Notes on the Eighteenth Maria-sama ga Miteru Novel, Part 4

Ah, Misunderstanding


1

"Good day. Welcome to the Lillian Jogakuen School Festival."

Upon hearing the words thrown at someone who was not her, Mizuno Youko checked her wristwatch. 9:40.

She had been standing in this place for half an hour. In front of her, who knows how many people had passed by her. Various sizes and shapes, various ages, like they were being sucked in by a vacuum cleaner, they entered the tall gates at her back.

Men and women who were clearly students' parent. Grandparents. They were usually accompanied by small children, the brothers and sisters. --The bundle of people, family.

Standing on tiptoe a little, that group in school uniform, probably friends from school. Companions who went to the same elementary or middle school.

Wearing that finely patterned kimono, had that grandmother graduated from Lillian? Or was she a Japanese traditional dance instructor, come to see her student's school life?

"Can you please show me your admission ticket? Thank you very much. Please take this pamphlet. Please do not let go of the ticket until you are returning home."

The voices of the School Festival Executive Committee sounded briskly. Really, from the number of times she had hear it repeated, she absolutely had it memorized.

"Good day. Welcome to the Lillian Jogakuen School Festival."

Would it be all right if she didn't stand here, but moved to another location? Youko began to wonder. However, as simple as it sounded, there was no place to the right of here. She didn't want to hear "I couldn't find the right place" from the person for whom she waited and have to apologize.

"People without tickets, please come this way. People with some relation to a student--"
9:45

However, it was the person who had said "Let's go to the school festival together" and who had specified the meeting place and time who was late. For pity's sake, she hadn't changed a bit from when she was in school. (If she's not here in five minutes, I'm going in by myself, I'm getting tired of observing people.)

As she thought that, from far away, her attention was caught by two gaudily dressed men, who could be seen slowly descending from the pedestrian bridge. (If Eriko was here, she'd find them of great interest, very unusual.)

How would you say it? That was an unusual type of group to be in the middle of the people coming to the Lillian School Festival. As a first impression, you might say, "Standouts."

They were not just a sample that would draw Eriko's interest. Right before Youko's eyes, as they passed by, entering the gates of Lillian, she observed them closely.

One was a slender, middle-aged man, who had lost some weight, wearing a black satin shirt, grey and white necktie with blue dots, bright blue suit, his silver-grey hair covered by a white panama hat.

The other man went a little ahead of the other. A red and green pattern on a black background Hawaiian shirt and white suit, his bare head that was beautifully curved raised up. His face the same suntanned color, he was a fair example of a skinhead.

The finishing touch was the sunglasses that they both wore. The feeling was one of one-upmanship.

Well then, they welcomed the reaction they received.

"G, good day. Welcome to the Lillian School Festival." Of course the students, and the teachers were a little afraid.

"D, do you have a ticket?"

"Ticket, you say...?" The two men shared a glance, then searched in their chest pockets.

"Hya-"

The students were taken aback. The teachers surrounded them. If he was called, the security guard would come flying. However.

"Got them."

He pulled out the tickets. That was it. He did not pull out a pistol.

"Yes, please let me see them."

The members of the Executive Committee pulled themselves together and managed to interact. Keep it up. The previous "hya-" nothwithstanding.

(Ah, I want to see which student's name is on the other side of those tickets.) Youko thought. These people were whose, and what relation did they have? She was seriously interested. But, there was no way she could go rushing up to them and ask, "Please let me see." That would be against the rules.

Parent or older brothers, maybe?

(Maybe they're a student's father and grandfather. ...If that's the case, they don't look alike, though.)

No, if they were "Father and mother's father" then the fact that they didn't look alike was OK. However, their taste in clothes engendered an atmosphere of close similarity.

(With such harmony, more than father and grandfather, it feels like boss and henchman somehow, huh.) So she thought at the time.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

The person she was waiting for had come. And the two she was interested in had disappeared down the tree-lined lane.

"You're late. I had to wait so long, I was thinking of leaving."

"How long did you wait."

"Forty minutes, I guess."

"If you show up twenty minutes before the time we promised to meet, that's your own fault."

"But, that leaves twenty minutes that are your fault."

"Shorrrrry."

The person who apologized, completely not listening or reflecting on the situation, was Satou Sei.

Youko's dear friend with whom she had a close (but undesirable) relationship. (E: The word is "Kusare-en" which means a person you're close with, and who annoys the heck out of you at the same time, someone you can't seem to shake off, but are stuck with.)

"Eriko's not here yet?" Sei swiveled, looking at the area around them. Mizuno Youko, Satou Sei had come, afterwards was Torii Eriko, the three formerly of Lillian and the three former Rosas.

"She called, but said she won't be able to come." Youko smiled bitterly, shaking her head. Sei was obviously thinking that Eriko was even later than she had been.

"A date with Yamanobe-sense?"

"It wasn't that at all. She said that it would be hard on Yoshino-chan, her appearing and disappearing in and out of her life. Hey, did Eriko tell you that she had appeared at the high school?"

"No. I hadn't heard. Except, it looked as if she was holding a cake that time."

The two exchanged glances.

"...She's planning something."

"Indeed."

They had no idea what Eriko was going to do but, they knew she was going to do something.

"Because the three of us together would stand out, maybe she's coming afterwards in disguise or something."

"It's possible. Well, shall we go in quickly? If we stand here in front of the gates, it might be a bother for Eriko's entrance. ...Ah, that's right." As she said that, Sei searched around in her bag and pulled out a paper bag then, with a "here" handed it to Youko.

"What is it?"

"A souvenir from my trip. Dried porcinis. You said you liked them."

"...Thank you. So, you went to Italy?" Porcini mushrooms are what they call matsutake in Italy. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to go."

"We went two years ago on the class trip."

"That's fine, it was nothing."

"I still don't understand you."

"That makes me happy."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"Don't be embarrassed. Let's go in, let's go in."

There was no reason for her to be embarrassed. But, whatever it was about this conversation they were standing there having, she found herself moving forward a step.

"...Wait a second." As she was about to enter the school gate, out of the corner of her eye, a spectacle that she was suspicious of thrust itself into her view. That was, some dozen meters away from the gate, a woman was ascending the wall.

"Stop that. What are you doing?"

She rushed over and pulled her down, bringing her feet back to the ground. As the wall was extremely tall, with no protuberances for either feet or hands, it was impossible to even speak of climbing it.

"Are you all right?"

The girl, once she had been propped and regained her balance struggled violently to separate herself. "Please let go. I need to get inside by any means."

It was likely to have been some kind of challenge. Where her hands had scrambled for a hold, the ivy that covered the wall, was cruelly ripped and scattered.

"And what are you?" Sei laughed.

"That's a rude expression."

Taking a good look at her, they could see that she was of an age that could still be called a girl. Two or three younger years than them? She wasn't wearing a uniform, but she wasn't a Lillian High School student.

"It doesn't matter to us if you tell us what you were doing. It's just that climbing the wall is impossible. You'll just hurt yourself, is the advice I have, that's all. Well then, good day. Let's go, Sei."

Youko let go of the girl's hands and turned her back. At which point Sei took her arm and they aimed at the gate.

"Uhn. Good Health, huh?"

Sei whispered to Youko in a voice that wouldn't be heard. Really. If she understood, it would be better if she were silent.

"Um-"

As expected, the girl called out for the two of them to stop. So as not to give the feeling that they were waiting for it, they waited two seconds before turning and looking over their shoulders. At
which she rushed up to them and said, "I. I'm a...relative...of one of the students here." (E: she uses an unusual word for relative, not "shinseki" but "miuchi". It gives a vaguer impression of the
relationship.)

"Relative?"

Perhaps this was in answer to the earlier "what are you" but it was totally not that answer they expected.

"Then why don't you have a ticket? If you're someone's relative, aren't you holding one?"

That this girl had tried to climb the wall was completely unexpected. The thought that the kind of person that this might be in range of predictability for would be two male students, floated into her head. If that was the case, however, in the years that Youko had been enrolled here from middle school on, no one had ever been successful.

"You lost it? Or did you forget it? Come with us to reception and explain the situation. The student's class and name and then your name, contact address, relationship with the student and I think they'll let you in. Since you're a woman."

"I told them that I had one previously. But." The girl hemmed and hawed. "I don't know her class name."

"Aren't you a relation?" Sei asked teasingly, to which Youko said, "Keep quiet for a moment" and continued.

"You know roughly what year she's in, right? So it'll be fine if you look into it."

"Yes. Just, to make sure, I was here calling out to some students."

"Wasn't it okay when you called out then?" Even if a store was left unattended, someone would come running when you called.

"It was no good. No one came. Even if someone came and looked at my face, they couldn't think of anyone they knew."

"That's pretty awful." This time Youko didn't warn Sei when she spoke, since she had had the same thought.

"Really. So give up hope."

"So, I'll be climbing the wall again?"

The girl looked up at the wall in front of her. Maybe to her, the existence of that student was another wall.

"Um, you know. The walls of a girl's school can't be climbed simply, so it's no good."

"Is that so? If I got some rope or something I could make a rope bridge." Even as she said it, she appeared to withdraw the idea. "That's true isn't it? If we put some kind of tool up, it would draw guys who didn't have a ticket to get in."

The girl, who was wearing a knit skirt, spoke from far away as she planned. "If I was a ninja or a gymnastics team member, I probably wouldn't even need an apparatus. ...Do you do any athletics?"

"In middle school I played basketball. For something like this, you'd need a pole vault."

As if to say 'I see,' Youko and Sei stuck their fists into the palm of their hands. In this situation, even using that technique, it would be virtually impossible to clear it. Still, depending on the
pole one used there wouldn't be enough space.

"Better than that, can't you just find a person with an extra ticket and take it quickly?" Sei proposed.

"I think that will be difficult. I get the feeling that there's never enough tickets any year. And if they had an extra ticket, and the students have relations and friends, and if a student was troubled by a strange person, they probably wouldn't give it up. I called out to those two middle-aged guys from before, but neither would be a partner. And if someone warns them about me and the
security guard or a teacher comes out here to see, I'll be removed from this place." If she was at the back gate about now, there'd be no one to ask.

"Please excuse me. Very much. Um, don't mind me, please enter now." The girl smiled and bowed her head.

"What will you do then?" As she said this, Youko was thinking, "This girl reminds me of someone." Not in looks, but in her whole attitude.

"I'll do something."

"Tell me what are we going to do. ...Sei what do you think would be good to do?"

"What are we going to do, you ask. It's already been decided." Sei, as if she were saying, dear is me, handed over to Youko the ticket that she had been sent from the Yamayurikai.

"Thank you."

"For a troublesome person, you've become domesticated." Youko smiled, then held it out to the girl.

"Here. Please use this."

"Eh. But, if I do." Then one of you will have to go in alone, her uneasy eyes said.

"She...Satou-san is a student at Lillian University. If she shows her student card they'll let her in."

The girl's eye lit up quickly.

"So, in return, you will come with us. Promise?"

"Y, yes." Her answer was very energetic and she came happily. When she was one step in front of the gates, she stopped and swiveled, looking around.

"What's the matter? Are you looking for something?"

"No. Nothing." The girl shook her head slightly and stepped through the gates.

Good day, welcome to the Lillian Jogakuen School Festival.

Youko flew past the phrase she was so tired of hearing and proceeded into those nostalgic grounds.

"That reminds me, what is your name?" Sei asked, to which the girl clearly replied, "Yuuko. Hosokawa Yuuko."


2


From behind the high school buildings, next to the road that went towards the cafeteria, by the side of the second gymnasium, when one was passing the area with the old greenhouse or the pool. In that obscure place, was the "Fujimatsu Village" Festival.

You could call it a village, in which every object that occupied the space, cherry trees, and gymnasium building, storehouse, hurdles or poles had rope tied to them to delimit the space. Cooperating for the day of the festival, there stood, with their hands joined together, the two second-year Matsu and second-year Fuji classes.

In the first school term, they had chose a project to put on but, you could say that, after several discussions in which they made some adjustments, the plan they ended up with was "let's do a store together" that the members of the festival committee had decided upon with one voice. That was the real story, which the members of both classes shouldn't know in order to keep a harmonious atmosphere inside…but no, instead it was passed around causing a great fuss.
Now that they had reached the most interesting part of the preparations just before the village opened, they were even busier.

Yumi sat by the entrance in a chair, collecting food tickets, switching the position of the change box in order to make it easier to fish change out.

A big pot boiled upon a fire, although they were controlling the temperature on the hot plate, but stuck there "being the accountant" when all around her were foods, she couldn't forgive. If she was free to join the people coming and going in and out in disorder, then the fire might spread dangerously. --In other words, it was a nuisance.

Even if it was just putting money in and taking it out, it would be bad if the person handling people was changed, it was thought, and just as one thought, (the cashier responsible for money had to be responsible,) so Yumi and Yoshino had been named the assistants for the position. In other words, she was missing the play and the other parts of the school festival that was going on.

It was fine, but it was boring.

Fuji class's Shimako-san, wearing yukata, had been handling the yo-yo fishing booth for about an hour.

Even though they were running the same fair in the village, each class had its own person managing the money.

At any rate the plan had been to open the "Fujimatsu Village Fair" at ten in the morning. Please just wait a little while longer.

It was fifteen minutes before the village was supposed to open, and visitors and students were flowing towards the exhibition, and were starting to surround the roped off area.

"Hey, keep up the good work." Yoshino-san waved her lifted fist in a way that strangely suited her. "We're the second-year Matsu class idols. Sell, sell, sell those food tickets. ...Uh, Yumi-san, why didn't you say 'Yah!'?"

"Yah-.... As usual, the tension is very high." When did they go from "assistant" to idols." Yoshino-san was in high, high spirits.

This was her first festival after the surgery, so her power was at its greatest. "First post-operative" was slowly, slowly becoming a beat that was calming down a little, she thought.

In about 30 minutes, the village was crowded.

Because of that, it wasn't necessary to call in the self-styled idols, on the contrary, in an hour, they would have to limit the amount that could enter, everyone in the class shouted happily.

"Yumi-sama." Touko-chan appeared unexpectedly when the wave receded for a moment.
"I see you're thriving, huh."

"Ah, have something to eat if you'd like." Yumi conducted herself like a cashier, advancing her three food tickets. Enough for three frankfurters. The other two tickets were for Noriko-chan and Kanako-chan.

"How much is that?"

"It's fine. It's my treat."

"I'm not going there." Touko-chan pulled out her purse.

"That's not very cute of you, is it? When someone says that to you, it's best if you reply thank you for the food." Yumi had heard those words somewhere, she thought. (E: Sachiko had said the same thing to her, back in the second novel.)

"I'm supposed to accept a treat for no reason?"

"Reason? Reason---" What the heck, were the words that came after that She should have decided to accept gratefully, which wasn't happening. "Uh, I feel like I want to thank you for your assistance with the play, I suppose."

"Thanks?"

Just so.

"Thank you for the fo-od." From somewhere several male voices bubbled over energetically, surrounded Yumi, then bowed.

"…"

The members of the Hanadera Student Council had crept up during this time and gathered. Because they were wearing street clothes, she hadn't noticed at all.

"We would like to partake in the feeling of being thanked for assistance with the play."

"Eh, that's," but Touko-chan is her cute underclassman, she was saying. And to add one thing to another, the innocent call came, "Frankfurter, Oden, O-shiroko."

That slipping out of the mouth was surely worse. But, before her, the boys became a bit more reserved.

"Yuuki." Looking around like she was searching for her brother to save her, her eye was clearly drawn back. Was this going to be something that would be difficult to settle? Yoshino's face said, "I know no-thing."

Yumi casually laid three tickets down on the corner of the desk, and opened her purse. In addition to the three before, it equaled the cost of six frankfurters, which she handed over as cashier. This
month was going to be tight for personal expenses. Little brother, I'll remember this.

"Itadakima-su!"

When the boys had taken the food tickets and flowed by to the food carts, Touko-chan spoke, as if she were saying, "sheesh," "I just saw Noriko-san with the handicrafts club setting up the exhibition of the costumes for the play."

"Ah, is that so?"

"Yeah."

Those costumes would be brought to the gymnasium just before the performance, and would be exhibited again when it was over. To learn what the impact of the publicity was, it looked like she'd have to consult with the president of the handicrafts club or Sachiko-sama.

"Afterwards, I'd like to go look around. I'd like to go and see what display Touko-chan's class has."

"My class? Then I'll be your guide. Until what time is Yumi-sama working?"

"You'll come to guide me? Really? Um, then I'll bump up the time." As she said that, Yoshino-san's voice spoke from a space a bit separate.

"Rosa Chinensis en bouton, excluding her performance in the play, is scheduled to be here."

"Wai…, come on Yoshino-san, what are you saying?"

Three first years came rushing up to stand in front of Yoshino-san. Therefore there was no response to Touko-chan's question from before.

"Don't just ignore me."

Yumi interrupted the three first-years with "I'm sorry, just a moment," grabbed Yoshino-san by the arm and walked her to a place just a little apart. The three first-years, upon the appearance of the rumored person herself screamed "Hya!".

"What did you tell those girls?" Yumi asked in a soft voice; Yoshino answered, "That Yumi-san will be here till whenever. That's all."

"But, that answer is a lie."

Outside performing for the play, no one had ever told her that she was going to be here.

"If there's a better way to put it, tell me. A moment ago, when those gakuran-wearing boys from Hanadera arrived, Yumi didn't ask for her time to be moved up. Why, didn't you want them to guide you? I don't know why but you are paying attention to a Lillian first-year over the students from Hanadera. It's just mid-morning, so saying that your mouth is torn is no good. It's not even like you've got a date with Sachiko-sama."

"It's not a lie. If that was your intention, then we would have planned for you to be allowed to leave your post. I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

Yoshino-san, leaving Yumi some space to ponder what she had said, returned to where the first-years were waiting.

"…I wonder if that'll be okay." Yumi also returned, but had the feeling that she'd forgotten something. "Ah."

That's right, Touko-chan was there waiting. All through that discussion.

"Darn it." She returned, confused, to find that Touko-chan was not there.

"If you're looking for the first-year with the banana curls, she went off somewhere. Like she was in the middle of something. She said to excuse her." The person who was acting as cashier nformed her.

"I see. …Thank you."

Touko-chan, wouldn't it have been okay for you to wait here a little.

"After that she said thank you for the food. I was to hold on to that message and give it to you?"

"Eh, what is that Touko-chan thanking me for food for."

The cashier pointed to the corner of the desk where the three food tickets were no longer there.


To Be Continued in Part 5


Tags: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Marimite, Tokubestsu Denai Tada no Ichihi