Beginning Beyond The Horizon

Sitting within the safe confines of Hajime's bracelet, Michio tried to comfort Meiji, who was crying from hunger, but this time, Meiji's voice became hoarse, and his cries were no longer as loud.

"Aiya... my little general, you must be brave. Your parents are looking for food," Michio said as he wiped the tears from the corners of Meiji's eyes with his right thumb.

Michio smiled at Meiji as a banana landed next to him. Noticing that the banana was thrown to him from behind, Michio quickly turned around to investigate who threw the banana at him. When he turned around, he saw a little monkey looking at him with tears in his eyes, as if begging him to peel a banana for the monkey.

Michio glanced at the monkey and then at Meiji. He knew that Meiji had not eaten anything since morning. He could feed Meiji slowly with the banana, but he knew that stealing was not taught to him by the Buddha. He picked up the banana and began to peel it. After peeling off the skin, he reached out his hand to the monkey.

"Come on, little one," Michio said with a smile. "I'll hold it for you."

The monkey, which had no fingers or toes, slowly approached Michio and slowly bit the banana.

Meiji cried when he saw Michio feeding the monkey instead of him.

Michio held Meiji in his left arm and said, "Meiji, this belongs to Brother Monkey. You see Brother Monkey worked hard to get this banana, so we shouldn't take it for him." No matter what Michio said, Meiji still cried. Michio then realized that Meiji was a baby who couldn't understand adults' language. "Little General, we have to wait patiently for your fathers and godfathers."

After the monkey finished eating, he started jumping up happily, making playful facial expressions, smacking his lips, and playfully ran away from Michio, then stopped, then returned to Michio, repeating the same thing over and over again.

"Do you want me to follow you?" Michio asked looking at the monkey.

The fingerless monkey once again made a playful expression, clapped his hands and began to retreat, waiting for Michio to follow.

"Uh...." Michio murmured. "Do you have anything to show me?"

The fingerless and toeless monkey chirped softly.

Michio thought that if the monkey really had ill intentions towards him, the monkey would not eat the banana from his hand. He stared at the monkey for a while and decided to follow the monkey, but he will keep a certain distance from the monkey first. Once he found something suspicious, he could easily defeat the fingerless monkey. Moreover, Meiji has been crying non-stop. Maybe taking Meiji for a walk might help Meiji calm down. Michio hugged Meiji with one arm and began to follow the monkey out of the camp.

When the monkey looked back to see if Michio was following him, he found that Michio had decided to follow him, so he quickly turned back with a smirk on his face. He continued to lead Michio forward, and the footprints left by Michio disappeared the moment Michio lifted his feet from the ground.

Deep into the small forest the four Tanzanies and Bong walked for an hour, but all they saw were inedible green plants in the island's forest.

Bong frowned, turned to look at U-ri and asked, "Hey U-ri, although these plants are not edible, do they have any medicinal uses?"

U-ri wiped the sweat from his forehead and threw the plant in his hand to the ground. "Not so far," U-ri said. "These plants are just plants."

Hajime asked, "Have you noticed that since we entered this forest, it seems to be very quiet here. So quiet that there is no sound of insects."

U-ri looked up at the sky and said, "You're right. I haven't seen a bird fly by us yet. Everything is inedible, so do we want to go back?"

Bong sighed and said, "Good idea. Hopefully Abrafo or Yul can find something to eat."

Hajime looked down and found some mushrooms next to the tree trunk. "U-ri," Hajime said. "Are these mushrooms edible?"

U-ri said, "These are death-cap mushrooms."

Bong Chuckled and then said, "You can tell from the name that these mushrooms are inedible."

Hajime was about to say something when he saw the bracelet returned to his right wrist. "Something is wrong..." Hajime said in horror.

"What's wrong?" Bong and U-ri asked in unison.

Hajime said, "Michio stepped out of the bracelet." Hajime said, raising his right hand to show U-ri and Bong his bracelet.

U-ri said worriedly, "Well, that's not good."

Hajime said, "Let's go back." Hajime started running towards the campsite with U-ri and Bong.

Walking back to the camp, Yul first met Abrafo. He looked at Abrafo and chuckled. "Why are you half naked?" Yul asked with a smile.

Abrafo said, "Well, at least my top is suitable for transporting these." He opened the lid slightly to show Yul.

"Cherimoya?" Yul said.

Abrafo sighed and said, "Well, guess what? This is the only thing I can find that I know is edible." He looked at Yul. "And you?"

Yul held up two rows of squids tied to two vines. "I found these," Yul said.

Abrafo laughed and said, "Michio would be happy to have some meat."

Yul looked up with a smile when he saw Hajime, U-ri, and Bong running towards the campsite. "Hajime..." Yul murmured. Yul thought that Hajime and the others might have escaped from danger, so he quickly ran towards Hajime and the others. "Hajime!"

When the four Tanzanies and Bong arrived at the campsite. Yul asked, "What's wrong?"

Hajime looked around and said, "Michio and Meiji is gone."

It was only then that Yul and Abrafo noticed that the reason why Hajime and others were running was not because they were in danger, but because Michio and Meiji were gone.

Abrafo dropped the cherimoya he had picked on the ground, shook out his shirt, and put it back on. "Where are they?" he asked worriedly.​

Bong said irritably, "What's wrong with that monk? He knows he shouldn't leave this place without letting us know."

U-ri quickly glanced around and shouted in frustration, "Michio!" 

Yul looked around and saw that there were only their footprints on the white sand. "There are no traces of Michio leaving this place," Yul said. "The footprints in the sand are ours."

U-ri said, "That doesn't make sense."

Hajime started to turn and look around, trying to figure out which direction Michio and Meiji would go, but it was all in vain as the only smell he could smell was the salty breeze from the sea.

Yul said, "U-ri, you stay here in case Michio comes back."

U-ri asked, "What about you?"

Yul said, "We're going to spread out to find Michio and Meiji."

U-ri said, "Everyone be careful."

Hajime took out his bracelet and handed it to U-ri. "You know how to activate it," he said.

U-ri watched as the three Tanzanies and Bong began to walk away in search of Michio and Meiji. Sitting in the safety of the bracelet, he had nothing to do, so he decided to draw and write about the island, when he suddenly heard Meiji's shriek sounded loudly that he threw the Book of Life to the ground and covered his ear. He raised his head to see where Meiji's shriek came from, and then he found that the sea was so calm and the currents no longer existed, as if the sea had frozen.

The three Tanzanies and Bong, who were still walking on the beach not far from U-ri covered their ears.

Hajime's screamed, "Meiji!"

Yul yelled, "That's not Meiji... Meiji can't make such a sound."

Abrafo yelled, "That's right... it must be something else."

Although their ears hurt, their minds were very clear. They knew very well that unknown being who could imitate sounds must not be human.

As Meiji's shriek continued, a powerful deep roar echoed like collapsing mountain shook the very ground beneath the people on the white sand beach. The thunderous sound hissing and booming ripped through the air, leaving a trail of cracks on the ground traveling beyond the white sand beach.

As sudden as Meiji's shriek sounded, the sound suddenly stops. As the current begins to rush toward the shore, the salty sea breeze begins to blow past the people on the beach, and the frozen sea returns to normal.

Hajime stood up from the ground. "Meiji..." he said with tears streaming down his face.

Yul pulled Hajime into his arms and held him tightly. "We'll find him. He'll be fine," Yul said, kissing Hajime's forehead. He felt something touching his right trousers. Yul lowered his head and found a fingerless little monkey's palm gently rubbing his pants. "Hajime...do you still remember the stories the villagers in Dongxue Village told us?"

Hajime looked up at Yul and asked, "Why do you suddenly ask?"

Yul said, "Because right now there's a fingerless monkey rubbing his palm against my pants."