Volume 10 Chapter 8 (1/2)

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 Yos.h.i.+no-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 Yos.h.i.+no-san arrived, late, and they all went inside together leaving matters as they were.

The Rose Mansion was unusually quiet that day. Yos.h.i.+no-san and Rei-sama were silent, apparently fighting, and Yumi seemed to be in the same boat.

If the usually quiet s.h.i.+mako-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 Yos.h.i.+no-san started to do some light cleaning once they'd finished their lunches. After school, Noriko-chan was going to accompany s.h.i.+mako-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. s.h.i.+mako-san and the newly admitted Noriko-chan were there too. Yos.h.i.+no-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.

s.h.i.+mako-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 's.h.i.+mako-san'?”

Noriko-chan was a first-year. s.h.i.+mako-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 's.h.i.+mako-san' when referring to s.h.i.+mako-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 s.h.i.+mako should be teaching you.”

The harsh scolding went as far as including s.h.i.+mako-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.