Chapter 57 Chapter 57 Your task now is to go to school.

John recognized the thing at a glance, and his eyes went dark.

This had nothing to do with magic, and even from a technological perspective, it was already outdated. Compared to SD cards and embedded memory chips, which measured capacity in gigabytes and terabytes, microfilm, which could only hold a maximum of 1KB of text data, was as ancient as a flip phone with only buttons and no touchscreen.

Moreover, it is so light and small that the slightest breeze can blow it away to who knows where; it is not waterproof or fireproof and will be scrapped by an X-ray. Its cost-effectiveness is no match for the other two small props.

"You know this," Elio said.

The clever child must have seen something in his expression. When Elio reached out, the breeze created a gust of wind that blew the tiny microfilm; but the assassin's hand was light and precise, and he easily grasped it between his fingers before it slipped away.

The film, with nowhere to escape, flipped lightly between his index and middle fingers and was lifted. John slumped back into the seat, as if he were being held in Elio's grasp, staring at it with a deadpan expression. Elio's green eyes, half hidden by the black film, scrutinized the tiny object that had nearly slipped away; then, his gaze slid to John.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Let me make this clear," John pointed a finger at the thing in Elio's hand, holding his glass. "I'm a complete outsider, okay? I don't want to know what's going on, what your parents do for a living, and I don't want to get involved."

Elio looked at him. John suspected there was a mysterious smile behind the mask.

"What is this, John?" he asked.

"It's clearly a film," John said, "just a microfilm. It was superseded a few years ago by a newer version, so your generation probably hasn't seen it much. If you want to read it—if you want to be really professional about it—you'll need a special reader, but I imagine a microscope will suffice."

Elio nodded, still staring at him thoughtfully. John pretended not to understand his look, downed the last sip of his drink, stood up and patted his windbreaker as if nothing had happened. "What are you waiting for? Go find the instrument. This is the last thing your parents left you. I'm sure you can't wait to find out what's inside."

"John," Elio said from behind him.

"There's a school nearby. You can directly 'borrow' their laboratory." John slid to the back door of the bar. He only needed to reach out and he would see the light of day again. "As for what you saw in there, you don't have to tell me. I don't want to know. Really."

This time, Elio said nothing. But John's hand, which had just reached for the door handle, froze. He heard the click of a pistol's safety going off.

He turned his head stiffly. Elio was still sitting at the bar, smiling at him.

"I'm very reluctant to point a gun at my lifesaver," he said, "especially since we can't be seen by the surveillance cameras and no one will remember we had a conversation here."

Under his veiled threat, John reluctantly moved back to his previous seat and sat down again. Elio casually set the gun aside with the safety off and opened another bottle of Ardbeg whiskey for him. This was John's favorite drink, but at this moment, he unexpectedly felt the bitterness of his last drink.

"I don't know anything, really!" John almost swore (although neither angels nor demons would be bothered to listen to his swear).

"That's not how you say it," Elio said. "If you really don't know anything, why are you avoiding it?"

John took a deep, resigned breath and raised his hands in surrender.

"I don't really know what this is about," he said, "but I know what this is. No one in their right mind would try to get their hands on it, or slip it into a coin to pass information, sweetheart. I've seen a few spy movies, you know."

He glanced at Elio, who understood the implication and was stunned for a moment.

"When your parents met me," John said vaguely, "we were in... well, it wasn't really a 'legal' place, so I never thought about it that way. But anyway, I'm not interested in official things, you know?"

He winked at Elio again. Elio, still wondering if he'd made a mistake, finally fell silent. He looked down at the subtle Assassin's triangle scratch on the coin, then looked up at John, who was trying to make eye contact with him.

No matter how you look at it, the definition of the Assassin's Brotherhood seems to be far from the label of "official".

But then again, Elio could understand why John would think that. If he knew nothing about it, he'd probably have shied away from it, thinking it looked like spies passing information; the fact that they weren't official—a secret organization passing information, seriously?—only made it worse.

So, under the hint of John's unyielding eyes, Elio finally nodded calmly, "I understand."

Because I don't want to have anything to do with the authorities, Elio thought.

"I'm very grateful for everything you've done for us," Elio said, slowly stuffing the film back into the coin. "You saved me and the information my parents exchanged their lives for."

There was a soft click. Elio pinched the coin between two fingers.

"You risked your life to protect it for eight years, and then returned it to me after those eight years." He raised his eyes and looked across at John. "If you had any role in this matter, I would say that your role has ended here."

John breathed a sigh of relief. That was exactly what he'd wanted to hear, a statement of disclaimer that he wasn't responsible for this, nor would he be held accountable for the consequences or targeted by those pesky authorities. But when he looked at the dark-haired young man sitting across from him, the child he'd rescued from the explosion and whose parents had abandoned him, John's expression was still momentarily shadowed by sadness.

"Because from now on," Elio didn't see his expression clearly, nor did he care. He just flicked the coin between his fingers, "this is my mission."

·

"No. Your mission now is to go to school." Batman said ruthlessly.

Hearing this, Robin, who had just jumped up excitedly, was stunned. That moment of daze didn't last long. Soon, Dick's face was filled with anger. Without even changing out of his Robin uniform, he aggressively pushed Batman's shoulder away and rushed upstairs without saying a word.

But Batman being Batman, he's unfazed. And even Superman, being here, has to admit that Dick, still a minor, should be in school (and shouldn't be giving Superman homework to do. Batman, of course, notices this).

What's more, the case they are investigating doesn't seem complicated, and Batman thinks he can follow up on it on his own (of course, he won't let Dick follow if it's too complicated).

The cause was a car accident that occurred last night in front of the "Paul's" fast food restaurant near Chinatown. It looked like the result of a street gang fight, but the car exploded a bit seriously, which attracted Batman's attention.

The people in the car disappeared mysteriously. Although Batman easily found out that someone in another car had dragged the people in the first car away (there were obvious traces on the street), the rigorous detective decided to follow this clue to continue tracking the follow-up - he was too familiar with the city of Gotham, and he knew that even the most insignificant details could be involved in a terrible crime.

Even if not, he would investigate unexplained disappearances. That's part of the Dark Knight's job.

Other details discovered during the investigation were naturally "surprises." The two cars chasing each other belonged to Two-Face's men, presumably some kind of internal dispute; when Batman discovered this, he realized he could take advantage of the situation, whether to investigate whether Two-Face was plotting something or to find ways to divide Two-Face's men.

While investigating this car accident, Batman noticed a similar one from eight years prior. He remembered a car crash that year in front of that same fast food restaurant, resulting in a massive explosion and fatalities that was covered in the news for two or three days. Robin had discovered this, and he said mysteriously, "That was a bank robbery, Bruce. Guess who was behind it?"

Batman doesn't have to guess. No, Batman never guesses (in a low voice).

"Two-Face." Batman replied in a low voice.

"That's right!" Robin jumped up. "So there must be some connection between them. Just like you said, there are no such things as 'coincidences' in cases. I'll call Commissioner Gordon right now and ask him to pull out the file from eight years ago!"

They should. Batman acquiesced, believing that adding a piece of information might actually add a clue. But as Robin discussed what they should do next, Batman noticed the time in the bottom right corner of the screen. The Batcave was out of sight, but daylight had arrived.

So he said: You should go to school.

Dick cunningly avoided the topic of "you should go to bed" before, but now there was no excuse to avoid the topic of school. After driving away the energetic assistant, Batman continued his focused work that reversed day and night until his butler Alfred came to remind him, and Batman was reluctantly ready to rest.

But at this moment, the reply message from Commissioner Gordon, who had just started working, appeared on his Batphone.

"Sorry Batman, we can't find that file."

Curled up in bed, Bruce, his hair unkempt, fished his phone out from under his pillow, squinting his eyes as he pondered for a moment. It was a file from eight years ago, a bit old. Perhaps the Gotham Police Department had neglected to keep it safe, which wasn't unreasonable. But soon, Gordon's next message arrived.

"I originally thought they hadn't found it. You know, that was eight years ago after all. But guess what I discovered? Just this morning, two kids claiming to be from the mystery club came to look through the files, and they succeeded. I've already scolded the idiot on duty, but he accidentally proved one thing. That is:

"Until I asked about it this morning, the file was still at the police station."

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Author's Note: *Superman really did help Dick with his homework, and Batman actually discovered this (though he didn't confront Dick directly). Personally, I think their love triangle is adorable...