The press dubs the killer the Butcher, and the crimes are eerily similar to those committed by Christopher Long in Florida. When his grisly souvenirs show up at crime scenes fourteen hundred miles away, it appears Long’s on the hunt again—except he’s been dead nearly twenty years. Kate’s done her homework—she knows Long worked alone. So who could possibly have his gruesome keepsakes?The case hits close to home for Kate—too close. Now she’s on a hunt of her own, determined to catch the Butcher if it’s the last thing she does…and that’s just what the depraved killer has in mind.

    Dark, cold and calculating, he makes use of all his resources as he sets off on his adventures to meet his goal.Face? Who needs that… Hmmm… that guy seems too powerful for me to take on now… I better keep a low profile for now.You want me to help you? Sure… but what benefit can I get out of it? Nothing? Bye.Hmmm… that guy looks like he might cause me problems in the future. Should I let him off for now and let him grow into someone that can threaten me….. Nahhh. *kill*

    Noir, the third son of a penniless baronet, just lost his job. He was contemplating becoming an adventurer when fortune struck only a mile from home, and he opened the entrance to just such a dungeon!

    In order to gain the respect of his father, he resolutely chooses to follow the more difficult and painful path of practising external techniques. As the years go by, he grows up, but what really changes his life is a mysterious meteoric crystal stone, the Meteoric Tear. This stone fuses with the young man’s body unnoticed, and he seems to undergo drastic transformations as a result. After that, everything is changed. Eventually his father knows that the son for whom he hasn’t really shown a lot of consideration possesses astonishing abilities. And there’s a lot more to come.