Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter9 9 (section)

===<noinclude>The Ribbon's Path </noinclude>Part 9.===

After cleaning the dirt from her indoor shoes, Yumi entered the school building.

Thinking that her onee-sama may have returned, Yumi was making her way towards the third year pine group classroom when she saw Yoshino-san in front of the office.

To be precise, Yoshino-san was standing in front of the yellow-green public phone that was out front of the office, with her back towards Yumi. – In short, it looked like she was making a phone call.

As Yumi was thinking she should probably just pass by without waiting for her, Yoshino-san put the receiver back on the hook. 

Yoshino-san let out a sigh as she turned around, and then when she saw Yumi:

"Auuugh!"

Yoshino-san cried out in shock.

Which caused Yumi to cry out in shock too, although her reaction wasn't quite as large.

"… What was that? You surprised me."

"That's supposed to be my line."

Yoshino-san was wearing her coat and holding her bag, so she was probably on her way home. But it had been quite a while since Yumi had left the Rose Mansion. What had Yoshino-san been up to during that time? Had she been sipping tea and chatting with everyone in the room on the second floor?

"How's Sachiko-sama? Did you see her?"

"Nope... Wait, how did you know?"

"ESP."

She was the second person today, after Katsura-san, to claim she had psychic powers.

"Or, more likely, it was written all over my face, right?"

Yumi wasn't going to be tricked. They had obviously sent her out telling her everything was okay because her feelings were showing clearly. 

For a long time now, Yumi's feelings would always show on her face. She had entered into an apprenticeship to try and control them, but it wasn't easy.

"Nope. Well, we could see that you had some urgent business you wanted to attend to."

Yoshino-san laughed, then added, 'Like I said ESP."

"By Touko-chan."

"Touko?"

Touko has ESP? What's that all about?

"Yep. Touko-chan said that your business probably related to Sachiko-sama. And it looks like she was right."

"Really."

Touko had known. Yumi wasn't surprised. Hmmm. She had an excellent handle on things.

"But I don't really think it was ESP, just a normal petit soeur."

Even so, what Yoshino-san had said was something wonderful.

"So has Touko gone home?"

"Probably. But, sorry. I left before her, so I can't say for certain."

"It's okay, I was just asking."

As Yumi shook her head, she was wondering, 'In that case, what has Yoshino-san been doing?' She had no idea whatsoever.

"I'm about to head over to the middle school."

"Huh, oh, is that so?"

It would be inelegant to ask her what she was going to do. Yoshino-san was going to see Arima Nana-chan. You could tell that without having to be a psychic.

"Take care."

Yoshino-san looked as though she was about to step onto a battlefield so Yumi didn't pry and bid her farewell. At that time, Yumi felt as though her feelings mirrored those of her good friends when they had sent her out from the Rose Mansion.