CGBTS Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Odamaki-sama

Novel Title: あの夏から戻れない (Can’t Go Back to That Summer)

Author：宮緒葵 (Miyao Aoi)

Illustrator：笠井あゆみ (Kasai Ayumi)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 櫛原夏生 (Kushihara Natsuo -MC) & 四辻柊 (Yotsutsuji Shuu -ML)

*Please read at knoxt.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

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But the mask concealing his face had not a shred of divinity about it.

It bore an expression of fury, with both its wide-open eyes and distorted mouth sewn shut with red thread, making it look as though blood were flowing from them. The lack of breasts and his solid build suggested that he was a man, but beyond that, it was impossible to tell anything—not his facial features, his physique, or even whether he was young or old.

“Ah…… um, are you…… the village chief?”

Suppressing the urge to turn around and flee immediately, Natsuo asked, and the village chief gave a small nod. With a hand wearing an armored glove, he pointed to the space in front of himself. Was he telling Natsuo to sit there?

Following his instructions, Natsuo knelt in ‘seiza’ about fifty centimeters in front of him. He could feel a powerful gaze from beyond those sewn-shut pupils. Now then, what was he going to be told? Would he tell Natsuo something about how Shuu had been living all this time?

Natsuo waited nervously, but the village chief remained silent for what seemed like forever. Eventually, he gave another small nod, shuffled on his knees toward the sliding door, and left the room.

“……Huh…?”

Left alone in the strange Japanese-style room, Natsuo was utterly bewildered. The village chief had left without saying anything, but what was he supposed to do now? Was there something else he was supposed to do?

As anxiety gnawed at him, the sliding door quietly opened. Natsuo flinched, thinking the village chief had returned, but the person who entered was Shuu. Still dressed in the same samue as before, Shuu’s appearance made all the tension that had been building inside Natsuo suddenly melt away.

“Natsuo, you did well.”

“Sh…… Shuu…………!”

Natsuo sprang to his feet and rushed over to Shuu. When he grabbed the front of Shuu’s samue, Shuu gently patted him on the back.

When they were little, it had been Natsuo who comforted Shuu whenever he was teased for looking like a girl and was on the verge of tears.

“The meeting is over. From here on, you’ll be recognized as a member of the village, and you’ll be free to move around as you please.”

“Meeting? Was that really all there was to it? The village chief didn’t say anything to me. He just stared at me the whole time.”

“The village chief rarely speaks under normal circumstances. The fact that he didn’t say anything probably means he found nothing suspicious about you. It was the same when I went through it.”

Indeed, wearing a mask like that would probably make speaking quite difficult. So, did the village chief always wear that mask? It must be incredibly inconvenient. What on earth was it for?

Suppressing his urge to bombard Shuu with questions, Natsuo left the Japanese-style room with him. As they passed through the main gate, Natsuo raised a hand to shield his eyes from the blazing sun, then stopped dead in his tracks. The villagers were lined up in rows along both sides of the road. The line continued without a break all the way to a bend in the road several dozen meters ahead, so it seemed that nearly everyone in the village had turned out.

What was especially strange was that every single one of them was holding a device consisting of four thin rods with thread wound around them. It seemed to be the same device depicted on the sliding door earlier, except that this one had an axle set at the center of the rods, with a long rod threaded through it to serve as a handle.

“Goooo, and coooome baaaack…”

“Wiiiind it agaaaain, un-wiiiiiind it… neeeever compleeeete…”

“It iiiis the woork of Odaaaamaki-saama…”

They all wore solemn expressions as they slowly swayed the devices and chanted together in a strange, prayer-like song. Kazuo and Etsuko were also standing near the front of the line, but just like the adults, both of them swayed their devices and made no attempt to come over to them.

“…! …”

Etsuko glanced at Natsuo, her plump lips twitching, but Kazuo nudged her with his elbow, and she hurriedly picked up the song again just as her voice was about to falter. Then the old man at the front rang something resembling a kagura bell, with a large number of tiny bells strung together, and the chanting swelled in volume until it seemed to engulf the entire village.

With the chorus of men and women, young and old, reverberating all around him, Natsuo probably wouldn’t even have been able to walk properly if Shuu hadn’t been holding his hand and leading him along. Once they were brought back to the Japanese-style room where Natsuo had first awakened, and the strange chanting finally faded from hearing, Natsuo collapsed onto the futon that had been left spread out.

“…What the hell was that…? That was straight out of an occult movie…”

“They were celebrating you, now that you’ve been recognized by ‘Odamaki-sama.’ Every villager here is a devout believer, after all.”

“……Odamaki-sama…………….?”

It was the name that had appeared in the villagers’ song as well. But if Natsuo’s memory was correct, it should also be the name of this village.

“The characters are different. Look.”

Shuu took a notebook from the cupboard and wrote 「おだまき様」 and 「小田牧村」 in pencil on a blank page. His handwriting was beautiful and more mature than it had been in the past.

“‘Odamaki-sama’ refers to the god worshipped here in this village. The name of the village was probably taken from it as well. Since the village name would be confusing, they probably just chose some characters to represent the name.”

“…It’s a strange name. I’ve never heard of a god like that before.”

“I think the word probably comes from ‘odamaki’—苧環.”

Shuu added 「苧環」 next to おだまき様, then rummaged through the overhead storage compartment of the closet. Thanks to his tall stature, he did not need to use a step stool, and he soon took out the same thread-winding device the villagers had been holding.

“This is an odamaki. It’s something like a spool that was used in Japan a very long time ago. In Odamaki Village, it’s kept in every household as a symbol of their faith.”

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*Translator’s Note: It’s hard to explain in English, so I have no choice but to write those names in Japanese. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me. -K

*GLOSSARY: 

☝🏻Seiza sitting position

☝🏻Odamaki (It is traditionally a spool or winding tool used for winding thread, particularly a wooden or spindle-like device around which thread is wound into a neat coil)

☝🏻 Kagura bells (Monks use this for prayer)

Next update: 2026.10.11

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