Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume1 Chapter3 2
Anxious Wednesday, Friday of Battle. Part 2.[edit]
"Here."
She was handed a booklet. It was bound quite simply, but it was painstakingly word processed.
"Lillian Girls' Academy Yamayuri-version Cinderella…"
Yumi read the cover ornamentation aloud. It seemed to be a script-book for Cinderella.
"Right. I used pink and blue to highlight for you."
"So?"
"Of course, you are to remember them?"
Sachiko-sama sighed, exasperated.
"Remember,-"
Flipping through the pages, she noticed it was almost all pink. There was hardly any blue.
"Okay? Please do not make me repeat myself two or three times. If you do not wish to embarrass yourself during the school festival, memorize the pink and blue, no matter what."
"Y, yes."
As she answered, her heart sank. The pink was all Cinderella's lines. The blue was Sister B. Apparently they were short on people, to the point where some people had to take on two roles at once. At some point, Yumi had been given the Sister B role.
Well, if she was going to be in Cinderella, she would gladly do one of the sister roles.
"That aside, why are you eating lunch out… here?"
As she became curious, she bluntly questioned the three first-year peach-class girls. As she had come looking for Yumi, and found that she was not in her classroom, she had been guided to Yumi by Tsutako-san.
Yumi and Shimako-san had, as they did yesterday, come behind the auditorium to escape from the newspaper club.
"Well, Sachiko-sama."
Tsutako-san ripped open the vinyl packing for the bread she had taken with her.
"There is a both deep and superficial reason."
There was no need for Tsutako-san to also escape from the newspaper club, but she seemed to have a bit of a guilty conscience for letting Yumi escape yesterday. After Tsutako-san finished explaining in detail, Sachiko-sama sounded an indifferent "ah."
"While I can understand your wish to escape from our school's persistent newspaper club, what do you plan to do when it rains?"
"We would be in trouble."
Tsutako-san, however, could escape into her photography room, so she didn't seem to care. Shimako-san also simply was providing Yumi company, and had no real reason to be eating outside.
"It seems bound to rain tomorrow."
"Eh!?"
Yumi hurriedly looked at the sky. However, looking at the clear and sunny sky was a futile effort at seeing the next day's forecast.
"Accept my rosary. Then I will gladly be interviewed in your stead."
"You jest."
"Oh? Well, ask me anytime you want."
Sachiko-sama playfully laughed and turned away.
"Ah, Sachiko-sama. Would you like to have lunch with us?"
Tsutako-san tried to stop her, but she was refused, "Thank you for the invitation, but I will pass." That answer was quite expected, as she would have had to make the trip back to her classroom, and then back outside, in order to eat with this group.
"I wanted to bring up the photo, but she escaped."
"There is no helping it. Sachiko-sama dislikes cherry blossoms and gingko."
"Cherry blossoms and gingko?"
Yumi asked back. Then, the act of coming to school, itself, would be a painful ordeal.
"Yes. It's a seasonal thing. Exactly the opposite of me."
The season when cherry blossom flowers bloom, the season when gingko nuts fall. Sachiko-sama becomes blue.
"Allergies?"
"No, she just simply dislikes them."
That sounded oddly familiar. –She did not get a rash or anything, she simply did not want to hold hands.
"I heard it was something like, they did not taste well."
"You eat cherry blossoms?"
"Yumi-san, you have not attended a wedding ceremony, have you?"
Tsutako-san chortled. Apparently, in certain seats, Sakurayu is presented. Yumi remembered that her wedding experience for cousins and other such relatives generally took place in churches, so such customs were not observed.
"Sometimes they are placed on red-bean buns."
Even the image of red-bean buns differed greatly from Shimako-san, Yumi thought.
Shimako-san loved cherry blossoms, loved gingko, loved cooked beans, loved lily bulbs.
Sachiko-sama hated cherry blossoms, hated gingko, hated sympathy, hated men.
"That is why."
Shimako-san smiled and said.
"I am surprised, that she was willing to come here to find Yumi-san."
Even though it would have been fine waiting until after school, she wanted to hand the booklet to Yumi as soon as possible-. When she looked at the back of the script, Ogasawara Sachiko was written in pretty handwriting.
Sachiko-sama brought her own script book.
Plus, she painstakingly used a highlighter to mark out the Sister B lines.
"It was so unlike her."
Yumi looked at the blue sky, like Maria-sama's soul. There were almost no clouds, and she wondered how could you forecast weather in such a day.
Shimako-san loved cherry blossoms, loved gingko, loved cooked beans, loved lily bulbs.
Sachiko-sama hated cherry blossoms, hated gingko, hated sympathy, hated men.
Tsutako-san loved photography, loved photos of girls, and was not too fond of the newspaper club.
And, herself.
She liked cherry blossoms, but she hated gingko.
And.
She thought Sachiko-sama, who would do very unexpected things, was all the more attractive because of it.
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