Chapter 85

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Sunday, 7:50 am. A call from Sachiko-sama arrived at the f.u.kuzawa house.

She had something of a premonition when the phone rang out, so despite being the closest to the phone she didn"t reach for the handset.

If she didn"t answer the phone, she wouldn"t know who was calling. She wanted to get out of the house not knowing. She wanted to wipe away the reality of the phone call, like wiping clean a blackboard.

However, while she was living with her family, she was unable to have everything her own way. Her mother clattered out of the kitchen and cheerfully picked up the receiver.

"h.e.l.lo, f.u.kuzawa residence."

While listening to the person on the other end, Yumi"s mother glanced at her. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Yumi-chan, it"s Ogasawara-san."

Yumi"s mother held out the handset to her. Obviously she"d completely forgotten that Ogasawara was Sachiko-sama"s last name, because usually when she had an opportunity to talk to Sachiko-sama she"d go to great lengths to ensure she greeted her properly, but this time she simply pa.s.sed the call along, as though it was from one of Yumi"s cla.s.smates.

Yumi thought about getting the second handset, but last night Yuuki had taken it to his room and he hadn"t woken up yet. Besides, she felt it would be somehow better if someone else was nearby, so she accepted the receiver.

"h.e.l.lo, this is Yumi."

"It"s Sachiko."

By the tone of her voice, without hearing any more, Yumi could predict how this conversation would go. "I"m sorry, Yumi," was probably going to be the follow up.

"I"m sorry, Yumi."

Yumi found herself wanting to laugh, since it was exactly like she"d predicted. But in truth it was no laughing matter. Even so, the shock hadn"t fully hit her yet. It would come later, bit by bit. Which made it even worse.

"Today - "

"You can"t make it?"

Yumi said, antic.i.p.ating. As a way of saying, "That"s what I thought." To show that it wasn"t such a shock. She wanted to put on a show of courage.

"Yes, something came up suddenly."

It was strange that some urgent business would come up on the day of the event itself that made her ring and cancel.

"Even though I kept today open because I"ve been putting off our arrangement time and again."

Sachiko-sama"s apologetic voice came through the receiver. But, not knowing how to reply, Yumi listened in silence.

"I was looking forward to it too."

That"s so cruel, onee-sama. Do you know how many times it is now? What are you going to do now that you"ve called off our date? Who are you going to see? Who is this person you have to prioritize over me? - There were plenty of things Yumi wanted to say. Saying them might have brought her comfort. However, Yumi swallowed them all, and instead spat out the following:

"I understand."

- That"s all.

"I"m sorry &h.e.l.lip; Well then."

There was no lingering aftertaste. The telephone call was ended quite abruptly.

"Yumi-chan?"

Her mother asked, worried, as she took the receiver from Yumi.

"We"re not going out today."

As she said this, she felt like she was going to cry, so she ran up the stairs. Halfway up she crashed into Yuuki, who"d woken up and was coming downstairs, but she didn"t want him to see her tear-stained face so she silently fled into her bedroom.

"Yumi? Onee-chan? Hey, what"s the matter?"

She answered the sound of the knocking with, "It"s nothing." Even though, in truth, it probably wasn"t nothing.

However, there was nothing that her brother could do for her.

Yumi cried, on her bed, m.u.f.fling her voice.

She wasn"t annoyed about not going to the amus.e.m.e.nt park. It was her onee-sama herself that was making Yumi sad.

"It"s nothing, don"t worry about it."

It was nothing. Nothing to do with her family.

Because the tears were aimed squarely at her onee-sama.

There was nothing that anyone other than her onee-sama could do for her.

The rain was closing in.

Monday.

She was still feeling depressed from the day before, plus her frizzy hair wasn"t doing what it was supposed to which put her in a terrible mood right from the start of the day.

Heading into school, she saw Yoshino-san attacking her indoor shoes. Yumi didn"t know what happened, but maybe it would be better if she could release her anger in small amounts like that. But, if such a thing were possible, no-one would ever have any problems.

During lunchtime, the girl with the familiar vertical hair rolls appeared at the entrance to the Rose Mansion.

"Gokigenyou, Yumi-sama."

"&h.e.l.lip; Gokigenyou. If you have some business in the Rose Mansion, why don"t you come inside?"

In comparison to the amicable, smiling Touko-chan, Yumi"s words were perhaps a bit standoffish. Although, the only one who noticed this was probably Yumi herself.

"That"s okay. I"m going to have lunch with my cla.s.smates in the courtyard, but before that I thought I might meet her here."

Touko-chan omitted who it was that she was going to meet, but Yumi didn"t need to ask. Both the speaker and the listener understood that it was Sachiko-sama, so the sentence was properly formed.

Whether for good or for bad, the person herself arrived at that point.

"Oh, Touko-chan?"

Well, that answered the question of who she was going to greet first. For today especially, those sorts of small gestures were on Yumi"s mind.

"Rosa Chinensis. Here."

Touko-chan took a step forward and held something out to her.

"Ah, you came all the way here just to give me this? Thank-you."

"I paid a visit to your cla.s.sroom during the break, but you weren"t there."

"I would have been at my elective cla.s.s."

Sachiko-sama plucked the golden object from Touko-chan"s hand and wrapped it around her left wrist. It was the watch that she usually wore.

(How did onee-sama"s watch end up in Touko-chan"s hands - )

Yumi had definitely seen that watch on Sachiko-sama"s wrist on Sat.u.r.day morning.

So then, as they were leaving school, had Sachiko-sama loaned it to Touko-chan for some reason?

(But, in that case, why would she say, "You came all the way here?")

That was the sort of thing you said when someone brought you something you"d left behind.

Left behind.

What, when, where - ? An excess of thoughts floated through Yumi"s mind and disappeared.

Then Touko-chan too disappeared from that place. She returned to the group of girls spreading out plastic sheets on the gra.s.s.

When Touko-chan left, Sachiko-sama finally addressed Yumi.

"Yumi, I"m sorry about yesterday."

"&h.e.l.lip; Yeah."

Sachiko-sama was surely the one in the wrong, but Yumi looked away first. At that point Yoshino-san arrived, late, and they all went inside together leaving matters as they were.

The Rose Mansion was unusually quiet that day. Yoshino-san and Rei-sama were silent, apparently fighting, and Yumi seemed to be in the same boat.

If the usually quiet Shimako-san had been there, then she would have stirred some conversation, but she was nowhere to be seen, perhaps off seeing Noriko-chan. Everything was stretched to the limit.

Yumi and Yoshino-san started to do some light cleaning once they"d finished their lunches. After school, Noriko-chan was going to accompany Shimako-san to the Rose Mansion.

Since they were going to meet once all the cla.s.ses had done their allocated cleaning after homeroom, it didn"t look like they"d have time to clean the Rose Mansion before greeting their guest.

The two Roses were looking over some paperwork for the school festival that was spread out on the table.

From time to time, Yumi felt Sachiko-sama"s gaze upon her, but she ignored it, pretending to be caught up in cleaning.

Perhaps she"d meant it as payback for yesterday. At any rate, Sachiko-sama"s kind words were starting to feel heartrending to Yumi.

When she thought about it further, Sachiko-sama"s words recently hadn"t been kind, but sweet. Like putting a sugar coated pastry in her mouth, they left her with a bit of a good feeling. And imagining what was inside made her happy.

But, that was all. Nothing appeared from within, no chocolate, nuts, or splash of liqueur. Sachiko-sama"s words were hollow, as empty as their promise was large. And because she understood that, if possible, Yumi wanted to avoid putting them in her mouth. Such were her true feelings.

She wanted words with more substance to them, even if they were spicy or bitter. But that may just have been selfish thinking on her part.

The tragedy of spending time with her onee-sama.

(It"s tough, Minako-sama.)

Even though she"d been advised to not just silently endure it.

The inept pet.i.t soeur couldn"t return the rosary, but in order to avoid being hated, she couldn"t do anything other than silently endure it either.

"Do you know the other names for hydrangea?"

The teacher asked, in the middle of their cla.s.sical literature cla.s.s.

They"d read through to a good place to stop for the day, but there was still some time left until the bell rang. At times like these, the teacher would start to chat. One of her cla.s.smates had brought along some freshly cut hydrangea from home, and their pale blue colored a section of the cla.s.sroom.

"I"m sure you all know that the hydrangea flower changes color. As a result, it"s been given a lot of nicknames. One of the major ones is "Quick change kabuki dance." Like a ninja, right?"

The elegant lecturer, who must have been getting into her sixties, then spent the next ten minutes until the end of cla.s.s talking about the conditions that brought about the change in the hydrangea"s color, the color change itself, and other such topics.

When she summed it up by explaining hydrangea in the language of flowers, it struck a chord in Yumi"s heart.

- Fickleness.

Yumi thought as she looked at the hydrangea flower. It was so pretty when it was blue. Why would it change its color?

Fickleness.

Perhaps Sachiko-sama"s heart had changed too.

Time itself may flow at a fixed rate, but it can seem fast or slow depending on one"s state of mind.

It dawdled excessively during cla.s.s in the lead-up to recess, while it was gone in the blink of an eye during the recess spent waiting for someone who didn"t come to visit.

Yumi thought that it would have been nice if Sachiko-sama had come to visit her. She didn"t want to just meet up with Sachiko-sama in the Rose Mansion, she wanted Sachiko-sama to actively come and see her.

And then, she wanted to be told all about Touko-chan. If Sachiko-sama had canceled their amus.e.m.e.nt park date to go and see Touko-chan, Yumi wanted to be given an explanation that she could accept.

However, there was no follow through.

Sachiko-sama didn"t come to see her, and Yumi didn"t want to b.u.mp into Touko-chan, so she didn"t go visiting Sachiko-sama either.

There was still the chance that there might be some action after school, although Sachiko-sama was heading home quite early these days.

Maybe she was avoiding things, and once that would have been worrying, but after seeing all these things it felt like it was better to think nothing of it, but that just made her feel even worse.

And so, Friday.

For the first time in a while, Sachiko-sama was in the Rose Mansion after school, doing some Yamayurikai paperwork. Shimako-san and the newly admitted Noriko-chan were there too. Yoshino-san and Rei-sama were at club practice, so not present.

The time spent working was pleasant enough.

Not only was Sachiko-sama there, but she wasn"t off seeing someone else either, so Yumi could relax. By avoiding idle chatter and quietly working away, she could probably avoid having her doubts about her onee-sama"s actions exposed.

However, when they reached a natural break in their work, Yumi suddenly felt the second-floor of the Rose Mansion become quite uncomfortable.

Sachiko-sama was right there in front of her eyes. She wasn"t doing anything, just sitting on her chair.

(Yumi.)

Any time now, that voice would reach her over the distance, but the sound didn"t come.

No matter the subject, Yumi would have welcomed the chat. But, in opposition to that thought, she was scared of Sachiko-sama"s words.

Yumi thought she might be able to get a breather by pouring some tea, but their newest member Noriko-chan was on-the-ball and had already started preparing some.

Shimako-san was looking out the window. It looked like it was still raining, as she was looking up at the sky and sighing.

It was at that point that Sachiko-sama spoke.

"Noriko-chan. Do you think you can do something about your use of "Shimako-san"?"

Noriko-chan was a first-year. Shimako-san was a second-year. The tradition at Lillian"s Girls Academy was for junior students to use the honorific "-sama" when addressing their seniors.

But for some reason, Noriko-chan had always used "Shimako-san" when referring to Shimako-san. This had seemed strange to Yumi at first, but over time she"d become used to it, to the point where it didn"t bother her anymore. However, it seemed Sachiko-sama didn"t feel the same.

"These are the sort of things that Shimako should be teaching you."

The harsh scolding went as far as including Shimako-san"s responsibility. When that happened, Noriko-chan couldn"t remain silent. Those who remembered the Maria ceremony would understand that she wasn"t one to back down even when her opponent was a third-year.

Noriko-chan objected with, "That"s none of your business," and "I"m against seniority based on time served." So much so that it made Sachiko-sama"s beautiful face contort.

Yumi felt sorry for Shimako-san, caught between the Yamayurikai and Noriko-chan. Urged to make a choice between the two of them, things reached a point where she couldn"t stand the pressure any more and finally fled.

"Shimako!"

"Shimako-san!"

Sachiko-sama and Noriko-chan"s voices were in lovely harmony. However, they didn"t bring Shimako-san back from beyond the biscuit door. Usually Shimako-san would go up or down the stairs quietly, but this time they creaked and groaned as she ran down them.

"&h.e.l.lip; I wonder if I overdid it."

Sachiko-sama muttered as she swept her long, black hair.

"Now it"s your turn, Noriko-chan."

"Huh?"

Noriko-chan asked, returning to her senses from a shocked daze.

"Look after Shimako-san. You can do it."

"Ah."

"Please."

Sachiko-sama turned Noriko-chan towards the door and gently pushed her forwards. Noriko-chan looked back over her shoulder and nodded.

"Leave it to me."

Rain fell, covering the sound of her running down the stairs. This situation would probably be cleaned up quite skillfully.

But despite the likely happy ending, there was still something left that Yumi wasn"t quite satisfied with. It was disheartening that her onee-sama could be so concerned about the matters of other soeurs while neglecting her own pet.i.t soeur.

"Onee-sama, it"s surprising that you"re meddling so."

Yumi said, as she closed the windows.

"Meddling?"

Sachiko-sama asked in return.

"Just before. You manufactured an excuse for Shimako-san to make Noriko-chan her pet.i.t soeur, right?"

"Well, who can tell."

Sachiko-sama said curtly as she started preparing to leave. Apparently she"d decided that that was enough for today, since they"d reached a break in their work and Shimako-san and Noriko-chan weren"t there anymore.

"A moment please, onee-sama."

It was only the two of them in the room. If there was anything Yumi wanted to tell her onee-sama, now was the chance.

"Please arrange another time."

"Another time?"

"For us to go to the amus.e.m.e.nt park together, is what I"m talking about."

"I can"t promise anything. There"s a chance I"d have to cancel again."

"Even so."

Yumi pleaded.

"If you set a date, I"ll have peace of mind until then."

Yumi didn"t know what she was saying. That wasn"t what she"d wanted to say. But perhaps the words that spring forth impulsively are the truth after all.

"Even if it comes to nothing. If you make an arrangement, until that day, I"ll - "

"Yumi&h.e.l.lip;"

Sachiko-sama looked at Yumi with an expression of surprise. How long had it been since she"d last looked at her so directly?

Surrounded by the sound of the rain, now much louder, the silence between the two of them spun out.

As they both waited for the other to speak, they heard the sound of footsteps ascending the staircase. If that was Noriko-chan, then she"d returned awfully quickly.

"Sachiko onee-sama!"

Touko-chan entered without knocking. She ran straight over to Sachiko-sama and whispered something in her ear.

Sachiko-sama nodded her head a number of times, then finally said, "I understand." The contents of the message hadn"t reached Yumi"s ears, but she could see that Sachiko-sama and Touko-chan were going to go home together.

"Onee-sama. We"re still in the middle of our conversation."

Impulsively, Yumi called her to a halt. One way or another, she wanted an obstruction. At the very least, she wanted anyone but Touko-chan to accompany Sachiko-sama at that point in time.

"Yumi&h.e.l.lip;"

Sachiko-sama told Touko-chan to wait downstairs, then turned to Yumi and said:

"At the moment, I can"t make any plans, so I can"t make a promise to you."

The sound of Touko-chan"s footsteps faded.

"Then, when will you be able to?"

"I don"t know the answer to that."

Sachiko-sama muttered, looking down.

"Onee-sama."

Like, summer or autumn. Even that kind of vague promise would be okay. Because with that, Yumi would know that she had a place in Sachiko-sama"s heart.

"Please understand."

Sachiko-sama picked up her school bag and turned to leave.

"Don"t go, onee-sama."

Even begging was no good. Her onee-sama started walking, unconcerned.

The burdensome, insufferable, tantrum-throwing pet.i.t soeur. - Surely, this must be how she was thought of.

"Rosa Chinensis - "

Touko-chan"s voice came from downstairs, urging her to hurry. As Sachiko-sama put her hand to the door, Yumi cried out in desperation:

"You"re choosing Touko-chan over me!"

Sachiko-sama stopped immediately. She turned around slowly, with a face that was more frightening than Yumi had ever seen it before.

"&h.e.l.lip; I"m angry."

Sachiko-sama left, leaving her with those words. She walked down the stairs to where Touko-chan was waiting.

"Ohhh - you"re angry."

Left alone in the room, Yumi had a brief laugh. If you want to be angry, then be angry. It was much better than the gentle smile and sweet words Sachiko-sama had used when she felt indebted.

So, somewhere inside, Yumi was glad that she"d seen that scary face. Because it meant that she could make Sachiko-sama that angry. Whether it was the anger or something else, there was value in communicating her emotions so directly.

Yumi thought about how she"d twist that around to affection. Badgering her about a promise, choosing words designed to provoke an angry reaction.

Her heart thrashed around. Yumi watched the rain falling against the gla.s.s window.

This rain.

Surely it was because of the weather.

Which would mean her feelings wouldn"t brighten either.

After watching raindrops flow down the gla.s.s window for a while, Yumi washed the tea cups and left the Rose Mansion. Since they"d left their bags there, eventually Shimako-san and Noriko-chan would return, but she didn"t wait for them.

She opened her blue umbrella and walked with her eyes to the ground. She chose a different route to usual because she didn"t want to go past the place where the hydrangea were blooming.

If the flowers had changed color since this morning, she didn"t think she"d be able to get back on her feet.

"Yumi-chan."

As she walked along the path lined with ginkgo trees, someone unexpectedly called out to her. When she turned around to confirm who it was, that person rushed over to her.

"Let me share your umbrella."

"Sei-sama!?"

It was Shimako-san"s onee-sama, Satou Sei-sama. Apparently she"d been taking shelter from the rain near the university"s side entrance, waiting for some unsuspecting prey to wander by. And Yumi was the one that she captured.

"I"ll bet you have plenty of friends that would share their umbrella with you."

As she gasped in amazement, Yumi held her umbrella out to cover Sei-sama.

After quickly wiping her wet blouse with a handkerchief, Sei-sama suddenly laughed and s.n.a.t.c.hed the umbrella"s handle.

"But it only started raining just recently. It wasn"t raining when my friends went home."

"So did you stay back for some reason, Sei-sama?"

"Mmm. Well, it"s no big deal, but - "

After taking a quick look back at the high-school buildings, Sei-sama asked:

"There"s nothing happening with Shimako, is there?"

"Shimako-san?"

Yumi looked puzzled, wondering why she was asking. Sei-sama, who had previously said, "I"ve graduated so you shouldn"t rely on me," had stayed around because she was worried about her pet.i.t soeur.

"Yesterday at lunch, someone who looked like Shimako was seen around here. I skipped out on cla.s.ses yesterday, so I only heard about it this morning. She"s not the sort of girl to just go aimlessly wandering around by the university section. So I was thinking maybe she wanted to see me about something."

So Sei-sama had apparently decided to wait around and ambush Shimako-san. Yumi didn"t know how long it had been since Sei-sama"s cla.s.ses had ended, but she"d been waiting since before it started raining. She"d chosen a place where she could keep an eye on the high-school students heading home, and would head home once she"d taken a look at her pet.i.t soeur.

Yumi thought that Shimako-san was quite fortunate. She had a kind onee-sama who, despite having graduated, still cared for her. Yumi was jealous, and it felt like she was going to cry, so she hurriedly looked away. If she suddenly burst into tears, Sei-sama would think she was weird.

"If you"re after Shimako-san, she"s probably sheltering from the rain somewhere with Noriko-chan&h.e.l.lip;"

"- Then that"s okay. I"ll go home with you, Yumi-chan. Just to the train station, anyway."

Yumi nodded, and they walked together. Apologies to Shimako-san, but she"d decided to borrow Sei-sama for a little while. Just by having Sei-sama with her, Yumi felt like she could return to the normal "Yumi-chan."

She"d been helped by Sei-sama in the past too. It was just before Valentine"s Day and there had been some minor altercation with Sachiko-sama. Yumi had hidden in the old greenhouse and Sei-sama came to see her.

Back then, what was it that Sei-sama had said to her? How could she bring it to the surface? Yumi couldn"t remember what it was. It was a memory of the distant past.

" - What?"

Sei-sama said, after they"d made it to the front gate.

"Huh?"

She said, "What?" Yumi hadn"t said anything immediately prior to that, so she answered with a question. Then Sei-sama said something quite unexpected.

"You can tell me what"s on your mind, just let it all out. I"ll listen as thanks for letting me share your umbrella."

Yumi hadn"t been aware that she"d let anything show on her face since they"d met. But this person obviously knew. Even if she didn"t know exactly what was happening with Sachiko-sama, she would figure it out easily enough.

While she was still working out how to respond, Yumi silently looked up at Sei-sama"s face.

"Are your present troubles caused by the girl with the hair rolls?"

"&h.e.l.lip; How did you know?"

"Sachiko came by a little while ago. Although she didn"t notice me."

As Yumi had suspected, Touko-chan was with Sachiko-sama. Since they hadn"t noticed Sei-sama, they were probably happily chatting away.

"They weren"t sharing an umbrella."

"That"s not - "

"Yeah, it is."

Even so, Yumi was a bit relieved to hear that they hadn"t been sharing an umbrella. Even though she herself was sharing an umbrella with Sei-sama. It was quite self-centered of her.

Even at the bus stop, while waiting for the bus, Yumi couldn"t "let it all out." If she talked about it with Sei-sama, maybe she"d feel better. However, by talking about it, Yumi felt like she"d fall into self-loathing.

This was something that she should solve on her own. She couldn"t rely on someone who"d graduated forever.

Sei-sama didn"t ask if anything had happened either. She"d merely said a single sentence, while smiling with profound benevolence, like Maria-sama.

"Yumi-chan, don"t abandon Sachiko."

I"m the one that"s being abandoned - As Yumi swallowed those words.

The lights of the bus illuminated them in the rain, as they saw it making its way towards them.

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