Shimizu's Plan

"Each of you gets one vial of Titan Venom. Harley, lead these people to Batman. The moment you see him, inject it directly. You'll beat the Bat."

After personally placing a bomb inside the safe, Joker gave the order coldly, then turned and left.

He still had other things to do.

Such as Gotham's police commissioner.

If Gordon were injected with an excessive dose of Titan Venom, mutated into a rampaging monster, and began destroying everything in sight while Batman had no antidote, what would he do to his own friend?

Joker was greatly looking forward to this sort of game that tested humanity—Batman's humanity in particular.

Shimizu followed the criminals toward Batman under Harley's voice guidance. Yet after encountering Batman, the criminals transformed by Titan merely managed to make him look somewhat disheveled before he bound them into a row with his grappling gun's cable.

Before injecting Titan Venom, Bane had been one of humanity's foremost martial arts masters. In a one-on-one fight, his Taijutsu could gain the upper hand against Batman. These people were not Bane.

Not to mention that after being injected with Titan Venom, their mental states would be severely affected. Their reason would diminish, and they would become incomparably violent.

Naturally, Shimizu did not go looking for Batman.

Before the battle began, he had used the Clone Technique he had learned at the Ninja Academy to take his place.

Once the fighting started, the scene became chaotic, and no one noticed the clone disappear.

As for Shimizu himself—

"This body has far too little Chakra."

In Arkham's prison corridor, Shimizu stood amid guards and criminals sprawled across the floor. He tightened his pants, then tucked the vial of Titan Venom inside the chest plate of his bulletproof vest.

Next, Shimizu threw the stripped guard into the innermost restroom stall and splashed a basin of cold water over his face.

The guard woke groggily, only to find his eyes covered by black cloth and his body restrained, unable to move.

"Name."

An unfamiliar voice rang out.

"Who are you? What are you doing?"

Rather than answer, the guard questioned him in return.

Crack!

"Ah—!"

"You have nine fingers left."

"Edward Sweets!"

Crack!

"Wrong answer. Eight fingers left. Don't try any tricks."

Shimizu looked coldly at the identity card in his left hand.

"Milovan Tore."

"Very good."

Shimizu continued asking quite a few questions.

Thanks to having earned full marks in interrogation at the Ninja Academy, he quickly extracted the information he wanted.

"Very good."

Shimizu knocked the man unconscious with one punch, then formed Hand Seals with both hands.

Ram—Rat—Boar.

Transformation Jutsu!

With a bang, a puff of white smoke rose, and Shimizu instantly became identical to the guard at his feet.

Shimizu examined himself for a moment, then confidently walked out.

As for the guard, he would remain unconscious for a full twenty-four hours in the innermost restroom stall, whose door had been locked from the outside.

Next stop: Arkham Asylum's control room!

All of Arkham had already been locked down due to Joker's order to Harley Quinn. To undo it, he naturally had to go to the control room.

Just now, Shimizu had gotten a rough understanding of Arkham's layout and its important locations from that guard.

At this moment, all of Arkham was in complete chaos.

On his way to the control room, Shimizu encountered attacks from criminals several times. After all, his current identity was that of an Arkham guard—and one who was alone.

"This is a little troublesome."

Shimizu frowned as he looked at the passage ahead.

The corridor outside the control room was currently in the midst of an intense firefight.

The guards wanted to retake the control room, while Harley Quinn had naturally ordered a large group of criminals to guard the outside.

As a result, bullets flew everywhere in the corridor, and blood covered the ground.

Getting hit by a bullet did not make survival easy, especially at close range.

Even a small-caliber pistol was terrifyingly lethal at close range. If Shimizu took a shot, he would be finished too.

"Hey, you over there! Why are you standing around after getting here? Hurry up and help!"

Behind a makeshift defensive barricade built from sandbags, someone who seemed to be the guard captain spotted Shimizu and waved him over.

"Milovan! Why are you here?"

A guard who knew the original owner of this identity called out as well.

Shimizu said nothing. He merely crouched down behind the sandbag wall with them, raised his gun, and fired a few casual shots.

The more he said, the easier it would be to expose a flaw. It was better to speak less.

Seeing this, the people beside him said nothing and returned to the battle.

The fighting was deadlocked, which disappointed Shimizu greatly.

If the guards won, they would definitely rush in and take control of the control room. That would suit his wishes perfectly.

If the criminals won, Shimizu could transform back into his original identity and blend in with them, allowing him to enter the control room just the same.

Only this current situation was the one Shimizu least wanted to see.

But he had no way to fight his way through.

If this were his main body, he could give it a try. But this incarnation had only begun refining Chakra not long ago. Both the quality and quantity of its Chakra were limited, not even up to Genin standards. At most, it was around the level of an upper-year Ninja Academy student.

That was only because Shimizu's own spiritual quality was higher, and this body belonged to a healthy adult.

But that was all.

Limited by this body, the upper limit of his Taijutsu was also locked in place. Furthermore, he had none of the ninja tools he was familiar with, such as puppets. As for this gun, he had only figured out how to use it on the way here. At most, because he had once practiced Ninja Tool Throwing, his shooting was slightly more accurate.

What should he do next?

With the tiny amount of Chakra in this body, he could not maintain the Transformation Jutsu for twenty-four hours. Sooner or later, someone would recognize him.

Just as Shimizu was at a loss, two Bat-symbols flew over from afar, curved through the air, and finally embedded themselves in the wall behind the criminals.

Boom!

Flames and thick smoke burst forth, followed by several round objects rolling across the floor.

Bang!

Dense smoke exploded outward. A young man in a black combat suit, wearing an eye mask and wielding two short batons, leaped from the ventilation duct behind them and charged into the smoke.

"Let's move!"

Seeing Nightwing arrive as reinforcements, the guards' morale immediately surged.

As a superhero, a top-tier Taijutsu master, and Batman's successor, Nightwing's combat strength far surpassed those guards with the aid of his many Bat-themed gadgets.

In less than ten minutes, the criminals were sprawled all over the ground, cuffed in handcuffs.

Good. The second step of the plan had been completed smoothly.

Inside Arkham's control room, Shimizu looked at Harley Quinn, whom Nightwing had personally tied to a chair with a rag stuffed into her mouth. Using an excuse about going out to patrol and scout, he temporarily left Arkham's control room.

Next, it was time to carry out the third step of the plan.