Synopsis
Ryosuke Shiba is chief of Special Operations Division 2 at the Bureau of Espionage and founder of the Black Torch squad, which he formed after crossing paths with Jiro Azuma. His childhood ended abruptly when his mother killed his father in a jealous rage and then took her own life — Ryosuke was the one who found them. He grew up in an orphanage, dropped out of college after one semester, and drifted into underground gambling and yakuza circles, where rumors of the Bureau and mononoke eventually caught his curiosity. He tracked the agency down through his own investigative skill, was scouted rather than mind-wiped for his trouble, and trained under Toshimasa Azuma alongside Toko Kusumi. A gifted investigator with a habit of ignoring orders, he was effectively sidelined with command of Division 2's skeleton crew — until the fallout from the Amagi incident forced the entire Bureau to be rebuilt around him and his new squad.
