This World

by Lee, TD

  “No, no, no! You will not be taking the perpetrator with you at this moment!” I hear Adele argue loudly.

  “M-ma’am, it’s not my decision. It’s just HERO policy that we bring in any criminal into our custody and arrest them. This is a criminal charge after all,” a shy officer attempts to argue back.

  “I understand your policies, I am simply asking to have the perpetrator be held at my agency for a small fragment of time, then I will hand her over to HERO. Is that so difficult to comprehend?” Adele remarks, making her voice a bit louder than it already was.

  “B-but ma’am,” the officer stammers.

  “It’s fine, we agree to your conditions,” a familiar, bellowing voice announces, stepping through the door. In comes a face that I haven’t seen in a while. Blind Justice, dressed all professional and proud. He’s not in his costume, but it looks like he’s ready for a meeting. Surprisingly, at his side is another familiar face. Ainia, she looks so defeated and angrier than she typically does.

  “Blind Justice, pleased to see you on this brutally early morning,” Adele greets, extending her hand out to the superhero.

  Blind Justice shakes Adele’s hand and chuckles a bit. “You must be the famous Adele of AKA that I have heard so much about.”

  “Yes, I am

  “Good to finally meet you. Now, we will agree to your conditions, however I will only allow you to hold onto the criminal for only one solitary day, 24 hours from now. Then I will send my officers to retrieve them. Does that sound like a fair compromise?” Blind Justice proposes.

  “But sir,” the officer tries to debate.

  “No no, it’s fine,” Blind Justice bellows, waving away the officer.

  “I agree to these conditions,” Adele says with a smile.

  “Then it’s agreed,” Blind Justice says with a large smile and shakes Adele’s hand again. “I’ll be speaking with the officers, so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to talk to me.”

  Adele nods, replying, “I will consider it.”

  “Good, best be on my way,” Blind Justice says, moving outside with Ainia following behind.

  Adele moves towards me and asks, “How are you? Are you experiencing any injuries or ailments?”

  I shake my head. “I’m okay, just a bit scared about being mind controlled again,” I say.

  “I am so sorry that had happened to you again, believe me we are trying to find a way to mitigate such a situation,” Adele says, reassuringly.

  I tilt my head a bit, “What do you mean?”

  “I have been working with Kirika on developing some sort of device that fights against mind control, explaining as to why Kirika is part of the group. Her fighting prowess is just a bonus,” Adele answers, taking a seat next to me.

  “What exactly would this device be?” I ask.

  “I am not quite sure just yet, but we have a couple of ideas. It would mostly utilize her abilities as a super powered singer. The power of song has more benefits than one would believe,” Adele smiles. “We all have our part in this case.”

  “We all have our part huh,” I mutter. What’s mine? I can see everyone else having a special part, but me? I’ve just been hanging around everyone else.

  Adele pats my shoulder gently. Reassuring me, “Yes, we all have our parts. It is only a matter of time when you truly realize what it is.”

  Truly realize what it is? I can only wish I knew what I wanted to do now.

  I hear loud muffled scolds outside. It sounds like Blind Justice, and Ainia’s with him. Is he scolding her? Why? She didn’t do anything wrong.

  “You should go out there and check on her,” Adele suggests.

  “What? Why me?” I question. Not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I wouldn’t really know what to do or say to help the situation.

  “You have that look in your eyes. That look of not knowing whether or not you should do something or not. I have become rather adept on recognizing that gaze. Have no hesitation this time, go out there and seize the opportunity to be helpful,” Adele remarks. “I must return to the investigation and arrange transportation with our lovely assailant. See you in a bit.” Adele rises off of her seat and walks away.

  The loud scolding continues. Maybe I should go and check up on Ainia. Maybe it’s just curiosity, but I do wanna know what it is that Ainia’s being scolded for. Better question for curiosity is why is she with Blind Justice? She’s always so upset about being his sidekick and all, so it’s weird to see them together like this.

  I take a deep breath. Alright, I’ll go check up on Ainia.

  As I move to the front door, I can hear the scolding becoming louder. It’s definitely Blind Justice’s voice, “Again, Cutlass why were you not here to help? This person is under your guardianship and they could have been killed!”

  I peek around the corner to find Blind Justice with his arms folded, staring down at a defeated looking Ainia.

  “I-I,” Ainia stumbles with her words. That’s so weird. She’s usually so sassy and confident, but with Blind Justice, she just seems so defeated.

  “You know what that means right?” Blind Justice remarks, a voice more concerned than it is commanding. Ainia doesn’t reply back, she simply looks away. “Cut—I mean, Ainia. I can’t stand seeing you in this way. You’ve fallen so far down since being at my side. Why not just-”

  “No! I’ll never ever join your side again,” Ainia snaps.

  “Why are you so adamant about being away from me?” Blind Justice asks, “You were so happy.

  Ainia lets out an angry, mocking chuckle and scoffs, “Happy? You think I was happy? You don’t know anything Walter. Nice to see that nothing has changed. You’re just in your own little world as usual.”

  Ainia notices me peeking around the edge of the doorframe, her face flushes and she storms off down the street.

  Blind Justice looks over at me, embarrassed. “I apologize for making such a scene at your home.” He looks down the street at Ainia, who’s still stomping her way. He sighs, “She wasn’t always like this.”

  “I-I’ll go talk to her,” I say quietly, walking past Blind Justice.

  “Good luck,” Blind Justice mutters as I walk by.

  I jog a bit to catch to Ainia. She’s sure stomping fast. “A-Ainia!” I call out to her.

  “Get the hell away from me!” she yells back.

  “Ainia!” I keep calling out to her.

  It takes a bit for Ainia to actually finally stop. She turns around and yells, “What do you want!?”

  I take a moment to catch my breath. I manage to say, “Can you talk to me, just for a moment like an actual person? You don’t even have to think of me as a friend or anything, just know that I’m not just trying to be nice to you just to get something. We’re allies at this point. Don’t you think you can talk to me, even for a moment?

  “Allies? What would you know about being an ally?” she scoffs, folding her arms. “All you have been is a giant pain in the ass. You don’t have anything to contribute, so why even do anything!? No superpower, no amazing skill. Just useless!”

  Everything she’s saying hurts because it’s all true. I really don’t have superpowers or anything noteworthy that is beneficial for the group. I’ve just been this useless baggage that everyone has needed to protect. Even now, I don’t know what it is that I can do to help. Adele said we all have a part, yet I don’t know what mine is. Maybe Adele said that just to be nice. Despite what Ainia’s saying being painful to hear and have confirmed, I can’t help, but at least try to talk to her and help her out.

  “You’re right, I’m not useful. I haven’t done anything useful. I’m still wondering what it is that I can do to help out,” I agree. Maybe now isn’t the time to be passive. When I used to talk to Hiro, I would be straightforward, blunt even sometimes. Maybe that’s what I need to do now to get through to Ainia. “Don’t you think that you’re just pushing people away because you’re scared? You snap at people, sass them for anything the
y do. Even if someone is showing they care for you, you retaliate. There’s a reason for that. Not that you need to tell me, it’s just really weird.”

  Ainia’s eyes widen as she listens to me. Her frustrated face continues to persist. “Tch, yeah like you really care about me.”

  I nod my head. “I do. Yeah, you’ve been a bitch ever since we officially met, but I’d like to know who you are and why you are the way you are.

  “Do you really want to know why I’m the way I am?” she scoffs again.

  “Yeah, it’d be nice to understand.”

  There’s hesitation in her eyes. She looks around in all sorts of directions before making eye contact with me. “Fine, fine!” she sighs, leaning against a nearby wall, “Would you believe that being a superhero ruined my life?”

  “Ruined your life?” I question. That’s honestly weird to hear. Being friends with Hiro for as long as I have, I’m used to knowing that becoming a superhero is a good thing. Hiro tried so hard to become a superhero that it was a dream. So hearing the opposite is just so weird to me.

  “Unlike your friend, being a superhero ruined my life—well now that I think about it, it got to him too,” Ainia remarks. “I come from a village of Soul Harvesters. No one really knew who we were. But eventually I became the sidekick for Blind Justice, the personification of freedom and justice and all of that good bullshit. I was his sidekick for a long time. Little did he and everyone know at the time was that I was just his little bitch that did all of the dirty work so he wouldn’t have to. Not that he had the choice.”

  “What do you mean?” I question.

  Ainia sighs deeply. “Blind Justice is the guy that a lot of people look up to because he embodies humanity’s morale goodness. He’s someone that is seen as the ideal figure. Back in the day, Blind Justice got so popular that people started filming his exploits. Anything he did, they would follow him. He was always portrayed in a good light. He took me on as a sidekick when I was 10 years-old. I thought it was an honor at the time, little old me from a Soul Harvester village being the sidekick to the biggest superhero in the world. He handpicked me. Me, of all of the potential candidates in the world. It was amazing I thought. Everyone was so happy. I was wrong, I was so wrong.”

  I raise a brow. “How?”

  “Use that brain of yours and think about it for a bit. If the superhero of everything morally good and amazing was to always be this perfect person, then someone would have to actually do the dirty work. Everything he did was being filmed, and believe me that production crew is so anally critical about portraying Blind Justice as this amazing guy, that they would plan things ahead of time sometimes. You know what goes against being the embodiment of good? Anything bad. Murder, espionage, torture. All of that would ruin Blind Justice’s image. So guess who had to do all of that?”

  Destroying Blind Justice’s image? Someone who had to do all of the dirty work so his image doesn’t get ruined. No way. No. Way. “Ainia, you-are, you the one that had to do all of that?”

  “You got it genius,” she responds, “It’s not a widely known fact that I had to do all of the dirty work for Blind Justice. For six long years, I was the one that would infiltrate bases, murder the bad guys, scout for information, torture for information. I had to do all of that just so the production crew can get the footage they need, Blind Justice’s reputation remains unstained, and the powerful knowledge that would be given to Blind Justice to continue his pursuit of peace. Anything bloody, it would be me. Things seemed to go a little too well during a mission? It’s because I had to make sure everything would be like that. I was Blind Justice’s unknown weapon. Even my own sword lost faith in me and stopped working. I wasn’t even really Blind Justice’s sidekick throughout all of this. I was more like the tool for the production team. To this day, I don’t think he even realizes the things I was forced to do for him. From that first day onward, I was always just known as Blind Justice’s sidekick and nothing else. Just his tool. I can still see the final moments of the people that I’ve had to attack. The screams and faces of terror when tortured. The fear that people have at the brink of their life. I see it, all the time.”

  “You stopped being his sidekick though right?”

  She inhales deeply. Her feet start tapping a bit. “Yeah, but let me tell you, those bastards in charge of media at HERO didn’t make it easy. I was going to ruin everything they said, I’d ruin Blind Justice’s image they said. It’s like they couldn’t find a replacement, but I left as soon as I could. But the superhero world sucks you back in. Just because I stopped being his sidekick, didn’t mean my superhero days would end. I would be a part of these superhero teams, hoping that people would just see me as me. Not Blind Justice’s sidekick. But that haunted me. Teammates would think I was too good for them because I was Blind Justice’s sidekick. A lot hated me for being his sidekick. Anything associated with me was just the fact that I was Blind Justice’s sidekick. Even now, to this very day, I am just his damned sidekick and nothing else. I’m Cutlass, Blind Justice’s weapon and sidekick. I want to go away from all of it. Everything. Leave the superhero world. I hate it.”

  “So that’s why you hate being called Cutlass? And also why you just have no interest in super stuff in general?

  She nods. “You got it. Everything about the super world has all been just one giant inconvenience for me. Nothing I do is good enough. Blind Justice is still the most popular hero around with no one knowing anything about me. He doesn’t even know.”

  “Why were you with him today?”

  “Don’t read too much into it. He was the one that came and got me when news broke out that you were attacked. He was so pissed, it was ridiculous. He just kept berating me, telling me all of this wouldn’t have happened if I would’ve just stayed as his sidekick. As if that would’ve changed anything,” she quickly answers.

  “And you’re stuck doing super things like being my guardian because?”

  “Money. I need money to survive and all of my checks are from HERO. They keep cutting my checks if I don’t do what they say, so I’m stuck,” she answers somberly.

  I take a moment to process everything Ainia just told me. There was a lot there. She’s a Soul Harvester that was Blind Justice’s sidekick, but was used more as a tool than a person at that point. Despite doing her best to make her own mark in the world, all she has been associated with is just being Blind Justice’s sidekick. No one knows about the things she’s had to do. They had her do horrible things just for the sake of Blind Justice. Now, she’s reluctantly doing anything super related including guarding me. She’s going through so much pressure. Whether she does superhero stuff or tries to get away from it, she’s under this constant pressure all because of her association with Blind Justice. All of that impacts her. That’s bullshit. It’s not fair that she’s getting all of this flack. If only there was something someone can do to help her out.

  “So, how does it feel to be in the presence of a murderous weapon to the most popular superhero in the world?” she laughs quietly, breaking the brief silence between us.

  “Fine, honestly. I feel bad for you mostly. I’m not really that good with words, but you shouldn’t let all of that hold you down. I get that you’re not fond of the hero thing since they had you do so many things you didn’t want to, but you’re so strong and beyond all of that. It’s not easy and maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I can tell that you really want to do the right thing. You’re always defending people when they’re getting ganged up on. It’s really cool. Scary, but cool. You have that amazing potential inside of you to become your own person, not a sidekick. I’m not sure how you can use that, but I’m sure you can find a way that is your own,” I try to say with the best choice of words I can. “I mean, this might not mean anything, but for what it’s worth I’m glad you seem to have calmed down.

  Ainia gives me a questionable stare. A small smile starts creeping up on her face. So much so that I can even see some dimples formin
g on her cheeks that I never knew existed. “It doesn’t change my situation much, but it’s nice to air out that dirty laundry. There’s not a lot of people I told this to, so you better keep it under wraps for the most part. I’m even surprised I even told you all of that, if I’m being honest here.”

  “I am too,” I agree.

  “But thanks. I’ll try to be less of a hard ass from now on,” Ainia remarks with a laugh. She reaches her fist out. D-does she want a fist bump? I awkwardly make brief contact with her fist. “We should head back.” She pushes herself off of the wall and starts walking back to my house.

  As we’re walking, I say, “Hey Ainia.”

  “You have more questions? I just went over my whole life story. I thought we had a moment,” Ainia remarks, a bit disappointed. It’s nice to see her less intense.

  I smile and say, “We did, but I just have one more question. What’s a Soul Harvester?”

  Chapter 27

  Ainia and I work our way back to my house. We make small chat. It’s really nice to see and be around a more relaxed Ainia. Instead of being her angry self, she’s strangely a lot more joking in a way that’s not really that funny. She told me about a time where she was on a mission for Blind Justice’s media crew, a person that she was supposed to take a hostage for information ended up not just pissing in their pants, but shitting too. Ainia got a good kick out of telling that story, meanwhile I’m just in awe of how enjoyable she was telling that story. That sass will never leave though.

  When we make it back to my house, it looks like the investigation is nearing the end. There are less police cars and investigators around. Some of the superheroes have left too. Adele is standing outside with my parents. All three of them notice me and Adele waves me over.

  “Welcome back Ridley, you too Ainia,” Adele greets us with a smile. She turns her attention to my parents “I have discussed with HERO and we highly encourage that Ridley be placed in temporary living with a superhero.”