A huge misunderstanding

Everything had gone according to Batwoman's plan. She had kept her trump card, the Hydraulic Exoskeleton, hidden until the last moment.

And it had won her the victory she wanted.

The woman clutched her back and staggered to her feet, her breathless monologue echoing through the empty hall.

"You know... Batman, I once saw you as Gotham's hope, but what you've done has disappointed me beyond words."

"Maybe you've forgotten, but we met once two years ago. I asked you... how long you would keep going... You said until the end of your life... But you didn't keep your word. You're a coward."

"I'd rather you were dead!"

She walked toward Stuart, who lay sprawled on the floor, and stopped about three feet away.

For a moment, she wanted to pull off his mask and see just what kind of face lay beneath it.

But she ultimately abandoned the idea.

Whoever that face belonged to no longer mattered.

She looked away and dragged her heavy body toward the exit.

Suddenly, she heard a cape flutter behind her.

She whipped her head around. The floor was empty.

It was as though the fierce battle had merely been this fan's one-sided delusion.

But she knew perfectly well that it was no delusion.

Just as she turned back, a powerful black-gloved hand struck from the shadows.

Batwoman was seized by the throat and pinned against the wall.

Wounded, she no longer had the strength to resist.

"You're an opponent worthy of respect. You even made me forget you were a woman for a while."

"And you... are a despicable opponent..."

Resentment seeped through her halting words. She had once believed Batman would never modify his body to achieve his goals. He had said it was a matter of faith and perseverance, an endless ordeal of self-discipline.

Of course, Batwoman had no conclusive evidence.

But she believed that even a silverback gorilla could not remain standing unscathed after taking blows from the Hydraulic Exoskeleton.

What had Batman been through this past year? Had an evil scientist modified him?

"Stop fighting! She isn't an enemy!"

William finally arrived at the tail end of the battle and stopped Stuart's fist with a single sentence.

"Are you serious? She stole your stuff."

Stuart snatched the document envelope from her and checked that its wax seal was intact.

"I'm sure this must be a misunderstanding. Ma'am, if you could explain why you were at the Falcone Estate, I think my friend would let you go."

A friend?

Since when did Batman have friends?!

Could this man be the evil scientist, the culprit controlling Batman from behind the scenes?

Yes, that had to be it!

She abruptly turned her head, fixing William with a hate-filled stare.

An inexplicable chill ran through William, and he rubbed his arms.

Seeing that she still had no intention of speaking, he could only turn back and try to persuade Stuart again.

"You've already made a huge commotion. Luxury estates like this usually have automatic alarm systems. You've been fighting for so long that I imagine the police are already on their way."

Stuart finally released her.

But Batwoman immediately threw down a smoke bomb.

It was a standard Bat Family trick, but clearly she had yet to master it. Standing nearby, William distinctly saw her duck into the corridor on the left. In her panic, she even stepped on her own cape and tore it off.

Rip-!

Once the smoke cleared, William picked up the cape.

The trip had not been entirely fruitless. For instance, the moment he had approached Batwoman, a system quest had automatically popped up.

[High-difficulty side quest detected: Rescue Ms. Kathy Kane from the thug threatening her. Completing the quest will grant one use of the save function and one Marking Beacon.]

Interestingly, after assessing Batman's combat strength, the system had rated the quest as highly difficult, yet overlooked his relationship with William.

And once Stuart let go, William had completed this high-difficulty quest with ridiculous ease.

Besides gaining the save access he had long dreamed of and replenishing his beacons, William had also gained permission to mark Batwoman, Kathy Kane.

Kathy's portrait appeared in the character tab.

William froze the instant he saw it.

Wasn't that the girl who had played the piano at Falcone's mansion earlier?

At last, a proper romance target.

His hands trembling and his heart racing with excitement, William moved the beacon onto her portrait.

An affection bar appeared in the character tab, with an assessment of William beside it.

This was the first time William had seen a full affection bar before he had even done anything...

Well, actually, that thing could hardly be called an affection bar. Instead of the usual heart icon, it showed a pixelated blade dripping with blood.

That had to be a hatred bar.

The character's assessment below confirmed William's suspicion.

"The evil scientist controlling Batman, a vile, shameless supervillain!!!!!!"

Uh, this misunderstanding seemed to have gotten out of hand.

It was already three in the morning when Kathy left Gotham Hospital.

Clutching her CT scans, Kathy returned home to a cozy, fifty-square-meter apartment decorated with soft, plush furnishings.

"This is awful. Nothing could be worse than what happened today. It's like someone pried my mouth open and fed me a cockroach. I have to save Batman as soon as possible, or Gotham is finished..."

She had been complaining from the second she opened the door, all the way through taking off her tall boots and hanging up her coat.

"Kate, are you even listening to me?"

Her voice suddenly softened. Like a cat demanding affection, she flopped onto the bed and rested her head on the lap of Kate, her identical twin.

Unlike the exhausted Kathy, Kate had the television's light reflected in her eyes and seemed to be smiling.

"I think you need a complete plan of action, instead of wanting to write Falcone a threatening letter one day and arrest criminals and gangsters the next. Maybe you're used to using my identity to create an alibi, but that only deals with suspicion on the surface. Sooner or later, you're going to run into a difficult opponent, aren't you?"

"You have a point. Speaking of which... did Falcone suspect you?" Kathy lifted her head.

"Of course not. Miss Kate Kane stayed in the back garden the entire time after her piano performance. More than one pair of eyes can vouch for me."

Kathy wrapped her arms around her younger sister's head.

Making her timid, insecure younger sister, who suffered from anxiety, perform onstage to cover for her own activities was selfish. Kathy knew that perfectly well, but right now, she had no way to make it up to her. All she could do was offer hugs and encouragement.

Yet Kate seemed to be in unusually good spirits today.

"Did something happen to you?"

"I met a kind person. He gave me a thumbs-up when I finished playing!"

"Of course! I've always told you that you're the best!"

Kathy cupped her younger sister's face and gave it a thorough squishing.

But the thought of Batman's drastic change in temperament and that "evil scientist" sent her spirits plummeting again.

"But I met a bad person today. An absolutely awful guy."