Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter1 2

Research. Part 2.

And a few days later.

"Valentine's Day?"

Yumi didn't expect anything to begin with, and Shimako-san tilted her head, asking, "What do you mean?"

"… Umm."

Yumi thought while scratching her non-itchy head.

How predictable. Shimako-san was clearly not the kind of person who gave chocolate to people on the fourteenth of February every year.

"Oh, Yumi-san, even I know about Valentine's Day."

She giggled politely. Oh, that's good, Yumi sighed, relieved. She didn't know what she'd do if she had to explain Valentine's Day from scratch.

"Saint Valentine, or Saint Valentinus, there're lots of pronunciations, but in Japan they call him 'Valentain' don't they."

"Vale…?"

"Valentine. The name of an Italian saint that was martyred. February fourteen is a holiday for him."

"Mmm."

Shimako-san's explanation sounded extraordinarily genuine and dignified. Regretfully, she wasn't able to ask about this in the sanctuary. Instead, they were in the dressing room inside the gymnasium. It was the break-time before physical education, so the appearances of other students' thighs and in their underwears leapt into her eyes.

Yumi'd paused in the middle of changing for the conversation, so she hurriedly shed her petticoat and put on her knee-high, black spats. Then, she took off the three-quarter sleeved v-neck shirt that she wore instead of a one-piece or a babashirt[1], and put on a white collared gym shirt that had "1 Peach 33 Fukuzawa" sewed on to the front. And with her arms exposed, she felt goose bumps all over. Not that she could do anything about that, it was retribution for keeping herself too well cared for on a daily basis.

"I don't know when or how the holiday arrived on Japanese shores, but chocolate is very unrelated."

Having finished changing, herself, Shimako-san bundled her soft, cotton-like hair with a plain, thick black rubber band, and then tightened a hachimaki that matched our class color – peach. Shimako-san often looked soft and impossible to restrain, but in truth, she always walked around with a straight back, and no matter the weather, she carried herself without ever letting down. It is like she's always tense. She looks like such an angel, but you can never figure out what she is thinking, so in a way she is quite mysterious.

"Then, you're not giving Rosa Gigantea chocolate?"

Lowering her voice, Yumi whispered in Shimako-san's ear.

"Oh, that's what you meant."

Shimako-san smiled, finally piecing together what Yumi had meant. She'd been asked, what are you going to do for Valentine's Day? But Yumi thought, wouldn't you normally immediately think about chocolate?

"Chocolate…"

"Yup. Shimako-san became Rosa Gigantea's sister a little earlier than me, right? So I was wondering what you planned for Valentine's Day."

Would you call it research? She wanted to gather as much information as possible and come up with a masterful plan. It was the idea behind her asking around. But Yoshino-san was completely unreliable.

"… I'd not given it any thought."

"Probably."

She didn't feel disappointed at all. Because Shimako-san was a question mark from the start, so she'd given up before she'd asked.

Yumi and Shimako-san's image of Valentine's Day was too different. After all, she talked about Saint Valentine. She'd probably never done something as mundane as sending a gift of chocolate. … Probably not even to her father.

"I'm sorry I couldn't serve as a reference."

Shimako-san concluded the conversation the same way as Yoshino-san and stepped out of the dressing room.

Even with a sweatshirt and a jersey training pant, February physical education was tough. The light jogging to warm-up bodies didn't work, because cold air drifted through the space in the cloth, so it ended up being more of a war of attrition. Blowing hot air into her cupped hands, Yumi simply wanted to avoid jamming her fingers as she ran.

Because today, they were going to play basketball.

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