:: IV :: Making Moves
Lee Chaolan entered Kazuya's personal study without knocking. He no longer gave his brother such tokens, and likewise, Kazuya provided him with none. It was all part of the little game of war that they constantly played with each other.
Kazuya looked up with some annoyance as Lee entered. There were a number of papers scattered over his desk, but he didn't look as if he'd been studying any of them.
"Ah." There was an expression that spoke daggers on his face as his brother walked in. "Lee."
Lee ignored the contempt with which his name was spoken. He had become used to it, and he had his own methods of retaliating to Kazuya's gibes.
"I must say that this meeting of ours is rather unexpected, dear brother," he greeted maliciously. "Have I done something to offend you?"
Kazuya glowered at him, but chose to ignore the obvious taunt.
"Let us be serious about this, Lee," he began with a patronising air. "I don't like you upsetting our guests."
"Even when they go snooping around in a highly suspicious manner?" Lee interrupted sarcastically. "Have you so changed the rules you play by, Kazuya? Or is it simpy that you're interested in our Miss. Jun Kazama?"
"To a degree, yes," the other admitted, but his face grew darker. "She may come in useful to our cause."
"Oh? And how may that be?"
"That's no concern of your's, Lee. You seem to forget yourself. Just because you are my adopted brother does not mean that you may feel free to speak so candidly to me. You are still my lieutenant, nothing more."
"Thanks for reminding me," the younger replied through gritted teeth. Kazuya paid not attention and slouched back in his seat.
"Don't pretend to me, Lee. I've seen the way you look at that girl." He seemed to think a moment, then sat up straight again. "All right. I want you to watch Miss. Kazama. Make sure she doesn't do anything out of turn."
"And what if she does?" Lee questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm sure you'll think of something." Kazuya's voice changed and there was bitterness in it. "You're very good with women."
Yes – Lee had a reputation as a womaniser, but Kazuya didn't know the half of it. Still, assessing the situation gace Lee the chance to see that taking up Kazuya's task would give him infinite opportunities where Miss. Jun Kazama was concerned.
"All right," he agreed, after thinking it through. "I'll keep an eye on her."
And that was that.
He left the room without any further acknowledgement of his brother, turning over the latest events in his mind. Lighting a cigarette with his antique gold lighter, he stopped to think a moment more. Jun had surprised him; he hadn't expected her to fight the way she had, and she certainly had a very unique style… Lee drew in a breath of smoke and released it slowly. If he'd known it was Jun who had been out there, he wouldn't have thought her. he probably would've taken a different approach. At any rate, picking a fight was no way to win the heart of a woman.
The clatter of high heels down the passageway caused him to stand up a little straighter. It was Anna who was coming down towards him, ready for the kill. He had to admit, she looked delicious. Her voluptuous figure was clearly evident underneath the tight-fitting, low-cut dress she was wearing, and her smile was a scarlet, come-hither smile. Lee swallowed hard. He was used to women like her, but Anna always seemed to make his blood boil.
"Hey, Lee." She'd reached him, and he could smell the first traces of her expensive and delightfully sensual perfume. "Been to see your brother again?"
"Yes," Lee admitted, trying to drown the overpowering scent with the smoke of his cigarette. "We were discussing business – as usual."
"Were you?" She was getting dangerously close. "You know, Lee, you need to relax. Why not come back to my room for a drink?"
"No thanks," he replied flippantly. Experience had taught him how to deal with Anna. "I've got some pressing engagements I need to attend to."
"Well, that's shame." She was toying with him, he knew it. "Because I was hoping we could do some catching up. For old times sake."
Old times? Lee seldom lived in the past, and considering the circumstances her offer really didn't appeal to him. He was just about to tell her he really, really wasn't interested when he heard someone calling him from down the corridor. It was Wang.
"Lee, I need to speak to you a moment!"
Lee inwardly sighed with relief. As a fellow Chinaman, he and Wang got on well, and the old mentor had long since heard of Lee's troubles with the forthright Anna.
"Sorry, Anna, but it looks like I have some business to see to." Lee brushed past her, giving her a small wink. "Maybe we could have that drink some other time."
"Sure." She shrugged, looking only just slightly pissed off.
Jun had debated telling Lei about what had happened that night, then decided against it. Lei seemed more preoccupied with other things, and she rarely got the chance to meet him. Over the next few days, however, Jun didn't have the time to look into the Mishima Conglomerate, for her time was taken up by the tournament. She won all her bouts, but each time she fought she was achingly aware of the dark figure that sat on the balcony overlooking the arena. Each time she saw Kazuya, her body was infused with a feeling stronger than the last. It was a feeling of blackness, of hate, of revenge. But these were not just emotions. They were real, alive, a life or a spirit, burning to get out. Jun shivered every time she felt it. Was the hate for his father? Or for something else? Jun did not know.
There were other people who sat up on the balcony too. There was Lee, whose presence also unnerved her. She wondered if he was angry with her about the other night, but then felt stupid for thinking about it. So long as Kazuya didn't suspect her, what did it matter? Still, Lee Chaolan was a hard man to read, and his insolent good looks put her off guard whenever he chose to work them on her.
Then there was Wang, amongst others. The old man who'd made such an impact on Jun's life and then just walked out of it. He never seemed to look at her directly; his gentle, wise eyes seemed to take in a whole scene that Jun was only a minute part of. She needed to speak to him. She felt betrayed by the old man. She'd trusted and respected him, only to find he was working for the Mishima. It was imperative to her that she set things straight with him.
A week passed before she could get the chance. She'd just been happening to walk down the corridor when she saw him walking away from her, talking to Lee. Jun didn't particularly want to be faced with Lee again, but the need to talk to her old mentor was so great that she found herself running up to him without a thought.
"Mr. Wang… Sir! Wait a minute!"
The two ahead stopped and turned. There was an expressionless look on the old man's face as Jun neared, but she stopped and smiled at him hopefully.
"Mr. Wang, I've been wanting to speak to you for some time!" She paused to catch her breath. "I hope you remember me. We met in Hong Kong seven years ago."
The old man appeared to think for a moment before answering slowly.
"Yes…I remember…You're Jun Kazama."
"Yes." Jun nodded in relief. "It's been so long, I thought you wouldn't recognise me." She looked at Lee, who was staring at her wordlessly. "Mr. Wang, do you mind if we go somewhere private? There are some questions I'd like to ask you."
"I'm sorry," Wang replied, almost coldly. "But I'm busy right now. Lee, would you please take care of this girl for me?"
Jun gaped at him. This was definitely not what she wanted.
"But…"
Wang, however, gave her no more time to speak.
"Goodbye, Miss. Kazama. Perhaps we can meet again some other time." So saying he turned and walked back down the corridor, disappearing into a nearby lift. Jun stared after him in dismay. She felt hurt now, as well as betrayed. It was as though the old man had slapped her in the face.
"So," Lee's smooth voice spoke into the silence. "You know Wang, do you?"
"Yes," Jun answered warily. "For a while."
"I've known Wang for quite some time now. He never once mentioned you."
Jun stared up at him indignantly. "Just what are you suggesting, Mr. Lee?"
He laughed. "Please, don't be so formal!" He stopped and stared right back at her. "I'm not suggesting anything, Jun. I just thought it strange, that's all."
Jun shuddered inwardly. She didn't like the casual use of first names when she hardly knew him herself.
"I considered him a friend," she answered quietly. "For several years."
"You'll have to arrange a time to see him then," Lee returned. "He's very busy at the moment."
Jun didn't believe him. There was so much she already mistrusted about the Mishima; so much they were keeping hidden. Though disappointed at Wang's reception, she had the odd sense that something else was afoot. She was about to turn back to her room when Lee suddenly reached out for her arm, stopping her.
"Wait."
She turned around expectantly. "What?"
He looked down the corridor once, twice, then lowered his voice.
"If you want to speak to Wang, you must wait for the right time. Do you understand? Wang can't speak to you so openly right now."
"Why? Is it so dangerous to talk to an old friend?"
He smiled faintly. "Believe me when I say you mustn't try to speak to him like that again. If you really wish to meet him in person, then maybe I could arrange something for you."
"You?" she repeated incredulously. Why should she put her trust in him so unreservedly? "Why are you helping me?"
"Because," he smiled at her, and his hand brushed up her arm, his fingers soft, "I want to." He looked up then, over her shoulder. "Your friend's waiting for you."
Jun whirled round, half dazed. Lei was standing at the end of the corridor, looking on dubiously, hands in pockets. Jun knew what he was thinking of her, and that she must've looked as guilty as hell. She turned to speak to Lee once more, but he was already walking away from her, towards the elevators. Jun watched his receding figure. She felt perplexed at his offer to help her see Wang, and perturbed by the way he had touched her. By the time Lei had got to her side, she was flabbergasted.
"What the hell was going on back there?" he quizzed her, sounding distinctly displeased. Jun shrugged, her voice worried.
"I really don't know," she breathed.
"Don't know? For Chrissakes, you're a trained agent, Jun, you're meant to know where you're at!"
"I know, Lei, I just…"
"You just what?" He paused, inhaled heavily, then grabbed her the shoulders. "God, Jun, don't do this to me! Don't go getting involved with Lee Chaolan!"
"I'm not!" She wriggled free and shot him a glare. "Do you think I'm that stupid?! I'm just confused, that's all."
"Why so?"
"He's up to something," she replied. "I just don't know what."
Lei groaned, turned, looked up at the ceiling, placed a hand to his temple. After a minute or so, he turned.
"Okay, Jun. You're going to keep an eye on that guy. I don't trust him one little bit. So don't go giving things away to him."
"Do you know how insulting that insinuation is?" she exclaimed indignantly. "You seem to think I'm some air-headed bimbo or something. Well, I'm not!"
"Well excuse me! I see you flirting with some smooth-talking pretty-boy, and then you blame me for…"
"I was not flirting!" She stopped, trying to calm herself down. Arguing would get them nowhere. "Look, forget it, Lei. It's not like you're without fault either. Every time I find something I need to tell you, you're never there. Where on earth have you been?"
"I've been working on things myself," he explained, but his face looked a little sheepish. "Things are coming along well."
"Aren't we supposed to be partners?" Jun asked with raised eyebrows.
"Yes, but…" He trailed off, then glanced at his watch. "Well whaddya know? Looks like duty calls. I've got an appointment to keep." He turned and began to walk away. "We'll talk about this later!"
"Lei…!"
He, however, ignored her, and Jun was left to watch him walk away with a nettled expression on her face.
Nina, in her spare time, had taken the opportunity to reacquaint herself with her old friends. She hadn't seen them since the last tournament, and so she felt it was time for her to catch up on the latest news.
So, meeting up with Paul and Law in the bar, they were soon discussing all that had passed in the last two years.
"Nothing much," Paul explained rather glumly. "I worked for six months as a bodyguard for some rich honcho down in Las Vegas, but all the shit up there got to me, so I took to wandering again. Damn, I hate casinos."
"Been taking care of your motorbike?" Nina inquired humorously. Paul and his motorbike was something of a standing joke.
"Of course," Paul grinned. "But I hope you understand that I'd ditch that bike for you any day, Nina."
"Sorry, Paul," Nina interjected quickly. "But I'm not interested."
Paul pulled a face. "Have you been unfaithful to me, Nina? Who is this other man then, huh?"
"Now that would be telling." Nina winked playfully, then turned to Law. "How about you, Law? Did you open that dojo you always wanted?"
"I sure did," Law replied, looking pleased. "The best dojo for miles around."
"That's great!" Nina enthused. "So what brings you to the tournament?"
"Well, that's just it, Nina." Law frowned darkly. "One morning I arrived at the dojo ready for work, when all these guys were in there moving all my equipment out. I asked them what the hell they were doing, but they started to threaten me. And then this guy, obviously the leader of the gang, started badmouthing me. Challenged me to a bout, so I was able to learn a few things about him."
"Such as…?" Nina asked.
"Well, his style of fighting was Tae Kwon Do, so obviously he was Korean." Law placed down his empty glass and continued. "A few inquiries told me that this man was a certain Baek Doo San, who just happened to be the Mishima's Head of Real Estate Division. I didn't want to leave my wife and kids by themselves, but I had to see what was going on. So I joined the tournament."
"But why would they buy-out your property?" Nina asked. Law shrugged.
"Maybe they wanted me out of the way," he snorted. "And if that was the case, they screwed up, 'cos here I am, back for revenge."
"And what about him?" Nina shoved a thumb in the direction of a young man at the table behind them. Paul and Law looked over their shoulders at the melancholy-looking man, slouching drunkenly over his pint.
"Oh, you mean King!" Paul looked disgusted. "Guy's been juiced ever since he got here. Wasn't ever like that in the first tournament. Musta got screwed over, just like the rest of us."
"Well, we're all here," Nina stated, sitting back. "Except for Yoshimitsu. No doubt he'll turn up. Then we'll be one big, happy family."
"What makes you so sure he'll show up?" Law queried doubtfully.
"I heard something's going on with his old friend, Dr. Bosconivitch. So I guess he'll turn up to help him out."
"An' I heard that Kunimitsu was hoping to give him a piece of her mind," Paul commented wryly. "Them two go way back – belonged to rival clans, or I heard. Apparently Kunimitsu wants a duel to the death."
"According to my sources," Nina murmured, "there was a lot more between them than just bad blood."
Akio, however, didn't appreciate Nina talking about her 'sources'.
"If you're going to give things away to your friends, you'd be better off dead."
"I'm a trained professional," Nina told him sourly. "I don't need you telling me what to do."
They were sitting in the park next to each other on a bench, Akio rather humorously feeding ducks.
"All right," he gave up arguing with her. "So what have you found during the past week?"
"It should be fairly easy to get to the upper floors. You're little gadget works a dream on the keycard system," Nina explained wryly. "So that shouldn't be a problem. Undercover I could get to the target easily. The problem is finding out where he is."
"Hmm." Akio mulled over her words a few moments. "Oh and by the way, Heihachi will be phoning you at precisely…" He looked at his watch, "…3 O'clock. That leaves you with exactly half a minute to prepare your little speech."
He grinned at her as she glowered at him. It seemed to her that he enjoyed riling her on purpose and she didn't know why she let it get to her. She was still inwardly fuming when her cellphone went off. She answered the phone without giving a greeting.
"Ah, Nina," Heihachi's raspy voice greeted her. "And how are we today."
"Just fine. What do you want?"
"Did you check out security."
"Of course. Getting up to the top floors shouldn't be too much trouble, if we do it right."
"Right." Heihachi quickly took control. "It's probably too risky to target Kazuya from the inside. As soon as you strike he'll have security swarming in an enclosed space. Best thing to do is to attack from the outside."
"Outside? But how am I supposed to know where Kazuya is?"
"Akio will give you the necessary information – when he finds it, of course. Until then, all you have to do is sit tight and keep quiet."
"Okay," Nina agreed, "But Heihachi, how come…"
Her question was cut mid-sentence by the sound of a dialling tone. Switching off the call in annoyance, she turned to Akio, who was throwing bread to the ducks as if he hadn't heard a word at all.
"Akio," she began testily. "I think you've got some explaining to do."
He looked amused. "What about?"
"Like how you seem to know so much about the inner workings of the Mishima. And how you and Heihachi seem to know one another so well."
"I have good contacts," he spoke after a pause. "Besides, what's wrong with knowing Heihachi? You did, once. And you're not so keen to talk about him either." He stood up. "Well, I'll be keeping in touch. And perhaps we could meet up for dinner some time."
Nina almost smiled at the off-handedness of his statement.
"How about tonight?" she asked softly.
"Tonight?" He was suddenly flustered, she could tell. Although he his it well, it was the kind of look she was trained to discern. "Sorry, I have an appointment to keep." He turned and gave her a half-smile. "Goodbye, Nina."
"See you later."
She stared after him as he left, furrowing her brow in concentrated thought. Evasiveness was nothing out of the ordinary for him; but his obvious discomfort at her suggestion? That wasn't like him. But then, Nina reasoned to herself, she didn't really know anything about Akio Yumiko at all.
A strange thing happened to Michelle while she had been waiting for Lei to arrive. They'd decided to meet up in the relatively quiet courtyard for a change, where they could talk without the risk of many others hearing.
So Michelle was sitting out there, by herself, wondering what was keeping Lei. They'd had several meetings since the first one, and, to Michelle's bewilderment, she'd begun to enjoy the Hong Kong policeman's company. She was just puzzling this over when she realised that someone was looming quite close behind her. Standing and whirling round, she found to her astonishment that it was the man they called Ganryu.
"Good afternoon, Michelle," he greeted her familiarly, grinning all over his fat face.
"What do you want?" she retorted, disgusted at the man's corpulent mass of flesh. "Do I know you?"
"Not yet," Ganryu was still leering at her. "But if you're here for what I think you are, Miss. Chang, then I'm hoping we shall get to know one another very well indeed."
Michelle froze. Could it really be that this horrible, sweaty man knew about her intentions?
"I don't know what you're talking about!" she finally breathed. "And how do you know my name?"
"Well, now, I know your mother very well," came the dark reply. "And she's told me a lot about you, Michelle." He leaned in, his breath on her neck causing her skin to goosepimple. "I know you've come back to the Tekken tournament to look for her," he continued softly, insidiously. "And I've come to warn you to stay out of our business with her. You have no idea of the forces you are meddling with. And if you do chance to interfere…" he grinned sadistically, "…then we will make sure that your visit to this building is conveniently terminated."
Michelle glared at him, speechless at his blatant threat. Ganryu stood back and beamed at her, only thinly covering the menacing quality to his words.
"Take care of yourself, Michelle."
He left, his parting words stinging her like nettles. Michelle slumped back onto the bench and buried her head in her hands, feeling the hot tears welling up – tears of rage, regret and passion. She'd lost her beloved father to the Mishima – would she lose her mother too?
"Michelle?"
It was Lei; suddenly he was standing next to her where Ganryu had been. "Michelle, what the hell happened?"
Michelle looked up, and found herself clinging to the astonished policeman.
"Lei, you've got to help me!" she cried between tears. "Please don't bail out on me now!"
It was night time, and the glittering neon lights of Neo-Tokyo stretched out like a vast empire from the towering window in Kazuya Mishima's study. There was a time when the sight of the city had inflamed him – he had felt power, authority; as though he owned the city, as though it was under his dominion. Now he loathed the sight of it. He loathed this tower and all the people in it. Despite all this, however, he could not run away.
Why? The answer was simple. The more he hated the place, the more he'd brood over it, and the more power he'd feel. His strength fed on the hatred and the violent loathing for his invisible father. The city was like Heihachi. Every time Kazuya looked on it, he'd see his father and want to kill it, smash it. He'd had nightmares about it, nightmares about what had happened all those years ago. Nightmares of a near-death at his father's hands. And then of that dark spirit, the one that was speaking to him now, filling him up.
He was not being himself, he knew it. He was only listening to that thing inside him, that was why he felt so bad. Some days, good days, he almost wanted to laugh hysterically about it, but those days were slipping fast. The more time he spent alone, the less sane he felt. But he couldn't trust anyone enough to talk to them about it.
He remembered Jun and that made him angry. There was something about that girl, something that made him want to reject the past, to make him feel good. She was good. She emanated goodness. He despised it. Blackness was his path: he would have crushed her long ago. So why hadn't he?
Was it simply because he had been told not to?
Yes; he'd been told to leave her alone, for now. That was what his ancient friend had told him. Except it wasn't a friend. It was the only person who truly understood him.
Kazuya crumpled the papers in his hands and threw them viciously into the wastepaper basket. Profits had soared, business had grown tenfold. He hardly cared for it anymore.
Now, the only thing he cared for was revenge.
The calm before a storm, and is it finally truce time for Jun and Lei?