Takaoka

The Ninkyo Dantai are many things to many people. They consider themselves the secret pillar of society, the disavowed element that greases the gears of business, politics, and society. To many outcasts, they offer a life outside society's expectations. And in Seattle, Takaoka Jin was their champion.

Takaoka exemplified the Ninkyo Dantai's supposed virtues; he was chivalrous and ruthless in equal measure. He adored the theatrical, in battle donning a jury-rigged exosuit stylized to fit the appearance of a samurai, and eschewed most firearms for a nanometer katana sized for a troll. He carved a niche into the Seattle underworld, where he remained for years.

That is to say, until things went wrong.

Aspect: A True Street Samurai

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Things go wrong the world over, Amadeus (née Charles) Chastain discovered quite personally in the fall of his thirtieth year. His father, murdered; his inheritance contingent on solving it. The old man did love his games. The trail took him to Seattle -- personally, unfortunately -- and into the Yakuza underworld. The tradition of the samurai spoke to him; they made for such good stories, and the rules that fundamentally defined them gave a man of learning and deviousness -- the two traits that have always defined Amadeus's own self-conception -- so much space to maneuver.

It was in Seattle that Amadeus truly learned to rig. He had always been competent with drones; how could he afford not to be, in the culinary capital of the West? He had spent years helping to maintain the drones that delivered food to the corporate clients of his father's restaurants in New York, but it was in Seattle where he learned about armament mounting, functional repair, and most importantly: tight-beam, encrypted broadcast. Remotely controlling drones was the ideal, but it was dangerous; many times his delivery bots had been hacked and food stolen. But after consultation with Seattle's (quite expensive) cryptographic technopaths, he had a set-up that would permit him to be anywhere -- while still being safe.

He regretted what happened with the Troll; the one who disdained guns, and lived for the purity of the blade. Gin something. But that was not Amadeus's fault. A man who cannot learn from his past must learn to run from it. The Troll chose neither path. There was, Amadeus thought, no small dignity in that. When the end came for that warrior, Amadeus left; his investigation was not yet over. But he left his drone by the Troll's side, and ordered it to fight those 88 killers with 88 swords until it no longer could. A good death -- or so Amadeus thought.

Aspect: The Life of the Mind is in Precision

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The thing about honor duels, even 88 against one-and-a-drone honor duels, is that they don't really stand up to outside interference. Even if that outside interference is a wandering five year old, wondering why the bad men are trying to take down the nice Mr. Troll. Someone gets distracted, loses focus, holds back.

Not Mr. Troll. He and the drone fought the horde, protected a young Fiada, and lived to tell the tale. She will tell you she helped - it was her first awakening to the power of magic; neutral reports will tell you a lucky series of explosions thinned the horde enough for the troll to deal with. All reports agree: following the massive battle, corporate police came and arrested one troll, disabled one drone, and found no accomplices.

She thinks about him, sometimes. Hopes he got out. Maybe even in her big break-out. But mostly, she thinks about the battle, and the lessons it taught her.

Aspect: Fight From the Bottom

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By all accounts, Takaoka lives as quiet a life as he can manage now, but his name still carries the weight of respect with those who remember him. And though so far he's only perceived them as haunting dreams of past battles, those clients well-heeled enough to scan prospective hires have begun picking up bizarre fluctuations in his aura...

Aspect: Nullarbor Anchor