Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4428 - 3516: Research on Cats and Dogs (27)

At the end of the corridor stood two men. Batman glanced over and thought one of them looked somewhat familiar.

"Victor Fries?" Batman called out his name.

The man walked over, shook hands with Batman, and said, "That's me. You must be the Batman from another universe that the Commissioner mentioned? I'm Victor Fries, teaching in the Physics Department at Gotham University."

Batman nodded towards him and then asked, "You didn't get affected?"

Victor shook his head and said, "I didn't eat much, so I wasn't poisoned. My friend and I both drank quite a bit, but nothing happened to us. The toxin likely wasn't in the drinks."

Batman turned to look at the friend standing beside him. In fact, he thought the aura of these people was quite similar: tall, thin, dressed in old-fashioned suits with sharp shoulders, wearing glasses. They all exuded the demeanor of refined and scholarly intellectuals.

"Schiller Rodriguez." Schiller smiled and nodded at him.

Batman found the name somewhat familiar, particularly "Schiller." It seemed like something he had heard someone mention before, but try as he might, he couldn't recall it clearly.

"I'm a professor in the Psychology Department at Gotham University, with an office right next to Professor Fries. Neither of us had classes this afternoon, so we had some snacks and didn't eat much at the dinner party. As a result, neither of us was poisoned."

Batman glanced again at Jonathan Crane in the interrogation room. He thought, since the man was already here and couldn't escape, it might be more useful to extract more information from others first. That way, he would have stronger leverage during their confrontation later.

So, he had Superman stand guard at the door of Jonathan's interrogation room and brought the two professors into an adjacent reception room.

After sitting down, Schiller unbuttoned his suit and took a glass of water from a nearby officer. Victor also seated himself casually, with neither of them appearing particularly nervous.

However, Batman didn't find this surprising. After all, anyone qualified to be a professor in Gotham wouldn't be the timid sort. For them, walking into a police station was probably as routine as eating or drinking.

"I have a few questions for both of you. Either one of you can answer, or you can discuss and decide who will respond."

"No problem, go ahead and ask," Schiller said.

"When did the dinner party start?"

"The invitation said 7:30, but most people arrived at 7:00," Schiller thought for a moment and said. "The food was served around 7:40. Jonathan had his first drink around 7:43."

"You have a good memory, Professor."

"I'm a psychology professor; remembering details is my bread and butter," Schiller said with a smile before continuing, "Neither Victor nor I ate the appetizers that were served. However, each of us had a pre-dinner drink."

Victor nodded and thought for a moment before saying, "I had orange wine, while he had some sort of sweet liqueur."

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"Yes, I detected a hint of white rum, though the exact composition I'm unclear about."

"What course of the meal did the two of you try after that?"

"We both skipped the main course. I had a bit of the after-dinner salad, and Victor had some finger biscuits."

"At approximately what time did the first victim exhibit symptoms?"

"The party was supposed to end at 10:00 PM. Around 9:40 or so, Professor Hall from the Forensic Science Department began projectile vomiting and showed signs of mental disorientation. We immediately called for an ambulance."

"Did you make the call?"

"No, it was a professor from the Mathematics Department named Anna who made the call. However, she was also affected by the toxin and is likely in the hospital now."

"So, at the time Professor Hall was poisoned, Professor Anna was not yet affected and was clear-headed enough to call for help. When did Professor Anna succumb to the poison?"

"About three minutes after completing the call."

"Were there any victims who exhibited symptoms after 10:00 PM?"

"Of course. There were sporadic collapses continuing until nearly 11:00."

"Were the symptoms different among the victims?"

Schiller shook his head and said, "From my observation, there wasn't much difference. Most exhibited vomiting first, followed by gastrointestinal discomfort, dizziness, and then collapsing to the floor, babbling incoherently."

"No signs of aggressiveness?"

"None. However, due to the suddenness of it all, some chaos ensued, resulting in people pushing and falling, which likely caused minor injuries."

Batman pondered. He was finding it increasingly unlikely that Jonathan Crane was the culprit.

Not to mention that, as the host of the party, an incident of this nature would naturally implicate him first. Anyone with half a brain would avoid putting themselves in such a position.

Even the victims' symptoms didn't align with Scarecrow's methods of toxicology.

Scarecrow Jonathan Crane was one of the world's top chemists. His knowledge of toxins and their application far surpassed even Batman's expertise in chemistry. Otherwise, he wouldn't hold such a prominent position in Gotham's rogues' gallery.

If he wanted, he could ensure everyone was poisoned at precisely the same moment, or engineer various effects, like causing some to vomit while others hallucinated—all with the same timing and dosage, ensuring precise outcomes.

As exaggerated as it might sound, this was merely Scarecrow's baseline skillset. With his preferred weapon, fear gas, the effects could be even more dramatic.

If Jonathan Crane were behind this, what could his motive be?

If the goal were to eliminate Gotham University's entire faculty in one blow, simply releasing a poison gas into the dining hall would do the trick—none would survive.

If creating temporary incapacitation was the aim, the original fear gas would suffice. Scarecrow had caused mass chaos with fear gas multiple times before.

If the intent were merely to embarrass people enough to draw Batman's attention—never mind that Batman didn't even exist in this universe anymore—the staggered poisoning timeline Schiller described ensured that the first victims collapsed, the later ones called for help, and paramedics and police arrived swiftly to stabilize the situation.

For truly uncontrollable chaos, simultaneous poisoning would have been far more effective: no one could raise the alarm, and the entire Gotham University would fall into chaos. This would truly disgrace the professors before their students.

In summary, neither the motive nor the technique added up. Still, Batman chose to err on the side of caution and asked:

"What kind of reputation does Professor Crane have at the university?"

"He's only recently returned," Victor said. "The last time he worked at Gotham University was over a decade ago. I wasn't here yet, so I don't know much about his relationships back then."

Batman shifted his gaze to Schiller.

"Frankly, not great," Schiller said, shaking his head. "Professor Crane exhibits very typical characteristics of an anti-social personality disorder. He also shows symptoms of Asperger's syndrome, such as severe social ineptitude, obsessive tendencies, and even bouts of hysteria."

"I worked with him for only a short time, but during that period, I didn't hear of him becoming friends with any professors, and his relationships with students were average at best. He eventually left his teaching position due to certain issues."

"What kind of issues?"

"Not entirely sure, but I heard he had a mental breakdown and ended up in prison. Apparently, it had something to do with Batman at the time."

"Batman at the time?"

"Yes, Gotham still had a Batman back then. Apparently, Batman eventually sent him to Arkham Asylum."

"Did he have other encounters with Batman?"

"You'll have to ask Batman—or yourself. Aren't you Batman?"

"The situation in your universe is different from mine. From your perspective, what was his relationship with Batman like?"

"I didn't see much of either of them, honestly," Schiller said while shaking his head. "Sorry, I can't provide any clues on that."

Batman seemed to realize that pressing a university professor about Batman and his relationship with his own nemesis might be unreasonable. He changed the subject:

"I heard Bruce Wayne attended Gotham University. How were his grades?"

"Relatively average," Schiller replied. "It seemed he relied on his status as a Wayne Enterprises trustee and didn't take academics or exams very seriously. Gotham University also lacked a president for a long time, and he didn't seem to care about that either."

"Did you know he was Batman?"

"At first, I didn't, but I found out later."

"When Professor Crane was in Arkham Asylum, did he exhibit any abnormalities? Did he contact any of you? Or does anyone know what he was doing during that time?"

Schiller shook his head. "For a long time, Arkham Asylum wasn't very professional. I'm unsure whether Professor Crane received proper treatment for his mental illnesses there. However, after his return, he seemed somewhat improved."

Batman grew interested. He asked, "How so?"

"Generally speaking, someone like him wouldn't initiate social interactions. But after returning to teaching, he directly sent us invitations and even personally sought me out to invite me to the dinner party."

"During my conversations with him, I noticed his mental state had stabilized significantly, and his symptoms of social ineptitude had improved. If not for the lingering vacancy in his gaze, I might have thought he was cured."

"You should trust his judgment," Victor said. "He's a world-renowned psychologist. In your universe, you might have heard of his name, too."

Batman nodded. He felt his familiarity with the name "Schiller" might indeed stem from academic articles or news related to psychology.

"Do you think these changes could be related to Bruce?" Batman asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"As you mentioned, Arkham Asylum was not professional, and without treatment, Professor Crane's mental issues wouldn't have improved so quickly. Could it be that Bruce Wayne played an important role in this?"

"I can only say there's a possibility," Schiller replied cautiously. "Wayne Enterprises certainly has ample medical resources. It's not surprising they could heal someone like Professor Crane. However, I haven't seen it with my own eyes, so I can't say for certain."

Victor almost lost his composure. "Haven't you made enough baseless conclusions today?"

"Thank you, Professors. That will be all," Batman said as he stood up. It seemed he had no further questions. "To be safe, I suggest you stay somewhere with police and medical personnel tonight. Otherwise, another poisoning could cost you your lives."

Schiller nodded and stood in place, watching as Batman walked toward Jonathan's interrogation room.

"You're downright wicked," Victor whispered. "You've shifted the 'Professor' label onto 'Jonathan,' using Batman's attention to solidify Jonathan Crane as the mysterious 'Professor.' This way, anyone targeting the 'Professor' will end up going after Jonathan."

"Don't blame me," Schiller said with a trace of humor in his voice. "Compared to me, diligently showing up for work all these years, Jonathan Crane, who's been largely unnoticed for over a decade, seems far more likely to be secretly involved in something, doesn't he?"

"But they'll soon find out Bruce majored in psychology."

"Was he any good at it?"

Victor was stumped.

"Not only was he bad at psychology, but he also excelled unusually in chemistry," Schiller muttered as he turned and walked toward the doorway. "Doesn't that tie it all together perfectly?"