Chapter 6: Improvisation

Aki had reached the Armory. If her guess was right, here she would find all the red Slayer stuff that had been confiscated from Temujin. She figured the best way to tell if Temujin was lying was by checking if every part of his story fitted. She could do that by studying his possessions. Detective work, forensic science, and logical reasoning were all fundamental skills of a Slayer.

She rummaged through shelves of close-range weapons – the shorter shinobuken and the longer wakizashi swords – then long-range ones – grenades, throwing stars, knives, blowguns – till her eyes settled on a box that was clearly set apart from the rest.

She knew at once they were Temujin’s belongings. First, there was the familiar bright red color of his obi. For some reason, his jailers thought it best not to let him keep his belt sash. Next, there was a pair of tiger claws. Individually, those consisted of two iron bands conjoined by a leather strip; the upper one slipped around the palm and had spikes