The Capture
Something was wrong. Julia glanced up at the guard beside her, but he was staring emotionlessly forward. It was quiet. Dead quiet.
'Where is the crowd?' Julia said in a low voice, but the guard did not answer. He moved forward, and held her elbow so that she did the same. His grip was tight. Suddenly she was flung into the ring. A single black bird fluttered from a far corner of the stand, and Julia could hear it cawing distantly as she surveyed the rows of empty seats.
That morning, Julia had been drifting along in a half-sleep for an hour or so before she was jangled into wakefulness by the ringing of her room phone. She wiped a speck of sleep out of her eye as she pulled the handset to her ear, but found herself surprisingly perky. She felt that she had slept for a long time.
'Hello?' she answered, expecting to hear Asuka's musical 'Good morning', but the unfamiliar voice that seeped through the receiver belonged to a man,
'Miss Chang, your next fight is about to take place.'
'What? But it wasn't announced. No one told me. I—'
'If you are not at the central arena in fifteen minutes, you forfeit the match.' There was a click, and the dial tone rang out from the receiver, which hung loosely from Julia's hand. She was immediately awake, grabbing her kit bag and legging it to the arena. As she bounded through the corridors, it struck her that this could be some sort of trick, but what choice did she have other than to show up? Whether the match was genuine or not, she had vowed to fight for Jin, so the closer she could get to the core of these strange goings on, the better. Nevertheless, she was agitated and wary as she jogged towards the fighters' entrance of the central arena. A guard was waiting for her.
'Miss Chang.' he greeted her.
'Excuse me, but can you tell me what the hell's going on here?' her tone was not angry, but genuinely exasperated and confused, 'No one told me about a fixture until a phone call ten minutes ago. I've just had to run here, and I don't even know who I'm fighting.' The man appeared not to hear her, and simply opened the door. She glared at him, but he would not meet her eye. Frustrated, she stepped inside and the two began the walk towards the ring. The guard said something into the microphone at his lapel, and Julia felt an ominous trickling of realisation as it struck her that she could hear no cheering.
Julia glanced frantically around the empty arena. Shit, was all she had time to think as she spun on her heel, only to be greeted by rows of black, gas-mask-like heads. Every exit was blocked. She could hear her own panting breath echo across the ring. Then the group of crows opposite her parted with rigourous precision, and a huge, dark figure stepped out from between them. Jinpachi.
Julia had not seen him since the champagne reception, and was struck by just how massive he was. As he strode towards her, a twisted, straining mass of muscle, with his blackened, bulbous features, flashing a set of enormous and monstrously white teeth, he seemed like something other-worldly. But Julia was keenly aware that, although intimidated by his hulking, seething presence, there was none of the primal nausea which had made her previous encounter with him so gruelling. Working to keep her voice steady, Julia called out,
'So you're my next opponent.' Jinpachi set his flaring yellow eyes on her and replied in a voice like thunder,
'I'm your last opponent.' Julia did not move, even though Jinpachi was striding towards her. Her mind was working frantically. There was so much she did not understand, but these concerns had to be pushed aside. Just fifteen minutes before she had been dozing in her own room, now she was here, opposite the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu. She was aware that with one word he could have the crows that surrounded them hammering bullets into her vulnerable body. Every second that went by though, was another second that she was still alive, and valuable. Julia was trying to gauge how much information she could get out of Jinpachi in this volatile situation. Her heart was pounding, and she tried furiously to slow it, and clear some space in her head, without betraying any signs of agitation.
'Where are the crowds?' Julia wished she hadn't said it as soon as the words were out. Ham-fisted directness couldn't work – why should he tell her anything? What she needed was subtlety. Jinpachi did not answer, he simply smiled menacingly and made his way towards her, purposefully this time. Julia took up her fighting stance. Jinpachi launched his first punch. But Julia was ready, and skipped aside. He followed it directly with a side kick, but Julia saw it and defended herself in time. If she could just dance around Jinpachi for long enough, Julia thought, it might give her time to draw him out.
'It seems you've got a bit of a family reunion on your hands,' she said, ducking clear of another mighty punch, 'What with Kazuya coming back.' She tried to catch his expression as she bluffed left and then right and scurried clear of Jinpachi's rock-like fist as it flew towards her, but his face was such a knot of scorched flesh that it was difficult to pick up on any specific emotion in it. She continued, bouncing lightly from foot to foot, ready to jump clear as Jinpachi swung his leg, as thick and heavy as a tree trunk, in a low kick,
'At least there was someone there to watch me kick his ass.' Jinpachi grunted and, pausing his onslaught, his bare chest heaving and laced with thick jutting veins, growled,
'Believe me, Miss Chang, you wouldn't want people to see what's going to happen here.' and with that he hoisted one enormous leg high in the air, where it tottered for a few breathless moments before stomping the earth with a shuddering jolt that blew up a cloud of dust, into which Julia had rolled, dodging the move. She used the dust to skirt round to the back of Jinpachi, and instead of jabbing at him with a kick, she continued,
'You think you can cover up the Zaibatsu's corruption like that? Everyone sees through it already.' Jinpachi was caught off guard as he spun round, staggering slightly with the momentum of his own gigantic bulk. Julia darted back, taunting,
'Just because you go around smashing at everyone that criticises you like some kind of angry child, don't think you can stop the truth from coming out. Whispers are spreading.' she feigned to the left, and then ducked an angry kick to the head, 'Eventually they'll eat away at your clumsy management. You can swing that big political club of yours around all you like, but soon it's all going to collapse on top of you, and there's no weapon strong enough to stop it.' Julia held her breath. There was a slowing in Jinpachi. As he drew himself up, his body now coated in thick petrol-like sweat, he barked back,
'Ignorant, insolent girl. We have a weapon, and it's coming now. It's coming here.' Julia's insides tightened. She hoped to God it wasn't the virus he was talking about. Her heart was pounding hard now. Adrenaline coursed through her body as Jinpachi's attempted hits became angrier, harder. One fist clipped her chin and for a heart stopping moment, as she felt the contact, she expected her head to crack backwards with the force, but the blow was not as heavy as she had thought it would be. Again, she had a sense that something was wrong. And those words – 'it's coming now' … she was watchful and twitchy. What was coming, and how? The pressure was rising, and she wondered how much longer she could keep Jinpachi at arm's length. With her body and mind racing to keep up with one another she persisted,
'Well I wish it'd hurry up and get here. This is the second time you've made me dance with you, Old Man, and it's not any more interesting this time around.' Jinpachi gave a yell as he launched at her with furious fists, but she was ready for him, and defended herself against every blow,
'Ungrateful brat.' he raged, 'And to think we let you live all this time, when we could have been done with you in the first round.' Julia darted past him, and he followed her, his whole body seething with effort and rising anger.
Right, thought Julia, I'll just have to get him madder. and, her whole body cold with fear, she ran full at him. If he anticipated her, and got a blow in before she could, thought Julia, that would be the end. She would be out and then …who knew what would happen? But Jinpachi did not anticipate her. He had become so used to her bird-like evasion of his blows that this sudden attack was totally unexpected, and knocked him right off his feet. He sprawled on his back like some kind of ape for a few seconds before he succeeded in dragging his hulk of a body up, and Julia could see that his face was burning like a red angry fist embedded in those twitching, straining shoulders,
'I could have wrung your neck myself long before this!' Jinpachi shouted thunderously, spittle flying from his lips, 'What with your mother, we knew you'd be a pest. But who could have predicted just how useful you would become?' he was ranting now, his white teeth flashing, his eyes blazing with a crazed triumph. 'Who knew you would make such perfect bait?' The word sent a shiver down Julia's spine. 'You may think you are important, but you are nothing more than a pawn in a plan much too big for you to understand. You run around having your little love affair, simpering like a dog after the heir to the Mishima Zaibatsu, with no idea what you've involved yourself in.' Julia was struck cold. How did he know? Her guard slipped, and Jinpachi caught her in a moment of unmasked shock. 'And you thought you were so clever in concealing it all. So clever you used one of my own employees to help you arrange your sordid meetings.'
The porter. Before Julia's eyes suddenly flashed a dozen incidents which proved his betrayal. She was bewildered. Of course, why had she trusted him? What had she been thinking? Julia felt like she would cry with anger at the stupid trap her witless love had led her into.
'Well it's all out now – you, a filthy, disgusting whore parading yourself as a fighter. Kazuya may have spoilt things last time, dragging half the city here, but this time,' Jinpachi's eyes blazed, 'There's no one to see.' and with a shout which seemed to rend the very sky apart, he tore across the ring and launched himself into Julia. The blow was devastating, and Julia was totally unprepared. She felt as if she had just been hit by a tank as she flew backwards and crashed against the arena edge, her body ringing with sharp pain. She tried to rise, but before she had time to recover herself, Jinpachi had descended upon her with hammering fists. It was like being pelted with boulders. Suddenly, Julia felt a familiar, terrible gut sickness rising in her. She cowered before the inhuman heaving mass of a man who stood over her, his muscles shivering and swollen with the heat of the fight. She expected more blows, but none came. She looked up, and with a primal, awful sense of cold white fear, saw that there, soaring in front of the blazing sun, was a winged figure. Julia's heart leapt into her mouth. Jinpachi had seen it too.
'No!' she screamed wildly, 'No!' It was Jin. Through the blood-soaked hair which clung to her battered cheeks, Julia saw him soar downwards towards Jinpachi like a bullet, black wings rippling with the speed. Jinpachi roared an order at his men. There was the whizz and lash of metal, and suddenly Jin had stopped. He was twisting, writhing in midair. Nets had been cast from all angles, thick metal ropes lashed over him, and Julia could only scream and beat at Jinpachi with weak fists as she watched her beloved writhe furiously and helplessly like a fly caught in a spider's web. Then that sickening, fearful sense of intrusion, of Wrong began to intensify, until it was all Julia could do to collapse, screaming with the awfulness of it. It was a physical pain now, dragging at her very soul. Before she blacked out, she managed to catch a glimpse of Jin, and he was monstrous.
Next instalment, The Laboratory: Julia and Jin find themselves trapped in a mysterious laboratory. Who put them there? And can they escape alive?