Chapter 37

After they had found a new home Lara called Kazuya to tell him that they would have to meet somewhere else. She told him that she had moved to another hotel, but wanted to meet him somewhere else, in case he was followed. She did not mention the encounter with his father.
"You are right; it's too dangerous when I pick you up at your hotel. How about we meet in a cafe?" he said.
"I think that's a good idea. I don't know how they have found me in the other hotel, but I have a guess. Get your car checked for transmitters."
"What?"
"One of the men said something along these lines."
"Oh great. I will check the car. Ok Lara, I will meet you at the cafe. I'll look out for pursuers, I promise."
They both hung up.

"Lara, do you think it's clever to meet with him?" Bryce asked.
"No, it isn't but as long as I'm with him I know nothing will happen."
"Lara, promise me to take care."
"Of course I will."
"I'll never understand why you are so risk taking."
"I just love it." Lara simply replied.
They sat in their new hotel room quietly for a while. Bryce was busy fetching Downey's latest mail, while Lara bandaged her arm. The cut looked very nasty at first but Lara had everything she needed to take care of the wound herself.
"So anything new?" Lara asked Bryce looking onto his screen.
"No." he replied scanning the mail. "All business."
"Ok, but keep an eye on it."

At 6 o'clock Lara met Kazuya in the cafe.
"Good evening, Lara." he said.
"Good evening."
"Ok, let's get to the arena. My fight starts in an hour."
"You are sure you have not been followed?" Lara asked him nervously.
"Absolutely. They had indeed placed a tracer on my car." he said angry. "I got rid of it."
They went out to the car and drove to the arena. It took them a while to find a place to park the car. Lara noticed that there were more people today than there had been previously.
"What's going on here?"
"Semi finals." Kazuya commented.
"So do you think the rest of your family will be here as well?" Lara asked wondering if Heihachi had escaped from the warehouse yet.
She was worried about meeting him again tonight. He would probably be angry beyond imagination. And she was certain that he would try attacking her, witnesses or not.
"Heihachi? No. He will come for his own fight later on. Chaolan? Maybe, but I think he has other things on his mind. He was very quiet the whole day. He is worried about the fight against Heihachi."

They entered the arena. Down to the right Lara spotted Law and Paul who were deep in a conversation in the middle of the hall. So instinctively she turned left. Kazuya held her back.
"Where are you going? We have to go that way." he said pointing down the hall.
Lara followed him as he walked straight towards Law and Paul. Paul looked up.
"Oh look, if that isn't..."
But before he could finish the sentence Kazuya walked right through the two of them and pushed both aside.
"You are in my way."
They both cursed and turned to him with aggressive looks on their faces.
"Don't give me these looks. You both had your chances against me - and lost." Kazuya said. "Why are you here anyway?"
"You are fighting against Baek. One of you gets his ass kicked. That's enough reason for me to be here." Law said.
"Oh I see and you brought Simpson along to show him how real men fight?"
"I hate him." Paul growled. "One day I will really show him. I almost had him once."
"Yeah, yeah, but twice you didn't have me at all. Come on Lara."
"Your arrogance will be your downfall one day." Law yelled after him.
Lara walked around the two men not looking at Paul so he wouldn't feel encouraged to make a comment. She caught up to Kazuya.
"What is it with you and those two?" Lara asked.
"They hate me."
"I cannot imagine why." she said with irony in her voice. "You really seem to enjoy it, when everybody hates you."
"What do you mean by that?"
"So far you have offended every man in your vicinity - well except Bryce, which I don't understand why... And you are only nice to women if you like them."
"There is no point in being friends with people today and to break their nose tomorrow. Besides you have to admit, Paul is not very lovable."
"No he is not." Lara agreed.
"Ok Lara, I think I have to leave you now. Don't let these two annoy you. I will see you after the fight."
He left her alone once more and Lara made her way into the arena. Again she had excellent seats. Front row tickets for the semi final were rather pricey and hard to get she had found out, but as a participant Kazuya got two. Lara found the two seats and was almost sad that the one next to her would probably stay empty. As annoying as he seemed at first, she had really started to like Lee Chaolan. She felt sorry for him that he had to fight Heihachi. She had gotten a taste of his power earlier on and she knew that this was going to be tough for the young man. The other seat next to hers was taken by the man who had been fighting Heihachi a week ago. Lara didn't remember his name, but she recognised the long dark hair that was tied back. He greeted her friendly and she returned the greeting.
"Many girls here tonight." he commented.
Lara looked around and saw that he was right. During the other matches she had realised that there were more men in the audience than women but today it was almost even.
"Hm, strange." Lara said.
"Not at all." the young man said smiling. "Baek - he is very popular with the girls... and Kazuya - well, he is the bad boy, they love that."
Lara had to grin. For once she wouldn't have annoying company during a match.
"So who do you think will win?" Lara asked him curious.
"I am pretty sure that Kazuya Mishima will win. Although Baek might be angry that he defeated Law. He wanted to fight against him so desperately." the man said, again grinning. "Mishima is the better fighter still."
Lara nodded and stayed quiet for a while. Five minutes later Law and Paul entered the arena and sat down on the other side. Lara was glad that they were far away.

Both fighters stepped into the arena shortly after. The fight began and Kazuya made his first move at once. He approached Baek quickly and started a series of punches before the other man could react. This took Baek by surprise and he couldn't get into the fight for a while, he was just reacting, trying to minimize the damage. Then Kazuya made a little pause giving Baek enough time to prepare for the next series of punches, but they never came. Kazuya kicked him low and then when Baek was about to change from a high defence to a low defence Kazuya grabbed his arm, pulled him forwards and kicked him in the back of the head, in one swift move his leg came up again and caught Baek in the face. The double face kick sent Baek down to the ground. Baek rolled and got up. Then the Korean started his own attack. He tried to get Kazuya with a series of kicks but he just stepped sideways and punched him into the side. Baek tried again to attack his opponent, and this time he managed to hit Kazuya a couple of times. He moved fast trying to do as much damage as possible before his opponent would recover. But Kazuya managed to block some of his kicks and he used the next tiny pause to get his punch through. The fight continued for a while and Baek was able to do some damage as well. But the Korean was getting slower and weaker every minute, he had lost the match right at the beginning when he had decided to start things slowly and his opponent had decided against it.