"Yumi."

It was Monday.

Yumi was called to a halt on the tree-lined path, just past the school gates.

"Ah, onee-sama."

She stopped and turned around.

"Gokigenyou."

Standing there, in plain clothes, was Ogasawara Sachiko-sama.

Since April, Yumi had occasionally caught glimpses of her onee-sama along the tree-lined path or near the bus stop as she went to and from Lillian"s Girls University, however she still wasn"t used to it. It felt strange that her onee-sama would be wearing plain clothes while she was wearing a school uniform. On top of that, her onee-sama was wearing jeans today.

It was still quite early, so there were only a few students on their way to school. Yumi was only here at this hour because they were having a meeting about the welcoming ceremony for the new students.

"Here, this is for you."

Sachiko-sama held out a slightly bulging white envelope.

"It"s what we talked about the other day."

The envelope wasn"t sealed, so Yumi peeked inside.

"Ah. The photos from the trip we went on over spring break!"

"Whenever I met you, I didn"t have them with me. I knew you"d be walking by here today, so I decided to ambush you."

"I"m humbled that you would do this for me, despite your dislike of early mornings."

"Well, I suppose you could call it that. At any rate, there"s various counter-measures I can take, so I"m fine."

As she said this, Sachiko-sama reached out and touched Yumi"s collar. Her fingers traced the line of the sailor collar down to the tie.

"Onee-sama?"

"I should stop. You are, after all, Rosa Chinensis."

Both the person tying the tie and the one having her tie tied smiled. It was difficult to stop what had been their daily custom.

At that moment, a student came running through the school gates.

"Touko?"

"Ah, onee-sama."

Having noticed them, Touko took a moment to adjust the pleats of her skirt before greeting Yumi with a "Gokigenyou."

Touko may have thought that she had covered everything up completely, but her trademark hair rolls were still in disarray. Yumi was in no doubt that she had run all the way here from the bus stop.

"Gokigenyou, Sachiko-sama. I"ll be going on ahead of you."

Touko gave a slight bow, then walked off in the direction of the high school buildings. There was no need to explicitly caution her about not running.

"I know she didn"t want to arrive after me, but she doesn"t have to be in such a rush."

Yumi said as she watched Touko depart, and Sachiko-sama"s eyes widened.

"My, that doesn"t sound like Touko-chan."

"Recently, she"s stopped trying to shoulder everything by herself. I think it"s a good trend."

In her Yamayurikai work, her drama club activities, and her dealings with her cla.s.smates. In case of emergency, that kind of thing. But she was now able to judge when to give something her all and when to conserve her strength.

"I see."

Smiling, Sachiko-sama gave Yumi a light nudge in the back.

"It"s about time you were on your way as well."

"Yes."

Yumi slowly took one step forward.

Gokigenyou, Gokigenyou.

She walked slowly, with her head held high, along the tree lined path that echoed with the sound of the clear morning greeting.

Walking slowly so as to not disturb the pleats in their skirts, so as to not toss their white sailor scarves into disarray... such is the standard of modesty here.

Yumi could no longer see her figure, but Touko would be ahead of her on this path and, if Yumi were to turn around, her onee-sama would be behind her.

In the Rose Mansion, her friends would be waiting for her arrival.

Her cla.s.smates were in their cla.s.sroom, and -

When she stopped in front of the statue of Maria-sama at the fork in the path, a shy voice called out to her from behind.

"Gokigenyou, Rosa Chinensis."

Yumi turned around, smiling.

"Gokigenyou."

Maria-sama smiled as she watched the untroubled daily lives of her lambs.