Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter5 5

St. Valentine's prank. Part 5.

There was already someone inside.

"Oh."

That someone seemed startled by Yumi, spinning around to face the unexpected visitor. Yumi could tell she was also a high school student based on her uniform, but she'd never seen her before. Like Yumi, her hair was tied into two parts, but it seemed her hair wasn't long enough, so there was some scattered hair behind the ties.

"Gokigenyou. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you."

"No worries."

She was small, so Yumi thought she might be a first-year. And like Yumi, she had a treasure map folded under her armpit, so she was probably a treasure-hunt participant, too.

"Yumi-san, are you here to look for her card?"

Yumi didn't recognize her, but she recognized Yumi. She'd really become famous.

"Yes. You, too?"

"I got here just ahead of Yumi-san, but… do you think there is one?"

Because someone had gotten here before her, Yumi felt a bit down, but the person hadn't seemed to have found a card yet.

"Hmm-"

Pacing around the greenhouse, Yumi wondered what would happen if she were to find a card now.

(I guess we'd have to do rock-scissors-paper.)

If she waited for her to give up and walk away, time would run out.

Still, if Yumi were to find it now, the student would be able to present at least a little claim. After all, she'd come here first. At the very least, Yumi wouldn't allow herself to just selfishly take it.

Rock-scissors-paper, that was best. Praying to herself that she'd find the card, she stopped where she guessed the card would be.

"I knew it."

She squealed.

It was a place where someone had pried away the floorboard and used the ground to raise flowers. And the area around that bed of Roses was different from yesterday.

"What is it, Yumi-san?"

The student who'd come here first followed her and asked.

"I thought it'd be here." One patch of soil near Rosa Chinensis had a different color. Which was proof that it'd been dug up recently. Sachiko-sama had hidden her card near what would symbolize her in the near future. This had to be it.

Yumi noticed she'd started digging away at the dirt with her hands. Like a dog, she thought to herself.

"Umm, Yumi-san?"

That person might have whispered something behind her. But Yumi was desperate, so she wasn't up to listening. She was using her bare hands, so the damp soil went into her fingernails, and it felt icky, but you can't do a treasure hunt minding stuff like that.

"Would you like to help? If we find it, we can present it together."

At this point it'd be a fight with time. She wanted even a little bit of help.

And then a little shovel was offered to her over her shoulder, along with, "If you'd like to use it." "But I don't think it's there."

She said, as she handed the shovel to Yumi.

"What?"

She couldn't believe her ears. Did she just hear, "don't think it's there?"

How do you know that, Yumi's eyes seemed to telegraph. She struggled to find her words, and then answered apologetically.

"Because I'm the one that dug that up."

"Eh-!?"

"I'm sorry for bringing this up so late. Actually I'd looked there before Yumi-san arrived."

"But…" But Yumi had to accept it. The reason why she'd pulled out a shovel so quickly was clearly because she'd just used it.

And the reason why the soil was so easy to dig up was because it'd been gone through in the last thirty minutes.

She'd been so confident, but she'd whiffed, after all. In retrospect, burying a paper card in soil would be reckless.

"Yumi-san, why'd you think it'd be here?"

"Why?"

"After you entered the greenhouse, you walked here in a straight line. I wondered if you had a reason for that."

"Oh, well."

Yumi said the name of the Rose in front of her, its leaves growing a luscious green.

Rosa Chinensis. –The name of the flower most suitable for Sachiko-sama.

"… So that's what it was."

That person nodded in admiration.

"Then why did you dig?"

For once, Yumi's mind was spinning pretty quickly. If she hadn't gone through the Roses, why'd she pick this place to dig?

"That's… because the color of soil was different, so I wondered if that'd be it."

"Really!?"

Upon hear that, Yumi picked up her shovel and resumed digging. Maybe it was bingo after all. The other person had dug a bit and then put the soil back, but maybe she hadn't dug deep enough. Maybe she'd just scraped the top and then given up.

But it never appeared. After digging about twenty centimeters, Yumi gave up.

When she glanced at her watch, the minute-hand was between the seven and eight. There was no hope.

The student, whose lasting impression was her scattered hair, silently helped put the soil back. In the end, they were both the same, having been unable to find the treasure.

After washing their hands at the water supply and then stepping out of the greenhouse, they heard the signal for the end of the treasure-hunt broadcasted. It called for participants to gather at the courtyard again, and Yumi began walking that way, but the other person didn't budge.

"I don't need to hear the result."

"Eh…?"

"Because I won't be the one with the card. That's all."

Sachiko-sama's card might have been found by someone else, or it might not have been found at all. Either way, the reality was that it wouldn't be hers. With that truth, the game was over for her.

Even though most of the students were probably like Yumi, who wanted to know where Sachiko-sama hid it, and who found it.

"Yumi-san, go ahead."

The students whom were looking outside began popping out, making Yumi wonder where they were all this time, and walked toward the courtyard.

"Then…"

Yumi lightly bowed her head and began walking.

"Gokigenyou."

She never did find out her name. She could have asked, but she felt there was a timing for these things. After all, the other person knew about her, so she felt bad not knowing the person back. Plus the memory of what happened when she first met Shizuka-sama was fresh in her mind.

They attended the same school. They would run into each other once again. She burned the person's face into her soul, so that when they met again, Yumi would recognize her at once.

But she knew it would be difficult remembering the face of a person without being able to attach a name to it.

After about twenty steps, her memory was already becoming hazy.

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