Volume 13 Chapter 4 (1/2)
In front of the statue of Maria-sama at the fork in the road, a voice called out to her from behind
”I've been waiting for you, Nijou Noriko-san”
Noriko lowered her hands fro position and turned around
”Yes?”
It was scary how accustoh school, she had gone through theattention to herself, but now she just didn't feel right if she passed this place without joining her hands together in prayer Her devoutly Christian onee-sama had had a profound effect on her
”Gokigenyou Hot, isn't it?”
The lone older student said as she drew closer
Sunglasses as dark as her Lillian's school uniforh back on her head, a white and navy blue striped bag in her hand, and black backless shoes with large floral decorations on her feet At first glance the outfit seemed mismatched, but on closer inspection it wasn't too badly balanced Although it required abandoning all preconceived notions about the school uniform in order to admit that
”Recently, the Ya for the school festival every day, haven't they? Impressive, impressive”
She alking alongside Noriko, as though it was thein the world
”Um - ”
Noriko wanted to ask, ”Is there soiven the opportunity to do so
Instead she was peppered with a barrage of gossipy questions, like, ”Have you finished your hoet much free time this vacation, did you?” Noriko had no choice but to keep walking towards the school building, giving short and innocuous responses like, ”Yeah,” and ”Mirl's motives were, she wasn't about to provide any careless answers
Just what exactly was this girl's goal?
Earlier, she'd said, ”I've been waiting for you” It see in this heat just because she wanted to ith Noriko
”Pardon me for a moment”
Having said this, the girl stopped walking Even though Noriko didn't consider herself to be accoirl, she still had plenty of time so reluctantly she stopped too
The girl reached into her handbag and pulled so out
”Here”
She had pulled out a couple of oolong tea drink cartons
”It's alright, I'm fine”
Noriko politely refused, then the girl said:
”It's not a bribe”
”No, I didn't think it was”
”Really? Then forgive me”
She laughed airily and put one of the cartons back into her bag, then pierced the other with a straw and started sucking on it in the middle of the road
Not seeing any reason why she should have to wait under the blazing sun for her senior to finish, Noriko bowed slightly and started walking ahead Then that girl started chasing after her, still carrying the drink carton, and saying, ”Please wait a minute”
”That re with the Hanadera Academy student council the other day What were your iot me interested”
”… Um”
It didn't exactly look as though she'd just been reed into the topic
”Is it true that Rosa Chinensis fainted from shock when she met those honorable men?”
Noriko was glad she hadn't accepted the oolong tea She'd even said it wasn't a bribe, what a lie that was
”If you want to talk about that, you'll have to excuse me”
She quickened her pace, fed up with this She may have spoken a bit forcefully, aided by the heat
”Oh don't say that, wait for me”
The sunglasses followed once again
”But I don't know anything”
The girl stuck to her like a snake coiled around her, and Noriko couldn't shake her no matter how she tried As a last resort, she stood in front of Noriko, blocking her path, acting like soo this far took her actions beyond irritating, into the real
”What the heck are you doing?”
Noriko asked, with a sigh, and that girl just grinned and said:
”Liar Sorry, justbecause there was so I really wanted to ask your help with”
”My help … ?”
In her mind, Noriko quipped, ”And hoould you make fun of someone ould do you a favor after all this?” While Lillian's Girls Acadeirls in different grades, it didn't mean that the seniors could do whatever they wanted
”One of ate Buddhist statues But our school's Catholic, right? So there's not really any good books on it in the library”
She looked regretfully in the direction of the library
However, wasn't the girl's start as late as it was audacious that a Catholic school would set a report on Buddhist statues as homework?
(Why's she still only gathering data? Summer vacation's almost over)
Then the girl smiled in an overly-friendly manner and continued, co
”So I thought I'd do some research on the internet Noriko-san, can you introduce me to the site you and your friends use?”
”… You could just do a search”
She'd probably expected Noriko would say this, because she immediately adopted a facial expression that said, ”Of course I know that,” before continuing with the words:
”But it's a bit scary to suddenly jue bill before you're even aware of it So it would be a huge relief if it was a site that an acquaintance of ood?”
It sounded to Noriko like she was talking about a rip-off joint Not everywhere was like that, but she had heard tales of si Because she was dependent on her allowance fro for new sites, li herself to the sites she was familiar with as a safety measure
Noriko was caught out a bit by being called an acquaintance, but since they both went to the same school then in the broader sense of the word it was probably true
”… I don't mind, but it's just a site for amateur enthusiasts, so I doubt it will be useful as a reference You're probably better off going to a big public library … ”
”Yeah I'll follow both leads”
”Alright Hold on a minute”
Noriko didn't see a proble her the site's address It would be easy enough to find from a search even if she wasn't told it
”Uot it here”
She'd just happened to bring a printout of the site's hoe with her today Froht hand corner
”Ah, this isn't it Maybe this?”
She'd accidentally pulled out an email fro She'd printed theht so they were stacked one on top of the other
”h t t p colon slash slash … um”
The girl spoke as she copied the address into her student notebook from the other piece of paper that Noriko offered
” … hey, who's Takuya-kun, is he your boyfriend?”
”Huh?”
”The sender of that email”
What a blunder
Despite the handicap of her sunglasses and that she'd only seen it for a moment, she'd apparently pulled that name out of those lines of text
”Just a friend”
Noriko replied confidently, since she wasn't ashamed of their relationshi+p
”But he's a boy, right?”
”A boy, well, a man actually”
”He's a ht?”
”Mm, well … in the loosest sense of the word”
Noriko was getting annoyed enough that she wanted to say, ”If you've got the time to talk about that then copy the address already,” but decided that arcing up here would just draw things out even longer, so she silently endured it
”Ah, sorry It caught ”
Maybe the irritation was showing on Noriko's face, because the girl sped up her transcription of the web site address and then closed her student diary when she was done After that, she took the carton of oolong tea out fro and slipped it into Noriko's hand
”Hey, wai … ”
”It's fine, it's fine It's thanks for giving me the address”
The other girl then walked away, leaving behind the impression of over-familiarity, like an old-lady on her way back froht onto the next door neighbor's children whether they wanted them or not
”What was up with that?”
She felt like she'd just been conned somehow
She had to see her onee-sama's face to remove the bad taste Noriko hurried off to the Rose Mansion
It was 12:45pm
The oolong tea that had been forced on her was lukewarm
Just how long had that girl been waiting there for her?
Noriko relayed the entire story as she poured a glass of the barley tea that had been prepared yesterday
”I think asking for the website's address may just have been a pretext for her questions about the events of two days ago”
She put the carton of oolong tea which had been forced onto her into the refrigerator when she took the pitcher of barley tea out It was already body-temperature by the time she arrived at the Rose Mansion, so she had no desire to drink it like that
”The events of two days ago”
Noriko's onee-sama, Toudou shi+mako-san, looked puzzled
”If that was the case, wouldn't she have asked me about it? I arrived here ten h for the oolong tea to go warm, she should have seen me pass by”
”That's true”
The usual route fro the path lined with ginkgo trees, which inevitably passed in front of the statue of Maria-sa at the first fork in that road
”The reason that she called out to you… if she did want to ask about Buddhist statues, you would be the obvious choice”
They were currently the only two people in the Rose Mansion's second-floor room From the sample size of two it wasn't possible to say whether Noriko had been targeted specifically, or if others had also been chosen But they should be able to deter the other members as they arrived
”But why do you think she would know about the events of two days ago?”
”That girl … um, I'm fairly sure she was Tsukiyama Minako-sama”
Sheherself but it was pretty obvious If wearing sunglasses and having a different hairstyle was enough to s wouldn't be full of photos of actors cutting loose when traveling incognito As so, surely she would have known this
”She's been fairly quiet recently, so it's a bit unexpected Although she is still a member of the newspaper club”
shi+hed, troubled Noriko's onee-sa that much showed how much of a problem-child that Tsukiyama Minako-sama was
”But are you that familiar with Minako-sama's face, Noriko?”
”Yeah”
Noriko shrugged
”It's one of the ht h I never asked her to”
But, like her onee-sama said, Minako-sa to draw attention to herself since Noriko entered Lillian's in April So as she acting so suspiciously now, as though she was digging for so?
”The events of the day before yesterday”
”Naturally, I told her nothing”
Noriko declared, holding up her right hand
There had been no touching or indecent exposure during their first , but the als to a close with a complete loss of face for the Roses
The boys fro ready for another round so there would undoubtedly be another ot out then Rosa Chinensis' ”e
”My sincerest thanks It's not so Sachiko-sama's proud of, even at the best of times If everyone read about it in the ”Lillian Kawaraban,” then I'm sure she'd feel even worse”
”That's for sure”
Their shoulders sluined it
Ogasawara Sachiko-saer or despair They wanted Rosa Chinensis' heart to be as calm as possible, even if just for the sake of the peace of the Yamayurikai
”Ah, right”
In order to brighten the mood, Noriko led the conversation in a different direction
”I've printed out Takuya-kun's hoe, the one I told you about earlier”
”Where?”
Noriko placed the printout on the table so shi+mako-san could see
”Ah, you're right It's our Aata That's a nice photo of it”
The three golden, glittering Amitabha statues were featured in the ”Takuya-kun's Favorites” section The statues were fro of her onee-sauu Temple
”I'iven pere See, here he's written that it was all thanks to the chief priest”
”I'reed because it was shi+e of Buddhist statues exceeds my father's, and he's trustworthy I've heard they're ements for him to come and stay with one of the main families that supports our temple for a while”
Noriko thought, ”That Takuya-kun is as shrewd as ever” Incidentally, shi+mura-san was Takuya-kun's surname
”Ah, right As requested, the name and address of the temple weren't printed, so you shouldn't be inundated with a flood of inquiries But if anything does happen, let me know I think he's already said this to the chief priest, but the sa, onee-sama”
Noriko said as she read through the email printout
”Alright, I'll keep that in mind”
Noriko's onee-sale action she took was elegant and beautiful A divinity reminiscent of Maria-sama Noriko had felt that way even when they first met
”But it's a lot of trouble for you too, Noriko”
”Huh?”
Noriko asked, aware of the somewhat stupid look on her face since she had absolutely no idea what the trouble was
”Because you'll be relaying eon”
”But I already email Takuya-kun almost every day, so it's no bother at all”
”Teehee You two must be close Enviably so”
Her onee-sah she knew this, Noriko was so pleased she estion:
”Then why don't you co with us next time, onee-sama?”
”Oh?”
”I know it's sudden, but if you're free tomorroould you like to come to an exhibition of Buddhist statues at an artTakuya-kun there It'd be great if you could co”
”Tomorrow!?”
shi+mako-san blinked Surprised by the sudden request But since the conversation had come this far, it was too late to back out now
”But won't I just be in the way?”
”Not at all I think Takuya-kun's intrigued by Lillian's soeur syste about ”onee-sama this” or ”onee-sama that” in my emails In fact, the other day he i he'd like to have a leisurely chat with you over tea”
Noriko estures as she explained about Takuya-kun, and her onee-sahed softly
”Alright then, I'll join you”
”Really? Ooh, that oing to be displaying a Maria Kanon, a statue of Maria-saious persecution, so I' to you too, onee-sama”
While she was still rejoicing, the biscuit-door suddenly opened
”What is it? What's so a?”
The face of Rosa Foetida, Hasekura Rei-sama, appeared
”Well, u to a Buddhist statue exhibition tomorrow”
Apparently Noriko's excited voice had carried out of the room
”Ohso well, I'm jealous”
Quipped shi+mazu Yoshi+no-sama, who had arrived with Rei-sama
”… Would you like to come too?”
She asked, just to be polite
”No, it's alright”
”We don't want to bother you”
The Yellow Rose sisters declined simultaneously Apparently neither of them had an interest in Buddhist statues
While Noriko poured thelass of barley tea, her onee-sama turned to Rei-sama and said:
”That reate and here?”
”Do you mean, ”Did I approach anyone?” or ”Did anyone approach me?””
The way she phrased it meant that either interpretation was possible japanese is tough
”The latter”
”Someone did, why do you ask?”
”I thought so”
Noriko exchanged glances with her onee-sama
When she tried to confir who and where it was, Rei-sahtly dubious
”It was Yumi-chan, in front of the Rose Mansion She told , and I shouldn't worry Sachiko had forgotten her slippers and was going to the visitor's entrance to borrow a pair”
”It was Yumi-sama, huh”
Noriko put the glass pitcher back in the refrigerator, then walked over to theand looked out She caught a glimpse of as unmistakeably Rosa Chinensis en bouton, fukuzawa Yu and the Rose Mansion
”But ould Yu outside? Surely she would be better off either waiting inside the Rose Mansion, or accoet out of the heat”
After downing her glass of barley tea in one gulp, Yoshi+no-sama answered shi+mako-san's question
”She said that Sachiko-saone inside the school building And she couldn't go into the Rose Mansion or the school building in her outdoor shoes, right?”
”Ah, so that's it”
To think that sootten her slippers Shefrom the events of the day before yesterday