Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume15 Chapter1 6 (section)

===<noinclude>The Danger of Excess Cuteness Today. </noinclude>Part 6===

The following day, Wednesday, at lunchtime.

As soon as Noriko-chan arrived at the Rose Mansion, she walked straight to Yumi, who had just started eating her lunch, and asked a strange question.

"Yumi-sama, what on earth did you do?"

"Huh?"

It was so sudden that the surprise caused Yumi to drop the rolled omelet she was holding in her chopsticks. Luckily, it fell onto her rice, so it was safe.

"You're asking Yumi-san what on earth she did? Well, how about you, what on earth are you going on about?"

The suspicious inquiry came from Yoshino-san, who had also opened her lunch box and started eating. Well, if she knew what was going on from this little information, that would conclusively prove that Yoshino-san had ESP.

"Well, yesterday afternoon, you had a talk with Kanako-san … right?"

Noriko-chan's confidence seemed to drop as she kept talking, to the point where she seemed to fade out at the end.

"I did. And what of it?"

Yumi tilted her head in confusion. Yoshino-san wasn't the only one that didn't understand what Noriko-chan was trying to say.

"Well, that."

"That?"

Noriko-chan went over to the window and Yumi followed her. They both looked down into the courtyard, and in among the students eating their lunches on the lawn they saw a few girls practicing a baton hand-off. One of those girls was none other than Kanako-chan.

"She's taking the initiative and organizing relay practices. Two days ago, she was complaining about being in the relay, and skipped out of the red team's all-grades practice."

"An all-grades practice?"

"Yeah. And Touko was furious at her for that. Saying she was uncooperative. But this morning, it was like she was a different person. So the rumor going around the class was that you must have said something to her."

"Hmmm."

That was indeed something. Kanako-chan had started training because she was taking their wager seriously. If she did her best in the high scoring "color team relay" then it brought victory that much closer. Incidentally, Yumi's "scavenger hunt race" was more of a side event, so it wasn't worth that many points.

"At any rate, it's admirable, isn't it?"

"It's not admirable at all, Yumi-san. What do you think will happen if the red team give it their all? Our green team will come dead last."

Yoshino-san said, brandishing her chopsticks.

"What do you mean?"

"The yellow team's the favorite to win this year, while the green and red teams are expected to be fighting it out for last place. Haven't you seen the "Lillian Kawaraban?""

Yoshino-san pulled a copy of the school newspaper out of her handbag, held it up in front of Yumi and tapped on it.

"How can they know that without seeing the teams perform?"

"You can mostly work it our just by looking at which classes the major players are in. Look, see this bit here."

The yellow team was made up of the first, second, and third-year chrysanthemum classes. They had plenty of short and long distance runners from the track and field club. On top of that, they had a regular starter from the softball club, the captain of the volleyball club, and prominent members of the tennis and gymnastics clubs.

In comparison, Yumi and Yoshino-san's green team, as well as Kanako-chan and Noriko-chan's red team, were a lot more sparse. Of course, they had some stars from the school sports clubs, but there weren't that many of them. It looked like the talent wasn't evenly split across the classes.

Practicing because they were in danger of coming last. The red team's actions were properly constructive.

"But the white team doesn't seem to have that many stars."

Yumi muttered as she looked over the data. 

In that case, wouldn't it be a three-way fight between green, red, and white? But then Yoshino-san said:

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Yumi-san, don't you know about the white team's jinx?"

"Huh? What jinx?"

"The white team. They never come in last."

"They never come in last?"

"See, the white team is made up of the plum and cherry classes, right? Because the class name changes based on the grade, neither class wants to be seen as weak. So they all make a huge effort."

"Hmm."

When she heard that, it made sense. Most of the classes had the same plant names for all three grades, but the plum class was only used for first and third-years, while the second-year class was the only one called cherry.

"At any rate, why is the second-year class the only one with a different name?"

"Look, that's really not something we should be worrying about now, don't you think?"

Instead of that, Yoshino-san pressed her on, "What happened with Kanako-chan?" Noriko-chan looked on with intense interest too.

"I simply said that we should have a competition at the athletics festival. Over whether the red or green team would win."

"What, is that all?"

Hearing Noriko-chan's drained voice, Yumi asked:

"What do you mean?"

"You thought that Yumi-san might have made Hosokawa Kanako-san her soeur, didn't you Noriko?"

Shimako-san said from behind them, having entered the room at some unknown point in time.

"Yes. I thought the only thing that could make Kanako-san put in that much effort for her class would be a direct order from her onee-sama."

"And when you thought about her onee-sama, the first one to come to mind was Yumi-san, right?"

"Yumi-sama was acting in a very conspicuous manner yesterday. I was confused by my classmates' speculation, so I thought that must be it … I didn't think Kanako-san would be that enthusiastic just because she wanted to beat the green team."

Well, it wasn't just beating the green team that had her that enthusiastic.

"But it's strange, isn't it? Kanako-chan's a fan of Yumi-san, isn't she? Why would she be so happy about going up against her?"

"Hahaha. It seems like you've got the wrong idea about something."

"What, so she's just being excessively cute? What a cheeky first-year."

Yoshino-san wrung the nearby curtain like it were a washcloth. Noriko-chan seemed like she wanted to run away as she said, "Sorry."

Now then, Noriko-chan.

Even if your classmate was clumsy, there was no need for you to apologize as the class representative.

But, seeing how much of an uproar this had already caused, it seemed like Yumi was better off not mentioning their wager and what was riding on the outcome of the athletics festival.

"Listen up, Yumi-san. We have to beat the red team, no matter what."

Yoshino-san ignored the one member of the red team present (Noriko-chan) and gripped Yumi's hand tightly.

"Now that we know this, we can't take things lightly. I'm going to take charge and organize special practice for the green team relay, starting tomorrow."

Um, hello, Yoshino-san? Just as Yumi was about to call out, the Yellow and Red Roses entered into the room.

"Oh, you seem to be in high spirits, Yoshino. Is something interesting going to happen at the athletics festival?"

Rei-sama seemed to be happy that her petite soeur was so lively.

"Stay over there, onee-sama. You're on the yellow team, so you're an enemy."

Yoshino-san shooed her away with her hands, like she was driving away a cat.

"Ah, Sachiko-sama, you're an ally, so you can come over here. Let's give it our all at the athletics festival."

"Huh? Yeah … "

Under pressure from Yoshino-san, Sachiko-sama agreed uncertainly.

Now that she thought about it, the Yellow and White Rose families would be fighting on different teams.

Shimako-san's second-year wisteria class was on the purple team, while Noriko-chan's first-year camellia class was on the red team.

Rei-sama's third-year chrysanthemum class was on the yellow team, while Yoshino-san's second-year pine class was on the green team.

Only the Red Rose family, with both members in pine classes, were not split into opposing teams.

It wasn't just limited to the Yamayurikai leadership – soeurs would be separated and competing against each other, so even though the athletics festival was only one day, it looked like it could be quite the ordeal.

"Yoshinooo … "

Hearing Rei-sama's forlorn voice, Yumi was glad she was on the same team as her onee-sama.