"Disappointed?"
Rorschach asked softly.
"Are you sure that was disappointment, and not some other inexplicable emotion?
Joker's disappointment..."
"Yes, damn it, I know it sounds unbelievable, but think about it carefully. What reason could I possibly have to lie?
I'm already over seventy, and I have cancer. I'm old. No matter what I did back then, I'm old...?!"
Bang!
With one punch, Rorschach knocked at least three teeth out of the old man's mouth.
"Get to the point!"
Rorschach said coldly.
"Stop reminding me what you did back then!
Otherwise, old man, I'll show you what real regret is!
If I hadn't been such an idiot back then and kept letting scum like you get thrown into prison to scrape by.
If it were the me of today dealing with the you of back then, I guarantee you'd die horribly—far more horribly than you look now with that terminal illness!"
"Okay, I know, I know!"
Hearing Rorschach's words, Death was clearly panicking.
"I know you. They all said you'd changed.
You didn't kill people before. No one feared you then. In our eyes, you were the least intimidating one, a fool as stupid as they came.
But now, I've heard things. You haven't sent anyone to the hospital in a long time.
We all know you've acted. Really acted. Haven't you noticed? Everyone around you has been much more well-behaved lately!"
"Good. Keep going, bastard!"
Rorschach coldly cut Death off, and Death continued tremblingly.
"He came very suddenly that night. He sat beside my bed, smoking that cigarette he never took out of his mouth.
His tears ran down his nose and onto his cigar.
But no matter what, he didn't care. Not one bit.
He just kept talking to me.
He said he was a joke.
He also said