Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter9
The Ribbon's Path
Part 1.
After leaving Katsura-san behind and eventually making her way to the room on the second floor of the Rose Mansion, she was greeted with Yoshino-san asking her, 'Are you sick?'
"Sick? No."
As she answered, Yumi made her way over to the chair by the wall and dumped the coat, bag and purse she had been carrying.
"I guess not. But, Yumi-san, when we split up you said 'I'm just going to the toilet.'"
"Ahh."
That's right. After they had finished cleaning, she had gone to the staff room together with Shimako-san and Yoshino-san and they had decided to go back to their classrooms and pick up their belongings, before heading off to the Rose Mansion. Because Shimako-san was in a different class she had split from them at their classroom. But after picking up her belongings Yumi had realized she needed to go to the toilet, so had asked Yoshino-san to go ahead of her. Then after she was done she had run into Katsura-san in the hallway.
"Sorry, sorry."
It seems they were worried because she had been so late in returning from the toilet.
"Did you take the scenic route back?"
"I bumped into Katsura-san."
Yumi carried her lunch over to her usual seat at the table. It looked as though Noriko-chan and Touko, who had come to the Rose Mansion straight after cleaning, had already finished their lunch while Shimako-san and Yoshino-san appeared to be about halfway through.
"Katsura-san?"
Shimako-san said.
"I ran into her just before too. I think she said she was going to look for her onee-sama. You must have seen her after that, then."
It made sense, since Shimako-san and Katsura-san were classmates, they would have more chances to see each other.
"Ahh."
Just like in a comic book, the light-bulb flicked on inside Yumi's head.
"You didn't happen to say something to her like 'From here I'm going to the Rose Mansion to do some odd jobs,' did you?"
"Yeah … maybe. Why?"
"So that's how she knew."
The true shape of the psychic was revealed. Well, she already knew that Katsura-san's claim of ESP was mostly fake anyway.
"More importantly, your cute petit soeur was also worried."
Yoshino-san turned her head prior to speaking. Yumi turned to follow her gaze, and there was her 'cute petit soeur' Touko pouring tea at the sink. Yumi didn't think that Touko would have minded that she was a bit late, but she decided to apologize anyway.
"Sorry."
"Don't mention it."
Touko seemed somewhat lacking in energy when she brought the tea over.
Perhaps this was a result of something Yoshino-san had said to make her worry needlessly. 'She's so late, I wonder if she's okay,' or 'Perhaps she's got a stomach ache.' Or perhaps Touko herself was feeling sick.
"…"
Especially after what had happened with Katsura-san, Yumi admonished herself that as an onee-sama she should pay more attention to her petit soeur.
The plan was to check the first floor room for anything left behind by Sachiko-sama or Rei-sama, ahead of their graduation tomorrow. But if Touko wasn't feeling well, it may be better if she went home early instead. She shouldn't strain herself, and they shouldn't ask her to.
But Yumi thought that even if she told Touko to go home, Touko wouldn't leave because everyone else was staying to work. There was a part of her that was very stubborn. In which case it was probably better to finish this quickly.
Yumi launched herself into eating lunch at double speed and while she didn't quite make her goal of finishing at the same time as Shimako-san and Yoshino-san they didn't have to wait long for her.
"Well, this shouldn't take too long."
Yumi remarked as they were descending the stairs.
"Even so, we have to do this for appearance's sake."
Yoshino-san's lack of interest was obvious as she said this. But it was something they had to do so they were resigned to doing it. Both her tone of voice and her attitude seemed to radiate the feeling that this was a bother.
"Oh, do you think we won't find anything?"
Shimako-san spoke as though she was expecting something, but even she was allowing for the possibility of finding nothing.
At any rate, they won't have left anything behind and we'll be able to head home quickly – that was the general consensus of the search party members.
Part 2.
So when that item was found there was a general sense of weary exasperation.
The search was winding down when Noriko-chan found a single ribbon in the space between two cardboard boxes.
This discovery was obviously unlike the Rose Mansion stationery, the pens and labels, that had been discovered earlier. But even so, it didn't look like it was something of Sachiko-sama or Rei-sama's either, and the only feeling that it aroused was that it was one half of a matched set.
"Is it yours, onee-sama?"
When Touko asked her this, and Yumi looked at the ribbon, she was immediately sure of it.
(Ummmm…)
The White Rose Family, Shimako-san and Noriko-chan, Yoshino-san and Touko, in other words all the other members of the search party, were waiting for Yumi to answer. This kind of situation may have been amusing, but Yumi had cold sweat running down her back. It felt like an interrogation.
Yumi had recognized it, and already knew that it was hers. But what she couldn't understand was what it was doing here.
Why, is that, here? Why, is that, here? Why, is that, here?
Those words swirled around her head.
The shiny, black velvet ribbons had been her favorite, so she would often wear them on special occasions.
Like for school opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies, or Christmas – .
But currently it was neatly folded in the drawer of her closet at home.
There were no questions about how one of the pair had come to be missing either – Yumi and her onee-sama were both entrusted with the care of one of these precious items.
On Christmas Eve during her first year at high school, when Yumi hadn't brought a present, her onee-sama had asked her for one of the ribbons that she had tied in her hair.
To Yumi, this ribbon was like one of those heart pendants that come in two pieces.
So then, why was it here?
Had the ribbon teleported itself here?
That's just stupid.
Then, did that mean that she had brought it here and left it laying around, but then forgot all about it. In that case, it was a huge problem. She should go to a hospital and have a doctor examine her if she suspected such a defect in her memory.
(So that means – )
"… It's mine."
Yumi mumbled.
"What's up with that pause?"
Naturally, that dig came from Yoshino-san.
"Oh, I didn't expect to find it again, so I was a bit surprised."
Because this was the ribbon that Yumi gave to her onee-sama. She didn't expect to see it again. It had been quite a while. One year and three months, or thereabouts.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen you wearing those ribbons lately. I suppose it's because you lost one of them. But I don't understand how you'd manage to drop one."
"Hehehe."
It was true Yumi didn't wear these ribbons any more because she only had one of them, but she hadn't dropped it. She remembered precisely how it had left her possession. But it would be hard to concisely explain that so Yumi chose to laugh it off.
But what was the ribbon that she had given to her onee-sama doing here?
Sachiko-sama had long hair, so she didn't usually use ribbons. So it was impossible to believe that she had used it to tie her hair, then untied it, carelessly flung it aside and forgotten it.
First things first, how long had that ribbon been here?
Yumi imagined a calendar that went from Christmas Eve of the year before last until today. Like a scroll with the dates flowing from left to right.
The start date was Christmas Eve of the year before last.
Right before the party was about to begin, Sachiko-sama had unfastened the ribbon and put it in her purse. She had said that it would be a disaster if she were to lose it when forced to wear a paper hat in the Rose Mansion.
But Yumi thought the truth was that she was embarrassed. Sachiko-sama wouldn't have liked it if someone had seen that they were both wearing matching ribbons and teased her about it. So Yumi had also taken her ribbon off and instead rolled her hair around a ruler and then wreathed it with crepe paper. And then Youko-sama had unexpectedly complimented her, saying 'Yumi-chan, that looks great.'
In other words, Yumi could safely assume that the ribbon remained inside Sachiko-sama's purse and made its way to her home.
Then jump forward a bit until this time last year. At the very least, the ribbon hadn't been found during the equivalent search last year. So she could cross out all the way up to March of last year in the calendar in her mind.
Yumi couldn't think of any large-scale searches that took place after that, but from time to time they would come down here and they would usually have a cursory look around. And participants in this year's Valentines Day treasure hunt would probably have had a rummage around too, but nothing was found then. – So that means it wouldn't have been here before the middle of February.
(A cursory search…)
That's right, they were just here looking for something the other day. They had decided to make purses as gifts for White Day and were here looking for the sewing machine and iron. Now, the sewing machine and iron are hardly small items, so they didn't look in every nook and cranny but they probably would have shifted the cardboard boxes. So if the ribbon had been here back then, they probably would have found it.
(Which means.)
The conclusion Yumi reached was that the ribbon wasn't here back then. At which point, realization started to dawn on her.
Why was the ribbon here? If we rule out the ribbon teleporting here by itself then the only reasonable explanation was that Sachiko-sama had hidden it here.
(But, for what purpose?)
About a week ago, on the second floor of the Rose Mansion, Sachiko-sama had laughed like some olden days noble from a comic book and said:
"Well, there's no way we would have forgotten any of our personal belongings."
You wouldn't expect that someone who would make such a proclamation would purposefully hide something of theirs. Or perhaps it was meant as a challenge – if they couldn't find the ribbon then just what kind of search had they done?
(No, it's not that.)
Yumi's intuition told her.
This wasn't something that her onee-sama had forgotten.
The black ribbon that Yumi previously wore. The other people here didn't know that this was something that Yumi had given to Sachiko-sama. So to everyone else, this was just something that Yumi had dropped.
Her onee-sama had left a message that only Yumi would be able to understand.
That was it. There was absolutely no mistaking it.
"Well,"
Yumi turned to Shimako-san and Yoshino-san and addressed them.
"I think we're finished with the search, don't you?"
"Yeah."
Shimako-san agreed.
"Then, I suppose we're done for today."
Yoshino-san and Shimako-san both looked at Yumi for a moment. They were probably thinking that Yumi had something to do, since she had suddenly brought up the topic of leaving. But they didn't take it upon themselves to press her for information. After giving a slight nod, they cheerfully responded.
"Looks that way. Don't worry about tomorrow."
"Right, right. We've already done enough preparation and practice."
Shimako-san and Yoshino-san probably didn't have any idea what Yumi was planning on doing after leaving. But they were aware that her thoughts had turned to matters outside the Rose Mansion, so had given her a pleasant farewell. Just what you would expect from close friends.
Sorry.
Since they were both probably expecting that there would be a final meeting about tomorrow after the search was over.
"Thank-you."
At any rate, Yumi graciously accepted their generosity. As she turned to leave, Touko caught her eye.
"Touko, you can go home ahead of me."
Those were Yumi's parting words as she left the room. She was still a little bit concerned about Touko, but Shimako-san and Yoshino-san and Noriko-chan were still there with her.
She'd be fine. If anything happened, they would take care of her.
Part 3.
She had left the Rose Mansion in a hurry, but Yumi didn't know where to go.
Her only thought was, 'Onee-sama is calling to me.'
Yumi grasped tightly the ribbon that she held in her hand for the first time in a year and a half.
To everyone else this wasn't Rosa Chinensis' lost item. So there was no need to have a ceremony to return it either today or tomorrow.
But Yumi alone knew who the owner of this ribbon was. So it was up to her to deliver it.
Onee-sama is waiting for this.
But where could she be right now?
(Thinking logically, she'd be in her classroom.)
But before that, Yumi went to check her onee-sama's shoe box. If her indoor shoes were in there, then there was a high probability that Sachiko-sama had already gone home and Yumi would have no option but to abandon the search.
(I knew it.)
Just as she had expected, inside the small locker with the 'Ogasawara' name-tag was a neatly placed pair of black outdoor shoes.
Her onee-sama was still at school. There was no doubt about it (because it was impossible that she would have absentmindedly gone home wearing her indoor shoes).
Leaving this area, Yumi headed towards the third year classrooms.
If, like a little while ago, her onee-sama was being besieged by autograph seekers, Yumi decided that she would wait openly until they were finished rather than hiding.
But there was no such scene.
Quite some time had passed since then. There were no longer any younger girls looking for autographs. Perhaps they all thought that Rosa Chinensis had left some time ago.
"Excuse me."
When Yumi opened the door to the third year pine class, she saw there were still a fair number of people inside.
"Oh, it's Fukuzawa Yumi-chan."
"It is too. Rosa Chinensis en bouton."
Come in, come in, they beckoned her over so Yumi strode confidently inside.
There were about ten people there all up, and they had joined their desks as though they were having lunch together. It seemed as though they were having some kind of party. A farewell ceremony, most likely.
"But Sachiko-san isn't here."
"… It looks that way."
It didn't take long to check the ten faces.
But there was a huge difference between these people and last year, when Sei-sama had been alone in the classroom at dusk. They seemed to be having a lot of fun, with their rows of sweets and drinks.
"Do you know where she went?"
The kind girls of the third year pine class gathered together their eyewitness accounts to give to Yumi.
"I saw her about an hour ago together with Rei-san from chrysanthemum class in Milk Hall."
"Hmm."
That report seemed to be a little too out of date. Yumi had seen her less than an hour ago signing autographs in the hallway. Thinking back on it, Rei-sama had been close by then too. They were probably on their way back from Milk Hall.
"Oh, I didn't see Rei-san, but I saw Sachiko-san walking down the hallway with Minako-san from the newspaper club."
"Minako-sama?"
That was the first Yumi had heard of that. So she dug a bit deeper.
"Do you know where they were going?"
"Let's see....? Actually, they were heading in that direction, so they were probably going to the newspaper club's clubroom. Because Minako-san was with her."
The clubhouse was definitely in the general direction she was pointing.
But going with Minako-san to the newspaper club's clubroom? Why on earth would her onee-sama go there?
"A little while ago I saw Rei-san on my way to the toilet, so they may have split up by then."
"I guess so."
At that point, the reports dried up. It was only natural – they had been having their party together in the classroom for most of the afternoon.
"How about the Rose Mansion?"
"I just came from there."
"I see."
As Yumi was thinking that she should search somewhere else, one of the chocolate snacks was put in her mouth.
"Well, Sachiko-san's bag is still here, so she'll have to come back to get it."
"Oh wis that sho."
Leaving her bag in the classroom made it seem as though she had just momentarily stepped out. At the very least, it was further proof that she hadn't just gone home in her indoor shoes. On top of that, the candy was delicious.
"So why don't you stay here and wait for her?"
"Hmm."
Yumi understood the rationale, and was grateful for the offer, but was feeling impatient so she couldn't just accept their invitation and wait.
"Thanks for the chocolate."
After bowing quickly, Yumi left the third year pine group classroom. If Sachiko-sama came back, she could rely on them to inform her that Yumi had been here.
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