Justice by R.T. Adams (reading list .TXT) 📖

one of the short walls busted on it. The statue in the middle of the tower was a man holding a sword, but the arm with the sword was detached, lying on the ground now, shattered into a few different parts. When I looked to my right, I saw a sign that was likely supposed to be at the entrance of the city, but managed to get here. The city’s name: Shorepost. It’s a place I am unfamiliar with. I looked over to Randolph, then Alicia, both of them looked slightly surprised by the sign.

“Shorepost?” Randolph said, “Shorepost was a strong influence and trading area, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” Alicia replied, “It seems they got to it, too, though. Importing or exporting items that aren’t approved by Justice was against the law, so we ended up destroying places that did such.” I looked down and noticed a piece of a necklace of some sort sticking out underneath a rock. I moved the rock and saw a closed pocket watch. I picked it up and opened it, noticing a picture inside, two little girls and a grown man, along with a strip of paper. I pulled out the paper and saw the last name of the owner: Rouhman. I closed it again and looked around, then saw a sign posted on a building, one that matched the name.

“Each house here is labeled with the family’s last name,” I said.

“Yes, they were,” Alicia replied. I looked down at the missing door, now split into multiple pieces inside the house. I bent over and placed the pocket watch down in front of the house, opened. I closed my eyes and muttered something none of the others could have heard. I then rose and turned.

“We’re leaving now,” I said, but before they all turned, I noticed a woman standing at the archway, wearing a blue garment, one which seemed like a kimono, loosely over her body. She reached into her kimono and pulled out a small blade, a dagger to be more precise.

“Kimbo, Alicia, Randolph,” she said, “And who may you be?”

“Arcanum,” he said, standing next to me, his hand already on his blade.

“A new member since I was last informed,” she said, “You all shall perish at my hand.” She suddenly threw her dagger and vanished in a light blue tint of smoke. I could hear the soft patter of bare feet next to me. When I looked to my left, she was standing there, ready to strike. I suddenly pulled out my blade, managing to block just in time. However, unlike times before, her blade did not split in two. Rather, it remained intact. She then quickly threw her dagger elsewhere, disappearing once again.

“Dammit,” I said, “Stop playing tricks you hag!”

“Hag?” she said. I turned, only to notice Randolph already on the ground, along with Alicia.

“What the hell?” I gritted my teeth.

“Such an unkind word,” she said, “Perhaps if you had kept your nose out of our business, I could have let you use my body to your pleasure.”

“What kind of whore are you?” without thinking, I spoke.

“Hmm,” she just closed her eyes and laughed for a moment, “A whore? Well, you wouldn’t be wrong. After all, I did have to work as a prostitute before joining Justice.”

“Screw off!” I swung my blade at her, but she just jumped back and laughed. She ran up towards me and jammed her fist into my sternum, causing me to quickly fall to my knees and curl up. Suddenly, I heard the clash of blades and I turned my head just enough to see Arcanum fighting with the woman.

“Feisty, are we?” she said to him. He continued to swing his blade, blocking out any sort of sound. He seemed to be struggling greatly to get a single hit off. However, just as I thought he wouldn’t manage to hit her at all, I hear the sound of cloth being torn. The cloth on her arm suddenly drooped down a bit more than it normally did. She just clicked her tongue and continued to strike. Suddenly, from his other hand, a black mist began forming. A shard of darkness suddenly struck up from behind her, but she managed to dodge.

“Vanish,” he said.

“What nice little tricks you have,” she said. Suddenly, without a word more, his hand grasped her neck. She dropped her dagger and grabbed onto his arm. Her feet left the ground and she struggled to breathe.

“You are but worthless scum compared to my powers,” he said. Suddenly, another shard pierced right into her chest. He released her neck and she fall limp onto the shard. The shard soon disappeared and she fell to the ground. I slowly made my way to my feet, noticing Arcanum fall to his hands and knees, pulling his mask so his mouth was visible. He started hacking and coughing. Something from his mouth, not quite blood, but it had the consistency of blood, sputtered out onto the ground, then vanished shortly after.

“Arcanum?” I said, making my way to him. He soon fell to his side, unconscious. I hastily made my way to him, kneeling over to him. Behind me, I heard Randolph grunting.

“What’s going on?” he said.

“Get over here, Arcanum has an issue,” I gestured him to come over, and he did. Quickly, we made our way back to the car, Randolph carrying Arcanum and I carrying Alicia. We set them both in the back and I started the car, driving faster and faster to find the next city.

For as far as I could see, there was not a single city nor rest spot in sight. By the minute, I became more worried about Arcanum. I kept looking around the area, making sure I didn’t miss a city, or making sure one didn’t manage to skip my sight, but there was still nothing. Randolph hadn’t been reading a book this time. Instead, he kept his eyes on Arcanum. Soon, I heard the rumbling of a ship passing by. Hoping they didn’t notice us, they flew right past. However, it wasn’t just one ship. It seemed an entire fleet of ships had been flying overhead. A large cliff was directly to our left, so it was hard to see exactly how many there were until they all passed. There hadn’t been just six or seven, but there were about forty or fifty. It made me wonder exactly why they had such a huge fleet heading out somewhere. It was tempting to follow them, but there was no road leading their way and I already had the issue of Arcanum’s strange thing. Suddenly, I heard grumbling in one of the back seats and turned my head, noticing Arcanum with his hand on his head. I soon pulled over to the side of the road and turned most of my body his way.

“Hey, you alright?” I said.

“I’m fine,” he said, looking away from me. I sighed and turned back, resuming our road trip to wherever. After about an hour of time, we ended up finding our way to a small city. I drove in and parked the car in a lot. When I got out, I noticed that the city wasn’t just some normal city, but a school city. The entire city was predominantly filled with students originating from a single school. I looked up at an archway where a sign was.

“Parkinson-Joehi?” I said, confused.

“The city built as one school,” Alicia said, “Parkinson and Joehi, two wealthy men who originally funded Justice, only to find themselves being used. Joehi was assassinated by a general of Justice and, once news reached Parkinson, he headed far away from where he originally was and upped his security. Even still, Justice hasn’t found him yet. However, Joehi does have a son, of twelve years of age. Poor kid lost his parents at such a young age.” She looked down at the concrete we stood on.

“How does this city work?” I asked.

“Students go to a class for about two hours, go to work for about four hours, then return to their last class for about another two hours. If they don’t have classes or are on break during that time, they do what they want,” she explained to me.

“If the city is made up of students, who runs the workplaces?” I said.

“Well, it isn’t entirely made up of students,” she said, “Most of the citizens, however, are students or graduates. There are a few other citizens scattered around.” I nodded in response, then began walking into the city. They all followed behind me, looking around at the stores and buildings. I kept walking forward through the crowds of students, noticing some still in their school clothes. I suppose they’re either going to their class or just getting out of one. I looked around a bit and one particular restaurant caught my eye. An old-school restaurant. I immediately turned that way and walked into the restaurant. A woman in a brown dress and white apron approached me.

“What can I do for you?” she smiled brightly.

“Ah, nothing, just exploring,” I said, looking around, hardly looking at her. From the ceiling hung two chandeliers, beautifully decorated. Each had candles rather than lights on them. There were no fans on the ceiling, either. The tables and chairs looked like antiques, so much so that I didn’t want to touch them. The floor was made of floorboards, heavily cleaned each day, it seems, and with the proper tools. It was truly a beautiful place. However, I had no intention of staying too long, so I turned around and walked right out, then I continued walking. Soon, I found a man in a blue uniform, along with a Justice symbol on his shirt. I quickly hid off to the side.

“What?” Randolph said, hiding with me.

“There are seriously students who are Justice soldiers?” I said.

“Afraid so. They seem to be highly respected and valued as well, or perhaps it’s just fear,” she said. I get the feeling it’s more fear than respect. After all, kids who have so much power let it go to their mind and end up using it incorrectly, which then causes people to either fear you or rebel against you. In this case, it’s fear. Those who fear him haven’t been taught how to stand up against him, and so they avoid him. Even if they did stand up, they would likely be reported as supposedly missing, likely because the kid who feels as though he has so much power reported that someone assaulted him, and so Justice dealt with it in the only way they know how: annihilation. Of course, that’s just a theory. In my case, I don’t like to harm children, so I hid, waiting for him to pass. Since he’s a child, I can’t just kill him on the spot, especially with so many people around. He likely already received my face and information, so he probably knows I’m a target, along with Alicia, Randolph and, by now, Arcanum.

We let the kid pass without an issue. Now, we were headed up a huge flight of stairs, all the way to the school, itself. It was in view, but there were still a couple hundred steps left. My legs were burning due to walking at an inclined rate, but it’s nothing different from the burning from walking to a location where demons were. Come to think of it, no demons have managed to catch us yet, likely because we keep spending our time wisely by remaining in cities and rest spots during night. Soon, we arrived at the top of the stairs, each of us breathing even slightly heavily. The doors to the school were wide open, as if it were a warming mother with her arms wide open for a hug. We all continued to walk towards to opened doors of the school. However, before we could enter, a man appeared in front of the doors. He was fairly old, gray hair already, and held a cane