Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter2 2 (section)

===<noinclude>Onee-sama's Racket. </noinclude>Part 2.===

Just how long had she been unable to stop thinking about tennis rackets.

It all went back to about a week ago. Probably no more than ten days.

After school, they were practicing their swings at the tennis courts that seemed lonely now that the third years were no longer there. Katsura was watching over her petit soeur, Mizue.

For some reason, Mizue seemed different then usual.

Something seemed out of place, as though she was wearing different clothes, or had a new haircut. But her hair was the same as usual, and Katsura was accustomed to seeing her in the clothes she had on.

It wasn't what she had on, but Katsura soon realized what it was. She was using a different racket. Which changed her form when she swung.

Katsura was going to ask her where she got the racket. Was it a newly purchased one? Was she borrowing it from someone? If she had asked about it quickly, it probably would have been a non-event. Mizue would have answered, telling her where it was from.

But Katsura hesitated momentarily. Looking closely at Mizue's racket, she saw that it wasn't a new one. And in the clubroom they had a number of spare rackets, but it wasn't one of those either. But it was definitely one that she had seen somewhere before.

That's it. It was Katsura's onee-sama's racket.

Why did Mizue have it?

Had her onee-sama given it to Mizue? That was probably it.

If a senior said they wanted to give you their racket, anybody, even Mizue, would gladly accept. So that was fine. Then where was the problem?

(… I get it)

Why did onee-sama choose Mizue to give her racket to? That was the question.

She fretted over it, but couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't decide whether or not to ask her onee-sama about it.

(Right. It's not like I'm in any position to judge her …!)

Katsura startled herself.

Maybe this was just her reaping what she had sown.

About this time last year, Katsura had received a racket from the then vice-president of the tennis club, and she too had kept this a secret from her onee-sama.

At that time, she had been overjoyed to have elicited such an action from a beloved senior. For the students in the tennis club, it was like receiving a memento from someone you admired. Thinking that her onee-sama would have been offended by her receiving the racket, Katsura had adorned a wall of her room with it and the commemorative photo that Takeshima Tsutako had taken of them.

(It wasn't an affair. It's just that I admired her like an idol.)

But in that case, why hadn't she told her onee-sama about it. And why had she kept the racket hidden?

Right. Because she was feeling guilty about it. So she hadn't wanted her onee-sama to find out. 

Understanding that, she couldn't ask her onee-sama about her feelings.

It was only when Katsura was placed in the opposite position that she realized just how unthinkable an act she had done.