Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume14 Chapter5 3

The Hanadera War. Part 3

In the middle of the oval there were three towers, one red, one white and one yellow. Surrounding them was a great crowd of participants, all apparently male students, impatiently waiting for the start. Some were in school uniforms, some in gym clothes, some in their club uniforms, some wearing cosplay – it wasn't just the towers that were colorful but also the people surrounding them.

When they saw the Lillian's school uniforms, the boys quickly stepped aside; clearing a path and adhering to the warnings about being polite.

The towers looked more like playground slides than towers. Each one had a side that angled down from the peak to the ground. A ladder was attached to a corner on the opposite side.

"Don't tell me we have to climb those ladders … !?"

It wasn't just Sachiko-sama that was taken aback by the sight of the towers, but also Shimako-san.

The tall platforms constructed from timber were as high as the roof of a one-story building, although they looked a little bit lower to Yumi. But despite being a bit lower than she'd expected, they were still over two meters tall. Just getting up there would be a challenge for someone not used to climbing ladders.

"Don't worry, we'll use the ladders but we've prepared a staircase for you ladies to use. Although there's only one, so you'll have to take it in turns going up."

At Yuuki's signal, some students that were apparently helping with the event brought out a staircase attached to a cart. It was similar to the stair cars they had at airports; although the staircase had evidently come from the library archive where it was used to reach books that were up high.

"I'll go first then. Excuse me, can you push that up against the yellow tower?"

Rei-sama wouldn't have had a problem with the ladder, but being cognizant of her skirt, she decided to use the mobile staircase. She quickly climbed up it and stood atop the yellow tower.

The staircase was moved from the yellow tower to the white one. Shimako-san was very ladylike as she carefully trod up the stairs.

Last place was Sachiko-sama, but she still looked a bit uncertain – even when the staircase was wheeled before her, she just stood stock-still in front of the red tower.

"Onee-sama, I'll – "

"Yumi. I told you already, I'm fine."

Sachiko-sama glared at her, even though she hadn't yet said, "go up there in your place."

"Yes. No, I just wanted to go up there and have a little look. Is that okay?"

"On top of the tower?"

"Yes. I want to see what it feels like."

"… I suppose I can't stop you."

"But I'm a bit scared, so can you go up there with me, onee-sama?"

Yumi took Sachiko-sama's hand and guided her over to the staircase. Sachiko-sama didn't show any sign of fear; whether it was because she was relieved someone else was going with her, or because she didn't want to appear weak in front of her petit soeur, but before long she was standing on top of the tower.

The tower was about three tatami mats in size (1.8m x 2.7m) and the view was amazing. They could see the gymnasium next to the oval and all the way over to the school buildings.

The wind was incredibly soothing. She thought of taking to the wind in flight, like a bird or an insect.

"Ah, this must be your seat over here, onee-sama."

There was a single chair on top of the tower, facing towards the slide section.

"It's sturdy, so it should be fine."

Yumi sat on it first, to make sure it was safe for her onee-sama. The chair was fastened to the tower. As long as the tower didn't collapse, she wouldn't have to worry about falling if she was seated there.

"I suppose."

Sachiko-sama switched places with Yumi and sat down on the chair. By slightly lowering her line of sight, she couldn't see the ground directly and her stiff facial expression softened somewhat.

"Hey, Yumi."

Yuuki arrived atop the tower, having climbed the ladder.

"Are you going to stay up here forever? I want to move the staircase out of the way."

"I guess it is a bit small for three people up here."

In truth, she wanted to stay by Sachiko-sama's side the entire time. It wasn't that she doubted Yuuki's ability as a bodyguard, but Yumi held the conceit that, "If I'm here, onee-sama will have 100 times more courage."

"It's not so bad with three people, but when the game starts there'll be another one too."

Yuuki said, scratching his head.

"The challengers will climb this slide and when they arrive they'll stand there and be asked a quiz question."

The spot he indicated was right where Yumi was currently standing, in a 30cm x 30cm square marked off with red tape.

"Sachiko-san will sit there, so what about you and me, Yumi? It's not a huge space for the three of us but, well, it'll be fine."

Yuuki had given her permission but Yumi thought there was bound to be a lot of action once the game started, so it seemed like a waste of space to have her there just as a companion. But she couldn't bring herself to abandon Sachiko-sama here, either.

"I'll just watch the start. I'll climb down once I see how it is."

When she'd determined that Sachiko-sama was accustomed to both the height and the game.

"The staircase would just get in the way once the event starts, so it's going to be moved away."

"That's alright, I'll climb down the ladder."

"You'll climb down the ladder!?"

Yuuki and Sachiko-sama both asked simultaneously.

"Don't worry, I'm not wearing a skirt."

"That was the only problem for you, Yumi?"

"Mmm."

Yumi replayed what she'd said in her mind and still thought she wouldn't want to climb down the ladder in a skirt because someone might look up it.

"You're incredible. I couldn't climb down a ladder from this height no matter what."

Sachiko-sama spoke from the bottom of her heart. So that's it, it had been a problem with the height.

"Well, if you say you can, Yumi, I'm sure you can."

Yuuki gave a signal to below and the staircase was separated from the tower. Surveying the scene, at some point Takada-kun had made it to the top of the white tower and Kobayashi-kun the yellow tower.

"We're about to start, Sachiko-san."

Yuuki checked his watch then exchanged glances with his comrades atop the white and yellow towers. Seeing them nod back, Yuuki cupped his hands around his mouth and loudly proclaimed:

"Let the Hanadera war's second stage, the battle for Lillian, begin."

Since he'd said the "second stage," that must have meant that the first battle had already taken place. Yumi idly wondered if there were also third and fourth stages too.

Out of nowhere came the sound of someone blowing on a conch shell, and with that as the signal the participants rushed over to the slide.

(Oowah.)

Sachiko-sama probably couldn't see the situation from where she was sitting, but if she stood up and looked at the ground she'd instinctively want to run away from the unfolding spectacle. Like the great migration of wildebeest, or a massive crowd of ants swarming around sugar. At any rate, it was a messy turmoil.

"Yu-yumi."

Sachiko-sama called out for her help, frightened by the roar that seemed to come from the depths of the earth. The combination of war-cries with various other noises mixed in closely resembled the sound from the battle scenes she'd seen on the TV show Big River Drama.

"It's alright, onee-sama."

Yumi knelt beside the chair and grasped Sachiko-sama's hands. The Roses' real job started when the first animal, uh, human, arrived atop the tower. But no challenger had yet made it to the top of either the red, white or yellow towers.

That was probably because the three slides were not ordinary slides.

The yellow slide was smeared in a syrup that looked like mustard, making it hard to climb because the boys kept losing their footing.

The white slide was only covered in flour, so it looked to be easier to climb, but there was an obstacle before the slide. They had to fish a toffee out of a container covered in flour using their mouth before they could climb the tower.

Finally, the red tower that they were on was built with the slide a bit steeper than the others and a single straw rope dangling from the top of the tower. Initially Yumi had wondered why their tower was the only one not coated in something of the respective color, but she understood after seeing the first challengers. The palms of their hands where they were grasping the straw rope were turning bright red. On top of that, blood was running from a cut on the face of the frontrunner, probably suffered in the melee for the rope.

"Ah, you've made it to the top, Ishiguro-kun from the gymnastics club. Which quiz question do you want, from 1 to 100?"

Yuuki asked the out of breath challenger, pointing at a cookie tin. The tin contained 100 numbered cards with the quiz questions written on them.

"Number one!"

Ishiguro-kun of the gymnastics club screamed with all his might.

"Number one … sorry, that's a miss. Come back and try again. Exit's over there."

Card number one, with the word "Miss!" written on it in large lettering, was unceremoniously tossed in the bin.

"God damn it!"

The poor lad who'd drawn a miss despite being the first person to arrive slid down the narrow section of slide with "exit" written on it. She watched him leave out of the corner of her eye as the second challenger hauled themselves up the straw rope and onto the platform.

"Well then, next challenger. Which number do you want?"

"Lucky number seven."

"Number seven. Look at that, it really is lucky. There's a question. Here I go. Which element has atomic number seven?"

"Um … I'll be back."

The second challenger then launched himself down the exit slide. Apparently his specialty was humanities rather than science.

It soon became apparent that the questions were divided into a number of categories, like, "What's the title of the monk Shinran's most renowned piece?" or, "What are the five fundamental seasonings used in Japanese cooking?" or, "What's the name of the classical literature teacher Mr Suzuki's wife?" or, "What's 9 x 7?"

About two or three of every 10 contestants would draw a card that matched their field of expertise and get the right answer. There were plenty of miss cards mixed in there too.

Before long, they'd had about thirty participants climb up the slide, nominate a number, then either answer the question or leave without responding. By this time, Sachiko-sama had become pretty much accustomed to it; smoothly congratulating the successful challengers and adding a sticker to their question sheets, and commiserating with the unsuccessful ones.

When there was a little break in the line of challengers, Sachiko-sama opened the small bag she'd brought with her and stuck her hand inside, feeling around.

"What are you looking for?"

Yumi asked.

"My moist towel … but it's okay. It must be in my school bag in the student council room."

"Then I'll go get it."

Sachiko-sama had a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead and the nape of her neck.

"Ah, Yumi. You don't have to go. I've got a handkerchief."

"Just wait a little while. I'll be right back."

Sachiko-sama grabbed her arm to stop her but Yumi gently freed herself from Sachiko-sama's hand. The game had been going for about half an hour. Yumi had been thinking it was about time she withdrew anyway.

"Yumi. Put your sandals into this bucket and go down barefoot, it'll be safer."

"Ah, right."

Following Yuuki's directions, Yumi took off her geta sandals and tossed them in the indicated bucket. The bucket was attached to a piece of rope that was as tall as the tower and tied around the top rung of the ladder, making it a mechanism for transferring small items to or from the tower.

"Then you can put Sachiko-san's stuff in there and give me a yell and I'll pull it up."

"Got it."

She descended the ladder barefoot, then as she was putting on the sandals that had arrived ahead of her she saw Yoshino-san walking past the red tower.

"Yoshino-san?"

"Ah, Yumi-san. I got a message in the bucket saying Rei-chan was thirsty, so I've just got back from buying her some juice."

Yoshino-san smiled, carrying three cool drinks – a sports drink, an orange juice and a can of coffee.

"So where are you off to, Yumi-san?"

"I'm making a dash to the student council room to get Sachiko-sama's moist towel."

"We've both got it tough. Later."

Yoshino-san ran off towards the yellow tower, muttering, "Hurry, hurry."

Yumi turned and watched her for a little while, as Yoshino-san put the juice into the bucket which was pulled up by Kobayashi-kun.

Yumi turned her gaze to the white tower, wondering what was happening there, and saw Noriko-chan at the base of the tower worriedly looking up at the top. Shimako-san looked to be so busy she didn't have time to think about requesting something from her petit soeur.

It was tough being told to do something, and tough having nothing to do.

The bouton's task was quite a burden indeed.

The brown cardboard box they'd seen on their way out was still in front of the door. The time limit was already up but Yuuki and the other student council members hadn't returned yet, so it hadn't been disposed of.

"A~lice."

She called out in a sing-song voice as she entered the room, and Alice lifted his gaze from the desk and the paperwork he'd been doing.

"Yumi-san. Oh, what's the matter?"

"Forgot something. Where's Sachiko-sama's bag … ah, here it is."

The fastidious Sachiko-sama's bag was as organized as ever, so it didn't take long to find what she was after: a moist towel the size of a handkerchief inside a plastic bag. During summer, her onee-sama would often carry this to cool herself down. Although it was autumn according to the calendar, there were still plenty of hot days, so she'd be making use of it for a little while longer.

"How's the game going?"

Alice asked.

"It's really pumping."

Yumi gave him a thumbs-up.

"Really? That's good. I've been really busy here too. Even though missing children, broadcasting and lost property are all handled in other places, it all seems to flow here for some reason. It's finally calmed down a bit now, but the student council room's advertised as the emergency contact point so someone has to stay here and man it. And when there's a crowd, people will stop in for a look. Who wants to look at a rundown store?"

Alice laughed. Yumi wasn't sure whether his analogy was correct or not, but thought that, strangely enough, it might be.

"There's only fifty minutes left. Tell Sachiko-sama to give it her best."

"Yep. You keep up the good work here too, Alice."

They waved farewell and Yumi departed. Sachiko-sama was waiting for her, so she didn't have time to have a leisurely chat with Alice. Straight there and straight back.

As she was walking out of the student council room and about to descend the stairs, Yumi's eye suddenly stopped on a faucet near the toilet block.

"Ah, it'd probably be better if I wet it again."

The towelette had turned lukewarm while it was sitting inside Sachiko-sama's bag.

She wanted to make her onee-sama feel just that little bit more comfortable. Such was the spirit of the petit soeur. So with that, she turned back, took the towel out of the plastic bag and rinsed it beneath the faucet.

The water from the tap was cooler and more refreshing than she'd expected. After washing and gently wringing the hand towel, Yumi put it back into its plastic bag and just as she was about to leave, someone called out to her from behind.

"Hey, Fukuzawa."

"Huh?"

When she turned around, there were four unknown high-school boys standing there blocking her path.

They weren't making a good impression on Yumi with the way they were acting. She tried to head back to the student council room but two of them quickly blocked the doorway, and just like that, they'd encircled her front and back.

When she went right, they went right. When she went left, they went left. They followed her movements exactly, like this was a basketball match and she was being marked by the opposite team.

"H-"

She wanted to yell, "Help," but her voice failed her. The ring encircling Yumi slowly constricted.

Yumi tried to bulldoze her way through, because she'd be caught if this kept up. Aiming between the two in front of her, Yumi dashed past them.

"Oh, hold on now."

Just as she thought she'd slipped through, her wrist was grasped tightly.

"Gag 'im."

Three of them held her arms and legs as her mouth was gagged with duct tape. She struggled but it was four on one. Moreover, the four were all boys.

(Cowards.)

Her eyes were covered with an eye mask and her arms and legs were bound with something like rope, then she felt herself being lifted up and dumped into a confined space.

(Box?)

Just as she realized it was the brown box, she heard them say, "One, two," and felt herself being lifted up.

(W-where are they taking me!?)

She tried slamming her body against the box, but it was sealed tightly and didn't open.

"Don't struggle."

The box was thumped from the outside, and little by little the terror grew within Yumi.

(That place is dangerous.)

She heard Kanako-chan's voice in her memory.

(You're unguarded, Yumi-sama. Boys are so dangerous that you always, always, have to be on guard.)

She now understood that completely, so no need to blame her any further, Kanako-chan. But it was far too late to reflect on that now, so she'd be better off thinking up a counter-plan.

(He said Fukuzawa, didn't he?)

It seemed as though the boys were acting this recklessly because they knew her. But this was the first time Yumi had ever seen them, and she had absolutely no idea what she could have done to deserve such appalling treatment.

(So maybe.)

Even if they had nothing against Yumi as an individual, they might be carrying this out as an attack against Lillian's Girls Academy –

(Yuuki, you idiot.)

He'd been pressuring everyone not to be rude to the Lillian's girls and this was the backlash.

Since their behavior was nothing if not rude.

(Brilliant leadership from the Hanadera Academy high school student council president. Moron!)

* * *

Switching locations to that Yuuki.

He felt a tingle in his spine and looked around. But it wasn't the feeling of a sudden gust of wind.

That said, it wasn't the sensation of being watched, like Alice and Kobayashi, either.

His best guess was it felt like someone was insulting him behind his back. No, it was as though someone was badmouthing him terribly.

But in that case, there were far too many candidates for him to have a clue about who it was. Fukuzawa Yuuki had a lot of enemies.

"Has Yumi returned, by any chance?"

Sachiko-san asked quietly, at his side.

"No. The bucket's empty."

Yuuki answered, reeling in the cord attached to the bucket. Yumi was supposed to put Sachiko-san's stuff into the bucket when she returned from the student council room, then he'd pull it up.

"Don't you think she's taking too long?"

"I suppose – "

Yuuki checked his watch. Yumi had climbed down from the tower 15 minutes ago. Estimating about five minutes one-way for the trip, she should at least be somewhere in view by now.

They'd already been through a couple of rounds of the game, and the repeat contestants were losing some of their initial enthusiasm. As evidence of that, there was a growing pile of bodies on the mat below belonging to challengers that won the struggle for the rope but fell off while climbing up – unable to put any strength into their raw and injured hands.

From time to time, some participants who'd arrived late, or taken a bit of a breather, would climb up the slide but business was currently slow on top of the tower.

There was a bit of a lull in the game. Not just atop the red tower, the white and yellow towers were pretty much the same.

"She might be deep in conversation with Alice."

Yuuki said. As a response to the earlier comment about Yumi taking too long.

"Yumi's not the sort of girl to do that, since she went there on an errand for me."

Sachiko-san seemed to be massively over-estimating Yumi. Either that, or Yumi turned into an incredibly good girl when she was in front of Sachiko-san.

"Then I guess she might have got lost. She can be a bit scatterbrained sometimes."

"But that's terrible!"

On top of which, she's overly protective? There was a lot about Sachiko-san's life that Yuuki didn't know, but there was a lot that was interesting in how she was behaving.

"But as long as she's somewhere in the area, she'd only have to ask one of our students where the oval was and she'd get here soon enough … "

He'd intended to convey that there was no need to worry, but instead it seemed to deepen Sachiko-san's uneasiness. She raised her eyes.

"And yet she's not here, so what's going on!?"

"Calm down, Sachiko-san."

"Don't tell me … she's had an accident."

"An accident at school? Like a chemistry class experiment gone wrong?"

He said, as a joke.

"Exactly!? Where's the science lab? Is it in the same building as the student council room?"

Sachiko-san erupted from her chair. But then she became aware of the height of the tower, which she'd completely forgotten about, and shakily sat back down in the chair again.

"You were the one that said something about an accident, Sachiko-san. Not me."

Yuuki said, squatting down beside her chair. Sachiko-san bit-down on her white handkerchief and responded with:

"Go and look for her, Yuuki-san."

"Huh!?"

"I'll manage up here by myself. It's just reading out the question and giving a sticker to those who answer correctly, right? … Yes, I can do that."

"No way. I can't leave you up here by yourself, Sachiko-san. For one thing, we don't even know if Yumi's been in an accident."

"You're her brother, aren't you? Don't you cherish her?"

"Sachiko-san, you're talking nonsense."

"Listen, you have to go and search for her. Can't you hear what I'm saying?"

It was like she was a different person saying this, with a self-assurance that showed she was undoubtedly "Sachiko-sama." Hearing this authoritative tone of voice, anyone would just instinctively answer, "Yes," as though by magic.

" – I guess I don't have a choice. Okay, just wait a moment."

Yuuki had a look down from the tower, searching for someone suitable. Luckily, his eyes were drawn to a giant standing beside the white tower, so he waved and called out:

"Nikkou-senpai!"

"Oh, Yukichi."

"Can you come here for a minute?"

There had only been one of them when he'd called out but the other appeared from somewhere and they both lumbered over to the red tower. The two seniors, Nikkou and Gakkou, Yakushiji Akimitu and Tomomitsu – twins.

"If you're alright with that, we'll swap places. It's the only way I'll be able to go."

Yuuki pointed at the ground.

"… Fine."

Sachiko-san rose slightly from her chair to see what "that" was and reluctantly agreed.

Yumi was bound to show up at some point, saying, "Sorry I'm late," but it was good that Sachiko-san could get so worried about her.

"What is it, Yukichi?"

"Anything you want us to do?"

After the two seniors had climbed the tower, Yuuki briefly explained the situation to them and asked them to take his place, which they quickly agreed to.

At any rate, with the addition of those two large bodies, the top of the tower suddenly felt rather cramped. Oppressive even. Even Sachiko-san seemed a bit nervous.

"Read out the question for the number they ask."

"If they get it right, attach a sticker to the card."

The two seniors seemed to be enjoying themselves, running their hands through the box containing the numbered cards and checking out the stack of stickers.

"Rosa Chinensis will attach the stickers, so you don't have to, senpai."

"What, we don't have to attach the stickers?"

"Right."

Yuuki still had a few misgivings, but this was a student council event, so he couldn't leave it up to an outsider, and these two were perfect as bodyguards. But above all, it was vital that it was someone that Sachiko-san already knew.

"Yukichi's going to the toilet."

"Something big, huh."

Nikkou and Gakkou came up with their own interpretation. They usually didn't listen properly to what other people were saying.

"… Look, think whatever you want."

He didn't have time to correct their mistake. Yuuki put his foot on the ladder and started climbing down.

As he was leaving, someone made it up to the top of the red tower for the first time in a while. The sound of someone shouting out "Number 18" echoed overhead.

"Question. The top is a wood processing area, the bottom is a dump site. What is it?"

"Uh. No way. Why'd I have to get such a tough question?"

(Tough question? It's a pretty simple riddle.)

While this was going on, Yuuki kept moving one foot after the other and eventually made it to the ground.

– Incidentally, the answer was "a pencil sharpener."