Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume1 Chapter5 2

The Hot Second Week. Part 2.

"Okay, we'll finish with testing Yumi-chan's transformation scene one last time."

Rosa Chinensis shouted, using her rolled-up script as a megaphone.

"I mean, I've said it a number of times, but this is a point of showing off our skill."

"Yes."

Yumi put on the dress that was a collaborative effort between the handicraft club and the invention club. At first glance, it was a servant-work dress made of ragged material and covered with soot, but it had a trick, where pulling a number of cords turned into a dress using the same material as the gorgeous ivory dress. But this was just a temporary dress designed for this transformation. For the ballroom scene, they would switch to their petticoat and skirt dress.

Even Lillian, on the day before the school festival, was savage. Had the ordered goods not arrived yet, or they'd found a misprint on the fliers, or seats borrowed from the school had been double-booked, et cetera. The pleats for the angels' skirts were always completely disordered, and their sailor scarves tossed and turned. Today, even the Sisters consciously tried to remain out of sight as much as possible. They did not want to see their students act like this.

Even Yumi and the Yamayurikai were like this.

They could only borrow the gymnasium from two to four, so they quickly had Kashiwagi-san, who slid in just at two, put on the prince costume, and they had just finished the 45-minute run-through of the play twice. A Sachiko-version and a Yumi-version.

"When the smoke's ready, I'll signal, so pull the string then, okay?"

They made a screen of dry-ice smoke, just like they would in the actual performance.

Sachiko-sama only took one try, but it took five tries for Yumi to get the hang of the transformation.

"Bippity boppity boo!"

Rei-sama chanted the words to the charm, waving her conductor's stick. She, too, wore a young nobleman's costume under her cloak, and would join the next scene as a noble dancer, as if that was all she was.

Rosa Chinensis lowered her rolled-up script. Yumi pulled on the thin cords. Yoshino-san crawled over, hidden by the smoke, and pulled down the cords on her waist.

(Huh…? Yoshino-san.)

Yumi tilted her head. It was actually the job of Sister B, so when Yumi was Cinderella, Sachiko-sama's job. Even though she had complained, "Why must I crawl along the ground," she had performed her duty the last five times.

There was applause, and the illumination that was covered by smoke became more clear.

"Eh…?"

The transformation scene had ended as she was thinking. Oh yeah, and she noticed the ivory dress was in full view.

"Yumi-chan, succeeds!"

Rei-sama patted her shoulder, as she was closest.

"If you pull this off this well during the actual performance, even if you screw up a few lines, we'll forgive you."

Rosa Chinensis laughed as she said those carefree words.

"But. I'm surprised Yumi-chan would work this hard. She's remembered the lines well, too. I look forward to the real deal tomorrow."

As Rosa Foetida commented thus, Yumi quickly interceded.

"I appreciate the praise, but Sachiko-sama is the real Cinderella."

"Oh, yeah."

Everyone looked at each other, as if they had just remembered.

"Sachiko's orthodox Cinderella, or Yumi-chan's comedy. Unfortunately we can only run one of them tomorrow."

"Co, comedy…?"

The word "shock" slammed into Yumi's forehead, like a comic panel. Her efforts in trying to get even a bit closer to Sachiko-sama resulted in a comedy.

"Ah, Yumi-chan's depressed."

"No, no. All I'm saying is, both of you have your own distinct flavors."

"It's so effort-filled and cute, like a home-drama, Yumi-chan's Cinderella."

"Exactly. Just as Yumi-chan can't imitiate Sachiko's Cinderella, Sachiko can't imitate Yumi-chan's Cinderella. That's what individuality is, right?"

Hearing the rather relentless words that could be taken as consolation as well as encouragement cheered Yumi up.

Ahh, so that's how it is. She felt she understood things better.

The Roses were not expecting perfection out of Yumi. Even if Yumi were a comedy, they loved the comedy for what it was.

When she thought about it, that was always the case. Even when Sachiko-sama declared Yumi to be her sœur, while they worried about the circumstances regarding it, they never had any dissatisfaction with Yumi herself.

Yumi was the only one fixated on whether she was "worthy" of being Sachiko-sama's little sister.

"Speaking of which, where's the prince?"

"Isn't he changing out of his costume?"

Rosa Gigantea looked around.

"Sachiko's gone, too."

"Ah, Sachiko stepped out, saying she felt ill. I offered to accompany her to the health room, but she said she was alright, and requested that I take over for Yumi's strings."

Yoshino-san reported.

"Oh. Then we shall have to check on her later."

They began cleaning up, as the time to vacate the gymnasium was approaching. About five minutes before four, the story-telling club members began arriving, so Yumi and others vacated the gymnasium as if they were being chased out.

Sachiko-sama was not at the health room. Yumi returned to the gymnasium just to make sure, but there was no sight of Sachiko-sama.

When she reported back to the Rose Mansion with that truth, everyone's faces turned pale. Apparently the first-floor room that had been used as Kashiwagi-san's temporary changing room still had his school uniform cleanly hung, with no trace of him having arrived.

"Maybe they're together…"

Someone anxiously mentioned.

"But they went out separately, did they not?"

"Yes, Sachiko-sama left earlier."

"I don't think anything would happen between the two of them…" As they spoke, their tones became more and more distressed.

"Umm, let's go look for them."

Yumi stood up.

"Sachiko-sama may have collapsed from illness, and Kashiwagi-san may have become lost."

"Y, yes, that's true, what Yumi-chan says is correct."

The Roses acted quickly, having regained their composure. Yoshino-san was told to stay behind, and they would split the search party into three pairs, each scouring a different section. The three pairs would go around the high school site in a surrounding path, so that they would meet together by Maria-sama's statue. The reason for the pairing is so that if something were to happen, one could run off to find help.

Yumi paired with Rosa Gigantea, and was to search the primary gymnasium, the grounds, the tennis court, and other such athletics locales, before taking the path by the library and appearing at Maria-sama's intersection.

"Thanks for saving us back there."

Rosa Gigantea said, as they quickly shuffled down the hallway.

"Eh?"

"Yumi-chan cut through the moment. Everyone was lost in their depressing thoughts, you know."

"Depressing thoughts…"

"Even though we might look extremely reliable, we're still just high school students, so we get scared, sometimes. It was scary to think about what might have happened. There's a feeling that we shouldn't probe any further."

She understood exactly.

She would prefer to skirt away from the dealings of men and women. Who do you like from an idol group, or who do you think looks good from the neighboring school, that kind of talk is enough to rouse the interests of a classroom. But you also hear many stories of people turning down relationships because they were afraid of being in one.

The world of imagination was beautiful, but reality was very raw and scary.

Kissing, and further. She preferred not to think of that sort of thing as being close to her.

They requested permission from the story-telling club to check the back and storage of the stage, as well as the changing room, but Sachiko-sama and Kashiwagi-san were nowhere to be found. Rosa Gigantea looked relieved after scouring the darkness.

"If they're not here, they must have moved somewhere. That would mean they've moved to a place where there would be witnesses. Luckily, there're tons of students milling about, today."

There was no high school student who didn't know Sachiko-sama's face. Kashiwagi-san would also be quickly spotted in a girls' school. Plus, he was currently a flamboyant prince.

"Sachiko-sama and the prince? Yes, we saw them. We just passed by them, in the passage."

The story-telling club captain said, "right?" to the girl on the stage.

"Were they together!?"

Rosa Gigantea and Yumi both shook the story-telling club captain's shoulder.

"H, hold on, you two, calm down."

The captain looked uncomfortable, so they quickly retracted their arms. She rolled her neck around and sighed.

"They didn't seem to be together, so to speak. The prince was walking quite a distance behind. But where they went, … well, we passed by them, so they must have gone to the other school building for the passage?"

"Thank you!"

The two of them thanked her profusely and rushed out of the gymnasium.

When they started backtracking from the passage, Rosa Gigantea stopped them.

"We just came from that way. If we didn't see them there, they didn't go there."

"Then, where should we look!"

"Let's just take the planned route. Even if we don't find them, someone else should."

"… But…"

She agreed with Rosa Gigantea, but she still wanted to find Sachiko-sama first. She felt, since they had grasped the first clue, they had the right to find her first.

Rosa Gigantea leaned into Yumi's face.

"Do you like Sachiko?"

When she nodded, Rosa Gigantea patted her head and said "thanks."

"I like Sachiko, too. So does Rosa Chinensis, Rosa Foetida, Rei, Shimako, Yoshino, everyone likes Sachiko."

So leave it us. Is what Rosa Gigantea said. Because that was the best way.

Yumi silently nodded.

Yumi, too, starting with the Roses, loved everyone that gathered at the Rose Mansion. There was no way she couldn't trust them.

They glanced across the grounds as they hurried to the tennis court.

"However, why was Kashiwagi walking after Sachiko?"

Rosa Gigantea was already calling Kashiwagi-san purely by name.

"Is he a stalker?"

"But, Rosa Gigantea. You said you trusted Kashiwagi-san, right? I forget when, but you did say that?"

"Yes. I said that."

There was no one in the tennis court. They checked the parking lot through the wire fencing, too, but only Matsuyama-sensei from the social department's beloved car was there.

"Well, not so much trust, but I had confidence that he would not touch even the super beautiful Sachiko."

Rosa Gigantea said, as they went back.

"On what grounds?"

"Intuition, I think. We're the same kind of people."

"Same kind?"

Again, she was confusing things by talking about something she didn't understand. There were so many question marks jumping around Yumi's head that Rosa Gigantea turned, smiled, and said, "If you don't understand, it's alright."

"Then you were wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure I wasn't wrong, but I can't read Sachiko, at all."

They took a turn on the road and walked along the library.

"Sachiko-sama?"

"That girl, might like Kashiwagi."

"Eh!? … but, you said."

On the other side of her surprise, a part of her said, "I knew it."

"I see. Yumi-chan thought so, too."

Rosa Gigantea was very perceptive, so even though Yumi didn't say it outloud, she knew.

"Lately Sachiko-sama's been staring blankly. And sighing. And that seemed to fit into the symptoms of "Love-sickness" that I hear about all the time-."

"Love-sick… But, I think it's not quite that."

Usually in the case of being love-sick, you would be a bit happy. But in the case of Sachiko-sama, it was pure melancholy, so she didn't look at all like a "maiden in love." Because Yumi was inexperienced in love matters, all she could do was listen to and accept Rosa Gigantea's explanation.

The two of them arrived at Maria-sama's intersection. The other two groups were supposed to meet by that little garden.

In the end, Yumi and Rosa Gigantea had not been able to find Sachiko-sama nor Kashiwagi-san. Just as she thought that-.

"I said stop, let go of me!"

They heard a scream from ahead.

"Sachiko-sama!?"

"Sachiko!"

Yumi and Rosa Gigantea scrambled forward.

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