Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume30 Chapter5 4

What Kind of Groups? Part 4.

She wasn't quite sure how it ended up this way, but Touko and Kanako-san boarded the steam train for a trip around the amusement park. They timed it well and were able to embark without having to wait long.

The haunted house and pirate cove were both enclosed adventures so it felt good to be journeying outside, in something well ventilated. Blowing in the wind, her vertical hair rolls would collapse, but Touko was enjoying herself so she didn't really mind. Kanako-san tied her hair with a hair-tie shortly into the voyage, worried that her long hair would get tangled by the wind.

At any rate, they still hadn't met anybody.

Touko was gradually becoming more and more concerned about whether or not they had actually planned to come to the amusement park today. For instance, maybe they actually meant next Sunday. No, Sachiko-sama had definitely said, "Tomorrow." And surely she wasn't mistaken about the name of the amusement park.

Touko wanted to confirm this, but there was no point asking Kanako-san since she hadn't actually been there at the time.

"Ah!"

Kanako-san suddenly cried out.

"What is it?"

"What do you think that is? A deer? A cow?"

It was the same sort of thing that the primary school student seated in front of them was saying.

"Hey, look at that person. Oooh, that's a puppet, right? Or just someone in makeup?"

She kept pointing left and right, urging Touko to look at various sights. Kanako-san seemed to have an unexpected fondness for this sort of thing. Who knew.

"Ah!"

"What is it this time?"

"Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Foetida en bouton."

"Rosa Chinensis?"

For a moment, Touko thought that it was the name of some character. That moment's hesitation was enough.

"Where!?"

"Ah – they've disappeared behind that rock."

The train was in motion. It wasn't possible to get off midway through. Just as Touko was ruing the fact that she hadn't seen them, Rosa Foetida suddenly popped into her field of vision.

"Rosa Foetida!"

Touko shouted out, without thinking about it. It probably wouldn't have reached her anyway. Not just because of the distance, but also because the sound of the steam engine and the clatter of the wheels would have drowned it out.

"Huh, where, where?"

This time it was Kanako-san that had missed out.

"The others could be there too."

They strained their eyes but couldn't find anyone else they knew.

The steam train returned to the station it had departed from. They were both puzzled as they disembarked.

"What was that all about?"

"Yeah."

It wasn't as though they doubted what the other said they saw. But still.

"On the one hand, there was Rosa Chinensis with Rosa Foetida en bouton."

"And on the other, there was Rosa Foetida by herself."

The impression they got from on board the train was that the two parties were some distance apart from each other.

"Just what kind of groups are they walking around in?"

– Without knowing about the drama that had unfolded earlier, it certainly looked like an inexplicable situation.