Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume15 Chapter4

Casting Aside Embarrassment of One's Parents

Part 1

For the athletics festival, they were allowed to have their lunch wherever they wanted.

They could eat in their team area, or return to their classroom, or venture out to the courtyard, or go to Milk Hall.

Ideally, they'd also be able to spread out and have lunch with their families, but that didn't look possible this year. The parents' supporter section was jam packed, so there didn't look to be any room to fit students in there too. Although there were some students that had found a patch of free space near the oval and were having lunch with their parents.

"Yumi."

After the club relay finished, and the announcement informing them of their hour long break, Sachiko-sama slowly made her way across the nylon sheets towards Yumi, from the front seats that the cheer squad had been occupying.

"Yes."

"Let's go … no, would you please lead me."

"Okay?"

Yumi asked back. If it had just been, "Let's go," then she would have understood. But since there was also, "Please lead me," she wasn't sure what was going on.

"You have to go to the classroom to get your lunch box… don't you?"

While they were talking, other members of the green team were leaving, saying, "We're heading out."

The newspaper club's Mami-san and the photography club's Tsutako-san also left – either because they didn't want to interrupt a conversation between soeurs, or they wanted to find a spot to eat as soon as possible, or because they thought this break time would be an opportunity to stumble upon some good material.

"… Lunch box? Ah, that's true. We can walk together, even though we're in different classes."

"Hah."

"At any rate, we should attend to that other matter first, before lunch …"

With that, it looked as though Yumi's deduction had missed the mark.

But even so, Yumi thought it would be nice if they went to get their lunch boxes and then had lunch together, despite being in different grades.

Yoshino-san had been led off somewhere by Rei-sama, who had crossed over enemy lines to get her.

Despite being irritated with Rei-sama, Yoshino-san still looked a bit happy when she appeared. Yumi thought that might be enough to put her in a good mood, but Yoshino-san's expression quickly changed to one of displeasure. That said, Yumi didn't fail to notice that Yoshino-san's raw emotions had shown on her face, just for a moment. Yoshino-san loved Rei-sama.

"So then, where should I lead you, onee-sama?"

Something they had to do at lunch time before eating lunch – whatever could it be? They didn't have any Yamayurikai work today, but even so there was somewhere Yumi was supposed to take her onee-sama. No matter how much she thought about it, Yumi couldn't find the answer.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Obvious?"

It was obvious, huh. Where, when, and by who was that decided? Yumi's thoughts were spinning round and round and round and round inside her head.

"I give up, onee-sama. Please tell me the answer."

"You know what I'm talking about, you're just mocking me."

Sachiko-sama's face reddened slightly.

"N-not at all."

That was preposterous. Mocking Sachiko-sama was such a reckless act that Yumi would never be able to do it – in many ways.

"You really don't know?"

"… I'm sorry."

Yumi didn't think she'd done anything wrong just yet, but she apologized anyway. She couldn't rule out the possibility that she had committed some transgression against her onee-sama for failing to find the right answer.

"So then, you weren't planning on introducing me?"

"Introducing you … who would I be introducing you to, onee-sama?"

"To your parents."

Sachiko-sama turned around, sulking, and Yumi finally understood.

"Ah."

"Not "Ah." Really, how can you be so dense? All morning, no, since last night, I was so worried about it that I couldn't get to sleep. And yet …"

"You couldn't get to sleep, onee-sama?"

Yumi smiled, feeling a little happy. Sachiko-sama was always full of self-confidence, but the thought of meeting her petite soeur's parents had her losing sleep.

"Of course. I was thinking about if I'd be able to properly greet your mother and father when I met them, and whether or not I'd be able to make a good impression."

That sort of comment would make sense coming from her parents, but it felt a bit strange hearing it come from Sachiko-sama's mouth.

"But onee-sama, I'm sure you could handle introductions with anyone."

Even if they were foreign nobility, Sachiko-sama would hold her head high and greet them magnificently.

"Your parents are an exception."

"Huh?"

"I want them to like me."

"…"

Ahh, so that was it – Yumi suddenly understood. This wasn't the first time that Sachiko-sama had lacked confidence.

On the evening of their Valentine's Day date, when she'd admitted she was nervous about calling Yumi's house.

At her summer holiday house, when she'd mumbled that she couldn't protect Yumi.

At Lady Saionji's birthday party, when Yumi had to put on a musical performance in lieu of a gift.

Sachiko-sama's mountain of self-confidence could easily come crashing down, whenever it was something related to Yumi.

Perhaps Yumi was Sachiko-sama's Achilles' heel.

So Sachiko-sama had built this up internally to be a much bigger deal than Yumi had thought.

"Then I'll lead you to them."

Yumi started to walk, leading the way.

It was a little, no, quite embarrassing, but she set that aside. It was nothing compared to how hard her onee-sama's heart must be pounding.

"But my parents really aren't that impressive."

Their daughter may go to a school for ladies, but the Fukuzawas came from a long line of commoners.

Her father got carried away easily, and her mother was a bit of a scatterbrain. But they were both kind and honest people. They may not have been all that impressive, but Yumi was still proud of her parents.

So Yumi would introduce her parents that she was proud of to the onee-sama that she was proud of.

"Will I be okay?"

Now that it was about to happen, Sachiko-sama was suddenly hesitating. Yumi grasped her shivering hand and gave a huge nod.

"Of course. Because my mom and dad already love you, onee-sama."

"Really?"

Sachiko-sama asked, as though she didn't believe it. But it was the truth, not just an attempt at consolation.

"Even though you haven't met, they could tell just by watching me. That Ogasawara Sachiko-sama is an important person to me."

"Ahh … I see. In that case, I understand."

Sachiko-sama mumbled.

"Because my parents always talk about you like that too, Yumi."

Part 2

Her parents were just as oblivious to what was about to occur as Yumi had been, so as Yumi led Sachiko-sama over to the parents' seating area, they were relaxing fully and eating their fill of onigiri rice balls and fried chicken.

"This is my onee-sama, Ogasawara Sachiko-sama."

So when Yumi performed this introduction, they didn't understand what was happening at first, and looked up with expressions that said, "Oh, okay," followed by a moment of silent surprise, before they both immediately started choking on their food.

"A pleasure to meet you. Yumi-san is always looking out for me."

Her onee-sama said, sounding a little stressed.

"B-but you're the one that's always looking out for me."

The atmosphere was a little awkward. It was like a scene from a TV drama, where the heroine was introducing her boyfriend to her parents for the first time.

In such a situation, the seated father would undoubtedly look displeased and fold his arms. The nervous mother would attempt to mediate, while the daughter would sigh, "Good grief."

Instead.

Cough, cough.

Her actual parents were too busy dislodging bits of food from their trachea that they didn't have any time to evaluate the person their daughter had just introduced.

"Mom, dad."

Even when she called out to them, their only response was coughing. As a result, Yumi leapt straight from awkwardness to embarrassment.

"A-are you okay?"

Sachiko-sama had been so nervous and stiff on her way over here, but even so this accident immediately loosened her up. Well, it would be hard to stay nervous when your opponent was coughing and spluttering.

"… Pardon me. I'm Yumi's father."

"… I'm her mother."

Her parents spoke softly after recovering from their coughing fit.

Ahh, if only they could dig a hole beneath their vinyl sheet and bury themselves down there – Such were the thoughts of all three Fukuzawa family members.

(Sorry for leaving you behind, Yuuki. You'll just have to survive on your own.)

While there had been some movement because it was lunch time, the parents' seating area was still fairly full, so there was no way they could dig a hole surrounded by all these people eating happily.

But while her parents couldn't dig a hole to escape, they still looked like they'd taken a devastating blow, and remained motionless, looking down. It was as though a mourner from a funeral had somehow found their way into the middle of a picnic.

Because both her parents knew full well just how much Yumi loved Sachiko-sama. So they were quite depressed that their first meeting with Yumi's ever adored onee-sama would turn out like this.

"Ah, is that fried chicken?"

Sachiko-sama suddenly asked.

"It looks great."

She said, peering into the multi-level lunch box.

"May I try one?"

Even though she was feeling quite down, Yumi's mother took a plastic skewer and skewered one of the pieces of chicken before offering it to Sachiko-sama saying, "Please, have this." – Well, that's just the sort of person she was.

"Is that alright? Thank-you."

Sachiko-sama accepted it without hesitation and popped it into her mouth. The other three held their breath and watched, as Sachiko-sama simply said, "It's delicious."

"These lunches that your mother makes are really good, Yumi. When was it … right, when we went to our holiday home, you offered me some of the lunch that she had made. I thought the same back then too."

Sachiko-sama faced Yumi when she said this, so Yumi kept the conversation going.

"Ah, that's right. That lunch even provoked you to overcome your hatred of dried pickled plums and asparagus."

"Saying I hated them would be overstating it. But the caretakers at the villa did copy that menu exactly for our lunchbox on the way home. The onigiri was made with the Koshihikari rice that you sent us, so they turned out quite well, but it seemed like they hadn't figured out that you had both crispy and moist seaweed types … "

Sachiko-sama gestured as she kept talking on and on. Perhaps as a result of this, Yumi's mom and dad started to show signs that they were very slowly climbing out of the abyss.

"Have some onigiri too, if you'd like."

"Oh no, I didn't mean to sound like I was pressuring you. But since you're offering, I'll gladly take one."

After cleaning her hands with the offered wet towel, Sachiko-sama sat down on the groundsheet and started eating an onigiri rice ball in earnest.

This time, Yumi's mom had used the moist nori wrapping for the onigiri. In the middle was, of course, their family's standard pickled dried plum.

"Thank-you for the meal."

In the short time it took for Sachiko-sama to eat a single onigiri, the mood softened and she fit in so well that it was like Sachiko-sama really was an older cousin that had come to visit their house.

"Give it your all this afternoon, you two."

"We'll cheer twice as loud for the green team too, since your parents couldn't be here, Sachiko-san."

Yumi's parents had been swept up in their illusions about Sachiko-sama, knowing only that she was a daughter of the Ogasawara group and the onee-sama of their cute daughter. But having actually met her, they seemed relieved to find out that she was more normal a person than they had imagined.

Her parents bade them farewell, saying they wished they had more time to talk, preferably in their home living room rather than on that rectangular groundsheet, and Yumi and Sachiko-sama made their way towards the school building.

"They're wonderful people."

Sachiko-sama smiled as they walked.

"R-really?"

"They just seem so right as your parents."

"That doesn't feel like it's a compliment."

Saying it felt right, after seeing those scatterbrained parents, didn't seem to mesh with her earlier statement that they were wonderful people.

"But it is. A cheerful family, so normal and good."

"…"

Still, she couldn't see it as a compliment, no matter how favorably she looked at it. Even if Sachiko-sama's family was an anomaly and she yearned for a normal family, then it was troubling that she thought that what she'd just seen was a typical, normal family. Seriously troubling.

They ran into Mami-san as they were passing by the library. She was busy writing in her notebook as she walked, but Yumi didn't know what she was working on.

"Is that for the Lillian Kawaraban?"

"No, it's for the athletics festival."

Although earlier she'd said that she didn't have much to do after the pre-entrance-ceremony check this morning. Perhaps her duties had changed.

"Do you want me to help out after I've eaten lunch?"

"Oh, really? That'd be great … although, as much as I'd like to, I can't accept your help, Yumi-san."

"Why not?"

"It's like, no matter how busy a teacher might be, she still wouldn't let a student help write the exam."

Mami-san closed her notebook, said, "See you," and left at a brisk pace. On the way, she seemed to stop and look at random places, as though checking on something, although Yumi had no idea what she was doing.

"Do you know what she's doing, onee-sama?"

Yumi asked, as they watched her classmate shrink into the distance.

The answer, "Yes," came immediately.

"It's related to the event you're entered in this afternoon, don't you think?"

"The event I'm entered in."

That would be.

"The scavenger hunt … ?"

Even though she'd watched it last year, Yumi had completely forgotten what the Lillian Girls' Academy High School scavenger hunt was like. So until Sachiko-sama had pointed it out, she hadn't even considered that Mami-san and the other members of the athletics festival organizing committee would spend their lunchtime researching for it.

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