The Summer Hikaru Died

Yoshiki and Hikaru have grown up together in a rural Japanese village, spending their lives as inseparable best friends. That familiar bond changes after Hikaru returns from the mountains.

He looks like the same person Yoshiki knows, carrying Hikaru's body, memories, and feelings, but something is fundamentally wrong. Another presence has taken his place. Yoshiki is left confronting a terrifying contradiction: the person beside him is both recognizably Hikaru and no longer truly the friend who went into the mountains. As the difference becomes harder to ignore, the ordinary world surrounding the two boys begins to unravel.