Private I'll Cut You Down

[Inosuke Ashina]

Jar'Kai // Atrisia
Governmental Complex // Senator Hayata's Office
Aiko Hayata

I'LL CUT YOU DOWN​

"How can I help you?" inquired the unenthused voice of a receptionist. Galactic basic as per the Alliance administrative standard. She didn't even bother to look up from her datapad as the Jedi approached.

"Ashina Inosuke to see Senator Hayata," he announced flatly in the standardized Atrisian dialect.

Two brown eyes shot up, absconding from the device that had previously been deemed more important. Her previous inattentiveness saw her unprepared for the the figure that loomed in front of her. She sputtered, quickly put the datapad down and refocused her hands onto the administrative terminal. She reacted with more urgency than was at all ordinary. Hurried fingers danced the sequence of several inputs. "You're early M-Master Jedi," she observed nervously, speaking through a grimace that masqueraded as a smile.

Ashina raised a brow at the sudden shift in her demeanor. "I did not surmise a few minutes would be an inconvenience-"

"No!" she interjected. "No, Senator Hayata is expecting you anyhow. Please, follow me."

A brief sense of something ominous touched him, then slithered into obscurity just as soon as it had presented itself. A subtle, fleeting disturbance in the force which nearly gave him pause. Nothing seemed unusual, nor did any accompanying sense of anything appending show itself. Ashina's demeanor remained unabatedly impersonal and serene as the receptionist apologized and prattled explanations as she ushered him down a hall. It was unlikely she would have noticed anything was awry in the first place; nevertheless he kept all expression entirely unforthcoming. Perplexing as it was, the Jedi gave it little reverence beyond mental note, unconvinced that it was anything of consequence.

Dual panels parted at the end of the hall with a muted, mechanical hiss. Jedi and Receptionist entered the previously vacant office in looming silence. Once inside, the office could hardly be distinguished from that of a lavish corporate studio. Ashina's regard scanned around, silently probing various ornaments.

"I've informed the Senator of your arrival. She's handling something elsewhere and will be here to meet you shortly," the receptionist informed after a frantic fidget with her data device. "Please, have a seat," she implored meekly.

Ashina nodded wordlessly, shuffled nonurgently around seating arrangements. At the visitor's end of the desk, an outward facing statue gave him pause. It's shape was familiar as a common effigy seen around Hebo. Electrum, or something that looked indistinguishable, convincing down the even the details of its sculpting. Not unreasonable to find such a thing in these spatial circumstances, but Hebo's icons weren't often something that caught an outside eye. Prodding it with his absently fingertip, he finally lowered into the seat and silently waited.

 

[Aiko Hayata]

T H E_T I G E R
Aiko Hayata|Atrisia|Internal matter
Tags: Inosuke Ashina

Atrisia was a land of opposites, where both tradition and the cutting yet ruthless edge of the future collided in spectacular fashion. Clans both high and mighty aligned themselves along such ancient fault lines; her family was no different in that regard, having carefully and meticulously seated themselves in the seat of innovation while paying lip service to tradition when it suited the business. While her late father had remained firmly aligned with the old ways, he had been no fool and, like his ancestors before him, had carefully tutored Aiko to lead the family through the eras.

The Ashina were a storied clan in their own right, but that was where the similarities abruptly ended; she knew the Ashina children's father all too well from the early days of working as her father's deputy to formalising business with Ashina steel in the present. Yet Inosuka was but a fleeting enigma to Aiko, an iconoclast in human form of the Atrisian loner, a Ronin outside the strict bindings of Atrisian society, a slave to no master and a stranger to others. But every man and woman had their story and their own price to be bought with, it was just a facet of life even if the old Atrisian mystics preached of the divine soul and the path of the selfless individual.

Aiko entered the waiting area, datapad in hand and flanked by several burly bodyguards and a personal assistant HRD, a wry smiling forming on her placid pale face as her gaze rested upon the older of the two Ashina siblings. He looked like he hadn't touched a razor in months and had all the weight of Atrisia laying upon his scarred shoulders, she might've known the same feeling, but she preferred to not stretch her neck out for the greater good. Whatever that meant.

"Greetings Mr Ashina, I assume you had no issue entering the complex? I haven't seen the elder of the famed Ashina siblings before, but I'm quite well acquainted with your sister, however."​

 

[Inosuke Ashina]

Ashina stood as the senator entered, offered a customary Jedi bow. "No trouble," he affirmed as he rose from the rehearsed decorum, returning a likewise expression. Arriving with a cavalcade of safeguards wasn't something Inosuke had expected, though when considering recent history between Jedi and Senators, it was hard to be offended. "Ishida has briefly mentioned your fellowship on scarce occasions," he continued, easing unabated back into the seat he'd been offered previously. "Famed is a strong word," he asserted. "Frankly, I am surprised someone as modern as yourself is at all aware of Ashina's existence. Perhaps I underestimate my own reputation in that regard."

The secluded and hushed existence of the cultlike luddites in the mountains of the Tsuma archipelago wasn't exactly common knowledge. Among all those who would know, one could suppose that the Senator of the host planet would be one of the least surprising. "As I understand it, my sister has learned a great deal from you. Thing that have made her adjustment to the modern world much smoother than it was for me." A few years compared to over a decade, no doubt exasperated by the hereditary proclivity toward stubbornness. "I know you are of a busy sort, but for the time you have allotted to her, I thank you."

Silent exhale heralded a shift in demeanor, from thankful to dour. "Your summons lacked any declaration of purpose. Now that I am here, may I inquire as to the why of this consultation?"

 

[Aiko Hayata]

T H E_T I G E R
Aiko Hayata|Atrisia|Internal matter
Tags: Inosuke Ashina

"Your father is a well-travelled man, unlike your reclusive self, Ashina steel can be found anywhere reputable on Atrisia," Aiko had no feelings for Inosukes father; he was but another business contact in a sea of faces that did business with her people. If she was aware of Inosuke's strained relationship with his father, she gave no hint or indication, and she knew all too well from her own ears on the ground in Ashina steel. She just wished to gauge the quiet Ashinas personality beneath the layers of coldness and distant emotions.

She excused the rest of her entourage with a glance, leaving the two together in the lobby, both of whom stood in total conflict of character and personality and yet found themselves together. Not by chance, but rather of Aikos own making and design.

"She's learnt many things, more than the mountains of the homeland could teach; rocks and weeds don't make for such great teachers, now do they?" Aiko chuckled self indulgently, remembering the crap Atrisian spiritualists used to pile on the common masses; it was a placebo, nothing more, just stupid rhetoric that had no basis or reality. She didn't believe in any of it, she merely parroted it to maintain favour with the traditional base in her company and family.

"I brought you here to discuss the senate seat, and what I intend to do in the name of our shared home planets future."​