Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume12 Chapter4 2 (section)

=== <noinclude> The Rich Princes and Princesses. </noinclude>Part 2 ===

"Oh, Yukichi's heading this way with a girl."

The young guy with a strange sense of style &mdash; Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, but jet black hair in a bowl cut &mdash; whistled when he spotted Yumi and Yuuki in the bustling downtown area.

"You sure about that? Kashiwagi-sempai might be watching from somewhere."

When they approached, he raised his sunglasses. Yumi thought she had seen him somewhere before, and it was indeed Yuuki's classmate, Kobayashi-kun. Once he recognized Yumi's face, his attitude changed immediately and he bowed his head. 

"Oh, it's Fukuzawa-kun's sister. A pleasure to meet you once again."

He offered a proper greeting, as befitting a student of the prestigious Hanadera Academy. But . . . hmm, wouldn't a less distinguished greeting be more appropriate? Maybe Yuuki put on a front when he was outside too.

"Still, you two sure do get along well together."

"What are you talking about? She said she wanted to come, so I brought her, that's all," Yuuki spat, reddened slightly from the dig. He was obviously embarrassed to be seen by his friends hanging out with his sister. Yumi felt a slight pang of sympathy for her brother.

"So, Yumi-san, have you seen the main sights yet?"

"No. It seems like all the places mentioned in the guidebook are packed, though."

"Well, it is peak season," Kobayashi-kun readily agreed. Since he'd arrived here earlier than Yumi and Yuuki, he probably had first hand experience of that. "The lines are huge, but the cafe would have pizza and ice cream."

Yuuki sighed. Kobayashi-kun thought for a little while then said, "Ice cream, ice cream . . . alright, let's go."

Kobayashi-kun clapped once then cantered off, leaving behind the Fukuzawa siblings.

"What's he talking about?"

"How would I know?"

Kobayashi-kun ducked and weaved his way through the crowd like a baby monkey, so they chased after him to see where he was going. His loud Hawaiian shirt served as the perfect landmark as it appeared and disappeared amid the crowd.

&ndash; Ice cream. Let's go.

True to his words, Kobayashi-kun brought them to a famous coffee shop. 

"I'll treat you to their specialty: mocha ice cream."

"Huh? Why?" Yumi asked, surprised. 

Kobayashi-kun smiled awkwardly and answered, "It just seems like the right time."

But the line in front of the shop was now even longer than before. They'd need some sort of magic to jump in front of the people already lined up.

And, just like that, magic happened.

"Thank you for waiting. Two mocha ice cream."

A boy emerged from the store and handed Yumi and Yuuki each an ice cream cone.

"Thanks."

Kobayashi-kun handed the boy a 1000 yen note. The boy said, "Thank you," and walked off, meeting up with another boy that was carrying two additional ice cream cones.

"Um, uh, um." Yumi had no idea what sleight of hand she had just witnessed.

But Kobayashi-kun said, "Don't worry about it, eat up."

"It's okay, Yumi, you can eat it. Those guys are our juniors."

"That's right. Luckily, they bought a double serving. We can get them to line up again, if necessary."

"But they had another two ice cream cones." <!-- forgive me; one of the VERY rare times I'll ever edit dialogue -LV -->

"Those are for our seniors. I saw them, using those guys as gofers."

Striking it lucky so to speak, Kobayashi-kun had spotted them at the front of the line. They'd already ordered, but offered to sell their ice cream for 500 yen each, to which Kobayashi-kun had unhesitatingly agreed. 

"Time is money, after all."

Kobayashi-kun laughed, looking satisfied. Yumi felt like that wasn't quite the right meaning of that phrase, but her ice cream was melting so she concentrated on eating it instead. One step ahead, Yuuki had already finished eating his ice cream. He pulled a 1000 yen note out of his pocket and offered it to Kobayashi-kun, who wouldn't accept it.

"You can owe me one."

"Owing you one's more costly than 1000 yen."

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

"It's not okay."

"Oh, now it's on."

They faced each other, each of them with their right hand in a fist, and catching the other's right hand in their left. They seemed to be playing around. Yumi thought that the way the boys interacted was kind of nice, even if it was a bit crude and violent. She would probably never be able to get that sort of close physical relationship with Sachiko-sama.

She watched the pleasant spectacle unfold.

"It's true, two Yukichis"

"They look identical, even though they're not twins."

Two huge men suddenly appeared before her eyes. They were both holding a half-eaten mocha ice cream.

"Nikkou-sempai, Gakkou-sempai," Yuuki said when he saw them.

Nikkou and Gakkou? The question of, "What's that?" swirled around and around in Yumi's head. She didn't know if they were first names, last names, or nicknames. Well, they were probably nicknames, since they called Yuuki "Yukichi."

"That reminds me, some time ago Kashiwagi-san said, 'Yukichi'd be cute if he were a girl.'"

She didn't know which was which, but Nikkou-san and Gakkou-san chatted to each other as though they were watching TV as they ate their soft-serve ice cream. Naturally, they were currently tuned in to watch the Fukuzawa siblings.

"Then we'd better introduce Yukichi's onee-chan to Kashiwagi-san. If they got married, he'd become Yukichi's older brother."

Guh . . . the shiver that ran through her entire body was not from the cold mocha ice cream she'd just eaten. Even if it were hypothetical, being paired with Kashiwagi-san gave her the chills.

"But he's already got a fiancée."

"Ah, I thought I'd heard something like that."

Kobayashi-kun chose that moment to happily jump into their conversation. "That's your onee-san's onee-san, right Yukichi?"

"You idiot, that's just gossip."

"Yukichi's onee-san's onee-san will be Kashiwagi-san's wife? . . . Then Yukichi and Kobayashi's relationship&mdash;"

Wasn't really anything. They disappeared into the crowd, leaving both Nikkou and Gakkou looking perplexed.

"Who were those people . . ."

Hanadera Academy. It seemed to be a collection of oddballs.

"Yuuki, I'm . . ." Yumi said, as she put the ice-cream cone wrapper into her pocket.

"Going home?"

"Yeah."

Having seen Yuuki's school friends, she'd had a sudden longing for her onee-sama. If she headed back now, she'd have missed lunch but she should still be able to make it in time for afternoon tea.

Then Yuuki seemed to hit upon an idea.

"Kobayashi."

"Mm?"

"You said something about Kashiwagi-san."

"That was Nikkou and Gakkou," Kobayashi-kun said, looking back in the direction of the two seniors.

"Not that. You said something about Kashiwagi-san seeing us."

Hearing this, Yumi also had the feeling that she'd heard Kobayashi-kun say, "Kashiwagi-san."

"Oh, that's right. I saw his car on the outskirts of town."

Thunk. Kobayashi-kun clasped his hands together.

"Where?"

"Near where I met you guys. Parked in front of a cafe or a restaurant."

"Alright, I'll lead."

"Huh, why?"

"Don't worry about that, hurry up. Let's go."

So, with Yuuki in the lead this time, they pushed their way through the crowded Main Street once more.