Jin, Asami, and Kyoshi gathered at Jin's house to decide what to do about Hiroshi Sato. As for Inkasha, she wanted to visit Wan Shi Tong, since it had been a while since she last saw him.
"I've been thinking, and I believe Kyoshi's idea is the best option," said Asami, clenching her gloved fists. "I think my bond with my father is strong enough to make him stop and reflect."
"Good," Kyoshi nodded. "When do we act?"
"I suggest we wait until the end of the Pro-Bending Championship," proposed Jin.
"What?" Asami turned to him in surprise and protested, "That's still a month away from the finals!"
Kyoshi, on the other hand, knew her partner much better.
"Jin, what do you know?"
"It seems the Equalists plan to…" Jin calmly explained the upcoming plot as if it were information he had gathered himself. "That's why I propose we wait. Amon will personally enter to put on his power-removal show, and that's when I'll capture him as the arena's owner. If Amon falls and Hiroshi then decides to withdraw his support, it won't just be a devastating double blow to the Equalists, but Hiroshi might even receive a lighter sentence if he's caught."
"Could he take away your earthbending?" Asami asked with a worried frown. "He's got plenty of chi blockers too."
"Oh, Jin is immune to chi blocking," Kyoshi explained to Asami. "It just doesn't work on him."
"Good, then—wait, no!" Asami grabbed Jin's shoulder. "They still have those electrified gloves we saw!"
Even if he could resist chi blocking, he couldn't be immune to lightning… right?
"Even if I were struck by natural lightning several times in a row, I'd feel only a bit of warmth," Jin said as he showed the thin tattoos made of meteoric metal on his skin, saturated with his chi and arranged like a circuit. "I made these long ago to prevent a firebender from striking me with lightning by surprise. Who would've thought they'd come in handy against those gadgets so long after?"
What had once been a painful precaution against Azula and Ozai now served another purpose. And firebenders weren't the only ones who could generate lightning…
"Can that really be done?"
If so, maybe she could—
"You don't want to do that," Kyoshi told Asami, reading her thoughts. "Leaving aside the fact that it requires a meteor metal alloy, Jin can tell you the process is not pleasant."
Jin winced at the memory of the pain and how his people had to protect him throughout the ordeal.
"I'll take your word for it. But there must be something we can do during this month!" Asami crossed her arms. "I can't just sit still knowing what's coming—I'd go crazy."
That was Jin's cue to speak.
"Actually, there is something you can do. Korra—the one giving you waterbending lessons—doesn't know any self-defense techniques. I mean purely physical ones. She relies too much on bending, and considering what happened when she fought the chi blockers to rescue Bolin, she really needs to learn."
"Well, I can teach her, but that's not much to do," Asami admitted. She wanted to do more than just learn and teach.
Kyoshi and Jin exchanged glances—or at least, Jin acted as if they did.
"What?" Asami looked between them, confused.
"There's one more thing you could do, but…" Jin frowned.
"It might not be pleasant to hear," Kyoshi finished.
"I think you both know I'm not some delicate lady," Asami said defensively. "Come on, we're talking about something serious here!"
Kyoshi looked at Jin.
"Alright," Jin sighed, his expression turning serious. "Asami, keep in mind this is just a worst-case scenario. If—and I do mean if—your father were imprisoned and his involvement with the Equalists became public, what would happen to Future Industries?" he asked. "Could you take over smoothly? How badly would the company be affected?"
Asami wasn't offended. She crossed her arms and thought carefully—because, as her boyfriend said, it was a possibility, even if one of the least desirable.
Taking control? That would be easy. As the founder's daughter, she had long known how the company and its projects worked. She had been trained to take over someday, and all the legal paperwork was in order.
She was also partly involved in its operations and knew who was in charge of which department—taking her father's place would be simple.
The complicated part would be the negative impact.
Loss of personnel, reputation, contracts, partners, orders…
When the numbers (even conservative estimates) started to come together, Asami realized she was sweating as she grasped the magnitude of the company's potential losses.
She might even have to look for outside funding—or a partnership—just to keep the business afloat!
And worst of all?
Now that she knew her father was funding the Equalists, Asami had secretly gone through the old accounting books looking for "inconsistencies" and had a rough idea of how many yuans her father had invested in their cause.
She still remembered how dizzy she felt upon seeing the figures.
That same investment would become a poisoned dagger in Future Industries' back if the scandal were exposed—the company would go bankrupt within six months at most, and that was if she sold off many assets to stabilize the situation.
"Looks like you understand," Jin said with a serious nod. "Asami, you not only need to train your waterbending with Kyoshi and Korra and teach Korra self-defense—you also need to take precautions for the worst-case scenario, in which you might have to step up and hold Future Industries together yourself."
Preparing now could significantly soften the blow.
"Suddenly a month feels like very little time," Asami said. "You couldn't stretch the championship out a bit longer, could you? Like, three or four months?"
"No," Jin admitted. It had already been announced everywhere, and any changes were impossible at this stage. "But remember—you're not alone. I might not be able to help with the staff, but I still have some money."
Between his earnings from the Col Corporation and Jasmine Island, he had no doubt he could help Asami through that particular rough patch.
"Really? But the estimated losses are—"
"Asami, there are many things you can doubt in life," Kyoshi interrupted her, "but never doubt our man's ability to make money. Believe it or not, if things hadn't gone the way they did, he would've made the Beifong family the richest in the world, not just in the Earth Kingdom."
"That's not the point," the waterbender protested.
Asami had seen friendships and relationships soured and broken by money. She was a bit worried that accepting Jin's help could cause something like that between them.
"You worry too much. Just think of it as me helping the family," Jin said with a smile.
Kyoshi burst out laughing upon hearing that, while Asami turned scarlet at the not-so-hidden implication.
"I won't delay things," Jin thought as he looked at both of them. "Not this time."