Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume34 Chapter11

Little Horrors VI

She heard a sound, like someone clapping.

"What's that?"

It wasn't coming from inside the room, but from above the ceiling. In other words—"It's coming from the room on the second floor. . . ?"

"Yeah, that's what it sounds like," Yumi-sama murmured. Just like Nana, she was looking up at the ceiling. "Sounds like somebody's up there."

As she said this, Nana thought back to the comings and goings of the Rose Mansion residents. Unfortunately, she was in no position to count on her fingers, so instead she imagined moving around chess pieces. Initially, there was only Shimako-sama and Noriko-sama on the second floor of the Rose Mansion. Then Noriko-sama and Nana had left the Rose Mansion together, leaving Shimako-sama by herself. In the meantime, Yumi-sama and Yoshino-sama had gone into the room on the ground floor. Then the three boutons had joined them, bringing their number to five. That had been the maximum for this room. Shortly thereafter, Noriko-sama had left. She'd briefly gone upstairs to fetch a flashlight, bucket, and cloths, and then headed off to the staff room. As before, Shimako-sama was on her own on the second floor. Next, Yoshino-sama had left the room to go to the Kendo club meeting. Then Touko-sama left to go to the restroom. The third year Chrysanthemum class and the restrooms were both in the school building. As a result, while the numbers on the first floor had decreased, there had been no corresponding increase on the second floor. Everyone that had left the Rose Mansion knew about the situation with the water pipe; when they returned, they surely would have come to check on them.

"It's just Rosa Gigantea above us, isn't it?" Nana sought confirmation. Of course, someone could clap even if they were on their own, it just seemed kind of unlikely. Thinking about it further, she had the strange feeling that she could hear multiple pairs of footsteps.

"Who knows?" Yumi-sama looked puzzled. That's right . . . Yumi-sama had come straight into this room when she arrived at the Rose Mansion and never made it to the second floor. So she didn't even have any proof that Shimako-sama was on the second floor, let alone who else might be there with her.

(Huh?)

That was when Nana realized: Wasn't she in the same boat? She had seen Shimako-sama emerge from the room on the second floor. But their conversation had taken place in front of the biscuit door, and Nana herself never made it inside to confirm who was in there. That was why she had thought that Touko-sama was also in there, until she talked to Mami-sama. In that case, it was possible that people other than Shimako-sama and Noriko-sama had been upstairs all along. Or perhaps some visitors had come calling in the brief period of time when Nana's group had been traveling between the Rose Mansion and the school building. But if that were true, why hadn't Noriko-sama said anything about it when she returned with the flashlight? And why hadn't Shimako-sama come to check on them, even once?

First of all, she couldn't even state definitively that Shimako-sama was currently on the second floor. But if Shimako-sama wasn't up there, then who was?

"Nana-chan."

"Gya."

"What's the matter?"

"Sorry, I . . ."

She'd been spacing out a bit. The atmosphere in the room was overwhelming, causing her thoughts to go off in strange directions.

"I'm a bit worried about it too, so can you go up there and check it out?"

"Huh?"

"I told you before didn't I? As long as it's just for a little while, I can manage with the water pipe by myself."

"But," Nana protested. If she went, Yumi-sama would be left alone. In this gloomy room.

The clapping sound came once more. Then a rumbling sound, like footsteps stomping on the floor above them. Instantly, she thought of the sounds a poltergeist would make. She had never heard one in real life, but she'd read they were associated with various sounds, like creaking timber, or something splitting open.

"I'll go if you don't want to, Nana-chan."

"No, I'll go."

She was scared of going to look. But being left here alone was even more frightening. Luckily, Yumi-sama didn't appear to be that much of a scaredy-cat, so Nana decided to entrust the water pipe to her. They counted to three and Yumi-sama took her spot on the water pipe, then Nana walked towards the door. Her arms and knees had stiffened from keeping the same position all this time.

"I'll go and check it out then be right back," Nana said when she reached the door, looking back over her shoulder. From within the room, a voice called out, "Will you though?"

"Huh?"

"Well, no one that said that ever returned, did they?" Even though she was saying something so ominous, Yumi-sama sounded like she was laughing.

Nana climbed the stairs, (pretending to be) completely calm and in control. She could hear the clapping and stomping when she went out into the hallway but it suddenly stopped when she started climbing the stairs. Going silent after hearing footsteps—it was like there was a burglar up there.

But she'd never heard of anyone robbing the Rose Mansion. Moreover, if it was a burglar, surely they'd go about their work as quietly as possible and wouldn't have been making any noise in the first place. Then, dance practice? By Shimako-sama? It seemed unthinkable that she'd do that while her friends were desperately holding on to the water pipe on the floor below.

Nana couldn't even begin to imagine who it was on the second floor or what they were doing.

She couldn't imagine what was happening, but what she feared most was that when she opened the door there would be no one in there. With her thoughts still jumbled, she arrived on the second floor. She stood in front of the biscuit door, took a deep breath and raised a fist up to chest level.

Knock, knock.

She started by knocking on the door. But there was no response. She put her ear up against the door to try and hear what was happening, and sensed there were people inside. She knocked on the door once more, then without waiting for a response she turned the doorknob and opened the door. She firmed her resolve, not knowing what was going to happen.

Thunk.

As soon as she entered the room—

Bang! Bang! —the sound of explosions rang out. Before she had time to think, "More poltergeist noises?" something colorful floated down from above her head.

"Huh?"

Nana couldn't understand what was happening. She could faintly smell gunpowder. Firecrackers? Some long, thin, multicolored strands of paper had become entwined in her hair. She pulled some out and took a long, hard look at them.

"We've been waiting for you."

Noriko-sama shouldn't have been there, but she took the perplexed Nana by the hand and brought her into the room.

"Huuuh?"

On top of that, Touko-sama shouldn't have been there either, but there she was. Yoshino-sama shouldn't have been there, but there she was. Then Shimako-sama, who it was questionable whether she should have been there or not, appeared carrying something that looked like a whole yellow cake. No, it didn't look like a whole cake, it was a whole cake.

"Ah, you made it. It took so long for you to call that I was starting to get worried there had been some kind of accident or something."

Nana instinctively jumped when she heard the voice behind her.

"Gyu!?"

It was as big a shock as if she'd seen a ghost. When she turned around, Yumi-sama was standing there.

"The cake's been ready for a while, we were waiting for Yoshino-san to come back from her club meeting."

Ignoring Nana's confusion, the Roses continued their conversation.

"Ah, I see. Here, Yoshino-san, your handkerchief."

Yoshino-sama nonchalantly accepted it, saying, "Thanks." No matter how she looked at it, that was the handkerchief that had been wrapped around the water pipe that Nana had been gripping on to a little while ago.

"Um, uhh."

Without thinking, she jumped into the third years' conversation. Was it okay for her to have removed that? Moreover, was it okay for Yumi-sama not to be holding onto the water pipe in those two places? There were many questions she wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure if it was okay for her to ask them. Her mind was spinning around in circles when one of her questions slipped out of her mouth.

"Did the repairman come?"

There. Hearing this, the five other girls burst into laughter.

"Sorry, sorry."

"We had to trick you to keep you from coming into this room, Nana-chan."

"There wasn't actually a water leak."

Still holding their stomachs, they offered up a number of explanations, but she still couldn't comprehend what they were saying. Basically, the whole thing about having a crack in the water pipe that required them to hold it down in two specific places was a lie. She could understand that much, but what they hadn't adequately explained was why they were going to that much effort to keep her from entering this room. That, and the party popper when she arrived.

"Oh, you look like you're still confused."

"Then, how about this? Ta-da!" The White and Red boutons spread their arms and pointed to a poster hanging from the wall, then asked, "What do you think?"

The poster had:

Nana-chan's Welcoming Party

written on it.

"Huuuuh?"

It said Nana-chan's Welcoming Party. So, that meant it was her welcoming party? Nana was taken aback. Her thoughts were thrown into confusion once more, thinking that it couldn't be anything other than that, but there was no way that it could be that either. But looking around the room, it was all done up for a party – the curtains were tied back with pretty ribbons, chains of origami paper rings were strung across the walls near the ceiling, a flower arrangement adorned the table next to where Shimako-sama had placed the cake.

"That's what it is. Here, take a seat. We're starting a bit later than planned, so we shouldn't waste any more time."

Nana was bundled into a chair and then, for some unknown reason, a cardboard crown was placed on her head. She spotted a cardboard box in the corner with, "Christmas Party Items," written on it and kind of understood.

"You became Yoshino-san's petite sœur while you were still in middle school, so as soon as you entered into high school you became Rosa Foetida en bouton, right? So when the freshmen welcoming ceremony happens in May, you might have to assist us in welcoming the other students, rather than being welcomed."

"So we thought we had to do something, and decided to hold our own little welcoming ceremony ahead of that."

"Shimako-san made the cake."

Hearing Yoshino-sama's acknowledgment, Shimako-sama smiled as she cut the cake.

"Noriko decorated the room."

At this, Noriko-sama rubbed her head shyly, saying, "It was no big deal."

"Touko took a crash course with the Flower Arrangement club to make this arrangement."

After Yumi-sama said this, Touko-sama smiled and added, "I didn't actually go to the bathroom, I went to get this and bring it back here," pointing at the vase with the lilac flower arrangement.

"Th-thank-you. You were all doing these things for me."

After hearing all this, there was no way she could be mad about being tricked. Because this was a surprise party.

"Then, since Yumi-san and I did nothing to help, we'll have a toast with the most delicious tea," laughed Yoshino-sama, as she distributed the tea cups.

"Onee-sama. . . ?" Nana inquired. "Did you go to the Kendo club meeting?"

"I did. Didn't Shimako-san say that before?" Yoshino-sama grumbled. Nana may have heard something to that effect, but she wanted to hear the words directly from Yoshino-sama herself.

"And?" Nana urged her to continue, wanting to know what happened. She felt like she had a right to know.

"When I got there, I listened to what Chisato-san had to say. What could I do? I had no choice but to be appointed club vice-president."

Her onee-sama seemed to be sulking as she said this, but looking at her face in profile, Nana felt a little bit happier. With this, her onee-sama definitely wouldn't become a ghost.

"You understand? No matter how much better than me you may be at kendo, I'm your onee-sama, two years your senior, and the club vice-president, so I completely outrank you, and don't you forget it."

"Okay," Nana responded cheerfully, to which Yoshino-sama looked conflicted.

The party started with two toasts: one welcoming Nana and one congratulating Yoshino-sama on her appointment as the Kendo club's vice-president. Shimako-sama's yellow-colored cake was decorated with chestnut frosting. As she bit into the sweet, chestnut-scented cake, Nana thought:

"I'm glad nobody died."

Return to Main Page

Back to Little Horrors V

Back to Dream of a Butterfly

Forward to Extra: Little Panic