Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume26 Chapter6 2

The Red Card's Outlook. Part 2

This card had the right color and size, and was undoubtedly the real one.

The definitive proof was the slightly larger plastic bag — with loose strips of tape still attached — that she was also holding aloft.

The card had been placed in a plastic covering, otherwise it may have been damaged when it was ripped off the wall.

So, all the promoters understood that Chisato-san had taken the plastic bag and card from the external wall of the staff room.

"Pardon me."

Even so, Mami-san took the card to confirm this, as a formality. She looked at the front, turned it over and looked at the back, then unfolded it and looked inside. Then she made a gesture as though she were adjusting a pair of glasses, even though she wasn't wearing any.

"This card is genuine."

She handed down her judgment.

The girls that had been watching on with bated breath let out a collective, "Oooh." For some reason, the voices seemed more happy than disappointed when compared to last time, perhaps because the earlier feint had drawn some of that away.

"Please state your grade, class, and name," Mami-san asked, even though she knew all that without having to ask. She was just doing it for form's sake.

"Second-year Chrysanthemum class, Tanuma Chisato."

Chisato-san presented her student ID card to Mami-san, who compared it to the entry slip signed by "Tanuma Chisato" that Noriko-chan handed to her, and then nodded her head.

"Tanuma Chisato-san. I acknowledge that you were the finder of the yellow card. Congratulations."

Mami-san held out her hand. Chisato-san gave her a firm handshake and said, "Thank you."

And then.

"I knew it. You found it, huh?" Rei-sama said, watching the proceedings with a conflicted expression.

"Oh, thanks for before."

Noticing Rei-sama's gaze, Chisato-san greeted her with a smile. It looked as though they'd run into each other somewhere earlier today.

"I wasn't sure if it was going to be found, but if it was, you were the only that could have done it, Chisato-chan."

"After you walked off, I looked to my right and there it was."

"Well, not much I could have done about that then."

"But I'd say about half of it was thanks to you, Rei-sama."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Rei-sama and Chisato-san got swept up in their own private conversation.

"Say, what's all this about?" Sachiko-sama asked. Unlike Yumi, who knew the card's hiding spot, she couldn't really understand how their meeting was related to the location of the card, or the significance of Chisato-san looking to her right. To the regular participants, it would all sound like gibberish.

"Chisato-san, we're going announce it at the post-event assembly, but if you don't mind, could you give everyone here a sneak peak? Where was the yellow card hidden?"

Mami-san proposed and Chisato-san happily agreed.

"Ah, sure. The card was. . . ."

Everyone's attention was centered on Chisato-san. Overwhelmed by the atmosphere, Yumi heard an imaginary drum-roll echoing in her head, despite knowing the answer already.

"Stuck to the staff room wall."

Hearing this, the students that had been waiting for the answer all exclaimed, "Wha~!?" The students that had been partaking in the Rose Mansion tea-party for the duration of the event pulled out their maps to check, while those that had spent some time outside searching didn't need to look at their maps.

"But the staff room is out of bounds!"

Scattered booing erupted around the room, since they weren't supposed to go searching in that place.

Yoshino-san had been silent for a while, but then she softly muttered, "The inside was."

At some point she'd sat down in an empty chair, and was looking at the commotion about the yellow card's discovery as though it was someone else's business, even though this sort of "foul-play" reaction was the only realistic outcome. But the way she was resting her chin in her hands and looking off into the distance seemed to indicate she wasn't in a particularly good mood. Presumably, she wasn't overjoyed about having her card found.

"The inside?"

"All she said was the staff room wall, that could mean a couple of things," Mami-san added, in place of Yoshino-san, who'd lapsed back into silence as though she were sulking.

She then continued her explanation over an unfolded map, by comparing rooms to boxes and saying that if the inside was out-of-bounds, the outside was in-bounds.

"So that means. . . ?"

"My apologies. To be more precise, it was on the staff room's external wall."

Chisato-san amended her statement.

"Wha~t!"

People tended to think of things at eye-height, so when they'd been told it was on the staff room wall their first impression was that it was on an internal wall, but when they heard that was wrong they seemed to assume it was on the wall facing the hallway.

The staff room was on the second floor. It would be hard to see for someone that wasn't four or five meters tall. It would probably be easier to spot at a distance from the school building, but, unfortunately, the narrow path to the adjacent library passed beneath the staff room window. So it would be hard to spot unless someone intentionally stopped in the middle of that path and looked up.

Yoshino-san had taken advantage of that blind-spot. She'd chosen that location because she wanted the participants to be annoyed, thinking, "But I passed under that so many times," and because she wanted to say, "The inside was," to those that objected by saying the staff room was out-of-bounds.

But Chisato-san had found it. And Rei-sama had let it go because she didn't have the right to pick it up.

The participants that had been booing had no choice but to accept Mami-san's explanation.

Now that the commotion had died down, the still sulking Yoshino-san stood up from her seat. With a sour look showing her obvious displeasure, she strode forwards. Instinctively, the other participants made a path in front of her. Finally, she came to a stop in front of the winner, Tanuma Chisato-san.

"Congratulations, Chisato-san."

Yoshino-san forced a smile.

"Two years in a row is quite impressive."

Holding that forced smile all the way to the end, her thoughts were probably along the lines of, "How could someone like you find it?" But she didn't say them out loud. Remarkably mature.

"Thank you. The hiding place was brilliant, and very fitting for you, Yoshino-san."

Chisato-san smiled. Unlike Yoshino-san, her smile was genuine.

"What do you mean by that?"

One of Yoshino-san's eyebrows twitched upwards.

"I said it was brilliant, and that's a compliment. Better off leaving it at that, don't you think?"

Chisato-san wasn't afraid of Yoshino-san. Instead, she seemed to relish provoking her and watching the reaction.

"You wanna fight?"

Yoshino-san didn't say this out loud, but Yumi didn't overlook her mouthing it. On second-thought, she decided to overlook it. To maintain the dignity of Lillian's students.

"By the way."

After taking a deep breath and recovering some of her composure, Yoshino-san put her fake smile back on and questioned Chisato-san.

"Are you aware that the bonus prize is a ticket for a half-day date with me?"

"Yeah."

Of course she'd be aware, she'd exercised that right last year.

"Then what do you think about going on a date with me?"

Yoshino-san dropped her fake smile and stared at Chisato-san. Apparently she thought that Chisato-san wouldn't have considered this, even though she was holding the winning card.

"Obviously," Chisato-san announced loudly. "I'm really looking forward to it."

She was even more of a warrior than anyone had expected.