Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume1 Chapter6 2
Waltz-like Sunday. Part 2.
The blaze stretched out to the heavens with a crackling sound.
Prepared solely for today, and with their roles fulfilled, wooden planks and paper were gathered, and turned into a blaze of memories.
With the grounds empty after the guests returned home, a firestorm was underway, with the students stoking its fires.
"Be very careful of the fire."
They said, but as this year's post-festival night event had no wind, the teachers also relaxed and watched. Many students brought left-over fireworks from the summer and lit them together.
Yumi's class' "Road of the Cross" was to be kept by the school as an art and caption set, so they gathered their rough drafts and sign posters and tossed them into the fire.
The producers of the Cinderella costumes and props and settings took their respective bits back with them, so Yumi tossed her script book, with its two weeks of memories, into the fire. Now, nothing was left. She thought, because there was nothing left, memories would be vividly burnt into her heart.
Eventually, a number of students gathered with instruments and began playing, one after another. First, the mandolin club performed the rhythmical Oklahoma Mixer. Then, naturally, a number of rings of students gathered around the bonfire. Girls took each other's hands and joined into rings, and so a folk dance flower bloomed.
Rather than joining a ring, Yumi climbed the moderate embankment outside the track, alone. Like the audience seating for an amphitheater, this was prime seating to look over the grounds.
Following the rock band's tempestuous Jenka was the brass band's wonderful Mayim-Mayim. Her heart felt like it had a hole poked through it, while she watched the dancing.
Everything ended today.
The dream-like days that began two weeks ago with a bent scarf.
With the Cinderella play over, she would no longer have reason to visit the Rose Mansion. After cleaning and returning the brazier she borrowed, her link to Sachiko-sama would evaporate. Because the bet was over, Sachiko-sama no longer had reason to bother with Yumi, either.
Girls blessed with good fortune are often called Cinderella Girls, and Yumi felt precisely like one. She was just an ordinary girl with no real talents, but she was allowed to accompany the school's most adored girls, and was able to come away with plenty of memories.
Even though her ordinary days would resume again tomorrow, she felt it was going to be different from two weeks ago. It was hard to explain just how, but she felt she had changed for the better. So even though she felt a bit lonely now, she knew it was going to be alright.
"I found you."
She turned around when a hand tapped her shoulder, and saw Sachiko-sama. The person she longed to see most had magically appeared.
"Are you free?"
"Ah, … yes."
Yumi stood up from her crouched position. Apparently she had been soaking in her grief for longer than she expected, as her calf throbbed.
The two of them walked for some time, looking for a quiet place to talk.
"It was so chaotic after the curtain fell, I was unable to settle down and speak with Yumi."
Sachiko-sama's hand held two packs of apple juice, in paper packaging, from the Milk Hall vending machine. She stuck a straw in one, and handed it to Yumi.
"Congratulations on a successful play."
A toast, in front of Maria-sama, and after they touched the sides of their paper packs together, they sipped at their straws. The folk dance had at some point transformed into a Bon Festival dance, and the Tokyo marching song played by the string quartet in the distance seemed like a national anthem for some exotic country.
"It was fun."
Sachiko-sama exhaled, after sipping.
It was not a gloomy sigh, like before. Rather, it was more like the exuberant exhalation after swigging a can of beer, like in the beer commercials.
After that satisfied sigh, Sachiko-sama suddenly began giggling.
"What is it?"
"Did you notice? During the dance, I stepped on Suguru-san's foot three times."
"Ah…"
"He's showy, so he'll never admit it, but it must have hurt. Because I was wearing high-heels."
When she imagined it, it seemed so absurd, that Yumi, too, began laughing out loud.
Sachiko-sama struck back with physical retribution, as Kashiwagi-san couldn't understand the pain of others. It was not enough to counteract her feelings, but it must have at least made her feel better.
"Thank you."
Sachiko-sama returned to a serious face.
"It's because of Yumi that I can be laughing like this."
Surprised, she looked at Sachiko-sama's serious face. That unbelievable statement had indeed been spoken from the lips of the beautiful face in front of her.
"But, I, didn't."
"You did. Maybe you don't know, but you did. So-."
She placed her juice-box on the ground so that it wouldn't spill, then reached into her pocket.
"May I, hang this over Yumi's neck?"
That was Sachiko-sama's rosary, that she had seen several times.
"But, yesterday you said you-."
As Yumi began speaking, Sachiko-sama cut her off, "Of course?"
"If you were to accept, desiring to swap Cinderella roles with me, I wouldn't be happy."
"Eh, then…"
"Sympathy, bets, this has nothing to do with any of that. This is a sacred ritual, after all."
She thought about whether she was worthy of accepting that rosary that had already been spread into a loop. But, Sachiko-sama had chosen Yumi, and to think herself unworthy would be to distrust Sachiko-sama's choice of people.
Yesterday, she chased Sachiko-sama. Remember your feeling then, she told herself. That the person to chase Sachiko-sama had to be her. Even if she was inexperienced, she simply needed to work harder to overcome that.
Go for it. Yumi ordered herself.
"I accept."
"Thank you."
Sachiko-sama softly placed the rosary over her neck. A launching firework for residential use exploded in the air, as if blessing the two. Then, the music changed.
"Ah."
Both of them simultaneously spoke. The accordion, pianica, and harmonica played a nostalgic melody.
"Maria-sama's Soul."
What they had heard some time ago must have been practice for today.
"Three quarters…, no, six eighths, I think."
One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six.
That means-.
"You can dance to it with a waltz!" "Right!"
The two clasped each others' hands.
Joining the leading ensemble, the students had begun singing. They danced a waltz to the background of the soft, angelic singing voices.
The cold air was delicious, and it felt wonderful to the skin.
She felt she could dance forever under the moonlight.
The night Yumi became the petite sœur for Rosa Chinensis en bouton.
The moon, and Maria-sama, was watching them.
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