smile warm and inviting. “Now that’s no way to talk,” she chided. “Come here, I want to show you something first.” Grabbing his belt with her right hand, Sally pulled Kano closer, her left hand moving up toward her breast.
Kano’s eyes were glazed with lust and alcohol, and the smell of tequila and sweat oozed from his pores. As he pressed closer, Sally could feel him stir beneath her right hand.
Kano licked his lips, his eyes following Sally’s left hand as it swept across her body and stopped at the locket around her neck. As he watched, she deftly opened it and spread the two halves apart, revealing a photograph on each side.
“I wanted to show these to you,” said Sally. The warmth was gone from her voice, taken by the wind, burning somewhere in the streets below.
Kano’s eyes blinked as he tried to focus on the two images. A man on the left and a woman on the right, the man smiling broadly, his American features strong and friendly. The woman was Japanese and looked more serene but no less friendly, her long black hair shining even in the small photograph. Kano’s eyes narrowed as if in sudden recognition or fear. His body stiffened as he started to say something, but Sally cut him off.
“These are my parents,” she said simply. “And you killed them.”
Kano looked up at Sally and then again at the pictures, his eyes narrowing. Before he could react fully, Sally pulled at his belt, holding him close.
If you want to kill this man, you will first have to get close to him. Closer than you would like. Master Xan’s words echoed in her thoughts as Sally spoke again.
“I wanted you to see them again,” she said, her eyes locked on Kano’s. “Before you died.”
Kano’s face twisted as he tried to jerk away from Sally, his right hand up as he prepared to strike.
Kano was a bully, used to men and women shrinking from a blow before it landed. But Sally stepped forward as he stepped back, her right hand still grabbing his belt. Before he could start his punch, she slid her hand under his belt and into his pants.
As Kano clenched his fist, Sally squeezed.
Kano buckled as Sally dug her nails deep into his scrotum. He screamed as she twisted her wrist, first to the right and then the left.
Kicking wildly, he caught Sally in the right knee, causing her to lose her grip momentarily, which gave him an opening. Kano desperately backhanded her across the face, catching her in the nose and snapping her head back. As Sally fell, Kano dropped to his knees, gasping.
Sally caught herself on the railing. She tasted blood, which flowed freely from her nose, and her eyes were watering. The lights from below were a jumbled blur, and as she blinked she saw stars. She heard Kano’s feet scraping on the cement behind her, the sound punctuated by the noise of metal against metal.
Sally looked down and saw the locket clanging gently against the metal railing just as she felt Kano’s hand grab her hair from behind. Blinking the tears from her eyes, Sally stole a glance at the two smiling faces around her neck as Kano pulled her head back.
When Kano tensed his arm to bash her head against the railing, Sally closed her eyes and relaxed.
Kano’s arm thrust forward and Sally’s foot thrust down, her heel crashing onto his instep and shattering the small bones there. Kano bellowed in rage as Sally spun like a dancer to face him, her hand already a blur. She bent her fingers and struck Kano’s nose with the heel of her hand.
Blood sprayed across the balcony as Kano screamed, both hands clutching his ruined face. He fell on his back, head hitting the cement hard as Sally jumped lightly and landed next to him, her right foot coming down to press against his neck, holding him.
Kano coughed and spat, his hands flopping around the floor as if he were being electrocuted. Sally held him in place for several minutes before his eyes focused again.
“You fucking bitch!” His tongue was thick with blood, his voice ragged. Sally stood calmly over him, not even hearing the words. The music from the club had returned, coursing through her veins and pounding in her ears, turning everything else to white noise. As Kano’s lips moved, she pressed down slowly with her foot.
“You can’t kill me,” Kano coughed defiantly. “You know who my uncle is?” Kano said his uncle’s name as if it were a magic spell. “You’re fucking dead. A fucking dead whore, that’s all you are.”
Sally remained silent, her attention turning again to the locket around her neck. She looked at the gentle smiles and loving eyes, then stared silently at the blood on her hands. She adjusted her balance and eased the pressure of her foot.
Kano assumed the mention of his uncle’s name had the desired effect, and he spoke with renewed bravado.
“Now let me up and maybe I won’t have you killed,” he demanded.
Sally absently took her foot off his neck.
Kano sat up and spat. “You want to know something?” he taunted, a bloody sneer on his face. “I probably enjoyed killing your fucking parents.”
Sally’s eyes refocused. The music from the club faded and died, swept away by the night air. She could hear herself breathing. The patter of Kano’s blood as it sluiced past his ears onto the cement. Her own blood as it dripped off her chin onto her dress. The susurrus of traffic thirty stories below.
“Now help me up,” said Kano, extending his hand with the missing finger.
Sally looked at his hand and then at her own, the blood on them turning black as it dried. With her left hand, she shut the locket without looking at the pictures, hearing the soft click as the latch closed. Extending her right, she bent down and grabbed Kano’s hand in her own and pulled him to his feet.
Kano started to say something, a smug expression forming on his battered face, but Sally kept pulling him forward, accelerating his upward momentum. Bending her legs, she grabbed Kano’s belt with her left hand as she pulled his arm forward with her right, turning her body as she lifted. Before he could get his footing, Kano was already hurtling forward. Sally pushed up against his stomach and dropped her right shoulder, rocketing Kano over her head.
Kano didn’t even start to scream until he cleared the balcony, a high-pitched wail of terror cut short when he hit a flagpole ten stories down.
As Sally watched, Kano’s body spun through the clouds toward the burning lights below. A dead leaf taken by the wind. A damned soul on its way to hell.
She couldn’t hear the body hit the park below, but she watched until it disappeared into the ring of blackness. Then she stood, immobile, at the railing. It was several long minutes before she even blinked.
Holding the locket in one hand, Sally closed her eyes and willed herself to cry, but no tears came. She thought of her parents and the fading memories of a five-year-old, the life she never had and never would. She thought of Kano and realized she felt absolutely no remorse. No guilt. Nothing.
She thought of Jun and the long trip home.
Home.
Sally took one last look at the lights below, then turned and left, never looking back.
