Thus, Ca-vall II successfully moved in as a new member of the family.
Afterward, Shirou took apart his old clothes piece by piece, fastening the buttons from one garment into the seams of another and tying the middle sections together with needle and thread. After some effort, Ca-vall II's very own little nest was complete.
Komachi laughed and said, "At least all those outdated old clothes of yours finally came in handy, Brother."
After settling the white dog in, Shirou went to the bathroom and rinsed his head with cold water, trying to clear his slightly muddled mind. He had indeed spent several days fighting day and night in Shinjuku of 1999.
But after returning to this world, only a few hours ago, he had merely gone clothes shopping in modern-day Shinjuku with his school friends. Everything had returned to normal life.
Outside was no longer pitch-black twenty-four hours a day, and the kitchen had fresh flour, vegetables, and meat for all kinds of cooking. He no longer had to eat random ingredients paired with canned meat.
What Shirou was experiencing now was a sense of temporal dislocation. It was like waking up groggily, seeing orange-red sunlight, and being unable to tell at first whether it was dawn or dusk;
Or like feeling as if he had dreamed for a very, very long time, only to wake up and find that the sky was still dark and only a few hours had passed;
Or like playing an interesting game and feeling as though only a blink had gone by, then suddenly realizing he was starving because he had skipped lunch and it was already afternoon.
Whenever those things happened, there was always a faintly surreal feeling.
In any case, he first cleaned the house from top to bottom. Once the windows, chairs, and furniture had all been polished until they gleamed, Shirou finally adjusted.
When it was time for school, he went there.
At noon the next day, Shirou pushed open the door to the Service Club.
The three girls from his year had already arrived and were seated around the long table, each doing her own thing.
Yuigahama sat in the middle, chatting with friends on her phone with a light smile on her lips, the bun atop her head swaying slightly now and then.
Asuna sat on the left, wearing headphones and playing a game on her phone. She lightly brushed aside her flaxen hair, and even while gaming, she exuded the air of a perfect housewife.
Yukino Yukinoshita sat quietly on the right, holding a thick book. Her glossy black hair cascaded behind her, and her focused gaze moved from left to right across the words on the pages, her expression utterly serious.
It had been many days since he had seen them. He really did miss them a little. Smiling warmly at his companions in the room, he greeted them, "Hello, everyone~!"
Unfortunately, they did not seem to appreciate it.
"Shirou? What's wrong with you? Do you have a fever?" Yuigahama asked, shaking her bun as she looked at him in confusion.
"You're smiling for no reason. It feels kind of strange," Asuna said, looking over with concern.
"Yes. If you're feeling unwell, say so. If you aren't sick, though, that was a little disgusting." Yukino continued seriously turning the pages of her thick book without even looking at Shirou as she disdainfully roasted him.
"Good day, Shirou-senpai!" Mash said with a smile as she ran over.
"Oh." Shirou watched the pink-haired girl run in with a grin, ready to observe what would happen to her next.
"Good day, Senpai Yuigahama, Senpai Yukino, Senpai Asuna." Mash smiled as she greeted each of the senior girls in the clubroom.
"Yahallo, Mash-chan." Yuigahama smiled and waved.
"Mash, you seem energetic today." Asuna stepped forward and patted the pink-haired girl on the head.
"Did something nice happen?" Yukino put down her thick book and looked at Mash as she asked.
What's with this difference in treatment?! Shirou grumbled inwardly.
Only after Mash explained to everyone that Shirou had gone off to save a world did the girls finally understand what had happened.
"Sorry, Shirou! Forgive me, okay? Hehe." Yuigahama said as she moved closer with an ingratiating smile.
"Forget it. It was my issue to begin with. It's enough that you understand." Shirou could not bring himself to complain when he saw that smiling face.
"Chapter 109: International Exchange Meeting"
"So that's what happened. You worked hard, Shirou! Sorry for calling you weird." Asuna said with a gentle smile.
"That was only a natural reaction. From our perspective, we hadn't seen you for less than a day," Yukino argued reasonably.
"That's true... I'll be more careful in the future. But didn't Mash and the others respond just fine?" Shirou countered.
"No, Mash has always been like this, hasn't she?" Yuigahama asked the other girls.
"Mm, I ran into her in the hallway before, and she warmly came over to ask, 'Good morning, senpai. Have you been spending money on gacha properly today?'" Asuna said with a gentle smile.
"Then that settles it. This is Mash as usual." Yukino nodded.
"Huh?" Shirou looked at the pink-haired girl in confusion. Was the Mash I knew as an underclassman really like this?
"What is it, Shirou-senpai?" Mash blinked in confusion.
"No... Let's just eat." Shirou held his head. The aftereffects of his sense of temporal dislocation clearly had not faded yet.
After that, everyone leisurely ate their boxed lunches together, fighting over the best dishes in Shirou's lunchbox.
Perhaps this was the small happiness of the everyday life he possessed.
After school that afternoon, a tall woman wearing a suit jacket beneath a white lab coat walked in.
"Shirou! Grab your bag and come with me. There's a meeting you need to attend."
"What's going on? It's not like I hold any position such as class representative, class president, or club president." Shirou walked over and looked at Shizuka Hiratsuka in confusion.
"It's about the exchange activity with our overseas branch school during this break. Come with me." Shizuka Hiratsuka left no room for refusal as she led Shirou toward the school parking lot.
At the entrance to the parking lot stood two figures facing each other in confrontation.
"Everyone's here, then. You're all famous around school, so introductions won't be necessary, right?" Shizuka Hiratsuka looked over with an unsurprised expression.
"Wait here. I'll go get the car." Shizuka Hiratsuka told Shirou before walking straight toward her beloved car.
Shirou looked over and recognized the two. On the left stood a blonde twin-tailed girl who looked ready to bristle at any moment: Eriri Spencer Sawamura from the international class. She usually kept a low profile, so she was not famous for handing out cards all day like Mash, but she was actually a popular mixed-race beauty among the boys at school and the ace of the art club.
On the other side stood a black-haired girl with straight hair and a headband, looking at Eriri. Her arms were crossed, her expression cool and detached, yet the corners of her lips curved faintly upward. Beneath her school uniform skirt, her slender legs were clad in black tights. She was a beautiful girl with a distinctly mature air.
She was a famous third-year student with delicate features. Rumor had it that she had consistently ranked first in her year academically. Her mysterious, quiet aura and mature style made her exceptionally fatal to Male High School Students these days.
Shirou gave a slight nod in greeting. "Hello, Eriri, Senpai Kasumigaoka."
"Ah! Why are you here, Shirou! N-no... classmate." Eriri cried out, immediately changing her wording.
"No, just call me Shirou. We were elementary school classmates, so there's no need to be so formal, right?" Shirou wondered in confusion.
"Hmph! I have nothing to say to someone like you!" Eriri folded her arms and turned her head away.
All I did was write our names together beneath an umbrella. Did she really need to be this distant? Or does she still resent me for telling her in middle school to play fewer games, or she'd become a hopeless loser in life?
"Hm~! You're Shirou-kun, right?" Apparently because of the blonde twin-tailed girl, the senpai appraised Shirou with interested eyes.
"Even I've heard your name many times. Your performance in that archery competition became a trending topic online. It was really impressive. Would you be willing to accept an interview sometime? For my next work, I'd like to gather some material from you."
"Are you a writer, senpai? Or maybe from the journalism club?" Shirou asked in confusion. The person before him looked quiet and cool, but somehow also a little dangerous.
"Shirou! Don't talk to this gloomy woman! She'll eat you up! Like the Big Bad Wolf pretending to be Grandma!" Eriri rushed over, glaring at the girl with her azure eyes as she warned him vigilantly.
"My, what an adorable comparison coming from you, Sawamura-san. But when you say eat him up, do you mean eating him for food, or..." the headband girl said calmly.
"Waaaaah! Utaha Kasumigaoka!! What are you trying to say here?!" Eriri shouted nervously.
"How many times have I told you? Could you please stop calling people by their full names? What was it after Eri Kashiwagi again? Sensei?" The headband girl's calm crimson eyes fixed on the blonde girl as she delivered a fatal blow.
"Waaaaah!!! Don't say that name here!" Eriri screamed.
"Kashiwagi? Are you talking about an oak tree?" Shirou asked in confusion.
"Shirou! Idiot! Don't say that!" Eriri charged forward, wildly flinging her twin tails as she smacked Shirou.
"Whoa, wait..." Shirou failed to dodge and suffered a sixteen-hit twin-tail combo.
By then, Shizuka Hiratsuka had already driven the car over, adjusted its position, and leaned out the window to shout at the three of them, "Hey! You three, whether you want to chat or fight, get in the car first!"
"Okay...," "Got it," the three finally got into their seats.
Eriri and the senpai sat separately in the back, each leaning against her own window with an obvious gap between them.
"By the way, why did you call them here?" Shirou asked from the passenger seat.
"Don't you know them already? One is an artist, the other is the up-and-coming light novel writer Kashiko Kasumigaoka, while you, Shirou, are an archery expert," Shizuka Hiratsuka said casually.
"So Eriri is here as the art club's representative, and Senpai Kasumigaoka as the literary representative. You're both participating in this exchange activity?" Shirou summarized.
"That's about right! You're all talented people I selected, so make sure you perform well. Right, Sawamura-Eri-Kashiwagi-what-was-it-again Sensei?" Shizuka Hiratsuka said in a meaningful tone as she drove.
"That's right! Y-yes! Exactly! Sensei! I'll do my best!" Eriri replied repeatedly, her face red.
"...You haven't had some dirt held over you, have you?" Shirou felt that she looked rather guilty.
"Whether Sawamura-san volunteered or not is beside the point. As for me, my work sometimes requires me to take leave to attend events, so having a teacher who understands me has been a tremendous help. Though this teacher seems capable of doing anything for her own ends," the senpai said.
"It's not like she threatened me or anything!" Eriri retorted repeatedly, turning her flushed face away.
On the surface, Eriri was a kind and elegant Young Lady, but inwardly she was an obsessive, useless otaku girl. Yet in the hidden world, she was the renowned deep-sea artist Eri Kashiwagi! Her recent Black Saber x black Gil hairless yuri doujin about sex in a car had received rave reviews after she uploaded it online.
It could be said that, as a queen with high status in the hidden world, she was doing very well for herself.
Her only recent concern was that some teacher had somehow learned her pen name through unknown means.
"Chapter 110: Eriri and Shirou"
Inside the car, the two girls remained at each other's throats.
Eriri flicked her twin tails and stared straight at the headband girl beside her with azure eyes.
"Say, can a gloomy woman like you, always wearing that cold expression, really handle an exchange activity? If someone talks to you and you just sting them back, the whole event will turn awkward and dead. The school really didn't think this through, picking an antisocial, sharp-tongued woman like you!"
Utaha Kasumigaoka remained unmoved. Her wine-red eyes calmly looked at the blonde girl, but her words were utterly merciless.
"Although I'm introverted, for the sake of writing, I have at least read a hundred or so literary classics from various countries combined."
Rather than that, the school only considered Sawamura-san's heritage from the United Kingdom and completely overlooked the fact that you are actually so hopeless that you might even fail an English exam. Just imagining the teachers assigning you as a representative to speak with them is quite amusing, blonde mixed-race loser."
"Who are you calling a loser?! Ugh, ugh..." Eriri shrank her neck and trembled slightly, looking thoroughly shaken.
Yes, in this black-versus-blonde showdown, the blonde side had lost.
"...What should I do?" Eriri looked at Shirou as if asking for help.
"Don't ask me. As long as you can perform well in your specialty, it should be fine. After all, even pure-blooded people who grew up overseas sometimes can't speak their native language," Shirou said helplessly.
"Right! Exactly! Even if I have citizenship in the United Kingdom, there's nothing embarrassing about being bad at English! Did you hear that?!" Eriri turned to the headband-wearing senpai and said smugly.
"Sigh, I'm sincerely worried about your future, Sawamura-san..." Utaha Kasumigaoka covered her face and sighed.
"What?" Eriri muttered unhappily.
It seemed he really had not been wrong back then. This girl had become completely hopeless. Still, she could serve as the International High School art club's representative because she had a marketable skill, and with her parents protecting her, there should not be a problem.
At that moment, the car drove out from the small road outside the school and entered the main road.
"By the way, Sensei, where exactly are we going now? What about the others?" Shirou asked the woman beside him.
"Mm, we're going to the international middle school branch under the same board of directors. Normally, it operates independently from us, but for the exchange activity, it has been combined with ours, so we're heading there for a meeting now."
"As for the other students, the teachers responsible for them have already taken them over there." As Shizuka Hiratsuka spoke, her fingers tapped the steering wheel as though greeting her beloved car.
"So it's confirmed that you'll be leading the group, Sensei?" Utaha Kasumigaoka caught the key point and asked.
"Be happy! Isn't that great? Just wait! When the time comes, I'll take you sightseeing and treat you to delicious food!" Shizuka Hiratsuka said with a hearty laugh.
No, I want to get out of the car... Shirou thought. But saying it aloud might cause a disaster, so he would not.
"Forget food and sightseeing, Sensei. Just don't make me speak English with foreigners," Eriri pleaded as though she had seen a savior.
"No, your father is a diplomat from the United Kingdom," the senpai pointed out.
"Unfortunately, it won't be up to me alone then. All right! All right! Sit tight. Let's get moving and make up some time!"
A sharp glint appeared in Shizuka Hiratsuka's eyes. She rolled her wrists and flexed her ankles, all preparations complete. All that remained was to place a paper cup filled with water on the dashboard, and she could conquer Mount Akina.
"Sensei... Don't go street racing at a time like this. If the traffic police stop us, there are three students in this car. The consequences will be serious," Shirou reminded her coldly.
"Urgh... I just wanted to speed up a little." Shizuka Hiratsuka's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
"We still have time. Please drive safely," Shirou said.
"Got it. Are you my mother?!" Shizuka Hiratsuka complained.
After that, the car traveled at a steady speed for dozens of kilometers before arriving at the international middle school branch on the other side of Chiba.
Shizuka Hiratsuka handed over her teacher ID, and the guard let them through after confirming it. Once the car was parked,
Shirou, Eriri, and the senpai were led to the meeting room of the school here.
Quite a few students had already arrived there.
Before you continue