Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume13 Chapter5 3

=== <noinclude>Up to the Meeting Place. </noinclude>Part 3. ===

She'd failed.

She hadn't known that the JR line was stopped until she arrived at the station.

"When's it going to be running again?"

Mami frantically pressed the young station attendant for an answer and he leaned back slightly and answered, "S-soon."

Just as she was thinking, "Yeah, right," a train really did arrive on the platform. There was no mistaking that it was heading in to Tokyo.

''"We apologize for the inconvenience."''

Belatedly, the announcement that the train had arrived echoed across the platform.

The train that had just arrived was full of passengers from the station before, and the one before that, so despite being 10am it was as crowded as during morning rush hour. 

"But the schedule's all messed up, so it'll probably take a lot longer than usual."

The station attendant from before said to Mami as she was leaving to board the train.

"I suppose so."

But she still thought she'd be better off getting on the train. The line ahead was clear. Even if progress was sluggish, she'd eventually reach her destination. It seemed like it would be quicker than getting a bus from here to a private railway station.

"…"

But the train moved even slower than she'd expected. It barely moved at all, as though it was blocked by something.

Whenever she thought she should get off at the next stop and catch a bus, it would move a little. Then when she'd think she wouldn't have to get off, it would stop moving again. It almost felt like it was directly opposing her choice.

"Ah, hi, Kenji? I'm on the train right now. It's not moving at all. It's so annoying."

A short distance away, in the same carriage, a young lady was talking on her cell phone.

"I think I'm going to be totally late, so stay there and wait for me okay?"

(Argh, that's enough.)

If you've said what you had to then hang up already. Mami launched a psychic attack at the unseen woman but it didn't cause any damage to the boneheaded monster. She kept rabbiting on, her speech only interrupted by her shrill laughter.

An old man sitting by the door shook his legs in irritation, muttering, "Unbelievable."

His legs came in contact with the legs of the pretty young lady seated next to him, who turned away from the old man and clicked her tongue.

The old woman standing in front of the young lady scowled in displeasure.

The chain-reaction steadily raised the irritation level inside the train.

Irritation, a surge of anger, losing patience, annoyance, exasperation.

Mami thought that anyone looking at her would think she was oozing irritation from every pore too.

(Ah, Takuya? It's me, Mami. I'm on the train right now. I might be a bit late, so can you wait for me? Because I want to see your face.)

In order to shut out the annoyances surrounding her, Mami imagined making a call to Takuya-kun. It was incredibly stupid, but also a bit fun and made her feel somewhat better.

(Hello, Takuya? Are you, perhaps, also stuck on the train and annoyed?)

Mami didn't know where the Shimura residence was.

But what if Takuya-kun was riding together with her on the same train, in the same carriage? Mami killed some time thinking about that.