Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter8 1

With the archenemy. Part 1.

"We're here."

I don't know what roads we'd taken, nor how we may have looked driving across them, but somehow we'd managed to reach our destination without getting in an accident. I don't remember how many times I must have repeated prayers.

"And… it doesn't look like heaven, yet."

Gathering some composure, I looked outside the window. We were in an extremely quiet, green neighborhood. It wasn't the quiet you'd describe the countryside with, like you would my home. The trees, which were grown with a clear esthetic sense, grew thick over the towering fences surrounding the site, as well as colored the peaceful promenade as roadside trees.

"Where are we?"

"Where we're staying tonight."

"You were serious?"

Rosa Gigantea was so carefree that I'd begun to doubt her words entirely.

"Of course I was serious. Hold on."

Rosa Gigantea stepped out of the car and pressed the interphone button in front of her.

(Interphone?)

It was a house with an interphone placed conspicuously right on the gate, like you would expect any other house. But of course, I felt out of place. Not because of the interphone, but because the interphone belonged to a house that was far, far larger than your regular house. Let's just say, it's larger than mine. By far.

Rosa Gigantea did say a friend's house, but I definitely didn't expect a house this large. I mean, I don't even know how large the house is, because I can't see the end of the fence from inside the car. I felt faint.

"And I'm back."

As Rosa Gigantea settled back into the driver's seat, the gate opened.

"Wow."

It was surprising enough that the gate opened by itself, but the intensity of the world that lay beyond it made me gulp.

"This isn't a school nor hospital, right?"

"Hahahah. I see."

After laughing, Rosa Gigantea pointed to the splendid nameplate that hung on the gate, as she slowly nudged the car forward.

I read it.

"Ogasawara."

(Eh?)

I re-read it, doubting my eyes.

Ogasawara.

The car slid through the gate. The afterimage of the plate was burnt into my mind.

"Umm, umm."

I became speechless, trying to say so many things at once. Opening and closing my mouth, not being able to make my vocal cords work, I clutched at Rosa Gigantea's arm, imploring her to stop.

"So, Yumi-chan, how do you feel?"

"Then, this is Sachiko-sama's-"

"Righto!"

"Rosa Gigantea, you liar! You never said we were going to Sachiko-sama's house!"

"Yes I did, I said we're going to a friend's house. And Sachiko's a friend, right? So I wasn't lying."

That's just a sophism! It was so obvious she'd been fudging over the fact so she could surprise me.

"But who cares. Yumi-chan, you wanted to see Sachiko, didn't you?"

"Of, of course, but, I mean…"

Then what, she asked, but I didn't know how to answer. But if she just drove me to Sachiko-sama like this, I don't know what I'd do. I wasn't in good condition, kind of.

"I haven't readied myself."

"Why? You see Sachiko every day at school, stop being so nervous. Relax, relax."

I wished she could lend me even a tenth of her composure. Rosa Gigantea ignored my petition and slowly moved the car along. It was like a forest after going through the gate, but there was a tube-like tunnel for the winding pathway through it.

"I mean, after all, it's not like we're going to Sachiko's parents and asking, 'May I have your daughter?' or something."

"P, parents!?"

I hadn't even thought about that. Sachiko's household meant, obviously, her parents would be in. What a rude "little sister" to be intruding on the second of the new year.

I wanted Rosa Gigantea to turn around, but it was too late for that. We'd already pushed ourselves into the house, the moment she used the interphone.

(Rosa Gigantea I hate you so much.)

When they finally finished passing through the forest, she found herself in the middle of an English-style garden, with a building that looked like a mansion, or maybe even more like a castle, in view.

"Umm, I think it was a right."

Rosa Gigantea turned the wheel, and they saw something like a parking lot. Something like, because there were other cars, but otherwise you wouldn't have been able to tell. As for why, that's because it was spacious enough to easily fit twenty plus cars, but unlike the parking lot at a supermarket or something of the sort, it had a neat roof.

"I have a bad feeling."

Rosa Gigantea muttered, as she saw a shiny, polished, red open-car in the lot.

"Bad feeling?"

"I can't explain it, but that car gives me a really bad feeling."

"Huh?"

"Umm, just think about what kind of guy that might belong to."

Rosa Gigantea deliberately chose the furthest spot from that red car, and parked. Red and yellow. It would be like a stoplight if they had a green car. When I looked at the other two cars parked in this space, I realized it was the parking lot for visitors, because there were no black cars.

"Alright, alright."

I stepped out of the car and helped guide Rosa Gigantea's parking, and imagined "what kind of guy that might belong to." Someone that's self-confident, conceited and narcissistic.

"Ahh!"

"What, what, Yumi-chan!?"

Rosa Gigantea, not used to parking, reacted to my voice, slamming the breaks and quickly sticking her head out of her window. She thought she was about to hit or scrape something.

"Oh, sorry, you're still alright."

"… Don't scare me like that."

She turned off the engine and tottered out of the car, holding a hand to her breast. Well, it looked like she was nervous about driving, after all. Plus, the car belonged to her mother, she said.

"Could it be… the prince?"

"Oh, that car? Yeah, I'm thinking the gingko kingdom prince."

We retrieved the presents, our belongings, and the food we bought at the temple, and walked toward the building.

"Because it's New Year's. Because they're cousins. Because they're fiancées."

I mumbled to myself. That it wasn't surprising that he was at Sachiko-sama's house.

"But Yumi-chan is boring."

"Ah…"

But in my case, I don't know if boring or interesting were a good way to describe me.

"Maybe that's why I was called."

As always, Rosa Gigantea abbreviated her sentences, so I needed someone to translate for me.

"Who called you?"

"Sachiko."

Of course, was Rosa Gigantea's facial expression. Maybe she knew everything, but I'd finally begun to understand what was going on. And even then, just roughly.

"So, Sachiko-sama called you?"

"Of course, what did you think?"

"That Rosa Gigantea was invading."

When I answered truthfully, Rosa Gigantea flicked my forehead, "How rude."

"She asked about my New Year's plans, and then said, 'Then would you like to come over to play?' She specifically singled out this date, Sachiko."

So Rosa Gigantea seriously tried to gather the three Rose families for a hatsumoude, but Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Foetida turned her down for prior arrangements (not that she was surprised, because she came up with the idea the afternoon before New Year's Day), and right when she gave up hope, Sachiko-sama called her with the pleasant invitation, so she took me along.

"But that would mean I wasn't called."

"Why? When I mentioned your name, she said, 'Bring her, please.'"

"Really!?"

Rosa Gigantea's words made me ecstatic.

"You know, both of you are so unlike one another, but for some reason you both are so passive. If you're both 'waiting' for the other to act, a hundred years'll pass before anything happens."

Right when Rosa Gigantea made her happy, she immediately dropped the floor out from under her feet. A hundred years'll pass- what a harsh way to put it.

"Speaking of which, what was the gingko prince's name?"

Had Rosa Gigantea tried to eradicate his existence from her mind? The gingko prince's name.

"Umm-"

But I couldn't remember.

I remembered his name wasn't Ogasawara, despite being her cousin. But it sounded like it came from the Tale of the Genji.

Ahh, I couldn't remember peoples' names lately. Should I start all over again from A?

"Oh, whatever, who cares about him."

Rosa Gigantea stood in front of the big, entrance-like door, and yanked on the chain dangling in front of her, ringing the doorbell.

It looked awesome. The building itself was very antique. I imagined a white-haired gentleman coming out, in a crisp, black suit, like in those western-style movies. Like a butler.

After a moment, I heard the lock being opened from inside. Unlike the gate, this one was manual.

"Satou-sama? Please come in."

The door was opened. But the person that answered the door wasn't a butler, as I'd imagined. Well, they were both men, I suppose, but he wasn't wearing a suit, nor did he have white hair. In fact, I recognized him. "Huh?"

"Huh?"

We both spoke up. Not Rosa Gigantea and I, but the person who opened the door and I.

We looked at each other with a surprised face, like we were wondering if there was a mirror in front of us. Because the person on the other side of the door "wasn't supposed to be there."

"Yuuki…?"

"Yumi…?"

I tried to get an answer from Rosa Gigantea. But it wasn't a continuation of her bag of tricks. Rosa Gigantea was also looking at us siblings, with amusement.

"What's going on?"

A tall man crept up from the hallway behind Yuuki.

"Yo, welcome."

When I saw him, the fog cleared from my brain.

(It was "ka"!)

The person who wrote Yuuki a New Year's card, the name I thought looked familiar. It was the tall man standing in front of me. –Ka, I remembered I skipped past it, for some reason.

Ka, for Kashiwagi.

Kashiwagi. Kashiwagi Suguru.

Rosa Gigantea and I both thought it was certainly not amusing that he was here, standing in front of us. The gingko prince, Kashiwagi Suguru. As always, he wore an invigorating smile on his face, and had the look of, "I belong here."

-And he rested a hand on my brother's shoulder.

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