Victims of the System: part 1

*** 2 years ago for the Erghon Timezone, 5 hours ago for the Earth Timezone ***

"It is enough for today, boys. Go and rest. Only a few days left until the tournament." The trainer in the middle of the gymnasium took off his fencing mask and wiped the sweat from his face, beginning to walk away from the arena.

"Ah, no Senior Luca. Please allow us to continue!!!" However, his students wanted the fencing lesson to continue.

"Not a chance! You need to rest. And cut this <Senior > sh.t! I am not that old. Just call me by Luca"

"Ok, Vato Luca…" His disciples sadly accepted the result and began to walk away. Out of respect for their trainer, they did not want to call him by name only, so they preferred to add the prefix "Vato", which he had acquired years ago in his profession.

The nickname Vato... from the Vato fish…

Luca was a well-known sports figure in the community. Moreover, he worked and specialized for many years not only in fencing but also in many sports categories. Especially in Far East sports… In addition to having FIE medals in Fencing, he had an interest in far eastern sword sports such as Iaido and Tameshigiri and received training on them. He also had intermediate belts in many Far Eastern martial arts such as Aikido and Judo.

Thanks to these specializations he gained in different branches, he also developed his own arts. The style he used especially in Fencing was a hybrid version of the other competencies he acquired, and he had the ability to attack his opponents very quickly from all sides. Because of this style, his colleagues nicknamed him Vato, which is short for Vatos fish. Because the swift sword moves he swung from different angles made his opponents defenseless, just as if they were surrounded by a Vatos fish…

Wiping his sweat, Luca came near his gym bag. He took out his phone, which he had put on mute before practice, and looked at his screen. "What!?" On the screen of the phone were numerous missed call notes from a number not saved in the phone book.

He called the number back and introduced himself and asked why he was called. And then he continued to listen to the explanations from the other side as if he was out of breath… Even though the other party hung up the phone, he continued to listen as if the conversation was continuing… Silently, breathlessly, and his pupils were shrunken as if they were going to disappear…

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*** 1 hour later, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona ***

"This is ridiculous, Doctor. Are you implying that she is not dead and not alive at the same time!?"

" Please calm down, Sir. As I said, we are facing a very unusual situation right now. Frankly, this is not a type of illness that neither I nor dozens of specialists in our hospital have encountered before or are aware of. Or whatever it is. Police officers have explained this to you. Your wife passed out in a public area suddenly, bleeding from her mouth, nose, and eyes."

"Yes, Sir. Please calm down." The policeman, who was disturbed by the fact that Luca, who was in tears, continued to tense the atmosphere, intervened. "Nobody attacked your wife and she didn't have any accidents. This happened in front of everyone. If you want, we can show you the camera recordings."

"At least… just tell me this… Will she survive…?" Luca swallowed as he asked this question because he knew he couldn't handle the answer he was about to hear.

"As we told… We do not know, Sir… We continue to question all our colleagues in our community. You can be sure that we will do our best if we find someone who has the slightest knowledge about this illness."

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*** 1 hour later, the garden of the Hospital ***

Luca was silently watching the dark garden. His wife, whom he loved more than anything, fell ill with an illness he didn't know what it was. Luca, who made it a principle to achieve the best in his field in everything he did, felt so helpless for the first time in his life.

"Hospital gardens are strange, aren't they, Sir? People always say that hospitals are full of sadness, but I think hospital gardens are home to more painful stories..."

He was startled by the voice of the stranger he felt just sitting behind him. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Luca tried to turn to look at this person but…

"I don't think I'm asking too much if I politely ask you not to look at me, Sir… I came here to talk to you just because I saw someone who shares the same loneliness as me... Trust me, you'll understand why when you hear my story."

"Why? I'm not in a good mood right now and don't wanna talk to shady people!"

"No, Sir. Please think of me as a patient relative like you who only wants to talk to you for now…" The stranger continued to speak, ignoring Luca's discomfort. "I am the son of parents with many children. We are eight siblings and frankly, our fraternal ties are not very strong compared to the general population for this reason. Don't be confused by the word <sibling >, boys and girls are born on different dates... But one of them was very special to me. My youngest sister... She was born with a very weak constitution. Unfortunately, fate did not treat her well, and she did not have the innate ability to walk. My other siblings didn't pay much attention to her. But I was always with her... I grew up with her, and after I got married, I hosted her in my own house with my wife. We were always kind to her and took very good care because despite her misfortune she has always been a warm person and always tried to bring us joy. She had only one bad habit, she was constantly playing games on the computer or on her phone. But you know... We were never involved in her hobby because of her disability. After all, being confined to a wheelchair, she didn't have a chance to participate in most of the outside hobbies, and never will be… But one day something terrible happened. While playing with her phone game right next to us in our house… Blood began to flow from all the holes in her head… Even from the pupils of her eyes…"

"WHATTT!!!"

"Yes, sir... Contrary to what the doctors tell you, you are not alone. In fact, oppositely, you are only one of many people in the world who experience this victimization..."