face and chest. Kanno smiled and they tinkled to the ground like

slivers of broken glass.

For a moment they stood still, shocked, staring at him, then they

realized the grave error they had made. One of them shouted out,

“He’s an adept!” and they bolted. They didn’t get more than half a

dozen steps before the alleyway behind them erupted in a sheet of

flame, a burning wall of fire ten feet high, cutting off escape.

And through that fire stepped a figure, unscathed by the flames,

a woman dressed in a suit of skintight black leather, a woman with

coppery-gold skin and hair as bright red as the flames. She smiled

as she approached the three young toughs, moving purposefully,

majestically, like a tigress stalking her prey. Her eyes began to

glow.

One of the toughs yelled and lunged at her with a long, gleaming

butterfly knife. She made a sweeping motion with her arm, not

even touching him, and he went flying backward through the air to

land in a heap at Kanno’s feet. Kanno moved toward him, but Leila

snapped, “No! They’re mine!”

“The girl, ” said Kanno, swallowing and moistening his lips. “Let

me have the girl. Please…”

“Take her.”

Kanno turned toward the girl, still cowering on the ground where

he had thrown her. She watched in disbelief as the red-haired

woman’s eyes flared like beacons and she disappeared, along with

the three would-be killers. She stared up at Kanno, eyes wide,

shaking her head.

“No… no, please… don’t hurt me… I’ll do anything… anything!”

Kanno said nothing. But suddenly his clothes began to bulge

outward and move, as if something was writhing inside them. He

grunted as if he were about to be sick and bent forward, then

something came bursting out of his shirt with a deafening roar.

She screamed…

“Third one this week, ” said Lt. Fugisawa.

Agent Akiro Katayama, of the Nippon Bureau of Thaumatur-gy,

stood silently, looking down at what remained of the body, He had