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Caped Crusader
Obligations

That terrible night replayed in Bruce Wayne's mind as he attacked his opponent. The top brass at Gotham General Hospital said he would never walk again. What the hell did they know? The day he recovered his ability to walk, he started on the first leg of his journey. His father had known a tenth-degree black belt that could teach him what he needed to know. Combined with his strict regiment of diet and exercise, he would turn his body into a deadly weapon.

Bruce shivered at these alien thoughts racing through his head. He imagined that night, tearing out spines and wearing them as belts. He envisioned killing spree endings; each more divorced from reality than the one that preceded it. He wanted revenge badly. He wanted to tear out their throats and drink their blood.

The memory of how his parents died hit Bruce like a pail of cold water. Gunned down by street demons only to die an hour later in excruciating pain, Bruce realized he did not want to end up like that, a murderer.

In his latter years studying criminology at Miskatonic University, he would hear theories as to what created a violent criminal. He knew the root of what gave birth to a violent criminal. They did what they did because they had no fear, only despair. Bruce had seen it in their eyes. They did not own the streets so much as the streets owned them.

Currently ten years old, Bruce Wayne still practiced martial arts. His father had begun his training as soon as he started walking. "A great exercise," he called it. "A way to release the tension of daily life." But even a competent fighter could not always face down a punk with a gun.

Alfred Pennyworth watched from the stands. The referee had ruled in favor of Bruce's opponent. "Illegal move." Bruce didn't even remember it. Four years had passed. He still blacked out whenever the memories rushed in. Post-traumatic stress did not justify misconduct. The referee had no choice but to disqualify him.

Bruce Wayne's master, the venerable Sensei Ken Watanabe, had trained his father, Thomas Wayne, for a time. Though not as good a fighter as Bruce, Thomas never got disqualified. Not once. He always fought clean and, most importantly, with respect towards his opponent.

Bruce could practically smell this lecture coming. "Bruce, you do not think of yourself as a child and I will not speak to you as one." He stood up from his seat and put his arms on Bruce's shoulders. "You have the very odd distinction of learning the most and the least from me."

Bruce and his sensei walked out of the stadium as the tournament continued. Once again, the championship title eluded Bruce due to his chronic disqualifications. "In three years, you have mastered every technique I taught you. You even speak fluent Japanese. All these prospects and you have wasted them."

Bruce rolled his eyes. Here we go.

"You have made no effort to learn of my philosophy, my true legacy." The sensei tried so hard to reach Bruce but he just did not understand his obligations. He came from a different world. "You want to avenge your parents' deaths." The sensei no longer carried on the façade of a venerable old man. He came close to pleading with young Bruce. "Please, for the love of your parents and everything they stood for; leave this journey into madness behind."

Bruce began to speak but the sensei stopped him. "Have I ever told you the story of a woman who brought her dead baby to the Buddha?" The sensei knew that he had not. "She asked him to resurrect her baby. The Buddha agreed if she could find one person in her village whose life Death had not touched. Can you guess what happened, Bruce?"

Bruce shook his head in dismissal. Now he recognized this story. Benefit of a classical education. "I don't wish to resurrect them. I made a promise to rid Gotham of the evil that took their lives. I must honor that oath."

The sensei seized Bruce by the throat. "Don't lecture to me about honor, young Bruce. Death visits us all. No one can stop that. Not you. Not me. No one! What makes you so special you must forsake all happiness? Your parents will receive no honor by you turning your life into a monument to their deaths."

The sensei dropped Bruce onto the ground. "Let it go while you still can." The sensei paused a moment as if unsure of what he had left to say. "That or you learn from someone else. I have no desire in training a slave to the samsara." Bruce walked away as he joined up with Alfred.

On the day Bruce Wayne finally exorcised his demons, he would return to his sensei's dojo in Okinawa. Only then would Bruce have the peace of mind to seek enlightenment. Until then, Bruce Wayne had other business to attend to. He could find other teachers who understood his obligations.