---Dark Knight---
(Note: I have no idea how the Japanese police system is, so any titles like captain or commissioner may be incorrect, but what the hell do I care?)
"Criminals are cowards.
Criminals are superstitious.
I must strike fear.
Mom's dead.
Dad's dead.
'Kane's dead.
Ranma's dead.
I shall become a bat."
Graffiti scrawled in the basement of Furinkan High School
---
The night embraces me. The buildings wrap around to encircle me. The rain is a baptism, beating against my chest. I swing into the night, I run up a building, I protect my city - I live the darkness. I see the filth and corruption in the alleys of my haunt, my haunt becomes a haunt for slime, for the bags of shit that think they own it all. I will teach them. They must be taught that actions have consequences. They must learn.
I will learn them.
---
Hideki 'Scarface' Konbayashi leaned over his desk to stare down the sniveling sycophant trying his hardest to shrink into the chair across from him. His meaty fists lay heavily on the desk blotter and a document covered in red ink.
"Explain to me" The boss said as he leaned forward. The bald thin man across from him began to whimper. "Explain to me where all this yen disappeared to, and try not to exaggerate."
"The-the-the wh-warehouse where alls they money was gonna be held" Hideki's dirty cash had been stockpiled in a warehouse out on the pier through one of his import interests. Unfortunately, 'Scarface' Konbayashi hadn't a bank to launder it, so for months it moldered in the storehouse. "It got blown up big-time! Some weird c-creep in a black suit came up and - boom! The whole God-damn place went up in flames!" Scarface's knuckles whitened as he clenched his fists. His breath came in swift snorts and veins bulged grotesquely from his forehead. The man, Kensuke 'the Rat' Nezu, blanched as the door opened.
"Boss, the cops are here to see you - 'bout the house."
"Tell them I'll be right there. Offer them a drink." The door closed as the gunman shut the door and his footsteps faded back down the corridor. Scarface glared down at the Rat. "Get out of here, Rat, before the police get your stench. Go out the back door." The slight man scurried out the door. Unbeknownst to both men, a pair of powerful binoculars lowered on the rooftop behind them.
"Get out of this business." Konbayashi turned in surprise, his gun flashing black against the shadows, and caught a powerful blow to the jaw. He flew across the room and landed with a meaty smack against the wall, his certificates of legitimate business clattering to the floor. Rising with a hand to his bleeding lip, Konbayashi saw a scene that would forever be engraved in the canals of his brain.
A creature, a black thing from the darkness crouched on his windowsill. White reflective lenses glanced back at him from the depths of the black Lycra suit. A thick cape billowed as the extreme height of the window sucked air out from the room. The figure did not move so much as an inch.
"Who the fuck are you!? And What the fuck do you think you're doing tellin' me what I can do!?" He fired his gun fifteen times and he didn't continue pulling the trigger after his clip ran out, Konbayashi was a professional. The figure hadn't moved during the exchange. "So what you feel like with fifteen rounds of lead in your belly fucker?" He walked over to the still creature and lifted his leg back for a kick, expecting to throw the corpse off balance, but rather was unpleasantly surprised when a gloved hand reached out and crushed his testicles.
---
I savor his screams of pain and pleas for mercy. When did he stop when my mother begged him to stop raping her? Did he stop when my father's body began to cool? No, he sliced my father's entrails out of his stomach and hog-tied his waxen flesh with his own intestines. Did Akane's pleas for mercy stop him and his friends from violating her so many times that her vagina was torn up to her waist? Even after she died? And so I release some of the useless flesh in my hand and simply tear the crotch of his pants. He falls to the floor, clutching his groin as I casually drop the handful of bullets he so gladly fired at me.
"Tell me what I want to know and I might let you be able to have synthetic testicles. If you don'tlet's just say you won't have anything to put those silicone eggs in ever again."
He stopped screaming and begins to just whimper. I didn't break the skin, I just crushed, he won't bleed to death.
"Where is The Shark?" Touji 'The Shark' Kuroda. Kingpin of the Yakuza in the Nerima district, and regional boss of Tokyo. The little shit works for him, I should know, my informants are very fastidious about what they believeor else.
"I don't know!" He says. The endorphins must be hitting his brain about now. I can't allow that. I reach down and grab hold of his manhood, he immediately stills.
"I think you do. If you lie to me I rip a certain part of your anatomy off." I give a painful tug but not enough to rip. He seems scared now. Good, let him be.
"You do that you fucker and my men will kill you and cut you into pieces!" He's very stupid, it's a wonder he made it this far in the Yakuza. I tug again, harder. "Ah! You fucker let go!"
"Your men are otherwise engaged now. We'll be alone for a long time." He swallows at that tidbit of information. "Where is The Shark?"
"Ah! At his place up in the mountains, he's gonna be back tomorrow!"
"Where will he be?"
"He's got a big deal goin' down, he won't tell us anything!" I let him go and he collapses to the floor.
I stamp on his genitals on my way out.
---
"Hmmlooks like the 'Dark Knight' is getting a bit rough" A feminine outline against the moon sat high above Scarface's penthouse. In a suit that seemed painted on her body, Catwoman set her directional microphone down on the ledge and pulled off her binoculars. [I wonder how he is in bed?] She shivered.
"You shouldn't eavesdrop on other people's conversations." A black shape stepped out of the shadows cast from the air conditioning vent.
"Or what? Will you punish me?" She seductively slid her claws up her inner thigh, gasping exaggeratedly as it neared her crotch. She looked at him with an alluring grin. "Will you use your 'grappling hook'?"
"Enough of this. What were you doing here?"
"Ha! That's for me to know and you to find out!" She sprung back and fell off the rooftop, trailing her equipment behind her on the slow descent. Before he could react she was springing from the face of one building to the next until he lost her amid the skyscrapers of Tokyo.
"Curiosity killed the catbut satisfaction brought her back."
---
I bathe and dress like any other morning but it is not. Two years have passed already and Kasumi is still reeling from the event. Sometimes we try to talk about it but our talks always end in tears. I don't bring up tehs ubject much anymore.
The house is empty, the house is quiet. Soun Tendo is gone, mad from the death of his youngest daughter in such a way. Trigan Asylum has taken him off to a padded cell. I am sorry for that. I walk down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and peek into Nabiki's room. She's off in the business world and college, only back for a few days, but it brings some life back to the house. The poor girl must be exhausted. Oddly enough I am not tired, rather invigorated by the freedom of my mask.
Kasumi is still asleep in her room. I decide not to wake her.
I pick the paper up off the stoop outside and scan the front page for news of my latest exploit. Ah. 'Crime lord Scarface Konbayashi brought into custody - police report an inside informant leaked information about illegal activities and homicide linked to Konbayashi.' Smiling I turn and spot Nabiki standing in the doorway in just her nightgown. The compound gates are closed so no one can see but
"Good morning Ranma." She says with a seductive smile, something about her eyes always aroused me but now all I see are Akane's eyes frozen in fear for all eternity. I must not forget my duty.
"Morning. Late night?"
"You could say that." She waltzed back inside. I don't understand how she managed to cope with her sister's death so easily, could her emotionless mask run so deep that's he is devoid of feelings? "Are you making breakfast?"
"Sure." I roll the paper in one hand and walk in after her, carefully not lingering my eyes on the smooth bareness of her ass or the tuft of brown hair visible between her legs. Tonight I will attack the weed at the root and show them who really owns this city.
Me.
But not without help.
---Nerima Police station---
"Captain Hidachi, get your ass in here!" Daisuke spit out his coffee as the commissioner's loud voice called from his office at the end of the hall. Daisuke Hidachi brushed the droplets of java from his suit and strolled up into Commissioner Syouichi Mori's office. Mori was sitting behind his desk as the captain walked in and leaned back, hands folded over his belly. From where Daisuke was standing it seemed as though his superior was poured into the seat, his massive girth wobbling with every breath.
"You called for me sir?"
"Yes, yes, I did." He took a sip of coffee from the mug sitting next to a demolished box of sweets. "What the hell do you think you're doing with this 'Bat' character!?" He threw the newspaper into the dark-haired captain's face. Hidachi caught it and opened to the front page, 'Police captain condones vigilante Dark Knight' emblazoned across the top. He folded it quietly as Mori steamed and placed it back on the desk. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I say that we wouldn't have been able to capture the Joker without Batman's help." Daisuke shuddered as he remembered the insane cackle and voice of the emaciated principal Kuno as he danced from gasoline silo to the next. Apparently his insanity and change in appearance were attributed to chemical exposure, of course anyone who had frequented Furinkan High School years ago would have known that Kodachi was behind the transformation.
"I don't give a frig about the Joker! You realize you've made our police department a laughingstock!?"
"But Batman-"
"Shut up, Hidachi, I don't want to hear anything more about some freak in spandex dancing around the city at night." Syouichi slammed a gooey fist on the table and pointed out the door. "Get out, Hidachi, you're suspended until further notice!" Daisuke solemnly walked out of the office and grabbed his jacket from his desk. Checking to make sure his gun was in the holster, he'd ordered it special from America, and that an auto-loader was clipped to his waist, Captain Hidachi strolled out of the station.
The sky was dark, it seemed rain was on the horizon. Daisuke got in his Honda and started her up, sitting back as the car idled in neutral. In a moment of thought, Daisuke put it in drive and sped off down the street towards the Tendo Dojo. If anyone would sympathize, he was sure Ranma would, especially given his wealthy friend's generous contribution to the station.
Ranma was wealthy now beyond belief, having so much money but at a cost no one should have paid. After the attack by the Yakuza on his parents and Akane as they walked home from the train station, he'd come into quite an inheritance. Apparently his mother had been loaded. Daisuke shook his head as he remembered how happy they'd been after graduation at the wedding, good times back then. After Akane had died, Soun had snapped and regressed into a hollow shell of what he had once been, deteriorating to the point that he had to be institutionalized. As such all the assets of the Tendo and Saotome families had fallen to Ranma. He was set for life with his mother's money, not to mention the millions the Saotome home had brought in - being in an expensive section of Tokyo with a grand plot - his friend was very well off he had to say.
And yet he still insisted on working or at least paying attention to the business world and his assets. On the Board of Directors for the Tokyo Bank and the Juuban General Hospital, Ranma kept himself busy with meetings and his positions afforded him a certain amount of pull. Daisuke was actually surprised Ranma hadn't pulled strings to get Nabiki involved in one of the projects or that Nabiki hadn't asked him to, well stranger things had happened.
It had begun to rain as he pulled up in front of the Tendo Compound. Daisuke threw on his coat and hat as he ran from the car to the front door. After three rings the door opened and Kasumi ushered him in with a smile. The normally vapid gaze of tehe ldest Tendo had waned with the passage of time and her eyes now shone with the true intelligence behind her beauty. The brown-haired woman walked him into the back extention where Ranma sat drinking tea in a leather recliner. His friend was wearing slate slacks and a white shirt and black sweater. They sat down for drinks which Kasumi graciously brought.
"What brings you here, Daisuke?" Ranma sat back in the new Tendo living room in a comfortable chair of black leather. "Trouble at work?"
"Suspended. It's because of the statement I made about the Batman." He took a long sip from his glass and held it out for a refill. "Commissioner Mori says I slandered the station."
"That's hardly an excuse to be suspended."
"Can't fight the system, though." Ranma refilled Daisuke's drink.
"NoI suppose you can't."
---
I watch Daisuke drink the liquor and relax, he deserves it after all. He sometimes comes here with Yuka on holidays and I can't say I mind the company. The house gets too cold with just Kasumi's stare and the ghosts of two years past. He leaves a few hours and a dozen drinks later but I don't worry about him driving - I believe in Daisuke.
Daisuke is my informant in the Police, he is my connection. As Batman he doesn't know me from Adam which doesn't bother me in the least. To him I'm just a rich friend he can come to and get drunk. I walk him to the car, the rain is coming down hard now, little needles piercing my clothes as he speeds away. Tonight I will hunt.
A storm is coming.
---Roof of Nerima Police station---
Daisuke stood near the edge of the roof, smoking a cigarette and flicking the burning ashes on the populace scurrying about under his feet. The rain had seemed to stop, at least for a little while, supposedly it was to return later, return like the withheld vengeance of a God. A chilled wind blew through his clothes.
"What if we wait here for hours and he doesn't show?" Hiroshi Honda, detective under Daisuke and friend since high school, paced on the other side of the roof.
"Don't worry, he'll show." Just then a flutter of cloth and a heavy body fell to the roof. "See?"
The Dark Knight stood at his full height and regarded the two men, wrapping his cape around his body to cut the frozen gusts of wind. "Gentlemen."
"Batman, I'd like to introduce you to-"
"Hiro."
"Bats."
Daisuke shrugged and scratched his head. "I guess you two know each other already. That brings us to the whole reason we're here"
"The Shark." Batman frowned as he thought of Touji Kuroda sipping white wine and sniffing coke in his safehouse somewhere in the city. Scarface had apparently tipped the kingpin off, Batman would have to pay him a visit later that night. "He wasn't at his penthouseI know, I checked."
"'The Shark'? The man's damn name is Touji Kuroda! We're talking about him like he's some sort of God! He's a fucking man! A man who thinks he's above the law!" Hiroshi looked up and met the white eyes of Batman. "Present company excluded."
"Calm down now , Hiroshi, yelling about it isn't going to help anything. Yes, Batman, The Shark has gone into hiding; that little stunt you pulled on Scarface Konbayashi was taken as a warning."
"It was. It's a pity Kuroda took the hint."
"I came here because I thought we were going to get The Shark, are we or not?" Hiroshi broke in, nervously running a hand through his hair.
Batman smiled and waved an address book with dates and times for delivery. "I procured this from Scarface's desk last night. It has all the scheduled dates for drug pick-ups, I leave that matter to you Hidachi." Daisuke took the thin book and flipped through the pages.
"This will certainly help. Now if we're going to take down The Shark I want you all to promise me that none of us will cross the line." Batman didn't move an inch as Hiroshi stepped closer.
"I'll agree to that! Anything to put Kuroda behind bars forever." Hiroshi shook Daisuke's hand and looked at Batman as he brooded by the edge of the roof. "Bats?" His voice seemed to break a spell cast over Batman and he turned quickly to the two men and walked back, taking both their hands in his.
"Agreed." The next moment he was gone.
"Where?" Hiro looked at the building all around them for any sign that the Batman had been there standing with them.
"He has a habit of doing that." Hidachi replied dryly.
"Do you think he'll keep his end of the agreement? The guy wears spandex for Christ's sake!"
"Don't worry about the Batman, Hiro, he won't cross the line. I believe in Batman."
---
She was there the entire time, watching our exchange through her binoculars and listening with her microphone, yet she had to have known I would see her from the roof. Why had she done something so stupid? Was it just an accident or did she purposely goad me into this meeting?
"This is the second time I've caught you spying on me." She pulled her earphones off and turned to me languidly, a satisfied smirk broke her face. "Why?" She stalks closer to me with her hands behind her back.
"Hmmwhat a question! Why doesn't the master detective find the answer for himself?" She leans in closer to me, I can smell the musk of her sweat and a faint hint of perfume under the jumpsuit. Her breasts push against my chest and I can feel her nipples stiffen as she rests her head on my shoulder. "Like why I'm doing this?" I grab her wrists.
"Enough with twenty questions, why are you spying on me? How come wherever I am you appear?" She wraps her leg around my thigh, pressing the moistened crotch of her Lycra suit against mine. She gasps and smiles smugly.
"I think you just answered your own question, 'Bats', see you around." She breaks from my grip and leaps to the roof's edge, blowing me a kiss before she plummets down to the city streets below. I rush to catch her but see only empty air. Catwoman has escaped once again.
On the wind I can hear a woman's soft lilting laugh.
---To be continued?---