Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume20 Chapter1.2

Maria-sama's Star

Part 1.

"So, when are you holding it?"

Sachiko-sama asked, as she curled her fingers around her neck.

"I'm thinking about next Saturday"

Answered Yoshino.

Rei-chan, who was acting like a human shield, caused Yumi-san to take a U-turn into the room, her face holding a sunken in countenance, as she meekly seated herself next to Sachiko-sama. Whether she had a mountain of things she wished to say, or whether she could not find anything to say, Yumi-san could not take any actions when her Onee-sama was in opposition to her inclinations.

"Well."

Sachiko-sama had whispered the words "Saturday after next," nuanced in a way to prompt Yoshino to answer whether it was too early or too late.

Saturday was the only day where Yoshino had more than ten minutes to spare after school. But the weekend after next there was a Kendo match, so she could not do it. But if the audition were to be held before then, it would be too sudden.

So one would think that any day after the Kendo match would be fine, but one look at Yoshino's schedule would show that such planning was simply naive. But she needed to hold an appropriate time for the auditions. Just as one needed to be on time to meet at a Kendo match, so Yoshino planned to have the soeur auditions to be on time with finding a soeur.

"What is this about?"

As soon as everyone had been seated, Sachiko-sama reopened the matter for discussion, when Rei-chan asked the question, knowing nothing about the exchanges that had preceded this. Shimako-san, who had arrived at the same time as Shimako-san, also inclined her head to wonder about what was going on.

"I wanted to find a soeur."

Yoshino said, in the same nonchalant tone as she had said "Saturday is okay."

"A soeur?!"

Rei-chan was the one who showed her surprise. The others were more dumbfounded than they looked, and could not interfere with the others' conversation in their shock. And so the Yellow Rose conversation continued.

"Whhhhhhhho is this person you want as soeur?!"

"I don't know."

"If you don't know, then I obviously know less!"

"That's why I'm holding an audition!"

"I never heard about this!"

"You haven't. But I was just talking about this!"

"Yoshinooo."

Rei-chan pushed herself up and struck the table, her face flushed in anger. She sat back down in a frenzy that felt as if it would break the chair, after which she began hitting her forehead upon the desk. Yoshino, who was being opposed in all of this, sat in her seat calmly with a genteel demeanor, and watched her Onee-sama's scene.

As Yumi watched the scene, (unlike Rei-chan) she found dry surprise when she confirmed the fact that Yoshino had probably not told Rei-chan about the audition.

"Yoshino.... Why so suddenly...."

"It's not suddenly. I had been thinking of it for a long time. What's wrong, do you not like the idea?"

"It's not that, I just wasn't mentally prepared...."

"Why do you talk about being mentally prepared now? Isn't it the quick news that you had wanted to hear? Just as you had hoped, I'll be able to show the person whom I bond with to you."

"That's, well if you put it that way it's... but...."

Rei-chan was flustered and fidgety.

Like a father whose daughter would marry. When looking at Rei-chan from afar, that is exactly how she seemed.

"Plus, you can't really find a perfect soeur at an audition."

"Oh really? Rei-chan understands these things, does she?"

Rei-chan herself understood that there was no concrete basis for all of this. So she couldn't really say anything else.

Rei-chan lapsed into silence in Yoshino-san's wake. As the dry silence dragged out into a sort of armistice, Shimako-san asked a question in a soft voice.

"But Yoshino-san. What if you cannot find a soeur with an appropriate fit at the audition?"

"That won't happen. Even if I'm a bit uneasy, I'll still choose."

Yoshino's brusque answer circulated whispers throughout the room. It won't happen? She'll choose in spite of being uneasy? This was all a very surprising turn of events.

"What happened, Yoshino-san?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying. Something is pushing you to hurry."

Good job Rei-chan, she had even phrased it as if she were praising Yoshino. One look at Yoshino showed that she was the one flustered and fidgety.

"I just want to hurry...."

Yoshino closed her eyes. This action alone confirmed that Yoshino had been telling a lie.

Yoshino promptly closed her mouth, and Rei-chan let out a large sigh.

"Fine, I understand. I'll agree with your audition. But do it next month. I have to practice for my Kendo meet, so when that is over, we can make a perfect plan on how to hold the audition. I'll help you with the work too of course."

"But then I won't make it on time."

From here on, Yoshino's war changed.

Any more persistance on Yoshino's part would have been pointless. That there was a time limit, and that if too much time passed by, the audition would become pointless could be seen in Yoshino's eyes. Approaching Rei-chan with these conditions and making Rei-chan her ally would be an effective plan for Yoshino.

"What's going on here?"

Rei-chan put her answer to Yoshino's last remark on hold and asked her about the incident. The words of the person responsible's name then came out of Yoshino's mouth.

"Yesterday, no actually from a long time back, I met with Eriko-sama."

"When is this?"

"Around the Athletic Festival."

"Eriko-sama was there?"

"Yeah."

Rei-chan turned towards Sachiko-sama with a face that asked "Did you know?". Sachiko-sama shook her head in a way that said that she was learning about this for the first time. Shimako-san too informed everyone that she had known nothing about this. Noriko-chan had of course never met Eriko-sama, and so she could not be asked. For some reason, the question stopped being asked after that, so Yumi-san was not asked. Yumi may be made to answer, thought Yoshino.

The way it had been said, it seemed as if Eriko-sama had only met Yoshino and then left.

Yoshino went on.

"I think Eriko-sama wasn't very happy when I met her. Eriko-sama told me to work hard and to show my soeur to Eriko-sama before I showed her to anyone else."

"And then?"

Rei-sama added.

"Eriko-sama had said that she would come to see the kendo match, so ... I ..."

That had been a summary, but with the small nuances that Yoshino gave, the truth was more than what Yoshino let on. It felt like some grand tale. Yumi-san understood the truth of the tale without any imagined dramatizations, and made different faces because of it, but Yoshino did not care.

Yoshino closed her eyes in a way that seemed to read "This experience had been deep in my heart, bit it seems I finally let it out."

"If I think about it, when Eriko-sama had come to give me some pastries, her face had seemed a bit tired. She had also told me 'Thank Yoshino well for me'. It was because she was thinking of the task she had given to Yoshino. But I, of course, hadn't paid it any thought."

Wrong. That was completely wrong. It was a piercing thought inside Yoshino that Rei-chan was wrong. Eriko-sama had simply come to put pressure upon Yoshino. But pure (simple) Rei-chan had believed that it was a simple conversation.

"If that's the case, then I see why you have to hurry. Alright, next Saturday. The Yamayurikai will host the event, and we'll get permission from the school."

Rei-chan neatly and quickly resolved.

So Sachiko-sama had watched the whole incident transpire from beginning to end, and as she watched the Yellow Rose battle come to an end, she laughed.

"Yoshino-chan, Yumi. There are several sheets of the poster paper we used during the School Festival, so you can use those."

Without hearing Yumi-san's opinion, she had been given parts of the work.

Part 2.

"I've heard that there is some audition thing going on?"

It was passing period between periods two and three. Mami Yamaguchi, who had gone to the bathroom or some place, returned to the classroom, approached Yumi's desk sneakily, and whispered.

"Where in the world did you..."

Yoshino had declared that she would hold an audition yesterday, after school. Not even a day had passed before the news had gotten out.

Wondering whether Yoshino-san was the one who spread the rumor, Yumi turned to look at her seat. Yoshino-san, however, was immersed in her English-Japanese dictionary, furiously looking for the word 'leader', and she did not turn her attention towards Yumi.

"It wasn't Yoshino-san. I heard it from Rosa Chinesis. She told me to make a huge advertisement in the Lilian Kawaraban. I also got permission from her to pattern the newspaper after the audition article."

"..."

Sachiko-sama was an incredibly fast worker. Before her petite soeur could find a good excuse to evade the audition with, she had already made moves to dig a moat around Yumi.

"But what a relief! This year there was no questionnaire made for the Mister Lillian contest, so after the school festival, this was the one period of the year lacking an event. With this, we can keep the pace up."

"If something like last year ever happened again, it was decided that it was better for the event to simply not take place. The members from last year aren't here though, so things are a bit more boring."

In other words, it's not that the faith in the vote was lost, but that it was obvious that most people would pick a member of the Rose family. However, even without collecting the questionairres, it was even more obvious that there would be no deliberation on picking Rei-sama again as this year's Mister Lillian.

"But I've thought about this audition. It really is like a ferry across bad waters. The Newspaper Club will cooperate with the Yamayurikai to the greatest extent possible. Today after school, the Newspaper Club was supposed to meet at the Rose Mansion ... huh?"

Mami-san abruptly stopped talking. She had probably noticed Yumi-san's demeanor.

"You don't want to do this?"

"Yoshino-san is the one who wants to do this."

"Mmmf."

Mami-san took one look at Yoshino-san and replied back to Yumi.

"So, can I hear the reason why Yumi-san does not want to participate?"

"Why?"

Yumi bowed her head onto the desk and let out a sigh.

Mami-san squatted next to the desk, and brought her face close to Yumi.

"Wouldn't you try to explain it for me? I'm not Sachiko-sama after all."

"I see. Of course."

After the two shared a laugh together, Mami-san began talking again.

"Well now. Do you oppose the concept of an audition? Or do you not want to choose your soeur in an audition?"

"I don't really know."

It wasn't as much the fact that she had been forced by her Onee-sama as much as that she simply was opposed to the audition.

"Let's try to analyze the situation. If you don't, then you can't form an effective counter strategy."

"What counter strategy? A way to escape from the audition?"

"To accept the audition, but to simply work against it. Even though the Newspaper Club is ecstatic that two boutons are holding an audition at the same time, as a friend, I don't want to see you forced into doing anything you don't want to."

The bell for third period rang, and Mami-san uttered "There'll be a one page special in the paper" as she found her way back to her seat.

"Analyze, huh."

If she thought about why she hated it so much, it seemed as if her best option was to write a one page paper on it. As she was thinking, the teacher who needed to know the word for 'leader' came in. A look at Yoshino-san made Yumi see that Yoshino-san had quickly found her word. Yoshino-san closed the dictionary, and put her self into a somewhat aggressive position.

Question: Do you agree with an audition? (Yes | No | I don't understand the question) Answer: "I don't understand the question" gives you zero points.

During third and fourth period, Yumi listened to only half of the lecture, and tried to used the remaining half of her brain, but could not.

As she walked towards the Rose Mansion with her lunch, she could do nothing but sigh. Today, everyone was talking about the soeur auditions. It's not as if she was invited to the Rose Mansion, or that there was much work for the Student Council to finish. On the way, Yumi had seriously thought about just spending today in her classroom, eating lunch, but she did not make any U-Turns as she walked up to the Rose Mansion.

Yumi let out a yell of confidence, and opened the entrance to the Rosa Mansion. In front of her she could see the figure of a person hurriedly climbing up the stairs.

"Shimako-san."

"Uaa. You surprised me, Yumi-san."

The stairs were supposed to have been quiet during their ascent, but they had suddenly creaked, so they had surprised Shimako-san. Shimako-san gripped the handrail and turned backwards as her heart seemed to beat outward.

"What do you think, Shimako-san?"

Of course Shimako-san wasn't a superperson, nor was she even in the same class as Yumi, so perhaps she wouldn't even be thinking about the same things as the people in her class. That's why Shimako's response "About what?" was quite appropriate.

"About the audition. You didn't say whether you were opposed to it or whether you liked the idea, yesterday."

"Aaah..."

Shimako-san whispered and once again began walking up the stairs.

"I'm not really in a position where I can oppose or approve of the situation."

Picking the soeur was the job of the older sister, was Shimako-san's idea of it. Yumi once again followed Shimako-san up.

"That's true. But my soeur will have to become a very good friend of Shimako-san's. Are you opposed to finding that sort of a friend at an audition?"

"That's true."

Shimako-san laughed as she crossed the last step on the stairs.

"Of course, if I say that I have no reservations about the idea, then I would be completely lying. But if the auditions do work out, then maybe there's a value in trying them out."

"Trying them out?"

Yumi-san asked, to which Shimako-san replied "Of course, I'm speaking assuming that I'm in your position."

"If I didn't have a soeur right? Then, then I would work together with Yoshino-san to look over some applicants."

Of course, Shimako-san had recently found her cute, boisterous soeur Noriko-chan, so she was using words like 'If I' or 'then I', which meant the conversation was meaningless for Shimako-san, in spite of which Yumi still wanted to listen to Shimako-san's thoughts. She wanted to sample and gather the thoughts of several people about the audition idea.

"But why wouldn't you completely oppose it?"

Shimako-san replied as she was turning the knob on the biscuit-like door.

"Because maybe, in that list of candidates, Noriko would be there."

When the door opened, a first year could be seen from across the room. In spite of it being autumn, this first year smiled in a way reminiscent of a spring breeze.

"Gokigenyou"

It was Noriko-chan.

"Oh, I see." Yumi-chan finally understood Shimako-san a bit. Shimako-san was sure that, even if she would not have met Noriko-chan during the spring, that she would find her some other time. It didn't matter how the next meeting would happen.

"It's better to start somewhere than nowhere at all? Is that it?"

"I wholeheartedly think so."

Shimako-san wholeheartedly wanted Noriko-chan by her side, so the method to acquire Noriko-chan was of no consequence.

Noriko-chan sat down and said "I've prepared green tea.". The steaming teacup was placed right in front of Yumi.

"How about you, Noriko-chan?"

"Huh?"

"How would you react to becoming Shimako-san's soeur in an audition?"

Noriko-chan mulled over her answer and tried to figure out a way to answer the point that Yumi was driving at, but instead, cleverly threw a question back at Yumi.

"Yumi-sama, you wouldn't dislike having a petite soeur, would you?"

"Maybe."

Since Yumi became Sachiko-sama's petite soeur, she herself knew vaguely that she would have to have her own. The reason she still did not have a soeur by the second term was not because she was harshly rejected, but that she had simply missed out on chances to look for soeurs.

"So then, are you simply against the concept of the audition itself?"

"That may be the case. But if you look at it from the outside, it's just another way of finding a soeur."

"Then do you oppose it because it's Yoshino-san's plan?"

"Well if I had to plan it, we'd be thinking about some different plan."

"It probably would. I wonder why."

Noriko-chan and Yumi began to think deeply about the issue. Shimako-san, who had been silently listening, opened her mouth and began talking "Perhaps, Yumi-san"

"Perhaps, Yumi-san is opposed to the part about judging people."

"That's it."

Yumi said nothing, but wagged her finger in a way to show assent.

"How many worthy first-years there are who want to be Yumi-san's soeurs I do not know, but choosing just one person against the rest is a bit cruel. What's the qualification to choose against? Just what does the chosen soeur have that the others don't? A weird comparison would be a tournament. Amongst the competitors, what is my rank? Who is in the panel of judges? What kind of a person gets a better score than another? That's what Yumi-san is thinking, right?"

Right as Shimako-san finished her sentence.

"There is no 'kind of person' here."

The door opened with a thud, and in the doorway stood Yoshino-san.

Part 3.

"Please, tell me!"

Yoshino-san angrily strode into the room.

"'Kind of Person'? We are the future Onee-samas! Better score? Isn't that what we're looking for? What's wrong with a better score?"

That's true. If a person did not have that sort of courage inside them, they could not find a petite soeur. In an audition, the decision will have to narrow down one out of two final applicants. One should know their tastes if they plan to pick a petite soeur. If there is serious worrying that a person may not be able to pick her petite soeur, then she shouldn't be calling for people to audition for her.

If one thought about it deep enough, when a girl decides to accept the invitation to audition, it means the same thing as the petite soeurs having chosen their grande soeurs. As the grande soeur chooses the petite soeur, so does the petite soeur choose the grande soeur.

"What's wrong with you?! We're in the same class, but you still won't wait for me?!"

Yoshino slammed her lunch on the table and glared at Yumi-san. After fourth period ended, Yoshino-san went to the bathroom and came back and saw no sign of Yumi-san. She had to ask around, and a classmate finally told Yoshino that Yumi-san had taken her lunch and headed to the Rose Mansion.

"Huh? Didn't you tell me that you had a Kendo Club meeting today at lunch?"

"The meeting is for the regular fighters only. I told you about the meeting because Rei-chan would not be able to come to the Rose Mansion today because of it."

"Oh, is that why..."

"Hey, pay more attention to things outside of yourself, will you?!"

Unfortunately, not every Kendo Club member was supposed to participate in the Interschool Kendo tournaments. For that matter, only five people were allowed to go to the tournaments, and they would probably be the only ones coming to the meeting, to decide how to manage the team. Yoshino, in spite of being a second year, was just a beginner. Yoshino, the latest addition to the club, would have no chance of being nominated to represent the school. If you combine her genes and her upbringing, then she should have become a regular shortly after joining the club, but reality isn't often as nice as theory makes people think.

"So, what's wrong? You really hate the auditions, don't you Yumi-san?"

"Well, hating maybe too strong ..."

"What is with that look on your face! If you don't like something, just say that you don't like it! I want to have your input in the way the auditions are going to be run!"

Yoshino-san began half-heartedly putting some pressure on Yumi-san to speak her mind. Yumi-san put up a face that said "I wonder what I should tell her", when all of a sudden, Yumi's savior came from behind.

"I understand why Yumi keeps worrying about the auditions. I also don't like having to judge people like that in contests."

Shimako-san was the one who came to Yumi-san's defense.

"So? What does that mean?"

Yoshino folded her arms onto her chest and raised an eyebrow.

"Even though we're both students, how would you feel if someone else judged me over you?"

"Well, Shimako-san, earlier when we were deciding whether we should hold an audition or not, you had said that you weren't opposed to the idea did you not?"

As Shimako-san nodded her assent, Yumi-san confirmed that something had happened between Shimako-san and Yoshino. Although about what, Yumi-san did not know.

"Let me ask you something else then, Shimako-san! When people are elected to run for the student council, isn't *that* an issue of students picking students?!"

"The elections are different. It's when every student in the school votes for a voice who will represent them in student affairs."

When Shimako-san became forward about her opinion, it would occasionally bother Yoshino. It wasn't enough that she disagreed. She would do the things that Yoshino herself could not do easily, which would make Yoshino admiring and jealous. But admiring was the opposite of what she needed to be now.

"Okay then. If everyone in the school were to vote for who a person's soeur should be, would you agree then, Shimako-san?"

"Everyone? Picking soeurs?"

Shimako-san tilted her head. Yoshino knew that what she had said was simply a theoretical retort, but she hoped that her retort would have some effect.

"But, Yoshino-sama."

This time it was Noriko-chan who spoke from behind.

"Could a person accept a soeur who had been picked by majority rule?"

"Of course, no."

And now even your soeur gets into this, Yoshino resigned. Noriko couldn't have been this much like a pre-prepared package for Shimako-san.

"Then it's useless to continue any further with this line of thinking."

"Geh"

Yoshino groaned as she opened her lunch box. Noriko-chan seemed as if she had been seduced by Shimako-san. But she knew she had to stop this here.

Eventually, the three others also began opening their lunch boxes. It seemed that they had gotten so entranced in the debate, that they had forgotten about their lunches.

"Sachiko-sama isn't here."

Shimako-san whispered.

"That's right, huh."

Yumi-san took her chopsticks out from her chopsticks box, and inclined her head. Yoshino hadn't heard anything from Onee-sama about this.

The Inter-High School Kendo Tournament obviously shouldn't have any effect on Sachiko-sama's plans. Then maybe Sachiko-sama had not arrived for different reasons. Obviously if you had no specific invitation to come, you didn't have to, but in the days before the School Festival, she had come to the busy lunch meetings and paid attention to every detail, and ever since then, her regular attendance had become customary.

"Can I ask you something?"

Yoshino asked, as she put down her chopsticks.

"All three of you oppose the audition happening at school, right?"

She had thought about the issue again from bottom to top. Yumi-san gave her response.

"Well, isn't it like picking the lead actress of the school play?"

Yumi looked quickly around and saw Shimako-san and Noriko-chan nod deeply. Yoshino steeled herself and asked again.

"Well, you're doing something personal in a public place, so."

"Umm."

Yumi-san made several, complicated faces. For some reason it resembled the look she got on her face when she faced the blackboard in math class and had to answer a question. But honest Yumi-san finally came out with an answer.

"If you're talking about a person's feelings, well each person has their own internal sense of what's too little and what's too much. For example, if you do this much, then it's okay. If you do more, then it's not okay. Something like that. But people don't think about this individually, and instead give vague reactions like 'I don't really like it' or 'I don't know why, but I'm okay with it', and other people live with these vague responses."

"Yeah."

"That's why it's hard too understand this public/private thing."

OF course. Yumi put her explanation in terms of human perception.

"So you're asking me to hold a tea party at my house, and to invite potential soeur candidates there?"

When Yumi-san thought about Yoshino-san's proposal, she realized that she was fairly comfortable with doing the audition publicly.

"If you do a Rokomi, then okay. I understand."

"Yoshino-san, you can't mean."

"No, I won't have an audition at my house."

Yoshino laughed drily.

Yoshino had only asked the question in order to understand what the others in the room where thinking.

Yoshino was being more self-conscious than usual. Maybe because Yoshino is used to being the center of attention with relatives and friends, she had not noticed this slip of hers. Of course, there were different degrees of her selfishness. She didn't treat Yumi-san and other close friends like everyone else. But for people like her who loved themselves, it isn't a bad thing to put yourself before others. But this was embarassing, so she did not want to tell others.

But from the beginning, Yoshino-san had something else to say that she hadn't.

"But you know, I never really thought of the audition as a competition. If everyone thinks of it like that, then obviously they'd have reservations about the audition. There's no reason to treat the audition as if it were some tournament that you have to win in."

Yumi, Shimako, and Noriko immediately turned towards Yoshino as if bewitched.

"What?!"

Yumi-san asked Yoshino dryly.

"It's just that, the moment you came into the room, it seemed as if some lever had been pulled, and that you were irritated from the start."

"It's because I have unwavering confidence in myself. So I'll fight whenever I'm challenged. But if I have no strong personal opinion on the subject, I'll also listen to what others have to say about it."

And then.

"Fine then! I'll decide, right here, right now!"

Yumi stood up in a sudden revelation. Not only did she stand, but she balled her hand into a fist, and thumped it onto her chest.

"If there's no other way for me to find a soeur, let's have this audition right now! Let's do it! And I'll probably understand how the audition works after I start doing it!"

Why, that Yumi-san! Her sudden declaration was so uplifting, that Yoshino could do nothing but clap.

Shimako-san grinned.

"After school today, let's hold some real talks about this, okay? We won't just discuss the big picture, but also the little things that we forgot to talk about, the things we need to do first, and other stuff like that!"

"Will you help us too?"

Yumi-san asked Shimako-san happily.

"Of course. Won't we, Noriko?"

Noriko-san's Onee-sama had agreed, so Noriko-san went quiet for a second, and then said "Yeah." But Noriko-san hesitated.

"Yumi-sam, um, are you sure I should help out?"

"Huh? Of course! If Noriko-chan helped out, we would be that much stronger!"

After seeing the smile that lit up Yumi-san's face, Noriko-chan could only say "I'll help then. To all the best.". Perhaps Noriko-chan had wanted to say something else.

Or so Yoshino-san thought absent-mindedly. Or maybe it had been her imagination. But if it wasn't her imagination, then Noriko-chan had chosen not to say something, and it made Yoshino-san wonder what Noriko-chan had left unsaid.

Sachiko-sama did not come at all that day to the Rose Mansion.

Part 4.

Why had Noriko thought something like that.

She was revisiting the moment when Noriko had told Yumi "Are you sure I should help out?"

Yumi-sama didn't understand what Noriko had been asking, and then Noriko had let it drop.

"Aaaah."

Afternoon classes were filled with such sighs.

I see.

She didn't want to overstep her bounds. If she said what she wanted to say, then she would have to take responsibility for her statements until the very end.

Because she had only done her duty halfway, because she dropped the torch before it was all done, she felt bad about it. So she kept brooding about it.

She had to help out now, so there was no point in thinking more about it, Noriko thought as she loosened her grip on the broom handle. She did not feel like listening to Yumi-san's request, however Shimako-san and Yoshino-san made Noriko think twice.

"What's wrong, Noriko-san?"

"Ahhh."

Touko brought her face close enough to Noriko to kiss her, as Noriko daydreamed. Suddenly seeing Touko's face made Noriko jump back.

"Well, I'm sorry. You had been brushing the same place with the broom for a while now, so I took that as a sign that something was going wrong."

"... I'm sorry. I was just thinking about something."

"I see."

Touko said nothing more as she took out her dustpan and put in the dust that Noriko had collected earlier and put it into the trash.

"Touko."

"Hm?"

Her two bannana curls of hair bobbed up and down as she looked up.

"What do you think of Yumi-san?"

"Hmmmm."

"Her face is never still, her mood is always plain. But her heart is with the people, so her head's just a scatterbrain."

Each of her lines began with an 'H' sound, and ended with a rhyme. Only the third rhyme was off.

"She is, but she's still pretty popular with the first years."

"It seems so."

Noriko smiled.

Unlike Yumi-sama, Touko would purposefully misunderstand her questions, and would throw your questions back at you. She understood what Noriko had wanted to say, but she probably was dodging because she did not want to answer.

But ever since she had learned that lesson, she had learned to not give up asking questions that she wanted answered.

"Did you think that I had wanted to be Yumi-sama's petite soeur?"

Touko said, as she revealed an anger in her face that Noriko had not seen before.

"That's why I was asking. Did I do anything wrong?"

Noriko winced from Touko's anger. But Touko herself did not seem to notice it. It was just that, a hidden part of Touko's soul had just been opened up, which is why she reacted so violently to Noriko's innocent question.

As the two eyed each other, their classmates began to bunch up around them. Students who had stayed after school, students who had clubs to attend, and even conspicuously tall girls. They would stop, say a polite "Gokigenyou", look down at their watch, flutter their hair around, and then run off into the hallways.

"I want to help you out, Touko."

Noriko said honestly to Touko. When Noriko had asked Yumi-sama "Are you sure I should help out?", neither Kanako-san nor anyone else had come to mind and caused her hesitation. Touko was the one.

Maybe Noriko should have asked "Are you sure I should help out?" to Touko instead of Yumi-sama. She would have told Touko about the opportunity to audition soeurs and asked "Do you want to join in?"

"I need no strength from you, Noriko-san."

As Noriko watched Touko coldly turn and leave the room, she found herself somehow understanding Touko's reaction.

".... Touko."

Noriko did not say anything else aloud, but the thought echoed in her mind.

Part 5.

"So?"

Sachiko-sama asked. She was wondering if Yumi had anything to say.

"The name 'audition' can make people think of weird things, so I wanted to clear it up."

Yumi said clearly.

It was after school, at the Rose Mansion. Two members of each rose family were present, totaling six members, with the addition of the Newspaper Club representative Yamaguchi Mami. Even Rei-sama who had Kendo practice every day, took a break from her preparation and decided to attend the special meeting. When anything dealt with the issue of a soeur for Rei's cute soeur Yoshino-san, Rei would always say "Leave it to me, I'll make sure it works out".

"If not audition, then what would be a better name?"

"Perhaps a Tea Party, or a Social Meet?"

The scritch scratch of a quickly moving pen could be heard. It was the sound of Mami-san, taking down memos.

"You'll only be changing the name?"

This time Yoshino-san answered the question.

"We aren't aiming to just pick a soeur. We want to gather as many potential soeur candidates as possible, and hold a meeting with them."

This was the line that the four of them had decided on during an informal conversation during lunch.

Rather than presuming more than they should and saying "We will do it this way", they decided to that it would be better to act as if they were offering their opinion and say "We want to do it this way".

"Basically."

Rei-sama said.

"It's like a group Miai then?"

"What an old fashioned idea. Isn't it more like a large group party?"

Sachiko-sama said in correction.

"Well, at first glance, maybe."

However you looked at it, it was still a strange idea.

"So? How will you pick people out of the attendees at the tea party?"

"We'll announce our picks in the Lillian Kawaraban."

Mami-san immediately interrupted Yumi. "Understood." she said, as she nodded.

"We will mix a set of first- and second-years. The first set of participants will be picked at random from a list. These participants will each by examined, and the unfit ones will be winnowed out. We believe that about twenty shall be able to make it to the final round."

Shimako-san continued off from Yumi's initial explanation.

"There will be a few rules for the participants. The first-years must have no soeurs. The second-years may have grande soeurs, but may not have petite soeurs."

"This too is a way to winnow out applicants."

"Fine. But after that, when you call the finalists to drink tea and talk, how will you decide then?"

Sachiko-sama pinned Yumi down with her eyes and asked.

"That's it."

"That's it?"

The words 'Do you really think this is an audition?' were written all over Sachiko-sama's resigned face.

"The Tea Party is a place of meetings. What's left to do is for each participant to decide."

"So there's no 'Please become my petite soeur?' or 'Sorry, I cannot approve of you' ?"

How did Sachiko-sama figure that out. It was obvious that Sachiko-sama had wanted this to be an event where people would be sworn into couples.

"No, there is none of that."

"So then, you're telling me you can pick a soeur like that?"

"If there's someone there who I find agreeable, then I plan to ask them to become my soeur. If I find several candidates, but cannot choose one, then I will ask them to come help out at the Rose Mansion.

"To go through a trial run with them?"

Shimako-san had had this 'trial run' with Noriko-chan. The 'trial run' wasn't to test whether the candidate was incapable or not, but to test whether a petite soeur had a long-term affinity for her grande soeur. There was also the unwritten rule that if someone really could not find a soeur, then she would take the most useful volunteer in the Rose Mansion.

"I think I understand what you're trying to achieve."

Sachiko-said, as she slowly raised herself out of her chair.

"Well, if this is what all of you have decided, then I'll leave it up to you then."

Sachiko-sama wasn't just ending the conversation short but gathering her school bag, her coat, and her things, and getting ready to leave.

"W..w.. wait, Onee-sama"

Yumi quickly followed behind.

"If it's just a Tea Party, a group miai as you say, then there's no point in me further planning thing. There's nothing left for me to do."

"But, we wanted you to come to the Tea Party..."

Sachiko-sama let out a dejected sigh.

"Yumi. A third-year like me who already has a soeur isn't allowed by the attendance rules. If you want to do something to please me, then please invite as many first years as you can."

Yumi knew that Sachiko-sama's argument was a logical one, but even then, she could not get herself to say "I see your point" or "You're right. We'll do just that".

Not having her Onee-sama around when doing something as huge as picking out a soeur? She had told her Onee-sama about this and that for so long during lunch, that she did not expect even a hint of this.

"Sachiko."

Behind Yumi, Rei-sama followed. Sachiko-sama's eyes narrowed.

"Rei. I do not wish to play cop with you too. If you want to play along with them, then you're free to do so."

"..."

Rei-sama stared at Sachiko-sama's face for a few moments and then curtly nodded.

"I see. I too will step back from this then. My kendo meet is very soon, after all."

Yoshino-san said nothing as she stood up from her chair. But Rei-sama simply turned her gaze away dryly without saying anything.

"The two of us will help out when we can. Behind the scenes, of course."

As Sachiko-sama and Rei-san were exchanging glances and heading out of the room, Shimako-san interjected.

Even though Shimako-san was a second-year, she was a grande soeur with her petite soeur first-year Noriko-chan, so she was the same as Sachiko-sam and Rei-sama. A person who, by the rules, was not allowed to attend.

"Thank you. Your assistance is much appreciated."

The words hung in the air as the two third-years disappeared through the door.

"What's with those two."

Yoshino-san indignantly burst out, as the creak of the stairs was heard with the leaving of the third-years. Were they purposefully doing this?

Noriko whispered timidly.

"Rosa Chinensis called us together her herself, but got mad at us?"

"No, that's not it Noriko."

Shimako-san corrected her, to which Yumi nodded in agreement.

"No, Onee-sama is not mad."

She had radiated coolness from the outside, but Yumi knew her Onee-sama was probably laughing on the inside.

She was sure of it.

Why Onee-sama chose to talk and act like she did, though, Yumi still did not understand.

It seemed as soon as the two left from the Rose Mansion, the atmosphere became a little cooler.

Translator's Notes

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