Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume13 Chapter4 4

Gathering Material with Dustpan and Broom. Part 4.

She typed the address into the browser then pressed enter and before long the front page appeared.

"Hohoho, "Takuya-kun's Buddhist Shrine," huh … Just the sort of name you'd expect from an admirer of Buddhist statues."

The background was a photoshopped image showing various Buddhist statues praying towards an old, temple-like Japanese house.

Mami clicked on the "Self-Introduction" link first.

I'm Shimura Takuya (my real name) – a resident of Tokyo and single. I'm currently a fourth-year student at a private university. My hobbies are obviously viewing Buddhist statues, but also skiing※ and aikido.

This was all information that she'd heard from her onee-sama.

Thinking that there would be anything new here, Mami went to click on the "Back" button, but just as she was about to move the mouse she noticed the ※ symbol next to his hobbies.

When she moved the mouse over it, a pop-up appeared with "Early this year, I broke my leg skiing. Because of that, I missed out on seeing the Tamamushi Kannon, which is only shown once every twenty years. If another such incident occurs that interferes with my appreciation of Buddhist statues, I'll have to seriously consider dropping this hobby."

Apparently Takuya-kun would stop skiing on account of the Buddhist statues.

Mami had no particular interest in Buddhist statues, so she let out a small sigh as she wondered if it was really okay to revere them that much. She thought that skiing would be more popular with the ladies.

"Ah, but I suppose there are some weird girls like Nijou Noriko-chan who like Buddhist statues too."

The world worked surprisingly well.

That was why, after dinner, Mami was accessing the pages on Takuya-kun's site, just like her onee-sama had ordered.

But as she went from page to page, even though she'd expected it, she was amazed by how fixated he was on Buddhist statutes.

Photos of Buddhist statues taken from all different angles, like they were idols.

The History of Buddhist Statues.

Buddhist Statue Trivia.

Buddhist Statue Classifications.

Buddhist Statue Q&A.

Buddhist Statue Appreciation Reports.

Favorite Buddhist Statues. – etc, etc.

It even had a forum that was called the "Mandala Forum." She had a look around there, but she had no idea what they were talking about because they were all using terminology too technical for a beginner. At any rate, she was an amateur who only knew the great Buddha statues of Nara and Kamakura and the statue of Asura.

Completely dispirited, she was just about to leave Takuya-kun's Buddhist shrine when she noticed a small rectangular button in the corner of the page.

"…"

On closer inspection, the rectangular button looked like a tatami mat. Written alongside it were the words "Kounoshin's six tatami mat room."

"Who's Kounoshin?"

Takuya-kun's website was devoted almost entirely to Buddhist statues, so she'd initially thought that "Kounoshin" was the name of a statue. But then Mami's curiosity was aroused by the "six tatami mat room" attached to the name and she clicked the button.

The new page was completely unrelated to Buddhist statues.

The first thing she did was look around for the information she was most interested in.

Shimuka Kounoshin, relative of Takuya, two generations removed. We've had neighboring rooms since moving in three years ago. At first glance, we're a happy multi-generational family, but even today the cross-generational battle between Takuya and Kounoshin rages on beneath the surface.

"Umm. The parents are one generation removed, so two generations is the gap between grandparents and grandchildren. Takuya-kun's single, so he wouldn't have any children. Since he doesn't have children, he can't have grandchildren. Which means that Kounoushin-san would be Takuya-kun's grandfather. Still, addressing his grandfather without an honorific … what a presumptuous grandchild."

With four in the family, it meant that Takuya-kun had no siblings, so perhaps he was treating his grandfather like a brother. Mami remembered that some of her classmates treated their grandmothers as more of a friend than a grandparent.

Despite Kounoshin-san's name being attached to the "Kounoshin's Six Tatami Mat Room" section, the pages were still maintained by Takuya-kun. It mainly consisted of blog entries about his rival, Kounoshin-san.

Today Kounoshin borrowed another shirt from my dresser without permission. Traffic-light colored shirts, ie. red, yellow and green, don't go well with his old-fashioned topknot haircut. I think he should consider his age more. I thought he was my rival, but maybe he looks up to me a little?

I couldn't concentrate on my studies because of the annoying sounds leaking out of Kounoshin's room. It would have been fine if it was something flowing like classical music or jazz, but an old comedy recording? The words injected themselves straight into my brain. There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it. When I complained about it, he said I should respect his hobby because we both liked old-fashioned things. Hey, don't put Buddhist statues on the same level as comedy!

My hair was getting a bit long so I went to my regular hairdresser and who should I see there but Kounoshin? I thought that topknots would have been a barber's domain. When had he switched faiths? He didn't notice me entering the store because he was busy getting his beard dyed. Does he think he can find a woman by dressing smartly? … Impossible. He can try to spruce up the outside, but the years are still there.

These bits of gossip about Kounoshin-san were far more interesting to Mami than the vast stock of information about Buddhist statues.

And Takuya-kun, despite the completely objective manner in which he wrote about Buddhist statues, why did his writing become so emotional when it came to Kounoshin-san?

"In the end, isn't Takuya-kun a bit too concerned with Kounoshin-san?"

After reading the entire batch, Mami disconnected the phone-line, unaware of the smile on her face. Thanks to Kounoshin-san, she felt like she was a little bit closer to Takuya-kun.

Shimura Takuya.

At some point, Mami had become interested in him beyond just his status as "the guy that Nijou Noriko-san is dating."

There was a decent chance that she'd run into him tomorrow. Mami was trembling with excitement thinking about that.

What kind of a guy was he?

"Shimura Takuya … "

She was warming to tomorrow's event.