Were Sofie Fatale still in any condition to be managing this sort of affair, doubtless there would be more threatening of the reporter. Strange enough to speak to a journalist, and stranger still to be doing it as leverage against any idiot who would come against her. O-Ren Ishii has survived the wrath of the only person permitted to pass judgement on her, and Sofie Fatale is dead. Not an insignificant number of yakuza bosses failed to survive the aftermath of the Bride's cleansing rage, and O-Ren's more methodical handling of the aftermath.

O-Ren treats the new assistant, who is an assistant and not a friend, much more carefully than Sofie. When the nervous young man comes to retrieve her from the back garden, she shows no displeasure at waiting.

She enters the back room with only the sliding of a paper door to announce her, and flanked by only said assistant and a pretty young waitress who begins to set out tea as O-Ren settles onto the chair closest to her reporter.

There's always a show to it, and the show only hiccups when O-Ren really looks at the woman, the slightest hint of a double take.