Chapter 111 Lullaby

Worried that something had happened to Yul, Hajime dashed through the tall grass and in pursuit of Hajime was Abrafo. 

Abrafo shouted from behind Hajime, "Hajime, watch out."  Seeing that Hajime had no intention of slowing down, Abrafo quickly rushed forward and grabbed Hajime's left arm. "Slow down. Yul is capable of protecting himself."

Hajime suddenly realized that he had overreacted and sighed, "I completely forgot about it."

Hajime and Abrafo walked a few hundred yards further and found Yul harvesting some melons and turnips.

Abrafo shouted, "Hey Yul!  What are you doing?"

Yul looked up, holding a honeydew melon.  "Picking melons," he said looking at Hajime and Abrafo.  "What are you two doing here?"

Abrafo said, "There is no need to look for water. There is a well next to the house. The water in the well is good."

Yul approached Hajime and Abrafo.  He handed the honeydew melon to Abrafo. He looked at Hajime's expression and realized something was wrong. He asked, "What's wrong?"

Hajime said, "We heard the humming of a female coming from this direction. We were worried something might had happen to you."

Yul said, "I heard it too, but it was probably just a passing villager."

Hajime said, "So, you heard it too?"

Yul said, "Yeah, but don't think too much about it. I've only heard it twice, but I haven't heard anything since the last time."

Hajime nodded at Yul. "We heard it twice too."

Yul said, "Since we're going to be here for a while, let's not scare ourselves by believing what the villagers say. Come on, help me pick some vegetables." He turned and walked back to the garden, but soon turned back to face Hajime and Abrafo. "There's a pond full of fish over there." He pointed behind him. "You guys go catch some fish."

Abrafo and Hajime looked at each other. Hajime said, "Fine, I'll go."

Hajime walked to the pond and saw that there were many fish swimming in the pond. Hajime stepped forward and dipped his right hand into the water. He waved his hand and the fish swam towards him. He quickly grabbed the fish and threw them from the pond to the grass. After counting to six, he pulled his hand out of the water and started walking out of the pond.

After Hajime picked up the six fish, he looked up and the small shiny green tree with branches covered with golden berries. He saw two different kinds of berries growing on the small tree. He was curious and picked up a golden berry and a transparent berry.

Hajime knew he couldn't die, so he picked up the golden berry and tried to bite it, but it was too hard, so he threw the golden berry to the ground. He picked up a transparent berry and squeeze it. He found that the berry was soft to the touch. It feels almost like dough. He brought the transparent berry close and found that it was filled with liquid. He wanted to know if the berry taste delicious or not, so he brought the berry to his mouth to take a bite and taste the juice inside. He  place the transparent berry to his lips.

"Hey, what took you so long," Abrafo said, tapping Hajime on the left shoulder.

Hajime accidentally dropped the transparent berry in his mouth and swallow it.  He tried spitting and coughing up the transparent berry, but it seemed like the berry flowed down his esophagus as soon as they entered his mouth.

"Ah...!" Hajime fell to his knees and screamed in pain. Hajime felt his throat burning like someone poured hot water into the back of his throat, and the burning sensation continued to spread down his esophagus entered his stomach.

"Hajime! What's wrong?" Abrafo asked worriedly.

Hajime stuck his fingers deep into his throat and tried to throw up the transparent berry, but other than his own vomits, the berry swallowed were still burning in his lower abdomen.

Hajime clutched his abdomen with both hands and groaned in pain. "Ah...I accidentally swallowed a berry." He felt the burning pain getting stronger and stronger. "I think I'm going to die." Hajime had difficulty breathing. "I hate dying!" Hajime fell to the ground, twisting his body in pain.

When Yul reached Hajime and Abrafo, Hajime was already lying on the ground, his body barely move. Yul saw the sweat on Hajime's face. Yul knelt down, pulled Hajime up, and sat behind Hajime, with Hajime leaning on his chest. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Hajime frowned in pain. "Painful... too painful." He groaned and his face began turning pale.

Hajime began to breathe rapidly and took some deep breaths. He also felt a burning sensation spreading downwards, and then suddenly his back door felt itchy and hot, similar to the feeling after pushing on a hard stool.

"Oh shit! I think it's about to come out!" he screamed in pain, he pushed Yul away, he quickly stood up and fell to his knees again.

Abrafo asked, "Come back, where are you going?"

Hajime groaned, "Taking a dump."

Hajime thought to himself that if the berry was going to come out, he would have to push it out. He concentrated his strength and pushed as hard as he could, but the berry inside refused to come out. He then felt the burning sensation moving from his backdoor to his stomach, and then suddenly, the burning and pain stopped.

After the pain had subside, Hajime touched his abdomen to see if there was still any pain. Unexpectedly, he was not dead, and there was no tightness in his abdomen. 

Hajime pushed himself away from Yul's arm and said, "I think I'm fine now."

Yul looked at Hajime and asked, "Are you sure?"

Abrafo, who was also worried, looked at Hajime and asked, "Are you sure you're okay? You looked in pain just now." He looked at Hajime  madly. "Or are you just pretending?"

Hajime protested his innocent, looked at Abrafo and said angrily, "I am in pain because of you. I just wanted to bite that berry to see if the juice inside was good, but you hit me on the back, which shocked me. I accidentally swallowed that berry. " He stretched out his hand and picked up a transparent berry. "Come on, if you think I'm faking it, then eat it."

Abrafo chuckled and said, "Like hell I'm going to eat it.  Seeing you struggling to breathe makes me want to stay away from that tree."

Yul picked up the fish that Hajime had dropped on the ground and said, "Leave the tree and it's berries alone. We have enough food for a month."

Hajime looked at the tree and felt a little unhappy. "I agree." He was about to kick the tree but stopped when he saw the mushrooms growing around the tree. He picked up a mushroom. "Do you two think these mushrooms are edible?"

Abrafo took the mushroom from Hajime's hand and threw it to the ground. "No, I prefer to eat anything away from that tree," he said.

Yul said, "We have enough food for the night. Let's go back." He handed the fish to Hajime. "While you can't die, you experience all the pain associated with death every time. It's best to avoid it."

Hajime took the fish and said with a smile, "I will be more careful next time. Anyway, I don't like the feeling of death." He walked quickly to Yul. "Honestly, did you really think that humming voice was coming from someone walking nearby?"

Yul said, "To reassure everyone, let's keep it like this. We'll see if it happens again." He turned to look at Hajime. "Are you sure you're really, okay?"

Hajime said, "Yes, for now. I thought I was going to die, but I'm okay now."

Yul and Hajime followed Abrafo back to the house.

After dinner, the five Tanzanies walked into the house and closed the doors and windows.  Yul and Uri sat side by side on the ground beside the small campfire, letting the other three men sleep first.

Yul said, "You can go to bed. I think I should be okay to take first watch."

U-ri said, I can't sleep anyway." He looked at Yul.  "Captain Bayarmaa, may I have a heart-to-heart talk  with you?"

Yul said, "What do you want to talk about?"

U-ri said, "It's about Hajime."

Yul looked at Hajime, who was sleeping soundly, and then turned to U-ri.  "What do you want to talk about Hajime?"

U-ri wants to talk about Hajime's confession, but when he's about to speak, he realizes that it's not his place to tell Yul, so instead he said, "I've noticed that Hajime is taking longer to recover lately. You notice too, right?"

Yul said, "I noticed it, but I didn't know what it meant."

"Humm... humm... humm... shhh....humm...humm... humm... shhh..."

Yul and U-ri looked at each other's. looked at each other. "That voice is coming again..." U-ri said, frightenedly.

Yul said, "Wake up the others." 

Yul grabbed the water bag and poured it over the campfire while U-ri woke up the others.

The five Tanzanies  listened quietly to the humming sound inside the house, unable to tell who was making the sound since there was no window to the front lawn.

Michio took out the talisman, but nothing happened to the talisman. "This is not a spirit," Michio whispered. 

Abrafo said, "It sounded like a mother putting her child to sleep."

Hajime asked, "How do you know?"

Abrafo said, "How could I not know? My sister-in-law sings lullabies to my two nephews every night."

After listening, Yuri said, "I agree with Abrafo. This hum sounds like a lullaby, but who is singing?"

"Let's find out," Yul said, and he slowly opened the door to see what was going on, but when he looked outside, there was nothing in front of the front lawn. He looked across the trees and saw many small bright orbs not far away. He closed the door slowly.

"I didn't see anything on the front lawn," Yul said quietly. "But I did see a lot of bright orbs behind the tree. If I guessed it right, it came from that weird berry tree."

Michio said, "Since it was not created by dark energy, it could be something else that we don't know about." 

Yul said, "Hajime, you and U-ri are staying here."

Hajime said, "I refuse. I want to see it too."

Yul said, "No, you stay with U-ri. That's an order."

U-ri knew Yul's good intentions, so he said, "Yul is right. Let's not get involved in this matter for now. Remember that the wound on your back has not healed yet."

Hajime frowned and said, "Fine."

Yul slowly opened the door, and Yul, Abrafo, and Michio walked toward the flickering orbs a few hundred yards from the house.