Renting Troubles

"Bruce, there's something I need to bring up with you." Tim gently stroked Death Angel's coffin as he spoke. "It's about Zas."

"Didn't he attack my school, Gotham Heights High School, before? He was captured and brought back by that Cheshire Cat you sent out."

Tim continued, "Although Zas claimed that no one had instructed him from behind the scenes, and my investigation confirmed that he wasn't lying, I've never believed in coincidences.

"There are so many high schools in Gotham City, so why did he choose mine? In both his methods and timing, Zas's actions this time were completely different from what he'd done before.

"Someone must be controlling him from behind the scenes. Two-Face? Riddler? I can't find out for now."

He stood up. "But whoever it is, he may have guessed my true identity..."

However, Tim soon shook his head listlessly. "Forget it. All of this is just speculation. I don't have any evidence to prove it either, so let's drop it."

"Bruce, what about you? What were you going to say earlier?"

Chen Tao furrowed his brows.

Indeed. According to the comics, Zas should have attacked a girls' school, not the high school Robin attended.

What had caused the plot to change?

Damn it, it couldn't be me again, could it?

There was too little information, and Chen Tao couldn't figure anything out, so he chose to stop thinking about it.

He said, "We'll discuss this later. Right now, I need you to come with me to the Little Saint Pliss District."

(The district was a neighborhood in Gotham.)

This was Gotham City's newly opened "Super Baby" restaurant. Because of the strange dinosaur incident two days earlier, the owner had thoughtfully introduced a "Dinosaur Delight Meal," which had become immensely popular.

"Okay, one Harley Quinn burger, one Black Canary salad, and one Jesse Quick severed lower-leg meal for you..."

A waitress dressed as Harley Quinn carried several meals to the table, but one unruly customer reached for her backside.

"...Be careful, or I'll break your hand, fatty."

"Hey, show some respect to the lady."

Two police officers sitting by the windows said, "We might not be able to do anything about the big green dinosaur, but we can definitely deal with you."

"Ha!"

Unfortunately, in Gotham, the more the police didn't want certain people to do something, the more determined those people were to do the opposite.

That grubby hand kept reaching toward her.

The younger of the two officers began to lose his temper.

"Boris, I can't take it anymore. I..."

Bang!

The man with the wandering hand let out a shrill scream. The tavern waitress had actually lifted him with one hand and slammed him to the floor, snapping his arm with a sharp crack.

The waitress dressed as Harley Quinn dusted off her hands, though there wasn't any dust on them.

"So, is there anything else I can do for you handsome gentlemen?"

"Damn it, she broke my hand! That bitch broke my damn hand—"

Creak—

Several hours later, it was time to get off work.

Harley Quinn left the restaurant while working on a crossword puzzle from the newspaper, but she didn't go home.

She took the subway to an apartment in downtown Gotham City.

Knock, knock, knock!

She climbed the stairs and knocked on the door three times.

"Oh!"

Harley looked up and saw a leaf poking through the crack beneath the door.

"Someone else will notice this." She immediately reached out with her small, pale hand and plucked off the green leaf.

No one answered.

So she took out her key and opened the door with a creak.

It hadn't been obvious from outside, but the moment the door opened, she saw that the room was almost entirely filled with plants.

Thick green ivy covered nearly the entire room, while twisting, sprawling trunks made it look almost like a tropical rainforest in East Africa.

Harley put her hands on her hips.

"That's enough!"

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Accompanied by a series of fine rustling sounds, the plants finally began to retreat, revealing the true form of the person in the room.

Or perhaps it was a plant.

"Gahahaahaha!"

A gigantic man-eating flower appeared in the middle of the room, letting out a chilling laugh.

"Harley, you're here! Ivy told me to tell you that this is your home from now on!"

"Of course, there's no electricity, water, or gas here, because Ivy hasn't paid the rent for over half a year!"

"..."

Seeing that Harley didn't say anything, the gigantic man-eating flower immediately replied, "Aha, I know what you want to ask. Let me answer you."

"Stop. Let me ask the questions. Also, Frank, can you stop with those exaggerated gestures?"

The gigantic man-eating flower froze.

"Oh. Harley, I thought you'd like them."

"First, I broke up with the Joker a long time ago. Second, I've reformed, and I even found a job as a waitress at that godforsaken restaurant called Super Baby."

"Third, my mind is perfectly sound now. I'm not crazy at all. And my name is Harleen Quinzel, not Harley Quinn!"

Harley forcefully squeezed her own face into a strained, twisted smile. Then she reached out, grabbed the corners of her mouth, which had been raised high, and pulled them down. Her expression returned to normal, completely devoid of the old, hysterical Harley Quinn.

"Fourth, I've been cured. The doctors at Arkham even gave me a whole pile of ridiculous awards. In short, I wasn't released together with Little Red. If I hadn't run out of money, I wouldn't have..."

"Damn it, let's not talk about this. How strange."

Harley looked at the mess around her and said, "Didn't Little Red tell me that he hired the neighbor's Little Boy to clean the room and water these plants? Why is it..."

"Ugh!"

Frank vomited a skeleton right in front of Harley. The skeleton still had a leather backpack strapped to it, which he hadn't been able to digest.

"Holy shit, oh God, what have you been..."

"I couldn't help it, Harley."

The man-eating flower Frank said aggrievedly, "For the first week after Ivy left, the little bastard diligently cleaned the room. But after a month, he started stealing things, so..."

"Damn it, you're in serious trouble. Didn't his parents—"

"Ugh!"

"Ugh!"

Two more skeletons were vomited out. From their clothes, one was a man and the other was a woman. Harley knew who they were without even looking closely.

"Damn it, Frank, if the landlord finds out..."

"Ugh!"

A skeleton leaning on a cane was vomited out. This one was relatively fresh, with two pieces of undigested rotten flesh still clinging to it.

Frank spat out a gun as well. "You can't blame me. That little bastard's parents were gangsters through and through. They came here with guns, and they definitely didn't look like good people."

"The landlord had already taken the house back and claimed many of the plants Ivy and I had grown as his own. That wouldn't have mattered, but then he actually tried to manufacture drugs in this room, so I had no choice but to reluctantly..."

"..."

Harley was speechless.

"All right." She was somewhat exhausted. "In any case, I'm just an ordinary person now, so I can only stay here. There shouldn't be any more damned trou—"

Knock, knock, knock.

The door was knocked on.

Harley heard someone shout from outside, "Open up! Batman!"