The Return

by SomeStoriesDeserveToBeTold

- AFTER TEKKEN 6 – Lars is missing... Heihachi has retired... Jin is dead... And Kazuya knows that those are all nothing but lies. Now, HE is the one in control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, and finally he is on the verge of attaining true power. Everything is going in his favor, until he is visited by the one person he thought he would never see again. KazuyaxJun

29. Mask

(Hello fans of Tekken! Looks like I've settled in to a rough schedule of two chapters per year (yes I know that's terrible lol I'm sorry) but I've just had less free time than ever since I started working all the time. Honestly I'm just glad I'm still able to find SOME time at all to keep going. Anyway, this chapter will pick up immediately where the last left off, and I think it'll give certain characters a bit more of the fulfillment that they've deserved for a long time. This chapter was frankly hard to write, but then again, these specific characters have always been the hardest for me to write about. I was finally able to finally lock in and find my voice once I seriously adapted the ideas to my own personal experiences and found subjects that genuinely interested me. In that sense, many of these chapters have been like therapy for me. So thanks for sitting in on my sessions! Diagnose away!)

The Return

Chapter Twenty Nine

A tiny glint, one fraction of the faintest light beam that had somehow managed to break through the endless cacophony of dark branches from the thick canopy above, fell emblematically into the clearing and for one fleeting moment, sparkled brightly off the porcelain features of a white fox.

Wait. What!?

The man's vision was unreliable, he knew this. Only moments ago he had been unconscious, seemingly lost in some other world. And though that world was indeed terrifying, nothing could have compared to the sight that awaited when he woke up.

The brain needs time to fully recover its senses after rising from a comatose state. I can't trust my eyes right now.

The man's disturbingly calm analysis was not unusual; merely a byproduct of his equally stoic military upbringing.

But despite knowing this, and despite being more than ready to repeat dozens of other logical conclusions that could explain away the unfavorable scene that greeted him, it seemed to only grow clearer.

The demon stood tall, barely out of reach, his vengeful gaze focused to the forest's edge. One mighty hand hung down at his side, clenched to an empty fist, while his other clutched something far more alive.

The Captain pushed against hard ground with both hands and shakily rose to his knees. Brown patches of the dusty forest floor scuffed his uniform. Raising his head again, Reike could feel his thoughts grow clearer.

Take it easy.

With creeping panic, he realized that no more simple mind games could help him deny the facts laid out before him.

"Kunimitsu…" He mumbled absentmindedly, coughing up the name with a puff of dust.

Her boots kicked blindly out into empty air, hovering inches above the forest floor below. Desperately they searched for some surface to plant themselves on, some foe to attack, but with every writhing kick they found nothing. Her arms were tense, clutching desperately to the muscled wrist that had made her its prisoner. Her fingers pushed and clawed, fighting frantically to force themselves in and give her own throat the simple chance to draw breath. But no air came. Half covered by the discordantly serene fox mask, her face displayed a frantic gritting of teeth, and the subtle shift of her skin tone to light red.

He's going to kill her... He's actually going to kill her!

Reike stumbled off his knees and haphazardly planted one foot on the ground, realizing quickly that although his clear state of mind was returning, his sense of balance still had a long way to go. Whatever just happened to him, whatever that bizarre wolf-like thing had been, it was far more draining than any basic hallucination. As he slowly struggled to get another foot on the ground, his head swung up to survey the scene once again, and it was then that he noticed something else.

Lurking carefully between dark shadows just beyond the tree line, leaning speciously against a dark, ancient cedar… there stood a woman.

What? Who is that?

Reike had never seen this woman before in his life.

Have I?

But as he took in the image longer, a faint, familiar form of otherworldly essence began to emanate from within. Perhaps the thick purple slime that covered her body should have given it away, but strangely enough it was actually the eyes, her swirling, yellow eyes, that finally forced a connection.

"You…" Captain Reike stuttered bitterly. The Wolf.

Finally rising to his feet, Reike pulled himself away from those yellow swirls and focused back towards the terrifying scene of his overlord and the captive. Sure enough, just as his hand locked unflinchingly around Kunimitsu's fragile neck, so too did his eyes lock fervently upon the evil, twisted woman nearby.

"Don't do this!" He yelled without intending.

As for what exactly Reike was urging his boss not to do, the man wasn't even sure. Truly, he had no idea what Kazuya's ultimate intention was, but at this moment such an understanding wasn't even necessary. Because anyone could see…

"This isn't right!" He shouted.

Why would I say such a thing?

Well, then again, how could he say nothing?

"Let her go!" He shouted again, louder now.

The iron grip didn't budge. Perhaps the monster was ignoring it, or perhaps he wasn't hearing anything at all. Nothing in his blank, fixated expression betrayed the tiniest hint of humanity.

Reike's frustration grew.

"Kazuya!"

Suddenly, The Devil was facing him.

Reike nearly tumbled to the ground in shock. And had he not already been so disoriented, he would surely have felt the blood drain from his face. Suddenly the little man couldn't remember if he had ever dared to address his boss by first name before.

Kazuya's left eye gleamed with an intense redness he had never seen, only heard whispers about. Its lip curled down in a furious scowl, and his enormous brows furrowed steeply inwards. Even from this distance, his muscles could be seen bulging and stressing tighter. Reike had seen Kazuya angry before, obviously, but this was something else. Nowhere to be found was the cold, calculating distaste that would usually define his features. Instead, the man's fury manifested with a wild, deathly might, which pulsated from his horrifying, deranged blood-red eye. It was an unholy, terrifying image.

But then, just beyond the man's grip… a desperate gasp escaped from Kunimitsu's mouth. And suddenly Reike found himself speaking again.

"Kazuya." He said, less confidently this time. "Whatever you're about to do to her… it doesn't need to-"

"Don't say another word." Kazuya breathed, smoke practically fuming out from his mouth. "You're done speaking."

Reike felt his stomach drop to a pit.

Just from a distance, the slime-coated woman gazed on with fascination. At the same time, her expression told of… joy.

Kazuya glared silently at his captain for another second, then relented. Content that he wouldn't be disturbed again, he slowly turned his head back towards the prize he had come for. The prize he still, after all this tireless preparation, couldn't seem to believe that he was truly seeing.

"I'm serious!"

Kazuya's head spun around again, fury quickly returning to his face. "I said you are done speaking!" He bellowed ferociously, fire gleaming from his eyes. The forest shook with each deafening syllable.

"She's in pain! She can't breathe!" He pleaded to the fire. "You're going to kill her!"

Kazuya's eyes narrowed; annoyance.

"Why do you think I brought her here." He asked rhetorically.

By this point, Reike had already figured out that the Kunimitsu was meant to die. But maybe… just maybe, he hoped, he would be wrong.

Clearly, he was not.

"I…" He stuttered.

Kazuya cut him off, a cold wind returning to his voice. "Don't." He commanded. "I don't need to see any more of your pathetic, emotional frailty."

Reike swallowed. "You're wrong." He finally returned. "This isn't about me. It's about you and what you're about to do to her!"

Kazuya sighed with frustration. "I knew I shouldn't have allowed you to come."

Reike observed his superior's admission and stood his ground. Even still, the man had no idea what he was really doing. He knew that contradicting Kazuya Mishima, the most powerful man on the face of the earth, equated a death sentence. And yet, the opportunity to serve faithfully under Kazuya had been the sole thing that Reike had been pursuing for years, it was the only thing he really wanted.

Right?

But before he could answer that question…

"You're a fool." Spat Kazuya lazily. "You've merely become one more in a frustratingly long line of Mishima High Guard Captains who fall victim to their own pathetic feelings of lust and emotion."

"This isn't about emotion." Reike fired back quickly, instinctively.

"It is!" Kazuya boomed, turning fully to face the insubordination. "You've become obsessed with the fox girl, and you're either too stupid, or too proud, or too scared to admit it!"

"That's-!"

"No," Kazuya continued, giving Reike just enough of a pause to respond, and then immediately cutting him off. "I could see this from the moment you met. You betray your thoughts in the way you look at her, the way you make reference to her, even the way you begged to join her on this mission. Why must it appear so obvious for every person but you?"

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't I?" Kazuya stormed. "I know that you've been doubting, Richard Reike. I know you've had thoughts about the things you've done on my behalf, thoughts about the path you've chosen, but despite all your best efforts, you've never been able to force them down. This is all you've ever wanted, isn't it? This is the dream of every solider you grew up with, and now that you're here, you're embarrassed to find that you can't cope with it." Then he scoffed. "Yes, reality tends to differ from optimistic idealism. I would have hoped that you realized this already."

A pause of silence filled the forest as Kazuya mused on.

"Unfortunately though, since you cannot reconcile the life you've asked for with the life that you've received, you've started looking for way out." He snarled, his voice fluctuating between fury and disappointment. "It's understandable. That's just what spineless people do."

"Now hold-"

"No." Kazuya stonewalled. "You began looking for a way out, and that's when the girl showed up. How convenient."

"Is that all you think she means to me?" Reike returned quickly.

Kazuya didn't waver. "I know that's what she is."

"You don't know anything about her!"

Kazuya opened his mouth to yell, then closed it abruptly without a sound. Reike was thrown off by the motion. At the edge of the clearing, the mysterious woman rested her head lightly against the tree.

Reike felt the man's stare bore straight through him, felt him weighing the words, and waited. It almost seemed although Kazuya was deliberating something, deciding whether he should share. But before Reike could think more deeply about it, the man moved.

"She never had a plan." He spoke, tone coming off calm and nearly conversational. "Or at least, never a plan that you could see."

The bizarre shift confused Reike. What…?

"She never seemed to understand the severity of this world… never seemed to take it seriously." Kazuya continued, his voice falling slowly until it was practically a murmur. "But despite this apparent mindlessness, this supposed whimsical indifference, you could always tell that deep inside, she was up to something. And not just any thing; something important."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Reike, who had grown more uneasy with every word.

Kazuya paused again. His blood-red stare, now miraculously dull, broke away and gazed beyond. The nearly empty forest held its breath.

"You aren't the only man on earth who's tried to throw everything away for a woman." Kazuya muttered. "You aren't the first, and you won't be the last." Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The shadows shifted.

Kazuya straightened out his back and opened his eyes, dull redness giving way to vibrant fury once again. The intensity was now even greater than before.

Kazuya's gaze narrowed. "I won't tell you how to feel. You're free to waste your life loving someone who will never love you back… but you're not doing it here, and you're not doing it on my time." He breathed with a chilling intensity. "You're either backing down and leaving Yakushima right now… or you're going to die."

Silence.

Nothing in the forest moved, not the trees, not the wind, not the dark woman, and definitely not Richard Reike.

He stood deathly still, the expression on his face still stoic and unsure.

Yet somehow, he didn't feel terrified. And in the face of everything that had been said so far, Reike knew that by all counts, he probably should have been.

Kazuya lingered on his subordinate for a second longer, then finally turned back towards his ultimate goal…

"You're not wrong, Kazuya." Came an unexpected call.

Reike stood taller now, and he seemed more than ready to speak.

Kazuya groaned in annoyance, the groan slowly transforming into a snarl of anger. He had had enough of the interruptions.

"So you've chosen to die." Kazuya said flatly, arm still outstretched and holding Kunimitsu aloft.

Reike ignored the comment. "I do feel something for this girl." Reike admitted, his gaze shifting briefly to the hovering fox. Subconsciously, he found himself wondering how she might respond to hearing him say that out loud. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to tell.

Reike pushed the thoughts away. "When I met her, I felt that connection, and it's true. She represented exactly the escape that you said she was."

"Do you realize that this dream was pointless." Kazuya posited lazily, hardly even present. His mind drifted further and further away with every second.

"I did." Reike responded intently, pulling the man's attention back down. "At first I didn't want to accept it. But over time I realized that it could never happen. I can't change her nature, and I can't make her decide to want me." He admitted, almost ashamed. "And rightfully that should have been the end of it… but it wasn't. No, instead, something else happened. Once that attraction had finally faded away, she still fascinated me. I still wanted to be around her."

Kazuya's eyes narrowed.

"Maybe she did represent an escape for me. Maybe that had more to do with it than I thought." Reike began, his focus drifting. "But really, what I believe made the difference, was that she showed me the possibility of another life… another way of living which had already existed inside of me for years and years, but had only never been pulled to the surface. I talked with her, I laughed with her, and I saw someone completely different from the person I thought I was. Someone without the rigid rules and regulations I'd always known, someone without the mindless obedience and ruthless focus on a cause and effect world. Just… someone different. I didn't HAVE to do be a solider. I didn't HAVE to spend the rest of my life this way, I could go anywhere I wanted! Hell, I could change my name and run away to the other side of the world, and I'd still go on waking up the next morning. I know that sounds ridiculous... I don't care if you think I'm moronic for not having realized this sooner… it means more to me than you could ever know."

The forest listened.

"And if she could do that all by herself," He pressed, a glint of wonder appearing in his eye. "If one person who I hardly even knew could bring something so radically new and different to my life… then what could other people do? What could the whole world do? And what else is hiding within…?"

Reike paused. As he described the vision more, the glint in his eye peaked. But then it vanished.

"But I was scared." He admitted suddenly. "I realized, all too fast, that if I followed these thoughts I could lose everything. Not just my position… my life. If she hadn't been there to watch my back…" He reminisced slowly, pausing. "… And being in that situation, that close to death, I think it made me fearful of moving on. If I embraced all the things that she had shown me, and if I questioned the world around me instead of blindly trying to succeed through it, would I be safe? Would I have anything to show for it? Would I even be alive?"

As Reike's thoughts wandered, so too did his gaze. It drifted up, past the dirt, past the forest, and into the patchwork sky above.

"And how am I even supposed to know for sure that I'd be happier in a different life? What about all the little things that I cherish already? Will I lose those too in taking a jump? What kind of things will I only realize I regret in hindsight? Is there really another life out there for me at all? Am I neurotic? Am I taking this too seriously? Am I not taking it seriously enough? What will I leave behind? What will I find afterwards? Will I ever understand something? Am I ever going to stop asking myself questions that I know I won't be able to answer?"

A wind kicked through. It rustled the trees, and sent leaves to falling lazily to the ground below.

Reike paused, then looked up to catch Kunimitsu's eye in the corner of her mask. For a moment, they met.

"There are so many things in my life that I can't understand…" He whispered with depression at first, then suddenly a determined tone overtook his voice. "But this, right here, finally, is something that I do."

The wind died down.

Silence returned.

Kazuya said nothing. His body was a statue.

Then the statue spoke.

"Really." He asked emotionlessly. His dull tone actually contained mild interest. "This is finally it. A situation with endlessly compounding variables and mountains of uncertainty, surrounded by people you've never met, places you've never been, and forces you've never even dreamed could exist at all. Right here, in the middle of all that madness, is finally a situation that you claim to understand."

"Yes." Came Reike's immediate response. His tense resolve reflected in the features of his otherwise soft and unreadable face.

Kazuya appeared unconvinced.

"Do you know the true purpose of this mission." He questioned.

"No. Your briefing was a lie."

"And your vision. The wolf. Do you understand what that truly meant?"

"No. I do not."

Kazuya nodded intently, his attention never leaving the captain. He opened his mouth to speak, then waited. His eyes bored through not with fury and anger like Reike was accustomed to, but with something else. Finally he spoke.

"Do you have any idea who that is." He asked pointedly.

Kazuya hadn't moved an inch, yet Reike knew exactly what mysterious figure the man was referring to.

"I've never seen her before in my life." He answered flatly.

In the distance, yellow eyes swirled.

"That's right…" Kazuya ruminated quietly. "You haven't got a clue what any of this is about." Next he began to speak faster, his tone harshening. "You couldn't possibly understand the magnitude of this situation. You have no idea how much has been leading to this moment."

"I don't need to."

"What do you mean you don't need to!?" Kazuya exploded, gripping his captive tighter.

Reike, more aware of the struggling woman than anyone else present, took a quick, measured step forward.

"I can see this exactly the same way that anyone else can; as a human being."

Kazuya snarled. More and more of the man's words were beginning to remind him of certain difficult, back and forth conversations with someone else…

"Billions of bigoted, arrogant people could see this exact moment, and they would each give you a differently bigoted, uniquely arrogant perspective." He pointed out fiercely, biting off each word as it left his mouth. "What makes you so special to have seen to objective truth."

"I don't believe in objective truth." Reike answered, possibly saying the first single thing that Kazuya could actually agree with.

"Oh… perhaps you aren't so idiotic after all." Kazuya sighed.

"But if nothing else, I can see MY truth."

Kazuya paused.

"Go on." He prodded.

"No amount of justifying, no amount of obscure, self-serving explanations that you could possibly come up with right here can deny it." Reike charged, pushing past his master's comment. "You want something… and you're willing to kill someone to get it."

Kazuya waited.

"And I won't let you." Reike pressed.

"Is it wrong to kill?" Came the questioning reply.

"It's wrong to kill for your selfish gain."

Kazuya nodded once, distantly. "Well I wonder… in a world like this, a world that will kill you without hesitation for any reason at all, even none… which of us is truly the unnatural one?"

Reike paused. "The world is what you make it."

"Exactly!" Kazuya declared suddenly. "That's right."

Now it was Reike's turn to pause in trepidation.

"It's said that man is the measure of all things." The devil mused. "Really, there are no arbitrary rules binding you here, because there is no objective truth." He continued, gaining speed. "Maybe your revelation wasn't so ridiculous after all, Reike. Maybe you're finally seeing the world for the blank canvas it is, and recognizing the true power that you've had all along. Because in a world without objective truth, people like you and I are left to fill the void with whatever we decide."

"My truth is far from yours." Reike added sternly.

"Of course." Kazuya agreed, savoring the moment. "I won't go into the utilitarian side with you… I won't get into the dozens of wars I've stopped, the thousands of regimes I've stabilized, the millions of lives that my reign at the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu has saved. Believe me, I could give you countless reasons that you don't want to hear-"

"And what the innocents you've killed. The ideas you've silenced. The people you've murdered in cold blood." Reike interjected fiercely.

"What about the people SHE'S killed?" Kazuya pivoted instantly, raising Kunimitsu up in dramatic display.

Reike's ferocity stumbled.

"It's different." He said sternly.

"No, it's not." Kazuya corrected. "She's killed many times on my behalf, and I'm sure that if this whole unfortunate episode never happened, she would have gone on happily killing many more… but the difference is that I don't crucify her for that. I don't try to reason it away and reject it." Kazuya looked over and locked eyes with Kunimitsu, still struggling in his hand. A touch of desperation, but mostly fury and anger, radiated back at him from behind the mask. Kazuya met it with intrigue. "I sympathize with her." He finished calmly.

"Enough of this!" Reike exclaimed, reluctantly drawing Kazuya's attention away from his fiery captive. "You have no sympathy." He spat. "You're not human."

Kazuya's red eye flashed.

Thunder boomed in the distance.

"Is that what you think? I'd venture that I acknowledge the human element more truthfully than anyone else on earth." He declared, words slicing the tense air with every syllable. "THAT is what makes me strong. Not my training, not my blood, not my past. It's my humanity. It's this simple recognition of power, and my drive to realize it."

Thunder cracks. Trees shake.

Reike felt a cold wind wash over his face. His resolve hardened.

"You cannot escape this." The young captain declared. His eyes darted to the increasingly motionless Kunimitsu. Her struggling, quite violent and renowned at first, had now simmered.

Life is not meant to be lived without air.

Kazuya lifted his chin up, looking down upon his defiant foe.

"So your truth opposes mine…" He mumbled. "And if neither one of us is any more right or wrong than the other…"

Reike's hand tensed tightly at his side.

The Devil smiled.

"Then do something about it."

Another chilling breeze. A storm was blowing in.

"She means something to me." Reike affirmed calmly, with deathly intent.

Their hair drifted lightly in the growing breeze.

Mishima blood warmed. It flowed through his veins and pulsated through his brain.

The red eye gazed on with hunger.

Reike took a step forward.

The thunder subsided.

"And SHE means something to me."

In the distance, It gazed on with fascination.

And behind her, the whole soulless forest watched.

Everything stopped.

Kazuya Mishima straightened his posture and calmly raised his left hand until it was at torso height. As his violent red gaze locked firmly on the prey below, the man let his hand curl into a tight fist.

Subtly, almost inaudibly, a crackling not unlike exposed electricity began to scatter the silence. Whereas the thunder seemed distant, this noise came all too close.

Reike stood mere yards way, muscles tensing. His newly scuffed uniform might as well blend in with the dark foliage and shadows nearby. He raised two fists in a fighting stance, then stood another step forward.

It was a deliberate step, far from an emotional approach. Reike was no fool, he realized who this opponent was.

He had heard the stories.

Kazuya watched the man's approach and felt a familiar surge of excitement.

Face me.

The world held its breath.

…

Finally, all at once, Reike rushed forward against his enemy.

Clearing the space between them in only a few strides, he cocked one arm back and prepared to launch it against Kazuya's center.

The target stood still, unmoving with his left side tilted towards confrontation and his right angled back. With only one hand available to use, and considerably less mobility from the increased weight he held, Kazuya should have experienced the clear disadvantage.

Mishima eyes were locked on the opponent's loaded fist.

Reike… on his target's feet.

The rushing force drew closer, and finally thrust forward with his arm.

The motion had just barely begun, and immediately Kazuya jumped into action. His heavy boot slid roughly, incredibly fast, forward across the dirty ground. His hand opened; a bloody talon, and extended forward to sink into the thrust.

The parry came out faster than anything Reike had ever seen in his life.

But Reike never needed to see it coming. He only needed it to happen.

Truth be told, Reike probably would have been dead in an instant if Kazuya had done anything BUT parry.

The man could gamble.

It was a difficult move, especially with such tight timing. Reike leant all the way into his strike and swung his momentum forward. The punch sailed closer, then careened lazily around at a turn nearly ninety degrees. Trailing off into empty air, Reike stopped putting energy into his feint and focused in for his real attack.

His whole body began to spin, feet screeching to a halt mere inches away from the clutches of death. His torso, then his arms, then his head.

And for a split second, Reike's eyes faced the forest.

Had any opponent ever dared to look the opposite direction while dancing this close to the deadliest man on earth? If not, it was probably for good reason.

But the surprise, the sheer shock of it all, that was exactly what Reike had been banking on.

And when his head finally caught up to the rest of his body in its rotation, he could finally see it happening; he could finally see his own elbow, raised high in the air from the momentous turn, come swinging down right onto Kazuya's head.

Yes!

Reike's surprise attack; a full half turn falling elbow smash, worked perfectly. As milliseconds passed, the strike fell swiftly down towards its prey.

And then…

Deflection.

Instead of feeling the crash of elbow on hard skull that Reike had anticipated, something else happened.

He brushed into Kazuya's arm.

Wha-?

The response was instant.

As Reike had spun, Kazuya had made his move. As soon as Kazuya recognized the feint, he shifted backward. Then, lowering the extra weight he held in his opposite hand all the way down as a counterbalance, the master fighter had swung his extended arm upwards using the exact same principle of momentum that Reike had employed. The resulting impact was barely a brush, but that was all that he needed.

The two elbows clipped each other in mid-air, knocking each one inches off course.

Kazuya's was pushed down closer to his center of gravity…

… and Reike's sailed harmlessly past his target's head; brushing hair.

No!

What came next was instantaneous.

WHAM!

Freshly primed, full of fire, Kazuya's fist slammed into Reike's neck and hooked under his chin. The upward force might as well have taken his head clean off.

Yet the punishment didn't end there.

Kazuya exerted even more pressure upward, then shifted it to pummel down. The result was appalling. Reike's entire body lifted backward into the air, then snapped viciously down towards the ground.

THUD!

Dust exploded in all directions as Reike's body slammed against the unforgiving forest floor below.

Bludgeoning thunder, barely keeping speed with the lightning-fast takedown, erupted across the sky.

CRACK - BOOM!

The trees shook with gusting wind, rolling back in amazement at the display before them.

For a moment, everything was flying.

…

And then there was silence.

…

Dust settled.

The forest held its breath.

Nothing made a sound as Kazuya, the true force of nature, rose confidently to his feet.

His focus shifted quickly to the dirty ground below. Then, finding his enemy still, returned lazily to the level. The fingers on his left hand, only moments ago having delivered a catastrophic impact, remained tightly curled in their cudgel. Those on his right, hardly more relaxed, adjusted their grip and pulled the human prize higher.

The additional weight should truly have been a burden, but by dropping it low to the ground and leaning against it as a counterbalance, he was able to completely avoid a devastating strike.

And finish the fight in one move, too.

Weak.

Kazuya watched the dust drift slowly down until it settled comfortably on the forest floor. Around him, nothing else dared to move.

"That wasn't a bad move." Kazuya commented absently, his mind elsewhere. "You were instructed to never attempt risks like that in the High Guard."

The soldier stirred; a heavy breath.

Kazuya took two steps backward.

It was certainly a powerful enough blow to immobilize the man, but apparently not enough to kill. Instead, Reike heaved another contorted breath, then rolled his head dizzily from side to side.

"Uh…" He moaned.

Kazuya watched the display with contempt.

Resilience. Or is it just naivety?

As Kazuya pondered the question, Reike's body slowly began to catch up from its abrupt resettlement. His eyes blinked in turn, then finally stayed open. At last, he was able to move his hand, and begin to push himself up.

"Don't." Kazuya interjected. The devil man's dismissal mixed in an unusual tone, almost coming across as honest advice.

Reike's head turned towards the sound, and for a moment he laid still.

Kazuya let out a deep breath.

"I wish you hadn't done this." He spoke, almost sounding of regret.

A soft breeze crept in.

Reike looked up from the dirt with an unreadable expression.

Kazuya met the stare.

"Perhaps…" He mumbled. "If anything else had been on the line... I might have been able to look the other way."

Far away, the violet hand slid down its tree.

"But this is it." He finished. His voice grew from a mumble until it contained within it an immovable core of cold certainty. "I care more about this than I have ever cared about anything." He said.

The forest listened.

"More than any other person, any place… any future. None of it compares. Bringing her back is the one thing that has confused and tormented the most… yet at the same time I've never been more sure of anything else in my entire life."

Kazuya breathed. His tense muscles relaxed.

The hand stopped.

"I'll kill you." He spoke. "And I'll kill everyone on the face of the earth if I truly need to."

The breeze died down.

…

Kazuya's eyes closed.

He opened his mouth to speak, a sentence that had eluded him for so long danced precipitously beyond his grasp.

He thought of her.

The man's mouth closed.

Her presence… He could feel it.

A moment passed in silence.

Kazuya pushed the thoughts away, just as he had done so many times before. Just as he had pledged to do his entire life, and just as he had failed to do too many times before.

This time, though he felt her in the air… it worked.

His eyes opened.

His subordinate lay below him, unmoving.

Their gaze met.

When Kazuya opened his mouth next, the trepidation was gone. Pure agency remained.

"There is nothing left to say." He announced, words falling hard like the death sentence that they were.

Reike looked up at his executioner from behind dazed eyes. The man's expression was scattered, smudged with dirt. His hair fell like disheveled lines across each pupil.

Then the eyes moved. They looked to Kazuya's right.

Suddenly a defiant gleam flashed across the captain's face.

"Do it." He whispered.

A sudden gust of wind swept in from nowhere.

She was here. He could feel her.

Kazuya…

His blood went cold.

"Jun?"

KAZUYA!

…!

"YAH!"

The pain as instant, exploding from deep within.

Something cold and metallic pressed against his skin, then thrust deep into his flesh, slashing past membranes and sinew, digging down, down, down, until at last it hit bone. The moment passed in a flash, but Kazuya could feel every cut as if it were happening in slow motion.

"AH-!"

Before he could even turn his head, Kazuya felt the muscles in his arm go slack, then tense wildly together in immediate shock. His arm felt like it was on fire.

His grip released.

The prisoner fell.

For a split second the shock overtook him, pulsating through his mind and destroying every semblance of composure. He couldn't pause, he couldn't even think. All he could do was panic. And panic in the mind of Kazuya Mishima was a rare anomaly indeed.

The human body should not be able to force itself out of shock. Such a bizarre talent could only have hurt our evolutionary ancestors, so the best response would normally be to just shut down.

But this was a man with one rule… to never control.

Stop! He commanded.

Slashing through the vines of his own tangled sensation, Kazuya forced the panic away and focused on what had happened.

My arm! It's my arm! He understood.

Looking quickly to his right, all he could see was the knife.

No, it wasn't a knife…

A kunai!

Without thinking, Kazuya immediately reached up with his left hand and grabbed at the handle of the razor-sharp weapon that now protruded from his bicep. In his rush to regain control, Kazuya stumbled backwards and struggled to plant his footing. His hand locked tightly around the handle as his breathing intensified, then steadied again. All he had to do now was pull it out…

Wait! No…

Kazuya's fingers slid down across the handle and wrapped tightly around his gashed overcoat.

I can't yet…

Staggering back several more steps, Kazuya felt his gaze sweep rabidly across the forest floor, where it finally settled… on Kunimitsu.

It's- I- HER!

Down on two knees, the fox girl drew frantic gasping breaths. Her whole body seemed to stutter and shake with vigor from the earth itself. One thin hand clutched defiantly onto the ground below, pushing against it with equal parts determination and spite. Her mask was misaligned, nearly ready to fall straight off her face. Below, in between those frantic pulls of air, the woman's teeth glimmered with fury.

Now Kazuya sensed his mind growing clearer. That moment of shock, all the panic and disbelief that had flooded his senses only moments ago, caved in and began to reform into something else. Replacing it instead, bit by bit as he watched the assassin struggle, was a white-hot rage that dulled his pain and steadied his gaze.

"You." He cursed in a deathly tone, a gleaming silver kunai still jutting out from his damaged arm. With one hand clasped tightly around the wound and another hanging limply at his side, Kazuya appeared like a man possessed.

Kunimitsu tried to yell out in return, but found only a violent coughing fit.

"-Ach!"

As the woman struggled to breathe and the devil struggled to regain his composure, their third companion had begun to rise shakily as well.

As soon as he saw the kunai make contact with Kazuya's arm, Reike had hurriedly flipped over and stumbled to his knees. His head was still pounding from that blow, but deep inside he knew he wasn't finished yet. Keeping one eye on the ground to balance himself, he watched as Kazuya staggered about like a frenzied madman. Then he noticed the thin, dark streaks of crimson that had begun spreading across his coat.

"He bleeds…"

Kazuya noticed the blood too and cursed silently. More than the pain, more than the fury he felt towards Kunimitsu, he felt anger with himself.

How could I let this happen!? He fumed. How could I let my guard down for even a second!?

Of course, it didn't take long to figure out how she had done it.

So long as the grip on Kunimitsu's neck was tight, and so long as Kazuya could hold her body far enough out at a safe distance from his own, the girl should have been utterly powerless. Kazuya was aware of the kunai hanging dangerously close at the strap on her thigh, but there was no chance she would be able to contort her body enough to reach it, especially not once the air had begun to leave her lungs and cloud her thinking. Yet somehow the fox girl had been cogent enough to plan out the perfect moment to strike, and strike she did. The moment came when Kazuya had leant far sideways to dodge Reike's attack, and while using her weight as a counterbalance to his own, he had briefly dragged her body across the dirt floor below. Unknown to Kazuya, this simple motion had given the fox girl a split-second opportunity to kick off the ground with one leg and bring the kunai within reaching distance. The timing should have been nearly impossible for such a fast maneuver, especially with the depleted oxygen in her brain impeding focus. Yet despite everything working against her, Kunimitsu pulled it off. And once the familiar weapon was in her hand, it simply became a matter of planting the blade.

Kazuya coughed out a dragon-like breath in frustration. He should have known better than to allow the girl even one chance.

One chance is one too many.

"You…" he breathed again, smoke practically fuming out of his mouth. Kazuya may have wanted to say something more specific, but in that moment of pain and fury, the word was all he found.

Meanwhile, Kunimitsu's coughing fit had subsided, and her breathing steadied. Facing down, she managed to get one knee and one foot planted firmly on the ground below, and push herself up to a sitting position. Her mask swung dizzily upwards.

Behind each carefully pained porcelain eye hole, wildfire burned.

"You… mother…" She heaved, still having a hard time adjusting to the unusual sensation of air in her lungs. "…fucker."

Kazuya stomped forward to finish the defenseless girl, eyes swirling with murderous intent.

Then a piercing pain shot up through his arm, and he was stopped.

There could be no denying it any longer. Kazuya's hand was starting to turn slick from the blood that soaked through his coat.

The cut was deep.

Damn it! He thought as his eyes darted quickly between the struggling assassin and the glimmering steel that still protruded from his arm. Kazuya wanted nothing more than to step forward and pummel the woman into dust. It would surely be easy. But even in his state of bloodlust, he realized that the gash required his attention far more.

At this rate of loss, it would only be a matter of time. Even one moment of drained semi-consciousness could mean disaster. It could end everything.

The wound needed attention NOW.

He took a frustrated glance at Captain Reike some yards away, then one more look at the woman below. You're next. He promised.

Inhaling a deep breath and gritting his teeth for the immense pain he knew was coming next, Kazuya adjusted his grip on the kunai and tightly enclosed his fingers around the handle. A split second of silence passed.

Breathe out…

Then, pulling with a cold, deliberate focus, he yanked the entire blade cleanly out from his arm with one swift motion.

"GAAAAH!"

The stab had been even deeper than he feared. It had clearly been placed by someone who knew what they were doing.

The pain is nothing. The pain is nothing. The pain is nothing…

As soon as the kunai was out, Kazuya flung the weapon as hard as he could into the forest beyond. He hadn't even planned to do it, but once the bloody tool sat in his hand, there wasn't even a question. It flew with tremendous force, sailing past row upon row of trees until it disappeared into the dark foliage beyond.

Meanwhile, before the knife had even hit the ground, Kazuya was already pulling his ruined overcoat off.

Predictably, yanking the kunai from its place had increased the pain tenfold, and Kazuya's pace was reflecting that.

He grabbed the clean left sleeve of his overcoat, then planted one foot firmly on the body of the garment and pulled until he could hear the fabric rip. Focus. Go faster. Now with one long sleeve to use as his bandage, Kazuya quickly wrapped his arm and tied a makeshift knot that he trusted would hold.

It won't stop the bleeding, or the pain... But it'll give me my arm back.

Obviously, the injury was going to require medical attention. Stitches at the least. But while a normal person might be focused on thoughts like this, Kazuya's mind ran somewhere else.

Yes. He thought darkly as his fingers moved through the knot. I'm going to need both arms for this.

Pushing the sleeve one more time through his makeshift loop, Kazuya tied off the wrapping and tested it. The work was tight; it should hold. To prove his hopes, Kazuya slowly curled his right hand, which he had previously been unable to move due, into a light fist.

Good.

Satisfied with his work, Kazuya looked back up from the injury to check on his two opponents…

And immediately he was greeted with another razor-sharp kunai flying straight towards him.

Shit!

The blade's trajectory, speeding straight for his upper chest, could easily be fatal. But before Kazuya could even could ponder this, his entire body swerved instinctively to the left. There wasn't even a thought about it; only action.

In the distance, Kunimitsu watched her weapon soar with a foaming anger, her thin brown boots standing shakily as she continued to regain her strength.

The air gave way as the weapon drew closer… then barely missed.

It flew right past Kazuya's neck, then slammed violently into the wood of a nearby tree.

TWACK!

Kazuya quickly regained his balance and spun to face the fox girl.

Still with one leg on the ground, Kunimitsu looked up at her missed mark with frustration. Beneath the lopsided mask, her fangs sparkled.

"Like the cornered animal that you are." Kazuya said dryly, a rare observation escaping from the man's mouth.

Kunimitsu hissed. "Don't patronize me." She shot back. Then, with startling agility, the girl sprung up from a crouching position and planted both feet firmly on the roots below. Standing tall, she raised one hand to her face and retightened the straps that had caused her mask to hang loose. Once the intricate white design embraced her face once more, now completely obscuring both pupils in shadow, the fox raised both fists in a defiant fighting stance.

Somehow, obscuring her eyes had made the mask looked infinitely more intimidating.

Kazuya watched the display with distant contempt. Turning his neck to crack a stray bone, the man straightened out his back and rose to his full height. Which was, as one could imagine, slightly greater than Kunimitsu's.

The staredown.

"Stop this!" Came a booming call from the center of the clearing.

Kazuya looked past his feisty opponent to see the figure of Captain Reike, now seemingly quite recovered, stagger carefully up from behind. The man still looked dazed, but the intensity in his face was now even more solemn than before.

If Kunimitsu heard the call, she didn't show it. Breathing loud, her fury-filled eyes never left the man who had brought her here.

Reike paused to take a breath of his own, then joined her in facing their boss. "Something terrible is going to happen." He spoke quickly. "We need to get out of here."

"What terrible thing would that be?" Asked Kazuya from across the clearing. The man's fists tightened menacingly at his side.

Reike's eyes narrowed. "I don't know how much worse it could be than the things you've already done… but I'm sure you'll find a way."

Kazuya nearly smirked. "Now where was this sense of humor when you were in charge of my high guard…" The man's devilish eye flashed from side to side. "Were you saving it for her?"

Reike stomped forward, all hints of exhaustion leaving his face. "Don't even try it. You're not as manipulative as you think." He charged defiantly. "If you think you can goad us into staying here and fighting, you're out of your mind."

"I don't need to manipulate both of you," Kazuya explained slowly. "I only need to convince one."

Reike opened his mouth to shoot back a quick response, then stopped. Quickly looking to his left, he saw the fox girl's teeth grinding from beneath her mask. The woman's anger was palpable.

"No… you can't be serious." Reike breathed.

Kunimitsu didn't move.

Reike began feeling hints of panic. "You… you're not actually going to do this, are you? Do you realize what you're doing? We can finally escape now! We need to make a run for it!"

Again, the fox girl said nothing. Her eyes remained laser focused on her quarry across the clearing. Every muscle beneath her dust-stained leather combat uniform appeared tense to strike. Her breathing, only just erratic, now appeared calm and measured.

"Kunimitsu." Reike called again desperately. "You're not actually going to fight him, are you?"

"No…" She finally spoke. "I'm going to kill him."

From across the clearing, Kazuya scoffed loudly in dismissive protest.

"I'm going to kill him," Kunimitsu reiterated, taking note. "And then I'm going to kill the woman."

Kazuya's amusement disappeared instantly.

Across the clearing, the creature tucked itself backwards, now barely peeking out from behind a dark tree.

Kunimitsu saw the slime-covered woman recoil, and a slight growl, barely audible, escaped her lips. The sight appeared to be invigorate.

Despite the white mask making it impossible to read her eyes, Reike could easily sense the bloodlust growing from within. But instead of scaring him, he only felt worry.

"Kunimitsu." He spoke carefully, soberly. The situation had grown dangerous, and everything was liable to explode at any moment. Reaching out with one hand, he placed it lightly on her leather-clad shoulder. "You don't have to do this." He implored softly.

Immediately the hand was punched away.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Came a vicious reply as Kunimitsu spun back angrily. Fists clenched, she looked more than ready to strike.

Suddenly face to face with the pointed mask, Reike stumbled back. "I'm trying to help you!"

Rage boiled behind the girl's pointed teeth. A rage that had been long suppressed, for many years and for many reasons.

Kunimitsu raised her fist higher… then dropped it. She released a long breath that no one realized she had even been holding.

Reike's confusion mounted. The response was extreme, even violent, and yet something in it seemed hurt.

I just want to help you…

Understanding the woman's motivation had been difficult enough for Reike in the past, so he quickly realized there would be no chance of figuring it out now. As much as he wanted them to speak, to address the things that had been said only minutes before, Reike recognized that now simply couldn't be the time. They were in danger. They needed to get out.

He decided to try logic.

"Kunimitsu… You have every right to be furious right now." He began. "But blind fury is exactly what he wants us to feel. He's trying to use that against us and keep us here! He's trying to make us fight him head on!"

Kunimitsu didn't flinch.

"Look, Kazuya's injured. He's lost a lot of blood. If we run right now, we can outpace him. It's our only shot at getting out of this place, and it's the only way we can avoid that Wolf-monster, too. There's no telling what that thing is capable of!"

Still no effect.

"Come on!" Reike yelled, his frustrated desperation growing. "What are we supposed to do? He's unstoppable! And that other thing doesn't even feel like it belongs in this world! If you stay here to fight him, there's not shot we can get out of here alive!"

"What if I don't care about getting out alive." The fox girl abruptly responded. Her mask tilted and Reike could finally see the power hiding beneath her eyes.

"What are you saying?" Reike asked in startled confusion. "You want to die?"

Kunimitsu stood silently for a moment. Her red ponytail swayed lightly in the breeze. "I want to make my own choice."

"What good is your own choice if it gets you killed!?"

"Because!" She abruptly screamed. "That's one more genuine choice than I've ever made in my entire life!" Her untouchable façade had finally broken.

A barren forest watched intently. The night was young.

At once the outburst resonated with Reike, yet it still left him with even more questions.

"What are you talking about?" He stammered.

Kunimitsu scoffed, her emotional surge quickly giving way to a flood of unwanted memories.

"I knew this would happen… I knew it! It's always the same. The reason I don't get close to you people is always the same." She rambled jaggedly, a sudden pain materializing in her voice.

Reike had no idea how he should respond. Only seconds ago the fox girl looked completely lifeless, ready to kill in cold blood, but now emotion reigned supreme. Even her posture now appeared more familiar to the person he knew back in the tower, and her words seemed infinitely more real. To top it off, back before everything had become so complicated, Reike would be lying if he said he never wished he could only be brave enough to talk with Kunimitsu like this. But now that it was actually happening, now that she was finally saying something other than a sarcastic jab, he felt only panic. Perhaps timing had something to do with it…

Why is this happening now!? Out of the corner of his eye, Reike glanced towards Kazuya. This is not supposed to happen!

But if feelings of confusion and conflict had only just begun seeping into Reike's mind, then they had already completely engulfed Kunimitsu's.

"I- I don't even know why I said that." She stuttered angrily, brows furrowing beneath the mask. "Especially right now. But I'm- I'm just so sick and tired of this! I'm sick and tired of convincing myself to say nothing when there's obviously something I want to say!"

"Then say something." Came a distant invitation.

Both man and fox spun around in shock to see the source; it had come from Kazuya. The call was eerie for countless reasons, but chief among them; he sounded far too genuine. Behind dull grey eyes impossible to read, the devil listened carefully.

Kunimitsu's anger resurged.

"You!" She spat. "You were about to have me killed! You used me for months, gave me everything I wanted, then dragged me all the way out here just so you can throw me to the wolves!"

The irony of the words were not lost on Kazuya.

The fox girl's fury grew. "You see me for one thing: what I can do, that's it! And not just what I can do, but only what I can do FOR YOU." She yelled, shaking with anger. Stamping down on the hard roots, she raised a tense arm and pointed accusingly towards her superior. "You." She breathed, then rotated to point at Reike. "Him. Everyone I've ever met!"

"What? That can't be true!" Reike denied, complete bewilderment in his voice. "I've never wanted to hurt you, you've changed my life more than anyone else in the world!"

"That's exactly it!" Kunimitsu exclaimed; an exhausted excitement. Then her tone shifted. "I… heard everything you said before, Reike. I did. And you need to understand that I'm happy for you. I can't even express how overjoyed I am to see you finally recognizing the possibilities that I always suspected you could have. To find that kind of clarity and purpose all of a sudden… I can't even tell you how honored that makes me."

"Then I don't understand…"

"Reike." She said calmly. "It's because that clarity, that understanding and growth you've discovered… it's YOUR moment. Not mine. It doesn't have anything to do with me."

"But you're the only reason I was able to do this!"

"Yes! But what did I realize?!" She cried out, fists tightening around the weight of her words. The question, more of a demand, echoed despairingly through the empty forest.

Reike was stunned. "Wha…?"

"Did you ever ask yourself that?" Kunimitsu continued, sadness growing in her voice. "Did you ever think about whether all this change and growth that you've found had any effect on me? At all? Not even whether it was good or bad, just at all? Did you ever stop to ask what was happening to me all this time?"

"I…"

"What about the growth that I need? What about my fears and dreams? Like am I any closer to finding them, or am I just going deeper and deeper down the same damn hole that I've been digging for myself the entire time I've been alive... Do you even know what my name means!?" She yelled.

Behind the mask, it was impossible to even tell if there were tears. But by all counts, it sounded like there should be.

"Kunimitsu, I had no idea… you never once tried to talk about yourself."

"Well maybe that's the problem." She answered back. "Maybe that's what's wrong with me. Maybe that's exactly the thing that you could have helped me find."

Reike said nothing.

Kunimitsu looked away and sighed. "I… I'm not saying I ever expected you to show up and solve my life for me, okay? I hardly even know you! Even if you could, and nobody can, I wouldn't want you to. If there's anything that I've learned at all in all this time that I've wasted, it's that personal growth has to be something we do on our own. But apparently… after hearing what my own ridiculous personality did for you… I guess other people are supposed to help."

Reike's eyes were glass. His confusion had vanished.

Kunimitsu forced back something that sounded like a sob. "I'm sure you can see it now… but there's a lot of things that are wrong with me… with the way that I trust."

Reike watched the side of Kunimitsu's head with a quiet, calm understanding.

"Or rather, with the way that I don't."

Reike looked down. A strange urge filled his mind as his eyes slowly closed. Without thinking, a decision was made.

He took a deep breath. "What happens when you've tried to trust people?"

"…They use me." Kunimitsu breathed, the first undeniable tear now slowly slipping in to view.

Her disguising mask pointed to Kazuya, who stood silently beyond. Ever since the strange invitation, he hadn't said a word.

"The ones I admire, the ones I need, the ones that lie to me about… connections."

Kunimitsu took a deep breath.

"I've never trusted a single person in my entire life." She explained with a touch of uncertain pride. "That was the gift my mother left me. And every time I've tried to get rid of it, to grow past the pain she imprinted… someone throws me down and hits me with another crushing example of exactly why she was right. Or in this case… picks me up." She spoke, glancing up at Kazuya for the last line.

The man didn't react. He knew what came next.

"I know you sent her." Kunimitsu stated plainly, confirming the reference. "Should that make it less painful? Or more? I honestly can't decide. But when she showed up that night, when she burst into my room to pull the information you wanted and take advantage of me for her own aimless boredom… I think I was finally starting to convince myself that it was okay to trust again. I was finally remembering what it felt like to be a normal human being."

The fox looked away, into the dark. The shadows obscured her eyes.

"Yeah." Kunimitsu muttered. "She couldn't have come at a worse time."

The forest watched intently.

A lone breeze swept through from within the abyss. It kicked a stray leaf listlessly into nothing, then moved a single strand of her dark red hair.

"Well. No one seems to care all that much, so I suppose I shouldn't either." Kunimitsu finally spoke, a solemn surrender filling the void that her anger had left behind. "This was never my story. It's always been about someone else. What do they want, what do they need, what are they willing to do in order to take it." She turned away from the forest and faced forward. No more tears. "Isn't that what this has always been about, Kazuya?"

The man didn't reply.

Kunimitsu waited, then reluctantly nodded.

Silence filled the air.

"I want to know more." Came a sudden, confident voice.

Kunimitsu glanced back and saw Reike standing tall, his soft eyes focusing freely on her.

"Don't bother." She responded. "I said what I needed to. You don't need to know anything else."

"You're right. I don't." He replied assuredly. "There's no reason for me to know anything about you, that doesn't help me at all."

"Then what are you saying…"

Reike took a caring step forward. His hazel-blue eyes remained still. "I don't NEED to know anything, but that's what I'm asking you to give me. That's what I want. Because from everything you just said, that's what you told me you need."

"…"

Reike noted the silence and took another step forward. His dirty, frazzled appearance contrasted sharply with his careful, observant eyes. At some point while Kunimitsu was speaking, his sense of panic must have passed. There was a new clarity in his voice.

"You never wanted to talk about yourself, and most people don't. But in the end I think that's just something we all need to do. Regardless of how violently independent we might be, or how quiet we've learned to stay, or even how tirelessly we've come to hate our past. Somehow, for some unbeatable reason, we want to be heard. So if that's what you need, I'm here. I'll hear you."

Kunimitsu didn't respond. Her blank mask shrouded everything.

Reike took another step closer. He seemed to be searching for a word, then found it.

"I'm sorry." He said. "You changed my life. Probably even saved it. And I was so amazed by what this meant for me, that I never stopped to think about you. I never tried to find out what you needed, or what made you hurt. Regarding someone who has done so much for me already, I simply should have."

"Reike…" Kunimitsu spoke. "It's okay."

Reike took a deep breath. His sympathy hadn't changed. "I want to hear about it."

Far beyond, the dark woman moved behind her tree, yellow eyes finally poking out from the other side. Entranced, she watched on in wonder.

Across the clearing, Kazuya's eyes couldn't grow any sharper. If the words had impacted him at all, nothing in the man's posture dared to show it.

Reike waited in the silence. His question came across smoothly and solidly, as something he truly meant. Deep inside, he knew that he found the words he needed. But whether the fox girl would accept it or not, there was no way to tell.

Suddenly Kunimitsu scoffed. Maybe it was a laugh?

"Maybe Rich. Maybe I'll tell you." She finally replied, the faintest humor underpinning her voice.

It was the first hint of the old Kunimitsu that Reike had heard in weeks.

"…Assuming I don't die." She finished, cutting the moment painfully short, dragging them abruptly back down to a grim reality in only the way that she could.

Reike let out the breath he had been holding with a dreadful groan. At once he felt equal parts an immense relief, and a resurging fear.

"You're still going to stay." He stated unbelievingly.

"Yes." The fox girl replied. Her voice was steady. "I already told you. I'm not running away."

Reike shook his head.

"Richard." Kunimitsu called. He immediately looked up. "Thank you. And thank you for earlier. To be honest… I can't tell whether your invitation is exactly the simple help that I've always needed in my life, or whether it's just a load of bullshit that sounds pretty."

Reike's expression sank.

"That said," Kunimitsu continued, that same hint of humor glimmering from behind her mask, "It sounded pretty enough to make me want to find out for sure."

"Then come with me." He pleaded one last time. "I'm only saying… It's not too late."

"I know it's not. But I've never been more positive that I've needed to do something in my life." Then she turned to face Kazuya. "This man wronged me." She charged emotionlessly. "He wasn't the first, he wasn't the worst, and he won't be the last."

Kazuya listened stoically, arms crossed over the bandage that held him together.

"But he will be the first that I'm going to make answer for it. The first of many." Kunimitsu took a defiant step forward, her eyes zeroing in on the devil beyond.

Finally, the man spoke.

"I hope you don't hold it against Anna too much." He said emotionlessly.

Beneath her cover, Kunimitsu raised an eyebrow.

How unexpected.

"We all hurt people…" Kazuya pronounced. "…just in different ways. She and I might be more alike than I'd thought."

Kunimitsu crossed her arms suspiciously across her chest. Her eyes narrowed. "Of all the things you could say, why this?" She questioned.

"You were hurt that night." Kazuya continued, completely ignoring the question. "And although the red woman would never admit it, I think she may have hurt herself too. Of course, it was completely of her own design. You can only hurt people so many times before you start to feel it yourself."

"And you would know this?" Added Reike, stepping up next to Kunimitsu with fierce aggravation.

"I do." Came the calm response.

"You never seemed like the type who can feel regret." He shot back.

"Pain and regret are two completely different things." Kazuya corrected sternly. "One of them can easily be solved. The other is pain."

"Oh, it's that simple?" Asked Kunimitsu with an impassioned stomp. Her red ponytail bounced indignantly with each step forward. "Go ahead. Tell me how you've "solved" the problem of regret." She demanded.

Kazuya watched the display distantly. His head cocked ever so slightly to the side. "Have a vision." He declared emphatically. "And do everything it takes to make that vision a reality. If you can truly understand your own vision, if you can recognize its inherent worth without relying on external assurances, nothing else matters. There will be nothing to regret."

"So what is your vision, Kazuya?" Charged Reike angrily. "Why did you bring us here? What are you trying to accomplish by killing her?"

"I think the answer should be obvious."

Kunimitsu tapped impatiently on her crossed arms. "You want to bring her back." She accused.

Kazuya paused, a gleam swirling through his crimson eye. Then he turned to the tree line.

The other two followed suit, peering cautiously upon the observer who had thus far remained silent.

Sure enough, there she was. In all her twisted, hideous beauty. It peeked out timidly from behind a tree, yellow eyes swirling with dark fascination.

"I don't blame you for hating me, Kunimitsu." The towering man allowed, eyes still focused on the body beyond. "I brought you here for one specific reason, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat in order to secure the future I need."

"Then try it again. I'm ready." Came the scathing, toothy reply.

Kazuya's blackened appearance embodied his empty non-response. His blood had now spread across the entire sleeve, darkening an otherwise pristine purple shirt.

"I gained a lot of respect for you today, fox. But there's something infinitely more important at stake." He rumbled.

Kunimitsu and Reike returned their focus onto the devil. Kazuya, on the other hand, refused to move. He appeared lost, like a starving and stranded castaway, gazing upon salvation.

"I've lived my entire life for this moment." He said. "I've slaved for it." Then his tone grew quieter. "Because I've finally rediscovered the only thing I ever felt was truly worth slaving for. Something that not only convinced me it would make the world a better place, but for the first time in my unchanging, unflinching existence, briefly persuaded me that perhaps making world a better place was worth something more than the pointless exercise I knew it to be." He stared straight into her. "This is my vision."

It heard, but it didn't react.

Reluctantly, Kazuya accepted that the empty image before him was not his true vision; only a means to attaining it. So close… it resembled her in every way, but deep inside, it wasn't truly her.

Not yet.

Finally, he turned away. Reike and Kunimitsu felt the red-grey eyes fall weightily down upon them.

"I don't expect you to understand me," He breathed tiredly, as a man would approaching the final leg of his journey. "And for that matter, I don't expect myself to understand you either. Most of the time I don't even believe human beings have the capacity for such synchroneity. No, words can't communicate ideas this strong. Only your actions can."

"That's a nice way to put it." Kunimitsu added half-jokingly.

Kazuya's impression remained exactly as it was; confident and aware. "If you deserve to win, then you will." He said calmly. Suddenly his red eye pulsed with power. "So if your resolve is stronger, then prove it… I want to see what you really are."

The red eyed man pushed out his chest and took a daring step forward. His arms fell loosely to his sides where they tightened with a crushing curl. With all the challenging steps both sides had taken, there was hardly any space left between them at all.

Reike observed his boss' body language and immediately pushed forward to stand between Kunimitsu and her threat. He may have wished to run before, but now his decision was clear. There would be no abandoning his friend. There would be no backing down.

Kunimitsu, far from the primed state of action that her two companions shared, still seemed caught up in the words that had been said. Her eyes drifted pointedly across the monster before her, searching for something unseen.

Her expression faltered, then locked firmly into a knowing state. Straightening her posture, the leather-clad woman placed one hand on Reike's shoulder, then shifted him effortlessly to the side.

Nothing stood between her and Kazuya now.

"You want to see my resolve?" She challenged defiantly. Something daring, something unique, had overtaken her voice.

Kazuya sneered in response.

"Show me."

The fox girl smiled.

The bizarre smirk grew from carefully measured into purely ecstatic. It sparkled across her face as red strands swayed hypnotically from behind. Her body spoke of a newfound control. Slowly, her leather-clad arms unfolded confidently from their rest.

"You know what?" She pressed dangerously. "I think it's time everybody sees."

Then, the inconceivable became reality.

Reaching up with both hands, Kunimitsu found the leather straps holding her mask in place and slowly found her way to loosening them. All too fast, the straps slid back, then fully out.

And suddenly the white fox was free.

Reike staggered back in shock.

Kazuya raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Her eyes were so… real.

It was incredible. Without the mask towering over them, obscuring her face from view, they appeared so real. So real, and so shockingly young. In fact it was the irises themselves, even before the hairline or the nose or the eyebrows or anything else about her mysterious face, that came into focus before all else.

But next came the markings.

Tattoos?

Scars?

Deep red, they looked like scratches. Four on one side, three on the next. They ran wildly, like an animal's claw, jaggedly up from the base of her forehead all the way down to the crest of her cheekbones. Could it be paint? A scratch? A burn? At once they were deeply grounding, and yet impossibly unreal.

Green eyes alive, she spoke.

"You always saw the mask. Just never past it." She reminded, lowering the vacant white ornament down until she held it closely, like armor, over her chest. "Well… now you have no choice."

Reike was stunned. The more he looked, the more he couldn't believe what he was seeing. All things considered, the girl's face was mostly quite normal, but the few key features that commanded attention… they absolutely demanded it. Her beautifully full eyes being one, and of course surrounding them… the marks.

The reveal struck Kazuya silent. His eyes focused like lasers, forced by instinct itself to take in every inch that they possibly could. It was just a face, nothing more. And yet he couldn't explain why looking upon this one seemed so different.

Perhaps it was just the mystery. Just the simple fact that this secret had been kept for so long, that it had been concealed so carefully, which catalyzed the shock that it did. Yet again, perhaps it was her bright green eyes. Or her dark red scars. And even still, it could easily have been the act itself; the girl's sudden, inexplicable decision to reveal her true face against the force that sought to destroy it.

One would think that after such tremendous buildup, the girl's face couldn't possibly compare.

And one would be remiss.

Now gazing around the clearing with distinction, taking in each branch, root, and slack-jawed companion, Kunimitsu couldn't help feeling a rush of vulnerability. It was exactly what she had expected. Exactly what she had been dreading. But now that it was here, the sensation barely registered.

She remembered the mask in her hand, and swiftly brought it back up to her face, spinning it so that the nose was pointing directly towards her. It felt foreign; a reverse fashion. Like gazing up through the surface of a lake from deep below, her eyes studied each detail.

"Hm." She hummed. "There is nothing stranger than to finally see yourself in the way the world does. This is the fox. This is me."

Then she dropped the mask to her side, holding it shockingly, almost lazily loose.

She turned to face the battle-worn captain.

"Are you with me?" Came her pointed challenge.

Reike could still hardly believe what he was seeing.

"Your eyes…" He spoke distantly.

Kunimitsu smirked. "That's one thing I'll never tell. Just one thing." She affirmed.

Reike coughed out an overwhelmed chuckle. His head was a blur.

"Are you with me?" The girl asked again.

Flurried emotions fell away. This was fine. This was the real Kunimitsu. If he truly meant what he said, then there was only one choice.

And he had meant it.

"Let's do it." He finally confirmed, locking confident hazel-blue eyes with her sparkling greens.

The girl smiled.

Then she looked to Kazuya.

Surrounded on all sides by scattering red skin, her perfect eyes pierced forward.

"If I deserve to win, then I will." She repeated, a tone of command filling her voice. "And if I deserve to die, then so be it. At least now you'll have to look me in the eye."

Kazuya tilted his head back. A grin spread across his face.

"You're a warrior." He pronounced. "You deserve a good death."

Kunimitsu spread her stance and raised both arms in a fighting position. One hand tightened into a fist. The other still held her mask. "You're not as untouchable as they say." She taunted. "You bleed."

And it was true. Despite his quick wrapping, dark blood still pooled from beneath Kazuya's sleeve.

Against this terrible injury, the man seemed far from shaken.

"It's going to take a lot more than this to mean something." He dismissed as he carefully flexed his injured arm.

"I'm not talking about the kunai wound." Kunimitsu objected sharply.

Kazuya's eyes narrowed.

She can't mean…

"Despite what you'd want other people to think…" The fox girl spoke clearly, with no shield to dilute the tenacity in her face. "You're human. You have fears. And as fate would have it, we're standing next to one of those fears right now."

The slime creature recoiled in sudden realization.

Kazuya felt his blood warm. The mere mention… it was more than enough.

Captain Reike glanced to the woods beyond, then steadied his gaze on Kazuya once more. Tightening both fists, the soldier dragged in a deep breath and took up position alongside his rediscovered ally.

The way it reacted…

He knew.

Kunimitsu perceived the motion as well.

She was a shark. And for the first time in far too long, Kazuya's blood had entered the water.

"You care about her, and you're scared." The woman pressed, a devilish glint flashing across her green eyes. "And that's why you're more vulnerable right now than you've ever been before…"

Kazuya gritted his teeth. Deep inside, he felt a fiery passion ignite within his veins.

Electricity crackled through the air.

Kunimitsu growled.

"You're vulnerable for someone else."

End Chapter Twenty Nine

(Despite being my second or third favorite character in all of Tekken, I actually had no idea whatsoever what I was going to do with Kunimitsu once I introduced her character all those years ago. Not even a clue. This was kind of my approach with all my characters, but whereas characters like Kazuya, Jun, Anna, Lee, and Jane molded perfectly into dynamic stories that I felt strongly about on a personal level, Reike and Kunimitsu were always a bit harder. Maybe it's because I originally started to take them in one dark, depressing direction, but then my life changed and that darkness no longer applied. There are tons of reasons to explain the pained, lustful, cynical viewpoint that I wrote from back in high school, each one more ridiculous and incredible than the last. Sometimes those days feel like a dream to me, and some days I feel like I might never have even left. Life gets strange in a tremendously calm way once you start working 5 days a week… Oh well. This website has always been a place I've felt comfortable in. I feel like I could say anything here, and that's incredibly rare for me. It's kind of funny actually, I don't talk about my personal life with my closest friends, yet over here on this website I couldn't stop spilling my deepest thoughts out if I tried. It's a very funny thing. I love this site, and I genuinely hope that if any of you experience this, that you can use it for that too. As I said in this chapter, I think that despite how violently independent we might be, we all secretly want someone to hear us. Yeah. Two weeks ago I met someone who I'm still just getting to know, but honestly I can't shake the feeling that she'll probably break my heart into a million pieces one day. That's just far too exciting of a prospect for me to pass up. I'm a sucker for that kind of a thing. Well anyway, what did you think of this chapter? Do you think it added depth to Kunimitsu or Reike's character? Did you think it was filler garbage that changed nothing? It could have been anything. All I know is that when I write, I feel something. And although I may not have felt the torrential flood of emotion that has defined some of my more romantic chapters in the past, I definitely felt something here. At the very least, I asked myself a few questions that I really needed to hear. Thank you all so much for reading. As you can probably tell, I do a lot more double-checking and careful revisions of my actual story compared to the random messes that are my ANs hahaha. I literally write these things in one go and I never look back to revise any of it, so what you see is just what you get. Thank you again, and I hope you're looking forward to The Return's finale as much as I am! You seem like a good person, root for yourself!)

Desiderio- I'm really curious to find out what these 3 theories are that you've got lined up. I guess I'll just have to wait until I finish the whole story in order to find out though hahaha. There are definitely a couple starkly different ways that I could take this thing to the end, but for most of the last few years I've only had one specific ending in mind. The details around it have changed many, many times since I started, but in general I'm pretty confident I know how I want to do it. But could that change? Absolutely. I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter and you thought it was tense/gripping. I feel like for the past ~10 chapters or so, Kazuya has been portrayed as a very human and sympathetic character, whereas during my first ~15 chapters I really portrayed him as ruthless and pure evil. I intended this chapter to be a bit of a reminder for my readers that although Kazuya definitely has grown a lot and he is more than just an evil killing machine, he absolutely still has the potential for cold ruthlessness. Forgetting this fact can be deadly. And yes, believe it or not, Mortal Kombat was actually kind of what got me into fighting games in the forst place. I discovered MK9 and I played it religiously for a whole year before I found TTT2. I tried getting in to the story of MK but frankly it was a little convoluted and action-focused, whereas the individual characters of Tekken appealed to me a bit more. And yes, that soundtrack is awesome. When I write I ALWAYS listen to music, but the music I listen to is constantly changing. During this particular chapter, I listened to a lot of emo rock like Senses Fail, some ambient electronic like Golden Living Room, and then some country-ish music like Courtney Barnett. I'm glad you liked the characterization of Wolf, writing that part was definitely my favorite experience for this chapter. It was just so much fun to write from a twisted, inhuman perspective like that. Oh well. I hope you're doing well and I look forward to reading your own story's updates!

A Forgotten Place- That's a good question. I don't think it's ever been stated how many languages Kazuya can speak, we really only ever see him speaking Japanese. But for a man like him, I'd be willing to bet at least 2 or 3. In my own head cannon, I'd say it would make sense for him to know Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and English. How many do you think he speaks?

CarolinaBP- Lol I'm working on it! You seem excited by the last chapter so I hope you're excited with the direction this story is going in now. It's finally almost over. Thank you so much for reading and being a fan!

Tifanny91- When I read your first review for chapter 1 and you said "I usually don't like very detailed descriptions" my immediate thought was "Uh oh. They're gonna be in for a rough ride" Hahaha looking back, I readily accept that I put WAY too much unnecessary detail into certain sections of this story. I kind of just got carried away, so I hope it didn't end up being too much for you to trudge through! I see you made it all the way to the end though, and you left detailed, insightful comments on every single chapter, which is incredible! Thank you so much for taking the time to go through it like this, I've read every single review and believe me, I could spend hours addressing each individual question, comment, and criticism you gave me. I wish I could too, but I really shouldn't make these sections any longer than they already are. One thing I did want to address though… Your initial reaction to Anna's character was 100% exactly my first reaction when I found out about her character in the games. Which means, when I first introduced her back in chapter 11(I think), I intentionally wrote her in the most annoying, arrogant, frustrating way that I could. Looks like it worked :). Also, at first I had no real plans for her at all. I just wrote her there to be that annoying bitch who's always getting in everyones way. HOWEVER… as the story went on, I found myself really really really getting in to her character, and over time she somehow became my 2nd or 3rd favorite character to write about. I had no idea all that depth and growth potential was even there until I found myself writing it. Based on your reviews, it seems like your opinion on her character also underwent some slight changes as the story went on. I don't blame you at all for disliking people with that personality type either, most of the time those people don't demonstrate the same kind of growth that Anna does. Or at least, you and I can't look inside their heads to truly see it… But anyway, I cannot say thank you enough for each of the detailed, honest reviews you left. As I read through them in order, it reminded me in turn of what I was going through and thinking about when I wrote each chapter, and as you'd imagine, things got nostalgic pretty quick. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too. I look forward to hearing what you think about the final few chapters as they come out!

M.g- Helllooooooo! I'm very curious to find out what your predictions for the ending might be, but I guess we'll have to wait until the actual ending for that. Thank you so much for the kind words too. Kazuya could use a hug for sure, but you better believe I'm not gonna be the one to do it lol. Wishing you the best!

michi-mercer- Thank you for reading and reviewing! Yes, it's really hard to write about Jun and Kazuya while still keeping them in character. Especially Kazuya, because his natural character is completely and utterly opposed to any form of friendliness, affection, or love. In order to get from point A(typical angry devil Kazuya) to point B(grown self-aware kind Kazuya), it takes a very long time and a lot of baby steps. Looking back, I only hope that I took this transition slowly enough and I was sable to accurately depict how difficult and bizarre of a transformation it truly was for him. I hope you enjoy the rest.

Firegirl19- Haha it must have been a real monumental undertaking to read all these chapters, frankly there are just too damn many of them. I'm glad you enjoyed it though, and I hope you're ready for the grand finale which will be coming soon… Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Guest- Ohhhh I like this song a lot. I've never heard it before but it strangely reminds me of some other artists I really like. I'm definitely going to listen to this more. Thanks!

Loreadana- Thank you for reading and reviewing! We're almost at the end now, but I hope you enjoy what's left.