Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume10 Chapter3 1

Suspicious Clouds. Part 1

"What did you just say?"

Rei-chan asked, raising her head. So surprised that her fork stopped moving about ten centimeters above her plate, the piece of baked cheesecake still skewered on it.

"Huh? I told you, now that the school year's ticked over, I thought it was about time I joined a club."

"I heard that. What I wanted you to repeat was what came after that."

"After that?"

Yoshino scooped some sweet broiled chestnuts, and accompanying green tea crepe and vanilla ice-cream, into her spoon and stuffed her mouth full. She'd been intending to savor it to its last, but Rei-chan had closed in looking so serious that either unintentionally, or against her better judgment, Yoshino had impulsively gulped it down. Snapping, even.

Sunday afternoon.

The weather was fine and they'd finished their homework. Thinking that Yumi-san would be getting spoiled by Sachiko-sama at about this time, Yoshino found herself wanting to be close to someone, so she'd invited Rei-chan to come with her on an outing around K station.

Rei-chan was wearing a long sleeved T-shirt and jeans, fairly rough clothing, but with her long, thin legs it looked pretty good. Yoshino was happy because it was her first time wearing her favorite light blue summer sweater and matching cardigan for the year, and she was satisfied with the occasional glimpses she caught of herself in the windows. The coral pendant matched splendidly with the light blue ensemble. Since light blue was the color of the ocean.

Their enjoyable day off changed completely at a cafe they'd entered to rest their weary legs, not long after the food they'd ordered had been placed in front of them. Yoshino had started talking about club activities, and that had set things in motion.

"Joining a club is fine. I'm not against that. Your surgery in autumn was about six months ago, the intervening time's passed smoothly, and you're well enough that you hardly ever have to sit out during PE, Yoshino. But – "

Rei-chan's cheesecake finally succumbed to gravity and slid off her fork. The force of its direct hit on her plate caused the crust to burst apart, sending crumbs as far afield as Yoshino's ice-cream and black tea.

"The kendo club, of all things."

Rei-chan placed her empty fork on her plate, and ran her hand along the side of her head, combing back her short hair. Yoshino had imagined she would be surprised, but hadn't expected she would be this concerned.

"So then, is the problem that the kendo club's a sports club, or that you're a member of the kendo club, Rei-chan?"

Yoshino inquired, to which Rei-chan raised her head and said emphatically:

"It's both."

"Hmm, both, huh."

In other words, if she'd said the tennis club, the shock would have been reduced by half. But if she'd said, for example, the handicrafts club and Rei-chan was a member of that, she wouldn't have liked it either.

"I told you I wanted to try kendo before."

"I know, but."

"Why didn't you oppose me then? Did you think I wasn't being serious?"

"I don't know. It was right after your surgery, it didn't seem real."

"And now you're getting all flustered. Ah, excuse me, can I get some more water?"

Yoshino held up her glass, as the waitress passed by their table.

"… Don't ask for a refill of your water in the middle of a serious conversation."

As she said this, Rei-chan crumpled over, putting her head on an empty space on the table, as though exhausted. The crumbs from before got stuck in her short hair, making it look quite funny. Yoshino thought, "And this is Mister Lillian?"

"Ah, um, did you want that water?"

Looking in the direction of the voice, Yoshino saw the waitress standing there, holding a silver pitcher. Rei-chan's actions seemed to have put her right on edge.

"Pay no attention to that, I'll have some water, thanks."

After pointing at 'that', ie. Rei-chan, Yoshino took the glass near Rei-chan's head and lined it up alongside her own. After pouring water into the two glasses, the waitress said, "Take your time," bowed shallowly and quickly left their table. If this kind of thing could disturb her, she still had a long way to go to become a pro.

"That?"

When the sound of the waitress' footsteps was no longer audible, Rei-chan raised her head quickly and said unhappily. However, Yoshino felt neither pain nor discomfort seeing that face.

"'That' is perfectly adequate for someone so loose, Rei-chan. Calm down a bit. It's shameful. Here, drink some water."

"Mm."

Still with bits of crust in her hair, Rei-chan downed the entire glass of water in one go.

" … I'm shameful?"

"Yes, shameful. It's incredibly unsightly of you to get so flustered about me."

Inside Yoshino's mind, she whispered, "Rei-chan's fans' illusions are all going up in smoke."

"I see, I'm shameful, huh … "

"Pretty much."

Even though she was shameful and indecent, she still remained "Yoshino's Rei-chan," so Yoshino's love for her was unchanged. However, the reason for Rei-chan's transition from her usual gallantry to cowardice was invariably Yoshino herself, so part of Yoshino was pleased and part mortified.

"You want to do kendo?"

"Yeah, I think so. I'm pretty familiar with it – I've been watching ever since I was a kid, so I'd like to give it a try."

Which was why she had mentioned it quite casually. But Rei-chan had treated it as something far more momentous than it was, flying into panic on her own.

"Then, why don't you just practice with my father? You don't have to do it at school."

"With uncle?"

"When the dojo's free, I could spar with you too."

"How's that different to the kendo club?"

It looked like Rei-chan's opposition to Yoshino joining the kendo club wasn't because she didn't want Yoshino doing kendo, or even because she didn't want them doing kendo together.

"They're completely different, our dojo and the school club. Okay? You'll just be an ordinary club member, so I won't be able to protect you, even as your onee-sama and cousin."

Protect? Yoshino got a bit hung up on that phrase.

"I didn't ask you to protect me."

"I'm only saying this because you don't know how tough sports clubs are. The dojo floor has to be mopped after morning training, even in the middle of winter. Can you do that, Yoshino, with your sensitivity to the cold? In a completely barefoot world?"

"Ooh."

Since the weather was so mild, she hadn't even considered winter. Yoshino fell silent, while Rei-chan waxed loquacious, almost arrogantly so.

"From time to time we'll get new club members who naively think they just want to give it a try, and it's always such a bother. If you're staving off boredom and just want to play around, I'll keep you company at home until you've had enough."

Ka-chink.

Inside Yoshino, something snapped.

"Staving off boredom? Just playing around? You'll keep me company?"

" … Y-yoshino."

"No, that's enough. The school has a wonderful training hall, so there's no need for me to trouble the kendo second-dan Hasekura Rei-sama."

Danger, danger. As she spoke these cruel words, a warning bell sounded inside Yoshino's heart.

A red light flashed in her mind.

This pattern was extremely bad. If things kept going like this, she would undoubtedly do something unthinkable.

Remember the "Yellow Rose Revolution" of six months earlier. Yoshino had been enraged by Rei-chan's over-protectiveness, handed back the rosary and announced a termination of their relationship. Things had turned out alright in the end, but there was no guarantee that it would be the same the next time, and the uproar would cause trouble for those around them.

Don't do it, don't do it. Bear with it.

But now that those reckless words had made their way out of her mouth, even if Yoshino were to try to swallow them down, they would not settle into her stomach.

"C-calm down, Yoshino."

Rei-chan had noticed too. So while she was saying to "calm down," she was getting worked up herself. Which just served to irritate Yoshino even more.

"If you're always going to be like this, Rei-chan, I'll – "

Ah, it's no good. Her mouth was running in the wrong direction, and Yoshino was backed into a corner in her mind. She had to let go of her anger. Yoshino knew full well that Rei-chan was more precious to her than this. She knew, but – .

"I'll –"

Her mouth kept charging ahead, dragging her body with it. She thumped the table with both hands as she got to her feet.

With things the way they were, she couldn't just sit down again. It wouldn't look good to stay standing forever, so it looked like the only option left was to continue with her rage and leave the cafe.

"The rosary – "

(No, stop!)

Yoshino's mind screamed. Her right arm reached up to her chest. She mustn't do this. If she returned the rosary, it would be a repeat of the 'Yellow Rose Revolution.'

(What should I do?)

There was no obvious path to reconciliation like the heart surgery and kendo match of last time. But there was nothing to stop her right hand now that it had started moving.

Just as Yoshino was thinking it was all over, her right hand grasped something round.

(… Huh?)

It should have been the shape of a cross, the tip of the rosary. For some reason, it felt smooth – .

(Ah!)

That's it. It was her coral pendant.

Since it was the weekend, she wasn't wearing her school uniform and hadn't put the rosary on either. Yoshino's panic was proof that she had only just noticed.

"Yoshino?"

However, it was probably a godsend that she wasn't wearing her rosary. She couldn't return something she didn't have on her.

Yoshino took her hand off her coral pendant. It was something that her parents had bought on their honeymoon long ago, so while throwing it at Rei-chan might physically hurt her slightly, it wouldn't have much emotional impact.

"I'm going home."

The fight visibly left her. Yoshino grabbed her shoulder-bag and turned towards the exit. Although she hadn't finished eating her green-tea crepe, she had finished the chestnuts, so it was no great loss.

"Ah, Yoshino. Wait."

Yoshino hated it when Rei-chan rushed. Since Yoshino was doing this of her own volition, proceeding in a measured fashion would be fine too.

"Right."

Having suddenly thought of something, Yoshino turned around and returned to the table. Not knowing the reason, Rei-chan smiled happily when she saw Yoshino's face. If she were a dog, her tail would be wagging.

"This should cover me."

Yoshino flung two 1,000 yen notes on the table, then left the store.

She'd wanted to fling the contents of the cup of water, but there was no way she could do that to someone with cheesecake crumbs stuck to them.