Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

First, eliminate Death Angel Paul. This guy's actions can't be considered Batman's. So, could that kid named Tone from the original story be Batman's successor?

In the original, Tone is Bane's son, barely an orphan, and he's also the leader of the rebel army. In the original series, he rushed into the cathedral to save the Broken Bat, and his character seemed pretty good. Could he actually be Batman?

Shiller thought that the young man in the jacket who ran past him earlier must be Tone. From the smell of blood, this kid probably can't escape. So, should he turn back to save Tone now?

Since this was just a guess without any evidence, Shiller couldn't be completely sure his guess was right. So he decided to use the Exhaustion Method: save this one first, then go up to save the Death Angel, and then go save Tone. Out of the three, he should be able to guess one right, right?

Shiller glanced at the rack in front of him, not really understanding the principle behind it—allowing someone to stay alive even if decapitated, with the skull having a big hole yet still able to think clearly. What kind of Zenith Star technology was this? Is Death Angel Paul also a great scientist?

Shiller looked around and found a toolbox beside him. He took a wrench from it, walked towards Batman, and said, "I'll state upfront, I have no idea what this thing is that he made, I can only try to disassemble you first. If it hurts, bear with it for now."

Then, Batman watched as Shiller picked up the wrench and started hammering the iron frame hard.

"No! Wait!" Batman shouted.

Obviously, he shouted too late, or rather, Shiller's strength was surprisingly great. After three loud bangs, one side of the support was broken, causing the entire frame to tilt and fall to the right side.

Batman hit the ground heavily, and the long spine twisted. Fortunately, he fell forward, so although his nose bridge broke, the glass jar holding his brain was intact.

After breaking this side, Shiller started to smash the chains that fixed Batman's torso, and he broke them in a few hits. Now Batman was indeed no longer bound, but without limbs, he could only lie on the ground.

"This situation is a bit hard to handle," Shiller said, "So, does this count as successfully saving you? But the way you are, I can't run with you. Is there a way to attach your head back to your body?"

"The spine... you need to connect the spine..."

Because his nose bridge was broken, blood choked into the trachea, making it hard for Batman to speak clearly. At this point, there was a commotion at the cellar entrance, the pursuers had obviously arrived. Shiller didn't intend to linger any longer, he picked up the wrench and began smashing the thick spine.

Bong! Bong! Bong!

Three strikes, and the central part of the spine was smashed to pieces. But after smashing it, he found out that it couldn't be pulled out of the body—there was a fixing device attached at the neck. Shiller thought about it and figured that compared to the body, the head was more important, so he picked up Batman's head from the ground and ran outside with the piece of spine attached to it.

As he dashed out, he came face to face with the limping Death Angel and the sect members behind him.

Upon seeing what Shiller was carrying, the Death Angel swallowed all his words. The other sect members paused mid-step.

Seeing the crowd in front, Shiller reached for his gun with one hand, but the enemy's charge was too fast, and they were within melee range in just a few seconds.

Shiller retreated a few steps instinctively reaching for his Fist Blade, but holding a gun in one hand and Batman's head in the other, he didn't have an extra hand to retrieve a melee weapon. With opponents closing in, he had no choice but to swing Batman's head at them.

Bong!

He knocked one sect member's head sideways. Shiller swung again, knocking down two more attackers. He shot twice in that direction, successfully breaking through the encirclement.

He charged out along this path but suddenly paused as if remembering something, and looked back at the Death Angel.

The wound on the Death Angel's body was only simply bandaged, and began bleeding again due to movement. However, since there was only one bullet in the abdomen, it seemed not to be life-threatening. Shiller hesitated slightly and still left with Batman's head.

He rushed out of the cellar, only to find a battle raging above—the red-robed sect members were engaged in a fierce fight with black-clad Samurai. In the crowd, he caught sight of Lady Siwa. Lady Siwa also noticed him.

As she was about to charge towards him, she saw what he was holding and abruptly took half a step back.

Shiller, on the other hand, pondered whether Lady Siwa could be Batman. After all, in the comics, she was somewhat portrayed as a good character. Although the gender didn't match, those are minor issues.

"Are you alright?" he asked, needing to confirm that the shots he had fired wouldn't have been fatal to her.

But upon hearing this, the other party took another step back, even abandoning what she was about to say, and turned to run toward the Samurai.

Her agile gait showed no sign of injury, reassuring Shiller. He knew that the damage from a handgun is actually limited; if it doesn't hit a vital spot, recovery is possible. Plus, these people were not ordinary and most likely wouldn't die.

Shiller searched the scene but didn't see Tone's figure. He guessed Tone might have already been captured but not taken to the cathedral; possibly held in some subdivision. He needed to search the place from yesterday.

Shiller soon departed. Lady Siwa silently watched his back for a long time, then suddenly shouted at the ongoing battle: "Stop it all!"

Both sides quickly ceased fighting. Although still standing on opposing sides, the tense atmosphere dissipated. Soon, a tall figure dressed in a red cloak stepped forward.

"What's going on? Why does this guy use a gun?!" Lady Siwa stepped forward and questioned, "You told me Batman doesn't use guns. Yet I was hit by him three times!"

"Me too," said the Death Angel with a gloomy expression, "Who knows what kind of monster he is?"

"He took Batman away?"

"He only took the head."

Lady Siwa opened her mouth and said, "He shot at me the first moment he saw me, I didn't even have time to give him the nano-equipment. With just a head, how is he planning to resurrect Batman?"

"He never intended to resurrect Batman," the Death Angel said. "The frame was knocked down, and the spine was brutally broken. Is that how you would save someone?"

Lady Siwa fell silent. Then she said, "What do we do now? We need to find a way to get Batman's head back. Only he can perfectly control the nano-equipment. Only the hate and killing intent in his heart can stop these visitors from the otherworld."

"I'll send people to search for him," the Death Angel said. "But you better not hope for Batman to survive. He just used his head like a meteor hammer and knocked down three people."

"Batman will persuade him," Lady Siwa said firmly. "He'll win his trust and find a way to revive him. And I'll find a way to get the nano-equipment to him, then there won't be a problem."

Shiller carried Batman's head back to the street where he had previously seen Tone, but he didn't see anyone there, and the bodies on the ground weren't from last night.

Shiller had to find another house; he needed to take a break, especially to clean the blood off the bullets.

This time he found a hotel-like building. Upon entering, he found it not only empty but also very clean. He found a room, put Batman's head aside, and sat on the bed to start cleaning the bullets.

This time, the interval was a bit long, and a lot of blood had coagulated on the bullets, even stuck in the gaps, which could cause jamming. Shiller had to wander to the back courtyard of the hotel, where he found a barrel filled with rainwater. He washed the bullets clean in the barrel before reassembling them.

Batman woke up from unconsciousness. Shiller had used him as a weapon, causing a bit of a concussion, which knocked him out, and he just now woke up.

"Where is this?" he asked.

"Probably not on your neck."

Shiller said while carefully reassembling the bullets. He had controlled the angle when he fired, and most of the bullet heads didn't touch the bone, so they didn't deform and could be used again after reassembly.

"Who exactly are you? Why are you here?"

"I came to save Batman."

"But you only saved his head."

Shiller glanced up at him and said, "I don't consider you to be Batman, so bringing back a head is already not bad."

"You don't think I'm Batman?"

"I asked you if you were, and you said you used to be. I asked you again if you were now, and you said you didn't know. So why should I think you're Batman?"

The other seemed a bit bewildered by this straightforward logic. Shiller then added, "But that's not the main reason. The main reason is that you got yourself into this state. Batman shouldn't be this weak; the Batmans I know are absurdly strong, taking down an entire city's criminals in one night."

A slight trace of fear suddenly flickered in those murky blue eyes. Shiller keenly caught this detail and inwardly chuckled: Got you.

The Broken Bat had seen Arkham Batman. Shiller thought, this proved Arkham Batman had indeed broken into the cathedral and saved him, but the mission still failed. So the possibility of this Batman not being Batman increased.

However, Shiller still couldn't determine how Arkham Batman had saved this Batman. So he asked, "Do you know Lady Siwa?"

"...I've heard of her. In the era when I was Batman, she was the world's number one assassin and had once taken orders from the Assassin's Union."

"On my way to save you, she found me. I saw her again near the cathedral. The Samurai from the Assassin's Union and those red-robed cultists were fighting."

"What did she say to you?"

"Nothing important. She said she wanted to defeat the Saints Order and reorganize Gotham's order. After saying this, the Assassin's Union and the Saints Order started fighting."

"Maybe we can cooperate with her," Batman said. "Both of them want to rule Gotham; we can use that to make them kill each other."

"Not interested," Shiller replied. "What I need to do first is save Batman. Everything else can wait."

Batman's lips moved as if he wanted to say something. This subtle expression didn't escape Shiller's keen eyes.

Indeed, this Batman knew Lady Siwa had nano-equipment that could save him. This proved someone must have used this method to save him. Whether it was Robin or Arkham Batman, at least one person had walked this path but failed.

This proves that even with the nano-equipment, Batman still dragged the city into a deeper abyss, as in the original storyline. Those who came to rescue him probably didn't realize they were saving not the persecuted Dark Knight but a complete madman. This was their main reason for failure.

And now, what puzzled Shiller was: since Batman had acquired the nano-equipment, how did he return to the cathedral's underground, reverting to the original victim's state?