Humans Came in All Kinds

Miaomiao spoke happily, but Bruce looked grave.

"What happened next?"

A little merfolk with her tail exposed, surrounded by villagers who had watched her transform...

How would that end?

A flood of horrifying possibilities flashed through Bruce's mind, each one a brutally real prospect.

"After that? Well, she kept flopping around on the ground and got herself covered in dirt. The adults asked the child and found out she was a friend the child had made in the sea. Someone couldn't bear to watch anymore, so they found a big vat, picked the little merfolk up, and put her inside. Then they filled it with seawater for her to soak in, which saved her from shriveling into a little dried fish."

Miaomiao was beside herself with amusement at this part.

"The villagers had never seen a merfolk with their own eyes, so they were fascinated. Only the old village chief had heard his grandfather tell a similar story when he was little. He found a few strong workers to carry the vat and take the little merfolk back to the shore. They ran right into an Elder who had come looking for her and nearly thought they were about to boil her!"

Miaomiao laughed so hard she collapsed onto the sofa. Bruce watched her, unable to laugh at all.

Was this how those Elders taught the little merfolk? No wonder Miaomiao had no wariness of human nature. What if she met someone with malicious intentions...?

"Miaomiao, you..."

Bruce suddenly found himself at a loss for how to begin.

Children in Gotham were forced to face the world's cruelty from an early age. He had become Batman precisely because he wanted to change Gotham, to let its children retain the innocence they deserved at their age.

And now he was going to shatter that innocence himself?

"Bruce?"

Miaomiao blinked, seemingly puzzled by why Bruce had stopped halfway through his sentence.

"Miaomiao."

Bruce still decided to be the "bad guy" himself. Even if he shattered Miaomiao's rosy vision of the world now, that was far better than letting her encounter someone with ulterior motives without realizing it and end up getting hurt.

But the moment he opened his mouth, Miaomiao seemed to guess what he wanted to say and cut him off.

"Bruce, are you trying to tell me that people's hearts are hard to read, and I need to learn to protect myself?"

Bruce fell silent for a second, then gave a helpless smile. "Yes. Besides, this is Gotham."

A place called "No Man's Land" and the "City of Crime," cursed by a demon from the moment it had come into being hundreds of years ago.

In Gotham, the gods were silent.

Miaomiao's smile faded, and she asked softly, "Bruce, do you want to know what the version of that story we heard was like?"

In the story the Elders told the little merfolk, the villagers were not nearly so friendly.

They saw the little merfolk's tail and caught her in a fishing net. They found ways to pull out her nails, strip off her scales, and cut off her beautiful tail. To prevent her from calling to her people for help, they also cut out her tongue and destroyed her voice.

They whipped her every day, all to make the little merfolk weave day and night, producing the priceless dragon silk that only the Merfolk could weave. And when the little merfolk grew too weak to weave or spin, they devised every possible way to torment her, forcing her to weep pearls until she cried herself blind and shed her final, blood-stained tear.

"They called that blood-red pearl, which a merfolk could shed only once in her life, a 'Blood-Tears Pearl,' and claimed it symbolized 'love that endures until death.'"

Chills ran down Bruce's back. The story laid bare humanity's selfishness and cruelty, yet they still draped it in a beautiful veil of "love."

"The story wasn't over yet."

Miaomiao's voice was very soft.

"The Merfolk would never abandon their own. So when other merfolk learned of the little merfolk's plight, they would try to rescue her. And by going, they would fall right into a trap the humans had prepared long ago, specifically for the Merfolk. Otherwise, how could such carefully concealed news about the little merfolk have reached the sea?"

"That way, there was no need to risk going out to sea to search. Merfolk would deliver themselves right to their door. An endless, inexhaustible supply."

"Every part of a merfolk, from tears to blood, from flesh to scales, was carved apart piece by piece, becoming featherlight clothing on human bodies, gleaming pearls on their headdresses and around their necks, accessories at their waists that displayed their status, and lamp oil that would burn in tombs for ten thousand years..."

"...Miaomiao..."

Bruce's throat was dry. He had no idea how to comfort her.

Playboy sweetheart Bruce only knew how to murmur sweet nothings he did not mean, while the Dark Knight, Batman, only knew how to issue unwelcome prohibitions.

Miaomiao suddenly smiled again and comforted Bruce instead. "Bruce, see? I know all of it. Whether it's human kindness or malice, I understand it perfectly."

Precisely because she understood, when Miaomiao truly came to this world and encountered real humans on land, she found it all perfectly normal: the Wayne family's friendliness, tinged with curiosity and caution; Poison Ivy Pamela Isley's casual interest; or the Joker's indiscriminate, pure malice.

Humans were creatures that came in all kinds, after all.

"So you can make do with anything except this!"

The little merfolk Miaomiao held out her soft, fair little claws, revealing sharp nails haloed in blue and violet, and proudly flexed them a few times. "Strength! Strength is the one thing you absolutely can't compromise on! Power is the foundation every merfolk stands on! If anyone dares try anything nasty, beat their ass!"

"..."

This time, Bruce was utterly speechless.

At first, he had clearly been worried that an innocent, carefree little merfolk coming ashore for the first time might get hurt because she trusted humans too much. So why had he suddenly started worrying that sweet little Miaomiao was the dangerous one?

For some reason, Bruce found this feeling rather familiar-

He seemed to have worried the same way a year ago, when another troublesome child arrived...

"Father, is there any more training scheduled for today?"

The voice he heard every day rang out. The other "troublesome child" had arrived.

Damian had just finished feeding his cats, dogs, rabbits, turkeys, swans, peacocks, cows, bats, crocodiles... in the backyard. He had also taken Titus the Bat-Hound for a walk along the way.

Boy and dog had raced gleefully around Wayne Manor's sprawling backyard, occasionally leaping up and down and refusing to take the ordinary route. Catching Frisbees was child's play. They preferred scaling walls and racing over rooftops, throwing darts, catching darts, predicting each other's movements, and intercepting, dodging, or even pursuing each other.

Taken together, that much exercise would not have been easy even for a strong adult. But for Damian, who had undergone rigorous training since early childhood, it was no more than a warm-up.

Titus the Bat-Hound approached with elegant strides, surveyed the scene, and walked over to the little merfolk Miaomiao's sofa.

Miaomiao shifted to one side to make some room. Titus hopped up lightly and settled down. Miaomiao promptly sprawled over Titus, wrapped her arms around the dog's head, and launched into a frenzy of petting.

Ah, she just loved these adorable, handsome, fluffy creatures so much! She was going to kiss Titus bald!