Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume2 Chapter3 2 (section)

===<noinclude>Unexpected Consequences. </noinclude>Part 2.===

The early bell rang, so Yumi hurried back to class.

Shimonoseki-sensei, her fifth period math teacher, was a very punctual old man who would always enter the classroom when the true bell rang, so he expected his students to have their textbooks, notebooks and pencils on their desk and sit quietly when he entered.

But for whatever reason they had forgotten this, as a number of students were gathered near Yumi's desk, speaking to each other.

"What's the matter?"

When she went closer, she noticed Oyamada Miyuki-san (小山田みゆき) sobbing at her desk diagonally behind Yumi's.  The group of students whom were friends with her simply replied, "Nothing," as if to protect her.

(Infectious crying…?)

When she looked more carefully, she noticed everyone in that clump had watery eyes.  One girl was seriously crying, the others were crying infectiously, they had all missed the early bell, and so when they replied, "Nothing," it was very unpersuasive.

"Ah, I'm sorry, we'll get out of the way."

They realized that standing where they were prevented Yumi from being able to take a seat, so one person moved aside a bit.  Well, okay then, she thought, and took a seat at her desk, but the girls behind her still stayed in her mind.

Then, Shimako-san came back.

"Good harvest?"

When she asked as Shimako-san passed by her desk, she simply laughed happily, fufufu.  She looked so ecstatic that asking that question was unnecessary.

Yumi noticed the vinyl bag and chopsticks Shimako-san had taken with her were missing, but apparently she had hidden her harvest somewhere in the garden.  Even if you were to tie the end of the bag over and over again, the smell would inevitably leak, so she probably didn't bring it into the classroom out of etiquette.  And of course, none of the classmates could probably even come remotely close to guessing that the reason for this beauty's wonderful smile was the gingko.  Other than Yumi and Tsutako-san, anyways.

"But, that aside."

Shimako-san lowered her voice and spoke in Yumi's ear.

"Rei-sama's problem has caused quite an uproar."

"Uproar?"

"There're students dissolving their sisterly bonds.  And not just one or two pairs."

(Ehh-!?)

She was about to say that out loud, so she covered her own mouth, and Shimako-san also felt this coming, and also covered Yumi's mouth, so the double shutter prevented the yell from leaking out.

"W, why?"

Immediately, she thought, "So that's it," about Miyuki-san's reason for crying.  But Yumi was not so unrefined as to turn around and confirm that.  Suppressing her burning desire to find out about that, she urged Shimako-san on for more details.

"I wonder if it's a repercussion of Rei-sama and Yoshino-san's matter…"

Just then, the true bell rang, and Shimonoseki-sensei walked in, so she was unable to hear the rest of Shimako-san's information.  Diagonally behind her, Miyuki-san cried in stifled tones all through math class.  Because there was no oral practice like English or reading from the textbook for social studies, it might have been a blessing that this was math class, Yumi thought.  Plus, Shimonoseki-sensei, perhaps due to his old age, wasn't the type of teacher who really observed his students that much.

Only the sound of the teacher's chalk constantly echoed through the silent classroom.

Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Gigantea were probably worried about this sort of repercussion.

How cynical.

Had Rei-sama and Yoshino-san not been the sisterly ideal for the entire school.  Had the newspaper club not beautified their feud with flowery words-.  Then it might not have been a spark for other people.

Yumi pulled the B5 leaflet that was tucked into her textbook, folded it into the size of her notebook, and re-read it.  The extra, headlined "Yellow Rose Revolution," simply wrote the fact that Yoshino-san had given back her rosary to Rei-sama in front of the Maria-sama statue.

While there had been examples of students dissolving sisterly bonds for various reasons in the past, it read that this was different.  It had always been dissolved by the elder sister.  Just as it was customary for the upperclassmen to propose to the underclassmen, the pattern was assumed to be the elder sister bringing up the topic of a break-up.

(That's true, it's unthinkable for a devoted little sister to reject her elder sister.)

On top of that, the partner was the Rosa Foetida en bouton.  There were easily more than twenty students who would have loved to be Rei-sama's little sister.

(… which means Yoshino-san broke almost every mold possible.)

Yumi sighed once more while reading the article.

"Okay, attendance number five, please solve the problem."

She wasn't paying careful attention, so she froze in terror, wondering if she, number 35, had been called upon.  But after a pause, a desk behind her clattered, and she heard a soft, "Yes."

Miyuki-san stood up.  After wiping her nose with a handkerchief, she teetered and wobbled toward the platform at the front of the class with weak strides.  Like Yumi, she was the type that didn't stand out no matter what she did, but this time there was an undeniable emphasis on her overly fleeting state of mind.

"Poor Miyuki-san…"

The classmates that knew what had happened murmured.  However, the old teacher, with his failing ears, had no way of picking out the stifled crying, so when he saw Miyuki-san's puffy eyes and red nose, he simply guessed, "Hay fever?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know the answer."

Miyuki-san lifelessly lowered her arm, as if lifting the chalk was an immense task.  If she had been listening to class, it probably was a simple question, but it was too much to ask of her right now.  Because she was crying the whole time.

"You may return to your seat.  Attendance number 15."

Tsutako-san walked past Miyuki-san and went up on the platform with a clear "why me?" look.  It seemed like she was paying attention to class, as she quickly wrote the answer in white letters.

As she returned to her seat, Tsutako-san pointed at Yumi and mouthed, "Be careful."  At that, Yumi snapped to attention.  Five, then fifteen, so today he was going through fives.  Which meant next was 25, then Yumi's 35.  She put away the leaflet and focused on the textbook.

The twenty minutes until the end of class felt extremely long, after that.  It actually might have been easier to take if she had been called upon earlier on.

By the time the fifth-period class ended, Miyuki-san's tears had dried up.  But her melancholic state remained.  It was an odd feeling, like someone else was sitting diagonally behind her.

During the break, Miyuki-san's friends all gathered around her desk again, and although she wasn't actively trying to listen, Yumi found out that Miyuki-san had broken up with her older sister.

"Poor girl."

The girls surrounding Miyuki-san murmured.  But, why.  To Yumi, it simply felt like they were saying lines from a drama series, and so the situation felt extremely surreal.

"It was the only way."

Miyuki-san cried again, after being comforted.  Eventually the sixth-period chime rang, and everyone dispersed to their seats again.

Yumi thought to herself, "To be continued."

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