Yumi wasn't the only haafu at Lilian. There were two others, at either end of the social spectrum. Saiko's playboy brother Shigeru was the product of a long affair with a woman in Switzerland. He had been acknowledged by the Saiki family, partly for strategic reasons, rumour had it.

Then there was Haru Tachibana.

She was the complete opposite of Yumiko. She enjoyed scandalising the sisters, and was the ringleader in games like prostitute and customer and gangster and hostage. Shigeru enjoyed her behaviour immensely, Yumi heard, not least because there wasn't the faintest hint of a possibility anything with her could ever turn out to be serious. Even if he'd gotten her pregnant, any child would be quietly adopted out - and, in fact, that was already another rumour, despite her young age. If anything like that happened to Yumiko or her two allies, they'd all explode and die, they agreed.

Far from feeling any comradely feelings for good girl and general mouse Yumiko, Haru enjoyed tormenting her. Not the least part of the torment was, after all, simply drawing attention to her.

But it only stepped up after Saiko noticed Yumi.

The day had started on a good note: Tachibana was in grave trouble. Saiko's fellow well-born associates at the school, and two of the sisters, had been urging her to adopt a properly pedigreed imouto, or petite soueur, as was becoming the commoner term. And Tachibana had decided that it would improve her standing with Shigeru, and his presents to her, if that were sabotaged, so she did!

One after the other candidates for Saiko's little sister had accidents befall them - humiliating ones. And made-up scandals that somehow nonetheless circulated throughout the school's rumour mill. Apparently, the situation had been going on for months, but had only come to a head this week.

Shigeru had written his mother, who prevailed upon his father to quietly persuade the Academy to put Tachibana on probation instead of throwing her out the front gate.

Tachibana pretended to be contrite, even as Shigeru bragged to his friends and one of his other girlfriends about her audacity.

That it was a pretence, unfortunately, was left to Yumiko to discover.

The pressure on Saiko to pick a petite soeur had increased, and the normally sweet-natured yamato nadeshiko was beginning to tire of it.

Meanwhile, the three church mice had decided to seek relief from Tachibana and her associates boldly. Now, if ever, was their one window of opportunity open. As the least shrinking of the violets, Yumi had been designated the spokesgirl, and the other two stood behind her. They approached the building where the girls who were senior in the school often met to discuss discipline and projects.

If Yumi was filled with a courage she did not normally possess, she had her reasons.

Earlier that day, while genuflecting to the statue of Maria-sama, and, to be honest, having one of the rebellious thoughts she couldn't seem to control, namely *is this statue an idol? If not, why not?* and only *In Maria-sama no kokoro, why is it a sapphire? All the others are God's living natural wonders.* was more common, Maria-sama, in her mercy, had nonetheless granted Yumi a blessing - nay, a miracle. Definitely worth moving a large rosary bead for. Definitely worth five ordinary blessings. It was probably for the best that Yumi felt particularly unworthy, as Pride was, after all, a Sin.

"Wait." So focused had Yumi been on her thoughts that she, and for a while, had assumed the statue had spoken. But you couldn't say Yumi was ill-mannered, so she'd turned her whole body (not merely her head) to where she heard the command coming from, and said, "Hai." Her head was down meekly, so she couldn't have told you who was speaking, but nor did it really matter. If someone believed they were in a position to tell a first-year semi-orphan to wait, they undoubtedly were.

There was quite the pause, so she'd ventured to look up. There, in the flesh, was Princess Saiko. She even had a dreamy expression, making it hard to tell this situation from a daydream. Yumi knew she should say "Gokigenyou," but instead, not fully in control of her actions, as was sadly often the case, she had instead blurted out (though Yumiko blurting something out was someone else's normal tone, of course), "Are ... Are you speaking to me?"?"

After all, Princess Saiko might be telling the statue to wait. At her elevated level, there were possibilities mere humans did not possess.

"You are not mistaken," had been the reply. "I am the one who was speaking, and you, the one to whom I spoke."

She had even been granted custody of Ayako Saiki's precious school bag. This was to enable Princess Saiko to lay hands on Yumi and straighten her tie. She wouldn't have dreamt of being embarrassed by a crooked tie. It had probably been set crooked in the first place by the Hand of Maria-sama in order to give Yumiko her blessing.

After Yumi was arranged to Saiko's satisfaction, she'd retrieved her school bag, with one hand still touching Yumi's left shoulder.

"You girls must keep your appearance in mind at all times. Maria-same is watching us," she'd scolded. Then, with a "Gokigenyou," Saiko had turned her entire body away and stridden off into the mist.

The shell-shocked Yumi had only barely managed to squeak out a returning "Gokigenyou," but at least she had.

The day was still a bit chilly, but the memory had warmed Yumi all morning.

The Matsudaira family had donated an entire building, the main greenhouse. The Ogasawara family had future plans to do the same, but at the time of the Matsudaira donation, all the Ogasawaras could afford - they were spreading their largesse throughout Japanese society, and had less to work with than the Matsudairas, to boot - was refurbishment and a new replacement door for the somewhat dilapidated little building with a small garden of roses around it where the senior girls met.

To make up for that, it was quite an ornate door.

Once one of the girls had whispered that it looked exactly like a fancy. embossed European biscuit, it became forever more known as the biscuit door. The refurbished little building, which initially had been the only classroom location in the whole "Academy," was nicknamed, with some irony, the "Rose Mansion."

Meanwhile, the focus of Yumiko's thoughts, the school princess and Rose Saiko was fed up with her brother and his little hellion strumpet, and fed up with the social pressure on her at the school. Of course, you would never get that from her tone. Also, no one was that close to her, such that they'd understand it without much outward expression. What she did do was claim a headache, stand to withdraw, and pledge that she'd find a petite soeur by the week's end.

No one in the Yamayurikai would have been gauche enough to badger her. Then again, they depended on her elevated sensitivity, which was engrained in all proper females of the nobility from when they took their first steps. She made her polite excuses for leaving early, and if she was a bit distracted, and moving much more swiftly than her usual purposeful but temperate pace, who could rally blame her.

Then again, actions have consequences. In this case, Saiko had barely come to herself having tea in the Rose Mansion, since she had low blood pressure in the mornings, and the consequence was that she had no idea why she couldn't go forward, why she suddenly felt herself falling, and what on Earth she was falling on.