Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume23 Chapter3

Stopping in Along the Way

Part 1

The second of January arrived.

Yumi left home with her shoulder bag stuffed with sleeping clothes, her toothbrush, and other such things on her right shoulder, and a paper bag containing a Maple Parlor tin of assorted cookies in her left hand.

In her usual clothes, jeans and a sweater with a duffel coat over the top. Her mother said she should take the opportunity to wear a kimono, but she was staying overnight. She wasn't qualified to wear anything that she couldn't put on by herself the following morning. Casual clothing was the highest priority.

9:30am.

She was heading out a bit early but there was a reason for that. She thought she'd stop in at a couple of places on the way to Sachiko-sama's house.

She took the bus to M Station where she transferred buses. Getting on the loop bus leaving from the south entrance that she usually took to school.

But she wasn't going to Lillian's Girls Academy today. She got off before there, at the bus stop in front of a Shinto shrine. It was the same route she'd taken with Satou Sei-sama on the second of January last year.

It wasn't like she'd become all sentimental about the graduated Sei-sama. And since Yumi didn't have her driver's license, obviously she hadn't parked her beloved car at the back of the shrine.

The reason for this?

A hatsumoude visit? Or to get a fortune?

No, no. She'd completed her hatsumoude visit at the shrine to Inari in her neighborhood, and she'd get discouraged if she drew "bad luck" as her fortune, so she passed on both.

"Let's do this."

After firing herself up, Yumi threw herself into the crowd of people in front of the food stalls. Calamari, okonomiyaki pancakes, octopus dumplings, grilled corn. She bought two servings of each and put them in a supermarket shopping bag she'd brought from home. In her mind, Yumi mocked herself for being an eco-friendly housewife.

She wanted to buy even more but unlike last year she didn't have a car to carry her straight to her destination. She'd reached the limit of what she could carry by herself. Additionally, it had been a bit more expensive than she'd expected, so it was a good place to stop. She'd spend all her New Year's money if she kept buying thoughtlessly.

Right. Her goal had been festival food. She could have bought some at her neighborhood shrine, but she thought it was better to get the same as Sei-sama had bought last year, so she'd made the trip out here. Basically, Yumi just wanted to see Sayako-oba-sama looking delighted.

She returned once more to M Station and this time she switched to a train. The carriage was surprisingly empty, so Yumi plopped down on a seat near the door, put half of her luggage on her lap and the other half in front of her shoes and let out a large sigh of relief.

The she finally looked forwards and spotted someone she knew sitting opposite her.

"Noriko-chan?"

"Ah, Yumi-sama."

Noriko-chan must have boarded the train ahead of her, and she picked up her belongings and moved to the seat next to Yumi. A jumper skirt showed beneath her short beige down coat, with a cute pair of charcoal gray tights peeking out beneath that.

"Gokigenyou. Oh, and happy new year."

"Yeah. Happy new year."

It would be foolish to ask something like, "Where are you going?" or "How come you're on this train?" There were both attending the Ogasawara's New Year's Party. They'd actually arranged to meet at the train station closest to Sachiko-sama's house but they'd run into each other a bit early.

"That's a lot of luggage you've got, Yumi-sama."

"Hahaha. The invitation said to bring your own, and I got a bit carried away."

Noriko-chan was traveling surprisingly lightly, perhaps because she was accustomed to taking small trips to view Buddhist statues. She had a bag one size smaller than Yumi's and a department store paper bag that looked like it contained pastries.

"I brought chocolates. They have something like marron glace inside. My gourmand great-aunt recommended them."

"Sounds good."

"They are!"

Noriko-chan agreed, full of confidence.

They didn't just sound tasty, they also sounded expensive. Whether consciously or not, they'd definitely raised the bar on the sort of gifts they were bringing to the Ogasawara family.

"I thought you and Shimako-san might have met up earlier, Noriko-chan."

"Ah, right. I went home for New Year's."

Yumi nodded, understanding. Noriko-chan's family lived a bit too far away for her to commute to Lillian's every day, so she stayed with her great-aunt.

The train moved onward accompanied by a gentle click-clack vibration. But she couldn't relax completely because she felt like she had to keep a tight grip on the handle of the plastic bag by her feet so that the calamari and grilled corn inside didn't come spilling out.

Click-clack. Whenever the train shook, the smell of scorched soy sauce came wafting out of the bag. Some distance away, an older lady in her Sunday best turned their way, saying, "I wonder what that smell is."

"Yumi-sama, um."

Click.

"Mm?"

Yumi was surprised by Noriko-chan's tone, which was completely different to her earlier, "They are!" so she looked to her side and saw Noriko-chan looking serious.

"Wh-what's the matter!?"

"I feel like I owe you a massive apology, Yumi-sama."

What? What?

Despite being a first-year, Noriko-chan was level headed. She rarely made a careless mistake. And yet Noriko-chan felt like she owed her an apology. A massive one at that.

"Did you do something to me?"

Since Yumi couldn't remember anything, all she could do was ask. They still had a bit of time left on the train. So this would be a detour on the way.

"Although I'm also sorry to be bringing this up again."

With that, Yumi immediately understood.

"Is this about Touko-chan?"

Noriko-chan nodded in agreement. There was only one thing that came to mind that she would be "sorry" for "bringing up again". The thing that Sachiko-sama had told her to "leave alone."

"But you didn't really have anything to do with what happened with Touko-chan – "

Noriko-chan shouldn't have felt responsible for Touko-chan's words and actions just because they were close friends. But Noriko-chan shook her head, indicating that she wasn't apologizing in Touko-chan's stead.

"I've always thought it would be good if Touko was your petit soeur – no, that's not right, I thought it would be good if you were Touko's onee-sama. But you never seemed to think much of her. Or rather, you were never conscious of her as a petit soeur. So I hated it when you innocently meddled in her affairs. … I'm sorry."

"I see."

That would have been why Noriko-chan flared up unexpectedly when they asked her to invite Touko-chan and Kanako-chan to the Christmas party.

"But you were giving serious consideration to her. And yet, that Touko."

"Having the offer of soeurship turned down is neither a good thing nor a bad thing."

Although it had been quite a shock when she was rejected. But that was unavoidable. There was no blame, like a school that didn't admit students who failed their entrance exam, or a company that canceled a contract when their terms weren't met, or a lover who turned down a proposal. It was like that.

"But."

Noriko-chan mumbled.

"I don't think it's good to hide your own feelings."

There was an unshakeable self-belief there. As a result, Yumi felt a little bit braver.

"So you're saying that you don't think Touko-chan hates me?"

"Yes."

Of course. It was kind of reassuring.

"Then I must have made some kind of mistake."

Yumi said, as though to herself.

"A mistake?"

"Like with the timing, or the location, or her feelings, or how I asked her … that sort of thing."

She looked out the window to see where they were, but the glass had clouded over so she could only faintly make out the scenery outside.

Part 2

They stood around chatting by the ticket gate of the train station that they'd arranged to meet at, and after about five minutes Shimako-san arrived.

"I'm sorry. Did I make you wait?"

"No, we got here a bit too early."

There was still more than ten minutes until their arranged meeting time of 11:30. But Shimako-san seemed to get a bit flustered when she saw them already standing together. She walked out of the ticket gate accompanied by the pitter-patter sound of zouri sandals.

That's right. Shimako-san was wearing a kimono. It wasn't an extravagant long-sleeved affair, but neither was it just a wool ensemble. It could be said to sit right in the middle of those two extremes. Although she was wearing some sort of coat over the top so they could only see the collar and from the waist down.

"Is that a komon kimono?"

"Yes. You're quite knowledgeable about kimonos."

"No, no, it was just a lucky guess."

In truth, Yumi had stopped adding to her knowledge of kimonos one year ago, but she'd opened that rarely used drawer and it seemed like the same sort of kimono that Sachiko-sama had worn during New Year's last year, so she thought she'd ask. The kimono had a small floral pattern across it. As for the color, she could see gray and pink and green. But just by wearing the kimono, Shimako-san was saying that she'd be able to put it on by herself. Impressive.

"So, then, do you have a yukata to sleep in, by any chance?"

Yumi asked, pointing at her tote bag, but Shimako-san laughed.

"Sadly, no, just pajamas."

At that point, Yumi caught a glimpse of Noriko-chan smiling warmly and watching over their conversation out of the corner of her eye.

"Ah, sorry. I jumped straight into conversation without the greeting."

"Not at all, I didn't mean to rush you."

So with that, the three offered their greetings together.

"Happy New Year."

Let's look after each other this year too. After bowing their heads and exchanging greetings, Yumi noticed an unsteady atmosphere between the White Rose soeurs.

"Is this, perhaps, the first time you've met this year … ?"

"Yes. What about it?"

That's right. Noriko-chan said she'd been spending New Year's with her family and had come straight here.

"Sorry, I didn't realize. I'll leave you alone for a bit, so take your time – "

She quickly picked up her bags and turned around but then Shimako-san grabbed her upper arm and said, "Oh Yumi-san, there's no need for that."

"What, even after all this time, are you looking out for us?"

"But, well."

It was the first time the soeurs had met this year, wasn't she just a third-wheel?

"If you're going to do that, wouldn't we also have to hide somewhere when we arrived at Sachiko-sama's house?"

In theory, that would be right. But those two hadn't been soeurs all that long … not all that long … then Yumi counted it out on her fingers and corrected herself. It had been six months already. They couldn't be called veterans, but their relationship was probably in its prime. Because of that, she decided to stop fussing over them too much.

"What were Rei-sama and Yoshino-san doing?"

Shimako-san asked, looking around restlessly.

"I asked them just in case, but they said they'd go straight there."

Coming from their house, they'd have to take a detour to get to this train station.

"It's just the three of us then?"

"That's right."

Since they'd all arrived, they decided to leave the train station even though it was a bit earlier than planned.

It was about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from the train station to Sachiko-sama's house. About three bus stops. They could take a bus from outside the train station, but the bus stop was a fair way from Sachiko-sama's house, so they'd still have to walk some distance.

"What should we do?"

"You've visited her a couple of times before, right Yumi-san? Which way did you go then?"

"Every time I've been to her house, someone's driven me there."

"Huh, so it's like your first time going to her house too?"

A palpable sense of "Are we going to be okay?" was radiating from Noriko-chan. But Yumi had been instructed by her onee-sama to safely escort the first-timers, so there was no way she could say something like, "I'm not sure."

"Hey. Well, she did fax me a map. Huh, which way is which?"

Yumi unfolded the map and was rotating it around when Noriko-chan said, "Pardon me," and relieved her of it.

"The station's here and north is up, so it should go this way around. So with that, this street's that one over there, so I guess we should go straight ahead for now. As long as we're heading in the right direction, we can revise our route at any cross streets on the way."

There was a reason behind Noriko-chan's unsure words. The map she'd been sent was rather vague … and after walking for a while they were still in a residential area, with no sight of the shopping district or large building landmarks that were on the map.

Well, even so, Sachiko-sama's house wasn't just a building, but a plot of land large enough to be a public park, so they'd know when they were alongside it. The other people living in their neighborhood probably used the Ogasawara estate as a landmark.

"Ah. There's a hill over there. We must be on the right track after all."

Hanging from the hand of their advance guard Noriko-chan was the bag of festival food Yumi bought. Noriko-chan was in unusually high spirits and took the lead, either because she was the only first-year, or because the two second-years weren't being all that energetic.

"Quite a reliable petit soeur you've got."

"Yes, she is, isn't she?"

Like pensioners watching over some young people, they chatted as they slowly walked. Ahead of them, Noriko-chan would sometimes go down a wrong path before doubling back, so their slow pace worked out quite nicely.

The street they were walking along was like an esplanade, with trees growing along the side. All the gardens were overflowing with evergreen trees too, so it was quite pretty.

"Will your family be alright today?"

Yumi asked Shimako-san. She seemed to remember hearing from Shimako-san's onee-sama, Satou Sei-sama, that Shimako-san helped out her family at New Year's and other such times. Although now she knew that this was because Shimako-san's family ran a temple.

"Yes. People are coming to help from outside, so my dad urged me to go, saying they'd be fine without me."

"Your father's really down-to-earth."

In truth, Yumi had only seen Shimako-san's father twice. The first time he was running on the school's track wearing a monk's stole. The second time he looked like he'd stepped out of a yakuza film and was buying oden soup and frankfurters. He was a cheerful and mischievous Buddhist monk and Yumi probably wouldn't have realized he was Shimako-san's father if she hadn't been told.

"My dad seemed to be relieved that I was spending time with my friends, like a normal young girl. On top of that, my older brother's back home now, which is quite unusual. Whenever I'm around they try their hardest not to argue, so I guess this is good timing?"

"Your brother's home?"

Yumi had only found out that Shimako-san had an older brother about a week ago. Since she'd thought Shimako-san was an only child, she didn't really get what she meant by "back home." And the "quite unusual" remark made him seem like some kind of wanderer, like Tora-san from the Otoko wa Tsurai yo film series.

"So I've brought some manjuu buns my brother made."

Shimako-san held up the parcel wrapped in furoshiki cloth that she was holding in one hand, her other holding her tote bag. Indeed, Yumi had been wondering what was in there for some time now.

"Manjuu buns? Your brother made them?"

"Yes. I thought he specialized in western sweets, but he seems to be trying his hand at traditional Japanese sweets too."

Since this was the first Yumi had heard of him specializing in western sweets, her shock hadn't been at him making Japanese confectionery. She'd thought he must have been a Buddhist priest, since she'd heard there was some disagreement about whether or not he would inherit the temple. But he was actually a patissier. No, perhaps a former patissier now turned Japanese confectionery maker. Shimako-san's home life had always been something of an enigma, but it just kept getting more and more mysterious.

"Ah, I've found Itou-san. Suzuki-san should be next."

Noriko-chan happily reported from her position ahead of them, having checked out the house nameplates.

Sachiko-sama had been looking out for them, and wrote the surnames of the people that owned the houses on the street corners on her map. Still, neither of those names were all that unusual, so they couldn't rule out the possibility of there being several houses with those names in the area.

They arrived at Suzuki-san's house before long and turned onto a street that Yumi vaguely remembered.

"It's probably just along here."

Yumi called out, pointing up ahead.

Soon enough, the tall and long wall appeared. There was no mistaking it.

The gate to the Ogasawara house was along that straight line.

She broke into a jog, overtaking Noriko-chan.

Behind her, Noriko-chan remarked to Shimako-san that she was like a lost dog that wandered around and then suddenly sped up and started running when it was near home.

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