Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter2 4

Rabbit and Cat and Wolf. Part 4

"Yoohoo."

Rosa Gigantea, Satou Sei-sama, always appeared in front of Yumi with a brightness that seemed to blow away her shadowy past.

" … Gokigenyou."

"Oh, my, when you say it like that you don't sound very perky, Yumi-chan."

"That's not true, but."

She wasn't full of energy, but she wasn't depressed either. She wasn't usually one to engage in deep thinking, so she had to take things at her own pace, not Rosa Gigantea's.

As she walked along the first-floor corridor, she hadn't expected a "Yoohoo" to come rushing up to her from the courtyard. Yoohoo. She wasn't a mountain climber.

"Yumi-chan, are you off to the Rose Mansion?"

"No. Everyone has things to do after school today."

So she'd been heading straight to the entrance, intending to go home.

"Things?"

"Rei-sama has club activities, Shimako-san has a committee meeting and Yoshino-san has her regular doctor's visit."

"Hoho. And Sachiko?"

"She said that that suited her fine, and she'd go home. Things have been busy for her at home recently."

Then Rosa Gigantea said, "Hmm," and struck a thoughtful pose, before slowly hugging Yumi tightly.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"There, there. You were lonely, Yumi-chan. That's why you weren't happy, right? It's okay, just think of me as Sachiko, and act as pampered as you like. I'll sacrifice my body, don't worry. As long as it means hugging your soft frame."

" … You've got it wrong."

A misunderstanding taken to extremes. Sure, she was feeling a bit lonely since her usual after-school tea-party had been suspended because three of the members had other things to do. But that by itself wasn't enough to make her despondent.

If Yumi did appear withdrawn, then it was undoubtedly due to her pondering the question of what to do about Rosa Foetida.

However, Rosa Gigantea continued her misunderstanding.

"You missed me, didn't you Yumi-chan."

"Huh!?"

"Tell me."

"I'll tell you that you're completely wrong."

She squirmed and struggled, then forced herself to take a breather.

Rosa Gigantea's body was warm, and it felt good the way her height and weight seemed to fit Yumi's body perfectly, which made Yumi realize she'd carelessly fallen for Rosa Gigantea's trick. Danger, danger.

"Isn't that odd. It felt like Yumi-chan was calling to me … "

Rosa Gigantea took a hand off Yumi, using it to scratch the top of her shoulder length hair as she cocked her head in confusion.

"…"

Did Rosa Gigantea have ESP too?

"You didn't call to me? Strange. A massive Yumi-chan wave hit me just before."

"Just before? When?"

"Let's see, about three minutes ago, or thereabouts."

"You must have been imagining things."

Yumi had briefly thought about asking Rosa Gigantea for advice when her name was brought up in conversation. But that was at lunchtime. And only once.

"Then was it you that called to me?"

Rosa Gigantea asked, looking down. There was a blackish stray cat that had arrived unannounced some time earlier. It rubbed up against Rosa Gigantea's leg, meowing softly.

"Lunch!"

"Lunch? This is Goronta."

Rosa Gigantea picked up Lunch, holding her up against her cheek.

"The first-years all call her Lunch. Because she always appears when it's lunch time."

"I see. Now that you mention it, I think Rei's grade calls her Merry-san."

"Lunch" to the first-years.

"Merry-san" to the second-years.

"Goronta" to the third-years.

– Everyone had their own name for her.

"Goronta's a bit of a rude name for a female, though."

She was joking about it now, but Rosa Gigantea was equally guilty since that's what she'd called the cat up until now.

Was the cat aware that it had a number of different names, or not? Lunch purred happily as Rosa Gigantea cuddled her. This was the first time Yumi had seen Lunch be friendly with a person. Even when they'd throw her mouthfuls of sausage from their lunches, she wouldn't come within a metre of anyone to eat.

"You see, this is because she trusts me. That's why she's so friendly."

Rosa Gigantea tickled Lunch's forehead.

"It was last year during the spring, no, early summer. Goronta was just a kitten and she was attacked by crows behind the school building."

"By crows."

"She was just a kitten, so she was soft and tasty looking. Split amongst the crows, they'd have a decent meal."

"…"

Rosa Gigantea gently rocked the former kitten whose body had obviously grown quite a bit since then.

"I watched a lot of nature documentaries, so I thought that I shouldn't interfere with the laws of the wild."

"Huh, the laws of the wild?"

"Survival of the fittest. The strong carnivores eat the weak herbivores, that sort of thing. That's the way it's been since forever. There's nothing wrong with it per se. So for a human to enter their world and disrupt that system would be against the rules. Because it would change their ecosystem for the worse."

"I kind of understand, but I kind of don't."

"It's the same as how someone who uses a time machine to go back in time mustn't interfere with the past."

"Because they'll change the future."

"Exactly."

"But you helped her, right?"

Yumi asked. Since that was why Lunch was here now.

"Pretty much."

Rosa Gigantea shrugged.

"Why'd I do it? Ask Urashima Tarou, although it probably isn't as good a story."

Once more she was saying incomprehensible things.

"Unlike TV, the reality was right there, I could just reach out and touch it."

In other words, she'd chased away the crows before she had time to think about it.

Rosa Gigantea said she'd searched for the mother cat, but not found her nearby. The kitten had finished weaning, so someone might have decided that Lillian's Girls Academy looked like a good spot and abandoned her there. That kind of thing was fairly common.

It looked like Rosa Gigantea had taken the kitten to the school courtyard and fed it milk. Apparently deciding that it was safer being fussed over by high-school girls than with the crows behind the school buildings. At the very least, the high-school didn't have a shamisen club, and there were no rumors of any students habitually eating kittens.

After that, Lunch, or Goronta, or Merry-san, was befriended and raised by the high-school students. Of course, Rosa Gigantea probably cared for her most of all. She probably hid tinned cat food in her school bag when she came to school during the summer and winter vacations.

"But, you know. Shimako, she said that rescuing the cat wasn't kindness but cruelty."

"Shimako-san did?"

"And I did it time and again. Rescuing her, feeding her, showing her kindness. But someday I'd leave this place. Shimako told me to think about what would happen after I graduated. Well, she had a point."

But there were plenty of other students that showed that cat affection too. Indeed, Rosa Gigantea had said so. The many names were proof of that.

"I would have liked to take her home and care for her, but when Goronta, ah, at that time she was just called "cat," when she heard, she said that she'd rather stay at school."

There was lots of greenery, and she had her freedom. There were plenty of small creatures about, so even without scraps from the high-school students she should be able to survive by hunting.

"Cats can talk?"

"This one's special. That's why she remembers me, like a dog."

Rosa Gigantea said, "Right?" as she stroked Lunch's cheeks and set her down on the ground again. Then she put her hand into her pocket, fished out something that looked like a biscuit and set it down in front of Lunch.

"It's dried cat food. If you want, I'll give you one too Yumi-chan."

"No thanks, I'm fine."

Yumi politely declined Rosa Gigantea's offer. Did she really look that greedy?

"And Shimako-san, I think if she saw an injured kitten, she'd save it."

Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch. The sound of Lunch happily eating the dried food echoed satisfyingly through the corridor.

"Yeah."

The two humans squatted down to watch the cat eat.

"But unlike this guy, she's a wolf, after all. Being in a new pack is scary."

"A wolf?"

"Yep. She may keep to herself, but I think she really wants to be with friends."

"Why's that?"

"Because wolves are pack animals."

Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch.

" … I'm not sure I understand, but I don't know that we're right for her."

"Of course you are. Maybe even the best of all."

In response to Yumi's question, Rosa Gigantea pressed her right index finger and thumb together, making the OK sign.

"You joined the pack relatively easily, Yumi-chan, so you may not understand Shimako's feelings."

"Easily?"

"Yep. Easily."

Yumi's mind whispered, "What about all my worrying?" Her concerns about whether or not she was worthy to be the petit soeur of such a beautiful, smart, and princess-like onee-sama. Even now, she worried about it from time to time.

"I think you might feel inferior about your brains or your looks, but there's a more fundamental question that you don't worry about at all."

"A more fundamental question?"

"When you go about your daily life, are you constantly conscious of the fact that you're a human, or a female?"

"No, not really."

It was an unexpected question, and Yumi put herself on guard. Even if she didn't verify every little thing, she'd established it once, and her personal data wasn't just going to change so easily. She thought it would be normal to forget about it.

"Because you're a Japanese national living in Japan, and a girl attending a girls school. Being conscious of it would be harder."

"Okay."

Even when she met someone for the first time, her self introduction didn't usually include nationality and sex.

"But what if you were thrust into an English boys school?"

"Huh? English?"

"It's just an example. Canadian or French works too."

Rosa Gigantea smiled.

"I guess I'd feel really uncomfortable … burdened by the knowledge that I was different to all the other students … on edge."

"That. That's how Shimako is now."

"…"

Of course, Rosa Gigantea wasn't saying that Shimako-san was an English boy. Yumi knew that much. But beyond that, she didn't really understand.

"Returning to our conversation. Basically, Shimako's concerned that she's a wolf, and she can't let a cat into her pack."

"Ahh – "

Yumi instinctively nodded. She didn't understand the fine details, but she knew the broad strokes of what Rosa Gigantea wanted to say.

"Oh? You figured something out?"

"A while ago there was a conversation about being free to go anywhere, at any time, that sort of thing."

" … Really?"

"And you, Rosa Gigantea."

"I?"

"You said that you couldn't save Shimako-san by yourself."

"I see."

"Will we be able to save her?"

"Maybe. I don't know. However."

Rosa Gigantea continued to talk as she patted Lunch.

"I was hurt here at Lillian's, but I was also saved here. Gentle, fragile children gather here, and one way or another, by the time they graduate they all come to love it. That's why I believe. Because it has a healing power that's stronger than they might think, and friends, well, they're a pretty effective medicine too."

Along Lunch's back, there were spots where fur wouldn't grow. They were traces of where the crows had attacked her. The wounds had healed. Even Lunch had probably completely forgotten about the injuries.

Be that as it may.

With all the talk about Lunch and Shimako-san, Yumi had completely forgotten the crucial topic of Rosa Foetida.