.

The Angel Within

Chapter 10: Explanations

[Day 14]

Saturday, 14:42 UTC (23:42 in local time)
Somewhere in Japan

The cold raindrops bring sound to the lifeless urban streets. The pale moonlight barely reaches the city, as finding a chink in between the clouds is everything but easy. Besides, it'd be rather useless, as the only person wandering through the passages is too dark in the inside to be lightened by such pure illumination.

The young man's silent steps through the stone paths, with the shadows lurking around his figure. He allows himself to be embraced by them, as the darkness overcomes not only the outside, but also within.

Tonight, he laments his nonfulfillment once more. This time, the sky cries for the man, as the young one himself couldn't and wouldn't do such a thing – it's been a long time since he has been able to feel anything apart from hatred. Therefore, instead of bemoaning over his latest failure, the flame of the fury residing within him has never been so vast and vivid like it is now.

Not long time before the aforementioned situation of defeat, he had found a small tangle of purity he thought he had lost years ago. However, as the decisive day came and everything turned into a worthless effort, he regained the sorrow and the anger, with an immeasurable amount of bonus.

Whatever humanity he once had is gone. However, he is still not demonic – that is logically impossible, as he personally loathes the Devil. He's rather indifferent and absent of sentiments for everything, everyone – besides odium. The very few things and people he has held positive feelings for are too distant to keep him away from drowning into the abyss of his own misery, something that he has actually been looking forward to, as allowing the wrath run through his veins is the only thing he is still capable of doing, and also the only option he has left.

The torment coming from above and the turmoil residing within him are his only company.

He is sick and tired of his own failures to solve his problems. But, above all, sick and tired of the unfairness he lives in. He's has already gone through things a 22-year-old should've never – actually, someone of any age should never.

Those thoughts and sentiments are ones that never leave him. Those are a part of the very few ones that managed to leave a permanent painful mark, which have long created roots and planted themselves on him.

He has just awakened, but he feels deep tiredness. That's because he hasn't waken up from a sleeping state, but actually from a spiritual state – he was trapped inside his own body, while something else had the hold over it.

After the crucial explosion of the fateful day, Jin's own personal Devil had the hold over him, through a period of time unknown to him. As far as he knows, it could've been a couple of hours, it could've been a couple of weeks.

Well, at least I'm still in Japan, he thinks as he sees an old piece of newspaper written in Japanese on the ground.

He wishes to know what happened after the fake marriage went wrong, and he wants to go back to the Mishima Zaibatsu, but right now he's too tired to keep on walking. Without as much as a second thought about it, he breaks through an abandoned establishment, dusty and stuffy in the inside. At least it has an intact rooftop, so he won't be affected by the heavy rain outside. With his body clothing – which is the marriage's black tuxedo – as the only cover from the cold, Jin sleeps on the floor, in the most comfortable position he has been able to find considering the circumstances. He closes his eyes and awaits for the haunted visions of the wicked dreams about to escape his subconscious and exhibit themselves to him through the whole night.

[Day 15]

Sunday, 00:02 UTC (03:02 in local time)
Somewhere unknown

Nina slowly opens her eyelids. The absurd intensity of her headache almost makes her faint. She can tell the place she's currently in is not very well illuminated, but it still hurts her eyes. She finds herself unable to move – something around her hands and feet is preventing her from doing so. Nonetheless, she still tries to break free from them.

"It's useless." A voice says suddenly, startling Nina. She stops automatically. "Trust me, I've had enough time to try."

Nina slightly frowns, and tries to look up. Her eyes still hurt, but eventually, they adjust to the light of the place – which is indeed faint as she had presumed – and sees a person of dark caramel skin and pitch-black hair. It is Robyn. The woman is with the same clothes she was wearing during the fake marriage – though extremely dirty and torn – and there are enormous iron chains around her wrists and ankles, coming from supports on the wall behind her.

"What is this place?" Nina asks. Her voice tone reflects her dizziness.

"Some sort of chamber." Robyn answers. "But whoever owns it hasn't bothered to show up yet."

Nina sighs. "How great." After a pause, she makes another question. "Do you have any clues of who it could be?"

"I was hoping you'd know."

Nina slightly frowns again. This time, Robyn is the one who sighs. "I got hit in the head, but coming from behind. I have no idea of who it was." The black woman says.

Nina sort of nods, as her mind is already far away, trying to recall something. It's hard to focus, but soon enough realization comes upon her. She lets out a frustrated breath leave her mouth. "The last thing I remember was fighting Anna."

"So it is her." Robyn concludes.

"She didn't hit me in the head." It is Robyn's turn to frown. Nina continues. "It was something else, coming from above."

Robyn ponders for a second. "That doesn't really exclude the possibility of her being our kidnapper."

"Though nothing makes it impossible for her to be another captive."

"Yeah, exactly." Robyn says, frustrated, as they're not able to reach an answer. "If she's another prisoner, I wonder why she's not here, though."

Nina raises her eyebrow to show that the question is plausible. "Our only option is to wait, then." The blonde woman says.

"Not that I hadn't already been doing it."

…

After an unknown amount of time has passed, a door on the wall by Nina's left and Robyn's right is opened to reveal a tall man of slightly tanned skin and jet-black hair. His eyebrows are ginormous, and situated on a permanent scowl. One of his eyes is brown, and the other is red. He is wearing a fully grey suit over a white button shirt, with black shoes.

"How great." Robyn mumbles. "Someone to join the party."

Nina would never admit it, but she actually rather enjoys Robyn's ironic remarks – the woman is quite sassy-mouthed.

The man seems to narrow his eyes very slightly towards the black woman, but they go to their normal position shortly afterwards. "I don't think an introduction is needed." He says, his deep voice resonating through the room.

"It's been a long time, Kazuya." Nina says, sounding uninterested.

He turns to the assassin. "Indeed."

He definitely looks scarier than I remember. "You haven't changed a bit."

His right eyebrow slightly tilts upwards with her remark. He takes some steps to her direction. "You, on the other hand, has." He says, facing her directly. "Marriage had never been one of your interests." He then turns on his heels and walks back to the center of the room. With his back still facing Nina, he finishes. "Or at least that's what most would presume."

Nina says nothing. There's nothing to be said.

"Anyhow, I am not here to discuss those type of matters." He says. "You and your allies have stolen something that belongs to me. All I wish to know is where it is."

Both women silently eye each other. They know what he means, but they truly have no idea of where it is, or even what it is.

"Out of all the questions you can make to us, you chose to ask the only thing we don't know?" Robyn says on her usual sarcastic manner.

Kazuya scoffs. "How come you don't know, if that's the case?"

"I guess the rest of our allies were simply busy trying to hide it." Robyn answers. "It seems it worked, as we have no idea of where it is."

Kazuya narrows his eyes towards the black woman, then turns to the blonde one. Before he's able to speak, Nina does. "Don't ask me. I don't know."

"You both know very well that I don't believe you." He says. "Simply spit it out and none of you will suffer the consequences."

"We don't even know what it is." Robyn says. "The only information that reached us was that it had successfully been stolen. There you go. Any other questions?"

Kazuya grabs Robyn's neck with his right hand. "I don't like your tone." Somehow, his voice sounds even more sinister than in his normal tone. "And I don't like your answers. You better tell me where it is."

Robyn says nothing, neither tries to shake his grip away. She simply stares at him stoically – she's telling the truth.

"Why don't you refresh my mind and tell me your name?" Kazuya asks.

"I thought there was no need of introductions." She says defiantly, even though her voice is weak.

In the quickest fashion possible, he releases his grip and punches her in the face. He then grabs her chin to make her look to him again. The same defiance of before is on her eyes. "Tell me. Now."

"You could be asking your own son and he wouldn't be able to answer you."

"Is that so?" Kazuya asks, not amused. Robyn doesn't answer. He punches her again, in the same left cheek of hers, and then forces her to face him again. "Wrong answer."

"I don't know the right answer." She says.

"Yes, you do." He says and punches her again. At this point, a stubborn drip of blood comes from the corner of her mouth.

"No, I don't." She says.

"I don't like liars."

"I'm not lying." Robyn says, somewhat sounding almost as if she's feeling offended by his remark.

Nina knows that this is the opportunity to interfere. "Julia was unreachable afterwards." The blonde one says calmly. She knows Julia's name will get his interest.

It indeed works, and it makes Kazuya let go of Robyn's chin. Turning to Nina's direction, he takes a few steps further until he's in the center of the room again.

Nina takes that as a sign to continue. "And she hasn't tried to reach us either."

"She must have taken it to somewhere previously decided." He insists.

"There wasn't a chosen place." Nina answers. "It didn't matter where she took it, as long as it was out of your reach."

"What a dysfunctional plan." Kazuya remarks, ironically.

"Dysfunctional?" Robyn suddenly says. "It worked very well, I mean, you don't have it with you now, do you?" She asks rhetorically, in the same ironic tone of his.

Already displeased enough with her, he strikes her again, this time even harder, before going back to his position in the center of the room. He controls himself not to smirk when he hears the woman coughing twice behind him.

Nina simply nods a 'no' with her head. She hates going through questionings when she has no advantage over the abductor. On those situations when something isn't known, the best option is always to be truthful – if the criminal finds out it had been a lie, it'll only make things worse. Unless if you were a good liar, but such effort just wasn't worth it with Kazuya. She was very well-aware of his methods.

He starts circling the room. "Do you have any of clue of Jin Kazama's whereabouts?" He changes the subject. He simply earns Nina's confused frown as an answer. "Don't tell me you have no idea of where he is hiding."

"I didn't even know he was hiding." Nina says blankly.

Plausible enough, he thinks. But that's still not an excuse. "Now you do." He says. "Where is he?"

"He may be a bitch, but he's no fool." Robyn suddenly says. "Do you really think he would tell us?"

Kazuya decides not to punch her this time just because of her insult towards Jin. "Any suggestions?" He asks, still facing Nina.

"He could be anywhere." She says, shrugging.

Kazuya keeps himself silent. They're not being useful, he curses on his mind. That woman wasn't far from accurate when she said Jin is no fool – he has managed to keep all vital information to himself. Though I hate him, and though I hate to admit it, he's quite the calculist. The Mishima continues his train of thought. But they're not going to escape that easily. They are professional liars, and if they won't spit things out in the easy way, it shall be done in the hard way. To me it makes no difference.

"We don't know anybody's whereabouts at this point." Robyn breaks the silence. "We don't even know where we are, for that matter."

"It doesn't make any difference for you to know." He says abruptly. "As you're not going to leave." With that said, Kazuya exits the room, and the ladies are once again by themselves in the faint-lightened room.

"The party has barely started and he's already leaving." Robyn says, with a little smirk on the bloody corner of her lip.

"You're crazy."

[Day 15]

Sunday, 04:40 UTC (05:40 in local time)
Rome, Italy

Walking through the undergrounds, carrying her single bag, Jun finally spots the door she has been told about. Knocking twice on it, as she has been advised, she waits for it to be opened. She hears steps, and she knows the person on the other side is inspecting her through the peephole. After a good while, the sound of many door locks being unlocked reach her eyes, and the old-looking and dirty metal door is opened to reveal a tall man of white skin, blue eyes, and black shoulder-length hair. His neat white suit contrasts drastically with the environment surrounding them.

Jun keeps her gaze on his eyes, while he analyses her from head to toe. She's wearing a black jumpsuit with red crows and a white scarf around her shoulders. "Are you Claudio Serafino?" She asks, expecting that the mention of the name make him realize she's the one.

After a second of silence, he answers. "Sì. Follow me."

After what feels like forever through a maze of narrow stone passages of faint illumination, they go down in a staircase and reach a place that looks like some sort of living room, though the decoration indicates that it has some sort of religious connotation.

"Take a seat." He says, while sitting on the navy blue velvet couch himself. Jun sits in front of him, on another couch of the same color and material.

Before any of them is able to start a conversation, Angel shows up behind Claudio, and walks towards the center of the room until she's in between them. Her clothes, as usual, are white and resemble Ancient Greek fashion. "I'm glad you both are finally able to meet." The heavenly spirit says, her golden hair glowing in contrast with her pale skin. "Claudio, my host, this is the person I've told you about." The blonde-haired 'woman' looks to Jun as a cue for her to introduce herself.

"My name is Jun Kazama."

Claudio widens his eyes. "Kazama?" He asks surprised. From the little Angel told him about her, and also from her looks, voice tone and aura, it is just impossible for him to understand how someone as serene as her can be related to that guy who made World War III.

"Yes." Jun answers. "Angel mentioned that you're a part of a clan. Is this where you reunite?" She asks out of innocent curiosity, not really paying mind to his reaction.

"Yes, it is." Claudio answers, still a bit startled. "We only reunite at night, that's why the place is empty." He answer, half-rushed and half-interested. After a short pause, he talks again. "How come you're a Kazama? I don't think I've ever heard of one besides Jin." He frowns. "Wait a minute…"

Jun simply smiles to him. Angel clarifies the situation. "She is Jin's mother."

Claudio's face shows utmost surprise. "How… come?" He shakes his head slightly, as his expression turns to one of disbelief. "Care to explain?" He looks at Angel.

Jun answers instead. "I had been presumed dead, I guess you can put it in such words. But I had just been… dormant."

"Dormant? As in a coma?"

"Not exactly…" Jun answers vaguely and drifts away to her own thoughts.

Angel starts to explain it. "She was attacked by an entity that ended up possessing her."

Before Claudio can make a question, Jun suddenly goes back to the conversation and continues. "It was in an unfortunate moment of weakness. I never willingly accepted it inside of me, so it could only have the hold over me while keeping me dormant."

"I guess that's because you're a psychic, right?" Claudio asks. "Angel mentioned it." He adds. "Allowing you to be conscious would lead it to its defeat."

"Somewhere close to that." Jun says and smiles at his correct assumption, though in a bit shy manner because he said it as if she's a great hero or something along those lines – to which she personally disagrees.

"But what was it?"

Jun's expression goes from serene and relaxed to more closed and serious as she tries to find the best words to explain it. "The entity itself is called Forest Demon, but I confronted Toshin." She says. "Most people call it Ogre. It used to be worshiped by the Aztecs as the God of Fighting a long time ago, but it is actually a living alien weapon of sorts." She explains.

"I've heard of it. It attacked many fighters around the world, right? Didn't Jin defeat it?" Claudio says.

"Yes, he did. He had believed I had been killed by it." Jun answers his second question. As Claudio doesn't ask anything, she continues. "It stayed dormant for centuries. It only awakens when triggered by its key or by a major danger to its own existence. It never cared about other creatures gathering powers, as long as it didn't get affected."

"What awakened it?" Claudio makes an interjection.

"The key."

The Italian man frowns. "That doesn't really make sense." He says, somewhat reluctant, and makes a brief pause to organize his thoughts and formulate his speech. "It started attacking martial artists around the world almost randomly, as from what I remember. And those fighters were already known. What kind of change happened for the creature to suddenly want them dead?"

"That's the point, actually." Jun says. "They weren't killed by Toshin. They were killed by Heihachi Mishima."

Claudio is so confused at this point that he doesn't even bother to ask, he simply clenches his eyebrows further and waits for Jun to continue.

"Heihachi had them killed and attributed the murders to Toshin." She says. "And considering the power he held as the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu, it was not even a bit hard for him to manipulate the media." She adds, with the mention of the financial empire sending a discreet shiver through her spine – the name of the corporation on her mouth tastes bitter, reviving scenes long buried in the past.

"It had been a while that he had been searching for a power as evil and as great as his son's." She goes back to the main explanation. "After more than ten years of research, he found out about the Aztec tales of the God of Fighting, which lead him to Toshin."

"He found out the key was still existent. It was a pendant, owned by a Native American woman named Michelle Chang, who coincidentally had already taken part in the first and second Tekken tournaments." She continues.

Realization graces Claudio's features. "She had the key and knew what it was for. When she saw the supposedly 'Ogre attacks' and how Heihachi was playing out the hero who would defeat the creature, she sought out his help to understand the nature of the key. Then he stole it."

Jun smiles and nods. "Yes, exactly." She answers. "He then traveled to México and used the pendant, but he underestimated Toshin and it escaped. The creature knew, however, that Heihachi had enough power to destroy it, so it sought survival."

"And that's why it went after you."

"Yes." Angel answers instead of Jun. "The Forest Demon wanted a new host, someone of stronger spiritual abilities. It passed down most of its essence to Jun, and maintained only a little inside the body of Toshin as to use it as a decoy."

Jun sighs sadly and silently. Claudio thinks silently. Angel observes them silently.

After a considerable amount of… silence, Claudio speaks again. "How have you been freed of it?" Jun simply takes hold of the pendant hidden by her white scarf, extending it to show it him. "So that is the key?" He asks, and Jun nods as a positive answer. Claudio then frowns suddenly. "Didn't it belong to that woman you mentioned?"

"Michelle Chang? Yes, it did. Technically, it still does." Claudio makes a face that shows he's inclined to hear the explanation. "It's just that I don't know if she's still alive or not." She answers to his silent question.

"What happened to her?"

"Heihachi thought she could have valuable information to be used in the future, so he put her in cryogenic sleep in a secret Mishima Zaibatsu facility in Arizona, United States, not too far away from where she used to live."

"The building had been constructed many years ago. On a day of heavy rain, the old structure unexpectedly caved and what remained of it was taken away by the flow of a nearby river, including the pendant. Heihachi had no use for it anymore, as around that time, Toshin had already been killed and he had already found out he could only use its DNA if he had the Devil gene."

Claudio scoffs. "Basically, he went searching to an alternative to the Devil gene, and when he finally found one, he found out he needed the Devil gene to make it work. How ironic." After a brief moment of silence, Claudio goes back to the topic about the Native American woman. "And she disappeared afterwards, I presume."

"Exactly." Jun answers with a sad tone. Claudio nods silently in understanding.

Angel puts her right hand on Jun's left shoulder. The heavenly entity knows that Jun knew Michelle in person. Jun nods once, thankful for Angel's action of consolation. Seeing none of it, as he had been concentrated in his own thoughts, Claudio raises his head and makes another question. "Well, do you know what has happened to the world in the years that followed?"

She wears a sad expression. "Angel has informed me."

Claudio doesn't say a word. Though he personally abominates the Mishimas, he knows that she is a part of the family somehow – and he's not even sure if he wants to know how, besides the fact that it would mean dealing with her personal matters. Since her first step inside, he could sense the good will she exhaled, spiritually speaking. She is not like them.

After another considerable moment of silence, Claudio speaks up. "You must be tired. Let me show you where you're staying." He says and stands up. Angel vanishes, and some sort of fog replaces where her figure had been. "Make yourself at home."

Jun smiles thankfully and then follows him. She is indeed tired. She had a hard time leaving Germany to come to Italy. She never came to meet Julia's ally named Leo. Thanks to Angel's assistance, the flight she had been put in had to make an 'unexpected' stop in Rome. There, Jun left the plane and followed Angel's instructions to meet Claudio.

The journey, however, is only starting.

[Day 15]

Sunday, 03:55 UTC (04:55 in local time)
Paris, France

Two people are sitting in the two reddish couches in a small living room of a mostly wooden simplistic apartment in the Parisian suburbs. The room is faintly illuminated by yellowish table lamps, creating interesting shadows around the lose parts of the outer layers of the beige walls, which shyly reveal a white-painted background hidden by the dust. There's almost no furniture in there, but when there is, it is always something wooden, and looking really old. Two people occupy the room, which has yet to feel the Sunday sunlight.

"Do you know who is she?" A blonde teenager of accented English asks to the man in front of her, referring to the black-haired woman sleeping in one of the safe house's bedrooms.

"She's exactly who she said she is." The brown-haired man answers. He also has a foreign accent present in his English language speech, but it sounds greatly different from the female person sitting in a simplistic couch in front of him. "I had heard and read about Eliza through the palaces, but I didn't know much, neither had seen her."

"She mentioned something about her blood. Do you know anything about that, Shaheen?"

"I just know they were indeed experimenting with it." Shaheen answers. "But I don't know what they were doing with it."

Silence falls upon them, as both think of what it could be. Suddenly, the man of Saudi Arabian origin breaks the silence, changing the subject. "Anyway, it's good to have you here, Lili. Someone who actually speaks French will be of good help."

The Monegasque girl smiles. "Thanks for having me here." She says. "I won't deny, I was still dubious to call you, but I didn't know other person to help me with such a matter."

"I hope that now you don't have any doubts that I'm trustful." He says and smiles.

"Not at all." She says, and smiles back. "But you still haven't told me why you're hiding here in France." Lili has an idea of what it might me, but only the man himself can tell her what it is.

He hesitates for a millisecond. Those are personal matters. The truth is he had become aware of Heihachi Mishima's location, and had been organizing a small troop to go after him. His country's leader, however, found out about it and wasn't very pleased to know that his most trustable man was plotting against an ally. Shaheen realized that there was no point, nor the need to avoid the question, although he would never open up so much about himself. He has always very discreet man, and that's one of the traits that made him go so far in his professional career. "I personally disagreed with certain measures and decided to leave."

Lili nods in understanding. It made sense that someone who seemed as important as him would have to physically leave in order to leave the job. "So, you're on your own now?" Shaheen simply nods a positive answer.

Something crosses the man's mind as he remembers that out the men who conspired with him, survivors left for Sweden for a supposed rebellion. Lili not only is the daughter of an important businessman, but she has also participated in Tekken tournaments before. She should know something about that rebellion.

"Have you heard anything regarding rebellions?" He asks cautiously. There's not really a way to indirect ask it, so he goes for the straight-forward approach.

"There's always the talk, but never the action." She says and laughs lightly. "Why? Have you suddenly decided to be a revolutionary? It doesn't really sound like something you would do." She cracks a joke.

He decides to play along. "It's not like I have much of an option now." He smiles a little.

"I don't know anything, but I'll let you know if I find out something." She says sincerely, and he nods once.

Lili is not naïve nor stupid. Men like that don't waste their time with small talk. There's something specific he wants to know about, but he won't say what it is as not to compromise himself. It doesn't matter how much you trust or sympathize with someone, you can never open up fully – and that's the ugly reality of the world. She doesn't judge him for so, as she is the same. You always only entrust to people the little enough for you to get what you want.

She will definitely try to find out anything about possible rebellions. But not him, but rather for herself. She's aware that's a seed he wanted to plant on her, regardless of ever telling him or not about information, but she doesn't care. She might as well water the seed and see what plant will grow out of it. Only then she'll decide whether to keep on caring for it or simply toss it away.

[Day 15]

Sunday, 02:20 UTC (04:20 in local time)
Somewhere in the Egyptian Sahara Desert

Away from the big modern cities, in the heart of the Egyptian Sahara, a secret underground chamber is covered by the abundant sandy cliffs. The millennial sanctuary has been hidden from the world ever since its genesis, with only one person of each generation being aware of its exact location – the place's guardian itself.

Named the Sacred Temple of Knowledge, its sole purpose is to gather all information known to humanity. An ancient pharaoh, whose sole purpose was to keep the culture of their people out of reach from any kinds of disasters – either natural ones or wars – confidentially created it to transcend the boundaries of their own people and serve as a bethel to all information imaginable.

For that, he selected some of the greatest minds of his people, a small number of commoners of his utmost trust, to be in charge of the responsibility. Each one of those people had deep understanding of different areas of knowledge – medicine, arts, engineering, and religion. They would keep on living normally in the context of society, watching everything from behind the shadows, and teach their abilities to their offspring, and also pass all their knowledge to the oracle.

The oracle is the priest endued of biggest responsibility. He was some sort of leader of the group, and he was the only person who would not only know of the seclude place's existence, but also its exact location. The prophet's obligation was to save all the information there, besides protecting those chambers.

As the years passed, many leaders have come and gone, many empires have risen and fallen, many ideologies have emerged and then vanished, but the guardians of knowledge never perished, and eventually evolved to a tribe. Though they still live in Cairo, which to this day is still Egypt's main city, they are also still unrelated to all the cultures that eventually crossed paths with the country, and even geographically are still distant from the urban centers.

At the same time, their own habits and traditions evolved to a bigger realm, logically and spiritually speaking, as each of their generations would let go each time more of conservative views and now have achieved what they consider 'the true Ma'at'. Ma'at was the Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. However, they were supposed to find an absolute concept of truth and balance, not an Egyptian one. For that, it took them literally ages.

Nevertheless, their goal was achieved, and all imaginable and unimaginable knowledge has been gathered inside the ginormous underground temple, to the most obvious things to the biggest secrets. Even its secrets have secrets. A person could literally spend an entire life inside the chambers and would still not be able to read everything – actually, that person would barely be able to read the books of a single shelf.

Despite that, there's a woman who's definitely inclined to do so. As one could presume, if the person is inside the temple, it means that individual is the tribe's guru. In the case of this prophet, however, she needs to know everything she can, because otherwise could mean the end of mankind.

According to the tribe's tradition, everybody is supposed to have a single name, which can literally have any meaning and origin, and can be in any known language, as far as it respects the Ma'at – which basically means it can't be foolish or allude the evil. This particular lady is called Zafina, meaning "victorious".

I really wish my name meaning would come true and I'd win the battle against these endless books, she thinks frustrated. It's been literally days that she has pretty much sort of self-exiled herself inside the temple, looking for information that could help her understand the prophecy of the evil stars, but so far the effort has proved to be a failure. She has not been eating properly, using almost nothing of the food resources she has brought with her, and sleeps only a couple of hours each day – she can't afford to waste precious time.

The place is very similar to a library – it has some tables in the center, surrounded by endless shelves full of books. Luckily enough, through the ages, all information that had been carved in stones or other kinds of materials that could easily deteriorate were fully rewritten in paper. Another thing that contributes to the preservation is the use of technology – the place has a very complex ventilation and refrigeration system, maintaining the documents intact from the effects of extreme heat.

Unluckily, however, the greatest part of the archives have yet to be catalogued, a process which will take years and years to complete. That makes it almost impossible for Zafina to find what she's specifically looking for.

Opening some space and putting a few books on the floor, she sits on the table itself, as other muniments have already occupied all the chairs. She stares at the ground with her head hanging low, feeling somewhat hopeless. She slightly dangles her feet, which are embraced by black sandals with a spider design, as she allows herself to get distracted by the sound of her golden anklet bracelets for a second, with the loosen white fabric of her pants accompanying the movement.

She then raises her head to re-read the writing on the center wall, a tale which originated in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, called "The moaning of the Bedouin".

Those who destroy the lie promote Ma'at;
those who promote the good will erase the evil.
As fullness casts out appetite,
as clothes cover the nude and
as heaven clears up after a storm.

Breathing deeply, Zafina gets up and touches the wall in which it is written, as if trying to absorb all the determination she can from the saying. With closed eyes, her right hand travels down the dusty wall, until her fingers collides with an irregular part. It makes a weird sound, and she instantly opens her eyes. Taking a good look at it, she realizes she has pressed some sort of button.

Looking around, she finds no changes in the room. Perhaps it used to have a function, but the engines aged too much, she concludes. She starts walking back to the central table, but on her third step, she almost trips as the pavement has a lower level that simply didn't exist. She looks to her feet, and her eyes stop at an open space on the floor, which is simply a small square-shaped hole with a book inside.

Frowning, intrigued, she crouches and grabs it, then putting in on the table and taking a seat. Firstly, she analyzes the cover. Unlike the very old looking brownish books she had been reading, this one has a completely golden outside, and the pages seem to be very white and clean. There's no title written on it, and wanting to waste no more time and also wishing to kill her curiosity, she gently opens it and starts reading the first page.

After only the first paragraph, her eyes widen greatly. This is it. This… is what I had been looking for.

[Day 16]

Monday, 10:31 UTC (06:31 in local time)
Somewhere hidden

"Hello? Raven?" A female voice says.

Raven's eyebrows slightly raise when he hears the other side of the phone line. He straightens his posture on the hospital bed. "Julia?"

"Yes, it's me." She answers. "I had a hard time settling down, and when I did, the Saturday incident had already happened. You all had been unreachable."

"What are your conditions? Where are you?" He asks without hesitation. If he wasn't a ninja, Julia might have believed it sounded like concern.

"I'm fine." She says. "I'm just calling to say Steve has gone missing. I felt like you had to know, as he was a fellow ally. But that's all I have to say, as the actual alliance is not needed anymore. The plan failed."

Raven understands what she means. "Thank you."

"Save the 'thank you'. I'm just doing what I have to do." She says. "I have to go now. Good luck to you, and whoever else who has survived. Goodbye." She hangs up before Raven can say anything else.

Raven puts the telephone away. Tired of waiting for the doctor to finally discharge him, he gets up and exits the room. While walking through the white corridors of the medical area of the Agency, he ends up being spotted by the doctor responsible for him. Before the blue-haired woman of caramel eyes can say anything, Raven speaks up. "I am giving myself discharge."

He then gets inside an elevator, and goes to a lower floor in the undergrounds. There, the corridors are grey instead of white, and he crosses a maze of corridors until he reaches his personal room, which is a mix of an office and a bedroom.

He takes the telephone from the black table and calls his superiors. Well, technically, the superiors of his superiors, as Master Raven – a.k.a. Robyn, the agent responsible for Raven's assignments, has been missing.

"This is Raven. Steve Fox has gone missing. Asking permission to take charge."

"Permission denied." An artificially distorted voice answers. "The Agency is too vulnerable now. We must sleep again."

"I insist." Raven says. "He went missing during a mission of our responsibility."

"Negative. He went missing during a mission of your responsibility." The voice says.

"Allow me to fix it."

The voice doesn't answer instantly this time. After a couple seconds, it speaks. "We will let Interpol become aware of it, and personally ask for Officer Wulong to be encharged of the mission, but the Agency is not going to get involved on that."

"Understood." Raven accepts it, as it is better than nothing. "Any progress on locating Master Raven and Ms. Nina Williams?"

"Negative." The voice answers. "Over and out." They hang up, probably on purpose, as for him not ask anything else.

Raven puts the telephone back on its place. I have no time to be frustrated by this, he thinks as he starts opening some folders full of documents, I had already expected it.

After some good minutes of cleaning up, his eyes meet the daily newspaper. The front page reads as 'Heihachi Mishima reclaims the Zaibatsu throne'.

Raven throws it in the trashcan angrily and starts to chase some useful work to do.

[Day 17]

Tuesday, 08:57 UTC (11:57 in local time)
Somewhere in Russia

Dragunov puts a file, filled with many papers, on his superior's desk – without saying a word, as always. The older officer raises his gaze to meet Dragunov's, and then his attention is shifted to the documents. He starts to read them, and after a minute, he suddenly brings his fist down on the table in both frustration and anger, letting an annoyed growl escape his mouth. "Again no results! How come?" He says in Russian.

Dragunov doesn't say anything, as always. His boss continues the rant. "That stupid British boy is being a waste of resources!" He drops the papers, and uses his right hand to scratch his forehead as he sighs, calming down. "What's the point of having the Devil gene if we can't use it?"

"That's probably why Heihachi Mishima discarded him." Dragunov says, in a rare showcase of his voice.

At first, it slightly startles the higher officer, but shortly after the man realizes his soldier only speaks when necessary – and this is one of those moments. Acknowledging Dragunov's point, he speaks. "If that's the case, I doubt he would still be alive." He makes a short pause. "There's more to that story than what we know." Dragunov nods silently in agreement. "Have you found any other information about Fox in the Zaibatsu's databases?" Dragunov makes a 'no' with his head, which leads the higher officer to curse under his breath.

After a minute of silence, the boss frowns. "Could someone else have stolen it already?" He asks. "Out of the few organizations aware of the Devil gene, we are definitely not the only ones who want to possess that knowledge."

Dragunov raises an eyebrow – it's plausible. "But still, there are literally very few organizations aware of it." The higher officer continues. "Besides the Zaibatsu itself, we know it, and so do our ally G Corporation… after all, it's CEO has it." He looks up in thought, then resumes his discussion. "Our Chinese allies are unaware of it. There's also that ghost organization nobody really knows about, but if they had it, they would have taken action a long time ago."

"Interpol?" Dragunov suggests.

The boss brings his fist down on the table again. "Stupid Interpol! I should've thought of that before!"

Dragunov keeps himself silent, waiting for orders. Getting the cue of his soldier's silence, the man gives his commands. "Transfer Steve Fox to a common cell, out of the laboratories, and dismiss Doctor Abel." He says. "Later today, come to my room again with another two soldiers of your choice, to plan a mission for you three to track Lei Wulong down." He concludes. "This is all."

Dragunov bows, and leaves the room, going directly to the iron-made elevator. Pressing a few buttons, after about 2 or 3 minutes, he reaches one of the most underground levels of the secret military facility, in which Doctor Abel's laboratories are situated.

He enters the place, but there are no people inside. There's no sign of Steve Fox, Doctor Abel, or any of the ten soldiers specially selected to be here, as nobody else was supposed to know of this place.

The single second Dragunov took to think if he should inspect the place first or immediately return to his superior's room to warn him of the matter was enough for someone to put a knife close to his throat. As the person is behind him, he obviously can't see who it is. None of the people say anything – the individual behind simply presses a piece of cloth to Dragunov's nose and mouth. Though the Russian soldier does his best to resist, he knows that there's nothing he can do. Soon enough, he goes unconscious, but before his body falls to the ground, the intruder takes hold of it and drags it to a series of sewers – the only secret passage leading to the laboratories.

Entering there himself as well, the man drags Dragunov's body through the passages – just as he did to all of the other bodies – until it leads him to the central part of the plumbing, which is a large square-shaped area with many options of ways to go, and all the unconscious bodies of those who were in the laboratory. For now, however, he needs to wait someone else before taking a turn and leaving the place as fast as possible.

…

Lei's type wasn't really of a spy, but when he acted as one, he was the best – or at least that's what he liked to think. Getting infiltrated in the Russian Army wasn't as hard as he thought he would – though that didn't make it easy. Being backed by the Agency was also very convenient for the whole mission. Just as Interpol, their goals included stopping the war, and most of times to ensure peace meant to protect former Tekken fighters.

The Hong Kong man is currently walking through the corridors of the military facility, after having escorted Steve Fox out of the main building through the plumbing, while also hiding the bodies of the men he forced into unconsciousness to save the British boxer. Either passed out or dead, those soldiers won't be bothering anytime soon.

Wulong's objective now is to find the secret part of the facility. How great: a secret part of a secret facility, Lei thinks. The thing is that there is a part of the building being used by G Corporation, to which only three people were originally aware of: the president of Russia, Kazuya Mishima himself, and Anna Williams. For whatever reason, Anna gave the information to Interpol's highest offices. She didn't reveal her identity, but it was clear to Lei that it had been written by her – something about the choice of words perhaps, as it was computer-typed. That means she probably did it that way so only he would realize it.

As for Interpol, t first, they were highly suspicious, of course; but desperate situations call for desperate measures. Besides, the specific mentioning of Nina Williams and Raven's master, Robyn, were more than a mere coincidence.

This is definitely going to take a while, he thinks as he analyzes his surroundings.

…

Nina wakes up suddenly. She hadn't even realized she had been sleeping, if that's even logically possible. It is no surprise, however, as being a hostage is not entertaining enough to maintain a person awake for too long periods of time.

The blonde assassin casually stares into nothing, but then suddenly frowns upon realizing Robyn isn't the room. There is a puddle of blood on the floor where the black woman had been, and a trail of red up until the door.

Before she can make any sense out of it, the door opens with no sound. The movement, however, is enough to get Nina's attention. A brown-haired woman hurriedly, yet silently, gets inside the room and walks towards Nina, who's already dumbfounded at this point – she knows who it is. One would appreciate how the woman is so quiet while walking in high heels, but the blonde assassin knows that it is one of the woman's many skills.

"No questions. Just follow me." She says almost inaudibly. The pale-skinned woman then takes a key from the ginormous red bun on her back – a part of her floral dress – and frees Nina from the chains.

Nina follows her without giving much of a second thought. Wherever she's taking me, it's still better than going insane while trapped in this room.

...

After long minutes of walking, Nina is lead to the plumbing, most specifically to a place where many unconscious bodies lay on the ground – two of them easily recognizable: Sergei Dragunov and Steve Fox.

"Stay here." The red-dressed woman says hurriedly, turning around.

"Thanks." Nina forces herself to mumble – even though she hates herself for so – before collapsing on the ground. Her limbs were already weak because it had been ages since the last she used them, but now after suddenly putting her body to full activity again, they're simply numb – it's too much for the organism. The lack of food and water added to her terrible sleep schedule also contributed to that.

After a short pause, comes the answer. "Don't thank me just yet. I still plan on kicking your ass." Anna says timidly, and somewhat reluctantly. Her voice was filled with her characteristic tone of sarcasm. That is the last sound she makes before vanishing into the darkness, leaving Nina to her own confused thoughts.

…

Soldiers are moving in a hurry all over the place – they've already realized something wrong is going on. I need to be faster, Anna thinks. Where's Lei?

Suddenly, a soldier hits her shoulder while trying to cross the corridor. She turned to give him a death-stare, but her face went blank once she realized it was the Hong Kong man she had been looking for, under black heavy clothes, trying to get her attention without raising anybody else's suspicions.

"I can't find her." He said with his lips, but not making any sound; 'her' refers to Robyn. Anna simply made a movement with her eyes as an answer, indicating that he should follow her.

If the place wasn't secret, one could be sure that a picture of it would appear in the dictionary as the definition of the word "maze". The fact that it contained innumerous passages and floors was nothing new, while the fact that it was faintly illuminated and made mostly of black-colored metallic materials didn't help much on making the corridors differentiable.

About the corridors, many would simply lead to dead-ends, while others would be extremely long and full of doors leading to more corridors. Many of them also had fake walls, leading to secret corridors; and then the secret corridors would have more hidden passages to more corridors. Sometimes they'd also lead to rooms, but most times, it would be simply an empty room. There were also countless stairs, of course, increasing the number of possibilities of ways to go. Sometimes, one could even find primitive elevators.

Lei silently followed Anna through many minutes, walking like a soldier, pretending to be a security guard of sorts. He analyzed her, almost clinically, as she moved through the maze without hesitation, something quite surprising. But Wulong could see how every turn she was taking was meticulously calculated, with her crystal blue eyes darting the place as if life depended on it – and, somehow, it technically did. The Hong Kong man could see how her lips would occasionally contract slightly while she was reflecting on which turn to take next, and how her fringe would gently move every time she clenched her eyebrows in thought.

Suddenly, she stopped in front of a door. From the room inside, Lei could only make out some muffled, undistinguishable random noises. Anna turned to him and nodded, a sign for him to stay outside – and so he did, as he had to play the 'security guard' act.

He doesn't know how long Anna spent inside there; all he knows is that it felt like forever. Once she left the room, she simply started walking through the maze again. Wulong promptly followed her, though a bit confused as to what she did inside there.

Other long minutes passed, until they were in the plumbing again. Only there Anna broke the silence, as she deemed it the safest place to do so. "You won't be able to take her today." Lei frowned, and before he could say something, she continued. "Let's just say that, for now, it's actually safer for her to stay here."

He was going to talk, but was interrupted again. "You have to leave." Anna said firmly. "When the opportunity comes, I will do something about it."

"Why are you helping?" A deep female voice came from the darkness, speaking in a slightly venomous tone – Nina.

"Because I feel like it." She answered unbothered before leaving. Her answer left things just as unanswered.

[Day 18]

Wednesday, 08:57 UTC (17:57 in local time)
Kyoto, Japan

"I'm so sorry." A man says.

The other, also a man, though much older, abruptly drops the papers he had been dealing with and turns to the younger one. "I can't believe you're actually blaming yourself, Lars."

A slightly surprised expression comes to the Swedish man's face, but he says nothing. "Things like that are supposed to happen, whether we like it or not." He continues. "In concept, Alisa is my daughter, but physically she's a combat machine."

"I know, Bosconovitch." Lars says in a tone that somewhat indicates defeat, with his head hanging slightly low. "But still. I should've been there for her."

Doctor B laughs in good mood. "But you were. In the very same explosion." He says. "Stop blaming yourself for things out of your control. You're a soldier, aren't you? Those things happen all the time."

"Yes, but they shouldn't."

"So you should work for the conflicts not to happen at all." Doctor B says. "Anyway, I had already been working on a new body for her, it won't be a big deal. You managed to save her main system after the explosion, that's great! You've already done what you could." He smiles.

Lars turns to see the metal head on the table. Only the metallic structure resisted the blast – the skin and the hair were completely burned.

"You shouldn't even be here. You should be in a hospital, taking care of yourself, while I take care of Alisa. Don't worry too much." Bosconovitch says reassuringly.

Lars smiles faintly, but it quickly vanishes. He was at a hospital for the last few days, allowing himself to have the extra care, ensuring quality of recovery over speed, to make sure he can go back to activity on full force. "And you shouldn't stay here, Doctor. It isn't safe."

"I know, I know." He answers, already turning to deal with the papers, pushing some aside, putting others inside drawers, throwing others in a nearby trashcan. "But I can deal with that. I may be an old man, but I still have friends." He says, and giggles.

Only Bosconovitch could be laughing while the world is shattered around him, Lars thinks. That's actually a trait I wish I had, though. "I must be going. I also shouldn't stay around these parts." Lars says. "Are you sure you can handle yourself?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Doctor B answers dismissively, walking to Lars' direction. He taps the Swedish man's shoulder. "I guess it's goodbye for now, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Lars mumbles the answer, staring at the metallic head, while his own head is far away in thoughts. "Goodbye, Doctor." He says, snapping out of it, touching Bosconovitch's shoulder in a friendly manner before turning on his heels, aiming the door, taking quite slow steps because of his medical condition.

"Lars." The doctor calls when the younger one opens the door. The soldier turns to face him, but still holds the door open. "I haven't forgotten of our deal."

A little smile comes to Lars' face. He nods, and then exits the room. Outside, another doctor is waiting for him – this one, however, is an actual doctor, not a scientist.

"Let's go, Anthony."

"Yes, sir."

The grey-haired man of green eyes and face full of freckles and wrinkles puts Lars' arm on his shoulders, assisting him through the stairs, then into the car. Anthony then goes to the driver's seat and turns on the engine.

Lars had to give Alisa's head back to Bosconovitch before leaving the country. He had to do it himself, but because of his medical state, he brought Anthony along – the only doctor besides Doctor B who he trusts enough. The thing is that Anthony is not a regular employee of the Agency – he periodically takes some temporary casual jobs there, and that's it. He is not an actual agent, so he owes nobody any kinds of explanations. Besides, he self-exhales honesty – he couldn't hurt a mosquito if he wanted. His work for Jin had been just another of those casual jobs, but through the Zaibatsu. And now, for Lars, he's doing the same, as almost a personal assistant of sorts.

"Anthony." Lars breaks the silence. "May I ask you something?"

"Sure." He answers in his usual good mood.

"Why do you regularly takes jobs with the Agency? I mean, isn't it dangerous?"

"Not really, actually." He says. "I don't usually get involved like this. When it comes the time to get involved, I'm dismissed." He makes a brief pause. "I do it for the same reason anybody else would accept these jobs for: they pay well. Sounds cold, I know, but money makes the world go round. You're younger than me, but you went through much worse, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, unfortunately, I do know what you mean." Lars answers. Power is actually what makes the world go round, he thinks, but money is a close second.

"I have no family. I have only me. So I live for what I have."

With all that said, silence establishes itself in between them again, as Anthony takes them to a hidden airbase arranged by a few of Lars' old Tekken Force resistance allies.

[Day 19]

Thursday, 12:43 UTC (21:43 in local time)
Somewhere unknown

For some odd reason, Katarina always has the impression that street lights are always brighter and more colorful in Asia than in the West. As the sound of her knee-length black boots marks the empty alleys with her presence and her navy blue coat gently flies with the wind, she makes her way to meet a potential client.

The neighborhood she's in is already quite empty during these late hours, but the bar where the encounter has been settled is even quieter. She makes her way inside, and unbuttons her coat, revealing a white strapless dress that goes until half her thighs.

Looking around, she sees there's only a single employee behind a dark orange counter, and only two tables are occupied. Following the instructions she received, she goes upstairs, where finding her client is even easier, as he is the only person present in the second floor.

She simply goes to his direction and takes a seat in front of him. He looks up from his drink and stares at her for a good while. She does the same, analyzing him. As the man said himself through the phone, he would be wearing a formal brown hat. It's hard to determine how he looks like, as it covers not only all of his hair but also a great part of his facial features. He's very muscular, and is wearing full-black leather clothes that simply don't match with the hat at all. He's probably younger than her, which is unusual in the type of business she works in.

"So, you are Alves?" He asks, in a weirdly accented English. By the sounds of it, Katarina presumes that he's Asian, most likely from South Korea itself.

The man, in the other hand, doesn't really pay attention to her face features – which would be an useless effort, as sunglasses cover her face just as his hat cover his own. He wasn't really expecting to see such ginormous breasts in the chest of a mercenary, though he avoids looking at them as he is here for serious business.

"And you must be the Blood Talon." She says, and unlike him, she doesn't stop her eyes from staring at the other's most prominent feature – in the man's case, it is his hair. Though she has already analyzed him with a criminal's clinical eye, now the 'human' part of her is simply looking at it out of pure curiosity, still trying to deduce his nationality.

There's a brief moment of silence before the man speaks up again. "I want you to track someone down." He says. "Her name is Kunimitsu. She's a Japanese criminal."

"Do you have a picture of her?" She asks, and her eyes meet his.

"No. She's a ninja or some bullshit like that." He says with disdain, and sips from his bottle.

"So how do you suggest I track her?" Katarina says half-annoyed. She has done this kind of job before with much less information and succeeded, but she's just not taking the guy seriously. He doesn't look much older than her, and seems too aloof.

"I don't care. That's what I'll be paying you to do." He makes a brief pause. Good enough of a point, Katarina thinks humorously. His boldness peaks her interest. "But she won't be hard to miss. She has orange hair, usually tied up in two ponytails, and wears a fox mask." From what he heard of his master's conversation with the detective, the woman hasn't changed her style in more than 20 fucking years, so it wouldn't be now that she'd change it. "Or that's what I heard, at least." He adds.

Katarina tilts her right eyebrow, but says nothing. The Blood Talon continues. "All I need you to do is find a way for me to meet her."

The brunette mercenary frowns. "Meet her?"

"Yes. I wanna handle her myself, if you know what I mean." There's a little smirk on his lips.

Katarina ponders about the job. It's not my usual kind of thing, that's for sure – I usually work as 'freelancer' for businessmen. And there's also the fact that the woman is a ninja, which honestly sounds like a children's story. I might as well get the payment and vanish. "How much are you gonna pay me for it?"

"This." The Blood Talon puts a good amount of dollar notes tied together with a yellow rubber band over the table. "Half of it now, half of it after it's done."

Katarina raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. She stares at the money – from her experience, she knows the stack contains a generous amount of cash. Well, in times of war, you can't really refuse offers, she thinks. That's because when a war is taking place, there's no need to keep dirty business secret, as chaos and destruction is everywhere already.

"Any other usual information about her?" Katarina asks.

"She's a fighter." He answers. "A Tekken veteran, to be more precise."

Katarina raises her right eyebrow again, this time higher. It is common sense that the Tekken tournaments are pretty much unregulated, though hidden under the sheets of glamour, and the few people courageous enough to take part in it only do so because they are literally the strongest fighters in the world.

No wonder why he's willing to pay me so much. And now the fact that he said she's a ninja makes a little more sense… I still don't believe in that bullshit, but since Tekken tournaments are always full of freaks, I guess it's believable enough. I might actually try to find her. "Alright." She decides. "I'll do it."

The Blood Talon smirks. "Great." He grabs the money and divides it by half – the first half is put on the table, and the other goes back to his jacket pocket. "Keep me aware of your progress through the number I used to call you. I'm sure you still have it." The man finishes his bottle of whatever-he-had-been-drinking and leaves it on the black surface in between them. "Good doing business with you." With that said, he gets up and goes downstairs.

The Blood Talon puts a couple notes on the main bar counter to pay for his drink and exits the establishment. While walking through the empty streets, he reflects about he has just done.

Well, there goes my savings. Bye-bye, new motorcycle. Hello, revenge. He smirks faintly to himself. I guess I should start going to the underground fighting scene again. Master won't like it, but I've spent my money for him. I know I'm doing the right thing. He turns after a corner. Besides, people probably have already forgotten of The Blood Talon, which means easy money.

[Day 19]

Thursday, 06:23 UTC (15:23 in local time)
Chiba, Japan

"I'm having so much fun! Thank you for bringing me here!" A candid exclamation came from a girl endued of an incredibly long pair of blonde ponytails. Her hair and the rabbit ears of her headband move casually as she walks with little excited jumps through the amusement park. The black color of her lace dress contrasts directly with the enthusiasm sparkling on her green eyes and with the bright lights of the surroundings, though the delicacy of its round fluffy skirt works to soften the contradistinction.

"Oh, stop thanking me! It's not like I'm not having fun too!" A girl of shoulder-length auburn brown hair answers. Her garment is a dress of similar fashion, but made of a dull tone of blue denim fabric, and has three-quarter sleeves instead of being sleeveless. Coincidentally, both girls are wearing white sandals, not far different from one another.

"Hey, look over there, Miharu!" The blonde girl calls her friend. "Why don't we have some ice cream?"

"Have you been reading my mind, Lucky?" Miharu giggles. "I was about to say that!"

"Great minds think alike!" Lucky winks playfully as they walk towards the ice cream cart.

As they wait in the line, Miharu starts talking again. "You know, I used to always come here with my best friend when we were juniors." A nostalgic smile graces her features. "This place brings me many good memories."

"Why don't you come here anymore?" Lucky asks innocently.

"Oh, it's just that Xiao was always so busy after that, because of some personal matters of hers." A slightly saddened expression overcomes what had been a joyful one.

"I'm sorry." Lucky says sincerely, apologizing both for her question and for the unfortunate progression of events in between Miharu and her friend.

"Relax, it's fine." Miharu says with a faint sweet smile. Oh, Xiao… you'd love to be here.

Little do the girls know that the boy in front of them on the line has heard the mention of 'Xiao'. Frowning slightly at the familiar nickname and rather known voice, he turns to see who was the person who said it. He instantly recognizes the short brunette girl. "Miharu!"

A bit startled, Miharu turns to the owner of the voice and is overjoyed by the sight – she knows who the tall and slightly muscled boy is. "I can't beliiiieve it!" She hugs him tightly, and he hugs her back.

"It's been such a long time!" He says as they release each other.

"I know, right?" Miharu says. "Where have you been? What have you been up to?"

"I got enrolled in Kyoto University, to study Pharmaceutical Sciences." He answers.

"Oh, that sounds nice! I'm so happy for you!" She says. "Oh, how rude of me! This is Lucky Chloe, a friend I made not long ago who has just moved to my city, Chiba!" She turns to the girl. "Lucky, this is Shin Kamiya, a good ol' friend from school!"

"Nice to meet you." He says, moving his head a bit to move away the long chocolate-colored hair strands of his fringe away from his eyes, and extending his arm. "I'm Shin Kamiya." He smiles sympathetically.

"Nice to meet you too." She says, smiling timidly, and shakes his hand. "You can call me Lucky only. I prefer it."

"And you can call me just Shin." He says casually. "Heh, I guess it's my turn. Let me buy you girls some ice cream, it's on me."

After ordering their ice creams, the young ones sit on a wooden bench on a less crowded part of the open-air amusement park. "So you're living in Kyoto now, huh?" Miharu continues their conversation from where it had stopped. "What brings you to these parts?" She licks her vanilla ice cream.

Lucky silently tastes her strawberry ice cream as she pays attention to the conversation. Eyeing Shin briefly, she notices his white T-shirt has "The Beatles" written on it – she has no idea of what it means. He's also wearing casual grey jeans and red sneakers.

"I'm visiting some relatives in Tokyo." Shin answers Miharu. "But today I wanted to treat myself and have some fun, that's why I'm here." He licks his mango ice cream. "And you? What have you been up to?"

"Well, I finished high school, and then took college exams." She sighs slightly. "But I flunked them all, so I'm getting prepared for next year's tests."

"Don't be discouraged, those tests are hard. I had quite a hard time with them too, I consider myself lucky for getting approved in the first try." Shin says reassuringly. "Don't worry too much. When due time comes, you'll be with your diploma in hands already."

"I hope whoever God's up there" Miharu says, pointing towards the sky, "hears what you're saying now and makes it come true." They laugh. "Wow, it must have been ages since the last time we talked. We used to be so close."

"Yeah, that's true. The change in my life when college responsibilities came into my door was so sudden that I didn't even manage to at least give you a number to call me or something. I'm so sorry about it."

"Nah, it's okay, really." Miharu says dismissively. "I've missed you."

Shin smiles. "I've missed you too. And your clumsy accidents, I might add." He giggles as Miharu makes a fake angry expression.

"Stop mocking me! I'm not clumsy, I'm just super flexible!" They laugh. "My falls are beautiful, you have to admit it."

"I never denied it." He says playfully. "But how is it doing with everybody? I haven't heard from anybody from Mishima Polytechnic."

"Most people from your class went to study abroad." She says. "You remember how most of them were foreigners."

"Yeah, yeah." Shin says. "And Katsuhiro? How is he doing?"

"Wow, I remember how close you guys used to be." Miharu says. "I think he went to Osaka, I can't remember now." She looks up in thought.

"What about Jin? I mean, those things about him ruling the Mishima Zaibatsu and all… I never thought he'd ever become its CEO, imagine doing what he's done…" Shin says in a half-sad (for the cruelties) and half-disappointed (about Jin) voice tone, also in a lower volume, aiming to be discreet.

Miharu doesn't answer instantly. She licks her ice cream as an unhappy expression comes to her face. "Yeah…" It escapes her mouth as she thinks about it. "I guess nobody had foreseen it." Her voice volume is equally lower.

After a moment of silence, Shin continues the conversation in the tone it had been before. "And Xiaoyu? You guys were like hand and glove."

Miharu's spirit is lifted up by the mention of her best friend. "We still are, believe me!" She says happily. "We don't hang out as much, but our friendship is intact."

"Nice to hear that." Shin says sincerely, smiling. "Does she still have that panda?"

"Hey!" Miharu exclaims. "Don't call it that panda! Her name is Panda!"

Shin only laughs. Only then Miharu realizes how redundant she sounded, even though she stated facts. She starts giggling as well. "Yeah, she's still with Panda." Miharu answers after they finally stop their laughter.

"What has she been up to?"

Miharu bits her lip remembering sad things. "After the third Tekken, Jin sort of disappeared. She has been trying to reach him out ever since." The brunette girl says in a despondent tone. "She hasn't even tried any college exams since she graduated."

"Wow, that's bad." Shin says.

"It is. I tried to convince her of letting go, but already in the early beginning, she was firm in telling me she wouldn't give up." Miharu says. "After we finished high school, I tried to make her at least take the university application tests, but to no avail."

"Well, try to see it from the good side. At least she's focusing on doing something good. Perhaps it's better to let her be."

"Yeah, I guess so." Miharu agrees. "Just recently, we went to a vacation through Italy, though. It was so fun! We hadn't done that kind of thing for years." She says. "After it, I came here to Chiba to visit my parents, and she went to China to visit her grandfather."

"At least you're still close to each other." Shin says. "I lost contact to everybody."

"But now we've met again!" Miharu says, finding happiness out of nowhere. "You know what? We should register this moment!" She takes a cellphone out of a pocket on her skirt. "Let's take a selfie, the three of us!"

Shin puts his mango ice cream in front of the camera and smiles behind it. Miharu licks the vanilla one on her hand. "Guys, I don't really like pictures, you can take just the two of us." Lucky says timidly.

Both of the Japanese young ones get out of their poses and turn to the blonde girl. "Oh, come on, Lucky! No excuses!" Miharu says.

"R-really, I don't feel comfortable." She insists nervously.

"It's not like the camera is going to eat you alive!" Miharu argues. "If you prefer, I won't share it on social media."

Lucky ponders. That's enough window for Miharu to make her pose again, and Shin follows suit. Seeing no way out of it, Lucky shows her strawberry dessert to the camera and makes a piece sign with her free hand, smiling widely to the smartphone.

"Wow, I like it!" Miharu says as she looks to the result picture.

"Me too." Shin says as he eyes it too, licking his ice cream.

"What do you think of it, Lucky?" Miharu says and puts the phone in front of Lucky's eyes.

Lucky smiles on the corner of her lip. She's actually happy she has taken the photo. Risky, but worth it. Today will forever be remembered. "I love it. I wish I could have that photo for me."

"Do you have any social networks? I could send you."

"No, I don't have any." Lucky says. "I'm not into that kind of thing. Besides, I don't even have a cellphone."

"What?!" Miharu exclaims in genuine shock. "How do you survive?" Shin simply laughs on the other side of the bench.

Lucky blushes. "Can't we… develop it somewhere?" She asks, unsure if the word she has used is correct – she hopes it is.

"Sure, we can do that after the ice creams." Miharu says, and licks her dessert.

"Hey, can you send me the picture?" Shin asks. "Besides, we should exchange numbers."

"Yes, of course!"

The friends spend the rest of the evening laughing, making jokes and simply having fun in general, as if there was no tomorrow.

[Day 19]

Thursday, 14:57 UTC (23:57 in local time)
Tokyo, Japan

The pitch-black night engulfs the Mishima Estate, and the cold breeze barely lifts the tall tree branches. In between the high leaves, rustic lanterns make their best effort to illuminate the surroundings with their yellowish light, but end up only to make the place more sinister, creating innumerous shadows over the greyish green grass.

This is a part of the Estate that has been simply forgotten; willingly forgotten. It is a place lost in time after a fateful events lead to its status as a grave in between the Mishimas themselves. It is where Heihachi's true love died, where Kazuya's childhood died, where Jin's good side died, where Jinpachi's soul died and left the body vacant for a demon – which also died. The Mishima Dojo is the only thing able to kill a Mishima and make it remain dead – cliffs and volcanoes are just amateurs.

The whistles of the wind make the place even scarier. That has never been a problem, however, as only impassive people have stepped through the simplistic stone path leading to the majestic traditional dojo. The building's structure is made of brickwork, which is hard to percept as most of its design is made of wood of very dark brown color. The decoration inside is little, yet very expensive – there are golden statues in the corners, illuminated by the dim light of oil lanterns.

Inside, a woman dressed fully in white traditional clothes is meditating in front of the dojo's biggest Buddhist statue. Her hair is tied up with a golden phoenix-shaped accessory. The main doors across the room, behind her, are opened with a loud sound. An enormous man enters, and after closing the doors again, he takes silent steps towards the woman, until he's by her right sit. Taking a seat on the ground, just as she is doing, he also starts meditating.

After a considerable amount of time in silence, the woman speaks up. "I see you've reconstructed the Pagoda Temple." The man doesn't say a word. "Thank you, Gouki." She continues.

"There is not the necessity of thanking me." This time he answers. "I was only respecting your gravesite."

She opens her eyes, but keeps her gaze to the front. "I do, however, need to thank you for bringing me back."

"I am just repaying my debt to you, Kazumi."

The garden surrounding The Temple of Hon-Maru had been, for a long time, where Kazumi's remains were buried, after Heihachi killed her in a fight inside the Pagoda building. Afterwards, the Mishima Dojo was used for Kazuya's training as he grew up – and not far away from the building, lies the ravine from which he was thrown off in a rainy evening. It later came to be Jinpachi's prison, and also where the first and so far only Jin vs. Kazuya vs. Heihachi fight occurred.

After Hon-Maru was destructed, it was pretty much abandoned, as during the fifth Tekken Tournament, Heihachi was believed to be dead and didn't even participate in the competition, Kazuya was busy taking hold of G Corporation, Jin was hiding, and Jinpachi was doing his best to coordinate the championship from the headquarters while at the same time trying to control his own body. That was when Gouki reconstructed the Temple, all by himself, completely unnoticed.

Gouki's debt with Kazumi had actually been to kill Heihachi to prevent him from destroying the world with his ambitions and his anger, while also protecting Kazuya from his own Devil. What hadn't been expected, however, was the cliff incident – the young Mishima's vulnerability at that fateful moment was simply too much for holding back the demon, and Kazuya ended up accepting it inside his soul, fooled by its mesmerizing promises of revenge.

Because of that, Gouki had to go into hiding, already aware that he'd need to kill both of the Mishimas – he just didn't count on them killing each other in the First and Second Tekken Tournaments. When only Heihachi remained alive, and it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to strike, a new Mishima appeared onto the scene, which lead to a new cycle of hatred, while also occurring the discovery that Kazuya was still alive and well. Then it came Jinpachi, then it came Lars, and then Azazel.

And it was when Azazel came that the tables turned. Unlike a human being, Azazel never had a physical body of its own – only a physical representation of its spirit. It had been the most ancient incarnation of the Devil still alive, and when it was killed, the evil energy went after the next oldest one – which happened to be Akuma. With that, he revived Kazumi – a risky move, yet worth it, as eliminating the Devil gene had always been her intentions, and there's nothing more fair than her doing so.

Besides, it is my entire fault, Gouki thinks. Hadn't I given her my blood, no such thing as a 'Devil gene' would have ever existed…

"Gouki." Kazumi breaks the silence. "I can sense your feelings of guilt. Please stop blaming yourself. It was not your fault – you did what was right."

"I'm sorry, Kazumi, but that's asking too much out of me." He answers, in a voice volume slightly lower. "Through the years, I've failed miserably in finding ways of not blaming myself." He says. "Trust me, I tried. For you." He adds, as since it happened, she would always ask him to push such negativity away from his thoughts, arguing that she would've done the same in his position.

"You've been trying too hard." She says in a softer tone, which makes the sound delicate, as her womanly voice is already soothing enough by itself. "Simply let go of it."

Muteness falls upon the environment again, as their eyelids close once more for meditation. They fail, however, as their minds can't help but bring memories that had been long forgotten – shadows of the past lurking at their very existence, watching every single one of their steps, waiting for them to crack over the knowledge that it can't be undone.

It can't be undone.

[Day 20]

Friday, 11:03 UTC (15:03 in local time)
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Of America

Staying hidden is easier than what I had expected, Julia reflects on her last few days. In only one week, she has already managed to establish herself safely in a country she knows well – it is the best she can get considering everything she's been through recently.

She chose the place where she was going to, based on many points. Firstly, it had to be in a place where she could communicate – therefore, it had to be an English-speaking country, which quite cut her options. Secondly, it should be a place not too remote (such as a Caribbean island, for example), and preferably close to other countries she could flee to if it became necessary. With that, she decided going back to her native US, which was both safe (because of the aforementioned reasons) and risky (because it can be quite predictable).

Then, she had to choose where in the United States she'd be staying in. It needed to be somewhere out of Arizona, for obvious reasons. Also, it had to be a big and crowded city, preferably with a great amount of tourists, so she would find it easier to blend in. With those things in mind, she ended up choosing Las Vegas, where the bright neon lights get the focus of the people and nobody will pay attention on her.

Once she had arrived, she needed to find a job. She has savings, of course, but she can't survive out of them forever. Besides, she doesn't like doing nothing.

While trying to think of a solution to that problem, as she walked through the streets hoping to find a job in a hotel or a bar, she actually managed to get lost in between series of back alleys. At first, she cursed herself on her mind for being so inattentive… but those thoughts quickly turned into satisfaction as she saw a group of people around street fighters.

Sometimes, the fact that people strive for violence everywhere is actually quite helpful, she thought on that moment. She took from her pocket a pink and white mask, resembling those of Mexican luchadores, and got herself into the crowd. She had bought the mask in case she needed to hide her face at the last minute, but it proved to be much more useful for something else: creating a 'stage persona' for the underground circuit. Out of the lack of creativity, her moniker came from her initials – 'J.C.' – and she had her first fight on that very morning.

It was not hard for her to emerge victorious in literally all of the fights of that day, simply because all her opponents had been brainless gang men or frightened teenagers acting as bad boys. Most were strong, of course – actually, they were all huge in size – but they lacked everything else imaginable when it came to skills. Considering the fact that she's quite used to dealing with Tekken fighters, who are deemed the deadliest on Earth, for her it all was a child's play.

The people responsible for 'organizing' those fights in that place were quick to recommend her other underground circuits throughout town, supposedly with better skilled challengers – she still won over all nonetheless.

She knows it can be dangerous to 'make a name for herself' (in this case, a name for Jaycee) on those circuits full of gang members and criminals, but she's already running away of much greater danger, so she's not really caring about it.

Little does she know that she has gotten the attention of another masked fighter, who's been observing her closely since her arrival in the street fighting circuits.

[Day 20]

Friday, 11:36 UTC (19:36 in local time)
Chengdu, Seichuan, China

Xiaoyu is alone in the balcony of her grandfather's place. She stares into the vague black of the sky, as the rain pours on her. It's not actually raining hard, but since she's been for so long standing in there, she's soaking wet. Her hair is down, and she's wearing a beige silk nightgown, with a burgundy sweater covering her arms. She hugs tight onto the piece, as she silently cries over the scenes that cross her mind – both happy and sad memories. Her tears dance with the raindrops on her face, and the sound of her breathing gets lost with the wind.

"Aren't you feeling cold?" A very deep male voice suddenly says.

Xiaoyu jumps, scared, as she didn't hear him approach. "No, I'm fine, thank you." She answers politely, briefly eyeing Feng Wei, who stops by her left side.

Both stare into the night silently for some good minutes, until the silence is broken again by the man. "You surprisingly are very similar to your grandfather. Have you ever realized that?"

She frowns, confused as to why he's starting a conversation with such a topic, but doesn't answer. He continues. "Although you lack his seriousness and simplicity, you have a strong sense of responsibility and a lot of determination to do what you think is right."

"Thank you." She answers, still a bit confused.

"I used to have a lot of that, but eventually I lost it. It's the price I paid for certain decisions." He continues. "Do not make the same mistakes that I have done."

Xiaoyu frowns as he starts to leave the balcony. "Wait." She says, and he stops with his back facing her. "I'm sorry, but what do you mean with 'mistakes'? What decisions?"

"I decided hope was just an illusion." He answers, and leaves silently.

Author notes: I'M BACK! After forever, here it is: Chapter 10, with +14k words!

Introducing: Kazumi Mishima (Finally, I know), Akuma/Gouki (!), and Shin Kamiya (there's a place for everybody lol)

I PREDICTED MASTER RAVEN, GOODBYE BITCHES! Now that Tekken 7 is out, I'll have to do some reading and see what elements of it can be included in here and what elements of it will have to be adapted/changed. It shall be interesting.

The name of this chapter is Explanations not only because the story had reached a point in which I had to clarify things, but also because I feel like I owe one… let's just say I needed this time away very badly. I know a year and half sounds like a bit too much, and probably most of the people who read this forgot about it a long time ago… but I promise I made good use of this time. I hope I'll be able to update more often from now on and eventually finish this story.

Thank you, and (hopefully) see you again soon!