He turns around and glares at Bruce, who suddenly is paying much stricter attention to his newspaper than hitherto. Dick is pretty sure that he isn't smiling because Hanshin Tigers won their game yesterday.
He has no idea who could be calling, and is expecting to switch to English as soon as possible. Bruce tried to get him to speak only Japanese for the day, but that got complicated when Barbara e-mailed him his homework.
The slip would be cute in less dire circumstances. As it is, Omi's solidly in Bombay mode, making his capacity for amusement rather limited. It does, however, serve as a reminder that Robin's Japanese is not at the level of fluency that Batman's is. That's going to complicate things, but they'll manage.
In consideration of that fact, he keeps his Japanese simple.
"It's me. Are you bored?"
Central as implicit communication seems to be between Batman and Robin, Omi trusts that question serves well enough as the invitation it's meant to be.
"Yeah, of course," he says slowly. Simple English, to match Omi's simple Japanese. Bruce looks up.
"Dick? Who is it?" he asks.
"K.F.," he says, lying brazenly. Something tells him that 'Are you bored?' is not just an invitation, but a clue. It's not the trained recognition he has of Batman's cues; it's the knowledge, shared by teenagers everywhere, that their parents don't need to know what they get up to.
Gotta make it sound good. Choose a story that won't make Bruce ask questions now, and hope Tsukiyono's real purpose is something he can ask forgiveness for later.
"He's got Red Arrow and Aqualad with him. They think they've got a lead on Speedy."
Nobody would question that. Everyone was desperate to solve that particular mystery, and with him, Kaldur, and Wally being the closest to Roy, it wasn't uncommon for the three of them to drop everything to go along with Red Arrow.
Asking forgiveness for it... that would be harder. He can see the color drain from Bruce's face, and he knows, he remembers when Green Arrow's sidekick disappeared for three months, and how Batman seemed to age five years.
But he has a hunch Tsukiyono isn't asking him to come out and play. His instincts are good, and Tsukiyono would happily ignore his existence, he believes. If he isn't... something is up. Something big.
He turns back to the phone, pretending he heard something else.
He's good. Omi can overhear Dick speaking to the room and knows they have an understanding: the two of them, something important, don't tell Bruce. What a relief it is that Dick both Gets It and has agreed to it. He's probably switched to English to pull off the escape without arousing suspicion.
In an effort to confirm Dick's assessment and assert his own good will, he tries to meet Dick halfway, and switches to English himself-- at least as best he can manage it.
"A.S.A.P. Come to west side of the building. I am--" A pause. How does he describe his specific location in English? "--next to moonlight."
That will have to do for explaining he's just inside the alley's shadows.
"Be careful," says Bruce, but it sounds like Batman.
"Hey, I'm always careful," he says, grinning over his shoulder. The excuse he'd given was absolutely compatible with running into his room and changing into costume, and this hunch... he just had a hunch.
"Like you were at Cadmus, right?" Bruce calls after him. "Believe it or not, the results don't always justify the means. Or disobeying a direct order."
"But there were results," says Robin, reemerging in full regalia. "Good results, that resulted in... well, we wouldn't have known about the Light if we hadn't formed the team."
And wasn't that something? No Superboy, no Artemis, maybe no Miss Martian or Rocket... but maybe no Zatanna, maybe they'd still have Zatara. Maybe the Helmet of Fate would still be secure in his Tower.
It wasn't that Bruce could read his mind. It wasn't; Bruce was not Professor Snape or a Martian.
"I know it's a useful saying, but asking forgiveness isn't always better than asking permission, either."
Time to end this conversation before he was proven wrong, though. But Bruce had brought up Cadmus, that was all he was thinking about.
"Maybe I'm a bad kid and sometimes I assume I know what you'll give permission for anyway," he said, grin back in place. He opened the window, and saw the moon bright as a diamond overhead.
"You definitely aren't a bad kid," said Bruce, and Robin's back was turned, facing the next adventure, but he could hear him smiling. "Call if you think it's going to be more than twenty-four hours, will you?"
"Acknowledged."
Next to moonlight? Well, maybe he needs air. He fires a zipline to the to the roof of the building's west side (luckily he was already there!) and tries to get the bird's eye view of the surrounding area as he activates the mechanical recall of the line and rises. There's a small classic car across the street, but that's about it, and Tsukiyono doesn't have a driver's license anymore than Robin does.
Next to moonlight... well, Robin knows where he would hide, and stifles a giggle. The building's west side was pretty dark, and he supposes an assassin would prefer it that way, too.
He fires a line to the building next door, and from there, zips down on a diagonal. Closer to the ground, he can see the shadow that's slightly more human-shaped and Omi-sized. Out of politeness, he chooses to land directly in his sight lines, rather than taking the 'behind you!' approach.
It's definitely progress that this time it's Robin dropping in front of him with a greeting rather than trying to ambush and capture. Omi nods to him and slings his backpack off his back to the ground in front of him.
"Hi... Thank you, for meeting me."
Maybe it's weird to thank him for showing up, especially considering that when you got down to it, the goal would be doing a lot more good for Robin than it would be doing for Omi. Even so, he didn't have to come out. He didn't have to give him a chance.
Yeah, that's about all he understands. It's on the tip of his tongue to say so, but sarcasm probably isn't much better than antagonism at this juncture.
Robin has to consciously restrain his body language from going too businesslike, or too aggressive. He dearly wishes he had something to do with his hands, but checking his weapons fall back into 'antagonism' and there's nothing for him to look up with his computer.
He ends up taking a deep breath and sighing, just to force his shoulders to loosen.
"Trouble," he agrees, because single words of Japanese are easier than grammatically constructed sentences and he wishes to confirm that he does, actually, yes, entirely understand the actual meaning of what's going on.
Youji lowers his binoculars and tries not to laugh. He can't lip-read English as well as his own native language, but he doesn't need to. Omi's face conveys 'trouble' adequately.
The scenario sat right with approximately none of them. Enough time spent in cloak-and-dagger nonsense gave one a feel for it, and Kritiker was losing its touch. That they found out about Bruce Wayne visiting the trailer wasn't surprising.
That they targeted him so shortly after was.
It didn't give Youji much confidence in the organization, that this kind of slipshod bureaucratic incompetence was so transparent even to the kids. Omi ran straight for the target. When the true believer begins to doubt, there isn't much hope left for anyone. He hoped he was the only who noticed, that Aya and Ken were more concerned with Omi's reaction than with the cause, because Manx had been priming him for one of those sweet little missions with sweet little misses who'd missed their calling and ended up killing people indiscriminately instead, and he'd expected to start gathering intel before another full-on mission briefing.
Now here he was, watching two teenagers fumble over a language barrier taller than either of them.
Well, he'd let them get as far as they could on their own. Whatever scheme they were going with, Omi and the Boy Wonder would put on the best show unadulterated by an adult.
Omi can't help noticing the body language, especially that sigh. Is he doing something that's grating Robin? He certainly seems frustrated at something... not the greatest start. Was this a mistake? This was probably a mistake.
But it's too late now. They're both here. It would doubtless be even worse to tell Robin, after he'd gone to the trouble of coming down, to never mind.
He unzips the front pocket of his backpack and pulls out a newspaper folded in half and a map. He's going to have to think about how to communicate everything he needs to, considering neither of them is fluent enough in the other's language for a complex recounting. He might need to make a few creative word substitutions.
He also thinks, this time, he wants to try continuing to speak in English as much as he can. Efforts to bridge the language gap ought to be a two-way street. It isn't very fair to put the full brunt of the translation burden on Robin.
He turns the newspaper to the lower half of the front page and offers it to Robin, then taps the article of relevance.
"...Gas poison causes quick death. Many people are dying. Who does the fault the police do not know."
Omi then places his finger on a location on the map he holds.
"This is what I know. The poison is a weapon. The weapon is for shadow buy. The produce is here." Produce was used as a noun, too, right? "But, there is a mystery: the weapon is a copy. A different company owns the design. This company also owned the building of produce until last year. It is a strange... pair of truths. It may be more, or it may be nothing. As a result, who does the fault... it does not seem sure. What if the knowledge is undercomplete? I—"
He stops. They have reached a point where any misstep in his words could be catastrophic. He can't risk bungling this in English, and reverts to Japanese.
"If I do nothing, someone without sin might die. I can't allow that... I have two days to find the truth."
Parsing that, Robin is grateful he's trying English. He can still understand Omi's English better than he can Japanese.
The other thing he latches on to is the 2-day time limit. That's a problem.
He looks up at the building, towards the high rise floor where Bruce is still working.
In Japanese, he tries, "WayneTech... is the... owner?"
It's the only reason to come to him. And it makes him angry, although he tries not to show it, because it's someone or something misusing Bruce Wayne's resources. Bruce isn't the easiest person to deal with, but if nothing else, he tries.
Here's the proof. Here's Omi Tsukiyono come to solve a mystery.
It makes him a little uneasy, because his gut feeling is that Omi is trying to identify a target, but if it's just an identification, that they can work together on. Bruce seems to have called this one correctly, so maybe... maybe they can stop at identifying who it is.
That's the only conclusion Omi can draw from the way Robin looks up the building, at the temporary home he's sharing with Bruce Wayne up there. He's got to be very careful with his words, indeed. One wrong phrase could be the difference between an alliance they both need and everything falling apart. On the other hand, it could also spell a disaster with his own true loyalties. Now that he can see it in hindsight, the fact Birman was aware he'd been in communication with Bruce Wayne is as alarming as it is unsurprising. They're monitoring him.
Whatever he says, there are two parties listening with opposite goals and both have to be satisfied.
"Saa..." Omi says in response, again having to trust that Robin understands implicit communication well enough: that wasn't a denial. He can't afford to be more direct than that.
He tries again with English. "Both of us do not want good people to die. This means we share a goal. Will you help?"
Omi has to believe, if nothing else, that Robin won't want to turn away the chance for this kind of inside access and intel. There'll be nothing stopping him and Batman from swooping in and taking out the real criminal their way first if they get to the bottom of this together. He's already been gifted the timeline. Isn't Robin interested in what else he can learn?
Robin grins. He tries out the Japanese as best he can.
"I'm in."
It's personal, after all. While it hasn't occurred to him that Bruce is Kritiker's target, the thought that he might see the sterling reputation of the Wayne family patrimony tarnished is enough to convince Robin that the little white lie was the correct move this round. When it's over, and the threat ended, they can have a laugh over it.
Robin... does not want to see Batman react to this in real time.
"You came to the right guy, anyway," he mutters, slipping back into English unintentionally as he thinks. A few quick keystrokes on his hologram interface and he's got WayneTech's local real estate records. Go back a year, and-- yes, this is the one Omi indicated.
"Bruce is..." Completely divested of it, he wants to say, and finally calls up an English-Japanese dictionary.
Accent still rough, he tries: "Severed, stripped, relieved..."
It's a phrase Omi has both heard and uttered dozens of times over the past two years, down in the basement of a quaint flower shop before a sharp-dressed redhead with a manila folder and a videotape. How strange to see the guy who was so sanctimonious about non-lethal crimefighting grin and unwittingly echo that affirmation each of Weiss gave at the close of a mission briefing.
Strange, maybe even eerie, but not unwelcome. It's a relief to have his support, and Omi relaxes a little to have secured it. He looks at the holographic display Robin's summoned, marveling at the technology and instantly envious of it.
"That's amazing..." he says to himself, unconsciously reverting to Japanese. How handy would it be to have all of the information and tools of his laptop without any of its weight or the security risk of carrying it around?
That aside, Robin's access to this kind of technology lends credence to the suspicion Omi'd had that he'd need the boy's help to get through any security barriers at WayneTech. Wayne Technology was quite simply too far ahead of anything he'd dealt with himself. He'd never make it without the aid of someone familiar with it.
Of course, he can't do much more than admire the technology, as he can only pick out strings of text from the reading itself. This makes Robin's efforts to talk about Bruce being severed, stripped and relieved rather confusing and just a little disturbing.
"...I am sorry. I do not understand," he says in English.
The Super Seven hums its way over while the caped crusader flips holographic pages. Youji can admit he might have liked such a thing at such a point in his life-- but Asuka would have liked it more, and he doesn't follow that thought any further.
The honk of the car horn makes Omi look over at him in surprise, and Youji actually had him in the headlights for a moment. He kills the lights only because he didn't bring a camera with him.
In Japanese, he says, "How soon before you progress the charades?"
Then he smiles and Omi, and repeats the question in English.
At first, all he can discern is a honk and the blare of headlights. For all he knows this could be Birman. Even if it's not her, there is no situation where coming under clear revelation that your concerns about being watched were 100% true is a good thing. Setting even that aside, this was supposed to be a covert meeting and now it's literally under a spotlight-- at least until the driver kills the headlights and makes his identity known.
Is it better than sneaking up on them? Probably, but Omi still thinks there must be a better approach than this, something that isn't quite so... broadcasting.
"What are you doing here?" Omi says, horror and exasperation shattering his cool professionalism like a wrecking ball on glass.
The answer, neatly packaged in that line of snark, sails right past him.
"My name is Bennett, I'm not in it," Robin muttered, and between the colloquialism and the weakness of the rhyme, Youji didn't quite get it, but also didn't care. He needed to hear Omi's rationale, and he needed it quickly.
"Excuse us," he said to Robin. "No offense, but I can't talk to you both at the same time."
"Keep your hands to yourself, and it's okay," Robin answered, and Youji made a face at that -- he sure as hell wasn't into high school boys -- but after the kidnapping, he also had approximately no room to maneuver around that one. That one he had to take on the chin and move on from.
Switching back to Japanese, he tried to filter out the exasperation he felt and was left with an abundance of sarcasm.
"Aya's going to be pissed if you take this job solo," Youji told him. "I know his sister's not running up the medical debt anymore, but that doesn't mean you should be icing him out of a payday."
That is the best that Omi can answer with. He's every bit as exasperated as Youji but lacking the sarcasm to hide behind. And he knows that Youji didn't follow him out here out of concern for Aya's feelings.
"I wouldn't be here asking if I had any idea," Youji said. He was using a few tricks to muddle Robin's ability to translate-- primarily speaking quickly, but also attempting to construct roundabout sentences.
"Mission impediments from you of all people would surprise any of us, but you're right on the brink of what Kritiker will tolerate right now. I should actually say, what they'll tolerate from you. If I did what you're doing-- actually, scratch that. I'm surprised Manx hasn't shot me already. Just being here talking to you makes me look like I'm in on it, and I don't even know what it is."
The idea that he would impede a mission is ludicrous, even now. The pressure of the stakes coupled with the immediate situation - Robin, standing there watching them and witness to as much of the conversation as he can pick up on when they ought to be on their way to the factory because it was a tight timeline already - fuel the anger Omi needs to pivot from baffled questions to defensive anger.
"How can you say it's barely what they'll tolerate when you don't even know what it is? What are you even doing here asking? If you think that puts you at risk then go home! I didn't ask you to come along." Because it does, in fact, put him at risk.
"Well, I'd rather not see what'll happen to you if Kritiker thinks you're impeding a mission," Youji said bluntly. "I can say it's barely what they'll tolerate because what they'll tolerate is narrow to begin with."
He shot a glance at the kid in the cape. They've got to hurry this up.
"Here's how it plays outside of your own head. In case you weren't sure. You asked for time and you used that time to come here. Either you're trying to do this alone or you're trying to make sure it doesn't get done."
Did he avoid the key words that Robin might pick up on?
"While I commend you for making new friends, this isn't really the time."
The truth of course is that neither of those two things is true. Omi spares a moment to glare at Youji in quiet annoyance as a stall while he debates what he's going to say-- and not say-- in return.
"I'm not impeding anything. I just need to check a few things. That's fair, isn't it? They let Ken-kun do that for that friend he had. And because we have so little time to, I really need to get started. Excuse me."
Omi crosses the three steps to his bike, pulls off one of the helmets dangling from its handlebars, and tosses it in Robin's direction. "We go now," he says in English.
"Is Ken's friend really the allusion you want to make here?"
Seeing as how Ken's investigation turned up exactly how wrong he was.
Youji shoved his hands into his pockets, and because that showed a little more frustration than he was willing to admit to, he immediately took them back out again.
"You might get better information if you could actually talk to each other," he said, after a pause to consider and then discard every possible wrong way this could go.
At the end of the day, he didn't want Omi to get hurt. With Ken or Aya, it was the same, but the difference was, he didn't mind hurting them a little himself to prevent something worse from coming up later. With Omi, that almost wasn't fair. Chalk it up to him being a true believer, but Youji doubted that his resilience could really handle the kind of paradigm shifts Aya and Ken could.
Aya's and Ken's minds hadn't resorted to amnesia, after all, and if that was the best coping mechanism at his disposal, well.
"Having someone who can run interference for you with Birman also can't hurt, but I'd have to know what I'm interfering with."
Omi takes that point, and it's a sharp one. He does remember how that mission turned out: Kritiker was vindicated. Surely this time will prove different, though? And even if it doesn't... If Bruce Wayne really is behind all of this, wouldn't it be better to be absolutely sure first, considering? It's strange, because he's never felt a need to independently verify Kritiker's intel before. On the other hand, when was the last time they were tasked with taking down someone who brought so much good to the world?
Anyway, it's not that he doubts Kritiker's intel, says the subconscious part of his mind that depends on blind faith to them. He just needs to corroborate it this time. Just this once.
The language barrier does make him pause. Youji isn't wrong, it is an obstacle, but he's not sure what there is to be done about it-- or what exactly Youji is proposing-- until he follows up with a second suggestion.
Is he actually offering to help on this?
Omi spends three seconds debating with himself whether to oblige-- his instincts favor caginess-- before pulling the other helmet he brought along over his head and looking again at Robin, speaking in the best English he can.
"He wants to help. Is this ok?"
Instincts aside, with only two days to get to the bottom of this, they really can't afford to say no.
Robin fixes a steely look on this associate of Omi's who oh-so-recently added kidnapping to his rap sheet. But judging by his smug comment earlier, Robin can guess which aspect of the plan he's most probably going to help with, and wants to test it.
"If I say 'that's perfect,' then--" he began in English, before Youji cut him off.
"Then I'll know you're being sarcastic, and so therefore you'll know my English is at least that conversant."
"Perfect," said Robin, and he gave Omi the universal thumbs-up. A translator was absolutely paramount, and this person, well, Omi trusts him. As far as this mission goes, Robin's only recourse is trusting Omi, and that's going to mean trusting the people Omi trusts as well.
It is not ideal, but if he flips his perspective and considers that Youji was willing to fight the Justice League over Omi, that's got to count for something.
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no subject
"Konnich-- ah! Moshi moshi?"
He turns around and glares at Bruce, who suddenly is paying much stricter attention to his newspaper than hitherto. Dick is pretty sure that he isn't smiling because Hanshin Tigers won their game yesterday.
He has no idea who could be calling, and is expecting to switch to English as soon as possible. Bruce tried to get him to speak only Japanese for the day, but that got complicated when Barbara e-mailed him his homework.
no subject
In consideration of that fact, he keeps his Japanese simple.
"It's me. Are you bored?"
Central as implicit communication seems to be between Batman and Robin, Omi trusts that question serves well enough as the invitation it's meant to be.
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"Dick? Who is it?" he asks.
"K.F.," he says, lying brazenly. Something tells him that 'Are you bored?' is not just an invitation, but a clue. It's not the trained recognition he has of Batman's cues; it's the knowledge, shared by teenagers everywhere, that their parents don't need to know what they get up to.
Gotta make it sound good. Choose a story that won't make Bruce ask questions now, and hope Tsukiyono's real purpose is something he can ask forgiveness for later.
"He's got Red Arrow and Aqualad with him. They think they've got a lead on Speedy."
Nobody would question that. Everyone was desperate to solve that particular mystery, and with him, Kaldur, and Wally being the closest to Roy, it wasn't uncommon for the three of them to drop everything to go along with Red Arrow.
Asking forgiveness for it... that would be harder. He can see the color drain from Bruce's face, and he knows, he remembers when Green Arrow's sidekick disappeared for three months, and how Batman seemed to age five years.
But he has a hunch Tsukiyono isn't asking him to come out and play. His instincts are good, and Tsukiyono would happily ignore his existence, he believes. If he isn't... something is up. Something big.
He turns back to the phone, pretending he heard something else.
"Yeah, I'll be there. When?"
no subject
In an effort to confirm Dick's assessment and assert his own good will, he tries to meet Dick halfway, and switches to English himself-- at least as best he can manage it.
"A.S.A.P. Come to west side of the building. I am--" A pause. How does he describe his specific location in English? "--next to moonlight."
That will have to do for explaining he's just inside the alley's shadows.
no subject
"Be careful," says Bruce, but it sounds like Batman.
"Hey, I'm always careful," he says, grinning over his shoulder. The excuse he'd given was absolutely compatible with running into his room and changing into costume, and this hunch... he just had a hunch.
"Like you were at Cadmus, right?" Bruce calls after him. "Believe it or not, the results don't always justify the means. Or disobeying a direct order."
"But there were results," says Robin, reemerging in full regalia. "Good results, that resulted in... well, we wouldn't have known about the Light if we hadn't formed the team."
And wasn't that something? No Superboy, no Artemis, maybe no Miss Martian or Rocket... but maybe no Zatanna, maybe they'd still have Zatara. Maybe the Helmet of Fate would still be secure in his Tower.
It wasn't that Bruce could read his mind. It wasn't; Bruce was not Professor Snape or a Martian.
"I know it's a useful saying, but asking forgiveness isn't always better than asking permission, either."
Time to end this conversation before he was proven wrong, though. But Bruce had brought up Cadmus, that was all he was thinking about.
"Maybe I'm a bad kid and sometimes I assume I know what you'll give permission for anyway," he said, grin back in place. He opened the window, and saw the moon bright as a diamond overhead.
"You definitely aren't a bad kid," said Bruce, and Robin's back was turned, facing the next adventure, but he could hear him smiling. "Call if you think it's going to be more than twenty-four hours, will you?"
"Acknowledged."
Next to moonlight? Well, maybe he needs air. He fires a zipline to the to the roof of the building's west side (luckily he was already there!) and tries to get the bird's eye view of the surrounding area as he activates the mechanical recall of the line and rises. There's a small classic car across the street, but that's about it, and Tsukiyono doesn't have a driver's license anymore than Robin does.
Next to moonlight... well, Robin knows where he would hide, and stifles a giggle. The building's west side was pretty dark, and he supposes an assassin would prefer it that way, too.
He fires a line to the building next door, and from there, zips down on a diagonal. Closer to the ground, he can see the shadow that's slightly more human-shaped and Omi-sized. Out of politeness, he chooses to land directly in his sight lines, rather than taking the 'behind you!' approach.
"...Hey?"
Now what?
no subject
"Hi... Thank you, for meeting me."
Maybe it's weird to thank him for showing up, especially considering that when you got down to it, the goal would be doing a lot more good for Robin than it would be doing for Omi. Even so, he didn't have to come out. He didn't have to give him a chance.
"I am sure you understand, there is big trouble."
no subject
Robin has to consciously restrain his body language from going too businesslike, or too aggressive. He dearly wishes he had something to do with his hands, but checking his weapons fall back into 'antagonism' and there's nothing for him to look up with his computer.
He ends up taking a deep breath and sighing, just to force his shoulders to loosen.
"Trouble," he agrees, because single words of Japanese are easier than grammatically constructed sentences and he wishes to confirm that he does, actually, yes, entirely understand the actual meaning of what's going on.
"What... is trouble?"
2/2 surprise! happy birthday!
The scenario sat right with approximately none of them. Enough time spent in cloak-and-dagger nonsense gave one a feel for it, and Kritiker was losing its touch. That they found out about Bruce Wayne visiting the trailer wasn't surprising.
That they targeted him so shortly after was.
It didn't give Youji much confidence in the organization, that this kind of slipshod bureaucratic incompetence was so transparent even to the kids. Omi ran straight for the target. When the true believer begins to doubt, there isn't much hope left for anyone. He hoped he was the only who noticed, that Aya and Ken were more concerned with Omi's reaction than with the cause, because Manx had been priming him for one of those sweet little missions with sweet little misses who'd missed their calling and ended up killing people indiscriminately instead, and he'd expected to start gathering intel before another full-on mission briefing.
Now here he was, watching two teenagers fumble over a language barrier taller than either of them.
Well, he'd let them get as far as they could on their own. Whatever scheme they were going with, Omi and the Boy Wonder would put on the best show unadulterated by an adult.
<3!!
But it's too late now. They're both here. It would doubtless be even worse to tell Robin, after he'd gone to the trouble of coming down, to never mind.
He unzips the front pocket of his backpack and pulls out a newspaper folded in half and a map. He's going to have to think about how to communicate everything he needs to, considering neither of them is fluent enough in the other's language for a complex recounting. He might need to make a few creative word substitutions.
He also thinks, this time, he wants to try continuing to speak in English as much as he can. Efforts to bridge the language gap ought to be a two-way street. It isn't very fair to put the full brunt of the translation burden on Robin.
He turns the newspaper to the lower half of the front page and offers it to Robin, then taps the article of relevance.
"...Gas poison causes quick death. Many people are dying. Who does the fault the police do not know."
Omi then places his finger on a location on the map he holds.
"This is what I know. The poison is a weapon. The weapon is for shadow buy. The produce is here." Produce was used as a noun, too, right? "But, there is a mystery: the weapon is a copy. A different company owns the design. This company also owned the building of produce until last year. It is a strange... pair of truths. It may be more, or it may be nothing. As a result, who does the fault... it does not seem sure. What if the knowledge is undercomplete? I—"
He stops. They have reached a point where any misstep in his words could be catastrophic. He can't risk bungling this in English, and reverts to Japanese.
"If I do nothing, someone without sin might die. I can't allow that... I have two days to find the truth."
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The other thing he latches on to is the 2-day time limit. That's a problem.
He looks up at the building, towards the high rise floor where Bruce is still working.
In Japanese, he tries, "WayneTech... is the... owner?"
It's the only reason to come to him. And it makes him angry, although he tries not to show it, because it's someone or something misusing Bruce Wayne's resources. Bruce isn't the easiest person to deal with, but if nothing else, he tries.
Here's the proof. Here's Omi Tsukiyono come to solve a mystery.
It makes him a little uneasy, because his gut feeling is that Omi is trying to identify a target, but if it's just an identification, that they can work together on. Bruce seems to have called this one correctly, so maybe... maybe they can stop at identifying who it is.
no subject
That's the only conclusion Omi can draw from the way Robin looks up the building, at the temporary home he's sharing with Bruce Wayne up there. He's got to be very careful with his words, indeed. One wrong phrase could be the difference between an alliance they both need and everything falling apart. On the other hand, it could also spell a disaster with his own true loyalties. Now that he can see it in hindsight, the fact Birman was aware he'd been in communication with Bruce Wayne is as alarming as it is unsurprising. They're monitoring him.
Whatever he says, there are two parties listening with opposite goals and both have to be satisfied.
"Saa..." Omi says in response, again having to trust that Robin understands implicit communication well enough: that wasn't a denial. He can't afford to be more direct than that.
He tries again with English. "Both of us do not want good people to die. This means we share a goal. Will you help?"
Omi has to believe, if nothing else, that Robin won't want to turn away the chance for this kind of inside access and intel. There'll be nothing stopping him and Batman from swooping in and taking out the real criminal their way first if they get to the bottom of this together. He's already been gifted the timeline. Isn't Robin interested in what else he can learn?
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"I'm in."
It's personal, after all. While it hasn't occurred to him that Bruce is Kritiker's target, the thought that he might see the sterling reputation of the Wayne family patrimony tarnished is enough to convince Robin that the little white lie was the correct move this round. When it's over, and the threat ended, they can have a laugh over it.
Robin... does not want to see Batman react to this in real time.
"You came to the right guy, anyway," he mutters, slipping back into English unintentionally as he thinks. A few quick keystrokes on his hologram interface and he's got WayneTech's local real estate records. Go back a year, and-- yes, this is the one Omi indicated.
"Bruce is..." Completely divested of it, he wants to say, and finally calls up an English-Japanese dictionary.
Accent still rough, he tries: "Severed, stripped, relieved..."
Um.
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It's a phrase Omi has both heard and uttered dozens of times over the past two years, down in the basement of a quaint flower shop before a sharp-dressed redhead with a manila folder and a videotape. How strange to see the guy who was so sanctimonious about non-lethal crimefighting grin and unwittingly echo that affirmation each of Weiss gave at the close of a mission briefing.
Strange, maybe even eerie, but not unwelcome. It's a relief to have his support, and Omi relaxes a little to have secured it. He looks at the holographic display Robin's summoned, marveling at the technology and instantly envious of it.
"That's amazing..." he says to himself, unconsciously reverting to Japanese. How handy would it be to have all of the information and tools of his laptop without any of its weight or the security risk of carrying it around?
That aside, Robin's access to this kind of technology lends credence to the suspicion Omi'd had that he'd need the boy's help to get through any security barriers at WayneTech. Wayne Technology was quite simply too far ahead of anything he'd dealt with himself. He'd never make it without the aid of someone familiar with it.
Of course, he can't do much more than admire the technology, as he can only pick out strings of text from the reading itself. This makes Robin's efforts to talk about Bruce being severed, stripped and relieved rather confusing and just a little disturbing.
"...I am sorry. I do not understand," he says in English.
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He skims the dictionary again and it's just. It's not helping.
"It's not his," Robin tries. "Not Bruce's. The building, or the-- the--"
How do you say 'produce' in Japanese?
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The honk of the car horn makes Omi look over at him in surprise, and Youji actually had him in the headlights for a moment. He kills the lights only because he didn't bring a camera with him.
In Japanese, he says, "How soon before you progress the charades?"
Then he smiles and Omi, and repeats the question in English.
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Is it better than sneaking up on them? Probably, but Omi still thinks there must be a better approach than this, something that isn't quite so... broadcasting.
"What are you doing here?" Omi says, horror and exasperation shattering his cool professionalism like a wrecking ball on glass.
The answer, neatly packaged in that line of snark, sails right past him.
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"Excuse us," he said to Robin. "No offense, but I can't talk to you both at the same time."
"Keep your hands to yourself, and it's okay," Robin answered, and Youji made a face at that -- he sure as hell wasn't into high school boys -- but after the kidnapping, he also had approximately no room to maneuver around that one. That one he had to take on the chin and move on from.
Switching back to Japanese, he tried to filter out the exasperation he felt and was left with an abundance of sarcasm.
"Aya's going to be pissed if you take this job solo," Youji told him. "I know his sister's not running up the medical debt anymore, but that doesn't mean you should be icing him out of a payday."
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That is the best that Omi can answer with. He's every bit as exasperated as Youji but lacking the sarcasm to hide behind. And he knows that Youji didn't follow him out here out of concern for Aya's feelings.
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"Mission impediments from you of all people would surprise any of us, but you're right on the brink of what Kritiker will tolerate right now. I should actually say, what they'll tolerate from you. If I did what you're doing-- actually, scratch that. I'm surprised Manx hasn't shot me already. Just being here talking to you makes me look like I'm in on it, and I don't even know what it is."
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"How can you say it's barely what they'll tolerate when you don't even know what it is? What are you even doing here asking? If you think that puts you at risk then go home! I didn't ask you to come along." Because it does, in fact, put him at risk.
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He shot a glance at the kid in the cape. They've got to hurry this up.
"Here's how it plays outside of your own head. In case you weren't sure. You asked for time and you used that time to come here. Either you're trying to do this alone or you're trying to make sure it doesn't get done."
Did he avoid the key words that Robin might pick up on?
"While I commend you for making new friends, this isn't really the time."
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"I'm not impeding anything. I just need to check a few things. That's fair, isn't it? They let Ken-kun do that for that friend he had. And because we have so little time to, I really need to get started. Excuse me."
Omi crosses the three steps to his bike, pulls off one of the helmets dangling from its handlebars, and tosses it in Robin's direction. "We go now," he says in English.
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Seeing as how Ken's investigation turned up exactly how wrong he was.
Youji shoved his hands into his pockets, and because that showed a little more frustration than he was willing to admit to, he immediately took them back out again.
"You might get better information if you could actually talk to each other," he said, after a pause to consider and then discard every possible wrong way this could go.
At the end of the day, he didn't want Omi to get hurt. With Ken or Aya, it was the same, but the difference was, he didn't mind hurting them a little himself to prevent something worse from coming up later. With Omi, that almost wasn't fair. Chalk it up to him being a true believer, but Youji doubted that his resilience could really handle the kind of paradigm shifts Aya and Ken could.
Aya's and Ken's minds hadn't resorted to amnesia, after all, and if that was the best coping mechanism at his disposal, well.
"Having someone who can run interference for you with Birman also can't hurt, but I'd have to know what I'm interfering with."
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Anyway, it's not that he doubts Kritiker's intel, says the subconscious part of his mind that depends on blind faith to them. He just needs to corroborate it this time. Just this once.
The language barrier does make him pause. Youji isn't wrong, it is an obstacle, but he's not sure what there is to be done about it-- or what exactly Youji is proposing-- until he follows up with a second suggestion.
Is he actually offering to help on this?
Omi spends three seconds debating with himself whether to oblige-- his instincts favor caginess-- before pulling the other helmet he brought along over his head and looking again at Robin, speaking in the best English he can.
"He wants to help. Is this ok?"
Instincts aside, with only two days to get to the bottom of this, they really can't afford to say no.
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Robin fixes a steely look on this associate of Omi's who oh-so-recently added kidnapping to his rap sheet. But judging by his smug comment earlier, Robin can guess which aspect of the plan he's most probably going to help with, and wants to test it.
"If I say 'that's perfect,' then--" he began in English, before Youji cut him off.
"Then I'll know you're being sarcastic, and so therefore you'll know my English is at least that conversant."
"Perfect," said Robin, and he gave Omi the universal thumbs-up. A translator was absolutely paramount, and this person, well, Omi trusts him. As far as this mission goes, Robin's only recourse is trusting Omi, and that's going to mean trusting the people Omi trusts as well.
It is not ideal, but if he flips his perspective and considers that Youji was willing to fight the Justice League over Omi, that's got to count for something.
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