Although Bruce, having returned from Metropolis, was lost in thought, he hadn't forgotten what he was investigating before his departure.
Since Bruce didn't know when Constantine would leave Gotham, and he had no means to counteract Constantine, he sped up his own investigation, planning to thoroughly investigate Constantine while he was still in Gotham.
Previously unnoticed by Batman when he was trailing him, Constantine didn't realize the severity of the situation and didn't consider fleeing Gotham. When he finally thought about leaving, he was trapped by a snowstorm.
Due to the transportation paralysis, many entertainment spots in Gotham were closed. With nothing else to do, Constantine began to wander around the city.
For Constantine, unlike ordinary people, the City of Sin, seen by everyone else as dangerous, was just like home. In this city, there weren't many people who were worse than him; who knew more about vileness, and so he was unbeatable.
He had once been kidnapped by a mob but ended up in the boss's bed within two days. He'd been extorted by street thugs. They found nothing on him but two half-dead toads.
He'd been evicted by a landlord and had slept on the streets, forming a band with homeless men and making a small profit. He'd been deceived by the madam of the Red Light District, but the next day he utterly mesmerised her top girl who ended up repenting and retiring.
In this city, which was both similar and dissimilar to his style, Constantine wandered with an untamed and crazy spirit that left Gotham enthralled.
These carefree, cavalier days lasted until he moseyed into the vicinity of the Gotham Cathedral.
Being sensitive to the mystical, Constantine discovered Dionysium hidden beneath the Cathedral. When he lifted the freshly repaired floor tiles and saw the liquid glowing green, his eyes widened in amazement.
Perhaps because his skills bred boldness, or perhaps because he knew the devils would not let him die easily, Constantine didn't consider any safety measures when retrieving the liquid. He found an empty plastic water bottle nearby and filled it.
What he didn't know was that, while investigating Constantine, Batman was also investigating the Dionysium beneath the Cathedral.
Before this, Batman had found ample information in books, and was planning physical verification. He'd been skulking around the Cathedral for several days, and, by chance, ran into a very sneaky Constantine.
Just as Constantine was stealing the Dionysium, Batman appeared to stop him. However, Batman was ill-prepared against magic, and Constantine teleported away effortlessly.
Then the pair resumed their game of cat and mouse within Gotham.
In the beginning, Constantine held the upper hand. Magic was quite convenient, with teleportation and cloning making him almost unbeatable in a chase.
But as time went on, Batman's superior ability to learn and strategize increasingly kicked in. Constantine found himself caught in trap after trap. It seemed all eventualities had been accounted for by Batman, and escape was becoming increasingly difficult.
Since Constantine was increasingly slippery, Batman's patience began to wane and his methods became more intense. Constantine knew that if things kept going like this, he definitely wouldn't be able to escape. So, he decided to find a place to lay low.
Most industries in Gotham were owned by the Wayne Family, which Constantine knew. But if he had to find a hiding place, then the hospital, the university, and the prison were relatively harder places to be found.
The next day, a bruised Constantine arrived at Arkham Mental Hospital and was greeted by Doctor Brand. A puzzled Constantine asked, "Where's Shiller? Isn't he here?"
"His anxiety is acting up, he's gone home for some rest." Dr. Brand turned to his desk, picked up a clipboard and a bill, made a brief note, then handed it to Constantine.
After taking the paper, Constantine scratched his head and reached into his pocket, fondling the two coins within. Then he said, "Uh, I don't have any money..."
"It's alright, he had expected you to say that." Doctor Brand pulled a file from the shelf on the desk and handed it to Constantine. He flipped open the file and said, "An IOU? That's too..."
"He told me to tell you - 'Sign if you want'."
"So, if I don't sign, I don't get a room right? Alright..." Constantine glanced over the contract filled with various financial terms, then picked up a pen and signed.
Without lifting his head, Doctor Brand called a nurse in over the phone and pointed at Constantine. "Room number 13 on the 4th floor. Another bed there."
"Ah, Dr. Brand, the patient in room 13 is aggressive, don't you remember? That's Dr. Hugo…"
Visibly annoyed, Dr. Brand looked at the nurse and said, "And what can we do? The heads of the Twelve Families are packed four to a room here, does he intend to have a single room all to himself forever?"
"If he's not happy, he can be transferred to the Central Hospital. There's still plenty of room in their morgue."
Having said this, Dr. Brand turned and left the room. The nurse shrugged helplessly, and leaned over to sigh. "Follow me, please."
While heading upstairs, Constantine chatted with the nurse. When he was in his right mind, he was quite sociable. Precisely speaking, he was good at communicating with good-looking men and women.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, the nurse stopped at the staircase, looking at Constantine and saying, "Sir, I don't know who you are, but I have to warn you. Your roommate is a bit abnormal."
"Oh? What's wrong with him?"
"He originally served as the head physician here, but somehow, he went mad himself. At first, he was very aggressive and a couple of male nurses were injured by him. He's better now, but he may still attack you, so please be careful."
"Doctor? How did he drive himself mad?"
"Who knows." The nurse began to move forward again, walking and talking, "I think you don't have to be curious about this matter, people go mad every day in Gotham, there doesn't necessarily need to be a reason."
When they reached the door of the ward, the nurse pushed it open and there was a figure crouched in the corner. The nurse turned around with a frown, then said, "Mr. Constantine, you wait here for a moment, I need to call the nursing aide. How did he tear off his straitjacket again?"
With that, the nurse left. Constantine moved closer to the man who was crouched down. He didn't look young, bald, wearing glasses, his teeth continuously shaking, and murmuring something to himself.
Constantine leaned in to listen. The man kept mumbling something about "dreams" and "monsters". Just when Constantine was about to shake his head and walk away from this crazy talk, he suddenly heard a familiar syllable.
Constantine leaned in once more to listen, and after a while, he identified that syllable was "Shiller".
Constantine looked around, and just when he was about to ask a question, the nurse came back with the nursing aide. They held Hugo down onto the bed and tied him up. After coughing lightly, Constantine sat back down on his bed as if nothing had happened.
After a while, an older nurse came into the room with a small cart. She walked up to Hugo's bed with a tray and gave him an injection. Seeing the elderly nurse approach him with a needle, Constantine retreated to the head of his bed and said, "I don't need an injection, right?"
The elderly nurse looked at him and said, "Indeed, you don't."
She took a paper from her waist, glanced at it, and then asked, "Doctor Brand mentioned it to me. Do you prefer morphine or cocaine?"
Constantine's eyes widened, but seeing the nurse's calm expression, in order not to appear unworldly, he coughed lightly and said nonchalantly, "Morphine."
Soon, the drug arrived, and Constantine pretended to be already sleeping on the bed. After the nurse left, he gently opened his eyes to confirm that no one else was in the room. Then, he moved closer to Hugo's bed.
Hugo seemed to have been given a sedative, already asleep. Constantine watched him for a long time, noticing no reaction, he gave up.
By night, the ward was quiet. Both men seemed to be deeply asleep, but after a while, Hugo, who was lying on the bed, moved.
His teeth started to tremble, and his whole body shook. He was struggling on the bed, then suddenly became calm. He slowly took one hand out of the unfastened straitjacket, sat up straight, then freed his other hand.
After getting off the bed, he glanced at the sleeping Constantine. His face didn't show the previous signs of fear and panic, instead, he seemed very calm and a little gloomy.
He moved quietly to the door, pushing it slowly, making no noise. However, as soon as he left, Constantine opened his eyes.
Constantine let out a slight chuckle, saying, "Only playing for about ten minutes and you think I've fallen asleep? Naive."
He got up swiftly as well, showing no signs of the drowsiness caused by taking the drugs before trying to sleep. He opened the door carefully and followed Hugo, finding him at a ward on the seventh floor.
The seventh-floor ward had a door more like an entrance to a secure base, the frame and panel all made of metal, looking like it was designed to detain dangerous people. But somehow Hugo was able to open the door and as he entered, Constantine leaned against the wall by the entrance.
He realized he couldn't hear anything from the outside, so he snapped his fingers and a faint ghost drifted through the crack of the door. Now he could hear and see what was happening inside.
Inside there were two men, one was the bald Hugo and the other appeared more frail, nowhere near as sturdy as Hugo, wearing glasses, pale, and looking like a scholar.
"If you continue to harp on about your unrealistic dream visions, then our collaboration ends here, Hugo."
"Jonathan, let me say it again, it's not a fairy tale, I saw it with my own eyes! If we can't find ways to deal with him, even if we escape, we'll only end up back here."
"Fear has gotten the better of you!" The scholar named Jonathan raised his voice, he said disdainfully, "I too can make people see unrealistic illusions and make them fear."
"Originally, I had even developed a weapon for that, however, who knew…" Jonathan's voice became harsh as he bitterly said, "a mysterious thief stole my achievement, and locked me in here!"
"Last time you told me that it's been a year since you were locked in here, did you know there's a superhero in Gotham now? Called Batman?"
Jonah snorted, "Of course, I know! It was Batman who sent me here. Back then, he was just a kid, only got lucky."
"It seems we both have our own enemies in Gotham." Hugo's voice was growing darker, madness seeping into his tone. He said, "If we want to get out of here, we need to cause some chaos."
Hugo drew out the last syllable, then turned to gaze towards the brightly lit Gotham city center, he said,
"City of Sin? I think, it's just right for us."
"Smash the glass, burn the money, let ordinary people eat bullets, make the self-proclaimed heroes scream, this is what we should do——"
"It's time to make some real noise."