Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter3

Me and the Interviewer

Part 1.

For some reason, she had a bad feeling about things.

It's not something that could be put into words, but for the last two or three days she hadn't been able to calm down.

It was as though someone was watching her, or following her – that kind of sensation.

It could just be her imagination. Or maybe an evil spirit had attached itself to her. If it kept going for too long she'd have to have an exorcism performed, something that would make it leave.

"Mami, you can't sense anything?"

Tsukiyama Minako asked her petit soeur, who she had unexpectedly encountered in the hallway.

"Nope?"

Mami had a quick look around the area, then shrugged her shoulders.

"If you're talking about signs of life, then there's a lot of high school students scattered around all over the place – "

"That's not what I was talking about."

It wasn't long ago that the morning classes and home room had been completed. The halls of the high school buildings were filled with students going here and there.

"Are you sure you haven't caught a cold?"

Mami asked, putting her hand to Minako's forehead. Minako shook her off, saying 'Quit it.'

"Tomorrow's the graduation ceremony, you know. Why don't you go home and get some rest? Or maybe have a lie down in the infirmary?"

"Don't treat me like I'm some sick person. I will not be going home now, nor will I go to the infirmary."

"Oh? You have business to attend to?"

"… Pretty much."

During that pause, Minako thought she was being set-up for a one-liner from Mami, but nothing came. Instead she got:

"Well then, I'll give you this."

"A bread roll?"

What she was offered was a single bread roll in a thin paper bag.

"We were planning on having an editorial meeting this afternoon in the clubroom, right? So I bought you a bread roll from Milk Hall. Since the meeting was canceled, please go ahead and eat it. Or if you brought a lunch-box, I could go and fetch it for you."

"I didn't bring one. Anyway, why was the meeting canceled?"

"Hidemi had a sudden toothache."

"What a spoiled child. She's your petit soeur. It's just a toothache. If she had any willpower, she'd still be able to attend a meeting."

"Well, that's true."

Mami kept holding the paper bag by it's opening with her right hand, and folded her arms across her chest.

"If it was just Hidemi, then I'd be saying the same thing. But two others left with a stomachache and a headache, so I didn't press the matter."

Two others?

"They're not faking it?"

"Geeze, onee-sama. Don't you think you're being paranoid?"

"… I guess."

This is Lillian's Girls Academy. We are all children of our mother in heaven, Maria-sama. There would be no-one here who would feign an illness, or doubt people without any proof – Well, let's just set that aside for now.

But if that was true, then the newspaper club was full of sick people. More than Minako, it was her juniors that needed the school infirmary.

"They've all gone home to rest up, but I expect they will all be perfect for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. All of us are the Lillian's Girls Academy Newspaper Club and – "

"Yeah, yeah. I get it."

Mami usually offered up a good argument, but Minako wasn't in the mood to hear it, so she took the bread roll she had been offered. When she went to take out her purse, she was told 'It's a graduation gift.'

"Thank-you."

After saying this, Minako turned away from her petit soeur. Her graduation present was a single bread roll. More surprisingly, it was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Part 2.

And, as usual, the bread roll that Mami had given her was hot enough to bring tears to her eyes as well.

A spicy potato-salad sandwich.

Such an intense and unique item would never gain widespread popularity, but it always had a number of incredibly obsessive fans which meant its name had remained in the list of breads on sale for a very long time. They didn't keep a lot in stock, so it was rare to be able to buy one over the counter at Milk Hall. It was probably because they hadn't taken orders from the various classes today.

There were no classes this afternoon because of preparations that were being made for the graduation ceremony. About half of her classmates had gone home, and of the remainder about two-thirds had gone off somewhere leaving only a few people remaining in the classroom. Two of the groups had taken in people from other classes and were having a small party.

Seeing Minako eating her lunch alone, they had invited her to join them but she politely declined. She appreciated their kindness. But being the outsider in a group of close friends having a farewell party, she would either have been an intrusion or they would have gone out of their way to make her feel included. It was better that she remained by herself.

These … the previous Rosa Gigantea, Satou Sei, used to like these. Minako reminisced as she bit into the spicy potato salad sandwich.

Really, what had she become.

Keeping data on someone who had graduated a year ago. She should have erased that from her brain.

Minako didn't know what she would do with all the information she had gathered up to this point, like student's home phone numbers.

Certain student's blood types.

Birthdays.

Characteristics of how their school tie was knotted.

Minako had a mountain of this data that she would have no use for after she had graduated.

"Business to attend to, huh."

Mami had said this to her, but if she really did have something definite to attend to then she wouldn't have just been sitting around like she was.

And yet, somehow.

Right, somehow she found it hard to go home, so she stayed at school.

She didn't have anything she wanted to do. She just wanted to be here.

Even if Minako stayed back late, she couldn't work on the Lillian Kawaraban anymore. Despite this, without noticing it, she was still seeking out conversations that could be turned into articles. Thinking of eyeball-grabbing headlines. Her fingers were itching to be tapping away on the keyboard.

Having been so engrossed in the creation of the school newspaper, this must be the fade-out now that she was at the end. Tomorrow was the graduation ceremony, and there was no way one of the graduating students would be able to report on it for the graduation commemorative edition.

Even so, just being here like this wasn't too bad. Minako smiled wanly then stuffed her mouth with the remainder of the bread roll.

(Nevertheless)

That Mami was so thoughtless. She could have at least brought a milk coffee with the bread roll.

"… That's fine."

The taste definitely grew on you.

Of those spicy potato-salad sandwiches.

Part 3.

"Minako-san."

When she went out for a settling walk after lunch, there was Ogasawara Sachiko-san.

Looking just as beautiful as ever. Her long, silky, black hair. The tasteful, shapely parts all exquisitely arranged on her face. Everything about her just seemed to ooze grace. A beautiful voice that you listened to in rapture.

"I'd like to talk with you, is that okay?"

"Huh? What's this about?"

Even as Minako maintained an outward calm, her voice rose with excitement.

Her heart beat in anticipation. Since she was standing out here, it must have meant that Sachiko-san had come here especially to see her.

The newspaper club always wanted to hear her conversations. And they were always following her around. Surely Sachiko-san must have tired of their habitual and aggressive actions by now.

So then, why was she here? Sachiko-san had approached her, saying she wanted to talk. What on earth could have happened?

(Something happened…?)

Yes, undoubtedly something had happened.

"Here's not really a good place. How about we go somewhere where there's fewer people – "

(Something she can't talk about!?)

Sachiko-san didn't usually pay any attention to whether or not people were watching her, so this must be some top-secret information.

Certainly, something like this had happened before. About a year and a half ago, when the newspaper club had been chasing after Fukuzawa Yumi-san who was rumored to be a potential petit soeur for Sachiko-san.

(Well...)

Minako glanced sideways at Sachiko-san. Back then they had been quite forceful in the way they went about gathering data. According to what she heard afterwards, Yumi-san was quite troubled by it because she wasn't used to being the center of attention. Apparently unable to stand idly by, one day Sachiko-san had shown up at the newspaper club and dazzled them with an offer to provide information about it, on the condition that they promise to stop chasing after Yumi-san. Naturally, the interview with Sachiko-san that ran in the following day's paper was wildly popular with the readers.

This pattern of events was just like what had happened back then. Just like before, a huge story seemed to have dropped into her lap.

And because Sachiko-san had approached her about it first, there should be no problem in using their conversation as part of an article for the Lillian Kawaraban. It wasn't just that she wanted to write an article, but if things went well this would be a nice parting gift to her juniors.

(All right!)

When Minako clenched her fist in front of her chest, Sachiko-san looked at her doubtfully and asked 'Minako-san?'

"Oh, excuse me."

Danger, danger. By letting loose in front of her guest, Minako was letting them in on her world.

"I was thinking we should go somewhere quiet with no-one around to have our talk. Minako-san, do you know of anywhere we could use?"

"Let me think..."

Minako looked back at the classroom. At this time of day, all the third year classrooms were probably in a similar state to hers. So they were out.

Looking out the hallway window into the courtyard, there were fewer students but still some scattered around the courtyard, so that was no good either.

The library would be quiet, but it would probably be too quiet and their conversation would leak to others.

And because they were just two students talking, they wouldn't be able to borrow the guidance counselor's room.

Sachiko-san's stronghold, the Rose Mansion, usually had people in it after school. And she might even want to keep this a secret from her friends.

There conversation had reached an impasse after Sachiko-san had posed the question of 'where?'

Where else is there? – thinking this, Minako had a flash of inspiration.

"How about the newspaper club's clubroom?"

"The newspaper club's clubroom?"

Sachiko-san asked to confirm.

"But, won't all your club members be there?"

"Don't worry about that."

Mami had spoken to her earlier. The scheduled editorial meeting was canceled. The girls with toothache and headaches had already left, and even those members that were healthy would have gone home since the meeting was canceled.

"It'll be a bit cramped compared to the Rose Mansion, though."

"Not at all, I apologize for intruding."

With Sachiko-san's consent, the two of them headed towards the clubhouse.

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