Template:Maria-sama Ga Miteru:Volume17 Chapter 2 4

Happenings And Heading Out Part 4

The scenery outside changed to just blue skies and white clouds. As soon as the "fasten seat belts" sign turned off, students relaxed, pulled out paperback books and playing cards and other amusements for a long trip, and started moving around between seats. However you put it, it would be a long while until arriving in Italy. They wanted to pass the time as pleasantly as posslble, because by any calculation, they were stuck inside an airplane for more than half a day. Even trembling Michiyo-san could not stay afraid all 13 hours. Now she was playing a card game with Itsue-san. But it was rather difficult to keep the cards turned the right way on the airplane seat.

It was as though the cabin was changing to the overseas destination's local time, to help acclimate their bodies, so the passengers also set their wristwatches back seven hours. Strange, it had suddenly become five in the morning. There's no way to go back in time without a time machine. It felt like they had gained something.

"But you have to give up those seven hours on the return trip."

"Oh, yeah. So the whole time we're in Italy, we get to keep those seven hours?"

"Could you please stop it? Such silly talk? I've been listening to Yumi-san's chatter up to now and it's driving me crazy," Yoshino exhaled, standing up from the seat in front of them and turning around. "Because time is not actually going backward, we neither gain nor lose it. Whatever year, month, or day, we call it, that's just for the convenience of humanity. If you change how the International Date Line is drawn, the direction to Italy will probably change too. No matter how far around the Earth Yumi-san moves, Yumi-san's body will still feel the same passage of time, unchanged."

"Is that limited to just the Earth?" Tsutako-san asked, caught up in the moment. "Because if we go into space, there's time dilation to worry about."

"Time dilation?"

"It's said that if a spaceship approaches the speed of light while traveling out and back, more time will pass on Earth than they expect. If you don't understand Einstein's theory of relativity, you can't grasp it."

"Tsutako-san? Do you understand and grasp it?"

"I have heard about it, it's in my head, but I don't understand it perfectly."

Tsutako-san may have just heard it and it's in her head, but Yumi still admired her with "wow, amazing."

"Did Urashima Taro go to the dragon castle on a spaceship?"

"The turtle is a UFO, Princess Otohime-sama is a space alien. That's a wonderful theory."

So by the time he returned, many centuries had passed.

"If he went into space, you'd expect him to say 'I cannot draw a picture.'"

"I see. So for us, we will dine upon an in-flight meal inside of an airplane."

The flight attendant pushed a cart and started to hand out breakfast, although it felt more like a late lunch. This was an Italian airline, so the staff was about half Japanese and half Italian. On the menu for breakfast was a light meal of a ham and cheese open-faced sandwich; not really enough for a growing child. But if you thought about it, it probably had plenty of calories because you got almost no exercise within an airplane.

"Tsutako-san, shoot this meal," Mami-san directed.

"Uh . . . I don't want to use my prized film for this," Tsutako-san complained.

Mami-san held out a disposable camera, "Fine, here. Use this camera. I'm not very good at taking pictures up close."

Her hands tended to shake; focus tended to blur.

"Sure, sure."

While putting an olive, skewered by a plastic toothpick, in her mouth, Tsutako-san reluctantly stood up. Really, she was not interested in anything except people (high school girls). But, fumbling about as if it had been a while since she used a disposable camera, she took a few good angles.

When lunch ended, the lights went off. If it were still Japan local time, now would be an active hour. What happened?

"Don't complain. Passengers are sleeping, so this is the best for in-flight harmony," Tsutako-san said, covering herself from the neck down with the blanket that was handed out.

Perhaps so. There would be no time for the cabin crew to take a break while the passengers were awake. Plus, if she slept, there was less tedious flight time. If there was someone who absolutely did not want to sleep, it was fine to stay awake. She could rely on the reading lights, with which they could literally read books and not much else. But hearing the soft, rhythmic breathing of the others made her sleepy. Imitating her friends nearby, she covered herself with a blanket and got comfortable. Before reclining her seat, Yumi tried to check with the classmate behind her, but it was too late. The classmate had already departed for the land of the sleeping. Yumi lowered her seat gently so as to avoid waking her.

(I wonder what onee-sama is doing right now?)

The clocks had changed time zones, so she didn't really have a good sense of time. If she thought about it carefully, adding seven hours was easy, but she was already beginning to nod off, making such calculations exceedingly difficult.