Maria-sama ga Miteru

Chapter 145

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"Touko wasn"t looking to win."

The moment after she said this, Noriko spotted Yumi-sama"s lips mouthing the words, "I knew it," even though no sound came out.

She knew it, Touko had run in the election in order to lose.

It wasn"t as though Noriko doubted her own intuition, but if Yumi-sama was saying that then it was further proof. Therefore the conclusion was correct. That was how she felt.

Yumi-sama should have been one of the chief revelers in the crowd of students cheering on the announcement of the next student council, but her face was pale.

On the sheet of paper put up on the noticeboard in front of the auditorium, the name "f.u.kuzawa Yumi" sparkled with the mark of victory - a red flower sticker. But despite this, the owner of that name looked as though she"d just lost the election.

Still, Noriko wasn"t in a position to talk either. Her onee-sama had been elected to the next student council alongside Yumi-sama and Yoshino-sama. But Noriko"s current expression wasn"t that of a pet.i.t soeur overjoyed at her onee-sama"s success.

"Congratulations, Rosa Chinensis en bouton."

"Do your best, Yumi-sama."

Even while she was talking to Noriko, voices called to Yumi-sama, one after another, and she responded to them with, "Thank-you," and, "I"ll try." She didn"t know how Yumi-sama saw them, but to Noriko the people surrounding them offering their congratulations and well wishes were like a video recording. To the extent that there was a marked difference between their and her levels of excitement.

With those sort of phrases flying about, and amidst numerous interruptions, Noriko continued their conversation.

"But why?"

Touko ran in the election in order to lose. They both shared that opinion, so the obvious follow-on question was why did she have to lose the election?

Typically, people would run in an election in order to win. So, why?

"I see. So you don"t know either then, Noriko-chan."

"&h.e.l.lip; So you"re saying &h.e.l.lip; "

She was saying that she didn"t know either. Seeing Yumi-sama nod, Noriko did an about-face.

"Wait, where are you going?"

Yumi-sama called out to her after she"d taken a step.

"I"m going to ask Touko herself."

If she ran, she should be able to catch up to her soon enough.

"You could come too, if you want."

When Noriko said this, a look of unease pa.s.sed across Yumi-sama"s face.

"&h.e.l.lip; Um."

Until just a little while ago, it felt like Yumi-sama"s expression had been a reflection of her own. But now it was different. While Noriko was all fired up, Yumi-sama was smiling quietly and shaking her head.

"I won"t go."

"Why not?"

"Why not? I"m not sure, but for now it"s fine."

"It"s fine?"

What was fine? Noriko didn"t understand. She"d said it was fine for now. If she didn"t ask now, then just when would she ask Touko?

"But if you want to, you can chase after her, Noriko-chan. I"m just saying that I won"t."

"Don"t you want to know Touko"s real motive, Yumi-sama?"

"How can I put this? It"s like, that doesn"t really matter anymore - "

Against her better judgment, Noriko was angered by this remark.

"Are you planning on abandoning Touko?"

At times like these, she would rebel without caring that it was against a senior. Noriko herself recognized this was a bad habit, but it was hard for her to restrain herself.

"Is that how it looks?"

"Yes."

Yumi-sama smiled at Noriko"s answer and said, "You"re honest."

"But actually it"s the opposite."

"The opposite?"

"That"s right."

Yumi-sama nodded. Just as Noriko was about to ask her what she meant, a single person emerged from the video reel of surrounding students and spoke.

"Sorry for interrupting your conversation."

It was Shimako-san.

"Yumi-san, do you have a minute? Tsutako-san was saying that she wanted to take a photo of all three of us lined up with the bulletin board in the background."

"Ah, okay, I"ll be there."

Yumi-sama turned to face Shimako-san and responded cheerfully.

"Also, Mami-san wanted a comment to print in the Lillian Kawaraban."

"Huh? Wasn"t the interview with the Lillian Kawaraban supposed to be after school next Tuesday or Wednesday?"

"This is separate to that. She said it was supposed to be an initial reaction, while the excitement was still high."

"Alright. - So you see, Noriko-chan, we"ll have to pick this conversation up again some time later."

"&h.e.l.lip; Okay."

It was none other than Noriko"s onee-sama, Shimako-san, that was calling her away. There was no way Noriko could stop her.

"You can come too, Noriko."

When Shimako-san called out to her, Noriko instinctively looked at the path lined with ginkgo trees, along which Touko had disappeared.

"Um."

Until just recently, she"d been planning on catching up to Touko.

"I"m - "

But now she was hesitating. Should she chase Touko, or not? Yumi-sama"s declaration that she didn"t want to chase after Touko had most definitely reined in Noriko"s enthusiasm.

"You can go if there"s something you have to do, Noriko-chan. We"re going back to the Rose Mansion once this is over, so we can meet up there."

"No."

Yumi-sama had probably made this offer so that Noriko could chase after Touko, but Noriko shook her head and accompanied them.

Noriko"s gloomy mood lingered. But.

She wasn"t abandoning Touko. Yumi-sama had said that, so, for now, that was enough.

In that case, perhaps Touko could be saved.

Rather than letting the blood go to her head and running around recklessly, she wanted to avoid throwing the situation into chaos. Noriko had cooled down enough that she could make that sort of decision.

The "Future Roses" photo-shoot was completed in about five minutes, thanks to the photography club member and newspaper club affiliate Takeshima Tsutako-sama. Since the newspaper club only wanted a single comment from each of Shimako-san, Yumi-sama and Yoshino-sama, that was completed quickly too.

"Congratulations, you three. Cheers!"

So, when they returned to the Rose Mansion, all six Yamayurikai members celebrated. Although, since they were minors and at school, they obviously weren"t toasting with champagne. It was just tea, like usual, but having been standing around in the open air for a little while, a warm drink was most welcome.

"Whew, I can let it out now, but I was kind of worried deep inside. Remember how Yoshino suddenly went off script during her speech? She let her emotions take over, and kept going until she ran out of time, sort of losing the plot at the end. I was nervous right up until the results were revealed."

Holding her cup, Rosa Foetida let out a large sigh of relief. Hearing this, Yoshino-sama cast a sidelong glance at her onee-sama.

"Oh my, onee-sama. You really didn"t show any of that at all."

Noriko thought, "That"s true." After the candidate"s speeches, Rosa Foetida had kept saying things like, "Good job, Yoshino," and, "You"re going to be fine." There had been no indication of her being nervous.

"Well, of course. You were so excited about your speech that I couldn"t tell you what I really thought, could I? The smart choice was not to burst your bubble. You were in such a good mood that I couldn"t bring you down. Just try and imagine it. For the last three days you"d have been walking around in a foul mood. Even the votes cast for you would run away."

So that was it. As expected of Rosa Foetida. She knew what she had to do for her pet.i.t soeur. That probably came from the long time they"d spent with each other.

"Are you done?"

Yoshino-sama aloofly ended the conversation. They"d been expecting a, "Rei-chan you idiot," but it didn"t look like that was coming.

(Ah, is that it?)

Since she"d accomplished her major task (victory in the election), Yoshino-sama was in a good mood and it looked like she wasn"t about to flare up no matter what was said. Maybe that"s what Rosa Foetida"s earlier remark about, "I can let it out now," had been based on. If that was the case, then Rosa Foetida was commensurately incredible.

Speaking of incredible, there was Rosa Chinensis. Even though she forced the three second-years to attend the election information session, she hadn"t lifted a finger to help her pet.i.t soeur, Yumi-sama, with her election campaign.

At first, Noriko had thought, "What a cold person." However, through observing her behavior, Noriko"s impression had gradually changed.

Having made the decision not to help, she could have stayed away entirely, but instead Rosa Chinensis came to the Rose Mansion fairly frequently. As for what she did, she didn"t get involved in the election at all - instead she simply read a book by herself. But when Noriko stealthily observed her, she noticed that often twenty minutes would go by without Rosa Chinensis turning a page. So it looked as though she was going to the Rose Mansion because she couldn"t keep herself from worrying about how her pet.i.t soeur was going with the election.

That Rosa Chinensis was now quietly smiling next to Yumi-sama. Her expression showing that it was because she had faith in her pet.i.t soeur. Where did she get that sort of composure from? And Yumi-sama was responding by looking back at her, with an expression saying that she was able to win because her onee-sama was by her side. Even without words, they understood each other.

But in comparison to the dignified and composed Yellow and Red soeurs - Noriko looked at Shimako-san"s profile. Just what had she been able to do for Shimako-san?

Naturally, she"d done all sorts of things to help prepare for the election, but Shimako-san was competent enough that she would have been elected even without a pet.i.t soeur. Right. Rather than helping out, it felt like she"d been allowed to help. Maybe the way she"d been constantly following her onee-sama around had been a hindrance.

Standing beside these perfect people, her own inexperience was only too obvious.

It was the same with Touko. She was hopeless - she hadn"t even been able to guess her friend"s feelings. Thoughts like this were bringing Noriko down.

"At any rate, there was a lot of power behind Noriko-chan"s support."

Yumi-sama suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"Even the Electoral Committee members were talking about it. The way you kept going, "Good luck, you"ll be fine, I believe in you.""

"And then &h.e.l.lip; "Fight?""

Rosa Chinensis added, and then Yumi-sama stuck a finger in the air.

"That"s right, "Fight." All so rapid fire like a machine-gun."

"Huh."

Since she did indeed remember that, the only reb.u.t.tal Noriko could offer was to ask, "Is that so?" It didn"t feel like it was particularly substantive a.s.sistance.

"Ah, I heard about that."

Yoshino-sama stuck her nose in from the side.

"It was just before the candidate speeches, right? I didn"t hear you say it, but Hanae-san was talking to some of the others about how honest and straight-forward you were."

Incidentally, the reason Yoshino-sama hadn"t witnessed that scene was because the Yellow Rose soeurs were busy with something while Noriko was giving Shimako-san a pep talk.

"Right. It had the power to make anyone witnessing it raise their fist and say, "Yeah, that"s the spirit." There"s no way Shimako-san wouldn"t have been cheered on by hearing that."

"&h.e.l.lip; Is that right?"

Noriko glanced at Shimako-san.

"Of course."

Apparently so, since her response and gentle smile came simultaneously.

Noriko was pleased that it was true. That smile was enough to power her.

That compliment had come at just the right time.

Saying that she was fine as she was.

Despite her happiness, Noriko was also feeling a bit teary-eyed.

They were told that the Yellow Rose soeurs were having a celebration party with both the Hasekura and Shimazu families tonight.

"Hehehe, we"re having a Chinese banquet."

In a good mood, Yoshino-sama spun around and said, "Isn"t that great?" as she walked along.

"There was a celebration dinner when Rei-sama was elected last year too."

Yumi-sama laughed.

"It"s academic now, but what were you going to do if you lost? Since you"re having a Chinese banquet, you"d have to have made a reservation at the restaurant, right?"

"In that case we"d change the name - it"d be a "Bad luck, Yoshino" or "Cheer Up" party."

Rei-sama interjected from the side.

"I see."

Even if the food was the same, she felt it would taste somewhat different at a celebration compared to a commiseration party. At any rate, it looked like the most important thing to the Yellow Rose soeurs was that they could eat some delicious Chinese food tonight.

As they walked together down the ginkgo tree path, Noriko couldn"t help but worry about Yumi-sama.

What was Yumi-sama thinking she should do about Touko?

Had Yumi-sama talked to her onee-sama, Rosa Chinensis, about Touko?

Despite her initial reaction of bewilderment after the election results were revealed, she was currently acting as though nothing had happened.

As though she"d completely forgotten everything about Touko.

Yumi-sama wouldn"t abandon Touko. Noriko had faith in those words. Yumi-sama wasn"t the sort of person to fob her off with a lie.

So then, why was she leaving Touko alone?

If she took her time, silently watching, Touko would get further and further away. That was how it felt to Noriko.

She didn"t understand.

Did Yumi-sama have an idea? If so, Noriko wanted to know

Or was there no basis for it - just some vague instinct that led her to decide she didn"t have to act. In that case, was she really willing to bet on that instinct?

"Noriko?"

"Ah."

She was brought back to reality when Shimako-san called her name. She hadn"t noticed that they"d arrived at the statue of Maria-sama.

Neither Maria-sama nor Kannon could save Touko, only Yumi-sama.

As she prayed to Maria-sama, Noriko once again felt that Yumi-sama was Touko"s onee-sama, regardless of the rosary ceremony.

And yet Yumi-sama was laughing as though nothing had happened. Noriko couldn"t understand what she was thinking.

At one point, their eyes met.

At that point, Noriko was probably looking uneasy. In contrast, Yumi-sama favored her with a mysterious smile.

The smile didn"t say, "What"s wrong?" or, "It"s okay," or, "Leave it to me," but instead it encompa.s.sed all of those.

Was that due to their one year age difference? Even though Yumi-sama was close by, it felt to Noriko as though she was suddenly far, far away.

In the end, Yumi-sama didn"t say a single word about Touko during their entire journey together to M Station.

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