hontou ni sou omou?

Yumi flees to the greenhouse in tears but Sei-sama rides to the rescue, telling her that Sachiko was reacting to the parts of herself that she disliked and saw in Yumi and that a similar incident had taken place between Youko and Sachiko which eventually benefitted Sachiko.

The next day, the petite soeurs are handicapped by a five minute delay for the cardcaptoring treasure hunt and Yumi is dogged by a group who is tailing her. After finally managing to give them the slip, she realizes that the card should be in the greenhouse. Someone else is already there and the card isn’t there. At the conclusion of the hunt, Shizuka has found Shimako’s card (which will make for a most interesting date later) while Rei’s card was found by Chisato Tanuma (leading to Rei-Yoshino fireworks for the rest of this season and the next). Sachiko’s card mysteriously reappears at the roots of the rosa chinesis bush (but deeper than from where Sachiko had buried it) but Sachiko believes Yumi, excusing it as a trick of St Valentine’s. They formally make up at the Rose Mansion and we conclude on a literally sweet moment as a mix-up occurs between the chocolates Yumi prepared for Sei and Sachiko.

One of the things I love about this series - many little details form larger plot points later. For example, Sei’s seemingly throwaway comment about her dislike of the greenhouse will return as a major point in the Forest of Thorns (Ibara no Mori) arc.

As readers are probably sick of hearing, I’m a big fan of Sei-Yumi interactions. This scene was a perfect example of how Sei offers emotional comfort and then a gentle guiding hand to lost sheep Yumi, moving to flirting and teasing. Yumi rightly realizes that she’ll have some difficulty once Sei graduates as she’s the only one that Yumi seems to be trust completely and is totally comfortable with. To Sei’s credit, she tries to reinforce Yumi’s own coping capacities by offering general guidelines: E.g. “Speak your mind to Sachiko.” And she also encourages Yumi to take action and habituate herself in deal with Sachiko. Giving advice and guidance is really a fine art and it’s often tempting to be too laid back or intoxicating to take too much control. Sei manages to strike a fine balance but rightly stresses that only Yumi and Sachiko can work this out for themselves. In fact, Yumi’s closeness to Sei becomes a sticking point of jealousy with Sachiko in the Haru season.

The confusion over Shimako’s misshapen marble cake was also cute. Fortituously, Sei eats Shimako’s cake thinking that it was Yumi’s gift but actually Shimako was hesitating as to whether or not to give it to her oneesama. Love it when Shimako is off balance, not least because this is when Mamiko Noto shows off her depth of expression (even if her voice is so distinct you can recognize it immediately regardless of character played). Needs more Hazuki-type roles!!

I had no idea how awful the truffles, that Yumi were planning to give to Sei, were until I read the manga. Apparently the story was a bit different with Yumi trying to create unique truffles that her Super Rich Oneesama Sachiko wouldn’t be able to get from the best Ginza shops with her enormous oodles of family money. One of the samples incorporated a curry filling. (;^_^) And her brother Yuuki nearly died after nonchalantly popping one into his mouth as he passed by.

One would think that this arc has been completed but the next episode reveals the mystery of the disappearing and appearing red card. Absolute delight in how small events like a treasure hunt, Valentine’s Chocolates and schoolgirl relationships can stretch over three episodes without straining patience or interest.