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Under the waterfall, "Katana" was hugging her husband in the pool.
"Surprised to see your dead husband, Tatsu?" Maseo Yamashiro, Katana's husband, said to her, though she was at a loss.
"Even a lonely ghost needs a place to rest, so from time to time, I rest in this place, in this place called the 'Basement of Heaven' by your friends."
"When I saw you in the crowd, I ventured to follow you, and I knew that our love could create a paradise that was only yours and mine."
"Now the dream has come true."
Maseo spoke, caressing her face with his hand and gradually exploring downwards.
"How long can it last here?" Katana asked.
"Time makes no sense here," Maseo said. "Let everything go, my love—and take refuge in Heaven."
In the waterfall, the Phantom Stranger held a scarecrow and looked at the two people who were integrated in the pool and said hesitantly, "Are you sure that woman is Katana?"
"Resurrection, my…" Connors was admiring the action in the pool. Hearing this, he said, "Yes, if you don't stop her, she will be lost in Heaven."
Instead of showing his entity, Connors maintained the straw form of the Grass Decoy, which avoided the overuse of the decoy and turning it into useless straw. "Katana" did not have much use value for Connors. Connors had almost never dealt with her, and he was not ready to intervene at this time. Instead, he handed it over to the Phantom Stranger.
The Phantom Stranger stood in the waterfall, hesitated for only a second, and rushed out. "Hang on, ghost!"
Both "Katana" and her husband, who were in the process of merging, were startled.
"Go back to your lower realm!"
The Phantom Stranger roared and stretched out a hand, and the pool under the waterfall suddenly turned into a whirlpool, devouring Maseo. "Katana" held her chest with both hands and hid most of her body in the pool.
When "Maseo" completely disappeared, her appearance quickly changed to that of wearing armor, a mask on her face, and holding a katana. "What did you do to my husband?!"
"How can you be sure that's your husband?" After seeing the phenomenon of "Maseo" sinking into the water, the Phantom Stranger determined that he was just a false "projection" and asked about the katana.
"I know him better than I know myself!" Katana rushed towards the Phantom Stranger.
"Maybe you're right, but he's just a projection of your own desires—or worse, a lone ghost controls you just to absorb your life and emotions."
"In either case, he will only stall our current mission."
The Phantom Stranger stood his ground and spoke, while Katana on the opposite side cut off his head with a swing of the blade.
"You have no right to take him away from me! You don't have that power!"
The Phantom Stranger's head flew into the sky. After doing all this, Katana realized what she had done. The surrounding waterfalls and pools disappeared, and she fell to her knees decadently. "…Forgive me…"
"This woman is so scary. Thank goodness I didn't have anything to do with her," Connors said thankfully.
The Grass Decoy was still in the hands of the headless Phantom Stranger. There was not a drop of blood flowing from the neck of this guy whose head had been severed. Instead, his head hovered in the sky and returned to his neck.
"I am the one who needs to be forgiven, and I should have thought that these things would happen."
Katana carefully poked the Phantom Stranger with the handle of the knife. After confirming that the guy was not dead, she asked, "Where are the others?"
She discovered that she had been hallucinating just now, but she saw no one else in front of her except the Phantom Stranger. As could be imagined, Deadman, Catwoman, and Batman may have fallen into their own exclusive paradises just like her.
"There's nothing going on with Deadman; we have to look for Catwoman," Phantom Stranger said.
"Where is Catwoman?" Katana asked.
The Grass Decoy held by the Phantom Stranger spoke. "In the orphanage."
In the orphanage, Selina Kyle, the "Catwoman" of her childhood, had her little friends, warm beds, and kitten dolls given by kindhearted people.
"Why did this experience become her paradise?"
Outside the door of the orphanage, the Phantom Stranger looked at the dilapidated orphanage with fallen leaves covering the courtyard and wondered. "Catwoman" Selina was holding a dirty doll in her hand, and her clothes were even more torn than the dolls', giving her a skinny look.
"Her mother liked cats more than she did, and her alienation even led Catwoman to attempt suicide."
"Her father hated Catwoman's suicidal behavior and was incredibly cold to her, and when she lost her family, she had to wander the streets."
"She later saw how cruel the world was in the juvenile detention center, where administrators misappropriated funds and attempted to drown her, so the orphanage where she could eat less decent food, possess toys, and have no one bully her became her paradise."
Connors's voice came from the Scarecrow in the Phantom Stranger's hand.
Katana already knew of Connors's existence on the way here, and she couldn't help but say, "Even so, Catwoman ultimately chose to join the Justice League of America and become a hero?"
"Yes," Connors said.
The Phantom Stranger pushed open the door of the orphanage and came to the little girl "Catwoman." "Catwoman, wake up. You shouldn't sink here."
The intervention of outsiders made "Catwoman's" eyes change from confused to alert. She quickly reflected on the situation she was in and quickly returned to the image of "Catwoman" as the world knew it.
"Oh, this paradise is so simple. The paradise I imagined should be a city full of rich people. That is the dream of thieves." Catwoman smiled nonchalantly and said that she saw the scarecrow in Phantom Stranger's hand and subconsciously wanted to take it back. "Give it back to me. That's what Connors gave me."
"I'll give you another one after it's over, and we'll have to go find Batman now," Connors said.
"Is he right at Wayne Manor?" Phantom Stranger learned to answer this time.
Four people—Katana, Catwoman, Connors, and Phantom Stranger—walked towards Wayne Manor in silence. Phantom Stranger said when he was about to arrive at Wayne Manor, "Batman has always been synonymous with coldness and fear, but behind the mask is the humanity he desperately tries to hide."
"Deep-in-the-heart pity."
"And the deeper fear."
Wayne Manor seemed to be spending Christmas. In front of a fiery fireplace, a young couple told a story to a young boy leaning in his mother's arms. The story came from A Christmas Carol, which tells the story of a rich man who is busy making money and ignores his nephew's invitation to a Christmas dinner, and the story of being visited by a ghost at midnight.
Burning fireplace, Christmas tree with lights, soft sofa, father telling a story, mother with warmth in her arms.
"This is more like 'Heaven' than our paradises," Katana said.
"But it's a place that doesn't exist, a Christmas that never was." Phantom Stranger and others stood in the shadows and said, "This little boy spent that night alone in extreme grief, but here he can rewrite history, here Christmas can be eternity."
"Bruce, it's time to sleep," urged the young mother, who was carrying the little boy on the sofa.
"But this is just the beginning—although it is already the second time, please, Mom?" The little boy said coquettishly.
"Hey, okay, five more minutes," the young mother compromised.
In the shadows, Katana stared blankly at the little boy on the sofa. "Is that kid on the couch Batman?"
Phantom Stranger nodded. "Surprising, right? A man who incarnates as a knight of the night and walks in the darkness day after day, a ruthless man… his sanctuary, his paradise, will actually be in the lost dream of a little boy?"
Connors did not speak. He qualifiedly played the identity of a "surveillance point" and quietly stationed himself in this paradise.
While the Phantom Stranger was talking, a dark shadow appeared from behind him. "Not surprising at all. Maybe one day, when I have free time—I will come back here."
It was Batman who spoke, and he did not sink into this paradise.
"Batman? Then that little boy…" Katana asked doubtfully.
"He is a part of me. They are a part of me, a part they cannot let go of. Even if it's just for a moment."
The group of four walked towards the outside of the manor. Before leaving, Batman turned to look at Thomas Wayne, who was telling stories to the little boy, and glanced back.
"But it's all over."
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