Chapter Text
The Dark Age of the Law.
A period of distrust between executioners of justice, of a storm brewing beneath calm waters. A period of forgery, of manipulation, of lies and deceit running rampant. Never before has the city seen such a harrowing time for the judicial system.
Reformation was thought impossible as more and more succumbed to darkness. Defence attorneys, prosecutors, judges…no one was exempt from the evil claws of human avarice.
What is the truth?
Why do we care?
And most importantly, what are we willing to give up…to see the naked truth with our own two eyes?
…
…
…
How noble of you.
To want to live with your eyes clear, the fog chased, is a luxury, no matter what any one of us is willing to go without.
Can everyone afford that luxury? Are there truths you wished you never learned, that could have destroyed you forever?
Is the truth all that matters?
…
…
…
That’s an…interesting answer. Whether or not truth matters…isn’t that also a truth? To be decided by you? Or someone else? Or a higher power?
My, we’ve gone on long enough. Perhaps it’s time to take the plunge into these trying times and join our young lawyer as she stumbles her way through the start of her long and illustrious career.
*
Palms clammy, vision wavering, forehead glistening with perspiration…
Niki isn’t sure whether she’s talking about her client or herself. Sat in the defendant’s lobby with her friend, and also the accused, Ranboo Beloved, Niki isn’t quite looking her best. Dressed in a thick black jacket over a baby pink blouse, complemented with a shiny black skirt, Niki’s outfit is the picture of professionalism.
However, the rest of her screams greenhorn.
Naturally. This is Niki’s first case, and she’s defending her university friend, Ranboo Beloved, for a crime most heinous.
That of murder.
Niki glances over at Ranboo, clenching and unclenching her fists. There’s no way he would do such a thing, and whoever accused him should be ashamed of themselves.
“Are you alright, Ranboo?”
Ranboo jumps out of his skin. It would have been a fairly comical sight, if not for the fact that he seems ready to cry. From the red tinge of his eyes, the snot above his lip…
He actually is crying.
“Ranboo, it’s okay!” Niki pats his shoulder. Ranboo sniffs, lip wobbling. “I’ll get you off the hook! You just have to trust me, okay?”
Ranboo nods, teary-eyed, wiping his nose of mucus with a handkerchief. Niki rubs soothing circles on his back, and Ranboo casts his gaze to the ground, sniffling.
Just then, the door bursts open and in strides Niki’s mentor. H. Bomb salutes her, a bundle of newspapers tucked under an arm. With a single look thrown Ranboo’s way, he whistles.
“You don’t look too hot, Mr Beloved,” H. Bomb tuts. “You wanna, uh, visit the washroom or something?”
Ranboo shakes his head, and only a pitiful whimper leaving his mouth. All Niki wants to see is one of his bright smiles again, but first, she’ll have to secure his acquittal.
“Don’t worry, kid. I doubt we’d lose. I’m about eighty percent sure.”
Ranboo’s eyes widen. “E-Eighty percent?”
“It should be a hundred percent, isn’t that right?” Niki says. “We’re going to win this one. I’m sure of it!”
H. Bomb chuckles breathlessly. “Under normal circumstances, I’d say we’ll definitely get you a not guilty, but…”
He tosses Niki the newspapers. Niki fumbles with it, papers crinkling between her fingers. She holds it up, and Ranboo peers over her shoulder at the headline splashed across the front page.
Another lawyer collared for forging evidence! Could the judicial system take a turn for the worse?
Forging evidence?
“Been a lot of cases like this recently.” H. Bomb coughs. “People say we’re entering a new age of the law. The dark age, they call it.”
That’s a term Niki’s heard a lot recently, thrown around in the newspapers and on public streets. About lawyers forging evidence, prosecutors manipulating witnesses, judges accepting bribes…courtrooms are no longer for finding the truth, but rather a battleground for pride, wealth and reputation. Trials have become something to be mocked.
“So, you think that…” Niki trails off, the unanswered question hanging in the air. H. Bomb shrugs.
“Probably. The prosecutor taking this case has a bit of a…reputation.”
“A reputation?” Ranboo asks.
H. Bomb nods. “H. Q. Quackity. He’s a young upstart, but he’s been winning cases left and right. He’s never lost in his short career.”
That’s…interesting. Never lost, hmm?
“Well, other than that, I don’t know much about the kid,” H. Bomb says. He flashes Niki a grin. “Just don’t screw up in there and you’ll probably do fine.”
Niki smiles. “I won’t forget what you taught me! We’ll definitely win! I promised Ranboo that!”
It is then that the bailiff calls from where he stands guard outside the courtroom, “Miss Nihachu and Mr Bomb, please enter the courtroom. The trial is about to begin.”
“Well, I’ll see you after the trial, Ranboo.” Niki clasps her fingers together, mustering the most reassuring smile that she can afford him. “And we’ll walk out of the courthouse together, okay?”
Ranboo forces a smile as well, before he is led away by the bailiffs and to the defendant’s chair. Niki turns back to H. Bomb.
“Shall we go?”
As the doors of the courtroom open, revealing to Niki the grandest hall that she ever laid eyes on, a spike of thrill shoots through her. A massive Lady Justice statue stands at the base of the judge’s bench, holding the scale balance in one hand and a sword in the other, blindfold stretched over her eyes, foot over a snake. The gold of the walls gleam in the fluorescent illumination of the light above.
Niki’s first battle begins now, and she will emerge victorious.
For Ranboo’s future and for his life, she cannot afford to fail.