It took Tonbeau ten minutes to work herself free. She’d taken two fusillades of Kikiou’s qi. That was how long it took to recover her physical strength.
She had carried the doll girl to her special room and was laying her out on the workbench when there came the flapping of black wings.
The big raven peered down from the ceiling. “What’s up?”
“You can see what’s up. Where have you been goofing off until now? You stumble across any information worth anything at all, and you’re supposed to bring it to me right away.”
“I don’t know how much it’s worth, but I did find one amazing woman.”
Tonbeau and the doll girl exchanged looks.
“No, not her. I’m talking about Takako Kanan.”
“Eh?”
The doll girl’s eyes peeled as wide as physically possible—for she couldn’t move any other part of her body. “Where is she?”
“Hanging out near some gang’s crib near Yocho. Hard to tell if it’s really her, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“She set the whole place on fire and then picked off every last one of them as they ran for their lives.”
The figure of the black bird reflected in their eyes like an angel of death.