One Death Less
Chapter one: Kazuno Chiyo
*Beeeep* “Next stop, Yedanemo station. Please prepare to exit this train soon, incase this is your desired destination.”
Kazuno quietly remains seated as she feels the speed of the train slow down, on her way home from a busy day of college, the seventeen year old girl observes her surroundings out of boredom.
A pregnant lady on the other side of the carriage, an older couple reading a book together quietly listening to music, two other students blissfully discussing their plans for the weekend and four other people in a deep slumber in a line on the seats in the far back.
Kazuno feels at peace listening to her friend; Yusei, rant about her day, about how unoriginal her recent presentations have been and how she cant wait to book that spa appointment shes been wanting so bad.
“The prices have been going up for such a long time! It’s so horribly frustrating.” Says Yusei, ranting on and on, completely leading their conversation. “I should probably quit my job, being a waitress isn’t really cutting my expenses and my feet end up just constantly hurting.”
“Didn’t you mention this two weeks ago too? You said basically the same thing, but you haven’t made the decision after all this time.” Kazuno suddenly replies.
“ah.” Yusei looks happy realizing how much attention Kazuno pays to their conversations despite not involving herself much, but her happiness only lasts for a second just as she realizes what Kazuno said. Yusei sulks.
“I mean.. yeah. But we always get free meals after our shift.. How could I say goodbye to that.” Yusei cries out.
Kazuno snickers a little bit at her friends confusing feelings and words, she notices how Yusei clearly has very heavy bags plastered underneath her eyes, yet she keeps smiling so happily. Kazuno is relieved to have befriended such a strong-willed individual.
She hears the gates of the train close and once again the train goes into motion, she peeks outside the window, into the Yedanemo station as it once again disappears, just like it does every day.
The empty space next to her is filled up by another stranger and Kazuno notices how the last row has now two people sleeping instead of four.
How stealthy.. I didn’t even see them leave. Kazuno thinks.
Kazuno’s gravity suddenly gets pushed a little bit closer to Yusei.
“???”
She slowly looks at her hip where she feels an object strongly push. it’s a gun, held by the man that went to sit next to her specifically, despite many other seats being left open.
“Don’t make a fucking sound, unless you want your ribcage blown open.” The man whispers in her ear. “Tell your friend that you need to exit next station.”
--
What? Wait. What? What’s happening. What do I do. I cant breathe properly. Do I tell Yusei. Am I going to die today? Wait. Fuck. I can’t? I don’t wanna. Hes not touching me but I’m stuffocating.
“Girl are you okay?”
“Kazuno?”
“Kazuno.”
“Kazuno Chiyo!”
Yusei finally took notice of her friends unnatural expression.
“Yu- Yusei.. I actually..” Kazuno tries to tell her friend what shes supposed to, but the words don’t want to leave her chest.
Yusei looks around her friend at the man sitting next to her, its quite an old guy, seemingly around his 50-60’s. She can’t see what he’s holding but she can see him etching closer to Kazuno’s waist.
Immediately reaching the conclusion that her best friend is being groped, she jumps up and loudly yells at the man, hoping to catch the attention of other passengers, but the second she properly stands before the two, she realizes the important detail she missed.
Before she can make any decision, Kazuno hears the man breathe in through his teeth and as she looks back at him she suddenly hears an extremely loud bang. A red, lukewarm to warm liquid splatters on her cheek.
She looks back at where her friend is supposed to stand, but all she sees is someone laid out on the ground, a few meters further away, concealed by the same substance. Kazuno can smell the strong stench of gunpowder, but her eyes are glued to the trainwreck unfolded before her eyes.
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The other passengers are tearfully screaming out, some are speechless, some are running, some are on the ground.
Kazuno can no longer seem to hear anything other than a strong peep in her ear, reminiscent of the beep heard when you reach the final train station.
Kazuno slowly sinks to the ground while still not fully understanding the situation, but knowing its bad, her face stays shocked stained with tears. Someone tightly grabs her by the upper arm and forces her to stand up, it’s the older man once again.
He holds her close to him while pointing the gun at other passengers, he starts joyfully screaming close to Kazuno’s ear. Kazuno doesn’t know what hes saying, but others hear him talking about the man he considers god.
“That man wouldn’t have died if he didn’t want to! He had a great mind.. The world is so filled with gross insects like you.”
“Trying to make yourself so pretty and so beautiful, but I’m sure your mind is vile just like all the other sluts..”
Hearing this, the older lady across the row stands up even though shes scared, her husband clearly trying to keep her down. “What do.. What do you want from the people in this train?”
“Do you want our money? Do you want our jewelry. I can give you that! Just let that poor girl go.. she didn’t do anything.”
“…” a short silence ensues.
“Sir, please.”
Her husband blinks, and sees his wife fall to the ground. Not responding to his voice any longer.
He falls to the ground trying to shield his wife, expecting the shooter to shoot her more, but the man stays quiet, and sets his attention back to Kazuno.
The man tries to scream out, but he could only cry at the sight.
Kazuno quietly watches the man faint from shock, and can’t help but fear the possibility of the man receiving a heart attack.
Five minutes ago.
“We received intel on the possible shooting, the suspect should be in one of the trains right now.”
“Why aren’t the alarms going off.”
“Worst case scenario is having the entire train panic, its your job to avoid as many casualties as possible, officer.” The man on the other side of the line explains. “Watch out, there is a high possibility that the suspect owns weapons bigger than that handgun.”
“The suspect shouldn’t have any fighting experience unlike you, he might not even be able to properly handle that gun. There are nine other officers in your train, Sergeant Kane … Dear friend, you have the most experience in this situation, I trust you to make the important decisions.”
“I understand, sir.”
Lee Kane, is an high-ranked member of the active police force. Currently wearing casual clothing, but still has his badge in his left pocket and his trusty handgun in his right one. Hes 36 years old with two children, one fifteen and one just turning ten years old.
The man on the other line is in charge of todays operation, Louis Azul. Kane’s best friend and superior.
Kane scans his environment checking if anyone fits the vague description given to him on short notice. The subject is a man in his 40’s who they have had on their watchlist for a long time. The man had a mother in prostitution and human trafficking and an alcoholic father. This all changed when he was ten years old. Both parents were brutally murdered by a now dead man, the ten year old boy saw it take place, but instead of screaming and crying, he was amazed.
In his teens the kid was still highly unstable, but the chance of him actually taking action wasn’t high. They couldn’t have been further from wrong. When news got out of his idol stepping in front of a train, he flew off the radar for multiple decades.
He was only found again when someone came to the police to tell them about the guy smuggling weapons, wanting to kidnap someone. The person coming to the police said that the man had started a cult, and that he himself was a member, but noticed their leader gradually losing his mind further and further.
Kane is about to ask louis about why he would get on a train, just to kidnap a person even though that’s illogical, but hes cutoff by the sound of a gunshot coming from a few carriages further.
Present.
I can’t hear..? What are you doing. Huh? Yusei? Yusei I’m scared.. Why is Yusei on the ground. Yusei, get up. Wait.. Shouldn’t I- Shouldn’t I have woken up by now. No.. Stop. Please. Yusei..
Yusei, please wake up.. when you do, please wake me up aswell..
Many thoughts uncontrollably rush through Kazuno’s mind. She finally manages to scan the room once again. This time not out of boredom or interest, but out of confusion.
A pregnant lady, shivering on the ground in fetal position, An older man lying on the ground, next to his wife who now rests in a pool of blood. Their mp3 still playing music. One person sleeping in the back, with a gaping headwound, another person trying to look away sitting glued to the ground, unable to move.
Kazuno doesn’t know how to find her peace, now that Yusei is no longer ranting about her useless presentations and about her useless job, no longer looking out for that spa appointment she was so excited for.
The shooter finally let her sink to the ground, even sitting close behind her, gun to the side of her jaw. Hes still laughing, at her and about all the other so called vermin. Hes called Kazuno a prostitute, a slut, a whore at least six times by now, not even realizing she can barely hear anything.
He moves the gun and forces it in Kazuno’s mouth, using his free hand to have her look him in the eyes. He loves the look in her eyes, but she hates the look in his.
The beep in her ears is interrupted by a louder bang, she tries to refocus her eyes, but all she can see is red. She uses her hand to slowly wipe away what was supposed to be her tears, but all she ends up swiping away is more blood. She can finally see again, and notices the man, lying there, no longer laughing and yelling at her. But his crazed eyes are still wide open. She looks up and sees another man pointing the gun at the dead man In front of her, she doesn’t know who he is, yet she feels a sense of relief mixed in with all the horrible thoughts.
“Young lady, you are safe now. My name is officer Kane Lee, I’m with the police.”
Kazuno can’t really hear what hes saying, but he talks very clearly, allowing Kazuno to somehow manage to read his lips.
I see, I thought so already. I thought he would be a police officer, he has that certain vibe. Kazuno thinks.
Her empty eyes, suddenly look a little more filled, as she starts crying. Trying to point at Yusei.
“Please.. help my friend, I think.. I think she’s hurt..?” Kazuno whimpers.
She secretly already knows the truth, but can’t help wishing Yusei would just give her a back hug once again, she just wants to hear her complain about work again.
Kane looks at the direction Kazuno is pointing, immediately feeling like he wants to cry, Kazuno and her friend only look a little older than his own daughter and he cant imagine how much pain she must be in.
His train of thought is interrupted by a beep.
“…”
Beep, beep, beep,. The speed increases rapidly, Kane quickly turns his attention to the shooters unmoving corpse and can only hope it isn’t what he thinks it is.
He recalls Louis’ words.
“Watch out, there is a high possibility that the suspect owns weapons bigger than that handgun.”
Louis was right, it was more than just a gun, Kane quickly lunges towards Kazuno, scaring her quite a bit, before tightly hugging her.
Kazuno doesn’t understand what’s happening, but the warmth of another human being manages to warm her up a bit.
This feeling turns cold far too quickly though. As she hears an extremely loud explosion, far worse than the gunshots before, shes hit by some broken floor pieces in both her arms, hands and head, although she isn’t disturbed by this at all.
Shes far more disturbed by the man hanging onto her, ribcage blown open, legs blown away.
The kind man she was ready to trust with her life was already gone, and she was covered in his blood from head to toe. She’s so shocked that all she can do is stare, not responding to anything else. No longer can she hear her own thoughts or even the beep stuck in her head. Shes not sure if the blood is real either, is it his blood or is just in her mind?
*Beeeep* “Next stop, Caduon station. Please prepare to exit this train soon, this is the last appointed destination for this train, thank you for traveling with us.”