Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume13 Chapter4

Gathering Material with Dustpan and Broom

Part 1.

In front of the statue of Maria-sama at the fork in the road, a voice called out to her from behind.

"I've been waiting for you, Nijou Noriko-san."

Noriko lowered her hands from their praying position and turned around.

"Yes?"

It was scary how accustomed she had become to it. When she first entered high school, she had gone through the motions to avoid drawing attention to herself, but now she just didn't feel right if she passed this place without joining her hands together in prayer. Her devoutly Christian onee-sama had had a profound effect on her.

"Gokigenyou. Hot, isn't it?"

The lone older student said as she drew closer.

Sunglasses as dark as her Lillian's school uniform, her hair knotted high back on her head, a white and navy blue striped bag in her hand, and black backless shoes with large floral decorations on her feet. At first glance the outfit seemed mismatched, but on closer inspection it wasn't too badly balanced. Although it required abandoning all preconceived notions about the school uniform in order to admit that.

"Recently, the Yamayurikai members have been preparing for the school festival every day, haven't they? Impressive, impressive."

She was walking alongside Noriko, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Um – "

Noriko wanted to ask, "Is there something you wanted?" but wasn't given the opportunity to do so.

Instead she was peppered with a barrage of gossipy questions, like, "Have you finished your homework?" and "You didn't get much free time this vacation, did you?" Noriko had no choice but to keep walking towards the school building, giving short and innocuous responses like, "Yeah," and "Mmm." Since she didn't know what the other girl's motives were, she wasn't about to provide any careless answers.

Just what exactly was this girl's goal?

Earlier, she'd said, "I've been waiting for you." It seemed unthinkable that she would have been waiting in this heat just because she wanted to walk with Noriko.

"Pardon me for a moment."

Having said this, the girl stopped walking. Even though Noriko didn't consider herself to be accompanying this girl, she still had plenty of time so reluctantly she stopped too.

The girl reached into her handbag and pulled something out.

"Here."

She had pulled out a couple of oolong tea drink cartons.

"It's alright, I'm fine."

Noriko politely refused, then the girl said:

"It's not a bribe."

"No, I didn't think it was."

"Really? Then forgive me."

She laughed airily and put one of the cartons back into her bag, then pierced the other with a straw and started sucking on it in the middle of the road.

Not seeing any reason why she should have to wait under the blazing sun for her senior to finish, Noriko bowed slightly and started walking ahead. Then that girl started chasing after her, still carrying the drink carton, and saying, "Please wait a minute."

"That reminds me, you had a meeting with the Hanadera Academy student council the other day. What were your impressions? It's got me interested."

"… Um."

It didn't exactly look as though she'd just been reminded of it, the way she plunged into the topic.

"Is it true that Rosa Chinensis fainted from shock when she met those honorable men?"

Noriko was glad she hadn't accepted the oolong tea. She'd even said it wasn't a bribe, what a lie that was.

"If you want to talk about that, you'll have to excuse me."

She quickened her pace, fed up with this. She may have spoken a bit forcefully, aided by the heat.

"Oh don't say that, wait for me."

The sunglasses followed once again.

"But I don't know anything."

The girl stuck to her like a snake coiled around her, and Noriko couldn't shake her no matter how she tried. As a last resort, she stood in front of Noriko, blocking her path, acting like some primary school bully. That she would go this far took her actions beyond irritating, into the realm of mind-boggling.

"What the heck are you doing?"

Noriko asked, with a sigh, and that girl just grinned and said:

"Liar. Sorry, just making fun. Actually, I was waiting because there was something I really wanted to ask your help with."

"My help … ?"

In her mind, Noriko quipped, "And how would you make fun of someone who would do you a favor after all this?" While Lillian's Girls Academy had a strict seniority-based relationship between the girls in different grades, it didn't mean that the seniors could do whatever they wanted.

"One of my vacation research projects is to investigate Buddhist statues. But our school's Catholic, right? So there's not really any good books on it in the library."

She looked regretfully in the direction of the library.

However, wasn't the girl's start as late as it was audacious that a Catholic school would set a report on Buddhist statues as homework?

(Why's she still only gathering data? Summer vacation's almost over.)

Then the girl smiled in an overly-friendly manner and continued, completely oblivious to what Noriko was thinking.

"So I thought I'd do some research on the internet. Noriko-san, can you introduce me to the site you and your friends use?"

"… You could just do a search."

She'd probably expected Noriko would say this, because she immediately adopted a facial expression that said, "Of course I know that," before continuing with the words:

"But it's a bit scary to suddenly jump in, right? At some sites you can rack up a huge bill before you're even aware of it. So it would be a huge relief if it was a site that an acquaintance of mine already frequented. Is that no good?"

It sounded to Noriko like she was talking about a rip-off joint. Not everywhere was like that, but she had heard tales of similar things before, so she understood the feeling. Because she was dependent on her allowance from her parents, Noriko didn't really go out searching for new sites, limiting herself to the sites she was familiar with as a safety measure.

Noriko was caught out a bit by being called an acquaintance, but since they both went to the same school then in the broader sense of the word it was probably true.

"… I don't mind, but it's just a site for amateur enthusiasts, so I doubt it will be useful as a reference. You're probably better off going to a big public library … "

"Yeah. I'll follow both leads."

"Alright. Hold on a minute."

Noriko didn't see a problem with telling her the site's address. It would be easy enough to find from a search even if she wasn't told it.

"Umm. I think I've got it here."

She'd just happened to bring a printout of the site's homepage with her today. From memory, the address was printed in the upper-right hand corner.

"Ah, this isn't it. Maybe this?"

She'd accidentally pulled out an email from Takuya-kun, so she hurriedly crammed it back into her bag. She'd printed them both out last night so they were stacked one on top of the other.

"h t t p colon slash slash … um."

The girl spoke as she copied the address into her student notebook from the other piece of paper that Noriko offered.

"w w w … hey, who's Takuya-kun, is he your boyfriend?"

"Huh?"

"The sender of that email."

"…"

What a blunder.

Despite the handicap of her sunglasses and that she'd only seen it for a moment, she'd apparently pulled that name out of those lines of text.

"Just a friend."

Noriko replied confidently, since she wasn't ashamed of their relationship.

"But he's a boy, right?"

"A boy, well, a man actually."

"He's a male friend, so he's a boyfriend, right?"

"Mm, well … in the loosest sense of the word."

Noriko was getting annoyed enough that she wanted to say, "If you've got the time to talk about that then copy the address already," but decided that arcing up here would just draw things out even longer, so she silently endured it.

"Ah, sorry. It caught my interest, so I couldn't stop myself from asking."

Maybe the irritation was showing on Noriko's face, because the girl sped up her transcription of the web site address and then closed her student diary when she was done. After that, she took the carton of oolong tea out from her bag and slipped it into Noriko's hand.

"Hey, wai … "

"It's fine, it's fine. It's thanks for giving me the address."

The other girl then walked away, leaving behind the impression of over-familiarity, like an old-lady on her way back from the supermarket pushing the sweets she'd just bought onto the next door neighbor's children whether they wanted them or not.

"What was up with that?"

She felt like she'd just been conned somehow.

She had to see her onee-sama's face to remove the bad taste. Noriko hurried off to the Rose Mansion.

It was 12:45pm.

The oolong tea that had been forced on her was lukewarm.

Just how long had that girl been waiting there for her?

Part 2.

Noriko relayed the entire story as she poured a glass of the barley tea that had been prepared yesterday.

"I think asking for the website's address may just have been a pretext for her questions about the events of two days ago."

She put the carton of oolong tea which had been forced onto her into the refrigerator when she took the pitcher of barley tea out. It was already body-temperature by the time she arrived at the Rose Mansion, so she had no desire to drink it like that.

"The events of two days ago."

Noriko's onee-sama, Toudou Shimako-san, looked puzzled.

"If that was the case, wouldn't she have asked me about it? I arrived here ten minutes before you. If she had been waiting there long enough for the oolong tea to go warm, she should have seen me pass by."

"That's true."

The usual route from the main gate to the school buildings was along the path lined with ginkgo trees, which inevitably passed in front of the statue of Maria-sama. Because Maria-sama was standing at the first fork in that road.

"The reason that she called out to you… if she did want to ask about Buddhist statues, you would be the obvious choice."

They were currently the only two people in the Rose Mansion's second-floor room. From the sample size of two it wasn't possible to say whether Noriko had been targeted specifically, or if others had also been chosen. But they should be able to determine that by asking the other members as they arrived.

"But why do you think she would know about the events of two days ago?"

"That girl … um, I'm fairly sure she was Tsukiyama Minako-sama."

She may have thought she was disguising herself but it was pretty obvious. If wearing sunglasses and having a different hairstyle was enough to make her look like someone else, then the weekly gossip mags wouldn't be full of photos of actors cutting loose when traveling incognito. As someone on the side of the people doing the unmasking, surely she would have known this.

"She's been fairly quiet recently, so it's a bit unexpected. Although she is still a member of the newspaper club."

Shimako sighed, troubled. Noriko's onee-sama never criticized anyone, so even saying that much showed how much of a problem-child that Tsukiyama Minako-sama was.

"But are you that familiar with Minako-sama's face, Noriko?"

"Yeah."

Noriko shrugged.

"It's one of the many things Touko taught me when I first entered this school, even though I never asked her to."

But, like her onee-sama said, Minako-sama had been quiet recently and hadn't done anything to draw attention to herself since Noriko entered Lillian's in April. So why was she acting so suspiciously now, as though she was digging for something?

"The events of the day before yesterday."

"Naturally, I told her nothing."

Noriko declared, holding up her right hand.

There had been no touching or indecent exposure during their first meeting with the high school boys, just a simple greeting, but the almost instantaneous fainting had drawn things to a close with a complete loss of face for the Roses.

The boys from Hanadera were getting ready for another round so there would undoubtedly be another meeting soon, but if news of this event got out then Rosa Chinensis' "man-hatred" would become public knowledge.

"My sincerest thanks. It's not something Sachiko-sama's proud of, even at the best of times. If everyone read about it in the "Lillian Kawaraban," then I'm sure she'd feel even worse."

"That's for sure."

Their shoulders slumped as they imagined it.

Ogasawara Sachiko-sama used a lot of energy on her negative emotions, be it anger or despair. They wanted Rosa Chinensis' heart to be as calm as possible, even if just for the sake of the peace of the Yamayurikai.

"Ah, right."

In order to brighten the mood, Noriko led the conversation in a different direction.

"I've printed out Takuya-kun's homepage, the one I told you about earlier."

"Where?"

Noriko placed the printout on the table so Shimako-san could see.

"Ah, you're right. It's our Amitabha Tathagata. That's a nice photo of it."

The three golden, glittering Amitabha statues were featured in the "Takuya-kun's Favorites" section. The statues were from the main building of her onee-sama's family's temple, Shouguu Temple.

"I'm really glad Takuya-kun was given permission to show the main sculpture on his homepage. See, here he's written that it was all thanks to the chief priest."

"I'm sure my father agreed because it was Shimura-san. His knowledge of Buddhist statues exceeds my father's, and he's trustworthy. I've heard they're making arrangements for him to come and stay with one of the main families that supports our temple for a while."

Noriko thought, "That Takuya-kun is as shrewd as ever." Incidentally, Shimura-san was Takuya-kun's surname.

"Ah, right. As requested, the name and address of the temple weren't printed, so you shouldn't be inundated with a flood of inquiries. But if anything does happen, let me know. I think he's already said this to the chief priest, but the sames applies if you notice anything, onee-sama."

Noriko said as she read through the email printout.

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind."

Noriko's onee-sama gave a small, slow nod of her head. As always, every single action she took was elegant and beautiful. A divinity reminiscent of Maria-sama. Noriko had felt that way even when they first met.

"But it's a lot of trouble for you too, Noriko."

"Huh?"

Noriko asked, aware of the somewhat stupid look on her face since she had absolutely no idea what the trouble was.

"Because you'll be relaying messages between Shimura-san and I, like a carrier pigeon."

"But I already email Takuya-kun almost every day, so it's no bother at all."

"Teehee. You two must be close. Enviably so."

Her onee-sama had probably meant it only as flattery, but even though she knew this, Noriko was so pleased she made a bold suggestion:

"Then why don't you come along with us next time, onee-sama?"

"Oh?"

"I know it's sudden, but if you're free tomorrow, would you like to come to an exhibition of Buddhist statues at an art museum? I was planning on meeting Takuya-kun there. It'd be great if you could come along."

"Tomorrow!?"

Shimako-san blinked. Surprised by the sudden request. But since the conversation had come this far, it was too late to back out now.

"But won't I just be in the way?"

"Not at all. I think Takuya-kun's intrigued by Lillian's soeur system, because I'm always writing about "onee-sama this" or "onee-sama that" in my emails. In fact, the other day he impudently sent me an email saying he'd like to have a leisurely chat with you over tea."

Noriko made exaggerated hand gestures as she explained about Takuya-kun, and her onee-sama laughed softly.

"Alright then, I'll join you."

"Really? Ooh, that makes me so happy! Ah, right, the rumor is that they're going to be displaying a Maria Kanon, a statue of Maria-sama done up as a Buddha to avoid religious persecution, so I'm sure it'll be interesting to you too, onee-sama."

While she was still rejoicing, the biscuit-door suddenly opened.

"What is it? What's so amusing?"

The face of Rosa Foetida, Hasekura Rei-sama, appeared.

"Well, um, we were talking about going to a Buddhist statue exhibition tomorrow."

Apparently Noriko's excited voice had carried out of the room.

"Oh my, you two are getting along so well, I'm jealous."

Quipped Shimazu Yoshino-sama, who had arrived with Rei-sama.

"… Would you like to come too?"

She asked, just to be polite.

"No, it's alright."

"We don't want to bother you."

The Yellow Rose sisters declined simultaneously. Apparently neither of them had an interest in Buddhist statues.

While Noriko poured them each a glass of barley tea, her onee-sama turned to Rei-sama and said:

"That reminds me, did you encounter anyone between the school gate and here?"

"Do you mean, "Did I approach anyone?" or "Did anyone approach me?""

The way she phrased it meant that either interpretation was possible. Japanese is tough.

"The latter."

"Someone did, why do you ask?"

"I thought so."

Noriko exchanged glances with her onee-sama.

When she tried to confirm the situation by asking who and where it was, Rei-sama looked slightly dubious.

"It was Yumi-chan, in front of the Rose Mansion. She told me she'd be a bit late for the meeting, and I shouldn't worry. Sachiko had forgotten her slippers and was going to the visitor's entrance to borrow a pair."

"It was Yumi-sama, huh."

Noriko put the glass pitcher back in the refrigerator, then walked over to the window and looked out. She caught a glimpse of what was unmistakeably Rosa Chinensis en bouton, Fukuzawa Yumi-sama, in the area between the school building and the Rose Mansion.

"But why would Yumi-san be waiting outside? Surely she would be better off either waiting inside the Rose Mansion, or accompanying Sachiko-sama, to get out of the heat."

After downing her glass of barley tea in one gulp, Yoshino-sama answered Shimako-san's question.

"She said that Sachiko-sama had borrowed her slippers and gone inside the school building. And she couldn't go into the Rose Mansion or the school building in her outdoor shoes, right?"

"Ah, so that's it."

To think that someone as methodical as Sachiko-sama had forgotten her slippers. She must still be suffering from the events of the day before yesterday.

"So then Minako-sama didn't call out to you."

Noriko felt a bit disappointed. If Minako-sama had made contact with anybody else, it would have provided a clue as to what she was searching for.

However.

"We did see Minako-san though."

Rosa Foetida said.

"Huh?"

"We passed her at the school gate on our way in. But she didn't seem to notice us at all, because she was running for the bus. Right, Yoshino?"

"Yeah … at any rate, she had one heck of an outfit on."

That dispelled any doubts that it was her.

Tsukiyama Minako-sama. It looks like your disguise was completely blown.

Noriko felt completely exhausted as the biscuit-door opened and the Red Rose sisters walked in.

"Gokigenyou. Are you all feeling well?"

On the contrary, it was the bright and cheerful Rosa Chinensis that looked worst off.

– Again with the blue visitor's slippers.

Part 3.

"What the heck's going on, calling me out here so suddenly?"

The for-all-intents-and-purposes head of the Lillian's Girls Academy newspaper club said to the in-name-only head of the newspaper club as she took a seat opposite her.

"Honestly, why have you been procrastinating so much?"

– Those were the first words out of Tsukiyama Minako-sama's mouth.

"I got here as soon as I could. You called me less than thirty minutes ago."

Yamaguchi Mami adjusted her wristwatch and confirmed the time. The sweat gathering there was annoying, so she loosened the leather strap by one notch. It was 4pm.

"Not that. I was talking about the progress of the beginning-of-semester bumper edition of the Lillian Kawaraban."

"I know what you meant, onee-sama, what I don't understand is why you're asking about that."

Mami sipped on her coffee milk through a straw. It wasn't actually coffee milk, it had a more fashionable name that she'd completely forgotten five seconds after she ordered.

Her onee-sama was eating something that looked like coffee-colored shaved-ice. Although she didn't say anything, Mami thought it looked exactly like "snow from a mud pool" as she watched on.

They were at the K station branch of a coffee chain.

The store was crowded with young people.

She'd been told to get there ASAP, so she'd only picked up her notebook and purse before rushing out. She knew she would have received a lecture about it if she took the time to change, so she'd headed out into town in her shabby T-shirt and denim skirt that were barely fit to wear to the local convenience store.

"You don't understand? You know, even though I've stepped down from the front-lines, I still love the "Lillian Kawaraban." So when I see my adorable petit soeur floundering around lost, of course I'll gently offer her a helping hand."

"Gently, huh."

Mami propped her elbows on the table and let out a sigh, "Oh geez."

"You got bored of studying for your tests and your reporter's spirit came gushing up, right?"

Also known as escaping from reality.

"… But, it's summer vacation, and I'm spending all my time on summer classes, mock exams, reference books and vocab books … I'm just over it all."

Minako-sama was desperately lacking motivation.

"That's because you're studying for entrance exams, right? If you hate it, you should change course now. I'm sure there's still time for you to accept early entrance into Lillian's Women's University."

"I would have done that from the start if it was a possibility."

Stir, stir.

Minako-sama mindlessly stirred her slushy ice with a spoon. Mami inferred that she'd probably lost interest in its flavor.

But enough about that. There was absolutely no reason for Mami to get dragged into her onee-sama's escape from studying for exams.

"My deepest apologies, but I can write those articles without your help, onee-sama. Excuse me."

Mami stood up, picking up the plastic cup with the remains of her coffee milk in it.

"Last month, you tried to tail the White Rose sisters as they visited various churches and temples but they gave you the slip."

Those icy words were thrown at Mami's turned back.

"They didn't give me the slip, I just lost sight of them."

Mami said, after turning around. She knew her onee-sama was trying to provoke her but she had to respond.

"So the reason you were unable to gather any information about the Yellow and White Rose sisters' coincidental appearance near the Ogasawara holiday house was also because you lost sight of them?"

"…"

Exactly. But it pained her too much to admit it.

"Are they ghosts?"

Minako-sama smirked. That was the trigger that caused Mami to return to the table, against her better judgment.

"Takeshima Tsutako-san's photo."

Mami took the evidence out from her notebook and handed it over. Her onee-sama raised her eyebrows and looked it over with an expert eye.

"It's very small and from behind. You could use it if you had an interview to go with it, but if they refuse then that's the end of that photo."

Mami thought that if her onee-sama was still the editor then she wouldn't have been saying this. But now that she wasn't in charge, she was raising the height of the hurdles.

"You have to stockpile material during the summer vacation, so you can publish a steady stream of special editions once the new term starts. That's the service that we in the newspaper club provide to reward the loyal readers of the "Lillian Kawaraban.""

The service, huh.

"But onee-sama, it's summer vacation now. There's still plenty of time – "

"So naive."

Minako-sama shifted her legs beneath the table.

"You can't wait until the enemy reveals their weaknesses. You have to take a dustpan and broom and gather the tiny specks of dust."

"So the newspaper club are janitors?"

"Something very similar … Don't just stand there, have a seat."

Before she realized it, she'd been dragged back into this conversation. Mami sighed and sat down in the seat she'd recently vacated.

"I've visited the Rose Mansion with refreshments numerous times, but there were no gaps in their armor, or, rather, the gaps led to nothing. They were just quietly reading over documents, doing calculations, drawing up timetables and making clean copies. Concentrating on their work and keeping idle chatter to a minimum. I followed Shimako-san when she left the Rose Mansion, but all she did was use the phone in front of the office to confirm the price of something with a bulk discount store. It was even more pathetic with Yumi-san, whenever I followed her the only place she led me was to the toilet."

"You've still got some way to go yet, Mami. But even if you're holding the dustpan and broom, you're still just waiting. You have to scare up the material. Weave a web."

"Scare up … and weave … "

But hadn't the person sitting opposite Mami been burnt in the past by publishing a story based on incorrect assumptions received from those types of coercive data gathering? How quickly one forgets the dangers. Either that, or she was trying to get her junior to start a fire while she was in a safe spot that the flames wouldn't reach.

"Yamayurikai material is scattered everywhere."

Minako-sama's self-belief shone threw as she spoke.

"For instance, the mixer with the Hanadera student council."

"What's this?"

Mami leaned forwards in anticipation. She'd bit down hard on the bait cast by her smiling onee-sama.

"Yumi-san organized an introductory meeting between the high-school student council members from Hanadera Boys Academy and Lillian's Girls Academy for two evenings ago."

"– First I've heard of this."

"Naturally, it wasn't leaked to anyone on the outside. It was top secret."

Mami wanted to ask, "So how come you know about it then?" but chose to remain silent while her onee-sama was happily chatting away.

"But it seems that when they met at the front gate, something happened and Sachiko-san lost her fizz and collapsed."

"… Rosa Chinensis collapsed?"

And lost her fizz. It seemed pretty far-fetched so far. But she'd listen to the whole story, just in case.

"So, what was the cause?"

"Who knows."

"You don't know?"

Mami felt deeply dismayed, after all, wasn't that the most important part? But on reflection, it would have been impossible for Minako-sama to know the answer since she wasn't a member of the Yamayurikai executive.

"It was probably due to heatstroke or illness or something like that. But I can't rule out the possibility that she was overwhelmed by shock when she saw the Hanadera students."

"Is this year's Hanadera student council really such a stunning array of individuals?"

Mami thought back to last year's Hanadera student president, who had the bearing of a prince. His name was Kashiwagi Suguru-san, from memory. Even now, he had plenty of fans at Lillian's.

"Well, there's stunning and there's stunning. Like a bodybuilder, or a cross-dresser, or a punk."

Minako-sama counted on her fingers as she listed these examples.

"… That's quite detailed. You make it sound like you saw them."

"It doesn't just sound like it, I did see them."

"Huh?"

"Two evenings ago. Right there."

"Wha?"

Basically, the summary of Minako-sama's story is as follows:

Two evenings ago, Minako-sama was on her way home from her summer-session entrance exam prep class when her mother asked her to pick something up from the shops near K station. It was a hot day. So, to cool off, she hung out at the shops for a while.

"And the Hanadera student council just happened to be sitting next to you?"

Life sprinkled out some incredible coincidences. Either that, or Minako-sama was blessed with better than average luck.

"There was one of me and many of them. Their conversation reached my ears unbidden."

"So, you overheard the entire thing … "

"What could I do? Intriguing keywords like "Hanadera" and "Lillian" were flying around everywhere."

So Minako-sama pieced together the fragments of conversation she heard and figured out the gist of what happened that day.

"But that's some great material, isn't it?"

Since she'd heard it directly from one of the parties involved, the Hanadera high-school student council. Of course, it would be necessary to confirm the facts with the Yamayurikai before turning it into an article, but that shouldn't be a problem compared to finding the entire story from scratch.

"But things aren't as straightforward as they may seem. I tried to lead Noriko-san into confirming what happened but she clammed up. Most likely, they've all agreed to never disclose those events."

"I see."

Indeed, that group or, rather, those ladies presented a strong, unified front. It was tough to find a loose seam that would unravel them.

"You have to be wary of this sort of material, you can't overextend your lines. You have to attack from where they least expect it."

"From where they least expect it?"

So, despite making it that far, it was still only idle gossip. The strength drained from Mami's body, even though she'd only just started thinking about turning it into an article.

""Exclusive scoop! Meet Rosa Gigantea en Bouton's Boyfriend!""

"What are you on about this time?"

Mami thought she should take what she was hearing with a grain, no a shaker, of salt. She'd run out of energy completely otherwise.

"Exactly what I said. We score a direct hit on Miss Nijou Noriko's date and quickly publish it in the "Lillian Kawaraban."'

Grinning. Minako-sama was smiling like she was letting her in on a conspiracy.

"And? Who's the guy?"

"I don't know. It's up to you to cover the event."

Right. So that's what this was about.

"So you're saying I should cover your wild delusions … no, your baseless speculation?"

"Baseless? Not at all."

Mami-sama took a folded-up piece of A4 paper out of her bag and spread it out on the table.

"Shimura Takuya. A fourth-year at a private university … that would make him at least 21. Family of four, living in Tokyo. His hobby is viewing Buddhist statues, so they came together through their hobby."

That was some detailed information. It wasn't a wild delusion or baseless speculation, but gradually revealed the shape of a young man.

"Where did you get that info from?"

"The internet."

"The internet?"

"I told Noriko-san I wanted to investigate Buddhist statues and asked her for some website recommendations. That's when I fortuitously caught sight of an email printout."

"Mm, mm."

Mami excitedly urged her on.

"In it, Takuya-kun asked her out on a date."

"Whoa!"

"They were going to meet out in public, which is proof of their closeness. I fished around a bit and she confirmed that he was her boyfriend."

"Incredible! That's amazing work, onee-sama."

Mami usually had to reign in her onee-sama when she went tearing off on some wild goose chase, but she'd become so excited that she'd lost some of her cool. If she'd retained her composure, she probably would have rebuked her onee-sama with something like, "Reading other people's mail isn't something to be proud of."

"So, getting back to the story, I knew I'd found a hint so I hurried home and looked up the website she told me about. Then, to my surprise, I found out that Takuya-kun was the site administrator. So I read his profile and all his old blog entries, which gave me all the info I told you. What do you think?"

"Nicely done."

Minako-sama was obviously born with good luck when it came to gathering material with dustpan and broom.

"So here's your job: You're to go to the place where they'll meet and lie in wait for Takuya-kun. Alright?"

"Huh, what about you, onee-sama?"

"Unfortunately, I've got a mock entrance exam tomorrow."

So that was it. The tension that had been building up inside of Mami suddenly fell away.

"If you get a photo of him, it will be a minor success. If the shot has both him and Noriko-san, it'll be a huge success. Oh, right. Don't try to approach him directly tomorrow, just take the photos. It's all over if you get the film confiscated. Apparently, he knows aikido."

"… Understood."

Mami had no faith in her physical strength. If it came to a struggle for the camera between her and a young man who knew martial arts, she was 100% certain she would lose. It went without saying that she'd do her best to avoid that.

"So, you were saying they were meeting somewhere?"

"I've got you covered. While I was pretending to write down the website address, I made a note about that in my student diary."

"… That's incredible."

Why couldn't she turn this energy towards studying for her exams? Mami slowly started to pity her onee-sama seated in front of her.

"Got it, Mami? You've got the internet at home, right? Hurry back and check out Takuya-kun's homepage, to prepare for tomorrow."

"Yeah."

Mami was about to tell her onee-sama that she should prepare for her mock exams tomorrow too, but then stopped herself.

Since she knew that Minako-sama was in such high spirits that she wouldn't hear a word that was said.

Part 4.

She typed the address into the browser then pressed enter and before long the front page appeared.

"Hohoho, "Takuya-kun's Buddhist Shrine," huh … Just the sort of name you'd expect from an admirer of Buddhist statues."

The background was a photoshopped image showing various Buddhist statues praying towards an old, temple-like Japanese house.

Mami clicked on the "Self-Introduction" link first.

I'm Shimura Takuya (my real name) – a resident of Tokyo and single. I'm currently a fourth-year student at a private university. My hobbies are obviously viewing Buddhist statues, but also skiing※ and aikido.

This was all information that she'd heard from her onee-sama.

Thinking that there would be anything new here, Mami went to click on the "Back" button, but just as she was about to move the mouse she noticed the ※ symbol next to his hobbies.

When she moved the mouse over it, a pop-up appeared with "Early this year, I broke my leg skiing. Because of that, I missed out on seeing the Tamamushi Kannon, which is only shown once every twenty years. If another such incident occurs that interferes with my appreciation of Buddhist statues, I'll have to seriously consider dropping this hobby."

Apparently Takuya-kun would stop skiing on account of the Buddhist statues.

Mami had no particular interest in Buddhist statues, so she let out a small sigh as she wondered if it was really okay to revere them that much. She thought that skiing would be more popular with the ladies.

"Ah, but I suppose there are some weird girls like Nijou Noriko-chan who like Buddhist statues too."

The world worked surprisingly well.

That was why, after dinner, Mami was accessing the pages on Takuya-kun's site, just like her onee-sama had ordered.

But as she went from page to page, even though she'd expected it, she was amazed by how fixated he was on Buddhist statutes.

Photos of Buddhist statues taken from all different angles, like they were idols.

The History of Buddhist Statues.

Buddhist Statue Trivia.

Buddhist Statue Classifications.

Buddhist Statue Q&A.

Buddhist Statue Appreciation Reports.

Favorite Buddhist Statues. – etc, etc.

It even had a forum that was called the "Mandala Forum." She had a look around there, but she had no idea what they were talking about because they were all using terminology too technical for a beginner. At any rate, she was an amateur who only knew the great Buddha statues of Nara and Kamakura and the statue of Asura.

Completely dispirited, she was just about to leave Takuya-kun's Buddhist shrine when she noticed a small rectangular button in the corner of the page.

"…"

On closer inspection, the rectangular button looked like a tatami mat. Written alongside it were the words "Kounoshin's six tatami mat room."

"Who's Kounoshin?"

Takuya-kun's website was devoted almost entirely to Buddhist statues, so she'd initially thought that "Kounoshin" was the name of a statue. But then Mami's curiosity was aroused by the "six tatami mat room" attached to the name and she clicked the button.

The new page was completely unrelated to Buddhist statues.

The first thing she did was look around for the information she was most interested in.

Shimuka Kounoshin, relative of Takuya, two generations removed. We've had neighboring rooms since moving in three years ago. At first glance, we're a happy multi-generational family, but even today the cross-generational battle between Takuya and Kounoshin rages on beneath the surface.

"Umm. The parents are one generation removed, so two generations is the gap between grandparents and grandchildren. Takuya-kun's single, so he wouldn't have any children. Since he doesn't have children, he can't have grandchildren. Which means that Kounoushin-san would be Takuya-kun's grandfather. Still, addressing his grandfather without an honorific … what a presumptuous grandchild."

With four in the family, it meant that Takuya-kun had no siblings, so perhaps he was treating his grandfather like a brother. Mami remembered that some of her classmates treated their grandmothers as more of a friend than a grandparent.

Despite Kounoshin-san's name being attached to the "Kounoshin's Six Tatami Mat Room" section, the pages were still maintained by Takuya-kun. It mainly consisted of blog entries about his rival, Kounoshin-san.

Today Kounoshin borrowed another shirt from my dresser without permission. Traffic-light colored shirts, ie. red, yellow and green, don't go well with his old-fashioned topknot haircut. I think he should consider his age more. I thought he was my rival, but maybe he looks up to me a little?

I couldn't concentrate on my studies because of the annoying sounds leaking out of Kounoshin's room. It would have been fine if it was something flowing like classical music or jazz, but an old comedy recording? The words injected themselves straight into my brain. There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it. When I complained about it, he said I should respect his hobby because we both liked old-fashioned things. Hey, don't put Buddhist statues on the same level as comedy!

My hair was getting a bit long so I went to my regular hairdresser and who should I see there but Kounoshin? I thought that topknots would have been a barber's domain. When had he switched faiths? He didn't notice me entering the store because he was busy getting his beard dyed. Does he think he can find a woman by dressing smartly? … Impossible. He can try to spruce up the outside, but the years are still there.

These bits of gossip about Kounoshin-san were far more interesting to Mami than the vast stock of information about Buddhist statues.

And Takuya-kun, despite the completely objective manner in which he wrote about Buddhist statues, why did his writing become so emotional when it came to Kounoshin-san?

"In the end, isn't Takuya-kun a bit too concerned with Kounoshin-san?"

After reading the entire batch, Mami disconnected the phone-line, unaware of the smile on her face. Thanks to Kounoshin-san, she felt like she was a little bit closer to Takuya-kun.

Shimura Takuya.

At some point, Mami had become interested in him beyond just his status as "the guy that Nijou Noriko-san is dating."

There was a decent chance that she'd run into him tomorrow. Mami was trembling with excitement thinking about that.

What kind of a guy was he?

"Shimura Takuya … "

She was warming to tomorrow's event.

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