The Disappearance of Jin Kazama

Category: Tekken
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
On a cold December morning, Asuka Kazama arrives at school to find out that everything had changed. One key component to the lives of thousands of people in Japan had been removed completely. Jin Kazama was missing or rather; he was never present. Meaning, his tyrannical influence over the world had come to an end. There was no world war brewing; no civil wars or protests around the globe, everything was at ease. All was well, her father was well and the dojo was up and running. Her friends weren't in a state of despair. Only Asuka, Alisa Bosconovitch and Panda are aware of his disappearance as no one else remembers anything about Jin Kazama and the King of Iron Fist Tournament had died years ago, along with its founder, Heihachi Mishima.

Chapter 1: Familiarity

There was no time for breakfast, the reason was simple; Asuka Kazama was late for school again. This had been the result of her staying up all night on the internet reading about her favourite bands, what she was reading however, would hopefully stay a secret between herself and her browser history. Usually, she would have time to stuff a slice of bread in her mouth and wash it all down with a glass of orange juice, but seeing as her father wasn't here to wake her up or help her get ready by making her small breakfast for her, she had no way of doing so and getting to her first class by 8:30 am.

The brunette shrugged on her thick down jacket over her uniform before she grabbed her bag and bolted out of the house without another word. These days there was no one to say 'see you later' or 'I'm home' to, her father was still in hospital over what that fiend Feng Wei did to him. She had just barely gotten her revenge in the last tournament, though she was gravely injured herself, she managed to knock him out before she passed out of exhaustion. After that, she was taken out of the tournament; she was in no shape to fight any more opponents. Besides that, the tournament was cancelled two days before the finals. There wasn't much information released about the cancellation but something strange had happened between the Mishima's and her cousin, Jin Kazama. Of course, there were rumours about why it was cancelled so suddenly; a monster, a prophet, the end of the world; silly things like that.

It was too cold to stand around and wait for a bus to take her at least a little closer to her high school and the train wouldn't take her as close to the school as the bus would, it would take her a good 10 minutes to get to the gates, let alone inside the building and in her first class. Asuka puffed out her chest and looked at her trusty steed. Her wonderful bicycle, she hadn't gotten a new one in years. She didn't have the money to replace it, only to repair her wonderful bike. The brunette rubbed her hands together before she swiftly removed the cable lock from her bike and shook the bright yellow anchor to keep her bicycle in place, still sturdy. She was rather proud of that purchase, sure it took a long time to acquire but not once did she have to leave her bike outside without fearing that it would be gone by the morning. Asuka hopped onto the bike and instantly made a slightly high pitched squeak, the cold metal of the top tube brushed against her barely covered inner thigh and the cold seat caused her to quickly stand and readjust her skirt so she wouldn't have to deal with the low temperatures against her backside.

Once her body somewhat was used to the cold, she shoved her fingerless gloves on. Tattered and beaten from numerous street and official fights. A wave of pride washed over her, soon accompanied by a chilly wind to bring her to earth. Right, school… First lesson should be with Hirata-sensei. She thought as she peddled out of the dojo doors slowly, making sure to close and lock the metal doors before she rode to school. The wind whipped against her face and unlike most girls on television, she didn't look the least bit graceful. The cold currents of wind caused her fringe to leave her forehead and join the rest of her hair as it flew at the back of her head. Her face was growing red, the tips of her fingers and her lips were slowly becoming a strange shade of blue.

Asuka lived in Osaka, so of course she didn't go through streets clustered with cars and people, not even the bike lane was empty in Tokyo, and she hated it. For some reason it didn't have the same feeling to it, maybe it was just her imagination but everything in Tokyo felt distant and cold. No one smiled at her in the morning when she passed by at an incredible speed on her bike; no one greeted her or playfully scolded her for being so unorganised in the morning. The elderly woman who worked at the bakery and the middle-aged woman who worked in family owned flower shop were always seen exchanging words with one another, smiling and laughing at each other as they opened up shop weren't in Tokyo; that was for sure. They always had something interesting to say but Asuka only caught them on her way home. The seamstress opposite the flower shop was closed and its owner was nowhere to be seen in the morning, she usually opened up later on in the day. They were all such gossips but she was thankful, they were the ones who told the authorities of the 'strange Chinese man on his way to the dojo', even if they had arrived too late.

Thank goodness she got there with three minutes to spare. Asuka stumbled off of her bike and wrapped the cable lock around the bike stand and her bicycle. She tugged three times to make sure it was secure before she turned on her heel with her bag haphazardly slung over her shoulder and ran into the building; the students didn't spare her any strange glances anymore. They gazed at her with slight amusement and went on with her day; they didn't make too much fun of her. When they did, it was all in good spirits, she laughed with them when the class brought up her annual rush to school, wasn't bullied; no one wanted to bully her. No one wanted to bully anyone with her stalking the halls, if a teacher caught them, then it would result in a temporary expulsion at worst, if she caught them in the act, however then a worse fate awaited them!

In a pant and a huff, she burst into the class; everyone was already standing and ready to bow to the teacher. The class representative whipped her head around and frowned at Asuka, she didn't bother to say a word, she only glanced at her seat, signalling for her to hurry up and get to her seat, and that was exactly what she did.

"Bow. Sit." The class representative finished, her voice had a slight edge to it and Asuka guessed that it hadn't been there before. Nevertheless, she threw herself onto her chair, thankful to be on a seat without having to constantly peddle until her legs felt the need to fall off. She still had her bag clamped in her sweaty hand; she swung the bag onto her desk and took out her History textbook and a small metal pencil case. Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't a dim girl. She wasn't a genius either, but passing wasn't impossible, she was an average student, no specialities or weaknesses. It even shocked the snob when she found out that she had earned C's and B's in her exams. It made her father proud to be the parent of a girl who could take care of herself in a fight and in a classroom. He even laughed at the 'brains or brawn' saying at every chance that he had.

At lunch, she would have usually sit at the back of the school with Emilie de Rochefort, or what all foreigners to the Western language preferred to call her, Lili and as usual, she ate an elegant looking lunch, something to do with a tuna. They had put up with each other long enough in school, there was nothing to hate about her and Asuka guessed that Lili didn't hate her either. It was just the rivalry between them, enforced by Lili. The blonde would always propose "a fierce battle between the best of rivals!" each and every day. Today was different. Asuka was alone.

"I'm moving to Tokyo before the beginning of December." Just like that, she dropped the bomb on her. She didn't see it coming; this admittedly hurt her. The way they treated each other, she shouldn't care if she left; she felt empty though, she was lonely; her arrogant, rough and nosy personality intimidated a lot of students, she was the gang mediator. Asuka didn't voice her opinion; she didn't say how much she hated the idea of her friend leaving.

She let her go and as a result, she sat at the same place alone from then on. She had friends before Lili, of course but when that brat came around Asuka found it hard to have the same bond with her as she did with her old group of friends. Even now, she found something missing when she talked with them of the same subjects Lili did. When she brought up the subject of an up and coming tournament or some street punks she fought, they brushed it off as weird or manly of her. For a year or so before meeting Lili, she considered taking up a woman-like hobby. Sewing, cookery classes, even a part time job with the nice woman who owned the flower shop. Then the mini tournament came up, it wasn't as big as the fifth King of Iron Fist Tournament, but it was still pretty impressive. During her fourth or fifth fight, she met the haughty blonde and with a little bit of difficulty, she defeated her and moved onto the next round. A few weeks after she had gotten back home, she found Lili outside of her school, demanding a rematch. "I refuse to have lost to such a brutish girl!" and yet again, she lost. Lili kept this up for a long while, even going to the lengths of attending her school as well. It was then that she found that Lili wasn't especially bright in the same aspects as she portrayed. Soon, the blonde stuck to her and they became friends.

Or perhaps their friendship started before their second meeting in Osaka.

The day ticked on, the bell sounded, she lazily got up the moment the teacher left the room and packed her bag. Asuka wasn't miserable; she was alright with how things were. Sure, it was boring but it was something that she would have to get used to. Right now, the thing she looked forward to the most was talking with the three women outside of their shops. Since she didn't read up or listen to the news, she had taken a liking to listening to them gossip about what was happening around the neighbourhood and around the world.

Well, she did have to deal with one small annoyance each time she saw them.

"My oh my, Asuka-chan, how nice it is to see you again~! Have you been in contact with your cousin?"

"He's been stirring up quite a bit of trouble these days! Wars, surely you two aren't related. Not to our sweet young Asuka-chan."

"I heard that he's sent the Mishima Zaibatsu to drop bombs on a little village in Egypt!"

"Perhaps he's a warmonger of some sort!"

"-a shame, such a looking fine boy."

"-such a dashing young man!"

"-he has the face of enchanting beauty yet the mind of a mad man!"

Her cousin Jin Kazama was always a topic of discussion, ever since she entered the sixth tournament with the mind set to bring him to his senses. Apparently, she wasn't the only person with that idea; she lost to the overwhelming power of the other contestants. Asuka hadn't seen him in person for years after the mini tournament. The three women managed to worm him into a discussion every time she was with them. It must have been worse when she wasn't there. Oh, and the way they doted on his looks and brought up the many deaths he had caused to the table made her stomach turn. Today was no different; they took turns speaking, firing questions at her like rapid gun and when they finished each other's sentences that confused her the most. Such coordination, she had moments where she thought those women were one in the same. Their arguments told her otherwise.

Asuka sat up on her bicycle comfortably as they talked. Things were as normal as normal could get in the past couple of years. Civil wars in Italy, parts of Egypt, Russia and West Asia. Street protesters, lockdowns, die-ins, petitions and so on in different parts of the world as well.

"Asuka-chan, you'll need to be careful these days, someone will connect the dots between you and your cousin." The flower shop owner was called Inoue, she much preferred referring to the three women by their last names, respectively; just as they preferred to call Jin by his last name or none at all.

"That's right, people these days love to blame innocents for their misfortune." Tanaka was the owner of the bakery, her voice shook as she spoke and so did her head. Tanaka was usually seen hunched over, a discoloured plum knit hat that one of her sons had apparently bought and sent over to her while he studied abroad in Canada. She didn't remember where exactly but it was somewhere. The woman should be retired already, she was much too old to be looking after a shop, let alone owning and governing her own bakery. Every time Asuka brought her concerns in this matter up, however, she was quickly shot down with her own work at her father's dojo. It was different as she wasn't paid for her work and she helped out and she wasn't working illegally either. Looking after her father's dojo when it was supposed to be closed while the owner was in hospital was a different story.

"I was confronted by some girl because of Jin…" Asuka agreed with the women's suggestions, changing her name was out of the question since everyone in town knew of her. They didn't know how to write her name, nor did they notice the connection between herself and Jin. Their last name Kazama wasn't the most common surname but it didn't mean it was uncommon either.

"A girl—I can't imagine what for!" She could, she was lying. Asuka could pick up on it from the way Yoshida squinted over at her. Yoshida was from Fukui and it resonated from her accent. Her speech was fast paced, most of the time it was in fragments. She was never able to keep one thought for more than five minutes, much less in her speech.

"A lover!"

"Lover?" Asuka repeated, her nose wrinkling in confusion. It sounded much too far-fetched for Jin, he wasn't one to spare more than three calm, well thought through words to another. He was too calculative, focused, and passionate to focus on something as trivial as a lover. Besides, she knew for a fact that her cousin hadn't had one. His mind was focused on that silly war. The girl that confronted her was apparently a friend of his from school. She was a threat like every other fighter, but she only had the best intentions. She wanted to save her cousin.

She saw something good in him and Asuka saw nothing but an idiot blinded by rage and greed.

Thank you for reading the first chapter of The Disappearance of Jin Kazama, I know this chapter was a long one, introductions are always longer with me. I hope you enjoyed this one though, there will be many more Tekken characters, hints from other Namco fighting games and many more chapters as well.

Stay safe and have a wonderful week.

The Cherubic Whale.