Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 3946 - 3060: Chronicle of Mercury (10)

Jenna suddenly ca to her senses, taking a deep breath as if she had been pulled from beneath the ice.

Then she noticed Bruce was staring at her as if he had seen a ghost.

"What's wrong, Professor Wayne? Are you alright?" Jenna wiped the sweat from her forehead with the heel of her palm and then said, "Sorry, I might have been daydreaming. I just thought of these things and blurted them out. Maybe I should be more rigorous?"

Bruce pursed his lips and then said, "Could you tell how you figured these things out?"

"I just felt his pain."

"The victim?"

"The murderer."

Jenna looked at the photograph with a pitiful gaze, but what she was seeing was not the Nigma, who was divided into many pieces, but seemingly through the corpse, she saw another soul.

"In a sudden disaster, his soul was nearly destroyed, causing him imnse pain."

Jenna's gaze then fell on a second photograph, an aerial view of a barrel, inside which the person had been roasted.

"He is telling everyone that he has been transford into sothing else, just like the man in the barrel, from a human into food. That's exactly what happened to him, turned into fish at on the chopping board by a more powerful being."

"But he did not give up... No, at that ti he had no choice to give up or not, perhaps soone saved him, put him in a safe house, where... it was cramped, but it made him feel safe, just like this barrel."

"There, he underwent a transformation; he was resurrected, reassembled into sothing that was no longer him, but sothing stronger... He believed not even God could shake him as he was then, or rather, he wanted to shake God?"

"If I could see the scene in person, maybe I could feel more, but with only photos, I can't be sure what he intended, I can only say it seems like that."

"And this..." Jenna picked up the third photo, tilted her head, and stared intensely at the picture saying, "This is a demonstration; he's challenging sothing... The sky? He wants his power to reach the sky?"

"I guess he might be declaring war on the god that tore him apart before. This is a... a war totem, sort of like flipping the middle finger at that god. Sorry for being crude, but that's really what it seems like."

Bruce watched Jenna for a long ti, until Jenna felt a bit uneasy under his gaze, then Bruce finally spoke, "I am asking you why, how, what..."

"I can't explain," Jenna said. "It's just a feeling. Is the case solved? Did I happen to get it right?"

"I know it's your feeling, but what did you observe that gave you this feeling?"

"The photos."

"Which part of the photos?"

"A general atmosphere." Jenna looked at the photos again and said, "The overall emotional presentation in the fras."

"Atmosphere? What elents contribute to the atmosphere?"

"All of this." Jenna moved her hand around on the photo and then said, "The presented content enters my brain through my eyes, then it gets transford into an atmosphere I can feel."

"All..." Bruce seed choked up.

He quickly walked over to Jenna and picked up a photo, putting it in front of Jenna saying, "Now that you have a basic understanding of forensic science, can you tell what caused this person's wounds?"

"Which wounds? The ones that killed him or the ones that dismbered him?"

"You think they're not the sa?"

"No."

"Where did you see that?"

"He wouldn't use the sa thing," Jenna said, folding her arms. "He wouldn't use what killed him to dismber him."

"Why not?"

"Because he needs to portray his fragntation. If it were the sa thing, wouldn't that be unified? So of course they're not the sa."

"Why don't you look at the traces of the wounds?"

"I don't understand them," Jenna said bluntly. "There's too much blood; I can't see anything clearly."

Bruce reluctantly illuminated the holographic screen, magnified the high-definition photo to its largest, and Jenna looked back and forth at the cross section of the wound and then shook her head, saying, "I see bones, muscles, and blood."

"What do they combine into?"

"A bloody scene."

After slapping his forehead, Bruce said, "From the trail of the blood flow, it is apparent that this muscle was repeatedly sliced, aning the tool used for the dismbernt was not sharp enough. This contrasts with a wound on the body's neck, proving that the murderer used two different weapons."

"Then I was right, wasn't I?"

"You were... But you need to talk about evidence," Bruce emphasized to her. "You need to reach conclusions through analysis, not just guessing."

"Alright, I'll try again."

Bruce then magnified the second photo.

"How do you think he put him in the barrel?"

"He disassembled the barrel," Jenna said. "He first flattened the side into sheet tal, then bent the tal sheet around him, and finally reattached the bottom and lid of the barrel, restoring it to the shape of a barrel."

"How did you figure that out?"

"He wanted to embrace him. The corpse represents a mont he once experienced, soone embracing him like this sheet of tal, squeezing him inward into a safe space. So he recreated that process with the barrel and the corpse, answer complete."

Bruce opened his mouth and used the remote control to zoom in on a part of the photo, then pointed and said, "This area has been compressed twice, and the tal has discolored due to repeated compression, proving that the drum was violently forced open and then restored to its original shape."

"Exactly," Jenna nodded vigorously with wide eyes.

Bruce covered his forehead and closed his eyes, reopening them before saying, "Alright, let's do it one last ti."

This was the third photo.

"Where do you think this wooden stake ca from?"

"It's made of wood, but it's not a tree. I an, he didn't cut down a tree because he felt he wasn't worthy. He disdained the thing he was challenging, feeling it didn't deserve his extra effort."

"So he found a... wooden fence? I guess it might be one of the tall fences in a farm, and it has to be the tallest one there because the middle finger is longer than any other finger."

Bruce again enlarged the photo, showing a series of numbers branded at the base of the fence, and said, "This is a fence from a dairy farm. From the wood, you can tell this was made by a cheap wooden goods manufacturer, and such items usually don't co with assembly services. So the custor needs to assemble it following the numbers, which indeed suggest this fence was the tallest."

Jenna nodded and said, "It seems I was lucky to have guessed right again."

"But you can't always guess; you need to learn to observe and then conclude."

"It's difficult," Jenna remarked. "I don't know enough about Earth's general knowledge, like I can't tell what kind of wood this is and naturally can't draw further conclusions."

"All of this can be solved through learning."

"I will try hard," Jenna smiled at Bruce.

"Good, would you like to make a profile for the murderer?"

"Male, early twenties, suffers from a ntal illness, relatively thin, with twitching limbs, but his mind has recovered. If the case hasn't been solved yet, you can look for recently discharged patients from nearby ntal hospitals who fit this description. They are probably the culprit."

"Tell how you made this deduction."

"He is male because only males would use such a vertical upward image to make a totem; it's a type of reproductive worship."

"You can't distinguish wood types but you understand reproductive worship?"

"I read it in that criminal investigation book; they said many serial killers are fixated on genitals..."

"Wait, go and open the door... never mind, let's drop this topic. Continue."

"He's very young, perhaps he had heard about urban street culture from soone and was curious about it. Holess people and street kids often gather around barrels to keep warm, so the barrel has beco a symbol of street culture. His choice of a barrel, instead of sothing else, proves his youthful ntality."

"Did you also read this in the criminal investigation book?"

"No, it's because I'm also interested in street culture." Jenna crossed her arms and made a hip-hop gesture, "I like spray painting; I plan to learn to do it."

"Continue."

"The whole case is a celebration; he felt joy, so his hands kept shaking. It's normal for his body to twitch."

"And how can you tell he has recovered?"

"I told you, he's celebrating." Jenna seed helpless as she explained, "This is his farewell, bidding farewell to past pains and looking forward to his new life, while also challenging his enemies."

"So?"

"So he's normal now!" Jenna raised her voice, "Not everyone has the capacity to celebrate. From my observation, at least half of the human race doesn't understand what a celebration is. He managed to do it, even more than many normal people."

"Are you so sure?"

"When was the last ti you celebrated sincerely, Professor?"

Bruce was silent before shaking his head and saying, "Probably one of my children's birthdays."

"You were happy for him, but were you happy for yourself?"

"Why should I be happy for myself?"

"Because you raised him to be so exceptional. You should genuinely love yourself for being so responsible and capable in education and celebrate that vigorously, shouldn't you?"

Bruce remained silent, staring at her for a while before saying, "For human beings, loving oneself like that is very difficult."

"But you definitely could do it, you pulled yourself out of the quagmire with that ability." Jenna looked into his eyes, "You weren't born with this ability, but you learned it."

Bruce narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "What else can you see?"

"Peeking into others like this is impolite, but if you want to know, I can try to explain," Jenna said.

Without waiting for Bruce to respond, she looked into his eyes and continued, "Loss occupies an important place in your life, but it isn't the the of your life, because through loss, you gained more, including what I said, learning to love yourself. And through loving yourself, you made others love you."

"Since this is a difficult ability for others, those who possess it are always envied and intriguing. You display this aspect without any reservations, drawing intense interest from those who can't achieve it. That's how you capture their attention."

"They may think you're always like this, but as I said, it's not sothing you were born with, but sothing you learned later..."

"No, not familial learning, that's too early. Social education? No, not intensive enough to shake you... A person?"

Jenna furrowed her brows and said, "A formidable adversary, but also a ntor and friend... No, not so peaceful. You encountered a tyrant... not so cold-hearted either."

"I think it's sothing in between these two for you, both an authority and a source of security."

"He embraced you, just like the murderer embraced the victim with the barrel's steel. I think you should understand this..."

Jenna suddenly stopped, her eyes widening as she stared at Bruce, filled with horror.