Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume33 Chapter5 4

Parting Gift Trio. Part 4.

"And though we have now reached the end, it gives me great honor to be able to pray for your health and future success in this farewell address."

Shimako-san read the final sentence of the speech.

"Students' representative, Toudou Shimako."

Followed by:

"Shimazu Yoshino."

And finally:

"Fukuzawa Yumi."

And so the farewell address ended, with each of them signing off.

The wording of the first and last sentences was identical to last year's, as an homage to Ogasawara Sachiko-sama. – Not only that, but it would serve as a template that future years could borrow from.

At any rate, it had ended peacefully.

(Huh? Peacefully?)

Is 'peacefully' really the appropriate term to use here?

It was true that nothing had happened while Yumi was reading her part of the speech. And while her nervousness about actually being up on stage meant that her performance wasn't as good as some of her many practices, Yumi still awarded herself a passing mark. It certainly wasn't a perfect 100, but it was about a 90, and that was good enough.

Even the hand off to Yoshino-san had gone smoothly. Yoshino-san started off slowly, but she sounded just like an announcer from the broadcasting club, picking up speed as her excitement grew.

That was when the incident happened. Or if incident is too strong a word, accident might do.

Whatever you want to call it. A bug came flying from somewhere, and started circling around above the stage.

It was incredible to think that, out of the whole gymnasium, the bug would choose to fly towards the stage right when they were in the middle of the farewell address. Sure, it was almost time for the hibernating insects to awaken, but it was still cold in Tokyo. If only the bug had been just a little bit later (even an hour or so), or a little bit more considerate.

Yoshino-san didn't notice the insect at first, and kept reading from the manuscript. Neither did Yumi or Shimako-san, who were both standing right next to her. However it seemed that some eagle-eyed people in the audience did notice the bug flying around them, even though it was only about 1cm long.

So while they were in the middle of the farewell address, those students who had seen the insect whispered to their neighbors, saying something like, 'Hey, do you see that?' The people who heard this whisper would then be on alert, and spot the bug the next time it flew around. Which would lead to another round of whispering.

It was because of these slight murmurings that the three of them realized that something strange was happening in the gymnasium. And so, every so often, they'd see one of the students pointing in their direction.

Yumi didn't think they were doing anything unusual. So while Yoshino-san continued to read from the script, she and Shimako-san were looking around.

And then Yumi barely stopped herself from squealing by clasping both hands over her mouth, which was a brilliant move, if she did say so herself. Although the microphone was currently angled towards Yoshino-san, it was still in point-blank range and there was no doubt that it would have made an incredible racket if she had cried out.

That bug was a bee. It may have been a horsefly, or just a regular fly, but in Yumi's eyes it was a bee.

Although Yumi didn't shout out, Yoshino-san still noticed her overreaction and immediately stopped reading the speech.

And right then.

The bug glided in to land right on top of the script, as though it had been aiming for it.

Just as Yumi had suspected, it was a honey-bee.

Yumi and Shimako-san had spotted it earlier, so they'd had some time to prepare themselves. For Yoshino-san, however, it was completely unexpected.

Humans, when they're startled, seem to have a standard procedure they all go through.

First, something had fallen on the manuscript. Yoshino-san's eyes and ears swiveled around, she breathed in, her shoulders raised and lowered slightly. At this point, she still hadn't determined what the object was.

Finally, her brain put the pieces together and concluded that it was a bee. Then the report that 'bee = bee sting' was retrieved from her memory, which resulted in:

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaah –!"

People instinctively covered their ears with their hands. The damage must have been worse for the people sitting near the speakers, as the microphone was pointed straight at Yoshino-san's mouth.

As for the bee itself, it took off when Yoshino-san flung the script in the air, and resumed flying around in circles. Panic had now set in for Yoshino-san, and she hid, clinging to Yumi's back.

There was a brief uproar, but the gymnasium soon fell silent. Everyone had suddenly become aware that they were still in the middle of the farewell address.

So, how best to deal with this?

Shimako-san was the only person who moved in the deathly silent gymnasium. Yumi watched her, wondering what she was doing, as Shimako-san slowly picked up the script from where it had landed after Yoshino-san flung it into the air. She then returned it to its former position, adjusted the microphone and started speaking.

"As for us first and second year students,"

Incredible, Shimako-san. She had continued reading the farewell address from right where Yoshino-san had left off. As though the accident with the bee had never happened.

Exactly. That's the proper way to act.

Yumi gently peeled the insect off her back and made her stand in front of the table, then returned to normal. The bee continued to buzz around, but as long as it didn't attack they should be alright. It wasn't large enough to be a hornet or a wasp, so after all was said and done it was only a honey bee.

Eventually, Yoshino-san regained her composure. But her part in this campaign was already over.

It turned out to be a good thing that Shimako-san was delivering the final part of the speech. But it's not like Shimako-san had ESP, so there was no way she could have foreseen such a situation when she was deciding the order of speaking. However, Yumi thought that if the order had been changed, there was no way that herself or Yoshino-san would have been able to deal with the situation.

But maybe Shimako-san has some sixth sense that she's unaware of – Yumi took another look at the face of the person standing beside her.

"And though we have now reached the end, it gives me great honor to pray for your health and future success in this farewell address."

Shimako-san read the final sentence of the farewell address.

A huge round of applause echoed around them.

It was in no way inferior to the previous year's, but it was of a completely different nature.

The round of applause last year was akin to that given after watching a deeply moving film, full of love and sadness, while this year's was akin to that given after seeing the latest slapstick comedy.

– Plus, there was probably an element of 'Nice save Shimako-san' or 'Good job' in there too, don't you think?