<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/RK9d9kH.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong><em>Evie Connors</em><br/><strong>Date | Location:</strong><em>Sunny Afternoon  | Japan, Ishikawa Estate, The Garden</em><br/><strong>Wearing | Carrying:</strong><em>Casual clothes, hidden knife</em><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong><em>Mai Ishikawa (Naomi's mother)</em><br/><strong>Notes:</strong><em>Takes place 19 years ago and includes backstory going back farther</em><hr/><br/>“She is permitted in the city for tasks related to my daughter only,” Hitoshi answers calmly, both he and Evie holding their tea. Business won’t be settled until they both drink, in the tradition of Hitoshi’s household. “No shopping, no coarse entertainments. Only to culture my daughter. Parks, museums and the like. In that time, she’s not to hold conversation with any of my men, nor any other individuals employed in my line of work.”<br/><br/>“Of course,” Evie answers smoothly. Somehow she keeps her gaze on Hitoshi and not the woman who makes her heart thud against her rib cage, calming her nerves by inhaling the steam from her tea.<br/><br/>Hitoshi seems to be drawing a circle around his daughter, perhaps because Naomi’s highly-attuned mind had begun to glean the nature of Hitoshi’s business last week when she told one of his men to “careful, Sato-san, father says wolves are outside the gate.” She’d pointed to an ornamental sword for Sato to take with him. Since then, none but Mai had been permitted to speak with Naomi, and at night when Hitoshi would perform his singular fatherly duty of reading a story, it was only from printed children’s books, never a loose allegory of his day as before.<br/><br/>“And am I permitted to operate with discretion, if there are disagreements with the local members of your organization?” Evie’s brow raises, making it clear she’s referring to a fight with rival Yakuza.<br/><br/>“Protect what is most important to me, and all will be forgiven.”<br/><br/>“Ten percent of my fee goes to my commanding officer, forty-five percent into escrow for the completion of the job, per your terms. The other forty-five I take in local currency, chits only, no electronic transfers.” She pauses, and adds, “I didn’t know about the daughter when I took the interview.”<br/><br/>She’s speaking to Hitoshi but might as well have said it to Mai.<br/><br/>“If it comes down to a question of which to protect,” Hitoshi said, “my daughter is the priority.”<br/><br/>Evie feels something cold and serpentine squeeze her heart tighter. She could throw the hot tea into his eyes and break his skull over the table; word was, Hitoshi was a master swordsman, and his sword lay across his lap now. Evie felt she could kill him before the sword cleared its scabbard, but then, getting away with Mai when Yakuza ran the city was another question.<br/><br/>“I understand.” Evie sips her tea, and so does Hitoshi.<br/><br/>“Arrangements are made,” Hitoshi says, again never looking at Mai. “Show Ms. Connors to my daughter and introduce them.” In Japanese, he says, “Do not corrupt this one, or she will suffer the same fate as the last.”<br/><br/>The man who’d gotten too attached, who’d let Mai shop for sweets with her daughter and bought her a caramel—Hitoshi had he and his wife’s hands lopped off.<br/>