Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume10 Chapter4

Signs of Rain

Part 1

On the Tuesday that Yoshino had unilaterally chosen for reconciliation, Rei-chan was absent from school.

According to Rei-chan's mother, she had a temperature late Monday night and while fever medicine had temporarily cooled her down, her condition worsened in the morning so she was having the day off.

On the trip home yesterday Rei-chan had been silent, like on the way to school, but she hadn't really looked sick. Maybe she'd spent so long in the bath thinking about things that she came down with a cold. How pathetic.

"Ah, maybe it's my fault … "

The student murmured, gathering her shoulder-length hair in her hands as she stood in front of her classroom.

Before school started, Yoshino made her way to the third-year plum classroom, having been asked by her aunt to tell them that Rei-chan would be having a two or three day break from the kendo club. And, having heard the details, it was club president Nojima's voice that said, "my fault."

"Umm, why would it be your fault?"

Yoshino asked, not understanding. As background, the club president's house was a long way away from Yoshino's, and in the conversation with her aunty neither the words 'club president' nor the name 'Nojima' were mentioned. How she could be connected to Rei-chan's illness was a complete unknown.

"Well, I called Rei-san last night."

As she said this, club president Nojima had a pained expression on her face.

"Ahh."

But even supposing they had talked for a long time, she wouldn't be responsible for the health of the person on the other end of the phone, right? As a high-school student, surely Rei-chan should be responsible for making sure she was wearing enough clothes that she didn't catch a cold.

"At first I was telling her about what happened during yesterday's club activities."

"Mmm."

Rei-chan had skipped out on those yesterday so that she could welcome Noriko-chan to the Rose Mansion.

"Then the conversation turned to you, Yoshino-chan."

"Huh!?"

"Rei-san knew that you wanted to join the club, but apparently she hadn't heard that you'd handed in an application form. So – "

You put your foot in it, club president.

"I'm sorry. I guess I messed up, right?"

Club president Nojima looked depressed, at a loss for what to do.

"… No."

They hadn't agreed to keep it secret, so Yoshino had no right to get mad at her. It was just unlucky, she thought. Yoshino had planned to come clean with Rei-chan this morning.

"Rei-san seemed to be quite shocked by it."

In that case, it was more like it was Yoshino's fault then the club president's – but, what? Rei-chan came down with a temperature because of shock? How pathetic.

The fire that had been extinguished within Yoshino's heart was once again starting to flare up.

What are you playing at, Rei-chan? – Yoshino balled her hand into a fist and glared in the direction of her house.

"Umm … Yoshino-chan?"

"Club president."

Yoshino spun around abruptly and faced the club president.

"Yes?"

The club president put herself on guard, as though unsure of what was about to happen. It was the inevitable response from someone who had been watching Yoshino for a while.

"Right or wrong, I'm going to join the kendo club."

"Okay?"

"So, I look forward to working with you."

Yoshino bowed extremely deeply then walked away from the third-year plum classroom, satisfied. With that decided, she had other arrangements she had to make elsewhere.

Left behind, the club president's exhausted muttering echoed down the corridor.

"… What just happened?"

The young lady with pigtails skipped away, then quickly turned a corner in the corridor.

Part 2

"I'll introduce you to the club member who's going to be guiding you from today."

Yoshino was taken aback when she saw who club president Nojima was introducing her to.

"Welcome aboard, Yoshino-san."

"… Tanuma Chisato."

Yoshino said her full name, without thinking. Of all people, her despised rival for the half-day date with Rei-chan. Also, the person from a somewhat sorrowful memory.

"Well, I'll leave the rest to you, Tanuma-san."

Then the club president left, leaving just the two of them at the edge of the dojo. Inside, the other club members had already started practicing their swings.

Wednesday, after school.

Yoshino's club application had involved the club president, club adviser, school nurse, school doctor and her own family doctor, and had even been raised as a topic for discussion at the staff meeting on Tuesday, but after much wrangling, in the end her application was provisionally accepted.

The relative speed with which it had all been resolved led Yoshino to believe that her "arrangements" had been effective. Although she called them arrangements, they weren't anything particularly grandiose. It just involved Yoshino going around to everyone, telling them about how she had wanted to do kendo ever since she was young, how she was so happy because after her surgery it felt like her dream was finally coming true, and that she promised not to worry anyone by overdoing it. That was all.

It may have been exaggerating things slightly, but it wasn't a lie. It was the results of the high spirits she was in about joining the club while Rei-chan had irresponsibly gone and gotten herself sick.

If someone in authority decided that there was an impediment to Yoshino continuing kendo, then she would abide by their decision. – That was one of the conditions attached to Yoshino joining the club. In other words, the moment someone said something like, "You're looking tired, so that's enough for today," or, "You don't look so well, take the day off," she had to hand over the shinai.

Yoshino thought it should be fine because her body was in good health, but she was slightly concerned that 'someone in authority' included a person by the name of 'Hasekura Rei.' Rei-chan had been given the power to snuff out her kendo life with a single word.

"Since when have you been in the kendo club?"

Yoshino asked Tanuma Chisato, while sneaking a glance at the ongoing practice.

"I joined at the end of first-year. That makes me your senior, just by a little. So it was quite an honor for me to be chosen as your guide."

At the end of first-year, so that could have been right after that date. Yoshino thought Chisato-san might have come to hate seeing Rei-chan's face, but apparently she was impudent and had a lot of nerve.

She'd boldly cut her shoulder-length hair, although not as short as Rei-chan's, and although it hurt Yoshino to admit this, it looked good on her. Much better than before – really, it was annoying how good she looked.

"Why do I need a guide?"

"You've joined midway through second-year. Not only are you inexperienced with kendo, but you haven't really done any strenuous exercise before, right?"

"Well, excuse me … So what?"

"Geez, just listen. When someone like that knocks on the door, you can't just give them a shinai straight away and let them have at it. So, first of all, we have to build up your core strength. You understand that much, right?"

The way she spoke rubbed Yoshino the wrong way, but Yoshino had been rude first, so she let it slide.

"Build my core strength? Doing what?"

"Stretching, weights, light running, that kind of thing."

So she'd be doing endless warm-up exercises during club practice. It looks like the first-years who'd joined as novices at the start of the year had been following this training regime and had only recently been allowed to wield the shinai.

"So, you mean, I'll have to do that all by myself?"

In the dojo, the practice swings continued. Mixed in amongst the sounds were the artless cries of those who'd apparently only just started kendo.

"That's why I'm with you as your guide. Don't whine, I went through all the same things when I joined without complaint. Now, let's get going."

While she wasn't wearing any kendo armor, she was in her gym clothes, and when someone in a track suit is told, "Let's get going," the only possible response is, "Okay." It was annoying that she was being guided by someone whose career was only a couple of months longer than her own, but Chisato-san wasn't someone she had to fight, so it would have been counterproductive to futilely cry about it.

"Yoshino-san. Your body is really stiff. Do some training at home before your bath, okay?"

Chisato-san spoke her mind as she pushed on Yoshino's back. But she wasn't wrong in what she said, so Yoshino couldn't object.

"Chisato-san."

"Yeah?"

"Ah, it's nothing."

Yoshino started to speak, then stopped. Although she'd called out, she didn't really know what she wanted to say.

"What's nothing?"

"Ah, can you go a bit easier on my back?"

"Like this?"

Chisato-san smiled as she pushed harder and harder on Yoshino's back. The back of her knees were stretched taut.

Back when Chisato-san had joined, who had been her guide? Yoshino was a bit bothered by this, but she didn't want Chisato-san to know, so she put all of her concentration into stretching forward.

(Rei-chan never said anything about Chisato-san.)

It wasn't a big deal, but it was bothering her.

After taking into account her suspicions, Yoshino vanquished the unworthy thought that Rei-chan was trying to keep her away from the kendo club because Chisato-san was there.

As if that would happen.

At the foundation of their relationship was trust.

The sound of the club president leading the younger girls reached her ears. It seemed incredibly strange to Yoshino that Rei-chan wasn't there.

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