Ivy was in court, again, and everyone thought this would be an open and shut case. After all, it was Poison Ivy and Batman had caught her in the act.
Except she kept remembering what Sakura said about how Batman wasn't a cop. Nor did he bother to follow proper police procedure. And how the cops had only come in after Batman had made a mess of things, including the plants she was planning to use for her scheme. Most of which were not illegal to own.
Hell, she hadn't even gotten to the point she could attack before Batman suddenly showed up!
Which was why Ivy hired the best lawyer she could find and explained the same reasoning Sakura had used to call Batman a criminal. Considering she would be paid more if Poison Ivy's case was thrown out because the evidence was bad, she was more than willing to go along with the idea. If nothing else the woman was happy to bring up the reasoning Sakura had used to call Batman a possible pedophile, or at least a bad role model for his side-kick.
Ivy was tense, but was able to hide that fact rather easily despite being inside a special box meant to keep her pheromones from affecting the jury or the judge.
So you could imagine her shock (and relief) when the judge threw out the case entirely after someone finally pointed out that Batman wasn't a cop, hadn't mirandized her at all, and had actually tampered with evidence since the actual cops had shown up only after he had left.
After all, Poison Ivy might be noted as a criminal, but she hadn't actually done anything that could be proven outside of the fact Batman had shown up and told the cops where to find her. The part of the city she had been planning to use had a building she had rented, legally with cash.
Needless to say the other Rogues (not currently in Arkham or otherwise detained/plotting) came to ask Ivy what she had done to get out after the Batman caught her.
Riddler, Freeze, Penguin, and Harley were all stunned to hear what Ivy had done. And promptly adjusted their next big scheme to use that as a way to avoid being sent back to jail the next time the Bat and his boy wonder showed up.
Catwoman, however, laughed herself to hiccups because of the fact that it was all Sakura's fault that Batman was now persona-non-grata among the cops.
If this kept up, then Batman would have to learn police procedure or at least be sworn in and have to file actual paperwork in order for any of his usual villains to stay arrested.
And that was before Harley decided to use the same argument Sakura made about why she didn't trust Batman at all.
Joker was already sent to prison (for injuring a police officer, among other things), but Harley had been quick to throw up the "Batman defense" as the papers were happily calling it.
Then Harley dropped the bomb when the prosecution tried to send her to prison anyway.
"Send the crazy lady to Arkham but let the possible pedophile run around! Real smart!" she snarked.
Naturally that alarmed the judge, jury and the officers in the courtroom enough to demand clarification.
"Why does no one question the fact that Batman has been running around with a pre-teen boy in tights during a school night against dangerous criminals that could just as easily get him killed?" demanded Harley, already internally cackling at the expression on everyone's faces.
Sakura was right...this was a hilarious prank and it would cause no end of trouble for the Bats!
One of the reporters took the comment and ran with it. They sold out their papers and had to do several reprints for the next week.
(On an unrelated note, Harley's case was thrown out as she hadn't tried to attack the cops. Thanks to the Batman defense, it was becoming harder for the Rogues to actually go to Arkham when busted because Batman was still in denial that things were changing in his city.)
Harley cackled as she hugged her 'little sister'. Sakura was not only adorable, but she had a great sense of humor!
Joker was not happy Harley was not only free, but hadn't tried to break him out for a full month. It was like she was starting to forget about him!
Harley was concerned. Some of the men told her Mista J wanted to know who she was with since she hadn't really made more than a token effort to break him out of Arkham. Batman managed to keep him there, but it was at the cost of Harley escaping.
It was likely Mista J thought she had found a new fella to run with, and would almost certainly kill them once he found out who.
If he found out about Sakura, there was a strong chance he would kill her or worse.
Red felt the same way, once she heard the news.
"So Joker is becoming suspicious about Sakura. I think it's time we sent her home," said Ivy.
Harley immediately became upset at that news.
"But she's ours, Red!" whined Harley.
"I said she's going back to Japan. I never said anything about sending her alone," said Ivy smirking.
"Huh?" said Harley.
"To be honest, Gotham isn't nearly as interesting anymore. And it won't be long before Batman gets a clue and starts filing out the proper paperwork to send us back to Arhham. Besides, I really don't want Joker finding out about Sakura."
"So what are you sayin'?" asked Harley.
"How would you like to permanently move to Japan?" smirked Ivy.
To be honest, the pollution in Gotham pissed her off. She wouldn't mind in the least moving to Japan where it wasn't nearly as bad. In fact Sakura distinctly recalled a nice bit of forest outside her hometown that was positively untouched.
She didn't need to be in Gotham to protect the Green, and having a nice bit of forest she could use to cultivate stronger, hardier plants sounded really good to her.
Harley herself had become very attached to her little sister, and would likely follow them anyway. Ivy just wanted to make sure Joker didn't come with her when she did.
Odds were Croc and a few others would join them.
Sakura was of mixed opinion about the idea. As much as she missed her mother, she would miss her new friends more.
At least until Ivy said the Rogues would likely come with them.
(It would likely take a little convincing for Deadshot to relocate his daughter to Japan.)
Plan made, Ivy discreetly went around the Rogues Sakura had long since converted to her side and had a little talk with them.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few of them liked the idea of leaving Gotham behind.
Their plots were becoming a little stale anyway, and a long 'vacation' might do them a lot of good. Besides, none of them liked Arkham at all.
Catwoman and the Penguin would stay...one because she had a thing for Batman, and the other because it would take too much time and effort to rebuild his informant network. He would stay in contact with the others though to let them know what was going on in Gotham.
A week before Joker managed to break out of Arkham, Sakura and the others were in Japan. They made extra sure to cover up their tracks, partly to keep Batman off their tail but mostly to keep Joker from tracking them down too easily.
Sakura was seven when she was kidnapped. In the three years she was gone, things had changed quite a bit in her hometown.
And not in a good way.
In her absence, a dangerous and rather vicious yakuza gang had settled into the town, having displaced the Momoyokai and somehow insuring Hibari Kyouya didn't disband them forcibly.
Sakura was not happy about this, as the situation in the town was affecting everyone, including her mother.
Nana had cried in relief seeing her daughter, but Sakura found it far too telling that she immediately urged Harley to take her daughter as far away from Namimori as possible because she didn't want her innocent little girl to somehow catch the attention of the gang.
Sakura was pretty pissed at the way the town felt so...broken.
Which was why she was going to do something she never would have considered three years ago.
She was going to eliminate the problem in as efficient, if brutal, a method as possible.
"So there's a yakuza gang causing trouble in the town?" said Ivy.
"From what I can tell they took out Hibari-sempai and those likely to resist first, so now the rest of the town is unwilling to challenge them," said Sakura.
"What do you want to do?" asked Ivy.
"I thought it was obvious. If this yakuza group is causing that much trouble, I think it's only fair that we remind them that there are others who are much more dangerous than they are and use anyone stupid enough to try and get revenge as a warning to what would happen if you mess with Namimori like they did," said Sakura. "Besides, if we rid the town of this gang and make it clear we're not trying to replace the hold they had over the town, odds are the people living here would be much more accepting of your presence. Or at least learn to look the other way to any oddities. After all, they've lived with Hibari-sempai's habit of 'biting' for years now."
"Biting?" said Croc.
"Think what Batman does, except Hibari-sempai doesn't try to hide behind a stupid mask or pretend he's a cop. If someone causes trouble, he tends to beat them to the point they get sent to the hospital and learn not to piss him off," said Sakura. "I'm fairly certain he's like Croc, in that he wants a decent fight but has to conform to what society deems 'acceptable' unless he wants to be arrested himself."
Croc grinned at that.
"So he's unlikely to bother us?" asked Ivy.
"...He might sneak into your greenhouse for a nap, but so long as you don't do anything too overtly criminal in Namimori he tends to look the other way. He's more likely to bother Killer Croc for a fight than any of you so long as you don't disrupt the peace of the town," said Sakura.
Keeping their criminal activities outside the town was easy enough, and odds are that the town wouldn't prove to be of any real interest anyway once the yakuza were dealt with.
With that in mind, the rogues began to plot. Not to cause trouble like they normally did, but to get rid of some interlopers who were about to find out that a group of superior carnivores were about to remind them of the proper pecking order in the criminal food chain.
Some time later...
Sakura visited Hibari-sempai first, and he looked positively terrible. It wasn't overt to people who didn't know him, but she had lived in Namimori for years before the kidnapping and could tell he was in bad shape.
It didn't take much for her to coax him into leaving the house and introduce him to Poison Ivy...or at least her greenhouse.
"You've been poisoned," she said bluntly, recognizing the signs.
"The fake carnivores deemed me too much of a threat to put up with, but did not wish to answer a superior carnivore."
Translation: They recognized the fact Hibari would rather die than fight in their name, so they poisoned him in such a way that kept him unable to fight properly without debilitating side effects (but not kill him overtly) because they didn't want the Storm Arcobaleno Fon coming down on their ass in revenge. He was dangerous enough that he was considered a 'neutral' party in the Triads and thus too much of a shark to piss off by killing one of his relatives.
They had also made damn sure Hibari wouldn't be able to contact Fon by holding one of the rare people he cared about hostage. If he attempted to contact his grandfather, they would kill him.
Ivy looked pissed at that, and went into her greenhouse.
She injected something in Hibari.
"You're going to have a mild-to-high fever for the next six hours, but once it's over the poison should be purged. However it's spread enough that you'll have to wait at least a month before you can get back to what you considered an acceptable level as a fighter," she said bluntly.
Kyouya stared at her.
"Why is a carnivore helping me?"
"She (Ivy nodded to Sakura) spoke highly about you while we were in Gotham. And if we have you on our side then the rest of the town is unlikely to chase us out later," said Ivy bluntly. "If finding a place where we can live in peace without the local capes trying to arrest us means dealing with these pathetic fools, then the news is going to be reporting their mysterious or graphic deaths in short order."
"Capes?" he repeated.
"Vigilante 'superheroes' who don't bother to follow proper procedure and rarely bother to care about collateral damage when pursuing those deemed 'villains'," supplied Sakura helpfully. "Or to put it another way, Omnivores that keep harassing the carnivores and intruding on their territory out of some weird need to justify having odd abilities."
Hibari looked openly disgusted at that idea. Villains he could live with so long as they kept their criminal activities outside his territory, but foolish omnivores that were just as likely to arrest him for defending the peace of Namimori were not something he would tolerate.
He had met a few 'heroes' before, and they had pissed him off enough that he threw them out of the town. Then they declared him a bad guy and tried to have him arrested.
Fon had laughed himself sick when the judge threw out the case after hearing why he was arrested in the first place...when he was six.
Hibari felt nauseous for at least a day, but when it was over felt far better than he had in months. Sure his muscles were atrophied and he would have to build up his strength again, but that was a small price to pay.
He was even happier when the insane woman "Harley" brought Kusakabe to the smaller apartment looking distinctly pale but otherwise alive and unharmed.
(Apparently Harley had been very...enthusiastic...about dealing with the guards around the safe house. It was going to take ages to clean up the blood.)