Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume2 Chapter1 4

Best Sœur. Part 4.

After school on a day where the lingering memories of the school festival were just about fading.

"Oh?"

Having finished cleaning duties, Yumi was just walking down the hallway thinking, "Time to go to the Rose Mansion" when she noticed a familiar face in the 1st-year Chrysanthemum class and came to a stop.

"Yoshino-san?"

"Ah, Yumi-san."

Yoshino-san raised her head from her desk and smiled, as usual.

The Chrysanthemum class had also seemed to finish cleaning duties, as the desks and chairs were lined up neatly. There were a few bags hanging from desks, presumably belonging to students with club activities, but otherwise there was no hint of any other person.

"I didn't know you were back in attendance."

Yumi entered the classroom after striking a "pardon my intrusion" pose.

"Yes, beginning today. I ended up missing a week."

She giggled, fufufu. It was a smile filled with composure, saying that she was used to it.

"Yoshino-san, are you alone?"

"Yes. I'm copying notes, from the classes I missed."

There were several notebooks stacked on her desk that she had probably borrowed from other students.

"What a lot of work."

"I'm almost done, will you wait?"

Yoshino-san then resumed copying. That means I'm allowed to be here, decided Yumi, so she pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Yoshino-san.

Yumi looked on, wondering about the kind of person Yoshino-san was. She had a rather petite stature. She was a bit skinny, but not overly so – it would be adequate to call her small, in general. The lap blanket she placed above her skirt was probably hand-made. Maybe it was so it wouldn't stand out, but it was made of the same, dark-green colored cotton as the skirt.

Yumi looked elsewhere.

Her front hair was cut straight across right above her eyebrows, and she split her hair evenly, tying them in a braid. It wasn't to the level of Rei-sama, but her hair was tinted brown, and the tight braiding sort of de-emphasized the lighter-colored hair.

Her eyebrows were more thick than long. Their downward angle had the seeming effect of disguising lament, and thus made her look more fascinating. It wasn't difficult accepting that this would be the school's number one little sister. When Yumi turned into a second year, she would like a little sister just like Yoshino-san.

(... Ah, and just what am I thinking?)

She was embarrassed of her own fantasies. Yumi covered her blushed cheeks.

"What?"

Yoshino-san suddenly looked up. She probably felt the stare.

"Ah, no, nothing. ... Sorry."

She tried to cover it up, but it was too late. Plus, she couldn't come up with any sort of excuse, so that made it all the more suspicious.

"As Rosa Gigantea mentioned, Yumi-san is interesting."

Even though she had been stared at, Yoshino-san didn't seem to be in discomfort. Having finished copying, she laughed and put her mechanical pencil and eraser into her pen case.

"Was I going through life phases again?"

"Yes."

"Uwa…"

Her face was in flames. Why did she always embarrass herself in front of beautiful girls?

No, that's not it. The problem was that there were more and more beautiful girls surrounding her nowadays.

"How do people perceive me?"

Yoshino-san asked, resting a hand on her bag.

"Perceive Yoshino-san?"

"Yes. Yumi-san's image of me."

"Yoshino-san's image…"

Having been asked this so directly, Yumi found it difficult to place things into words. Of course, Yoshino-san wasn't asking about thick eyebrows or brown hair. Not the outward appearance, but more of the internal image-

"A bit sickly, the type you want to protect?"

"That's it!"

Yoshino-san had offered help, and Yumi quickly raised a finger and agreed, but then she realized that might have been a bit insulting.

"Umm… but not necessarily that sickly…"

Even though she tried to follow-up, she knew it was futile.

"Don't worry, it's the truth, after all, that I'm sickly. Anything else?"

Being urged on, Yumi decided to prudently pick her words and answer.

"That's what a girl is like, I guess? Great with dealing with other people, gentle, cute. The type my little brother might like… huh?"

She was trying to explain things with kind words, but she noticed she was going in an increasingly weird direction. No one was asking about the tastes of her family. But Yoshino-san giggled, "What an honor."

"Yoshino-san seems like the type to wear a frilled apron at home and bake cookies, and knit laced table-cloth."

"Her favorite drink is milk tea?"

"Right, and she has a white cat."

"Yes, that's the image."

Laces, ribbons, flowery designs.

In the case of skirts, flared, rather than tight.

A-line coats.

Her favorite fruit is a strawberry.

Pink over blue, in colors.

Likes ice cream. Likes cookies. Likes candy.

Good at English and social studies, but not so fond of math and science.

Maybe this image isn't too different from what a girl might imagine of "a girl." At any rate, Yoshino-san had become excited, agreeing with those points.

"But, wrong. I'm not like that at all."

Yoshino-san said.

"Really?"

"But everyone thinks that way."

She laughed along with a sigh, then began folding up her lap blanket. The lap blanket, made to fit the color motif, looked a bit bland, but also seemed very maiden-like. … At any rate, her declaration meant she wasn't the one that knitted it.

"There aren't really girls that fit that image, after all."

It was a bit of a disappointment. But at the same time, Yumi was curious about how Yoshino-san really was.

"I don't think they don't exist, though."

Yoshino-san emphatically said, then stood up. Then, she walked to the back of the room, opened her locker, and placed her lap blanket inside.

"Shall we, to the Rose Mansion?"

When Yumi asked, Yoshino-san shook her head.

"Onee-sama is coming to pick me up, so I have to go home with her."

"Rei-sama…?"

But Rei-sama's kendo competition was soon, so she was supposed to be training hard every day, was she not? That's why she had been absent from the "Tea-parties named Meetings" that had been going on every day at the Rose Mansion as of late.

"It's my first time going to school in a while, so onee-sama is being overly worried."

"I see."

The knight had to see the princess off. However, the princess was scornful of the knight.

"Plus, she's timid."

"She doesn't seem that way."

"She looks strong because she does kendo."

"… Yoshino-san pulls no punches."

Indeed, reality seemed to be different from Yumi's original image. After all, Yoshino-san didn't seem to be the type to speak ill of anyone.

"We've been together since we were born, so we know almost everything about each other."

"Eh?"

Yumi cocked her head, not understanding the meaning behind those words. Then, like a mirror, Yoshino-san did the same.

"Huh? Yumi-san didn't know? Rei-chan and I are cousins."

"Eh!?"

She was surprised at the truth between Yoshino-san and Rei-sama's relationship, but she was also shocked by Yoshino-san called Rei-sama "Rei-chan."

"Yumi-san, you must have been in a hole somewhere."

Apparently it was a famous story in the school. Particularly this spring, when the Rosa Foetida en bouton Rei-sama chose Yoshino-san as her little sister, the Lillian Kawaraban ran an article, so even the students that had entered starting from high school knew about it. Yet, embarrassingly enough, Yumi had attended since kindergarten and still didn't know.

Yet, it couldn't be helped. It wasn't something to be proud of, but Yumi only read the Lillian Kawaraban when it interested her enough, and when it came to the Yamayurikai staff, she was purely Sachiko-sama.

"Yumi-san, you accepted Sachiko-sama's rosary, right? How did it feel?"

"Feel…?"

"Was it exciting?"

Of course.

"… Yes."

It had happened just a week ago, so she still had fresh memories. Sachiko-sama, whom she'd adored for so long, had offered her rosary in complete seriousness. The happiness she felt was incomparable over her sixteen years of life. It was like fireworks had gone off in her soul.

"In our case, it wasn't like that."

"Wasn't?"

"Onee-sama and I were always in Lillian, right? So at some point we knew that when we became high schoolers we would be sisters."

Yoshino-san called Rei-sama "onee-sama" this time.

"During the school entrance ceremony for high school, I was sick, too, so I was at home. So onee-sama came home, found me sleeping, and tucked the rosary into my hand. That was it."

"I think it's beautiful in its own right."

"Perhaps. But it wasn't exciting. It was like reading the end of a mystery novel."

"Hmmm."

In other words, Yoshino-san wanted to be excited. On the other hand, Yumi wanted to live as peacefully as possible.

"But, Yoshino-san, there's no way to turn back time, and there's no changing that you're cousins, right?"

"Exactly. That's why it's just a foolish complaint. For some reason, I just felt like having Yumi-san listen."

"So listening was enough?"

"Plenty. I'd never had a friend like that before."

Even though they were intimate cousins, she couldn't have complained about Rei-sama to Rei-sama.

"I see."

But then she realized something.

(Wait a second. … That means, even though Yoshino-san is good at dealing with people, she never opened herself up to classmates?)

People aren't necessarily what they seem. She was supposed to have learnt that with Sachiko-sama.

"That's why Yumi-san is valuable."

Yoshino-san rested her chin on her hands and smiled softly. But beyond that angelic smile, she might have been thinking things unimaginable to Yumi.

"Yoshino, sorry to keep you waiting."

Rei-sama energetically arrived at the classroom, filling the silence between Yoshino and Yumi. "Oh, you were with Yumi?"

"Ah, I was just passing by. I'll be going then."

She felt a bit out of place, and quickly stood up. Maybe it was because they were talking about Rei-sama without Rei-sama, or maybe it was because it felt like she was interfering between lovers, Yumi didn't know herself which it was.

"Yumi-san. What're you fussing over?"

"That's right. We didn't become sœur yesterday after all, we don't have to flirt all the time."

Yoshino-san and Rei-sama both spoke drily.

"F, flirt..."

The way Rei-sama spoke, it was as if Sachiko-sama and Yumi, having become sœurs just the other day, were always flirting.

"Flirting?"

Yoshino-san's eyes glimmered as she asked.

"Scolding over trivial matters, fixing perfectly fine ties, secretly giving cough drops, Sachiko seems so happy having found a little sister."

"Uh, umm, Rei-sama?"

She wanted to shake Rei-sama out of her run.

Cough drop incident aside, the scolding and appearance checking didn't seem to fit into what you would usually call "flirting"-.

Rei-sama and Yoshino-san, despite seeming very different, definitely looked similar when it came to this. They placed the same amount of value on rather strange things.

"Well, let's go home then."

Rei-sama picked up Yoshino-san's bag.

"Yumi-chan, if you're going to the Rose Mansion, could you tell the onee-sama, sorry for being a bit selfish until the competition?"

"Ah, yes."

"Gokigenyou, Yumi-san. Having you listen let me clear my mind."

Yoshino-san bowed her head, spoke, and then followed after Rei-sama to the hallway. But Yumi didn't know what she cleared her mind of.

"Yoshino-san, are you scheming?"

When she spontaneously asked, Yoshino-san quietly turned around, paused, then asked, "Why?"

"Why-."

Rei-sama was about to vanish out the door. Yoshino-san didn't wait for an answer to her question, instead vanishing out with Rei-sama, leaving the words, "Who knows?"

"What do you mean, 'Who knows'-"

When she thought about the question, she realized it was an answer to Yumi's first question.

"Then… Yoshino-san, you ARE up to something-!?"

Yumi sat back down in the chair, alone in someone else's classroom, and held her head with her hands.

Yoshino-san's eyes looked like they were quickly planning something out. What was she planning? Should she stop her? Should she tell someone?

She felt responsible, as Yoshino had "cleared her mind" after speaking to her. But she wasn't very experienced with these things, and her high school freshman mind, still not knowing much about Yoshino-san to begin with, couldn't think of anything, despite serious thought.

"I feel like I'm going to have a developmental fever."

Yumi's desired "peaceful days" seemed far, far away.

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