#did they both pull killing a man with diplomatic immunity off the idea board

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

I think Jason, as Robin, was gearing up to be the perfect successor for Batman.

Not a good or better Batman, to be clear. Just a continuation. A copy

Jason as Robin easily accepted the potential of the mantle, to him Robin becoming Batman was simply how things worked. And reading his comics makes it clear that Jason as a vigilante acts like Batman does. They do the same things. Jason's violence or anger is never that far from Batman's own actions. You've heard of the Garzonas case, but people rarely mention how just an issue before in the dc comics that Batman accidentally killed a man with diplomatic immunity by having him fall

[thekuroiookami]

(Haikyuu) The Cat’s Smile and the Girl’s Tears (Kuroo x Reader) - Part 3

You dragged yourself into the station the next day, your endurance stretched to its limits. You sank into the chair at your chaotic desk with a sigh and closed your eyes. A second later, an enticing cinnamon aroma filled the air. You opened one eye to the glorious sight of a coffee cup.

“You look like you got run over by a train. Slowly. Twice.” Iwaizumi didn’t sound at all sympathetic, but then he never did.

“Morning to you too, Hajime.” You took a long sip of the dark liquid and nearly moaned in relief. “I’ll forgive you for pointing out how terrible I look since you brought the elixir of life.”

He perched on the edge of your desk and folded his arms. “You’re welcome. How are you feeling after…?”

Your jaw clenched at the reference to the abrupt dissolution of your engagement. There was no point hiding anything from him, he’d known you for years now. You looked up into his face, locking your stare with his steady gaze. “I still want to gently change the shape of his face, if that’s what you mean.”

He glowered, barely restraining his own violent tendencies. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

You swirled the dregs of the coffee, contemplating the wreck that your life had become. “I’m managing. That’s all I can do. If I sit down and think about it, I’ll cry my heart out and it won’t help anyone. Maybe if we solve this case soon, I can use your shoulder as a prop for my dejected self.”

Iwaizumi regarded you for a heartbeat longer. He patted your arm and spoke gruffly. “I won’t let you use me as a mop, but I can always drag Oikawa out for you instead.”

You gave your partner a tired yet grateful smile. “You’re a pillar of support, my friend.”

Whatever sardonic reply he was going to make was cut off as a someone approached, his slim frame vibrating with nervous energy. You and Iwaizumi stared, baffled, as the young man executed a perfect salute, sending his mop of shiny black hair flying. “Officer Kageyama Tobio, reporting for duty!”

Realization dawned. “Oh. You’re the new rookie they assigned to us.” You took in his sharp blue eyes, wide with hope. “At ease, soldier. Whose nerves did you get on to get this as your first assignment?”

“Are you sure it isn’t a punishment for us?” Iwaizumi muttered under his breath. You elbowed him in the ribs.

“I- erm- I’m not sure what you mean, Sergeant.” Kageyama blinked in confusion.

You tilted your head back in brief prayer. “Sorry, Kageyama-kun, we’re just…Never mind. This is Iwaizumi Hajime, he’s a fairly nice guy, just don’t let him goad you into a drinking competition. I’m ____.”

Your partner jabbed a thumb at you. “She’s not a fully functioning human being in the morning, but don’t worry. She doesn’t actually eat people.”

You rolled your eyes. “One cup of coffee does not give you diplomatic immunity, Hajime.”

Kageyama’s eyes jumped back and forth between you both, unsure what to make of this. You took pity on him and smiled. “What do you know about the case- well cases – that we’re investigating?”

He pursed his lips. “Only the bare minimum, Sergeant. Six women have been found dead, different C.O.Ds each time, each ten days apart. The only link between the murders is that they all had playing cards with the word Alice written on them, found at the scene. Oh, and all the victims were dressed up as Alice from the books.”

Iwaizumi tapped a yellow binder. “The first victim was Sasaki Megumi. A restaurant owner in her late 20s. She went missing after a party. They found her a couple of days later when a couple was walking through the woods.”

You slid out a photo from the file. “More precisely, the woman in the pair looked up when she felt something drip onto her face. Sasaki had been torn apart and scattered everywhere.”

Kageyama’s face went pale at the sight of a head impaled on a branch, mouth wide in an eternal scream. To his credit, he didn’t look away. “Is that a playing card in her mouth?”

“Yes, the Jack of Spades. Sasaki seems to be the only one without the Alice costume.” You turned thoughtful. “Taken together with the frenzied mode of killing, it makes me think it was a crime of passion. The perpetrator was likely in a fit of rage.”

Iwaizumi picked up the thread and continued, expression grim. “The next one was Kai Sakura, a university student. Similar levels of brutality, but there’s evidence of pre-meditation. Her parents had the whole town looking for her for days. Then they found her in a shallow grave, heavily mutilated.”

Kageyama’s jaw clenched at the next photo. “There’s- there’s a crown. Stitched onto her head.”

You felt the darkness creeping back around the edges of your vision. The pain and terror frozen into her rag-doll face haunted your waking moments relentlessly. Your hand tightened around the paper cup. “It might have something to do with the Queen of Clubs card she had. Anyway, the killer is clearly getting cocky now. That’s why he made a slip.”

The rookie cop bent over to look at the grainy video footage Iwaizumi pulled up. “Where is this from?”

“The third victim’s apartment. Yamane Akemi was a part-time singer in a band. Sang at a small bar in the evenings. Worked at the local konbini during day. Had a sweet, soft-spoken personality by all accounts.” You put a soothing hand on his shoulder as Iwaizumi’s voice became rough. “In a show of real arrogance, the killer abducted her from her apartment, ripped her throat out and left her body slumped on a table for the bar-owner to find.  She had a Diamond King in her hand. Turns out being  that ballsy was a bad idea, because a surveillance camera caught him leaving the apartment, though his face is hidden.”    

Kageyama swallowed, fear turning his eyes glassy. “A-and the next one?”

“The next two,” you corrected gently, “were twins. Oshiro Hina and Hana. They ran a law firm together. C.O.D was poisoning – we found a bottle saying “Drink Me” and a cake with “Eat Me” iced on it. Probably the least violent of the killings, if you can say that about murder. They had half of a card each, the Ace of Hearts.”

“The one we found four days ago,” sighed Iwaizumi, “was Ueda Yukiko, a thirty-something nurse. Her co-worker became worried when she didn’t show up to work. When the neighbourhood police got into her apartment, her five-year old son was sitting by the bathtub, scared to death. Her body was floating in the water, and her hands had been cut off. Her card was a Two of Spades.”    

Kageyama flinched a little when he looked into your face. He didn’t know how far the horrors went, how utterly bleak your soul had become over the last two months. You had to push down the memory of a child who might never speak again. It wouldn’t help him to linger on your own feelings. You came back to reality to hear the end of Iwaizumi’s sentence.

“…and there’s no apparent connection between the victims.”

“As of now, that’s not true.” Both of them focused their unyielding attention on you. “I found out something yesterday.”

When you finished summarizing the events of the previous evening, Kageyama rested his chin on his hand, thinking. You had to resist the overwhelming urge to pat his head. He was so young and unblemished. He piped up, oblivious to your thoughts. “So the club calls all its special guests Alice?”

You nodded. “Presumably the suspect has regular access to the club and the underground areas.”

Iwaizumi was pacing next to the board now, deep in his own conclusions. You saw the beginnings of a familiar resolve building on his face as he spoke. “So how does that fit into the order of the killings? The murderer started off with a lot of rage, probably had no plans to kill the first victim. Then they realized they could do it again, get away with it. So the second one is showy, a taunt. Then…”

The younger male caught on to your partner’s line of thought and straightened. “And then they’re all in cold blood because he just likes killing for the sake of it now.”

You placed a palm on a photo, feeling a crimson thread binding you to the sorrowfully still girl in the picture. “They’re punishments,” you intoned quietly. “For defying his wishes. Whatever they are.”

There’s a moment of silence before Iwaizumi turned to Kageyama. “We can talk about this on the way to the lab. There’s someone you need to meet.”

The lone figure hunched over the table in the forensics room didn’t look up when you entered. “I’m busy, go away.”

“We brought a fresh recruit, Semi.” You tilted your head in amusement. “If you would take your eyes from the microscope for a second, you can register him and go back to brooding.”

Your favourite analyst scowled and pushed back his glasses onto his head, making his silvery hair stand up in tufts. “I’m not brooding. If you had any gratitude at all, you’d leave me alone to the mountain of work they’ve left me with.” He didn’t wait for your reply before looking poor Kageyama up and down once. “Okay, registered. Now disappear.”

You settled your hip against the table and smiled pleasantly. “I love you too, Semi. Have you got any news for me?”

He gave you a flat look of displeasure and pulled a sheet from a teetering stack of papers. “The autopsy results are out. Ueda Yukiko died from asphyxiation by drowning. No big surprise there.”

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow. “And?”

Semi sighed and pulled another sheet from the perilously stacked tower. You saw Kageyama eye the wobbling paper structure with trepidation. “The analysis finally came back on the poison used in the twins’ food.” He bit his lip. “It’s tetrodotoxin. A neurotoxin commonly found in poisonous marine animals.”

You and Iwaizumi straightened in attention. You leaned closer to Semi. “That would be hard to procure, wouldn’t it?”

The analyst twirled a pen in consideration. “Yeah, I’d say so. It’s not usually synthesized artificially either, so you can’t just buy it. It’s worth looking into the source.”

“I can do it.” Iwaizumi’s eyes slid to the junior officer as Kageyama held his hand up. “I can try to trace the poison.”

Semi nodded like that solved everything. “There you go, the new kid is offering to do it for you. Now can I please get back to this fingerprint sample?”

You nudged his shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to join us for lunch, snow queen?”

“And spend half an hour in interminable agony? No thanks.”

Iwaizumi shook his head as you left the lab, muttering something about cicadas and people with no lives. Kageyama shook his head fervently when you repeated your question about lunch, saying he had something to look up, and ran off. You stepped outside with Iwaizumi, turning left to take the path to your usual izakaya, when an arm suddenly slung itself around your shoulder.

“___-chan, were you and Iwa-chan going to abandon me and go to lunch? How mean.”

You gave Oikawa a long-suffering look. “Abandonment implies we have a choice, which hasn’t been the case since college.”

Iwaizumi bumped fists with you. “For once we agree on something.”

Oikawa’s head drooped to rest on your shoulder. You ruffled his glossy hair affectionately. “How’s life in the limelight treating you, Tooru?”

“Same old, same old. Being a celebrity news anchor does have its downsides, you know.”

You looped your arm through his and dragged him forward. “Like what? All the people in love with you?”

He narrowed his eyes at you. “When they follow you around and invade your privacy, yes.”

Iwaizumi’s mouth curled down unhappily. “Is someone bothering you?”

Your other best friend smiled, eerily reminding you of a cat that caught the canary. “Why Iwa-chan, are you feeling protective of me?”

“Yeah,” replied Iwaizumi simply. “I am. Wouldn’t anyone be?” There was long silence in which Oikawa watched Iwaizumi with a strained expression. You stopped and looked up at the izakaya’s name emblazoned in red.

“Tooru, you’re paying this time.” The tension dissipated as Oikawa gave you a betrayed look.

“But why? You’re punishing me for something I didn’t even do,” he said with a pout.

“You’re paid more than me and Hajime combined,” you pointed out. “I think you can afford to treat us to some ramen without breaking the bank.” Iwaizumi nodded solemnly.

He threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine. You first, ___-chan,” he said, holding the curtains to the entrance open. Oikawa made a grand flourish. “Age before beauty, remember?”

You made sure to step hard on his foot as you walked in. He yelped and followed you to a quiet table in the corner, scowling at you the whole way. Iwaizumi was shaking his head at your collective antics when the server came to take your orders. You noted with amusement the glazed adoration on her face as Oikawa gave her a dazzling smile.

“So,” you said to Iwaizumi when you were alone again, “how should we go about dealing with this?”

Oikawa sipped from a glass of water, dark eyes watchful. “Have you made any progress with the Alice killer?”

You told him what you’d learned at the club. “I think I’ll have to go back there and question them all,” you finished. “There’s a lot more under the surface than they’re letting on.”

“The whole thing seems extremely shady to me,” growled Iwaizumi. “I’m going with you.”

You wondered how to go about this gently. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I have feeling their trust is fragile, and anything could break it. I need you to look up their files instead so we can corroborate their stories later. It’s time consuming, but Kageyama-kun can help.”

Green eyes locked with yours in a battle of wills as Iwaizumi made his disapproval known. You gazed back until he looked away with a sigh. “Be careful. This perp has no boundaries, no rules. You could be targeted.”

Oikawa gave you a pleasant smile. “I could accompany you, if you like. This club sounds very interesting.”

Before you could say it, Iwaizumi shook his head. “No, definitely not. It’s bad enough that she wants to waltz in there without protection, but taking you along? That’s not happening.”

Oikawa’s face was set in stubborn resolve. He lifted his chin. “I can take care of myself, Iwa-chan. ‘Sides, the killer only targets women.”

That seemed to make the other male falter. His face turned grim again. “I still say no. There’s no guarantee the murderer will continue to follow this pattern, and you might not be able to follow ___ to the underground floor. It’s unsafe for a host of reasons.”

You watched in fascination as Oikawa turned predatory. “Iwa-chan,” he said, lips curling upwards, “are you really just worried for me?”

Iwaizumi frowned, setting his glass down with a tap. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean,” Oikawa intoned, voice husky, “you’re coming up with a bunch of flimsy reasons for me not to visit a club. As if I haven’t been to a million of them. Is there something in particular about this one that bothers you? Like the fact that there’s a collection of attractive, intriguing people?”

You bit your cheek as you saw Iwaizumi’s knuckles turn white. “Are you saying,” he gritted out, “that I’m jealous?”

There was a rustle as Oikawa leaned forward, his gaze fixed on Iwaizumi’s. “I don’t know. Are you?”

It was lightning-fast, but you caught it as Iwaizumi’s eyes dropped to Oikawa’s mouth. Judging from the way his shoulders stiffened, Tooru knew it too. Your partner parted his lips to speak. “I-“

A shrill ring drove a spike into the strange moment building at the table. You finally breathed again as Iwaizumi left to take the call, your chest easing out of a tightness you didn’t know you felt. Oikawa just stared at the table with a dark expression, his frame rigid with tension. You sighed.

“Tooru, when are you both going to stop dancing around each other and just say it?” You had lost track of the number of times they came close to the edge of that precipice.

He didn’t look at you. “I can’t risk it, ___-chan. You and Iwa-chan are the only people I have left.” His voice was quiet, broken. “I just can’t.”

You put your hand over his, feeling his pain like your own. “I’m not going to interfere, but…this isn’t going to last forever.”

He didn’t say anything when you and Iwaizumi left for the station. Your partner’s face had turned into a granite mask, and you knew better than to prod him for answers. After spending a while collecting files to take with you, it was time to leave, so you waved at Iwaizumi. He nodded back briskly. “Be safe, ___.”

Twenty minutes later you found yourself staring at a door, powder blue this time, and wondering what awaited you behind its polished surface. There was only one way to find out. You inhaled for calm, turned the knob and walked in.

A shirtless Kuroo greeted you with an inscrutable smile. You swallowed at the sight of gloriously dusky skin, marble-like musculature and that sinful hair over one eye. “Detective. I see you’ve found the Pool of Tears.”