Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume20 Chapter1

Audition

It started with something Yoshino-san had said.

"At this rate, I can't find anything left to do but hold an audition...."

Yoshino-san said, while holding a fist up to her face for emphasis, with no warning.

Someone who had been listening to Yoshino-san could only think of it as sudden. For some time now, Yoshino-san had been vacillating back and forth in her heart about something with a "no, not this," or a, "not this either."

"Aw--?"

"Audition."

Before Yumi could ask Yoshino-san what the audition was about, Yoshino-san added: "About our petite sœurs of course."

"Our petite sœurs ... our sisters?!"

Without thinking, Yumi stopped wiping the table.

An audition.

When she thought about it, the first thing that came to mind was a search, a production meant to find new talent. It was a place where actresses would go to get into movies and dramas, where they would find out their market price. Yumi, who had nothing to do with this world of talent, hadn't given something like this a single thought.

No, wait. Someone who had graduated had used an audition like this before. Maybe it was during the Student Council Elections? Something about the Yamayurikai body auditions ... or something like that.

"Well, if you think so strongly about an audition, we won't be able to get petite sœurs by the time we're third-years."

Yoshino-san said while opening the window.

It was the first Monday of November; after school at the Rose Mansion.

The second-year boutons had gathered to finish the mansion's cleaning. Even stately Noriko-chan had her courage drain as she heard Yoshino-san's Audition Declaration, as she faltered while holding the electric teakettle. Or maybe she was just guiding our planning.

"When you say 'we', are you including me in it?"

"Of course." Yoshino-san answered, as she returned from the window.

"We're in similar positions, aren't we? Haven't both of our Onee-samas commanded us to find petite sœurs?"

"Uh, well."

Yumi minced her words.

Actually, only recently, Yumi's Onee-sama Ogasawara Sachiko-sama had just commanded her: "Please find a petite sœur." She had no reason to keep such an important request to herself, and quietly accepted it without shock, so she had told Yoshino-san.

"If you analyze the situation, Sachiko-sama had been put under a lot of pressure in last year's sœur problems, and in that strain produced a petite sœur. So I thought Yumi-san would not want to go through that herself. So it's like a kind of kindness."

But Yumi thought, while listening to Yoshino-san's explanation, "then why haven't you found a petite sœur for yourself by now?"

"But with Rei-chan, it was completely different. Because Rei-chan had made me her petite sœur from the start of the first term, she didn't feel any pressure, so she didn't pressure me. She probably forgot completely about the whole pressuring thing."

"I don't think she really forgot."

Because just yesterday Rei-sama had said, "I want to hear some good news from you soon."

But really, it seemed as if Yoshino-san's Onee-sama Hasekura Rei-sama had still not directly said anything to her little sister about finding a petite sœur. But because Yoshino-san was being pressured from a different direction, it felt to her as if her goose was cooked, and she needed to find a petite sœur quickly.

"Right now, the Rose Mansion has a shortage of first-years. You see? Last year around now, there was Shimako-san, you, and I. There were three of us. Now look how many there are."

Noriko-chan was the only one.

"It's like a shortage of wives in a village. Soon this place will be deserted. Is that what you want, Noriko-chan?"

Yoshino-san remarked as soon as Noriko-chan had turned towards them.

"That's a troubling situation."

Yoshino-san's question was the unsaid trap. By next year, if everything went according to plan, the second-years would become Roses, and Noriko-chan would be the only bouton. It was understandably a grave situation, no matter how capable a person you put in that spot.

"Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever met someone I'd like."

Yoshino-san said after depositing herself in a chair. She had gotten into full conversation mode. After Yumi had finished washing the sink, she sat down in the chair next to Yoshino-san. The Rose Mansion's cleaning was finished.

"Speaking of meeting, how about someone from Kendo club?" asked Yumi, at which Yoshino-san made a strained face.

"I'm very perky right? But even though I have all that energy, and even though the old man next door runs a Kendo Dojo, I'm still just a real beginner. I'd only be able to ask someone of a lower Kendo rank than me to be my sœur."

"So basically, if she's better than you at Kendo, you wouldn't let her be your sœur?"

"That's about right."

Because Yoshino-san was a dominating person, she didn't want to feel slighted in her sœur relationship.

"And also, the girls who stick to their club sport from the very beginning of the first term of their first year rise up quickly."

"That's true. You joined during the monsoon season, right?"

When Yoshino-san had been considering whether or not to start club activities, her relationship with Rei-sama had become very stormy. But Yumi herself had been overflowing with her own issues, so she didn't even have the slightest idea of what had happened between them.

"But I'll bet there's some first-year in the club who looks at Yoshino-sama from afar and thinks 'She's so cool'."

"There's no first-year who would think of a girl who tires out during stretches to be cool."

"Well, there must be --"

Yumi's follow up was interrupted by Yoshino-san's declaration.

"Plus, Rei-chan has a lot of curiosity...."

"Rei-sama...."

"The person who becomes my sœur will be like a granddaughter to Rei-chan."

"I see. So someone who can play the part affectionately."

Of course, I nodded. One couldn't definitively say that there were no girls who would do such things, as the very ones who did were often the ones who could not be recognized. I had also admired Rei-sama at first, but as time went by, I began to like Yoshino-san and see Rei-sama her way.

"Ah, back in the glory days before the Yellow Rose Revolution, I was thought to be the best first-year sœur there could be."

Yoshino-san said as she turned her head towards Noriko-chan. Noriko-chan, who had not known the Yoshino-san before the great change, made a face showing that she thought it were all a lie. But Yoshino-san's words had no untruth to them; they were all true.

"Yumi-san has it easy here though. She's popular among the first-years."

"Popular? No, I'm just a bit familiar with everyone."

Come to think of it, in the midst of the expensive cultivated roses inside the greenhouse, there was one dandelion growing alone. Like a walnut-shaped button made of cotton amongst a group of jewels. That was the feeling I had felt.

"You say you aren't, but around you, you have Touko-chan and Kanako-chan. Ah, You don't really like one over the other do you?"

"Like one or the other? Well, either way, I don't own either."

"It was just a suggestion. I don't want them to simply be trinkets of Yumi-san. That's why I have no better option but to grope out some idea for myself."

"That's...."

"Audition, it's an audition! A sœur audition!"

Yoshino-san once again clenched her fist and raised it into the air, at the moment when the room's door opened with a creak.

"Huh? You want to choose a sœur through some auditions?"

Just as I was thinking this was a good idea, in came Sachiko-sama. As always, she sat in her seat with beauty and grace, and sipped the black tea prepared by Noriko-chan. "So?" she asked, as Yumi turned her head towards Sachiko-sama.

"Please, make no mistake regarding my intentions, Onee-sama. Yoshino-san will be the one doing the auditions."

If Yumi did not clarify her own position on the audition, something bad would happen. So Yumi forcefully declared her inclinations.

"Hmm, and you will be doing...?"

"Eh?"

"You won't be joining in? Like Yoshino-chan, you too have no sœur, Yumi."

"I, I know, but...."

But, when Yumi thought about it, was it right to finish what she was saying? Yumi had been thinking "That's a bit strange," but when she followed the unwavering line of sight from Sachiko-sama's eyes, it read: "What if this were the more honorable path?"

"W... wait a second, Onee-sama."

But then, Sachiko-sama harshly corrected me. Why had things gone this way?

"Because you cannot meet the girls, you can hold an audition. Isn't that nice? I wonder why I hadn't thought of the idea before."

Hands crossed on her chest, Sachiko-sama sighed, as neighboring Yoshino-san added "I'm done waiting."

"Sachiko-sama, I'm worried. Even together with Yumi-san, would we have any applicants for the auditions?"

For some reason or the other, they would come. In spite of this being a vote on one issue, there may be some dissidents. But Yumi cheered Yoshino-san on, "Fight, fight! Go! Go!" and such.

"Ah, that doesn't sound like the Yoshino-chan we know. Isn't it better if more people attend? But, the main question is, can you chance upon a suitable partner for yourself in that crowd? It's possible that in spite of a hundred people attending, you don't find a suitable partner. There was only one person for you, and no replacing that sœur."

"That's true, but...."

People whose feelings dashed ahead of their words, when hit by reasonable arguments, will not stop. Yoshino-san was not able to put up a good defense, her words fading away.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing to do but fight by herself.

"Uh ... Onee-sama, my opinion is --"

"Opinion?"

Sachiko-sama looked at Yumi brusquely.

"It's that 'an audition isn't necessary', right? Because 'there must be other first-years out there willing to be our sœurs'?"

"Well, no."

"Well, if that's what you want to say, then we're talking about something completely different. Please follow Yoshino-chan. But if you plan not to go with her, then while Yoshino-chan does that, you should use the time instead to gather your own sœur candidates, Yumi. I've given up on waiting for you."

"Uh...."

Now what to do. She had probably said the most appropriate thing to say at that time. But that's right. She remembered. In her fervor, Yumi stood up and spoke.

"Onee-sama. Your insistence on these sœur recruitments is some sort of idiocy."

Swish.

She had made her decisions ... hadn't she? No, it seemed wholly bad for her. Yoshino-san turned her head away with a look on her face that said, "She's done it now," and Sachiko-sama laughed.

"Sœur recruitments? You misunderstood me Yumi. I had simply played the bad person to push my cute little sister into some good."

"Played the bad person?"

Yumi's question was rude, but she could not see it.

"If you find it cruel, then leave the room and search for one, please. Maybe your unexpected sœur is waiting for you outside the door."

"So you want me too to look for some gold in the straw?"

"What does that mean?!"

With Sachiko-sama's obvious eyebrow-raising, Yumi understood that she herself had forgotten being called 'Warashibe Chouja'.

"Understood. I'll search. It'll be best if I search."

Yumi rose again in passion, but she had no reason to meet her spoken goal. It's just that the room's mood had caught her on fire, and she needed to quench herself out.

Just about a year ago, Sachiko-sama herself had been thrust into some painful circumstances by the former Roses, and had stormed out of the room in anger. That was when Yumi had coincidentally decided to visit the Rose Mansion. So, as she was walking together with Shimako-san, who was acting as her guide, Yumi had collided with Sachiko-sama as she left the room. It seemed that humans, when pushed into action by something, go down paths that they cannot fully understand.

If God has prearranged a sœur for me, then I probably would not be able to see her standing outside of the door.

As Yumi was opening the door, the knob began escaping from her grip. As soon as she began to understand that someone from the other side was opening the door, Shimako-san's face became visible. As soon as Shimako-san saw an overly excited Yumi storm out of the door, Shimako-san quickly dodged out of the way.

Come to think of it, was the person beside Shimako-san this sœur of fate? Ah, so there really was a person there, Yumi thought, as she finally collided with her.

There was no going back.

She had readied herself, and closed her eyes.

As she collided with a warm object and both of them fell onto the floor, for some reason Yumi could not feel the impact. Yumi opened her eyes.

"Yumi-chan, sorry...."

It was Rei-sama's worried face.

"Because you collided into me, I could take the impact. But if I had been a regular girl, it would have been a disaster."

Sachiko's didactic reply could be heard from in the room.

"She is a girl who does not understand whether she has or does not have luck."

Translator's Notes

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