Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume29 Chapter1 4 (section)

===<noinclude>Onee-sama, Rosary and Petit Soeur. </noinclude>Part 4.=== 

"Well, you must have been mistaken."

Yoshino-san decisively declared. Cutting through the Gordian knot. As expected, her rationale was that there was no way it could have been Sachiko-sama. It was inconceivable for anyone who knew Sachiko-sama's usual behavior to think that the running figure could have been her. This was the same opinion that Yumi held.

It was during the break between the first and second classes.

In the end, Yumi and Yoshino-san had arrived at their classroom just in time for the start of the morning prayer broadcast. That was immediately followed by the morning hymn, which they both sang while still out of breath. Then came homeroom, which passed uneventfully. And while they both had the same first class of the morning, regrettably, their seats weren't close enough to allow them to talk.

But then the first class had finished about five minutes early and Yoshino-san came flying over to Yumi's desk as soon as the formalities of standing and bowing were completed. Finally they were free to talk.

They both knew a little bit about each others date yesterday. But they wanted to hear the particulars – where they went, how their partner acted – so badly that they had barely paid any attention during the preceding class. As evidence of that, Yoshino-san had to ask their teacher to repeat a question twice before she could answer it.

There were so many things Yumi wanted to ask but she was a bit reluctant to do so, having recently used the 'suppression order' excuse. The question was, would she be able to hold out until after school, when they could discuss this at the Rose Mansion?

"By the way, Yoshino-san, why were you so late this morning?"

Yumi thought she'd try asking an innocuous question.

Yoshino-san usually arrived at school about the same time every day. Since she walked to school, she was unaffected by bus or train delays.

"That's because..."

Yoshino-san looked sullen as she answered.

"I overslept."

"Ohh... That's unusual."

"It's because I wasn't going to school with Rei-chan."

Yumi was taken by surprise when Yoshino-san slammed her fist down on the desk.

"Whaa? Yoshino-san, does Rei-sama usually wake you up!?"

Just what you'd expect from the closely related and closely located Yellow Rose sisters.

Not satisfied with her onee-sama merely serving as a house-sitter, tea server and target for her to throw cushions at, Yoshino-san had also turned her onee-sama into a substitute alarm clock.

Now here was a scoop for the front page of the Lillian Kawaraban. The headline practically wrote itself.

"The Opposite Sisters: Petit Soeur Master and Grand Soeur Maid."

At Yumi's obvious excitement, Yoshino-san said:

"It's not like that."

"Okay."

Yumi smiled, relieved. Ahh, what a surprise that had been. And while she was sure it wasn't Rei-sama she had seen this morning, it was completely believable that Rei-sama would have done such a thing, unlike Sachiko-sama.

"… It doesn't happen all that often."

"Huh?"

Even if it doesn't happen all that often, it still happens. As was her custom, Yumi secretly tried to imagine herself in the same situation as the Yellow Rose sisters, but the thought of Sachiko-sama coming all the way to her house and then waking her up was just so unlikely that she couldn't picture it.

"My mother, she's a bit of an airhead."

Yoshino-san twirled the tips of her braids around her fingers as she spoke.

"If I'm not out of bed after about an hour, she'll make the wrong assumption. It might seem obvious, but she doesn't think to come and wake me up. So I'll just sleep the whooole time. So then, when I'm not out the front of my house at the usual time, Rei-chan will come to my room and get me out of bed and ready for school in five minutes, and then take me to school."

But now with entrance exams and result publications and what-not, there were some days when Rei-sama would come to school and some days when she wouldn't.  Obviously, there's no way Rei-sama would wake Yoshino-san up on those days when she wasn't going to school. Yoshino-san probably understood that well enough, but had been caught unprepared this morning. She probably slept right through the alarm because of her exhaustion from yesterday.

"So, strange as it may seem, that could have been Sachiko-sama."

"Eeeh?"

The 'that' that Yoshino-san referred to was the 'mistake' that Yumi had seen.

"When you first said it, my immediate reaction was that there was no way it could have been Sachiko-sama. But there are very few things you can say about any human with absolute certainty."

"Well, that's true."

But would Sachiko-sama, whose favorite phrases included 'Your tie's crooked,' 'No running in the hallway,' 'Don't make such a fuss,' and 'Would you please calm down a bit,' really run down the hallway with her skirt tossing and her collar flapping?

"Anyway, if you thought it was Sachiko-sama then it must have been Sachiko-sama. A soeur's intuition is not something you question."

"I wonder."

"Why don't we check?"

Yoshino-san glanced at her watch. Yumi too let her gaze fall on the dial. Fortunately, since the previous lesson had finished early, there was still a decent amount of time remaining in the break. Plenty of time to make it over to the third year classrooms and back.

"If Sachiko-sama isn't in the third year pine group classroom, then you must have been mistaken after all."

"And if she is?"

Yumi asked, as she rose from her seat.

"In that case..."

"In that case?"

Yoshino-san smiled.

"The probability that it was Sachiko-sama just went through the roof, don't you think?"