Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter1 3

===<noinclude>A lonesome warmth. </noinclude>Part 3.===

Anyways, it got them nowhere thinking about it then.  So, they broke up, with the intention of coming up with a counter-measure tomorrow after school, after everyone'd individually sought out information.

When they stepped out of the Rose Mansion, they noticed the school was empty, even though it was just past noon.  There was no regular club activities after the opening ceremonies, so it was after most students had already left.  The group of them thus silently walked down the quiet hallway toward the school gate.  It wasn't that they were showing diffidence to those around them, but rather, they were all mired deep in their own thoughts.

Passing the library and showing up in front of the Maria-sama statue, the five of them lined up and put their hands together.

What were they each praying?

Were they saying their usual prayers?  Or were they praying about the Yamayurikai election?

Either way, they were all isolated while they stood facing Maria-sama.  When they close their eyes and put their hands together, people confront their own holy person.  Even the closest of people to them are removed.  Basically, it was truly impossible to enter someone else's soul.

The gingko pathway felt much colder than the morning.

After going separate ways with Yoshino-san and Rei-sama, even while she stood at the bus stop with Sachiko-sama and Shimako-san, and even while she rode the bus with them, Yumi couldn't stop feeling lonely.

"Are you cold?"

Sachiko-sama softly inquired.

"No."

They were far from the students' departure peak, so the bus was extremely empty, and as people stepped on and off the bus, the cold wind quickly flowed through the door and throughout the bus.

"Come closer, it'll help."

Sachiko-sama was sitting at the back of the bus, on the long, connected seat, and she pulled Yumi, sitting by her side, closer.  Their arms and waists became glued to each other, and they felt each other's warmth through the coats and uniforms.

It was warm.  But Yumi felt even more lonely.

Why did she feel like crying the more she felt onee-sama's warmth?

"What should we do, Yumi-san?"

Yoshino-san's words suddenly came back to life inside Yumi.

(… Oh, so that's what.)

Yoshino-san probably understood, having been a little sister for so long.  That one day, they, too, would be fretting over this.

It was their onee-sama's crisis, so they needed to be a crutch.

(But I'm always being cared for by onee-sama, and I've never been able to repay her.)

What should we do.

(You're right, Yoshino-san.)

For their beloved onee-sama, what could they do?  The time to seriously think about that had come.

The bus took a sharp, right turn.

Sachiko-sama and Shimako-san both looked out their respective windows.  But neither of them were looking at the winter city.

Even though she sat next to them, they felt very far away.


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