Build Me A Castle [Hitoshi/Sawachika]

"Then consider it a gift." Hitoshi bulldozed past the man's slight, placing the bottle onto the table gently. "Your focus on the craft is appreciated, it befits your house." The man's tone staying still, there was no inherent slight or praise; merely was.

Doesn't seem that he has an angle. If he's approaching this with sheer honesty, there wouldn't be much surprise. Construction is construction. If it were meant as a slight, we would be able to tell.

Of course, Hitoshi-denka. Sanzukiko affirmed, the voice of his zanpakuto soft against his neck. He is a brute, nothing more than a tool.

"Two weeks is permissible. What form of identification for your men should we expect? We'd rather any contractual information not travel, that can be avoided." Hitoshi leaned back into his shadow, resting comfortably as he issued his test. "We have experience with things getting lost. Of course, you understand." A slight pause, eyes held tight.

"As a man of profession."

"Thank you."

Lord Sawachika was a proud man, certainly, but his pride was in his craft, and his family's attachment to it. Regardless of what Hitoshi had meant by it, it was something that the head of the Sawachika appreciated, even if in the abstract.

"My presence will be identification enough. If I'm handling the construction, it's only right that I be there myself. My name should never be on the work otherwise."

Hitoshi's tone as he leaned back certainly didn't suit Lord Sawachika, but ultimately, it was the sort of thing he'd come here expecting. The notion being put forward was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

"Rest assured, you'll be in no danger of losing anything. Our plans are committed to memory before we set a single foot outside our estate."

Excellently taken. A surge of self-fellating pride as Hitoshi gave a slight nod, a smile forming in the pits of his eyes. This could very well be our answer. The man who knows the layout of how many buildings? Secret passages, hidden armories. An excellent bargaining chip, if they ever need it. All the more curious as to 'why not'. Personal pride would not surprise, self-bound codes are not entirely uncommon in the Seireitei.

"It is appreciated." Hitoshi replied with formality, such was the grace of nobility. "Payment, of course, will be consigned with the paperwork. We must profess to not carry so much at a time. An old saying of my father's, 'A fat purse makes a rich thief'." An attempt at humor? An unintended personal touch?

Nothing so grand.

What more can we garner from you, Sawachika? - Nothing but an attempt to glimpse at a reaction. Tell us, brute. Your tiny anecdotes, the stories that make you what you are.

"Naturally."

Personally, Lord Sawachika wasn't hugely concerned about the notion of being robbed, least of all in the Seireitei. Anyone trying that was in for a beating of a lifetime trying to rob someone like him, or any noble head, really. Still, he understood the sentiment, at least inasmuch as he knew it was fairly common. Despite flaunting their wealth so often, nobles seemed to act as though it might be stolen away from them at any moment.

"I'll be sure to have any payment handled on your grounds then. I'll take any responsibility for what happens traveling between there and my estate."

One could easily take such a thing as overly boastful, but for Lord Sawachika it was just a statement of intent. He did things in whatever way was most reasonable and most efficient. And, frankly, he chose to have guests as little as possible.

"If there's nothing else, I'll begin drafting preliminary designs based on what you've showed me here. I can refine them later after the survey is finished."