Template:Maria-sama Ga Miteru:Volume17 Chapter 2 5

Happenings And Heading Out Part 5

Given how she felt, she agreed with Sachiko-sama's choice of sleeping the entire way. By the time their life onboard the plane had come to an end, after eating, sleeping, visiting the toilet, sleeping, and eating again, she felt a little like she'd been in a broiler.

"The cabin-lag is worse than the time-lag. My body doesn't feel like it's on Japan time, or Italy time, or any other time at all."

"I had all sorts of weird dreams."

"Yeah. I slept most of the time, but I'm still exhausted."

"I didn't even open the book I brought to pass the time."

Landing at Milan–Malpensa Airport, everyone from Lillian Girls' Academy stretched their shoulders and necks. It was after 6 p.m. local time. They did not plan to stay in Milan on this trip, this was just a layover. Their connecting flight was later in the evening. Group A was heading to Rome, whereas Group B was heading to Venice. A similar example of this would be passengers from overseas land at Narita Airport, then connect to flights to Nagoya or Fukuoka. This was the same thing. Probably.

It was about two hours until the airplane headed to Rome boarded, so they had around an hour of free time to spare, which was plenty if they needed to use the bathroom again. However, they had to stay on this floor, and in groups of at least two people. They'll call roll 30 minutes before, so absolutely be back here by then. Those were the conditions. Nobody would dare complain, "all those rules are annoying" and, "isn't that a bit overprotective?" on their first trip overseas. A child lost in a place like this would be terrible. Yumi remembered how nervous she was on her first errand out alone, about ten years ago.

It was natural that there was nothing written in Japanese anywhere in the airport. It was all in Italian, or maybe English. Her eyes were too tired to tell which was which; she could just make out the alphabet. She'd been taught Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji all her life and she was used to them. Her eyes could see them without even thinking. Sometimes she'd see Japanese written on a small sign, likely for tourists. That alone made her happy.

In the airport were many duty-free brand-name shops with just authentic Italian fashions. She'd decided to carry only ¥20,000 as pocket money, not enough to buy shoes or a bag even if she wanted to. If you managed to sneak a family credit card on the trip, you couldn't get larger items home unless there was room in your carry on baggage. The prohibition on suitcases seemed to be a precautionary measure against buying such items.

"Students who need coins, come forward," Katori-sensei called out to the Pine class students who had gathered around for roll call. Everyone had exchanged currencies in Japan, but only paper bills; they were to get coins after arriving in Italy. You tip in this country, unlike in Japan. They learned in an explanatory meeting that it was essential to pay gratuities for service in hotels and restaurants, and they needed small coins for that.

The teacher exchanged money with students as they came up, breaking their bills into small change. In a broad sense, the exchange of money could be thought of as social studies, but naïve students might not realize that on their own at first.

"Yoshino-san?"

Yumi asked as they returned from the restroom together.

"Well, Rei-chan gave me a farewell gift of some coins she didn't use and brought back last year. So that should be fine for right now, don't you think? Beyond that, I thought I'd break some notes buying souvenirs or similar things . . . oops."

Yoshino-san covered her mouth with her hand, as though she'd made a mistake. Apparently it was supposed to be a secret that the coins put her slightly over ¥20,000. That said, it was a mistake on about the same level as not factoring in sales tax when buying sweets for an excursion.

"What about you, Yumi-san?"

With the roles reversed, Yumi was in two minds. It would certainly be easy to exchange money at the "Bank of Katori-sensei," but where was the fun in that?

"I'll break a bill myself. It'll be an experience if nothing else."

Yumi came to Italy, so shouldn't she try an experience that she can only do here? The whole point of the school trip was to learn from experiences you cannot normally have.

"Ooh, a challenger!" Yoshino-san exclaimed, and clapped her hands together.

Well, once you've made a decision, you need to figure out how to do it. She thought she could easily break a bill by buying something, so the strategy is to go into a duty-free shop, buy something small, and get some coins. She might buy something useless, but looking at the long term view, she had more than enough money.

"Something like gum or chocolate should be fine, right?" Yoshino-san asked while pointing to the corner near the register, but Yumi couldn't be pinned down to either choice.

"Are you giving up the challenge?"

"But, like, sure I could buy them, but it'd be a complete waste if they turned out to be awful. Because I'm using my precious spending money."

It was probably in keeping with Italy's national character, but the sweets looked fashionable, and from a glance it looked like they were full of food coloring and flavorings.

"Then what about chocolate? This one's a major brand you can get in Japan."

Yumi had eaten those, so she knew what they tasted like. Inside the brown package were small, button-shaped chocolates covered in various colored coatings.

"But isn't that chocolate a gamble?"

That sack would only seal once, so once it was opened, it would need a rubber band or something, or else its contents would spill out and stain your bag without your knowledge. In fact, that happened once when she unwittingly left her bag in a warm place. Yumi was well aware that there are methodical people that constantly pay attention, but one can get excited or distracted.

"Then, what would be good? While we've wavered, it's almost time to meet back up."

"Mmm . . . "

Inexpensive, not too large—nothing seemed appropriate. Even at a Japanese convenience store, it might be hard to come up with something quickly. When you're in a hurry, it becomes hard to think.

"I got it. This." Yumi quickly pulled something from a side shelf with a "Yaa!"

"What's that?"

"A magic marker."

"Yeah, I can tell from looking. But," trailing off, Yoshino-san looked like she didn't really want the first thing she bought overseas to be a magic marker. "You can buy those just as easily in Japan."

"It's fine. Going by that, chocolate is the same. We had two goals here: buy something on our own, and get some coins. So it'll be a huge success if we clear those goals."

"Even if it's a marker?"

"Put an entry on the printed map that you got. 'I went to this place.' You can use it when you return to Japan. Underline things in your textbook."

"Yes, yes. I got it. I understand, so please buy it quickly. I'll wait outside the shop exit."

"R-roger."

Yumi got in the checkout line and waited. As she expected at an international airport, looking around inside the shop, she saw many people with different skin, hair, and eye color, all shopping and holding their preferred items in their hands. Lillian's black school uniform stood out among them. Other than Yumi, the students here and there drew the attention of the foreigners. No . . . here, the Japanese were the foreigners.

"Bo-buon giorno."

That was the initial greeting after entering a store, and sticking to what she was taught to say, she spoke with the lady at the cash register, who replied with, "Buona sera." Even in Japan, the boundaries between "good day," "good morning," and "good evening" were a bit fuzzy, so it couldn't be helped. If you think about it, Lillian's standard "gokigenyou" was a reasonable greeting. After that, Yumi used a bill to buy the marker. Change was placed in her hand. Success! She had completed her first mission. Because this was a shop in an airport, the prices were printed in both Italian and English at the checkout stand, so even if you couldn't speak the same language you would be fine.

While rushing back to Yoshino-san, she heard the words "Rosa Gigantea" along the way. She turned and look over her shoulder, and saw it was a bunch of Lillian students who were gathered together, standing and talking.

(Shimako-san, what have you been doing?)

She was glad to turn back and listen, even though Yoshino-san was waiting out front, silently creating a "hurry up!" pressure. She stopped. Within that group was a familiar face. It seemed that Shimako-san was methodical and reliable, unlike Yumi and Yoshino-san. Shimako-san was at the Wisteria class meeting place.

"How are you?" Yumi greeted her.

"Fine. Oh, you already bought something?" Shimako-san noticed.

"He he he! This first mission also serves to make some change," Yumi said with an awkward laugh. Next to her, Yoshino-san added a supplementary, "It's a marker."

"Ah. Ah, I see," Shimako-san clapped her hands together as if to say, "I just remembered." She did not seem particularly interested in the marker. "I need to discuss something with you two. I wonder if the three of us could pool our money to buy souvenirs for the Rose Mansion."

"I think that would be good."

"Ah, yes."

It's economical. That way they could buy something good. Yoshino-san and Yumi had no objection, it was as if they already had an unspoken agreement to do so.

"We can get it at the airport on the way back. It will just sit in our luggage otherwise."

"I was thinking food, perhaps? Touko-chan and Kanako-chan have been coming to help us lately, so we should include them as well."

"Oh yeah. I should have brought you to that shop from earlier."

"You think so? But, that's fine. There will be time on the return flight."

As Shimako-san and Yoshino-san rapidly continued the conversation, a thought arose from within the murky depths of Yumi's brain. The keywords were "souvenir" and "food."

"Hey. Regarding souvenirs," Yumi started. After hesitating, she confided in the two of them.

"What?"

"Do you have a good idea?"

It was hard to speak when facing such expectant faces. But she spoke anyway, because she would never be able to forgive herself if she did not see this through to the end. How will they react after they hear this?

"If possible, Roma Manjuu or Firenze Senbei would be nice."

Needless to say, Shimako-san and Yoshino-san were both frozen for a bit.