In the early morning, the dim and hazy light scattered on the dining table. The soft sound of glass colliding with silverware was particularly pleasing to the ear. Alfred, the butler, placed the last dish on the smoothly draped tablecloth. Bruce, seated at the head of the table, nodded at him, and the elderly butler turned away with a contented look in his eyes.
Bruce sat at the head of the long dining table. Facing him was Selina; to her right was Dick and next to Dick was Aisha. On the surface, it seemed like a typical breakfast scene of a family of four. However, the peaceful setting turned into chaos the second Bruce tapped his wine glass with a fork to signify the start of the meal.
Most kids have a very strange habit of stuffing everything into their mouths except when it's time to eat. They act like they are enemies with food, refusing even a single bite.
Fortunately, Aisha has always had a great appetite, or rather, an excessively great appetite. She enjoys stuffing everything into her mouth at any time and any place.
With a sharp "crack" sound, the plate holding the sandwich was bitten off a chunk. Dick, who was sipping water, sprayed out a mouthful and started coughing. He quickly turned around, patting Aisha's back, trying to get her to spit out the fragments of the plate.
After wiping his mouth hurriedly with a napkin, Dick started pantomiming and saying, "No, Aisha! That was not part of the sandwich! That was the plate! That's tableware, understand? You can't eat it.....Wait! Put down that cup!"
With another sharp "crack," Aisha bit off a piece of the glass, and the milk inside spilled all over her. Dick covered his eyes, took a towel from Alfred and wiped the stains off her. The old butler looked delighted, seemingly amused by the situation.
"Aisha, don't bite the tableware. It's a trouble for Alfred," said Bruce. While Alfred was bringing a new glass of milk, he replied, "Oh, it's fine, sir. You also spilled milk several times when you were young. It's quite normal…."
Bruce was about to say that spilling milk and biting off a piece of a milk cup are two completely different things.
But the force of Aisha's sharp teeth was surprisingly impressive. Whether it was a ceramic plate, a glass milk cup, a fabric tablecloth, or a wooden table, a single bite from her was enough to break off a large chunk.
Dick tried to teach Aisha to use a fork, but as soon as Aisha picked up the fork, she put it in her mouth and bit off the end with a "crack." Dick, with wide-opened eyes, was looking at Aisha chewing on the metal fork as if it was chewing gum. He swallowed hard, looking at his arm still with tooth marks.
Aisha spat out the chewed-up fork, which was now unrecognizable as a small piece of metal. Dick threw it away and asked Alfred for a new fork. At that moment, Aisha suddenly shouted, "Wah! Wah!!!"
Selina, who had been dozing, suddenly woke up. She rubbed her eyes and said, "Bruce, she's calling you…"
Bruce looked at Aisha, who was extending her arm towards him. Bruce had to put down his cutlery, walk over to Aisha's seat, pick her up, and asked Selina, "How do you know what she means?"
"Haven't you noticed that Aisha has been trying to talk lately?"
Selina propped her head up with one hand, looking very sleepy, because she had stayed up late the night before. She said, "You weren't at home last night. I was playing building blocks with her. Then she suddenly started shouting like this. I was confused, but later I realized, she seemed to be looking for you…"
Bruce held Aisha at arm's length and studied her closely. Aisha showed her sharp teeth and smiled at him, making unclear "wah wah" sounds. Dick, coming over, listened and said, "I think she's trying to say 'Dad', but she just can't pronounce the 'P' sound."
Bruce sat down in his seat with Aisha and fed her a piece of sandwich with a fork. Aisha bit off the sandwich and the head of the fork in one bite. Bruce quickly asked her to spit it out, but Aisha chewed it twice and swallowed it. After swallowing, she looked up at Bruce with big, innocent eyes.
"Don't worry, she's fine," Selina said, taking a sip of juice. "Haven't you noticed that your daughter has some special abilities?"
"...what kind of special abilities?"
"Do you think a normal child can run at 120 mph within 3 seconds? Or jump from the third floor unharmed, and jump around lively after swallowing three blocks?"
"Apparently, Aisha has superpowers."
Bruce stared at Aisha in his arms, while Dick's eyes lit up. He turned to Bruce and asked, "Superpower?? … Mr. Wayne, since Aisha is your biological daughter, that means you also…"
"I don't," Bruce flatly denied. Dick clearly didn't believe him. At that age, all kids are fascinated by the idea of superpowers. Judging by Dick's expression, he desperately wanted Bruce to perform a flying trick right then and there…
After holding Aisha for a while, Bruce stood up and put her back in her seat. Then he turned to Dick and asked, "Where have you been these days? I wanted you to help me fix the car yesterday afternoon, but Alfred told me you went out with Aisha…"
"Oh..." Dick looked somewhat uneasy as he touched his cutlery. "I...I've made some new friends."
"New friends, who?"
"Um..." Dick hesitated, seemingly finding it difficult to spit out the words.
Although he knew Bruce is not an ordinary person, he still didn't know that he was Batman. In his eyes, Bruce was just a super-rich dude from the South District. He didn't know if Bruce, like other rich people from the South, hated the poor folks from the East District.
However, he got along well with Dick and Jason. One reason is they were around the same age, and thus, had more in common. The other reason is that he also came from a humble background. The opulence of Wayne Manor made him feel uneasy and a bit constrained. On the contrary, Jason's shabby underground base made him feel more relaxed.
But he couldn't share this with Bruce. He knew the only reason he could stay in Gotham was because of Bruce, and he didn't have the ability like Jason to fend for himself on the streets of Gotham.
After getting familiar in a few days, Dick realised that mere martial arts skills weren't enough to survive in Gotham. And due to his young age, his martial arts skills weren't up to par either. He lacked actual combat experience in street fights.
Dick was scared that if he said anything, Bruce might forbid him from hanging out with his friends. Dick didn't want that as he found life on the streets exciting. It not only honed his physical skills but also exposed him to all sorts of interesting happenings.
For instance, just yesterday, the Tail Gang led by Jason had a fight with the Red-mouth Gang on Red-mouth Street. The street fights of these youth gangs, though small, were well-organised. These included gathering intelligence, scouting terrain, preparing weapons, organising manpower and even dividing work. Some were lookouts, some fought, while some were rearguards and so on.
In short, in the social circles of Gotham's children, the gruesome aspects of the adult mob world were downsized. These kids couldn't get their hands on serious weapons so the street fights rarely got dangerously life-threatening. Yet, the thrilling, wild, and violent aesthetics remained, easily attracting hot-blooded young boys like Dick.
But Dick knew the wealthy people would not see it this way. They would rather their children learn things like piano, violin, ballet, and etiquette.
Broaching this topic, Bruce said to Dick: "Since I adopted you, I am responsible for you. I have spoken to Alfred, and from tomorrow onwards, you will be attending the boarding school in the north. It's the best boarding school in entire Gotham, with top-notch facilities and faculty. It offers a wide range of courses like Latin, ballet, harp and so on…"
Dick looked at Selina with pleading eyes. Selina shook her head, making a helpless expression.
Dick sighed. At first, he thought Bruce adopted him to serve as a nanny for his biological daughter. But now it seemed, it could have been easier to be a nanny.
During the chat, Bruce finished his breakfast. Wiping his mouth with a napkin, he said: "I have to go out, probably won't return until tonight. Alfred will prepare your lunch and dinner."
With that, he left the dining table. Selina yawned, looking somewhat sleepy, and left to catch up on her sleep upstairs. Dick heaved a sigh, then picked up Aisha to tell her:
"Let's go, I'll take you out to play. In a few days, my good days will be over and then you won't see me anymore."
Aisha didn't seem to comprehend what Dick was worried about. She kept wailing, striving to imitate human language from her wail's tone and frequency.
Dick decided to teach her: "'papa', you should pronounce it this way, purse your lips and softly make the sound 'P'…"
"This word means father, Mr. Wayne. He is your father so you should call him 'papa'. But when you grow up a bit more, you should call him dad or father."
"This word is used by children, but in reality, all these words mean dad. It's just that one is baby talk, one is colloquial, and one is formal. Of course, the words for grandparents are also similarly used…"
Aisha, who had been continuously practicing pronunciation, was instantly taken aback.
Technically, language is a unique function of orderly creatures. Chaotic creatures don't need it at all. They are born unique, with no species, no need for communication and no understanding of each other. They are born from chaos, and ultimately return to chaos. Anything logical would never appear in their world.
And when a chaotic creature suddenly turns into an orderly creature, understanding the reason for the existence of language is difficult enough, let alone learning pronunciation, tone, words, and grammar.
Aisha, the parallax transformed into a little girl, was still trying to figure out how to pronounce even a simple word correctly, and Dick told her that there were endless words waiting for her to learn, which was daunting.
Not wanting to listen to Dick rant anymore, Aisha broke free from his embrace and ran out. Running onto the lawn, she sensed a somewhat familiar power approaching.
Aisha paused, looked up at the sky, and vaguely saw two figures, one yellow and one green, colliding together.
She thought hard for a moment, then turned back and ran into the house, slamming into Dick who was about to chase after her.
Aisha waved her arms, wailing at him, but Dick had no idea what she was trying to say. Aisha covered her forehead in frustration, imitating Dick.
She kept on "ahh-ing", seemingly on the verge of pronouncing the sounds correctly.