Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume20 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

"So, when are you holding it?"

Sachiko-sama asked, as she curled her fingers around her neck.

"I'm thinking about next Saturday."

Answered Yoshino.

Rei-chan, who was acting like a human shield, spun Yumi-san back into the room. Her face holding a sunken countenance, she meekly seated herself next to Sachiko-sama. Whether she had a mountain of things she wished to say, or whether she could not find anything to say, Yumi-san could not take any action when her Onee-sama was in opposition to her inclinations.

"Well...."

Sachiko-sama had whispered the words, "Saturday after next," nuanced in a way to prompt Yoshino to answer whether it was too early or too late.

Saturday was the only day where Yoshino had more than ten minutes to spare after school. But the weekend after next was the kendo match, so she couldn't do it then. On the other hand, if the audition were to be held before then, it would be too sudden.

One would think that any day after the kendo match would be fine, but a look at Yoshino's schedule would show that such planning was simply naïve. She needed to hold an appropriate time for the auditions. Just as one must be on time to meet at a kendo match, Yoshino planned to have the s&oelig;ur auditions to be "on time" with finding a little sister.

"What is this about?"

As soon as everyone was seated, Rei-chan asked the question, knowing nothing about the exchanges that had preceded this. Shimako-san, who had arrived at the same time as Rei-chan, also inclined her head, as if to ask what was going on.

"I wanted to find a s&oelig;ur."

Yoshino said, in the same nonchalant tone as she had said "next Saturday."

"A s&oelig;ur?!"

Rei-chan was the one who showed her surprise. The others were more dumbfounded than they looked, and in their shock, couldn't interfere with the discussion between the two. And so, the Yellow Rose conversation continued.

"W-who is this person you want as s&oelig;ur?!"

"I don't know."

"If you don't know, then I obviously know less!"

"That's why I'm holding an audition!"

"I never heard about this!"

"You haven't. But I was just talking about it!"

"Yoshino…!"

Rei-chan pushed herself up and struck the table, her face flushed in anger. She sat back down in a frenzy that felt as if it would break the chair, after which she began hitting her forehead on the table. Yoshino, who was being opposed in all of this, sat in her seat calmly with a genteel demeanor, and watched her Onee-sama's scene.

As Yumi-san watched, she found dry surprise when she confirmed the fact that Yoshino had probably not told Rei-chan about the audition.

"Yoshino ... why so suddenly...?"

"It's not suddenly. I had been thinking of it for a long time. What's wrong, do you not like the idea?"

"It's not that, I just wasn't mentally prepared...."

"Why do you talk about being mentally prepared now? Isn't it the quick news that you had wanted to hear? Just as you had hoped, I'll be able to show the person whom I bond with to you."

"That's ... well if you put it that way, it's ... but...."

Rei-chan was flustered and fidgety.

Like a father whose daughter would marry; when looking at Rei-chan from afar, that is exactly how she seemed.

"Plus, you can't really find a perfect s&oelig;ur at an audition."

"Oh really? Rei-chan understands these things, does she?"

Rei-chan herself understood that there was no concrete basis for all of this, so she couldn't really say anything else, and fell reticent in Yoshino's wake. As the dry silence dragged out into a sort of armistice, Shimako-san asked a question in a soft voice.

"But Yoshino-san, what if you cannot find a s&oelig;ur with an appropriate fit at the audition?"

"That won't happen. Even if I'm a bit uneasy, I'll still choose."

Yoshino's brusque answer circulated whispers throughout the room. It won't happen? She'll choose in spite of being uneasy? This was all a very surprising turn of events.

"What happened, Yoshino?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying. Something is pushing you to hurry."

Good job, Rei-chan. She had even phrased it as if she were praising Yoshino. One look at her showed that Yoshino was the one flustered and fidgety.

"I just want to hurry...."

Yoshino closed her eyes. This action alone confirmed that she had been telling a lie.

She promptly closed her mouth, and Rei-chan let out a large sigh.

"Fine, I understand. I'll agree with your audition. But do it next month, I have to practice for my kendo meet. So when that is over, we can make a perfect plan on how to hold the audition. I'll help you with the work too, of course."

"But then I won't make it on time."

From here on, Yoshino's war changed.

Any more persistance on Yoshino's part would have been senseless. That "there was a time limit;" that if too much time passed by the "audition would become pointless," could be seen in Yoshino's eyes. Approaching Rei-chan with these conditions and making her an ally would be an effective plan for Yoshino.

"What's going on here?"

Rei-chan put her answer to Yoshino's last remark on hold and asked her about the incident. The name of the person responsible then came out of Yoshino's mouth.

"Yesterday, no, actually a long time back, I met with Eriko-sama."

"When was this?"

"Around the Athletic Festival."

"Eriko-sama was there?"

"Yeah."

Rei-chan turned towards Sachiko-sama with a face that asked "Did you know?" Sachiko-sama shook her head in a way that said she was learning about this for the first time. Shimako-san, likewise, informed everyone that she had known nothing about this. Noriko-chan had of course never met Eriko-sama, so she could not be asked. For some reason, the question stalled after that, so Yumi-san was not asked. Yoshino thought that Yumi-san might be nudged into answering.

The way it had been said, it seemed as if Eriko-sama had only met Yoshino and then left.

Yoshino went on.

"When we met, Eriko-sama seemed kind of down. To cheer her up, I told her she'd be the first person I introduced my petite s&oelig;ur to."

"And then?"

Rei-chan prodded.

"Eriko-sama had said that she would come to see the kendo match, so ... I...."

That had been a summary, but with the small nuances that Yoshino gave, the truth was more than what she let on. It felt like some grand tale. Yumi-san understood the truth of the tale without any imagined dramatizations, and made different faces because of it, but Yoshino didn't care.

Yoshino closed her eyes in a way that seemed to read "This experience had been deep in my heart, but it seems I finally let it out."

"Now that I think about it, when Eriko-sama had come to give me some pastries, her face had seemed a bit tired. She had also told me 'Thank Yoshino well for me'. It was because she was thinking of the task she had given to Yoshino. But I, of course, hadn't paid it any thought."

Wrong. That was completely wrong. It was a piercing thought inside Yoshino that Rei-chan was wrong. Eriko-sama had simply come to put pressure upon Yoshino. But pure, simple Rei-chan had believed that it was an ordinary conversation.

"If that's the case, then I see why you have to hurry. Alright, next Saturday. The Yamayurikai will host the event, and we'll get permission from the school."

Rei-chan neatly and quickly resolved.

Sachiko-sama had observed the whole incident transpire from beginning to end, and as she watched the Yellow Rose battle come to an end, she laughed.

"Yoshino-chan, Yumi. There are several sheets of the poster paper we used during the School Festival, so you can use those."

In the end, Yumi-san wasn't asked her opinion, and was officially considered a participant.