The Great Memory-Wiping Technique

"No, you can't." Pamela smiled. "You can all become fertilizer for my flowers together."

"Come on..." Roland looked miserable.

But Pamela had little interest in him. Instead, she looked at her former boss, Bruce, eager to see how ugly he would look as he faced death.

Roland kept wriggling on the spot until he finally got a hand in front of his chest.

The next instant, the Cross Knife came free. Its blade flashed, severing every vine binding Roland.

"What!" Pamela's pupils contracted. "What kind of knife is that?"

"As a clergyman, it's perfectly reasonable for me to carry a cross, isn't it?" Roland smiled and lunged at Pamela with the knife.

Pamela hurried back, summoning a swarm of plants to surge toward him.

Her fighting skills were poor. With Roland charging straight at her, she had no intention of meeting him head-on.

"Heh." Roland's fighting skills were poor too. The lunge was a feint; his real target was the trapped Bruce.

Roland cut Bruce free, accidentally slicing a hole in his expensive suit along the way, then handed him the knife. "You take it from here. I've never been much of a fighter."

"Mm." The Cross Knife gleamed coldly in Bruce's hand. He cut down several vines flying at him with precise strokes, then caught up to Pamela and knocked her unconscious in just a few moves.

[Goodwill Value +200]

"Impressive." Roland clapped.

"Your knife." Bruce handed it back.

"What about her?" Roland pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and pointed at Pamela.

"I've already called the police," Bruce said.

"Good." Roland blew a smoke ring and watched fireworks light up the distant sky. He wondered who was confessing their love. "I can't believe I spent Valentine's Day with another man. What a disaster."

"I feel the same way," Bruce shot back. "This is the first Valentine's Day night I haven't spent in bed with a beautiful woman... Wait!"

"What is it?" Roland jumped.

"Natalia. She touched that bouquet of roses too... Where is she?" Bruce looked rattled.

You don't see him like this often. Roland glanced at Bruce. Pamela's toxin must have had quite the lingering effect.

"It's fine. I've heard her voice before. Let me find her for you." Roland closed his eyes and began chanting in the dragon language.

Domain Expansion.

Word Spirit: Kamaitachi!

The Kamaitachi dwelling in Roland's mind flew outward, catching the sounds around them.

"This is bad. I can hear her. Someone's trying to grab her!" Roland's eyes snapped open.

"What's going on?"

"It's that lunatic Mad Hatter. He thinks your girlfriend is Alice!" Roland ran in one direction. "Gotham City really is packed with talent. Two dangerous lunatics this close together."

Bruce ran after him. They had not gone far when they saw a little man dragging a girl along the ground by her hair.

"I won't play along with you, you ugly madman!" Natalia clawed at Mad Hatter's arm, leaving bloody scratches. "And I won't betray Bruce!"

Mad Hatter flew into a rage. He yanked Natalia's hair and slammed her hard against the ground.

Bruce arrived just in time to see it.

The next instant, the Cross Knife was torn from Roland's chest and flew dozens of meters, burying itself in Mad Hatter's palm.

Fury filled Bruce's eyes. He ran up to Mad Hatter and punched him in the face, knocking out his front teeth and breaking his nose.

One punch, then another. Mad Hatter lost consciousness, but Bruce kept hitting him, driving him from one end of the road to the other in less than a minute.

Did he just break his no-killing rule? Roland was startled by Bruce's ferocity.

Bruce clearly still had some self-control, though. He stopped after beating Mad Hatter badly enough to leave him seriously injured.

"Natalia, are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Just some scrapes." Natalia had been startled by Bruce too. "You didn't kill him, did you?"

"I didn't hit him that hard. He'll have to spend a few months in a hospital bed, though," Bruce said.

As Bruce comforted Natalia and checked her injuries, the police arrived and asked the three of them what had happened.

"That lunatic tried to hurt Miss Natalia, and then Batman dropped out of the sky and beat him up," Roland said, glancing at Bruce.

"Batman again!" Commissioner Gordon, who was leading the officers, put on a show of cursing him before taking the three of them to a police car.

"What really happened?" Gordon asked Bruce once the four of them were alone in the car.

"Just what he said," Bruce replied.

"Then he knows..."

"He probably recognized me the first time he saw Bruce Wayne," Bruce said to Roland.

"What are you two talking about? I don't understand..." Roland played dumb.

"Stop pretending," Bruce said evenly. "If you can recognize Natalia by her voice, why wouldn't you recognize mine?"

"...You're not going to use some great memory-wiping technique on me, are you?" Roland swallowed.

The car fell silent.

"Damn it, don't just sit there in silence!" Roland burst out. "I just saved your life and your girlfriend's!"

"Knowing my identity puts you in danger," Bruce said calmly. "Someone might threaten you to find out who I really am."

"Huh? If someone threatened me, I'd just tell them."

"...You're remarkably honest." Bruce rubbed his temples. "But someone else might kill you to keep you from 'spoiling' the secret."

"People like that exist?" Roland immediately thought of someone deeply entangled with Batman. "All right, I guess they do."

"So knowing my real identity isn't a good thing." Bruce sighed.

"That's not much of a problem. If I don't tell anyone, how would they know I know who you are?" Roland said. "You should be more worried about whether Poison Ivy and Mad Hatter will figure out you're Batman."

"It's fine. I used a little trick when I struck their heads. They'll lose a short stretch of their recent memories."

"...Is that even possible?"

"There's nothing strange about it," Bruce said. "Practice makes perfect."

Gordon stopped the car. "Out you go. Take Natalia somewhere to rest. I need to get back and finish Valentine's Day with Barbara... Getting called out in the middle of it really stinks."

"...So you're all going back to enjoy Valentine's Day, and I'm the only one stuck here single?"