Volume 26 Chapter 3 (1/2)
After school.
As arranged, both the organizers and the partic.i.p.ants in the Valentine's Day event gathered in the courtyard once they'd finished cleaning.
Since the Lillian Kawaraban had repeatedly carried the message that anyone not present at 3:40pm would be disqualified, most of the partic.i.p.ants had been thinking about likely hiding spots as they cleaned and then made their way to the courtyard by 3:30pm - ten minutes early - and waited.
Yumi and the other hosts were to stay in the parlor on the second-floor of the Rose Mansion until just before the start.
”Hoho.”
Yos.h.i.+no-san kept peeking out the window from behind the curtain as she spoke.
”I'd have hated it if there weren't as many partic.i.p.ants as last year, when it was Sachiko-sama and Rei-chan hiding their cards, but there's quite a lot of people out there.”
There were three other people in the room but none of them were by a window. Yos.h.i.+no-san was the only one peeking outside. If they'd all gathered around to take a look, they would undoubtedly have been spotted by the students waiting out in the courtyard, and that would have been quite embarra.s.sing. At any rate, if they were spotted, they couldn't very well go out on a balcony and elegantly address them like Marie Antoinette.
”Oh, there's Sachiko-sama. Yumi-san's fans are slowly creeping over towards her. I wonder what they're planning. I guess they'll probably follow her around, like what happened with us last year. In that case, I hope they're brave.”
Then, without a moment's delay, Noriko-chan interjected.
”'You girls, stop following me!' Like that?”
”Oh, that's good!”
Yos.h.i.+no-san heartily applauded this unexpected imitation. s.h.i.+mako-san played the part of the onee-sama, chiding her pet.i.te sœur with a ”Noriko.”
Yumi remained seated, fixed to her chair.
”Hey, it hasn't even started yet, you don't have to sit there so nervous.”
Yos.h.i.+no-san joked, looking back over her shoulder.
”Well, I suppose.”
But even so, what else should she do? There was no point having a strategy meeting this late in the game, and the newspaper club was handling all the setup and behind-the-scenes work, so there wasn't anything for the hosts to do.
”Oh, right. There might be some students that won't want to track dirt into the Rose Mansion, so we should --”
Hitting upon this idea, Yumi stood up, but Noriko-chan interrupted her.
”Put some damp rags out? I left three of them by the Rose Mansion entrance earlier.”
”Ah &h.e.l.lip; I see.”
So she sat down.
”We could check on the first floor storeroom, since we won't be able to go down there once it starts.”
”But we just gave it a quick tidy-up at lunch-time.”
s.h.i.+mako-san smiled as she straightened the notice board hanging on the wall.
”And you were the one that said we should let our visitors see the Rose Mansion as it usually is, and not dress it up just for them, Yumi-san.”
”That's true.”
In the end, it looked like all she could do was sit and wait for the event to start.
On that topic, Mami-san had repeatedly told them not to get in the newspaper club's way and be a nuisance. Yumi in particular had been cautioned to watch what she said both before and during the event, so she wouldn't let slip a hint. She'd been labeled as someone requiring extra attention because she usually let everything she thought show on her face.
”Oh, there's a surprise.”
With five minutes left until the beginning of the event, Yos.h.i.+no-san called out, still keeping watch over the courtyard.
”Touko-chan's arrived.”
Naturally, the other three were all surprised when they heard this too.
”Touko's&h.e.l.lip;.”
Apparently even her cla.s.smate, Noriko-chan, hadn't known. Or, more likely, when they'd spoke in the morning, Touko hadn't given a concrete answer and instead left her with the impression that she wouldn't partic.i.p.ate.
”Yumi-san.”
s.h.i.+mako-san patted her on the shoulder. As though to say, ”Isn't that great?”
”Yeah.”
Yumi smiled back at her.
Perhaps this was Touko-chan's attempt to meet her half way. But even if it wasn't, the fact that Touko-chan had decided to partic.i.p.ate in the treasure hunt was enough to please Yumi.
On Sat.u.r.day, they'd left the school building together and then parted ways at the statue of Maria-sama. Yumi still had no idea why Touko-chan had attacked her with such venom back then.
She thought that it was probably a misunderstanding, although she had spent some time wondering whether she had done something to offend Touko-chan and just been too thick-headed to notice.
If it was a misunderstanding, then it should be cleared up. If she'd caused offense, then she should apologize. But she couldn't do that until she knew the cause. Saying, ”I'm sorry but I don't know why,” would just make Touko-chan even angrier.
So Yumi had decided to leave Touko-chan alone for a little while. Just until Touko-chan was willing to meet and talk with her.
Yumi didn't think that anything unrecoverable would happen by leaving her alone, since Touko-chan had Noriko-chan as her friend. Touko-chan would be okay as long as she had Noriko-chan.
Yumi still didn't know why Touko-chan had been so angry, but it had to be something serious to warrant that level of emotion.
If only Touko-chan hadn't reacted by slamming her heart shut. She was still coming to school as usual. And today, she'd been composed enough to partic.i.p.ate in the event.
”Yumi-san, want to see?”
Yos.h.i.+no-san offered up her place by the window, but Yumi declined and remained seated.
It was good to know that Touko-chan was there. It was good just to know that Touko-chan was there.
”Our three stars and Noriko-chan, don't you think it's about time you made an appearance in the courtyard?”
Mami-san called out to them up the stairway.
”An appearance, huh.”
It made them sound like princesses. The four girls exchanged glances and laughed.
Then the four princesses fired themselves up by standing in a huddle, layering their hands one atop the other, and shouting ”Let's do it!” before descending the squeaky staircase.
”Now it's time to start the Future Roses' Treasure Hunt.”
Mami-san announced through a megaphone.
At the same time, the three future Roses - s.h.i.+mako-san, Yos.h.i.+no-san and Yumi - made their appearance, and the cheer from the a.s.sembled students echoed into the cloudy winter sky.
”We'll begin by sealing off the second–chance draw.”
That phrase was the signal for Noriko-chan to appear holding the box that had been set up in the Rose Mansion for second–chance entries.
Mami-san sealed the entry slot with masking tape, then used a thick marker pen to write ”Not to be opened until after the cards have been returned” so that it covered both the box and the tape. This way, neither Mami-san nor the future Roses would be able to tamper with the contents.
The students that were about to partic.i.p.ate in the treasure hunt weren't eligible for the second–chance draw, so they had no stake in that entry box. Even so, they were lured in by Mami-san's performance and let out an ”Oooh.”
”Now, I trust all you partic.i.p.ants have your entry forms with you? Anyone that doesn't, please raise your hand.”
After checking the smattering of raised hands, Noriko-chan set down the second–chance entry box and ran about handing out entry forms. Watching this unfold, a portion of the students made an ”Oh?” expression.
Why was Rosa Gigantea en bouton doing this? Other than Mami-san, where were all the newspaper club members?
Actually, while these questions seemed the same, there were subtly different answers to the two.
”Would all the sœurs of the future Roses come over here, please. You will be given a five minute handicap again this year.”
Sachiko-sama was the only person that followed these directions. Noriko-chan didn't move towards the indicated spot beside Mami-san.
”Thank you, f.u.kuzawa Yumi-san's onee-sama, Ogasawara Sachiko-sama. I can confirm that s.h.i.+mazu Yos.h.i.+no-san's onee-sama, Hasekura Rei-sama, has already made an entry in the second–chance draw. And finally --”
Mami-san looked at Noriko-chan as she spoke.
”Toudou s.h.i.+mako-san's pet.i.te sœur, Nijou Noriko-san, has chosen to a.s.sist with today's event as part of the staff instead of partic.i.p.ating - for which she has our grat.i.tude.”
The students that had been watching Noriko-chan in confusion, and those that hadn't noticed, all had expressions that said, ”Why?” When the treasure hunt was first announced, the Lillian Kawaraban had printed an article stating that the future Roses' sœurs would be partic.i.p.ating. Accordingly, Sachiko-sama was standing ready to accept her five minute handicap. Rei-sama couldn't be present today because she had exams, so she'd placed her hope in the repechage round for losers (meaning someone who couldn't be present on the day) called the ”second–chance draw.” But, Noriko-chan.
”I was happy just to hear that my onee-sama wanted to search for my card. So I'll stay by my onee-sama's side and a.s.sist where I can.”
Was what she'd said when she decided not to partic.i.p.ate. There wasn't even a trace of resignation or self-denial about it. Rather than spending the intervening time away from s.h.i.+mako-san for a chance to search for her card, Noriko-chan had chosen to experience those hards.h.i.+ps together with her onee-sama. Perhaps Noriko-chan felt that even if she didn't search for it, she already had s.h.i.+mako-san's card in her heart.
So that explained why Noriko-chan was a.s.sisting, but it still left the mystery of where all the newspaper club members were. The answer was that, at present, they were distributing the cards and hints throughout the school.
Last year had been the first year for this event, and both the organizers and the partic.i.p.ants hadn't really known what they were doing, so a certain amount of b.u.mbling was acceptable. But having seen how it turned out, certain ragged edges became apparent based on things they'd noticed and predictions about how the next one would go. So, in the lead up to this year's event, they'd made certain improvements.
One of those was that the cards weren't hidden until just before the event.
Last year, Sachiko-sama had buried her crimson card in the old greenhouse early in the morning, and Rei-sama's yellow card had remained hidden in a book in the library for quite a while too.
s.h.i.+mako-san's white card had been hidden just before the event, but that was only possible because the spot she'd chosen: the committee notice board made it easy since it looked like she was just posting a notice.
But this year was different. Things were a bit more complicated. The newspaper club members had to cover the area of the treasure hunt in a very short period of time.
It was more complicated because it would be a complete waste if they hid the cards at their leisure and they were discovered ahead of time. So they'd decided to hide the cards when all the partic.i.p.ants were gathered in the courtyard, just prior to the start. The repeated warnings that anyone not in the courtyard at 3:40pm would not be able to partic.i.p.ate were so that the partic.i.p.ants wouldn't be able to see them hide the cards.
The registration forms had been distributed a couple of days ahead of time, rather than immediately before the start like last year, to reduce the number of people required (in fact, it had all been left up to Noriko-chan to deal with).
The registration form was more or less the same as last year. It was split into two parts by a line to cut along, with the top part containing the treasure hunt rules and the bottom part a statement that the partic.i.p.ants would sign saying they'd abide by the rules. On the back, the top part contained a map of the school building and surrounds, with a dashed line showing the bounds of the treasure hunt. Basically, anything within the dotted line was in-bounds, and everything outside was out-of-bounds.
This year, the bounds were extended along the gingko-tree path to just before the school entrance. Naturally, it didn't extend into the neighboring university, nor into the security guard's hut near the door.
”There are three cards that look like this: one red, one white, and one yellow. The first person to find them will be awarded the half-day date with the respective future Rose. Any ties will be decided by scissors-paper-rock.”
Mami-san held up an example card as she continued her explanation.
”But it's not just the cards that are hidden. There's also hints and advice, so take care when you're searching.”