Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!

Deep in the bowels of the bandits’ fortress, a black dragon opened one eye, then the other. Waking and finding itself still chained, it strained against its bonds and roared enraged defiance at its human captors – and all their puny kind…

Above, the bandits were celebrating. “Good work, men!” the leader congratulated. He was an unlikely bandit leader, a small, aging man who looked more like a clerk than a robber chief. He scooped up handfuls of gold coins and flung them to his followers. “It’s days like this that make me glad I became a bandit!”

The bandits roared their agreement.

At that moment, a glowing orange sphere floated soundlessly into the bandits’ midst. They broke off their celebrating and stared at the pretty thing, fascinated but not wanting to get too close to something so obviously magical. And then it exploded into a ball of searing fire that engulfed the entire chamber!

“What the hell?” the leader swore.

“Boss! Over there!”

And a slender figure emerged from the flames…

She wore a white kimono and dark blue hakama. Her black hair was gathered in a swordsman’s high ponytail, and floated in the fire’s wind like an ebony banner. In her hands she held a bokken, still wreathed in fiery energy.

The bandit leader scrambled back, sputtering. “You… you… you… that rotten little bandit-robbing KAORU KAMIYA!”

She struck a cute pose. “Yoroshiku!” she acknowledged, and pointed her bokken at the bandit chief A second fireball shot toward him. He sprinted for cover – but didn’t run quite fast enough to keep from being turned into overcooked takoyaki.

This left the happy newcomer in sole possession of the bandits’ loot. “And thus Kaoru Kamiya the kenjutsu komachi lives as a warrior to defeat the tyranny of evil bandit gangs,” she said to herself as if she were a bard reciting a heroic tale. “This is one den of wickedness destroyed. But so long as evil exists in this world, my battle will never end.” She stuffed handfuls of coins and gems into the pouches she carried. Almost unnoticed, along with the rest of the loot she picked up a little statuette, of a beautiful woman in flowing robes.

“That’s our treasure,” weakly protested the scorched bandit leader.

But protests like that would never stop Kaoru Kamiya. She loaded herself up with ill-gotten loot and set off through the forest, bound for the nearest big city where she could turn it into practical things like, well, food.

A human mountain stepped out of the shadow of the trees, blocking Kaoru’s path. He grinned nastily and stroked his long beard. “Looks like we got you, girl,” he snarled. “You think you can make fools outta us? I’m lookin’ for payback… but I don’t really wanna fight you.”

“Well, in that case, ja ne!” she replied with a flirtatious wink, and began to walk away.

“Wait!” the bandit pleaded. “Only ’cuz you’d stomp me in a fight.”

“Really?” Kaoru’s eyes turned to dazzling stars. “You think I’m that good?” She glanced around; it seemed that every tree hid a bandit.

“Yeah, you’re a real pro, blastin’ us all with your magic – that was way over the top. Look, sweet thing, how ’bout your joinin’ up with us Dragon Fangs?”

Her blue eyes flashed. “Dragon Fangs? I don’t join up with bandits!”

“Just give us back our loot and join us, and we’ll let bygones be bygones,” he urged. “Come on, it’s not such a bad deal!”

She bowed her head in what looked like shame. “I know I’m a bad person,” she murmured, “going around fighting and stealing… but I’m not such a bad person that I’d ever join a gang of losers like YOU!” Her shout blew a shower of leaves from the trees; a few bandits tumbled from their hiding places.

“Oh, I just love a girl who knows what she wants!” the bandit leered.

Mou, who does he think he is? A real man would be a prince who’d come riding in on a white horse and take me away to a palace where I wouldn’t have to deal with scum like this any more. She pictured a prince, tall and handsome and golden-haired, his white mantle flying in the wind of his speed, and a glittering castle, a fairytale thing of spires and turrets and flying banners…

“No way, she told him flatly.

“You little bitch!” the bandit snarled. “That was my brother you toasted back there, so get ready to die!”

Mattaku, where’d he find those lines, in a bad play?

“Get out here, guys!” the bearded hulk roared – and suddenly the woods were full of sword-wielding bandits.

She took a step back in apparent fright. “Is… is this all of you?”

“Nope,” the bandit grinned, and stroked his beard again. “I’ve got more guys in the woods right now, and on my word they’ll slice you into sushi. Now apologize nicely enough, and maybe I’ll let you live!”

The bokken appeared in her hands. A ball of light began glowing at its tip. And then…

“Oro? Um, excuse this unworthy person…”

All the bandits turned to see who had spoken. A stranger stood on the forest path – a small man, slim and delicate as a girl. Flame-colored hair hid his eyes and spilled over a kimono that might have been red once, but had faded to a preposterous shade of pink.

“What the hell are you doing interrupting —;” one of the bandits began.

“I’m afraid I cannot allow you to continue.” The stranger looked up, revealing a fine-boned face saved from feminine delicacy by the crossed scars on his left cheek. His eyes were narrowed, with a reflected gleam like the curve of a sword’s blade. “I do not like to hurt people, so those who do not wish to be injured should leave now.” His feet slid apart, his hand poised over his sword’s hilt.

The bandit leader towered over him, a human mountain poised to crush a mouse. “Nobody’s gonna get hurt,” he murmured. “But you and the bitch here are gonna DIE!” The bandits yelled and charged.

The redhaired swordsmen blurred into motion. Kaoru let her bokken’s energy die as she watched in open-mouthed awe. Her Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu was a strong style, but this… he seemed to be one step ahead of the bandits’ every move, countering and attacking as though he could read their minds, so fast they seemed to be standing still. They fell by threes, fours, and even fives, until only the hulking leader was left.

The bearded outlaw loomed, tall as a tree, immensely strong. “I’m gonna have fun killing you, runt,” he growled as he drew his own sword. “That’s why I became a swordsman, because I like killing! You got a problem with that?”

“Aa,” the redhead replied.

“I suppose you’re one of those goody-goody types who says that swords are for protecting people, right?”

“No, I’m not.” His voice was very quiet. “A sword is a weapon. Swordsmanship is the art of killing. No matter what pretty words you use, that is its true nature.” He brightened. “But I like the idea of protecting people better than killing them, that I do!”

“Then DIE!” The huge bandit charged – and the redhead disappeared!

“Up here!” he called. The bandit looked up – and the redhead dropped like a stone. His blade flashed in lines of light as he descended, and it looked like he was slicing pieces off the giant’s body. But when the pieces stopped falling, Kaoru realized that he had cut off every stitch of clothing the bearded man had on, right down to a fundoshi printed with bright red hearts!

The hulk stopped dead in his tracks, then turned the same shade of red and ran into the forest, his fat cheeks jiggling with every step. The redhead sheathed his sword and turned to Kaoru.

“Daijoubu de gozaru ka… oro?” Amethyst eyes bugged out in amazement. “You’re a girl?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snarled.

“Well, sessha wasn’t sure at first,” he went on. “You’re dressed like a boy, and you have that bokken – you are a girl, aren’t you?” He peered closer.

“Hentai!” Her bokken crashed down on his head.

He collapsed, with spiral eyes and a lump on his head. “Ororo…”

“Anyway,” she went on, “I guess I ought to thank you for saving me from those bandits. It was really impressive, especially the way you didn’t kill a single one of them. My name is Kaoru Kamiya – of Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu.”

“Kenshin. Kenshin Himura. Sessha wa rurouni.” He didn’t give the name of his sword-school as she had done, and she wondered. What was that incredible style?

“Well, Kenshin, to pay me back for trying to peep down my front you can buy me dinner in the next town, okay?”

They found a restaurant in the village. Kenshin’s eyes popped out of his head again at the amount of food Kaoru ordered – but then, she ended up paying for it after all because he didn’t have any money. As she was polishing off the last dish, a plump old man came up to their table.

“Excuse me, Miss, but would you by any chance be Kaoru Kamiya, the kenjutsu komachi?”

She raised a hand to the back of her head. “Well, yes…”

Kenshin blinked. “Oro? You do kenjutsu?”

“Oro yourself,” she retorted. “Didn’t the clothes and the bokken give you a clue?”

“I thought you were a schoolgirl…”

“Excuse me, please let me continue,” the old man went on. “We have need of the famous kenjutsu komachi, the Dragon Spooker, Kaoru Kamiya.”

“Chotto matte, ojiisan. Kenjutsu komachi I understand, but Dragon Spooker?”

“It means Dragons Step Past Out Of Sheer Revulsion.”

“WHAT!?” Kaoru jumped to her feet, teeth bared, veins popping out on her forehead.

“I didn’t make it up!” the old man pleaded. “I heard it from others! I swear!”

“Okay, okay, so what do you want with me?”

“Well, the village has had problems lately from a bandit gang.”

“I know, the Dragon Fangs. We already took care of them.”

“You managed to kill the black dragon that the bandits kept as a mascot? You are truly great, Kaoru Kamiya, far more powerful than our soldiers! I’ll go and tell everyone the good news!” The old man ran off.

“Did you kill a dragon, Kaoru-dono?” Kenshin asked.

She shook her head. “I didn’t know they had one. Gangs like that always pick things like Dragon Fangs to call themselves, they think it makes them sound scary.”

Kenshin gasped. “You mean that dragon is out there running wild?”

“Black Dragon!” the cry went up from the street. A shadow blotted out the sun, and windows shattered.

The old man ran back into the restaurant. “I thought you said you killed it!”

“No way!” Kaoru retorted. “You said that! I just took care of the gang!”

And the dragon wheeled around for another pass…

“How much will you pay me to take care of it for you?” Kaoru demanded.

The old man looked panicky. “Um, twenty yen? It’s all I can raise on short notice.”

“Done. Let’s go, Kenshin!”

He looked blank. “Oro?” But he followed her outside anyway.

The dragon was almost as big as the whole village. “It’s huge,” Kaoru breathed. “Oh well…” She drew her bokken. Orange light gathered at its tip. “Fire… BALL!” The sphere of light shot toward the dragon, exploded in a burst of flames – the same magic that had annihilated the bandit fortress. But when the flames cleared, the dragon still glared at them.

Kenshin raced toward the dragon with unbelievable speed and sprang into the air, high over its head. “Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu: Ryuu Tsui Sen!” But the blow never connected; a toss of the dragon’s head sent him crashing back to earth, landing right on top of Kaoru.

The earth shook under the dragon’s ponderous footfalls, and Kenshin held Kaoru in a protective embrace as the great foot loomed over them. The dragon peered more closely at Kaoru, moved its foot aside, and stepped past, ignoring her.

“Kaoru-dono, you really are a Dragon Spooker,” Kenshin marveled.

“Why you…” Kaoru raged, and it wasn’t clear whether she meant Kenshin or the dragon. “How dare you embarrass me like that!” She sprang to her feet and charged after the dragon. “I’ll show you… I’ll take you out with one shot!” She whipped out her bokken. Crimson aura-light surrounded her, stirred her clothing and fanned her hair out in a wind that only she could feel, as she began to chant.

Darkness beyond twilight,
crimson beyond blood that flows,
buried in the flow of time,
in thy great name I pledge myself to Darkness.
All the fools who stand in our way will be destroyed,
by the power that you and I possess.
DRAGON SLAVE!

She pointed the bokken at the dragon. A huge ball of crimson light, much bigger than her earlier fireball, formed the head of a beam that shot from the bokken’s tip. It struck the dragon’s chest, and the world exploded.

The dragon vaporized instantly. Buildings exploded, wooden structures went up in smoke. Stones blasted apart. The force of the explosion picked Kenshin up and flung him across the village. And Kaoru sprang lightly out of the flames and landed at his side.

“How was that?” she enthused. “Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu ougi, Dragon Slave! My most powerful technique! Makes everything come out all right, ne?”

“There’s no way it’s all right!” The old man picked himself up out of a pile of rubble and advanced on Kaoru with clenched fists. “You destroyed our village! You can just forget about that twenty yen!”

Behind him more villagers appeared, brandishing scythes and pitchforks. They looked very angry.

“That’s right, the Dragon Slave is a really powerful technique,” Kaoru said with a bright smile. “So… Kenshin, I’ll leave them up to you!” She took off at a dead run.

“Oro?” Kenshin blinked, and took a step backwards, away from the advancing villagers. He spread out his hands in a placating gesture. “Maa, maa, let’s not be too hasty…”

The villagers paid no attention; they just kept on advancing. Kenshin watched them a moment longer, then spun around and sprinted after Kaoru, with all the incredible godlike speed of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu.