> > Which means one of two things: Either Akiko sees Chiaki as a true friend - her only true one - or she sees Chiaki as someone she has to keep close, yet not tie down, because the samurai can destroy her and her organization so easily.
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> I suspect that Chiaki filled a similar position in Akiko's eyes as Midori does now... Not in actual job, but as a most highly valued associate. I wouldn't advise Chiaki to publicly embarrass Akiko, but then that's not Chiaki's style. Still, I imagine behind closed doors Akiko allows certain people to speak freely. But I am sure that's how she looks at it... that she allows it, even if she doesn't make pains to make that clear.
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I always thought that Midori worked for Akiko at the same time Chiaki did, which meant that Chiaki held another position. Also, historically the atmosphere between Akiko and Chiaki is different. There's more of a friendly atmosphere (though occasionally that atmosphere has been taunted by Akiko's coldness). And Chiaki has argued with Akiko in the past to the point where other minions would slide quietly out of the room, expecting violence...but then there was none.
The closest I can think of to explain the way I've written Akiko and Chiaki together is like Akiko, being the older of the two, behaves like an older sister to Chiaki. Chiaki argues with Akiko, and never quite complies exactly with instructions - there must have been a dozen times when Akiko wanted someone killed and Chiaki found some other way to deal with it, or Chiaki went behind Akiko's back to do something without being asked. But Akiko allows it because she secretly knows Chiaki is very smart, maybe smarter than herself, and gets results. And possibly because Chiaki is so fiercely loyal, even as she's stuck on her own beliefs.
In fact if you'd ask Chiaki about it, Chiaki calls Akiko her "big sister". Not really, since Chiaki is an only child, but conveys the atmosphere between the two, at least how Chiaki sees it.
> As I've written her since her first appearance (where she was a bit broader than she later became), she has two main traits by which she operates: Her reluctance to dispose of resources that may one day prove valuable, and a lighter touch in manipulating those resources into getting the most out of them.
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That's where it gets tricky. Chiaki believes that Akiko has been honest with her all this time. She believes she knows Akiko's dark side well. If Chiaki finds that Akiko has not really been honest with her all that time, she will become hurt and angry. The last thing Akiko needs is a hurt and angry Samurai who knows her business and her methods.
Which is why I established, hopefully, that Akiko would have to be honest with Chiaki. Really honest. Because Chiaki would likely accept anything Akiko says or does, knowing the nature of her business and personality.
> Whereas the Lynchpin might simply lean on everyone to intimidate them into doing what he wants, Akiko is more likely to find the right shaped peg for each hole she needs filled... one that won't need a great deal of force to fall into place. She understands how far she can push Chiaki, or the Legion, and understands when she's putting energy in against diminishing returns and cutting off a future resource in an exercise of ego. And she takes different tactics with different personalities. With Visionary she tends to stay pleasant with an undercurrent of menace. With Rupert, they apparently both know the score, and so she is perhaps more blunt with him than with most anyone else.
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Chiaki is the embodiment of "grey area". She's very secretive, yet also brutally honest. She is a strong believer in justice, yet she'll take decidedly unjust methods to obtain it, and she's friends with a known violent gangster. It could never have really worked out between her and Hatman, because he expects things from her that she can never give.
What I'm exploring now, though, is just how far her friendship with Akiko goes, and whether eventually either will have a breaking point, and what the result of it might be. Can Akiko bring herself to attempt to kill off her "little sister"? Can Chiaki cut off her "big sister"? Or will the worst they reach be a cold war?
> One final thing to note is that Rupert was right... this wasn't about a little girl. Akiko is flexing her muscles for show in this story more often than she normally does, first with the corporate executive and then with the gang. It, like everything else, is a very calculated move in her eyes.
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That part I figured out. And I wonder if Akiko knows it was Chiaki who triggered the mass release from jail?
