Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume9 Chapter7 1

8 – 3 = Right . Part 1.

" – So, the priest will bring the medallions on the day of the event, and we'll have to meet him and take delivery of them. This job will be entrusted to the boutons."

The good old second-floor of the Rose Mansion.

"Next is the rose corsages for us to wear."

Shimako-san explained the arrangements for the Yamayurikai organized first-year welcoming ceremony.

"Roses … do you think it's necessary to use fresh flowers? Just as long as they're obviously our colors, that should be enough right? If we went with artificial flowers, they could be reused next year and the year after."

Rei-sama muttered, tapping on the report paper with a mechanical pencil.

Today was the kendo club's day off. Consequently, they'd reconvened the meeting that had been canceled the other day.

"Artificial flowers?"

Sachiko-sama thumped the table. Her whole body screamed, "You expect me to wear an artificial flower!?"

As expected from a true upper-class daughter. But in that case, what was she going to do about graduation, when they did traditionally use artificial flowers? Even as she was thinking these extraneous thoughts, Yumi felt a little relieved.

Sachiko-sama was getting her health back. She wasn't in perfect condition, but she had more or less returned to normal.

Because the reviled cherry blossom season was almost over.

Yumi hadn't been able to observe Sachiko-sama up close this time last year, but she fully expected that Sachiko-sama would continue to improve until the ginkgo nuts ripened in the fall.

"Well, I'm not saying we have to go with artificial flowers. But fresh ones are a bother. I'm just suggesting we consider it."

Rei-sama stressed, seeing it through to the end.

"In that case, I vote against it."

Even though nobody had said anything about having a vote. The way Sachiko-sama announced that she wasn't planning on changing her mind no matter what counter-arguments were offered was either honesty or stubbornness.

"Rosa Chinensis votes for fresh flowers."

Shimako-san laughed and recorded Sachiko-sama's vote in the meeting minutes. This was either due to sympathy or just because she was too serious.

(Huh?)

There were some cherry petals buried in Shimako-san's fluffy hair. Unusually, she'd been about five minutes late to the meeting, so she must have been beneath the cherry trees again.

Yumi tilted her head sideways in confusion.

About 80% of the cherry blossom petals had already fallen. And yet, Shimako-san didn't seem to be brooding. On the contrary, she was in high spirits. Cheerfully advancing the meeting, as though something good had happened to her.

Incomprehensible.

Although that was how she'd always been – Shimako-san's patterns of thought and action were inscrutable.

"What do you think, Yumi?"

"Huh?"

Suddenly hearing her name called, Yumi hastily stood up.

"… You're not in class now."

"Ah, right. Sorry."

So sit down.

"We're discussing whether to go with real or fake flowers."

Yoshino-san whispered, as though informing her classmate which page of the textbook they were on.

"The artificial flower corsages are more expensive, but they have the advantage of being reusable … "

Before Shimako-san could finish her explanation, Yumi shouted out "Real flowers!"

"Huh?"

"Um … I'd prefer real flowers."

"Why?"

Sachiko-sama asked with a sharp gaze that indicated she wouldn't accept the answer, "Because my onee-sama prefers fresh flowers."

"Well, at last year's welcoming ceremony, the Roses and boutons had real flowers, and they were really beautiful and moving. And then, when I was welcomed by them as the leaders of the entire student body, I was really happy, well, how should I put it … um."

She wanted the juniors to have those feelings too.

"I see."

Despite its incoherence, Sachiko-sama quietly listened to Yumi's speech and nodded.

"I know what you mean. Yoshino-chan, did you feel the same last year?"

"There was definitely something like that, right?"

Yoshino-san fished for Shimako-san's agreement. But Shimako-san's response was:

"I'm sorry. I don't remember the particulars of that event."

"Why not?"

Yumi asked. It was only one year ago. Shimako-san herself seemed somewhat doubtful, saying, "I wonder why."

"Probably because you were fixated on a certain somebody, no?"

Hearing Sachiko-sama's callous remark, Yumi and Yoshino-san were taken aback, as was Rei-sama who must have heard something from Yoshino-san. Speaking, or even hinting, about that "certain somebody" was prohibited in front of Shimako-san, who was thought to be feeling uneasy about the falling cherry blossoms. But apparently Sachiko-sama wasn't aware of that. She probably hadn't paid attention to any gossip for the entire time that the cherry flowers had been blooming.

"Huh?"

Shimako-san blinked, taken aback. Her expression clearly showing that she was thinking about that "certain somebody."

Had she stepped on a land mine? Was she going to explode?

But what on earth would a Shimako-san explosion look like? – No-one there had ever seen one before, that was for sure.

Yumi's heart was racing. Dormant volcanoes erupted far more violently than active ones.

As for Shimako-san.

"Ah, right. That may be it."

She uttered ecstatically, contrary to the expectations of everyone that had been watching on with bated breath.

"Sh-Shimako-san … ? Hello?"

That may be it? Did you understand that she meant you were fixated on Sei-sama?

Speaking as though it were a compliment. It was hard to tell if this was due to Shimako-san's composure, or if she'd spoken improperly due to the comfortable condition in her mind.

However, Shimako-san completely missed the reaction from the outfield.

"So Sachiko-sama and Yumi-san are voting for fresh flowers."

She added a vertical line next to the earlier recorded vote, making a T shape.

"Yoshino-san?"

"Real flowers are fine."

A second horizontal line was added, turning it into an odd looking F.

"Well, I wasn't insisting that we had to go with artificial flowers."

Rei-sama also agreed with fresh flowers, and then Shimako-san added her own vote, making the result the kanji character for correct, 正. Just like that, the decision was unanimous.

"Then we shall continue the tradition of using real flowers for the corsage."

All the attendees in just one character. With only five people, differences of opinion were quickly settled. It had the advantage that it made the meetings quick, but it was a little bit sad too.

"We've settled on fresh flowers for the Roses."

Yoshino-san said, her hand raised.

"But what are we going to do for the boutons? Last year there were a lot of people near me who were confused. The Roses wore blooming flowers in their respective color and the boutons wore flowers that hadn't blossomed yet, but it was hard to tell from a distance."

Indeed. If the boutons flowers were too small then it would be hard to make out the color, but if they were too big then they'd be too hard to differentiate from the Roses.

In Yoshino-san's case, she was already Rei-sama's petit soeur by the time of the welcoming ceremony, so she would have known who the Roses were. But, generally speaking, the welcoming ceremony was the first opportunity the new freshmen had to see the members of the Yamayurikai.

"The first-years didn't participate in last year's election, and the point of the welcoming ceremony is to introduce the Yamayurikai, so I think we should make it more obvious."

So Yoshino-san proposed that the boutons didn't wear corsages of the same color as the Roses.

"Our role as boutons is a minor one for this event."

At the group wedding of the Yamayurikai executives and the first-year students. Indeed, the boutons were second-in-command. Despite the way she was always talking, Yoshino-san seemed to understand this.

"Sounds good."

Sachiko-sama nodded in admiration too.

"But it'd be better if there was something to identify you as our assistants."

Rei-sama had a point too. The conversation continued while Yumi sat there looking bewildered. But there was no way someone who didn't raise their hand during class discussions could keep up with this pace.

"So if we exclude the colors red, white, and yellow, then – "

"Salmon pink!"

Yumi shouted, not wanting to miss her chance. She felt bad that she hadn't been participating in the meeting. But she had raised her hand properly.

Had her voice been too loud? For a moment, the place fell silent.

"Ah … um?"

Finally.

"Right. That would be fine."

Sachiko-sama smiled gently. Rei-sama, Shimako-san and Yoshino-san gave a nod of approval too.

Salmon pink was a mixture of red, white and yellow. So it was like it was the color of their team.

"Their team." Yumi was once again reminded of the fact.

Until now, it had been eight people.

Three graduated, and now there were five. It was a bit too sparsely populated, so there was room for other people to enter, but just quietly Yumi liked the space.

Was a petit soeur really necessary?

Sei-sama and Sachiko-sama had taken their time getting a petit soeur, and while they may not have felt exactly the same as Yumi, it probably wasn't a completely different feeling either.

If it's just these people here with me, then I'm fine with that – such was Yumi's desire.

At the time when their five opinions had become one.

Shimako-san and Yoshino-san would surely have felt the same way.