Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume6 Chapter1 1 (section)

===<noinclude>Order. </noinclude>Part 1.===

It had just been a slight slip of the tongue.

So she had no great expectation that she would receive an OK.

Nevertheless.

"Date?"

Sachiko-sama's eyes widened for an instant and she looked at Yumi (well, that's to be expected – even the one who said it was surprised) then smiled and said, "That sounds like fun."

"Eh?"
Yumi was taken aback. As though the commotion in her heart was being faithfully played out on her body, she jerked backwards, almost scattering the painstakingly gathered "Surprise Chocolates" once more.

Valentine's Day evening.

The treasure hunt organized by the newspaper club had finished, and a number of other things besides, until at last the two of them were alone on the second floor of the Rose Mansion.

There had been a slight accident and the chocolate box had erupted, and it was all so unexpected she wanted to close her eyes.

The problem was with what Yumi had jokingly blurted out to try and smooth things over.

Lacking anything else to say, she had said it was a game of hit or miss. How on earth did she have the nerve to smoothly say such a random thing.

As a consequence, she was asked what the prize for getting a hit was, and her own wish of "A ticket for a date together" came flying out of her mouth. Overcoming her shock, she was feeling quite pleased with herself.

Even still, Sachiko-sama's reaction was a surprise. Or, rather, Yumi hadn't been expecting any reaction at all, since she had said what popped into her mind.

Instead, Sachiko-sama was asking her questions about it.

"When?"

"Ummm."

It seemed like they really would be going on a date. If Sachiko-sama was simply being diplomatic, she would have followed up 'That sounds like fun' with 'some day.'

Back to the problem.

While Yumi was overjoyed at the prospect of going on a date with Sachiko, she hadn't been planning this at all. She was just saying whatever came to mind.

"Well, how about next Sunday?"

Once more, Yumi was just going with the flow.

To the question of 'when,' the first thing that came to her mind was the date on the tickets that were the special prize in the newspaper club's treasure hunt. And so just like that, thank you for the help, newspaper club, but I'll be taking that. You could even say it was fitting, given that it had been the newspaper club's plan that had lit the fire of her desire to go on a date with her onee-sama.

"Sunday? That's fine."

Sachiko-sama had not turned her down.

Thinking about it, Sachiko-sama would have blocked off that day for the date with whoever found her hidden, red card. But with the card now invalid, her schedule would have opened up.

"Where will we go?"

"... Umm, I'm thinking of a couple of places."

Confusion.

"Ahh, onee-sama, if there's somewhere you'd like to go...."

"There's nowhere in particular. Wherever you want to go will be fine."

Ah, that type of answer was the most painful. If Sachiko-sama had given something specific about where she wanted to go, it would have been easy. But as the one who brought it up, it was up to Yumi to come up with a plan. But first she had to weather the storm here somehow. If her deceit unraveled, it may not be just the date itself that comes to nothing.

"... Well, I'll come up with a list of several destinations by tomorrow."

"Oh well."

Sachiko-sama looked out the window. Yumi followed her gaze. The sun had long since set, but a light snow was falling, so it was somewhat bright.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Taking hold of her school coat that was hanging over a chair, Sachiko-sama smiled. "Shall we go home?"

It was already well past the time for leaving school.

After stuffing the box of chocolates into her bag, Yumi followed Sachiko-sama out of the room.

Rosa Gigantea and Shimako-san, who she had supposed were still on the lower floor, were no longer there.