During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Romanovs employed a number of mystics in attempting to acquire military intelligence
and disrupt Japanese operations. These operations were, at least publicly, a great failure, and one of the many scandals that lead
to the downfall of the Czar.
The Japanese military establishment was fully aware of these operations, and though they dismissed
many of these so-called "psychics" and "mediums" as little more than charlatains or gifted illusionists at best, they were privately
dismayed to learn that some of these mystics were incontrovertibly the genuine article. As such, under the order of the Emperor himself,
a secret branch Imperial Japanese Army Intelligence, Special Unit 66, was established. Initially, its brief was quite simply to root
out, investigate, and if possible, neutralize any possible mystics employed by the Russians in the Far East. By 1910, this brief
had been extended to observation of potential mystics by powers hostile to Tokyo, and by the opening of the First World, Special
Unit 66 had taken on a far more active (though still secretive) role, not only learning what it could about the machinations
of enemy powers determined to thwart Japanese policies, but also in establishing its own bank of genuine mystics who could be relied
upon to assist the Japanese government by serving in a defensive role or even as double agents.
During the 1920s, as Japan found
its policies increasingly at odds with those of the West, new emphasis was placed on the possible use of Special Unit 66 as an offensive
force. The Far East was scoured for useful artifacts and persons of interest who could assist, willingly or otherwise, the developing
Japanese goals in the creation of a new Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. In 1929, the decision was made to deploy Special Unit
66 to foreign soil in an offensive role for the first time - and a branch of the unit was attached to the Japanese military attache
in Shanghai.
While it is slowly working to establish itself, Special Unit 66 has been instructed to assist the "regular" intelligence
agencies of the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy in their goal of destabilizing Shanghai in preparation for planned offensive operations
against China. The nominal head of the Japanese intelligence effort in Shanghai is Kawashima Yoshiko, the head of Unit 66 is the notorious
Colonel Washiji Toro, who has been given implicit instructions to cooperate with Kawashima where possible. Nevertheless, he has maintained
his autonomy and kept his secrets well. Kawashima is aware of the Colonel, but knows little to nothing of his mission - only that
he appears to be an expert in the occult, with a partricular distaste for Fu'Xian.
Only time will tell what Washiji and Special
Unit 66 have planned for Shanghai...
