This World

by Lee, TD

  While the officers are speaking to the other people, Ainia moves towards me and sits down. She’s drenched in sweat and she’s breathing hard. Her umbrella continuously taps on the floor, not in any rhythmic way. Her feet tap violently too. Is she just impatient?

  Coming through the door a few moments later is a familiar muscular man. Blind Justice, I think. Attached to his back is a longsword and two large plates. The most interesting thing about this man’s outfit, that he didn’t have before, is the blindfold he has covering his eyes. Despite being blindfolded, he’s moving about easily, not even stumbling a bit. Is the blindfold supposed to hide his identity or something?

  As soon as Ainia gets a look at the superhero, she initially has a look of shock, but it quickly becomes a face of anger. I didn’t think it was possible for her to look even more rage induced than she already does. She’s gritting her teeth, she’s even made a fist. Why is she angrier than she already was?

  “Cutlass, it has been far too long,” the superhero greets Ainia with a hearty smile. He approaches us. He stretches out his arm and presents it at Ainia.

  “Not long enough,” Ainia scowls back, she slaps his hand away.

  “Now, now Cutlass-”

  “Stop calling me that!” Ainia yells.

  “Ah, I see. Sorry, you’re no longer my sidekick and I should treat you as such. Ainia, it’s honestly good to see you after all this time. Unfortunately, it’s under these circumstances, but it’s reassuring to see you doing well,” the man says with a smile, which is a sharp contrast to Ainia’s forever frown.

  Sidekick? Ainia was once this guy’s sidekick? Why do I find this hard to believe?

  “Yeah, see, as if you can. You’ve never been able to see anything, even with your closest allies,” Ainia mumbles.

  “Well, it’s all in the past now,” the man says with a slight chuckle, “now what happened here?”

  “All of these people in here besides Ridley here were being controlled by a man who goes by the name Allister Mentior. He posed as a group leader or therapist in helping with SAVE. He spiked his tea with some sort of chemical,” Ainia quickly debriefs the situation to the man.

  “Allister Mentior, huh? That’s a new one to pop up,” the man says. He pauses for a moment to scratch his chin. He then turns to me, asking, “What did you see?”

  “Ridley here saw exactly this. The others in this failed group therapy session attack and hold me down while Allister ran away. That’s all,” Ainai answers for me. There’s a lot of urgency in the way she’s speaking and also in the way her body is subtly moving. She continues to tap her feet, eager to move.

  “Well, is this true?” the man asks, he looks at me.

  “Um, yeah, pretty much,” I reply. I briefly glance over at Ainia who’s just staring straight into my soul.

  “So you didn’t participate at all in holding Ainia down?” the man asks.

  I shake my head. “N-no, I didn’t. I just sat here,” I answer.

  “I see,” the man says, nodding slowly. “Last question I have for you. What is your relation to Ainia?”

  “Relation? W-well she’s uh-”

  “I’m Ridley’s guard, specifically assigned by HERO. Reluctantly so, but I’m here as an escort and protector for Ridley due to the events that happened yesterday. And we are also classmates if that’s of any importance to you,” Ainia answers for me again.

  “Oh, you’re going to school Ainia? Good for you, I remember-”

  “If that’s all you have left then we’ll take our leave now,” Ainia says, rising from her seat. “Tell me if you have any leads on this Allister guy, I’d love to serve him some justice of my own,” she says.

  “But there’s plenty more that I need to know from you,” the man says, he places his hand on Ainia’s shoulder and everything in me is telling me that was the wrong thing to do.

  “Don’t touch me!” Ainia turns around just to slap the man’s hand off of her. “And we’ve told you everything we know. There’s not much else we can provide for you. So, we’re going to take our leave. Let’s go Ridley.” She grabs my arm and drags me out of the room quickly. Before the room disappears from my view, all I can see is the saddened face of the superhero man. Even with that blindfold on, I can tell that he’s sad.

  As soon as we make it back outside, Ainia releases me and quickly starts walking. Sure she’s angry all the time, but this is a whole other level of that anger. What’s wrong with her? And what happened between her and that superhero guy? She was his sidekick at one point, wouldn’t that make it that they should be friendlier with each other?

  “Um, so you were that guy’s sidekick?” I ask, following behind Ainia.

  Ainia suddenly stops walking. She turns around and grabs me by my collar. “Don’t ever talk about that guy ever again around me, okay? Don’t even mention being a sidekick, don’t even think about my old codename. I swear, I will not hesitate to cut you up if you ever do any of these things,” she threatens me with a strangely hush tone. Just simply looking into her eyes tells me that there’s a lot of anger behind her words. There’s reason. Reasons that she will never say though. “Do you understand?”

  All I do is nod.

  “Good,” she snarls, releasing me.

  “Can I ask, why do you seem to hate him?”

  Ainia turns around and starts walking. I quickly follow after her as she quickly answers, “All you need to know is that Blind Justice isn’t all he seems to be.”

  “Blind Justice?” I question.

  “I’m not explaining any more things about him,” Ainia remarks. We make it to an intersection. Ainia turns to me again. “I don’t feel like walking you all the way back home. You can take care of yourself right?”

  “Uh, um, yeah sure,” I reply.

  “Good, I have better things to do anyway. Now go home,” Ainia orders me. She disappears into the crowd of people as she walks further and further away.

  She’s really intense and I have no idea how to read her. I just want to know what’s up with her. She’s clearly hiding something, but she’s not one to tell me. Maybe it’s none of my business, but I’m just curious. Just what happened to Ainia and this Blind Justice guy? Maybe it’ll tell me why she’s so hostile all the time.

  As I slowly wander the city streets to get back home, one person crosses my mind. There is someone I know who might know what’s going on with Ainia. And with what happened today, it couldn’t hurt to actually go to this person. Yeah, that person should know.

  I reach into my pocket and pull out a business card. Dialing the number, I’m answered with, “Adele Knowledge Agency, this is Adele speaking.”

  Chapter 19

  So this is where Adele’s agency is?

  In front of me is a modest sized building with a small set of stairs that lead up to a door. Resting outside the door is some sort of food dish for an animal. Does Adele have a pet? A black railing protects anyone from falling off of the stairs or the small porch. A couple of potted plants sit idly against the railing; one plant sneakily curls its branches around some of the railing. Printed onto the glass of the windows are the letters AKA which I would assume stands for Adele’s Knowledge Agency.

  An overwhelming sense of nervousness courses through my veins. My legs get heavier with each step I take towards the door. Why am I so nervous? It’s not like I never met Adele before. But there’s something about just being here that really gives me a feeling of unease.

  Slowly, I lift my fist to the door and knock gently.

  It takes a few seconds for someone to answer the door. When the door opens, I’m greeted by a familiar woman that’s not Adele. “What do you want?” the woman greets me with an intimidating glare that scarily compliments her husky voice.

  This woman. She’s the same woman that saved that Deviant in the alley when Beth and the others were beating them. She’s the one that singlehandedly defeated all of the people in that alley that day. It’s weird to think that was only a couple days ago.
Well, she had help with that weird dog, but still she kicked ass. Now she’s here in Adele’s agency? Why?

  “Um, I’m here to see Adele, she told me to come here,” I answer. I’m so intimidated right now. This woman can snap me in half if she wanted to. Yet, even though I look scared, the woman doesn’t seem to remember me at all.

  “Are you Ridley?” the woman asks, her eyes carefully scan me. She’s starting to look more like a bouncer for Adele’s agency than anything else. Every time I accidentally make eye contact with her, I feel like she’s punching me in the gut. She’s so intimidating and it doesn’t even look like she’s trying to be.

  “Y-yeah,” I stammer.

  She opens the door more and invites me inside, “Come on in, Adele isn’t here yet, but she should be here soon.”

  I enter the building. That overwhelming sense of nervousness has increased tenfold. I can hear my own heart beat rapidly. As soon as the woman closes the door, the nervousness skyrockets even more. A soft pitter patter on the wooden floor quickly comes towards me. A shadow lunges at me which makes me jump back in defense. My back hits the wall as the shadow continues to go towards me. I collapse to the floor ready to submit to my fate.

  Instead I’m greeted by a wet lick to my face and rapid breathing. When I look at my assailant, it’s the black dog that helped this woman that day. But it’s much smaller than I remember. And cuter. And friendlier.

  “What’s wrong with you? It’s just a puppy,” the woman says. Her face is in confusion with a brow raised and a condescending downward glare.

  “U-uh, y-yeah,” I reply nervously. This puppy is really cute, but I can remember when it became a terrifying monster. What’s to stop it from doing it any moment now?

  “Shiko, get off our guest,” the woman says. The puppy backs off of me and moves towards the woman. Shiko puppy barks at the woman, tapping its way over to her. The puppy gently rubs its head against the woman’s ankle.

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re hungry. I’ll feed you in a bit,” the woman sighs. She stretches her arms out and points at a door down the hall. “Go ahead and wait in there. It’s Adele’s study and office, once she comes back she’ll go straight in there. I’ll also let her know you’re here.”

  “U-um, thanks,” I murmur.

  The woman walks into an entranceway next to the door. Shiko quickly follows behind her as she disappears when she turns a corner.

  I stand alone at the entrance. Slowly, I take my steps towards the door that the woman pointed at. To the side of the hallway are a couple of paintings hanging on the dark walls. One looks like a galaxy swirling with stars and light. Another is what just looks like a random assortment of colorful swirls that don’t exactly look like anything. There are a couple of plants sitting patiently in the corner. Other than the other entranceway to wherever the woman went to, there aren’t any other doors or hallways.

  When I approach the door, I can see the precise cursive engraving of Adele’s name on the door. I turn the knob and I’m greeted by a vast room decorated with filled bookshelves. The floor is a dark blue carpet that looks nice to the dark wooden walls, shelves, and bookshelves. A large desk sits in the back blanketed with several papers and books. Books and papers are scattered all over the floor and on most of the chairs that are hidden underneath even more books. Behind the desk is a large board covered in papers. The astonishing amount of books aren’t the most interesting feature of this room. Looking up is a ceiling overtaken by a beautiful skylight that is sadly only showing the gray clouds and rain. This isn’t even really a study though, it’s more like a library. Just how many books are in this room alone?

  After soaking in the room a bit, I finally find a chair with nothing on it. Taking another scan of the room, there’s not much in terms of decoration other than a couple of star or space memorabilia. Does Adele just really like space? Now that I look at the skylight some more, the design of it does sort of resemble a star.

  The door I came in from opens. Coming in is Adele in full fancy suit and briefcase. She’s breathing a bit hard, almost like she ran here. She glances at me and gives me a quick smile. “Ridley, I am quite relieved that you had agreed to have me help you,” she says, setting down her briefcase next to her desk, “would you like anything to drink? Water? Tea? Juice even?”

  “Um…no, I’m okay,” I reply. My fingers fidget with each other as I watch Adele looking through her scattered papers on her desk.

  “Good, good,” Adele murmurs to herself. She’s rapidly looking for something on her desk rather than paying attention to me. For someone who was really pushing that I come to her for help, she sure isn’t attentive to her client. She grabs a paper from her desk, raising it and exclaiming, “Ah! Found it!”

  Her sudden exclamation shocks me a bit. I ask her, “Wh-what did you find?”

  She slips the piece of paper into her briefcase. She turns her head to me. “Oh, my apologies Ridley. You are probably wondering why I am in such a disoriented manner,” she says, quickly approaching me.

  “U-um, yeah kinda,” I reply quietly.

  “Well, how about you and I go on an adventure with an old friend of mine? You will see the importance of that paper,” Adele suggests with a smile on her face. She pulls up her sleeve a bit to quickly glance at her watch. “He should be here soon, he is quite notorious for being tardy.”

  Interrupting the silence of the room is a strange wheezing sound that is best described as a machine gasping for air. As soon as the wheeze echoes around the room, Adele’s eyes light up. A sudden joy completely overcomes her as a smile is pasted to her face. She grabs my wrist, forcing me out of my seat and out the study and main doors.

  The quick shuffling of our feet alerts Shiko who happily barks and follows us. When we make it outside, Adele looks around briefly before making me run with her again. We go around the corner into an alleyway occupied by several boxes and garbage bins. The one thing that stands out in this alley is a dark green telephone box that has its windows completely tinted black. There are several notes or papers attached to the box, but I can’t see what any of them say from this far away.

  An audible joyous gasp comes out of Adele’s mouth as soon as she sees the box. Just what is so important about this box that she’s completely taken over with joy? This is a completely different side to Adele that I never thought I’d ever see, or at least not this soon after knowing her. She comes off as really mature and calculating, but right now she’s reminding me of a kid opening a present.

  Emerging from the door of the telephone box is a tall, slender man. His fashion sense is impeccable, his clean dark green pants match the vest he has on. Under the vest is a burgundy dress shirt with a tie holding it all together at the neckline. Over all of his clothing is a black blazer that reaches below his waistline. Thin framed glasses sit in front of his green eyes. Complimenting his outfit is one thing, but damn is his hair really nice. I don’t normally take notice of people’s hair, but this guy is so good looking that it seems like a disservice to look away. His wavy fauxhawk of a hairstyle looks so healthy and filled with volume. It’s ridiculous.

  Adele steps towards the man, a bright smile beams on her face. She greets the man with a single word, "Prospector."

  The man speaks in a similar accent to Adele, “Adele. My, oh my, Adele. Look at you!" He smiles—even his smile seems perfect—and walks towards Adele with his arms wide open.

  "Look at you! I see a new wardrobe and a new face. I must say, you have fantastic hair this time around,” Adele compliments the man she calls Prospector. The two embrace each other tightly as if they’re old friends that are finally having a reunion after several years. I may have only met Adele recently, but this is something I never thought I’d see with her. She seems so happy. She’s at this level of happiness that kinda reminds me of Hiro when he talks about superheroes.

  "Well, I have been told that many of times since this new face,” the man chuckles as he breaks away from the hug. “In fact, between you and
me—and your friend over there, I suppose—this new face has gotten me out of several sticky situations,” he chuckles again.

  “Oh, you lecher!” Adele remarks loudly, slapping the man in the shoulder playfully.

  The man’s mouth opens wide in offense. “I am not! You take that back!”

  “Never.”

  “Ah, Adele, typical Adele, you would harass an old man like me!? My word, you would think wisdom would come with age for you earth folk,” the man smirks. He pulls Adele in for another hug. “It has been a long time Adele.”

  “Yes, yes it has Prospector,” Adele says, her smile somehow grew even bigger.

  The man glances over at me, asking, “So, will you introduce me to your friend?”

  “Only if you introduce me to yours,” Adele remarks sassily.

  I look beyond Adele and the man to find a young woman emerge from the telephone box. She’s dressed in a sky blue blazer that matches the thick ribbon holding her blonde hair up in a ponytail. A black dress shirt shows her rather slim figure. A white skirt hangs from her waist, contrasting her black leggings and boots. Around her neck is some sort of pendant that’s lighting up a soothing yellow color.

  “Oh! Yes, of course!” the man exclaims loudly. He waves the young woman over to come closer. “Adele, this is Grania!”

  The young woman stretches her hand out towards Adele, a wide smile is on her face. The pendant around her neck shifts from yellow and glows a fluorescent green. “You’re Adele! I’ve heard plenty about you.”

  “Oh, I dread to even imagine what the Prospector has told you about me,” Adele remarks, shaking Grania’s hand gently.

  “Oh, um, no, I mean,” Grania fumbles with her words. The green glow from her pendant quickly shifts to a darkening gray.

  The man laughs loudly, patting Grania on the back. “She’s joking Grania,” he announces, but quickly turns to Adele, “you’re joking right?”

  Adele nods.

  “See! She’s joking!” the man laughs. “Don’t take Adele too seriously. Under those many years she has, she’s still a young trickster at heart.”