Maria†Holic episode 9

It is the evening before Ame No Kisaki’s festival dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Kanako can not contain herself from sheer enthusiasm, for she still sees it as a cosplay festival where she will be able to gaze at all the cute maidens.
Irritated, Mariya berates Kanako but has more success when using her sweetest voice and pleads with Kanako to lick her foot.

In an explosive bloodnose accompanied lighting fast response by Kanako, Mariya is barely able to keep the raging yuri girl from her leg. Remembering Mariya is really male, Kanako retreats and is almost tricked once again, barely able to withstand Mariya’s second plea.
In bed she tears up in frustration, leading to exasperated sighs from Mariya and Matsurika at how perverted Kanako has become.

On the morning of the Virgin Mary festival, Mariya reports at the student council, but the student council president Ayari quickly storms out in frustration, still vehemently disliking Mariya.

Excusing Ayari’s behavior, the vice president Matsuru goes after Ayari and ponders if Ayari shouldn’t forgive Mariya by now, especially since Ayari seems to have forgotten why she had a falling out with Mariya all those years ago.

Gathering for the Virgin Mary festival parade, Kanako helps distribute flower baskets to younger students who are all clad in white dresses with small angel wings attached, ready to walk in the parade next to a flower ornamented float that holds a large Virgin Mary statue.
Curious what Ayari is doing on the float, Kanako learns from Kiri that tradition has the student council president sit on the float, clad in pure white to embody how the students aspire to be like the Virgin Mary.

After seeing several younger students play around with one girl having a wing torn off her costume, Ayari suddenly remembers what happened all those years ago.
Mariya was showing off her dress to Ayari when another student bumped into her, causing Mariya to fall towards Ayari and tear apart her robe, revealing Ayari’s panda adorned underwear. Quickly nicknamed panda-chan and the laughing stock of everyone, Ayari never forgave Mariya

Little did Ayari know it wasn’t really Mariya that day but it actually was Shizu (clearly visible by the beauty mark).

Matsuru notices Ayari seems to remember and says Ayari should forgive and forget, since it’s long in the past anyway. While mulling over those words, Ayari sees that some of the girls nearby stumble against Kanako, sending her sprawling on the ground.
Hurrying to get up, Ayari slips on her robe and falls off the float.

To everyone’s amazement, Ayari is saved by a quick reaction from Mariya who catches the student council president in her arms.

Awed by Mariya’s strength and fast reaction, Ayari is at a loss for words, she clumsily tries to apologize for getting so angry at what happened all those years ago.
True to her character, Mariya lets a comment slip about Ayari’s weight since she’s forced to carry her, causing Ayari to flail around. With Mariya unable to hold her any longer, Ayari slips, ripping the top of her dress open as she falls to the ground, revealing her bosom clad in pink lingerie for all to see.
Furious, Ayari runs off cursing Mariya.

In class, Kiri, Sachi and Yuzuru discuss one of Ame No Kiseki’s frightening stories with Kanako. One of the sisters recently discovered the water in the pool had become red like a sea of blood. The girls also go on to reveal that Ame No Kiseki doesn’t have the typical seven mysteries, but Kanako’s dorm does.

Sharing this with Mariya back in their room, Mariya and Matsurika aren’t fooled as easy and suggest the blood filled pool is in fact Kanako’s doing. Cornered, Kanako is forced to confess she visited the pool before, while thinking of seeing all those cute girls like Sachi, Kiri, Yuzuru and even their teacher Kumagai in swimsuit, she had an explosive bloodnose that quickly dyed the water in the pool red.
Kanako is further exposed by Mariya as the culprit behind other bloodstains found around the school premises, when she was watching the girls’ judo and athletics classes.

Having asked their teacher Kumagai about the seven mysteries of her dorm, Kanako was only told the first six ones.
Mariya goes on to tell Kanako that the seventh mystery is in fact known to nearly none and concerns God, namely the dorm leader herself. When they whisper the seventh mystery in her ear, Kanako is struck with fear as suddenly Ryouchou appears in their room.

What a hilarious episode, the humor went up a notch compared to the past week which was already excellent.
Split in two parts where the first part focused on the Virgin Mary festival, showing us Mariya and Ayari’s past, the second half about the mysteries was pure humor and showed off Kanako’s most perverted side.

It seems they’re really vilifying Kanako lately, not a chance goes by to show off her ecchi side, though mostly hilarious and leading to great humor, it’s still a noticeable increase. Certainly when offset against how they’re making Mariya look more positive by having her rescue Ayari and revealing that the reason Ayari fell out with Mariya all those years before is actually Shizu’s fault, not Mariya’s.

Still, the sneer about Ayari’s weight causing her to fidget and rip her dress leading to the same situation as in the past won’t help things between Mariya and Ayari. A reconciliation seems out of the question for now.
Wonder if we’ll see much more of Ayari. Possibly not, there’s still the other characters and the main story around Mariya and Kanako hasn’t been fleshed out that much, so wonder what’ll happen between them next. Hoping more and more for a romantic conclusion between those two, they deserve each other.

Young Ayari and Mariya were so incredibly moe!