Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume23 Chapter6 3

A Chill Breeze. Part 3

When she got out of the bath and returned to the Japanese-style room, she saw that the futons were already laid out.

"Ooh."

Feeling excited, she impulsively dived onto them. Her stern onee-sama was missing, so she moved her arms and legs like she was swimming freestyle for a bit. Although, naturally, she didn't get anywhere.

The futons were arranged in two rows of three, with all of the pillows towards the center. In other words, everyone's face would be visible when they tossed around in their sleep.

Last year there had been three girls so they only had one row, and with two rows it was a bit tight. They could open up one of the sliding doors to join two rooms together, but with the extra space it would be colder and, above all else, it was more fun to have the futons right next to each other on these sort of overnight stays anyway.

The table and their luggage were in the next room, beyond the sliding door. Last year, that was where Kashiwagi-san and Yuuki's futons had been laid out. And then. And then – .

(Huh?)

She felt there was one more event before bedtime.

(What was it?)

The pillow-fight was between the boys. Getting wrapped up in her futon by Sei-sama was after the lights were turned off. But hadn't there been something before that?

(Umm.)

There was something before the lights were switched off. From memory, Sayako-oba-sama had come to see them –

(Ah.)

"I know. It was Nagakiyo."

"Nagakiyo?"

Shimako-san, hanging her wet towel up on a hanger, was the first to ask. Then everyone joined in, asking, "What's this?"

"You write out a palindrome that starts with "Nagakiyo" and put it under your pillow. It's a charm to make your first dream of the year a good one."

While Yumi was explaining, the sliding door to the hallway opened and Sachiko-sama entered.

"Oh my, you remembered it all."

"Ahaha."

As she was feeling good about being praised, Sachiko-sama rebuked her.

"But be that as it may, why are you sprawled out across so many futons? Pick one place to sleep already."

"Oka~y."

No mention was made of her swimming antics and she obediently stood up, off the futons. Sachiko-sama smiled gently and said, "Can you all come with me for a minute," and beckoned them into the next room. In her hand she held the paper bag that Kashiwagi-san had given her.

"Although you fold the paper into a sailing boat after you write the palindrome on it."

Once everyone had sat down at the table, Sachiko-sama continued to speak.

"Remember how one of the squares in the sugoroku game earlier had instructions to fold paper cranes? That used up most of the origami paper we had in the house."

Since it was close to the final square, one of the teams that landed on it had to keep going back there again and again because they couldn't roll the number they needed, resulting in them making a surprisingly large number of origami cranes. About the amount you'd make for a sick loved one.

"And we used most of the decorative paper in my room for nagakiyo last year."

"Um, in that case, couldn't we just use lined paper or wrapping paper? Cut it into a square and it's just the same as origami paper."

Noriko-chan said, after raising her hand.

"Yes. That's what I was thinking too. That we'd have to do that. But, there's no need. See."

Then Sachiko-sama placed the paper bag from before on top of the table.

"It's Suguru-san's gift."

From inside, she pulled out pieces of beautiful decorative paper. They were all different colors and patterns. As the brightly colored paper was spread out across the table, it was just like watching a huge patchwork tapestry being made.

Kashiwagi-san had probably been thinking of Nagakiyo when he bought these. Although he wouldn't have known that they'd be low on origami paper.

Perhaps he'd been imagining Sachiko-sama's smiling face as she looked at the pretty paper.

Perhaps he was satisfied just by giving the gift and wouldn't have minded if Sachiko-sama hadn't happily accepted it.

But Sachiko-sama had been overjoyed to receive this. Kashiwagi-san was again showing Yumi his maturity.

"My mother's already taken a piece of paper so choose whichever you like. There's calligraphy pens and felt-tip pens over here."

At first everyone was acting restrained, but this was a gathering of girls. Soon they were all chattering away as they picked their favorite piece of paper. Unusually, even Rei-sama was in high spirits. Apparently she quite liked this sort of thing.

"Yumi. Write out the poem for everyone to copy."

"Ah, okay."

At Sachiko-sama's prompting, Yumi reached for the closest piece of paper. She turned it over and wrote on the back, so as not to blemish the lovely pattern.

Na-ka-ki-yo-no (Of the long night)

To-o-no-ne-fu-ri-no mi-na-me-sa-me (everyone awakens from a distant sleep)

Na-mi-no-ri-fu-ne-no (the surfing boat's)

O-to-no-yo-ki-ka-na (pleasant sounds)

"See? It reads the same forwards as backwards."

Yumi put on a little bit of a patronizing air, having learned this a little bit before the others.

"I see. Like a long version of to-ma-to."

"Shi-n-bu-n-shi."

"Ko-i-ke Ke-i-ko … -san."

"Ah, we have someone with that name in our grade."

She felt like she'd heard this conversation somewhere before. It looked as though they all thought alike.

Once everyone had copied the poem, Yumi started folding her paper into a boat. Just by saying it was a sailing boat, the group was split into those that knew and those that didn't. Those that didn't know the sailing boat probably wouldn't know the double-hull canoe either.

"Well, do you know how to make a pinwheel?"

"Yeah."

Those that didn't know – the Yellow Rose petit soeur Yoshino-san – said, "Like this, right?" and folded a pinwheel.

"Then you fold that diagonally like this."

By following Yumi's instructions, Yoshino-san's sailboat was completed.

"Ah, we call this the trick boat at home."

With that, she had Yumi hold the tip of the sail and said, "Like this," and folded the prow of the sailboat down, turning the sail into the prow. It was a child's game, to take turns playing the trick on each other. That sort of simple game could keep children interested for quite a while.

Their sleeping positions were decided by ladder-lottery. Yumi was in the middle of the bottom row, with Noriko-chan on her left and Rei-sama on her right. In the top row, Yoshino-san was in first position, Shimako-san in the middle and Sachiko-sama in third. Soeurs and classmates were all completely split up.

"I'm turning out the lights."

Sachiko-sama said.

"Huh!?"

This came from the bouton trio. They wanted to stay awake for longer. They wanted to talk some more. They didn't want their fun time to be ended completely by turning the lights off.

"We have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow, so we should get to bed early."

"6:30!?"

Yoshino-san grumbled, "We don't even have school tomorrow." That's when Yumi remembered that they'd woken up early last year too.

"That's right. Everyone has to tidy up their futon and then we'll make breakfast."

They had to occupy the kitchen before Sayako-oba-sama, lest their breakfast become lunch or dinner.

"If you'd like, Yoshino-chan, we could have soba or udon. What do you think?"

Sachiko-sama asked of Yoshino-san alone. It was the dinner menu they'd rejected earlier.

"… No, that's okay."

Yoshino-san had jumped on board with Sayako-oba-sama's proposal simply because she didn't want to eat leftovers, not because she was desperate for noodles.

"Then how about the more traditional New Year's foods, like mochi rice cakes and zouni soup?"

"I suppose."

The pair of third-years discussed tomorrow morning's breakfast, still standing atop their futons.

"There's still some prosciutto left over from the sandwiches I made, and there's plenty of eggs, so we could do bacon and eggs."

(Uh, you don't cook prosciutto, onee-sama.)

Just as Yumi was thinking how much of a waste this would be, Rei-sama said, "We could just have the prosciutto as is."

"It feels like that might be lacking some vegetables, though. Although it does match the New Year's colors of red and white."

"Ah, in that case, I could make a radish salad. I saw it on TV earlier."

"Rei … "

Sachiko-sama muttered. She didn't say anything else, but the continuation was probably, "You'd make a good housewife." Yumi thought so too. Everyone would surely agree with that.

"Any objections?"

Rei-sama asked, now that their conversation had ended. It was just like home room. Since no-one raised their hand, the menu for tomorrow's breakfast was decided.

Sachiko-sama set the alarm clock then turned off the lights. The hands of the clock informed them that it was just after 11.

Without taking a vote, the lights were dimmed low. It was hard to see in the gloom, but Yumi and Sachiko-sama were probably the only ones smiling.

"Night."

"Good night."

Yumi pulled the blanket up to her neck and moved her pillow into a comfortable position, then groped around for her treasure ship beneath it.

Don't worry, it's there. Since she'd gone to the effort of making a charm to bring her pleasant dreams, it'd be annoying if it went missing due to her tossing and turning in the night, so she placed it inside the pillow cover.

Turning to the left, she could see the back of Rei-sama's head. Yumi idly thought, "I guess she sleeps on her side."

Turning to the right, there was Noriko-chan's profile.

Even though she usually seemed so mature, her sleeping face looked very young.

Although there were plenty of people in different grades at school despite their birthdays being only a few days apart. Yumi was born in April, so she was at least a year older than Noriko-chan.

One year, it was a remarkable thing. She'd seen one year old babies, and they were already capable of walking and saying words. That was how much development could happen in a year.

Noriko-chan's sleeping face looked so innocent, even though she was her friend's petit soeur. If that had been her own petit soeur, what would her feelings be?

Even though thinking about it wouldn't help anything.

If her rosary had been accepted back then, that may have been Touko-chan sleeping beside her. These thoughts came to her unbidden as she looked at the sleeping face of Touko-chan's classmate, Noriko-chan.

Shimako-san had Noriko-chan by her side, and when Spring came it looked as though Yoshino-san might finally get Nana-chan by her side. It would be good if Touko-chan was by her side.

She didn't even have to be smiling. She could be sulking, or looking stern, or acting un-cute.

Either way, as long as it was Touko-chan, it would be good.

She'd been expecting it, but Touko-chan made an appearance in her first dream of the year.

Outside the window of Yumi's room was, for some reason, Touko-chan's room. The pane of glass separating their rooms had clouded over.

Yumi wanted to see Touko-chan's face, on the other side of the glass. No matter how hard she wiped, she could only clear half of the cloudiness of the glass.

Even though it was completely unscientific, inside the dream, Yumi understood.

"So that's it."

Since both of the rooms were inside, the glass wouldn't clear up unless Touko-chan also wiped clean her side.

"Touko-chan, wipe clear your side."

Yumi pleaded.

But Touko-chan didn't respond. Yumi could definitely see the shape of someone that looked like Touko-chan, but they didn't utter a word.

"Hold on a minute," would have been fine. "I don't want to," would have been fine too. Yumi just wanted her to say something, anything.

Since she wasn't saying anything, there was no hint as to how Touko-chan was currently feeling, or what she was thinking.

"Touko-chan."

She must have made some mistake.

How could she find out what it was?

Yumi kept wiping clean her side of the glass as she cried. That way, there was still the chance that some day the other side of the glass might miraculously clear up.

As she single-mindedly wiped at the glass, Yoshino-san and Shimako-san appeared.

"What are you doing, Yumi-san?"

"Uh, nothing."

Yumi hastily jumped away from the glass and pulled the curtain closed.

"It was nothing."

"Really? Then how about we continue the party?"

The pair smiled as they pulled Yumi by the hand, saying, "Come on."

"Uh."

Looking over her shoulder, there was the Rose Mansion. But it was a strange space, with parts of the Ogasawara's Japanese-style room mixed in – like the flower alcove and the tatami mats.

It was hard to tell if the party was for Christmas or the New Year. Even the participants – Sayako-oba-sama was there but so too were Nana-chan and Tsutako-san. Naturally, she could also see the faces of Sachiko-sama, Rei-sama, and Noriko-chan.

"Come on, have a seat. Everyone's been waiting for you, Yumi-san."

"Ah, but I – "

Have to wipe away the window. Besides.

"What's the matter?"

"… Nothing."

She'd have liked to invite Touko-chan, if possible. But with the window closed, she couldn't call out to her.

What on earth should she do? She couldn't even wipe clean the window, let alone open it.

"Let's sing, Yumi-san."

"Ah, okay."

Yumi looked at the curtain covered window.

She was probably still there.

If so, may she remain as oblivious as possible to the lively party taking place here.

– In her dream, this is what Yumi prayed for.