"I don't really get it," Asuka looked up from the pages she'd been reading. An enormous table spread with paper, open books, and printed images was scattered between them. Kazuya had given them an entire office to work in. Light fell into the room through large panes of glass. Tokyo buzzed outside the windows, warmed by afternoon sun and dotted with the roaming shadows of skating clouds.

"Don't get what?" Jin asked, setting aside the book he'd been reading.

"Half these texts are about chasing out bogeymen by shaking sticks at them, and the other half are all – search for inner nothingness and escape from the world. Like, do they want me to punch these demons or go meditate in a monastery? Make up your mind, ya get me?"

"Both of those things can be the case at once," Jin said. "The concept of driving off what is evil is not so different from searching for an emptiness that is beyond the menial things that hold us down."

Asuka pushed up the trilby hat she'd been bought by Lee up and looked at him from under the brim.

"Huh. Kazama Jin, I'm never gonna get you figured. Are you monk or a kid who likes racing stolen motorbikes?"

Jin balked.

"We didn't steal those bikes!" he protested. "Hwoarang and I put them back where we found them afterwards! We were just trying them out…"

Asuka leaned back in her chair and put her feet up on the table. She put a pen she'd been holding behind her ear.

"Ya just proved my point."

Jin sighed.

"Just keep that between us, okay? And try not to be so… you, when my father arrives."

"Mr Mishima's coming here?" Asuka took her feet off the desk and sat up straight.

"He's going to talk through what he remembers of the ritual with us."

"I mean, I know he was going to do that with you, but I didn't think I'd be needed for-"

"You're key to this, Asuka. And don't worry, he's not coming to stir up trouble."

Asuka looked much more unsure of herself than usual.

"Uh huh, yeah, gotcha. But, uh, so far my involvement in this has all been pretty, y'know, on the sidelines. I haven't really had to speak to your old man. Kinda just got glares from a distance so far. Was totally up for keeping things that distant, ya know." She laughed nervously.

Before Jin could reply, the door opened and Kazuya walked in. Jin gave Asuka the most reassuring smile he could. She stood abruptly, then looked awkward about it. She gave Kazuya a small bow. Jin remained seated and couldn't stop his eyebrows from raising as he watched her.

"Uh. Hi, Mr Mishima," she said.

Kazuya waved at her dismissively to sit down. He drew up a chair and sat at the table with them. Jin stopped slouching and straightened his posture. He suddenly felt like he was in the world's most odd business meeting.

Kazuya collected a wad of papers to him, pulled out a pair of glasses, and set them on his nose.

"Where are we? Have you compiled these in any order?" To give him credit, Kazuya did sound like he was talking to a room full of employees, not two confused youths.

"They're in order of what feels most right." That was Asuka.

Kazuya looked at her from over the rim of his glasses. Jin was impressed to see she didn't wither under that intense scrutiny.

"Alright," Kazuya said, taking that at face value. "Tell me what you have so far."

Asuka moved to the edge of her seat, trying to get a good look at the enormous spread of paper before them.

"Uh, well, there's a lot on preparing the individual who's to undergo the exorcism, and willingness on their part. Then there's-" She reached for a sheet that was out of reach, Jin managed to catch it with his fingertip and push it her direction. The page fluttered up into the air and Asuka caught it. "Things on atmosphere for the exorcism – the incense to use, the instruments to be used, the placement of musicians, the use of invocations. And there was-" Asuka had to pause again to try and collect more paper that was out of reach.

Kazuya clicked his tongue irritably. Asuka looked up at him.

"Do you mind if I-…?" Asuka gestured to the table.

"Just tell me what I need to know, I don't care for formalities," Kazuya said.

Asuka grinned. She vaulted onto the table, making Jin and Kazuya both blink in surprise. She sat herself in the middle of the table and crossed her legs.

"Okay, so there's also a bunch of different dances that are done in time with the music, and a number of sources talk about smoking the demon out of the individual. Alongside all that, we've got all the philosophical nonsense that Jin was looking into."

Their eyes turned to Jin, and it was his turn to collect his papers together. He coughed a little self-consciously.

"I was looking into the state of mind that the possessed person must have. They must detach themselves from the desire to forge themselves as an individual. They must stop trying to imprint themselves on the world with power and possessions and must instead think of themselves as one amidst many, or rather, not one at all, but nothing and all things."

"We split the workload evenly," Asuka put in, "we're both doin' a lot of hard thinking."

Kazuya raised his eyebrows and looked back to Jin.

"Nothing and all things?"

Jin nodded. "Like the sound of the river in the mountain forest. It belongs to one thing, but its sound fills all the air and belongs not just to the river but to all the mountainside. I cannot think of the trees without thinking of water over stones; I cannot look at the valleys all filled with mist without also thinking that beneath them, streams still run fast, because the sound belongs to all of it and not just to any one feature. It is one thing, and all things, and so in some ways, it is also none of those things."

There was quiet in the G-Corp office. Jin felt his face redden.

Asuka leaned over and slapped him on the back of the shoulder.

"Wow, Jin, where was all this when you were bombing Madrid!"

Jin looked away quickly. It had been easy to think of Yakushima and his childhood as he read over these files. The things he'd done since had felt lightyears away.

Kazuya cleared his throat. "Well, some of those things are going to be easier to replicate here than others."

"Hey, Mr Mishima." Asuka folded her hands under her chin and tilted her head. "How many demons are we planning to get rid of? 'Cause, just saying, this could work for more than one."

Silence followed that.

Jin felt a ripple of darkness in the air around him. His eyes snapped back up. Kazuya's eyes were volcanic, one filled with black intensity, the other glowing fury red. Asuka straightened where she sat and swallowed.

"Asuka, didn't mean anything by that," Jin said hurriedly.

He could feel dangerous things swirling in the room around him. Kazuya was usually so calm and controlled. There was a weight and a pressure now to the very air around him, drying everything to a cracked heat and pressing a choked sooty flavour to every breath. Jin realised this must mean that this, of all things, threatened Kazuya, in a way that nothing else so far had. Asuka seemed to get smaller, her shoulders curling in. Her eyes squeezed shut and it looked like she was getting the full brunt of this monumental darkness that was suffocating the room.

"Kazuya!" Jin stood.

Kazuya broke eye contact with Asuka and turned to Jin. For a moment, Jin thought he was looking into those infernal eyes that had haunted his waking nightmares of the last day or two. Then the fire in them died back.

Kazuya reached into his jacket and pulled out a cigarette case. He selected a cigarette and stamped it on the back of his hand. He lit it up with a flare of a match that smelled briefly of sulphur. He blew smoke out his nose like nothing unusual had happened at all.

"One," he said. Jin couldn't even remember the question Kazuya was answering. "We're only planning to get rid of one demon."


Author Note: :[] Someone's a bit touchy on the subject of demon removal.
Jin's ramblings are inspired by Gregory Nazianzus crossed with some Buddhist ideas. When it comes to Kazama spirituality I tend to go for more of a Shinto aesthetic, but the crossover between Shinto and Buddhism has a lot of history in Japan anyway.
This was the chapter where all Asuka's dialogue started going all Majima on me because I was trying to think how to represent a Kansai dialect in English. There will be more of her and Jin's shenanigans in future. Next chapter is more father and son heart to heart...
Thank you for all the support, reviews and comments, both on this and my other Tekken fics that some of you are reading through whilst waiting for chapters! I've nearly finished a first draft of Chasing Demons and it'll be around 20 chapters maybe a little more.