When the Wind Rises, Twins Emerge

Volume One: Liu Li lies in the snow with a piece of metal lodged in her chest. Liu Yang holds her and sobs. “Did you... get the list out?” Liu Li asks weakly. Liu Yang nods through her tears, watching helplessly as her little sister’s hand falls into the snow. As the wind and snow swallow their cries, a sable coat, still warm from its owner, suddenly wraps around her. Liu Li, who should have been dead, is weak but conscious. “Stop... wailing. The metal’s stuck between my ribs... I’m not dead yet...” The morning sun breaks through the darkness. Liu Yang laughs and cries at once. “Little sis, this disguise... you really screwed your big sister over!” Volume Two: Liu Yang and Liu Li are Harbin’s most dazzling twin blossoms, one fiery as a red rose, the other cool as a white coat. Working in perfect sync at the Japanese Army headquarters’ New Year’s banquet, they pass along a fortress defense map, unaware that each carries half of a copper coin token that fits together. Only when Matsumoto Miyoko, head of the Kwantung Army’s secret service, reveals her mechanical left eye do the sisters realize the truth: They are not only clones implanted into opposing factions, but also the “living keys” needed to activate the self-destruct sequence of the Japanese Army’s underground biological laboratory. The only way to stop the “Cherry Blossom Project” is for them to detonate the copper coin’s resonant frequency at the same time, even if it means they will both die.