章节 1
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1. Are both still waiting there?
2. Who I once was. Who you are yet to be.
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1. "Last day for post-graduation fooorms!"
2. "I'll be taking them to the staff room~"
3. "Waaah!! Wait wait, mine's not done yet!"
4. "I'm finishing up so don't go, okay!"
5. "Gosh... Five more minutes, alright?"
1. "Mm... I don't really remember. Nothing serious."
2. "I mean, post-grad? We're 1st years. It's Fall."
3. "What'd you put down, Kasumi?"
4. "Be more prepared next time, okay?"
5. "Will do, Class Rep Ma'am!"
6. "Right, ready to go~"
7. "It's okay, I have to go to the library anyway!"
8. "We can all walk together"
9. "Want us to wait for you before going home?"
1. "She gets those grades and still has to study!?"
2. "They wouldn't let you do both."
3. "She's just going to study."
4. "Li-bra-ry?"
5. "What, is she a student librarian too?"
6. "Full-ride scholarship students can't let their grades drop."
7. "I have the forms."
8. "Well she's got to keep them somehow."
9. I love libraries.
10. They're quiet and I can focus.
1. And also...
2. "Good enough for now..."
1. "Ehehe..."
2. "...Well I already know which one."
3. Here I can sweep my thoughts away.
4. "Which book today..."
5. chewing bit-by-bit through books whose title or cover caught my eye.
6. I started looking forward to the mental escape,
2. The novel I'm reading now was written quite a long time ago.
4. Depicting friendships between girls with flower motifs.
5. The prose pulls me in - too good to waste.
6. I savor each line as if letting the words melt on my tongue.
7. And as I do, the present is cleansed from my mind.
1. "That's the end..."
2. "A peek at the chapter titles won't hurt..."
3. That was the rule I'd set and followed
4. As usual, I'd find my next book before returning to my studying.
5. "But just of volume one!"
6. "There's still two more left!"
7. until that day.
1. "...A letter?"
2. "Stuck in here..."
3. "Huh -!?"
4. "Maybe some appen-dix?"
2. "What the..."
1. Is it a prank...?
2. "..."
3. "...No sender's name on it..."
4. "Don't think she's around."
5. "The libra-rian~?"
6. "Oh..."
7. "I'unno? She blends in so I can never tell."
8. "When will she be back then?"
1. Now what?
2. "Now what,"
3. "now what!"
4. "Not really!"
5. "Something happen?"
6. "?"
7. "Then I..."
11. "If I put it back like I never saw..."
1. "Who'd pretend they didn't see!"
2. "There's a..."
3. "Just a paper...?"
4. I'd have to be crazy not to be curious!
1. I understand this letter must be surprising.
2. But there's no one I can ask this of but you.
3. This book had me bound the moment I read it, yearning for more. Aah, if only I could have a companion like that! The sort of bond found between these pages! How did it make you feel?
4. If you've started on the second volume, you must have been drawn into its world as well. Has it captivated you like it did me?
5. If so, won't you be my special friend, like the young ladies in this book?
2. "Uh-hh?"
4. "Th- There's another page..."
5. "Huh?"
6. "Ha-ha. It really was just a joke..."
7. "Wha!"
8. "Huu-HH!?"
9. "Come on..."
1. "Maybe I am crazy..."
2. "Morning."
3. "Heya."
4. "Morning."
5. "Sakuragawa, get this."
6. "I got yelled at for not taking that form yesterday seriously!"
7. "But like, how am I supposed to know the future?"
8. "Hey, are you listening?"
9. "Eh? Ahh, sorry."
10. "You little brat~"
1. "Siiigh..."
2. And by this point I was convinced it was a prank.
3. I spent the whole night thinking it over.
4. "I'll keep checking for a while."
5. "Hm-mm."
6. "...Of course it wouldn't change in a day..."
10. Only when I'd given up on the extra-ordinary...
11. Every day I would check. Every day I found nothing.
1. "Ahh!"
2. "They were serious...?"
3. It really did reach someone!
1. It's no prank or anything of the sort. I have always longed for this moment.
2. Thank you for finding my letter.
3. However it isn't something you could ask to another's face, wouldn't you agree?
4. Longed for a special bond, from the day I enrolled, the day this book found me.
5. And surely someone struck by this same story's charms wouldn't find it silly?
6. I decided I could only express it through a letter.
1. "It did seem weird,"
2. "but I don't think it's silly..."
3. That began
4. this strange exchange of ours.
5. Even the moments spent wishing it would find someone were exciting.
6. I thought of it as a bottled message at sea.
7. "That's some patience."
8. "Did you leave that letter a long time ago?"
9. "It must have been upsetting checking to find it still there."
10. Our letters didn't go much past small talk.
1. A sort of intimate relationship between girls, not quite friendship.
2. It seems in the Taisho era this book was written, "S" relationships were quite popular.
3. Oh yes, did you know?
4. Or in other words: the deeply affectionate bonds in this book of ours.
5. "It's that "Onee-sama" thing...!"
6. ""A type of roleplay where the 'Big Sister' protects the 'Little Sister'... They take and live out their roles...""
7. ""S"... It comes from the word "Sister"...?"
1. "Uhhh, no."
3. "Gaku-chan, try calling me "Kasumi-onee-sama.""
5. "Sumi-chaaan, help me study this."
6. "Sure, if that's what it takes."
7. "...Gaku-chan? I'm going to talk to myself so nod along, okay?"
8. "Mmhm, I'll be called on tomorrow."
9. "Is it math?"
10. "Uh huh."
11. "What if it's that kind of, "How do you do~" magical place?"
12. "When I got into a girls' school, my heart was pounding, like, "What if...!""
1. "Oh, shoot."
2. "You substituted wrong."
3. But it was so boringly normal... No magic anywhere.
4. "Okay, got it all! ...Can I go?"
5. "Waah!! The point! Let me get to the point!!"
6. Maybe if I'd joined a club... but they don't recommend AP students do that...
7. ...Right now? My heart's really pounding.
1. I'd be delighted if you started referring to me as Onee-sama.
2. Wouldn't you agree the thrill of "S" lies in that balance between younger and elder sister?
3. "Hehe..."
4. "From what?"
5. And if you were ever to be troubled, I would help you through it.
6. Your elder sister will do everything in her power to protect you.
7. "Kasumi-chan."
1. "In "S" relationships, it seems they would exchange gifts and letters."
2. "After all, you are my darling little sister."
3. "I'd like to experience it all with you."
1. It's always a different design, but they all have roses on them.
2. After a month of exchanging letters, I noticed the obvious:
3. The nameless, faceless "Onee-sama" from my imagination called me by the name I'd never given her.
4. "..."
5. "I guess she likes roses?"
7. "There they are."
8. "Let-ters cost how much -!?"
1. "You didn't have to, Onee-sama... Use notebook paper like me..."
2. "That's so much money..."
3. Scared to do the math
4. "Uwa-waw-wah-hh!?"
5. "She sends 2 per week, and it's been about a month... so..."
6. Was she buying new ones every letter?
7. After all, you see, I've been collecting them for so very long.
8. And you shouldn't worry yourself over my stationery.
9. I do love roses. I share a name with a rose, so I have a fondness for them.
10. Giving purpose to each-and-every one I've bought waiting for this day.
11. Always dreaming of writing them to someone, just as you've let me.
1. "She was...?"
2. Her sweetness formed a lump in my throat.
3. Onee-sama,
4. whose face I cannot see.
5. Onee-sama, who waited so long for me.
1. "I'm so glad you've arrived, Kasumi-chan."
2. "Thank you, for allowing me to find you!"
3. "Even if we don't know each other?"
4. "Don't know our names or faces?"
5. "Even so, I will be your older sister, and you will be my little sister."
6. "Even if it's just playing pretend?"
7. "Even if it's only pretend, I would always stay at your side."
8. "Mhm... Thank you, Onee-sama."
9. "And um..."
10. "Well... Then I'll..."
11. "I'll become your little sister."
1. If only they smelled like the roses printed on them...
2. Though wouldn't the scent stick to the book then?
4. "That'll be ¥620."
1. Dear Onee-sama,
2. You said that in "S" relationships they would give gifts to each other.
3. I saw a letter and envelope pair with roses on them and it made me think of you.
4. I'd like it if you wrote your next reply on them.
5. Sincerely,
6. your little sister
1. "What if she thinks I'm weird...?"
2. "I went WAY too far-have I lost my mind~!?"
3. "...I just"
4. "But,"
5. "wanted to do something for her too..."
6. Her words equally eager.
7. Her usual careful writing seemed to be done in a shaking hand.
8. Her reply, which normally took 3 days to arrive,
9. was waiting for me after only 2.
1. Dancing across the letter I'd bought for her.
3. "Was she that happy...?"
4. "She really, really... loved it..."
5. "Gosh."
6. "I don't have time for all this..."
1. with my unseen Onee-sama.
2. That was the beginning of my magical exchange
4. Scared to do the math
5. "She sends 2 per week, and it's been about a month... so..."
6. "Uwa-waw-wah-hh!?"
7. About 5,000 yen monthly.
1. let's talk class S
2. Hana monogatari (Tales of Flowers) is a real collection of 52 stories split in 3 volumes and considered the defining work of the Class S genre.
4. These stories featured female students in "romantic friendships," with themes of longing, unrequited love, and tragedy.
5. It was the Taisho era (1912-1926) and homosexual relationships were taboo. Publicly, Class S relationships were accepted as just a phase.
6. But with the rise in all-girls schools, these sort of special bonds became commonplace.
7. Class S was shunned and declined toward the mid-1900s. Yet it is the predecessor to the Yuri genre as a whole and played a large part in Japanese lesbian culture.
8. So what exactly is Class S?
9. aka S relationships or just "S"
10. The S is commonly recognized as standing for Sister.
11. Two (unrelated) girls, pair off in a devoted and private "sisterly" relationship.
12. The older, the Onee-sama (lit. honored older sister), plays a protective role to the Imouto, the younger.
13. Often intensely emotional and even romantic, anything sexual was still considered a line not to be crossed.
14. "It's that "Onee-sama" thing...!"
15. The Onee-sama is traditionally refined, reserved, and nurturing, while the Imouto would be innocent, expressive, and adoring.
16. The relationship was expected to end with graduation and adulthood.
17. DISCLAIMER: AriSaku (official JP abbrev) is not necessarily Class S; it takes place in modern day and is simply paying tribute. The manga is officially tagged "romance" and "yuri" by the publisher.