Lost and Found

The day was just starting to come to its end in the human world. The sun's rays stained the skies with orange, and the clouds appeared red with anger, though that was not the case. But that fading light had trouble finding its way through the filtering leaves of a forested region beneath the brightly colored skyscape.

A lone figure stood upon a high branch within that forest, holding a piece of cloth. She did not dress in the garb of the modern age - it appeared as though she was time warped from the Edo era: her dark clothes were covered by a white haori, bearing the mark "Two" within a diamond-shaped design on the back. Other than this raiment, her dark brown hair was visibly tied up in a ponytail. The cloth she held was a scrap of white without visible designs.

She heard a light hum, and another similarly garbed, with the exception of the haori, appeared beside her, kneeling. His hair, in stark contrast, was a silvery color, spiking up to lengths that appeared unnatural. His blue eyes showed no emotion as he waited for acknowledgement from the other.

"Report, Kurohara," she crisply ordered.

"The men found traces of his presence here, as you suspected, though there was no indication of any activity taking place," Kurohara answered.

"Tell them to rendezvous on me at sunset. We'll move out once everyone has been gathered," the other answered.

"Yes, Captain," Kurohara nodded, and was gone the next instant with the same humming noise.

The female captain frowned as she stared at the scrap of cloth in her hand. She scrutinized it closely, even though there was nothing to be seen upon it. The investigation was not going well. Her superior has gone missing, and it was her duty, as the Captain of the Second Division, to discover where and why he disappeared. Well, that duty was extended to the relatively new Investigative Task Force, though it appeared to her that the executives of the Central 46 thought that the new branch lacked the experience that the Onmitsukidō possessed, thus the two groups were working in conjunction.

"What are you up to, Yōjirō?" she muttered to herself, attempting to spark some idea of her own.