Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume10 Chapter2 1

Raindrop. Part 1

"What's the matter, Shimako-san?"

When she came to her senses, Shimako was in the courtyard.

"… Ahh, Tsutako-san."

The one who brought her back to Earth was her first-year classmate.

"Am I interrupting?"

"No."

Shimako shook her head, gladly welcoming Tsutako-san.

It was Wednesday morning.

Since she'd arrived at school earlier than usual, Shimako had made her way over to the courtyard and had been spacing out.

It was always like that when she thought deeply about something. She didn't have any spare capacity to pay attention to the world around her as she withdrew into her own inner world. It wasn't her intention to build a wall around her, but the result seemed to be an atmosphere that made it difficult for others to approach her.

"Those were some deep sighs."

"Really?"

"Your expression isn't too bad, but – "

As she spoke, Tstuako-san set the camera's flash off.

The girl from the photography club always carried a camera with her and would press the shutter like that whenever the mood struck her.

"It's more fun to look at Shimako-san when she's like this."

Tsutako-san pulled a bundle of photographs out of her side skirt pocket, selected one of them and held it out to Shimako.

"It was such a joyous expression that I took the photo on instinct. If you don't mind, I'd like you to have this."

It was a picture of Shimako's face that she had never seen until now. It was an unguarded shot of her laughing heartily and, as Tsutako-san had said, it was definitely a 'joyous expression.'

"Thank-you."

She certainly hadn't been laughing so wholeheartedly in recent times. Shimako looked up into the sky. It felt strange to be reminiscing about her earlier self when it had only been 10 or 15 days since the event.

"The girl with her back to the camera, the bob-haired first-year … umm."

"Noriko?"

"Right, Noriko-chan. She's good, this girl."

Tsutako-san trained her camera on Shimako.

"As a subject?"

Click.

"She's good as that too, but I meant her value as a light reflector."

"A light reflector?"

Click, click. Since Shimako hadn't objected, Tsutako-san was taking photos as fast as she could.

The lovely courtyard with its colorful flowers was popular in early summer and, despite the cloudy weather, a number of students could be seen enjoying a stroll along the paths by the flowerbeds. When they noticed the hastily convened Rosa Gigantea photo shoot, they would occasionally stop and look her way, before returning to the flowers once more.

"See, at a photo shoot, they'll have these boards that reflect light, like a mirror, you know? One of those."

Tsutako-san said, removing the camera from her face.

"What I meant was, she shines the light on Toudou Shimako."

"The light – "

Shimako was touched, for it seemed like such an apt expression. Noriko was the light. Her existence illuminated Shimako, warmed her, and made her sparkle.

"But now you're cloudy. Much like today's weather … Did something happen?"

"Something, hmm."

As Shimako struggled to find the words, Tsutako-san smiled as though she'd just been struck by an idea.

"I see. If it was something you'd discuss with me, Yumi-san and Yoshino-san would be here too."

"Not at all. I consider you one of my trusted confidants, Tsutako-san."

Shimako quickly shook her head.

Despite being in the same grade, Tsutako-san was quite mature in some respects, so Shimako had no objection to discussing matters with her. Her attentiveness tended to be overshadowed by her nonchalance. Shimako, at present, was predisposed towards Tsutako-san's style of non-intrusive kindness.

"It's just, I don't really know myself. You're right that I'm cloudy at the moment. But I don't know how to become sunny. Noriko shines the light upon me. In the past, that was good enough, but – "

That was why Shimako couldn't discuss this with Yumi-san or Yoshino-san. She couldn't glitter when she was with Noriko inside the Rose Mansion. There was no way she could say that, as it would seem like a rejection of the other Yamayurikai members.

Shimako thought that inviting Noriko to the Rose Mansion hadn't bridged the divide between them. But her thoughts were still in disarray, so she was just going around in circles trying to figure out what to do.

"Ah."

Tsutako-san smiled warmly.

"Shimako-san, you really are Satou Sei-sama's petit soeur."

"Huh?"

"You're stuck in the same labyrinth."

There was no need to ask what she was talking about. Shimako knew it was definitely that sort of thing.

However, her onee-sama hadn't repeated the same mistake with Shiori-san twice. She held on to Shimako's hand with one hand, while keeping the other free hand held straight out in front of her. Waiting out in front of her were her friends, the public, and the future too.

"I'm probably just clumsy."

"Really?"

"It looks like everyone's going out of their way to help me."

When Shimako told her about the other day's events at the Rose Mansion, Tsutako-san said, "Oh wow," cheerfully agreeing with this sentiment.

"Setting aside your feelings for now, Shimako-san. It's obvious why everyone's playing nice. You're reading too much into it."

"Perhaps you're right."

"One of the most common desires is not to be hated by other people. Don't overdo it, but try to meet them halfway. It's not necessarily a bad thing."

On the other side of her glass lenses, Tsutako-san's eyes narrowed kindly as she smiled.

"What has me more worried though is you, Shimako-san."

"Me?"

"You must be worn out, looking after both sides."

Click.

"Tsutako-san, you see a lot, don't you?"

"Yeah. Because I'm a photographer. When I press the shutter button, I want to capture what's inside my subject's heart."

"Scary."

Although, if a camera really could peek into what was inside a person's heart, people probably wouldn't have the kind of troubles Shimako was experiencing.

Shimako playfully put her right thumb to her left forefinger, and vice-versa, to create a frame, then looked through this at Tsutako-san's face. However, Tsutako-san quickly hid her face behind her camera, pointed it at Shimako, and pressed down on the shutter button.

"I'll tell you something I don't tell many people, Shimako-san – I don't like having my photo taken."

"Oh, why's that?"

It seemed hard to believe that the self-proclaimed ace of the photography club was camera shy. Although, when Shimako thought about it, it seemed like Tsutako-san would hardly ever be in a photograph since she was always on the other side of the camera.

"I simply want to be the camera that photographs you, and Yumi-san, and Yoshino-san. I only want to look at that world, I don't want to be captured inside it."

Click, click, went the shutter. Shimako turned directly towards it, and spoke to Tsutako-san on the other side of the lens.

"But if you're only watching, the answer will never be forthcoming."

"There's no right answer when dealing with human relationships. But suppose there was one model solution out there somewhere, just following that would be boring, don't you think?"

" … I suppose so."

The bell rang out, signaling that class would begin soon. The two girls joined the stream of students heading towards the school buildings.

"Tsutako-san."

As they approached the point where they would go their separate ways to their own classrooms, Shimako called out to Tsutako-san, who was walking ahead of her.

"Why did you tell me that you didn't like it?"

"I don't like it? Ah, you mean how I don't like having my photo taken?"

Tsutako-san turned around and smiled.

"When I see your face, sometimes words just slip out of my mouth, Shimako-san. Keep it a secret from the others, okay?"

The lenses of her frameless glasses shone like the flash of her camera, and she turned around. Inside her mind, Shimako pressed down on the shutter button.

Tsutako-san would make such a wonderful photography subject.