The next day, Lee woke up (he had barely slept anyway). He thought he would feel better but in fact, on the contrary, he felt worse. Not only physically due to having slept in the backstreet while he was also still injured but mostly psychologically. The shock and full consequences of all that happened, hit him full in the face. He was completely under the shock of having lost it all.

Yet he thought he should have been prepared somehow... He already knew he had lost the Tournament and his job... With Kazuya, he had already begun to lose things, he was thrown out of the mansion, he lost his job twice, at the Mishima Heavy Industries and his secretary job... But despite this, he had moved to a very nice apartment, not as luxurious as he would have loved but still with high standards, he still had his expensive clothes and jewels... His luxurious furniture... His two cars... even if one got scrapped... Despite not spending much (and complaining about it) since he had to evaluate and make choices with the few money he had from his job or that remained from his job after he quit, he still had the feeling he could still keep what he had left, he would surely find some job after the Tournament, he was not poor. Then. Now he had nothing.

Well, for some days... If everything went right, he would get his money and then he would be able to travel to the United States, to rent an apartment, not the most luxurious but still a decent one, rent a car, an ordinary car... Probably get a decent job quite fast... But compared to what he had in the Mishima Zaibatsu as the heir... as the heir of a multinational conglomerate worth billions and billions of dollars... He will be poor and just an ordinary guy... He had lost everything... Depressed about all this, somehow distressed and not seeing anything he could do about it, he had done all he could already to keep what he could, Lee didn't move out of his backstreet and did nothing but having the blues over his loss all day... Apart from going to the small park nearby at night (so that no one would see him) to drink at the water fountain, he didn't leave his hiding spot. He was too ashamed and disheartened.

But after three days of not eating, hiding in his backstreet, Lee was starving. Somehow using all his will to get out of his hiding place during the day, Lee walked around the area to go drink some more water. He should but he still didn't want to beg people... But as he was walking toward the park, he suddenly noticed that he was now standing in front of the fish shop where the lady was giving him some food when he was a kid. That place had not changed... Remembering the kind lady, some ideas came to his mind...

Yet he said he wouldn't beg... But he was now so hungry... Maybe if the lady was still there, she would recognize him and give him something? Without him begging for it? Yet at the same time, he didn't want to be recognized as living in the streets again... That was why he spent most of his time hiding in the backstreet... After his glory and prestige, being seen falling at the bottom was really humiliating... No one had to see his downfall... He would be too ashamed... Why couldn't that bank executive come sooner? Just some days to wait... It shouldn't be so hard... Yet maybe the lady never knew of his success and it would somehow be less humiliating then, to be recognized... Somehow she knew him when he was already at the bottom... People did not all know about his downfall... The people around here didn't even seem to remember him either since no one spoke to him since he was here... Of course, he was hiding most of the time and he wasn't a star when he was young (yet he was known by people around for his strange silver hair) but the few times he got out (at night but still...), no one addressed him.

Standing for a while in front of the shop, Lee decided to enter. Once inside, he noticed that the shopkeeper was a man he didn't know. Lee walked at the far side of the shop to look at the stuff and mostly to see if he would see the lady... But she wasn't there. After a while of staring at the food, hoping she would come and somehow address him but now losing that hope, Lee began to have some illegal ideas. The man was busy with customers, he could take something and leave... but with the time he was standing here, he probably looked suspicious so the man will look at him as soon as he's done with his actual customers... Beside that shop somehow helped him when he was young, it was better to go steal elsewhere... So Lee left.

Now in front of another shop, Lee wondered once more what to do. To beg would humiliate him while to steal, if he was caught, would be far worse. He would be both humiliated and punished... But he said he wouldn't beg... Yet just for some days... He had to hold on just some days... He couldn't end up in prison because he would have done some shoplifting when the bank executive would come... Maybe he could hold on not eating a little longer... Some martial art masters could do it, why not him? He had water, he could live. So after drinking some water, Lee went back to his discreet place to hide his shame.

Lee was now lying down in the back alley. Again. For two more days he had tried to sleep, hoping time would go faster, but it was hard to sleep on the ground and he barely did so, often dreaming about the last events the few times he slept and not resting at all. He was starving but he still was too ashamed to beg and didn't want to risk being caught stealing. Lee wondered how did he do to survive when he was young since it seemed so hard now... But when he was young, he didn't have those wounds he actually had... and he didn't mind his dignity... Well, not as much... He became far more vain and conceited now... Maybe too much... Far too much... To the point of not doing anything humiliating rather than doing something shameful even only once to survive. But it wasn't just his pride, something else was paralysing him as well...

But he had to get over his pride, over that incapacitating feeling that seemed to have a hold over him, he had to do something! He only had four days left before the bank executive would come! And he looked like a mess... Heihachi would laugh... After only five days, he already looked like a mess... It was so embarrassing... The bank executive would never take him seriously if he looked like a half-dead dirty bum... Lee knew he was renowned for his elegance, his class... The executive won't recognize him at all... and won't accept to get some of his money out of the investment or give him a loan... Since he couldn't get his money out before a certain period of time, he would have to be persuasive to convince the banker to accept, or to convince him to give him a loan... He now didn't have much to offer in guarantee, he had to rely on his charisma... He had to give a good impression, not look like a depressed reject... He looked so neglected with his five-day beard... It was so shameful... Anyway the banker will probably refuse to lend him money or to even release his invested funds...

But apart from finding more and more problem, Lee just didn't know how to deal with any of this. He just couldn't think right, he didn't know why he was so helpless... He felt he needed time to think, to pull himself together but he now had all the time in the world to think, why wasn't he able to do so? Was it anxiety? Depression? He was paralysed by something... He just couldn't do anything anymore... Was it still the traumatic shock of everything that happened? Instead of getting over it, he was getting worse...

Suddenly a man got out from the backdoor of the restaurant nearby and put the trash in the dumpster at the far side of the backstreet. Not moving to not get noticed, Lee stared at the dumpster and wondered: Maybe there was some still edible food among it? Maybe he could also find a cigarette among it? He missed smoking... Smoking would calm him down... yet how would he lit it?... But at least, there may be food... It would be disgusting to take something from the dumpster but no one would see him... He wouldn't have to confront anyone, it probably would be easier... He could not die starving for just four days remaining... Then he would survive to live another day and get his revenge on Heihachi... for those humiliations and those mistreatments... He only had four days to wait... If only he would not need to eat for those four days... it would be far simpler... But he was so hungry... and weak... But the thought of scavenging through the garbage disgusted him and he wondered how he could do that when he was a kid... He was now completely disdainful of the idea... Yet he had to do something... So using all his will once more, Lee got up, went to the dumpster and opened the bag the man just threw. He then looked at the choice offered: Not going through the garbage too far, he found something that looked like some sandwich remains.

-I can't believe I was eating from those things... Ugh... Oh no, that's too disgusting... I feel sick... Eww... I can't... I can't...

Maybe he felt sick because he didn't eat for so long but the sight and the scent of the dumpster gave him an urge to puke... Maybe he probably should beg... Just once... Lee was both disgusted at the idea of eating from the garbage and angered by the fact he knew his father wanted him to either beg or eat from those garbage... But he would do neither. He wouldn't please his father... Only four days, he was able to resist, mystics and hermits did it, he could do it... Maybe once he would have to go toward the hotel to meet the executive, he would ask someone for some money and buy some snack on the way... To have the strength necessary to walk to the other side of the city... and some razor to shave himself... But not now... Right now, he didn't even have the strength to think right... He was too depressed, too distressed... Leaving the dumpster, Lee went back to his corner. Maybe he would beg later...

Staying motionless, sitting on the ground and resting half on the building's brick wall and the shed's wooden wall, Lee was quite desperate, not able to decide between any course of action since he was staring at the dumpster for hours, not deciding if he should go back to it and try to rummage through it or not or if he should beg or not... Or not seemed to be his current choice of action since he was incapable of doing anything. He didn't understand what was happening to him... He had probably begun to fall into depression again... With all that happened lately... He now had nothing... He had lost everything... but he told himself that he just had four days to wait and all would be alright again... What a weak-willed loser he was... He was so weak... Weak like his father always told him he was... Weak like Kazuya often told him he was... He remembered when he was crying as a kid and the few times Kazuya consoled him while telling him on his usual harsh and determined tone: Stop being weak. Show him that he cannot destroy you. Kazuya was strong-willed... He would certainly not be depressing in a back alley like him... He was strong... Lee then wondered: What would Kazuya do? ... After a moment, Lee sneered:

-Humpf! He wouldn't do anything, he's dead! You're dead now, Kazuya... Your determination didn't change anything... You're dead... Somehow, I'm the lucky one...

Those images of Kazuya half-dead on the helicopter floor kept coming back... Yes, Kazuya was dead... Heihachi took him and threw him into a volcano... He was definitively dead... Destroyed by Heihachi... Brooding over the late events as the sun was now setting down and the alley getting darker, Lee was now only sinking deeper into depression and hate: He lost the Mishima Zaibatsu, his job, his money, his apartment, his car, his right to live in Japan, his dignity... All because of that man: Heihachi Mishima. That man who had treated him like nothing all his life, who thought he could still treat him like nothing...

Yes, Heihachi will regret it... The old fool only deserved to die... And this time, Lee knew he would do it... He would kill Heihachi... He never felt the murderous urges both his father and brother always felt toward each other, even in the worst of times, Lee knew he would not kill, did not wish to kill, but now... if Heihachi was helpless in front of him... He wouldn't last long... He would die...

-You're right, Kazuya... He can't destroy me... I'll kill him... I have to kill him... Once I'm back on my feet, I'll go back in Japan and kill him... He just didn't chase me away, he tried to humiliate me, he wished to humiliate me... He did everything to bring me down and took away everything! That damned man... Humpf! He even killed you, his own son... After all he did to you all those years... You were a real evil person Kazuya, many times hardly bearable, I even despised you with all you did... Even feared you sometimes... To be honest, maybe you did deserve to die but I can see where your evilness comes from... Curse or no curse, he turned you like this... He played a big part in hurting you, and me... And he won't remain unpunished... I'll kill him... I'll kill him... Heihachi Mishima, you won't break me... I'll show you! One day!

Lee then felt very helpless as he thought:

-But I just can't get out of that backstreet... I just can't find the strength to do so... I can't go beg... I don't want to eat garbage... I don't know what to do... I have only some days to live like this, why can't I?...

He would never be able to get his revenge if he wasn't even able to get out of the backstreet... Lee didn't know if he was paralysed by shame, depression, anxiety, traumatism or just too weak since he hadn't eaten in a while and was still injured... But somehow, he kept being paralysed in the backstreet, doing nothing... Half-giving up, half-having vengeful ideas... If he wanted to get his revenge, he had to do something! He could have been the CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu but now he was living in the backstreet... He would not be starving in some dirty backstreet... Only four days remaining... What kind of loser was he to let himself go like this? But he was still traumatized, he had seen his brother get killed... He had feared for his own life... He had had everything taken away from him... So quickly... But doing nothing wouldn't help, he had to do something...

Suddenly, someone yelled from the street not far:

-Chaolan! Chaolan! Lee Chaolan!

Distracted from his revenge ideas and depressive thoughts, taken out of that somehow post-traumatic shock for a moment, Lee turned his head toward the street. He knew that voice...

-Chaolan!

Suddenly having the strength to get up, painfully doing so with his cumbersome plaster casts, Lee dragged himself to the street. There, he saw Wang Jinrei walking away, looking everywhere while yelling his name. A little surprised by the old man's presence, Lee faintly said:

-... Master Wang?

Hearing the weakened voice, Wang turned around and smiled when he saw Lee.

-Oh, Chaolan! I finally found you! Luckily, with your hair, you're easy to notice... People saw you and told me you were around here...

-... How come you're here?

-I came to help you.

Lee stared at him with some surprise again. He didn't expect Wang to come to help him... He didn't even think Wang knew where he was and he couldn't call him since Wang had no phone and Lee had no money remaining anyway... Seiko didn't know Wang either and he didn't even tell Seiko all of his problems, mostly trying to reassure her that everything was okay, he was fine and only talked about his precious box so she wouldn't worry for him... He didn't even tell her where he was in China... With much emotion, he bowed his head in gratitude and said:

-Hsié-hsie. I am glad to see you... revered master...

Wang looked at the pitiful-looking young man and knew he did the right thing when he decided to leave Japan...

Some time earlier...

Wang had visited Lee each days at the hospital since Lee's brutal defeat but the young man was always in a coma and when he came back the day following Heihachi's victory, the nurse told him that Lee had been taken away by his father in an helicopter. Worried over that sudden 'abduction', somehow having the feeling it didn't mean anything good, Wang quickly went back to the Mishima mansion where Heihachi had moved back and asked to see him. The CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu arrived after a while and said:

-Ah, Wang-san. You fought well in the Tournament. I'm happy to see that at your age, you can still be awesome. It gives me hope for me when I will be old. Come inside, I was having some tea. Do you want some?

Wang was flattered by the awesome part and outlined a smile as he followed Heihachi inside for some tea. It was too bad Heihachi was evil, he was sometimes likeable... But he may have killed Jinpachi... and maybe Lee... and probably Kazuya. And many others... Heihachi was evil... Though, like for Kazuya, Wang had known Heihachi when he was a small boy... He wasn't living on the property already and only came to visit Jinpachi sometimes but for the few times he saw him, Heihachi was a good boy, a little mischievous and not shy like Kazuya was, but he was kind, always happy and eager to train... But with that curse, sadly, they all had to turn into monsters...

Both the men were now at the table while Kuma and Kuma II were sleeping not far from their master. Wang told Heihachi as the latter was serving him some tea:

-You delivered many good fights as well, Heihachi-san. Congratulation on your victory. But I came to ask you a question.

-What is it?

-What have you done with your sons?

Heihachi put the tea-pot on the table and seriously looked at Wang.

-Does their fate matters that much to you?

-Yes. It does. Mostly Chaolan.

-Lee? Well, then you'll be glad he didn't get what his brother got.

-Which is? asked the older man even if despite asking, Wang somehow knew that Kazuya was dead, so he wouldn't insist on his fate and mostly wanted to know about Lee.

-Which is none of your business but I shouldn't tell it to you like this. I should respect my elders. But Lee is just outside of the country. For a long time. For the rest of his life, in fact.

-Where?

-I sent him back to China. In his native city. In the streets where he belongs.

-But he still needed cares at the hospital. He just got out from his coma... He had a broken leg, a broken arm and broken ribs... a commotion... and...

Heihachi dismissed Wang's worries with a gesture from his hand.

-Oh, he's tough. I trained him and he grew up in those streets, so no need to worry over him.

-You trained him but you also horribly beat him in the Tournament.

-Indeed, I have been a little rough on him, answered the adoptive father on an insensitive tone.

But Heihachi thought that he needed to make an example for Kazuya... Beside, the Mishima CEO remembered that Lee didn't really look or worry for him when he was comatose in the ravine Kazuya threw him into... For a while, at his weakest, when he had just woke up, Heihachi had hoped Lee would come looking for him... Then together, they would overthrow Kazuya and take back the Zaibatsu... But as he learned later, Lee didn't even come to the hospital once and was now working for that monster Kazuya. A thing which angered Heihachi greatly and which proved once more that humans were really not trustworthy... Unlike Lee, Kuma would have looked for him, but he was deported... Lee didn't do anything against this either (though on that one Heihachi could understand because if Kuma had not being deported, he would probably have been killed right away by Kazuya)... Now Lee was deported as well and not killed right away. The ungrateful brat only deserved what he got. Heihachi then added:

-And what's your point? Since when you worry about Lee?

Since not long enough I guess... thought Wang, who still thought he should have done something for both of Heihachi's sons when they were young, without still knowing what, before he replied:

-I don't know... But I want to tell you I'm leaving. I'm leaving my home. Thank you for your hospitality but I'm going back to China.

-To find Lee?

-Yes. And my family. It's been a while.

-Fine. Do as you wish. If you want to come back, you'll be welcome as well since I agreed you could stay until your death. But don't bring back Lee. I don't ever want to see him again.

-Thank you but I don't think I'll be back, said the old man as he just finished his tea.

And Wang left. Heihachi didn't care, as long as Lee didn't come back in Japan, Heihachi didn't care who Lee would meet or what he would do... Wang could go see him if he wished...

As the old man was going away, Heihachi gazed toward the distant mountains where Hon-Maru was located. He had not been there since his defeat in the first Tournament, two years ago... Heihachi thought that if Wang knew what was there, he would probably have another reason to come and complain... even more than just complain... Jinpachi, whom Heihachi had imprisoned there, must have starved to death...

Twenty-three years ago, after Jinpachi had enough of Heihachi's corrupt ambitions and brutal treatment on his little Kazuya, believing more and more that Heihachi must have also killed his wife, Jinpachi had finally confronted his son to make him stop. They fiercely fought one against the other in the temple of Hon-Maru but in the end, Jinpachi lost to his son.

Yet Heihachi having killed his beloved Kazumi not long ago, before he almost killed his son as well, didn't find the strength to kill his father. He was still traumatized by Kazumi's death and was slightly regretting to have tried to kill his son... Since Kazuya, who had apparently seen the murder of his mother, kept accusing him of having killed his beloved mother. The little five years old wanted to kill his father for it, never stopping to harass him with this while Heihachi couldn't take away the sight of his beloved Kazumi as a devilish monster or as a dead body at his feet. Still traumatized over this and always attacked and accused by his constantly enraged son, the kid never shutting up even when spanked, Heihachi began to think that Kazuya was a monster like his mother had turned to and began to see him as an abomination more and more... beating him more and more brutally. In an access of maybe madness when Kazuya accused him once more, Heihachi, having enough of all this, threw his son over a cliff to get rid of the Devil creature once and for all. An event which proved that Kazuya really was a monster when, many hours later, Heihachi saw him climb back half-dead, covered in blood, having a deep bleeding gash on his small chest and with even more hate for his father in his eyes before he fainted.

But Heihachi having calmed down and having some slight regrets now seeing his little son in a so pitiful state, decided to treat his son's wounds and to keep Kazuya for now despite the fact that his son now brought disgust and even fear to him. He knew his son was really a monster... He would have to really kill him one day... Kazuya had also began to shut up and stopped endlessly accusing his father, despite the hate he now had for him, and became taciturn, waiting for his revenge and closing his heart to everyone, rejecting everybody, mostly when he also lost his grandfather...

But despite still beating and mistreating Kazuya half of the time, when he was seeing him more like a Devil than like his son, Heihachi was also traumatized with all those events. He had enough of killing his family, so he then decided to lock his father in the basement of Hon-Maru so that the old man would stop interfering. He would free him later... Once his goals would be accomplished.

Yet while ruling over the Mishima Zaibatsu, doing some morally questionable decisions for the good of the corporation and while still mistreating his abnormal son, Heihachi became more and more insensible over time and decided that freeing his father would only bring him trouble and oppose his great ambitions... There was no way Jinpachi would forgive him, the old man was always threatening him with how he would punish him once he would be free, and Heihachi knew Jinpachi would always take Kazuya's side. The old man was now a problem, yet Heihachi was still unable to kill his defenseless father and since it took him everything to be able to beat the old man when they fought, he didn't dare free him and kill him in a fair fight either, so he left him chained under the temple, despite that fate being even crueller than death but Heihachi had also become crueller than before. Heihachi gave his father's food like some would do with a caged animal, sometimes addressing Jinpachi with contempt, totally insensible to his father's sufferings. After a while, Jinpachi gave up and didn't address his son anymore, turning his head away, ignoring him each times Heihachi was coming to bring him food. Giving up on being freed one day... Giving up on life... No one else knew Jinpachi was there, so no one aside from Heihachi, could come to feed him... or free him...

It was the Mishima's personal temple, no servants dared enter it and Wang as a guest on the Mishima property, never did either, not wanting to be impolite and having nothing to do there. Even Heihachi's sons were not likely to go in there... Neither Kazuya nor Lee were very religious, they would not go to the temple, even less in the basement where Jinpachi was. In fact, apart from when Kazuya was very small and going with his parents, he never went there or in any other temple and Lee never went to a temple in his whole life, so they wouldn't fall on Jinpachi by accident... Heihachi thought that Kazuya probably didn't like temples, being compared to the Devil and all, and Lee coming from a somehow almost atheist country, was very secular and never showed any interest for those religious things. Heihachi, Kazumi and Jinpachi were more encline to go to temples and follow traditions than the new generation...

Twenty-three years later, when Heihachi came back to see Kazuya who was the new CEO after the first Tournament, to ask about Kuma, a month and a half had already passed, Heihachi thought that Jinpachi must have been already dead... The old man was tough, he had survived twenty-three years imprisoned and even chained in the basement but he could still starve... Since Heihachi didn't think he would be away for that long, he didn't leave any food like he did when he left for business trips for a while... No need to tell Kazuya and tell him to go there to feed the old man... It was already too late... And this deed wasn't really something Heihachi wanted Kazuya to know about, despite how it would have enraged and traumatized his son... Maybe because Heihachi knew that if he had told Kazuya about Jinpachi, he would not have gotten out of the building alive...

Beside, the sight must be ugly... Heihachi didn't really want to go back there himself... At least, he was now rid of his old man... No need to feed him anymore... The now really insensitive Heihachi was in fact glad, he was now rid of everyone who were bothering him... He now could get into more serious things... World conquest... To make peace reign upon the world... Heihachi thought he had good intentions, he just had to be firm to make them happen... and sometimes do bad things for it to happen. Not being weak like Jinpachi, who accomplished nothing entirely because of that weakness... Jinpachi was weak and useless... Like most kind people... They think they help people but they don't get anywhere... They never get any results...

Heihachi remembered how many times he argued with Jinpachi over how to make peace reign in the world... He remembered the long conversations over this subject that he had with his father and Kazumi... They all wanted world peace, they were just not agreeing over the way to achieve it... One thing that had always troubled Heihachi was how Kazumi mostly seemed to be on his father's side over this... She was too kind... He wouldn't call her weak like he did for his father since he also loved very much that kind side of her... If she hadn't turned into such a monster, he would never have been able to dehumanize her later and get rid of her like he did for anyone else... He would never have been able to kill her if she had opposed him as a human... Even now he still regretted her death... The only human he missed or cared about...

Going back in the gardens, Wang shared one last drink with Jinpachi's stele, explaining to his friend why he was leaving, asking forgiveness for not having been able to help him and then left Japan to go back to China. He had enough, he didn't want to live in the courtyard of a killer, the one who probably killed his friend, who hurt or killed his own children... Maybe one day, he'll come back to avenge Jinpachi but now Lee probably needed his help...

And since Lee had told him his native city was Shanghai, Wang had begun looking for him there... and luckily found him now...