Silence.
The door opened by itself.
No, not through the relatively refined and gentle method of unlocking it.
Someone had grabbed the doorknob and forced the wooden door open with monstrous strength!
The lock let out an ear-piercing shriek as its metal cylinder tore through the cheap plywood door, stubbornly catching against the twisted, deformed metal doorframe.
A gust of wind blew in, bringing the frigid air of the underworld into the room.
Click.
Tap.
Harley Quinn shuddered involuntarily. She regretted being so distracted by the skeletons that she had failed to notice someone approaching from outside.
After countless days and nights in Arkham, her hearing should have long since been trained to its limits.
Evening had reached its end. The setting sun's fading light streamed through the broken doorway, casting the room in a gloomy darkness. It was as if this little bit of light was what gave the darkness itself meaning.
Then... it went out.
Harley Quinn slowly picked up her handbag.
The tall figure stood in the doorway. The room darkened all at once, and evening happened to end at that very moment.
Harley Quinn let out a heavy sigh.
"You're quite a difficult girl to find."
She heard Batman say.
Silence.
Harley Quinn looked at the person walking in, and the corners of her mouth slowly began to rise. She felt an urge to burst out laughing.
"Ah!!!" She let out a hysterical scream. "Oh, God, why is it you again!!!"
She walked over to a tree beside her—a miniature dragon-blood tree grown by Poison Ivy—and began banging her head against its trunk.
"Ahhhhhhh, damn it, God! Batman can always, always find Harley—Quinn!"
"I have some questions for you."
She heard Batman say in his familiar low voice:
"For example, where can I find your good friend Poison Ivy?"
Harley Quinn stopped banging her head against the tree.
She tilted her head.
"I need your hel—"
"Save it, darling. In a manner of speaking, I've started a new life."
Harley instantly became perfectly normal, as if the one who had just gone berserk hadn't been her at all.
"Listen, Ivy's mixed up with some bad guys. He and Plant Master are plotting to turn the entire Earth green. I need to stop them. They're a deadly combination, Harley.
A lot of people will get hurt, and even... Never mind. Maybe this won't help. You only need to know one other thing: Ivy could also be hurt, or even killed."
She heard Batman say.
Harley had to admit that Batman understood the relationship between her and Poison Ivy very well. When she heard that Ivy might be injured, she did feel a sudden impulse... but it was only an impulse.
"No. I don't want to get involved in your stupid mess anymore." Harley replied, "I've said goodbye to capes, tights, and masks. I just want to be an ordinary person and live quietly."
"Is that so? What a shame that you aren't."
Following Batman's gaze, Harley Quinn saw the four skeletons lying on the ground. She grabbed her two braids and once again let out two hysterical screams.
She turned around and grabbed Frank, the man-eating flower standing in the flowerpot like a real plant.
"You bastard, you bastard, you bastard, you bastard! You killed them—"
"Blaming your murders on a plant won't reduce your sentence, Harley Quinn."
Harley Quinn slapped the plant twice, once on each side.
"I advise you..."
Harley Quinn mounted the man-eating flower and began hopping up and down.
"To vent your emotions..."
With a crash, Harley Quinn slammed into the window. If she broke through it, she could escape the room!
Harley had calculated the distance. Even Batman wouldn't be able to stop her unless his arm could transform...
"!!!"
"All right, I surrender."
Chen Tao withdrew his arm and set Harley on the floor. The enormous dinosaur arm shrank back in an instant, like collapsing foam. Before long, it had returned to a normal human size, and even his clothes remained intact.
Such a sight, one that directly violated the law of conservation of mass, was enough to leave ninety percent of the world's scientists speechless. But to the people of Gotham, no matter what Batman did, it was something they had long since grown accustomed to. No matter how Batman achieved victory, it was inevitable. Harley was used to it.
After all, Batman would always win. He would keep winning forever.
This was Bane's hideout.
People always imagined that a master plotter like him would build his lair in some mysterious submarine or airborne military base.
But that wasn't the case.
It was merely an ordinary hotel in Gotham.
At that moment, Bane was sitting on the sofa in his room, his two-meter-fifteen frame completely filling the single-seat couch.
"...This time, the city government has decided to deploy the National Guard entirely out of a sense of morality, justice, and respon—"
"Batman? I have to say, a masked vigilante who violates the law like him can't possibly be compared with a true hero..."
"Let us welcome our true heroes with enthusiastic applause and sincere gratitude: Mayor Carlo and the commander of the National Guard..."
The experts and bloated officials on television continued to chatter endlessly. After explaining the situation, they quickly began desperately denigrating Batman and loudly praising the city government's actions.
The muscle-bound monster fell into thought.
To be honest, if he hadn't intended to destroy Batman, he might almost have felt sorry for him.
Batman was running himself ragged for this city, while the city hall and Gotham's upper class were nothing but complete idiots.
He simply couldn't believe anyone could be so stupid as to explain all their military movements to everyone on television, one by one.
Batman? The most dangerous player of all, and not a single person took him seriously.
Those well-dressed people on television only cared about how much attention they could gain by slandering Batman and elevating themselves. They resembled vultures fighting over carrion more than the lunatics in Arkham.
They mocked the Dent Act, belittled Jim Gordon, denied Batman's strength, and trampled on everything Batman had done for this city over the past ten-plus years.
They said Batman's existence had attracted those costumed lunatics. They described today's chaos and madness as lunatics being drawn to one another. They proclaimed that only the military could maintain order and only the city government could bring change.
But they had never once thought about...
Why had Harvey Dent become completely disillusioned with the justice system?
Why had Edward Nygma descended into madness?
Why had Arnold, once an honest and simple man, been arrested and imprisoned?
Gotham was rotten. Bane understood that better than many native Gothamites—in fact, he had realized it on his very first day in the city.
"Batman and those so-called super-criminals of his are all a bunch of lunatics and freaks. This time, we're going to seize this opportunity and put an end to them once and for all..."
Bane frowned. The things coming from the television were becoming more and more disgusting.
Those people who pontificated on television and shared their "profound insights" were slick and greasy, radiating a stench of decay from head to toe. Even Bane found them revolting.
So he gave up torturing his ears and lowered the television's volume.
Bang!
A dull thud from above made him furrow his brows.
Bang!
He sighed.
"That's enough. Can't the three of you finish this already?"
The moment he finished speaking, the ceiling collapsed with a roar. His three subordinates—"Zombie Man," Cave Dweller, and Birdman—crashed through the wooden ceiling and tumbled down with an enemy dressed like an owl.
"Stop, Bane! The city hall has mobilized tens of thousands of National Guard troops to deal with you. The Court of Owls intends to—"
Bane sighed.
"What are you? Never mind—"
Before you continue