CGBTS Chapter 25

Chapter 25 – You’re Cruel

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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“Yoshikawa-san made it back to the original world, didn’t he!? You and I are both wanderers who came here from the same world. So what’s different about us……!?”

“…There is a difference. A major difference.”

Shuu’s hand, gripping Natsuo’s shoulder with a pained expression, was trembling violently. ……No, Natsuo only realized that it was his own body that was trembling after Shuu’s hand moved around his back and pulled him close.

“We’re alive, but Yoshikawa-san was dead.”

“…!”

“Most likely, after accidentally falling into the lake, the shock stopped his heart, and he died right there. Somehow, for reasons I don’t understand, Odamaki-sama returned Yoshikawa-san, who had become a lifeless corpse, to the original world……”

A dry laugh escaped him.

“Haha……hahaha……”

It truly was something that only God knew. How many times was Odamaki-sama going to crush Natsuo’s hopes before it was satisfied? Why did the villagers worship such a mean-spirited god? ……Did he really have to go on living in a world like this?

If that was the case, then perhaps it would be better to just……

“……Then we should also……”

“―――I won’t let you die.”

Shuu pulled Natsuo tightly into his arms. Wrapped in his familiar scent and the sturdy breadth of a chest he wasn’t accustomed to, Natsuo felt a large palm stroke down his trembling back.

“I won’t let you die. Never.”

“…Wha……why?……”

“I’ll protect you. I’ll stay by your side the entire time so that you won’t suffer even a single injury. ……Even if it means making Odamaki-sama my enemy.”

Natsuo’s shoulders flinched at the sincerity of the vow. Was that perhaps proof that he, too, was unwillingly becoming accustomed to this village? It was Shuu who had taught him that he couldn’t survive in this village if he defied Odamaki-sama――if he went against the will of the god.

“If you still can’t believe me……shall I jump in and show you?”

“…What…”

“Shall I go to Megumi Lake now and jump right in front of your eyes? If I do that, will you believe what I’m telling you?”

Shuu would jump in. Into Megumi Lake……into that ominous, writhing darkness……

“―――No!”

The moment he imagined Shuu being swallowed up by the darkness, Natsuo found himself clutching the chest of Shuu’s indigo-dyed yukata tightly. He pressed his face against the chest that trembled beneath his touch.

“Don’t go! Don’t go……Shuu……”

“…Natsuo……”

“I don’t want to……lose you again. ……I don’t want to be apart from you……!”

Ten years ago……fifteen years ago from Shuu’s perspective, when Shuu had disappeared right before his eyes, Natsuo had been struck by the shock of having something precious violently ripped away from him. He had continued to regret letting go of Shuu’s hand.

If the same thing happened again, Natsuo surely wouldn’t be able to endure it. His heart would break.

“…Is that because I’m your childhood friend?”

He was about to answer that it was obvious, but Natsuo instinctively swallowed the words.

A hand slid smoothly beneath his trembling chin and lifted it. The burning green eyes gazed straight down at him from above, piercing through him and leaving him unable to move.

“You’re cruel, Natsuo.”

“…Shuu…”

“You hold me back with such a cute face and such a sweet voice, yet you won’t return my feelings. ……You’re far more cruel than Odamaki-sama.”

Shuu’s lips slowly pressed against Natsuo’s cold ones.

Beyond the much broader, more powerful back that was incomparable to the one from the past, the petals of the Sacred Flowers swayed in the breeze.

***

By the time a week had passed since he had wandered into this world, Natsuo was gradually beginning to understand what kind of place the otherworld called Odamaki Village was.

Above all, nothing ever changed.

The villagers cultivated just enough food to feed themselves in their fields and rice paddies, and anything they lacked was supplemented by Odamaki-sama’s blessings.

They either wore the clothes bestowed by Odamaki-sama as they were, or made their own clothes from the fabric they received as blessings, so there was no such thing as fashion trends. The reason Shuu wore work clothes and yukata did not seem to be because of his personal preference, but simply because there were no clothes among Odamaki-sama’s blessings that fit him.

They woke early in the morning to work the fields, returned home when the sun went down, and after spending time together with their families, promptly went to bed. Not a single person questioned repeating that routine every day until the day they died.

They never competed with anyone, and while they never lived extravagantly luxurious lives, neither did they ever have to end up destitute. Like the surface of a body of water without even a single ripple, the villagers had continued living the same unchanging lives for an unimaginably long time. ……According to the will of Odamaki-sama.

In such a village, Natsuo was the foreign element.

“…Heeey, Big Brother Natsuoo!”

After three in the afternoon, while Natsuo was slumped over the living room table in exhaustion, someone knocked on the glass door leading to the hallway. Kazuo was standing there holding a large bag, waving energetically.

“Here, Mom told me to bring this over. Apples we grew in our field. We just picked them earlier, so they’re really good.”

Natsuo slowly got up and unlocked the inner door for him. Kazuo sat down on the veranda and handed him the large, bulging bag. Sharing crops from their fields like this was just like the countryside in the original world. As the acting village chief, Shuu also received seasonal vegetables, fruits, and other things from various households.

“Thank you, Kazuo. Could you thank your mother for me, too?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. We’ve got so many that we’re having trouble with them. ……By the way, where’s Big Brother Shuu?”

“Shuu’s gone to the village chief’s mansion.”

Natsuo answered while taking some barley tea out of the refrigerator for him, and Kazuo nodded.

“Oh, right. Tonight’s the drinking party, isn’t it? Aren’t you going, Big Brother Natsu?”

“No. Where I was born, there was a rule that you weren’t allowed to drink alcohol until you turned twenty.”

“Heeeeeh,” Kazuo exclaimed in admiration, leaning forward.

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Next update: 2026.10.26

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