Initial Investigation [ANBU Mission - Event]

[Fuu]

[Continued From: http://www.ninpocho.com/viewtopic.php?f=232&t=27561

An hour later found them in the Sileo, the underground headquarters of the ANBU. Things had been moving rapidly, all the pieces of a major investigation moving at the same time, with Fuu in the middle of it. Upon the arrival of the ‘baggers’ as he liked to call them, the man had hung around just long enough to make sure that everything was secure and that they would return with the bodies without incident. To facilitate this, he had ordered Bikou to stay behind and help with the escort. He had faith in the trainee, sparked by her impressive status as a contract holder, and felt she and the two other ANBU that had arrived would be more then capable of returning the evidence in one piece. Still, it was always best to err on the side of caution, especially when dealing with a potential-

“Rikudo Sennin sir, I’m almost certain.” He had stated during his small conference with his superiors "We'll know more when the Medical division finishes their examination." After giving them what little information he could, he had made his way to check on the progress of his and Bikou's snapshots. Utilizing a fairly recently developed technique, they had transferred their snapshots to member of the ‘special circumstance’ unit, who was then able to transfer the images to pieces of special, chakra infused paper. They had developed nicely in the short time he was gone ‘Almost as sharp as my own eyes.’ He had thought, watching as the pictures were posted up on a large board, the hub of the investigation. Aside from the images there was information regarding Rikudo Sennin, corpse decomposition and insect incubation times, among a variety of other things. Fuu’s head was swimming as he studied the board, his mind not accustomed to heading an investigation. Silently, he worked through the checklist in his mind.

Superiors notified, check. Squad leaders made aware, check. Squads rallied and prepared, check. Medical division analyzing the corpse, Logistics Division searching for records of possible Rikudo Sennin and identification of the corpses, check, check and check. All he could do now is watch and wait, watch the well-organized bustle of a full force ANBU investigation and wait for the medical report. All that remained were questions, some trivial and others downright disturbing. Was the man third corpse truly dead, or still alive elsewhere? Who did the two bodies belong to, and what had been done to them? ‘Most importantly, who the hell is calling us out?’

That’s what this all came down to. Whoever had dropped those bodies there could easily have removed all evidence of them, even without the Destroy Presence technique taught to the ANBU. Instead they had set the corpses up in poses and left them in the open, waiting to be discovered. Whoever was doing this, they were enticing the wrath of the entire ANBU division, and this disturbed Fuu. With a sigh, he turned from the board and scanned the room for Bikou. He wasn’t sure what the trainee had been up to over the course of the hour, but the man figured she was as engrained in the whole situation as he was.

Unable to spot her in the swarm of faces and masks, Fuu shook his head and leaned against the desk he had claimed, a sturdy metal beast the looked like it could withstand a bomb. There was nothing he could do now, so he stayed where he was and waited for runners to bring him news from the medical division, mulling over the events of the day. He was itching to find the young trainee and question her about the spiders, but there simply wasn't time. 'All the more reason to figure this out quickly.' The ANBU thought with determination, clenching his jaw in frustration.

 

[Tsuirakuya Shashu]

"Hey, easy there. No use getting worked up when we don't fully know what we're up against." The itsy bitsy trainee chided from slightly behind and to the left of the more experienced ANBU. Should he glance her way, he would see her hanging from the ceiling with her blank mask slightly above his eye-level. She had of course just came from much the same place as he, having given a full report of her findings on the scene as well as transferring a copy of her personal Snapshot. Hers would be compared alongside Doku's and checked for any discrepancies, standard procedure for serious crimes such as this where the smallest bit of information could be a vital clue. Afterwards she had headed straight here, and had employed a little chakra to cross the ceiling rather than try and maneuver her way through the bustle of activity that occupied the room.

Speaking of bustle...this place looks like someone kicked over a beehive. Something's up here. This doesn't seem like a normal reaction to a killing, even if the killing itself was rather...strange. That strange rod Doku pulled out of that body must be something bigger than I had thought...

Shashu, being just a trainee at this point in time, had had no experience with the Rikudo Sennin kinjutsu, or any kinjutsu for that matter, and thus was rather out of the loop as far as the status of the investigation went. The swarm of activity did little to clue her in, so she turned to her recent dispatch partner to remedy that.

"I'm sort of in the dark here as to what's going on with all this. Care to fill in the details for a lowly trainee? What's all this business with those odd chakra rods?" Hopefully Doku would be inclined to share the benefit of his experience here, otherwise there wasn't much she could do besides twiddle her thumbs and make cat's cradles out of web-silk. Not that it would be much different if he did, but then at least she would have an idea of what was going on.

[MFT: WC-353]​

 

[Senka]

"The results of the autopsy are in. The two recently deceased are one Shinonome Aoki, male, twenty-four years old, and one Shinonome Yukari, female, twenty-one years old. As their names suggest, they were siblings, brother and sister, and were orphaned, self-employed civilians living in the Cronopolis, which is why nobody filed a missing person report on either of them. Time of death is approximately twenty-eight hours ago, as they have already passed rigor mortis. Cause of death in both cases is excessive hemorrhaging due to dismemberment. Their limbs were post-mortem reattached using wooden ball joins of a life-sized doll."

A member of the forensics division abruptly made his appearance and reported the results without further ado. If he had any thoughts on the matter he did not express them in his voice or in the professional glint in his eyes, visible due to the nature of his mask, which only covered half of his face. It appeared that he was never on field duty and did not require wearing a mask to hide his identity, although what he wore was not a surgical mask either.

"There were no traces of anybody else's blood or other bodily liquids on the corpses, and there are no signs of a struggle, so it is safe to assume that they were killed instantly without even the chance for retaliation... which brings us to the third corpse.

What I can say is that the third corpse belonged to somebody using the Rikudo Sennin Six Paths technique. The body was most likely controlled through the sole Chakra bolt you found in its neck. However, due to the state of decomposition, we cannot say any more. From the bone structure, we can safely judge that the deceased is an adult male, but nothing more.

Maybe... if we had a Sage to temporarily revive the body... no, it has never been proven that they retain any memories... But at least we might be able to see what he looked like in life."

The formerly professional appearing coroner spiraled into a monologue as he put a hand to his masked chin and sunk into deep thoughts. He realized soon enough that he was being unprofessional and focused himself again.

"I'm sorry, sir... It's just vexing when we cannot find any clues due to the decomposition... That concludes my report. If you have any more questions, refer to the written files attached to the case."

With this, the man stopped for a moment and waited to see if there were any pressing matters; if not, he would leave and return to his post.

It appeared as if the investigations had to take to the streets again.

 

[Fuu]

"Hey, easy there. No use getting worked up when we don't fully know what we're up against.” The girl surprised him, but his face was tense and sour and had no room to show anything but. Turning his head slightly, he acknowledged her with eye contact before turning back to watch the room, ignoring the fact that she was upside down. ‘You were a trainee once too.’ Fuu reminded himself, his grimace intensifying as he remembered his own ignorance. He knew now what they were up against, or at least he had a few guesses. Back then, he would have been just a clueless as this young girl, and he tried hard to keep that in mind. “I'm sort of in the dark here as to what's going on with all this. Care to fill in the details for a lowly trainee? What's all this business with those odd chakra rods?"

Before Fuu could speak up, a man arrived with the forensics report. “Time of death is approximately twenty-eight hours ago, as they have already passed rigor mortis. Cause of death in both cases is excessive hemorrhaging due to dismemberment. Their limbs were post-mortem reattached using wooden ball joins of a life-sized doll." Another red flag shot up in his mind, the word ‘doll’ echoing in his mind. He knew of Shinobi who used large, trap filled dolls as weapons, sometimes with deadly and disturbing efficiency. What concerned him was the fact that, where there was one dark art, there was bound to be another. ‘Could somebody be trying to turn corpses into tools?’ The idea sat heavy in his mind, even as he listened to the coroner continue.

After confirming Fuu’s suspicions, and rambling on about hypothetical scenarios for a while, the man shut up and lingered for a moment before disappearing into the mass of people. Shooting a quick look to Bikou that read ‘Follow me,’ the young man pulled his mask back over his face and stood tall, straightening his posture and raising his chin. It was time for some footwork, which meant back to the heat. Careful to be sure nobody heard, Doku let out a soft sigh and cleared his throat.

“We need to gather any information we can on the victims.” He remarked, walking confidently through the crowd of people. His height and broad stature made it simple enough for him to move through to ever shifting body of people around him, as most people simply moved out of his way. He didn’t have time for social protocol, and didn’t even check to make sure the trainee was following in his wake as he continued. “That means we need to find people who dealt with the Shinonome siblings and what the nature of their business was.” Holding his hand up for Bikou to wait, the young man ducked through one of the many doors, returning a few minutes later with an envelope in his hand.

Marching at a brisk pace, he shot a look back to check on the trainee, making sure she was still there. “I’ve informed our superiors, and the squad leaders will be sending extra patrols to assist our efforts.” He said as he turned sharply down a hall, towards a cluster of elevators that would deposit them a short walk from one of the compound’s exits. Sliding the warrant into his robe, he led the rest of the way silently, his mind a thousand places at once. ‘Find a sage.’ He mused, his mind rolling over the idea again and again as he stepped out into the bright, hot mountain air.
[MFT]

 

[Tsuirakuya Shashu]

The medic's report left more questions than it did answers to Shashu's thinking. She had read something about human puppets a while back, though it had been more coincidental than intentional. Not too terribly long ago a stint in the Biblio had left her with several dusty tomes to read through, and one had been a history of legendary figures throughout Lightning Country history. It had turned out to be more fairy-tale than fact upon closer inspection however, thought one story stuck out in her mind at this moment: a man named Himura Kazuto, once known for his legendary skill as a puppeteer, had taken to carving up the corpses of his enemies and wearing them as armor, even converting some of them into more puppets for his collection.

The similarities between the old legend and the bodies of the siblings they had found were pretty clear, and once they were clear of the Sileo Shashu turned to speak as much to her fellow ANBU. "You know Doku, I read this old folktale once about a guy who used to kill people and turn their bodies into puppets and armor. They say he went off the deep end and started replacing parts of his body with the puppets he made until you could no longer recognize him as a human, just a big heap of random body parts that talked."

Doku seemed to know more than she where they were going, so Shashu was content to follow in his wake. As she walked she folded her arms behind her head and stared up at the sky, making sure to keep Doku in her peripherals so she didn't walk into a ditch or something. "This case sounds pretty similar to me, and from the way you're acting it seems like you've had some sort of experience with this stuff before, especially with that Rikudo Sennin stuff, not to mention that bit about a Sage."

The girl sighed. The man was obviously of the opinion that the less words one spoke the better, and normally Shashu would be inclined to agree, but this was no covert mission. Stealth wasn't necessary here, not yet, and she had no experience at all with these strange abilities. She didn't think it was untoward to expect a little explanation, but then again she was just a trainee. Nooo, let's not tell the clueless trainee anything. It's not like she should know what they're getting into or anything.

At any rate, she would just trudge along behind the imposing ANBU and hopefully wait for an answer, though she wouldn't hold her breath.

 

[Senka]

The two investigators of this particular incident had left the ANBU headquarters only moments ago, when one of the squads that had been sent out on patrol encountered one of the associates of the two murdered civilians. By pure chance, the man had been entered into the ANBU databases only a week earlier, as he had been caught after buying illegal items from the deceased siblings. The two were known as underground dealers, but while they had been at work for many years, their exploits had never come under the ANBU radar. It was ironic that post mortem they would make bigger waves than they had been able to in life.

"Calling Doku and Bikou. An associate of the Shinonome siblings has been identified in Southern Cronopolis by our patrol. He is on the run and outmaneuvering us in the abandoned buildings... this area is too contorted!"

Both Fuu and Shashu's headsets would come to life and the voice of a young male, an ANBU field operative, could be heard. It appeared that they would have their first clue, as long as they were able to catch it.


[Topic Continued Here.]