When Lightning Strikes Twice
Part 4
Down the Line
Jin had come to admire the girl. After the park, he had taken her to a private surgery, bitching all the way until he had to bribe her with a hotdog to get her inside. She hissed she didn't have the money to pay be he assured her he had. She tried to escape again, vowing she didn't want his money and after a moment of being torn in two, threw her hotdog at him.
There she had her wrist bound as it was not broken, just a few fingers that would heal fine. He was glad he wasn't the one to tell her not to use them for a month, he had hear her explode at the doctor with a shrill barrage. Finally she came out seething, but quiet. He paid the receptionist with his own funds he had retrieved from an ATM, a long and complicated manoeuvre that kept his identity hidden, and guided her through the door as quickly as he dared.
The female doctor watched them leave with mild amusement.
After following Akira back to the warehouse her dark glares deepened when she realised she couldn't reach her loft. Akira flopped down beside the burnt out fire she had lit last night. Jin knelt opposite, setting down the containers of Chinese Food he had also bought with the money. Sitting up sniffing, she didn't so much as eat it as massacre it. Crumbs flew.
Jin wasn't hungry and instead bowed his head in thought, pondering his predicament and how he could use it.
The positives were he was in a cosmopolitan city where he could be lost amongst the population. Heihatchi's interests in Australia were negligible, they didn't want his weapons and he didn't want their ugg boots. He had pursued genetic development here and New Zealand but they had petered out once he realised splicing his DNA wasn't the answer.
He had an unlimited cash flow so he didn't need to work as such. Being captain of Heihatchi's private army as it travelled the world had its benefits and it had its own special accounts. Neither did his grandfather have any interest in overseeing the accounts so if he managed what he took carefully he would not find him. It wasn't like the men he had lead would save for a rainy day when they were working for one of the richest and most influential men of the era, and didn't look like he was dying anytime soon.
There was of course his own account, one he had set up in secret soon after his mother disappeared. It had a lump sum he could establish himself with until he could act.
Establish myself, he mused, gazing up at the rickety roof, smiling into space. It was perfect and he could still pretend he had connections…
The more he thought about it, the more he liked it.
"Akira."
"Mwah?" she said threw a mouthful of sweet and sour pork. She wore a ring of sauce like lipstick but she licked it off unselfconsciously.
"I- I am in hiding."
"Yahah?" She continued to dig into the container with archaeological application and not looking up.
"I have wealth," he persisted, watching the fork with mild irritation, "and I would like to set up a Dojo."
"That's nice."
"Here."
The fork froze and she finally looked up, wiping the sauce away with the back of her hand.
"Are you kidding?" she coughed, her oriental eyes bugging comically as she thumped her chest to work down an accidental bite. "This is government property! They are the stingiest buggers alive! And here? On the wharves? With these thin walls? I could kick my way out!"
Jin remained dead serious. "I won't kick you out if that's what you're thinking. You could be-" he trailed off. What on earth did he need her for? He couldn't let her go off after what she had seen but if he could win her loyalty... "A student," he finished lamely but her ears perked.
"You mean like really?" she breathed with delight.
"Yes," he went on with relief, letting his imagination get away from him. "I could be a mentor. You could go back to school, you wouldn't have to worry about money-"
The light of excitement in her eyes suddenly extinguished and narrowed. "I am not a charity case!" she hissed venomously, throwing down the container letting the remaining rice scatter through the charred crate and shoving herself to her feet to stalk away. Jin climbed up to his feet, leaping over the charcoal and gripped her shoulder. She whirled around but he deflected the elbow with ease, throwing her around in a circle with the extra momentum, he caught her before she stumbled over a crate dizzily.
"I am not doing this out of pity," he whispered into her ear. "I can't let you go!"
Akira swallowed thickly, her eyes still narrowed but now in consideration. "I don't know anything, I have a memory like a sieve," she pronounced in a slow, toneless voice, stepping away from him.
"It is a chance I cannot take. I will employ you as a maid, tidy up after me, cook- uh, or wash up, if it makes you feel better."
After a moment, she said in a dejected whisper, "Okay." She felt like she had been bought. She raked her fingers through her hair and sat limply on a crate, letting her arms dangle between her legs as she slumped.
"Don't be that way, Akira," Jin pleaded. "I owe you much more than shelter. I owe you my life."
She licked her lips nervously. She had. This was just…. Tit for tat.
"Okay."
"I will begin arrangements this afternoon."
"You're too tense, Ki, relax and let yourself flow."
"I am relaxed, I am flowing! Besides, you're the one who should be watching himself, I'm gonna send you for a loop!"
Akira shifted her weight to the back leg of her cat stance effortlessly. Jin noted her improvement and concentrated one her hands. They weaved in front of his eyes in intricate patterns, distracting him despite knowing her wily tricks. In and out, up and down they swirled. But he could watch only one thing at a time, her flourishing hands with their quick and graceful movements, or her muscular, flexible legs, able to land a blow to the head of even her tallest opponents and even easier to swoop down and take his legs from under him.
Seizing the gap in her delicate gestures, he lunged out, his fist pistoning up from his waist. His eyes widened as that supposed gap in her defence disappeared and her forearm met his flicking it upwards and missing her head by millimetres. Dangerously overbalanced, he fought to keep his guard up but Akira, an opportunist at heart, twisted beneath his body. Her own small fist hit his paunch and twisted the bare skin, twisting under her own arm and out of his way like a corkscrew. He grunted forcing himself upright but she seized the moment to duplicate the attack.
Bewildered by her new technique, he had barely enough time to roll aside before a cartwheel stomp landed beside his head. Snarling in frustration, Akira chopped at his legs with shin kicks and thigh kicks, each aiming for the perineal tendon behind his knee. Her rash thinking left her whole right side open as one fist dropped for balance. Not letting his obvious victory show through his expression, he kept sidestepping and blocking the flurry of kicks the smaller martial artist threw, signs of fatigue showing through.
Since that afternoon almost three years, Jin had taken Akira under his wing as his own student and friend. She was a comfort he hadn't expected.
Akira had gone back to school after almost a year and a half on the street and he had built on her own natural talents with his mother's teachings.
He had bought this warehouse and the one next to it from the government using the Mishima name and hints of malice to close the deal, swearing that if the man was ever mentioned this transaction in any conversation ever again he would get what was coming to him. Jin loathed stooping to such low tactics but it was a necessity.
Within weeks the warehouses had been smashed down by a contractor and rebuilt over it. The dojo took up the greater amount of space with small living quarters at the back. At Akira's request he had also had her hideyhole rebuilt properly with sturdy support beams and a safe ladder leading up to her room.
The dojo itself was low key, still trying to appear a dilapidated warehouse from the outside with high walls and plated with corrugated iron so not to attract attention. He couldn't have asked for a more concealed place. Warehouses lined it on all sides, screening it from the view of the marina and the populace.
He kept it clean and tidy, the equipment in top condition despite its constant use, and its only student working hard.
As soon as Akira was well enough to remove her wraps, she had badgered him into teaching her what he knew of the complex martial arts. He agreed, tutoring her only Jun's traditional Kazama Self Defence, to which the quick agile girl in similar build adapted far better then he could ever dreamed, out mastering him in that effect at least. She also introduced her own kicks, punches and wicked hand tricks so easily confusing her opponent.
The girl had a natural talent for martial arts, but as if to balance the girl was naturally unfit, even after three years she would puff and pant and struggle if any sparring was drawn out.
In those years she had also returned to school with forged papers, stating himself as her older brother and guardian, and had graduated, excelling in biology. For the past eight months she attended St Lucia University. She hadn't got the marks she wanted to be a veterinarian but still managed to scrape through with a course in mammalian anatomy and physiology.
He wasn't surprised as she constantly begged him for a camping trip in the Bunya Mountains so she could study the wildlife. She even kept a feather collection in her room.
Jin had kept his thoughts and doubts at bay for all the busy weeks sorting through the tangle of Akira and the dojo, but when he finally had enough time to mull over the betrayal of his grandfather Heihatchi, the only one he had ever trusted since his mother, he fell into a brooding silence for days. He avoided Akira realising just what a danger it was to have her so close. The night he had stumbled into the warehouse was a little hazy, halfway between transformations, but he could clearly remember the bloodlust as she stood before him with broomstick raised.
Finally he reached the conclusion, any of the Mishima clan was a thing of evil, to be shunned and hated and vowed to train out the Mishima style fighting he had learned from his grandfather and turned to its traditional cousin.
A sharp kick to his floating ribs jolted Jin from his reverie and a jab connecting with his jaw followed immediately by a right hook sent him reeling. As he leapt at her with his fist cocked, she ducked under it with a playful smirk. Irritated by her smug expression, he ripped at her with a round house to the head. She ducked out of reach again and caught his foot on the way down, twisting it into a lock.
Jin grunted, bending to her will but still well guarded.
"Give?" she prodded happily, a dark olive cheeks flushed with perspiration.
"No."
"Huh?"
Suddenly he leapt off the ground with his remaining foot and kicked into the square of her jaw. She dropped his leg and crashed into the ground while he landed a little unsteadily on both legs.
"How the hell did you do that?" she groaned from the floor after a minute or two. Jin rolled his eyes and helped her up carefully as she would likely attack again.
Akira is too stubborn for her own good, he mused. Living with her had brought to fore all the faults people who live together find out. She quickly became angry and frustrated when things didn't go her way and was very stubborn in her opinions. She was judgemental and was always fumbling the blame on someone else, those people. She also refused help, somewhere in her childhood she had decided that asking for help, receiving help,was a sign of weakness. She would snap and snarl until she could do it herself, even if it was physically impossible for her to do so; like when she shifted her few possessions into her room.
She leaned against the dojo walls, muttering and glaring viciously at him. When he smiled amused, she only glared more.
"Can't you every just lose graciously for a change?" she growled, flexing her jaw, still wheezing. "I mean three years I've known you, two years you've trained me, at least a year I've been able to spar you, for once can't you let me win and give me a tiny boost of confidence?"
"That's a boost of confidence you don't need!" Jin laughed softly and Akira's tantrum subsided a little with a wistful expression for a fleeting second. "Your ego is already large enough to rival many I've seen," Jin paused, thinking of the blonde haired American fighter, Paul. "And I've seen many."
Akira snorted indifferent to his quiet lapse and folded her arms. "I'd still like to know how you were able to throw your whole weight in the air like that. And how much pressure did you put on your leg? Damnit! I hate you."
"You've been saying that for three years," Jin pointed out as he slipped behind a screen to change from his sweaty gi.
Akira politely turned around. "Because you've been beating me for three years!" she cried, throwing her hands in the air. From behind the screen, he saw her silhouette begin to pace, another of her habits when she was worked up. Jin had been trying to train out the impatient streak she had, and had managed to work it down to a sliver. It often made itself known during a fight and any other time she was more then happy to vent her frustration in many queer ways.
Finally he pulled on a loose, short sleaved jacket, leaving it open. Coming from behind the screen, he tapped her shoulder. Akira rocketed into the air with a startled yelp and let loose an elbow aimed at jaw height, her jaw height so it only reached his chest and by that time she realised it was him so it only thumped weakly against him.
"And I hate you when you're silent!" she yelled into his face.
"You've been saying that too."
"I hate you," she rolled her eyes in exasperation, knowing how futile it was to argue with him. She looked him up and down and tried to scowl. "And you know I hate that costume. That's what it is you know! You look like some giant court jester!"
"My, my, my! Aren't we spiteful today!" he murmured, slipping into his native tongue. He looked down and realised she was right. One pant leg was black to the knee, and white to his ankles. The other was white to the knee and black to the ankles. Also, the vertically opposite sides of his jacket corresponded. All complete with hood, as was all his clothing. She had once commented he looked like a conman running from the law, an irony if ever there was one.
"And don't go Japanese-zee on me! I may not be able to understand everything but I get the gist of it!" She returned to her usual, watchful demeanor, her eyes trailing after him as he shook himself out, warming down with the tenseness melting out of his muscles.
"Besides," Jin smiled. "When did you become the fashion police?" He made a show of looking disdainfully at her clothing.
Akira's clothing were distinctly tomboyish, choosing for herself only knee length shorts and baggy shirts. She had filled out some with regular feeding and now almost looked her age but was still disdainful of her peers fashion statements, which generally involved flesh and lots of it. Showing her skin always made her a little uncomfortable, she had explained with discomfort, even if she had lived in Australia for the majority of her life.
"Tu shay." She wrinkled her nose at him. "You should shower after training."
Since rejoining the population with homes her world view had become very food and bathing orientated. He wondered just how much she spent on soap as hers always seemed whittled away to slimy sliver.
"I will, I just have a little bit of work to do. I'm going into the backroom so…."
"Don't bother me," she finished, mocking his stern expression. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's like being with my family again," she smiled wanely, she visited them at Christmas but here was home. "You're so paranoid. I'm surprised you let me go out at night."
"That's because I trust you to take care of yourself but not to keep your hands out of my privacy. Where do you go at night?"
"That's my business," she said, turning serious, strolling after him in her own warm down. Her arms moved in slow blocking X's, up and down with her eyes half closed, then turning her hips, calves and feet.
"Well, have your shower and get going, Claude will be furious if you're late for work again." He smiled fondly. He had not secluded himself from the world like he planned, first meeting Claude and Aristos when he went to apologise for Akira's absence. The two were warm, friendly and hilarious contrasts. He had then followed Akira to the Tai Chi held in the park and eventually meeting her friends from University who had spent most the time eyeing him up, much to his and Akira's embarrassment.
"Don't know why, I'm just a labourer in the back."
"You?" he exclaimed with laugher, lifting one of her small arms.
"Hey! You've seen how much damage they can do!"
"Go!" Jin whirled her around and gave her a gentle shove towards the bathroom, before she could protest further.
Thankyou very much you guys.
Ice Phoenix, your praise makes me blush. I love writing WLST again. I love writing martial arts scenes which I can't weasel into my other fictions.
Lady Wolfbane, as a reader you are much appreciated too. I was actually considering cutting out that bit because it was so Mary-Sue. I'm glad it was liked anyway.
MysticSuperSaiyanGohan, mwahahaha! That's for me to know and you to find out. I do know that Angel will play a huge part by the end, along with the devils.
Thanks again, enjoy!