Chapter Eight: The First Round of Battles (JIN'S POV)

We hid in a crowd. The chances of Paul finding the terrified Calleigh with me in a crowd were very slim. She clung to me like a girl would to her boyfriend, not that it bothered me. She smelled good, like perfume and shampoo mixed together. I was taking in her scent, when it struck me. In fifteen or so minutes, our names would be called over the intercom. If Paul heard the names Calleigh Phoenix and Jin Kazama together, he would blow a gasket, and come searching for us. I tugged Calleigh's arm gently, and brought her close to me, then whispered this sudden revelation into her ear.

"Oh, God!" she covered her mouth and thought for a second. "Jin…what have I gotten us into?" she asked, closing her eyes. "Maybe we should come up with an alias for me, and tell the people at the booth before they announce it?" she thought. "Do you think that would work?"

I was surprised at how well she pieced together a tough situation. "Let's go…quick…" I nodded, and pulled her out of the crowd. We rushed to the booth, hand in hand. Before we got there, I pulled my jacket off and threw it over her, so she wouldn't be recognized as someone who'd already signed up. Calleigh was too far out of breath to speak, so I took over for her. "Who do you have down as Jin Kazama's partner?" I asked, kind of short of breath myself.

"Um, Calleigh Phoenix, why?" the woman asked, glancing up from the paper to me. "Do you need a change?"

"Yes, please. Can you change that to…" I thought quickly of a name. "Katelyn Williams?" the first name that came to mind was that of my rival, Nina Williams. "Please?" I looked at Calleigh.

"Certainly…is this Miss Williams?" the woman turned her head to Calleigh, who nodded in reply. The woman then continued. "I need you to fill out these forms, then. Miss Phoenix had to as well."

I heard Calleigh breathe a deep sigh of relief, then lean into me, still trying to catch her breath. "Ok…" she disguised her voice as well as she could, by raising the pitch. It was funny, though, to hear her talk like Ling. She took the pen, and started to reapply to fight.

About thirty seconds after we'd walked away from the booth, we heard, "Fight one, Bryan Fury and Lee Chaolan versus Jin Kazama and Katelyn Williams, all combatants please report to the arena…"

Calleigh gave me a look of pure horror. She was nervous, and making it blatantly clear. "You can't be nervous like this in front of Bryan. He takes advantage of nervousness, Calleigh…" I explained to her. "I'm going to tell you one thing before we get too far into this. Not all of the combatants here are human. King of Iron Fist tournaments always have a lot of different species," I told the purely shocked Calleigh, whose jaw might as well have hit the floor.

"Not human?" she asked, seemingly horrified. "What, like kitty cats and puppy dogs and stuff? I'm not kicking a puppy…"

I laughed at the thought of a domesticated animal entering the tournaments. "We have a bear, a few robots, a heavily armored ninja that looks like a skeleton covered in armor, people with cheetah's as heads…"

Calleigh's eyes were wide as we entered the arena. "Lovely…and you just happened to leave these details out when you asked me to be your partner?" she asked, with a little laugh. "Thanks, Jin…"

I felt the grin cross my face, as I took my place in front of Bryan Fury for the first round of the first fight. "Not a problem, Cal-…Katelyn…" I turned to Bryan and Lee, and we all did an introductory move. Lee nodded his chin at Calleigh and I menacingly, while Bryan punched at the air, Calleigh bowed and in a small voice, said 'Oh-yah!' and I adjusted my arm guards, and said, "Koy…"

I got a few good punches in at Bryan, until he got scared, apparently, and tagged Lee in. I laughed, and mumbled a, "Chicken ass!" to Bryan as he ran away.

After only five seconds, Lee had kicked me three times, and I started to feel dizzy. Much to my relief, Calleigh shouted out, "JIN! TAG ME, NOW! COME ON!" and started to jump up and down.

I rushed out of Lee's reach, and tagged Calleigh's hand. Calleigh ran in, and did what she did best. A few swift kicks, and Lee was rushing to tag Bryan, who she almost instantly K.O.ed. She grinned. "Don't mess with me, buddy…" she said, as she came back to me, and we waved at the audience to celebrate victory.

While waiting for Lee and Bryan to be ready for round two, Calleigh put ice on the lump that had formed on my head. "Damn him…I want to go in first this time. Give that piece of shit a piece of my mind!" she complained, and cracked her knuckles. "No one hurts my friend, and gets to brag…"

Her friend…I was her friend. For awhile there I'd stupidly convinced myself that we were more. Calleigh and I were only friends. I had convinced my head of that, but would I ever be able to convince my heart? I knew that Calleigh and I would be great together, but somehow, I had to convince myself to take action. Here I was, faced with a beautiful, smart, funny, incredibly strong, sweet and caring woman, and I had no idea what to do with myself. When would I know? When it was too late?

The second I'd nearly gotten all of my thoughts collected, I was interrupted by a sharp tug on my arm. "Jin, come on. We're about to start round two!" Calleigh grinned. "And I'm going first, whether you like it or not!" she ran up to the spot I had been standing in minutes ago, and did her introductory move again. Within two seconds, Bryan had sent her flying across the arena, and she was rushing to tag me. "Dang! Is he human?" she asked, as her hand touched mine.

"Cyborg…" I explained, as I ran out and took over Calleigh's spot. After a long raging battle back and forth, Bryan and I both ran to tag Calleigh and Lee. "You feeling any better?" I asked her before I touched her hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" she reached up and tagged my hand, then ran in to fight with Lee. Again, within seconds, she had him writing on the ground in pain, and then the next thing Bryan and I knew, Lee was knocked out again. "Thank you, thank you!" she grinned as she walked back to me, and we gave each other five, which turned into a hug. "And all thank you's should go to my tremendously wonderful training partner and friend, Jin Kazama, for without him there would be no Call-…Katelyn Williams…"

I laughed at Calleigh's near blunder, then took my own bow. "I tried so hard to make her strong, but it just wouldn't work!" I joked, then was struck in the arm by a gentle touch. I laughed, then said, "See what I mean?"

She scoffed, then shoved me to the ground. "You're asking for it, Jin…" she stuck her tongue out.

This was going to be an interesting tournament, that was a sure thing…a tournament full of ups and downs. But as long as I had Calleigh to go through it all with, I would be ok.