Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume29 Chapter1 2

Onee-sama, Rosary and Petit Soeur. Part 2.

Yumi's predictions were confirmed when she opened the door to the second year pine classroom and saw that there were hardly any students inside, and the room seemed colder than usual.

"Gokigenyou."

Yumi started by greeting the three students who had arrived ahead of her. After that, she walked over to her seat and placed her schoolbag and purse on the table. Then she took off her school coat and gloves, and put them in her locker at the back of the classroom. Yumi then returned to her seat and had just finished taking out the notebooks that she would use for today's classes when she was confounded. Something had gone missing.

"Oh, what's this about, you don't have to go to the Rose Mansion?"

Yumi's classmates were watching her, intrigued, as she remained seated.

"I just felt like coming to school early today, for no real reason."

Yumi's classmates chuckled at her answer, one of them adding, 'My, what a luxury.' When she asked about this, Yumi learned that they all regularly arrived at this hour because of the public transportation near where they lived. If they caught a later bus or train they would risk being tardy, so their only option was to wake up early.

"It must be hard to do that every day."

As for Yumi, she caught a bus to and from M station. Traffic congestion made it harder to judge when a bus would arrive compared to a train, but thankfully even if she if she did miss the bus she only had to wait about ten minutes for the next one to arrive.

"Because you do it every day, you get used to it."

"Right, right. And once you're used to it, it's surprisingly pleasant."

"You get to skip the morning rush hour."

All three of the girls spoke. Yumi thought that they were the ones who had the luxury.

"And there are other girls who have club activities or committee meetings that get here even earlier than us."

That was true. There were a number of desks with a bag on them, but the owner nowhere in sight. Most clubs had canceled their regular morning practices because the 'Third Years' Farewell Party' was drawing near, but some were holding special club activities.

"So what do you usually do during the thirty minutes or so until everyone arrives?"

Yumi bowed her head as she asked. Since they were all experts, they undoubtedly had some brilliant way of making use of the time.

"Nothing much … right?"

The three girls exchanged glances.

"Around Christmas and Valentines Day we'll knit, or do something similar. But, these days? We'll usually just finish off some homework or go over our English vocabulary."

"Yeah, that's it. Because we have to wake up early, we also have to go to bed early. And it's just more efficient to study in the morning."

"Ohh..."

At least for today, Fukuzawa Yumi had finished all her homework and was fully prepared for class. Naturally, she hadn't brought along some unfinished knitting either. And she wasn't such an avid reader that she always carried around a book to read.

"Oooh."

Yumi thought about the many occasions when she was low on time but desperately wanted some more, but now that she had unexpectedly found herself with some spare time she didn't know how to use it.

"Yumi-san, you're really…"

"Looks that way."

Her three classmates laughed, amazed. They were undoubtedly thinking that she was dull and lacked interests.

"Anyway, if you had some Yamayurikai work to do, you could do that."

That was true, so Yumi couldn't really object.

"Or how about going to the Rose Mansion? There's probably something there to do."

"Maybe."

The next Yamayurikai organized event was the 'Third Years Farewell Party,' so of course there was work to do. But the Yamayurikai members had decided to co-ordinate when to come in early and stay back late so they could all work together. Even so.

"I'm not sure how well it would go down if I went to the Rose Mansion early and started working by myself."

"Ahh."

Since Yoshino-san would be the only one shouting about 'throwing off the pace' or 'breaking a promise' it would probably be okay, but then Noriko-chan would show up early tomorrow morning to meet Yumi. What was simply a way for her to waste some time would turn into a major drama.

"Really, what I want to do is go and see my onee-sama, but I don't think she'd be here just yet."

Yumi flopped down over her desk. The other girls looked surprised.

"Oh, is that so? Sachiko-sama seems like she's the type of person who would come to school early."

"She wouldn't be here this early unless she had something to do."

Sachiko-sama was no good early in the morning because of her low blood pressure. Especially in winter, when it took quite a while for her body and brain to get in gear.

Even so, it's not as though she would burst through the school gates rushing to make it on time. Running, and consequently rustling her skirt and tossing her sailor collar, would be such an offense to Sachiko-sama's sense of dignity that it would rank as one of the most indecent acts she could perform.

While they were chatting, the number of students in the classroom was steadily rising. Then the other three girls left her with a cryptic remark before returning to their respective desks.

"Yumi-san, good luck."

"Huh?"

Good luck, they said. But what on earth would she need luck for? Before Yumi had a chance to turn around and ask, a new group of students tramped into the classroom.

"Ahh – Yumi-san's here."

In the time it took the one person to say that, she had been surrounded by six of her classmates.

(Ah.)

Belatedly, Yumi understood the meaning of the 'Good luck.'

"Is the rumor about yesterday's date true?"

"What happened? Your partner was Matsudaira Touko-san, right?"

"Where did you go? I tried looking around K station yesterday."

"...Well."

Yumi was frankly amazed at how her life somehow managed to be constantly in the spotlight. But she couldn't just sit there dumbfounded, she had to think.

So then, how to weather this storm?

If she were Shimako-san, she would only have to smile to evade their concentrated attack. Even if Yumi wanted to emulate her, they were fundamentally different. Yumi would only succeed in creeping them out with a forced smile.

(That's right. There's a phrase that's perfect for this situation.)

Yumi thought, 'What was it?' as she looked at her classmates, who were anxiously waiting to see what would come out of her mouth. Mami-san had taught it to her, a magic phrase that would get her out of this kind of situation.

"Umm, it's that thing."

Yumi raised her right index finger, and twirled it around.

"That thing?"

Her classmates shook their heads blankly.

"Right. That, that thing."

It was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite get it out. What was it? She knew what it was, but she just couldn't find that phrase that meant something like a promise.

"Oooooh."

Well, she'd come this far. The girls asked her, 'Are you okay?' and 'Does it hurt?' as Yumi grimaced, trying to force sound through her larynx.

"It's annoying. The words aren't coming out."

"Huh?"

Instantly the worried expressions all changed to relieved expressions, well, all except for Yumi's.

"There's a phrase for it."

Yumi told her classmates, who were starting to recover from shock. But having said that there was a phrase, she was still no closer to working out what the phrase was.

"It's not so much a promise, more an order? Right, at the end I was given an order. A … mumble, mumble order."

"Hasekura Rei?"

"No!"

"An order to show compassion to all living things?"

"Shorter than that."

"A suppression order?"

"That's it!"

"That's it, huh?"

After a cheer of relief, there were high fives all around.

"Well, if you're under a suppression order, that's all there is to it."

Yumi's classmates let her off surprisingly easily, perhaps in part from a shared sense of achievement they felt from uncovering that buried phrase.

Leaving the cluster of girls, Yumi saw Mami-san and Tsutako-san standing by the door, looking at her.

"Gokigenyou. Have you just arrived?"

The pair responded in the negative to her question.

"We were just waiting for the right time to join in and help you out."

"It started to get interesting when you said, 'It's that thing,' but in the end we were forced to sit this one out, right?"

The editor-in-chief of the Lillian Kawaraban and the self-described photography club ace looked at each other and smiled.

"Heeey."

Since they were watching, they should have helped out. None of this watching because it was interesting nonsense.

"You got there on your own, so it's all good."

Yumi paused to think when Mami-san told her this. Maybe she had a point.

"Exactly."

Tsutako-san agreed as she raised her camera. It sounded like praise, but things felt kind of awkward.

"Ehehehe. I'm just heading off to my onee-sama's classroom."

Looking at her watch, Yumi saw it was the perfect time. The peak time for high school students arriving at school was almost over.

"Okay, take care."

Yumi headed out into the hallway after hearing these words and the cheerful sound of a shutter clicking coming from her two friends.

Yumi instinctively drew her shoulders inwards as she stepped from the heated classroom into the cool hallway. However, as she watched the students walking past her, she soon felt as though this wasn't necessary.