KYOTO, KANSAI, JAPAN, AUGUST 1933

Keiko’s head vibrated against the window as the train ground to a stop. The steam whistle sounded its ear-piercing cry. She scrunched her eyes shut, but couldn’t drift off. What was Rin’s secret? She could always sleep so soundly, even on a hunt. The blazing summer sun cooked Keiko in her floral yukata along with everyone else in the crowded car.

Footsteps streamed past as the rush hour passengers hurried to find seats. Nobody wanted to stand in the stale, sweaty cabin. Someone plopped down beside her. Keiko lifted one eyelid. It was Rin, wearing a mocking smile which folded the scar on her cheek into a ‘U’ shape.

“Found you. Ohaiyo, Rising Dragon,” Rin said, using Keiko’s hunter monicker. Too dangerous to use their real names, around strangers, especially given the nature of their meeting and the mission at hand. Ironically, it was Rin, who called herself Sleeping Dragon, who appeared bright-eyed and prepared.

“Long ride in?”

“Yes,” Keiko said and yawned. “Our client wanted to meet later on, so I missed the express train from Tokyo.” With Rin at her side, Keiko was finally able to ease her shoulders and find a comfortable ledge on the window to rest her temple on.

“You’re fine. Wake up,” Rin complained.

"Our next stop will be Kyoto Station," the train conductor announced. "Please change there for Osaka, Kobe, and Nara."

Rin shook Keiko’s shoulder. ‘Tenacious’ might be a good way to describe her sister in situations like this. A bad way might be ‘annoying’.

"What?" Keiko groaned.

"Open your eyes. The target could be anywhere."

Keiko yawned, and pried an eye open with her thumb and index finger. "Sister, we haven't even left the train."

"A dragon is vigilant at all times," Rin recited in a bellowing voice, parodying their father's, as a smirk curled her lips.

Keiko sat up as a snort escaped her, followed by giggling, then full out laughter.

Rin's laughter amounted to a single "heh", which for her, was equivalent to gut-busting, knee slapping howls.

"Since when did you become funny? You sounded just like him!"

A few of the baggy-eyed and sweaty passengers turned towards them. They wore judgmental scowls, a facial expression Japanese train riders had mastered to perfection.

Both twin dragons lowered their heads and apologized in unison for their rowdy behaviour. "Shitsure shimashita."

Rin pushed Keiko playfully and nodded to the burlap satchel as they turned back around. “Do you have some briefing papers for me?”

“Wanna see?”

Red faced and fully awake, Keiko rubbed her sweaty fingers on the seat cushion. She sifted through her bag past her hidden revolvers, two Smith & Wesson Model 3 Americans, careful not to alert the other passengers to their presence. Behind the guns sat the beige folder containing their client's orders. She handed it to Rin, who eagerly snatched it and flipped through the papers to the various pictures and accounts of their bounty target.

She came to an artist’s rendition of a fair skinned and busty Japanese woman, with a narrow face and reddish-brown hair, the colour of rosehip tea, which looked like it belonged on a white woman’s head. Poking out below her bottom lip were sharp, vampire canines.

“So this is the whore? ‘Sakura of a Thousand Aromas’?” Rin asked.

Keiko rubbed her eyes on her yukata sleeve and nodded. “Most of her patrons just know her as ‘Sakura’.”

Rin rested her chin on her elbow and furrowed her brow. “Perhaps kyuuketsuki hunters aren’t the only ones who value anonymity. What did the client have to say?”

“The governor? Nothing much, he just asked me to kill her quickly and report back. Oh, and no questions allowed.”

Rin snorted and averted her gaze. “Too late for that.”

“What did you do?” Keiko asked, more humoured than cross. It was always good to see Rin’s mischievous side.

“One of his aides, this skittish bastard with debts to the yakuza, shed some much needed light. Only cost me 20,000 yen.”

Keiko leaned in, just like she used to when Rin would tell her monster stories as a kid. Now that she lived in one, stories like those didn’t have quite the same effect on Keiko. But she desperately wanted to hear this one.

Rin cleared her throat. “Apparently, the governor’s son took a business trip here.”

“Let me guess. He didn’t return?”

Rin nodded, “The police found him naked, frothing at the mouth, biting random strangers. He attacked the officers and got beaten to death. As he bled out, he chanted, ‘Sakura. Sakura, I need Sakura,’ until his final breath.”

Keiko covered her mouth. “How awful!”

It was a cliche vampire story, but Rin’s normally monotone voice transformed while telling it, becoming livelier. Keiko thought it a surprisingly good narration.

Rin stared at the picture of Sakura again. “Pretty awful alright. I’m guessing daddy wants revenge.”

“Or maybe he’s covering up his son’s shame before the elections?”

Rin shrugged. “Or his sole purpose is to protect the good people of Kyoto from Sakura’s deadly charms?” The absurdity of that one made both of them chuckle. Men, especially ones like the governor, rarely had pure motives.

Keiko crossed her legs and got serious. “Regardless, what matters is collecting her head.”

Her sister closed her eyes and snapped her fingers, a Rin gesture which meant, “Hear, hear.”

Keiko grabbed the picture of Sakura and examined it. “She’s beautiful. Sticks out in a crowd, I bet. That’s good for us.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that we have no idea where the bitch is.”