Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume24 Chapter6 5 (section)

===<noinclude>Beneath the Mask. </noinclude>Part 5===

They left the Rose Mansion at 1:40pm and headed to the auditorium.

When they arrived at the bulletin board, they found a group of impatient students already anxiously waiting for the results.

At the head of the group was Touko-chan.

"Yumi-sama, this way."

Upon noticing the candidates, the other students made way so their group could move to the front.

"No, it's alright."

"No, you've got to have your photo taken for the Lillian Kawaraban when the results are revealed."

Yumi spotted Tsutako-san squatting in front of the bulletin board. She looked to be on standby, ready to get a photo of the candidates when the results were put up.

Yumi stood next to Touko-chan, although still maintaining a suitable distance. Shimako-san and Yoshino-san stood next to her too. Sachiko-sama, Rei-sama and Noriko-chan lined up behind them.

"Here they come."

Mami-san came running from the direction of the school building, like a messenger. Behind her, the Electoral Committee members could be seen walking towards them with an air of composure. The leader of the group, Hanae-san, was holding what looked like a rolled up poster. The results were probably written on that.

They couldn't tell who had won based on the expression of the approaching committee members. Obviously, they weren't about to say anything until the paper had been unfurled either, and they were all expressionless, like they'd been ordered to put on a poker face.

The electoral committee members arrived in front of the auditorium at 1:50pm.

Without a word being spoken, the crowd split apart to form a path, and the committee members proceeded to the bulletin board.

Hanae-san unrolled the poster. It looked to be two sheets of paper, with a blank white one on top, so that the results wouldn't leak out while they were putting it up.

"We will now reveal the results of the election for the next student council leaders."

After the results had been put up on the bulletin board, the covering sheet of paper was removed.

"–"

Yumi followed the lettering with her eyes.

Over and over, she was lit up by a camera's flash.

The cheering of the crowd rang in her ears.

"Yumi-san."

Yoshino-san hugged her around the neck.

She had to catch up.

Her five senses, or her brain that had to analyze their input, were overcome by the situation. Or rather, they seemed to be leading her somewhere with incredible speed.

Around and around, she started feeling dizzy.

"Congratulations Yumi."

Hearing Sachiko-sama's voice, she came to her senses.

"I … "

"What's the matter? You should be happy, you won."

She followed Sachiko-sama's pointing finger to where her name was written on the sheet of paper, with a red flower seal attached beside it.

– Fukuzawa Yumi.

[[Image:MM_v24_187.png|thumb]] 

The red seal was used to denote the election winners. There was one next to Yoshino-san and Shimako-san's names too.

There was nothing next to Touko-chan's name.

"…"

Yumi looked beside her. 

Touko-chan's gaze had just dropped from the bulletin board, and she looked to be about to quietly leave from the throng of people excited about the formation of the next student council.

"–"

Yumi raised her hand and was just about to call out to Touko-chan to stop when she looked around for just an instant.

Touko-chan's eyes met Yumi's and she bowed her head. Then she turned and left.

Having taken a single step forward, Yumi stopped and couldn't move any further.

It was at that moment that Yumi realized. Something was definitely off. She hadn't understood anything about Touko-chan.

Touko-chan hadn't run in the election to harass them, or anything like that. 

Nor was it because she simply wanted to be a Rose.

It wasn't because she couldn't accept Shimako-san or one of the boutons either, and it wasn't even close to being because she thought she'd beat Yumi and reverse nominate her as soeur.

"Yumi-sama."

Noriko-chan said, taking the directionless Yumi by the hand.

"I was watching Touko's face the moment the results were revealed. And then … and then I finally understood."

Noriko-chan's face was pale. Yumi's expression was probably the same as hers too.

"Touko wasn't looking to win."

Yumi thought, "Ah, I knew it."

If Noriko-chan was thinking that too, and it wasn't just Yumi, then they were probably right.