Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume8 Chapter4 1

Eriko, Sei, Youko. Part 1

– An American?

It was probably the Japanese national anthem that resurrected those words.

Noticing the students near her were standing, Sei raised her head. She glanced at the program.

(National anthem?)

So that meant that the opening address and scripture reading were already over? She'd dozed off, so hadn't noticed.

(Now then.)

She followed everyone else's lead and stood up, ready to sing the anthem. While listening carefully for the short prelude, Sei thought back to the unbelievable first words that her friend had said to her, back when they were kids.

Suddenly grabbing her shoulder and asking, "Are you an American?" Then it had turned into a fight.

Eriko the kindergartener didn't have her trademark hairband, but her parted hair left her forehead wide open, so the effect was much the same. Nor was she a shy girl back then either.

Children with older brothers or sisters tend to mature faster than others, and that certainly seemed to be the case for Eriko, who was doted on by her older brothers.

Sei was in a different class to her, but occasionally saw Eriko leading her friends in games when they played out in the garden. Back then she probably hadn't lived long enough to "lose interest" or "get bored" with things. She led with gusto.

In contrast, Sei wasn't all that energetic. Human nature doesn't change that easily.

Shyness was something Sei had been born with. When she was suddenly tossed into kindergarten, she responded with bewilderment.

Even though they were young children, there was still a wide range of personalities. With her personality, she found it hard to innocently play together with friends.

But that wasn't to say that Sei didn't have any friends or avoided people. She just felt more comfortable when she was alone, so she didn't go out of her way to join in with her classmates, that's all.

Sports and painting were easy, as were the lessons about the hiragana alphabet and simple maths, but pacing herself to someone else was hard. She was something of a highly-strung child, and sometimes the teacher's presence alone was enough to make her feel down.

Then one day, while she was waiting for the bus home, someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder from behind. It was Eriko.

Sei already knew her as the king of the mountain called "Eri-chan." But she had no idea what this girl wanted from her.

Without any introduction, Eriko said:

"Are you an American?"

Click.

Sei felt like some switch had been flipped inside her head.

As young children they were both equally ignorant of proper manners, but there were definitely good things to say and bad things to say. Looking back on it now, some ten years later, it was hard to know why exactly, but at that time Eriko's words had definitely fallen into the "bad" category.

Finely-chiseled features and light colored hair. Sometimes adults she didn't know would ask about her parents' nationality.

She could laugh about it now, but back then it had been a very sensitive question.

It was rude to ask, "Are you an American?" to a child who considered themselves Japanese. Not being conscious of discrimination, it felt like a denial of self.

Asking, how is your appearance different to my appearance?

And, have my parents failed as Japanese people in some way?

And, no big deal, but maybe you're not their child. These were all things she seriously pondered.

(Is that an American?)

Her anger flared. Quiet does not equal timid. While she didn't usually talk much, that didn't mean she didn't have any feelings.

"I get it, you're a half."

Probably completely convinced she was right, Eriko managed to avoid hearing Sei's, "No I'm not."

"Hey, is your papa an American? Or is your mama an American?"

"Is America the only country name you know?"

Sei didn't answer with either a "Yes" or a "No," instead verbally lashing out at Eriko before turning her back on her.

In reality, it was admirable for children that young to even be able to say words like American, but that wasn't something she could appreciate. The truth of the matter was that, at that age, they were both equally ignorant. It wasn't until elementary school that she learned that Africa and London weren't countries.

"If it's not America then which country is it?"

Despite Sei's attempt to shake her loose, Eriko stubbornly followed her. Even though her pride had probably been wounded by having her lack of education pointed out, this was overpowered by her curiosity, spurring her into action.

"Stop following me."

"Running away? Half."

"Get away from me, big head."

"What did you call me – "

She couldn't remember who had made the first move. But, immediately following the conversation, there was no mistaking that Sei and Eriko got into a spectacular scuffle. The pair were pulled apart by a teacher and Eriko's mother, who had arrived to pick her up, but even then continued to menace each other, all while covered in dirt.

They were both escorted to the nurse's office to get their cuts and scrapes tended to, but a partition was put up between them due to the explosive atmosphere.

The antiseptic lotion used on the cuts stung quite a lot, but Sei didn't cry. She thought that if she showed any weakness to Eriko on the other side of the partition, she would have lost.

The teacher asked both of them about it, but neither said anything about the cause of the fight. Even if they told her, as an adult she might not understand. They both knew full well what the other had said to hurt their feelings.

"Now shake hands and make up."

She understood the teacher's position, but even as a child, Sei couldn't accept a resolution so easily. Would shaking hands make their feelings disappear? No, it wouldn't. Because it was pride that drove them to fight.

"Come on Sei-chan. You too, Eriko-chan."

Sei didn't hate the teacher, but she thought that that was the event that spurred her to build a wall around her. She coldly regarded the teacher, who was, after all, an adult. Even though Eriko was her enemy, they still had more in common since they were both children.

So even though the situation hadn't been resolved, they reluctantly reached out and shook hands, barely touching each other.

In the end, it looked like they were on the same level. They only shook hands to appease the adult, and the truth was that they hadn't forgiven each other at all.

Neither of them knew the technique of a smiling reconciliation, to avoid drawing the feud out into the future. But even if they had, they certainly wouldn't have used it.

That single incident seemed to be the start of Sei being regarded as a problem child, rather than an unremarkable one. That didn't mean she acted out violently, but she stopped talking to both her classmates and teachers. From time to time she'd pass Eriko in the hallway, and they'd stick their tongues out at each other, but it never escalated to violence.

Even though that was their only connection, Eriko had still made more of an impression on Sei than anyone else in her class. Consequently, Eriko's was the only face that she could remember from kindergarten. So all through elementary school and middle school, even when Sei was in the same class as girls from her kindergarten class, she couldn't recognize them. On the other hand, when she did finally get put in the same class as Eriko, she remembered everything.

Upon entering middle school, Sei saw that she'd been put in the same class as Eriko for the first time. They'd long since stopped poking their tongues out at each other, but they both must have looked appalled when they realized they were sitting next to each other, with only an aisle between them.

– This sucks.

She remembered that they'd both muttered that simultaneously.

Neither of them had been in a fight either before or after, they'd only ever fought with one person. And that person was right there in front of them.

"Sei-san."

Nobuko-san, seated on Sei's left, tapped her on the shoulder. Sei looked around, seeing that Katsumi-san, on her right, wasn't there. There was no need to search for her, all of the seats ahead of her were empty, their occupants on their way to receive their graduation certificates. They were supposed to go and wait at the bottom of the stage five students in advance, so that the ceremony flowed smoothly.

"You were sleeping with your eyes open?"

"I wasn't sleeping."

She stood up and shook her head.

"Get it together."

"Yep, my bad, like always."

"What can I do? We're both Satou-sans."

Sharing the same surname, but with a first name appearing later in the alphabet, Nobuko-san had long since resigned herself to this sort of thing.

Thinking back, Nobuko-san had been looking out for her all year long. Before Sei had taken Shimako-san as her petit soeur, she'd occasionally asked Nobuko-san to help out the Yamayurikai when they were shorthanded. It was undoubtedly a bother to Nobuko-san, but since Sei didn't have any close friends in her class, all she could do was impose on those seated close to her.

"Sei-san, your eyes look gentler than in the past."

Noboku-san said softly from behind, after another student had received her diploma.

"The past?"

"Like kindergarten, or elementary-school, or middle-school … huh?"

Nobuko-san's expression changed in a flash, and she looked at Sei as though she were seeing something inconceivable.

"I can't believe it, you don't remember me."

When Sei got home she checked her albums, establishing that she and Nobuko-san had been in the same class one third of the time.