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 from their praying position and turned around.
”Yes?”
It was scary how accustomed she had become to it. When she first entered high school, she had gone through the motions to avoid drawing attention to herself, but now she just didn't feel right if she pa.s.sed 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.
Sungla.s.ses as dark as her Lillian's school uniform, her hair knotted high 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 Yamayurikai members have been preparing for the school festival every day, haven't they? Impressive, impressive.”
She was walking alongside Noriko, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
”Um - ”
Noriko wanted to ask, ”Is there something you wanted?” but wasn't given the opportunity to do so.
Instead she was peppered with a barrage of gossipy questions, like, ”Have you finished your homework?” and ”You didn't get 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 ”Mmm.” Since she didn't know what the other girl'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 seemed unthinkable that she would have been waiting in this heat just because she wanted to walk with Noriko.
”Pardon me for a moment.”
Having said this, the girl stopped walking. Even though Noriko didn't consider herself to be accompanying this girl, she still had plenty of time so reluctantly she stopped too.
The girl reached into her handbag and pulled something 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 reminds me, you had a meeting with the Hanadera Academy student council the other day. What were your impressions? It's got me interested.”
”&h.e.l.lip; Um.”
It didn't exactly look as though she'd just been reminded of it, the way she plunged 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 sungla.s.ses 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 some primary school bully. That she would go this far took her actions beyond irritating, into the realm of mind-boggling.
”What the heck are you doing?”
Noriko asked, with a sigh, and that girl just grinned and said:
”Liar. Sorry, just making fun. Actually, I was waiting because there was something I really wanted to ask your help with.”
”My help &h.e.l.lip; ?”
In her mind, Noriko quipped, ”And how would you make fun of someone who would do you a favor after all this?” While Lillian's Girls Academy had a strict seniority-based relations.h.i.+p between the girls in different grades, it didn't mean that the seniors could do whatever they wanted.
”One of my vacation research projects is to investigate 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, completely oblivious to what Noriko was thinking.
”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?”
”&h.e.l.lip; 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 jump in, right? At some sites you can rack up a huge bill before you're even aware of it. So it would be a huge relief if it was a site that an acquaintance of mine already frequented. Is that no good?”
It sounded to Noriko like she was talking about a rip-off joint. Not everywhere was like that, but she had heard tales of similar things before, so she understood the feeling. Because she was dependent on her allowance from her parents, Noriko didn't really go out searching for new sites, limiting 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.
”&h.e.l.lip; 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 &h.e.l.lip; ”
”Yeah. I'll follow both leads.”
”Alright. Hold on a minute.”
Noriko didn't see a problem with telling her the site's address. It would be easy enough to find from a search even if she wasn't told it.
”Umm. I think I've got it here.”
She'd just happened to bring a printout of the site's homepage with her today. From memory, the address was printed in the upper-right hand corner.
”Ah, this isn't it. Maybe this?”
She'd accidentally pulled out an email from Takuya-kun, so she hurriedly crammed it back into her bag. She'd printed them both out last night so they were stacked one on top of the other.
”h t t p colon slash slash &h.e.l.lip; um.”
The girl spoke as she copied the address into her student notebook from the other piece of paper that Noriko offered.
”w w w &h.e.l.lip; hey, who's Takuya-kun, is he your boyfriend?”
”Huh?”
”The sender of that email.”
What a blunder.
Despite the handicap of her sungla.s.ses 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 relations.h.i.+p.
”But he's a boy, right?”
”A boy, well, a man actually.”
”He's a male friend, so he's a boyfriend, right?”
”Mm, well &h.e.l.lip; 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 my interest, so I couldn't stop myself from asking.”
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 from her bag and slipped it into Noriko's hand.
”Hey, wai &h.e.l.lip; ”
”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 from the supermarket pus.h.i.+ng the sweets she'd just bought 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 gla.s.s 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 s.h.i.+mako-san, looked puzzled.
”If that was the case, wouldn't she have asked me about it? I arrived here ten minutes before you. If she had been waiting there long enough for the oolong tea to go warm, she should have seen me pa.s.s by.”
”That's true.”
The usual route from the main gate to the school buildings was along the path lined with ginkgo trees, which inevitably pa.s.sed in front of the statue of Maria-sama. Because Maria-sama was standing at the first fork in that road.
”The reason that she called out to you&h.e.l.lip; 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 determine that by asking the other members as they arrived.
”But why do you think she would know about the events of two days ago?”
”That girl &h.e.l.lip; um, I'm fairly sure she was Tsukiyama Minako-sama.”
She may have thought she was disguising herself but it was pretty obvious. If wearing sungla.s.ses and having a different hairstyle was enough to make her look like someone else, then the weekly gossip mags wouldn't be full of photos of actors cutting loose when traveling incognito. As someone on the side of the people doing the unmasking, 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.”
s.h.i.+mako sighed, troubled. Noriko's onee-sama never criticized anyone, so even saying 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 many things Touko taught me when I first entered this school, even though I never asked her to.”
But, like her onee-sama said, Minako-sama had been quiet recently and hadn't done anything to draw attention to herself since Noriko entered Lillian's in April. So why was she acting so suspiciously now, as though she was digging for something?
”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 meeting with the high school boys, just a simple greeting, but the almost instantaneous fainting had drawn things to a close with a complete loss of face for the Roses.
The boys from Hanadera were getting ready for another round so there would undoubtedly be another meeting soon, but if news of this event got out then Rosa Chinensis' ”man-hatred” would become public knowledge.
”My sincerest thanks. It's not something 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 slumped as they imagined it.
Ogasawara Sachiko-sama used a lot of energy on her negative emotions, be it anger 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 homepage, the one I told you about earlier.”
”Where?”
Noriko placed the printout on the table so s.h.i.+mako-san could see.
”Ah, you're right. It's our Amitabha Tathagata. 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 from the main building of her onee-sama's family's temple, Shouguu Temple.
”I'm really glad Takuya-kun was given permission to show the main sculpture on his homepage. See, here he's written that it was all thanks to the chief priest.”
”I'm sure my father agreed because it was s.h.i.+mura-san. His knowledge of Buddhist statues exceeds my father's, and he's trustworthy. I've heard they're making arrangements 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, s.h.i.+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 sames applies if you notice anything, onee-sama.”
Noriko said as she read through the email printout.
”Alright, I'll keep that in mind.”
Noriko's onee-sama gave a small, slow nod of her head. As always, every single 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 messages between s.h.i.+mura-san and I, like a carrier pigeon.”
”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-sama had probably meant it only as flattery, but even though she knew this, Noriko was so pleased she made a bold suggestion:
”Then why don't you come along with us next time, onee-sama?”
”Oh?”
”I know it's sudden, but if you're free tomorrow, would you like to come to an exhibition of Buddhist statues at an art museum? I was planning on meeting Takuya-kun there. It'd be great if you could come along.”
”Tomorrow!?”
s.h.i.+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 system, because I'm always writing about ”onee-sama this” or ”onee-sama that” in my emails. In fact, the other day he impudently sent me an email saying he'd like to have a leisurely chat with you over tea.”
Noriko made exaggerated hand gestures as she explained about Takuya-kun, and her onee-sama laughed softly.
”Alright then, I'll join you.”
”Really? Ooh, that makes me so happy! Ah, right, the rumor is that they're going to be displaying a Maria Kanon, a statue of Maria-sama done up as a Buddha to avoid religious persecution, so I'm sure it'll be interesting to you too, onee-sama.”
While she was still rejoicing, the biscuit-door suddenly opened.
”What is it? What's so amusing?”
The face of Rosa Foetida, Hasekura Rei-sama, appeared.
”Well, um, we were talking about going to a Buddhist statue exhibition tomorrow.”
Apparently Noriko's excited voice had carried out of the room.
”Oh my, you two are getting along so well, I'm jealous.”
Quipped s.h.i.+mazu Yos.h.i.+no-sama, who had arrived with Rei-sama.
”&h.e.l.lip; 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 them each a gla.s.s of barley tea, her onee-sama turned to Rei-sama and said:
”That reminds me, did you encounter anyone between the school gate 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. j.a.panese is tough.
”The latter.”
”Someone did, why do you ask?”
”I thought so.”
Noriko exchanged glances with her onee-sama.
When she tried to confirm the situation by asking who and where it was, Rei-sama looked slightly dubious.
”It was Yumi-chan, in front of the Rose Mansion. She told me she'd be a bit late for the meeting, 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 gla.s.s pitcher back in the refrigerator, then walked over to the window and looked out. She caught a glimpse of what was unmistakeably Rosa Chinensis en bouton, f.u.kuzawa Yumi-sama, in the area between the school building and the Rose Mansion.
”But why would Yumi-san be waiting outside? Surely she would be better off either waiting inside the Rose Mansion, or accompanying Sachiko-sama, to get out of the heat.”
After downing her gla.s.s of barley tea in one gulp, Yos.h.i.+no-sama answered s.h.i.+mako-san's question.
”She said that Sachiko-sama had borrowed her slippers and gone 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 someone as methodical as Sachiko-sama had forgotten her slippers. She must still be suffering from the events of the day before yesterday.
”So then Minako-sama didn't call out to you.”