Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume8 Chapter6 1

===<noinclude>Towards the Light. </noinclude>Part 1===

The sunlight was warm.

Eriko instinctively squinted the moment she stepped out of the gymnasium.

Dazzling.

Her eyes had become accustomed to the gymnasium interior and, even with the lights on, it fell far short of the radiance of a sunny day.

"Eriko-san, Eriko-san."

"Huh?"

Eriko's shoulder was being shaken by her classmate beside her. Wondering what was happening, she opened her eyes fully and the first thing that sprang into view was – 

"… Yamanobe-san."

The bear-man.

"What are you doing here!?"

Eriko parted from the line of third-year chrysanthemum students when she passed by his location and stood beside him. "Here" was alongside the gymnasium, but quite a distance from the entrance.

"I'm ashamed."

Those were the first words out of Yamanobe-san's mouth.

"Ashamed?"

The line of Eriko's classmates continued on, as though nothing had happened. Those she'd told about Yamanobe-san gave her a wink and a thumbs-up.

"That's what I said. That's why I'm here."

Eriko was getting annoyed as she questioned him. At least he'd shown up outside the gymnasium just as the graduating seniors were exiting. It was obvious he hadn't attended the ceremony.

"… Did you just arrive?"

"No."

"Then why didn't you go inside?"

"Because I was ashamed."

Yamanobe-san's energetic bowing caught the eye of some students near the gymnasium entrance. They fleetingly glanced her way, but when Eriko caught their eyes they quickly turned their attention back to what was happening inside the hall. They weren't seniors lined up to exit the gymnasium. Since they were wearing armbands, they were probably part of the stage crew helping with the ceremony.

"Ha hmm."

Eriko could see the course of events that had unfolded.

"You were mistaken for a creep."

With his tattered sweater and beard, he didn't look like someone going to attend a graduation ceremony. On top of that, since he would have dropped everything and rushed here straight from Hanadera Academy, he probably didn't have proper ID either. So even if he said he'd been invited, it would have been a tough sell.

"That's why I said you should come with my parents."

The checks were rigorous because Lillian's was a girls school. So even though Yamanobe-san somehow made it onto the premises, getting into the gymnasium had proved to be impossible.

The students at reception weren't at fault. It was disappointing that Yamanobe-san had given up so easily when they asked for a student's name and his relation to her.

"When I thought about it, since I'm not family or anything, I didn't think I was entitled to enter the hall – "

"… Idiot. It's my graduation, and I asked you to come, so that more than entitles you."

Yamanobe-san seemed a bit startled by Eriko's caustic words, but in the end he nodded in assent.

"Ahh, right. That's true."

Eriko sighed, was this man really ten years her senior? But, well, she was in love, so she could let it slide.

"You should probably head off soon."

Yamanobe-san pointed to the line of students exiting the gymnasium. It was only now that he looked like a competent enough teacher.

"You're right."

Eriko meekly agreed, and turned her back on Yamanobe-san. Ahead of her was Youko. The last student of camellia class had just left the gymnasium.

She jogged a few steps, then turned around.

"Thank-you for coming."

"Not at all."

Yamanobe-san looked awkward, but he spoke sincerely.

"Congratulations on your graduation, Eriko-san."

Happiness.