Chapter 20 — The Giant Bear, Cannibals, and a Young Man
"Yui-chan, wake up..."
Yui woke up early in the morning to the sounds of the forest behind them.
She shook Megumi awake next to her.
"What's wrong?"
Megumi rubbed her eyes.
For the past few days, she and Yui had almost circled this small island, but they had not found any fresh water or other people.
The island was just too small.
"Megumi-chan, look!" So many birds are flying out of the forest!"
Even though Yui wasn't very smart, she knew that when birds flew off in a panic like that, something big must be happening.
"Could it be an earthquake?!"
Megumi also looked up at the sky, watching a dark flock of birds take flight, and saw worms and insects crawling across the ground.
"An earthquake!?"
Yui held Megumi's arm because she was scared.
Then...
They were trying to decide whether to run away from the giant rock that was nearby.
Dum, dum, dum...
A loud noise came from deep in the forest.
"Is it really an earthquake?"
Yui felt the ground shake.
"No, this isn't an earthquake! Get down and stay quiet!"
Megumi, looking scared, made Yui lie down, then did the same.
Duum, duum, duum...
A bear with long hair, black and white, came out of the forest.
Megumi looked at it for a second, then quickly lowered herself to the ground. She tried to breathe more slowly.
The strange creature was about 7 to 8 meters tall, and the ground shook every time it stepped.
Even though they were more than fifty meters away from the bear, Megumi could still feel the ground shaking.
It was hard to believe such a massive land creature even existed.
With that size, even an elephant wouldn't survive a single swipe from its claws!
Megumi prayed that the giant bear wouldn't notice where they were hiding.
"Please don't come here... don't come here..."
Yui also felt something scary coming, but she didn't even open her eyes.
Duum... Duum...
Luckily, the huge bear wasn't coming towards them.
Splash...
I heard something falling into the water.
After the vibrations stopped, Megumi slowly stood up.
Then she was surprised to see the huge bear, looking scared. It ran toward the ocean and jumped into the water, making a big bubble cloud. Then it swam away like a seal.
The bear was trying to cross the sea to the next island!
Megumi looked upset.
First, the bear must have come from this island. But now, something so scary had appeared that it caused this huge creature to run away without thinking.
In other words...
If something could make a bear that size run for its life, it clearly wasn't something humans could handle.
Megumi knew what to do.
"Huff... What was that, a monster!? Megumi-chan..."
Yui also saw the giant bear swimming across the sea.
With most of its body above the water, it looked like a scary sea monster.
"Yui-chan, we have to leave this island right away!"
Megumi started searching for a big rock nearby. She needed a stone to make an axe. She could use the axe to chop down trees and build a raft to cross the sea, just like the bear.
"Eh!? Why?"
Yui, who had just started to calm down, now saw Megumi looking even more serious.
"Because there's something on this island scarier than that monster!"
"What!?"
Yui became even more frightened.
"Then... is there anything I can do to help?"
But she knew that right now, the only thing she could do was help Megumi escape the island.
"Look for a hard, solid stone. I'll use stone, rattan, and wood to make a stone axe..."
Megumi pointed to a stone she had just picked up, but it wasn't hard enough.
"Got it!"
Yui felt more confident when she saw how calm Megumi was. She overcame her fear from the bear encounter and started searching for stones with Megumi.
"What's going on? Is this an earthquake?"
Yukino was still tied up inside the cave and felt the ground shake, but it had stopped.
"I wish I could get out and see what's going on."
Yukino was still trying to rub the vine bindings on her wrists against the rocks inside the cave.
But because she was weak and could not move much, she did not improve much.
Meanwhile, Jun was moving carefully through the forest near the "Bone Zone," leaving no trace.
"Uwohh... uwohh..."
As he moved forward, he suddenly heard a strange roar from an unknown creature.
Jun stopped moving and climbed a tall tree. From the tree, Jun watched the area carefully.
"Ulaaa-holaaa..."
Jun saw humanoid figures with dark brown skin a few hundred meters away. Their bodies and faces were painted in various colors.
Savage humans... or perhaps more accurately, cannibals...
Jun could barely see, but he thought he saw one of them holding a human head up to the sun, as if they were doing some strange ritual on a wooden altar.
Below the altar, the wild humans howled and danced around a campfire.
Two headless human corpses lay beneath, blood still flowing from their necks...
Dark red blood dripped from the wooden altar and trickled down its thick pillars to the ground.
The altar was covered in dried blood from past rituals, and it was a deep red color.
From a distance, Jun saw the tribe's horrific sacrificial dance.
His eyes, which were dull and empty, showed a deep and complicated feeling that was difficult to describe.
But Jun didn't stay frozen. He held the hairclip tightly, feeling his courage return.
He had to keep going!
_ _ _
Jun avoided the front of the savage tribe's camp, smearing dark mud over his face. He slowly approached the terrifying cannibal village from the rear.
For some reason, the closer he got to these wild humans, the less afraid he felt.
Now, all that remained was anger at the possibility that Sora Ginko had been eaten and a desire for vengeance that would never end.
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This is the last chapter with five chapters uploaded per day. Starting tomorrow, I will upload one chapter per day, and Sunday will be a holiday.