Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume30 Chapter1 2

Scattered Sunshine. Part 2.

Then, just like that, the evening had passed and today had arrived.

There was no need to consult the weather report; brilliant sunlight streamed in through the east window. It was already sunny, despite yesterday's forecast of clouds followed by sunshine. Surely sunshine followed by sunshine.

"Regardless, I'm so happy to be going out I could just throw my hands up in the air."

Yumi scanned the newspaper's weather forecast section. The sunshine symbol was there for the whole day. The amusement park would definitely be packed.

"At least it's not raining. They probably stop the outdoor rides during heavy rain, and when they start again you'd get wet riding on them."

Yuuki said, his brow furrowed as he carried his bag down the stairs.

"Yeah, that's true."

Yumi stretched and then smiled. She was going on a date with her onee-sama. It would still be fun even if it was raining. But it was sunny. So there was no reason to complain. Bring on the packed amusement park. They'd have a fun time chatting while they waited. – The more Yumi thought about it, the more her anticipation grew.

It would soon be 8 o'clock. That was the time that Kashiwagi-san and Sachiko-sama had arranged to pick them up from in front of the Fukuzawa house. But because they were coming by car, they could be either earlier or later depending on traffic.

"Sorry, Yuuki."

She called over her younger brother's shoulder, as he watched a taped program and fiddled with the TV remote control. Without turning around, he answered, "What for?"

"For making you accompany my onee-sama."

"Ahh."

Yuuki switched off the TV and turned to face her.

"I was a bit worried because of the way it ended last time. It's not like I don't understand what Sachiko-sama was feeling. Besides, I don't mind the amusement park."

"...Yeah."

Pleased that she had such a fine brother, Yumi instinctively patted him on the shoulder. He responded by running away, saying, "That feels kind of wrong." When they were young, Yumi would always be grumpy whenever Yuuki followed her around. Although she was never actually mean to him.

"Hey, Yumi-chan. Are you going to invite Sachiko-sama and Kashiwagi-san into the house? If you do, we should probably offer them tea, right?"

Her mother was taking off her rubber gloves as she walked out of the bathroom. Based on her appearance, she had just been cleaning the bathroom.

"Don't worry about it, it's okay."

Yumi waved her right hand.

"If you're worried about their car, they can park in my office car park, since it's Sunday."

Even her father was joining in. Both her parents had taking a liking to the superficially handsome, young Kashiwagi-san. As for Sachiko-sama, they admired her like a celebrity – initially because they were brainwashed by their daughter, but then voluntarily after their first chance meeting with her. Consequently, it wasn't just the Fukuzawa children, but also their parents, that wanted to be good friends with Sachiko-sama and Kashiwagi-san.

"That's not the problem. There's only enough time for them to pick us up if we're going to make it to the park when it opens."

If they were to invite them in to the house, it would take at least 30 minutes to an hour. Of course, there was a little bit of leeway in their travel plans. But that was there in case they got caught in traffic – they hadn't planned to spend much time at the Fukuzawa household.

"Really?"

Even as she said this, her mother was swapping out the towels in the bathroom for the nicer ones that they used when they had company. Just in case, despite what she had just heard.

"When I see you two like that, you really do look alike."

Her mother smiled, because they were both wearing their coats in anticipation of their visitor's arrival. It hadn't been noticeable when Yumi was just wearing jeans and a pink floral blouse, and Yuuki was just wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. But now that they were both wearing similarly colored denim jackets, it appeared as though they were going for the same look. Add to that their similar looking faces, and the impression of a mass-produced product was apparently quite funny. Pointing and laughing at the two children you gave birth to was either innocence, or irresponsibility.

"I'll go change."

Yuuki sullenly ran up the staircase.

"Ohh, now he's upset. Ahh, Yuuki's so delicate."

"Indeed. I wonder who he gets that from."

The words, "Not from you, that's for sure," almost made it out of Yumi's mouth but she was just able to contain them.

The Fukuzawa intercom buzzed at about the same time that Yuuki was making his way downstairs, having finished changing clothes.

"Hello."

Yumi was waiting by the intercom, having heard a car pull up outside, so was able to press the reply button almost instantaneously.

"Ogasawara here."

"Okay. We'll be right out."

Buoyed by her onee-sama's voice, Yumi swung her bag over her shoulder and hurried to the entrance. Her mother and father followed her, as though that were perfectly natural. Obviously intending to offer their greetings.

Yuuki was one step ahead of her, his butt parked on the wooden step, tying the laces of his sneakers. The denim jacket had been swapped for a beige-ish synthetic leather pea coat, and Yumi's now very different looking younger brother moved to one side so that she could put on her sneakers too. After tapping her toes into the shoes, Yumi hurriedly turned the doorknob and rushed out.

"Good morning."

Kashiwagi-san and Sachiko-sama were standing right in front of the door.

"Morning."

"Thanks for coming today."

It was regrettable, but had to be acknowledged. The impression that Kashiwagi-san and Sachiko-sama gave was of a beautiful couple. In comparison... Yumi glanced at Yuuki as he walked past.

"Don't mention it."

On her side of the door was the raccoon-faced duo. Although the two parties may have been genetically quite different, it seemed that there were still some things in common: The beautiful people were wearing jeans and a jacket too.

Sachiko-sama and Kashiwagi-san both simultaneously adopted an identical expression as their attention was drawn to the area behind Yumi. Without turning around, Yumi knew that her parents had made their entrance.

Our children are probably going to be a bother to you. No, no, not at all. After exchanging the standard pleasantries, they decided to make their way over to the car.

"Oh?"

This time it was the Fukuzawa household acting in unison.

"Kashiwagi-kun, did you buy a new car?"

Yumi's father was the first one to ask. The car parked on the side of the road wasn't his usual chilli red car.

"No. This isn't mine, it's grandfather Ogasawara's car. He lent it to me, saying that I should have a more substantial car since I'm giving these ladies a lift."

"The president of the Ogasawara Group's car? Indeed – "

Her father didn't say anything further, but was probably thinking, "It looks expensive." Yumi couldn't tell much other than that it was left-hand drive and the paint was either dark green or dark blue, but it seemed that the value of this automobile was immediately obvious to anyone with even a passing interest in cars.

"It's second-hand though."

Sachiko-sama said.

Right, right. Even Yumi could tell that it wasn't brand new, since there were some light scratches on the front and sides.

"For the time being, Yumi and Yuuki-san can ride in the back."

"Oh?"

Yumi said, a little dejected, as she had expected that she would sit in the back together with her onee-sama.

"I said it was just for the time being, didn't I? We'll swap seats en-route. See, there are cars coming from behind us."

"Okay."

Even if she wanted to protest further, it wasn't worth making a scene over. Reluctantly, Yumi climbed into the back seat with Yuuki.

"Well then, we're off. I'll make sure they're home on time."

Kashiwagi-san bowed to Mr. and Mrs. Fukuzawa then settled into the driver's seat, adjusting the position of the chair and the angle of the mirror. In the passenger's seat, Sachiko-sama fastened her seat-belt and said, "Okay Suguru-san," curtly giving him the signal to proceed.

After they'd turned the corner in front of the Kakinoki-san's house and could no longer see Yumi's parents waving them goodbye, Sachiko-sama said:

"I wonder if there's a street wide enough to park the car in around here."

"Huh?"

They'd only just set off, so why did they have to stop so quickly? Kashiwagi-san chided her, saying , "Sacchan," before Yumi could ask this question. It looked as though he knew the intent behind Sachiko-sama's statement.

"Hey, Yumi. Do you know anywhere?"

Sachiko-sama asked once more, completely ignoring Kashiwagi-san, so Yumi chose to give her preference.

"A wide road?"

When she looked to Yuuki for help, he had a complicated expression that was part anguish and part bewilderment.

"What's wrong?"

They hadn't gone a kilometre from their starting point. They hadn't even made it to a main road yet. Kashiwagi-san was famous for his rough driving, but it was still a bit too early to be getting carsick.

"I've got a bad feeling."

Yuuki whispered.

"Huh?"

Yumi thought she heard him say that he had a bad feeling, but that must have been a mistake. After mishearing his first statement, Yumi cupped her ear with her hand to try and focus on what her brother was saying.

"If it were up to me, I'd say we go to the amusement park like we are now, non-stop."

Was what he said. So it looks like Yumi hadn't misheard him earlier after all. Still.

"What do you mean?"

Yumi challenged him, not understanding what was happening.

"Yukichi's bad feeling is probably right on the mark."

Kashiwagi-san spoke matter-of-factly as he turned the steering wheel.

"How rude."

Sachiko-sama said indignantly.

What, what?

Yumi gaze leapt from forwards, to diagonally forwards and right, to the right and back again, desperately trying to find some kind of hint. Even so, the conversation continued steadily, minus a single stranded member.

"All those who agree with staying like this and not stopping."

In response to Kashiwagi-san's statement, Yuuki gave a hearty, "Me," and raised his hand.

"Okay, all those opposed."

This time Sachiko-sama raised her hand. Yumi hadn't raised her hand for either option, since she didn't know what was going on.

"Two against one."

"Yumi, you should side with me, your onee-sama."

"Ah, but."

How could she agree when she didn't know what was going on. And siding with her onee-sama would mean voting to see Yuuki and Kashiwagi-san's bad feeling realized.

"There were three valid votes."

"Wait a minute. You can't just say that Yumi's vote is invalid. Someone who doesn't understand can't be expected to make a decision just like that."

Well then somebody please explain clearly what's going on. It was all because they'd ignored her earlier cries for clarification.

"If Yumi-chan did understand what was going on, she'd probably take your side, Sacchan."

Kashiwagi-san laughed derisively.

"Well, who can say."

Still, Yumi started to question the accuracy of Kashiwagi-san's theory when Sachiko-sama grumbled instead of offering up an explanation.

Realizing that she was getting nowhere, Sachiko-sama took drastic action.

"If you don't stop the car, I'm going to pull on the wheel and we'll see where we end up."

It wasn't just an idle threat, she'd already placed a hand on the wheel. Kashiwagi-san's hands were at 10:10, in other words where the numbers 2 and 10 were on a clock's face, while Sachiko-sama's hand had darted in at about 4.

"Waaaah."

Yuuki cried out.

"Stop! Stop! I get it. I'll find somewhere we can pull over and stop."

The usually aloof Kashiwagi-san begged miserably. It was almost like he was some TV comic that had just been given an overinflated balloon. Which would make Sachiko-sama the balloon – as she was thinking this, Yumi suddenly realized how dangerous a position they had been in. This was a highjacking, or, more precisely, a carjacking.

Later, after quiet reflection, Yumi realized that Sachiko-sama probably wouldn't have gone through with her threat because, seated in the passenger's seat, she would have come off the worst. However, she wasn't able to assess things that calmly in the heat of the moment.

Eventually, Kashiwagi-san spotted a gas station close to the main road and pulled in. He stopped at a pump and let out a sigh of relief.

"Hi there, fill it up."

After opening the window and instructing the attendant on what to do, he turned to Sachiko-sama.

"Don't be so unreasonable, Sacchan."

"Isn't it your fault for not keeping your promise, Suguru-san?"

Sachiko-sama took her hand off the wheel. Her recalcitrance in not removing her hand before now was incredible.

"I'm sorry Yukichi. I hope you'll forgive my cowardice."

Kashiwagi-san switched off the engine then turned to face them in the back seat.

"Not at all. You've worked hard, sempai."

"So you understand?"

"I think that fight told the whole story."

"Yukichi!"

"Sempai!"

The two guys high-fived each other. Yumi looked on questioningly.

"Quit your grumbling. Now, let's swap seats."

Sachiko-sama unfastened her seat belt.

"Huh? Swap seats?"

Yumi's twin ponytails bounced around. That's right, Sachiko-sama had said earlier that they would swap seats en-route. So that's what this was about. Sachiko-sama had been looking for a place to stop because she wanted to sit next to Yumi as soon as possible.

(Huh?)

But, why would there be a bad feeling about that? Why would Kashiwagi-san and Yuuki oppose it?

"Oh geez."

Kashiwagi-san unfastened his seat-belt too. Perhaps he was going to buy something from the gas stand. From memory her father would just open the window, hand over his credit card and that was it. As her mind was going in circles thinking about this, both Kashiwagi-san and Sachiko-sama got out of the car.

"Huh? What about you, Yuuki?"

Her younger brother wasn't moving at all, despite being told that they were swapping seats. Instead, he let out a small sigh.

"Say, Yumi. You have your moments of brilliance, but you're usually pretty slow."

"What?"

"You don't understand what she meant when she said swap seats, do you?"

"You two are swapping seats, right?"

Yumi crossed her fingers over, indicating that Yuuki and Sachiko-sama would be swapping.

"Nope."

"Huh? Then..."

Herself and Sachiko-sama swapping seats? That way Yuuki wouldn't have to move. But why would Sachiko-sama want her in the front seat?

"… There's one other combination."

"Huh?"

Well that was no help. Kashiwagi-san was the driver, so he couldn't change seats, and there was no other combination involving the front passenger seat swapping with someone in the back seat. The two people in the back could swap, but what would be the point of that?

(Oh.)

Hold on a minute – an alarm was sounding somewhere inside her head.

(So why did Kashiwagi-san get out of his seat?)

The seat he had been sitting in was special because only someone with a driver's license was allowed to sit there. Yumi could happily sit there while they were stationary at the gas stand, but there was no way she could take hold of the wheel and drive out onto a public road. Both legally and practically. Naturally, neither could Yuuki. And – .

"Ah."

Yumi suddenly had a flashback.

(How on earth!)

That had been her reaction when a driver's license was thrust in front of her. Back then, Satou Sei-sama was still a high school student.

"Huh!?"

No way. No way!

"Took you long enough."

Sachiko-sama gracefully sat down in front of Yumi just as Yuuki muttered this. In other words, the two people in the front had swapped seats and Sachiko-sama was now at the wheel.