Big Bang Story: Mask of the Bat

Title: Mask of the Bat

Author name: mithen

Beta name: damos

Characters: Hana (girl!Bruce)/Hoshi (Clark); Various medieval Japanese versions of different DCU characters.

Fandom/Universe: A happy-ending continuation of "Shogun of Steel," an Elseworld in which Bruce is a female ninja and in love with Clark, a warrior from beyond the stars. You can see scans of the Elseworld here (it's a wonderful story!)

Rating: PG-13

Word count: 12,800

Warnings: Descriptions of murders; a child in danger

Summary: In a medieval Japan that never was, a fierce female ninja named Hana and a warrior from the stars named Hoshi fight as part of a team of powerful beings. However, when Hana receives a letter from her loyal family retainer begging her to return to the capital to investigate a mysterious serial killer, she finds herself back in the elaborate and formal court she rejected as a child. Bringing with them the silent orphan girl they have named after the first bird of spring, Hoshi and Hana must negotiate the complicated world of noble Japan, with all of its strictures on class and gender, while trying to track down a killer who strikes in the form of a laughing demon.
A note on names: Hana means "flower" in Japanese; Hoshi means "star."

( Hana considered the pain, distinguishing and labeling each separate sensation: the muscle-deep twinge of a slashed calf that had never healed well; the delicate itch of a recent cut to the sole of her foot; the pulling tightness of an old arrow-wound to the shoulder. )

Accompanying Fanworks

Fanworker name: Chibifukurou
Type of fanwork: Traditional art
Link to accompanying fanwork master post: http://chibifukurou.livejournal.com/59212.html