Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume10 Chapter2 4

Raindrop. Part 4

Shimako looked up at the sky through one of the windows on the second-floor of the Rose Mansion.

Even though Friday had arrived, sunny days had still not reached her heart. The clouds gathering inside her heart were still increasing, weighing her down. Like the clouds that covered the skies just before the rainy season, it seemed as though they would remain there forever.

If the clouds were removed, would the sky really be clear and blue like Maria-sama's soul? Even though the sun should still be out, it was so dark it seemed like evening. It felt like rain would come pouring down at any moment.

"Shimako-san."

From behind, Noriko called out her name, as though finding fault with her surreptitious sigh. School was over for the day and Noriko had been asked to help out because Rei-sama and Yoshino-san weren't able to come today.

They had already started preparing for the school festival.

While there was a separate executive committee for the festival, there was still a significant amount of work that the student council had to do.

At the moment they were still doing very preliminary work, like making photocopies and taking surveys, but it was inevitable that the amount of work would steadily increase from here on. So the more people they had helping, the better.

"Yes?"

Shimako asked Noriko, after slowly turning around.

"I've poured some tea, so…"

"Ah, thank-you."

Shimako made her way from the window to where the teacup was placed on the table. The only sounds reverberating through the room were the faint shuffle of her shoes across the floor and the sound of steam whistling out of the kettle.

All was quiet.

Sachiko-sama and Yumi-san, Noriko and then Shimako.

Having reached a natural break in their work, it was so silent it was hard to believe that there were four people in the Rose Mansion.

"Noriko-chan."

Sachiko-sama suddenly spoke while fiddling with her long, black hair.

"Do you think you can do something about your use of 'Shimako-san'?"

"Huh?"

Noriko asked, confused. Shimako immediately became flustered.

"It's customary to use the honorific '-sama' when speaking to an elder. It doesn't matter what you call her outside school, but while at school you should refer to her as Shimako-sama, or Rosa Gigantea."

"Ah, okay."

"I mean, honestly, these are the sort of things that Shimako should be teaching you. The last few generations of Rosa Gigantea may have favored the laissez-faire approach, but it's only going to be Noriko-chan that's embarrassed in the end."

Shimako could not respond to this. What Sachiko-sama was saying was an accurate statement of fact.

Sachiko-sama had probably been bothered by it since the beginning. She must have been watching and waiting for it to be corrected, but then seeing that nothing was changing despite her lengthy wait, she finally became unable to endure it any longer and spoke out.

It had been Shimako's mistake not to address it earlier.

Having been involved in her school's student council during middle-school, Noriko was able to handle the business side practically flawlessly. Perhaps as a result of living apart from her parents, she was very level-headed and able to give this work proper attention. Which was why Shimako had been unprepared. Relieved that Noriko had been able to handle the work easily, Shimako hadn't paid attention to the minor details.

Additionally, she'd been caught up in the troubles of her own heart.

"My apologies."

Shimako bowed her head. With that, she expected the conversation to be settled. However.

"Umm, it's fine that you correct me, but isn't spreading the fire to Shimako-san … ah, Shimako-sama, a bit strange. After all, it's not as though Shimako-sama's my onee-sama or anything."

Noriko indignantly protested as she stood up from her chair.

"Noriko."

Shimako hurriedly stood up, intending to caution Noriko, but Sachiko-sama held her hand up, with her palm facing Shimako, commanding her to stop.

"Even if you are not soeurs, it is the responsibility of the older students to guide those younger students without an onee-sama. You two are quite close, no? Even though you're not soeur, it would be proper for Shimako to correct you."

Having expected it to end with a simple caution, Noriko's unexpected rebuttal seemed to have fired up Sachiko-sama.

"Noriko-chan."

As though looking to regain her composure, Sachiko-sama elegantly rose and step forward, lightly touching Noriko on the shoulder.

"If you don't want to be corrected by a large number of nameless older students, you should quickly find an onee-sama."

"That's none of your business."

Noriko rolled her shoulders violently, shaking off Sachiko-sama's beautiful, pale fingers.

"None of my business, you say."

With Noriko biting back, Sachiko-sama's pride as an older student meant she couldn't walk away from this. Once again, Noriko had failed to understand the ways of Lillian's, since she'd come from another school. The situation was getting more and more complicated.

Yumi-san was looking flustered too. If there was one person best suited to straightening this out, it would be Rei-sama, but unfortunately she wasn't there at the moment.

"One moment, Shimako. Don't remain silent, you should be reprimanding her too. This clueless first-year."

"Ah."

Shimako froze up when Sachiko-sama unexpectedly turned to her. – She should be reprimanding Noriko?

"As I said before, why are you including Shimako-san in this? Rosa Chinensis."

"Oh, again with the 'Shimako-san.' Noriko-chan."

"In the middle of an argument is not the time to be finding fault with someone."

"This isn't an argument. I'm guiding a younger student. Are you trying to say you're on the same level as a third-year, when you're just a first-year student?"

Sachiko-sama called out hysterically. However, Noriko would not back down.

"Just a first-year? At most, there's only two years difference in our ages."

"A two year difference in school is huge."

"I'm against seniority based on time served!"

Their voices raised as their faces closed in on each other, as though they were about to start snapping at each other.

"Just stop already!"

Unable to watch any longer, Shimako forced herself between them.

"Stop … ?"

Sachiko-sama slowly shifted her gaze from Noriko to Shimako.

"And suppose we stop, then what? Should we feign friendliness and sit around drinking tea like nothing happened? Since you've intervened, please, provide some mediation. Shimako, how are you going to resolve this situation around you?"

"That's – "

Shimako was lost for words. She was glad she intervened, but hadn't thought about what would happen next. It was true that just stopping the quarrel hadn't settled anything. It was the role of the person that intervened to bring both parties to an understanding.

But to do that, she would have to mediate fairly and impartially. It went without saying that she couldn't force them to compromise or come to an agreement. Shimako looked to be in no position to handle this difficult task.

So, instead, she bowed her head and said:

" … I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? Are you saying you're giving up on mediation?"

Shimako shook her head forcefully, indicating that wasn't the case. Well, while it wasn't completely wrong, she was apologizing for a different reason.

"It's because I think I'm in the wrong here. I haven't been acting responsibly. I've caused you and the others anxiety, Sachiko-sama, and I've imposed unreasonably on Noriko."

As Shimako had thought, it had been a mistake to bring Noriko to the Rose Mansion. Her crime was that she had gone along with the flow, despite having a premonition that it would end like this.

Nonetheless, in the beginning, Shimako had held out a hope that it might go well. That despite living in this artificially constructed papier-mache world of feigned friendliness from both sides, as time went by those smiles might become genuine and the eyes shine too.

But, like a hastily constructed papier-mache object, it wasn't unusual that cracks would start to appear over time. Those cracks were probably a sign that it was about to crumble.

"That's true, I suppose."

Sachiko-sama coldly agreed.

"And?"

"And … what?"

"Right. And? Are you simply admitting your recognition of your own error? What are we supposed to do with that? Simply reflecting on this is insufficient, no? How are you going to act responsibly from here on, how will you avoid worrying us, how will you avoid imposing unreasonably on Noriko-chan, won't you provide clarification on these points?"

" – Clarification."

Sachiko-sama's demand seemed much more difficult than reciting some complicated mathematical formula. What was she going to do to avoid troubling everyone? If she knew the answer to that, she wouldn't be trapped in the current situation.

"There are many ways of handling this, right? As an extreme example, if you cut yourself off from either us or Noriko-chan, that would resolve matters."

"Cut myself off from one of you … ?"

"Or, to put it another way, you could choose one side."

Her friends in the Yamayurikai, or Noriko – that would indeed settle things once and for all.

If Shimako wasn't Rosa Gigantea, then there would be no pressure to choose a soeur, and she would probably have a comfortable school life with Noriko. That's what it would mean to choose Noriko.

On the other hand, if she chose the Yamayurikai, then things would revert to how they were before Noriko entered the school. The two Roses and two boutons would gently ensconce her as they had thus far.

However.

Shimako looked first at Noriko, then shifted her gaze to Sachiko-sama and Yumi-san.

"What is it, Shimako?"

Shimako knew that choosing one of them would settle the matter. But if she didn't choose one, what was the best thing to do?

"I'm sorry."

Shimako ran away. Without choosing either, she slipped between both of them, and fled straight out the biscuit door.

"Shimako!"

"Shimako-san!"

The voices calling her to stop all mixed together. But her legs didn't stop.

The staircase creaked its complaint. Shimako ignored it as she ran down the stairs, then spilled out the front door.

Here and there, raindrops fell on her forehead and her cheeks. But still her legs didn't stop.

If she stopped running, the problem would catch her.

Shimako didn't want to lose either of them.