Free Web NovelChapter 482: Arc 6, Chapter 98: Justice is Blind
Empty—completely and utterly empty; unless the cleaning supplies and various old and dusty things could be considered notable.
It was certainly overlooked by the brunette who made her way up the spiralling staircase. Her boots clacked on the stone; she felt out of breath.
For a long while now, a sensation of breathlessness this quickly was unfamiliar; yet another factor to throw her mind for a loop. The stairs lead into a chamber within the clock’s heart.
Shifting cogs brought along a metallic scent and reverberating clanks with each second it ticked—louder, deeper and larger. The massive mess of intricate machinery went all the way up to a giant bell with two hammers to its sides.
Steel staircases and walkways mazed around towards the face of the clock. Fumeko looked at the end. She stared intensely... Her brows furrowed... ’Blink! Blink dammit!’ "Blink! Ah-!"
A wisp of shadow whistled at her feet and she palmed her head as a buzzing pain throbbed around her mind. Hissing through her gritted teeth, she ran with her own two feet up the metal and towards the face.
Her hands hit the cream-white opalescent glass where sunlight glowed through onto the gears. ’Access, access. There has to be a door, right?’ She glanced high and low, yet no seam nor outline caught a glint in her eye.
At that point, her hand reached straight for her dagger. "Chink!" It cut through the opaque glass like smooth butter and she carved a gap for herself to exit.
Wind blew into her face as she shielded her eyes with her hands. The frame around the clockface supported her; one foot was in front of the other, for the space she had was limited despite her stature.
She looked up, stood on slow-moving gears... The word truth was plastered in blood and vanishing by the second into the mechanism behind.
Both hands of the clock were far out of her reach. He was there; in a familiar position she saw many murders in. Each limb was pinned through the palms and the feet against a single large gear in the centre—pinned by silver rods that speared into the metal.
His eyes were gone; left with sockets staring down at her while his head lolled. She was left with the sounds of a moving clock. The thousands of people who bore witness to this were probably shouting and gasping at the woman standing perilously so high up—not that she could hear.
Her mind was frozen... But she forced her body into action. The shifting gears were climbable, and that was enough to get close to the middle at least.
Each gear clunked to its own rhythm, but red strings connected the straight path on an instinct. With the timing down right, Fumeko clambered onto cog after cog, careful not to be pulled into the mechanism.
The breeze hummed past her ears steadily; her headband was secure. There was no way to stand in front of him. However, she could jump from a higher gear onto the one he was pinned on.
And that is exactly what she did. No shadows helped her, but she still had the grace to land safely...
A slower-moving gear. No impact was made from where the silver rods pinned his limbs. Magic? Who was to say. Taller than her father she stood now, with the morning rays beaming onto her.
One-third of Dolpool was in her view beneath her very feet; from Dolpool River all the way out to the islands and the Fineas Sea in the distance.
She... sat down. Backing herself in between two wide teeth of the gear, she blankly watched ahead while her father rotated every minute with the clock. Her hands rubbed her upper arms and her eyes began to wane.
’I’m sorry dad... I thought you would be str... ... ... ... ...’
...
...
Fumeko closed her eyes and blocked out the bright Sun. She took a deep breath and let it go within a few moments as she opened them back up.
’...How am I gonna get you down from here... Why can’t I...’ She focused her mind and stared to her side. The point of her slipping off the cog was getting closer as it moved.
No wisps, no shadows—not a speck of purple was glimmering. ’Maybe I should just let myself fall... Then it can be someone else’s problem.’
Something burned.
She stared at the Sun, right when the clouds were coming over to clothe it.
’You leave me with scars. You take away my dad. And now you wanna bring up the truth, while you hold my sister and the girl I love hostage. Truth... From the ones calling themselves gods. Bullshit. You lost.
You wouldn’t need to do any of this if you’re as powerful as you say you are. You’re cowards. Rats scurrying through gaps in the alleys. That’s the truth. I’ll kill you all.’
A large bird of pearly-white feathers landed by her on the gears. Its eyes glowing a piercing green.
Fumeko stood up and climbed over the next gear tooth before she would have slid off. She stared at the secretary bird and mouthed the words, "He’s dead."
_
"Morgana Aetherton, P.I., move out of the way!" she held her badge up as she pushed through the police barricade around the ever-growing crowd of people. freewebnσvel.cѳm
The medical stretcher was pushed through the street towards the parked ambulance, which Morgana came to a halt to. For once, her eyes widened and her face wilted into utter depression within a second.
Her lips parted to speak, but it just could not make any words. And within the next second, that expression was gone, buried behind a mask. She stopped the medics on their tracks.
Fumeko was walking close behind, although she was in no rush. At the time she caught up, Morgana was peeling away Kazuo’s bloodstained shirt with an intense stare.
The brunette furrowed her brows, "What’re you doing?"
In their rush to evacuate, Morgana revealed what the medics had not examined yet. There was a large gash going through the mid-left side of his chest. His ribs were visible and one lung was burst. But most importantly, his heart was missing.
Fumeko could not glare anymore; a mere passive stare was all she could muster. ’... ...Of course they did. Why wouldn’t they...’ Her eyes had to scan over her father’s corpse. ’... ...!’ She squinted.
No runes were slowly disappearing from his skin. "Ceridwen doesn’t have his soul," Fumeko stated openly. ’Or the runes completely disappeared at time I got there... What’s it matter, he’s dead...’
"Fumeko? Fumeko! Oh, you’re okay!" Hotaru rushed up in a sweat and hugged the brunette. The redhead saw the corpse and tightly squeezed Fumeko, keeping her face blocked from the corpse.
’... ... ...’ "Can you revive him?" she muttered into the form she let herself be hugged into.
Hotaru’s ears flickered and fell back, "Oh Meko... I’m so sorry," the redhead shed tears and inched the brunette away from the body which Morgana continued to examine.
Until a medic stopped her, "Ma’am, please, we’ll conduct an autopsy, you can follow us if you want, but we need to move out of the public, the police’re telling us off."
"Let me go..." Fumeko murmured, although none of her body even moved from Hotaru’s arms.
"Meko!" Asobi made it through and gasped loudly. "Oh no... No, no..." she was brought to tears as she looked at the body. She held her wand tightly and slowly shuffled to hug Fumeko as well. However, her eyes never left the corpse.
"I need to go..." Fumeko uttered, muffled in between them.
"Kid, go home," Morgana instructed.
"What?" her voice grew slightly louder as her head tried to push and glance at the detective in blue.
"You heard me," her commandeering voice cut through the public chatter.
"F-Fumeko, oh, AH!" Tiffany shouted and stopped herself from shrieking. Her face immediately turned away from the dead face of Kazuo Namora. She gulped and rushed to the side of the other three.
"Are you kidding me, I’m not going home Morgana," Fumeko bluntly retorted.
Morgana took a deep breath and pointed a finger at her, "Watch it... I need you to go home, I need you to stay safe. The last thing your dad would’ve wanted is to examine his corpse—go," she glared down.
Fumeko was going to reply, but Hotaru held the brunette back and said to the both of them, "Enough, enough. Let’s go, we don’t need to be with the ambulance Meko."
"The cult killed my dad, if there’s any evidence left, it’s in the clock or on him-"
"Please!" Hotaru said in a whimpering panic.
"We’ll let the experts handle it and Detective Aetherton can tell us everything later. You need to rest a bit Meko," Asobi very softly put. freёwebnoѵel.com
The medics were already loading Kazuo Namora’s body in the back of the carriage. Morgana glared with her finger pointing at Fumeko once more and then got into the back of the ambulance herself.
"Come on, come on," Hotaru said with unstable breaths as she practically dragged Fumeko out of there who was barely putting up a fight.
Asobi attempted to cloak the carriage in invisibility the hopes to not draw people towards them, but the spell made it rather translucent under the morning light.
Although Hotaru attempted to physically console the brunette, Fumeko was adamant on simply staring out the window. Her eyes never watered, nor did she ever sob.
Tiffany kept staring at the brunette; at one point she attempted to reach a hand out, but pulled away just as quickly... The brunette did not even notice.
The blonde on the other hand, noticed that she never blinked away from those easily escapable situations. It would have been a breeze for her... With aid of the police, their departure out of the location was relatively smooth, and the carriage drove back to Fleur Borough...
