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than I'd thought.
    "If you two lovebirds have finally finished, how about you fill us in on a few facts, Mitsu?"
    "It will be my pleasure. Let's start with the dogs. That was one of Kimiko's warehouses, she has many. Those cute little puppies you saw were young hellhounds. Babies, but still able to do lot of damage. They can glamor you like a vampire, and fill you with love while they devour you. You both lucky." I rubbed my face and watched my hands, now red and throbbing as the skin thickened, feeling anything but.
    "What were they doing there?" asked Dancer. He couldn't take his eyes off Mitsu, as if he was glamored all over again.
    "My guess is they being tended by the two men you chained next to zombies and were then eaten," Mitsu said, matter-of-fact. "They were only few weeks old so you get off lightly. I suppose you see as cute little puppies, yes?" We both nodded. "They were not. Because you are foreign and soft they appear that way for to seduce you, but they are being ugly beasts, like they have no skin. You can see the muscle and they are all strange and bent, mostly teeth and horrible eyes. Ugh."
    "Okay, thanks. Now, what was with the pig?" I had to ask, much as I was already itching to get back out and chase down Kimiko.
    "That was a katakirauwa. It is a pig."
    "Well, duh." I got a scary, nasty look and decided to shut up.
    "It steals your soul if it runs between your legs," she said in all seriousness. "It has one ear and casts no shadow, and it probably sensed that you were too stupid to understand and decided to have you."
    You know what? I'd forgotten just what a dangerous place Japan was for us Hidden. Being foreign made you very susceptible. It's like all the weirdness comes out of the preternatural woodwork to have a go at you, try to scare you off back to your own country.
    "Now I definitely want to go home," said Dancer. "How the hell can you live somewhere where puppies eat your face and pigs steal your soul?"
    Mitsu turned to him and said, "Do you not have gremlins and ghouls, and more goblins than anywhere else in the world? Do you not have giants and lots of trolls, and do you not all try to kill each other all the time? Do you not have—"
    "Okay, we get the picture. Look, the reason I called, apart from to catch up after so long and for some translating work, although that's seemingly been eaten now, is to get information I can trust about Kimiko Cocchi. Can you tell me?"
    Mitsu sat on the edge of Dancer's chair and said, "I can. But you should go home. Both of you, right now. She is law in Tokyo. She rules. You make big mistake coming here. A very big one."
    To be honest, I kind of agreed.
    Something weird happened to my face and the next thing I knew I was out cold on the floor. Seems it was a day for fainting. Maybe it was the sushi, or maybe it was because I'd sprouted tusks.
    My guess was the sushi, but I wasn't really myself.

 
     
     
     
    Some Shopping
    "Why have you got tusks?" screeched Grandma. "Take them off! You look like an anorexic walrus. And have you been letting something eat you? You have, haven't you? And you, Dancer, you're supposed to be looking out for Faz, making sure he doesn't get into trouble."
    "I am supposed to be doing no such thing," protested Dancer. Grandma gave him one of her uber-stares and he mumbled, "Sorry, Grandma. Yes, Grandma."
    My Grandma, have I mentioned how I love her more than life itself? I have? Well, I do! But she can be a little intimidating at times, never mind that she looks like an innocent old lady rather than the ancient witch she is. Still, she makes a killer cup of tea. Sometimes literally, so it always pays to be nice.
    Oh, yeah, the tusks.
    Kate dropped a worryingly large number of bags with even more worrying designer labels on them—I'd given her my bank card and told her to treat herself, not expecting quite such a number of treats—and dashed over to me. "Faz, Faz, what happened? You've got tusks!"
    I tried to speak but the large