Especially Jason, who barely ever spoke to him without conflict.
Jason's expression was always one of arrogance and resistance when facing him, but the faint glimmer of longing in his eyes was like a flame burning in the darkness.
So bright.
He knew the boy idolized him.
Jason craved his approval, even just a nod.
But he couldn't... He had long since become the embodiment of darkness in the endless struggle against chaos and disorder.
He was accustomed to treating everything with coldness and hardness—Batman's attitude.
Thus, he had never shown even a hint of fatherly affection to the boy.
He trained him, taught him all combat skills and firearm techniques, and showed him every hidden passage in Gotham.
He undoubtedly invested as much effort into Jason as he had into Dick, yet he stubbornly refrained from offering any tentative concern.
After Dick left home, he made Jason the new Robin.
The teenager's excitement at donning the uniform was evident.
He tried to hide his excitement in front of him but couldn't help but throw a few punches and bounce around with anticipation.
He silently took a sip of coffee beside him, remaining quiet.
As they fought crime together, their arguments grew more frequent.
Robi couldn't understand his stubbornness, nor did he intend to explain his beliefs to anyone.
Frequent arguments became the driving force between them, pushing the father and son further apart.
They were the most strained father-son relationship in the world.
It seemed they hated each other.
They always erupted into arguments filled with bitterness.
He had never spoken to Jason kindly, and Jason always referred to him as "Old Bat," even avoiding using his name.
On the night when Jason left him alone, they had another inevitable explosion of conflict.
As Jason left, he gave him one last angry glance and told him, "Of course I'll take responsibility."
He was filled with anger at that moment, and he didn't try to stop him, thinking that Robin would return to him after leaving the Batcave alone.
...But later, he realized that sometimes people spend their whole lives regretting the most ordinary and trivial actions.
This is often the case; it never changes.
—That turned out to be his last conversation with Jason.
He lost a child.
He lost his family again.
Past events seemed to replay endlessly in his life.
It seemed like the worst gift that Gotham had ever give to him.
As a father, he buried his own son.
He personally placed the coffin over the boy whose eyes would never open again.
The heavy coffin was like a descending stone door, sealing off him from his world.
He placed a family photo from two years prior into the boy's clenched hand, as if the boy were still determined to punch the world in defiance.
In the photo, he sat in a high-backed chair, with Alfred standing to his left, a now-strong young Dick standing behind the chair, and his second son, who would die a year after the photo was taken, defiantly draping his arm over the chair's back.
At that moment, he had turned slightly to look at him—
But met the boy's eyes, which were quietly welling up.
He immediately looked away, not daring to look further.
He knew Jason had always harbored deep-seated desires; this still-young boy would secretly reveal a trace of genuine emotion whenever fate suddenly dealt him a blow.
He preserved his dignity, refraining from piercing his pride, and acted as though he hadn't seen anything, maintaining a stern gaze towards the camera.
This was the only time he showed any tenderness toward him.
...
At the second funeral, they buried Clark Kent's parents, Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent.
On that devastating day, with the stop of one heartbeat, the Joker smiled as he pressed the switch hidden in the warehouse that was disguised as a pristine castle model.
The bombs buried in Metropolis exploded simultaneously, leveling the entire city to ruins.
That day, Earth lost its City of Tomorrow.
Despite the Justice League and the Avengers arriving promptly to aid in the aftermath, the actual number of survivors was less than a million, while the remaining Metropolis residents lost their lives with the city's destruction.
Among them were the Kent couple, who had come to Metropolis to visit Soren and Clark.
They had stayed in a hotel not far from the apartment where Clark Kent lived.
Even as the bombs exploded, his mother was anxiously calling him.
But when the bombs exploded…
The entire city fell amidst the roar of the bombs.
Buildings collapsed.
The ground was engulfed in countless mushroom clouds.
The City of Tomorrow, which everyone had once spoken of with fascination and which Americans often mentioned with pride and a sense of superiority, was reduced to a deep scar on the road, as if touched by the fingertip of God.
Such a wound could not have been inflicted by human power...
In an instant, it sank the entire city.
The intense light from the explosion even made neighboring Gotham witness true daylight in the apocalyptic glow.
—That day, humanity faced its end.
The Kent couple perished in the collapse of the entire city.
And their son.
Their only beloved child.
The Kryptonian orphan they had found in the endless cornfields of Kansas.
The most well-known hero in the world.
The guardian of Earth.
The savior of humanity.
Jesus Christ.
The blood-soaked Jesus Christ.
The Son bearing the cross.
The Jesus wrapped in burial cloths.
He stumbled as he carried the body of his beloved, heading towards his parents' resting place.
In his agony, he lost all his words.
He knelt in the vast, sunken pit, as the aftershocks of the explosion caused the earth's crust to hum, radiating outwards from him in all directions.
—It was the sacred music played for the true birth of the Son, the Saint, and the King Christ, the god of Earth.
The entire crust, starting from the ruins of the Metropolis, extended hundreds of miles to thousands of miles, with all human-made structures on the eastern coast of North America crumbling into dust, like tears from the deity's compassion.