Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume23 Chapter4 4

Full to Bursting at the New Year's Party. Part 4

During the card games, Sayako-oba-sama left her seat for a little while. Yumi thought that perhaps she was a bit tired, but she returned before too long and said to everyone:

"Now then, next up is human sugoroku."

"Human sugoroku?"

"Right. Let's have teams of two. Why don't we go with the Rose colors?"

Everyone agreed, even though they didn't understand. Even her daughter, Sachiko-sama, looked confused.

"You'll move yourselves instead of the game pieces."

Sayako-oba-sama spread the imitation vellum she was holding out in front of everyone. Drawn on it was a sugoroku board, like was traditionally found in the New Year's edition of children's magazines. The board contained a path that wound around from "Start" to "End." However, the squares didn't contain instructions like "Miss a turn" or "When you roll 2, move forward 2 squares." Instead, they had cryptic names like "Hippopotamus Space" and "Jellyfish Space."

"These are … "

"They're all room names. When you land on one, go to that room and follow the directions. The names are all written on the door."

"Uhh."

"But don't go into any rooms with a "No Entry" sign."

In other words, she was using the entire house for sugoroku. That seemed to be what she was saying. The rooms they were forbidden to enter were private spaces, like Sachiko-sama's grandfather's room, or the live-in-staff's quarters.

"There's a prize for the winning team~."

There was a general reaction of, "Oooh." It had been like this at the Christmas party, but everyone was even more fired up by the thought of winning the prize.

"This could be good."

Yoshino-san muttered, gripping Rei-sama's hand tightly. The Yellow Rose soeurs hadn't done that well at 100 Poems or the other card games. It looked like they were planning a comeback with sugoroku.

Noriko-chan stayed silent, but her eyes sparkled.

"But the "Hippopotamus Space" … You didn't have to give them names like that."

Sachiko-sama muttered peevishly.

"But if I labeled them as "Second Floor Traditional Japanese Room" or "Basement Storage" you'd have a definite advantage because you live here, Sachiko-san. That's why."

Sayako-oba-sama responded to Sachiko-sama.

" … I understand."

She agreed without enthusiasm. Although in truth, it seemed as though Sachiko-sama had made her objection on the grounds that they could have been named things like "Chinese Bellflower Space" or "Maple Space." But then she'd decided there was no point in continuing that conversation, since her mother didn't seem to doubt her own naming sense in the slightest.

Still, at the very least it meant that all the spaces on the board were rooms. The Ogasawara Residence was incredible, as expected.

"Alright, let's start with the first team's youngest member rolling the die."

The Yellow Rose team started first, since they looked the most eager. They rolled a three and advanced to the "Water Flea Space."

"It goes without saying, but the square number has no relation to its proximity to this room."

Sayako-oba-sama said. Okay, so just because it was square three didn't mean it was three rooms away.

The next team rolled the die, without waiting for the departed team to return. There was no "Miss a Turn," but the teams couldn't rejoin the game until they'd cleared the task in their room. Which meant that even after they found the room, if they took too long then there was the possibility that by the time they returned some other team had made their way to the end.

With that, the second-running White Rose team rolled a five and landed on the "Hippopotamus Space." Yumi rolled a one, and they headed for the "Komodo Dragon Space." It says "headed for," but none of the teams actually knew where to go so all they could do was wander around the house.

"It doesn't seem wise to wander around at random. Let's do a circle starting from here. This way we can memorize the location of the other rooms too."

"Okay~."

Yumi responded cheerfully to her onee-sama. But the "Komodo Dragon Space" wasn't that easy to find. On their way they spotted the "Water Flea Space" but it seemed like the Yellow Rose team hadn't found it yet. Behind them, they could hear Yoshino-san's cry of, "It's not here~."

The White Rose team soon found the "Hippopotamus Space" but when they came out they didn't head back to the room where Sayako-oba-sama was waiting, instead they set out in search of something. Hmm, that must have something to do with the instructions in the "Hippopotamus Space."

During all this hustle and bustle they found the "Komodo Dragon Space." It was a stall in the second-floor restroom. A bathroom stall was indeed a room, but –

"What's this?"

Sachiko-sama screeched. Atop the closed lid of the western-style toilet was a pencil and a number of pages from a paperback book. Printed on the pages were crossword puzzles. Thus, the instructions:

"Solve a puzzle and bring it back."

The crosswords were in a 7x7 grid, so they wouldn't take that long to solve. Sachiko-sama briefly flicked through the pages and picked the one that she judged easiest.

"Since there's only one pencil, it looks like we're supposed to solve it here."

Using the tank as a desk, the pencil moved fluidly. Yumi was wondering if there was some way she could help, but since she was no match for her onee-sama in terms of knowledge she remained silent so as not to interrupt her onee-sama's thoughts.

"Yumi."

Suddenly, the sound of the pencil stopped.

"Y-yes."

"A recently popular four man comedy group, six characters, the first character's 'shi' and the second last character's 'mo' … do you know it?"

Yumi was a bit excited, now that her time to shine had (maybe) arrived.

"Um … Shi-something-something-something-mo-something."

She mumbled, counting along on her fingers.

"Ah, it's "Shi-ma-n-mo-zu.""

It was a strange group, made up of two sort of cool twenty-somethings, another guy that was around the same age but looked scary, and an older guy in his forties. She'd seen them in commercials fairly often of late. Oh, so Sachiko-sama hadn't known that.

"Thanks, we're done."

Sachiko-sama put the pencil down.

"Let's hurry back."

The pair rushed down the stairs and into the traditional Japanese room.

"Oh my, that was quick. We're going in order so you'll have to wait a little while."

Sayako-oba-sama knocked back her daughter, who was out of breath and holding out the completed crossword puzzle, then continued leisurely eating some of the manjuu that Shimako-san's brother had made.

Next to them, the Yellow Rose soeurs were singing and dancing as they performed an old pop song.

(Th-this is … )

"That's right, the "Water Flea Space" was the home cinema."

Sachiko-sama muttered.

"They must have been given a choreography video and been instructed to master it."

"Ahh … "

Even though she felt sorry for them, it was funny to watch. Still, the fact that they were able to memorize the dance steps in such a short time showed an incredible power of concentration. Or maybe those two had done that dance previously.

"Well done. That was perfect."

Their dance finished, Sayako-oba-sama applauded the pair heartily.

"I'm ashamed to admit it, but my dad's also a fan so we have the same video at home."

Speaking of Yoshino-san's father, he was the man whose eyes were all red when he came to the kendo tournament to inform them of the results of Yoshino-san's surgery. Yumi's immediate reaction was, "He likes this group …" - but while he was an older man now, he would have been young when they were popular.

The Yellow Rose team rolled the die and headed to a new room. It looked as though the White Rose team had been back to the room while the Red Rose team were solving the puzzle, as their piece had moved forwards.

"The crossword is correct. Yumi-chan, do the honors."

Yumi rolled the die, praying that it didn't come up as two. Because she now knew what task was awaiting them in the "Water Flea Space."

"Six."

The six landed them on the "Polka-dot Ribbonfish Space."

"The polka-dot ribbonfish is a type of fish, right?"

"Yes. It's a beautiful, sparkling fish that lives in the deep sea."

Sachiko-sama answered promptly, drawing on her vast knowledge.

"My mother, she must have flipped through an encyclopedia and picked the name of whatever animals caught her eye. There's no sense of cohesion whatsoever."

"An encyclopedia … "

That was sort of how it felt.

On that note, they hadn't yet set eyes on a door with "Polka-dot Ribbonfish Room" written on it. And with that, the pair decided to attack the areas they hadn't visited yet.

The Ogasawara house had several staircases (apparently). They went up a different staircase to the one earlier, chasing the "Polka-dot Ribbonfish."

At last they arrived in front of a traditional Japanese style room. The room at the end of the corridor seemed nondescript, like the one on the ground floor, but here the door was a horizontal slider. Stuck to the sliding door was a poster labeling this the "Polka-dot Ribbonfish Space."

"There isn't usually anything in this room."

Sachiko-sama put her hand on the door. At any rate, without a video player, they could assume they wouldn't be instructed to sing and dance.

"There isn't usually anything in there?"

"Well, there's some traditional clothes in the closet, and we use the room for changing, but – "

Sachiko-sama slid the door open as she answered. Whereupon.

" … There's something."

On the left-hand side of the six tatami mat sized room was a line of three folded paper cases. On the right-hand side were three folded kimono sashes. In the middle of the room was a basket containing all sorts of small items for use when putting on a kimono.

"What are we supposed to do with this – "

Yumi found this unbelievable and didn't want to make a move since they hadn't seen any instructions, but Sachiko-sama said:

"Yumi. Take your clothes off."

"Wha!?"

"No matter how you look at it, the task has to be to put on one of these kimonos. See."

Sachiko-sama ignored Yumi's surprise and held up an instruction booklet for putting on a kimono that she'd found in the basket.

"All the other groups would be able to follow along with this."

"B-but."

"There's no time. Hurry up and take them off."

Sachiko-sama's hands were already on the hem of her sweater, but Yumi struggled frantically.

"But why does it have to be me?"

"Don't be silly. It's the role of the petit soeur to take on unpleasant tasks like this, right? Besides, if I did it, it'd only change the color of my kimono, and that wouldn't be all that amusing to see."

"Huh. I don't think it matters if it's amusing or not … "

As she said this, Yumi suddenly realized. That Sayako-oba-sama was expecting nothing less than "amusing." Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have been so happy to watch her daughter's friends singing and dancing.

"You understand? Then be quiet and undress."

No sooner had she said this, then Sachiko-sama went back to taking Yumi's sweater off. Maybe she should just give up. However.

"Wait, wait a minute onee-sama. Can you at least close that door?"

Yumi said, pointing.

The door they'd just entered via was wide open, with the hallway visible on the other side of that gaping rectangle.

"There's only women in the house, you know."

Sachiko-sama quickly glanced over there.

"But, well, it's cold, and we don't want to show the other teams what happens in this room."

So, the door that concealed them from the hallway slid closed.

"Ah."

They both exclaimed simultaneously when the door was fully closed.

What about the door? On the hallway side it had a poster labeling it the "Polka-dot Ribbonfish Space," while on the inside it had a poster with the instructions.

"The petit soeur has to put on one of these kimonos."

That was what they saw.

Sachiko-sama's shoulders shook copiously, while Yumi's drooped copiously.