And she wasn't the only one standing outside. There were two others.
"What, you're still alive after all? You didn't die in the snowy mountains of Einzbern?"
The girl standing with her arms folded over her chest and glaring hostilely at Shirou was Sakura's older sister—Rin Tohsaka.
"What are you saying, Rin? Shirou's really tough, you know. Yo, I came to bother you too. You don't mind, right?"
The girl greeting them with one hand on her hip like a boy was Shirou's classmate, Sakura's senior, and Rin's best friend—Ayako Miyadera.
"Everyone's here. Welcome, welcome."
Irisviel smiled, then quickly switched into the long-absent mode of the hostess of the Amamiya Residence.
"Sorry to bother you, Auntie."
The middle-school girls carried the ingredients they had bought into the house amid noisy chatter.
"Sakura, where's your brother? Didn't you say he was coming today too?"
"Who knows about someone like that."
"You two had another fight? Hahaha. Come to think of it, that guy Issei hasn't arrived either... Boys are so unreliable~"
When they reached the kitchen doorway, Sakura Matou stopped and looked back at everyone by the entrance.
"Leave the kitchen to us. Senior and Auntie Eiri, go put away your luggage first."
"Oh... Ohhh..."
"Sister Fujiwara, can you come help?"
"Coming~"
Taiga Fujimura ran toward the kitchen, leaving Shirou standing there dumbfounded.
He couldn't help marveling at how much girls changed as they grew up. They had only been apart for a month, but Sakura seemed to have matured quite a bit more.
Come to think of it, her earlier remark about "eloping with Eiri" had been bothering him. He would ask her about it when he got the chance.
After that, Shinji Matou and the son of the temple priest, Issei Ryudo, arrived as well.
That evening, everyone held