Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume12 Chapter5 5

Searching in the Mist. Part 5

On Friday morning, they received a written invitation to a party from Saionji Yukari-sama.

The invitation said that the party would be held tomorrow evening, ie. Saturday, at Saionji's house, and was addressed to both Sachiko-sama and Yumi.

Yesterday was Ayanokouji-sama followed by Kyougoku-sama, and tomorrow would be Saionji-sama, so it felt like there was one more battle to come.

Now for the conversation about what to do.

"What is there to even talk about? Don't go."

The braided girl spoke forcibly as she picked up a financier cake.

"I agree. I think you'd be better off not going … perhaps."

Said the young girl with the fluffy, cotton-candy-like hair that looked like a western doll.

"It's kind of immature. Like they're grade-school bullies."

This was from the Japanese doll seated beside the western doll. However, none of the other guests had any experience with that so they couldn't judge whether this analogy was right or wrong, so all they could do was go, "Mmm," and ponder it.

The girl with the very short hair, that could be easily mistaken for a boy, silently sipped her tea.

It was Saturday afternoon.

They were in the familiar confines of the room on the second floor of the Rose Mansion … or not. Actually, they were most certainly in the Ogasawara family's holiday house.

The people occupying the salon for the tea-party were Yumi, Rei-sama, Yoshino-san, Shimako-san, and Noriko-chan.

The location was the only thing changed and it felt like a regular Yamayurikai meeting, but this wasn't a delusion brought on by away-team Yumi's despair, it was the real and honest truth.

It was no coincidence that the Yellow and White Rose Soeurs had come to visit on the same day.

The postcards that Yumi had mailed on Wednesday morning arrived safely at the Toudou and Shimazu households in Tokyo on Thursday. The pair then spoke to each other and decided on a time and date to make a trip out to the Ogasawara's villa. Yoshino-san and Rei-sama's ascent of Mt Fuji was on Friday, so by having the visit on Saturday they could just extend their trip.

"Because, the postcard was so tepid, it seemed like you were wasting away from boredom or something. And when I called Shimako-san, she was worried too, so we decided to come and check things out for ourselves."

That was Yoshino-san's story.

"You provided such a detailed address that I thought that was perhaps a sign that you wanted us to come and visit. I'm sorry, it looks like I jumped to a hasty conclusion – you said it was Sachiko-sama that wrote the address, didn't you?"

Shimako-san drew inwards slightly, seemingly out of embarrassment.

"Then maybe Rosa Chinensis wanted you to come – "

Noriko-chan said quietly.

"Sachiko-sama … ?"

Yumi mumbled. Perhaps some part of Sachiko-sama wanted to show this place to the other Yamayurikai members. There could be some truth to that.

"But why?"

"Probably because she noticed you were feeling a little flat too."

"Oh? I suppose, you could be right … "

Sachiko-sama had done it for Yumi's sake. If that was what the neutral observer Noriko-chan thought, then it was probably true.

"So, what did Sachiko say? About the party."

Rei-sama asked.

"Not much … there's no RSVP required, so I won't know what she's planning until right before the party. She seemed to be in two minds about it."

Yumi answered.

Sachiko-sama was away visiting the Matsudaira's holiday house. She'd been reluctant to go because she was concerned about leaving Yumi alone, but she'd gone because her late grandmother's attending physician, Touko-chan's grandfather, was staying there and she couldn't have pretended not to know this.

"She's in two minds? I see, that makes sense."

"What do you see?"

Yoshino-san asked, when she heard Rei-sama's comment.

"Right now, Sachiko's shaken. Fundamentally, if someone's looking to fight her, she'll fight. But in her case, she always wants to know as much about her opponent as she can."

"To avoid fighting a losing battle?"

"It's not that. Even if she knows she's going to lose, she won't back down until she has to. Because she'll fully understand how she's going to lose and how much damage she'll take."

Rei-sama used the examples of Sachiko-sama's contest with Satou Sei-sama over Shimako-san, and her wager with the previous Roses over the role of Cinderella. Indeed, in those situations Sachiko-sama had fought without regards to her chances of success.

"But when she doesn't know who her opponent is, or what they're thinking, then she becomes incredibly timid. Probably because she's afraid of being hurt more than necessary."

As expected of a long-time friend, Rei-sama seemed to understand Sachiko-sama incredibly well.

"I think I get it."

Yumi agreed.

Sachiko-sama boasted that she hated to run away, but had then run from place to place, avoiding her dearly beloved Kashiwagi-san. She'd probably run away because she was scared, not knowing what would happen to her if she met with him.

"That's how she was when you two were quarreling, Yumi-chan. If she'd sat down and talked to you properly, she could have cleared up that misunderstanding, but she was afraid of what might be waiting for her, so she closed herself off."

"What did she think might be waiting for her?"

Shimako-san asked, and Rei-sama answered unequivocally.

"That Yumi-chan would return her rosary."

All present fell silent. Those that had performed the soeur ceremony knew that the rosary held far more weight than just its physical mass. Even the Yellow Rose soeurs, who had temporarily split up then got back together, hadn't treated it lightly.

"She'd probably go if it was just her. Sachiko doesn't hold back when she's angry. It wouldn't necessarily be calculated, but she'd hone in on her opponent's weak point and hit them there hard, then go home."

"But this time she's got Yumi-sama with her."

Noriko-chan said.

"Exactly. That's why she's hesitating, since her opponent might target Yumi-chan. For Sachiko, it would be more painful to see Yumi-chan attacked than it would be for her to be attacked herself."

Previously, Yumi would have laughed this off with an, "As if." But having seen how Sachiko-sama had been behaving these last couple of days, she vaguely felt that Rei-sama might be on to something. Sachiko-sama had been nervous and fussy, like a mother hen watching over her chick.

"What do you want to do, Yumi-san?"

Yoshino-san asked.

"I … "

Yumi answered.

" … don't really know what I should do … or rather, whichever path I take, I don't think it'll be right."

"How so … ?"

"If I go to the Saionji's party, then I'm sure something unpleasant will happen. But if I don't go, it'll leave things unsettled. It feels like running away will just cause it to come back even stronger at some point in the future. Either way, I intend to go along with whatever Sachiko-sama chooses."

"So you might actually go to the party?"

"Yeah."

When Yumi confirmed this, Yoshino-san graced her with one of her favorite phrases:

"You idiot, Yumi-san. Don't willingly walk into their ambush. Come home with us, on the evening bullet train. You can't go to the party if you've gone home. Not even this Saionji girl would be crazy enough to chase after you."

"You're more than welcome to come with us too, although we're taking a regional express train home."

Shimako-san also extended an invitation. But Yumi shook her head.

"Thank-you for the offer, but I'm not leaving today. I've made up my mind that when I go home, it'll be with my onee-sama."

"Yumi-san … "

At that moment, Sachiko-sama arrived home from Touko-chan's villa. Then, her first words when she saw the Yamayurikai members were:

"You made it here. I'm so glad."

– that.

"Gokigenyou. When we saw the address on the postcard, we decided to gatecrash."

Yoshino-san greeted her cheerfully.

"This area is like a maze. If we didn't know the exact address, we may never have found this place."

Shimako-san remarked, and Sachiko-sama seemed to swell with pride as she answered:

"It is, isn't it. That's why I don't give it out lightly – if you don't know the address, you can't do anything."

"Like the combination to a safe."

Noriko-chan said with a straight face.

"To Sachiko's secret base."

Rei-sama joked.

"That's right. My secret base."

Sachiko-sama seemed to be truly happy. So, it really was Sachiko-sama's magnetism that had drawn them here.

"And yourself? How did you go, climbing Mt Fuji?"

Sachiko-sama prodded as she sat down.

"There's not much to say."

Rei-sama grumbled.

"We were aiming to reach the summit at dawn, so we stayed overnight in a mountain hut – although, it was hard to sleep because we were stuffed in there like sardines. Yoshino slept next to the wall, and I was beside her, but next to me was this incredibly obese old woman that snored like a chainsaw. And to top it all off, she tossed and turned in her sleep. It was such a pain."

"How was the rising sun?"

"Very spiritual."

Yoshino-san made the peace sign. This was the first time Yumi had heard the phrase "rising sun" used to refer to watching the day break from the top of a mountain, or that there were spiritual connotations to it. Lillian's Girls Academy was a Catholic school, but Yoshino-san and Rei-sama didn't seem to be too bothered by that.

"But, still, the size of the blisters on my feet."

"Blisters?"

"Although we went straight to an onsen when we came down from the mountain, so that popped them."

Rei-sama raised her foot slightly above the table, to show everyone. She said she'd worn two pairs of socks, but the unfamiliar climbing boots and mountain trails had taken their toll on the skin of her feet. But despite all that –

"Same here."

Yoshino-san said, acting as though it was no big deal.

"You cheated, Yoshino. You got on a horse half way down."

"Huh!?"

"Ahh, Rei-chan. I told you not to tell them that."

Her secret revealed, Yoshino-san hit Rei-sama on the shoulder. But this was a bit of a problem, since Rei-sama still had one foot in the air. As a result, she lost her balance and toppled out of her chair. Even so, it was a testament to Rei-sama's agility that the fall had left her more or less unscathed. The only part of her that was even slightly injured was a scrape on her blistered foot. Although, based on that result, it was hard to say whether that was lucky or unlucky given the circumstances.

"And you, Shimako? What have you been up to today?"

Sachiko-sama moved on to inquiring of the White Rose soeurs.

"We've been out on a day-trip visiting various Buddhist statues and churches. We stopped in on our way home."

They surely would have had to change their route so that they could stop in at the villa. But Shimako-san was probably taking into consideration that Sachiko-sama would likely be upset if she'd said, "We went out of our way to come here."

Even so, their eyes sparkled as they talked for the next twenty minutes about their early morning departure from Tokyo, the famous churches they went to, and the stone statues of Kannon that they saw.