Shirou, Returned from the Fae Kingdom

"And as agreed, the interest on the debt has been waived."

After tossing out those words, Fujimura Raika promptly slipped away.

By the time Shirou had successfully calmed Taiga Fujimura down, two hours had already passed.

"Want to have another match?"

Shirou made the suggestion, secretly deciding that he would go easy on her properly this time.

But the girl refused. Taiga Fujimura had probably experienced firsthand just how vast the gap between them was.

Though she looked carefree—and in truth, she was carefree—she had her attentive moments too.

In any case, Shirou became acquainted with the Fujimura Group just like that.

Every few days, Fujimura Raika would call him over to his home and give him gifts like fruit and dried persimmons.

Sometimes, under the pretext of asking Shirou to help repair his heavy motorcycle, the old man would give him spending money that could be considered a huge sum for an elementary school student.

One day, several weeks later.

Shirou visited the Fujimura Group's office once more.

This time, the Yakuza Clones guarding the entrance greeted him warmly as soon as they spotted him from afar, then stepped aside to clear the way.

"Grandfather Raiga, I'm here."

"You're here, Shirou. Come in, quickly."

The one who opened the door for him was a girl with a smooth ponytail.

"Sister Fujiwara is here too? If your classmates see you coming and going from the office, bad rumors will start spreading, you know?"

"What does it matter? When that happens, we'll use the group's power to settle it~ Ah, want some rice crackers?"

"I do."

He sat down on the sofa and picked up a rice cracker from the fruit tray, only to find the old man and his granddaughter sitting upright across from him with solemn expressions.

"What's with the sudden formality?"

Taiga Fujimura folded her arms into her kimono sleeves and gestured at the documents on the table with her chin. "Shirou, take a look at this."

Shirou picked them up and found that they were an overhead blueprint of an estate.

Judging from the plans, it was a Japanese-style mansion with extensive grounds and exceptionally complete facilities.

Shirou frowned. "What is this?"

Taiga Fujimura leaned close to him and said with a smile, "Shirou, haven't you been staying at the Matou Family's place lately while looking all over Miyama Town for a house?"

P.S. In the early setting, Taiga Fujimura's swordsmanship was officially stated to be on par with Ryougi Shiki's.

But as the Type-Moon power scale kept inflating, the latest setting raised Sister Shiki's swordsmanship to Sword Saint level—she could kill Rokusha Taiga in one strike.

Labor Is Most Glorious ### Shirou Amamiya was secretly startled.

He really had been keeping an eye out for houses lately—secretly, in private.

If Sakura found out, she would definitely cry again. And if Shinji found out, who knew how much he would pester him.

He had clearly never told anyone, yet Old Man Raiga knew?

But he quickly came to his senses.

Recently, he had completely started treating Fujimura Raika as a kind grandfather who would find all sorts of excuses to stuff him with spending money. In reality, the man was a yakuza boss.

The Fujimura Group, based in Miyama Town—this was the man who had started out as a lowly husband who married into the family, gradually climbing step by step until he became the group leader.

Shirou did not hide it and nodded. "That's right."

Fujimura Raika said, "What do you think of this place?"

Shirou looked at the mansion in the blueprint and said happily, "Grandfather Raiga, are you giving it to me? This is too much. Thank you so—"

"Idiot! Who said I was giving it to you for free?!" Fujimura Raika roared.

"Aww~ Grandfather Raiga is so stingy~"

"Urgh...!"

"Father!"

Fuyuki City's number one hard-boiled Showa man clutched his chest and collapsed. The Yakuza Clones hurriedly rushed over to support their boss.

Being called stingy by a child he liked dealt Fujimura Raika massive real damage.

Taiga Fujimura explained the origins of the mansion in place of her emotionally wounded grandfather.

In short, it was an estate left vacant due to debt issues.

It seemed the previous owner had fled overseas, and this portion of the assets had now been taken over by the Fujimura Group.

Though it looked enormous, it had been left unattended for so long that the buildings and facilities within had fallen into disrepair, becoming utterly abandoned.

The Fujimura Group planned to renovate the estate from top to bottom, but before that, they decided to hire Shirou to do the cleaning.

Fujimura Raika snorted. "You're free every day anyway, aren't you? It's just cleaning work like pulling weeds—even elementary schoolers can do that. Once you're done fixing it up, I won't care if you move in without permission. If it stays empty with no one living there, the police and court people will start nagging again."

Taiga Fujimura covered her mouth and giggled, leaning close to whisper in Shirou's ear, "Grandfather really isn't honest, is he? He obviously just wants Shirou to move in~"

"Shut up!" Fujimura Raika turned his face away indignantly. "I'm just having Shirou watch over the place for the Fujimura Group."

"So, what do you say, Shirou? Can you take this job?"

Shirou stared at the estate blueprints and nodded without much thought. "Yeah, I'd like to take the job."

"Alright~~~"

Taiga Fujimura excitedly rubbed her hands together, rose from the sofa, and grabbed Shirou by the arm.

"Hehe, then there's no time to waste. Shall we head out? Starting today, we'll be plenty busy, you know?"

"Sister Fujiwara is going too?"

Shirou blinked. From the sound of it, she seemed to be planning to head to that abandoned estate to pull weeds and clear the grounds as well.

Taiga Fujimura replied as though it were only natural, "Of course I am! How could I let Shirou do such heavy work all by himself! Even if Japan's Child Welfare Act and Labor Standards Act allowed it, Sister here absolutely wouldn't! Ah, but I'm going to slack off for an hour every day, so when that time comes, turn a blind eye for me, okay?"

Shirou's mouth twitched.

No matter what, Sister Fujiwara was still an active middle school student. Her studies should have been quite demanding, and she also had to balance kendo club activities and competitions.

Besides, she was the employer's granddaughter, a genuine yakuza princess. It didn't seem right to have her doing this sort of odd work, did it?

Shirou said, "I don't need Sister Fujiwara's help. I can handle it alone. This is where I'll be living from now on, after all. Let me think—if I use time after school and on weekends, I can probably finish it in a month and a half at most."

"What are you talking about?"

The ponytailed girl rolled up her sleeves and said energetically, "Of course I'll be living there too, as Shirou's guardian."

Shirou: "...Huh?"

How had things turned out like this?

Shirou stood in the overgrown abandoned courtyard, feeling somewhat speechless.

All around him were laborers working with blazing enthusiasm.

"I'll take care of the warehouse, Shirou! You handle the central courtyard!"

Taiga Fujimura's cheerful voice echoed over the vast estate.

"Shirou! Are there any spare brooms? How come I can't find any?"

For some reason, a wild Shinji Matou had appeared.

"Brother Shirou! I brought Japanese sweets from home, so please have some whenever you get a break."

Naturally, Sakura Matou could not possibly be absent.

Taiga Fujimura: "Whoa, there's so much stuff piled up in the warehouse! What even is all this? Ah, I found two carts! Lucky~!"

Shinji Matou: "We can just pile all the pulled weeds here and burn them, right, Shi... Huh? AAAAAAH! That cockroach is huge, Shirou! Save me! Hurry and save me!"

Sakura Matou: "Brother, are you alright? It's only a bug. Please don't make such a fuss—it's really unbecoming."

The once-peaceful abandoned estate had turned into a chaotic hellscape.

Fortunately, although things were somewhat chaotic, the cleaning was indeed progressing—far more efficiently than if Shirou had cleaned alone.

While Sister Fujiwara took the siblings out to dump the trash, Shirou secretly used magecraft as well to improve their cleaning efficiency.

Along with an emerald-green Magic Circle, a gust of wind arose out of nowhere within the estate, carrying away the accumulated moldy stench and dust.

As expected, the estate's buildings and facilities were all quite old and worn down, with holes and gaps everywhere.

That part was beyond what three elementary school students and one middle school girl could handle.

The next day, Fujimura Raika arrived leading a squad of Yakuza Clones.

Because of real estate, this country's yakuza had deep ties to the construction industry, so this was also part of the Fujimura Group's regular business.

The Yakuza Clones began repairing the buildings, and during that time, Shirou and the others got a little rest.

"Let's clean the inner courtyard after lunch, okay?" Sakura Matou said.

"I'm eating!"

Taiga Fujimura unceremoniously snatched a rice ball from the elementary school girl's hands. "Ah, so good~ Sakura, you're such a great cook. You could get married anytime now~"

"I only know how to make rice balls."

For some reason, Sakura Matou's cheeks flushed red as she stole a glance at Shirou beside her.

"B-but I'll work hard to learn cooking from now on... Um, Brother Shirou, aren't you eating?"

"I'll go throw out this trash first. Hey, Sister Fujiwara, Shinji, leave some for me."

With that, he picked up the trash and walked out of the residence.

After stepping outside the gates and tossing several large garbage bags into the burnable trash collection area, Shirou circled the enormous residence and arrived at a corner by the wall.

A girl was standing there suspiciously.

She was an elementary school girl around Shirou's age, with lustrous black hair tied into cute twin tails, peeking into the residence.

Shirou walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. "How long are you planning to keep spying?"

"Eek!!!"

Startled by the tap on her shoulder from behind, the twin-tailed girl jumped and stumbled several steps back until her body pressed against the wall.

"W-what are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?!"

Shirou frowned. "Right back at you. What are you doing lurking around here?"

"I... I'm..."

The girl stammered, turning her face away.