CGBTS Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – The Mountain

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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Again, I repeat it.

The closed circle with no way out.

Again and again and again…… If it means keeping you here, in these arms.

As he climbed the gently sloping path, hard-packed beneath his feet, the wind brushing against his cheeks grew increasingly humid. Under the blazing sunlight, the grass gave off a thick, pungent scent, while the cicadas cried out like screams.

“It’s hot……”

Taking refuge in the shade of a tall tree, Kushihara Natsuo wiped the sweat from his forehead with the towel hanging around his neck. His undershirt was already drenched in sweat. Pinching the front of his long-sleeved shirt at the chest, he flapped it back and forth to let the heat escape.

It was only a little past eight in the morning, yet perhaps Natsuo had underestimated the summer mountains far too much. Irritably, he ran a hand through his unruly hair, which was sticking up all over the place because of the humidity.

His baby-faced features, which made him look younger than his high-school-aged little sister, must have been pitifully contorted by now. If his university friends who were always teasing him, calling him a ‘rain-soaked puppy face’, were here, they would surely say he looked even more like a puppy. 

……Though that one person would probably be genuinely worried about him.

……Shuu……

The face he had not forgotten for even a single day over these past ten years flashed through his mind. So did the tearful face he had seen the last time.

Taking a swig of his sports drink, Natsuo slowly lowered his head. He spotted a crumpled piece of paper tucked beneath the grass and picked it up.

When he unfolded it, he found a young woman’s photograph printed beneath the headline, ‘We Are Looking for This Person’. Apparently, she had gone missing on this mountain twenty-three years ago. She had been twenty at the time, so if she were still alive, she would be forty-three now. The police search had ended long ago. The person who had been walking around handing out the flyers was probably a family member. They were still searching for their daughter, even though she was now over forty.

……And Shuu would be eighteen, just like me.

Swallowing the sigh that was about to escape him, Natsuo folded the flyer and put it into his backpack. It had probably been handed out at the foot of the mountain and blown up here, but somehow, he could not bring himself to simply leave it lying there.

Adjusting his hat, Natsuo resumed climbing the slope. The wristwatch he had received as a gift for entering university pointed to 8:13. If possible, he wanted to arrive at roughly the same time as back then.

Feeling as though the dense heat rising from the grass might choke him, he followed the route faintly etched into his memories. Ten years ago, it had probably been no more than a narrow trail used by local residents gathering wild mountain vegetables, but now ropes had been strung up here and there to serve as makeshift handrails, and scraps of sweets and bread occasionally littered the sides of the path. Even with traces of human activity etched into it, the mountain still exuded a desolate air that seemed to repel people.

“The mountains, you know, have been a realm beyond our world since ancient times.”

A realm where none of the common sense of those who lived among human settlements applied at all. ……It had been exactly as he said. Shuu had been swallowed up, and in the end, he never returned.

Scrape, scrape, scrape.

The fact that the sound of his footsteps alone felt strange was because his memories from ten years ago were still so vivid. Even if Shuu’s own parents had forgotten, Natsuo remembered. ……There was no way he could forget.

As he continued moving his feet in silence, the presence of water grew stronger and stronger. At the base of a lush, green tree, he found a fallen signboard and tried lifting it. It had faded considerably from exposure to rain and wind, but he recognized it as the one warning people to beware of forest fires.

“If you go in from where this sign is, it’s a shortcut.”

Shuu had said that, and then he must have gone farther inside. Following his memories, Natsuo emerged onto a side path surrounded by rugged rock walls.

……That’s right. Back then, too, I passed through here……

As though drawn toward something, Natsuo wandered onward. ……The air was cold. The deafening chorus of cicadas had somehow faded into the distance, replaced by the faint sound of rippling waves, drifting gently like a lullaby.

Before long, his view opened up onto a vast lake so large that it could have been mistaken for a lake. Standing on the bank overgrown with reeds, Natsuo breathed in the cool air. The surface of the water, reflecting the sky and trees, was clear and blue. It left not the slightest trace that a corpse had floated here just half a month ago.

“……I’m here, Shuu.”

Ten years had passed, but Natsuo had finally managed to return here.

To find the childhood friend who had disappeared right before his eyes, the one who was so precious to him.

Natsuo did not remember when he had first met his childhood friend, Yotsutsuji Shuu. Before he knew it, Shuu had been by his side, and the two of them had spent every day together as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Shuu’s father, Shigehiko, was Natsuo’s father’s best friend, and after getting married, he had moved to a house near Natsuo’s family. He had met Shuu’s mother, Jennifer, while studying in America, and after a passionate romance, he had brought her back with him to Japan. Even after Shuu was born, Jennifer had struggled to adapt to life in Japan, and apparently, she would often turn to Natsuo’s mother for help.

It was only natural that Natsuo and Shuu, being the same age, became close and started spending so much time at each other’s homes. He probably spent far more time with Shuu than he did with his younger sister, who was three years younger than him.

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*Translator’s Note: There were no chapters in this light novel (236 pages). I just have to cut them into several pieces to be posted here and divide them into chapters on my own. We’ll go slowly as chapter 1, 2, 3 until we reach whichever number of chapters we’ll get to, as usual. I’ve divided it so that each chapter that I’m posting on the site will probably be around 1K to 1.2K words (except for Mature chapters which will be longer). I might publish Mature chapters completely in my blog, so if you notice missing chapters in here, that means you can find them in my blog. There are also illustrations from the novel which I will scan and post on the site. We are kinda blessed with about 10 illustrations from this novel. I mean, that’s kinda a lot for a light novel. With that being said, hop on and enjoy! -K

Next update: 2026.10.02

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