"The Demon in me"
A Tekken fanfic by Mikiya
Disclaimer: Character's from namco that I'm using in this story do not belong to me, I'm not making any profit from this story, so don't sue!
It had been one of the greatest days of his life. It left him with a kind of nauseous feeling in his stomach, like he had been gut-punched. He had spent almost the entire day with Julia. They hadn't really done much, walked around the city seeing the different sites, he treated her to a movie, and to an Ice cream afterwards, and then they walked around some more. He then gave her ride in his limousine back to her hotel. When it was time for her to get out it was like trying to pull two of the worlds strongest magnets apart. They sat in the car nervously glancing from around various places into the car desperately failing at avoiding each other's eyes. But eventually Julia broke the standstill, and with a quick peck of a kiss on Jin's check she leapt out of the car scurried into the lobby of her hotel, lest she be drawn back into the car by Jin's magnetic pull. He was sad his day spent with Julia was over, but he was also happy. When he faced up to it, he was down right giddy. Which is why he had gone to the training room, to release some of the excitement he had been suppressing that day, while maintaining a cool, calm persona in front of Julia.
He kicked at the punching bag ferociously, and finally with a roundhouse kick, he sent it crashing to the floor, it's contents spilling out all over. He smirked, 'Another piece of high quality training equipment down the drain.' He hadn't felt this happy, well, since his mother was alive. Nothing now could spoil his mood, or ruin his day.
Nothing except this.
"Don't you see boy, you've been played for a fool!" Hehachi's voice boomed throughout the room. Jin could only sit in a daze shaking his head in disbelief.
"Julia Chang's only purpose here is to find the pendant so her tribe can have total control of the ogre!"
Jin's head shot up, as he looked Hehachi in the eye, almost as if he was daring to challenge his grandfather's words. This was hard for the boy to swallow, Hehachi could see, so he decided to continue his fabrication on a more personal note.
"You remember Jin, what the ogre did to your mother, how it ripped the person who meant more than the world to you right out of your life." Jin stared at the floor, his fists tightening at the mention of the dreaded night his mother was slaughtered and the demon mark was seared on his arm.
"Think of all the more innocent lives that could be taken if you allow these greedy people to get a hold of a monster like the ogre! This sinister evil should be destroyed so it can do no more harm, not harnessed for the use of the dark hearted!" Hehachi could tell he had the boy. "This is why tomorrow when you face Julia Chang in the tournament you will defeat her, and send her back empty handed to the villainous crooks she came from!" Jin was silent for a moment. He slowly rose up and gave a bow to his grandfather. Hehachi nodded, then headed towards the exit, leaving Jin in the training room. A sinister smile crept over the old man's face as he turned his back on his grandson.
"You aren't the least bit worried?" asked a concerned Xiayou,
"Jin Kazama is pretty strong." Julia looked over at her young friend as she walked towards where her match would soon be held. Hworang followed along in the back, walking along with such self-importance, one would think he was leading the procession.
"I know Jin is strong," She replied. "But I intend to fight to my best ability, and win too, if I may."
"Yeah, well just cause you two shared a little ice cream together, it doesn't mean pretty boy is gonna take it any easier on you." Stated Hworang. "He wants to make sure he doesn't get beaten so he can get at me." Julia gave Hworang a warning glance, but Hworang, either out of spite or pure ignorance choose not to heed it. He continued on, "Once you get in the ring, just get down and stay down, if you don't want to be seriously injured." There was an unspoken fury that could be felt rising from Julia. She stormed a few paces ahead of them angrily, opting not to waste energy that she would soon need for the fight. She'd make sure to get at Hworang after though.
Xiayou jabbed Hworang in his side.
"What's your problem!" she hissed through her teeth at him.
"Relax little empress, just getting our champion fighter a all riled up for the fight." He said chuckling. Xiayou could only sigh. She then broke the tension amongst them by stating the obvious.
"Were here guys!" Xiayou rushed ahead in excitement. Try as she may to act mature, at times like this it was all too obvious how young she was. Hworang smirked, it still wasn't even clear to him why, but it really was her youthful innocence that attracted him to her. "Come on," said Julia to Hworang, as they quickened their pace to keep up with Xiayou.
Julia truly hadn't been scared. Until now.
"Ready, FIGHT!" the announcers voice sounded the beginning of the match. Jin rushed at her immediately, moving almost too fast for her to see. She managed to divert some of his blows, but still, she could feel the force from them where she had blocked them. It wasn't the fact that she was desperately struggling to keep from being slaughtered only seconds into the match. Or that his blocked hits still hurt her. It was his eyes. A look, a pained look, as of one whom had lost all faith in humanity. The bitterness of which Jin fought with hadn't been a side of him that she'd experienced before. She looked for an opening in his onslaught, and found one when he wasn't guarding his left side. She faked a kick to his right, then turned on it and punched him hard in his gut. In the few seconds he was subdued with pain, she thew a punch across his face, then high kicked him in the jaw. He stumbled back a step, as he wiped a trickle of blood that had formed form his mouth, glaring at her with venomous hatred. Though he was a strong fighter, there was something wrong here. The emotion with which he fought clouded his judgement. She had seen Jin fight before to know he usually doesn't let his emotions affect his performance in a match.
"Jin, what's wrong?" she said, getting close enough to say it quietly, but still keeping a safe distance.
"You lied to me." He then came at her again with a whirl of kicks and punches the majority of them dodged, or blocked by her.
"What are you talking about!" she said, only to be answered by mighty chop to her side from her opponent. She hopped back then staggered a bit from the blow.
"Your only intention of coming here is to find the pendant so you control the ogre!" He said just audible enough for her to hear him.
An unexpected wave of anger flowed at that moment through Julia. How twisted was this! The very person probably holding her mother captive was turning it around, claiming she was the one trying to harness evil powers! She cried out in anger as she kicked at Jin. He blocked it, but failed to anticipate the kick-trip she gave him next, sending him falling to the ground with a harsh thud. Not even a second after he had hit the ground did she bring her heel down on his chest with a powerful blow sending a sharp jolt of pain through Jin's body as he felt one of his ribs crack. He immediately rolled away from her to recoup from her pained attack. He stood up then, half-resenting the underhandedness of her attack, and half-resenting himself for letting her get a move like that over on him. But some good yet had come from this. In her burst of fury he had been shown everything he was doing wrong in the match. He was letting his feelings of hurt, confusion and betrayal enter the match. But as of now all outside feelings unrelated to this match were obsolete. He had never, seen heard of, or known his opponent. There were no other obstacles for him to overcome, internal or external, except for the fighter placed before him, which he would defeat because he was one of the greatest fighters in the world and his cause was more righteous than any other.
Jin stood up strait and breathed deeply, facing his opponent, who was now charging him. This battle would not last for much longer. From there two flash kicks an a punch to the mid section was all it took for Jin to send Julia on a crash course, flying some seven feet then sliding against the ground. Jin then cautiously stepped towards Julia. Though he had given her ample time to get up in order to defend herself, still remained on the ground. Was she giving up already? Or was this another one of her tricks? As he neared Julia he could see her head move and her eyes flutter open. Her glossy, honey brown eyes were deadlocked on his. Try as he might, he really couldn't read any such deviousness as his grandfather spoke of. He saw now what he had seen in her before. A strong, beautiful girl, an untamed spirit, unlike anyone he'd ever met before in his life. Could he have misjudged her character?
Julia was starting to wonder if she should've taken Hworang's advice. She ached all over, but she refused to let up, no member of the evil Mishima Empire would ever humble her. She painstakingly rolled over on her front, her gaze not wavering from the dark eyes of opponent, pushed up from the ground onto her knees, stood up strait and proud to face Jin and then, collapsed.
"JIN KAZAMA WINS!" the announcers voice sounded the end of the match. The crowd cheered. It took all of Jin's strength to simply turn around and walk out of the ring. For a reason unknown to him he had wanted nothing more than to catch Julia's fall. But he had told himself it didn't matter, she didn't matter, nothing mattered except his victory, which he had taken. He couldn't stop himself from glancing back once at her, seeing the paramedics pick her up from the floor while a young Chinese girl of familiar face, one he may have seen at his high school before, panicked around them. What had he done?
In and out of consciousness Julia had seen many garbled images of the excitement surrounding her, but one disturbing image plagued her, mind and her dreams there after. It was Hehachi, his sinister nod and cruel smile. An all knowing smirk, as if he were in control and the people surrounding were no more than his puppets, playing out their roles in his evil plot. Then it occurred to her that Jin was Hehachi's puppet, his main marionette, hopelessly tangled in his web of deception and lies. But Jin must know some of what his grandfather is doing? Or maybe he's just choosing to ignore it. Either way she would free Jin, she would make him realize the truth. Julia woke from her troubled sleep to find herself in a hospital bed. She squinted, as the bright neon lights hurt her eyes. Across the room she saw Hworang snoozing in a chair cuddling Xiayou all curled up in his lap. She'd get on their cases about that later, but at the moment the only thing on her mind was Jin.
"I have to warn him…"