Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter3

Me and the Interviewer

Part 1.

For some reason, she had a bad feeling about things.

It's not something that could be put into words, but for the last two or three days she hadn't been able to calm down.

It was as though someone was watching her, or following her – that kind of sensation.

It could just be her imagination. Or maybe an evil spirit had attached itself to her. If it kept going for too long she'd have to have an exorcism performed, something that would make it leave.

"Mami, you can't sense anything?"

Tsukiyama Minako asked her petit soeur, who she had unexpectedly encountered in the hallway.

"Nope?"

Mami had a quick look around the area, then shrugged her shoulders.

"If you're talking about signs of life, then there's a lot of high school students scattered around all over the place – "

"That's not what I was talking about."

It wasn't long ago that the morning classes and home room had been completed. The halls of the high school buildings were filled with students going here and there.

"Are you sure you haven't caught a cold?"

Mami asked, putting her hand to Minako's forehead. Minako shook her off, saying 'Quit it.'

"Tomorrow's the graduation ceremony, you know. Why don't you go home and get some rest? Or maybe have a lie down in the infirmary?"

"Don't treat me like I'm some sick person. I will not be going home now, nor will I go to the infirmary."

"Oh? You have business to attend to?"

"… Pretty much."

During that pause, Minako thought she was being set-up for a one-liner from Mami, but nothing came. Instead she got:

"Well then, I'll give you this."

"A bread roll?"

What she was offered was a single bread roll in a thin paper bag.

"We were planning on having an editorial meeting this afternoon in the clubroom, right? So I bought you a bread roll from Milk Hall. Since the meeting was canceled, please go ahead and eat it. Or if you brought a lunch-box, I could go and fetch it for you."

"I didn't bring one. Anyway, why was the meeting canceled?"

"Hidemi had a sudden toothache."

"What a spoiled child. She's your petit soeur. It's just a toothache. If she had any willpower, she'd still be able to attend a meeting."

"Well, that's true."

Mami kept holding the paper bag by it's opening with her right hand, and folded her arms across her chest.

"If it was just Hidemi, then I'd be saying the same thing. But two others left with a stomachache and a headache, so I didn't press the matter."

Two others?

"They're not faking it?"

"Geeze, onee-sama. Don't you think you're being paranoid?"

"… I guess."

This is Lillian's Girls Academy. We are all children of our mother in heaven, Maria-sama. There would be no-one here who would feign an illness, or doubt people without any proof – Well, let's just set that aside for now.

But if that was true, then the newspaper club was full of sick people. More than Minako, it was her juniors that needed the school infirmary.

"They've all gone home to rest up, but I expect they will all be perfect for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. All of us are the Lillian's Girls Academy Newspaper Club and – "

"Yeah, yeah. I get it."

Mami usually offered up a good argument, but Minako wasn't in the mood to hear it, so she took the bread roll she had been offered. When she went to take out her purse, she was told 'It's a graduation gift.'

"Thank-you."

After saying this, Minako turned away from her petit soeur. Her graduation present was a single bread roll. More surprisingly, it was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Part 2.

And, as usual, the bread roll that Mami had given her was hot enough to bring tears to her eyes as well.

A spicy potato-salad sandwich.

Such an intense and unique item would never gain widespread popularity, but it always had a number of incredibly obsessive fans which meant its name had remained in the list of breads on sale for a very long time. They didn't keep a lot in stock, so it was rare to be able to buy one over the counter at Milk Hall. It was probably because they hadn't taken orders from the various classes today.

There were no classes this afternoon because of preparations that were being made for the graduation ceremony. About half of her classmates had gone home, and of the remainder about two-thirds had gone off somewhere leaving only a few people remaining in the classroom. Two of the groups had taken in people from other classes and were having a small party.

Seeing Minako eating her lunch alone, they had invited her to join them but she politely declined. She appreciated their kindness. But being the outsider in a group of close friends having a farewell party, she would either have been an intrusion or they would have gone out of their way to make her feel included. It was better that she remained by herself.

These … the previous Rosa Gigantea, Satou Sei, used to like these. Minako reminisced as she bit into the spicy potato salad sandwich.

Really, what had she become.

Keeping data on someone who had graduated a year ago. She should have erased that from her brain.

Minako didn't know what she would do with all the information she had gathered up to this point, like student's home phone numbers.

Certain student's blood types.

Birthdays.

Characteristics of how their school tie was knotted.

Minako had a mountain of this data that she would have no use for after she had graduated.

"Business to attend to, huh."

Mami had said this to her, but if she really did have something definite to attend to then she wouldn't have just been sitting around like she was.

And yet, somehow.

Right, somehow she found it hard to go home, so she stayed at school.

She didn't have anything she wanted to do. She just wanted to be here.

Even if Minako stayed back late, she couldn't work on the Lillian Kawaraban anymore. Despite this, without noticing it, she was still seeking out conversations that could be turned into articles. Thinking of eyeball-grabbing headlines. Her fingers were itching to be tapping away on the keyboard.

Having been so engrossed in the creation of the school newspaper, this must be the fade-out now that she was at the end. Tomorrow was the graduation ceremony, and there was no way one of the graduating students would be able to report on it for the graduation commemorative edition.

Even so, just being here like this wasn't too bad. Minako smiled wanly then stuffed her mouth with the remainder of the bread roll.

(Nevertheless)

That Mami was so thoughtless. She could have at least brought a milk coffee with the bread roll.

"… That's fine."

The taste definitely grew on you.

Of those spicy potato-salad sandwiches.

Return to Main Page

Back to Chapter 2

Forward to Chapter 4