He's My Benefactor, After All

Ririko pressed on. "Since you hate him so much, you must have bullied him when you were kids, right?"

Jason's eyes lit up.

He hadn't expected the gorgeous young woman who had beckoned him over to take such an interest in his family affairs.

A delighted smile instantly spread across his face, as though he were remembering amusing childhood adventures.

"Back in winter, that guy who only liked talking to birds would run off into the woods. We'd lock him outside all night. He didn't dare knock, and by morning he was frozen stiff..."

He grew more animated as he spoke, describing how their schoolmates had ostracized him, mocked his limp, and stuck out their feet to trip him in the hallway...

Jason vividly described the day his father had thrown Oswald out of the house. His luggage and his maid mother's had been tossed into a puddle outside, their clothes scattered everywhere like discarded trash.

Ririko listened quietly, her smile deepening. Every now and then, she nodded, as though encouraging him to keep recounting those vicious memories masquerading as "fun."

Jason thought she was falling for him.

A beautiful woman showed such keen interest in his family history, and her smile only kept growing-

How could that mean anything but a chance with her?

He leaned forward a little, trying to seem more intimate, more trustworthy.

"We actually have lots of photos at home of us playing pranks on my brother. Come over, and I'll show you..."

Ririko tilted her head.

The veil swayed gently before her forehead, like a butterfly briefly alighting among flowers before taking flight again.

"I'd like to," she said.

Jason's heart gave a thump in his chest.

He leaned even farther forward, his elbows braced on the bar, his fingers nearly touching the glass Ririko had set on the counter.

"But someone might not be happy about that," Ririko added.

Her gaze passed over Jason's shoulder and settled on someone nearby.

Jason's smile froze for a moment.

He had suspected a beauty like her wouldn't be here alone, but he was already prepared to "compete" with the other man.

After all, his Cobblepot family was a prominent name in Gotham.

With a man's competitive smile, he asked, "Who are you meeting?"

Ririko lifted her glass, leaving a faint pink trace of lip gloss on its rim, and said in a sultry voice:

"That person... is standing right behind you."

Jason's smile remained. He turned around graciously to find a man in a black suit standing less than two paces behind him.

Jason studied the elegantly dressed man before him. A diamond tie clip glittered against his black tie, and his black-gloved hand held a specially made black umbrella.

Everything he wore was aloof and restrained, like a piece of meticulously polished obsidian that stood out all the more amid the banquet's dazzling colors.

Jason thought that face looked familiar.

Especially that steep, sharp nose. He had only ever seen it on one person's face.

"And this gentleman is...?" Jason asked as politely as he could.

Oswald hadn't looked at Jason once.

He stared at Ririko, shocked and irritated by her constant refusal to play by the rules.

Especially that champagne-colored satin dance dress. She was sitting openly in his restaurant drinking, dressed so alluringly, with no regard for him whatsoever.

He stepped forward and said to Ririko, "I'd like to hear that too... just who am I?"

Ririko gave a bewitching smile. Bird Man had arrived at just the right moment.

She pursed her little lips, her innocent tone carrying an unmistakable challenge:

"You may be my boss, but I'm only having a drink here. Surely I haven't offended you."

Oswald saw the glass of sherry on the bar, its rim marked with her lips, and wanted to know which blind fool had dared to drink and laugh with Ririko there.

His hawklike gaze flicked toward Jason, and he instantly recognized him.

The wretched memories of his childhood flashed through his mind in mere seconds.

Ririko's foxlike eyes sparkled.

This was exactly what she wanted to see:

How Bird Man, honed by years of Gotham's darkness and cold, would "repay" the family member who had swept him and his mother out like garbage.

After hearing their exchange, Jason's expression turned strange. "He's your boss?"

If he was her boss, he shouldn't interfere with an employee's private life-unless he was that kind of "boss."

Ririko didn't deny it. Instead, she went a step further and confirmed his suspicion. "You guessed right. He's my 'benefactor,' after all."

She slipped lightly off the barstool and walked toward Oswald.

She leaned against his shoulder, naturally looped her arm through his, and rested her fingers on his black-gloved wrist.

Oswald seemed accustomed to her improper behavior by now. He stayed still, merely wondering what mischief she was plotting.

He tilted his head and murmured against Ririko's ear, "I'll settle this with you later."

Ririko was equally accustomed to Bird Man's "angry mode." She whispered by his ear, "He still doesn't know who you are."

Then she turned and said to Jason with a coquettish smile:

"Mr. Cobblepot, thank you for the drink. I'll definitely visit your house next time to see those old photos of your brother."

Jason's Adam's apple bobbed.

He watched the woman in the champagne-colored dance dress, alluring from head to toe, lean against another man and whisper to him like a docile cat.

Jealousy crawled up from his stomach like a snake and coiled in his throat.

Then Oswald stepped forward, his tone cold but courteous:

"Mr. Cobblepot, it's been a long time."

Jason finally recognized that high-pitched voice, with its strange, birdlike resonance.

His gaze hastily shifted from Oswald's face to his bad leg.

The brother he had pinned to the ground and punched so often that he could no longer remember his face was the same impeccably dressed man before him, with an impossibly beautiful woman leaning against his shoulder?

What on earth had happened to him?

Watching Jason's expression shift from confusion to disbelief, Ririko smiled in satisfaction against Oswald's shoulder.

Jason's mouth hung open. With difficulty, he managed, "You're... Oswald?"

Oswald raised his chin.

Under the lights, his hooked nose cast a deeper, sharper shadow, dividing his pale face into halves of light and dark.

"You really are forgetful. Of course I'm the genuine Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot."

He enunciated his full name word by word, as though formally proclaiming his identity at a ceremony.

The younger brother and sister behind Jason stepped forward.

William was two years younger than Jason, taller and broader in the shoulders. He stared blankly at the scene before him.

Ellie came last. She was the youngest, and at last she had met the person her family had summed up throughout her childhood with the words "don't mention him."

Oswald looked at the younger siblings he hadn't seen in so long. This was why he had struggled all these years: to see that stunned look in their eyes when they faced him.

Better still, the envy on all three faces when they saw Ririko gave him a subtle sense of satisfaction.

He glanced at the nearby dining table, where a champagne bucket stood beside several plates of expensive food-

He knew that table hadn't come cheap. After all, he had personally set the prices on that outrageously expensive menu.

The three of them... seemed to be celebrating something at the club.

Oswald looked at them. "Is there... some happy occasion today? May I join the celebration?"

At those words, all three of them went rigid.