章节 3
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1. For days after we wore braids,
2. my self-loathing left me like this.
3. first time I had my hair braided
4. It felt so new and ex...
5. Onee-sama at least sounded overjoyed.
6. "I even tried to find you among the other girls..."
7. "She did?"
8. Funny isn't it, when I ha[ve] no idea what you look like.
9. "So wait, it's normal to try and find each other!?"
10. "It wasn't shameless after all!"
11. Finally I felt relief.
12. "I'd actually never braided my hair either, so a friend fixed it for me."
13. "What a coincidence! It was my brother who braided mine."
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1. "One day... Sigh..."
2. What if we practiced so we could one day braid each other's hair? Wouldn't that be lovely.
3. "You have to keep letters brief too or they fill up"
4. "If we were texting, it would take a day... Maybe only an hour."
5. There's such a delay with letters.
6. By the way, that exchange just now took a full week.
7. "I didn't say anything to offend her, did I...?"
8. my worst thoughts tend to get the better of me.
9. And with nothing to do while waiting for a reply,
1. "Wh- What if she's sick of me...!?"
2. "Wait, I forgot what I actually wrote!!"
3. Letters are terrifying. They leave without a record of your words.
4. But every single time...
5. I comb them over and over, for thorns of discontent.
6. All I can judge from are her old letters.
1. of Onee-sama's writing.
2. I'm stolen by the light touch
3. I was unfamiliar with the many styles so I looked them up on the family computer. My mother mistook what I was doing and happily brought out a kimono to dress me in.
6. "The girls in our book often wore kimono, didn't they?"
1. "A kimono...?"
2. "Not unless you go to your grandma's place!"
3. I quietly put on my best impression of a dress up doll.
4. I'd rather have tried a hakama, like girls in the past, but feared if I said so my mother would gladly buy one without a second thought...
5. "Dear, Kasumi said she wants to try on a kimono!"
6. "Ours is a normal household..."
7. "Not a yukata?"
8. "Mom, I said that wasn't it!!"
9. "You want to try one? Though we'd have a hard time tying it."
10. "Yeah, I figured."
11. "Mmm, that's not really it..."
12. As I write to you, I think of the schoolgirls of that time.
13. What was it like, what sort of lives did they lead?
1. But I'm certain the spirit of it wasn't so different. And when I think that, those girls don't feel so distant.
2. It must have been very unlike our own experiences now.
3. "...I never really thought about it."
4. perhaps they suffered through their studies as well?
5. Surely they laughed with friends, shared sweets together;
6. And my impression of her revised to match.
7. but as we traded further, Onee-sama's nature began to shine through.
8. Her early letters were sort of putting on airs,
1. From shut-away, well-to-do maiden,
2. to one of a more innocent, carefree spirit.
3. Shifting as if from a neatly arranged vase of roses,
4. to an open garden of them, bathed in the sun.
1. "Such an over-thinker you are!"
2. A person who might hear how I think about myself...
3. and laugh it away for me.
4. Then she would say...
5. "What an adorable little sister I have!"
1. As I pictured roses blooming under a bright blue sky.
2. I'd never heard her voice, yet I could hear her laughter.
1. "you're as refined and refreshing as roses themselves."
2. "Onee-sama,"
4. It's because they leave me no record
5. Letters are terrifying.
6. I find the courage to write those feelings.
1. My dear, sweet little sister. If I am a rose, you are surely a sumire violet.
2. Once, I hiked a mountain with my family. Where I grew tired and stopped to rest, a modestly blooming violet soothed my heart.
3. P.S. I confess, privately I've taken to calling you "Sumire-chan."
4. Fair and delicate... Even in such a harsh place it could bloom bravely. That flower which encouraged me so.
5. When I read your letters, I am reminded of that violet and it warms me within.
1. "H... Hwa-aahh h...!"
2. Th-That's how she sees me...!?
3. "Phew..."
4. "...What's a sumire violet?"
6. "Hmm, hm."
2. So that's me...
3. "..."
4. "What the heck am I doing!?"
5. "Waah!"
6. "Like... this?"
7. "what others think of them...!?"
8. "Ahhhhhh"
9. "B- But, doesn't everyone want to live up to..."
1. Like she only sees me through the filter of living up to our roleplay.
2. "That's almost the definition of an "S" little sister."
3. Still, "sweet, delicate, brave" ...?
4. "...No. I'm over-thinking again."
5. At the very least, what I've learned of Onee-sama's personality
6. is enough for me to trust her over the doubts that creep in.
1. By the way...
2. Finals are coming up!
3. "I was so caught up in letters I haven't studied...!!"
4. "Sakuragawa doesn't know the answer for once?"
5. "And the other day,"
6. "I blanked on the answer in front of class...!"
7. "I'm sorry, while I study I won't reply as much..."
8. Because this is all I'm really good for.
9. But I left that out.
10. "That reminds me..."
11. "...perhaps they suffered through their studies as well?"
12. "Is Onee-sama bad at studying?"
1. Truthfully, I'm not so panicked by tests... I simply think "Whatever happens, happens!"
2. "How bold...!"
3. "I wish I had that kind of attitude..."
4. "So I went to feed the fish in the pond, right?"
5. "What pond are we talking about?"
6. "Kuwahara! Turn in your post-grad form already!"
7. "Huh? I already did though~?"
8. "You could learn a thing from Sakuragawa here!"
9. "Don't bring me into this!"
10. "Hey, not everybody's a big thinker?"
11. "Let's get outta here, Sakuragawa!"
1. "Well now they're gonna be on you if you mess around."
2. "Fbi."
3. "You're supposed to write which university you want..."
4. "What'd you write down anyway?"
5. "Eh?"
6. "Uh, uh-huh."
7. "You get me, right Sakuragawa?"
8. "Oh come on, even if you stress it out who knows how things could go?"
9. "What's in it?"
10. "Bonito flakes"
1. "Show of hands, who's free after school!"
2. "Not me. A recital's coming up so I've got lessons."
3. "And Sakuragawa..."
4. "I'm going to the library..."
5. "Of course you are."
6. "Don't work it too hard."
7. "All work and no play, and all."
8. "Yeah... I won't."
9. That's what the letters were for, but I played too hard and look where I'm at...
10. All work and no play...
1. Why can't it ever go smoothly for me...
2. "Just loosen up a bit~"
3. Onee-sama and the others are so smart (though they probably study on their own).
4. Why can't I be like them.
5. "That's easy for... you to say..."
6. And maybe that's why...
7. Sometimes
8. I'm just so pathetic.
9. It's envy.
10. It's yearning.
11. her letters are like a beacon to me.
1. "I'm not really though..."
2. Tests aren't for a while, but you're already hard at work? I'm so proud!
3. "You're so diligent in your studies, aren't you."
4. "?"
5. "That's new too..."
6. No need to reply. Simply check this book on the Xth.
7. "Huh? There's another letter?"
8. "Not since the first time..."
9. "Wonder why we had to do it this w..."
10. On the Xth.
11. "There's a new letter."
1. There's something I'd like to give you.
2. I've stuck it beneath a bench in the courtyard.
1. "Wha-"
2. "What's with the secret mission!?"
3. "..."
4. "Be-neath a bench... Like...?"
5. "Which bench -!?"
1. "Ah!"
2. "Uegh... It's still wet from the rain yesterday..."
1. Think of it as an extension of myself.
2. "...A brooch?"
5. I will always be at your side, watching over you.
1. then stalled for time so she could put it all together.
2. She decided on the Xth to do this,
3. she surely hadn't prepared anything.
4. When she sent that letter,
5. All of it, she did thinking of me.
6. All of it.
1. It was.
2. She's this real.
3. The brooch weighed on my hand as if insisting it was really there.
4. "Every time I try to keep it together..."
1. "...Can't I see you...?"
2. "Okay! Back to studying!"
3. Letters are convenient.
4. They can pass on all the feelings that pour out of you.
5. But...
1. Some things I need to look you in the eyes to say.
1. "No way..."
1. What should I do...
4. In the language of flowers, Violets signify: humility, sincerity, small happiness.
5. "...What's a sumire violet?"
6. Actually Sumire just means violet. Yep, translators lie to you. It felt more natural this way without a TL note and the exact word Sumire is important later.
1. let's talk kimono
2. Kimono are those traditional Japanese robes tied with a sash.
3. Kimono literally means "something that is worn", which goes to show how general and widespread it is.
4. "Dear, Kasumi said she wants to try on a kimono!"
5. "Ours is a normal household."
6. "Not a yukata?"
7. "Mom, I said that wasn't it!"
8. Not to be confused with yukata, which are actually a short-sleeve kimono made with lighter material. Kimono are thick and better for winter.
9. This is a hakama, more specifically the skirt-ish lower garment worn over a kimono. Hakama were common in schoolgirl uniforms during the Taisho era.
10. The girls in our book often wore kimono, didn't they?
11. I quietly put on my best impression of a dress up doll.
12. I'd rather have tried a hakama like girls in the past, but feared if I said so my mother would gladly buy one without a second thought...
13. Let's blitz through these.
14. Genrokusode Kimono, or roundsleeve. Short round sleeves. Kimono typically have longer, flowing ones.
15. Yagasuri Kimono, or arrowed. Simply an arrowed pattern.
16. Michiyuki Coat, or traveler. A coat worn to protect kimono from the weather.
17. Karayou Kimono, or Chinese. Literally Chinese-style, referring to a wide variety.
18. The remaining 3 all refer to types of fabric the kimono is made from.
19. Shusu Kimono, or satin.
20. Meisen Kimono.
21. Muslin Kimono.
22. Note we're only skimming the surface here. There are still countless more varieties of kimono.
23. Furisode, Houmongi, Iromuji, Komon, Mofuku, Irotomesode, Kurotomesode, Tsukesage, Uchikake, Susohiki/Hikizuri, Junihitoe, Shiromuku, Kyokatabira