Martha!!

Martha!!

Li Zu wiped the blood from his nose, and his head cleared a little.

Whether from that near-mad mental state where his sanity had plummeted, or from the dizziness caused by losing so much blood through his nose.

The child had cried himself out, and the house fell quiet.

It was already afternoon. Sunlight streamed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, soothing the mind.

He struggled up from the blood-red sofa. Through the glass, he could see a black-and-white spotted cat crouching on a tree branch.

"Meow~"

The cat noticed his gaze, meowed, and jumped down from the tree.

"Damn Batman, damn Harvey Dent, damn..." Lady Joker was still cursing. This was unlike her usual self.

She rarely got angry over anything.

But this time, she seemed unable to suppress the fury in her heart.

Li Zu pushed open the door and walked out. He began to wonder which was more appealing to the Joker: tormenting Batman or overturning this broken world.

Two footprints were left on the portrait of the Holy Son lying on the ground, its face marked with a twisted scarlet smile.

This was a world beyond even a god's power to save.

There was a balcony on the third floor.

Crows pecked at the roof tiles, their shadows stretched long by the setting sun.

Hearing Li Zu's footsteps, they flapped away in a rush of wings, leaving a string of caws above his head.

On the balcony stood Li Zu, along with a cat watching him strangely.

He paid no attention to the cat and merely spread his hands.

A wooden crate appeared out of nowhere and fell from the sky, crashing down before him.

He opened the crate. It was empty.

Li Zu placed Lady Joker's toy onto one corner of the crate.

The crate vanished at once.

Turning an entire living creature into a toy was completely different from turning only part of someone into a toy.

The smaller a living person became after being turned into a toy, the less effort and stamina it cost him. It was like paying in installments: the size of the down payment determined whether things would be easier or harder later. But he still could not see what advantage a life-sized toy had over one the size of a finger.

Screech—

The sound of a car braking sharply came from below.

A middle-aged man held a phone in his right hand and a pistol in his left.

He immediately spotted Li Zu on the third-floor balcony and raised his gun.

Li Zu obediently raised both hands. "The two children are on the second floor. Don't shoot~"

"Stay there and don't move!" The man's glasses reflected the sunset. His beard concealed the expression on the lower half of his face, but from his voice, he sounded as though he were gritting his teeth.

"Of course. I absolutely won't move around~"

Li Zu swore solemnly. He truly had no intention of moving, because the guy downstairs could not possibly make it to the third floor.

Jim Gordon was very serious.

The surveillance footage showed that it was this man in the green suit who had turned Harvey Dent into a finger-sized toy.

Toyman had once been an obscure bastard, because his ability had been clumsy and useless.

Whether he turned lighters into toys or banknotes into plastic scraps, it could only be considered a prank. And though the man had the temperament of a child, he did not possess a brilliant mind.

But everything that had happened today had drawn enormous attention to this madman.

Harvey Dent was the most corrupt, most insane, and most paranoid man in this city, but anyone could die except Harvey Dent.

That was the compromise everyone had accepted: Batman, Penguin, even the supervillains.

But this man had destroyed that unspoken compromise.

Jim Gordon glared at Toyman upstairs, who had both hands raised. He did not lower the phone in his hand.

"I've tracked Toyman down, Thomas!"

"Wait, I'll be there soon," Thomas Wayne's voice came through the phone.

"Let me play the hero for once too, Thomas! That guy doesn't look like much. I guarantee that before he turns me into a toy, there'll be a few more holes in his head."

Jim hung up, pushed open the heavy iron gate with rusted hinges, and entered the villa-like castle steeped in darkness as crows took flight around him.

The first-floor door stood open.

He entered. There were no windows, only the faint light filtering in through the doorway.

It was very dark.

The room was empty, with twentieth-century paintings hanging on the walls.

It looked more like an art exhibition than a private villa.

The light from the entrance happened to shine upon the painting directly before Jim.

Jim's gaze was drawn to it involuntarily.

What he saw was a group of monsters.

They resembled no kind of demon, yet they were certainly not human. They retained only a few human traits. Most stood on two legs and leaned forward, looking like a pack of dogs.

The paintings portrayed them in nauseating detail, swarming through cemeteries and tunnels in packs as they fought over prey. Those prey had eyeless faces. It was horrifying.

In other paintings, those creatures leaped through open windows at night, crouched upon sleeping humans' chests, and prepared to tear out their throats.

One painting showed them circling a witch hanged on Gallows Hill, barking without end. The dead witch's face was startlingly similar to theirs.

Jim Gordon felt uncomfortable, mentally exhausted.

He forcibly tore his gaze from the paintings. Even a normal person would surely descend into madness and fear after staying in a place like this for too long and looking at those paintings.

The stairs to the second floor creaked.

"Mmph, mmph, mmph." Something made muffled cries. Jim steeled himself and slowed his steps.

At the second-floor doorway, at the obtuse turn leading to the third floor, lay a portrait of the Holy Son.

Scarlet paint had smeared an eerie smile across his face.

"Mmph, mmph." The sound came from the room.

Suppressing the pounding in his chest, Jim drew his gun and pushed open the door.

Bang

Bang

Bang!!

Li Zu sat on the balcony, listening to the gunshots below.

There should have been a winner. He had hoped that the man who seemed righteous could take out the Joker.

But the screams explained everything.

As expected, the Joker had won again.

Roar, roar, roar—the engine bellowed.

On the distant horizon, a black jeep came charging wildly forward.

This Batman had no Batmobile. His black cape streamed in the wind, and he had heard the gunshots too.

"Martha!!"

Batman roared, "What have you done this time?!"

Li Zu's smile suddenly froze. Things had developed somewhat beyond his expectations.

This was the first time.

He grabbed at his hair in frustration. The faint pain in his scalp helped him focus. Batman ignored Li Zu, leaped up, used a grappling line to pull himself through the window, and flew into the second floor.

"Again and again, don't really do this, Joker!" Batman was still roaring.

An argument broke out below, their words revealing the relationship between the two.

And the son they had lost together.

The ones who had died in the alley that day were not Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne, but young Bruce.

Thomas had beaten that bastard to death with his fists, while Martha had suffered a mental breakdown over her son's death and become the Joker.

Batman's shouts came from directly below him, yet at that moment Li Zu found his partnership with the Joker rather ridiculous.

The person he had encountered was not a real Joker.

"Working with a madwoman who lost her child... no matter how I look at it, I'm the crazy one."

The true Joker could help Li Zu achieve his goal of overturning this broken world. But Martha Wayne was merely a deranged woman obsessed with her child. Perhaps she had become highly intelligent after going mad, but she definitely would not help Li Zu do anything. Her love for Batman also meant that Batman was the only one in her eyes.

Two figures fell from the shattered window. Batman used his own body as a cushion, protecting the Joker.

That touching marital bond looked unbearably dull to Li Zu.

The weather changed quickly. Dark clouds abruptly filled the sky, followed by flashes of lightning and peals of thunder.

Rain began to fall in a soft patter.

Li Zu stood up.

"Perhaps it's time to leave Gotham."

(End of chapter)