Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter9 10

The Ribbon's Path Part 10.

When she arrived at the third year pine group classroom, Yumi started to panic.

The lights inside the classroom were turned off.

She could tell that from where she stood in the hallway.

It was after 3:30pm and the sun was starting to sink rapidly. The lights from the neighboring classroom were dazzling.

Yumi had a bad premonition that the party had already finished. Even so, she couldn't just stand there at the boundary. She balled her hand into a fist ready to knock on the door and proceeded towards it.

That was when a voice called out to her, asking, 'What's your business here?' When Yumi turned around, there was a third year standing there – probably from this class.

"Oh, Fukuzawa Yumi-chan."

She gave the impression that Yumi should wait a bit, then went into the classroom. There was no sign of the people who had been having a party in there.

"It looks like Sachiko-san has been back here. Her bag's gone."

The girl reported after quickly returning. It seems she had been over to check Sachiko-sama's desk.

Her bad premonition had been spot on.

Peeking inside the classroom from the doorway, there was no-one in there except the girl who had just entered. The tables that had formed the one big table were all neatly lined up in their original positions, as though nothing had happened. She had a look at the blackboard, to see if a message had been left there, but there was nothing whatsoever written on it.

"As you can see, I just got back here myself, so I don't know when Sachiko-san was last here."

The girl apologetically reported to Yumi, who remained standing there, letting her gaze drift around inside the classroom.

"That's okay. Thank-you all the same."

After bowing, Yumi walked off down the hallway.

There was no reason to believe that the girls having their party would remain here until Sachiko-sama returned solely to deliver the message that Yumi wanted to meet her. First of all, it was such an imposition that Yumi had never even considered asking it of them.

So there was no doubting that conclusion.

If there was a reason Yumi had been beaten, it was because of an error in her judgment.

Instead of listening to their advice, Yumi had gone looking for Sachiko-sama outside. After failing to find Sachiko-sama in the clubhouse and at Milk Hall she should have returned here. Instead, she kept on going – to the old greenhouse, then the gymnasium and even to the statue of Maria-sama.

There was no reason to believe the party would continue forever.

If only she had realized that.

(Let's go home.)

But first, she'd have to go to the Rose Mansion and get her belongings. Then she could go home.

Right.

If she hurried, there was a chance Yumi might still be able to meet Sachiko-sama at the bus stop.

Holding on to that slim hope, Yumi broke into a jog. She could rest when she got there.

When she left the Rose Mansion, Yumi had no idea she would be returning under such circumstances. Although she didn't have any basis for it, she had believed that she would be able to meet Sachiko-sama.

Human intuition isn't so great a thing.

As she opened the front door to the Rose Mansion, Yumi gave a thin smile.

Yumi looked back over her shoulder, reminiscing. Speaking of places from her memories, this place was definitely one of those.

In the autumn of her first year, at Tsutako-san's instigation, she had come here to meet Sachiko-sama. As she stood outside, working up the courage to enter, her classmate Shimako-san had called out to her and invited her in.

The squeaking sounds of the wooden staircase, the glowing stained glass window – everything had seemed new and unusual to Yumi's eyes.

After climbing the staircase and turning to the right, at the start of the hallway was the biscuit-like door. When she had followed Shimako-san to this doorway, the sound of someone shouting could be heard from inside.

(This is tyranny! The onee-sama are being mean!)

Yumi was thoroughly surprised when she learned that it was Sachiko-sama's voice. What was even more surprising was –

Yumi placed her hand on the doorknob and gently turned, before pulling the door towards her.

And then.

"Ahh!"

At the same time as the shout, something came flying out of the room with considerable force.

Later, when she had calmed down and thought about it, Yumi realized there had been many hints – before she opened the door there had been noises coming from the other side, when she turned the doorknob it turned a bit easier than normal and the moment the door opened there was light coming from the other side. But it all happened in an instant, so at the time she wasn't able to put all this information together.

"Auuugh!"

Yumi realized the 'something' that came flying out was a person when she felt the impact across her whole body. Then her field of vision tilted, the ceiling spun around and soon afterwards she felt the pain coming from her buttocks.

If she was just replaying her memory, would there be pain?

Suffering exactly the same misfortune as on that day, Yumi's power of reasoning had once again taken flight.

The soft, gentle pressure that ran from her chest to her abdomen, the long hair that belonged to someone else covering her face – in every detail it was an exact replica of what had happened before.

It was like a scene from a movie, where the main character had slipped backwards in time. And because of that they were able to meet the person they wanted to see, to fix some incident they regretted or to deliver some message, or, occasionally, to accomplish some great task to change the course of history.

So if she were to get up now, would she be in the world of a year and a half ago?

(Are you alright?)

Shimako-san and Tsutako-san would be beside her, watching on with concern. Having noticed the commotion, the Roses would come filing out from inside the room.

(Aww. That was a flashy fall.)

(Eh, she got crushed by Sachiko's 50kg? How miserable-!)

(Heeey. Victim, are you alive?)

Rei-sama would be there, as would Yoshino-san, hidden behind her.

Such a nostalgic scene. Nostalgic –

"Yumi, are you alright!?"

Being gently shaken awake, Yumi opened her eyes and there, as expected, was Sachiko-sama.

"Ahh, stop. If you hit your head, you shouldn't move. That's what Rei said."

"Ahh, it's alright. I only fell on my butt."

When she hastily stood up and looked around, Yumi couldn't see Rei-sama standing there, nor anyone else.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah."

When Yumi nodded, Sachiko-sama's anxious face loosened and she returned to her usual calm demeanor.

"I'm so glad."

Once Sachiko-sama realized Yumi wasn't hurt, she quickly went back into the room. Yumi smiled wryly as she followed her onee-sama.

It looked like she hadn't slipped back in time, after all.

"Onee-sama, what are you doing here?"

On top of the table was a cup that was about half filled with tea, and a paperback novel with a bookmark in it. They were located in front of the only seat that was flung back, disrupting the orderly arrangement of all the other chairs.

"Isn't this where I usually come to meet you?"

"Huh?"

"Am I mistaken? My classmates told me that you had come to the classroom asking about me."

Sachiko-sama placed her hands on the back of the chair, and returned it to its position at the table.

"...You're not mistaken."

So that meant that Sachiko-sama had returned to her classroom before the party had finished, and heard Yumi's message. Then she had come to the Rose Mansion, seen Yumi's bag was there, poured herself a cup of tea and read her book while she waited.

"Just what have you been doing until this hour?"

Her tone of voice also indicated that she was saying, 'You've kept your onee-sama waiting,' so there was no way Yumi could say, 'I've been looking for you.'

"Taking a stroll, I guess."

Yumi answered, in desperation. Of course, as part of her search for her onee-sama she had walked to all kinds of places so it wasn't a total lie.

All Sachiko-sama did was curtly mutter, 'Is that so.' She didn't interrogate Yumi as to where she had walked to.

"That's right. Here."

Yumi remembered what she had been doing, and took the black ribbon from her pocket.

"Ahh. I see you did a thorough job on the search."

Sachiko-sama laughed as she said this, so it looked as though she had intentionally hidden it, after all.

"I thought you didn't want it, and were returning it to me, onee-sama."

"My, what harsh words you sting me with. If you truly believed that, you wouldn't have brought it to me, right?"

And with that, Sachiko-sama plucked the black ribbon from Yumi's hand as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Now even this becomes something that we've done twice, not just once."

Sachiko-sama turned to look at the biscuit door as she spoke. It seemed she too had remembered perfectly the similar accident that happened a year and a half ago. However.

"But, really, I'd grown tired of waiting for you to come back, so when I finally heard someone climbing up the stairs I went over to the door to have a look and see who it was. But when I put my hand on the doorknob to open it, someone flung it open from the other side."

Sachiko-sama made it sound as though she was the victim in all this trouble.

However.

Hating to lose, the queen bee, hysterical, self-centered, willful, charming, gentle, emotionally profound, beautiful – Yumi could keep listing these traits endlessly, but she loved these things about her onee-sama.

"Really, you're like a child, never calm – "

After saying this, Sachiko-sama broke into a wry smile and shook her head, as though just realizing something.

"No. This time I'm the one that can't calm down."

Yumi started to say, 'Exactly so,' but she couldn't. It seemed as though she would burst into tears if she were to say such an impudent thing.

"Yumi?"

"Even though we're in the same place as back then."

Really, the two of them had come a long way.

See, told you so. The dam holding back Yumi's tears had burst. But she didn't understand why the tears flowed.

"That's right."

Sachiko-sama said as she stroked Yumi's cheeks.

"Do you want to return to that time, Yumi?"

"Huh?"

At first Yumi didn't understand what she was asking. Do you want to return to that time? But there's no way to return.

"As for me."

After briefly looking up at the ceiling, Sachiko-sama continued.

"I hold it dear, but I don't want to return to it. The year and a half that has passed since then has been just fine. All kinds of things happened, but because of those days and months I can hold hands with you as you are now, Yumi. If God granted me a year and a half to use as I liked, then I wouldn't hesitate to use it for the future, don't you agree?"

Yumi was thinking, 'Ahh, right. You're exactly correct.'

"I think you're great as you are now too, onee-sama."

If they were to return to that time, all the days that had piled up since then would seem like a dream. Yumi didn't want that. She didn't want to lose the onee-sama that was before her eyes, now, in this place.

Then Sachiko-sama looked breathtakingly beautiful as she smiled and said:

"I have a confession to make."

"Okay?"

"I'm sure you've already figured this out, but I hid the ribbon because I wanted to see you again, just the two of us. I knew you'd agree if I came straight out and said it, but I couldn't find a pretext to use to summon you."

"Pretext..."

"I don't really know myself. Why did I want to see you? Because we're soeurs, if I wanted to see you all I would have to do is say so. Isn't it strange? Why did I feel like there was a reason for wanting to see you?"

Sachiko-sama's remarks hit home with Yumi.

That was because Yumi herself hadn't fully understood why, but when she saw the ribbon she thought that she absolutely had to meet with her onee-sama.

It wasn't just that they wanted to see each other. They both felt that when they met, there was something that they should do.

"I get it, now."

Sachiko-sama straightened the ribbon horizontally and held it up to her eye level.

"It's like when you have to censor photos of certain people."

Yumi laughed unthinkingly when the black line reached Sachiko-sama's eye level.

"It really is."

The corners of Sachiko-sama's lips raised.

"Enough joking around."

Yumi took Sachiko-sama's hands in her own and lowered the ribbon. At the same time that Sachiko-sama's eyes reappeared, large teardrops started to spill from them.

"O...Onee-sama."

Flustered by such an unexpected occurrence, Yumi let her palms slip from the back of Sachiko-sama's hands. Yumi didn't quite know what happened, but her right hand got tangled up in the ribbon and it ended up looking as though her right hand and her onee-sama's left hand were bound together in handcuffs.

"I wanted to see you, Yumi. And I know that you came because you wanted to see me too."

Despite Sachiko-sama's right hand not being bound in the ribbon, she didn't use it to wipe away her own tears.

"I'm not going to cry at tomorrow's graduation ceremony."

Onee-sama cried as she said this.

"Yes."

Yumi agreed. Her own left hand was free, but she didn't even think about bringing it up to her own cheek either.

That left hand wasn't there so that she could wipe away her own tears.

It existed so that she could tightly embrace someone precious to her.

"So all the tears that I would have shed tomorrow, I want to cry today, in front of you, Yumi."

With their free hands, they pulled each other closer together.

The black ribbon remained tied around their wrists.

Where they touched, Yumi could feel her onee-sama's warmth.

Their tears mixed together and soaked their uniforms and the floor.

Yumi too, understood now.

Embracing each other and crying like this was the ceremony that they both needed.