"Trust me. If you've seen Kaito Kid even once, you'd know I'm not exaggerating."
Dick spoke seriously, his tone firm as he looked at Batgirl.
"Are you really sure you can handle it alone?" Batgirl asked, tilting her head slightly, her eyes sharp with concern. "You don't need my help at all?"
"I already said I don't," Dick replied quickly, clearly eager to move on. "Can we stop talking about Kaito Kid for a moment? What are you actually investigating right now?"
He stepped closer and glanced at the massive Bat-Computer screen, rows of files scrolling past his eyes.
"Garfield Lynns… Firefly?" Dick raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Yeah," Batgirl answered calmly. "You remember last time, right? He teamed up with that idiot Killer Moth and set the GCPD headquarters on fire."
She crossed her arms. "I was the one who beat them both. But the newspapers credited you and Batman instead."
Dick laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "Uh… you know how it is. We don't do this for fame or headlines. As long as the bad guys are stopped, that's what matters, right?"
To be fair, it wasn't entirely wrong. When Batman and Robin arrived, Firefly and Killer Moth had already been defeated—but Batgirl herself was badly injured. Escorting the criminals to the police fell to Batman and Dick.
There were no witnesses. No cameras.
So to the public and the media, only Batman and Robin existed that night. And Batman, as always, didn't bother correcting the story.
"Whatever," Batgirl said flatly, clearly unimpressed.
Dick coughed twice, then asked, confused, "Weren't Firefly and Killer Moth sent to Arkham Asylum after that? Why are you reviewing old files again?"
Batgirl's expression turned serious.
"A few weeks ago, a district attorney requested a re-examination of the GCPD arson case. He believes Firefly and Killer Moth exaggerated or even faked their mental conditions. His plan was to move them from Arkham to Blackgate Penitentiary."
"That actually sounds reasonable," Dick said.
"I thought so too," Batgirl replied quietly. "Until yesterday. Firefly escaped."
Dick's smile vanished instantly. "Escaped? How? What about Killer Moth?"
"No idea," Batgirl said, spreading her hands. "A guard discovered Firefly missing during morning patrol. No alarms. No footage. No signs of forced escape. Killer Moth is still locked up—maybe Firefly finally got tired of babysitting him."
"That's bad. Very bad." Dick frowned deeply.
"I've been tracking him ever since," Batgirl continued. "I hacked into Gotham's city-wide surveillance network. Firefly showed up in over thirty locations. I checked every single one today."
"And?"
"I found a lot of street criminals," she said dryly. "But not Firefly."
She turned back to the Bat-Computer. "So I came here. The Bat-Files are far more detailed than anything the GCPD has. I'm trying to predict where he'll strike next."
Dick nodded. "I can help—"
"Actually, you cannot, Master Richard."
Alfred appeared beside them, carrying two plates of chicken sandwiches and two cups of coffee.
"Your schoolwork for today is still unfinished, sir."
Batgirl smirked. "That's right. Little boys who are still in school should finish their homework. Or Bruce might spank you when he gets back."
"If you get stuck," she added sweetly, "come ask me."
Dick rolled his eyes but didn't argue. Academically speaking, he knew he had no chance against her.
At sixteen, Dick was still a senior at Gotham High, preparing for the ACT and SAT.
Batgirl, at eighteen, had already graduated from Gotham University with a doctorate in library science.
Grabbing a sandwich, Dick shoved it into his mouth and wandered off to deal with his homework, defeated. Batgirl returned to her investigation.
---
After hours of searching through archived records, Batgirl finally leaned back, stretched, and stood up.
"I'm heading out."
She walked toward the Batcave garage.
"See you tomorrow, Alfred. And goodbye, little Pixie Boots."
She mounted her Bat-motorcycle, waved once, and disappeared into the night.
The night passed quietly.
---
The next day. Sunday.
Thurston Mansion, Burnley District, Gotham.
When Dean woke up, it was already 9:30 in the morning.
He washed up, ate a quick breakfast, and headed out the door.
Today, he had an extremely important plan.
No—nine-tenths important.
His destination: Gotham City Library.
Not for homework. Not for research papers.
Dean hadn't touched a single word of his school assignments yet, but he wasn't worried at all. Back in his previous life, he could finish an entire summer's worth of homework in one night with nothing but a pen.
A weekend assignment? Child's play.
The real reason he came to the library was to prepare a new Notice Box.
Writing one wasn't easy. The clues couldn't be too obvious, but they couldn't be ridiculous either. They had to be clever, twisted just enough, yet still solvable.
That meant one thing.
Research. Lots of it.
Dean had been forcing himself to learn obscure knowledge—things most people would never bother with—just to expand the pool of ideas he could draw from.
On the way, he casually disposed of the synthetic drug known as "Pink Dream", tossing it into a trash can without a second thought.
At the library, he headed straight for the deepest section: Ancient Religious Mythology.
He pulled a book off the shelf at random. The cover alone screamed "nobody ever reads this."
He flipped through the pages quietly, absorbed in thought.
Then—
"'An Introduction to the Study of Greek and Roman Polytheism'?"
A surprised voice came from the aisle to his left.
Dean looked up.
A red-haired girl wearing glasses was staring—not at him, but at the book in his hands.
She looked a year or two older than Dean, tall and graceful, wearing a white librarian uniform with a name tag pinned neatly to her chest. She was pushing a cart full of books, clearly in the middle of shelving.
"Wow," she said honestly. "I didn't think anyone would actually read something like that."
Realizing she might have interrupted him, she quickly waved her hands.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just surprised. Since I started working here, you're the first person I've ever seen pick a book from this shelf."
Dean blinked.
And somewhere far away, the universe quietly asked a very important question:
Has anyone… still not figured out the difference between Dean and Dick?
-----------------------------
Visit our Patreon for more:
Get membership in patreon to read more chapters
Extra chapters available in patreon
patreon.com/Dragonscribe31
----------------------------------------------------- .