The Ruthless Cash Machine

Lynn had not really come to settle scores with those cowards from the Court of Owls.

On the small scale, Lynn had no direct grudge against them. Aside from getting hit a few times while fighting the Talons and ending up with some bruises, there had been almost no real intersection between them.

On the larger scale, Lynn simply was not the sort of person who could be called a savior. Any grand, righteous label would have been inappropriate for him, and Lynn knew that perfectly well.

Batman knew it perfectly well too.

So when he once again stood on the rooftop, answering Gordon's call to meet him, Batman said little after hearing Gordon's concerns and underlying fear.

He merely thought in silence, then spoke in his usual cold, rough, low voice. "He has his way of doing things. We have ours.

"I don't know who is right and who is wrong, but he knows that while I may not agree with him, I will never stop him.

"And it works the other way around too.

"Lynn... he understands me well enough, better than I understand him. I have no proof. It is just a feeling, but I believe it without question.

"So, Gordon, perhaps we should trust him. Watch what he intends to do. See whether he is right.

"Time will prove who was right..."

Batman might have had doubts in his heart, but he would never reveal any weakness before others, not even before his closest friend, Gordon.

After hearing Batman's seemingly impartial words, which nevertheless clearly leaned toward one side, Gordon could only shrug helplessly. "But someone once said that time is the best teacher, and it also kills all of its students.

"Honestly, I don't know what he cares about, and I have no idea why he does these things.

"I mean...

"There has to be a reason, right?"

Gordon had such doubts, and so did Batman.

Every vigilante, every street hero, every Guardian, did those things because of some powerful emotion or sense of responsibility.

Some wanted to uphold order and the law. Some wanted to protect the kind and the weak. Some wanted to punish the wicked. Some loved their city deeply...

But Lynn was different. None of those surging, burning emotions could be seen in him at all.

Just as Gordon had witnessed the previous day, he had killed the Court of Owls' group of six with methods that could only be called cruel.

Revenge? That was obviously too ridiculous a reason.

His purpose was direct and pure, yet completely unreasonable, without even the slightest clue as to what it was.

Lynn did not love this city. No careful observation was needed for that; every pore and every glance of his constantly expressed his dissatisfaction with it.

Then, did he possess a pure and kind heart?

What nonsense.

Or perhaps he merely wanted to experience the thrill of taking other people's lives, deeply obsessed with that incomparable power?

That did not make sense either. Gordon and Batman had encountered such deranged serial killers before. They were all fanatics, intoxicated by killing itself rather than driven by any subjective purpose.

Lynn was definitely not that kind of person. Gordon felt that Lynn was more obsessed with singing and his height than with that.

Could it be...

"Is there a possibility that he was... possessed by something? A ghost, a demon, something supernatural. You know what I mean, right?"

Gordon gestured as he spoke. "The normal one is him, but there is another soul in his mind giving orders, directing and forcing him to do those things. That is why he is so contradictory, so unreasonable, so impossible to understand."

"Impossible. No."

Batman flatly rejected Gordon's only seemingly plausible guess.

There were other things he could not be certain about, but Lynn being controlled by something like a demon?

Batman had not forgotten what kind of monster that seemingly harmless little black cat Lynn had thrown at him had been.

It had voluntarily blocked an attack that could have seriously injured or even killed Batman, then summoned a whole swarm of little demons that came running out of the shadows.

Those little creatures gnawed on stone and sucked blood. They were definitely things that could only exist in Hell.

If even Lynn's pet could command demons, how could he himself possibly be controlled by such things?

Besides, what demon spent money on cat food and haggled with the shop owner...

Lynn being a demon was not entirely wrong, but that was definitely not what it meant!

Batman and Gordon spent a long time discussing how to define Lynn's "nature," but in the end, they failed to reach any conclusion they could both accept.

Meanwhile, the protagonist of that conversation, Mr. Lynn, was at home simmering soup in a newly bought pot.

"It doesn't say to add fennel here?"

"Then how do you explain tossing in a salted fish just now?"

Kitty lay atop a cookbook even bigger than itself, laboriously helping Lynn improve his soup-making skills through a mixture of studying the pictures and guessing the words.

It had taken it upon itself to add some extra ingredients earlier. Fortunately, Lynn discovered it in time while it stood on its hind legs, struggling to clutch cat food in its front paws and dump it into the pot, preventing a disaster.

Now it was working off its debt.

As for Lynn, he held a long-handled wooden spoon and slowly stirred something that looked more like a cauldron than a pot.

"Th-this... is it okay? Can anyone even drink this?"

Since it had helped cook this entire pot of soup, Kitty knew very well what had gone into it.

"These are all premium ingredients. Every one of them can strengthen the kidneys! The water is Dionysus Springwater, the kind you cannot buy even if you want to.

"Drink this stuff, and even Arthas could come back to life!"

Taking out his custom-made gourds, Lynn carefully sorted the things in the pot into different gourds. He decided to use this stuff as a recovery potion from now on.

"Let me have a sip too~"

"Kitty shouldn't say things like that. Wait until you grow up."

"Meow—!"

If it could not get it, it would take it. Trying to reason with a cat was clearly not very realistic.

And after finally getting to drink the recovery potion, Kitty showed no unusual reaction whatsoever.

"What garbage. It is basically just chicken soup. Boring."

With an arrogant flick of its tail, Kitty turned and ran upstairs. It had set its sights on Lynn's couch again and was preparing to sharpen its claws.

It had always been good at post-meal exercise.

"Come back here."

Lynn grabbed Kitty by the scruff of its neck and dragged it back.

"Did you forget something?"

Kitty shrank its neck. "What? I don't know! I forgot!"

"Heh."

Lynn curled his lips into a smile that did not reach his eyes, dragged it outside by the foreleg, and placed it in front of himself. "Hurry up. Summon a demon. Any kind will do."

"I... I still can't control them on my own... There aren't even any enemies here. Why are you summoning them?"

"Ah~~! I get it."

Lynn grabbed Kitty's two front paws and swung it in a full one-armed circle! The moment he let go, Kitty successfully launched into the air.

Meanwhile, Lynn was already prepared below, gun in his left hand and hammer in his right.

"If Deadshot could kill demons with bullets, there is no reason I can't.

"If that is the case...

"Kitty is practically the perfect cash machine!"

Lynn had no interest in killing people. He was only interested in cashing out and drawing prizes.

People worked too. Demons, of course, worked as well.