Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume26 Chapter8 3

X-Mark. Part 3

Yumi set out on a stroll with Noriko-chan, borrowing her from Shimako-san for a little while.

That said, their stroll was along the maps in the Rose Mansion parlor. So, strictly speaking, it was not restricted to just the two of them. Like Shimako-san and the white card, Yumi had to decide on a place to hide her red card. That was fundamental. But with a skilled assistant like Noriko-chan by her side, she was 120 percent confident that her latent abilities would awaken and she'd come up with a great idea.

"As much as possible, you all want your hiding places to reflect those different ideas, right?"

"That's right," Yumi agreed. There was a certain leeway because the cards had to be hidden, but it should broadly fit the theme.

"Well, since Yoshino-sama's the only one to have decided on a spot, why don't we use her location as the center and look at places far away from that?"

"Makes sense."

There was a certain rationale behind it. Although it was going back to the "start."

"But the staff room's external wall is a bit of a strange place. It's part of the school building, but it's outside."

"Yeah."

Since it was a bit of a difficult position to pinpoint, they decided to start by looking at places some way away from the staff room.

"Is the school gate in-bounds?"

In one motion, Noriko-chan's pencil made a huge jump alone.

"I don't think it was last year, but . . ." Yumi turned her attention there too, "Mami-san was considering extending the bounds."

The security guard's station was, of course, out-of-bounds, but they wanted to get permission to include the staff parking lot, the tennis courts, and the oval in the game area. The gymnasium and martial arts building would be okay provided they weren't being used on that day, and they were currently in negotiations to ensure this.

"The area around the statue of Maria-sama gets kind of busy on Valentine's Day."

"That's true."

With a lot of, "That place is out," and, "I'm not really sure about that," they eventually made it back to the school building.

"Should we look at the school building too?"

Noriko-chan quickly swapped the maps, adding, "It just has to be away from the staff room. Like, the arts building's a separate building. And the home-ec rooms and science rooms aren't really close to the staff room either."

"Ah, the science rooms are out," Yoshino-san interjected from the side. "Because of the chemicals they keep there. The teachers were worried about that, even though the strong ones are kept in the storage room and the shelves are locked."

But if anything happened, it would be too late. Yumi thought they had made the right call in rejecting it. And since she'd never even considered hiding her card there, she hadn't really cared when it was ruled out.

"Besides that, there's not really any link between me and, say, the music room."

At a stretch, it had been part of her cleaning area as a first-year. But, in that case, Shimako-san was in the same boat.

"Same for the home-ec rooms, nothing really strikes me."

"Then what is a place that strikes you?"

"A place that strikes me?"

"When you think about the school building, is there anywhere other than your classroom that comes to mind? Ignoring the reason why for now."

Noriko-chan lay her pencil down sideways on top of the map and slowly moved it around.

(Is she dowsing?)

– That seemed unlikely, but, at any rate, Yumi did what she was told and tried envisaging the school building, and her attention was quickly drawn towards a certain room.

"The social studies prep room, I guess."

"The social studies prep room?"

Everyone else echoed the name of a room they weren't all that familiar with.

"The social studies prep room . . . why that place?"

Despite saying to ignore the reason why, Rosa Gigantea en bouton now firmly wanted to know the reason.

"Because of the maps."

She put her thoughts into words and Yoshino-san pointed and laughed, "Yumi-san, that's too simple. You're just being influenced by all the maps we have here."

That was an obvious conclusion given the situation, but it was incorrect.

"Not that, the blank maps."

For Yumi, the blank maps were a symbol of Touko-chan. Yumi didn't know whether or not Touko-chan would be participating in the event, but just for a moment she'd wondered where would be a good place to hide the card in order for Touko-chan to find it.

"Blank maps?" Noriko-chan repeated.

". . . Oh, it's nothing. Sorry."

Yumi reconsidered and shook her head.

"Yumi-san?"

"At any rate, the social studies prep room won't work."

"Why not?"

Shimako-san and Yoshino-san looked at her with quizzical expressions.

"I made a mistake."

She couldn't be thinking of someone when she chose her hiding place.

Why hadn't she realized something so obvious before?

"That thing with the social studies prep room?"

Noriko-chan asked for confirmation, and Yumi nodded vigorously.

That was it.

She wanted a hiding place that didn't favor any specific person, so that students with no inside knowledge of her would be totally fine.

"Alright, let's think of some other place. Anything you're particular about, or have an image of?"

Noriko-chan switched to asking her questions, probably because they hadn't been having any success with their previous approach.

"That reminds me," Shimako-san started, "Your theme was 'close to the Yamayurikai,' wasn't it?"

"Ah."

"That's right."

The second-years had completely forgotten about that until now, even though it was supposed to be the most important consideration. This time, Yumi was struck by something.

"How about the Rose Mansion?"

"That's it!" Yoshino-san said, and snapped her fingers again.

"Indeed — it's hard to see what's right under your nose, right?"

Shimako-san placed the stack of maps in front of Yumi. There, she drew an X with her pencil.

Even though they were in that spot right now.

It was a bit of a strange feeling.