Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter3 1

Me and the Interviewer. Part 1.

For some reason, she had a bad feeling about things.

It's not something that could be put into words, but for the last two or three days she hadn't been able to calm down.

It was as though someone was watching her, or following her – that kind of sensation.

It could just be her imagination. Or maybe an evil spirit had attached itself to her. If it kept going for too long she'd have to have an exorcism performed, something that would make it leave.

"Mami, you can't sense anything?"

Tsukiyama Minako asked her petit soeur, who she had unexpectedly encountered in the hallway.

"Nope?"

Mami had a quick look around the area, then shrugged her shoulders.

"If you're talking about signs of life, then there's a lot of high school students scattered around all over the place – "

"That's not what I was talking about."

It wasn't long ago that the morning classes and home room had been completed. The halls of the high school buildings were filled with students going here and there.

"Are you sure you haven't caught a cold?"

Mami asked, putting her hand to Minako's forehead. Minako shook her off, saying 'Quit it.'

"Tomorrow's the graduation ceremony, you know. Why don't you go home and get some rest? Or maybe have a lie down in the infirmary?"

"Don't treat me like I'm some sick person. I will not be going home now, nor will I go to the infirmary."

"Oh? You have business to attend to?"

"… Pretty much."

During that pause, Minako thought she was being set-up for a one-liner from Mami, but nothing came. Instead she got:

"Well then, I'll give you this."

"A bread roll?"

What she was offered was a single bread roll in a thin paper bag.

"We were planning on having an editorial meeting this afternoon in the clubroom, right? So I bought you a bread roll from Milk Hall. Since the meeting was canceled, please go ahead and eat it. Or if you brought a lunch-box, I could go and fetch it for you."

"I didn't bring one. Anyway, why was the meeting canceled?"

"Hidemi had a sudden toothache."

"What a spoiled child. She's your petit soeur. It's just a toothache. If she had any willpower, she'd still be able to attend a meeting."

"Well, that's true."

Mami kept holding the paper bag by it's opening with her right hand, and folded her arms across her chest.

"If it was just Hidemi, then I'd be saying the same thing. But two others left with a stomachache and a headache, so I didn't press the matter."

Two others?

"They're not faking it?"

"Geeze, onee-sama. Don't you think you're being paranoid?"

"… I guess."

This is Lillian's Girls Academy. We are all children of our mother in heaven, Maria-sama. There would be no-one here who would feign an illness, or doubt people without any proof – Well, let's just set that aside for now.

But if that was true, then the newspaper club was full of sick people. More than Minako, it was her juniors that needed the school infirmary.

"They've all gone home to rest up, but I expect they will all be perfect for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. All of us are the Lillian's Girls Academy Newspaper Club and – "

"Yeah, yeah. I get it."

Mami usually offered up a good argument, but Minako wasn't in the mood to hear it, so she took the bread roll she had been offered. When she went to take out her purse, she was told 'It's a graduation gift.'

"Thank-you."

After saying this, Minako turned away from her petit soeur. Her graduation present was a single bread roll. More surprisingly, it was enough to bring tears to her eyes.