Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume30 Chapter5 1

Some Kind of Combination. Part 1.

Yoshino-san emerged from the exit of the teacup ride and was almost carried by Rei-sama over to where Yumi and the rest were waiting.

"Don't worry about her. She's just woozy."

Rei-sama informed them, then escorted Yoshino-san away. Judging by the direction they were heading, they were probably going to the restroom.

"Let's leave this to Rei."

Sachiko-sama said.

Indeed, they wouldn't accomplish anything by all following after Yoshino-san, asking "Are you okay?" And that's probably the last thing the sick person wanted too. Yumi was incredibly worried about Yoshino-san, but chose to resist the temptation to chase after her.

"Rei-sama really was keeping a close eye on her, wasn't she."

Neither Tsutako-san nor Shouko-chan had noticed anything strange happening with Yoshino-san. It was only as they were leaving the ride, when they noticed Rei-sama wasn't with them, and they heard Yumi saying, "I wonder if she's okay," that they realized something was happening.

"A message."

Yuuki returned, a bit unsteady on his feet. His mind and body looked like they had taken severe damage from the double-punch of being spun to exhaustion on the teacups followed by Yoshino-san collapsing right in front of him.

"It is as follows: I won't be going on the roller-coaster today, so you should go ahead without me."

"Huh?"

"A message for you, from Yoshino-san."

"Ah, okay."

It wasn't really like they'd promised to go on the rides together, but apparently Yoshino-san's earlier invitation of, "Why don't we go on one of the rides? Come on, Yumi-san," was equivalent, in her mind, to a promise.

"Sounds good. Why don't you go and do that now, Yumi. Given how she was looking, Yoshino-chan probably won't be back for a while. The same applies to you too, Tsutako-san and Shouko-chan. I'll wait here, so if there's any other rides you want to go on, you might as well do that now."

The two photography club members excused themselves and left. Since they were heading towards the lake, it seemed unlikely that they were planning on riding the roller-coaster. As she watched them walk away, Yumi idly thought that Tsutako-san looked somehow different to normal. Although there probably wasn't anything wrong with her health, since she seemed to be enjoying herself immensely on the teacups with Shouko-chan and Rei-sama.

"Come on, you too Yumi. I'll look after your bags."

"But."

Yumi was still worried about Yoshino-san, and didn't want to leave her onee-sama either. However.

"That's an order."

Based on Sachiko-sama's tone of voice, Yumi knew she wouldn't tolerate any dissent.

"Okay."

Yumi left her bag with her onee-sama, taking only her handkerchief and her all-day pass.

"Well, shall we go?"

Kashiwagi-san lightheartedly offered his arm to her but Yumi chose not to acknowledge it, instead turning her back on him.

"Yuuki... I suppose this would be a bit too much for you."

"Sorry."

Earlier, her brother had been enthusiastic about going on the roller-coaster this time around, but now he remained seated on a nearby bench, looking on with a listless expression. Given how things had turned out with Yoshino-san and the teacup ride, it was fairly obvious that he was willing to call it a day at this point. It would be unfair to make him go on the roller-coaster after all of that.

"I'm heading off."

Yumi bid her onee-sama farewell, then turned towards the roller-coaster entrance. Kashiwagi-san once more offered her his arm, which Yumi completely ignored.

"You don't have to be shy."

"I'm not shy. It's just embarrassing, doing something so pretentious."

The amusement park was a dream country, a fairy-tale country, but it was still unmistakeably a part of Japan. It wasn't like a formal dance, where it was customary to link arms. There were some couples who had reluctantly given in to holding hands, but she and Kashiwagi-san were not a couple.

Kashiwagi-san didn't appear even slightly discouraged by Yumi's response, or her labeling of it as pretentious.

"I can't help it. I've been raised since birth to be a prince."

"Of the ginkgo-tree country," Yumi thought to herself.

A child looked at Kashiwagi-san, as though he were something unusual. Well, that was true. A gentleman walking along, leaning slightly, with his elbow jutting out.

"Yumi-chan, you've grown so much."

Kashiwagi-san said, maintaining his odd pose.

"The way you said that, it seems somehow wrong."

Yumi coldly rejected him.

She was under no illusion that Kashiwagi-san was especially interested in her, but it was uncomfortably similar to how Hikaru Genji saw the young Murasaki in 'The Tale of Genji.' Not understanding the subtle nuance, the person in question smiled and said, "Wrong, huh." In this way, his breeding and his looks made him incorrigible. Yumi increased her pace, leaving the prince behind. She didn't really care if she wasn't with Kashiwagi-san on the ride. She could ride the roller-coaster by herself.

Still, stride length counted for a lot, and Kashiwagi-san soon caught up and was walking alongside Yumi. He wasn't making that odd pose, so perhaps he'd given up on that.

"Is there something, specifically, you're trying to say?"

But it looked like he was still continuing on with their earlier conversation.

"Like before. Really, you wanted to stay with Sacchan and wait for Yoshino-san to return. But you put yourself in her position and decided to go on the roller-coaster."

"Sachiko-sama's position?"

Yumi had intended to ignore his remarks, but was unable to do so once her onee-sama's name had been brought up.

"Yoshino-chan was probably worried that you would forgo the attractions and just wait there for her. That's why she gave that message to Yuuki, to prevent that from happening."

"…"

"Last time around, Sacchan fell ill midway through your amusement park date, and had to retire. Robbing you of your fun time. This time around, the same thing happened to Yoshino-chan. And you responded in a way that would please Sacchan. Of course, that's how Yoshino-chan wanted you to act too."

Yumi hadn't actually thought about it all that deeply. She'd just been following her onee-sama's orders, which seemed the correct thing to do. But maybe that had been part of her motivation, and she hadn't tried to self-analyze.

"Not really. I just wanted to go on the roller-coaster."

Yumi lengthened her stride, trying to get away from Kashiwagi-san. If it was true, then it was annoying that Kashiwagi-san was able to articulate it.

"Ahh but I find that petulant, childish side of you so cute, Yumi-chan."

"Give me a break."

Was there something he wanted to say?

Could he be flirting? No, Kashiwagi-san was supposed to be gay. Wait, was it that, or did they say he was bi?

Either way, if that was supposed to be flirting, then Yumi thought it seemed rather forced.

"But there's no way of stopping you from maturing, Yumi-chan. It's sad, but I have to recognize that there's also some good things to come of it."

"Huh?"

Yumi was completely lost. She was fairly certain that he wasn't flirting, but it seemed awfully close. Seeing her confusion, Kashiwagi-san smirked slightly.

"Basically, you asked me if there was anything I wanted to say, and I want to express my gratitude to you, Yumi-chan."

"Gratitude?"

"About Touko."

Touko.

So that's it. It was easy to forget, but Kashiwagi-san was actually Touko's cousin.

"But I didn't – "

Do anything deserving of gratitude. They had become soeurs, but only because they both wanted it. So it wasn't something that Kashiwagi-san should be thanking her for.

"You did. I wasn't able to save her. But you subdued her wild spirit, and melted her stubborn heart."

When Kashiwagi-san was talking seriously about someone he cherished, his face looked like a rough sketch of a stone statue. The stone statue and the smug look, they both belonged to the same person but they seemed like different people, leaving Yumi confused about how to deal with him.

"Since she's become your petit soeur, Touko's heart seems to have settled. And I put that down to you having a steady heart, Yumi-chan, and holding onto her tightly."

"Settled?"

Yumi tilted her head in confusion. For some reason, that phrase got stuck in her head.

"… Ah."

That was it. It was the true shape of the 'solidness' that Sachiko-sama and Shimako-san had both mentioned a few days ago.

Settled.

Yumi wasn't too sure about this 'steady heart' business, so much as it could just have been that she wasn't on-edge recently. Which may have been why Sachiko-sama pushed against her behind the gymnasium.

"Did I, by chance, hit upon something with that phrase?"

Kashiwagi-san peered at her, smiling, the stone statue now completely hidden.

"That's a secret."

"Well then, why don't you take my hand as thanks."

"No way."

The line for the roller-coaster had just come into view, so Yumi ran off ahead, knowing full well that Kashiwagi-san would soon catch up to her.

As thanks, Yumi decided to allow him to sit next to her on the roller-coaster, and to scream really loudly.