This website provides a fan translation of the Playstation 2 game Akai Ito.

白花の咲く頃に

In the time when the white flowers bloom...

Having been missing for over ten years, the formalities involved in moving Yumei-oneechan to my house proved to be a big ordeal.

After all, she had been classified deceased, and although a comparison check had to be made, Onee-chan hadn't aged the ten years that she should have.

And for a while, it was something of a topic in the area, like "Present-Day Urashima Tarou," or "Kamikakushi Mystery."

With all that and all this, by the time our lives had calmed down, more than a month had passed since the end of summer break.

The season has fully...

Kei: Mmm... a clear and blue autumn sky so the horses grow big and strong, huh? (TN: "Ten takaku uma-goyuru aki" - a seasonal saying expressing the joys of autumn.)

Oh, the happiness of a holiday afternoon, shopping and telling jokes with the person I love under the clear, pleasant autumn sky.

Yumei: I suppose... it's the season for delicious foods, though. Will you be okay?

The heavy shopping bag in my hands is the barometer of happiness. I'd like to think the needle of the weight machine is the same, though...

Kei: Uuu... I'll take care that "keima" doesn't make it a "fatten up Kei autumn"...... (TN: Keima - the knight in Shougi, written with Kei's character and the character for horse. Thus she switches "Kei" in for "horse" to make it "Kei-goyuru aki.")

By the way, going out to buy the ingredients for dinner, while shopping, is a splendid sort of shopping.

Kei: But, tonight we're having Saury from Meguro...

(TN: A famous comedy routine. A feudal lord from Edo - the old name for Tokyo - goes on a lengthy trip to the Meguro district. He forgets his lunch that day, and smells an appealing scent in his moment of hunger. When he expresses his desire to eat, his companion says that a person of his station wouldn't care for such a rustic fish dish. But he eats it anyway, and loves it. So later, in a gathering of relatives, he's told he can eat what he likes, and requests Saury. But it's not laid out, so a servant has to buy the fish in the marketplace and cook it. Mindful of the lord's health, the servant drains all the oil, since it's a fatty fish, and removes the bones one by one, and this leaves the fish in a complete mess, but they throw it in a bowl and serve it. Thinking the concoction utterly disgusting, the lord says, "This is no good. Saury must only be good in Meguro." But, the Meguro district is only 4km away. Bud-a-bing. Apparently, the servant's mindfulness removed the entire point of the dish, and the lord's misunderstanding is the punchline.)

Yumei: Yes, grilled fish, right? Maybe if we drain the oil and make it into a soup, we can eat it without getting fat.

Kei: No way, no way, that would be such a waste. In your case, Onee-chan, you might just be able to make a delicious soup with it, but when it comes to ingredients, you have to use them all in the right place.

With all of my Grandmother Emiko's Japanese style menu passed down to my mother, and to her by extension, her cooking is perfect for my taste.

Kei: ......Ah, I smell something nice.

Yumei: Have you already caught the scent of grilled saury somewhere, perhaps?

Kei: No, no, not that. It's not food, it's a flower.

Yumei: Now that you mention it...... maybe it's the Kinmokusei flowers.

Kei: It's already October, after all.

Yumei: Yes, the season of scarlet leaves. The mountains of Hemidzuka are probably filled with color around now.

Kei: Is that so...

Yumei: It's incredibly pretty, you know. It's a little far, but how about we try stretching our legs for the next holiday?

Kei: That sounds good. Our birthday's coming real soon... we should say hello to Hakuka-oniichan.

Yumei: I suppose so...

Kei & Yumei: We should tell him, that we're both living happily.

True Ending: 白花の咲く頃に - In the time when the white flowers bloom...