Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume34 Chapter12

Extra: Little Panic

"Uwaah," Noriko-chan suddenly cried out.

It was after school, and Noriko-chan had just finished tying cute ribbons around the curtains by the windows on the second floor of the Rose Mansion. The sort of cute ribbons that came tied around chocolates or flowers. While they had many uses, these particular ones had been wrapped around a cookie tin.

When hearing someone call out, "Uwaah," the correct response is to immediately reply with, "What is it?" Naturally, Yumi and Yoshino-san didn't forget to use this line as they rushed over. Only Shimako-san, who was using a whisk to whip some fresh cream, was a couple of seconds late to call out, "What's the matter?" She'd probably missed Noriko-chan's initial, "Uwaah," and come to the conclusion that something was happening when she saw Yumi and Yoshino-san's immediate reaction.

"It's Nana-chan," Noriko-chan said, as a follow-up to her "Uwaah," pointing out the window.

"Nana?"

"Nana-chan?"

By the time Yoshino-san and Yumi made their way over to the window, she was nowhere to be seen. But since Noriko-chan had called out, she must have been outside the Rose Mansion.

"Was she just walking outside?"

"Did she come inside?"

But there was no need for Noriko-chan to answer the two Roses' questions.

Clunk.

It was faint, but they heard the sound of the front door opening.

"Hang on, what about her club activities?"

From what Yoshino-san had told them, the club meeting should have taken about thirty minutes. Having it end this early was way beyond their expectations, so nothing was ready.

Yoshino-san whispered, "Noriko-chan, keep Nana out of this room."

"Uh."

Creak, creak. They could hear someone climbing the staircase.

"Make up something to get her out of the Rose Mansion. Ten minutes should be plenty."

"T-ten minutes?"

"That should give us enough time to come up with a new plan."

"A new plan?"

"I'm thinking about it now. . . . I've got it. The ground floor. When you get back, bring her to the storeroom on the ground floor." Yoshino-san gave Noriko-chan a push in the back and continued, "Anyway, can you just do this for now?"

From the sounds of her footsteps, Nana-chan was nearing the top of the stairs. Left with no other choice, Noriko-chan left through the biscuit door, looking quite uncomfortable with the lack of advance planning. Noriko-chan made it out just in the nick of time, and after hearing her say, "Rosa Foetida isn't here," Yoshino-san quietly backed away from the door and hid under the table, where she wouldn't be seen if something happened and the door was opened. Shimako-san and Yumi were maintaining a respectful distance, being neither too close nor too far from the door, but still able to hear the conversation on the other side. Even so, Nana-chan still showed no indication of leaving.

(What should we do?)

The three Roses made eye contact. If they kept dawdling like this, Nana-chan might end the conversation by saying, "I'll just wait for her inside then," which would ruin everything.

(I'll go,) Shimako-san gestured, handing the bowl she was holding to Yumi.

(Will you be okay?) Yumi was a bit worried about whether or not Shimako-san would be able to lie convincingly, but since she'd said she would go, Yumi decided to trust her.

(Stand back, Yumi-san.) Shimako-san shooed her away, so Yumi put some more space between herself and the door. "What's going on?"

(Ah.)

She'd left with her hair still bound by a hair tie. Although, thankfully, Nana-chan didn't seem to be perturbed by this.

"If you're after Yoshino-san, she's not here," Shimako-san said smoothly. Two versus one. With the White Rose sœurs blocking her, Nana-chan probably wouldn't be able to bulldoze her way through.

With the door blocking the sound, she could only hear parts of the conversation, but one key word soon came through quite clearly.

"Yumi-san?"

It was her name. The sounds were muffled, but her antenna had picked it up clearly. Nana-chan had probably asked for Yumi in order to learn Yoshino-san's location, since they were in the same class. Yumi thought that it would be her turn to go out now, but contrary to expectations, the White Rose sœurs said, "Rosa Chinensis isn't here either."

With that, Yumi was forced to silently make her way over to the table and hide beneath it next to Yoshino-san. How would this look to some third-party that didn't know the situation? With Rosa Foetia and Rosa Chinensis huddled together beneath the table. In the end, Noriko-chan was able to skillfully drive off Nana-chan and invite herself along for the ride.

"They've gone," reported Shimako-san when she came back into the room. She seemed a bit pleased at having done something she didn't usually do.

After making sure that Noriko-chan and Nana-chan had left the Rose Mansion, Yumi and Yoshino-san went down the stairs. Shimako-san stayed behind because she had to finish preparing the cake. They arranged that Shimako-san would signal them by clapping when the cake was ready, Touko-chan had returned with the flowers, and the room had been decorated. If it looked like they didn't hear the clapping, she would stomp her feet too.

"At least we made it through lunch without her showing up."

As a matter of fact, the preparations for Nana-chan's welcoming party had started during their lunch break. Because they knew that Nana-chan would be going to her club meeting after school before coming to the party at the Rose Mansion, they had to get the room ready in that short time (thirty minutes according to Yoshino-san). This meant that some preliminary groundwork was essential. If she opened the refrigerator and found a sponge cake and fresh cream then the jig would be up, so they put in place a plan to ensure she wouldn't come to the Rose Mansion during lunch.

"It went too well and we got careless."

She never came close to the Rose Mansion during the lunch break, so they'd been lulled into thinking that after school would go as expected too. But it hadn't quite gone to plan.

"What are you planning to do on the ground floor?" Yumi asked, as Yoshino-san led her into the room. She thought Yoshino-san must have had some idea, given what she'd said to Noriko-chan.

"I don't know, what can we do?"

She started to worry when she heard this empty response. "Don't tell me you were planning on locking her in here when she gets back—"

"Uhh."

She said, "Uhh." And as she said that, didn't she have, "That's the plan," written clearly across her face?

"We can't do that. There'll be an outcry." Yumi immediately rejected the idea.

"Let me out, let me out." Bang, bang, bang. If those sort of sounds were heard outside the Rose Mansion, then someone would definitely come and rescue her.

"Alright. Well, what should we do then?" asked Yoshino-san with an imploring expression.

"Hey . . ."

So the entirety of her plan had been to lock Nana-chan in here? This retort came instantly to mind, but they didn't have the time to get into a back-and-forth exchange. The correct course of action was to decide together on, "What should we do?"

"Ground floor, ground floor . . . is there anything here we can use?"

"It has pretty much transformed into a storage room these last couple of years, hasn't it?"

"That's true."

When she flicked the light switch, the fluorescent bulb flickered and turned into a haunted bulb.

"From memory, there should be a spare here."

They quickly located the stock of spare fluorescent tubes but they postponed changing it since they didn't have the time to spare. For now, they leaned against the wall in a corner.

"Hey," Yoshino-san muttered. "All we have to do is get Nana to stay here, right? Without forcing her or anything like that."

"Right, but how?"

"Well, what if the water pipe broke?"

"Huh?"

"I heard something like that happened in the past. I don't remember the details, but there was a water leak and when they went to investigate it, they found a crack in the water pipe that ran through the walls. Where was it again? I think it's somewhere around here." Yoshino-san went to a very specific spot, despite saying she didn't remember the details. When asked about it, she said that her onee-sama's onee-sama, Torii Eriko-sama, had shown it to her for fun. "See?"

After easily removing one of the planks in the wall, Yoshino-san pointed at the water pipe. Indeed, it looked like it had been repaired in two different places.

"What if water would spurt out if we didn't hold onto it?"

Then they wouldn't be able to let go of it.

"That could work."

They didn't have much time so Yumi agreed to go along with that idea.

"I'll wrap a handkerchief around the crack."

"It'd be more realistic if it was wet."

"Ah, in that case, how about we make a little puddle on the floor? I'll go get some water." Yoshino-san rushed out of the room.

Thinking about it, it was rather convenient that the light wouldn't turn on. If the room was well lit, it would be easy to see through their charade. Yumi moved the stock of fluorescent light bulbs to a more hidden location.

Yoshino-san returned from the second floor with a bucket full of water. She soaked the handkerchief in the water, then tied it around the pipe, before dumping the entire contents of the bucket on the floor.

"Hold on, that's too much."

"Isn't it more realistic that it got where we didn't expect it to?"

"Why would you let the truth get in the way of our story?"

After taking the bucket back upstairs, they went into the ground floor room and closed the door. They jumped over the puddle of water on the floor, then squatted down next to the wall and gripped on to the water pipe.

In her mind, Yumi repeated, "The room will flood if I let go of this," over and over again.

Before too long, they heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. We made it just in time. It wasn't spoken aloud, but conveyed through their eyes.

"I'm going to open the door."

Noriko-chan said as the door creaked open.

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