Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume6 Chapter2 4

Hors d'oeuvre. Part 4.

"Hmmm"

Folding her arms and muttering to herself in front of the movie theater was Takeshima Tsutako.

"They have to get by with only 3000 yen for the date, and they're using it to see a movie?"

That the pair which had entered the movie theater weren't going to see movie was unimaginable. It had been about three minutes since Hasekura Rei-sama and her half-day partner for today, Miss Tanuma Chisato, had bought tickets at the counter and disappeared inside the movie theater. A look at what was printed on the gargantuan session listing confirmed her suspicion that they were going to see a sickly-sweet adolescent love story.

"Buying two tickets with a student discount won't leave them any change."

There's no way they'd go without lunch, right? As she thought that, her own stomach rumbled. She checked the running time of the movie. It went for over two hours, so she could get something to eat now. She didn't plan on joining them in watching a movie she had no interest in, instead she might be able to find Shimako-san and Shizuka-sama during that time, if she got lucky.

"Hamburgers are safe, but ..."

For some reason, she wasn't in the mood for one.

"I want to eat rice."

And not something like curry, or a pilaf either, it tasted best when eaten in something simple and Japanese, like onigiri rice balls, or norimaki rice rolls.

This was because she had eaten a western breakfast of a muffin, potato salad and cup soup before coming. No matter what, she wanted a Japanese lunch. A western lunch would be wrong.

"I guess I could buy a boxed lunch on the first floor, and eat it at a park."

Entering a Japanese restaurant and dining alone probably has too high a degree-of-difficulty for a girl in her first year of high school. Reluctantly, Tsutako came to this decision, simply because her bank balance was lonely, and bid farewell.

The food stores were all crowded together in a narrow alley, so she forced her way through the crowd to arrive in front of her goal, the boxed lunch store. She ordered two different types of onigiri rice balls, kelp and plum. She planned to acquire some side dishes at a different store that specialized in that. Sautéed thistle root, or boiled fish and vegetables, or perhaps sliced and dried radish strips would be good.

While waiting to pay at the register, her gaze was idly drifting around the various stores when it passed across a face at a shop no more than 10 metres in front of her.

"Shimako-san!?"

Tsutako handed over a 1000 yen note and received her change, then hurried off in pursuit, but Shimako-san had already disappeared from sight. There were so many people here that, having lost her in the crowd, finding her again would be quite difficult.

But now she was wondering if that actually had been Shimako-san. Tsutako was starting to doubt herself because, when she saw her, she didn't have Kanina Shizuka-sama by her side.

"Oh well. I guess I'll finish my shopping."

Following her plan, Tsutako ordered 100 grams of sautéed thistle root and, because it looked so tasty, 100 grams of boiled kelp and soybeans. She thought it was a bit too much for one person to eat, but being a cameraman was a test of strength, so she should be fine.

This time as she was paying with coins, she again saw a face she recognized out of the corner of her eye.

"Shizuka-sama!?"

Tsutako saw her standing in front of a shop diagonally opposite the one she was currently in. So the distance wasn't a problem, but if she didn't turn around, she wouldn't pass by Tsutako's current location.

It was like deja vu. A bad premonition coming to pass. Just as she thought, when she finally made it out of the store, Shizuka-sama had disappeared.

But there was no doubting that it had been Shizuka-sama. That they had both been on this floor was the final proof.

"But why were they both on the same floor, yet acting independently?"

The store that Shizuka-sama had been in was a delicatessen that a high class hotel had set up in the station building.