Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume25 Chapter3 1

Arriving With a ProposalPart 1

After school on Monday.

It was surprisingly fast, but it came at last.

"Gokigenyou. Pardon my intrusion."

"Coming."

Unfortunately, Noriko-chan was still busy preparing tea, so Yoshino went to the first-floor to welcome their visitor and when she saw who it was she made a somewhat stupid sound.

"Wha?"

The person who'd shown up on the Rose Mansion doorstep holding a manilla folder filled with some documents was her classmate, Yamaguchi Mami-san.

"It's the newspaper club."

Yoshino already knew that. However.

"I thought you said we were going to do the student council interview tomorrow."

This morning, when they met. Right after, "Gokigenyou." She'd said, "We're going to do the interviews for the Lillian Kawaraban tomorrow after school, so can you keep that free?" Yoshino had been with her classmate Yumi-san, and they'd both heard it. There was no mistaking it.

"I did say that."

For reasons Yoshino couldn't understand, Mami-san puffed her chest out.

"Then what brings you to the Rose Mansion today?"

Yoshino had a bad feeling about this. This series of events reminded her of a certain someone who had been in the newspaper club before Mami-san became editor-in-chief.

"Now that the election's over, I thought it was time we started planning for the Valentine's Day event."

See, there it was.

"I haven't heard anything about that."

Although she had actually heard about it indirectly via Sachiko-sama. But that was an inconvenient fact, so she chose to ignore it.

"Well of course. I haven't spoken directly with you about it, Yoshino-san."

"Why haven't you?"

Even though they'd been studying in the same classroom day after day after day after day. It wasn't as though their classroom was split into separate cliques, with the opposing groups never having a chance to speak to each other. It was quite the opposite, with Mami-san being in the top ten people Yoshino got along with in her class, so it seemed like they should have discussed it.

But despite all that; Oh yes, but despite all that; Why did she not say? (a Haiku).

"How can I put this … for insurance?"

Mami-san stepped into the Rose Mansion and closed the door. She'd obviously decided she had to do this herself since Yoshino wasn't exactly inviting her in. It was currently late January. It went without saying that it was cold outside.

"What do you mean by that?"

Even so, instead of leading her to the room on the second-floor, Yoshino stepped in front of her and blocked her path. As expected, Mami-san looked stunned.

In truth, Yoshino had nothing against Mami-san personally. However, she did have a lot against the newspaper club.

But it wasn't like she wanted to get revenge for each and every incident that sprang to mind. For one thing, she didn't have the time, nor was she that stubborn. In the past, she hadn't even had the time to take notice of each and every one of them.

Basically, Yoshino had been in a bad mood recently. And Mami-san was just the unlucky victim of that, this time around.

How sad. Like, if she'd just shown up tomorrow, then Yoshino may have gone to meet her cheerfully – although that may only have lasted as long as the greeting.

"Well, by insurance, I mean like … "

Mami-san said.

"Remember last year, the boutons weren't very cooperative when my onee-sama proposed the Valentine's event."

"Sure, I remember that."

Yoshino agreed, thinking back to last year.

"So I thought about what might happen if this year's boutons had the same reaction, and I started coming up with countermeasures … pardon me."

Slipping past Yoshino, Mami-san reached the staircase.

"Countermeasures?"

Yoshino asked, chasing after Mami-san.

"Repeating the events of last year would be a waste of time, and kind of boring, don't you think? Although from our point of view, I can't think of a single reason not to be excited about such a dream-like plan."

Mami-san climbed the creaky staircase.

"Is everybody here?"

"We are, but."

Yoshino answered, and it was only when she reached the second floor that she finally realized.

"Ah! Today we have both Sachiko-sama and Rei-chan here as well. Is that your doing!?"

Mami-san grinned in response to this accusation.

"When did you become so underhanded, Mami-san? You're like Tsukiyama Minako-sama the second."

"Whatever could you mean? What's wrong with being like your onee-sama? First of all, I wouldn't have to do this if you'd just cooperate with the newspaper club. Since you'll be going along with the plan anyway, you should just happily get on board."

The question was, where did she get the confidence to make statements like, "You'll be going along with it anyway," and, "get on board?" Well, sure, last year the previous Roses had pressured the boutons, so they had no choice but to cooperate.

But Yoshino thought that it wouldn't be like that this year. Even if Yumi-san followed her onee-sama's order to participate, Shimako-san wasn't the type of person to use her authority over her petit soeur and Yoshino herself certainly wasn't afraid of Rei-chan. Even with the help of the current Roses, it shouldn't go the way the newspaper club was anticipating.

After climbing the stairs, Mami-san stopped and said to Yoshino, "After you."

"?"

"Surely it would be a complete loss of face for you if the visitor entered before the person sent to greet them."

"I never would have expected such consideration from you."

But, since she'd gone to the effort, Yoshino decided to enter the room first.

"Mami-san from the newspaper club has arrived."

Yoshino announced, opening the door.

"Oh, hi there."

"Do come in."

Sachiko-sama and Rei-chan acted as though their visitor was completely unexpected as they welcomed her.

(Even though they're only here today because they knew she was coming.)

In her mind, Yoshino complained about those sly old foxes. It was annoying how the two third-years had recently come to resemble their predecessors.

"Oh my, what's wrong, Yoshino-chan? Offer Mami-san a seat."

Wearing the guise of a princess, "sly old fox #1" acted unconcerned as she spoke.

"Well, fine. Come in, Mami-san, have a seat here."

If they were going to be foxes, she'd have to be a wolf.

"Thank-you kindly."

After Mami-san was seated, "sly old fox #2" called out to Noriko-chan.

"Another cup of tea, too."

If #1 was the princess, then #2 would be the bumbling prince. Well, the princess was a metaphor, she didn't actually take that form, so there was no need to cast everyone into the play.

Yoshino headed over to the sink to help Noriko-chan, but Yumi-san got there first and sidled over to Yoshino and whispered:

"Why's Mami-san here?"

"Planning for Valentine's."

Was all Yoshino had to say.

"Ahhh – "

Yumi-san loudly exclaimed. They'd discussed it once prior to the election, but Mami-san's arrival was just too reminiscent of Minako-sama last year.

"Okay? We mustn't lose, Yumi-san."

Yoshino kept her voice low as she gripped Yumi-san's hand tightly.

"Uh, okay … lose to who?"

The newspaper club … or, their onee-samas? Either? Or both?

"To anyone. At any rate, to yourself. You mustn't lose to yourself. As long as you fight, you'll win. Noriko-chan will be fine too."

Glancing over, Noriko-chan had finished adding the black tea leaves to the cup, and looked perplexed.

"I'm sorry, I don't really understand what you're saying."

"Basically, you don't have to do what the newspaper club and your onee-sama says."

Yoshino added water to the electric kettle and plugged it into the outlet.

"Ah."

"That's why … you'll be fine. Since you don't seem like you'll get discouraged easily."

Since she always spoke her mind, even to older students – and it was impossible to imagine Shimako-san looking scary and ordering her to do something in the first place.

As she added the hot water to the tea cup, Yoshino and Shimako-san's eyes met.

"What is it?"

Shimako-san's smile was as warm as ever. Rather than "What" it felt like "Wha~t."

"No, nothing."

It felt a bit sad to lump this angel in with the "sly old foxes" Sachiko-sama and Rei-chan. But, take care. Depending on which way she went, she could be either an enemy or an ally.

Shimako-san was a "Rose."

Yoshino had to be careful, to see which way Shimako-san lent.