Conservation of Ninjitsu

In their search for the missing member of the dojo, our fearless heroes would be directed by Master Toshi to start where Senken was last seen - the dojo.

The entire two-story building was of a simple, wooden make, with sliding shōji serving as doors, room dividers and even windows. For keeping the place lit, the dojo relied exclusively on simple candles that sat on plates and were suspended from the ceiling by chains. A single, large room made up the in-door training ground for the students and their rooms, as well as the one belonging to Master Toshi, were all on the second floor.

But, for when there was no training to be made, the room served many purposes. Today, they would leave their rooms early on the morning, regardless of what state they were in and meditate on the meaning of life, death and everything and consume large amounts of tea. Tomorrow, they'd be training while depraved of their eyesight.

"Feel free to look around," Master Toshi would say, sitting surrounded by his fellow students. "If you also want tea, say so in advance. Preparation takes time."

Cheyzy stood, his jaw slightly unhinged at the size of the place. Remembering back to his time in martial arts, his training area was impressive, but this place felt like he had been transported back to when it was still an art, as opposed to simply a way of self defense and sparring he knew. The feel of the smooth wood under his bare feet (As tradition, he had to leave his shoes and socks at the door, which he didn't mind too much, his sweatpants had an elastic band that kept them from slipping any further down than his ankles.) was odd. Definitely a harder surface than the connected foam pads he was used to. It felt...traditional. Real, almost.

  Out of old habit, and a little bit of still lingering in the past, he bowed to their host, arms tight to his sides and his smile bright.

    "It is a pleasure to be allowed into your dojo, Master Toshi. We are going to do our best to make sure Senken is brought back safe and sound."

  He hummed softly, ears laying forward and his tail wagging slightly.

Lillith has never seen a dojo before. She's nver been inside a building that was decorated in the style. 
"Why don't they use normal doors?" 
She mumbled to herself standing next to Cheyzy. She let Master Toshi and Cheyzy finish talking before speaking up.
"What's a dojo exactly? Why is everyone sitting on the floor and doing nothing?" 

"A dojo is where one practices and studies martial arts," Master Toshi would explain. "They are meditating, strengtening their mind, preparing for the hardships ahead."

The elderly fox would then turn to Cheyzy. "I would suggest starting with Senkor's room upstairs," he'd tell him. "It's the third one on the right."

The dog glanced at the other, curious. She was certainly an odd individual, not for not knowing what a dojo is, but mostly for dripping...herself? Onto the wooden floor. The others didn't seem to bothered by it, but he could tell that was a clean-up to be done later.

  He gave a small nod to Master Toshi, quietly replying his thanks before turning to what he could safely assume was the stairs. Silent steps rose him to the second floor, orange irises carefully counting to the proper door.

Lillith smiled, satisfied with the answer she got. She followed Cheyzy upstairs.
"I remember these old cartons with a group of people solving mysteries. Maybe we'll find a dude in a monster costume behind this...hehe.."

Counting the doors proved an effective tactic, as none of the shōji were labeled or or any way distinguished from the others.

Should either of them open the door, they'd see a room with just the bare minumum of what one would consider cozy. A single chadubai -- a table with short legs -- sat in the middle of the room, one zabuton -- a type of cushion -- on each side. The bed on the left, comparable to a bed roll, was a mess, with candy wrappers and cans of soft drinks strewn about. 

All that illuminated the room was a a single candle suspended from the ceiling and a set of holes left in the sliding doors that led to the balcony.

   "Heh, wouldn't that be grand?"

  He chuckled, carefully sliding the paper door open. A pastel brow was raised at the sight of the condition of the room, crouching down to inspect a couple of the wrappers and soda cans.

     "Uh, guess the guy was a bit of a sugar junkie..." He mumbled, standing back up. He simply nudged a few pieces of waste aside, deciding to take his investigation to under what simple furniture was in the room.

"HA THIS DUDE HAS THE WORST BEDROOM EVER!"
lillith laughed looking at the pathetic set up.
 "What even are these stupid holes here? Ppffftt did one day he get mad and punched the doors! HA!" HA! Look how much sugar he eats!" 

There was nothing beneath the table itself, but moving one of the cushions procured a ticket to a concert of some band. They were supposed to be playing yesterday, at around 9PM.

Upon closer inspection, the sliding doors to the balcony had cuts in addition to the punched holes. From a certain angle, one just simply couldn't see them.

Cheyzy's ears flattened at the demon's yelling, grumbling quietly to himself as he continued to search. The concert ticket was an excellent find, and he quietly pocketed the clue into his, don't laugh, fanny pack. The one with multiple pockets that he brought specifically for this quest. When he went to stand, the glimmer of light through the cuts caught his attention.

     "Eh?"

  He readjusted his position, squinting at the cuts. That didn't seem normal...He pulled out his phone, making sure to take a picture of it before double cheacking the small area.

     "Anything else seem off to you?"

"I think the kid got jumped. Maybe we should start looking for things on the balcony."
Lillith replied. She opened one of the side doors.

The cuts were small in size and symmetrical, like the ones a knife or a dagger with a straight edge would create.

The balcony near Senken's room had a large chunk of its wooden handrails missing. No smooth cuts this time. A trail of brown droplets, almost indistinguishable from the floor, bent wood and splinters were also present.

"Whoa...This is definitely is in the 'off' category."

  Cheyzy murmured, taking a few more pictures of the scene, making sure to get close ups of the missing handrail and what he guessed was either blood....or soy sauce.

     "See a trail for those stains anywhere, partner?" He hummed quietly, looking up at Lilith.

"No but I can smell it. It's a faint scent of blood. "
Lillith was sniffing. She used to hunt down people in her past times.

If Lillith were to follow the smell, it would lead her to the broken handrail, showing the duo a fair bit more droplets should they look down below on the pavement surrounding the dojo.

Cheyzy leaned over the edge of the balcony, quickly retreating from the ledge with a sickly expression.

"Ngh....I think I'll take the stairs..." He snapped a quick picture before turning back.

''I wonder why no one in the dojo has noticed this..." Lillith mumbled.She heard what Cheyzy said. "Yeah you go do that..." She went and jumped down turning into a puddle of ink by the time she reached the floor.

A couple more brown, dried spots which, should they choose to follow them, would lead to a back alley on the other side of the street, where the trail would abruptly stop.

"Huh...Weird."

   Cheyzy mumbled when he reached around the back, one brow raised as he followed the trail with his gaze, then his footsteps. Of course, he made sure to check of any traffic, though he doubted there was much of it to begin with. 
   Where the trail ended, the canine began to look around. Perhaps there was a suggestion of a struggle here as well, or some means of escape.

"You think the kid got shoved into s car at this point?" Lillith asked. She was looking at how the blood stopped all of a sudden. "I mean, there I'd enough space for a van to fit here."

Van was most certainly plausible, but with no tire marks or any surveillance cams to back that up, it was little more than an educated guess.

The trash around would rustle and a metal ball would roll up to their feet.

Cheyzy pondered Lilith's words as he glanced around, noting the lack of clues in the area. He glanced over just as the ball began rolling towards them, and he felt a panic flood his system.

"Get back!" He cried out perhaps a little too sharply, jumping as far back as he could from the possible device's stopping point.

Lillith looked down at the ball. "Oooo shiny..." Lillith bent down and poked the ball. She didn't seem scared.

Slits and indentations would appear at the ball's sides and an unknown red mist would escape it.

Almost immediately, their eyes would begin to irritate and their mouth start getting dry.

And it would only get worse...