As the blade reached her collarbone, Hitomi's legs dropped to the table, and she struggled to put her hands in front of her. The Magician powered down the saw as her face dropped to the table.<br />"Now, I won't ask Hitomi to speak again, mainly because she has a large, sharp disc bisecting her diaphragm and chest cavity. In fact, she's probably in quite a great deal of discomfort, so I believe I should probably end her torment at this point."<br />The Magician pulled a blade from behind his back, and slammed it through his assistant's neck. The rise and fall of her belly struggling to breath stopped abruptly.<br /><br />"Ladies and gentlemen, now that Hitomi is no longer in any discomfort, I'd like to invite a few of you up to verify that she has, in fact, been vivisected."<br /><br />Some of the Magician's other assistants stepped out from the wings, and pulled people at random up onto the stage for a closer look. Robyn came up and grabbed Jesse and me by the wrists. We followed her lead, and looked at the assistant and her plight. It was absolutely Hitomi, laying motionless on the table. I could see the freckles, the pores in her skin. One of her fingers twitched.<br /><br />As we filed back to our seats, the Magician pulled out a small table, then placed it on the stage. Grasping his assistant's head between his hands, he twisted and pulled it away from the blade, then set it down on the table, several feet away from her body. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a big hand for my assistant, Hitomi Ito!"<br /><br />The woman's eyes flicked open, and she smiled and winked at the audience, amidst the gasps and applause. We quickly rose to our feet in a standing ovation.<br /><br />"Thank you again, ladies and gentlemen! I very much hope you're satisfied, because Hitomi certainly is!"