Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume28 Chapter4 2

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Back when I was in kindergarten, there was a brief period of time when searching for four-leaf clovers was really popular amongst my friends.

Where did I first hear that finding a four-leaf clover would bring happiness? It was probably from one of my friends who had an older sister, or was friends with someone older, and wanted to sound grown-up.

At any rate, we became obsessed with counting the number of leaves on pieces of clover.

During our free time we'd head out, not sparing a single thought for the swings or other playground equipment.

Luckily, there was a section of the playground where clover grew wild. The teachers adored the cute, white flowers that blossomed in spring, but would prune back the grass that grew too fast in summer. Therefore, they didn't bother cautioning us kindergarteners when we plucked the pieces of clover.

Nonetheless, it wasn't that easy to find a four-leaf clover. One by one the kids lost interest in this game and left, until there were only two people remaining. Akemi-chan and myself.

Once I'd considered what would happen if Akemi-chan found a four-leaf clover after I had stopped, there was never any more question about stopping.

Eventually, we came up with some rules that we both followed. Every day we'd mark off a block of land, and search within that area. Usually the block was about 1 metre square.

"Which one do you want?"

Akemi-chan always allowed me to choose first. But I'd often have second thoughts immediately after making my choice.

"Ah, I guess I'll take this one."

Consequently, we'd often swap places. If Akemi-chan hadn't started searching, she'd let me swap places, saying, "What can you do?" But if she had already started searching, then she wouldn't let me change places with her.

"You can't do that, Mayu-chan."

She was softly spoken, but even as a child she understood the truth about things.

Then, one day, our game abruptly came to an end. Akemi-chan finally found a four-leaf clover.

I had chosen where to search on that day too.

I viewed that single stalk with its four petals that Akemi-chan grasped in her hand not only as reward for numerous days worth of effort but also as a certificate that promised future happiness.

I blamed myself for letting happiness slip away before my very eyes. I'd thought that if I had chosen the other location, I could have been the one smiling happily and holding aloft the four-leaf clover.

Once Akemi-chan had found one, my fever for four-leaf clover searching suddenly cooled. There probably wasn't just that one four-leaf clover amongst all the clover in the playground. If I had kept searching relentlessly, I too might have found one. But, short-sighted as it may have been, I stopped.

I convinced myself that the gentle Akemi-chan had found one because she was favored by God, whereas I was merely another one of the great mass of three-leaf clovers.

I resigned myself to my fate, abandoning any great expectations.

I'd grown up with my biased parents constantly telling me I was cute, but looking around I saw I was only average in appearance, and definitely not the type of person that grew up to be a beautiful woman.

So, naturally, when I entered into high school I wasn't looking to become the petit soeur of a Rose, or a bouton, or some other superstar like that.

Cognizant of my average grades and looks, and of my somewhat harsh personality, I was most pleased when a benevolent girl asked to become my onee-sama and so I accepted the rosary that was offered to me by my senior in the tennis club, Motoyama Sakae-sama. That was last year, in the first week of May.

My onee-sama was gentle and kind. Our relationship wasn't exciting, but I thought it worked out well, in its own way. After all, a school life that was the very picture of ordinariness was only fitting for a three-leaf clover like myself, and I was satisfied with it.

But then, one day in autumn, I heard some news that caused me to flip my way of thinking by a full 180 degrees. Fukuzawa Yumi-san, who I had always considered to be a three-leaf clover much like myself, had become the petit soeur of Rosa Chinensis en bouton, Ogasawara Sachiko-sama, who was admired just as much as Rei-sama. Yumi-san, a completely ordinary girl with no special features or traits.

However, slowly but steadily, Yumi-san started to change. Like the new leaves budding in spring, day by day Yumi matured and began to shine brightly. There was no way she could be called a three-leaf clover any more. At some point she had become a four-leaf clover.

That was when I had a realization. It had to be Sachiko-sama that was making Yumi-san shine. Sachiko-sama hadn't found a four-leaf clover amongst the three-leaf clovers, she possessed the magical ability to change the three-leaf clover she had accidentally found herself with into a four-leaf clover.

In that case, was there was someone out there who could turn me into a four-leaf clover too? There were plenty of other first-years that were also sparkling, they couldn't all be because of Sachiko-sama's power.

But it was too late for me. It might have been possible if I hadn't already received a rosary, but it had been six months since I'd become a petit soeur and there was no way I could tell my onee-sama, "I've made a mistake." The high-school pecking order was strict, even at the best of times.

Even so, there was a first-year student that had the audacity to pull off such a stunt. Rei-sama's petit soeur, Shimazu Yoshino.

The unprecedented act of a petit soeur casting aside her onee-sama, which came to be known as the "Yellow Rose Revolution," caused a shock amongst the student population and, for a time, it became popular for first-years to imitate Yoshino-san and return the rosary to their onee-samas.

At that time, I too said farewell to Sakae-sama.

"Why?"

Looking at the rosary I had removed from my neck, Sakae-sama had a completely bewildered expression on her face.

"I don't think I'm the right match for you, Sakae-sama."

"But I thought things were going along nicely."

"I'm terribly sorry."

"Oh. I see."

Sakae-sama didn't try to stop me. She simply accepted the rosary in silence, turned her back and walked away. She was probably thinking that at some point I'd regret what I had done and return to her.

Before too long the Yellow Rose Revolution boom came to an end. By and large, the followers once again imitated the originals, with the petit soeurs asking their onee-samas for a reconciliation. Despite this, I never made the request of Sakae-sama. If I had asked her, then I would have just ended up right where I started. Naturally, I quit the tennis club too.

And, after that, I started the search for my true onee-sama. When I found a second-year that interested me, I would proactively call out to her. Usually they would already have a petit soeur, but that didn't bother me. I believed they'd both be happier finding someone who fit them perfectly, rather than struggling to be near each other when they weren't fully compatible. Consequently, I approached them unashamedly. If we had similar hobbies, I'd meet them outside of school.

However, after we'd grown a bit closer, I would invariably start to feel a sense of discomfort. At first everything would seem fresh, but then I would realize that, just like Sakae-sama, this person couldn't make me shine either. So I'd go searching for the next one.

And if the previous person had split up with her petit soeur, there was nothing I could do about that. I never said, "Break up with your petit soeur," or "Make me your petit soeur." If a pair of soeurs break up just because a third person gets close to them, then they were probably always going to break up anyway.