Chapter Thirty-Two: Cycle of Abuse

"I don't believe it."

Xiaoyu tossed the announcement on her hospital bed with a birdlike flick of her wrist. The pages fluttered and settled onto the paper thin blanket covering her bed, and she promptly sat down on the floor across the room.

The King of the Iron Fist 5 Tournament was coming up. It had been a matter of months since the last official tournament, but Xiaoyu had been so close to winning the entire tournament the last time. It had been an exhilarating experience. She would meet new people, reunite with old friends, and be surrounded by the best fighters in the world. Sitting on her bed was a new opportunity for an adventure.

This was not necessarily good news, however. Her assets were on the line. The entire Mishima Zaibatsu would be hers as soon as she could prove that she wasn't insane, and that people were poising her food in order to keep her subdued and sedated. If Lee lost the tournament, he would lose the Zaibatsu.

"If Lee is even running the tournament," Xiaoyu said to herself. He

Unfortunately, the announcement didn't give the name of the person running the tournament. The return address was the generic one used for all of the Mishima Zaibatsu postage. Still Xiaoyu had a hunch about the identity of the person behind all of this.

"I haven't heard from him since that last tournament," Xiaoyu thought. "Jin… I would give anything to see him again, just to see a friendly face…" even if his face had been less than friendly when she saw him in the Mishima Zaibatsu. She had no idea what to make of him, or that mysterious kiss he gave her mere weeks ago. "Would I see him if I went? Jin would be there, he would HAVE to be there somewhere. And what about my dream?" With a wistful smile, Xiaoyu propped her chin on her hand. "Yes… I could make my dream come alive! It would be so incredible, oh; it's too big an opportunity to pass up!"

Not to mention she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Julia or Hwoarang. She had grown accustomed to their faces, their ploys, and their slightly underhanded ways of conducting friendship. And Panda. Oh she missed Panda. Just thinking about seeing Panda again would be reason enough to walk over burning coals. A part of her was worried she may have forgotten how to speak Panda speak, but she had been practicing on her sink so she wasn't too worried.

But what about the danger?Jin Xiaoyu paused. At the end of the last tournament, Yoshimitsu had taken her aside and explained all of it to her. All of this chaos that surrounded her, all of the evil that swirled around could be gone if Kazuya hadn't been thrown down the ditch by Heihachi when he was five. She was sure of it. She never heard mention of anyone who was possessed by Satan where it didn't come from some sort of trauma.

"I can have my dream…" Xiaoyu thought. The dream she hadn't told anyone about. The amusement park. But was that really her dream? Seeing the Mishima family in so much pain had hurt her so much. If she could only go back and time, and make it all better…

Maybe with money, she could. Not to mention the Mishima Zaibatsu. If she won again, there would be no way for Lee to take it back from her.

"King of the Iron Fist Tournament 5, here I come!"

Just so you know the legacy behind this, I started writing this in 2003 (check the publication date. Scary, huh?) and I basically stopped updating for two or three years. One day, I came back, picked it back up, decided I liked it and that I wanted to finish it.

This is the second full - length story I've every finished, and the first novel I finished hasn't been finished since the summer of 2002! I'm incredibly proud:-D

Thank you for all of the faithful reviews, the constructive criticism, and the feedback. Some things (like Hwoarang's country of origin) were done on purpose, but other ones were definitely unintentional and I appreciated the feedback.

LOVE YOU GUYS! I hope you loved my story!

I'll be publishing more oneshots and another fic sometime soon(ish), and I hope you have lucrative success as writers!