Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 27 Chapter 6

The electric kettle had brought the water to boil.

"Do you want black tea? Coffee? Japanese tea?"

Shimako asked the girl seated at the table. The girl look depressed.

"Uh."

That was such a non-answer, it was as though the girl hadn't noticed the question. Reluctantly, Shimako spoke.

"Right, right, we're having onigiri for lunch. We should have Japanese tea, after all."

She poured some of the hot water into the teacups to warm them. Then she added tea leaves to the small teapot and poured in the hot water.

Lined up on the table on the second floor of the Rose Mansion was the food they'd bought in the basement of the department store, all except for the cake.

As she prepared the tea, she looked over them. Six onigiri, six pieces of fried chicken, 300 grams of marinaded fish and vegetables … all the portions seemed a little too large.

Surely there was no particular significance to this. However, there was often quite an important reason hidden behind seemingly insignificant actions. In other words, she shouldn't overlook these signs.

"Uh."

Once more, the response came quite late. Apparently she agreed with the decision to have Japanese tea.

She hadn't been particularly courteous from the start, but this was taking it to a whole new level. After the fight (although Shimako wasn't sure if it was right to call it that) with her classmate outside the toilet block, the wind seemed to have been knocked out of her sails.

"Hey,"

After pouring the tea, Shimako asked.

"That girl from before, she's your classmate, right? When was it … right, the first time I went to your first-year peach group classroom, she was the one who went and brought you to me, wasn't she?"

"That's probably right."

"It is right. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been consistency."

"Huh?"

The eyes of Ami-san swum with surprise. Then she looked towards Shimako-san's hands, pointed, and said, "Ah."

"There's three teacups."

"Yes."

Shimako nodded.

"Invite your friend, and the three of us will have lunch together."

When Shimako said this, she was highly pleased with the hitherto unseen look of pleasant surprise that floated across the girl's face. So she could make that sort of expression too, huh.

"I wonder if you could ask her to come here."

"Me?"

"Yes. This time around, I'd like you to bring Igawa Ami-san to me."

Shimako smiled.

That's right. You don't have to keep this charade up.

It wasn't yet too late. Things could still be properly amended.

Yoshino thought that Chisato-san might be out for revenge.

A year ago, when she unexpectedly won the date with her 'beloved Rei-sama,' she'd been flying high, only to have Rei-chan's failure deal irreparable damage to her.

(So much so that she came to me with her troubles.)

At that time, even if it had been a mistake, Yoshino felt compassion for Chisato-san, and they both cried together. Even just thinking about it made Yoshino tear up a little.

But calling it revenge might not be the best idea. Removing the aggressive connotations of revenge and calling it overwriting might be better. Taking the places from those unpleasant memories and repainting them with pleasant memories. That was incredibly good. Yoshino found herself instinctively wanting to raise her hand in approval.

And so, she immediately made a proposal.

"Hey, hey, hey, can we go to the zoo too?"

"What?"

That's not in the plan, Chisato-san scowled. However, Yoshino was not deterred.

"It's unfair that we're only going to the places you remember."

"Unfair?"

"On that day one year ago, I went and looked at the elephant, and the deer, and the rabbits all by myself."

" … I see."

Chisato-san said admiringly, apparently understanding Yoshino's intentions. However, as they approached the zoo entrance her face grew dark.

"The entrance fee's 400 yen."

"We should have that much left. We were going to get coffee somewhere, right?"

In this case, they could drop the coffee. They still had some tea remaining in their thermos.

"We have 1000 yen, so we can go in. But if we do, there's not enough for your bus fare home, Yoshino-san."

"Huh?"

"The plan was originally to go to a cafe, but we had to change that to 300 yen coffees from a basic coffee shop so there'd be enough for your bus fare."

"No way."

Yoshino opened her left palm and traced out some figures with her finger as she calculated. People who used an abacus would probably flip imaginary beads in the air at times like this, but that would be overdoing it. The movie ticket and the zoo entrance fee, times two, take that from 4000 yen, and if there's enough left over for the bus fare …

"Ah. Ahhh."

10 yen short.

"Well it's a good thing I rode my bike here then."

"Ooooh."

It was too late to cry about it now. Besides, there was one thing she didn't want to tell Chisato-san. She left home late because she'd been making her lunch.

"What are you going to do?"

Are you coming in, or not, Yoshino asked.

"Let's go."

It's too late to turn back now. They had to push on, one way or the other.

"A true Tokyoite spends all their money the day they earn it."

"You know, I think you're using that phrase incorrectly."

Chisato-san laughed as she handed over the 1000 yen note to pay for the entrance fee.

They had just exited the train station.

Out through the ticket gate to the front of the building. Most of the people that got off the train with them were briskly walking towards the bus station, or the taxi stand, or else heading over to a different railway line's train station.

However, Touko-chan was not moving. She looked at her watch, and made an action that was like a quick nod. She must be waiting for something.

Yumi too waited quietly.

Where are we going, what are we waiting for? Those questions, and more, she didn't ask as she stood by Touko-chan's side.

On closer inspection, there were a number of other people that, like them, were waiting around and not going anywhere. A car showed up not long later, probably driven by a family member, and one of them got in.

(Huh?)

Carried along by the wind from some unknown source, a sweet scent made its way to Yumi's nose.

(It's not perfume.)

It was the faint, spontaneous scent of flowers. Looking around, she spotted a lady in her twenties holding a flower basket in her hands.

Pink roses and daisies. And she could see something green, with small white flowers - probably baby's-breath. Yumi was marveling at how pretty it was when Touko-chan tugged on her sleeve.

"Yumi-sama. It's here."

"Huh?"

Yumi turned back around to see what 'was here' in time to see a small whitish bus pull into the roundabout in front of the train station.

"That (is what we're going on)?"

"Yes."

The bus pulled up and opened its door, and a few of the people remaining at the station had apparently been waiting for it as they got on board. The lady with the flower basket was among them. The words, "Matsudaira Mountain Base Hospital" were written in green letters along the side of the bus.

(Ahh, so that's it.)

As Yumi followed Touko-chan onto the bus, she finally realized what their destination was. The driver was apparently an acquaintance of Touko-chan's, as he greeted her with, "It's been a while." The 'Matsudaira Mountain Base Hospital' was obviously her grandfather's hospital.

"All those heading to the Matsudaira Mountain Base Hospital, please come aboard."

The bus driver temporarily vacated his seat, went outside and called this out in the direction of the train station building a couple of times, before returning to his seat and starting the bus once more.

Inside the bus were seven people, not counting Yumi and Touko-chan. As well as the young lady with the flower basket, there was also an elderly gentleman carrying flowers, and an elderly lady carrying something large wrapped in a furoshiki cloth. Since it was Sunday, they were probably visiting patients at the hospital.

"This bus - "

Touko-chan anticipated Yumi's question, and answered it before she finished.

"It's a courtesy bus. The hospital's a fair distance from the train station."

Then, as though just realizing it, she added, "Of course, it's complementary." Touko-chan had apparently seen though Yumi's attempt to conceal her concern about their dwindling war-chest, that is, the remains of the 4000 yen contained in an envelope. They'd spent close to 1700 yen so far. Since they'd need the same amount to get back, that left just 600 yen for two people.

With 300 yen each, they could probably buy some bread from a convenience store, but the courtesy bus was taking them away from the train station, so would there be convenience stores near their destination? Maybe they should have bought something to take with them at the train station.

(Ahh, what am I doing?)

Was it really an appropriate time to be worrying about lunch? Touko-chan was finally letting Yumi in to her territory.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yeah. Ah, no."

A flustered Yumi thought, "She's seen through me once again," and because she was unprepared, it soon showed on her face. Touko-chan laughed.

"I'm hungry. But if you could just wait a little bit longer, please."

Yumi looked at her watch and thought, "Well, it is about that time."

The bus gradually drew away from the urban areas, until it was driving down country roads. It wasn't even close to snowing, but the scenery Yumi saw out the bus window definitely felt colder than Tokyo, probably due to the proximity of the mountain.

They'd probably been in the bus for about ten minutes when Touko-chan took a single photograph out from where it was stored amongst the pages of a paperback book and showed it to Yumi.

The photo was in color, but it was easy to tell that it was a fairly old photograph nonetheless. Five girls in Lillian's Girls Academy high-school uniforms were lined up, smiling at the camera. The same happy group photograph taken throughout the ages.

"My mother's in this photo."

"Is this her?"

Yumi pointed, without thinking about it. She was the spitting image of Touko-chan, a serious looking girl with vertical hair rolls on each side of her face.

" … Yeah."

Touko-chan quietly smiled, apparently quite satisfied.

"You're right. That's my mother."

She said.

Chapter end