Chapter 3: Discovering Reality
Disclaimer: Tekken and its characters do NOT belong to me, they belong to Namco
He walked into the room, a man in his late twenties with a briefcase in his hands. His grim expression was a mirror into his soul.
"Honey…what's wrong?" A young woman walked towards him.
He opened his arms to accept her into a hug. They stood basking in each other's warmth for a few minutes; he ran his hands through her hair, it was dark brown, as rich as the earth. Then it turned black, as black as a raven's wing. "Xiao?" He whispered in confusion.
A door opened, its creaky hinges woke him up. He jolted in the sofa; his face was sweating. He brought his hand up to wipe it off but stopped when Julia walked in. "Jules…" He whispered, his eyes twinkled at the sight of her, dressed in a glamorous red dress that trailed along the ground; in her hands she held a purse. He stood up instantly and walked towards her, she didn't seem to notice him until he had swept her off her feet in a bridal like way and brought her to the sofa, letting her down gently.
She smiled nervously, her hands were shaking, instantly the hand reached up to touch her right eye; it was slightly swollen from the fight they had. "Hey honey…" Her mind shook itself as if instinctive and she hugged him.
He let go of her, sensing her stiffness towards him. She pulled her out of the hug and looked at her carefully, studying every single detail in her face. His hand reached up to touch her swollen eye but then stopped and instead reached out to touch her on the lips, lightly brushing across them, they too were swollen.
"What happened?" He asked, his voice was like a murmur, as if he didn't really want to know.
"I don't understand how you can't remember darling…the transformations…one minute your Jin then you turn into Devil Jin."
"I…I…I'm so sorry Julia…you know I didn't…"
"Hushhhhhh…" Her breath was slightly raspy. "I'm going out ok honey…I don't know if…if I'll be back…I planned this out days ago. I won't be seeing you again Jin. I'm sorry but I chose wrong."
"What do you mean?" He was confused, felt like she had ripped out his heart and breaking it on purpose in front of him.
"Remember that night Xiaoyu…went into a…" She stopped briefly, she was ashamed of what she had done in the past she wanted to mend her ways, to try and change back into her old self but it meant starting anew, with someone she truly loved with every part of her. "Well that night I stole you away from her. She almost died…and I controlled you like a puppet, made you…no forced you into covering it up. So that you wouldn't be found out." She breathed in deeply; tears formed in her eyes and began to dribble down her face. "You know what it going to happen tonight don't you?"
He let go of her completely and looked away from her. His hands covered his face as if he was in agony, but he didn't scream out. Between his gritted teeth he replied, "if she doesn't wake up tonight she will be taken off the machinery and left to die…"
"Peacefully," she finished. "It is the right thing you know?"
"No…its not. Its not fair on her, she didn't do any harm to nobody…but me…but I deserved it, I deserved every ounce of her hate."
"But she won't wake up, she can at least be put to rest," Julia had pulled his hands away from his face, daring to look into his brown eyes. "Goodbye Jin…I hope maybe we can meet again but in better circumstances. I'm sure you'll meet someone, someone who is like your Xiaoyu but more."
She looked down at her hands in her lap and then back at Jin, then slowly she stood up and walked out of the room.
He waited minutes before moving, he heard her shuffle around with bags that seemed to heavy for her and then she opened the door and walked out.
All he could hear was the fire and the ticking of the clock.
There were the voices again; full of kindness and harmonious but they still brought a chill to the air. As if trying to reach out, grab her and shake her until she gives it attention. "Go away!" She spoke through her gritted teeth.
She was curled up in bed and had already tried dipping her foot out of the covers but felt icy coldness meet it. Instantly ducking it back into the covers.
Something warm and comforting touched her cheeks; she felt someone or something kiss her lightly on the forehead, as a mother might do. "Who are you?" She asked, mystified at the presence of the creature or person, still invisible to her sight.
"I am the mother of one whom you loved, and still love, of someone you would sacrifice your existence to save him from his demonic self."
She smiled dreamily, thinking everything was just a dream, nothing more. "Jun?" She instantly began to recognise the voice, just as Jin had once described.
"Yes…" A figure of a beautiful middle-aged woman appeared, she seemed full of happiness and sadness all at once. Her eyes could tell a million stories, but seemed to only let out one that Xiaoyu already knew. The story of Jin Kazama, his meeting with Xiaoyu, his devils curse. "Do you know why I'm here?"
She shook her head; mystified that Jun bore no marks of attack from when she had died.
"I thought you wouldn't. Do you know where you are?"
"In my room?" She answered, believing Jun would answer something completely different.
"Not exactly Xiaoyu. You are right now in a world of your own imagination, although you don't know it. In the real world you are in a coma, it has been years since the accident. Right now in the real world you are in your middle twenties."
"The accident?" she seemed to have no knowledge of what had apparently happened to her in the real world.
"You will remember when you get back to the real world…"
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"My dear…" Jun sighed; she walked over to the open windows that lead to a balcony. "How can you trust this world to be real? Think about it, you're really reliving a dream over and over again. Sometime it will become tediously boring, but I must tell you, you don't have long to decide. For in the real world, the doctor who is in charge of you has decided to remove you from the machinery that keeps you alive." She paused and beckoned to Xiaoyu to follow her.
Xiaoyu looked carefully around her, and then as silently as she could she got out of bed, ignoring her slippers and walking towards Jun. Jun took her hand, but she expecting her own hand to go right through it. "Hugh?"
Jun smiled. "In this world nothing is real…you can only really feel real things…spirits and people."
She walked onto the balcony, its cool surface comforted Xiao instantly. They walked towards the balcony fence that kept them from falling down, down to the ground.
"Make your choice by seven o'clock tonight, or it will be too late. You will know what you need to do. Goodbye for now Xiaoyu."
The spirit started to fade away into the air. Then within seconds there was no trace of there being a spirit in the room, just Xiaoyu standing on the balcony.
He watched as the doctor opened the door and greeted him, as a doctor who was about to pull the plug out of someone who was held dear to him, full of sincerity and sadness.
"Even in these modern times, with technologies advancing and medicines getting better, there is nothing to wake up someone in a deep coma like hers." He gestured to her spiritless body. "If you want I can give you a few minutes with her before the machinery gets disconnected."
Jin looked across at Xiaoyu, her body was attached to wires like some sort of robot on a charger, a mask covered her mouth, and a machine to her right controlled and checked her breathing. Often it had to breath for her. His gaze was not full of kindness, sadness or pity, but of anger and hate. Hate burned though him towards her like a coiling snake. He wished he had kept the fact that he was responsible for her condition quiet, and then maybe his love Julia would still be with him. He looked back at the doctor. "You may get on with it now if you want to doctor, I have a meeting to get to, just send the bill to my bank, I'm sure they will settle it easily."
"But sir? I thought you and her…" The doctor stuttered under Jin's gaze.
"We were once lovers...but now I despise the site of her. She is like my past trying to catch up with me."
"Her friends speak of her so highly when they came to visit her."
"Well why aren't they here to say goodbye? Why don't they pay her hospital bills?"
"I guess even friends forget even the most well loved of people…her family came to say goodbye to her just this morning, they said that they wouldn't bare to watch as the machinery is switched off. "I thought perhaps you might stay with her…I mean you have stayed with her and put up with her longer then anyone else sir. That tells me you feel guilty…maybe your responsible for her being her…"
"What did you say?" He roared, angered at being accused.
"I'm not saying that…well I…never mind sir…I guess you will be going now. I'll just go and get her files so I can write and confirm her time of dddeath." He was pretty nervous, clearly noting never to reckon with Jin Kazama again.
Jin watched as the doctor walked quickly out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him.
He looked around the room one last time and then walked towards Xiaoyu. Her arms were by her sides, so unlike where they had been when he had lat seen her alive, she had her arms over her largest wound on her stomach, the wound had healed up now, leaving a small scar. He took a seat on a chair by her bed; he felt no pain, no anguish and no disgust with himself. He smiled devilishly; finally he was rid of Ling Xiaoyu. "The foolish little brat…" He murmured.
"Jin what is wrong…Oh my God your hurt!" She rushed towards him, giving him someone to lean on while he walkedback to his room. "Who did this to you?"
"Go away Xiaoyu…"
"But Jin…I just want to help…here let me…" She picked a clean tissue out of a box by his bedside table and gently cleaned up the gash in his cheek.
"I said to go away…GET LOST!" He hissed, grabbing the tissue out of her hand and throwing it onto the floor. He pushed her away from him.
She stood up off her knees; her eyes were full of emotional hurt. "Sorry…I…I just wanted to help you…that's all Jin." She didn't cry, but instead walked straight out of his room, headed towards her own.
"You always just wanted to help Xiaoyu…always…well I don't need or want your help now or ever again. You are the reason Julia left me…she thought I still loved you…but she was far from the truth; I actually hate you, with all my heart and soul.
Xiaoyu had been staring at her hand hard, trying to figure out why she couldn't feel her mum's hug. It had been empty, no warmth had flowed, no energy, no happiness of joy or glee. "Your right Jun...you have been right all along. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was ten to six. "Well looks like I'm cutting it close…" She laughed quietly, she felt slightly unsure of what she should do. Slowly she flipped off her slippers, letting them fly onto the ground in a mess and walked towards the balcony in her bare feet.
Her fingers reached out and grabbed the fencing, she couldn't feel anything, really, maybe a bit of cold but that was all. The wind tousled with her hair as she carefully climbed up onto the fencing, it almost pushed her into falling. She looked up at the sky, at the setting sun. "I wonder if the real sun is as beautiful as you?" She fingered her dress; it was light pink with small sequins sewn on the high neckline. "Goodbye my world," she murmured as she lifted her right leg into the air, pretending to step onto a step of pure air.
Then finally she summoned enough courage and forced her left foot onto the air, moving up with her feet. For a moment she seemed frozen in time. Then she fell.
She didn't fall as she expected, into the real world and float gently into her body, instead she just kept falling, and until finally she smashed into the ground below. She opened her mouth to scream, to let out blood.
"Dear God she's alive….sir she's alive!" The doctor almost jumped in the air with relief.
Jin stopped and turned to see her, her eyes were opened, blinking as if the light hurt her eyes. She closed then again, her hands clenched into fists, she started a coughing fit, and her moving hand pushed away the mask so she could let out the blood. For an instant he was filled with dread, dreading that she may still remember what had happened to her in the past, what he had done to her. He dared not move.
"Doctor where the heck is all this blood comin from?" The nurse shrieked, as pale faced as Jin himself.
"This isn't normal sir. Something is wrong…" The other nurse checked Xiaoyu's pulse; it was non-existant.
"I'm not going to loose this patient now…get the surgeon down pronto. Until then we need to stop the bleed…or at least slow it down until it can be seen to." The doctor spoke quickly, getting gear of the situation.
One of the blonde nurses guided Xiaoyu's face to a bowl where she could puke out the blood. It came out in his bowls. Some splattered onto her much to her disgust.
Xiaoyu hold on. Don't let yourself loose the fight!" Insisted Jun's spirit, it hovered just behind Jin, her hands had dropped on his shoulder.
Jin felt something press onto his shoulder, he looked behind him but saw nothing, then looked at Xiao and saw her staring at him, he blinked a few times before realizing she was staring at someone behind him. "What the…" He never got to finish his sentence, for Xiaoyu's heart had stopped and a worrying bleep sound filled the air.
"Get the paddles!" Commanded the doctor with urgency.
A nurse handed over a pair to the doctor and carefully but with speed unbuttoned Xiaoyu's top up to her middle so her stomach was showing. Two pieces of material were put down on either side of her stomach.
"All clear?" The doctor looked around.
Everyone nodded or said yes, then the doctor forced the paddles down onto her chest, blasting electricity to her heart to jumpstart it.
"Again….all clear?"
"Yes!" Everyone spoke at the same time and watched as the paddles were once again pressed down and a charge was let out of them to her heart.
The machine that checked her heart rate steadied and began to bleep its normal bleep.
"All good folks, looks like this one are a fighter."
A woman checked Xiaoyu's mouth before putting the mask back over. "Sir the bleeding has stopped…strange like."
The doctor nodded, hardly hearing and gestured to Jin. Jin walked towards the bed and looked at the doctor.
"Right she's stable now…I guess she can go home in a few weeks…after we have checked her over, her family will need to be contacted and she will need a place to stay for a while."
"I don't want anything to do with her doctor, I already told you that!"
"Mr Kazama please, for her sake just house her for a week, call her family and tell them to pick her up. She deserves to at least live for a week comfortably."
"Alright…I guess I have no other choice. Ring me to tell me when she should be picked up." Jin turned as if to leave the room but the doctor placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention back.
"Don't you want to see her properly before you go?"
Jin looked at the doctor blankly and then at Xiaoyu. He nodded and watched as the doctors and nurses respectively left them to privacy.
Her hand was open, as if gesturing for him to hold it. He ignored her silent plea and sat on the wooden chair stiffly. "I'll ring your mentor to pick you up as soon as possible." He sat silently for a few minutes.
Xiaoyu painfully pulled the mask from her face; her breathing seemed painful, "What happened? Where am I…who am I?" She asked, confused and dazed. She recognised him and something inside her told her to trust him.
"You don't remember?"
"No…should I?"
Jin sighed deeply, full of relief. Even Xiaoyu could tell. She frowned childishly. "Who's my mentor?"
His gaze was laid hatefully into her eyes. He looked down at her hand. "Get some rest…" He murmured stiffly.
She closed her eyes and spoke one last sentence before falling asleep, into a proper calming sleep. "I feel like I could rest forever."
Writer's Note:
I am such a lazy human aren't I? I should have had this chapter typed up ages ago but well didn't really have the time. But here it is..can't make any promises about how soon the next one will be up. But cross those fingers!