Third person POV
When Akira and Hachi heard of this from Masashi, they are very surprised but were willing to do the job despite being lowly assistants. And in Masashi's office, they are now being given a folder for their first case with Valentino. They then opened it and took a good look on the papers containing information of those whose loved ones had reported them as missing. This involves two men, both office workers, who went missing over a week now, and their loved ones, who had given up on the police, had decided to turn to the detective agency for help.
"Two men?" Akira commented. "Both in their early 20s?"
"Yes, they were reported missing 2 weeks ago," Masashi responded while looking at them. "The police couldn't find them so their loved ones turned to us for help."
Akira and Hachi then glanced at the old man.
"I see."
Masashi then stood up and placed his right hand on Valentino's left shoulder. "This one will be your companion for this case."
Seeing Valentino's foreign looks, which consisted of brown hair and sky blue eyes, Akira raised a question, "Is he a foreigner or something?"
"Yes, I am," answered Valentino. "My name is Valentino de Ritta. I am a half-German, half-Italian from Germany. I am one of the agency's high-ranking officers."
Hearing that, Hachi said to Akira, "Hey, man, about that guy. He looks rugged to me."
"Don't say such not-so-nice things, Hachi-kun," Akira replied back to him. "He's higher than us."
To that Hachi apologized in response.
Valentino then grabbed his leather briefcase and moved next to Akira and Hachi.
"Okay, I wished the three of you good luck on that easy case," Masashi said to them with a positive outlook.
With that, Akira, Hachi, and Valentino left the office, and to their first case.
Later, while walking down the streets, Akira asked Valentino if he was a regular employee at their agency before.
"No, I'm just a transferee despite having a high position," replied Valentino back.
"Wait, what?" Hachi responded to this.
"Back at my former agency workplace in Milan, Italy, I was being framed by my former coworker and boss, and I was forced to transfer here in Japan."
Because of their officer's testimony, both Akira and Hachi became upset and resentful against that agency from Italy.
"That was unacceptable."
"Those jerks!"
"Yeah, but it's been 5 years now," Valentino said to them, "and I'm used to this."
This calms the two youngsters.
"Oh, okay."
"Are you planning to come back to that agency?"
"No, I'm done with them."
"I see then."
Not long after, they arrived at an alleyway where one of the missing men was last seen. They then began to examine the scene of the crime while reading and analyzing the info about any possible suspect of abducting that victim. According to the documents, the description of the one who abducted the first victim was a young woman in white and had a mask that covers her mouth. Because of the description, Akira theorized that it was the work of an entity called Kuchisake-Onna.