Chapter 3: A New Encounter

Kazuya soon understood what Heihachi had meant by no more coddling or holding hands. Everything was different. Ever since, Kazumi had "disappeared" as Kazuya put it in his mind something essential had been ripped from his life. It didn't take him long to realized that the thing which had grown accustomed to and had taken for granted was the overarching presence of love.

There was something different in the eyes of his father, something that Kazuya did not dare ponder on. His father spoke in a weird language that only consisted of barely comprehensible words and obvious belittlement. While Kazuya didn't always follow his father's insults, he knew that he was being insulted on a regular bases—a routine that he had never experienced from his mom. With her he had felt invincible as if he could do whatever he set his mind to, but with him he felt like he was absolutely nothing, a complete and utter nuisance. It was a new feeling that Kazuya grew used to surprisingly quickly. If there was one thing that Heihachi could compliment Kazuya on—though he didn't—was the fact that he never cried despite everything. Heihachi had believed that his poor, weak son would soon fall prey to depression and constant despondency after obliterating everything that he had once held dear, but Kazuya seemed unbreakable in those regards.

"Starting today, you will wake up at the crack of dawn, understand?"

Kazuya merely nodded at the other—he knew by then that Heihachi always liked nods when he put the word "understand" at the end of his sentences.

"You will meet me in this exact place every day at that time and you will begin your training under my instructions, understand?"

"Yes," Kazuya said simply with a nod, "But what training?"

"Well, what do you think? I can't let my son continue to embarrass me day in and day out with his tendency to be completely pathetic. You're a poor excuse of a son and until you're strong enough, I'll always acknowledge you as such. Remember, Kazuya, as it stands, you mean nothing to me. Work hard and you'll gain my approval."

"Okay," Kazuya said with a nod, "I'll make you happy as well."

"Hmph, we'll see about that. Remember, kid, tomorrow at the crack of dawn."

Tomorrow didn't come soon enough for Kazuya who was anxious to see what was in store for him. The word "training" sounded like it would be fun and in fact it was initially which could be translated to a mere split second. Kazuya was presented with two dumbbells weighted at 10 pounds each. It was a struggle to pick them up in the first place. When he heard that he had to strike forth as if to punch someone while holding these weights, Kazuya knew it was going to be a long day. He was quite tired after merely two punches and when he looked back at his father he flinched back in fear and continued the exercise despite himself. The look in his father's eyes suggested pain, very excruciating pain.

When he finally finished all the reps, Heihachi thankfully called it a day, but Kazuya could no longer feel his palms and veins were painfully visible on his arms. He couldn't move them because they were worn out and too heavy to lift so he simply fell out sprawled on the grass. He was still hurting even after an hour when his father came back out and demanded that he eat dinner. When Kazuya didn't comply, Heihachi grabbed the nape of his shirt and dragged him back in the house—there was little in the way of resistance from Kazuya.

He soon found himself sitting at a table with a spread that he would only ever see at Thanksgiving or Easter Sunday.

"Wow…did you make all this?" Kazuya said as he smelled all the enticing food. "You're a really great cook."

"Don't be so excited," Heihachi said with a frown—though he did appreciate the compliment—"All this that you see here is your food. You must eat all of it."

"All of it? At one time?"

"Correct. Then go straight to bed."

"Straight to bed? Can I brush my teeth before that?"

"Yes, of course—don't be such an idiot."

"I don't think I can eat all of this."

"Oh, but you will eat all of this food—this, is how you gain muscles. Otherwise, you'll always be a toothpick."

"Alright, I'll try."

"Don't try. Do it. I hope I don't have to remind you of the consequences."

Kazuya shook his head quickly. Heihachi watched the other for a while as he began slowly on the food, then he left when he was satisfied that the other could be trusted to continue on. Kazuya only wished that he had stayed for the sake of motivation. It was easier to force things down his throat when his father was watching a few yards away, but now that he was gone it became that much harder. In fact, he really just wanted to throw up, but that would be a horrible thing to do at this time—not after he had devoured more than half the spread; he had surprised even himself. Luckily, everything did taste wonderfully, but post-full-point made even the most delicious food just plain disgusting. His taste buds were no longer excited about the taste; they had dulled—it was as if his entire body was telling him to give up already, but he still continued. Even as it began to taste like cramming balls of paper down, he tried to down the last few plates of food. He was beginning to feel increasingly tired like he would drop off at any second. He thought of the horrible "consequences" that his father always so fondly referred to one last time in the most grotesque way possible and scarfed down the rest of the food. He tried to make it to his bedroom which was all the way upstairs, but only made it to the hallway before he could no longer resist the temptation of rest.

Heihachi, who had watched his son's endeavor from afar, looked on with an amused expression. When he saw that his son hadn't made it to his room, he laughed finding it all to be quite hilarious, took up his jacket and went out for the remainder of the day—he knew that Kazuya would be utterly unreachable for many hours to come.

/

Kazuya awoke to a fuzzy, spinning world and was forced to wait until everything returned to normal again before he sat up. Not caring that he hadn't made it to his bedroom, he simply sat up against the hallway wall. Everything was quiet now, extremely quiet and he felt well rested—he also didn't know what day it was. Someone had turned all the lights out so it was soothingly dark.

He realized at that moment, that he had nothing to think about right then even though this seemed like the perfect moment to ponder on something. His mind simply felt numb. The fact that his mother was dead was such a reoccurring thought that he soon took it for granted. Mother's dead, what else is new? His life seemed to be on this downward slope, everyday would bring more pain and mostly in a physical sense, anything else newsworthy? Heihachi knows how to cook; well that was an interesting fact. Kazuya had never seen him cook anything past the basic scrambled eggs and bacon, but now suddenly he was a chef. Why had he not done such things for Mother? Maybe he had just now remembered the fact that he could create feasts at a moment's notice? Kazuya was naïve but not that naïve.

Kazuya could soon see the sun coming up in the window in the distance and he scrambled to his feet as he went out to his father to continue their regimen.

"Ah, I'm glad you actually made it today—I thought for sure you would skip."

"Not a chance," Kazuya said confidently.

Heihachi smirked at this, "Well, there's a time for everything. Now, I want you to do a hundred reps this time with these humiliatingly light dumbbells. After that, I will put on 20 pounder ankle weights and I want you to run around 20 times with those on."

Kazuya stared at the other in disbelief. The hundred reps was already looking difficult—he'd have no energy left for running and especially not twenty laps. Not to mention that the field that they were in was humongous—twice the size of a football field.

"Stop lollygagging, get to it," Heihachi demanded.

The hundred reps were murder—the twenty laps was suicide. Kazuya found that only his legs were moving—the rest of his body had shut down completely. When Heihachi claimed that he was done because Kazuya couldn't actually count to twenty he only knew twenty to be "way bigger" than five, Kazuya simply dropped from where he was standing.

"Take those ankle weights off already, you dimwit!" Heihachi barked.

Kazuya was nonresponsive for only a moment, but when he heard Heihachi's approach, he sat straight up and did exactly as he was told. When Heihachi held his hand out, Kazuya rightly assumed that they were for the weights and he handed it to him. Heihachi then left Kazuya to himself in the same manner as yesterday. This time was a bit different; he really couldn't move. Last time, at least he could move his legs, but now whenever he tried to do such a thing the overall pain was too much for Kazuya to want to bother with.

He was in a daze for a long time until he heard his father's voice barking at him as usual. At this point, he didn't care what kind of punishment Heihachi had for him since he was unable to follow his instructions. Moments later he felt himself being dragged once again and could hear his father's favorite "pathetic" word being uttered under his breath. Kazuya was presented with a spread similar to last time and was ordered to eat all of it. The task seemed slightly easier this time, but he still wound up stuffing himself silly before downing the entire feast. Kazuya silently wondered if this was even a safe thing to be doing, but he would never relate such things to his father if he didn't have to.

Kazuya didn't bother getting up from the table. He simply rested his head on the hard wood and promptly fell asleep only to be awoken by the rising sun. After a yawn, he traversed to his father who always seemed to be there well before him. Heihachi sent him off on the same task and the process repeated itself over and over again until Kazuya found that he was simply doing instead of thinking. The weights continued to increase by two every two weeks and the laps became longer and longer.

One day after a lovely morning of too much training, Kazuya found that he could actually sit up, but he still breathed heavily. His two palms were pressed to the grassy ground beneath as he used them to lean forward on. His legs were bent as he did this and sat upon them. For a while he did nothing but stare at the grass between his clenching hands (his hands tended to do such things after grasping on to too-heavy weights for so long), but then he closed his eyes in tiredness.

"Hey you!" yelled a voice from a little distance.

Since the voice wasn't that of his father, Kazuya assumed that it was part of his dreams—something he hadn't had in a while. The new voice sounded insistent asking that he might "play with her". It was a pleasant voice—yet another thing he had not been privy to in a while. This had to be a dream. There was no one besides him and his father.

When he distinctively felt a presence in front of him, Kazuya had to at least check and see if this was all just an elaborate dream. Before him sat a little girl, one who appeared to be around his age—she had assumed the same sitting position as him.

"Hey, are you awake now?"

"Yes," Kazuya responded cautiously. It took him a moment to realize that this person was indeed real and capable of speaking.

"Wanna play with me?"

"Um, sure."

She held a brown teddy bear in one of her arms, Kazuya noticed as she stood up. "Come with me," she said.

Kazuya stood and followed after her until they were walking side by side. "What's your name?" he finally asked.

"Oh, that's right—my name is Jun. Yours is Kazuya, right?"

"How did you know that?" Kazuya asked with surprise.

"Everyone knows that."

"What?"

"Heihachi's son. Is it true that he keeps you in a cage and only takes you out to torture you?"

"No—no, of course not. People say that?"

"Just rumors. There's lots of rumors. Since I live nearby…I got curious.

"You live…nearby?"

"Yeah, silly. But there's a lot of space out here so I guess I live far away. See those woods?" Jun said pointing.

Kazuya looked towards where her finger was indicating. There were indeed deep woods that began on the outcrops of Heihachi's property. Kazuya had never ventured so far out, he remembered that his mother would always warn him not to and Heihachi's training didn't require that he ever go in.

"You live in the woods?"

"No, but I have an animal I'd like you to meet."

"But why?"

"Does there need to be a reason?"

Kazuya stopped in his tracks, "I don't know about this—it looks far away…father might want me back soon."

"It won't take long," Jun said turning back to him, "Please come with me. I need to make sure of something…"

"Of what?"

"To make sure those rumors aren't true—that's all."

"I told you, they weren't"

"No…the other ones."

Kazuya looked at her pensively. He wondered if asking just what those were would get him anywhere.

"You're not doing anything," Jun said, "Besides, it's no fun playing all by yourself."

"No, I guess not."

"Then let's go."

"Alright, but I can't stay for long."

"No worries. You just have to keep up," Jun said with a smile as she sped off in front of him.

Kazuya sighed and then ran after her. He might have been competitive if he had that kind of energy to spare. Jun easily made it to their destination first, but she was the one showing him where to go. Running at any sort of pace over the uneven ground was no fun for Kazuya, but he didn't feel like complaining about it. He was glad when the ground evened out and they entered a meadow. Suddenly, there were no trees and sunlight burst through the sky. Jun stopped in front of a small makeshift shelter and asked Kazuya to wait outside while she got something out.

"C'mere, kitty," Jun coaxed gently, "C'mere, little kitty—got someone for you to meet."

"Can cats really understand that?" Kazuya asked finally when he saw nothing come forth.

Jun looked back at the other with a smile, "Of course. He's just a little scared. He was all beat up when I found him and I've been taking care of him ever since."

It was then when Kazuya spied a white paw peeping out of the wooden shelter. When he heard a small "meow", he knew that there really was a cat in there. The cat seemed a bit shaky as it stepped out cautiously. There were black splotches over its back and one of its ears, but the rest of it was white. Jun picked him up when he had come out far enough. Then she approached Kazuya with it—the teddy bear was long forgotten on the ground.

"Wait…what am I supposed to do with that?" Kazuya asked.

But Jun simply handed him to him; not wanting to simply drop it, Kazuya held onto it firmly.

"You gotta hold it to your face," Jun said with a giggle.

"Like this?" he asked.

Now the kitty was in a prime position to lick the other's face to its heart content. Startled by the whole thing, he lost his grasp on the cat, but he landed squarely on his feet. The kitty placed his two front paws on one of his sneakers and then proceeded to rubbing his head against Kazuya's leg. In response, he bent down and petted the cat's head tentatively but then continued in a surer manner when he noticed that he didn't mind it at all. Jun bent down too near them and rubbed the cat's back a few times.

"See, love heals all," Jun said simply.

"What?" Kazuya asked as he looked up at Jun.

"That's what Mommy says. No matter what—given the right kind of love, it heals all. Don't you think so?"

"Sure," he said after a moment, "I can believe that." Kazuya looked back down at the purring kitty, "Does he have a name?"

"He hasn't told me yet."

"Jun…cats don't talk. You have to name it."

"Yes they do. One day, he'll tell me."

"Well, I have to go."

"What? So soon?"

"I told you, I can't stay that long."

Kazuya stood up after a few moments even as Jun looked at him pleadingly.

"Sorry," Kazuya said finally, "Maybe I could come back some time."

Kazuya took off through the woods in a relatively linear direction and thankfully made it back to familiar grounds. He was just in time for his father who had just come out again.

"You have enough energy for extracurricular activities, you have enough energy for more serious training," Heihachi said when Kazuya showed up.

Kazuya was still reasonably winded as he stood before his father, but this time unlike all the others, he was able to walk on his own accord back to the house. Even though he was expecting the large spread, he still couldn't believe his eyes when he actually saw it. Heihachi didn't even bother telling him what to do or even sat down to watch if Kazuya actually did as he was told. Kazuya watched as his father left to attend other business that was always a complete mystery to him. Kazuya didn't dare take advantage of this moment—in fact this was the best time to get on Heihachi's good side.

Almost an hour past before Kazuya finished up and just as he was about to drop off, he heard the doorbell ring. Curious about who would want to visit at this time in the late afternoons, Kazuya made his way to the front door. He had to jump a little to reach the doorknob and he just managed to turn it. The door swung on its hinges, but Kazuya dropped off before he was slammed into the wall.

"Jun? What are you doing here?" Kazuya asked when he saw who it was.

"What do you mean? I came to visit," Jun replied.

"You can't just come visit."

"I don't get it…friends come and visit each other, right?"

"Friends…?"

"Yeah, we're friends."

"Oh," Kazuya said caught off-guard.

"Can I come in?"

"No, I can't just let you in. I don't think…I'm allowed to."

"Really? Your dad says?"

"No, but, I mean, I'm sure he'd say no…"

"Alright, well, I don't want you to be in trouble."

"I'm sorry, but it would be dangerous. Don't come and visit. This time I answered the door—next time could be my father."

"Oh, I get it. Your father is evil."

"Well…" Kazuya began uncertainly—the word seemed a bit strong, "he's just…not friendly and I really don't want you to meet him."

"Tomorrow then?"

"I'll try." It was the only response he could sincerely commit to. He knew he'd try to go and visit her, but that didn't necessarily mean he'd be able to go and meet her.

Kazuya closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief. In his mind, he had just saved her from his father. It was alright for himself to spend days on end with his father, but he couldn't bear the thought of someone else having to go through the same thing behind closed doors. He tiredly made his way upstairs, but for some reason he didn't fall automatically to sleep. The thought of having a friend hadn't fully sunken in yet.

AN: Yes, I know that Kazuya is actually seven years older than Jun and she probably wouldn't have existed at this time…but work with me.