Before flying back to the seaside cliffs where they were staying for the time being, Shane made a special trip to bathe in the ocean a few hundred miles away.
Only when he could no longer smell any blood on himself did he fly leisurely back toward the cliffs.
"Rachel!"
Shane opened the tightly shut door of the Escape Pod, only to find that Rachel wasn't inside.
Slightly puzzled, he flew up and looked around before discovering that a beach had appeared at some point where two nearby cliffs met.
The beach was extremely well hidden. Even if someone deliberately climbed to the top of the steep cliffs, it would still be difficult to spot.
Rachel stood at the edge of the beach, poking the dried fish on a drying rack with a twig as thick as a finger.
As though she had felt his gaze, Rachel raised her head warily. When she saw Shane descending slowly from the sky, her expression went blank again.
"When did you, uh, set all this up?"
Shane landed on the soft sand and asked, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Rachel gave him a sidelong look, her voice so flat that it lacked even the slightest inflection.
"You left quite a lot of fish behind, and I didn't know exactly how many days you'd be gone. I happened to sense a hollow in the nearby cliffs with magic, so I moved the rocks off the top and dried some fish here to stockpile."
Shane was even more puzzled.
"But didn't you say you were sick of fish?"
"What else am I supposed to eat?!"
Rachel seemed to grow agitated all of a sudden, and her voice rose considerably. But with magic still suppressing Raven's emotions, even her agitation barely showed in her face.
"Didn't Aquaman give us those two—oh! My God."
Shane finally remembered. His hand moved instinctively to his waist, and from the opposite side of the box holding the Yellow Lantern ring, he pulled out the two large, unusually colored pearls, one black and one pink.
The two stared silently at the pearls, and a hint of murderous intent gradually crept into Rachel's eyes.
Shane wiped nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself.
"They actually survived the fight..."
"Ahem. I'll go to Gotham in a bit and find somewhere to sell these two pearls. Tonight, we're going to Metropolis for a feast!"
Rachel gave a cold laugh, then turned back to poking the dried fish.
Shane awkwardly tucked the pearls back at his waist, then walked behind Rachel and poked her in the back with his index finger.
"What?"
Rachel's voice returned to its usual detached monotone.
"Could you help me check what Batman's doing right now?"
"Oh, he got back to Gotham a few minutes before you did. He spent a long time searching that Batcave where he treated us to steak last time. Now he's standing in the corner where I set up the sound-transmitting spell."
"Aha!"
Shane slammed his fist into his palm and let out a triumphant cheer, as though he had finally gotten his revenge.
Back on the Watchtower, Batman had seized the opportunity to thoroughly dissect him. If Shane hadn't developed exceptional control over his expressions and emotions over the years, he would have nearly lost his composure completely.
Secondhand knowledge really was no substitute for experience. No matter how hard he stretched his imagination, the impressions of Batman he'd pieced together from comics and movies couldn't compare to being targeted by Batman and subjected to that analysis in person.
Granted, the existence of "that person" had given Batman advance information that Shane had never imagined anyone could discover.
But that psychological profiling, which felt like being forcibly stripped naked by a thug, had still left Shane a little scarred.
Now he imagined Batman puzzling over how Shane had learned that the Green Lantern Corps had stationed someone in the Solar System ever since leaving the Watchtower, then scurrying around that Batcave like a rat as he searched it.
He had to admit, he felt much better.
"Batman tore down the wall where I left the spell."
Rachel suddenly informed him.
"Oh? Did that destroy the spell?"
"No. My magic isn't so weak that it needs a physical medium to exist."
"Now I feel even better. Rachel, thanks to your magic, I finally got some payback. Next time, I'll give him another scare like this..."
"Batman opened a comm channel. He's warning whoever's on the other end to decommission Batcave Number Seventy-Six completely, and telling everyone else not to come to this Batcave again."
This time, an actual drop of cold sweat rolled down Shane's temple, and his eyes widened.
"Number what?! Has he tunneled under all of Gotham like a mole colony? An entire city's worth of people live up there! Are the foundations still stable?"
Then something else struck him.
"Completely abandoning a whole Batcave... That guy has more money than sense."
Seeing Shane's mood plummet from the clouds into the dirt, Rachel fell silent for a moment before volunteering some comfort.
"It's fine. That day, when Nightwing brought me my steak, I cast a similar simple spell on him too. But because I had to rush it, it won't work beyond a certain distance—we can still listen in on Gotham from here."
The drooping corners of Shane's mouth gradually lifted.
But then Rachel's expression suddenly changed.
"He's still in that Batcave. He's telling Nightwing over comms to stay away from Gotham for a while... Damn it, he just smiled at me."
Seeing even Rachel show a hint of alarm, Shane abruptly lowered his head and began frantically feeling all over his body.
He had already taken his clothes off and scrubbed them hard while bathing a few hundred miles away.
But what if?
He might not have considered that possibility at the time, and without the corresponding vigilance, he could have missed a spot.
There was a very good chance that "Bruce Wayne" had touched this suit.
He stripped almost completely naked and inspected the Viltrum battle suit, which had been sprayed black, inside and out. He found no extra components.
Shane scratched his head furiously. Then inspiration struck, and he pulled out the box made of special material that held the old Yellow Lantern ring.
After examining it for several minutes, he still couldn't find any sign of a listening device.
As for whether one might have been installed inside the Yellow Lantern ring, Shane thought that was unlikely.
Even if Batman truly possessed the necessary technology, the ring usually stayed inside a special-material box that could block even the fear spectrum. Besides, one of his backup plans for this trip to the Divine Realm had involved using the ring as a disposable item.
What would be the point of putting something like that inside the Yellow Lantern ring?
Shane stood there, utterly stumped, until Rachel's stomach growled.
He jolted, then incredulously pulled out the two unusually colored pearls he had kept on his person all this time, which had been extraordinarily lucky to survive the battle intact.
Rachel seemed to realize what Shane intended to do. She grabbed his hand and shook her head frantically, forcing a miserable expression onto her face.
"My feast..."
Shane closed his eyes and steeled himself. He picked out the black pearl with his thumb and index finger and gave it a gentle rub.
The black pearl became black pearl powder.
His spirits sinking, Shane thought he heard Rachel nearly faint.
"Well... Forget it. Let's stop looking for now. We've still got one left, so let's go sell it first."
Batman's low, mocking voice came from inside the pink pearl resting quietly in Shane's palm.
"Your response was certainly adequate. In a sense, you're very much like me. Your luck just isn't very good."
Shane's expression visibly shifted. He abruptly pinched the pink pearl between his fingers and swung his arm above his head.
The pink pearl continued broadcasting that delightful voice.
"Wayne Enterprises backs Gotham's pawn industry. Those two pearls are worth about a hundred and forty thousand each, but I'll give you three hundred thousand for the one you're holding."
"Are you sure you want to throw it away?"
Shane suddenly felt Rachel clinging tightly to his thigh.
Before you continue