리틀팍스



 It was hard to say anything. We just looked at it.

 "What are you doing here?!"

 "Huh?"

 At first, I thought I was mistaken. But, as the same shout hit my ear, I became certain.

 "Father?"

 Trees above the valley rustled, and My father and Mr. Choi walked into sight.

 "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, IN THIS SEVERE-POLLUTED AREA!"

 My father's voice was loud, even though it was muffled by the gas mask. It made me wince. Minho and her sister did not show any surprise-they barely blinked.

 "Jin Seok-!"

 It was Mr. Choi. Minho's sister fidgetted, but apart from that movement, nothing dare broke the awkwardly stony mood.

 "Come up here, all of you, right now! Explanation! Now!"

 I could sense the anger of my father drifting in the air. Mr. Choi looked worried and weak rather than angry-even thinner, and his hair almost covering his eyes.

 It was Minho's sister who spoke, although timidly.

 "Mineral D. He found it-"

 But her sentence cut off as Minho spoke, certain that more detaliled explanation would be in need.

 "Jin Seok, somehow, I don't know, found where the mineral in the air is much denser, and led us near a pond. A severe-polluted pond. We-"

 "What, a severe-polluted pond? If the pond is located at the end of the hillside, you're wrong. Nothing was wrong about it."

 My father interrupted. My mind slowly heated with anger which was radiated from my father's.

 "There WAS, and Jin Seok also found out a source of Mineral D flowing into the pond, which led us to HERE. Here he also found the one true source of Mineral D spreading here, in Korea."

 Before I even noticed, My father was down in that valley (some kind of). His gas mask didn't hide his shock.

 "Let me see-"

 He pushed me aside rather violently, and did something, bending low over the pebble of darkness. He stood up once again, his whole body shaking. The pebble was gone.

 "I got the source. Let's return to the resthouse."

 Mr. Choi's room was even cleaner than I had visited last time. Only his bag and that plastic container could be seen, except the air conditionor hanging on the wall and a wardrobe no taller than I was.

 "Wear this."

 He pulled five pairs of artificial-threadded clothes, which was wrapped in vinil, from his bag. He threw three of them to us (I mean, Me, Minho, and his sister), give the vinil wrapper with a pair to my father, and wore the last pair himself. It was hard to wear, as its top and bottom was not separated.

 "All of you, ready?"

 Mr. Choi called when he was fully dressed. Minho was still struggling with it. Except for him, all of us were ready.

 "Do not take off your gas mask, Jin Seok!"

 My father snapped. I, feeling timid once again, stopped my hand which was moving to take off the mask, in midair. 

 "Right now, then. Jiin Seok, I think that you ought to know this. We'll explain everything to you."

 Mr. Choi stroked the lid of the plastic container gently with his bare hand, and after he repeated this for two or three times, the containor gave off a strange, unfamiliar mechanical sound, as the top lid slid open, revealing mechanical wires entangled inside it. All of them withdrew with a whirl, and at the bottom of the container, lay the pure-black stone which looked exactly like the one my father and Mr. Choi fetched beside the stream of D-contained water.

 By the moment I saw it, I got to know exactly what it was, and why Mr. Choi was showing it to us. Only one thing was settled in my mind-the core.

 "The Exo-mineral research team changed its aim almost 6 years ago, when Gin Young Su started directing the team. But I, and Choi knew that Mineral D ought to be destroyed, and the two of us started to capture and destroy the molecules of the mineral, faking our examination and researches into orders from Exo-mineral research team."

 My father smiled gently while he paused a little-as if he was having a flashback.

 "The origin of the Anti-devilers. We met even more often since then, and always talked about our plan, 'purifiction of the country'. But after all our efforts, the amount of pollutees didn't seemed to decrease-the opposite happened. It increased gradually since then. The 'symptoms' caused from the brain pollution got even more severe. First, the pollutees became more aggressive, and only lost their personality and became a monster who attempted to destroy everything. Still, the mineral didn't change pollutees' bodies and their powers."

 "But, when you grew up to the age of nine, the pollution which had its power steadily growing, was finally able to control the part of human's brain which produce hormone. It made that part of brain, produce a special kind of hormone which strengthen the muscles all over the victim's body. That made the pollutees turn into hulks-you've only saw them among these all kinds of pollutees.

 "Then, I got a shocking news that there was even more severe-polluted pollutees who were still able to keep its personality steady-only that the pollutees seemed like a complete different people. The dark ambition seemed to overcome them, and some of them acted like an army- attacking people with definate purpose- one of these armies 'destroyed' their (my father pointed at Minho and his sister) parent."

 "That's why we determined to find the source. It was certain that there was a powerful source which produced and refilled Mineral D much faster than we destroyed them. The powerful source which made this country fall into the darkness further and further."

 My father cleared his throat, and spoke again-

 "Choi had already found one source, hidden in a cave which had once been a magma chamber. He also told me that the sources were more than one. Then he suggested to investigate at a place he thought as a certain place for another source."

 "And you found it. The second source. Thanks to you, one of the sources hidden all over the country, is gone."

-to be continued-

P.S. Sorry. This writing's gone too long. I will try to write the next novel more shorter.