The Fourth Room

Street Fighter X Tekken Crossover

Chapter 2:

Debt

Jin stumbled out into the forest, struggling to catch his breath. He knew what was happening...but he didn't know why. Why was this sudden anger possessing him? He had practically nothing to be this angry about...and yet rage split his mind into secs of more rage.

"Calm down..." He begged of himself, "Please, no...not now..." He fought this with everything in his power, but he couldn't really think of anything he liked or loved enough to settle this anger. His friends...? Not even they would settle the dark voice of the devil beckoning to him.

"No..." Jin whispered to himself, "Dammit, leave me alone!" He held his head and his breaths were split as easily as skin at the fate of the sharpest katana. "Dammit Jin! Stop being so weak...!" He was shaking, his eyes rolling back into his head.

"Hey!" A sharp voice called.

"No...go away! Whoever you are, you aren't safe!"

Two men raised their guns. "Ain't you that little shit that chased off our clean kill yesterday?" The fatter of the two asked.

Fuck. Poachers.

"Get...out of here!" Jin shouted at them. "Go, now! I don't want to hurt you!"

"That a threat?" The other asked, "Loo, son, you ain't the one with the gun, so I suppose you shut up!"

Those fuckers. Jin hated poachers, hell, that's why he ruined their little sport yesterday. But he didn't hate them enough to the point where he'd brutally kill them! And to Jin in this state, a gun shot was nothing! He'd learned that when his bastard of a grandfather attempted to blow his brains out.

"Get out of..." His voice dissolved from a sharp yell to a cloudy whisper, "...here..." His head felt light.

"Hugo, are you quite finished?" Poison asked from the tree she used to shield her vision of her indecent ally.

"Poison! Look over there!" He thrust his meaty finger to the direction of two poachers. They had their guns raised to a very, very handsome man not to far away.

"Well, looks like we might get some action is Yakushima after all, huh Hugo? Let's move!" Poison ran in. Not only was she thirsty for some real excitement after that lame fest they call a tournament, but she couldn't let someone as hot as that raven-haired die. Not like she really cared about him, or anything. Hell, she didn't even know this guy. But there was one thing she knew: Poaching is illegal. Illegal activity leads to cops, and she doesn't wanna see them tonight, not even if they weren't after her. And she was also tired of spending her money at hotels until she could muster up enough for a plane ticket home, and saving money while spending money is damn near impossible, so maybe this guy knew a free place where she could go while she counted her earnings.

Just as the dynamic duo were in earshot of the scene, Jin felt his head lighten as he stumbled like a drunk, trying to save the life of these two men before him.

"Hey!" Poison jumped in, landing smack on her heels, right in front of Jin, "Don't you boys know that poaching's against the law?"

The men exchanged glances before laughing. "And what're you gonna do about it, little lady?"

"Kick your ass, that's what I'll do!" She sacked the gun out of one of their hands with her heel, it was airborne for a short time before Hugo stomped it and smashed it to particles.

The other man shook and felt for his trigger, but Poison wouldn't give him any break. She slapped him with the front and back of her hand a good even number of times, before she took the gun and threw it too to Hugo, the human giant repeating his act.

She had them both shocked, not only that this was happening, but because of a woman.

Jin's voice was thinner than air as he asked something like, "What...the...hell...?" And he fell to his side, smashing into a tree as everything turned to shadows.

"Hugo, stop that!"

"I'm sorry, Poison. I thought it would wake him up."

"You big idiot! You wanna break his face? This hottie might be our only chance to not spend any money tonight, and if you ruin that I swear to God, I'll—"

"Poison, look! He's opening his eyes!"

Jin stared at the familiar faces before him.

"Well hello there, Sleeping Beauty~!" the woman from earlier giggled. She was leaned over him, her nose almost touching his.

Jin looked at her and gently pushed her back to give himself some personal space. "What the hell happened...?"

"Those Poachers wanted to kill you because you 'ruined their kill' or something, but then you passed out. Hugo and I sent them running, though." She giggled deviously, "And we made 'em swear they'd leave the forest and you alone, or we'd beat them something awful."

"You...saved my life..."

"Well, they were a joke, really. I didn't really even have to get Hugo to break their bones. I really...took care of them myself. I'm sure, if you hadn't passed out, that you could've whipped those jackasses just as easily."

"But still...you saved me." Jin bowed his head to her. "I owe you a great debt." His mother had always taught him that if someone saved your life, no matter who they were or why they'd done it, you owed them a debt equally as large, to show how much honor you had as a person. Now, what was of equal debt, that was trully up to your choosing, as long as you believe with every beat of your heart that it is equal. "Thank you."

Poison blushed. She didn't know why, but she just did. "Don't mention it...really, don't." She tipped his head up with her finger so he'd stop with the bowing.

"Why did you save me...?" Jin asked, stretching out the kinks in his neck from being against that tree for so long.

"I didn't wanna run into the cops. And you think I'd let a babe like you die?" She laughed one syllable, "Ha. Not in a million years."

"Uh..." Jin blushed, embarrassed and flattered, "Okay..."

"Anyway, since you're alive, I wanted to ask you something. Is there a place we could stay around here for free? I mean...we're trying to save up our cash to make it back to L.A, but spending money every night to sleep isn't helping our case."

"Well..." Jin honestly thought, "I...live here, so I don't know many places that you could stay—" Then Xiaoyu's voice flooded his mind about that damned fourth room.

"Oh, damn." She huffed. "Well thanks for nothing!"

"If you really need a place to stay, I have an unoccupied room in my apartment. Now...I know you probably don't trust me very well, because we've just met, but—"

"A room, really?" She grinned, "Can I stay awhile, then? I'm not going home to anything, and I speak Japanese like a second language!"

"I..." Jin sighed. He did owe her. And he hated owing people. "Fine. But since you're staying awhile, you're going to pay rent and adjust to some loose rules. Do we have a deal?"

"Of course we do..." She bit her lip. "What's your name?"

"Jin."

"Jin? Jin Kazama?"

"How do you know that?"

"I was just at a tournament, competing. Everyone was talking about you...you must be some sort of legend or something."

"Far from it. I just go to tournaments a lot."

"Do you win often?"

"Yes...enough to be considered often, I guess."

"It seemed like everyone wanted to fight you, for the challenge."

"Either that, or to redeem themselves from last tournament."

"I'm Poison, by the way. And that's Hugo."

"Poison is your real name?"

"As far as you know."

He scoffed. "Well, I hope your comfortable sharing a room with Hugo."

"Whoa, stop there. You got a basement?"

"Well yes...but I train down there."

"He'd only sleep down there, Jin. He won't be in there while you are, I'll make sure of it."

They began to head back in the direction of the apartment.

"Damn...alright. I guess we could put a couple futons together..." He looked to Hugo. "Maybe more than a couple." Then it hit him. "Poison, did anything strange happen to me while I was passed out?"

"I wouldn't know, I wasn't really looking at you. You didn't make any noises or anything, you just seemed like you were...dead."

"So the Devil Gene didn't brainwash me completely...? Hmm...that's strange..."