DISCLAIMER: The characters, story, universe, etc. of Tekken belongs to Namco. They're not mine, and I make no claim to them.
Ballroom Brawl by YF-21
"" denotes speech.
denotes emphasis.
They meet at dusk.
They meet at dusk in the abandoned construction site near Takinogawa park. Ripped leather jackets, stylish hairdos and tattoos gather there, brandishing baseball bats, chains and long, wicked grins. They stand in two opposite, boisterous lines. The boys with the red mohawks are no other than the Crimson Mohawk gang. The wall sprays in the neighbourhood would lead one to believe that they fancy themselves the rulers of the park, Okashima high school and around - or at least did, until those serpent bastards started pushing their shit in. The ones with the snake emblem stitched onto the back of their jackets are the Rock Vipers. Originally hailing from Arakawa high, the vipers have earned quite a vicious, unsavory reputation. Just like the ophidian they are named after, they make a point of blinding their opponents during a fight by spitting into their eyes.
It is just a game in the beginning. Messing around in the mohawk's turf, littering their park, spraying over their sprays. A brief scuffle here, there. It's not so fun after awhile. Things escalate quickly. The wrong people start getting punched and spitted on. The neighbourhood is alarmed.
Enough is enough. This has to end now, before the pigs butt in. A challenge is issued in the social networks. The time and place is set.
Standing in the middle of the Crimson Mohawk line is Takeo. One can tell he is the boss of the gang because his mohawk is the largest and the reddest of the bunch. He reminds his men - his brothers -, all eleven of them, that each one of them is twice the man the vipers are. The Rock Vipers, a larger gang, can only muster nineteen of their own numbers, so it evens out for the vipers, sort of.
The jeering stops, then the game begins - the adrenaline is high. You can feel the tension.
It ends here, at dusk, in the abandoned construction site near Takinogawa park. If they somehow manage to pull this off, the mohawks' children will surely sing songs of this day.
A mountain bike skids into the site, splattering some of the vipers with dirt. It has been raining all day, and the construction site is filled with puddles of water and mud. A schoolgirl gets off the bike, clad in the drab colors of the Mishima Polytech uniform. The schoolgirl is a rather pretty thing, with hazel hair and eyes. The boys ogle at her generous curves as she carries herself with confidence towards them. She stands in front of Takeo, hands on her hips and is about to say something when a cry of rage interrupts her. It's Kyoshiro. The girl's ruined Kyoshiro's jacket with her bike.
Nearly two meters tall, Kyoshiro is the biggest, baddest viper there is. If you need someone reduced to mincemeat, you call Kyoshiro. If you need someone spitted on, he is your man. It is said he can hit bullseyes with his saliva from three meters afar. All the other vipers look up to him. It is his favourite jacket that the schoolgirl has smeared with mud, and his mother the one to sew the now ruined viper patch on the back of it. He can hardly contain himself. Heads will surely roll for this.
As he walks up to her, his anger dissolves into a big, goofy grin. Kyoshiro says he will forgive her if she lets him ´motorboat´ her breasts. He even makes the motion and sound of it, which elicits big guffaws all around him except from her, of course. It is when he has the gall to actually try and reach for them that she swiftly sits him down with a punch to the nose.
The laughter ends abruptly, replaced by nervous silence. The mohawks too, way surprised to act, remain silent. Shaken, Kyoshiro tries to stand up, but his legs give way and he keeps falling on his ass again and again. It takes a lot of concentration to finally get himself off the floor. His face is beet red. Embarrassed beyond belief, he knows he is never going to live it down, not with those mohawk morons watching. A girl has just thrown him a hell of a punch, and the only way left for him to save some face now is to slap her silly.
The schoolgirl seemingly takes some sort of stance, shifting her hips to her right and holding her arms in the air. She swiftly catches Kyoshiro's arm when he tries to punch her and throws him around like a rag doll. Kyoshiro calls her a thousand names as he gets on his feet one more time and comes at her again, all angry and dumb. She merely moves away from his lunge, then plants her hand on his face, breaking his balance and smashing the back of his skull against the concrete with such strength it makes everybody watching wince.
His body twists and jerks on the floor. He's out. Kyoshiro's knocked out cold.
To their credit, the look of dismay on the vipers faces doesn't last long. They literally throw themselves at the girl. She fends them off, ducking under a baseball bat swing and driving her knee into a burly kid's stomach, ramming her body elbow-first into the guy with the chains. The schoolgirl does a backflip, kicking the chin of a viper and then sweeping the feet out from another.
Takeo is in awe. In all his years of brawling, he has never seen a girl fight like this. By the way she weaves in and out of combat and the moves she pulls, she has to be a seasoned fighter or something. Who is she? A kindred soul perhaps, looking to help Takinogawa in its darkest hour? He orders his mohawks to get into the fray and help her out. This is their chance. With her help, they can drive the serpent bastards out.
It turns out that the girl doesn't need nor want their help. She catches Aiyama by the arm and smashes him against a column. Takeo winces as he watches her uppercut poor Ishida in the chin with the flat of her hand, lifting him off his feet from the sheer impact. He wants to tell her that they are on her side, but then it dawns on him there are no sides for her.
She is there to beat up the whole lot of them.
Two weeks ago, rumor had it that the Roppongi Moons were wiped out, not by their hated rivals the Yumenoshima Sharks like the latter claimed, but by some schoolgirl in a bike. Last week, Takeo had received word that the Meguro Lions were ambushed by the Ebisuminami Hellhounds, who were then ambushed in turn by a schoolgirl who beat both lions and hellhounds up in a grand melee outside Fudo park. While rumors of this kind usually tended to be rife with hilarious exaggerations, they all agreed in one thing.
The schoolgirl in question had the nicest rack.
It is true, Takeo admits. The pair on her are really, really nice. It almost takes from the fact that she is going to wipe the floor with each and every one of them. Almost.
The onslaught ends at the sound of police car sirens. Even with plenty of time to run or escape, the girl stands there, as if contemplating her own handiwork. A writhing, groaning, moaning mass lies at her feet - a collection of black eyes, broken noses and bruised egos. Bathed in intermittent blue and red, she doesn't flinch nor resists when the cops put the cuffs on her and take her away.
Asuka Kazama sits alone on the bench of her cell in the police department. Although it is pretty big for just one person, it is her cell because no one else will share it with her. The mohawks, vipers and all the other gangs before them beg the authorities to be put in different cells. The cops don't want to risk more altercations, and comply every time. They seem to be getting in a better mood after a few hours. It turns out that getting beat up by a girl is pretty embarrassing, but when everyone gets beaten up by the same girl, it's not so bad anymore. When the jeering coming from the adjacent cells turns unbearable enough she yells at them that they better hush it and they whine and whimper into silence.
The girl pulls her legs to her chest, wrapping them with her arms. She feels awful. Her uniform is caked in mud and dry spit. Those disgusting viper idiots couldn't land one hit on her, but managed to bathe her in saliva instead. Oh, and she reeks of cigarette, pot and who knows what else too.
She could use a bath right now. A long, soapy bath in the tub of her apartment. Jin might be an asshole but the apartment he gets for her is nice enough. Fully furnished, with a huge plasma tv, all manners of appliances and a great view of the bay outside. It doesn't make her any less mad at her cousin nor makes Tokyo any less shitty than it is, but is something at least.
Tokyo is way noisy and crowded, but not in the way Osaka is way noisy and crowded. The water tastes different, the food is spicier and the shadow of the Mishima tower looms over the entire city. It is like an impregnable, ominous fortress sitting in the middle of town. It stands out from wherever she is and keeps reminding her of him.
The first time Asuka meets Jin is at her aunt's funeral in Yakushima island. She must be only ten or eleven at the time, but that doesn't keep her dad from making her promise him she is going to behave. After the ceremonies end she finds Jin sitting on a rock, looking at the coastline below. She can't quite recall what it is that she says to him back then, but it must have been a good thing because he nods and gives her a smile in return. Surprised, she nods back at him, hoping he doesn't notice the blush spreading in her cheeks.
The second time she meets Jin is during the last tournament. Asuka gets eliminated in her second fight, but she doesn't mind - the only reason she is in the tournament at all is to get back at the Kenpo fighter who thrashed her dad. She never manages to catch up with him, but she does run into Jin - or at least into a monster who looks like him, fighting another monster.
Her eyes don't give credit to what she sees. They look like something out of myth. Distance does nothing to steal any of the monsters blunt, savage grandeur. They are ruined, imposing things of hate and rancor. The earth trembles, shatters with every one of their steps. The air booms, exploding with every hit. The heavens split asunder above them, the clouds catching fire with stray lances of light and bursts of energy. The monsters are locked in titanic combat, and she is the sole witness to it.
Her feet are glued to the ground. Kill or be killed, says the old adage, but these things are more hellbent into destroying each other than fighting for their own survival. Asuka doesn't avert her gaze. She can't. Tears well up in her eyes. It all feels strangely melancholic and familiar, and she can't tell why.
The fight ends with one of the monsters not so much falling, but crumbling to the ground. The one that remains standing quickly fixes on her with slitted eyes.
Serenity flees from him. He claws after it, raging against the futility of his own desperation. The taste of failure is already coating his tongue with its familiar bitterness. He roars to the skies, wanting rainwater to wash the taste from his teeth. His scream ends dry.
He had been so close to retaining serenity this time. So close. Yet it flees, bringing him back to a world of bleeding wounds and bruised bones. He wishes for something, anything, to ease the whispers in his head, mutilating his soul with their poison. And he is weak. Weak and blind. He trembles in the dark, shivering and pained and inhaling the reek of his own blood. He can't see his hands before his face.
But he sees her.
He sees her, like a shining beacon in the dark, and he is weak. Weak and blind. Kill for the sake of killing, the voices sing in his mind, Destroy for the sake of destruction. Hers, yes. Her blood will sate the devil in him.
Jin!, says a voice.
Jin. The name has no meaning.
Jin. Jin. Jin. The voice insists. He roars a second time, bellowing for it to get out of his head.
Is that you?
Yes, this is him. The real him. This is what he has become.
Asuka snaps out of her commotion and assumes a fighting stance. She already knows it's not going to be enough. The time to run is long past when the Jin-creature thunders towards her. What chance does she have against a demon that makes the earth tremble and sets the sky on fire? Still, she has to try. She can't give up. The girl eludes its fists as she can, but the hate-thing is too strong, too fast. Asuka can barely keep up with it. The girl calls after it, again and again, disbelief in her tone. That is not Jin. That can't be him. Her cousin doesn't have horns, nor black raven wings.
Despair sets in, and instincts kick in too. A stray fist and she crashes her elbow against its cheek. A caught arm and she flungs him around, just for it to spread its wings mid-air and dive into her. She can't keep this up for long. Again and again, it comes. Asuka sees an opening, slamming the palm of her hand against the creature's solar plexus with all her might. It would have put any man out of a fight, but the hate-thing is no man. It barely takes notice as it sends her sprawling to the floor with the back of its hand.
The girl howls from the pain. Stars appear in her eyes. She has no time to wipe the blood from her busted lips that is she rolling on the ground. To stay down is to die. A searing spear erupts from its gaze, and the ground she was previously on turns to ash. Relentless, remorseless, the creature emerges from the dust, murder in slitted eyes. She gets on her feet, defiance in her face, but she knows she can do little more. Asuka reassumes her stance, even with the lactic acid in her muscles burning and some of her ribs feeling like they were already on fire.
This is it. It is death incarnate, and Asuka can't fend it off any longer. It won't find her easy prey, though. It may kill her, but the girl is determined to go down fighting.
It is death incarnate and she gasps as it collapses on top of her and drags her along with it to the ground.
Wide eyed, Asuka stares at the skies above. Is she dead yet? Slowly, she guesses it must be not the case, since her heart is pounding against her chest and she can feel its weight on top of her. She doesn't want to look down. Whatever lies on top of her is still for the moment, and to her, right then, is enough. Asuka is physically and emotionally exhausted from it all. The whole ordeal is too much for her to take. They stay like that for awhile.
When she gathers enough courage to check, it is him. His demonic features seemingly dissipate into thin air when she isn't looking and Jin turns back into Jin again. Relief washes over her. She becomes bashful when she finds herself staring for too long at his unconscious, handsome features and slides him off her as gently as she can.
Asuka is wiping the blood off her face with her arm when her cousin comes back to his senses. She is there, sitting right next to him when Jin suddenly gets on his feet. Not uttering a word, he looks at himself first and then at her. They are both ruined and battered, covered in bruises and contusions. The girl looks at him as he rises and for a moment she is reminded of a statue. Cold, distant. A shattered statue, but a statue still. Their eyes meet and the only light she can find in them is that of grim determination. Long gone is the kind, gentle boy she remembered meeting years back in Yakushima island. What had happened to him? What kind of experiences could warp someone so?
There's a thousand things she means to say, to ask him, but her mind goes blank and can't come up with any. Thanks, he tells her flatly, and Asuka thinks she manages to nod in return. Jin then turns his back on her and walks down the wasteland. She watches him go, until he vanishes from sight, as if in a dream.
It is only then that she breaks down.
The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor snaps her out of her reverie. It is about time. Waiting is always the worst part.
Asuka is no stranger to jails. She's been in trouble before, and knows how these things work. She is just a minor, and other than a slap in the wrist and the staring down of a lifetime, there is no real consequence to any of her actions. And she might as well get the better of it, while she still is underage. Being a minor also means that the closest relative of age is also legally responsible for her. Every time she gets in trouble in Tokyo, the police has to contact Jin in his mighty tower and remind him that he is under obligation to come pick her up at the department. Jin never comes himself, but sends his Zaibatsu goons in his stead. She doesn't care - it is fine. It's the thought what really counts.
Eddy, she doesn't mind. The capoeira fighter works for her cousin as his security advisor and is the one to come pick her up the first two times. A bit troubled, but a pretty alright guy - pretty alright, for someone working for Jin, that is.
Nina, not so much.
Nina Williams appears by the barred door of her cell, police officer in tow. Wearing a dark grey office suit with glasses, Nina is Jin's very own secretary/bodyguard/murderess thing. The girl doesn't like her very much. Something about the blonde woman rubs her the wrong way. She is cold and all businesslike, just like her cousin. No wonder why they get along so well.
"I was wondering when any of you would show up," Asuka quips. She gets off the bench and walks up to the door. "What, Eddy couldn't make it?"
"Mr. Gordo has more pressing matters to attend than getting you out of jail," The blonde woman informs her curtly.
"And you don't?" The girl says sardonically, slinging her arms through the bars. "Sucks to be you, huh."
Nina ignores the barb in her remark, though she wasn´t expecting her not to. "What happened this time?"
"I ran into two gangs about to fight in a construction site," Asuka explains in a flat, disinterested tone. "I tried to break them apart. It didn't work and I had to defend myself."
"Is that why you anonymously tipped the police the wrong time of it, so you could be done with them by the time they arrived?"
She lifts an eyebrow and gives her a practised smirk. "What? I didn't do any of that."
"Your call. You voice," Nina states flatly.
"Are you really listening to my calls?!" The girl loses it in a heartbeat. Indignation rises in her tone, and she is too angry to notice she's giving herself out entirely.
"Are you really using the phone we gave you?" The assassin counters.
Asuka slips her arms back and ruffles her hands through her hair. She was getting really mad now. She had been so stupid! Why did she even bother trusting these Zaibatsu assholes? Why did she have to make those calls from that phone? Of course it was bugged to hell - and it was such a nice phone too! Nevermind that this probably meant her apartment was probably bugged to shit too.
"I can't believe you´d spy on me! Have you got nothing better to do?!"
"We could ask you the same thing."
Ah yes, of course. Hazel eyes roll upwards for an instant. "So it´s going to be one of ´those talks´, huh," The girl says sardonically, placing her hands on her hips. "Before we get started let me tell you that no, I can´t ´mind my own business´," She makes a gesture and everything. "It doesn´t work that way. I have a reputation to maintain."
"You do know this doesn't even qualify as vigilantism, right?"
"Why, are you going to call my pops about it?" The girl cries out. "Are you going to tell them I'm acting up? Tell my dad I say he's an ass, while you are at it!"
Furious, Asuka slams her hands against the bars of the cell. They shake badly, and dust and small chips of plaster and material fall from the ceiling. Nina doesn't flinch, but startled, the cop behind her takes a step back.
"You!" Asuka says to the officer. "Let me out of here already!" Keys in hand, the officer stands there with a dumbfounded look on his face, watching back and forth the tense exchange between the two women. He is about to comply, when Nina lifts her hand slightly and he stops dead in his tracks.
"This has to stop," Nina says.
"Fine," Asuka glares at her. "Get me Jin."
"You were already informed that that wasn't going to be poss-"
"I want to see Jin," She insists.
"He will see you when it is-"
"I want to see him right now!" Asuka yells, cutting her off again. "I want him to come here and get me out himself, so I can give him a piece of my mind. I don't want Eddy. I don't want you. I want him."
Silence sets in. Woman and girl measure each other in the eye. After a short while, the assassin speaks again.
"Jin understands that you are upset about moving here," Nina says calmly, changing the subject, though she could hear the girl muttering something under her breath in response. "That's why he is willing to review how much you are earning."
Asuka blinks. She wasn't expecting that. Nina produces a pen and a small annotator from her pockets. It strikes the girl as odd, because Nina doesn't look like someone who would carry such things around. The blonde writes down a figure on it and shows it to her.
"He's already paying me this," Asuka points out.
Nina lifts the tip of the pen for a moment, catching her eyes, then adds a single zero at the end of the sum in the paper.
The girl considers the new sum for half a heartbeat. "Oh, if he thinks he can-" She starts.
The blonde lifts the pen again, then adds another zero to the total sum.
Asuka gulps down this time. The already generous sum Jin is providing her with suddenly turns into a whole bunch of money. She could buy the newest mountain bike she wanted with this - no, scratch that - she could buy a car. Two cars. Three cars. Not that she was interested in any, but it was still good to know. She could also have vacations in a five star hotel in Hawaii or the French Polynesia like she always dreamed of, and all it would take would be for her to let things slide and stop being such a pain in the-
"He is listening, right?" Asuka says half-absently, unable to take her eyes off from the sum offered in the paper.
"Hmm?"
It takes a lot to catch someone like Nina Williams by surprise, but she honestly wasn't expecting the schoolgirl to grab her by the lapels of her jacket and slam her against the bars of the cell. While she could easily slip one of her hands through the bars, grab the girl by the back of her skull and smash her forehead against the irons - or simply shatter her arms and break free - one couldn't be as knowledgeable and experienced in the deadly arts as the assassin was without showing restraint. She could tell the girl had meant no harm by grabbing her, but whatever the girl was trying to pull here, it had better be good.
"Hey, Jin!" Asuka yells into Nina´s jacket. If she knew her dear cousin - which she really didn't -, Nina was bound to be chock full of microphones and shit like that. Chances were Jin was probably listening to the whole thing from his lair in the Mishima tower. "You sure have the nerve to drag me here all the way from Osaka, but you don't have the time to listen to me tell you what I think about it, right?! Whatever it is you need me for - you could have always asked for my help instead, did you know that?! It's really unfair!"
"Enough!" Nina raises her voice. "Get your hands off me now!"
It was out of pure impulse, but Asuka knows she was only able to grab her because Nina had allowed it. She lets her go, not pushing her luck any further. By the icy stare the blonde is giving her, she wouldn't be that fortunate a second time.
"Don't you get it, kid?" Nina points out as she dusts off her jacket. "Jin doesn´t have time to deal with your childishness."
And it is true. For all it is worth, antagonizing the Zaibatsu people is really getting her nowhere. Even if he was a total ass about it, Jin couldn´t have brought her here unless it were for good reasons, right? Besides, a part of her still wants to ask him all that she meant to back then.
"Alright, alright, I get it. I´ll stop being a pain in the ass," Asuka sighs after a while, calming down and scratching the back of her head. "But I want a new phone," She adds firmly.
"Done," The blonde concedes.
"Without bugs."
"Done."
"And I want the bugs and cameras in my apartment gone too."
"Done."
A brief moment of token resistance aside, Asuka shrugs in agreement. "Alright, I guess."
Nina turns to the officer behind her. "Release her."
And the girl is out. She walks up to Nina, says something to her jacket, and the assassin watches her as she leaves around the corner.
I hope you are happy, asshole.
There is a familiar buzzing in her commlink. Nina picks it up. She recognizes the tone immediately. It´s him - the voice of her boss.
"I apologize for all that," Jin says.
"It´s fine," The blonde sighs.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: And I´m dooooone with character introductions. The real story begins from now on.
To all those who bothered to review, thanks a lot! Feedback means a lot to me. Until next time!