Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume30 Chapter6 2 (section)

===<noinclude>Distant Desire. </noinclude>Part 2.===

On-board the steamship, the wind washed over them pleasantly.

As she brushed the stray curls of hair from her face, Shouko heard the person standing beside her say, "Click."

It wasn't the sound of a shutter, it was a voice.

Shouko turned her head and there was Tsutako-sama, smiling at her through a rectangular frame she had made with the thumb and forefinger of both her hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking a photo."

"Huh?"

"Even though no physical copy will ever exist, the photo I just took of you will remain in my memory."

At some point Tsutako-sama had stopped searching for, and being disappointed when she didn't find, the camera that wasn't there. Rather than forgetting about the camera, Tsutako-sama seemed to be strangely reveling in the fact that she couldn't use one.

"At first it was a pain. But once I got over the withdrawal symptoms, it was surprisingly comfortable."

Tsutako-sama said, suddenly and lightly. Even without her camera, she was just as interesting as ever.

"And Yumi-san and the others didn't say anything, right? About me not bringing a camera. That meant a lot."

Tsutako-sama said, turning her finger-frame towards the land. Although she probably wasn't going to find Rosa Chinensis en bouton, no matter which direction she pointed at.

"It meant a lot that they didn't say anything?"

Shouko asked. She knew how something that was said could stay with you, but couldn't understand the opposite. Then Tsutako-sama lowered her hands and looked at her.

"Well, outside of photography, I don't really have a lot of self-confidence."

"Huh?"

"At school, I like taking photos of other students. So whenever there's some kind of event and they invite me, I'm happy. And everyone really enjoys the pictures I take. To a degree, I've increased my value by playing the role of a photographer, and it's usually how I communicate with other students. Basically, by taking photos I've made my school life run smoother. That's why I touch my camera whenever I have a spare moment. Having it by my side gives me peace of mind. So for me, the camera is like Linus' blanket."

As she listened to this, Shouko was filled with disbelief. Tsutako-sama always looked so magnificent and full of confidence, and that was how Shouko saw her.

"So my uncle may have made that bet with me because he was more worried than I was."

"He was worried?"

"About whether or not I'd be alright without a camera."

Suffering the consequences of relying too heavily on her camera, Tsutako-sama smiled. Now that her camera had been taken away from her, she could be herself. What did she think about that?

"You didn't bring your camera with you, right Shouko-chan? When I heard that, a part of me was so envious. I thought, 'Ahh, Shouko-chan's so strong.'"

"…"

Tsutako-sama had been thinking these thoughts while Shouko had been depressed about being a photography club member who forgot her camera. It was unimaginable. 

"But Yumi-san didn't say anything. Or, rather, she probably didn't even notice that I didn't have my camera. She can be a bit of an airhead."

"And being an airhead's a good thing?"

"Yep, it is. At least for me, right now. Because, after all, it's proof that my doubts were baseless, right? To Yumi-san, I was still myself whether or not I had my camera with me. So she had invited me not as a photographer, but as a friend."

"Why were you using Rosa Chinensis en bouton as your reference point?"

Shouko looked puzzled.

Certainly, Tsutako-sama and Rosa Chinensis en bouton were classmates, so they would know each other well. But she was also classmates with Rosa Foetida en bouton, and had been in the same class as Rosa Gigantea in first-year. So what made Rosa Chinensis en bouton special? There was a certain amount of jealousy in the question.

"Well, the Yellow and White Rose sisters were wrapped up in their own affairs all morning, right? They wouldn't have noticed anything going on with anyone else."

"Huh, what happened with the Yellow and White Rose sisters?"

Tsutako-sama spoke as though it were common knowledge, but this was the first Shouko had heard of it.

"I don't know the details, but I'm fairly sure something was going on. Couldn't you tell just by looking at them?"

Now that she had been asked, Shouko reviewed her memory of what had happened earlier this morning but couldn't find anything unusual. However.

"… I was caught up in my own affairs too."

"I thought as much."

Tsutako-sama grinned at her. While Shouko had been nervously looking at Tsutako-sama, Tsutako-sama had been looking right through her.

"It looks like Rosa Chinensis was the only one who noticed, and she didn't presume to say anything. But she's the exact opposite of Yumi-san, so she would have decided not to say anything only after carefully thinking it through."

Tsutako-sama closed her eyes, finding pleasure in the wind blowing against her.

"Why do you think that?"

The response to Shouko's question was, "That's just how she is."

Tsutako-sama seemed to think that Shouko was inquiring about Rosa Chinensis, when really she was asking about Tsutako-sama herself.

"So, rather than being disappointed, maybe it's a good thing that my camera broke."

Their boat ride would soon be coming to an end.

"If I had my camera with me, I'd be constantly swinging it around, taking photos, so don't think I'd be able to enjoy myself as fully as I have."

Tsutako-sama looked over at Shouko.

"The teacup ride with Rei-sama was fun, wasn't it."

"Yeah."

Her smile had burst free as they spun around. Certainly, if Tsutako-sama had had her camera with her then Shouko probably wouldn't have seen that unguarded smiling face.

Which was why Shouko believed the words of Tsutako-sama's uncle, that this was a decree from the gods.