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

===Part 5===

Tuesday.

During lunchtime, Hosokawa Kanako-chan came to visit the Rose Mansion.

At the time, because Yumi and Yoshino-san were in front of the first floor stairs looking through the letters, when Kanako-chan first came in, they thought that she had come to enter the Tea Party.

"I'm sorry that I came while you were in the middle of work. I wanted to speak with you, Yumi-sama, but... it looks like I can't."

Kanako-chan said as she observed the scene. But before she set foot into the Rose Mansion, it seemed as if she did not know that this was the place next to the window for the Tea Party applicants.

"It's fine. One person can handle the letters. If you need some help, just call up to the second floor, and Noriko-chan or Shimako-san will come down."

Yoshino-san replied to Kanako-chan, or perhaps to Yumi.

"Oh? Alright, then have fun talking."

Yumi rose from the seat she was sitting in, and joined Kanako-chan in walking outside.

Earlier there had been a number of first-years who had come to have fun, but none of them ended up submitting applications, so the Rose Mansion began resembling a closed store left open. If she left her waiting area now, it seemed as if everything would be okay.

She left the Rose Mansion, and began walking towards no direction in particular.

In the clear autumn day, students in the courtyard were taking walks after eating, and were having fun, but they turned around abruptly behind the school, and the figures of the others disappeared.

"A while ago, I had thought I'd try to come after school to see First-Year Camellia Class."

"Ah, yeah."

Unfortunately, neither Kanako-chan nor Touko-chan were in the classroom then. It hadn't seemed like they had gone home, but the timing had felt a bit odd.

"I'm sorry. I hadn't sought you out, even though every day after school I just plod around..."

"It's fine" Yumi said, as she patted Kanako-chan.

"I wanted to say sorry for asking you to help out during the School Festival. I also wanted a two shot picture with you, so." [[Talk:Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume20_Chapter1.3|*]]

"A picture ... ahhh"

Kanako-chan whispered as if a she had just come up to a realization. Yumi wondered what had happened to the picture, but when she thought the idea shown on her face, she added "Of course, I haven't forgotten about it."

"Maybe, if you work hard during the School Festival, then we can take a picture together, is what I had promised."

"Take a picture together? You have the gall..."

It was that, the Kanako-chan she knew directly after the Athletic Festival looked dangerous, so she used an excuse to become friends with her. Because in spite of what had happened, Kanako-chan had once been a person who hoped to have a two shot with this now un-deified Yumi-sama.

"Well, whatever you had said about the pictures, Yumi-sama thought that I worked hard with her during the School Festival, and recognized my value. Then I'm happy."

"Of course."

"Good. If I can return the favor, then."

It had been a long time since she had last talked to Kanako-chan like this, even though it hadn't really been that long since she had last talked to Kanako-chan. If Kanako-chan felt the same, Yumi wondered what she would do.

"Because during the School Festival, I put myself in a place where I have to thank everyone so."

Kanako-chan laughed.

"Eh? Huh?"

"For my Dad, and Yuuko-sempai. And Chikako."

Ah, that... she nodded and then shook her head.

"But I didn't do anything."

"No, you definitely did. That's why I have to get you something soon."

"Kanako-chan..."

Kanako-chan had really changed, Yumi observed. A lot in a very short time. But just how she had changed, Yumi could not put into a single word. It was as if she had taken off her heavy shell, and became light and nimble.

"So then, the reason I came here..."

Kanako-chan cut in.

"You said you had something to talk about."

Yumi confirmed, and then nodded.

"The talk of the Tea Party is becoming pretty lively even around me."

"Sorry. Has it been tough?"

'Even' she had said, so then it was probably the same thing that was happening to Touko-chan, but now it was happening to Kanako-chan too.

"It has. But I didn't really come here to complain. I'm pretty detached in class, so it's not much of an itch or a pain. But I wanted to talk to someone about it correctly. But I thought that Yumi-sama was the only one who I could talk about my feeling with about this."

"Feelings?"

The heavy echo that accompanied her words put Yumi on guard.

"I have no desire to participate in the Tea Party."

"Aaah."

Not only was she letting others know that she did not want to find an Onee-sama, but she was also declaring that she did not want to be Yumi's soeur.

And Yumi understood this somehow.

Kanako would not become her soeur.

It wasn't a matter of Yumi not choosing Kanako-chan, or Kanako-chan rejecting Yumi, just something vague. The two of them could not become soeurs, so.

Perhaps Kanako-chan had picked up on this before Yumi did. From much earlier, at least that was obvious.

It's somewhat vague, but if she said it outright, then it felt too harsh. It was like a balloon she let go into the wind, whose direction she would watch.

When she felt the conversation became more serious, Kanako-chan changed the subject.

"I joined a club."

"Eh? Really?"

That was like a crack of thunder in her ears. [[Talk:Maria-sama_ga_Miteru:Volume20_Chapter1.3|*]]

"Is it the Basketball Club?"

It was the only club that fit her. When Yumi asked, Kanako responded "Yes".

"Before, I had rejected an offer I had been given to enter the club, but now I wanted to join again so."

She was a beginner, so first she had to go to the gym and practice with the wall, Yumi daydreamed. It seemed fun in a way. So that's what she had meant when she had said "after school I just plod around".

"Do you think you can find an Onee-sama in your club?"

"No. The way I am now, I don't think I want to become anyone's soeur. Next year, maybe I will try to find a soeur of my own, or."

"I see."

She didn't say but, to Kanako, Yuuko-sempai was the only person in the world who she could call Onee-sama. At least, that's what Yumi thought.

"I think I had been just guessing, but I thought of Yumi-sama like I did of Yuuko-sempai."

"Yeah."

Yumi knew that for a while, Kanako-chan had been searching for someone. She knew that when Kanako-chan saw Yuuko-san from the School Festival, Kanako-chan thought "She's the one".

"When I met Yumi-sama in this school, it was the feeling I had gotten from looking at Yuuko-sempai when I was in middle school. I won't make the same mistake twice. So arrogantly I said, *I* will protect you."

This stuff really happened, Yumi thought to herself nostalgically.

"But I was mistaken."

The thing that Kanako-chan had been after was something higher, and of course she did not follow the real Yumi.

Kanako-chan nodded quietly, then laughed as if she suddenly remembered something.

"What?"

"Yumi-sama thought of a weird example, right? Something like, if one of a pair of twins goes to Mars. Remember?"

"Yeeeah."

It seemed as if she had and had not said it. Had it been before the Athletic Festival?

"I've let it go. As soon as I let it go, it was like a strange force in my shoulders was let go too. Like, it's fine to not pointlessly fight alone."

"Kanako-chan..."

"I couldn't see my adored Yumi-sama again. It was sad that I could not see her, but that person was someone who lived on Mars. If I broke off from this person whose face resembled Yumi-sama's, then I could feel like meeting with the Yumi-sama who was still on Earth. And when I tried to do just that, she turned out to have more meaning for me than I had thought. Somewhere along the way, I had become close with the one on Earth."

That was a very laudable speech, Yumi thought, as she let Kanako-chan keep speaking.

"Yumi-sama was not completely different to the image of Yumi-sama I had held on to. Back then, when you looked at me you had said that everything was a figment of your imagination, so I thought there was no way I could be saved. The phantom was my thoughts. To deny the thoughts I had held to myself for so long ... to deny my very heart, that was a very painful thing."

"... Yeah."

Of course. It must have been painful.

But now, Kanako-chan laughed.

"When I met Yuuko-sempai again, I felt down when trying to think of what I needed to do. When I met her, Yuuko-sempai too was like Yumi-sama, just one of the twins. So there was nothing I could do, I thought. Maybe. The Yuuko-sempai who long ago chased after the same basketball with me was now living in Mars."

"Eh, Mars again?"

Kanako-chan squarely nodded when Yumi asked again.

"Yes. Together with Yumi-sama's other sibling. It's Maria-sama's planet, I think."

"Well... Maria-sama's planet. Well that's."

It was a sort of quixotic thing to thing about, but now that she thought about it more, quixotic wasn't really...

"No, please don't look like that. It's a world that Yumi-sama created. And I've come to love it."

It was where the things we loved from our past lived.

Far away, in the night sky, today too it shone well.

Of course, it was so that we would not forget those things that had once existed in this world.

The things we needed to protect, in order to move forward.

"Kanako-chan."

Yumi held Kanako-chan's hand. What's this. Her chest felt heavy.

"We have to take a two shot."

"Ehh."

"Yes. We have to, right now."

She hurried fate. Without waiting for an answer, she walked on. Where would Tsutako-san be now? In her classroom? If not, maybe in the clubhouse.

"But, Yumi-sama."

"It's not because I made a promise with Kanako-chan. It's because I want to take a picture with Kanako-chan."

For a moment, Kanako-chan just blinked, but eventually she nodded and laughed.

Holding hands, they made off to a slow run.

The dead leaves crinkled and cracked in laughed.

The cold breeze, it felt wonderful.

Kanako-chan. Yumi looked up to the sky and thought.

Good luck.

We might not become soeurs but, we were friends after all.