Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume20 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===


"Well? How many people are here?" Yoshino-san asked, as she began drafting the plans.

"Starting at lunch today there were seven first-years and five second-years," Mami-san answered. She didn't care whether she had to stay in the Rose Mansion through lunch or after school. For her, it was a mild distraction while spiritedly toiling at her life's work, the Lillian Kawaraban. The Newspaper Club underclassmen would come and go too, so the work was coming along. But for some reason, it seemed as if the place had become the "Newspaper Club &ndash; Rose Mansion Branch." 

Now that the Newspaper Club personnel would come more, the third-years would come less.

"We said that we'd let you guys handle it, so this is what happens. It's not as if we're avoiding the Rose Mansion or something. If something needs to be done, we come, and sometimes we amble over to the Rose Mansion and just eat our lunches. It's just that all the recent talk has been about the tea party, and we don't want to get into that."

When the Roses put all of their reasons together, it was as if they were treating their boutons as adults.

"I understand. It's just that you're coming less than we thought you would."

First, Mami-san had put out the application in the Lillian Kawaraban, but now even she began collecting the applications.

"But there's twelve people here."

Even Yumi took a break from planning the layout of the invitation and looked up. Of course, there weren't any more people involved past those who were expected to come from the beginning.

The day when they had decided to change it from an audition to a tea party, and when they decided to announce it in an extra in the Lillian Kawaraban had been Wednesday. From that day after school they had begun to receive applications, and up 'til today, the first day of the month, a little more than four days had passed. If you exclude the Sundays that they had off from school, then it would be only three days. <!-- Note 1 -->

"I don't think any of them really understand what the rules are though . . ." Mami-san said, as she looked through the application printed in the Lillian Kawaraban.

"I think it would be best if we put big letters in the paper that simply say, 'Submit Your Applications at the First Floor of the Rose Mansion.' That way, overenthusiastic people, and people who simply misunderstood the rules, would have no problems," Noriko-chan said. There were no mistakes in the Lillian Kawaraban, after all.

For that matter, the restrictions were a bit harsh. Among the applicants who did not have petite &mdash; or grande &mdash; s&oelig;urs, nobody knew how many would actually be interviewed. Even amongst them, the amount that was thought of as willing to cooperate in the tea party was not really that large. <!-- Note 1.2 -->

"Girls who double over in fright when they enter the Rose Mansion shall not become our s&oelig;urs!"

"Yoshino-san . . ."

Yumi's face wasn't the only one that said that she was wrong. Mami-san, Shimako-san, and Noriko-chan's glances added to the accusation.

"What?"

"This is about picking our s&oelig;urs, but, for now, come on."

"I see. So it's just going to be a gathering of regular people, huh? But I'll bet there will be some strong candidates in the mix."

Yoshino-san understood, and took a seat. Right now the car was in park, but at any time it could drop back into drive with full throttle. <!-- I am absolutely taking liberty in rewriting this metaphor -LV -->

"This way, the applicants will take care of themselves."

If one were to suddenly go up the stairs, they would see the chaos. From the Rose Mansion's first floor desk, the path would lead to the filled-out application forms and a ballpoint pen. Also, there was a 30 x 4 cm box created to deposit and withdraw letters. During lunch and after school, letters would be placed in the box, and beside the box there was a gathering of other materials. Right now it was the Newspaper Club first-years who were in charge.

"About twelve applicants, huh? It seems there was no reason to make the box as big as it is."

"That's because the number applicants has been constantly decreasing." <!-- Note 1.3 -->

Noriko-chan had said that neither the amount of applications they had prepared from the start, nor the amount of applications they will have received by lunch today, would equal the number of actual applicants. But that wasn't necessarily what would happen, and it was a bit wrong.

"There are some who filled out the form incorrectly, and had to have their forms voided. There must be some people who came once, but returned because they were unsure of whether to apply or not, right?"

"I don't think there are any more than forty people who either made mistakes on their forms or an unsure of whether to enter or not."

Said Mami-san tiredly, in her retort to Noriko-chan's crisp question. Then, as if remembering something, she searched around in a paper bag and fished out a tea bag.

"There must be some returned applications too. But since those aren't related to the regular applications, we don't really count them."

"Huh?"

Both of them rose at the same time.

"You know, requests and encouragement? Those sorts of letters."

Mami-san said, as she raised one piece of paper in the air and read from it.

"'Yumi-sama &ndash; Good luck, and pick a fantastic s&oelig;ur!'"

"Oh my."

"'Yoshino-sama and Yumi-sama should know what their prospects for finding s&oelig;urs are, shouldn't they?'"

"What?!"

"'We just wanted to ask. Could two regular second-years help out? We could invite a lot of first years'"

". . ."

Everyone's general requests were being mixed in with the bouton's s&oelig;ur-picking applications. If these sorts of comments kept coming in, there would be no meaning in having a tea party any more.

"There are more, but they are all mostly the same thing, so I'll save you from having to hear them. There are about twenty in total. But maybe there is some value in looking over them, so you can skim them later."

But the problem was that there were more messages from people who were not applicants than from those who were. There was no point in moving the submissions box to the second floor of the Rose Mansion. It wasn't as if she were feeling cold towards them, it's just that she wished that people who were not applicants would not spend the time to go up the stairs and deposit their message.

"But, you know, there's no real harm this time," Yumi proposed. "The ones who are applying would apply anyway, so whether the others go into the trash or are submitted here shouldn't have any effect, right?"

"This isn't a trash for everyone to put things into. This is for participants."

But they couldn't change things around because there were too few applicants. There were only two more days until the End of Registration date. How could they change the date so close to the end?

"Something relating to the applicants must be failing to excite them. So we need to reflect on the applications, and the tea party itself. There are also some interesting things happening outside of the Rose Mansion."

Mami-san said.

"Interesting things?"

"So far this year, the number of s&oelig;ur relationships being sworn is increasing."

"Really?"

This is the sort of rumor that distant Yumi would likely have heard for the first time, but it seemed even Yoshino-san and Shimako-san haven't heard it. Noriko-chan was a Lillian first-year, so she obviously did not know what was usual for a year. Maybe Tsutako-san was the one who noticed it. She received requests for pictures, so she would probably know about the situation well.

"During first term, around May, when new members join the club as beginners, a large mass enters and they become s&oelig;urs. The spit really flies."

Mami-san continued with her lecture.

"The next period is the School Festival. After that there's Christmas, Valentine's Day, and those sorts of events, so it's easy to get together. The next big one is the school closing ceremony. Even if they rejected requests before, people will go on vacation on the next day, so they make different decisions."

Of course, of course, the heads nodded.

"So right now, as far as s&oelig;ur pairings go, there's a relative lull. Last year, because of someone, there were several breakups and reconciles, but that's rare in most other years."

When she said "someone," all gazes turned towards a person: the very person responsible. The one responsible for the Yellow Rose Revolution, Yoshino-san, looked back with a face that said "There's something wrong all of a sudden?"

"How did Mami-san come to this conclusion?"

"Maybe if you call it a last-minute buyout, it works. 'Do you have some first-year you like? Well, she obviously doesn't have an onee-sama, right? You like her, but you don't do anything definitive, so you just stay friends.' But then, this year there's the tea party."

"Hm?"

"Maybe someone wanted to participate in the tea party. She probably thinks 'Should I apply or not?' And then, she suddenly thinks 'But if someone else gets the Rosary, that would be very unfair.'"

"Oh, of course."

"If a second-year says, 'Don't go to the tea party, but become my s&oelig;ur instead,' then a first-year will think about it &mdash; and that's how the s&oelig;ur relationship is made, and with someone who she knows. This doesn't happen to everyone, but this must happen to some."

Rather than creating participants, the tea party can act as cupid, and make s&oelig;ur couples. But, even indirectly, if the goal was that two girls who wanted to become s&oelig;urs, but could not find their partner, could instead find a meeting place, then that made Yumi happy.

"At this rate, we'll have to invite all of the applicants to the tea party itself. Well, the number of applicants will probably increase by the final day. But there's been a stampede of s&oelig;urs."

Mami-san laughed coldly as she finished her analysis.

"Well, it's four 'o clock, so we are finished accepting applications for today," said the Newspaper Club first-years, as they poked their faces into the shadows of the biscuit-shaped door.

"Ah, thank you for the effort. It's been cold. Come in."

Yumi pulled out chairs, and handed out tea. The two had met in the Newspaper Club clubroom. They were two "Hopeful Rookies."

"How many came?"

"About ten people. There were about seven people who submitted application forms. Some of them had come to register, but. . . ."

Opening the ball-shaped lock on the back, they dumped the newly submitted letters onto the table.

"Ah, you're right. There's no name, there's no class, there's not even an appeal comment on it, only something on the back is written . . . wha&mdash;?! It's like an opposing vote: 'Matsudaira Touko-san is eyeing Ogasawara Sachiko-sama.' What is this? It's kinda scary. . . ."

Then Noriko-chan joined in with a black expression on her face, "It really has a bad feeling about it."

"Yeah."

It wasn't just Noriko-chan; these weren't complaints that were tolerable to listen to. Everyone in the room said, "Yeah, it does," and nodded. But the reason Noriko-chan had said "a bad feeling" had not been just because of the statement.

"Even in class, it feels this bad. The girls who don't like Touko-san seem to have a sort of weird filter over their eyes when they look out. There are rumors about whether Touko-san is participating this time. Ask the person directly, I'd say."

Stopping when she felt it appropriate, Noriko-chan essentially had dropped a scary bomb upon the conversation, after which the conversation became dark.

"So then, what about Touko-chan?!"

Yumi asked, and then Noriko-chan shook her head and replied "Everything."

"Maybe she hasn't noticed it, or maybe she's just ignoring it, but she shouldn't be pressured about whether she's entering or not."

"Of course. Touko-chan is a very delicate person after all."

The moment after Yumi finished talking, for some reason, the room fell quiet.

Huh? Did people not think that Touko-chan was delicate? Or is it that, words like those weren't wholly in character for her?

"Yes," Shimako-san whispered to herself, after much thought. "But why is Touko-chan so angry?"

". . . Ahh."

Noriko-chan did not answer. Was it because Noriko-chan thought her answer was vague? Or maybe it was because she was confident in her answer, but was not comfortable with speaking so freely about it? Or maybe she just couldn't find the correct words to frame her answer in? Well, the reason she didn't say must be one of those.

"Well, there is Matsudaira Touko-san, but," Mami-san opened an application that she took from the box and read it. "Hosokawa Kanako-san still has not applied."

Then one of the Newspaper Club hopeful rookies, looking as if they would add something to the conversations, raised their right hand into the air and said, "Yes."

"Kanako-san has declared that she will not become Yumi-sama's s&oelig;ur, though."

"I have heard it. But, you know, a woman's heart is fickle. After she began coming to the Rose Mansion to help out, perhaps her opinion changed."

As Yumi heard this, she thought to herself "Maybe that's true." Even Touko-chan had said this recently, but Kanako-chan had definitely changed from before. She had taken out her sword and readied herself. She had also become a bit more open in socializing, but did she feel like she was getting closer to her or drifting away? If you roughly handle and hurt Kanako-chan, then you should move your hand back as soon as you can.

"Huuuh. That girl."

Mami-san slapped the one page application in front of her and laughed.

"She wrote her appeal comment out straight."

Mami-san stood up, and trained the pitch in her voice, as if she were performing a play on a street for a crowd of onlookers chanting, "What, what?!"

"'From the moment I entered the Student Council, I felt as if I had become a main character amongst the cast of Roses. Whether it is Yumi-sama or it is Yoshino-sama, either one of you, won't you please make me your s&oelig;ur?' and that's it." <!-- Note 3 -->

Either one of you. Well.

"That's a frank admission, but if you look at the impression that such an admission normally gives, it makes you feel as if their true feelings are masked in silk. . . ."

"Maybe a person with too much self confidence? Or a kid who knows no struggle? Or maybe it's the result of a fight between two s&oelig;urs. . . ."

Yoshino-san rolled her sleeves up meaninglessly.

"First Year, Chrysanthemum Class, Naitou Shouko . . . do you know her?"

Noriko-chan answered "No" to Mami-san's question.

"Isn't that . . . maybe it's Naitou Katsumi-sama's little sister?"

Yoshino-san said.

"The one who, in order to spend her third year in the same class as Torii Eriko-sama, pushed herself to reach Rank Two on her exams? Of course, she must have a little sister. She's using her real sister to get revenge upon the Rose Family, huh?"

"Isn't that reason a bit weak?"

Shimako-san broke the madly rambling Yoshino-san.

"Why is Shouko-san becoming Yoshino-san's s&oelig;ur a form of revenge?"

"Because, as soon as she becomes s&oelig;urs with me, she would have all the leeway to be as violent as she could want. As her onee-sama, she would hassle me."

All the leeway to be violent. Hassling the older sister. Just who was the person who was saying all these things? But Yumi stayed quiet, because if she voiced her thoughts, this person would start acting violently.

"Well, if that's what she's planning, then why didn't she write 'Yoshino-sama, I want to become your s&oelig;ur'? She said either Yoshino-san or Yumi-san, either would be fine. That's kind of strange, isn't it?"

"Oh, really? Then what is her real motive?"

She understood the point of what Shimako-san was trying to say, but Private Eye Yoshino, when she talked about this 'Naitou Shouko' whom she hadn't seen, her eyes took up a certain cast that knew she would not easily let go of her conviction.

It was one-sided, because Yumi was included too.

(Naitou Katsumi-sama, and her little sister, Shouko-san . . . huh.)

When she heard the two names in her head, for a moment it seemed as if she remembered something. But because her head was filled with thoughts of the tea party and Touko-chan and Kanako-chan and onee-sama and other such thoughts that she could not forget, her head had no way to store any extraneous information, and she would soon forget about it.

She would remember it when, days later, she would meet with the real Naitou Shouko-san.