Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter9 4

The Ribbon's Path Part 4.

She was at school. But she wasn't in her classroom.

So where could her onee-sama possibly be right now?

Yumi went to check her own classroom, that of the second year pine group. She didn't expect to see Sachiko-sama there, but the thought had passed her mind that perhaps her onee-sama had gone there to meet her.

Inside the classroom there was a girl's solitary figure. She seemed to be staring out the window from her seat, but upon noticing the sound of the door opening she waved lazily at Yumi.

"Oh, it's Yumi-san."

"Hey Tsutako-san."

'What are you doing here now?' was written on both of their faces.

"I was in the clubroom until just a while ago, but I was thinking about all kinds of things and got a bit sentimental … So I decided to move."

Tsutako-san laughed softly after saying this.

"Don't read too much into it. I think it was probably because of the graduation group photograph that I took."

"Uh-huh."

Tsutako-san didn't have an onee-sama, but she was probably fairly close with some of the seniors from the photography club. Well, actually, in Tsutako-san's case it was probably a different type of closeness. After all, everyone knows about 'sibling rivalry,' and it's probably quite sad for Tsutako-san to see her rivals leave.

"How about you, Yumi-san?"

"I'm looking for my onee-sama."

"For Sachiko-sama? What is this, hide and seek?"

"I'm not sure if she's hiding on purpose or not."

"That's quite a predicament."

Tsutako-san had only been in the classroom for about ten minutes, but she said that during that time she hadn't seen Sachiko-sama. Yumi wasn't too disappointed, since she had come to her classroom primarily to confirm that Sachiko-sama wasn't here. It looked like she'd have to try somewhere else.

"Oh, right. We're counting on you for tomorrow."

Since she was here, Yumi took the opportunity to remind Tsutako-san about tomorrow.

After the graduation ceremony, Yumi and company had decided to have some photos taken privately. Just like last year, Tsutako-san had been nominated for the role of photographer.

"Ahh, yeah. I'm looking forward to it too."

Tsutako-san made the 'OK' gesture, so it looked like she had everything under control.

"That reminds me, have you checked the clubhouse?"

As Yumi was making her way towards the door, Tsutako-san called out to her.

"The clubhouse? No, not yet."

When Yumi turned around to ask her why, Tsutako-san added a disclaimer, saying:

"It might be nothing, but I ran into Rosa Foetida in front of the newspaper club's clubroom."

"Rei-sama?"

"Yeah. She was with Mami-san."

Rei-sama and Mami-san? That's quite an unusual pairing.

"It wasn't Sachiko-sama and Minako-sama?"

"What? No. Wrong on both accounts."

But in both cases it was a Rose with a newspaper club member.

"Ahh, but about that."

Tsutako-san lowered her voice.

"What?"

"I only met Rei-sama, but Sachiko-sama may have come along afterwards. Let's just say it's a definite possibility."

It looked like a fair amount of time had passed since Tsutako-san met Rei-sama. It seemed dubious whether anyone would still be at the newspaper clubroom.

The third year student from the pine class who said she saw Rei-sama when she went to the toilet seemed to backup Yumi's thoughts.

Still –

"Thank-you. I'll go check it out."

After saying this to Tsutako-san, Yumi left the classroom. She would have to hunt down these unlikely locations one by one.