Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume26 Chapter1 1

Good Morning Chocolate. Part 1

She knew she could be a bit forgetful.

But the fourteenth of February, the day of the newspaper club's "Future Roses' Treasure Hunt," was also the nationwide celebration, Valentine's Day.

So even though she went to school a fair bit earlier than usual, the bus and the school grounds were surprisingly full of students, causing Yumi to groan.

She'd been expecting it, but not this much.

It was particularly busy at the fork in the path by the Maria-sama statue, with groups of sœurs on standby, waiting for breaks in the flow of students saying their morning prayers, then approaching the statue one group at a time to exchange chocolates.

With that many students around the school, there was no way she'd be able to hide her card in the morning and let it rest until after school. The swift rejection of this idea at their earlier planning meeting had been correct.

Even so, Yumi thought it was amazing that her onee-sama, Ogasawara Sachiko-sama, had done just that last year. How early did she have to arrive at school?

Opening the door of her locker, Yumi saw a small light-brown bundle with a red ribbon around it, and a cute pink floral paper bag quietly sitting there.

"…"

Her initial reaction was that she'd mistakenly opened someone else's shoe locker, so she hurriedly closed the door. But for the last ten months, she'd been coming to this same spot day after day, so she should have been able to find her own locker without checking the nametag for confirmation. So how had this happened today?

For the time being, Yumi hid her embarrassment by scratching her head. Luckily, there weren't that many students around, so hiding her embarrassment wasn't actually necessary.

Setting that aside, she read the nametag on the shoe locker door.

"Huh? It says 'Fukuzawa'."

And there was only one Fukuzawa-san in the second-year Pine class.

"So that means…."

Naturally, she made the very Fukuzawa Yumi-esque assumption that whoever placed the package and paper bag in there had made a mistake, and wondered what she should do with this lost property.

But then.

"Oh my, you're so popular, Yumi-san."

Yumi turned around when she heard this and found Katsura-san from Wisteria class standing there, grinning as she peeked into Yumi's shoe locker.

"Huh!?"

"Why are you so surprised? Today's Valentine's Day, right?"

Katsura-san pulled a box about the size of two stacked CD cases out of her bag and said, "right?" Presumably, they were chocolates she was going to give to her onee-sama in the tennis club.

"So you're saying…?"

That they were both equivalent.

"They're chocolates, for you, Yumi-san."

Yumi hesitated, so Katsura-san reached past her and took the parcel and paper bag out of Yumi's locker and presented them to her, saying, "See."

Indeed. Whether it was because they understood the personality of that shoe-locker's owner or not, both gifts were clearly labeled with the recipient's name: "Fukuzawa Yumi-sama."

She'd been beaten. Yumi cooled her feverish brow with the back of her hand.

"... I never imagined this sort of thing could happen."

Even though she gave out chocolates on Valentine's Day, she never expected to receive any. And, apologies to the senders, but Yumi couldn't recall who they were, even though she'd seen their names.

"Ah, you're still the same natural airhead, Yumi-san."

Katsura-san murmured in astonishment.

"Well, I mean, I don't have a petite sœur."

"What are you muttering about? Valentine's Day isn't just for giving chocolates to your sœur. You saw that last year, right?"

"Ah, yeah."

She had indeed seen it. The oversized paper bag full of chocolates, given to Rei-sama by way of her petite sœur Yoshino-san, and Sachiko-sama's refusal of chocolates from everyone except Yumi. On top of that, there was a certain unnamed graduate who had pestered people other than her petite sœur for "Chocolates, please."

But, to think that it could happen to her.

"Anyway, well, good luck."

After patting Yumi on the shoulder, Katsura-san disappeared towards the classroom at a jog, having already changed into her indoor shoes.

As for Yumi, who'd been left behind ... she took off her outdoor shoes, put the (presumably chocolate) gifts into her bag, changed into her indoor shoes, and closed her locker door.

As she walked down the hallway, she thought about what to do with the chocolates.

"Good luck, huh."

If she was going to follow in the footsteps of her beloved onee-sama, then she couldn't accept them. Having said that, she didn't think she had the courage or conviction to send them back.

Naturally, she was happy to receive chocolates as an expression of someone's good will towards her. She wanted to gratefully accept those feelings.

Although, by accepting them, she would have to provide a return gift on White Day. And while it was obviously a pointless concern, what would she do in the incredibly unlikely event that she ended up with a haul like Rei-sama last year? Such were her concerns; even as she was soaring with joy, another part of her was applying the brakes.

"I see. So that's something else I'll need 'good luck' for."

Even though there were already so many things she had to do today.

The number of pressing concerns she had just increased by one.