Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

As Gordon and Batman left the basement of the small church, they both seemed somewhat silent. After all, the place they had just been in had buried dozens of lives within a short span of a month.

Gotham was a dark city, but when such darkness was nakedly exposed to people, only those with a strong will could digest the shock brought by this deep darkness.

Countless emotions were surging in the hearts of Batman and Gordon. The first case that the newcomer Batman had ever handled, this seemingly endless evil and lightless darkness put in front of him, as Shiller said, he might not be fully prepared yet.

Powerful force was just a means for surviving here, but if he wanted to save this city, the power alone wouldn't be enough.

With these thoughts, Batman turned a corner and saw Shiller standing on the second floor again, holding an umbrella. Under the balcony was where that beggar had once stayed.

Batman felt absurd again, how dare this damn criminal, who killed dozens of innocents, still stand here? Why are some people in this world indifferent to living beings? Even cruel enough to kill them without hesitation.

The repression in Batman's heart turned into anger. Under Gordon's gaze, he leaped along the street, directly onto the balcony over two meters high.

"Your judgement is coming, you damn murderer." Batman said.

"Have you found the evidence you wanted?" Shiller asked

"Of course, and these evidences are enough to judge you."

Shiller suddenly laughed, he said in a very light tone: "How ridiculous, you are still thinking about judging me, the police department in Gotham City should really award you a good citizen medal, you are such a great policeman."

"How nice it would be if there were such a great policeman when your parents died, who found the evidence left by the murderers and judged them. That's what you think, isn't it?"

"You don't trust the police, you don't trust the court, yet you're still looking for evidence, trying to judge me with the correctness of the law, don't you feel that what you're doing is contradictory?"

"You want to prove that I broke the law, Batman, your actions also violate the law. If I were to be judged, so will you. You are trying to prove that a criminal is a criminal by criminal actions, aren't you?"

Shiller raised his voice, he said with nuance: "You think you have the ability to take revenge on the criminals by your own methods. But in the end, you are still an ordinary person tamed by this ordered society, you are still talking about evidence and demanding justice."

"Unless you can let go of these, let go of the shackles that this ordered society has put on you, erase the concepts of the law and judicial procedure in your mind, you can never stand up for the justice you want."

"Bruce..." Shiller looked into his eyes and said:

"The law is not justice, you are."

"The law of Gotham did not save your parents, just as it did not save these dozens of missing people. If you still have any useless illusions about it, you will never become the true Batman."

Shiller could clearly see that Batman's arms were shaking, his hands clutching the Batman dart were full of veins, even his whole body was shaking, obviously, he was extremely angry.

Shiller's words were too heart-stabbing. He had exposed the greatest contradiction in the young Batman.

The law in Gotham failed to save his parents, yet Batman, who kept talking about revenge, was still captured by the law and order, in the end, he still adheres to the legal justice.

"So you want me to uphold my own brand of justice?" Batman questioned, then he lifted a gun, pointing it at Shiller's forehead.

Of course, Batman always carried firearms. In Gotham City, without such weapons, you could hardly survive, let alone uphold justice.

Shiller still looked quite calm. He asked: "You didn't answer my question earlier. Have you found the evidence you've been looking for? What is it?"

"Next to the wooden crate in the basement of the church, there's a stain you left, it's soil and leaves, the leaves of the North American red pine, unique to Gotham University."

Shiller asked, "What does that prove?"

"It proves you're the murderer," Batman said.

"Is that so? I, a solitary man, inexplicably appeared on the street of Morson district, my dress and behavior were suspicious. And you found leaves from Gotham University at the crime scene, indicating that the murderer might be someone from Gotham University, so I am the murderer, how rigorous your reasoning is," Shiller remarked.

Batman looked at his remorseless and unashamed face, his nonchalant tone, his anger truly had reached its peak, just as he was about to pull the trigger, Gordon, who had rushed over, shouted, "Stop! Put down the gun!"

Batman was interrupted, Shiller tossed a memory card into the ground between them, saying:

"Concrete evidence? The murderer visited Gotham University and I am a university professor, so very concrete indeed."

"Yes, how you wish that when your parents died, there would have been someone just like you now, decisively shooting the murderer because the evidence was concrete."