Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 2 Chapter 6

"-is what happened."

That Monday.

The usual peaceful days returned. &h.e.l.lip; or so Yumi wished, as she found herself in the Rose Mansion after school.

(Why am I stuck being interrogated by Rosa Foetida?)

The warm Darjeeling has become iced tea. For the past hour, she'd been caught by Rosa Foetida.

"Everyone's late today."

"They've escaped. From me."

"Huh?"

"Yumi-chan knows all the details, they said. So, you have an obligation to explain."

"What the."

She was wondering why no one was showing up even though there was supposed to be a committee meeting, but apparently they'd simply pushed everything to Yumi and escaped.

"So, keep going."

"But I've already told you everything."

But Rosa Foetida kept saying it wasn't enough of an adequate explanation, and kept insisting on more commentary. Even though she was gone for a while, Rosa Foetida was back to full power.

It was a bit awkward talking to Rosa Foetida when she's down, but this sort of obsessive Rosa Foetida is something you want to avoid, too. No wonder everyone ran away, leaving the newcomer, Yumi.

Rosa Foetida didn't really care for most things, but when she became interested in something, she would be relentless.

"Okay, Yumi-chan? I've been left behind these past two weeks, a pitiful being. And my own cute sisters were amidst a crisis, but I never noticed. Don't you think it's obvious I'd want to make up those two weeks?"

"Uh."

But it wasn't like she had amnesia. She'd been attending school for the first week, when everything was the most chaotic, and she still hadn't noticed, so Yumi thought it was a bit odd that she would drag someone into her own uproar.

"Oh, well. But everything's back to normal, right?"

"Yes."

"Yos.h.i.+no-chan's being released from the hospital next week?"

"Yes."

"That's good."

Rosa Foetida looked at her cold tea, made a face, then took it to the sink.

"Ah, I'll wash it."

"Oh? Sorry."

Yumi caught up with her and rolled up her uniform sleeves.

Sheesh. She was finally being acquitted.

It was like guidance counseling (not that she'd actually experienced that), being interrogated one-to-one, and it wasn't particularly pleasant. Compared to that, putting her hand to an icy sink was nothing.

"By the way, Rosa Foetida?"

"What?"

"Rosa Foetida&h.e.l.lip; um-"

Seeing Rosa Foetida humming happily made her want desperately to ask. Her swollen cheek, why she was absent for a week, and why she was at the hospital. But there was the matter of privacy, so she didn't feel comfortable asking. Then Rosa Foetida looked like she understood, and opened her mouth.

"Oh my, Yumi-chan, did you think I was pregnant, too?"

"Eh? Rosa Foetida was pregnant!?"

Yumi was so surprised she splashed water on herself. Rosa Foetida looked completely exasperated.

"I said 'did you think.' Of course I wasn't. I don't have a boyfriend."

"You don't?"

"I don't. I've been attending a girls' school since kindergarten, how am I supposed to meet one? Even the teachers are all grandpas and grandmas."

"All, but&h.e.l.lip;"

Well, that's true, she thought.

"Some of my cla.s.smates were worried about that, though, I wonder why?"

I wonder why? That was probably because of Rosa Foetida's behavior. Even as she dried off the sink with a rag, her heart beat rapidly. Talking about pregnancy was exciting for a high school freshman.

"Do I need to carry around my dentist's medical certificate?"

The second wave of surprise. It was a good thing she'd finished was.h.i.+ng.

"What, you didn't know? I had my wisdom teeth pulled."

Rosa Foetida opened her mouth wide and showed her the holes at the back of the left side of her jaw.

"Gosh, a bit of rice got stuck in it, it was horrible."

"Ehhhhhhhh!?"

Well, it went like this.

She didn't like the drill sound at a dentist's practice, so she'd always meticulously brushed her teeth and all. Rosa Foetida was proud she had never had to see a dentist. So the wisdom teeth popping out, being completely unrelated to brus.h.i.+ng teeth, was like an unfortunate accident. It probably would have been better if she'd immediately gone to a dentist, but she just couldn't take the sound of drills, and so she'd been unable to step through those doors. She was like a phantom.

"I know you might laugh, 'it's just a dentist!' But I'm frightened to death by them. I wondered whether it'd be alright to just die from wisdom teeth if I'd never have to see them."

Yumi could understand how she felt, though. But either way, you usually don't die from wisdom teeth.

"Plus, having people finding out that I'm scared of dentists at my age would be humiliating as Rosa Foetida."

"Um&h.e.l.lip; then you holding your swollen cheek and having teary eyes&h.e.l.lip;"

"It probably hurt so much I was at my limits. &h.e.l.lip; Oh, I ran into Yumi-chan?"

"You even said 'Yumi-chan' to me. And-"

Then Yumi stopped herself. She'd feel humiliated if she found out Yumi knew she'd gone home with her indoor shoes.

But, that might mean she had no idea she ran into Yumi and Yos.h.i.+no-san at the hospital? When she brought it up, she mentioned she didn't see anyone in a Lillian uniform.

"Oh, so it was Yumi-chan? And Yos.h.i.+no-chan was in that hospital, too?"

She was like Uras.h.i.+ma Tarou, Yumi thought. Those two weeks are simply vacant, for her.

In the end, Rosa Foetida was so embarra.s.sed by her inability to see a dentist she'd kept it a secret from her family. So her father panicked at the sight of Rosa Foetida groaning with a fever and called an ambulance. Luckily she was brought to a general practice, so there was a resident dentist, and they were able to pull the wisdom teeth out at the hospital. And her father found out, of course.

"But he did call an ambulance, right? So he said, don't come back immediately. He is the mayor, so he's a bit proud. So I stayed in the hospital until my fever went down, for his sake."

"He sounds like a great father."

"How?"

She asked dubiously. If you say something off-handedly I'll kill you, was written all over Rosa Foetida's face.

"Right-"

He was willing to look bad for someone he loved. Yumi thought that was lovely.

By the way.

I should report a bit on what happened afterward to Yos.h.i.+no-san, who'd created a sensation by liquidating a relations.h.i.+p by returning the rosary to her sister.

By the time Yos.h.i.+no-san made her return from the hospital, the Lillian girls' academy garden was dressed in winter, and students had largely forgotten about the Yellow Rose Revolution. Even the news of Yos.h.i.+no-san's return to school was simply printed on the "Lillian Kawaraban" as a small, token "we're sorry" sort of thing. They're so mercenary.

But, Yos.h.i.+no-san did it again.

This time, Yos.h.i.+no-san called Rei-sama out to the Maria-sama statue (!), bowed her head, and requested, "Please make me your sister."

For an undercla.s.sman to break up a relations.h.i.+p was obviously a rarity, but an undercla.s.sman requesting to be a sister was also unheard of. And everyone was in an uproar again.

That said, Yos.h.i.+no-san and Rei-sama came to school every day together again, ignoring all of the uproar surrounding them. Yumi couldn't have been the only one thinking they were closer than they were before the Revolution. Yos.h.i.+no-san seems to be serious about starting kendo next year.

Currently, the undercla.s.smen that were influenced by Yos.h.i.+no-san's catastrophe and returned their rosaries have begun requesting to be sisters again. A hush-hush boom. A lot of them split up as a spontaneous decision, so they probably ended up regretting it as time went on. It might have been the perfect time for Yos.h.i.+no-san to come back.

"Gosh, what are they thinking, anyways."

They don't have any self ident.i.ty, Sachiko-sama grumbled. But Yumi could kind of understand where they were coming from.

The Roses and the boutons were the idols of the school. So people were willing to do anything to become a bit more like them. Yumi was like that just a while ago, so she could understand.

Sachiko-sama would probably never understand, for all eternity. But the Sachiko-sama that would never understand that was the Sachiko-sama Yumi loved.

"By the way, Yumi."

After school, as they walked over the fallen gingko leaves, Sachiko-sama spoke with mischievous eyes.

"From now on, if you call me 'Sachiko-sama,' I won't reply."

"What?"

"Because. You're not trying to change what you call me."

And with that, Sachiko-sama turned her back to Yumi and kept walking. She'd said what she wanted to say, after all.

"Sachiko-samaaa"

Even though she chased after her, she held steadfastly to her resolution.

"If you don't want to be ignored, address me properly."

You get it, don't you, she seemed to say, and she kept walking without even glancing behind her. Yumi played with her hair. It felt somewhat awkward.

"&h.e.l.lip;e-sama."

"I didn't hear yoooou."

She was going to force Yumi to say it. Yumi looked around. Luckily, Maria-sama wasn't looking. "Onee-sama!"

Yumi's voice was awful clear in the middle of the gingko pathway. And then her onee-sama, as pretty as Maria-sama, turned around, answered with her own, clear "Yes?" and smiled, satisfied.