Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume29 Chapter2 3

Conversation Stories. Part 3.

The following day, after school, Yumi was in the newspaper club's clubroom.

"How times change."

Someone said, letting out a theatrical sigh.

"Who would have thought that the day would come when a future Rose would volunteer material to the Lillian Kawaraban."

It wouldn't have mattered if she had remained seated, but the pony-tailed student deliberately stood up and turned her back on the computer she had been using. Both arms open, talking in a loud, clear voice. – She was in fine form.

"It's been a while since we've talked, Minako-sama."

Yumi had initially recoiled from this unexpected meeting with someone who had seemingly been lying in wait, but she could still manage a greeting.

"You seem to be in a good mood."

"Indeed. My mood is incredibly good."

Yumi was surprised, so Mami-san whispered into her ear:

"My onee-sama was accepted into her first choice university."

"Ahh, is that it."

Yumi had come here because she had something to talk to Mami-san about. It wasn't something secret, so Yumi didn't mind that there might be other club members here who would overhear their conversation. And then that one student with her back to them had suddenly turned around and said, 'How times change.'

That person was Tsukiyama Minako-sama, the former head of the newspaper club and former editor-in-chief of the Lillian Kawaraban, the one who had passed all this responsibility on to her petit soeur, Yamaguchi Mami-san.

On a somewhat related note, Mami-san and Yumi were in the same class so they could have talked in their classroom. However, Yumi had something to say to Mami-san in her capacity as editor-in-chief of the Lillian Kawaraban and not as a classmate, so going through official channels meant coming to the newspaper club's clubroom.

The supposedly-retired Tsukiyama Minako-sama moved in front of Yumi, brushing aside the person she had originally been talking to.

"The newspaper club is delighted to take you up on your offer."

Ahh, so cheeky of her to act as the newspaper's representative. The real representative, Mami-san, was smiling ruefully beside her. Understanding her onee-sama's personality, Mami-san seemed content to let Minako-sama continue until she had worn herself out. Hurriedly abandoning the battlefield, Mami-san started looking over some documents.

"So, to sum it up, you want to use the Lillian Kawaraban to announce that you have taken a petit soeur. That's what we're talking about, right Yumi-san?"

"Yes."

Reluctantly, Yumi decided to continue talking to Minako-sama. It didn't matter who she was actually talking to, as long as Mami-san was in the room she would hear and Yumi might still be able to achieve her goal.

"Just something small, in the corner of the Lillian Kawaraban, would be fine."

Yumi made a small gap with her thumb and index finger, about the size of an azuki bean, as she said this.

"Something small?"

Minako-sama's eyes sparkled.

"Yeah. Something small."

Annoying. Yumi hadn't really known what would be considered something small. Perhaps she should have started with something the size of a sesame seed.

"Ho-hohoho."

Suddenly, Yumi heard loud laughter. Naturally, the source of this was Minako-sama.

"No can do, Yumi-san. You are Rosa Chinensis en bouton. Can the gigantic news that you have taken a petit soeur be let go of that easily? I certainly wouldn't be able to let it go. It's the will of our readers. The public demands it. It's comparable to my earlier article with Sachiko-san, 'Exclusive Interview with Rosa Chinensis! She Tells All About Her Petit Soeur,' – no, I think it needs even more space than that. In that case, we have no choice. For something this big, we have to replace next week's edition with a special devoted entirely to the birth of the Rosa Chinensis en bouton soeurs – "

"We can't do that, onee-sama."

Mami-san interjected.

"What?"

Drunk on her own words, Minako-sama suddenly turned on her petit soeur and bared her fangs.

"What, indeed. Next week's edition is the special about the Valentine's Day dates."

Mami-san said coolly, without looking up from the documents she was reading. Incredible. She was still paying attention to their conversation even as she carried out her other work. Yumi let out a sigh of relief, now that she no longer felt Minako-sama's intensity pressing down on her.

"Then we'll bump the dates to the next issue."

"Even though it's the graduation special edition?"

"…"

Not even Minako-sama would be willing to cut back on the graduation edition. And what would happen if they postponed the date special for two editions? Freshness was key, after all.

"We put an announcement about the date special edition in this week's edition. And I've already received the first report for publication in next week's paper."

Mami-san said, lightly tapping the manuscript she held in her hand.

"Incidentally, since we're on the subject, this is the report for the Rosa Chinensis en bouton soeurs' date."

In other words, the report that Touko had submitted. Touko had given her a copy of the report yesterday, as she was about to go home, and said, 'Please read it.' Yumi had given Touko the okay when they met in the hallway earlier today, so it looked like Touko had handed it in not long after that.

"No matter how big a scoop it is, I won't slight someone who has gone to all this effort writing a report."

Mami-san turned to her onee-sama and forcibly expressed her opinion.

Yumi did feel a bit sorry for the hyped-up Minako-sama, but all this could have been avoided if she had just agreed to a small notice in the corner saying, 'Rosa Chinensis en bouton has chosen Matsudaira Touko as her petit soeur.' Something about the size of a wedding announcement in a regular newspaper.

But Minako-sama wasn't about to give up.

"If you're to be the editor-in-chief of the Lillian Kawaraban, that's exactly what you'll have to do, Mami."

Her reasoning was hard to follow, but basically she was saying that emotions shouldn't play any part in her decisions.

"The value in a topic is in how fresh it is. You have to publish it now, while people still are unaware of it."

"Anyway, let's suppose I did find some way to fit it into next week's edition."

Mami-san sighed, then continued.

"By that time, most of the student body would already know about it."

"Then publish it this week."

"Surely that's impossible."

Yumi too raised her voice. It was just absurd. She didn't know exactly how long it took to make an edition of the paper, but you had to get all the data for a story, then write it up, then proofread it and finally print it. Today was Tuesday. The Lillian Kawaraban was usually published on Wednesday, although it could vary depending on circumstances. Even though she wasn't in the newspaper club, Yumi could clearly see that it wouldn't be possible for them to have something ready for tomorrow.

"Don't try and tell me what's impossible."

Minako-sama shrieked. She was incredibly worked up. She looked as though she was going to burst a blood vessel. Unless she could find a way to increase the number of Wednesdays in March, there wasn't going to be enough time.

"I've got it."

Mami-san looked up from the document she had been reading.

"There's a way we can do this."

Mami-san, you must have misspoken. Surely you meant, 'There's no way we can do this.'

(Oh? But then what did she mean by that 'I've got it.')

"So, please tell us about how you intend to do this."

Minako-sama glared as she looked back over her shoulder. It was obvious that she was in no mood for frivolity.

"That's because..."

Mami-san spoke smoothly.

"We can do this as an extra."

I see. – Wait.

What!?