Maria-sama ga Miteru

Chapter 26

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[]

Sat.u.r.day.

After fourth period, the first-years and second-years used homeroom to cast their ballots.

There were two election management committee members in each cla.s.s. After confirming that every ballot was collected, and every absent student was taken account of, the ballots and the attendance sheet was placed in specific envelope and taken to the counting room.

The counting room was occupied by the election management committee from the beginning of the year, and was about half the size of a cla.s.sroom. This room was always fluctuating in what it was used for and by whom, as at times it was the headquarters for the school festival executive committee, while other times becoming the headquarters for the athletics festival executive committee, and other times even used for the culture club"s exhibit room. Incidentally it was next to the lecturers" room.

The ballots were counted that day, in the witness of teachers.

The counting was done using a primitive method. A person would read the vote out, and another person would mark it down using a 10^40 system. Still, they had plenty of workers, so even with a second run to confirm numbers, it was finished quickly. After students finished cleaning and ate lunch, the votes would already be tallied.

The election management committee gave themselves a bit of a buffer for delays and said they would announce results at two in the afternoon. So they"d agreed to eat lunch at the Rose Mansion and standby there until the results, but Yumi was so restless she could only eat half of her mother"s lunch.

Yoshino-san and Rei-sama also seemed to be nervous, as they routinely sighed as they slowly ate lunch.

Of course, when listing off other people, you get to Sachiko-sama who was completely relaxed. By the time Yumi finished cleaning duty and got to the Rose Mansion, Sachiko-sama had finished her lunch and was sipping tea. "Sorry, I ate already." The big shots are really different, Yumi thought, and as she admired her, the time became one fourty, and without anyone needing to say anything, everyone stood up, ready to leave.

And despite these circ.u.mstances, Shimako-san didn"t come to the Rose Mansion, because she had a regular meeting for the environmental consolidation committee. She said she should be done by two, so Yumi a.s.sumed she would go directly to the announcement.

She also didn"t see the Roses anywhere. Yoshino-san said Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Foetida stopped by before Yumi came, but they returned home, saying, "I have a good idea what the results will be."

But, even if you had a good idea, wouldn"t you normally stay around to confirm your suspicions? Of course, "normally" wasn"t something that applied to the Roses.

And no one knew where Rosa Gigantea was. Even on the day of the speech presentations, she"d skipped morning cla.s.ses, so no one knew if she was even at school today. Plus, she didn"t seem to care about the results anyways.

Many people had already gathered around the bulletin board in front of the sanctuary. Yumi thought the results would be posted in front of the counting room, but she understood why it would be presented here. If this many students gathered in the hallway, there would be big "don"t push" wave of panic. That"s how crowded it was. The middle school and high school acceptance announcements were also posted here, but it was nowhere near as crowded for those.

Everyone simply waited for the election management committee to arrive. Did it need to be said that there was no obligation to look at the results? Nevertheless, all of these students had remained of their own volition.

"Sachiko-sama, Rei-sama, please."

When they noticed the two candidates, the students parted like Moses and the Red Sea, leading the protagonists to the board.

"Here, the sœur, too."

"Oh."

Yumi and Yoshino-san were also pushed forward.

Shimako-san was already there, and she forced a smile. What a pity. Yumi was sure Shimako-san just wanted to take a secret peek at the results. But because they were giving her a better view out of courtesy, she couldn"t turn them down. In the end, everyone other than the candidates themselves were more excited. And Yumi felt like that was the sort of thing that would never change.

Speaking of everyone else being excited-.

"Where"s Rosa Canina?"

Her supporters had already shown up, but Shizuka-sama was nowhere to be found.

"I wonder where she went, the results are about to be posted."

The library girl sighed, "Sometimes she just goes off somewhere on her own." Just then, the election management committee chairman and vice-chairman arrived with a rolled-up poster.

The results were about to be announced.

The voices of the students felt far away.

Could the Maria-sama statue hear them, too, surrounded by her little forest? In the midst of the green, she silently clasped her hands together.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Rosa Gigantea said to the person in front of the Maria-sama statue.

"No problem."

I wasn"t waiting that long anyways, that person replied. But no one knows how long she actually waited.

"I thought I would definitely get here earlier. &h.e.l.lip; So I"m actually more than a bit surprised?"

"I"m the one who requested this."

Rosa Canina smiled.

"Regardless of whether you win or lose the election-. You did say that on Wednesday, but I didn"t think you meant it this much."

Rosa Gigantea looked at the election results and hurried here. So if Rosa Canina had come here even earlier, it meant there was no way she"d seen the results.

"I could always ask Rosa Gigantea about the results, if I wished."

"Wanna hear?"

No, Rosa Canina shook her head.

"It"s that important? The reason why you called me here."

"Yes. To me, more than anything else."

Looked at with serious eyes, for just a moment, the smile vanished from Rosa Gigantea"s face.

And then silence.

Rosa Gigantea flipped her hair, exhaled, and then began speaking again.

"Can I ask one thing? Was the election just a lead-in?"

"In the beginning. But then I began thinking it wouldn"t be such a bad thing to do Yamayurikai work, either."

"Why?"

"I don"t know&h.e.l.lip; Maybe it was because I became a bit close to Yumi-san, and it became oddly fun. Plus, I was able to become engrossed in something together with my cla.s.smates. I"d actually never taken part in an uproar like this. My life has always been about singing, and so I placed a great deal of effort into my club activities during the school festival, too. So I"m happy I was able to take part in regular school life, completely unrelated to singing."

"I don"t think the student president election is really "regular school life," though, don"t you think?"

"Oh, my, that"s true."

"Right?"

Rosa Canina giggled at Rosa Gigantea"s remark, and Rosa Gigantea was also lead to laugh.

"&h.e.l.lip; I think there are many paths toward the future. So, maybe I could live a completely different life by taking a rounded path. For a moment, I thought, maybe that could be nice."

"No matter how many paths there are, you can only walk one."

Rosa Gigantea pointed out. Rosa Canina seemed to understand everything, though, as she simply said, "Yes," smiled, and nodded.

"Testing my luck, I suppose? I believe Sachiko-san took part in a gamble during the school festival, correct? I simply mimicked it. I didn"t want to leave without doing anything."

After a breath, Rosa Canina said:

"I"m going to Italy."

"Italy?"

The topic suddenly went overseas. Even Rosa Gigantea had to struggle to keep up. But Rosa Canina"s tone wasn"t that of a "quick overseas trip."

"To study music. In truth, I was supposed to fly there the moment I finished middle school&h.e.l.lip; but I delayed it by two years."

"Why?"

"Because you were here."

Rosa Gigantea"s eyes opened at Rosa Canina"s immediate response.

With completely different expressions, they stood, looking at each other.

"I"m so happy&h.e.l.lip; Rosa Gigantea, just for a moment, I wanted to see my reflection in your eyes, like this."

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

"Because you never did notice me. I even grew my hair because your hair was always long."

Her hand, hovering near her shoulder, motioned nostalgically about her old hair length. She probably didn"t cut her hair a year ago, at the same time as Rosa Gigantea, out of obstinacy. Because her hair was unrelated to Shiori-san.

"I"m sorry, I never noticed. Your hair was long?"

Rosa Canina crumpled with laughter at Rosa Gigantea"s blunt words.

"I loved even that part of you."

She looked at the white sky, above the gingko trees.

If you focused enough, you could see the thick, heavy clouds slowly but certainly drifting.

"If you won, what were you going to do?"

Rosa Gigantea asked.

"Of course, I intended to remain. It would just be delaying my departure by a year. &h.e.l.lip; But let"s stop with the "if," please? Toudou Shimako-san will be a wonderful Rosa Gigantea."

One step.

Rosa Gigantea closed the distance between them.

"You"re fascinating, Rosa Canina. If we"d met earlier, we may have become good friends."

"But you wouldn"t have made me your sister?"

"Did you want to?"

But Rosa Canina clearly shook her head.

"I"m not Shimako-san."

"&h.e.l.lip; Rosa Canina."

Another step.

They were close enough that their breaths landed on each other.

"Will you call me Shizuka?"

"Shizuka."

Rosa Gigantea lifted Shizuka-sama"s chin with her hand and kissed her cheek. Extremely close to the lips. In front of Maria-sama.

"A farewell gift."

Leaving those words, Rosa Gigantea walked away. Shizuka-sama, left alone, was looking the other way, so she didn"t know what sort of expression she had, but even Yumi could hear her soft whisper, "Thank you."

Rosa Gigantea took a few steps, then reached into the thickets by the gingko trees, grabbed the uniform collar and dragged the peeping tom out.

"Hey. Peeping is bad."

"I"m sorry, I was just pa.s.sing by, and-"

Yumi, caught, desperately tried to explain herself.

Right after the results were posted, Yumi noticed Rosa Gigantea at the edge of the crowd of students. But Rosa Gigantea, after a quick glance at the imitation paper on which the names and number of votes were written, quickly left, so Yumi, after being cut off from Sachiko-sama and others, squeezed out of the crowd and followed after. The three boutons, having safely won their elections, were swept up in a storm of blessings, so they didn"t seem like they could get out any time soon.

So, when she followed Rosa Gigantea, there was an unexpected preceding visitor, so she was immediately taken aback. And she hurriedly hurled herself into the hedge. Because it was a special atmosphere. Rosa Gigantea and Shizuka-sama.

"Well, I didn"t mind being seen."

As they walked back to the sanctuary, Rosa Gigantea prodded Yumi"s head and laughed.

"I won"t tell Shimako-san."

"You can tell, I don"t mind."

"I won"t tell."

"You"re persistent."

"Of course."

If Sachiko-sama kissed someone, even if it was just on the cheek, she wouldn"t like it, at all. -Yumi thought. So she couldn"t tell Shimako-san. No matter what.

In Shimako-san"s stead, Yumi dragged Rosa Gigantea to the sanctuary by the hand, but in by pinching her hand a bit. She needed to feel a bit of pain.

The sanctuary had actually been somewhat vacated by the time they returned. They became extremely excited, and then the wildfire had been blown out. Everyone left in threes and fives. It was a Sat.u.r.day afternoon. As the main event had ended, they had other plans to attend to.

And in the middle of a few remaining people were Sachiko-sama, Rei-sama and Shimako-san.

"Well, first of all, congratulations."

Rosa Gigantea cackled, as she walked to them. The "first of all" was so unnecessary.

"Thank you very much."

The three of them bowed.

"Looked like an easy victory."

"Not entirely."

Shimako-san shook her head and smiled.

For someone who wasn"t as famous, Rosa Canina put up quite the fight. Of course, the results weren"t especially close, but she had certainly been up to the task. You could say that much.

If Lillian didn"t have a system of sœur, and the four candidates had been lined up at the same start line, Shizuka-sama may have beaten Shimako-san to become one of the Roses. Of course, that was an "if." No one could complain about Shimako-san winning the election, and becoming a Rose in her second year was a brilliant achievement.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

She had no idea when Yoshino-san had gone round-trip, as she showed up carrying two peoples" coats and bags. And Rei-sama, upon seeing her, hurried over like a magnet, and took hers.

"Well, apologies for leaving early, but we have plans."

Rei-sama and Yoshino-san lined up like ohina-sama and bid their farewells.

"How enviable. Hasekura + Shimazu double celebration?"

Sachiko-sama said.

"Yes."

Yoshino-san looked happy. She was constantly smiling, as if she herself had won.

"Well, see you all next week."

"Gokigenyou."

After watching the two of them walk down the gingko pathway, hands together, Sachiko-sama grabbed Yumi"s hand. "Come."

"Onee-sama?"

"Let"s have Rosa Gigantea do something onee-sama-like, for once."

She whispered, and pulled Yumi away. When they blended into the crowd of students and looked back, Shimako-san was surprisingly crying, and just as rare of a scene was Rosa Gigantea embracing her closely.

"It might be meddlesome, but sometimes you have to be over-considerate with them. She looks strong, but Shimako is just a first-year, like Yumi."

She"s been so tense for so long, she has to be given s.p.a.ce, sometimes, Sachiko-sama said.

"How about onee-sama?"

Yumi asked. If Shimako-san was just a first-year, Sachiko-sama was just a year older, herself.

"Me?"

She tilted her head to the side, thinking.

"Really, I may have been too tense, too. Then I shall have Yumi make me relax."

"Okay!"

Yumi excitedly answered, like a puppy.

"I"ll do anything, go on."

Not a lie, not an exaggeration, she thought she was capable of anything, right now. If onee-sama desired, she would bungee jump or go on a standing jet coaster, that"s how excited she was.

But Sachiko-sama was far more grounded, and made an extremely simple request.

"First of all, pour me hot tea at the Rose Mansion. And then let"s eat the remainder of our lunch together."

"Huh&h.e.l.lip;? Lunch, remainder?"

"Let me confess that I only ate half, too. I just wanted to look strong, in front of you."

Ducking her shoulders, Sachiko-sama said, "So let"s eat together."

"You made me regain my appet.i.te."

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