Chapter Ten: The Devil Gene Strikes Again (Jin's POV)

Calleigh was about twenty feet away from me, talking to Christie Montiero, Ling and Julia. She fit in, just as I'd expected her to. I would have been talking to Forrest, Steve and my other friend, Eddy Gordo, but my mind was on something else. Tell Calleigh about the devil gene, or try my damnedest to keep it hidden? I was wearing a bulky jacket, so I was probably set. I looked over at her. She was so beautiful. Her long hair was pulled into a ponytail, and it fell to her shoulders, which were covered with a form fitting, orange, spaghetti-strap shirt. The shirt covered the belt loops of her dark-navy-blue, flare jeans. I looked from her, to my father and grandfather, who were both shooting me menacing glances. I ignored them, and walked up to Calleigh. "You ready, Calleigh?"

She looked from Julia to me. "Just a second, ok?" she took Julia aside, and started to talk softly. I got the feeling it involved me, and when Julia looked toward me, then glanced away quickly my feeling doubled. I just remained where I was, and waited for Calleigh to return. She came back, flashed me a reassuring smile, and nodded quickly. "I'm ready now…"

I walked with her to the middle of the floor, where we were face to face with my father and grandfather. Calleigh seemed shockingly unthreatened. "You know what?" she directed to my father. "You're really not as all terrifying as everyone makes you out to be!"

My father flashed her a menacing smile, which made his red eye glint a little. "You really think so, Miss Phoenix?" he asked her, trying to threaten her, I assumed.

It didn't work. Calleigh stood her ground, and laughed out loud at my father's pathetic attempt. "Yes, really…and you, Heihachi? You try to be all powerful and menacing…frankly, you couldn't scare the skin off a snake!" she looked at my grandfather.

Heihachi glared angrily at her, and growled like a mad dog. "I'll break your neck, little girl!" he shouted.

Calleigh's facial expression changed from amusement to pure laughter. "Ok, wow…let's just get this over with…" she grinned, and we did our opening moves.

I started the fight out, against my father. He punched me nine times in a row, screaming, "YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR PART OF THE GENE!"

I retaliated with a punch, only to be sent flying back to Calleigh, who I didn't really want to tag, but she beckoned for me to. "Jin, you're in pretty bad shape…I can take them, I know I can!" she pleaded with me.

I reached up and tagged her, knowing almost immediately that it was a mistake. She got one kick into my father, and then he did a nine-hit-combination on her, and tagged my grandfather in, who also did a nine-hit-combo, and knocked Calleigh out, and knocked her hair right out of the ponytail. I rushed out to her, and knelt by her side. "Calleigh? Calleigh, are you ok?" I shook her gently. "Calleigh, wake up! I shouldn't have tagged you in!"

Calleigh shook her head gently, and sat up. "I need a drink of water, and I'll be fine…" she told me, as she reached behind me for the water jug. "Damn, I took quite a fall right there, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you going to be ok?" I asked, helping her to her feet. There was no way I was tagging her in to get abused like that again. She neither wanted, nor deserved that. "Because round two is about to start."

"Yeah, I'm fine…go ahead," she sat down, ready if I absolutely needed to tag her. I think she knew I wasn't going to. "Be careful, ok?" she asked, her hair covering her eyes.

I nodded, then walked up to my father. "You messed with the wrong girl, that time, Kazuya!" I exclaimed, punching my father, and again being hit with a harsh punch in the face. I popped my jaw, and retaliated with a jump kick. After ten minutes of battle with each my father and grandfather, I gave in, and collapsed to the ground.

~~

I woke up to see Calleigh standing about three feet away from me, with a terrified look in her eyes. Both my father and grandfather had left by this time. I looked down at myself. The black marks that only appear when my devil gene kicks in were all over my chest. They looked like very well drawn tattoos. I stood up, and approached Calleigh, to try to explain it all to her.

She took a step back away from me. "What are you?" she asked, accusingly. "What in the HELL are you?" she screamed. Pure terror and anger filled her eyes. "You're not Jin…where in the hell is Jin?"

I expected this to happen, so I took her screaming in stride, and took another step toward her, only to have her back away again. "Calleigh…" I pleaded. "Please, just let me explain…" I took another step toward her.

"Stay where you are!" she backed up another step. "Don't come any closer!" she went into fighting stance. "I'm serious!"

When my eyes hit her, my heart softened, and the devil gene seemed to subside for a second. When the black marks on my chest and forehead disappeared, Calleigh put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my God…it really was you? Ok, WHAT the hell is going on here?"

I sighed, knowing the second I told her the whole story, she'd turn away. "Ok, if you want to know, I'll tell you…" I started to explain what would be a long story. "You see…my father has this thing called a devil gene living in him," I paused, and looked at Calleigh, who's jaw was hanging practically to the floor. "He has two forms…Kazuya and the Devil…and he can revert back and forth between the two."

Calleigh was having a hard time swallowing this, I could tell. "So, what you're trying to tell me is…you have this devil gene, too?" she asked, not believing the words that were coming from her own mouth.

"Yeah," I explained. "But I don't revert back and forth unless I'm really, really angry…" I knew Calleigh would turn away from me. I hated everything about the devil gene. If there was some way to make it completely clear and make her believe me, that I did, I would have done it in a heartbeat.

"So…I was just teamed up with the DEVIL'S SON?" she screamed, and then started to cry. "I defended the DEVIL'S SON to my father? And I got myself KICKED out of my house for the DEVIL'S son?"

"No, you did all those things for Jin Kazama!" after saying that, I felt truly flattered. She did all these things for me, and what had I given her in return? A hell of a lot of heartache, that's what. "Please, Calleigh…can we work through this? I don't want to lose you as a friend. You mean so much to me!"

She ran her hand through her hair, and choked back a stream of tears that I knew would be everlasting. "Jin Kazama…or whoever the hell you are…" she started, in a sentence I knew would break my heart. "I never want to see your face again. And the only way I'll ever see you again is if it's in one of these tournaments, got it?" I could tell she was choking these words out, and not really feeling them. But the second they left her lips, she stormed out of the room in a huff, and I didn't see her again for the longest time.