Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume14 Chapter3 3

Setting Aside the "Bread Incident." Part 3

Even though they were standing on the mat, they didn't complete the task of wiping clean their indoor shoes. That was because they weren't going into the school building.

"The clubhouse … "

Yumi mumbled, looking up at the two-story building behind the school block.

"Yeah. She's probably there."

Tsutako-san answered, full of confidence.

"You mean Mami-san?"

"Indeed. She said the manuscript for tomorrow's Lillian Kawaraban wasn't quite finished yet, so she'll probably be in the club room staring down the word processor. Her hair in a mess."

The clubhouse.

As the name suggested, the building was comprised of club rooms. But that didn't mean that every club had a room in this building. Various clubs used something other than a club room, for instance, the sports clubs used the gymnasium or martial arts building or sports fields as appropriate, the arts club used the arts room, the calligraphy club used the calligraphy room, the chemistry and science clubs used the science rooms, and the handicrafts club used the sewing room. So the clubs that lived here were those whose activities didn't require a special classroom, such as the Go club, the literary club, the manga research club, the photography club that Tsutako-san belonged to, and the newspaper club, which published the school's newspaper, "Lillian Kawaraban."

That said, the club rooms weren't particularly large, so a lot of clubs used a classroom for their after-school activities and the club room was just used as a storage area. The newspaper club, however, made maximum use of their club room for their club activities.

Now then, into the building and up to the second-floor.

Even without looking at the name plates, she could tell which room was the newspaper club's, because of the sound of someone furiously tapping away on a keyboard leaking out into the hallway.

Tsutako-san knocked, then opened the door before the reply came from inside.

"Gokigenyou, Mami-san."

"… Tsutako-san."

Mami-san was alone in the club room. Her hair wasn't disheveled, but that's because she was wearing a headband, and she looked at them with a ferocious expression.

"And Yumi-san who hardly ever comes to the clubhouse … what led to this curious turn of events? What are you scheming?"

Mami-san looked appropriately fatigued.

"We've brought supplies to show our support. You start craving sweets when you're thinking hard, right?"

Perhaps used to seeing her classmate like this, Tsutako-san steadily advanced into the club room. Not wanting to be left standing outside in the corridor alone, Yumi said, "Pardon my intrusion," and stepped inside.

"A jam bun?"

Mami-san's expression softened slightly when she saw what was being offered.

"Or there's a choc cornet and an almond danish. Take whichever one you'd prefer."

Tsutako-san was acting as though they were all hers as she encouraged Mami-san to take one, but Mami-san looked at Yumi suspiciously and quietly asked:

"But thankfully they're all sweets. Were these Yumi-san's request?"

"That's about right."

They were all Kanako-chan's selection.

"So what did you want me to do?"

Mami-san asked as she reached out for the jam bun, which looked the sweetest. So she hadn't believed they were just showing their support after all. Although since they'd brought these as bribes, her impression wasn't exactly wrong.

"Yumi-san was involved in a bit of a mix-up just now."

Tsutako-san sat down and spoke in a bored tone of voice as she opened the wrapping of the almond danish. She glanced at Yumi as though to say, "Just watch," so Yumi silently watched on and let Tsutako-san handle it. With that, she pulled over a chair and sat down.

"It was a bit conspicuous, so I'm sure you'll hear about it, but we came here to discuss if you could not write about it in the Lillian Kawaraban."

"What kind of mix-up?"

Mami-san raised her eyebrows.

"It was no big deal. A discussion about the price of something, whether it was a gift or not, that sort of thing."

"Hmm."

Mami-san didn't show much interest, apparently deciding that it was indeed no big deal. Thinking about it, the Lillian Kawaraban probably wouldn't run something like that anyway.

"I don't mind."

Negotiations complete. With that, Mami-san started eating the jam bun to give her tired brain some energy.

Yumi opened her small Tupperware container, in a hurry to start her lunch too. Unfortunately, the choc cornet didn't go particularly well with her side dishes of seaweed seasoned fried egg and tempura eggplant.

"Yumi-san. This isn't intended as a bargaining point, but is there anything happening with the Yamyurikai that we could write about?"

"Nope."

The immediate response.

"Weren't you typing away at something earlier, Mami-san?"

"I was just writing out a boring article for my own peace of mind. I don't want to write about something like a teacher's favorite saying."

Mami-san squeezed hard on her half-eaten jam bun. Hello, are you okay with the jam flying out of the bun?

"At least give me a hint about the Yamayurikai play."

"No can do."

If she'd said she didn't know what it was going to be, the Lillian Kawaraban probably would have run an article about that, that's how starved for material they looked. So she had to be careful not to let anything slip.

"Fair enough. Then, Yumi-san, do you have any plans to take a petit soeur anytime soon?"

"No, I don't."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, it's true."

" … Well, okay. Let's put that to one side for now. What about Yoshino-san?"

"I haven't heard anything."

Yumi expected Mami-san to respond with, "You haven't heard anything because there's no plans?" but she didn't venture to ask this.

"Shimako-san … ah, she's already got Noriko-chan as her petit soeur, hasn't she?"

Having finished eating, Mami-san crumpled up the bun's plastic wrapper and slumped over the keyboard. She'd apparently been craving material so badly that she'd forgotten the basic composition of the Rose families.

"Actually, about Noriko-chan."

Mami-san abruptly raised her head.

"Hm?"

"Yumi-san, do you know Takuya-kun?"

"He's Noriko-chan's friend, right? Another Buddhist statue admirer."

She'd never inquired into him but his name would occasionally pop up when Shimako-san and Noriko-chan were talking to each other.

"The meeting – "

"Meeting? With who? Takuya-kun?"

"Ah, forget it."

Mami-san gave a small shake of her head and aborted the conversation, but it seemed like she was thinking about something else. So, in contrast to the question, Yumi decided to give a proper response.

"I haven't met him, but I think Shimako-san has. I heard that Takuya-kun used to visit Shimako-san's house before he met Noriko-chan."

Shimako-san's household included a temple that was passed down through the generations. She'd heard that they also possessed an ancient statue of Buddha, so it was easy to imagine him becoming acquainted with Shimako-san's father in order to view it.

"But why do you ask?"

"No real reason. I was just wondering what sort of person he was."

Although it hadn't felt like she'd been asking for no real reason. It felt like there'd been something more meaningful behind it, as though she were looking for something.

"I didn't think the Lillian Kawaraban wrote about outsiders all that much."

"That's not what I had in mind… not now."

What had she meant by "not now?" It could mean it was something she was going to do in the future, or it could be something she'd thought about in the past but decided against. The meaning changed completely depending on whether it was the former or the latter.

"If you're interested, why don't you talk to Noriko-chan or Shimako-san directly? I heard them talking about inviting him to our school festival. As long as they agree, you should be fine writing an article about it."

"I told you, I've decided not to write about him now, alright."

"Ah, right."

So apparently it was the latter. But why did she get so agitated about it?

"But … okay. So Takuya-kun might be coming to the school festival."

Mami-san muttered with a far-away look in her eyes. Yumi thought that perhaps Mami-san also knew Takuya-kun, but she didn't venture to ask. She got the feeling that Mami-san would just deny it.

Just then, Yumi heard the sound of footsteps echoing along the second-floor club house corridor.

The footsteps stopped in front of the newspaper club's clubroom and the door was flung open.

"Mami-san! Huge scoop! Rosa Chinensis en bouton had a massive fight with a first-year petit soeur candidate in Milk Hall!"

The second-year newspaper club member that had rushed into the room got that far before she finally noticed Yumi and her eyes went wide in shock. But she'd probably rehearsed this countless times in order to convey the information as quickly as possible, and having said that much, she couldn't stop half-way through.

"They were stopped by the photography club's Takeshima Tsu…ta… "

"Yes, gokigenyou, I'm the photography club's Takeshima Tsutako."

Seeing not just Yumi but also Tsutako-san there, the newspaper club member trailed off and fell to her knees in the doorway, saying, "No way."

"The mix-up was with Hosokawa Kanako – "

Mami-san fixed her gaze on Tsutako-san. Since she already knew Kanako-chan's full name, it appeared they'd already marked her.

"Yep. The pastries were the cause. But you've already eaten yours Mami-san. You can't write a story about it any more."

"You tricked me."

"I did no such thing. I did what was in the best interests of the newspaper club."

Tsutako-san answered aloofly.

"In what way?"

Mami-san seemed to be annoyed by Tsutako-san's feigned innocence.

"If you fanned the flames saying she was a petit soeur candidate and it turned out to be wrong, it'd be a major embarrassment, wouldn't it?"

"You're saying it's wrong?"

"I don't know, why ask me?"

With that, Mami-san's gaze immediately slid from Tsutako-san to Yumi.

"Yumi-san."

"I haven't decided anything yet."

Yumi had already told her that she had no plans, but Mami-san must have forgotten that with all the confusion.

"Is she going to be your petit soeur or not?"

"Calm down, Mami-san."

A voice came to Yumi's aid as Mami-san towered over her.

It was neither Tsutako-san, nor Mami-san, nor even the newspaper club member that had arrived earlier. It was the voice of a fifth person.

"It seems Kanako-san won't be Rosa Chinensis en bouton's petit soeur."

The girl pushed past the exhausted looking club member by the doorway and moved to the center of the room.

"How do you know?"

Mami-san asked. Since she hadn't asked the girl who she was, she was probably another newspaper club member.

"I asked her myself."

"You asked her? You asked Hosokawa Kanako herself?"

"Yes."

Questioning revealed that the new arrival was a motivated rookie who'd joined the newspaper club because she admired the president, Tsukiyama Minako-sama, and the current chief editor, Yamaguchi Mami-san. Consequently, she spent a lot of her time gathering information so that she could run down a scoop and make it her own.

"I hit her with it directly, "Are you going to be Rosa Chinensis en bouton's petit soeur?""

"And, and?"

Mami-san urged her to continue but the rookie smiled indifferently.

"She tried to hide behind a smile. Like this."

"Wh-why'd she do that?"

"She said, "I don't have any such pedestrian ambition.""

"Pedestrian ambition?"

Mami-san was dumbfounded and Tsutako-san let out a whistle.

"So then I asked her, "What if Yumi-sama begged you to be her soeur?""

The rookie seemed to be holding back as she looked at Yumi. But when she was urged on with, "How did she respond to that?" her attitude reversed completely and she answered without restraint.

"She said she'd refuse."

"… She'd refuse."

Yumi repeated those unexpected words. Refusing meant that she didn't want to be her petit soeur.

Why'd she do that?

Even though they seemed to get along well. She had no plans to become her petit soeur.

For Kanako-chan, becoming Yumi's petit soeur was a pedestrian ambition. So much so that a conversation about it would only make her laugh.

"On top of that, when she found out I was a member of the newspaper club, she said I couldn't put that in an article."

The rookie reported in a business-like manner.

"She said you couldn't put it in an article?"

"Well, that was the gist of it. Her actual words were a bit more pointed."

It was apparently harsh enough that she was unwilling to repeat it. The image that Yumi held of Kanako-chan was rocked even more.

"How are you feeling? Shocked?"

Hearing Tsutako-san call out to her, Yumi raised her head.

"Shocked … ? No, I'm not really sure. I was just wondering, "What on earth is she thinking?""

"You're wondering what Miss Hosokawa Kanako is thinking?"

"Yeah."

Putting her thoughts into words.

"I wish I knew more about her."

Like what was Kanako-chan feeling?

What was she looking for from the person Fukuzawa Yumi?

Since she'd declared the soeur system to be "pedestrian," what then did she value? Those were the sort of questions Yumi wanted to ask her.

Even though she knew there were all sorts of people in the world and they all had their own points of view. It was hard to see those differing points of view from the outside.

"Hold on, Yumi-san."

Mami-san said, taking off her headband.

"How about you set aside the first-year who apparently doesn't want to be your soeur and think more about your poor classmate."

"Even if I did, it wouldn't help."

Unfortunately, Yumi had no material she could offer. Although she sympathized completely with the teary-eyed and shoulder-slumped Mami-san.

"Not much you can do about it, Yumi-san. But since Mami-san's at her wit's end and calling herself "your poor classmate," don't you think you should pitch in and help?"

Tsutako-san pulled out her camera and turned to Yumi.

"Pitch in?"

"Of course, it won't be for free, Mami-san. How about the cost of those three pastries we just ate?"

At first glance Tsutako-san looked like a meddler, but she also seemed to be taking a little, no, a lot of enjoyment out of this situation.