Jin's heart raced. The winter sun came in bright through high windows. Dust motes hung in the cool, clean sunbeams. There was a stillness to the air. There were colours Jin never remembered noticing before – the strains of red, russet and auburn in the parquet wood grain; the blue shadows in the pale, flowing robes of the musicians; the white of the headband Asuka had used to tie her hair out of her eyes, so very similar to the way his mother used to.

Something moved inside him. His emotions felt close, bubbling below a surface. Sights and sounds and smell and touch felt close. The world felt close.

Lee was kneeling next to Kazuya with an arm about him that looked like it was keeping him upright.

"Uncle…" Jin approached them.

"Ensure the ritual is ready to start," Lee ordered. His eyes stayed on Kazuya.

Jin gave him a fleeting look before hurrying to obey. He brushed his eyes as he half ran to Asuka's side. Everything inside him was a mess. He wasn't sure if he was happy or devastated. He wasn't sure if he'd done the right thing or a selfish thing. He felt free and uncontrollably elated but at the same time afraid and filled with guilt.

"We have to start. Kazuya's doing the ritual instead of me."

If Asuka found either his words or his manner odd, she didn't say so, she simply nodded and went to the head musician.

Jin watched as Lee tentatively helped Kazuya stand. Even from this distance, Jin could see that both his father's eyes were glowing rubies. Kazuya had an arm looped around Lee's shoulders and some of his usually neat appearance was coming undone. Hair escaped from his smoothed backed gel, and his waistcoat was crooked and his shirt askew. A mirthless, jaunty smirk kept twitching on his lips. When he looked at Jin, there was a burning behind his intense gaze, but nothing more. Jin felt no stirring of darkness. No strings of hatred strummed in his soul. Kazuya's eyes turned away from him, disinterested. Jin tried not to let that crush him. Of course Kazuya wouldn't be feeling himself right now. They'd known he might act differently once he took that devil fully inside him.

What if it was only ever the Devil Gene he was interested in? What if, without it, I'm of no interest to him?

A shiver passed through him. Jin felt cold all the way through. All those gentler things Kazuya had offered him, all those glimpses of affection that somewhere along the line had become like the air Jin needed to breathe. What if that was all just to push him to here? Kazuya had everything he wanted now. There was no one in this room, possibly no one on the planet even, who could stop him from doing whatever he wished.

Jin swallowed. He watched as Lee helped Kazuya to kneel between the two lines of musicians. As he lowered him to the ground, Kazuya began to laugh softly. His laughter got louder, until he threw back his head and the hall was filled with the unhinged sound of his cackling.

"Uncle…" Jin warned. Lee was too close. Kazuya was tipping over the edge and everyone knew it.

"Start the ritual," Lee said.

"Uncle…"

"Start it!" Lee's eyes flashed at Jin. Then he added more quietly, "I'm not leaving him again." He shifted until he was kneeling next to Kazuya. He murmured softly to him. Kazuya's eyes continued to glow a pupilless red, though his laughter did subside a little.

The musicians all simultaneously raised blindfolds to their eyes and bound them at the back of their heads. Then one, dressed in scarlet and white robes, lifted a cluster of bamboo pipes to his lips. The haunting discordant drone of a sho started up. Almost immediately at the sound, Kazuya sat bolt upright. His eyes were wide as though struck by a sharp recollection. The heavy cry of a double reed flute melded with the sho, creating a thick, otherworldly song in the air. Over the top of all this came the dragon flute with its simple, clear notes, like water running over the heavy timbre of the music. Twisting incense curled in the air, rich and fragrant and thickening senses, blurring them into one, as it rose as a haze from the bronze braziers placed between the musicians.

Kazuya clashed his teeth together. His skin rippled a shade of purple. Lee grabbed his arm, and leaned close, murmuring reassurances to him.

Jin's heart was in his throat when he saw how close Lee was and how volatile Kazuya was. He took a step towardss the musicians, as he did though, he caught sight of Asuka. The papers were no longer in her hand, and instead she held a rod lined with bells. She began a slow fluid dance. Her hakama fanned out about her. Each movement of her hands was punctuated with a short, sharp shake of the rod. The bells rang shrill through the layers of the music. That, in particular, seemed to make Kazuya twitch and snarl.

Jin saw everything in a kind of strange slow motion. The incense rose in streams straight up in the hall, catching in the sunlight and turning silvery there. The musicians in their parallel rows sat perfectly still, save the wave of their fingers and the puff of their cheeks as they drew ethereal sound from their instruments. Asuka danced like she was doing a slow kata, feet sliding along the floor, her arms making small circles, ornamented by the tinkle of bells. Kazuya's shoulders hunched. His arms crossed over his chest like he was embracing something tight. Then he flung them apart. Lee was sent sprawling onto his back. Jin saw the shirt on Kazuya's back tear open and the material disintegrated before the razor-sharp scales that crusted over his skin. Bat-like wings burst out of his back and hung enormous and terrible, like malevolent, ragged standards over the lines of musicians. The wings beat, and helped lift Kazuya to his feet. The musicians kept playing, their blindfolds keeping then constant and stalwart before the devilish figure evolving before them.

Kazuya let out an earsplitting cry of rage. Lee pulled himself away from the devil. Jin wasn't sure what that was on Lee's face – fear maybe, or perhaps pity. Kazuya turned on the spot. His tail swished in the air. The lethal spike on the end of his tail lowered until it was poised an inch away from the eyes of one of the blindfolded musicians. Jin saw Asuka falter in her dance as she looked on.

Jin nodded encouragement to her. He swallowed and strode towards Kazuya. He stood behind the musician he threatened. Confronting Kazuya felt different. Jin had never felt like this before. Of course, facing his father had never been an easy thing, nor something he did lightly, but this was the first time he felt… like a small animal, staring into the eyes of a predator. Kazuya turned slightly to face him. Every eye on his wings and body looked down at him. Jin knew fear.

He felt it as strong as Heihachi's gun lowering to his brow, and Ogre's terrible claws that batted him aside like he was a doll.

Kazuya's head tilted to one side. Jin's eyes were drawn to the bone white horns framing his head. The tail flicked again and this time rose swaying back and forth like a hypnotic snake. It came to hover before Jin's nose. Jin looked at it, frozen where he stood. Blood was pounding in his ears. His lower lip quivered and he realised his fingers were trembling. He lifted his eyes to Kazuya's but he couldn't recognise his father there. Every eye was a glazed, pupilless, glowing red. Jin's throat went dry and his world slowed down. It was all he could do to follow the point of that tail as it swayed back and forth before his eyes. It touched his nose, then dragged slow over his lips. Jin tasted a prick of blood where the serrated edge scratched lightly. Then then that point had nudged up his chin and settled itself against his throat. It broke the skin easily, like a knife just testing the crust of a newly, baked loaf, but was still controlled in the way it pressed to his neck. Jin wondered if that was care or just a game.

"Kazuya!" Lee shouted. The devil turned abruptly, though its tail remained in situ. Jin held his breath to stop his throat from pushing any deeper into that edge. "If you want to start trouble, start it with me!"

The devil's tail lifted from its attention on Jin. Air poured into Jin's lungs as he let himself breathe again. He dabbed his shirt sleeve to his neck and it soaked red immediately.

The devil beat its wings, causing the robes of the musicians to flutter madly and the incense to bend and twist. It flew into the air, then let out a cry, as though it had tangled in an invisible net. Asuka was shaking her bells more fiercely. The devil clawed at nothing, thrashing in mid-air. Asuka had a determined look in her eye. Lee took as step back, looking up at his brother writhing above them. Jin couldn't place the look on his face at all now.

The devil let out another howl, and a burst of red light shot out of its forehead. One of the lighting fixtures exploded in a crash of glass and fell smoking to the floor. The musicians flinched, and some hesitated. Asuka rang her bells and kept her step all the more vigilantly. The others stuttered but then began to follow her lead. The devil sunk back to the floor, wings folding shut like closing theatre curtains. Its back was bent with a kind of grief. Jin found himself tugged toward sympathy again, despite the tremble still in his breath and the sting around the beading blood at his neck.

The music picked up a fervent pace and Asuka's dance now seemed to conduct it. Her bells shook out a rhythm that made the devil's shoulders twitch with a puppet's rhythm. Just when it looked like the devil was entirely subdued to the sound, it roared again and flung open its arms and wings. Lee was the first person it saw, still in stance and ready from his challenge earlier. The devil's clawed feet delved into the wood floor, then it propelled itself, corkscrewing towards him. It picked Lee up clean off his feet, barrelled up into the air with a masterful twist of its wings. Then it flung Lee down with all its bodyweight still behind the throw. There was a sickening crunch as Lee hit the floor. Jin saw a splutter of red blurt from Lee's mouth. The devil was on his chest, hulked over him like an enormous carrion. The wooden floor was and warped and shattered around them. Splinters of wood stuck up like a diving wreck at sea.

Jin ran over, his throat throbbing, eyes wide, heart hammering. The devil's wings parted. Lee was crumpled on the floor, but that devil held Lee's head in a clawed hand, almost tenderly. Jin stopped a small way off, panting. He looked at the beast.

Its hundred eyes blinked and it peered curiously down at Lee. It reached out a claw towards Lee's face. Jin stepped forward. The devil snapped its head towards him and hissed. Jin stopped. The devil's claw brushed a silver hair from Lee's face.

The sound of a thick dissonant sho chord cleaved the air. The devil screeched and dropped Lee to the ground. It lifted again into the air with a leathery thrash of its wings. Jin raced to Lee's side. He slid onto his knees and collected Lee to him. Lee's eyes were closed, but his breathing was steady. There was blood down his chin and staining his immaculate suit. His eyes opened, a flickering warm brown. He wiped a smear of blood from his lips. Jin's terror must have been readable on his face, because Lee gave him a small smile.

"Don't worry about me. Help your father. You were right. He can be helped. He's still my brother somewhere in there."

"Uncle…" The word came out as a sob. Tears rolled down Jin's cheeks and collected on the line of his jaw. "I-I… it's my fault again, I thought-"

"Hush hush," Lee said in that same voice that had comforted Jin when he awoke in Violet Systems all those weeks ago. "No time for tears. You were right, Jin. And it's not very often I say that, is it." Lee gave him a charming smile, and Jin still marvelled at how he did that when he was in pain. "It looks worse than it is," he reassured, "Kazuya shielded me from most of the impact. Look at his claws if you don't believe me." Lee grimaced after he said that though, and touched his chest. Jin laid him carefully back on the ground. He looked over his shoulder, the devil had landed again and was hunched bat-like between the musicians. "Go," Lee said softly.

Jin swallowed and approached the devil. Its arms were clamped over its head, trying to block out the music.

"Jin! Quit your lollygaggin'!" Jin blinked. Asuka's was standing next to the devil. Her serene garb was at odds with the fierce expression on her face. "Get yourself over here!"

"Me?" Jin stood stupidly, unsure what to the do.

"Yes you, you super idiot. Get your Kazama ass over here."

"I'm not like that. I'm not like my mother. There's nothing I can do that will help," he explained, though Asuka's insistence had already set a path for his feet that even his fear of that devil couldn't shake.

"Now, give me your hands." Asuka took his hand in hers. Her rod of bells had been discarded. They approached the devil now together. Its breathing was heavy. Its enormous bulk huffing out air with closed wings folded tight about it. "Don't be afraid," she told Jin. Jin was much too afraid to rebuke her for the comment.

He was taken back in his thoughts to a time he and his mother had approached a bear. Its foot had been caught in a trap. Its pain makes it more dangerous, his mother had said. Pain makes all creatures more dangerous. It will take many steps before we can be trusted enough to help relieve its pain. We will be in grave peril, and will receive no word of thanks at the end of it all, but we must do so anyway, Jin. It is our humanity that compels us. The moment we run out of compassion is the moment we annihilate ourselves.

"Gently," Asuka said. She reached out a hand and touched the devil's wing. Its cocoon shuddered and retracted from the touch. Jin's breath came in time to his heartbeat as he mimicked Asuka. The wings parted for them. Within, there were shadows and a concave wall of eyes. Jin had seen this darkness and those glowing eyes in his nightmares. He was rooted to the spot. The three burning eyes in the devil's face stared down at him. Asuka stepped forward with a boldness that Jin couldn't fathom. She reached up to the devil with a childlike innocence, and cupped its cheek. The devil twitched. Its skin dulled to a greyer shade and its eyes' lidded over. Asuka nodded her head to Jin.

Jin took an uncertain step forward. The lidded eyes looked at him like half-shuttered lanterns on a midnight street. The beast's wings came to a close behind them, enfolding them in darkness. Jin knew each and every one of those glowing eyes could open into a crossbeam of lasers that would dice them into chunks of burnt meat. He reached up a hand and touched the devil's other cheek. It looked down at them and for a moment Jin was reminded of old, stone, demon statues that guard temples with their silent faces, more forces of nature than wilfully malicious. The glow in the devil's eyes receded until red pupils were visible, and, like fine detail being scraped free of moss, the angles in that face came to resemble Kazuya a little more. Its eyes looked on Jin with something softer. Its brows creased and its mouth opened. Its lips were cracked and parched and worked into different shapes for some time, before managing:

"J… Jin."

Jin gave a weak smile. The devil's tail curled up from under a wing and arose snake-like in their cocoon. Jin's smile faded. The tail's razor point lifted to his face height again. Jin's breath came faster. The point flicked Jin's fringe out of his eyes. With his other hand, Jin very gently pushed the tail away. There was a pause. Then the devil stretched out a hand and enclosed Jin's with its own. Its claws were chipped, like they'd cracked under blunt force. Jin looked at those claws, then back up into the devil's face.

"You saved Uncle Lee. You took the force of the fall for him." Jin stepped forward. He heard Asuka breathe in with warning, but he ignored it. He reached up and put his arms around the devil. The hard chitinous armour was rough against his skin, with sharp, toothed scales. Jin could feel the large eye in the devil's chest press close, near to his heart. "Father."

The scales shifted in his embrace. They smoothed and slid back into skin. The light came in as those wings retracted, and with it the music became more audible and the incense more vibrant. Jin could feel the minute changes as the creature in his arms reverted. He closed his eyes tight.

This time when arms came around him they were free of claw and bone and scale. They drew him close. A face pressed into Jin's hair and he felt the warm breath of a sigh flutter against him. Then a voice spoke, and it was all Kazuya's:

"My son."

Author Note: All you patient people waiting for your soft Kaz and Jin moments, here you go. I have to apologise to Lee Chaolan for beating him up in every one of my Tekken stories. This time at least he stepped up to it and took it for Jin.
The music is similar to when this ritual was done in Zen Gardens, but if you want a sample, check out my twitter. My username is Erenaeoth.