel resting atop his head, and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Shinji, aren't you way too cold toward your sister?"

"Emiya," Shinji said, opening his eyes and raising a finger with a wag, "that makes thirteen times already."

"Then at least listen to me once."

"Anyway, everyone has things they don't want to discuss, right? This is something I don't want to talk about."

"You really are something..."

Then, as if he had remembered something, Shinji casually asked, "By the way, where's Sister Taiga?"

"Fuji-nee went away for training."

Shinji propped up his chin and struck a thoughtful pose. "I see. So you invited me home to make a move on me while no one else was around."

"Don't worry, Shinji. My sexual orientation is perfectly normal."

"So you really were planning to make a move on me?!"

"Were you even listening to me?"

In the living room, Shinji sat casually before the low table, slurping udon as he muttered, "It really has to be Emiya's cooking. I've come back to life in an instant."

"Thanks for the compliment," Shirou replied as he handed a serving of tempura to Sakura. Then he looked at Sakura, who sat beside them with her head lowered. "Sakura... is it okay if I call you that?"

"Mhm." Sakura, who had changed into Shirou's spare clothes after bathing, quietly answered, "Thank you."

"It'd be nice if you could relax as naturally as Shinji. You're being too reserved. Your brother has never once been polite with me."

"After all, the two of us will sooner or later live together and grow old—"

As Shirou stuffed a tempura shrimp from his own bowl into Shinji's mouth to shut him up, he said casually, "Shut up."

After chewing the tempura a few times and swallowing it, Shinji waggled his brows. "That's strategy, Emiya."

"Over one tempura shrimp?"

"You should know that only good food in this world must never be let down!"

Shirou retorted, "Why does that sound familiar? Didn't you just say only cuteness must never be let down?"

"Then only cuteness and good food must never be let down."

"Can't you have a little more principle?" Shirou looked speechless.

"How should I put it?" Shinji rested his chin on his hand, raised his face, and thoughtfully replied, "Principles can change sometimes. For example, if you eat some food you like every day, then every once in a while, you'll want a change of pace."

"That has absolutely nothing to do with principles! Those are completely different things!"