Gotham Singularity (Part 4): Black Mask Dies
I closed my eyes and opened them again, but time hadn't changed at all.
Fujimaru Ritsuka immediately turned to look at Holmes, who seemed to have been expecting this and was smiling at her. She took a deep breath. "Mr. Holmes, is this the mystery you were keeping me in suspense yesterday?"
Holmes raised an eyebrow, quite pleased with Ritsuka's surprised reaction. "Congratulations on guessing correctly, Miss Ritsuka. Surprised?"
"Thank you...but not at all!"
As Fujimaru Ritsuka retorted, an annoyed voice came from the kitchen, "Your sense of humor has gone too far. Now that it's confirmed to be a seven-day cycle, hurry up and explain the situation to your companions."
Jason came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of sandwiches, slamming it onto the table with a thud. "Let's eat and talk." He looked around, then suddenly asked, "Where's that guy named, tsk, Xu Fu? Still not up?"
“Her,” Fujimaru Ritsuka said, thanking Jason before picking up her sandwich and winking with a smile, “is probably still dreaming.”
Jason clicked his tongue, clearly wanting to say something sarcastic, but Holmes preempted him and took the lead, "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let's get down to business."
"Nobody wants to see the morning of the 16th again, right?"
Although Holmes didn't specify, his penetrating gaze went straight to Jason. Jason calmed down. "...Yes." He rubbed his forehead, then sat down again and picked up his sandwich. "You say I should say it?"
Holmes glanced at him and the sandwich in his hand, and then, being the understanding person he was, became the guide.
Just like today, after the night of the 20th two weeks ago, Gotham did not welcome the 21st, but returned to the 16th.
Furthermore, apart from Sherlock Holmes and Jason, none of Gotham's famous supervillains and superheroes have any additional memories.
Holmes had a gut feeling that something was amiss, but he wasn't initially sure whether it was the people of this world causing trouble or a singularity.
To confirm the nature of the cycle and the purpose of the mastermind, they made almost no changes to their actions, and the results, including news and street events, were exactly the same as the first time.
Apart from the appearance of Fujimaru Ritsuka.
After listening, Fujimaru Ritsuka concluded: "So this singularity is trapped in the same seven-day cycle?"
Holmes smiled and said, "Miss Ritsuka, it's not wise to draw conclusions with such limited evidence. But we can assume that for now."
"This raises three questions: who, why, and how did the singularity fall into the current state of temporal anomaly?"
That's not all, Jason thought to himself. Logically, if time were to rewind, Batman, being an ordinary person, wouldn't be able to detect it, so what about the others?
Superman and Wonder Woman, didn't they notice?
If they didn't discover it, then why does he still retain the memory?
"I roughly know how to do it," Fujimaru Ritsuka answered, raising her hand like a student. Her obedient gesture drew Jason's attention. "This time, there should only be the Holy Grail."
Fujimaru Ritsuka visited Ashiya Doman once. Originally, she wanted to try to find out his true purpose and what the explosion at Chaldea really concealed.
But to everyone's surprise, Dao Man avoided talking about anything, acting as if he were plotting a real conspiracy rather than just causing trouble... Seriously, isn't one summer event enough for him to have fun with?
Perhaps because her distress was too obvious, Ashiya Doman reluctantly relented about the situation of the singularity, and she received some fairly good news.
—The Imaginary Tree that appeared in Tokyo was purely Ashiya Dōman's personal hobby.
When she pressed further, indirectly inquiring about the origins of the Holy Grail, the handsome demon revealed an innocent yet clueless look in her eyes. So, under Ashiya Dōman's feigned sorrowful gaze, she cruelly turned and left.
Therefore, in this singularity similar to Tokyo, she can almost certainly conclude that the Holy Grail is involved. This time, the key is to find the holder of the Holy Grail, retrieve it, and the singularity will disappear.
Holmes, pipe in mouth, stared at the wooden door on the left with eyes like a hawk, or perhaps gazing into the distance.
After a while, he withdrew his gaze and revealed a faint smile, "Hahaha, it seems that you have also experienced many adventures while I was away. Please share them with me if you have the chance."
“Every member of Chaldea would be happy to tell Mr. Holmes the stories of his journey.” Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled.
Then, she asked admiringly, "But Mr. Holmes, how did you know this was a singularity, and how did you predict that Chaldea would come to deal with it?"
You know, she was almost scared to death when she heard the name Chaldea from Mr. Todd yesterday.
“When all the impossibilities are eliminated, what remains, however unbelievable, is the truth.” Holmes twirled his pipe, his face full of confidence. “It only takes a little reasoning, plus my own genius-like intuition—a sixth sense.”
He paused, then suddenly looked at Ritsuka, "Of course, there are some other things mixed in with this conclusion."
“Ha, that’s not what you said back then?” Jason raised an eyebrow in skepticism.
Starting from the fifth day of the second regression, Holmes began to tell him information about Chaldea and a Servant... or rather, a story.
Because that fantastical and dreamlike, colorful teenage adventure, love and entanglement, is so out of place in Gotham, where only blood and darkness remain.
Jason remembers clearly that the day Holmes began to tell his story was a rare sunny day in the gloomy Gotham.
The warm winter sun streamed through the window, illuminating the swirling dust and blurring the detective's profile. The detective maintained his elegant demeanor, his eyebrows slightly raised, revealing a pair of all-seeing eyes.
At that moment, as he gazed at Holmes, he suddenly felt a great distance between them. It was a distance he could reach out and grasp, yet it felt as if the character in the book was finally returning to that fantastical tale.
But no, Holmes looked at him, his gaze both confident and hesitant, calm and expectant. It was a complex mix, like when he had just crawled out of hell and still harbored illusions about Gotham and its people.
Perhaps because of this similarity, he did not interrupt Holmes to finish telling this bizarre story.
Of course, Jason didn't believe it at first, and even thought that Holmes must have been on drugs to tell such a comic book story.
But then I thought, if even Sherlock Holmes exists, why shouldn't there be some kind of savior organization like in a shonen manga?
Holmes ignored Jason's joking question. He was laughing, a laugh as carefree and exhilarating as when falling down a waterfall, a laugh that would make anyone's eyes sting.
"After all, this is an emotion that is not commensurate with the heroic spirit Sherlock Holmes, or rather, a selfish desire." He spoke lightly, yet every word was precious. "I hope to see her again, all of them."
"I hope to embark on another dazzling journey with my Chaldea companions."
Because it was truly a very enjoyable and fulfilling adventure.
The room was completely silent.
Fujimaru Ritsuka, along with everyone else in Chaldea, was already used to the Riddler's version of Sherlock Holmes. Upon suddenly hearing this unexpected and direct emotion, no one survived in an instant.
Clutching her chest, Fujimaru Ritsuka felt a sharp pain in her chest. This was Sherlock Holmes, after all! So, so…
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but her brain, which usually got along well with any Servant, was a complete mess, and she couldn't organize any suitable words at all.
In the end, Ritsuka simply lowered her head and murmured a few words, "...Thank you, Mr. Holmes...I, too, long for your return."
The noise of the chair scraping against the floor broke the atmosphere, and Jason was more shocked than Chaldea, who were moved to silence by Holmes.
Is this Sherlock Holmes? That detective who doesn't speak human language and has a slightly wicked sense of humor?
It's fake, right?
Such profound emotions poured forth from the detective's words. Never before had he understood more clearly what Fujimaru Ritsuka and Chaldea meant to Holmes.
Pressing his temples, Jason suppressed the turmoil rising within him. He moved his chair away, turned on the television as if to escape, and tried to kill time with the boring news.
The sky grew increasingly dark, making the contrast between the bright indoor lights and the somber outdoor colors even more striking. It was so gloomy, as if a downpour was imminent.
The male voice on the television is calmly reporting the freshly released news.
"At 3:17 a.m.... a police report stated that a male corpse was found in... an alley, and the death was gruesome..."
A flash of lightning illuminated the sky. An unusually blinding white light shone through the window into the television set, also illuminating the still-intact corpse.
Jason froze. The sandwich fell onto the table without a sound, yet it drew everyone's attention. The television was still crackling and whirring as it broadcast the news, but apart from Fujimaru Ritsuka, no one was paying attention to it anymore.
Fujimaru Ritsuka glanced around at the suddenly somber atmosphere: "Uh, is it someone you know?" She looked at Jason, whose expression was a mixture of pleasure and heaviness, making his face look strangely unnatural.
"...I know him, of course I know him. Black Mask, my old rival in expanding my territory." This death is like a windfall. If it weren't for this damn situation, he would have celebrated that this guy's death was truly a blessing in disguise.
"Whether I know him or not is not important. What is important is that the 16th before last—he was alive and well."
The sudden rain fell rapidly, clattering against the window sill like a death knell.
“Instead of dying like this.” Jason pointed to the damp corpse on the television screen; although blurred, the black blood flowing to the ground was visible.
The events that everyone anticipated, including Holmes's, unfolded, and no one cared about breakfast anymore. Holmes went upstairs, retrieved the notebook he had been using since arriving in Gotham, handed it to Ritsuka, and told her which page to start reading from.
This was the material he originally intended to use to educate Ritsuka. Gotham's situation was complicated, and he hoped that these things could at least be of some help.
Fujimaru Ritsuka hurriedly finished her breakfast, then quickly took the notebook and focused her gaze on the words.
The above is an analysis and inference about the various factions in Gotham.
Superheroes, supervillains, governments, police, underground intelligence organizations—it has it all. Ritsuka guessed that if this doujinshi were put up for auction on the black market, it would definitely cause a bloody dispute.
But now this notebook, which contains many secrets, is casually shoved into her hands by Holmes, as if it were no more valuable than a sandwich in the morning.
Jason stood silently in front of the television until the host began to deliver the new news, at which point he made himself a cup of instant coffee to perk himself up.
"Gotham is going to descend into chaos again." He lowered his eyes, his tone flat.
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