Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume2 Chapter1 2

Best Sœur. Part 2.

"Yoshino, are you awake?"

Acting out of her own convenience, she opened the door without waiting for a reply and stepped in. Yoshino was lying face-up on her wooden bed, and shifted herself just a bit to confirm who had stepped into the room.

"- Why."

She hadn't been expecting to be greeted with, "Welcome!" by a sick person, but Rei brought a chair to the side of the bed while thinking "why" was a bit of a harsh greeting.

It was a chic room, she thought, just as she thought that every time she went into Yoshino's room. Because it had originally been Yoshino's uncle's study room, there was no helping the flashy wallpaper, but everything other than the ivory walls were dark brown. Floor, ceiling, window sills, shelves, everything. It was enough to make her think, at least use a flowery curtain!

"Has your fever gone down any?"

A chick-design handkerchief was placed on Yoshino's head – the same handkerchief was used every time she came down with a fever. Yoshino couldn't calm down without that handkerchief. Even now, despite the pattern fading away, the towel was still used, its outer edges sewn back over and over again.

Her aunt had just wrung the towel a little while ago, so when she felt the methodically folded towel, it still felt cold.

"Do you still feel ill?"

Perhaps she still felt terrible, as Yoshino didn't open her mouth. But Rei, being used to it, continued.

"Rei-san's a delivery-man today, so she'll be retreating after delivering her mail."

She took out a binder from her bag and placed a set of papers in a clear case on the table.

"The English reader prints are homework for next week. The archaic report came back, so I collected it. And-"

"How about your club?"

Yoshino suddenly interrupted. While at school, they used formal language to be polite, but otherwise they reverted to their regular, casual tones. She even deftly made sure to use "onee-sama" and "Rei-chan" correctly, to suit the situation.

"Club?"

Rei closed her bag and asked.

"Your inter-school match is coming, soon, so you said you needed to put in some extra practice."

"I did, … so?"

"Did you skip out, for me?"

Yoshino deliberately removed her handkerchief and asked, no, interrogated. She, loving her detective stories and hard-boiled stories, always look about with insightful eyes, so Rei always had to catch herself from automatically nodding in agreement. But their long time together made her know that if she were to nod, now, Yoshino might become so overcome with anger that she might cause undue stress on her heart.

So, Rei smiled and denied it.

"That's not true. I asked father to help me practice, today, so I came home earlier for that."

"Really?"

"Really."

In Yoshino's eyes was Rei, who had become extremely masterful at lying only to Yoshino. And in turn, Yoshino had become adept at seeing through Rei's lies. Although she backed down, accepting the explanation, it wasn't clear how much of it Yoshino believed.

But it's not all a lie, Rei whispered to herself. She had, indeed, made a promise with her father to practice, today, it was just at a later time. Plus, she hadn't come home early solely for Yoshino's sake, but also for her own. If she stayed at school, she knew she would have been worried sick about Yoshino, anyways. And that lack of concentration would show up in her kendo practice. It wasn't a good idea to show that sort of form to her juniors. So she said she had errands to run, and came home early.

Her father always said, her technique was great, but her weapon was always unsteady. The weapon of a girl still being swept along by emotions. Not that gender mattered to her father. But that's why those words struck Rei so deeply. She knew it was true, herself.

"Let me see the prints."

Yoshino placed her damp towel on her pillow, sat up, and scrutinized her "mail." Maybe the reason why she looked so worn-out was because her trademark braids were let down. Or perhaps it was a result of her fever. Yoshino turned around and asked, "What?" when she noticed the stare.

"Nothing."

Rei smiled and shook her head.

Yoshino hadn't changed at all since she was small. Her cousin, who lived next door in the same building site, had basically been a true little sister even before the sœur ceremony. For Yoshino's sake, she was willing to go as far as lie, turning her back to Maria-sama's teachings. To not worry Yoshino. To protect Yoshino's peaceful days. Rei had lived as a knight all this time, like that.

"Rei-chan, what's this?"

Yoshino asked, pointing at a brown envelope mixed into the prints.

"Ah, that's right. I forgot. It's a questionnaire from the newspaper club."

"Questionnaire?"

"Yup."

Rei briefly explained how they had been voted best sœur, and that the newspaper club had asked for an interview but she had turned them down.

"Best Sœur Award..."

Yoshino had a complicated look as she mumbled.

"And, because an interview was impossible, they came crying, asking for us to at least fill out a questionnaire. They said they would write an article based on that."

"Ah. Then, Rei-chan, write my part for me."

"Sure."

After Rei picked up the questionnaire, she placed it side-by-side with her own and began filling in the answers. There were two sheets to the questionnaire, with the first one being personal data, such as her full name, her birth date, her constellation, her blood type, her class name and attendance number, her club activities, and other such things, so she was able to fill it all in without bothering Yoshino. The second sheet was about favorite quotes, favorite authors, favorite actors, and other such questions, so Rei asked Yoshino one question at a time and wrote down exactly what she heard.

"Rei-chan, what other awards were there?"

"Umm…"

She paper-clipped her sheets and Yoshino's sheets individually, then put them back in the envelope, then remembered with a somewhat anguished expression. Apparently, Best Sœur wasn't the only school-wide award that had been awarded to her. Because the survey had been slow in being collected, she'd just found out that day, but Rei had curiously ended up with the Mister Lillian award.

"M, Mister...?"

Due to the unexpected answer, Yoshino opened her eyes wide in surprise and then began laughing. "I bet it's because those underclassmen sometimes mess up and call me 'Onii-sama.'"

"Rei-chan, why don't you grow your hair longer?"

Yoshino reached out and patted Rei's very-short hair.

"It doesn't suit me, and it's bothersome when putting on the protector."

"Ahh."

Sachiko was Miss Queen and Shimako was Miss Princess, and Yumi had gotten Miss Cinderella this year, and upon hearing this, Yoshino mumbled emotionally, "Yumi-san."

"What? Yumi-chan's on your mind?"

"A bit."

As Yoshino generally wasn't interested in most people, that answer was a bit of a surprise. As she always missed a vast amount of class due to her illness, she never bothered to become intimate with any classmates. Although she looked well enough and would have been expected to have a wealth of friends, this attitude ended up having the opposite come true.

"Apparently she accepted Sachiko's rosary, so you can become friends with her from now on."

Yoshino flung off her blanket and jumped up, squealing, "Really?" at Rei's report. Evening, during an autumn night, wasn't cold enough to turn on the heating, so seeing Yoshino only wearing her pajama made Rei feel a bit cold. So, Rei took the cardigan that was slung over a chair and fit it on Yoshino.

"Sachiko-sama must be ecstatic."

There was a rosary on Yoshino's thin breasts, peeking out from the collar of the cardigan.

The dark green emerald Rei gave Yoshino during the spring looked outstanding on her white skin.

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