It was without emotion that Heihachi had sat in the helicopter and stared down at the lifeless body of his son. For now he truly thought that his worries for the future had disappeared, that he had been rid of the thing that he hated most. Life seemed to be free of all obstacles, and Heihachi could face a future full of power just as he always did – with a grim sense of his own supremacy, of his ability to wreak his will on all. Now there would be no boundaries now to his rule. Or so he thought.
The helicopter hovered over the site of a wide volcano. It was here that Heihachi had told the pilot to stop. With an understated strength he lifted Kazuya's dead body in his arms and carried it to the open door. There were no real thoughts in his head as he did this. To him this act was as commonplace as swatting a fly from his arm; more a reflex action than anything borne out of a conscious decision. Still, this was something that had to be done. And with the Kazama girl and the child gone, there would be no 'vessel' for the Devil to consume. Not even Kazuya could be brought back to life. His body would be burnt to a cinder.
With this comforting assurance in Heihachi's mind, he dropped the body down towards the gaping, spurting chasm of the volcano and watched as Heihachi disappeared into the raging fires, and off the face of the earth.
A cold, twisted smile touched Heihachi's face. Kazuya was dead. Jun was dead. The child was dead.
But the Mishima would live on.
- END -
-oOo-
Afterword
This was written in the good old days of 1998-1999, and since then the Tekken world has evolved a lot, and so much of what was written here has become outdated and irrelevant. There are also so many stories I would've liked to include - I had plans for Yoshimitsu/Kunimitsu, Paul and Law that I couldn't possibly write without the entire story becoming convoluted. And since then, there are many more stories I would've liked to have added to this one.
At about the same time this was written, my sister and I bought a Japanese Tekken 2 guide, which my sister is now able to read. Whole new stories opened up after reading this guide - in particular, the fact that Wang and Jinpachi brought up Lee Chaolan to bring down the Mishima Zaibatsu; that after the first Tekken tournament Lee supposedly murdered Jinpachi and went 'rogue'. Also, I wanted to write about Kunimitsu's quest to steal Yoshimitsu's sword, or Wang's plan to actively use Jun as a pawn to destroy the Devil in Kazuya.There are so many things that I would like to add, and even more I would like to change because they don't quite ring true - especially in the light of Tekken 5's events - but sadly the chance for it has now passed.
So really, this story is the skeleton of something much bigger and epic than the one right here before you - I just don't have the time or energy to rewrite it anymore. The whole Tekken franchise is just too large and sprawling for me to handle anymore. I did start to write a sequel focusing on Jin, with Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, Nina, Anna, Eddy, Julia and Lei as the main characters, but this didn't progress further than a couple of chapters, so I don't know whether I'll post it here, unless you, the reader, thinks it's worth it.
Nevertheless, for all you Tekken fans out there, I just want to say a big thanks to those of you who took the time to read this story, and an extra special thanks to those who took the effort to comment - especially to Dr. Brief's Cat, who gave me some pretty insightful food for thought. I hope you all enjoyed the ride as much as I enjoyed posting - it's good to know all that feverish writing wasn't a waste of my teenage time. ;)
-Ludi, Sept. 2005.