Sapphire Intelligence Agency

The **SIA**, for **Sapphire Intelligence Agency**, is an agency of shinobi and hitmen meant to replace good and bad shinobi schools within the Sapphire Empire of Japan. While it's siege is located in Hokkaido, the capital city, it actually includes every shinobi schools in the Empire's territory, even Hebijo and Hanzō. It serves both as a formation agency for shinobi and hitmen and as an intelligence agency to gather information and sabotage private or foreign actors within or outside the Empire's territory.

The SIA is apolitical and its engaged members can only be ordered by the Imperial Family and the Marshals with both' complicity, thus part of the government's "hard power". The Consuls and Ministers can only adapt and control its formation programs, this is to prevent corrupted ministers or consuls to abuse the Agency's competences for personal interests.

## Description

The SIA's primary work is to form or supervise the formation of hitmen and shinobi within the Empire's territory, but also offer them an institution that will give them missions for the common interest and grants to allow them to have shelter and food if they stay independent and don't find viable sources of income. If a shinobi or hitman engages in the SIA, it becomes one of its secret agents, James Bond-style, and is provided by gadgets and equipment for the work as well as the possibility to participate in the agency's actual missions.

In effect, the agency's hitmen and shinobi are held to total secret and confidentiality outside the agency and during missions, and allowed to tell the information gathered only to the Marshals, Imperial Family members and their own Masters, or according to their mission's orders, and disrespecting this confidentiality can ban the agent from the agency after the third time. Treason is punished by long-term incarceration and extensive interrogation by the agency.

As members of the agency in missions, hitmen and shinobi might have to record and read data at the siege, or to migrate to a certain remote location. This migration can be to teach future shinobi/hitmen-to-be students within schools, handle recruiting in the region, or to infiltrate a certain place to spy and/or sabotage its operations. They can bring their own equipment or some from the Agency, as long as it is discreet or relevant to the mission, before the mission to assist them during it, through depending of the mission's nature it can be more or less possible or hard to gather supplies and equipment during it.

A mission can have more or less stakes at the key, and it can be both spying/sabotaging a private company or a foreign country's government suspected to put the safety of the Empire or its population in danger, or to lead simply illegal activities. In other terms, they participate in investigations and covert operations, and serve the Empire and its population' interests to the nose and beard of other actors.

## Trivia

* It is the only institution to be rather Cold War-themed than XIXth century/World Wars-themed, as Intelligence became a stake majorly during Cold War. Thus, the siege is decorated by various 50s to 90s American and Soviet propaganda or simply cultural posters to refer to this thematic.
* The Agency's acronym, SIA, is both a reference to the CIA, for its intelligence agency side, and the Senran International Academy (SIA), for its belonging in SK's fanon.