Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 13 Chapter 4
In front of the statue of Maria-sama at the fork in the road, a voice called out to her from behind.
"Ive been waiting for you, Nijou Noriko-san."
Noriko lowered her hands from their praying position and turned around.
"Yes?"
It was scary how accustomed she had become to it. When she first entered high school, she had gone through the motions to avoid drawing attention to herself, but now she just didnt feel right if she pa.s.sed this place without joining her hands together in prayer. Her devoutly Christian onee-sama had had a profound effect on her.
"Gokigenyou. Hot, isnt it?"
The lone older student said as she drew closer.
Sungla.s.ses as dark as her Lillians school uniform, her hair knotted high back on her head, a white and navy blue striped bag in her hand, and black backless shoes with large floral decorations on her feet. At first glance the outfit seemed mismatched, but on closer inspection it wasnt too badly balanced. Although it required abandoning all preconceived notions about the school uniform in order to admit that.
"Recently, the Yamayurikai members have been preparing for the school festival every day, havent they? Impressive, impressive."
She was walking alongside Noriko, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Um - "
Noriko wanted to ask, "Is there something you wanted?" but wasnt given the opportunity to do so.
Instead she was peppered with a barrage of gossipy questions, like, "Have you finished your homework?" and "You didnt get much free time this vacation, did you?" Noriko had no choice but to keep walking towards the school building, giving short and innocuous responses like, "Yeah," and "Mmm." Since she didnt know what the other girls motives were, she wasnt about to provide any careless answers.
Just what exactly was this girls goal?
Earlier, shed said, "Ive been waiting for you." It seemed unthinkable that she would have been waiting in this heat just because she wanted to walk with Noriko.
"Pardon me for a moment."
Having said this, the girl stopped walking. Even though Noriko didnt consider herself to be accompanying this girl, she still had plenty of time so reluctantly she stopped too.
The girl reached into her handbag and pulled something out.
"Here."
She had pulled out a couple of oolong tea drink cartons.
"Its alright, Im fine."
Noriko politely refused, then the girl said:
"Its not a bribe."
"No, I didnt think it was."
"Really? Then forgive me."
She laughed airily and put one of the cartons back into her bag, then pierced the other with a straw and started sucking on it in the middle of the road.
Not seeing any reason why she should have to wait under the blazing sun for her senior to finish, Noriko bowed slightly and started walking ahead. Then that girl started chasing after her, still carrying the drink carton, and saying, "Please wait a minute."
"That reminds me, you had a meeting with the Hanadera Academy student council the other day. What were your impressions? Its got me interested."
"&h.e.l.lip; Um."
It didnt exactly look as though shed just been reminded of it, the way she plunged into the topic.
"Is it true that Rosa Chinensis fainted from shock when she met those honorable men?"
Noriko was glad she hadnt accepted the oolong tea. Shed even said it wasnt a bribe, what a lie that was.
"If you want to talk about that, youll have to excuse me."
She quickened her pace, fed up with this. She may have spoken a bit forcefully, aided by the heat.
"Oh dont say that, wait for me."
The sungla.s.ses followed once again.
"But I dont know anything."
The girl stuck to her like a snake coiled around her, and Noriko couldnt shake her no matter how she tried. As a last resort, she stood in front of Noriko, blocking her path, acting like some primary school bully. That she would go this far took her actions beyond irritating, into the realm of mind-boggling.
"What the heck are you doing?"
Noriko asked, with a sigh, and that girl just grinned and said:
"Liar. Sorry, just making fun. Actually, I was waiting because there was something I really wanted to ask your help with."
"My help &h.e.l.lip; ?"
In her mind, Noriko quipped, "And how would you make fun of someone who would do you a favor after all this?" While Lillians Girls Academy had a strict seniority-based relationship between the girls in different grades, it didnt mean that the seniors could do whatever they wanted.
"One of my vacation research projects is to investigate Buddhist statues. But our schools Catholic, right? So theres not really any good books on it in the library."
She looked regretfully in the direction of the library.
However, wasnt the girls start as late as it was audacious that a Catholic school would set a report on Buddhist statues as homework?
(Whys she still only gathering data? Summer vacations almost over.)
Then the girl smiled in an overly-friendly manner and continued, completely oblivious to what Noriko was thinking.
"So I thought Id do some research on the internet. Noriko-san, can you introduce me to the site you and your friends use?"
"&h.e.l.lip; You could just do a search."
Shed probably expected Noriko would say this, because she immediately adopted a facial expression that said, "Of course I know that," before continuing with the words:
"But its a bit scary to suddenly jump in, right? At some sites you can rack up a huge bill before youre even aware of it. So it would be a huge relief if it was a site that an acquaintance of mine already frequented. Is that no good?"
It sounded to Noriko like she was talking about a rip-off joint. Not everywhere was like that, but she had heard tales of similar things before, so she understood the feeling. Because she was dependent on her allowance from her parents, Noriko didnt really go out searching for new sites, limiting herself to the sites she was familiar with as a safety measure.
Noriko was caught out a bit by being called an acquaintance, but since they both went to the same school then in the broader sense of the word it was probably true.
"&h.e.l.lip; I dont mind, but its just a site for amateur enthusiasts, so I doubt it will be useful as a reference. Youre probably better off going to a big public library &h.e.l.lip; "
"Yeah. Ill follow both leads."
"Alright. Hold on a minute."
Noriko didnt see a problem with telling her the sites address. It would be easy enough to find from a search even if she wasnt told it.
"Umm. I think Ive got it here."
Shed just happened to bring a printout of the sites homepage with her today. From memory, the address was printed in the upper-right hand corner.
"Ah, this isnt it. Maybe this?"
Shed accidentally pulled out an email from Takuya-kun, so she hurriedly crammed it back into her bag. Shed printed them both out last night so they were stacked one on top of the other.
"h t t p colon slash slash &h.e.l.lip; um."
The girl spoke as she copied the address into her student notebook from the other piece of paper that Noriko offered.
"w w w &h.e.l.lip; hey, whos Takuya-kun, is he your boyfriend?"
"Huh?"
"The sender of that email."
What a blunder.
Despite the handicap of her sungla.s.ses and that shed only seen it for a moment, shed apparently pulled that name out of those lines of text.
"Just a friend."
Noriko replied confidently, since she wasnt ashamed of their relationship.
"But hes a boy, right?"
"A boy, well, a man actually."
"Hes a male friend, so hes a boyfriend, right?"
"Mm, well &h.e.l.lip; in the loosest sense of the word."
Noriko was getting annoyed enough that she wanted to say, "If youve got the time to talk about that then copy the address already," but decided that arcing up here would just draw things out even longer, so she silently endured it.
"Ah, sorry. It caught my interest, so I couldnt stop myself from asking."
Maybe the irritation was showing on Norikos face, because the girl sped up her transcription of the web site address and then closed her student diary when she was done. After that, she took the carton of oolong tea out from her bag and slipped it into Norikos hand.
"Hey, wai &h.e.l.lip; "
"Its fine, its fine. Its thanks for giving me the address."
The other girl then walked away, leaving behind the impression of over-familiarity, like an old-lady on her way back from the supermarket pushing the sweets shed just bought onto the next door neighbors children whether they wanted them or not.
"What was up with that?"
She felt like shed just been conned somehow.
She had to see her onee-samas face to remove the bad taste. Noriko hurried off to the Rose Mansion.
It was 12:45pm.
The oolong tea that had been forced on her was lukewarm.
Just how long had that girl been waiting there for her?
Noriko relayed the entire story as she poured a gla.s.s of the barley tea that had been prepared yesterday.
"I think asking for the websites address may just have been a pretext for her questions about the events of two days ago."
She put the carton of oolong tea which had been forced onto her into the refrigerator when she took the pitcher of barley tea out. It was already body-temperature by the time she arrived at the Rose Mansion, so she had no desire to drink it like that.
"The events of two days ago."
Norikos onee-sama, Toudou Shimako-san, looked puzzled.
"If that was the case, wouldnt she have asked me about it? I arrived here ten minutes before you. If she had been waiting there long enough for the oolong tea to go warm, she should have seen me pa.s.s by."
"Thats true."
The usual route from the main gate to the school buildings was along the path lined with ginkgo trees, which inevitably pa.s.sed in front of the statue of Maria-sama. Because Maria-sama was standing at the first fork in that road.
"The reason that she called out to you&h.e.l.lip; if she did want to ask about Buddhist statues, you would be the obvious choice."
They were currently the only two people in the Rose Mansions second-floor room. From the sample size of two it wasnt possible to say whether Noriko had been targeted specifically, or if others had also been chosen. But they should be able to determine that by asking the other members as they arrived.
"But why do you think she would know about the events of two days ago?"
"That girl &h.e.l.lip; um, Im fairly sure she was Tsukiyama Minako-sama."
She may have thought she was disguising herself but it was pretty obvious. If wearing sungla.s.ses and having a different hairstyle was enough to make her look like someone else, then the weekly gossip mags wouldnt be full of photos of actors cutting loose when traveling incognito. As someone on the side of the people doing the unmasking, surely she would have known this.
"Shes been fairly quiet recently, so its a bit unexpected. Although she is still a member of the newspaper club."
Shimako sighed, troubled. Norikos onee-sama never criticized anyone, so even saying that much showed how much of a problem-child that Tsukiyama Minako-sama was.
"But are you that familiar with Minako-samas face, Noriko?"
"Yeah."
Noriko shrugged.
"Its one of the many things Touko taught me when I first entered this school, even though I never asked her to."
But, like her onee-sama said, Minako-sama had been quiet recently and hadnt done anything to draw attention to herself since Noriko entered Lillians in April. So why was she acting so suspiciously now, as though she was digging for something?
"The events of the day before yesterday."
"Naturally, I told her nothing."
Noriko declared, holding up her right hand.
There had been no touching or indecent exposure during their first meeting with the high school boys, just a simple greeting, but the almost instantaneous fainting had drawn things to a close with a complete loss of face for the Roses.
The boys from Hanadera were getting ready for another round so there would undoubtedly be another meeting soon, but if news of this event got out then Rosa Chinensis "man-hatred" would become public knowledge.
"My sincerest thanks. Its not something Sachiko-samas proud of, even at the best of times. If everyone read about it in the "Lillian Kawaraban," then Im sure shed feel even worse."
"Thats for sure."
Their shoulders slumped as they imagined it.
Ogasawara Sachiko-sama used a lot of energy on her negative emotions, be it anger or despair. They wanted Rosa Chinensis heart to be as calm as possible, even if just for the sake of the peace of the Yamayurikai.
"Ah, right."
In order to brighten the mood, Noriko led the conversation in a different direction.
"Ive printed out Takuya-kuns homepage, the one I told you about earlier."
"Where?"
Noriko placed the printout on the table so Shimako-san could see.
"Ah, youre right. Its our Amitabha Tathagata. Thats a nice photo of it."
The three golden, glittering Amitabha statues were featured in the "Takuya-kuns Favorites" section. The statues were from the main building of her onee-samas familys temple, Shouguu Temple.
"Im really glad Takuya-kun was given permission to show the main sculpture on his homepage. See, here hes written that it was all thanks to the chief priest."
"Im sure my father agreed because it was Shimura-san. His knowledge of Buddhist statues exceeds my fathers, and hes trustworthy. Ive heard theyre making arrangements for him to come and stay with one of the main families that supports our temple for a while."
Noriko thought, "That Takuya-kun is as shrewd as ever." Incidentally, Shimura-san was Takuya-kuns surname.
"Ah, right. As requested, the name and address of the temple werent printed, so you shouldnt be inundated with a flood of inquiries. But if anything does happen, let me know. I think hes already said this to the chief priest, but the sames applies if you notice anything, onee-sama."
Noriko said as she read through the email printout.
"Alright, Ill keep that in mind."
Norikos onee-sama gave a small, slow nod of her head. As always, every single action she took was elegant and beautiful. A divinity reminiscent of Maria-sama. Noriko had felt that way even when they first met.
"But its a lot of trouble for you too, Noriko."
"Huh?"
Noriko asked, aware of the somewhat stupid look on her face since she had absolutely no idea what the trouble was.
"Because youll be relaying messages between Shimura-san and I, like a carrier pigeon."
"But I already email Takuya-kun almost every day, so its no bother at all."
"Teehee. You two must be close. Enviably so."
Her onee-sama had probably meant it only as flattery, but even though she knew this, Noriko was so pleased she made a bold suggestion:
"Then why dont you come along with us next time, onee-sama?"
"Oh?"
"I know its sudden, but if youre free tomorrow, would you like to come to an exhibition of Buddhist statues at an art museum? I was planning on meeting Takuya-kun there. Itd be great if you could come along."
"Tomorrow!?"
Shimako-san blinked. Surprised by the sudden request. But since the conversation had come this far, it was too late to back out now.
"But wont I just be in the way?"
"Not at all. I think Takuya-kuns intrigued by Lillians soeur system, because Im always writing about "onee-sama this" or "onee-sama that" in my emails. In fact, the other day he impudently sent me an email saying hed like to have a leisurely chat with you over tea."
Noriko made exaggerated hand gestures as she explained about Takuya-kun, and her onee-sama laughed softly.
"Alright then, Ill join you."
"Really? Ooh, that makes me so happy! Ah, right, the rumor is that theyre going to be displaying a Maria Kanon, a statue of Maria-sama done up as a Buddha to avoid religious persecution, so Im sure itll be interesting to you too, onee-sama."
While she was still rejoicing, the biscuit-door suddenly opened.
"What is it? Whats so amusing?"
The face of Rosa Foetida, Hasekura Rei-sama, appeared.
"Well, um, we were talking about going to a Buddhist statue exhibition tomorrow."
Apparently Norikos excited voice had carried out of the room.
"Oh my, you two are getting along so well, Im jealous."
Quipped Shimazu Yoshino-sama, who had arrived with Rei-sama.
"&h.e.l.lip; Would you like to come too?"
She asked, just to be polite.
"No, its alright."
"We dont want to bother you."
The Yellow Rose sisters declined simultaneously. Apparently neither of them had an interest in Buddhist statues.
While Noriko poured them each a gla.s.s of barley tea, her onee-sama turned to Rei-sama and said:
"That reminds me, did you encounter anyone between the school gate and here?"
"Do you mean, "Did I approach anyone?" or "Did anyone approach me?""
The way she phrased it meant that either interpretation was possible. j.a.panese is tough.
"The latter."
"Someone did, why do you ask?"
"I thought so."
Noriko exchanged glances with her onee-sama.
When she tried to confirm the situation by asking who and where it was, Rei-sama looked slightly dubious.
"It was Yumi-chan, in front of the Rose Mansion. She told me shed be a bit late for the meeting, and I shouldnt worry. Sachiko had forgotten her slippers and was going to the visitors entrance to borrow a pair."
"It was Yumi-sama, huh."
Noriko put the gla.s.s pitcher back in the refrigerator, then walked over to the window and looked out. She caught a glimpse of what was unmistakeably Rosa Chinensis en bouton, f.u.kuzawa Yumi-sama, in the area between the school building and the Rose Mansion.
"But why would Yumi-san be waiting outside? Surely she would be better off either waiting inside the Rose Mansion, or accompanying Sachiko-sama, to get out of the heat."
After downing her gla.s.s of barley tea in one gulp, Yoshino-sama answered Shimako-sans question.
"She said that Sachiko-sama had borrowed her slippers and gone inside the school building. And she couldnt go into the Rose Mansion or the school building in her outdoor shoes, right?"
"Ah, so thats it."
To think that someone as methodical as Sachiko-sama had forgotten her slippers. She must still be suffering from the events of the day before yesterday.
"So then Minako-sama didnt call out to you."
Noriko felt a bit disappointed. If Minako-sama had made contact with anybody else, it would have provided a clue as to what she was searching for.
However.
"We did see Minako-san though."
Rosa Foetida said.
"Huh?"
"We pa.s.sed her at the school gate on our way in. But she didnt seem to notice us at all, because she was running for the bus. Right, Yoshino?"
"Yeah &h.e.l.lip; at any rate, she had one heck of an outfit on."
That dispelled any doubts that it was her.
Tsukiyama Minako-sama. It looks like your disguise was completely blown.
Noriko felt completely exhausted as the biscuit-door opened and the Red Rose sisters walked in.
"Gokigenyou. Are you all feeling well?"
On the contrary, it was the bright and cheerful Rosa Chinensis that looked worst off.
- Again with the blue visitors slippers.
"What the hecks going on, calling me out here so suddenly?"
The for-all-intents-and-purposes head of the Lillians Girls Academy newspaper club said to the in-name-only head of the newspaper club as she took a seat opposite her.
"Honestly, why have you been procrastinating so much?"
- Those were the first words out of Tsukiyama Minako-samas mouth.
"I got here as soon as I could. You called me less than thirty minutes ago."
Yamaguchi Mami adjusted her wrist.w.a.tch and confirmed the time. The sweat gathering there was annoying, so she loosened the leather strap by one notch. It was 4pm.
"Not that. I was talking about the progress of the beginning-of-semester b.u.mper edition of the Lillian Kawaraban."
"I know what you meant, onee-sama, what I dont understand is why youre asking about that."
Mami sipped on her coffee milk through a straw. It wasnt actually coffee milk, it had a more fashionable name that shed completely forgotten five seconds after she ordered.
Her onee-sama was eating something that looked like coffee-colored shaved-ice. Although she didnt say anything, Mami thought it looked exactly like "snow from a mud pool" as she watched on.
They were at the K station branch of a coffee chain.
The store was crowded with young people.
Shed been told to get there ASAP, so shed only picked up her notebook and purse before rushing out. She knew she would have received a lecture about it if she took the time to change, so shed headed out into town in her shabby T-shirt and denim skirt that were barely fit to wear to the local convenience store.
"You dont understand? You know, even though Ive stepped down from the front-lines, I still love the "Lillian Kawaraban." So when I see my adorable pet.i.t soeur floundering around lost, of course Ill gently offer her a helping hand."
"Gently, huh."
Mami propped her elbows on the table and let out a sigh, "Oh geez."
"You got bored of studying for your tests and your reporters spirit came gushing up, right?"
Also known as escaping from reality.
"&h.e.l.lip; But, its summer vacation, and Im spending all my time on summer cla.s.ses, mock exams, reference books and vocab books &h.e.l.lip; Im just over it all."
Minako-sama was desperately lacking motivation.
"Thats because youre studying for entrance exams, right? If you hate it, you should change course now. Im sure theres still time for you to accept early entrance into Lillians Womens University."
"I would have done that from the start if it was a possibility."
Stir, stir.
Minako-sama mindlessly stirred her slushy ice with a spoon. Mami inferred that shed probably lost interest in its flavor.
But enough about that. There was absolutely no reason for Mami to get dragged into her onee-samas escape from studying for exams.
"My deepest apologies, but I can write those articles without your help, onee-sama. Excuse me."
Mami stood up, picking up the plastic cup with the remains of her coffee milk in it.
"Last month, you tried to tail the White Rose sisters as they visited various churches and temples but they gave you the slip."
Those icy words were thrown at Mamis turned back.
"They didnt give me the slip, I just lost sight of them."
Mami said, after turning around. She knew her onee-sama was trying to provoke her but she had to respond.
"So the reason you were unable to gather any information about the Yellow and White Rose sisters coincidental appearance near the Ogasawara holiday house was also because you lost sight of them?"
Exactly. But it pained her too much to admit it.
"Are they ghosts?"
Minako-sama smirked. That was the trigger that caused Mami to return to the table, against her better judgment.
"Takeshima Tsutako-sans photo."
Mami took the evidence out from her notebook and handed it over. Her onee-sama raised her eyebrows and looked it over with an expert eye.
"Its very small and from behind. You could use it if you had an interview to go with it, but if they refuse then thats the end of that photo."
Mami thought that if her onee-sama was still the editor then she wouldnt have been saying this. But now that she wasnt in charge, she was raising the height of the hurdles.
"You have to stockpile material during the summer vacation, so you can publish a steady stream of special editions once the new term starts. Thats the service that we in the newspaper club provide to reward the loyal readers of the "Lillian Kawaraban.""
The service, huh.
"But onee-sama, its summer vacation now. Theres still plenty of time - "
"So naive."
Minako-sama shifted her legs beneath the table.
"You cant wait until the enemy reveals their weaknesses. You have to take a dustpan and broom and gather the tiny specks of dust."
"So the newspaper club are janitors?"
"Something very similar &h.e.l.lip; Dont just stand there, have a seat."
Before she realized it, shed been dragged back into this conversation. Mami sighed and sat down in the seat shed recently vacated.
"Ive visited the Rose Mansion with refreshments numerous times, but there were no gaps in their armor, or, rather, the gaps led to nothing. They were just quietly reading over doc.u.ments, doing calculations, drawing up timetables and making clean copies. Concentrating on their work and keeping idle chatter to a minimum. I followed Shimako-san when she left the Rose Mansion, but all she did was use the phone in front of the office to confirm the price of something with a bulk discount store. It was even more pathetic with Yumi-san, whenever I followed her the only place she led me was to the toilet."
"Youve still got some way to go yet, Mami. But even if youre holding the dustpan and broom, youre still just waiting. You have to scare up the material. Weave a web."
"Scare up &h.e.l.lip; and weave &h.e.l.lip; "
But hadnt the person sitting opposite Mami been burnt in the past by publishing a story based on incorrect a.s.sumptions received from those types of coercive data gathering? How quickly one forgets the dangers. Either that, or she was trying to get her junior to start a fire while she was in a safe spot that the flames wouldnt reach.
"Yamayurikai material is scattered everywhere."
Minako-samas self-belief shone threw as she spoke.
"For instance, the mixer with the Hanadera student council."
"Whats this?"
Mami leaned forwards in antic.i.p.ation. Shed bit down hard on the bait cast by her smiling onee-sama.
"Yumi-san organized an introductory meeting between the high-school student council members from Hanadera Boys Academy and Lillians Girls Academy for two evenings ago."
"- First Ive heard of this."
"Naturally, it wasnt leaked to anyone on the outside. It was top secret."
Mami wanted to ask, "So how come you know about it then?" but chose to remain silent while her onee-sama was happily chatting away.
"But it seems that when they met at the front gate, something happened and Sachiko-san lost her fizz and collapsed."
"&h.e.l.lip; Rosa Chinensis collapsed?"
And lost her fizz. It seemed pretty far-fetched so far. But shed listen to the whole story, just in case.
"So, what was the cause?"
"Who knows."
"You dont know?"
Mami felt deeply dismayed, after all, wasnt that the most important part? But on reflection, it would have been impossible for Minako-sama to know the answer since she wasnt a member of the Yamayurikai executive.
"It was probably due to heatstroke or illness or something like that. But I cant rule out the possibility that she was overwhelmed by shock when she saw the Hanadera students."
"Is this years Hanadera student council really such a stunning array of individuals?"
Mami thought back to last years Hanadera student president, who had the bearing of a prince. His name was Kashiwagi Suguru-san, from memory. Even now, he had plenty of fans at Lillians.
"Well, theres stunning and theres stunning. Like a bodybuilder, or a cross-dresser, or a punk."
Minako-sama counted on her fingers as she listed these examples.
"&h.e.l.lip; Thats quite detailed. You make it sound like you saw them."
"It doesnt just sound like it, I did see them."
"Huh?"
"Two evenings ago. Right there."
"Wha?"
Basically, the summary of Minako-samas story is as follows:
Two evenings ago, Minako-sama was on her way home from her summer-session entrance exam prep cla.s.s when her mother asked her to pick something up from the shops near K station. It was a hot day. So, to cool off, she hung out at the shops for a while.
"And the Hanadera student council just happened to be sitting next to you?"
Life sprinkled out some incredible coincidences. Either that, or Minako-sama was blessed with better than average luck.
"There was one of me and many of them. Their conversation reached my ears unbidden."
"So, you overheard the entire thing &h.e.l.lip; "
"What could I do? Intriguing keywords like "Hanadera" and "Lillian" were flying around everywhere."
So Minako-sama pieced together the fragments of conversation she heard and figured out the gist of what happened that day.
"But thats some great material, isnt it?"
Since shed heard it directly from one of the parties involved, the Hanadera high-school student council. Of course, it would be necessary to confirm the facts with the Yamayurikai before turning it into an article, but that shouldnt be a problem compared to finding the entire story from scratch.
"But things arent as straightforward as they may seem. I tried to lead Noriko-san into confirming what happened but she clammed up. Most likely, theyve all agreed to never disclose those events."
"I see."
Indeed, that group or, rather, those ladies presented a strong, unified front. It was tough to find a loose seam that would unravel them.
"You have to be wary of this sort of material, you cant overextend your lines. You have to attack from where they least expect it."
"From where they least expect it?"
So, despite making it that far, it was still only idle gossip. The strength drained from Mamis body, even though shed only just started thinking about turning it into an article.
""Exclusive scoop! Meet Rosa Gigantea en Boutons Boyfriend!""
"What are you on about this time?"
Mami thought she should take what she was hearing with a grain, no a shaker, of salt. Shed run out of energy completely otherwise.
"Exactly what I said. We score a direct hit on Miss Nijou Norikos date and quickly publish it in the "Lillian Kawaraban."
Grinning. Minako-sama was smiling like she was letting her in on a conspiracy.
"And? Whos the guy?"
"I dont know. Its up to you to cover the event."
Right. So thats what this was about.
"So youre saying I should cover your wild delusions &h.e.l.lip; no, your baseless speculation?"
"Baseless? Not at all."
Mami-sama took a folded-up piece of A4 paper out of her bag and spread it out on the table.
"Shimura Takuya. A fourth-year at a private university &h.e.l.lip; that would make him at least 21. Family of four, living in Tokyo. His hobby is viewing Buddhist statues, so they came together through their hobby."
That was some detailed information. It wasnt a wild delusion or baseless speculation, but gradually revealed the shape of a young man.
"Where did you get that info from?"
"The internet."
"The internet?"
"I told Noriko-san I wanted to investigate Buddhist statues and asked her for some website recommendations. Thats when I fortuitously caught sight of an email printout."
"Mm, mm."
Mami excitedly urged her on.
"In it, Takuya-kun asked her out on a date."
"Whoa!"
"They were going to meet out in public, which is proof of their closeness. I fished around a bit and she confirmed that he was her boyfriend."
"Incredible! Thats amazing work, onee-sama."
Mami usually had to reign in her onee-sama when she went tearing off on some wild goose chase, but shed become so excited that shed lost some of her cool. If shed retained her composure, she probably would have rebuked her onee-sama with something like, "Reading other peoples mail isnt something to be proud of."
"So, getting back to the story, I knew Id found a hint so I hurried home and looked up the website she told me about. Then, to my surprise, I found out that Takuya-kun was the site administrator. So I read his profile and all his old blog entries, which gave me all the info I told you. What do you think?"
"Nicely done."
Minako-sama was obviously born with good luck when it came to gathering material with dustpan and broom.
"So heres your job: Youre to go to the place where theyll meet and lie in wait for Takuya-kun. Alright?"
"Huh, what about you, onee-sama?"
"Unfortunately, Ive got a mock entrance exam tomorrow."
So that was it. The tension that had been building up inside of Mami suddenly fell away.
"If you get a photo of him, it will be a minor success. If the shot has both him and Noriko-san, itll be a huge success. Oh, right. Dont try to approach him directly tomorrow, just take the photos. Its all over if you get the film confiscated. Apparently, he knows aikido."
"&h.e.l.lip; Understood."
Mami had no faith in her physical strength. If it came to a struggle for the camera between her and a young man who knew martial arts, she was 100% certain she would lose. It went without saying that shed do her best to avoid that.
"So, you were saying they were meeting somewhere?"
"Ive got you covered. While I was pretending to write down the website address, I made a note about that in my student diary."
"&h.e.l.lip; Thats incredible."
Why couldnt she turn this energy towards studying for her exams? Mami slowly started to pity her onee-sama seated in front of her.
"Got it, Mami? Youve got the internet at home, right? Hurry back and check out Takuya-kuns homepage, to prepare for tomorrow."
"Yeah."
Mami was about to tell her onee-sama that she should prepare for her mock exams tomorrow too, but then stopped herself.
Since she knew that Minako-sama was in such high spirits that she wouldnt hear a word that was said.
She typed the address into the browser then pressed enter and before long the front page appeared.
"Hohoho, "Takuya-kuns Buddhist Shrine," huh &h.e.l.lip; Just the sort of name youd expect from an admirer of Buddhist statues."
The background was a photoshopped image showing various Buddhist statues praying towards an old, temple-like j.a.panese house.
Mami clicked on the "Self-Introduction" link first.
Im Shimura Takuya (my real name) - a resident of Tokyo and single. Im currently a fourth-year student at a private university. My hobbies are obviously viewing Buddhist statues, but also skiing※ and aikido.
This was all information that shed heard from her onee-sama.
Thinking that there would be anything new here, Mami went to click on the "Back" b.u.t.ton, but just as she was about to move the mouse she noticed the ※ symbol next to his hobbies.
When she moved the mouse over it, a pop-up appeared with "Early this year, I broke my leg skiing. Because of that, I missed out on seeing the Tamamushi Kannon, which is only shown once every twenty years. If another such incident occurs that interferes with my appreciation of Buddhist statues, Ill have to seriously consider dropping this hobby."
Apparently Takuya-kun would stop skiing on account of the Buddhist statues.
Mami had no particular interest in Buddhist statues, so she let out a small sigh as she wondered if it was really okay to revere them that much. She thought that skiing would be more popular with the ladies.
"Ah, but I suppose there are some weird girls like Nijou Noriko-chan who like Buddhist statues too."
The world worked surprisingly well.
That was why, after dinner, Mami was accessing the pages on Takuya-kuns site, just like her onee-sama had ordered.
But as she went from page to page, even though shed expected it, she was amazed by how fixated he was on Buddhist statutes.
Photos of Buddhist statues taken from all different angles, like they were idols.
The History of Buddhist Statues.
Buddhist Statue Trivia.
Buddhist Statue Cla.s.sifications.
Buddhist Statue Q&A.
Buddhist Statue Appreciation Reports.
Favorite Buddhist Statues. - etc, etc.
It even had a forum that was called the "Mandala Forum." She had a look around there, but she had no idea what they were talking about because they were all using terminology too technical for a beginner. At any rate, she was an amateur who only knew the great Buddha statues of Nara and Kamakura and the statue of Asura.
Completely dispirited, she was just about to leave Takuya-kuns Buddhist shrine when she noticed a small rectangular b.u.t.ton in the corner of the page.
On closer inspection, the rectangular b.u.t.ton looked like a tatami mat. Written alongside it were the words "Kounoshins six tatami mat room."
"Whos Kounoshin?"
Takuya-kun