Chisaki was a good girl. She never disobeyed her parents, she did her best to make sure all her homework was done on time, she tried to make sure her fellow students were on track, and she was always interested in what her teacher had to say.

So even she thought what she was doing now was out of character for herself.

[url=https://safebooru.org//images/179/a03f5a8627f1736b1e07b2f3fadf8ed944491e23.jpg?179203]She was a primary school student, at only nine years old, with short black hair and glasses.[/url]

And that made the fact that she was out by herself so late all the more unusual. But the fact was...

It wasn't just one of her friends. Two of them, Sakura and Taro, had both disappeared. Up and vanished without a trace. No-one knew what happened to them. Not their parents. Not the police.

There wasn't a single sign of anything. They weren't... they didn't seem to have died, or anything like that... it was just like they'd evaporated into thin air.

Chisaki thought of herself as smart. She thought of herself as mature. And she was worried... she thought, maybe, it would be possible for her to find something out, something she could tell the police. So they could save her friends.

So she'd snuck out at night. She knew her parents would be mad at her, but if it was for her friends' sake that was okay, right?

At least that's what she'd thought at first. She'd originally intended to meet her other friends here... but they couldn't get away from their parents.

So she was alone.

It was dark.

No-one was around.

Chisaki couldn't help but be scared. She couldn't help but worry. But at the same time, if she could find anything, anything at all that would help the police find Sakura and Taro...

It was worth being scared, right?

And then she heard it, from the alleyway...

"Chisaki-chan...?"

Sakura! That was Sakura's voice!

"Chisaki-san!"

Taro too?!

Excitement rose in the young girl's heart as she turned, immediately rushing into the alley. She'd found them! She'd found her friends! She-

The alley was empty. She heard a sound from behind her, a long shadow fell over her, and-

[hr]

It was a dark, dreary, rainy day.

Naturally, there were few people walking out and about, unless they desperately needed to be somewhere. And even if they did, most of them were taking public transit or personal vehicles. There wasn't anyone in their right mind who would willingly be out for a walk when it was raining heavily enough, and this certainly qualified.

But regardless of that fact, there was one girl who seemed quite content to take a stroll right through the rain to her club's meeting place. Perplexing as this was, it became all the more unusual when she was observed more closely.

She was a petite blonde girl, her age difficult to discern form her youthful features and short height. It was unlikely anyone would place her older then perhaps thirteen, and many would place her a year or so younger.

If one were to ask her how she felt about such comments, it was unlikely they would hear anything particularly happy in response.

In her right hand, she held a black cane. She didn't seem to need it to walk, and yet she was using it all the same. Speaking of her right hand...

Her entire right arm was bandaged. Not a single piece of flesh could be seen underneath, the bandages extending up beneath her sleeve. Exactly why this was would be a complete mystery to most observers, as the range of movement that she exhibited with the limb indicated she was entirely uninjured.

But, perhaps, the strangest thing was the fact that there was an umbrella beside her. No, she was not holding an umbrella. Many observers would simply assume that was the case, as it was impossible that an umbrella would simply float beside someone.

But common sense could override the truth, in some cases. And to be fair, the umbrella was not simply floating beside her.

[url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/680268517400248327/682835234504441866/original_drawn_by_temari_rin__sample-2992df8ab352c6c7b42c9d0c72a8820f.png]It was being carried by a girl, taller then the blonde, in a stylized kimono[/url]. Only the blonde herself, and others versed in the supernatural, could see this fact. They could also see the lengthy tongue hanging from the umbrella, and its single large eye.

Suzuki Tomoko, the intermediary between humans and youkai, had a club meeting to hold. And given the recent circumstances, it was going to be a particularly important one.

Seven disappearances. Seven children, both boys and girls, had disappeared in the last month in the local area. That wasn't even considering disappearances across the entire city that could be tied to these incidents. Each time, there was absolutely no sign of them.

It was as if they simply vanished into thin air.

As she reached the club's meeting place, the door opened ahead of her courtesy of her companion.

Indeed, she wasn't going to let this carry on any longer. She most certainly couldn't.

What sort of self-respecting intermediary could possibly let children continue to up and disappear? This wasn't a regular human perpetrator, not when the disappearances happened so swiftly and so without any evidence. Tomoko was certain of that.

No, the perpetrator had to be some sort of inhuman entity...

But who? And why?

These questions would have to be answered.

But first...

"Hello, everyone," began the blonde-haired girl brightly, "Today is the third meeting of the Miyama Occult Investigation club!"

[@Rune_Alchemist][@TheHangedMan][@RolePlayerRoxas][@Crab Bane][@Raineh Daze]