[Raniie]

Here's my crappy summary of Shiori's arc. :P

Episode 02: Shiori's encounter with Yuuchi and Ayu initial scene show us Shiori was not all that interested in Yuuichi. Instead, she had her eyes on Ayu majority of the time for reasons that can be related to how she would wanted Kaori to be more talkative towards her. This scene also shows Ayu take more initiative talking to Shiori, while Yuuichi was busy making fun of Ayu.

Episode 18: Shiori explain that day pending her doom, that Yuuichi and Ayu's encounter was so important to her, which saved her from possibilty dying a slow death. Now rewind back to Episode 03.

Episode 03: Jun been staring out at the window, noticing a girl in the courtyard and tell Yuuichi about it. As Yuuichi takes a look, we're shown that Shiori is looking at the direction of Yuuichi's class. The same class Kaori is in. As the Lunch bell rang, Yuuichi went down to meet her.

Shiori: Hello.
Shiori: What are you doing here?
Yuuichi: I saw you, and since you're not a student, I came to check up on you.
Shiori: Oh, I see. Sorry to trouble you. But you're a little wrong.
Shiori: I'm not an outsider. I'm a student at this school.
~
Shiori: Today, I snuck out to meet someone.
Shiori: I'll be scolded if people find me at school when I'm supposed to be absent.
Yuuichi: You're meeting that person here?
Shiori: No, I actually do not know much about that person either.
Shiori: I do not know the person's name, year, or class.
Shiori: You've met the person before though, right?
Shiori: Yes, I have.
Yuuichi: What kind of person is it? A guy? A girl?
Shiori: That's a secret.
Shiori: I'll go home now.
Yuuichi: Weren't you going to meet someone?
Shiori: It is all right today.
Shiori: I'm sorry to make you attend to me.

Now move on to Episode 04: Kaori bumps into Yuuichi, as he was exiting school delivering lunch to Nayuki, she tell Yuuichi she doesn't want to be home. This was obviously to avoid Shiori.

On to Episode 05: Yuuichi find Shiori at the courtyard again. This time Shiori openly admits she was here for Yuuichi, because she finally said Yuuichi was an interesting person to her.

On to Episode 06: Yuuichi find Shiori at the courtyard again on a Sunday; no school. Anyone can give multiple interpretations why she's here. Such as avoiding her sister or hoping her sister would come here or someone to come, or even just to not be home, since it might be depressing to stay home.

On to Episode 07: Nothing really special going on here, but Yuuichi meets up with Shiori again at the court yard. Talks about the promise of making the 10 meter Snowman. She also mentioned how she doesn't like staying home.

Fast foward to Episode 11: Yuuichi yet again, meets up with Shiori at the courtyard. Here we find out Shiori love Ice cream. Later toward the end of the episode at around timestamp 18:55+ we're shown a scene where Yuuichi is in class and Shiori is at the courtyard waving at him. Then the screen pans to Kaori view looking troubled and worried.

Moving on to Episode 12: reveals about Shiori's illness is more serious than it looks by her classmate to Yuuichi. Yuuichi also finds out about Shiori's last name here. As Yuuichi tries to confront Kaori about it. We now see Kaori being melodramatic about the mention of her sister's name.

Moving to Episode 13: Yuuichi ask Shiori if Kaori was her sister. Shiori was suprised that Yuuichi was in the same class as her, but quickly changed her answer to something else and fabricated a reason for it, when Yuuichi made the after-comment. As the convo continues, Shiori was staring at a distance the moment she said "I love my sister." The view point she was staring at was at her sister from a distance, Kaori was inside the school building. Kaori was observing Yuuichi and Shiori outside talking to each other.

On to Episode 16: Shiori's focus point starts here. We learn about Shiori's hobby is drawing, even tho, presumably, she's bad at it going by what Yuuichi said. Shiori explains to us how much importance of that event she had with Ayu and Yuuichi was to her. She also comfirms she lied about her illness. She also comfirmed what her classmate told Yuuichi. She also explain the importance of the courtyard is to her. She explains what she wants in life, the simplicity of being able to do normal day activities like normal people do. This to her, is why Yuuichi and Ayu's encounter was so important to her. Kaori further explain about Shiori's condition and seriousness of her illness. Her reason for the way she has been acting. Her denial of Shiori's existant to her.

On to Episode 17: The begining of the episode explains to us that Nayuki isn't gonna play a significant role for Shiori's arc. Since Kaori specifically stated that she doesn't want her to get involved this time. Shiroi further explain a bit about her past and her relation with Kaori. She also further explains the promise and the importance of the courtyard. Before Shiori met Yuuichi and Ayu, she was doing what her sister was doing, avoiding each other (presumably she was doing her best avoiding Kaori for a whole year, which is presumably why she said she rarely wore that shawl Kaori gave to her), which is why she said she tried to avoid her sister as well. Later in episode 18, Yuuichi's and Ayu's event that day is what made her go and tried to see her sister. Shiori also ask Yuuichi to treat her normally. The next day Shiori comes to Yuuichi's classroom. In the classroom scene, Shiori was more fixated on Kaori than on Yuuichi. Later that evening when Kaori finally gets home, Shiori tried to greet her sister, but obviously Kaori is playing hard to get. We're shown some dramatical scenes here. We also learn that Shiori can cook or make a decent meal. Another thing to note, Ayu helping out Yuuichi for Shiori's arc makes a lot of sense here, as Ayu has a connection with Shiori, so Yuuichi talking to Ayu about Shiori's birthday present goes very well in context.

Back to Episode 18: A great deal of information is revealed in this episode that answers a lot of events that occured in the previous episodes. It is explained that Kaori knew Shiori was at the courtyard nearly everyday waiting for her. Yuuichi even knows the answer to episode's 3 debate too. As he clearly states: "Do you know why Shiori came here every day?!" "She wanted to eat lunch with you (Kaori), out here (courtyard)!" The very moment Yuuichi utter that last line. It's why Kaori acted suprised. Shiori's final scene with Yuuichi explain about Yuuichi's and Ayu event, the importance behind it. She also explain why she wears the shawl, how she got it, by who, and why she didn't wear it before. She also talks about her suicide attempt. Shiori's arc then ends with a little room to breathe. So her story is probably "to be continued..."

For those that still think Shiori is there that day to see Yuuichi. You gotta be able to link what's given in the story to make a possible claim. Why she went to the courtyard (What relation does that has to do with Yuuichi?) Why was she staring at Kaori's class room (Again, what relation does that has to do with Yuuichi?) Why she tell Yuuichi, "What are you doing here?" -If she was looking to meet or see Yuuichi. Why that question? Isn't it a more suitable statement such as "We meet again." or "It's you from the other day." or any other similar statements to be used instead? More importantly, if she was really looking for Yuuichi, why she didn't ask for his name that they are finally meeting each other? Why she didn't introduce herself to him? Instead, she just walks off, it wasn't until then that Yuuichi realized they haven't introduce each other yet. My point is, if she's there to meet or see Yuuichi. It means she has some interest in Yuuichi. However, that scene completely show no interest in Yuuichi what-so-ever. It is not until episode 05 that she openly states that she is now here to see Yuuichi, because he's finally an "interesting" person to her.

There's way more convincing story materials to base Shiori's reasons of her first visit at the courtyard that day for Kaori, than there is for Yuuichi.

Tho, I will agree that we probably will never have a solid answer who she was really there for, so I'll leave it as that. Tho, I'm still interested in reading more about the reasons for Shiori to see Yuuichi. It's still fun to look at it from a different perspective.

P.S. I've read all the post before me and those are good reasons, but still not convincing enough, either. XP