Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter9 1 (section)

===<noinclude>By onee-sama's side. </noinclude>Part 1.===

Adding Yuuki and Kashiwagi-san, who'd come back from the restroom, we settled down for sushi dinner.  And I couldn't help but recoil slightly when I opened the lid to the box.

(Eek…)

I expected as much, based on the container, but it was completely different from the sushi I was accustomed to eating at home.  Because rather than octopus, or sliced mackerel, or kappa rolls, it was all red snapper, or abalone, or urchin, or fat tuna, or sweet shrimp, and other such expensive foods.  Really, there was egg, but it wasn't the egg sushi you normally think of, the one with the slab of egg placed on rice and bound with nori.  No, it was actually the thickly-cooked egg, like the usual sushi, but it had no rice, and instead was sliced and placed at the edges, like decoration.

Even the squid, salmon roe, and young Japanese amberjack were made with high-quality fish.  They were fresh and juicy so that even a complete newbie could tell.

(I feel like, if I eat this once, I won't be able to eat regular sushi ever again.)

I secretly sighed, and that coincidentally overlapped with Yuuki's sigh.  –We were both from the same family, so we thought the same thing.  We looked at each other and lowered our shoulders.

"Wow, how rich.  Itadakimasu-"

Rosa Gigantea was undaunted.  Seriously, what sort of lifestyle did she usually live?

"Yumi-chan, was sushi a bad idea?"

Noticing us siblings, who were staring at the sushi without lifting our chopsticks, aunt Sayako looked worried.

"No, no."

"It's my favorite."

We answered, and Sachiko-sama gently said.

"You don't need to force yourselves, you may not have an empty stomach, yet?"

But I felt like we had to eat, at least a bit.  Because aunt Sayako was sorrowfully looking at her yet-unopened box.

"Nonsense, itadakimasu."

Yuuki steeled himself and split his chopstick.  The chopsticks were rounded, and only connected at the top.

"I'll just think of it as the Ryuuguujou."

The dancing of red snappers and flounders.

-Or rather, temporarily placing himself in a completely different world.  Is what he meant, I think.

Well of course.

So, I split my chopsticks too.  After all, think about it.  I'd been surprised by almost everything since coming into this house, but there's nothing you can do about their being at least an entire class higher.  Sachiko-sama didn't invite me so she could brag, so it was rude to be surprised at every turn.  … I felt bad.

So in a way, I thought it would be the better guest if I simply accepted things for how they were.

(Ahh, the red snapper is so delicious!)

As Sachiko-sama said, I wasn't that hungry, but it was so delicious that my chopstick kept saying, "One more."

(It's great, but I don't want to know how many calories I've eaten today.  New Year's weight-gain is so bad… mm?)

And then I saw something unbelievable.

(Really?)

I thought I saw wrong, so I looked away.  But it bothered me, so I looked again, and I realized it did happen.

(Wh-what are you doing, Kashiwagi-san…!)

He was picking up the urchin, salmon roe and abalone, among others, from Sachiko-sama's sushi box and placing them in his own.

(If he wanted more, there's another box…)

Stupid Kashiwagi, I fumed, mimicking Rosa Gigantea's speech mannerism.  Even if they were cousins, it was mean taking sushi without asking, -I thought.

Sachiko-sama should just scold him, like Sachiko-sama does.

"'Stop being caught up in the moment!'"  That was soothing.

But my telepathy never reached Sachiko-sama, who instead simply allowed him to carry on.

(Why-!?)

While chewing on sushi, I fumed.  Even if I wanted Rosa Gigantea to notice, she was so absorbed in sushi she didn't seem to care.  The tail of sweet shrimp was even sticking out of her mouth.

But.

After observing for a while, I began to realize it wasn't what I first thought.  It wasn't that Sachiko-sama was simply having her sushi taken.  Kashiwagi-san was placing his own flounder, squid and sweet shrimp to the empty places of Sachiko-sama's box.  And Sachiko-sama was eating the sushi Kashiwagi-san was placing on her box without any questions.

When he noticed my stare, Kashiwagi-san smiled, full of composure, and winked.

(What!?)

Right as my head was about to switch into all-out panic-mode, Yuuki put egg in my sushi box.

"I'm taking your ginger."

"Right, go ahead."

I liked the sweet egg, and Yuuki liked the bitter ginger.  So we always traded.  Like father and Yuuki's kakipi.  It was a family thing.

(… Oh!)

After another glance at Sachiko-sama and Kashiwagi-san's sushi boxes, I felt an overwhelming sense of defeat.  Kashiwagi-san's actions were simply that of a history of closeness.  And so I felt envy over Kashiwagi-san's knowledge of Sachiko-sama's likes and dislikes, and a bit of indignation at Sachiko-sama's wordless acceptance of it.

(Didn't Sachiko-sama dislike men?  Didn't Sachiko-sama hate Kashiwagi-san?  Then why was she able to eat sushi that Kashiwagi-san had touched?)

So, afterward, the delicious sushi didn't taste so delicious anymore.  –Even though Kashiwagi-san and Yuuki were both eating without any lamentation.

Onee-sama is such a curious existence.

With just a tiny gesture or behavior, she could toss her sister into the clouds, or drop her into a bottomless pit.

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