Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume20 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

Wednesday, after school.

Rosa Chinensis finally arrived at First-Year Camellia Class.

"Has the cleaning been finished? Please call Touko-chan for me."

Noriko came out (or rather was forced by her frightened classmates) to intercept her, in a rare, dry panic, muttering "Well now, what sort of business do you have with me?" as if she had heard some weird things.

"Noriko-chan looks like Touko-chan's knight today."

"I'm sorry."

It was almost like, to play a prank on someone, her mother bumps into her. Noriko smoothed the pleats of her skirt with the palm of her hand, and hid searching for the pocket around her thighs. A knight, what a comparison!

"I've heard that the Tea Party has caused her a lot of difficulty. So when I come to visit, here you come out as if on watch."

"No, well that's."

At that moment, Touko, who had gone to take the cleaning log to the Staff Room, returned. But when she saw the two standing in front of the door, perhaps she thought it didn't involve her, so she simply nodded towards them and headed towards the wall.

"Touko."

Noriko called out to the figure whose back straightened suddenly.

"Rosa Chinensis has come to see you."

"Me?"

Touko-chan said slowly, as she turned.

"Well, what sort of business do you have with me?"

Maybe Rosa Chinensis found it funny that Touko's words were the exact same as the ones that Noriko used. She laughed dryly.

"I just have one thing to ask you. It'll be over soon."

"Is that so?"

So please listen to me, it seemed that Rosa Chinensis would add. The corners of Touko's face changed slightly as she waited. Noriko had become a third party whose role of mediator was finished and who could take the stairs out and leave, but she looked back and found something catch her eye. She began talking.

"Uh, whatever you want to do, can we do it somewhere else?"

At all times of the day, the entrance to a classroom which had just been cleaned was full of people.

"You're right."

Rosa Chinensis nodded, when Touko stiffly said.

"I don't mind. Please speak your mind."

Noriko-chan listened and felt her heart beat faster. Rosa Chinensis wryly smiled.

"I too do not mind. But, Touko-chan, you tell me that you do not mind even before hearing what I want to talk about. So maybe you have an idea of what I want to talk to you about."

"Touko."

Leave this to me. A mad urgency came into Noriko, and her eyes reflected it. It was as Rosa Chinensis said. Even though she did not know what Rosa Chinensis was to talk about, Touko had rashly come to her decision, so Touko herself would be the one to suffer.

"Touko-chan. You should listen to your friend's advice."

Touko gave no answer to Rosa Chinensis's remark. But it was obvious that that was Touko's obstinate sort of agreement.

"It would be better if we didn't do it at the Rose Mansion."

When Yoshino heard about what Rosa Chinensis was planning, Noriko thought to herself "Maybe what Rosa Chinensis has to say has to do with Yumi-sama."

Rosa Chinensis began walking, but she stopped once and looked back.

"Noriko-chan, won't you come with us?"

"Huh?"

Noriko was of course surprised, but Touko made a "Why?" look on her face. Because maybe Touko thought that Rosa Chinensis's news dealt only with herself.

"You're Touko-chan's knight, aren't you?"

"What does Rosa Chinensis intend to do with Touko?"

Rosa Chinensis laughed.

"I already told you. I have something I want to ask her about."

It was the laugh of an evil bad guy. Whether Noriko would play the role of knight or not, she wound up having to come along.

"Why aren't you applying to participate in the Tea Party?"

Rosa Chinensis asked Touko as soon as she began walking.

"Why? If I wanted to apply, then shouldn't I have a reason to apply?"

"It seems to me as if you do."

While she was looking for a place to talk, it seemed like the talk was already nearly finished. Or maybe she had chosen to ask that question while walking because of the other people who were around them. Either way, the two began talking. Noriko, who walked behind them, tried her utmost to pick up leaked words from the conversation.

"I wanted to say this so no misunderstanding would come between us. I care not who becomes Yumi's soeur. Except I do not think it best that she choose you."

"So then why are you trying to push me into applying?"

"I didn't come here to tell you to apply. I only came here to find out what your reasons for not applying were."

This was what Rosa Chinensis had said. With words like those, Touko could not help but feel instigated.

"Why do you want to know it? I want to ask you something. If I tell you, what will you do?"

"I won't do anything. I've been watching you lately and getting a bit irritated. I want to find out a reason that will let me find out why you've been acting like this."

What selfishness. What high-handedness. But this was Rosa Chinesis's cunning, this was the part of her which was her strength. [[Talk:Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume20_Chapter1.3|*]]

"Of course our little chat must be troubling for you. I've come here just to fulfill my own selfish desire after all."

'Ah. She noticed it herself,' Noriko thought.

"Looking at Touko-chan is like a painful look at my past self. To live frankly is a very courageous thing, but there are several shades of that."

Touko said nothing. She held her head down, became expressionless, and stayed silent. Whether she was listening or not I did not know. But Noriko felt that she was very carefully, very acutely hearing each word.

"That was all I had wanted to say. Take some time will you."

Even though they were only part of the way down the corridor, Rosa Chinensis made a hand signal that showed that this was the end. She exited and left the two alone.

"Rosa Chinensis probably made a mistake. That's what I really think."

Noriko told Touko. They were weren't meant for Touko, rather than to follow up what Rosa Chinensis had said.

"But I think Touko-chan is thinking 'No more' right now, so it'll be better if I leave."

Touko had no need to do what any old person told her to do. If she believed the advice in her heart, then she would follow the person's advice and do exactly what they said.

"That's why, I'm probably interfering way too much but, just stop."

Noriko took out the application addressed "First-Year Camellia Class Matsudaira Touko" out of her pocket, and ripped it into pieces. She had predicted that Touko would not come to the application registrar for the Tea Party until the last moment, so just in case, she had one application prepared. The issue wasn't whether she would use it or not, but more that it would be used as insurance.

"That's ..."

Touko opened her mouth slowly.

"I've already ripped it apart, so I'll go home and throw it away."

She took the pieces and made them into a ball, and put the ball into her pocket.

"Noriko-san."

"Well then. Let's go back to class."

Nothing had happened yet.

Let the pebble that Rosa Chinensis had thrown grow and ripple in her heart, and spur its own action.

That was all Noriko could do.