Aka v State; Karin's "Free" Tour

As Aka stepped into the office, she was immediately greeted with another nightmare: a small woman, made all the smaller by the stacks upon stacks of crates filled with files threatening to topple all around her, was staring intently at a single set of papers on her desk. In one hand she held half of a sandwich with a free finger ready to turn the page as she needed, and in the other she held a pen to make several marks on the paper in an instant.

“Uh, are you Winona?”

“Yes,” Winona responded, not even bothering to look up.

“I was told you were on break, should I come by at another time?”

“No, this is just what it looks like when I’m on break,” she laughed, taking a quick second to point at her sandwich with her pen.

“I see. I was told by Carol to come see you regarding Tyler.”

“Tyler? We have three Tylers right now, but since you said Carol,” she muttered, still staring down at the paper as two fingers on her sandwich hand danced on the tabs of the file within one of the crates, “here it is!”

Winona’s two fingers clasped around the sides of the file as she brought her hand to her face to take another bite from the sandwich. She then laid the file out before her, devouring the last bit of her sandwich as she scanned through it.

“Ah yes, Tyler. May I ask who you are?”

“Magical Aka,” she replied without much confidence, still trying to process how efficiently Winona was multitasking on her ‘break’.

“Ah yes, Carol called me about you.”

“Wait, how’d she get through the holding line?”

“She called my personal cell. You have to understand, I only give this to clients, and them only, I don’t want just anybody calling me, and I make that fact quite clear to them. Now, as for you Magical Aka, I’m not sure if there’s much you can really do. There was mention of a woman who accosted Tyler before the police arrested him, but it’s not like this fact changes the case all that much. It’s a pretty open and close case of theft, a guilty verdict is all but guaranteed. The only question is how he’ll serve it. Whether it be an at home arrest with community service or prison for up to 3 years.”

“Three years! It’s just petty theft!” Aka yelled.

“Please make no mistake, this is not me saying I support such a decision, this is just a statement of the facts of the case and my informed opinion on how it could go,” she replied coolly, careful to return to the file back to where it needed to go as she continued to mark the first paper.

“But it’s not like he even got that far, I had convinced him to return it before he was even a block away.”

“That could help in the event that he pleads guilty, which could convince the jury to give a lighter sentence, maybe even one with no jail time.”

Aka breathed a sigh of relief, “So he can get out soon?”

“Not at all,” Winona replied without hesitation.

“But, why not?”

“Look Miss Aka, I don’t have time to explain the entire legal system to you during the remainder of my break, especially when it appears you have little formative knowledge on it to begin with. I don’t say this to be rude, but I cannot waste time on an explanation that will do so little to help with my current cases.”

“Please, just a basic summary or something, I’ll do anything to help.” Aka got on her knees and pleaded, crawling as close to the desk as she could to try and get in Winona’s line of view.

Winona let out a brief sigh, flipping over the paper she had been rushing through.

“Alright, here’s the most basic of basic instructions. These are the two things you could try out to help Tyler, and I can assure you in advance neither of them will work. One would be to relay the information you gave to me to judge Michael Thomas, the one who assigned bail. This might make him lessen the amount, but I’m doubtful it will be an amount you’re able to cover if $1500 is too much. The second would be to talk to prosecutor Adam Chauvin, again, relay that information to him, and ask if he might be willing to negotiate a lesser plea deal, one hopefully with a chance of early parole or no jail time. They’re both likely on break today, and both are equally likely to say no to either arrangement.”

During this explanation Winona had already fished out a scrap of paper and wrote their names and the numbers for their offices, placing it on the edge of her desk for Aka to take at her leisure.

“Should I just go to them alone?” Aka asked.

“My presence there would do nothing to increase your odds, and no matter how bad you screw up, it’s not like you could make them play hard ball any harder. Now if you’ll excuse me, my break is over, so I must ask you to leave.”

Aka did just that, not wanting to interfere with her business any further. As she exited the door, she could hear Winona whisper ‘good luck’ under her breath. While she said it in a sarcastic tone, her emotional powers allowed her to sense the genuine wish for Aka’s success hidden underneath it.

***

Aka was quick to call the office of the judge, thinking him to be the more likely one to change his mind. The receptionist told her that he was on a break at a country club to go golf. After looking up the address, Aka arrived there in the blink of an eye, only to encounter a slight problem. A sign on the wall with the following two words:

NO TRESPASSING

Aka had wanted to pop in real quick and be out of there. She wasn’t the kind of woman to be at a country club. Hell, she rarely even went to the gym despite her interest in body building. But it seemed like she was going to have to talk with someone up front.

Aka blitzed to the front desk, the person at the front desk was rather shocked to see someone just suddenly appear out of nowhere, but was quick to transform back to a company mandated smile.

“Hello, how may I help you this fine afternoon?”

“Uh, hi, I was wondering if it might be okay to tour the premises?”

“Apologies, this club is for members only, I’m assuming you don’t have such a membership?”

“Uh, no, how much would that cost?”

“Oh, it’d just be…”

The number he said just was so egregious her suit automatically censored it to avoid undue stress. Still, it was not enough to keep the shock from ringing through Aka’s body. Aka had to stop herself from collapsing on the spot, though her silence prompted a word from the clerk.

“Is something the matter ma’am? Monthly that only works out to be about…”

The suit again censored the number, but Aka could tell it was a number that’d nearly double her monthly expenses. Was this place heaven on Earth? Why was it so expensive?

“Uh, no problem at all. Would it be possible to receive a tour first so I can see all the amenities before I make a decision?”

The clerk stifled a frown, “Yes, I suppose that makes sense. You’ll just have to be accompanied by one of our caddies for the duration of your visit. Please also try not to disturb our other residents during your stay.”

“Will do,” Aka replied.

***

The caddie was quick to arrive, and whisked her away on a golf cart for a tour of the club. Immediately Aka wished for the slow release of death.

What was the point of a vehicle that went slower than she could run? Even as a plain old human she could run circles around this thing.

“So over there is the community pool. You can go relax by the poolside and get a nice tan, chat at the bar, or relax in the hot tub.”

“What about swimming?”

“Oh, people don’t swim much here at the pool,” the caddy replied.

‘Then what even was the point of having a pool?’ Aka thought, though kept to herself.

“What about the golf course?” Aka asked, trying to get a lay on the land.

“Oh, it’s right over there,” he said, pointing to the right while making a sweeping motion, “it starts there with hole 1 and continues all the way over there.”

The size of it seemed rather ridiculous just to play a single game. You could probably fit a basketball court, a baseball stadium, and a soccer field all within that space a few times over.

“Would it be possible to go there?”

“Sorry, that’s the one of the things they don’t want you experiencing directly on the tour. They’re worried people might be using the tours just to get a free round of golf in.”

‘I don’t even like golf though!’ Aka screamed in her mind.

“Whew, it’s a bit of a scorcher today, don’t you think?” the caddy asked.

Aka wasn't sure what he meant, as the day had felt normal to her, even when adjusting for her warped temperature perception. She saw that her red aura was escaping her body, her anger and stress starting to build up.

Since she was just sitting around doing nothing, her emotional energy wasn’t being consumed, and had to be vented out.

She took a deep breath, focusing on colder thoughts. She remembered that time when one of her past enemies knocked her clear to Mount Everest. She remembered when Báisè instructed her how to chuck a snowball larger than herself from halfway across the planet to nail that monster the rest of them were fighting, so that Rose could finish it off. That was a fun fight.

Her aura started to soften, and she was beginning to feel a bit lighter. Thinking a bit more clearly she came up with a plan.

“Hey, would it be alright if I used the restroom?”

“Sure, let me just cart us over there.”

***

“Okay, so I need you to go along with the caddy so I can go see the judge,” Aka said.

“And why should I do that? That sounds like it sucks!” Aka screamed back.

“Look, come on, you’re my clone, you’re supposed to help me out.”

“And why should I?”

Aka had forgotten how bad she was with cloning magic. Since her magic was based in anger, her clones tended to be… difficult, to put it mildly. Her anger at the inability to be in two places at once was what allowed her to make the clone, but since the clone needed to be in the “worse” of the two places in Aka’s mind, she was of course angry about this.

Aka needed to think of something.

“Look, do you really want to talk to a boring old judge?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Wouldn’t you rather be able to possibly see the pool and get a drink?”

“Hell yeah!”

Clone Aka ran out of the bathroom without a second thought.

“Alright caddy, let’s hit the pool for a closer look!” Clone Aka yelled loud enough that the original could hear from inside the bathroom.

Aka apologized an infinite number of times to the caddy within her mind as she dashed out of there to the golf course. But at least she was still following the rules, the caddy was accompanying Aka, just not the original one.

***

It wasn’t too hard for Aka to find the judge, Mike Thomas. She had reasoned he’d be near the end of the golf course since he’d apparently been gone on his break for quite a while. Her intuition paid off, as she was rather quick in finding him at hole 16, on the green next to the flag.

“Hello,” Aka said, casually strolling up.

Mike had been concentrating hard on his swing, and Aka’s interruption caused his swing to miss the ball a fair deal. Mike sighed.

“You shouldn’t distract a man while he’s golfing.”

“Sorry,” Aka mumbled.

“Are you headed somewhere, or do you need me for some reason?”

“Well, I was here to talk about Tyler, if that’s okay.”

“Who?”

“He was a boy arrested for shoplifting. You set his bail at $1500.

“Oh, that young fellow,” he replied, already focusing back on his golf swing.

“I was wondering if you might release him without bail?” Aka asked.

“Why should I do that?” He asked, striking the ball with his putter, sending it straight to the hole.

“Well I was actually the one who accosted him before the police arrived. He was planning on returning the goods he stole, he felt bad for it.”

“Hmm,” Mike thought as he approached the hole, reaching into it to grab the ball out, Aka felt a small hope rise within her like that golf ball.

“I can see your point, I might reconsider lowering the bail to $1000 instead.”

And that hope came crashing down straight to her gut.

“But, they can’t afford that.”

“That’s not my problem, bail should be set accordingly with the crime,” Mike replied, already heading to his cart.

Aka planted her feet hard into the ground to keep herself from lunging at him. She could feel her anger boiling up again. She could even see the smoke rising.

“Wait a minute.”

Aka looked down and noticed the grass smoldering beneath her feet.

“Shit!”

Aka stamped her feet on the ground, not wanting to set fire to the golf course. By the time she had finished, Mike had already left, unaware of her predicament.

“I guess I should try calling the prosecutor this time,” Aka said to herself, trying to keep her hopes up.

***

After a quick call to the prosecutor’s office, she learned that Adam was also golfing, at the same resort. Honestly, she should be grateful that she didn’t have to go to a different place, but she couldn’t help but think how these two were spending away their time having fun while Winona had to spend how many hours working on paperwork and going through case files.

She continued on her path to the lower hole numbers and found him on hole 13. He was yelling by the pondside at a caddy shack.

“You better fish that ball out of the water right now!”

“It’s the fifth ball you’ve hit into the water hazard this day! You have more balls, why do you care!” The caddy yelled back.

“I don’t care, you better do it or I swear you’ll never work here again!”

The caddy threw his hands up in the air, and Adam was already on his phone.

“Here, I’ll get it,” Aka said from up on high, causing them to both look up.

Doing a diving cannonball into the pond she was able to reach the bottom of the lake in a second. Searching along the ocean floor she found the ball with ease and jumped up the surface.

“Here you go,” she said, handing it straight to Adam.

“Thanks, you’re Magical Aka, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she replied, “I was wondering if I could speak to you about something.”

“Well sure, anything for a hero who fights evildoers,” he said, walking a spot to place his ball back down.

“Yeah, it’s about Tyler.”

“Who?”

“He’s the one who was charged with stealing school supplies.”

“Oh, that kid, what about him?” he asked, already focused on his golf swing.

“I was wondering if you might be willing to negotiate lesser terms with Winona, I really don’t think Tyler deserves to be put in prison.”

“Oh, so that’s what this is about,” he said, stopping his golf swing, “Winona set you up to this?”

“What?! No!”

“You don’t need to feel defensive about it. She’s just a complete bleeding heart, woe is me, you shouldn’t fall for it. Her job’s not that tough, and her clients are no angels. I can tell you for a fact that Tae or what’s his name deserves prison time. Besides, prison’s not so bad, it builds character for youth like him.”

The prosecutor swung his golf club, and the ball flew straight into the water hazard again.

“Shit! You mind helping me fish it out again?” he asked, only to notice Aka was nowhere around.

Aka had run off already, completely disgusted by the words Adam had said.

***

Aka returned to the front desk.

“How was your tour?” the clerk asked.

“Uh, good,” Aka said sheepishly.

“Are you interested in joining?”

“I don’t think it’s right for me, sorry.”

“I see,” he replied, hiding his contempt.

“There you are!”

Aka turned around, noticing the caddy who’d been with her clone holding a receipt in his hand.

“I thought you’d run off after your time at the bar. You forgot your bill.”

Aka looked at the receipt, her eyes censoring the amount a moment too late.

She was another paycheck closer to having nothing left in her checkings.