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Chapter 2 - The Midnight Detour

Since Tekken story line is such a mess now, with bits and pieces of contradictory information all over the place (like Zafina's T7 Japanese bio, which basically cancels most of Tekken 6 story line LOL), I will follow the canon with slight modifications.

In Jin's story, the war was started by Kazuya's G Corporation and Mishima Zaibatsu under Jin tried to stop it, but was too late and Azazel emerged and had to be defeated. I never liked the direction the story took after Tekken 5 anyway, did not make sense to me to suddenly make our favorite mamma's boy the big war instigator :). Did not fit his tragic character IMHO.

I also dislike the whole Tekken 7 story journalist thing and Heihachi telling the world his story. I remember once in Tekken 2 anime it was mentioned that no one knows who the leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu is, and Jun who was investigating, managed to get his only existing photo made by some secret service to go interrogate him over animal smuggling. I like this idea better - big conglomerates with their tentacles everywhere running things from shadows, with family feud in-between, that not many people are aware of (and not Heihachi having his epic family feud out as Insta Story XD).

Sorry for the long time it took for the update, thank you for all reviews and hope you enjoy this read!

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The sun has slowly begun its ascent over the eastern hemisphere in the early morning hours, illuminating the peaceful, rural landscape on the island of Kyushu.

In one particular small village, the first sun rays have made their way through an open window of a remote house, located on one of many hills surrounding Beppu city, in the Ōita Prefecture. The resident of this particular house, still deep in his slumber, has begun to stir and toss slightly as the warm sun rays started to caress his face.

Usually, he would be up before the sun has begun to raise, heading out into the forest to follow his strict martial arts exercise routine, where he could practice alone and undisturbed, before the rest of the townsfolk woke up to resume with their daily activities.

This is how he was raised on the remote island of Yakushima, by his mother Jun Kazama, an Iron Fist Tournament veteran, and a master of the Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts. She has passed her morning routine training habit onto her son, teaching him how to listen to nature and stay focused to perfect his movement. She used to remind him that even though he had inborn talent for fighting, he should never abandon daily practice and should challenge himself to become even better.

His mother's teachings have paid off, since due to his extraordinary fighting skills, her son has managed to defeat True Ogre during the third Iron Fist Tournament, and win the fifth tournament, resulting in him taking control in the Mishima Zaibatsu. The disaster that followed these events, namely the sixth Iron Fist tournament and the events surrounding its conclusion, has destroyed many lives and wrecked havoc in many countries around the world.

An old prophecy from ancient Egypt has foretold that when two evil stars come into contact, the seal of the tomb will be broken and the one held captive will be released, inevitably bringing about the destruction of the world. The one who have not been named and to have been released, was no other than Azazel himself - the Rectifier, an ancient being who once ruled the realm, but as the legend says was overthrown by his subordinates and imprisoned in the very tomb that was once build to worship his name.

The negativity and chaos caused by G Corp and Mishima Zaibatsu engaging in conflict, with G Corp being the secret instigator, has enabled the tomb's seal to be broken and released Azazel from his slumber.

Little did people know, it was thanks to Jun Kazama's son that the literal end of the world has been stopped, and conflict was put to an end.

Initially, after Jin Kazama took control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, during the first weeks of his reign, he noticed that G Corporation has been capturing and robbing Mishima Zaibatsu's soldiers of their equipment and armor on regular basis. There were also several break ins, into the Mishima Zaibatsu's heavy armor storage facilities all over the globe. It did not take long to find out why.

First reports of Mishima Zaibatsu's soldiers cruelty and pillaging of smaller and weaker countries started to emerge. Jin realized, much to his horror, that G Corporation lead by no other, than his biological father Kazuya Mishima, is sending armed forces, posing as Zaibatsu's soldiers to invade and kill innocent people, in order to provoke Jin to make his move. He was left with no choice, but to start an opposing campaign to G Corporation. However being an extremely evil and cunning man, Kazuya has already anticipated that, and had even worse surprise in store for Jin.

G Corporation was sending their own soldiers dressed up as Zaibatsu's soldiers, using the stolen gear and weapons, only to launch a rescue operation some weeks after, sending their own soldiers yet again, this time in full G Corp troop armor, posing as saviors and opposition to the fake Mishima Zaibatsu. Being the amoral and vile person that he was, Kazuya Mishima had no remorse letting his own troops butcher one another for creating good PR.

For people who were being under attack, often left without means to survive, the G Corp troops came as a blessing. Little did they know it was literally a blessing in disguise... .

In the end, Jin managed against all odds, to arrive in Egypt just in time to stop Azazel from fully emerging from his tomb. He sacrificed himself in order to defeat The Rectifier once and for all and discover the source of the Devil Gene. After the fight, Jin was presumed dead and the United Nations have sent their troops to try recover what they assumed would be his remains, and in the meantime Kazuya Mishima has used this as an opportunity to gain even more power.

He send his false troops posing as Zaibatsu's soldiers and military elite to start the cunning take-over of the conglomerate. In the aftermath of the clash, the real remaining Zaibatsu soldier's were left without lead, since the number one general - Lars Alexandersson has officially left the conglomerate back then, to manage his own rebel army called the Yggdrasil and Jin's right hand, the Irish assassin elite - Nina Williams proved to be a bad leader. She was a lone wolf, better suited for solo missions than managing world's biggest military business.

There was however one last obstacle to Kazuya's cunning plan - none other than his father Heihachi Mishima.

Heihachi managed to make his grande comeback and take back what remained of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Without access to its full military potential however, he realized he will not be able to defeat Kazuya in an open battle, so he decided to seek more supernatural means.

Mishima Senior was aware of the existence of the secret exorcist organization called The Archers of Sirius, located in the Vatican country. He had arranged a meeting at their headquarters in order to lure out their leader - Claudio Serafino. The two clashed in battle, with Heihachi emerging victorious, even after being a mere human without any spiritual powers.

Claudio was impressed with Heihachi and realized that their goal is the destruction of the Devil Gene as a whole. The two returned to Japan with joined forces and proceeded to hunt for their first target - Kazuya Mishima.

Slowly, other reports started to emerge from the Far East - about other supernatural evil force being sighted in rural Japan, near Kyoto region. Heihachi, curious by nature, decided to go investigate himself.

The evil force turned to be Akuma, also known as Master of the Fist- Gouki. Once a renowned martial arts student, who turned on his master and killed him in order to pursue darker, forbidden power Satsui no Hadō.

Heihachi has yet again proved himself invincible. He and Gouki clashed numerous times and each time despite his dark, supernatural side, Akuma has been defeated.

During the final confrontation Gouki has finally revealed his true motives of fighting Heihachi - he made a promise to Kazumi Hachijo long time ago that when the time is right he will kill her husband and her son. The relationship he shared with Heihachi's late wife Kazumi and what kind of favor he is repaying to her, much to Heihachi's dismay, has remained unknown.

Their final fight was interrupted however by G Corporation's troops and Jack type 6 military robots. Heihachi and Akuma have briefly joined forces in order to defeat the Jacks and found themselves overpowered. In the chaos of the battle, Heihachi seemed to have been defeated and Gouki has presumed that he must have been killed. He left to move on to his next target - Kazuya Mishima. Little did Akuma know, that it was all part of Heihachi's greater plan - he wanted Gouki to confront Kazuya, so he can expose to the world what his son really is...

After long battle of defeating most of the G Corp security elite, Akuma has found himself confronting Kazuya on the top of the G Corporation Tower. As the two engaged in combat, Kazuya noticed that Gouki just like himself is using much darker power in battle, and made the fatal mistake of launching his Devil Gene power to transform into his true self. The old, cunning bastard Heihachi has just waited for this moment to happen.

As soon as the Devil power within Kazuya was revealed, he launched the biggest live-stream the world has ever seen, exposing the G Corporation leader to millions for what he really is.

Many people to this day are still skeptical of what they have seen, while many are arguing that this is the final proof that the supernatural forces in fact do exist, and are a danger to humanity.

The final result of the Gouki vs Kazuya battle remains unknown, since Kazuya managed to destroy the Zaibatsu's network before the fight was over, by launching his laser beam into space, successfully shooting down the transmitting satellite.

Afterwards the last, long-awaited showdown between the father and son has begun.

They met to fight at the edge of the very same volcano that Kazuya has been thrown into 22 years earlier, only to be retrieved and brought back to life by G Corporation some days later.

One can say that Heihachi can be questioned and despised about many things - his megalomania, cruelty, ego-centrism, all evil deeds and crimes he has committed during the years etc., however what can never be questioned is his fighting skill.

Frustrated, Kazuya Mishima had to go all out, straining his Devil form to the maximum sustainable by his human body, yet it still proved not enough to defeat Heihachi.

A mere human, without any supernatural powers had proved to be the best fighter in the universe, even at the ripe age of 78, and Kazuya after many futile attempts could not win against him.

Kazuya Mishima had to retract his Devil Form and fight with his skill only. Soon he begun to be over-consumed by hatred, as the memories from his life, and from his mother's life begun to flow right before his eyes. He realized that it is Kazumi, his late mother, who is aiding him, by revealing through their connected Devil powers, what Heihachi has really done to her and the Hachijo clan. The mother was helping her son even from beyond her death.

In one final moment, Kazuya has gathered all the hatred and pain he felt for his father into his final punch and he aimed right into Heihachi's chest.

The old man has finally gave in.

He broke down under the force and power of his son's fist and after few last breaths, his heart has finally stopped beating.

Kazuya Mishima has finally managed to kill Heihachi Mishima.

After realizing what has just happened, Kazuya needed a few moments to gather himself and approached the dead body of his father.

Finally after all these years, he thought, as he gathered the deceased into his arms, lifted him up, and approached the edge of the volcanic crater.

He took some time to stare and savor the view below him - the boiling lava, the mix of fiery orange, red and yellow, reminding him of the very depiction of what hell might actually look like.

Kazuya took one last look at his father's lifeless body gathered in his arms, took one last step closer to the edge and finally let him fall.

Just like that it was over. The years of humiliation and pain he had to endure because of his father. All gone in this one moment.

Kazuya felt enormous relief and emptiness at once, difficult to define. It was like reaching your ultimate goal in life, only to realize once you did it there is nothing waiting for you after.

However soon as he made his way back to Tokyo, he realized that he knows exactly what he wants to do after. The Devil within him did not only crave revenge, but he craved an absolute power over the realm. And in order to obtain this power he needed to take back what was supposed to be his long time ago - The Mishima Zaibatsu.

Amidst the chaos, the fake Mishima Zaibatsu soldiers, set up earlier by Kazuya have managed to sneak their way into the leader-board of the Mishima Zaibatsu, soon forming the majority of the voting power and blending in with the true remaining military elite.

After few weeks, no one questioned who is in charge anymore and Kazuya became the owner of most of the Mishima Zaibatsu, fulfilling his lifelong dream of revenge against his father Heihachi Mishima, who has defeated him during the second Iron Fist Tournament.

After 22 years since the last time that he sat in the Mishima Zaibatsu throne room, Kazuya proved himself yet again to be a ruthless leader. Now with combined forces of G Corp and Mishima Zaibatsu under his command, he has gained full control of most of the world's natural resources and oppressed many nations. He announced that G Corp will now be merged together with Mishima Zaibatsu under the latter's name.

Some time after a lot of events happened at once. While Kazuya was busy incorporating G Corp into Zaibatsu's structure, Lee Chaolan and Lars Alexandersson have been busy gathering resources and forming a coup d'etat plan in order to defeat Kazuya and finally dismantle the conglomerate.

Some time earlier they have managed to retrieve Jin Kazama from the hands of the United Nations troops, in the Sahara desert.

It could not happen without the aid of the infamous Korean Tae Kwon Do specialist and military veteran known as Hwoarang.

Hwoarang being the ultimate rival slash stalker slash friend of Jin Kazama, had managed to trace him and confront him in a small Egyptian village.

As it turned out Jin Kazama has awaken and escaped the United Nation's forces, only to uncontrollably devil-out in the middle of the desert and fly to first location available - which was, unfortunately for its residents, a small oasis village located at the top of the Sahara.

By this time, Hwoarang was already roaming Egypt, searching for Jin everywhere and asking people if they saw anything resembling a devil or an angel and a guy with spiky black hair and protruding horns, so when the news spread around that a creature fitting this description has been sighted in the small village on the verge of Sahara desert, he hopped on his motorcycle and rode whole two nights back from Cairo.

When he finally arrived, the situation was already BAD. He reached the old market area in the middle of the village, only to witness civilians running around in chaos, with United Nation's troops going nuts all over the place, throwing grenades, shooting and shouting orders frantically at each other.

In the middle of this all was he - infamous Jin Kazama, looking exhausted and dehydrated and really pissed off, trying to fight off the soldiers off him on his own.

Hwoarang also noticed that Kazama had some sort of psych ward costume situation going on, with loose straps all over, like he broke out of some sort of containment. Being the hot headed fool he was Hwoarang jumped right in the middle, and instead of trying to talk to people he fought along side Kazama.

It didn't take long before Jin deviled-out again.

Who knows what triggered the transformation this time, but soon adding to the overall chaos was Devil Jin flying around, shooting laser beam all over the place, with Hwoarang trying to avoid getting shot while screaming KAZAMA YOU PIECE OF SH**, AT LEAST TRY TO KEEP IT TOGETHER ONE TIME, CAN'T YOU?! .

Suddenly a grenade has been launched by one of the UN's troops and unfortunately for Hwoarang, he got hit by a splinter in the eye, resulting in him loosing his vision partially.

These events prelude the arrival of Lars Alexandersson in his bad-ass military jeep, a courtesy of Miss Lily Rochefort, to the scene. He managed to rescue Jin and Hwoarang and take them back to the safe zone and eventually they found themselves back on a plane to Japan.

On the way back they realized that Jin Kazama has fallen unconscious. It was probably a mix of multiple factors, such as dehydration, hunger, the aftermath of straining his body with the Devil transformation etc. . By the time they reached their destination, namely the Violet Systems HQ in Japan, they were informed that Kazuya Mishima have very likely finally either incapacitated or killed his father, since a merger between G Corp and Mishima Zaibatsu have been announced.

Few days later their secret service agents managed to confirm that indeed Heihachi Mishima was dead, and for good now.

Reactions were varying, as expected. Lee Chaolan has ordered his secretary to bring his best bottle of champagne from Violet Systems' secret stash vault (containing mostly exquisite wines and other alcohols accounted for as entertainment expenses in the company books), Hwoarang just grunted and asked if Jin has already woken up from his coma, so he can beat him up, while Lars... Lars never said anything and his expression remained unreadable through the entire meeting.

Soon they realized that they are now facing a bigger problem - Kazuya Mishima.

Him taking over Mishima Zaibatsu proved to be even worse than him and Heihachi battling over it, since he had now the absolute power over unimaginable amount of resources, military, state-of-the-art research facilities and wealth.

The only way for them to succeed, was for Jin Kazama to wake up from his coma, and put an end to his maniac of a father.

Lee couldn't believe their luck when it finally happened.

One day the doctor monitoring Jin's overall well-being came back with promising news - the patient has begun to move his finger. They all barged in to the provisory hospital room, which they prepared for Jin in Violet Systems' basement, to come and see it with their own eyes.

Hwoarang was the first one to Jin's side shouting something along the lines of Kazama you a**hole you better wake up soon before Kazuya destroyed half of the globe! much to the nurses horror, with Lee following close second, complimenting the doctor on the progress and staying classy as usual, and Lars coming in last, staring at Jin silently with glare full of hatred.

Lee did take notice of the building animosity between the two and realized what was the reason. While Lars was busy mobilizing his rebel army, Jin already found out about that through some of his spies. Lars was just, open and way more naive than Jin, he did what he felt was right. Little did he know, the Mishima Zaibatsu troops that were suddenly invading poor countries were in fact the fakes set up by Kazuya, to make people believe that the Zaibatsu is the antagonist in this mess. Jin has already realized what was happening, unlike Lars, and instead of informing him to prevent his rebellion - an unnecessary rebellion as it turned out, he decided to keep him in the dark, to get him out of the way basically.

Lee understood Lars' anger, in his opinion it was justified. Lars was led to believe that he is doing the right thing and put all energy and resources he had into his plan, only to discover that he was being played by Jin this whole time just to keep him occupied, so Jin can have go fight Azazel undisturbed. Not to mention Alisa the android was Jin's eyes all the time, spying on Lars and his movement, so Jin could read him like an open book.

There is a limit to how much a man's ego can handle thought Lee to himself, but he preferred to keep his opinion about this whole fiasco to himself. Enough work for him now, last thing he needs is an angry lion at his throat right now.

Since this one time when Jin moved his finger, every day little by little, there was small progress. First it was one finger moving, then two, then whole hand, then legs and finally he managed to open his eyes for the first time in two months.

First few days he was just staring at the people gathered in the small gloomy room with him, no expression on his face, no attempt of communication. Then after two weeks real progress - Jin started to attempt to talk and point with his finger what he wants, simple things like food or water, since he could finally eat normally and did not need to be intubated anymore.

The whole recovery process took about 4 months and by the beginning of spring, Jin Kazama was back to his old self, training every day, stronger than ever. He trained with Lars and Hwoarang and... Nina Williams, who upon hearing that Jin is awake decided to join forces with him once more. Her lucrative assassin contracts were sabotaged, since Kazuya was busy wiping out every opposing fraction, including Mafia Syndicate which was her No 1 employer for her solo missions.

Nina has also managed to mess up BIG time. She got a generic contract from Yakuza to assassinate some middle-management importance boss from rival mafia group and she was promised a bonus if she manages to kill him on his wedding day. Nothing extra ordinary for someone of her expertise.

Fast forward to the assassination date - Nina Williams has formed a plan - she will take the wedding gown of the bride and use the veil to cover herself. And so she did... .

In the middle of the chaos that emerged, when the groom has just lost his head from Nina's katana slice, before he could answer I DO, the real bride-to-be has entered the chapel, being no other than ANNA WILLIAMS herself.

Nina was busy cutting the heads off the other thugs, body guards etc., when she realized what was going on.

I just offed my sister's soon to be husband... well SH*T! thought Nina as she avoided a rocket launcher bullet flying her way.

In a deadly battle that lasted for days, Nina and Anna have managed to completely destroy the beautiful wedding chapel and surrounding areas and making headline news.

Deciding it was enough exposure for now Nina decided to call it quits and she escaped using her grapple device leaving Anna even more angry in the middle of the ruins.

Due to the aforementioned circumstances it was indeed maybe better for Nina to keep low profile for now, and being Jin Kazama's training buddy in some underground Violet Systems facility seemed like a not-so-bad idea.

Soon a day has come, that Jin has recovered enough to fight Kazuya. It was necessary and urgent, since last few months, Kazuya has gathered enormous power and wealth and who knows what he intends to do with it.

They discussed their approach, and assumed best would be just to fight Kazuya head on. No sneaking up to his facilities and wasting all effort and energy to deal with security and military thugs, but just straight on approach.

First they gathered intel about Kazuya's possible whereabouts. After making sure the info is reliable, they would send a state-of-the-art, mini-drones prototype, created in Violet Systems for espionage purposes, to spy on Kazuya.

After establishing a location and seeing via the drone an image of Kazuya confirming that it is indeed him, Jin Kazama has departed...

As days passed Lee, Lars, Hwoarang and Nina have waited... a week, then two weeks with no news... and then finally it was on every tv and every news channel

BREAKING NEWS: Dramatic eruption by one of Japan's biggest volcano - The Sakurajima, located near Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu. The situation is dramatic, the whole Sakurajima island is being evacuated, multiple witness reported seeing a black and violet smoke emitting from the volcano just before eruption! Other witness speak of strange flying creature sighted at the top of the Volcano crater seconds before the smoke has started! The volcanic eruption has caused an earth-quake of 6.8 Richter scale magnitude [...]

The same day Jin Kazama has returned back to Violet Systems HQ covered in blood.

His clothes were torn and he was covered in multiple wounds, most prolific were on his back, two huge gashes, open up to the flesh, like something grew out of there and disappeared, leaving broken out skin and muscle. Same type of wounds were located at the sides of his skull, thankfully the bone was unmarred, but he literally had two huge bloody holes at the side of his head... .

He was different. He seemed completely calm and empty, like a switched-off cyborg. He did not utter a word to anyone and the doctor's were busy bandaging his wounds. They did not ask any questions either, probably for their own good. It was soon apparent that the blood and pieces of flesh that they washed away from him were not only his own... .

After spending another long month in recovery Jin has finally begun to speak. When Lars asked him if Kazuya Mishima was truly gone, Jin only nodded and answered it's done, with a numb expression on his face. They never asked about this again and never pressured him to tell how it went down.

The summer had just begun in Japan and Lee had returned to his usual activities in Violet Systems HQ, while Nina and Hwoarang aided Jin and Lars in dealing with the aftermath of the war. Their goal was to get rid of all dangerous technology and unethical research left by the Zaibatsu and to completely demilitarize and dismantle the network that Heihachi has build in his lifetime. No conglomerate ever again should have this much influence and power.

Jin Kazama was dividing his time by working remotely and helping Alexandersson from his property in Kyushu, or going with either him or Nina or Hwoarang to a country they were helping in once every few weeks if his presence was required, and travelling to meet up with Lee Chaolan in Violet Systems HQ, which was a few hours drive from where he was living currently.

Dismantling the Mishima Zaibatsu was not a simple task, and to fulfill it will probably take a lifetime. The conglomerate was old, and was started in the late 19th century by one of the early Mishima's , who were ancient and noble samurai clan once, later to be passed onto Heihachi's father Jinpachi Mishima.

The problem with the Zaibatsu was that it had so many connections and such an enormous network, and wealth, that directly shutting it down would wreck even more economic chaos than the war did.

They owned most of businesses in Japan and overseas, if not directly, than via daughter and sister companies, and some of these businesses included even banks, so it was a delicate web to dismantle. Jin was a smart man, and knew it will be a lifetime job for him to tackle this, not to mention all the forbidden technology the Zaibatsu owned and created - which one should be made public if it can save lives or be used in advance medical treatments? which one would be a danger to society if it fell into the wrong hands? etc. . These were all very hard ethical questions, which they needed answers for.

Some nights he would lie awake, overthinking everything and re-analyzing for the hundredth time, what is potentially the best solution to a given problem?, did he not miss anything in his analysis?, who he should ask for opinion? etc., until early morning hours came and his alarm went off and he realized he will have to zombie-through his whole day, because he did not catch a minute of sleep...

Well, this time it was definitely not one of these nights.

He slept extremely deep and undisturbed for first time in months.

Jin opened his eyes and much to his surprise he realized that the sun was already up for a long time. Being used to waking up around 4-5 am every day, the temperature in his room was beginning to become unbearable. He yawned, stretched his arms and legs and tore his bed sheets away.

He stared down at his body in shock.

He was extremely filthy, covered in mud and dirt, his clothes were torn to pieces and there were leaves everywhere.

No... this cannot be real...! he thought to himself as his heart rate begun to accelerate. Jin was not someone easily swayed as he had natural calmness within him backed up by years of meditation training.

Looking around the room, he noticed there were muddy prints everywhere.

Alarmed he went downstairs, opened the front door and noticed that his motorcycle is gone. An enormous headache started to build up under his skull, that he knew all too well.

One of the side effects of transformation with the Devil Gene, were the hangover migraines as he have called them.

The transformation strains the host's body enormously and afterwards he felt weak, with a lot of muscle and back ache and head bursting into blazing pain. Not to mention a memory loss surrounding the event, so no recollection of events protruding the transformation which could help him identify and avoid possible triggers... .

His hands begun to shake en he needed to sit down.

THINK! he thought to himself as he buried his face into his hands, what is the last thing I remember from last night...?

Jin's last memory from the night before was being on a bike. He closed his eyes as he recalled driving down the highway on his way back from... where exactly? He went back to his room to look for his cell phone. He found it in the remains of his destroyed biker jacket, miraculously unharmed. He started to scroll down all the messages from last evening and days before to trigger a memory.

Of course... Hwoarang...illegal racing... the red-headed idiot had decided that they both need a small break from their dismantle the Zaibatsu job, so he proposed that they can race on their bikes on an empty, newly build highway.

And of course Jin agreed.

Jin cringed mentally at the memory. They were racing with some other thugs from Hwoarang's gang, Japanese and Korean, on the freshly finished but still closed speedway, and just as Hwoarang thought he was winning it, with Jin being close second, Jin took a risk and rode on a work platform just above Hwoarang and jumped through a shortcut, cutting the turn and rendering himself a winner.

Needless to say Hwoarang has lost it.

Calling him all sort of names and trashing and kicking random stuff on the ground, Hwoarang threatened he is gonna burn him a new one with his cigarette, while Jin just stared and remained calm through the whole ordeal.

His gang crew members were dead laughing.

Suddenly, a police siren was heard in the distance with their light flashing coming at them with high speed.

Jin just uttered short thanks, bye and pressed the nitro button on his bike and switched off his headlights. He rode something close to 300 km/h into the darkness until he reached the intersection with the open, legal highway part.

The last thing he recalled was passing the Hong Kong policeman Lei Wulong on his bike as he was issuing a speeding ticket to some other biker, possibly the one from Hwoarang's crew... .

And then nothing.

His next memory is opening his eyes this morning and that's it.

Kami-sama... Jin sighed, calmed himself and rang Hwoarang's number.

It took few long rings to finally reach Hwoarang, as he was probably asleep.

-YOU F***ING PRICK, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE CHEATING LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF MY GANG MEMBERS, I AM GONNA KICK YOUR A** THIS TIME FOR GOOD WHEN I FIND YOU, the words greeted Jin from his cellphone speaker.

-Good morning, answered Jin, which was apparently a bad choice.

-WHAT THE F***! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU IDIOT [...], Jin couldn't help but to face-palm hard.

-Gomennasai..., listen Hwoarang, this is serious... I might have blacked out last night..., said Jin finally. This seemed to successfully get the red-heads attention.

-WHAT DO YOU MEAN BLACK OU... oh, shit Kazama, don't tell me... have you transformed?, Hwoarang asked suddenly concerned.

-I am afraid this might be the case... I have no recollection of what happened after I got to the highway... , after a pause Jin added, I cannot find my bike either. It is not here. , being always straightforward and truthful he decided to tell everything, I woke up covered in mud and leaves... it is possible I caused the same type of damage like I did in Yakushima before the 5th Tournament...

-You mean like you deviled-out in the middle of Yakushima forest, and then realized you destroyed trees and stuff?, Hwoarang asked

-I sincerely hope this is only trees this time... I... I have no idea, said Jin honestly. He could not shake off that nagging feeling that something bad has happened last night and that he has hurt someone.

He noticed there were slight bloodstains on the remnants of his right glove and he was pretty sure they were not his own.

-OK, look Kazama, said Hwoarang, realizing the magnitude of the situation, the least I can do it try to go out and look for your bike, I will try see if it is still parked somewhere there along the legal highway and I will let you know.

-Thanks a lot... said Jin, slightly relieved, I will browse the news and see if there was no unusual occurrences in the area... one's I might have caused... my bike has a chip so normally if someone will find it before you do, they can check my info and call me back, unless they decide to steel it of course...

Hwoarang made a long noise in the telephone, -Fuck man, I really hoped to have a nice weekend, without much to do, and you deliver me this kind of drama as a first thing waking me up

-I apologize, said Jin sincerely, after this is over I am in your debt.

-Don't be such a drama-queen Kazama. You still own me a rematch you friggin prick. , shouted Hwoarang, then he added a little bit more calm, I will do what I can, I hope no one got hurt...

-Thanks, bye Hwoarang, and with this he ended the call.

Jin decided he needed to shower before he headed out. He headed to the bathroom, stripped of his clothes and for a brief second looked in the mirror to examine his wounds.

He turned and looked at his back. There were two huge wounds on his back, in the same place where his wings would appear. They hurt and burned badly. He took out a disinfectant spray from the shelf and proceeded to apply it to the open wound. He clenched his teeth and fought back the urge to scream. Finally after he endured the worst of the pain he started to check the wounds on the sides of his head.

The wounds formed for the first time after he had defeated Kazuya... He did all in his might to erase this fight from his memory... Before any of the trauma started to come back up to the surface, he refocused his attention on the rest of his body.

He had minor cuts on his body like he was running through forest and the tree branches cut his skin. These were not concerning to him, however the other cuts were...

His whole right hand and chest was covered in scratches. They looked like scratches that came from a cat or... long nails.

The feeling of panic returned, and he put his hands on the sink to support himself. He begun to sweat and he had to fight back the feeling of wanting to throw up.

Jin looked up in the mirror again, and his face stared right back at him. He suddenly felt disgusted with himself and he decided to just head into the shower. He put the water temperature to the max until it was almost burning his skin.

After he got out of the shower he went downstairs to quickly grab something to eat before heading out. When he was ready he jumped into his car and decided that his first best choice will be to check out the highway entrance where he was sure he saw Lei Wulong the night before.

After arriving at this destination and driving few more kilometers ahead he spotted some sort of construction team working at the side of the highway bridge.

He could not make out what they were doing from afar, however he noticed that they were using a huge lift in order to retrieve something from the river.

As he drove closer he suddenly realized what he was seeing: the object that was being pulled out from the river was non other than his bike...

Cannot be... , thought Jin, staring at the scene before him. His bike was completely, utterly ruined. It looked like it went through a scrap heap shredder, not to mention it was full of various water plants tangled together with the various loose metal pieces.

He also noticed that a part of the barrier of the bridge is destroyed as well. I must have transformed right before I entered the bridge, jumping off my bike so it crashed and fell into the water...

He found a small parking spot nearby and took out his mobile phone. Being a practical man, Jin quickly texted Hwoarang to let him know that he can cancel his search and called the police to report that his bike was stolen the night before. He did not want to attract much attention, or being investigated how on earth he managed to drive straight to the river and not die, so this seemed like the best solution.

Where did I go after...? No one seem to have reported a guy with wings flying off from the accident scene anywhere on the news,... thankfully, ... so I can assume that no one has seen anything..., thought Jin. He was however, still very much concerned what happened later that night, and hoped that whatever grief or damaged he has caused while blacked out can be repaired...

The Devil Gene and its randomness always scared him.

Sometimes he seemed to have experienced moments of pure clarity, where he was fully aware of his powers and could use them as he pleased, with no memory loss, and in other moments such as this one, something random must have triggered his transformation and he had no idea what.

Breaking from his thoughts, just as he was about to head back, however he has received a call from Lars Alexandersson.

His half uncle harbored no family feelings for him for sure, but when it comes to work he was always very strict and organized.

Lars called to let him know that yet another abandoned illegal research facility has been found in the nearby woods this morning and that they need to immediately head there and investigate. He also mentioned that they might want to check in with Lee Chaolan later in the week since it is actually an A.I. related facility, so it might contains some useful technology for Violet Systems if they manage to scavenge whatever intel is to find there.

I am on my way, replied Jin simply, as he drove out of the parking area, in the direction of the Southern Woodlands.

TBC