Hehachi Mishima narrowed his eyes upon the lean man standing across the desk from him.
"Over two dozen soldiers, all with high powered assault riffles, and he still evaded us…"
"Sir, it was believed the Kazama had outside aid of some kind."
"Like who!" Hehachi bellowed.
"We…haven't been able to verify that-"
"That will be all." Barked Hehachi abruptly.
"Yes sir, thank you sir." The slim man seemed relieved to bow out. Hehachi didn't want to believe that his company could be this incompetent. He had the National Guard as well as his own men on the look out for Jin Kazama. They had come so close, carefully tracking and studying every move of Jin, and when they finally pounce, he slips through their fingers. A month and a half of tracking and status reports for nothing. The surly old man stood up and walked towards his broad office window. In the faint light of the peak of dawn, he could see guards and such scrambling about below the grounds. Hehachi went to his desk and pushed the call monitor to talk to his secretary.
"Deja, what's all the commotion I see on the grounds?" he barked.
"There might have been a security breech sir." She replied.
"And when were you planning on informing me?" he said.
"Nothing else has shown up for a while now so we didn't think it necessary to alarm you."
"Didn't think it necessary to alarm me…" Hehachi growled to himself more, than to anyone else.
"Should I send security to stand guard inside your office sir? Sir…?"
A young girl stood in the shadows of his office. She wore a racy, skin tight, sleeveless, black leather outfit, with black half gloves. Her long brown shimmering hair hung down, caressing either side of her sleek, but muscular shoulder line.
"You," said the bemused man, "Chang's daughter…what do you want?"
"You and I have a common interest in the form of Jin Kazama. I can get you what you want, come through for you where your own men and the police of Japan have failed you."
"And for what reason should I have this… trust in you? Are you not part of a proud line of those who detest the Mishima conglomerate?"
"I'll let you in on a little secret…" she said slinking towards Hehachi, she pulled her hair back, "I'm not Julia anymore…" her eyes flashed an unnatural neon color and Hehachi could see centuries of suffering souls in them. The revelation had sent Hehachi into a cold sweat, but he soon gained composure.
"Yes, I see. You are suggesting we…work together on this."
"I don't need your cooperation to find Jin, I can find him at any time. I only came to you that you too, may get what you want out of this. That is, if we can work something out."
"And you want?"
"One million, cash." She said. Hehachi smirked.
"What?" she asked.
"Some how I thought a being of your type would be… above all that material need."
"A girl has got to make a living."
"All right then, I'll give you half the money if you tell me where he is, and the other half when he is brought in."
"Wait a second there Mishima. I watched your crews fail, there's no way your going to bring demon Jin in with men in suits and guns. You'll need a more… personal touch."
"I see," said Hehachi.
"As for right now," said Julia, "I'll need you to reach into your little hidden vault and pull out twenty thousand, I've been in the city almost a full day now and I haven't done one minute of shopping!" Hehachi stared at the girl in outrage, but did as she said.
"Oh and I've chosen a nice guest room on the west wing that over looks the garden, so tell your guards to get used to me." And with that, she sauntered out.
"When you look at it sensibly there really is no place else to go, other wise you wouldn't be wandering around the streets."
The ride seemed endless to Jin.
"At the temple you'll get protection."
Nothing but trees, blackened by the night, to look at.
"There are people who want to help."
Jin didn't like being this close to any male, as he had to ride on the back of a motorcycle, much less Hwoarang.
You have to trust me…
They arrived at some very tall, ominous looking dark gates that were almost hidden by shrouds of overgrown trees and bushes. Pushing aside some branches Hwoarang revealed a small monitor, he pressed a small button at the bottom.
"Somebody order a pizza?"
"State your name." A monotone voice replied.
Hwoarang sighed, "Hwoarang. The pizza's are getting cold."
"Password."
Hwoarang slapped his forehead, "Dueling dragons."
"Negative."
"The hell I should know! No body told me about a fuckin' password!"
"There is one. You were told it."
"Well shit, I forgot! Uh…shit uh…quivering carp…crouching tiger…hidden dragon? Oh wait I know- Daggers of deceit!"
The Iron Gate creaked open.
"HA, it WAS daggers of deceit!"
"Negative."
"Man you're a real tight ass, you know that?"
"By now you should know better than to play around with security."
Hwoarang started up his motorcycle.
"And you should have some fuckin' respect for the delivery man!"
They drove through the gates to find themselves meeting a bunch of ninja looking guards with machine guns.
"Relax boys, its me! See…red hair."
They parted aside to let him through.
"Bozos." Hwoarang muttered underneath his breath, before he sped off down the path to the main temple. The motorcycle was brought to a stop directly in front of the steps to a large concrete temple. Jin followed Hwoarang to the top of the steps. Suddenly out of the dark entrance of the temple burst…Xiayou? She looked rather comical, running up in large wooden sandals, and a colorful kimono that she had to hold up to seek from tripping over. She halted in front of the two battered fighters.
"About time you guys get here! I've been waiting up all night! Look it's nearly morning now I can practically see then sun, did you guys stop for a beer or something on the way! What took you so long?"
Hwoarang met the girl with a big hug.
"Shush babe, your gonna wake up the spirits." He said.
"What do you expect? I was waiting forever! And then you guys roll up in here at like six in the morning with all types of scratches on you! I've been so worried!" Upon seeing Jin, Xiayou pushed hastily out of her embrace with Hwoarang.
"Jin its you! You poor thing your all scratched up." She placed her hand on his cheek as she fawned over his various wounds. Hwoarang stood with his arms crossed as he cleared his throat.
"He wasn't complaining on the ride up here. C'mon Jin, the old man Wang wants to meet you."
Xiayou grabbed Jin's hand, leading him away from the temple towards some structures on the side of the main building.
"Don't you dare Hwoarang! He's not meeting Wang or anybody until he's been cleaned up and had a good nights, err, mornings rest." Xiayou turned to Jin
"Look at Hwoarang acting like he cares now, you wouldn't know I literally had to pull teeth to get him to look for you! I would have myself but old man Wang gave this stupid order that I can't leave the temple because he thinks I'm reckless. Can you believe that? Reckless or not, I still could have found you faster, and I would have definitely brought you back in better condition." She said. Hwoarang snorted in disgust, but he followed along since he needed some medical treatment as well.
Julia didn't have to stalk the girl long before she walked of into an alley in which there weren't many people around. Girls like her didn't like being among the general populous for long. Julia followed her prey inconspicuously into the alley.
"Excuse me?" said Julia. The startled girl with neon colored streaks in her hair whipped around.
"W-What?" she stammered. The events of her previous had her more than a little shook up, but the brown haired girl with two braids, wearing jeans and sneakers with a tan leather vest seemed rather innocent.
"Could you direct me to Main Street?" said Julia with a hopeful look.
"Uh, yes…go back out that way and three blocks to you left, you should be on the main drag."
"Oh okay, thank you. One more thing?"
"Yes?"
"You've seen a tall, well built, dark eyed handsome man, with spiky black hair around here recently?"
The girl's eyes opened wide as she backed away,
"Who are you what do you want- ahh!" she felt the cold hard grip of Toshin Julia's hand hold her by the back of her neck. In a flash Julia read the events in the girls mind, playing it backwards in her own.
The Demon…The battle in the court yard…I hid in the doorway…We ran down the path…I hear gunshots…We kissed…
With a roar Toshin Julia threw the now limp girl to the ground. Seeing them kiss had sparked a feeling, one she did not understand. Feelings like this could mean that Toshin was losing her complete control over Julia. She stood in wonder for a brief moment only to realize that it was a feeling of jealousy. Julia was not over throwing her control at the moment, but by exploiting this feeling that Julia had, Toshin could make sure she stayed in control permanently. Having composed herself Julia put her focus back upon the girl on the ground. Julia kneeled over the girl and smacked her in the face, waking the girl. The girl gagged as Julia lifted her by the neck pushing her up against the brick side of a building.
"Did his lips feel good against yours?" Julia taunted, "Or could you even tell the difference between him and so many others?" with that, Julia snapped the girls neck. Out of the corner of her eye though Julia could see a man standing at the opposite end of the alley. He stood there in horror. He had seen it all. Before the man had even thought to run, Julia pulled her dagger from it's sheath and speared it into the mans chest. He fell back from the shear force with which it hit him.
"So sad, so sad," said Julia as she walked up to the man who was clutching the protruding end of the dagger twitching around unusually for a person who had been directly hit in the heart.
"You sir were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, why should you have to die like she did? You don't even have a clue as to what's going on. Not to worry, I will clue you in. That dagger you've been stabbed with is no ordinary dagger. Minions of evil, such as I, can't even touch the blade of the dagger without being burned. But to ordinary people who have been stabbed in the heart, such as you, it has a slightly different effect. When I pull this dagger out of you, you will die, then rise again becoming a terrible monster that will feed on the blood and flesh of other humans, specifically the hearts. You will feed and grow stronger with each victim until you are a holy terror, and you will only be killed when someone comes back with this very same dagger and cuts out your heart. A very interesting destiny if you ask me." Julia tore the dagger from the man's body smiling upon the scream he let out. She wiped the blood on his clothing, then sheathed the dagger back into the inside of her vest.