The Burned Man Part 1

Gyeongbu high-speed railway, Seoul-Busan, South Korea
August 31th
9:00 AM

The second day of the Alliance meeting had arrived, we had all woken up early because the day would be long enough. I had had a bad night without being able to sleep well, not because of my nightmares, but thinking about the man I had seen yesterday, his appearance disgusted me, but how could I judge him when I used to be just as ugly. I didn't tell anyone about my problem and instead blamed it on a stomach ache from something I ate at the hotel.

By 9 a.m. all the politicians and their teams were at the Seoul railway station. The place was full of important people and the press taking pictures, which was extremely bustling. There were two trains waiting for passengers, both with the same destination, the coastal town of Busan. Since there were many people who needed to go, it was decided that one train would be used by the heads of state and their aides, while the second train would be used by less important people such as presidents of arms companies and their employees like Damien or Leon.

My mother would obviously use the first train because the two-hour trip was perfect as it was full of opportunities to do business or agreements between countries, and somehow she managed to get us all a pass to go on the first train. The different presidents were the first to board the train, while with Adelis who liked to have a lower profile we waited for things to calm down and boarded the train almost last, when it was about to leave.

While we were waiting I could see Leon talking to another man, it seemed that they were talking about a couple of details related to the exhibition demonstration of their product that same day in the waters near the Korean naval base. But then I found him again, a little bit behind my brother I saw that disgusting man again, with his emaciated appearance and his hideous blindfolds, his disfigured face was something that should be a crime, why didn't he just wear a mask instead? at least that way he wouldn't make the others want to throw up. 

There was something strange about him, his gaze fixed on Leon all the time.

The moment to board our train had arrived, but inside me, there was something telling me that something was wrong, I didn't know what, but I had to be alert. My mother has all the girls with her so they can easily defend her, but my brother on the other hand was alone. Just because of that random feeling of distrust, I decided to change my mind at the last moment and not board the train with my mother, instead, I apologized and told her that I would travel with Leon instead, just after the doors closed, I couldn't hear what she said, but I could see the confused faces of all the girls when I stayed behind.

I lost sight of the burned man but the plan is still the same, now what I have to do is to find a way to board the other train. Unfortunately with security as tight as it was today the pass I had wouldn't work and there wasn't much time left for the second train to leave as well. Looking for something to do I quickly stole a pass from someone else and used it to get the conductor past the boarding gate.

"So you are Cesar Vindas?"

"That's right, that's me."

"Are you sure, miss?"

"Of course, sir."

"May I then ask why you don't look like the man in the photo?"

"Well that's why that's me, before the operation."

"....."
"....."
"And did the operation include a short stature?"

"Also the white wig"

"....."
"Please ma'am, save what dignity you have left and get the hell out of here."
"If you leave now I will pretend I didn't see anything so I don't call the police."

"Ok, I understand"
"I'm sorry to bother you."

Damn, I knew it wouldn't work, but I also knew they wouldn't make fun of me. Ok, fine, don't stress, I just have to board the train, I don't necessarily have to be a passenger. Maybe I could get in the luggage? no, it's already been completely checked and there's no time left to look for an empty box, I can't jump on the roof either, everyone will see me and I'll get in trouble. It's a bullet train, it will travel at least 400 kilometers per hour, the least guarded car is the cargo car.

Jesus, I can't believe I'm actually thinking about this.

The train starts to walk, the ground starts to move faster and faster, terrifyingly fast, kind of Oh my god that's really bad. I struggle with both legs and one hand to keep holding on to the axle of the train trying not to think how this could kill me in at least 20 different ways. After a couple of minutes of travel when the train is no longer in the public eye I start using my free hand to try to create an entrance to the train floor. Although I don't like it I had to partially transform my hand into that of a dragon claw to be able to open the floor like a tin can. Somehow I managed to make my stupid idea work, I was inside the cargo car of the train, next to me there were several boxes, one of them by chance seemed to be the drone that my brother was trying to promote so much.

After picking the lock I managed to get out of the wagon, the place was full of people from all over the world, luckily all I had to do was look for the ugly man with bandages on his head. If I didn't find him then I would have made all that effort for nothing, which didn't bother me, I even preferred it that way. I started walking into each carriage looking for that person.

Walking through the seats I managed to find Leon, who was sitting by the window watching the scenery go by, around him there was no sign of anyone suspicious. My brother noticed my presence and was surprised, next to him there was an unoccupied field and insisted on sitting next to him, since it would be a long trip I took the invitation even though I didn't like the idea.

"Hey, you're Elise, right?"
"Weren't you traveling to my mother? Shouldn't you be riding the other train?"

"Oh well, she met someone she wanted to talk to and invited him on the other train so we switched places"

"How inconsiderate of my mother to leave a young girl alone and on her own."

"Don't worry, I'm good at defending myself."
"You could say that my job is just to not let myself get killed."
"And since I'm still alive, I think I've succeeded."

"Well, I still don't believe you're Adelis' bodyguard."
"I thought that was the job of the other girl, the Chinese one."
"But I'm glad you're here, at least this way the trip will be more bearable than going alone with no one to talk to."

"I know I look like a clown, I'm well aware of that."
"I don't need to be reminded of it"
"....."
"....."
"I hear you're a married man"
"Do you have children yet?"

"Haha, that's your best conversation starter?"
"You sound just like my older brother when he had social panic and tried to talk to some new girl."
"But yes, I have a beautiful wife back in Los Angeles."
"I have a daughter, she's already a year old."
"Here look, I have her picture as wallpaper on my cell phone."

"Oh my, she is quite pretty"
"You can clearly see which family she comes from"

"Her name is Holly"
"She is the pride of the family, she is a prodigy, an extremely intelligent child."
"Even my grandmother says that this little girl was born to be a genius."
"She is even able to say several words and understand them completely."

"You know, I imagine you've seen the twin girls that are always with adelis, the twins."
"I'm sure they would love to meet the Holly and play with her."
"...."
"I on the other hand am not good with kids."
"I don't know, somehow I end up taking everything they say too seriously."
"I know they are kids who can say one thing and then do just the other, but when I talk to them I end up believing that they reason like an adult and I take what they say seriously, or if I'm the weird one."

"That's funny, I always thought that women loved children."
"I thought it was natural for them to love children and how to deal with them."
"Well, I guess we're all different in some way."
"You know, if I tell you a secret, I'm a little bit the same way myself."
"You know, being a first-time dad is quite an experience."
"I have no way of knowing if I'm doing everything right, but I try to be the best parent I can for her every day."
"...."
"What about you?"
"I know you're too young to have kids, but I'm sure there's someone out there that you love, right?"
"Have you met the guy you would like to have a family with?"

"Ha... ha.... ha..."
"Married? no, not at all,"
"Having something like a one wife would be too stressful for me."
"Besides, being pregnant? no no no"
"Never, no thanks"
"....."
"Besides, no matter how I look at it I am in no way a good father."

"Ha ha ha ha it would be mother made in your case"
"But you sound exactly like Cesar with your social anxiety."
"What the fuck, you wouldn't happen to be him would you?"
"Ha ha ha ha"
"Seriously it's almost even scary the words you use, they are almost the same."

"So since you talk so much about your brother, can I know more about him?"

"Oh no, sorry"
"....."
"He's dead, he's been dead for a long time now"

"Oh sorry, I didn't know"
"I was very careless."

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"Don't worry, he had no honor to begin with."
"You can't hurt the memory of someone who was just a burden on his family anymore."
"The bastard never got a good or even stable job."
"After causing a lot of trouble the idiot went and joined the army during the war."
"The asshole went to die a long time later in another country."
"It was up to Adelis to find a way to pay to bring his body back to Costa Rica and have his funeral."
"Even after he died my brother continued to bother the others."
"..."
"The only thing I am glad about is that he is no longer here, so at least he will only be a burden on my family's mind and not just a money sucker."

"....."
"......"
"Oh boy......"
"....."
"What a lot of harsh words......"
"....."

Are you crying? Come on don't cry, be a man ,Men don't cry

"Uh?"
"Did you say something?"

"I said you don't have to cry for him."
"You wouldn't understand, but he was a really bad person."
"If he hadn't survived the war he would be a homeless person right now, so in that way maybe that was the best ending for him."
"But hey, you're a girl, so I guess you're allowed to cry if you want to"

"Ah..... yes ... sure....."
".... I... I... I will try ..."

*Plop*

My feet hit something under the seat

"Oh sorry, I think I hit one of the suitcases by mistake and it fell off."
"Let me put it back together"

"??????"
"Oh no, my luggage is in the hold."
"I didn't bring anything with me"
"That's not my suitcase."

That awoke an alarm in me, because it was something out of place, it made no sense, these trains had been prepared and put under heavy security for today, it could not be something as simple as a lost suitcase of a passenger, plus my brother was traveling alone. The suitcase has a lock on it, nothing that a pocket knife and a little force can open.

"Hey what are you doing?"
"Are you planning to steal that?"

After opening the suitcase I see its contents, It is not good. A motherboard, batteries, batteries, stabilizer, timer, wires, lots of gray mass, firing mechanism, and detonator. This shit was a bomb, a military-grade one. I immediately get to work to disassemble.

"What are you doing, arts and crafts?"
"That suitcase doesn't belong to you, put it back."

"No nothing, just taking apart a thing I came across"
"....."
"Tell me more about your daughter Holly."
"Do you plan to introduce her to your mother?"

"Oh well yes, obviously, of course."
"I just didn't imagine I'd be meeting my mother here."
"This whole thing took me by surprise."

"Well, everyone always gets caught by surprise in something."
"The important part is what do you do when you run into it?"
"You don't want things to blow up and get out of control do you?"
"...."
"Tell me, do you have a favorite color? Red or blue? Maybe green?"

"The blue one, but why do you ask?"

"Not for nothing, just creating conversation"
"...."
"Tell me do you find it hard to be the father of a genius girl?"

"A little bit, yes"
"On the one hand I'm very happy for her because of her intellect."
"On the other hand I feel that she already knows everything by default, and that's just for the beginning."
"What will I teach her in the future when she already knows it all by herself?"

"Oh yes, I know that feeling of like I'm just trying to catch up with her."
"As if they were born as adults and as if they operated like a computer"
"And if they don't know it in less than a second, they'll look it up on the internet."
"They know everything and you can't hide anything from them, almost as if they are omniscient."
"...."
"But even so, nobody  is born already learned."
"They may know by default about a lot of things, but still the parents' job is not just about filling their minds with knowledge"
"It's also to teach them what's right and what's wrong,  shape them into good persons"
"To prepare them to make the right choices and not just the easy ones."
"Knowing what stealing is and teaching them why not to steal are different things, teaching them the reasons behind is the import part"

"Well, you're right about that"
"...."
"I actually hadn't thought about it, but yeah, that's important."
"It's good to see that I can still keep the role of father then"

*Beep*

"Ah, that's it, I'm done"
"Good thing this thing didn't turn on."

"Seriously, what the fuck are you doing?"
"So much you talk about not stealing but it seems you are doing it."

"Nothing, I just disassemble things, I already told you."
"Tell me by any chance did you see who left this here?"
"It's pretty important."

"I'm not sorry, I don't know."
"The truth is I didn't even know there was a suitcase until you pulled it out."
"For me, I would have gone the whole trip without knowing it was there."

"Yes, that's what I was afraid of."
"Look, I have to check a few more things on the train so I'm going to leave this suitcase here."
"For the world's sake don't touch it and leave your fingerprints on it."
"Also don't let anyone else touch it."
"Fight for it if you have to, fight for it as if you were defending your own life."

"What's in that suitcase, is it important?"

"Photos of the cheating of several presidents"
"Journalists are usually disappeared because of these things"

"Is it dangerous?"

"No, not at all."
"Just don't think about the briefcase and act like it has nothing to do it has nothing to do with you and everything will be fine."

I left my brother behind and started walking again, trying to find out who the person was who had left that briefcase. The only way someone could have snuck a bomb in here was to bring it with him, and unless he also wanted to die by his own hand, he would look for a way to survive the possible explosion. But the safest place to be was as close to the locomotive as possible since it was the one most likely to survive in this case.

As I walked along, I tried to pay attention to the faces of the people, trying to find some clue as to the culprit. The train was hurtling through the countryside, the scenery outside a blur as I focused on the task at hand. The passengers around me seemed oblivious to the danger lurking nearby, engrossed in their own conversations and activities.

The man cursed into ugliness is next to the entrance to another freight car.

I take my pocket knife, carefully get behind him and stab him slowly to avoid arousing any suspicion, cover his mouth, and drag him to the cargo wagon to finish him off.

Once inside, the man reacts, he pulls out of my grip and starts to move his hands to hit me. The place is narrow, it is difficult to dodge the attacks as I usually do, instead, I protect my head and punish his assault with a counterattack, holding his arm I make a new cut with my knife. The burned man moves his face in pain, it looks like a horrible scream, which at the same time had no voice, only silence, from his coat pocket I take out a pistol. With the same knife, I wound him quickly so that he drops his weapon, I take the opportunity to continue beating him more, new cuts on his legs, something broken on his chest, I take his head and throw it against one of the walls, which for sure because of his skin wounded by burns is torn and his bandages began to stain red. I didn't even know how he was still in the fight, the man at that point was laughing, his face was happy but again silent. Something was out of place.

The man took something else out of his clothes, a small object in his hands, a golden and metallic cage, it contained a blue stone, it was quite similar to the Thalassian Enigma of the Atlanteans, the same one I once saw them use during the forging of Avalon. The ugly man looked me straight in the face, his eyes and mouth began to shoot a mowing white light, I could not see what was happening.

My body began to hurt more and more, I felt my hand tearing, my face bleeding, my feet trembling. When I regained my sight I saw in front of me the fox girl in white, with the dagger in her hands, in her face she was smiling. I asked her what was going on, but my voice wouldn't come out, I couldn't. The girl pushed me to the ground and hit my face, my consciousness was less and less, I couldn't see or even hear what was happening, as the girl opened the door and left, "Attention all passengers, we will soon arrive at Busan station, please prepare to disembark the train" were the last words I heard before I fainted.

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