CGBTS Chapter 18

Chapter 18 – The Blessings

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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Natsuo hurriedly swallowed down the anxiety that had begun to surface. He still had not given up on returning to the original world together with Shuu. Shuu had said he had tried every possible method, but couldn’t Natsuo perhaps think of some other way?

He absolutely had to take Shuu back to the original world. Even if Shuu himself did not want to go. Because when Shuu had wandered into this bizarre world……it was Natsuo’s fault that he had ended up here……

“This way, Natsuo.”

Eventually, when they arrived at the village chief’s residence, Shuu led him not inside the house, but into the garden surrounding it. Or rather, perhaps it should be called a forest, since aside from a narrow path where the bare earth stretched out, the place was hardly maintained at all. The trees, which blocked even the strong summer sunlight, reminded Natsuo of Mount Hinashi.

“…Hey, where are you planning to go?”

After they had been walking for about five minutes, Natsuo asked Shuu, who was walking diagonally ahead of him. It was midsummer in this world too, but it was considerably easier to bear than in the original world. Even when it was hot, they could escape the heat by stepping into the shade.

Come to think of it, there had only been an electric fan in Shuu’s house, yet Natsuo had slept soundly last night. In his apartment in Tokyo, during this season, sleeping was unbearably difficult without turning on the air conditioner.

“To Megumi Lake, farther ahead.”

“Megumi Lake……?”

“You’ll understand when you see it.”

Ever since they entered the forest, Shuu had clearly become less talkative. On his sturdy back, which had grown incomparably more muscular than it had been ten years ago, there was a tension that had not been there earlier.

‘You’ll understand when you see it’. Shuu had said the same thing earlier. That the meaning of defying Odamaki-sama’s divine will was something Natsuo would understand when he saw it.

Reluctantly, Natsuo stepped forward, and the tip of his foot touched something hard. Lowering his gaze, Natsuo felt his throat twitch.

White mist was creeping slowly toward the foot that had stepped on a small stone.

“Shuu……!”

The back he called out to was also faintly enveloped in mist. Mist was billowing everywhere around them. Natsuo knew that sight as his vision gradually turned milky white. It had been the same ten years ago. He had been engulfed in mist like this, and Shuu had…

“……We’ve arrived.”

For a fleeting moment, Shuu’s face as he turned around overlapped with the face he had had ten years ago. Natsuo instinctively tried to rush toward him, then caught his breath.

Darkness was writhing behind Shuu. It twisted and trembled like some enormous living creature, as though it were trying to give birth to something.

……It was the same as ten years ago……

“……Don’t go, Shuu……!”

Even when Natsuo clung to him hard enough to crash into him, the muscular back did not budge an inch. Shuu gently stroked the hands Natsuo had wrapped tightly around his abdomen, as if soothing him. How could he remain so calm? Even when Shuu had disappeared right before Natsuo’s eyes, that lake on Hinashi had been stained with darkness just the same.

“That worked out perfectly.”

Before Natsuo could ask what he meant, Shuu pointed toward the center of the darkness. When Natsuo cautiously peeked out from behind Shuu’s body, he saw the dark surface bubbling and churning.

…Pop!

With a bursting splash, something was expelled. Riding the ripples until it was washed up onto the shore was――.

“…Rice bowls?”

There were several rice bowls, very similar to the ones used in Shuu’s house. They had tumbled ashore in a stacked pile. They were decorated with retro-style chrysanthemum designs.

Even as Natsuo wondered why something like this would be here, the bubbling darkness continued to spit things out one after another. Several sets of chopsticks and plates, teacups, toothbrushes and toothpaste, underwear and clothing, food such as meat and canned goods, cigarettes, small household appliances, and everything in between. Every one of them was something indispensable to human life.

“Ah……”

A box of curry roux was newly washed ashore, and Natsuo instinctively leaned forward. The packaging, characterized by its vivid red and orange colors, was the same as the one used at his family home. Even the cat mascot character drawn in the corner looked exactly the same.

……No, rather than ‘looked’ the same……

……It is actually the same?…..

When he looked carefully, he noticed several other familiar designs mixed in as well. The tube of toothpaste was from a famous manufacturer in the original world, and the cigarettes appeared to be the same ones his father occasionally smoked…or so they seemed. Yet there was something subtly different about them.

Perhaps noticing Natsuo staring intently at it, Shuu reached out his long arm and picked up the cigarette pack for him.

Natsuo took the small box and examined it closely, realizing the source of his unease. His father’s cigarettes had a stylized crown drawn in the upper-right corner of the package, but the one in his hand had a crescent moon instead. The brand name and colors were otherwise identical, which made it feel all stranger.

…Blub… bl, blub…

After expelling an especially large bubble, the darkness shuddered.

Along with the spreading ripples, it began to change its form. The stagnant blackness that had made Natsuo reluctant even to approach it transformed into a greenish-blue water surface. Stretching out before their eyes was a lake, somewhat murky but filled with abundant water. The ominous atmosphere from moments ago was no longer there.

Instead, on the opposite bank, a thick fog shimmered as it towered like a wall. The wall, roughly as tall as a two-story building, continued endlessly as far as the eye could see.

“…This is Odamaki-sama’s blessing.”

Shuu gestured toward the mountain of supplies that had been spewed out of the darkness and piled high along the shore. Far too mundane to be called a god’s blessing, the supplies were completely dry to the touch despite having been expelled from the lake.

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Illustration 4:

Next update: 2026.10.19

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