Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume9 Chapter2 3 (section)

===<noinclude>Falling Cherry Blossoms / Exam Failure. </noinclude>Part 3.===

After school.

The girl with the French braids, her name was Atsuko, or Kazuko, or something like that, looked straight at Noriko and said:

"Noriko-san, if you'd like, we could go and check out the various clubs together."

"Ahh, clubs … "

"For extra-curricular activities. Are you involved with any, Noriko-san?"

"No, not really."

"Then please come. You really should join a club."

Atsuko(probably)-san said, her eyes glittering. Then she went on to say that famous lecturers would occasionally give speeches to some of the cultural clubs. As expected from a school for noble ladies. 

"Obviously there's clubs for flower arranging, tea ceremony and traditional dancing, but there's also Go and shogi clubs, arts and crafts clubs, as well as an abundance of sports clubs."

"Hah."

"Incidentally, Touko-san's joining the drama club. Miyuki-san and I have decided to join the scripture reading club. If you'd like, we could all study scripture together."

"S-scripture?"

It was a surprise attack, so her voice may have betrayed her. However the girl with the French braids didn't notice Noriko's reaction, instead crooking her neck slightly and smiling.

"How about it?"

"Well … ah, I'm sorry. There's something I have to do today."

After she said this, Noriko thought, "There wasn't a better way of turning her down? Something that would stop her from asking again tomorrow."

"Really? That's a shame."

Thankfully, she withdrew without any further objection. A club for reading bible scriptures sounded totally unappealing.

"I'm sorry, especially since you went out of your way to invite me. Gokigenyou."

Noriko grabbed her bag and sped out of the classroom. 

If she waited around, she'd just get invited to another club, and that would be a pain. She should change out of her indoor shoes, or at least get out of the school building. Now then, what to do?

She'd used "things she had to do" as an excuse for declining the invitation to attend the scripture club, but there was no real reason for her to hurry home.

(Maybe I should take the long way home.)

She could go home straight away, but she'd hit the peak for club-free students heading home. The bus that looped between the main gate and the railway station would be pretty crowded. Even though it'd be comprised mostly of middle- and high-school students from Lillian's Girls Academy, she still wanted to avoid the rush.

Things would be a lot different if she left it 30 minutes. Noriko decided to kill some time.

But having said that, it hadn't been that long since she'd entered into this school. She still didn't fully understand where all the paths led. Since Lillian's Girls Academy covered from kindergarten to university all on the one campus, the campus itself was quite large.

If she'd been here since kindergarten, this would probably be just like her own backyard, but for someone who'd only newly arrived, accidentally wandering out of their territory would be like getting lost in the woods without a compass and canteen. There was wisdom in not venturing too far.

(Having said that.)

She had no purpose. She'd probably run into one of the sports clubs if she strayed onto an oval. The bible scripture club was obviously out of the question, but Noriko didn't plan to join any other extra-curricular groups either. 

She'd been carried into high-school by momentum. Given that, she'd come to the decision that this place was just for learning and she'd set her sights on the university entrance exams in three years' time.

It wasn't as though the once in twenty years choice had ruined her life. If she studied hard, she could be back on track in three years.

Avoiding the sports grounds, she walked along the path that led to the auditorium. Plenty of flower petals were falling from the cherry trees planted along the rear of the school building. To Noriko's eyes, the roughly one-third of flowers that remained on the branches seemed like they were clinging to the past.

(That reminds me.)

She suddenly remembered. What about that cherry tree?

Behind the auditorium, there was a single cherry tree mixed in with the ginkgo trees.

On the day of the entrance ceremony, after confirming which class she was in from the list posted in front of the auditorium she headed back towards the school building. It was then that she caught sight of its semi-fluorescence, and was oddly charmed by it.

Why was it that only that cherry tree was that pretty?

"I guess it'll have dropped most of its flowers too."

From looking around, that was the obvious conclusion to draw.

But Noriko felt an odd confidence. That she'd definitely make it in time.

That cherry tree was somehow different to the others.

It was divine, it was as sublimely beautiful as a Shinto shrine's sacred tree. 

She turned towards the auditorium and broke into a jog. The cherry trees were gradually replaced with ginkgo trees.

When she finally reached the auditorium wall, Noriko noticed a scattering of light pink flower petals on the ground.

Searching back through her memories, she turned the corner of the building. The petals underfoot steadily increased.

It should be just around the next corner. As though it were a signpost, a single branch protruded into her field of vision.

( … There!)

Turning the corner.

Noriko's breath was instantly taken away.

"–"

Standing alone among the grove of ginkgo trees with their fresh yellow-green sprouts, the single Yoshino cherry tree was in full bloom at the moment and resplendent with flowers.

Standing beneath it was Maria-sama.

There was no stirring of her body as she watched the petals gently falling in the slight breeze, like powdered snow. 

Noriko had heard plenty of stories of bodies being buried beneath cherry trees, but this was the first she'd heard of Maria-sama standing beneath them.

Still, what a beautiful scene.

There were no words to express it.

Eventually Maria-sama noticed Noriko's gaze, gracefully turned around and said:

"Gokigenyou."

"… G-gokigenyou."

Instinctively, Noriko stammered out a greeting.

On closer inspection, it was a human girl wearing the same uniform as her. But her skin was translucently pale and she had an unearthly beauty.

The atmosphere made Noriko's delusion, that the statue of Maria-sama had taken the wrong path at the fork in the road and wandered off from her small forest, seem entirely plausible.

"This cherry tree is lovely, isn't it?"

The girl smiled wholeheartedly.

With her feminine features and her wavy hair like cotton-candy, the uniform suited her better than anyone else Noriko had seen. What she was wearing looked less like a uniform and more like a going-out dress for an antique blue-eyed doll.

(I wonder if the uniform was designed for people like her.)

Sadly, in Noriko's case, as a doll she had the features of a traditional Japanese doll. So, she was more like a Rokumeikan lady, being forced into a dress.

"Today's the last day for best viewing of this cherry tree. It seemed such a shame that I was the only one to appreciate it, so I'm glad to see another visitor."

As she said this, the human Maria-sama softly stroked the tree trunk. 

Noriko thought she must be an older student, given her manner of speaking and her composed bearing.

"I wonder if perhaps this cherry tree was so beautiful that you forgot."

"Huh?"

Noriko had no idea what the girl was talking about. Noriko's voice sounded shrill and nervous and the girl responded with, "How to speak."

"… I've just remembered."

"What a relief. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to converse, despite being here together."

After a short silence, the pair laughed quietly in the light-pink powdered snow.

"Um, have you been coming here every day?"

"Yes. While it has been blossoming. The cherry tree invites me."

"It invites you?"

"Yes, it invites me. Didn't you come here because you were invited too?"

Noriko thought that this was right on the mark.

Indeed. It had invited her. It was the cherry tree's invitation that led to her being here now.

"All cherry trees are lovely. Breathtakingly so, when they're in full bloom, coloring the world with light-pink snow. But none of them have the same attraction as this tree."

She sounded like she was talking to herself as she looked up at the branches of the cherry tree.

"I wonder why that is."

"Because it's blooming so beautifully even though it's all on its own … ?"

Noriko said what came to mind, without thinking about it too deeply. 

The girl seemed slightly surprised by Noriko's utterance, but then she nodded saying, "I see."

"You're right. It's just like you said."

After that, they stood for a while beneath the falling cherry blossoms.

Neither said a word, but it wasn't awkward.

Watching the cherry blossoms like that felt incredibly comfortable for some reason.

The tree generously scattered its petals, as though it had been awaiting Noriko's arrival.

Flutter, flutter.

[[Image:MM_v09_029.jpg|thumb]]

What was the girl beside her thinking – Just as Noriko thought this, the girl with the fine features that resembled Maria-sama turned towards her.

"What time is it?"

"It's 4 … 5 to 4."

"Really? Then I'll have to be going."

She said there was some sort of meeting she had to attend, as she brushed away the petals that had landed on her shoulders.

"Um, they're in your hair too."

"Ah, you're right."

She said, "Could you please?" and turned away. A short distance away from the cherry tree, Noriko picked the petals from her hair one by one.

Her fluffy hair was just as soft as it looked. Noriko caught a glimpse of the white nape of her neck in her wide open sailor collar, and even for a girl, it was startlingly captivating.

"Hardly anyone comes by the back of the auditorium, right? It makes it hard to keep track of time. I left my watch in the classroom before I came here, so you've saved me."

As they walked together, the girl showed some interest in the bob-haired young lady beside her.

"Are you a first-year?"

"Yes."

"I see. I'm a second-year, so we share the same school building."

When they'd made it to the main entrance of the auditorium, the girl said, "I'll leave you here," and turned away.

Noriko felt like she was in a dream as she stood there, watching the girl walk towards the school building. Somehow, it was already hard to see her go.

After going about ten metres, the girl that looked like Maria-sama suddenly stopped, turned around and said:

"Let's meet again."

Noriko felt as though she'd been waiting for just those words.