Volume 32 Chapter 2 (1/2)

The wooden spoon that comes with the ice-cream has a shape like a tennis racket

So too the rand rice and the small hand-mirror she carries in a pouch She hadn't been conscious of it until just now, but they all had the same basic shape as a racket

The screen door was like the strings of the racket So too was the lattice over her neighbor's ventilation ducts Now she had s

(Is this some kind of illness?)

Flopping down over her desk, Katsura sighed softly

So this very classroom At that time, despite the vast differences in shape and ht that the plastic dustpan resembled a tennis racket And now this problem seemed terminal

”What's wrong, Katsura-san?”

She raised her head to see who had called out to her and Toudou shi+ in front of the lockers at the rear of the classroo her way

”What do you mean?”

”Are you feeling unwell?”

shi+htly anxious expression She was still a beautiful person no matter what expression she had on her face, but Katsura still felt sorry for causing her to worry

”Ahh, no, I'm fine”

Hastily shaking her head, she smiled to show she ell Her illness may have been terminal, but it was a problem with her mind not her body So even if she was taken to the sick bay, she didn't think they would cure her

”shi+?”

Because there was practice for tos, afternoon classes were called off Now, after lunch, they were the only two that remained in the classrooht that she was the only one The third yearsprivate farewell parties in their classrooo home immediately or, if they had a reason to stay, to move directly to their destination

”All along? Umm, no? I had just come from the staff roos”

shi+mako-san opened her locker and took out her coat

”Are you going to the Rose Mansion?”

”Yeah There's some odd-jobs to be done”

She'd just been at the staff roo to the Rose Mansion As you would expect, Rosa Gigantea was busy

”As for me,”

She hadn't been asked, but Katsura opened her mouth

”I'd arranged to go hoether with , so I' until they're done”

She hadn't been challenged by shi+mako-san, but it sort of felt that way She wanted to explain that she had a reason for staying back, and wasn't just ai

But shi+ out if her class in the classroo from her locker

”Oh, really That's good”

shi+ether with your onee-saood' But for Katsura, she couldn't think about it as soood'

”Well, I think I'll head over to the third year classrooms and see if I can find my onee-sama”

Katsura stood up, and left the rooether with shi+mako-san In the hallway they bid each other fareith 'Gokigenyou' and went left and right, respectively

Katsura was thinking as she walked along

She wondered what she would do when she got there If she arrived while her onee-sas to do, she would have to wait there Or her onee-sama would have to hurry-up to accoood She didn't want to cause a fuss now that it was right at the very end

(But will she really be in her classroom?)

Suddenly, she stopped walking

A very dangerous thought had just entered into her head

(What a?)

If her onee-sama wasn't in the classroo?

(And ith?)

Stop it, stop it If she kept thinking about that, her racket illness would worsen

But would she be able to spontaneously recover froh she saw nothing, heard nothing and thought nothing?

Just how long had she been unable to stop thinking about tennis rackets

It all went back to about a week ago Probably no more than ten days

After school, they were practicing their swings at the tennis courts that seeer there Katsura atching over her petit soeur, Mizue

For some reason, Mizue seemed different then usual

So different clothes, or had a new haircut But her hair was the sa her in the clothes she had on

It wasn't what she had on, but Katsura soon realized what it was She was using a different racket Which changed her for

Katsura was going to ask her where she got the racket Was it a newly purchased one? Was she borrowing it from someone? If she had asked about it quickly, it probably would have been a non-event Mizue would have answered, telling her where it was from

But Katsura hesitatedclosely at Mizue's racket, she saw that it wasn't a new one And in the clubroom they had a number of spare rackets, but it wasn't one of those either But it was definitely one that she had seen somewhere before

That's it It was Katsura's onee-sama's racket

Why did Mizue have it?

Had her onee-saiven it to Mizue? That was probably it

If a senior said they wanted to give you their racket, anybody, even Mizue, would gladly accept So that was fine Then where was the problem?

(… I get it)

Why did onee-saive her racket to? That was the question

She fretted over it, but couldn't do anything about it She couldn't decide whether or not to ask her onee-sama about it

(Right It's not like I'e her …!)

Katsura startled herself

Maybe this was just her reaping what she had sown

About this time last year, Katsura had received a racket from the then vice-president of the tennis club, and she too had kept this a secret from her onee-sama

At that time, she had been overjoyed to have elicited such an action from a beloved senior For the students in the tennis club, it was like receiving athat her onee-sa the racket, Katsura had adorned a wall of her room with it and the commemorative photo that Takeshi+ma Tsutako had taken of them

(It wasn't an affair It's just that I admired her like an idol)

But in that case, why hadn't she told her onee-sama about it And why had she kept the racket hidden?

Right Because she was feeling guilty about it So she hadn't wanted her onee-sama to find out

Understanding that, she couldn't ask her onee-sas

It was only when Katsura was placed in the opposite position that she realized just how unthinkable an act she had done

(I give up)

Resting her hand against a hall, Katsura sighed softly

Too s wouldn't move as she co the world outside She didn't knohere she should go Maybe she should just stay here

However,

”Huh - Katsura-san?”

As she was thinking about giving up, so around, she saw her class there

”It really is you, Katsura-san What's the matter?”

”The matter?”

”You were looking like you ht be unwell”

Yu concerned

”Ah, no, my body's fine”

Katsura hastily shook her head It was like deja-vu She saw the hu too

Yu in it, Katsura felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders

”Yu to the Rose Mansion froht?”

As Rosa Chinensis en bouton, Yumi-san was friends with shi+ Froot it dead on

”How did you know?”

”I have ESP”

Katsura said, as she held her right hand over Yumi-san's head

”Ooh, you'll have to use that power to help me one of these days - ”

”You know I'd really like to do that, but there are times when I can, and times when I can't use my powers”

Even as she wasthat if she really did have this kind of power she would head straight to where her onee-sama was and use it on her

”And you Katsura-san? Where were you off to?”

”Ahh, I was going to my onee-sama's classroom”

Katsura had stopped here while she was trying to decide whether or not she should go, but her original objective unintentionally slipped out of her ht this was fine, as Yu to the Rose Mansion and this hat she had told shi+mako-san earlier

” - Hey, Yumi-san Isn't the Rose Mansion in the other direction?”

Katsura had expected they would head off in opposite directions, but Yuether with her

”Ahh, yeah, I guess that's true”

Yumi-san muttered, aardly

”I thought I'd go and see my onee-sama too”

”Huh?”

So it looks like Yu her to the third-year's classrooms

”Rosa Chinensis isn't going to the Rose Mansion?”

”No, probably not today But she one home already”

Oh, right, they were doing odd-jobs, weren't they The boutons of the retiring Roses wouldn't want to make their onee-samas do that kind of work

Katsura resigned herself to the situation Perhaps this was the will of Maria-sama At any rate, she would ith Yumi-san to her onee-sama's classrooht when she arrived there

(But)

Would her onee-sama be in the classroom? As they approached the third-year classroo faster Katsura looked down at her shoes as she walked along At least she could say she was ress

”Sorry, Katsura-san”

Yu

”I'll have to leave you here”

”Huh?”

Katsura had taken a few paces ahead of Yumi-san before she noticed, then stopped and turned around Then she turned around onceat

”Ahh”

She was a fair distance away, but it was definitely Yumi-san's onee-sama, Rosa Chinensis, ahead of theroup of first years, and soraph

Neither Rosa Chinensis nor the girls surrounding her seemed to have noticed Yumi-san, who quickly departed So Katsura chased after her

”Yumi-san”

Yu when she reached the stairway, probably deciding that she was completely hidden there