Notes on the Sixteenth Maria-sama ga Miteru Novel: Variety Gift, Part 1

Maria-sama ga Miteru 16 – Variety Gift

Introduction

This book was, like the title says, full of variety. This is a collection of the short stories published in between the serialized novels in Cobalt Shueisha magazine. (The next one of these is "In Library" which is book 19.

I enjoyed it overall, but it was a bear to translate, for a variety of reasons.

My usual comments about the tenses and typos stands, additionally, this book was INSANELY heavy on the passive voice...and full of run-on sentences. I tried to capture the punctuation Konno-sensei used, but I had to add semi-colons quite often to break up what we see as run-ons. But you're going to see a lot of declarative sentences that we would write as questions, because that's the way she writes them. As usual, if I have a comment, I've added an "E:" prefix to the parentheses, since characters' thoughts are expressed in parentheses.

For notes on and/or translations of the previous novels, you can search the posts here Okazu, using the search on the tool bar, or the categories on the right hand sidebar.

The first story was fun, but the best short story, bar none, was the last. It was surprising for several reasons and definitely the most interesting. Not just because we get to see some of our former friends. And without spoiling anything – we get to meet a new friend that many people will be glad to see, as well.

Oh, and I realized that I always write "you know how it begins" but I realized that you really don't, since you only know the shortened version from the anime or manga. This beginning is really shortened from the full beginning, which gets into specific school history, but here are at least some of the bits you don't know. The next novel, which has just been posted at the Yuricon Mailing List, has the full opening.

Last note: If you enjoy these notes and translations, and all the reviews I write here, I really hope that you'll consider purchasing some of our 100% Yuri from ALC Publishing, as a terrific way to say "thank you." If you have them all already, have't got any friends to give them too and still want to say, "thanks", feel free to buy me something nice from my Amazon Wishlist. :-)

Enjoy!


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Maria-sama ga Miteru 16 – Variety Gift

Part 1


"Good day."

"Good day."

Cheerful morning greetings echo through the clear blue sky. In Maria-sama's garden where maidens assemble with their pure smiles like angels; today they once again pass under the tall gates.

Their bodies which know no stain are wrapped in dark-colored uniforms.

The pleats of their skirts should not be disarranged, nor should their white sailor collars flutter; here walking slowly is preferred. Of course, here there are no shameless students that would run to make it before the very last moment.

This is Lillian Girls' Private School.

Established in the 34th year of the Meiji period, it is said that this academy was founded for the sake of the daughters of the nobility, a traditional Catholic girls' school.

It is located within the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Even now, much of the original greenery of Musashino remains as, watched over by God from kindergarten to university, this garden undertakes to the complete education of these maidens.

Now then, that day of autumn. An unexpected delivery of a present was made to the Rose Mansion.

"To the cute little sisters," the message was scribbled on the label. It had the feeling of "oh, right," and was affixed to the wrapping from a well-known department store.

They would surely remember those characters.

That tie which was tied perfectly symmetrically, casually dressed, but always beautiful; there was no mistaking that it was from that person.


Variety Gift 1


Wednesday after school.

After cleaning was over, Yumi was, as usual, walking up the stairs to the second floor of the Rose Mansion, where an eerie spectacle awaited.

"..."

She didn't look, but still she saw it. So thinking, she quietly closed the door she had just opened (but did not remove her hand from the door knob.)

---But, the person there feeling the sensation of another person, naturally called out for her to stop. Without turning her head towards this direction, came "Yumi-san."

"G...good day."

There was no helping it, if she's been spotted. Yumi, once again moved the door she had just closed in the "open" direction; in other words, just before she moved forward, she smoothed her discomfort over with a greeting. Saying "Good day" to the person with whom one spends six hours in the same classroom seems a bit silly at this point, however.

"You were just about to run away." As that person slowly turned her head, Yumi saw who it was.

"Ah, um, no way." It should be forgiven that she repudiated it.

"No, you did. Otherwise, why did you close the door once you'd opened it? So, what, you're saying that you intended to enter the room but left your body in the hallway?" She stood up from her chair, slowly drawing closer and closer. Her intensity grew with her attack, so Yumi finally gave up.

"But, it looked scary, Yoshino-san."

"Scary? You're best friend is in a bind and that's what you say?"

Anyway, after apparently liberating Yoshino-san, Yumi ducked her head. "Best friend or utter stranger, scary is scary."

Even if it was someone she knew, it was scary. Yumi described what she had seen as she had seen it.

"At first, I thought no one had come; the truth is, that, in the middle of a gloomy room at the table there was one tiny speck of movement visible, there was no way to know that it was a person sitting there, was there? With my heart beating that like that it was impossible. More importantly, once I saw that as I entered, I wasn't going to look back and check. It might just be because of the weather, but there was some strange figure in the room. At least if there had been some light, I wouldn't have been so frightened."

"That's rude. I just forgot." As if Yoshino-san had really just remembered, she flipped the switch for the electricity on now.

"Because I was caught up in that for a long time." Yoshino-san muttered regretfully, gesturing with her chin.

"By that, you mean *that*?" Yumi pointed to the top of the table to confirm.

Now that the room had been lit, she understood. She gazed at the vicinity of where Yoshino-san had just been, where a square box sat. Wrapped in the paper of a high-end department store, it had the air of an item that said "Exchange Presents." Because she couldn't measure it, she didn't know the precise size but it looked to be about thirty centimeters long and wide, and about ten centimeters high. (E: 12" x 12" x 4" or so, for you Americans. And an "exchange present" is the kind of thing one brings as a token of appreciation, or business, or thanks...like an obligatory gift.)

"So what happened with this?" When Yumi couldn't observe anything from it's outward appearance, she asked Yoshino-san the question.

"This arrived."

"When?"

"Just a little after fifth period."

"Hmm." When she had been here to eat her lunch, it certainly had not been there. So, either in the time Yumi and the others had left, during the short recess, homeroom, or cleaning duty, someone had come to this room and left the box there.

"Look here." Yoshino-san pointed to a rectangular piece of paper stuck to the top of the box. It was a little small so Yumi leaned over the box to read the words "Please eat by XX/XX" that were written on the seal. That was all pretty usual, but a handwritten slip of paper which bore the words, "To my cute little sisters" was not.

"Hey, Yumi-san, do you like this looks like Eriko-sama's handwriting?"

"Ah, now that you mention it..."

So, that means this was provisions from Eriko-sama. Because Yoshino-san was serious with "No way, is this a mystery?"-type excitement; until she understood "but, why" her whole energy would be given over to this one thing.

However, Yoshino-san's expression was hard.

"What does she mean by this?"

"What does she mean?"

"Have you forgotten what I told you at the Sports Festival?"

"...The soeur thing?"

Shimazu Yoshino's onee-sama was Hasekura Rei, and her onee-sama was Torii Eriko who was no ordinary person. The memory was fresh of the other day at the Sports Festival, when she had, they thought, dropped by aimlessly for a visit, and made Yoshino-san promise to "introduce her soeur."

However.

"You think this box has something to do with the soeur thing?

"There's no reason to think it doesn't! The opponent is Eriko-sama. This has to be some kind of message. Either that, or a cunning trap."

"Hmm."

For the second time, the atmosphere leaned toward the mystery side. At least, that feeling was rising incontrovertibly from Yoshino-san alone. But Eriko-sama was enrolled in school, and this package wrapped in this way had to have been carried from home.

Because her (E:Yumi's) home was also a business, they often received gifts or souvenirs, and this seemed to about the same level of expenditure.

Of course, it might not have been Eriko-sama only, anyone gathered at the Rose Mansion for tea or sweets might have brought it, preserving the atmosphere of a pleasant salon or something similar...

"I'm opening it." As if her will had been firmed, Yoshino-san reached out her hand for the box.

"Eh - is it okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be? After all, doesn't it say here "To my cute little sisters"?

"But," For the moment, it might be better to wait until Rei-sama arrived, wouldn't it.

" If it said 'To my cute little sister' it would mean I have to hold back. It's addressed to Rei-chan, right. But it says 'sisters'. Which means 'all of them', doesn't it. That gives me the privilege of breaking the seal."

"That's one way to reason, I guess."

"So, therefore, even if Rei-chan isn't here. This is obviously addressed to me."

"...That's a pretty absurd assumption."

"It's not an assumption, just using my authority."

As she said that, the ally of authority, Yoshino-san, reached under the handwritten seal on the box, grasped the seal with the department store's logo on it that stuck out and pulled. Slowly an opening appeared at the cut end of the seal, where it tore and came off in a diagonal strip, in a way that made it impossible to reseal it once the contents of the box had been confirmed.

Now that the object was no longer sealed, Yoshino-san began to rip the paper violently. Really, there was, she thought in her heart, no percent that could have been used to return it to its former condition.

Appearing out of the torn wrapping was a very pretty tin. Peeling off the tape around the lid, the tin was opened....

"Variety Gift?"

It was definitely something like that, an assortment set of cookies, the kind one used for an exchange gift.

The tin was separated into several partitions, around which were scattered orange peel and chocolate kisses in foil, candy wrapped colorfully all shining cheerfully and brightly.

Yeah.

As an accessory box, it looked totally like a Christmas tree.



-The Miracle of the Nativity Feast.-


"Hey, do you believe in miracles?" The girl asked, her eyes shining brightly.

For a moment, the world tilted wildly. There was a sense of déjà vu hanging over this, a spectacle seen many years ago. Like when she had shifted back and forth to see the red and green print on the color page of the magazine, which gave her a feeling of carsickness, and the sensation of being too close felt icky.

"Sensei, did you hear me?"

"Ah, sorry." Katori Maki shook her head lightly, shaking off the vision from so many years ago. And what remained was the real spectacle. The usual mixed staff room. She was by the side of the desk, not terribly long hair, knitting as always, the girl with the penetrating gaze.

"Miracles? ...I've never seen one with my own eyes, I guess," Maki answered as she gazed at the attendance record. Because today was the day before exams, many of the students who were out due to illness had returned, so all the members of her class would be gathered to attend the closing ceremony.

"Sensei. That was a pretty vague answer to the question. If this were a language test, I'd give you a zero."

"Hahaha. Just what I'd expect from you, Kurosu-san. Pretty sharp."

In response to the question does one believe in miracles, the answer should be yes or no. But for Maki, such an immediate answer was a misrepresentation. Therefore "that was a vague answer" wasn't it, it was really, "the answer is vague."

The girl's face said "it can't be helped."

"So, do you want them to happen?"

Kurosu Hikari. She was in Maki's homeroom, a student of the second-year Chrysanthemum class.

"Yes. If they happened it would be nice, I actually think some have occurred."

That face didn't suit her, she thought. But why was she making those faces in succession. This girl was trying to forget something that had happened within her lifetime.

"Hey Sensei, can I tell you a story about a miracle?"

"The story of the miracle of Jesus?"

"No, something else. Something that happened to me."

"Ah, sure." Whatever, Maki shrugged her shoulders. A miracle that had happened closer to home then.

"Because it's Sensei, I can tell you this, special. It's a secret from everyone else."

"As expected."

"Yes, but really, only you. At my entrance interview, you laughed at my story."

"Is that so."

"Yes. Did you forget?"

"I do a lot of interviews, I guess." Although Maki expanded upon her answer in this way, it was really a lie. She remembered the girl clearly. There were many interesting interviews, truly, and it was rare to remember one story in the middle them all.

"The person I met in my dream, I promised to meet her again at Lillian."

At that time, Kurosu Hikari, had given that as her reason for applying to Lillian Jogakuen.



Hikari

Even though I'm telling this, I'm not a person who believes in such things at all; but, to meet the onee-sama I met in my dream, I enrolled in Lillian Jogakuen middle school.

It was about halfway through December of my sixth year of elementary school. Every corner of the town was filled with the sound of children's songs, classical music, pops and Christmas songs all piled on top of one another. Red, green, gold and white colored packaging overflowed; it was the usual season in which people's hearts get all fluttery. From the window of the hospital room, I breathed a sigh, looking down on a not very big fir tree that was illuminated in the university hospital garden. It wasn't anything life threatening, I was in the hospital for a simple operation on my eyes.

At last, the surgery was to happen tomorrow night. Just before lights out, my mother who has been there to accompany me, had returned home, I was in my bed, where I was accustomed to crying alone.

"If you cry like that, your eyes will swell, won't they. It'll be difficult to do the surgery." That was what the nurse said, but it only made me cry more.

"Hikari-chan, you're almost 12 years old now. You should know that crying is useless." This young nurse who had a crying patient heaved a huge sigh, applied an ice bag to my eyelids by way of consolation, pulled the curtain around my bed and returned to the nurse's station.

I did understand that it was useless to cry. The doctor had explained that when I had decided to give consent for the surgery to be done. However, reason is different than feelings and I felt "scared" and couldn't shake that off easily, even with the fact that past data indicated a high success rate, and that the surgery was over fast.

"I understand, you know."

Just the, the voice came from somewhere. It was different from the nurse from before, but it was a young woman's voice. Either a middle school student or high school student. The feeling I had was that the voice couldn't have been from someone much older than myself.

"You know, but you don't know what to do, or what you can do about it."

"Who are you?" I asked, turning around in the dark.

"Kyouko." (E: this is written in Katakana, so it looks slightly foreign or childish. It indicates that Hikari does not know which is the correct way to spell Kyouko.)

"Kyouko?"

"I was admitted last night. Because I wasn't feeling well, I didn't greet the other people in the room..."

Last night there was another person admitted here?

The ice bag cooling my eyes notwithstanding, I inclined my head. This was a large six-bed room; between myself and the hallway were two beds to my left, in other words, I was in the middle bed. My neighbor to the left was a hard of hearing older lady, to my right an overweight middle-aged woman. Facing me was an attractive 30-year old or so OL who snored terrifically, the bed next to the window held a college student who had broken her ankle riding a bike.

I turned my head obliquely to try and see, had she been put into the empty bed by the hallway? --After all, her voice sounded like it was pretty close.

"Kyouko-san. Can you come over here?"

"No. Like I said before, I'm not feeling well. ...My stomach hurts so I can't move."

"Your stomach?"

"Yes. My appendix is swollen. I'm having surgery tomorrow."

"Ah, me too. I'm having surgery too."

"Yeah, I heard what the nurse said to you. So, when I found out that you were a comrade, I spoke to you."

"Comrade?"

"Yes, a comrade in surgery. I'm scared about them cutting into my belly but, if I think of Hikari-chan in another operating room, I can persevere."

"Me too. Me too, if it gets hard, I'll think about Kyouko-san."

Plunging a scalpel into a stomach to cut it, I didn't know which was a larger scale surgery, but, now that I knew I wasn't going into surgery alone, I could forward to a bright tomorrow, I felt. At that moment, I wasn't alone anymore.

We had become friends at once.

"Hikari-chan, Do you like school?"

"Not really."

"Oh, why?"

"Because this year is the exam, everyone is always irritable now. When I was admitted to the hospital, in my heart, I was actually pleased a little."

If she was really a little older than me, she'd have no relationship with my school would she, so I could say things to her that I wouldn't even say to my parents.

"Hm. Hikari-chan, you must be excellent student."

"Why do you say that?"

"People with poor study skills, when they are told to study just collapse and drag down themselves and the people around them. You don't want to be with the people in your class."

Yeah? I guess so." Admittedly, my grades were the best in my class. A position I defended desperately, to the very last. To tell the truth, the leader of the irritable was myself. Naturally, there were no friends who came to visit me while I was in the hospital.

"My school is very fun."

"Eh, Kyouko-san, where do you go to school?"

"Lillian Jogakuen. Do you know it?"

"Lillian? I think I've heard of it." I definitely had the feeling that it was a high-level school. It was a rank above the school I held as my number one hope for acceptance.

"You're a good student too, aren't you Kyouko-san?"

"There's getting into those uniforms though, which is a bit of a drudgery. But when I entered, I didn't have to study too hard. Because it's a Catholic school, there are many pleasant events."

"Like Christmas?"

"Yes, like now, Christmas. By the time I leave the hospital, I want to be in time for the end of term ceremony." And Kyouko-san proceeded to tell me many things about the school she attended. About when the grounds were built and about the beautiful church.

How the three adored upperclassmen of the Student Council were referred to as the "Roses", and how they did their work in an old building called the "Rose Mansion"

The way to order bread. How to use the milk hall.

Guided by Kyouko-san's voice, I was led through the grounds of Lillian Jogakuen that I had not yet seen, peeping in at the classrooms, putting my hands together in front of the statue of Maria-sama.

In the middle of all this, the thing that interested me the most was the soeur system. That was Lillian's traditional system, in which an upperclassman gives an underclassman one-on-one guidance.

"How wonderful. I want to become Kyouko-san's little sister."

"That would be nice. Then, let's promise. Although I'm a second-year and next year I'll be a third-year, there's no reason why sisters can't have a two-year difference. It'll be wonderful if we can spend a year together."

Originally, I had said, "I want to be your little sister" lightly, however, Kyouko-san got excited and began to make plans for the future by herself. Like what color the stone would be on the item that soeur make their pledge on, the rosary. What kind of chocolate she wanted at Valentine's Day, things like that.

"But.... I wonder if I can get in to Lillian," I muttered. That was the real problem, the single most crucial point that could not be removed.

However, Kyouko-san laughed. "It's all right. I'm sure you'll get in. That's my prediction."

"I wonder."

"Relax, relax. Since you're normally an excellent student, if you keep cool it'll be an easy victory. It'll be easy, even if it seems like it might be a burden. And the even more then the surgery will be definitely less worrying if you think about it."

"Mm."

"In other words, positive thinking; I wish you could get a second opinion from my classmate."

"Classmate?"

"Yeah. She's really cheerful. The kind who, when she can't see what the future will hold always believes that a good turn is coming. And then, she makes it happen. But. She's not the kind of person who draws luck to herself."

"That person, will she come and visit you here?"

"I don't think she'll come. We're not that close."

And the surgery is very soon, after all, so the homeroom teacher might not even have told the students.

"But that person alone, if she told you you could do it, you would feel encouraged."

"Ah, I see. It's like that, huh." At that time, I wondered if that person was someone Kyouko-san liked.

The nurse came into the room on her rounds, shining a flashlight around, so our conversation was suspended.

Maybe because my feelings were loosened during our chat, or because the ice bag on my swollen eyelids had cooled me off, the sleep trolley had visited. Tonight, when I had thought I would not sleep or cry myself to sleep. Now I just fell asleep with a peaceful heart.

With my eyes open, I prayed to God that Kyouko-san would recover safely from her surgery.

I completely forgot to make a request for myself.

The next day, on the morning of my surgery, I was awakened and was noisily taken along to pre-op for preparations.

When I was much, much younger, that is to say, when I was in the earliest grades of primary school, they didn't hesitate to use general anesthesia on anyone, but I, who was neither child nor adult as a sixth year student, was asked by the doctor which I wanted. Therefore I was going to have general anesthesia. Of course, with local anesthesia, the burden would be lighter and end more easily, but the area of the surgery was the eye, if the pain was dulled but I wasn't asleep, I'd be able to see any defect in the surgical technique close up. Looking straight on at the scalpel, the sutures, the needle entering my eyes, I wouldn't be able to stand it.

Thus, my return to the ward was delayed while I slept off the general anesthesia from my surgery.

"Was Kyouko-san's surgery successful?" As soon as I was lying in my bed, that was the first thing I asked.

"Who is Kyouko-san?" Asked my mother, who was playing attendant, as she stroked my head gently.

"Um, the person who was in this row, next to the hallway. She was admitted yesterday. Today she was having appendix surgery."

"Is that right," my mother moved her chair back from my bed and stood, taking a few steps away and back. One, two, three, four, in all I counted seven steps. As gauze covered my eyes, I used my hearing to compensate.

"The curtain is open around that bed, and there's no one there."

"Then I guess she's still in surgery."

How long did it take to do surgery on an appendix, I didn't know. However, even though I didn't know when her surgery had begun, I didn't think it would that much of a difference from the average surgery. For a little while after surgery, I was in a room near the nurse's station where they could watch over me, so maybe she was there now, before being returned to the room.

"I wonder, we can ask the nurse about it afterward, okay. So, right now, you should rest. The next time you open your eyes, you'll know what happened."

"Mm." And for the second time, I fell into a deep sleep.

The next time I opened my eyes, I thought, it would be nice if Kyouko-san had come back. But the next time I awoke, I was unable to meet Kyouko-san.

"You must have had a dream, Hikari-chan." My mother's face smiled crookedly. After the attending physician removed the gauze that covered my eyes and I was able to see my surroundings, everything was completely different.

"I asked the head nurse but she said that that bed was empty from the day before you were admitted."

"Then, what about the other beds?"

"There was no one by the name of Kyouko-san here."

I, stumbling against the side table, the door, whatever, made my way to the entrance where I confirmed this on the plastic name board. As Mom had said, there was no name Kyouko-san. All the people who had been there when I was admitted had their names written there by the nurse.

"But, but, I was certain..."

Kyouko-san was in this room. When she had heard me crying in fear, she had spoken to me to comfort me; we had promised to become soeur.

"If you look at the characters in the names of all the in-patients, there aren't any that could be compared to that name, either." Mom has come out into the hallway, and embracing me, led me back to my bed.

"It wasn't a dream."

I didn't understand.

Why had this happened? During the time that I was in the deep sleep, the entire world had turned upside down.

However, one day, two days, three days passed, and my conviction that this had not been a dream grew faint. Gradually, as my vision recovered so that I could make out outlines of things, but the postoperative gauze still warped the scenery, I wasn't able to remember. Every day that passed without seeing Kyouko-san, my ability to believe that it was the truth diminished in proportion.

With the curtain pulled around, setting my bed apart, none of my neighbors raised their voices to establish conversation. With both Kyouko-san and I laid out in our beds, it seemed unreasonable that we were able to talk normally.

I had never met Kyouko-san unexpectedly. I had never heard a voice call out from a person I had never seen. If reality was included in the dream, then it had all still been a dream. However, it didn't feel as if that settled the matter at all, if it had just been a dream.

"I'm going to take the exam for Lillian Jogakuen." I told my parents when I left the hospital.

Even now, the school I had chosen did not change. I understood well enough that it was high level, that I'd have to press myself to begin studying. If I failed the examination, in three years I could take the exam for the high school, I thought. There was no public school that I wanted to go to, none other than Lillian. To give some meaning to Kyouko-san's existence, I felt that I wanted to keep that promise and become a student at Lillian. Kyouko-san might be waiting, possibly. Because wherever Kyouko-san was in reality, on that day we had met inside a dream.

Despite my homeroom teacher, whose face said give up, when I was warned against recklessness, and my classmate's derisive laughter, I was accepted to Lillian. My mother was proud of the fact that I had passed the barrier into Lillian, but I did not feel particularly triumphant that I had made first in my class. The only reason I had ever wanted to enter Lillian at all was to meet Kyouko-san, that alone. The brand itself had no worth to me.

Immediately upon entry to school, I began to search for Kyouko-san. Among the current third-years, I asked about a person called Kyouko who had been temporarily absent during some days in December. I visited the classrooms of this year's third-year students, I asked the homeroom teachers of last year's second-year students, I stuck a note saying that I was looking for someone on the free corner of the announcement bulletin board. I was watched with considerable amusement by the teachers with a sort of 'what are you *doing*?' feeling. Among my classmates, there were a few who found it all interesting and helped out.

It was about the end of April or so, I was in my classroom after school drawing up a flyer, when my classmate Ogasawara Sachiko-san called out to me. She had been a student here from kindergarten through elementary, moving up into middle school; she was quite beautiful and not very easy to approach, even by a member of the same generation.

"Hikari-san. You're asking about the person you met in a dream..."

Sachiko-san picked up the master of the flyer I was working on and looked at it. She might have been going home to attend some kind of lesson, because other than her school bag she carried an extremely large bag over her shoulder.

I had never had direct contact with Sachiko-san before but, since my entrance into school one month ago, every one of my classmates knew about my search for Kyouko-san.

"You promised to become soeur or something like that?"

"Yes." Since some kind of information about that was likely to go around, I nodded cheerfully. Sachiko-san looked amazed for a moment, then sighed. The feeling was that she found it troublesome.

"In middle school there is no soeur relationship, didn't you know?"

"Whah?"

"Although it's spoken of as a Lillian tradition, the soeur system only exists in high school. So..."

So.

"So, I thought I'd tell you, so you can check the high school third-years as well." That was all she had to say. Sachiko-san said, "Good Day" shortly, looked at her wristwatch and left the classroom.

While the sound of her footsteps had faded, although I had never thanked her for her advice, I considered the content of my conversation with Kyouko-san intently. I had clearly stated that I was taking junior high school exams. At the time Kyouko-san mentioned that she was a second-year, had she touched upon whether it was middle school or high school? I couldn't remember.

I had thought that the difference between us was two years, but perhaps she was my elder by five, I wondered. As I thought upon that, I became terrified. What if that were the case and we were never to be in high school at the same time, we would never be able to become soeur.

"Do you know of any student that left just before last Christmas to have her appendix removed?"

Nonetheless I walked myself over to the high school buildings. We may never be able to become soeur, but I still wanted very much to meet Kyouko-san. However, there was no Kyouko-san there.

There was nowhere else for to look for her.

And, one day, I too became a second-year high school student.

Five years passed and I no longer looked for Kyouko-san however, every time I encountered anyone named Kyouko I was assailed with complex feelings. Because Kyouko isn't an uncommon name, there were often one or two people in my class with the name. Because at Lillian we were supposed to call each other by our given names, every time anyone uttered "Kyouko-san" my heart skipped a beat. Like a completely suspicious person.

(E: Hikari's Kyouko's name has always been written in Katakana, the following Kyouko's name is written in Kanji "Today's Child.")


When my second-year of high school began in the same class was Mita Kyouko-san, whose reaction to my calling her "Kyouko-san" seemed fitting to me. She had entered Lillian for high school and was a very talented woman. Although she herself said it was "an accident" it was well-known that entering high school was several times more difficult than entering at middle school.

Kyouko-san was a quiet and mild person. She had joined the Flower Arranging club; after club activities were over she could be found arranging flowers in a small vase to decorate the classroom.

"Is Kyouko-sempai here?" It was nice when the underclassmen came by, the first-year students of the Flower Arranging Club who visited the classroom. However, she didn't have a soeur yet.

"Kyouko-san, aren't you going to choose a soeur?" One day, one of our classmates asked Kyouko-san something that I had always wondered.

It was on our way back from the science room, chatting. We just happened to have been in the same practice group, so we were moving along together in the same stream.

"Hey, you should ask Hikari-san."

It was troublesome for Kyouko-san, being dragged into my circle. Settled in the middle of four people walking we weren't onee-sama and imouto, we were only me and Kyouko-san.

"There's already someone Hikari-san has her heart set on. Other than that person, she won't become anyone's soeur." From the side, Hasekura Rei came out and explained, teasing. She was Rosa Foetida en Bouton, with an honor student onee-sama and a cute imouto,

"You know the person you've got your heart set on?"

"Yes. They met in a dream."

Once again it was Rei-san who answered Kyouko-san's question. Because we had come up from middle school together, naturally Rei-san knew my story about the dream. The figure of me desperately searching for Kyouko-san I knew from somewhere in time.

"Dream? A dream? Like when you're asleep and you dream, dream?"

"It's all right if you laugh. I've always believed that we'd meet. After ten years, twelve years, in a dream again, it's okay. When we meet, I want her to see the grown-up me. If it's at all possible, I want to become her favorite."

Kyouko-san didn't laugh. "Mm. Somehow, I understand. ....I understand." Kyouko-san nodded with the look on her face I wanted to see most. I was more and more interested in Kyouko-san however, because she was taking a break from school soon, I wasn't able to become more friendly with her.

*

"--Then?" senior high school teacher Katori Maki asked, placing the cap on a ball point pen. "I understand that this was the basic outline until the last time. But where's the miracle? Did it happen after this?"

This long story had taken about twenty minutes. If it was going to go on much longer, she thought that she'd get ready to go home and listen on the way. After all, Kurosu Hikari, like Maki, took the same JR line to the M station to go home.

"Recently, yeah." Hikari grinned.

"Eh?"

"It happened recently. Sensei. Didn't you sense anything?"

"Anything?"

"The data related to Mita Kyouko-san's absence. Of course, you must have noticed."

"Mita-san's? Of course. I'm her homeroom teacher."

The evening of the day before exams, she had been at home and had suffered from intense abdominal pains, which resulted in her being hospitalized. She would be out through the whole finals period and the vacation after.

"The name of the disease?"

"Appendicitis."

"Also known as?"

"Appendix."

(E: The first term, "chuusuien" refers to the disease, the second, "mochuu" is the organ, and also the word that Hikari's Kyouko-san used to describe her illness.)

As Maki muttered the word, her whole body got goosebumps.

"So, Sensei, any of you know which second-year high school student was, just before Christmas, admitted into the hospital because of her appendix?"

The words that Hikari had called out four years, seven months ago in that staff room resounded, while Maki slowly turned.

"Impossible."

"That it is. Wouldn't you call it a miracle?"

"Mita Kyouko is your...?"

"Yeah. But, when I told Kyouko-san in the morning when I saw her, she said this," Kurosu Hikari," as if she were opening the lid of a treasure chest, carefully spinning her words.

"Hikari-chan, you say. Hikari-chan, isn't Lillian fun? So, uh, your eyes are already all right, I guess, since you went on. Isn't that strange? That was five years ago. But for me, it was just a few days ago."

If it was true, it was truly a miracle that had occurred to Kurosu Hikari that she relayed lightly.

"Now, I'm as happy as I can be. Second-year high Kyouko-san and sixth-year elementary me, still can't be soeur. We're classmates. It's like a dream."

"Really." She nodded, even though it wasn't believable.

This was all unbelievable, but there was no way that Kurosu Hikari had made it all up by herself. Maybe she and her classmate Mita Kyouko had gotten together to create this wild delusion.

"Sensei." As if she had read what was in her heart, Hikari said, "Even if you don't believe in miracles they happen, but you might overlook them. You have to proactively seek them out."

Like the sound of a church bell, the sound of those words reverberated in something that had always been in her heart.

The girl who had spoken of miracles left, Maki left the deserted staff room behind, suddenly realizing the mistake that had been left in Kurosu Hikari's dream.

This was the real world.

Did Kurosu Hikari even exist in the first place?

So thinking, she stood and took out the attendance record to check.

"Kurosu Hikari...Mita Kyouko." So they were for real.

What am I thinking, she thought as she stood up from the seat. She carelessly threw the attendance record back onto the desk, which caused a small box to fall to the desk.

"Uh-oh." She picked it up, panicking.

Out of the box came flying an angel mascot who, asked once again this year, quietly.

Do you believe in miracles?




Maki

"So, do you believe in miracles?" whispered the small, white-colored doll.



"Good day." I wasn't saying it to anyone in particular, so I just muttered as I pulled out my school bag. It was the last day of finals. My classmates chatted enthusiastically about how they did so-so in the exams, what their plans were for winter vacation, and after that what they were interested in for Christmas, leaving slowly or scattered here and there around the classroom.

Personally there was no one I felt like telling what I was doing at year-end and New Year's, no one's plans I had any interest in, so I gathered up my stuff and made to leave quickly.

"Ah, wait a sec, Maki-san."

"Yes?" I turned to look over my shoulder at whoever had called out to me. There, near and slightly behind the platform, there was a group of several people turned towards me and beckoning.

"What is it?" I thought how I was really hungry, as I retraced my steps until I was surrounded by my classmates.

"So, uh, Maki-san, what do you think of the social studies teacher, Atsumi-sensei?" One of my classmates asked abruptly.

"What do you mean, what do I think?" Trying to figure out the intent of the question, I repeated it.

"I mean, like, it's a "do you like" type question," was the answer.

"Is there a choice of two things to like?" (E: In the sense of "which do you like better, Teacher A or Teacher B)

"No, no. This is a do you love or not type of conversation."

(E: The word used here is the transliteration of "love," that is "rabu.")

"Love!?" At least it wasn't a questionnaire investigating the level of good will. However, love....

"The class is very interesting and I love it, but I don't have any other feelings about it, I guess," I prevaricated, pushing my hair back. When it came to Atsumi-sensei I did have a lot of thoughts, but I wasn't about to say anything in response to being asked now.

"So, it'll be useless even if we invited you, huh."

"What are you talking about?" I didn't answer docilely so much as demand the right to know. Whereupon one dropped her voice and said, "The truth is..."

"Look, the closing ceremony is on Christmas Eve, right? We were all going to go after school together to the staff room and give Atsumi-sensei a present, that's what were we were discussing."

"We all, you said?"

"Everyone here."

I looked around and understood. One, two, three...all told there were eight people. This group which didn't seem to have much in common was bound together by "Love for Atsumi-sensei" it seemed.

"Atsumi-sensei, huh?"

"Hey Maki-san, are you trying to say something?"

"No, nothing." I shook my head.

"Atsumi-sensei is great."

"It's unusual in our school for someone to be that young and cool."

"It's rare and precious to have a male professor in his twenties – precious. And for all that, he's got better than average points in the looks department."

Several of my classmate's eyes went all dreamy as she said that.

"...Is that right?" There was no reason to object. With no boys of our own age around, this was a popular pseudo-romance in a girls' school, after all. Teachers, and sempai of the same sex.

"Yes, that's the way it is. So, Maki-san, are you in on the plan? Or not?"

Somehow, that conversation from a while back, about going to the staff room together and all that, wasn't yet over, it seemed.

"Why should I give Atsumi-sensei a present. If anything, I want the opposite."

"What, you want Atsumi-sensei to come to you with a present." My classmates let out chuckles.

"...Certainly. Anyway, I think it's okay if I'm not included." I smiled bitterly and waved, and this time left the classroom.

I had taken a few dozen steps down the hallway when the classroom door I had closed, opened and closed with a clatter and a single student flew out. She ran up to me with small steps and peering into my face said, "Let's go home together."

Abe Mika-san. Of my class, the littlest, palest, thinnest, doe-eyed, type you wanted to protect, girl. Plus, she had been one of the Love Atsumi-sensei Eight. ...This would be established shortly.

Sheesh.

I stopped where I stood and took Mika-san's school bag and purse in my hand. Running after me so scattered, she was trying to put on her school coat so, her bag and purse were now in danger of being dropped.

"Maki-san, you're very kind, aren't you." With both hands empty, Mika-san put her coat on slowly, then said, "Thank you" and took her bags back into her own hands.

Not sure how to answer, I turned around and continued walking.

Taking and holding a bag while someone put on their coat was the kind of thing anyone would do. She had said that was kind. Mika-san exaggerated a little.

"So, what do you think will happen if you confess?" We were walking side by side past the library when I asked.

"A kind of..., oh right, I guess it's possible to understand it as a confession." Mika-san repeated the words blandly. Her breath coming out in little white puffs, Mika-san pushed her soft looking hair out of the way.

"If it's understood to be that, it's all right?"

"If the other person likes me and goes out with me, yes."

"Go out? That's not going to happen!" I raised my voice in denial. If the object of her confession was a male student from the school next door, or a friend of her brother's fine, but the confession was directed at a teacher from the same school.

"Maybe not. But, in the past teachers have married students who graduated from here."

"Those would have been a small number of fortunate couples. Nobody noticed them going out, so they probably waited until after graduation to confess. So, Mika-san, you should wait three more months."

"Three months, huh..." Mika-san murmured, looking up at the cloudy sky. I hoped that Mika-san's fever of love was due to the typical whims of a young girl.

"I might not be able to wait that long," she said as if talking to herself., then closed her eyes and pressed her hands together. Without me realizing it, as we spoke as if in a trance, we had arrived in front of the statue of Maria-sama.

Because it was the custom as one went back and forth to Lillian, I emulated putting my hands together. However, my heart was free of Maria-sama et al, and I now ruminated over the words I had just heard.

Might not be able to wait that long. What on earth did she mean by that?

Suddenly afraid, I opened my eyes and looked around. Having finished praying before me, she was to my side and slightly behind me.

"What's the matter, Maki-san...?"

Upon seeing those eyes, I understood what the matter was. Like Mika-san's breath on that cold day, I thought she could disappear in an instant, but I couldn't say it. The instant I said anything, I felt that the magic would come and snatch her away.

After that we walked down the tree-lined lane, went out of the gate to the bus, and rode as far as M Station; all that chat relating to Atsumi-sensei seemed completely nonsensical. Like the sham that was the shopping district, with Christmas cakes and Santas.

"Hey. Katori."

In front of the local station, I heard my name called from behind. I turned around, and saw that there was a man waving his hand energetically at me from a car.

"Atsumi-sensei."

"Going home now? Get in, I'll take you." Stopping the car slowly by my side, Atsumi-sensei opened the passenger side door.

"That's okay. Because the nuns say we're not supposed to be alone with men outside our immediate family."

"Is that right. Um, right. It's good to have resolve."

I had said it jokingly, but when he turned it back on me with a honor student feeling, I followed, amazed.

"That was a lie. I'm actually going to the bookstore to get a book of problems."

"Ah, Maki-chan's taking the exams, aren't you."

From Katori to Maki-chan. Why had Atsumi-sensei crossed that boundary line and called me that.

"That's rough, isn't it? It's easier if you plan on going to Lillian U."

"And then? Marry a teach after I graduate?"

"Hahahaha." He laughed awkwardly at this blessing. Not realizing that on account of him, in the near future, many people would shed tears; Atsumi-sensei was a sinful person.

Thinking about this, I became very angry, and decided to drive away this dandy.

"Shouldn't you be going? Father and Mother are waiting. You have to talk about engagement presents and fix the date and all that."

"Probably, but I'm in no hurry. Katori, I'm going to drop by an arcade?"

Watching the sparkly new car drive off, I muttered, "Hunh. What a superficial teacher."

Insolent Atsumi-sensei. He didn't understand people's feelings at all.

Because of this, I spent the next hour or so killing time in the bookstore – I didn't really feel like going home.

When I received the phone call from Mika-san's mother, it was about five days into winter vacation.

"This is Abe. Please forgive this sudden phone call...." It was a voice I'd never heard before, an adult woman's voice. At first I didn't know who it was. Because although I knew in my head that Mika-san's family name was Abe, I never thought that I'd get a phone call personally from her mother. "I know it's terribly rude to ask you for this favor but, I'd like to you to come to where Mika-san is."

"Huh...?"

What Mika-san's mother told me was that about two days ago, Mika-san's health had deteriorated and to be cautious, she had been admitted to the hospital. There she was bored, because no one had come to visit.

I heard that that she'd been admitted, so I grabbed my coat and was left my house. To get to the hospital that I was given, from my house the bus tool about ten minutes, comparatively close by.

"What, my mother told you, you say?" Mika-san greeted me from the bed in a private room.

She looked a little thinner, I felt, but other than that, she didn't seem like she was feeling bad enough to be in the hospital.

"Is it a cold?" Strong and healthy by nature, I barely knew of any other illnesses. Therefore, in my mind, when I heard that her physical condition was bad, I equated it with a cold. "You look a little tired. It'll be all right. This will pass, won't it?"

"I don't think so."

Holding the pale pink rose I had bought at the flower shop in my hand, I stepped up to Mika-san. I had never entered a flower store, so I seriously worried about my first time buying flowers. My intent was to match Mika-san's image.

"Looks a little tired, wouldn't you say?"

"That's because the roots are drained, probably."

Hey, from below the coverlet, something appeared. A sewing box.

"Wha...!"

"It's a secret from my mother. Shush." Maki-san put one finger up, and pressed it against her lips.

"Even if it's not about your mother, I'll try to be quiet. What are you doing with a sewing box under your blanket?" Needles and scissors could be stuck into a body, I thought with a bit of thrill.

At this I felt a considerable tension flow from my right ear to my left, as Mika-san smiled and gestured towards a roll of something on top of the box.

"It's almost done." It was an angel mascot doll made from felt.

The hair was yellow thread, the clothes made from a lace handkerchief. Making a halo float over her hear would be difficult, so it was set on the head, like Son Goku. (E: Sun Wukong, known in Japanese as Son Goku, is the Monkey King from the epic "Journey to the West." In this case the halo is attached vertically to the back of the head,...in case you care. And yes, that's the "Goku" that the DBZ character is named after.)

The eyes were black buttons; mouth and nose were stitched in embroidery thread. White and little, it was totally charming. The face sort of resembled Mika-san's in places.

"It's just the right size for a car decoration."

"Don't you think?"

Although this was all that was said, it was obvious that this was the present meant for Atsumi-sensei. Atsumi-sensei had recently bought a car; commuting to school in that car as one's heart's desire was a popular topic of conversation.

"Hey, do you believe in miracles?" Mika asked, stroking the angel's head. "Angels are supposed to bring miracles, right."

"What kind of miracle?"

"Hmm."

Mika-san never said anything concretely. But there was not much doubt that she was thinking of Atsumi-sensei.

"If it's something that can happen easily, it's not a miracle." Although I didn't know what she meant, I was only a little irritated.

"But. You know the word miracle exists because in this world there are miracles," Mika refuted.

"Do they, I wonder." I didn't want to quarrel in front of the other patients. Then, why couldn't I stop? The fact that I couldn't stop my feelings perplexed me.

"But, they do." Unlike my excitement, Mika's declared this calmly with a quiet expression, like a calm lake. "You know, when my cold back then became aggravated and I was dying."

That incident occurred six years ago. It was around the same season as now. Christmas songs flowed through the town.

"Then, at that time, an angel appeared, and stroked my sad face. That little thing wasn't there to take me."

"An angel?"

"Yes," Mika nodded, her face totally serious. "So, I took that hand in a dream and made a wish. Just a little longer, please let me live, I asked."

"Just a little? That's a little vague, isn't it."

Why not for a much longer period, I thought. If you're asking anyway, fifteen years or a hundred years, saying anything, would be okay. But Mika-san shook her head back and forth.

"A miracle is an 'impossible wish', isn’t it? If it's too unreasonable a wish it can't be granted."

So, because Mika-san's wish was modest, the angel was able to grant it and therefore she was alive, it seemed.

"Don't you think that was a miracle?"

"Miracle...." Was it? Were we speaking about a real miracle? Six years ago, when her cold had been aggravated, Mika-san had had a fevered dream about seeing an angel. That's all that story was. Probably Mika-san had recovered from whatever treatment they had given her. You couldn't call that a miracle.

"If I lived a little longer I could just go to school normally, make friends, fall in love. The angel granted that wish."

Just got to school normally, make friends and --.

"Mika-san. But Atsumi-sensei is..." Even as I said that, my voice was blocked. Instead of words being spit out, I found them crowded out by tears rising. "Anyway, miracles don't just happen hey presto."

I had missed the time to hand over the rose, so I just thrust it into Mika-san's hand and ran out of the sick room. Tears fell from my eyes, so I could not see. Why? I thought.

As in a dream I moved down the staircase, choosing the least popular path so I could cry alone.

I knew why.

Her physical condition was not good, and no matter how hard she worked to make that angel mascot, there was no way it was going to bring Mika-san a miracle.

If there are miracles in this world, I didn't want the one fulfilled to be love. For whatever reason, this weighed heavily on me, why was it even necessary for it to exist.

I didn't know the reason for my own tears at the time, but they dragged me down until I squatted in the staircase.



Two days later was the day of closing ceremonies. Mika-san was there at school. After our unpleasant parting of the day before, I was unable to meet her eyes, but she came up to my seat and greeted me normally with "Good day". As always, Mika-san. It looked like her health had improved.

So distracted was I with the situation with Mika-san, I never even noticed that the class was buzzing back and forth with rumors.

My name was called, I stepped up to get my report card, and just as I turned to go back to my desk I heard someone say, "My social studies grades didn't go up," but I didn't think it was directed at me.

"Maki-san, wait a second."

It was just after school when I grasped the state of affairs. Seven of the "Love Atsumi-sensei Eight" confronted me and threw the question at me. Mika-san was not there.

"There's a rumor going around that Maki-san is going out with Atsumi-sensei, did you know?

"Huh?"

"On the last day of exams, someone saw the two of you being very friendly in the shopping district of town."

"I met him by chance on the way home. He called out to me from his car, so I stood for a while and talked, that's all."

Not taking the proffered ride had been the right thing to do. However, where or who had seen that I had no idea. Clearly the story had grown with each telling from mouth to ear until it needed an explanation.

"Then, Maki-san never let Atsumi-sensei into your home?"

"Wha...what are you talking about?"

"Because you don't buy a case of beer to make visits to students' homes."

"..."

"He got take out sushi from a restaurant. Are you saying that you have no relationship with Atsumi-sensei?"

Somehow or other, someone from the school acted as a private detective. That Atsumi-sensei guy, had probably just gone to a nearby liquor store before going home, poor bastard.

"Maki-san, when you wouldn't tell us what you thought about Atsumi-sensei, weren't you just stealing a march on us?"

"Absolutely not."

No matter what kind of explanation I made, whether I repudiated it or not, I knew it would seem that I was Atsumi-sensei's lover.

"Then, tell us. Explain yourself."

If there was an explanation to be made, it was long past time.

"I'm sorry. You'll have to forgive me." I left the room as if I was running away. When I walked out the door, Mika-san was there.

"Mika-san..."

I wondered if Mika-san had heard the rumor from somewhere, and if so how she felt about it. But I couldn't read anything in her expression.

"Maki-san, um..." She smiled, and held out a little box that was wrapped prettily.

"Can I give this to you?"

"This..." Inside the box appeared the angel doll.

"I was thinking about it. And I came to the conclusion that Atsumi-sensei isn't likely to like it very much. And everyone will make such a fuss, saying that I'm just taking advantage to get a ride. Anyway, I'm not going to give it to Atsumi-sensei. I want you to have it."

"..." I didn't know what to say, and anyway no words would come out of my mouth. Because, I understood that Mika-san was lying.

Obviously, she really liked Atsumi-sensei. If her illness had been that serious, it would have been better if she hadn't made it.

While I stood there not saying anything, there came Mika-san's mother, who greeted me, and took Mika-san home. There was the distinct sense that she was saying 'you're not well, why did you leave the hospital so willfully, you should have stayed,' that kind of thing.

Because Mika-san was no longer in front of my eyes, the words I was searching for were no longer necessary, and I relaxed a little in my heart. However, I was soon at a loss once again.

What should I do about this angel.

I couldn't run after her and give it back. I couldn't give it to Atsumi-sensei and tell him that it was a present from Mika-san.

Mika-san had entrusted to me her love, together with this angel.

"I'm sorry."

I walked around the corner of the hallway and stood for a little while, holding the angel.




Strange rumors spread quickly as the year dawned, of Atsumi-sensei's engagement. His fiancée was a former Lillian University graduate.

However, there was no relief for my misunderstanding with Mika-san. She would not face the new year, because she would be leaving this world.

Four days into the new year, we received a communication from our homeroom teacher, that our two class representatives would have to attend Mika-san's funeral ceremony. For us this was rather sudden, as death had touched our lives hardly at all and, as we put out hands together, we felt that we had been touched by a fox. (E: been the subject of mischief and bad fortune.)

Could someone so young die so simply? It was said that it was pneumonia, but maybe it was suicide.

After the closing ceremonies, and because I could do nothing after she died, my chest felt heavy, like it was wrapped around a stone. But as I stood in line to light incense, some people who looked like said that she had been chronically ill since she was young, it was said that she wouldn't graduate elementary school, that she lived seventeen years, that was the talk that reached my ears. The direct cause had been pneumonia, but there had been no power remaining in her body to fight it.

I had had no relationship to Mika-san's death. However, the feeling of having committed a crime would not disappear.

It was a fact that I was about to become Atsumi-sensei's sister-in-law but it didn't mean I had to like it, and planned on keeping silent about it until I graduated - and had forbidden the adults to speak about it.

However, it wouldn't help to scold Atsumi-sensei, it would just annoy him, especially as Mika-san had never spoken frankly to him.

However, the time of the misunderstanding had passed, and never been explained. There would never be a second chance for my vindication.

And, I kept the angel mascot doll.

As I prepared to move on from that place where I left my heart to go to Lillian Women's College, after graduation, I went back once more to that classroom.

I pulled out the box I had left in the desk that held the angel. I took it out every Christmas Eve, to apologize to her. It wasn't something I decided, I thought of her every day, not being able to do anything, living in sorrow.

This life isn’t bad, I thought but, as things went on my family and classmates became worried, trying to find the cause of it.

But I didn't want to know.

Of course I didn't want to cast a shadow upon my sister's and Atsumi-sense's wedding.

But my number one reason was different. I did not want to dirty Mika-san's memory by being a party to it.


*

As she left the high school staff room to walk down the hall, something bumped against her arm.

"Oh, sorry Katori-sensei."

"Ah, Atsumi-sensei. ...Excuse me."

In harmony we gathered up the items that had been dropped to the floor. It was just before winter vacation and there were many things that needed to be taken home.

"Going home? I can give you a lift in my car." Atsumi-sensei took a car key from his sports coat pocket with a smile.

"What are you talking about. Atsumi-sensei's house is in the opposite direction of my apartment building, isn't it.

"But, I have a reason. Saki is making a cake."

Isn't it a bit too much inviting your unmarried thirty-year old coworker over for a family Christmas Party?"

"If you say it that way, yes. But I think of it more like as an older brother. ... by prior contract."

"I guess if you say it that way, it's not so suspicious. So, then, I accept the invitation gratefully."

As the conversation was settled, we crept up the hallway gathering up our remaining items. Until the end, the angel mascot's whereabouts were unknown, until Atsumi-sensei discovered it.

"What's this? A cute angel?"

"Do you want it?" Wiping the dust off it with her skirt, Maki asked lightly. Whereupon...

"I want it. I was looking for a mascot for my car," he bit the words off, thinking.

"Then take it."

"Ah, but wasn't it a present to you from one of your students?"

"Sort of. But that girl, she'd really like it if Atsumi-sensei took it. She was too embarrassed to hand it over directly. It was given to me to hold."

"No way. If you're serious, then I'm very happy. Who was it - one of the second-year Chrysanthemum group students?"

No one had called on Atsumi-sensei, this almost forty-year old married, heavy, middle-aged teacher for Christmas or Valentine's again this year. Nowadays it was Maki who was popular among the students.

"It's a secret. It's useless to ask, and I won't give it to you."

"Eh~"

"I'll tell my sister on you."

"Please forgive me. Now I'm scared."

"Okay then. Otherwise you might lose your love-love"



Hey, do you believe in miracles? The angel asked as it shook happily along with the car's vibrations.

(Yes, I believe in them.) Sitting in the dilapidated car's passenger seat, Maki smiled.

Born last year, Atsumi-sensei's first daughter had incidentally been named Mika.

The chief archangel Mikaeru (E: Michael) was also known as Mika.

***

To Be Continued

Tags: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Marimite, Variety Gift