When Lightning Strikes Twice

Part 6

You'll Be in My Heart

More then a good deal later, Akira panted heavily, trying to keep her guard up but her arms kept drooping despite her resolution to win not matter what. She glared, leaning her weight on her back leg, poised for an attack. Her cat stance was as sloppy as her defence but she refused to give up.

"Come on Kira, you haven't even made it to the wall yet," Jin chided, though in not much better shape. He sweated profusely but years of discipline made him control his breathing and keep his hands up. A thick strand of hair fell into his eyes, dripping perspiration. As he moved his hand to sweep it back behind his ear, Akira flew at him, delivering a sharp Muay Thai kick to his floating rib and then another kick, driving his knee inward. In quick succession, she launched half a dozen kicks to all parts of his body. Like his mother, her combinations were almost impossible to block and hopeless to try and attack through it. All he could do was take each hit as it came and then attack as she drew back, leaving herself open to any devastating blow.

He was trying his hardest and Akira was pushing herself to her limit. It meant either two things, unsure of which was worse. Either he had become lax in his training or that Akira was almost as good as himself and one day might surpass him in the years to come.

He studied his student as she rained down on him, her face twisted into such conviction that he discarded the first. She was running on pure adrenaline only. Her final blow was a head height roundhouse. He could only deflect it, sending it smashing into his shoulder and a shockwave coursing through his limb. He stumbled backwards and she darted forward with a flip. One of Jin's earlier snap kicks hindered her and as her feet slapped against the concrete floor, her rasping breath echoed through out the dojo. As she landed, Jin's feet flew past and tripped her.

He winced as she hit the floor.

Not wishing to continue, he stepped backwards. "That's enough for tonight," he said softly, yet firmly.

"No!" she moaned and began to stand up again. He stepped forward and swept one of her hands out and she slumped to the floor again with a grunt. She rolled out of the way and came to her feet, panting hard, face blank. At least she had kept some wits about her and not lost her temper.

He held up his hands and stared her down. "I give, a martial artist knows when he has reached his limits."

"But you're perfectly fine!"

"But you are not! You're hotheaded, you're stubborn and you would have kept going to the point of collapse. Your arrogance will get you killed. That's why I had to step down," he scolded in a level voice, but Akira's eyes dropped to the floor. She knew he was angry and disappointed in her. "Now shower, dress and go to bed. Think of all those times you could have retrieved your bow and defeated me easily instead of fighting on!"

His student bowed and moved hurriedly out of his stern gaze. He stood stock still, until he heard the water running.

Jin sighed loudly and shook off some of the tenseness that gripped his limbs. Seeing a sand bag, he decided he was too worked up to go to sleep. His thoughts flowed easily while he trained, he often found. He approached the bag with long fluid steps, weaving around the bag as if it were a challenger, throwing strong straight jabs before ducking away. He was glad Akira wasn't watching him or she would have laughed at him.

He slipped into a rhythm and reflected on tonight's lesson. Though he was disheartened at Akira's lapse in sense, he had analysed his own style and found that instead of lagging in his training, it had improved a hundred fold. His punches sharp, his holds perfect and his kicks without flaw. Through making Akira reach her full potential, he had to enhance his own skills to make a point.

This was no mere self-indulgence it was only truth.

He was without a doubt he could stand his ground within the Tournament, but his mind still ran the heated argument in his head.

It would be the perfect opportunity to revenge yourself against Heihatchi! argued one side.

But revenge is the last resort of the incompetent, answered the other.

The Mishima bloodline must be obliterated, or more pain will follow, cried the first voice

It is not of your concern. Your life has been wrought with evil, let it be! Rebutted the second briskly and then adding, What of Akira?

What about her? Tonight she proved she didn't listen to any of your teachings. She flaunted your advice!

Prove? All it proved is that she still has much to learn and needs you to guide her.

Seeing a point lost, his first voice slipped tactics. While you fought, you saw she was well on her way to greatness, isn't it best she nurture her own skills, with you she suppresses them to learn martial arts that don't fit her. She will be great, and if you are worthy, and she is worthy, fate will have you meet again.

He paused in his dance as behind him across the other side of the dojo, Akira cleared her throat.

"'G'night Jin. You were right, I shouldn't have lost my temper." Her voice was chilly, like she was really just apologising to keep the peace but he could hear it tinged with guilt.

Jin turned to face her, mildly surprised. It was as close to an apology that would pass her lips, but he understood.

"It's okay, 'Kira. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Just don't do it again." It felt wrong. He wasn't lying, but he was pretending there would be a next time.

She shrivelled her nose. "Too philosophical, night."

Her shadowy form nodded and she climbed the steps up to her hidden loft, where she would rest her eyes until the night darkened and she would slip through a skylight to who knows where. She didn't do it often, just when she felt a little stressed or needed to think, so he let her. Those thugs, the Fat Society, were little more than a warm up these days.

If you are worthy, and she is worthy, fate will have you meet again, his mind echoed. Suddenly he whirled around, nothing but a blur of black and white, and drove a sharply honed kick into the bag. It burst violently and the sand spilled out in a cascade.

He would do it. In two days he would be on a plane for the Honmaru, and leave this life behind him. It was only just a dream anyway. Fate didn't want him to be happy for too long.

Jin stood, two days later, at the bottom of Akira's loft holding a neatly hand written envelope addressed to her and a paper package under his arm. He looked up and sighed, a sound full of regret.

Minutes earlier he had heard Akira leave through a skylight. Even she admitted it was a tricky climb but she liked to be up high. She thought it was fun that she might miss one of the roofs beams and plunge head first into the dojo floor. She would be back until early morning, maybe even dawn because it was a Sunday.

He had no idea where she was and for the first time, wished he did. He had never worried before, he just wanted to see her one last time. She was a sweet little thing, beneath the scowls and snappy remarks.

Jin had spent most of the time organising everything so that when he left, she would be as comfortable as possible. He had signed the deed of the Dojo over to her, paying water and electricity bills in advance and left coded instructions in the letter on how to access Heihatchi's accounts secretly, also the passwords to all but a few files of the computer.

Now it was time and he didn't want to go. He had been happier in these past few years then he had since his mother had died and leaving behind the little sister he never had, and until now, never wanted. She had come from nowhere and changed his entire view of the world with the speed of a cyclone, could he really leave?

Your only prolonging the inevitable, he chided himself. Lingering only makes it worse.

Agreeing with the logical voice, he leaned the package against a support beam and the envelope on top of it. He stepped back, making sure she wouldn't miss it and gazed around the room.

An empty warehouse into a Dojo, a ramshackle old building into a home.

"Goodbye," he said, barely above a whisper, and listened to it fade behind him. Hefting two small travel bags over his shoulder, holding a few, treasured possessions, he disappeared into the night.

Akira slipped through a loose skylight and onto a beam below. She flung her arms wide to balance and steady herself. When she was stable, she sat down carefully and let her legs swing back and forth as she sank into contemplation. Dawns rosy glow drifted slowly in, though not enough to see more then the outline of her loft on the other side.

She yawned, beat out of her mind. What Jin didn't know was that her midnight excursions were to the park, sometimes looking for trouble so she could beat the crap out of it without a conscience, but mostly just practicing, and thinking and gazing at the moon. There were times when she even fell asleep and only awoke to the smoggy sunrise creeping through the high rise buildings.

She attributed her fast progression to these random training sessions. Jin thought she was talented, but it took every ounce of concentration to be as good as she was. When she trained with Jin she got so flustered and frustrated when she didn't get it right, here she could slow down and go at her own pace. Perfect practice makes perfect.

But not good enough, her mind sneered. Jin's right, you don't have what it takes.

"Shut up," she muttered to herself, then smiled amused. "Nutcase."

Scanning the dojo, her eye caught a dark blotch beneath her loft. Her curiosity overriding caution, she shimmied down a shaft, quietly so not to wake Jin. The wood creaked loudly, and she winced.

"Hell, he'll be up soon anyway." It suddenly came to her that he should have been up now. If she did fall asleep he would usually would be leaning against the archway that led to his personal quarters, his mouth set in disapproval but a sparkle in his eye letting her know that the kettle was on the boil and a light breakfast ready in a little while.

Maybe he's sleeping in. He was training like a madman when you left. She still frowned. Jin never slept in, never. With a sense of urgency, scurried across the beams until she reached the last jump. She couldn't just leap straight to her room like she had hoped when it was built but instead had to settle on a beam further down and use it to get to the stairs.

With panic beginning to stir in her stomach she forgot about the staircase and squirmed down the beams, dropping the last few metres in her haste to the floor. Bolts of pain shot up her heels with the impact but she tried to put it aside. She was torn between searching his quarters and the shadow beneath her loft.

Akira snarled in frustration, her instinct was crying out, Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Suddenly she recognised this as that other voice, the one that wasn't quite her own that had spoke three years ago. It hadn't made a peep since.

She spat a string of curse words and raced for the blotch. She got there and as she it up something fluttering to the ground. After a moment of fumbling in the gloom, she finally held it in nimble fingers and judged it to be an envelope.

Glancing morosely at the dark, she pressed the small present beneath her arm and held tightly to the envelope, picking her way between the training equipment till she passed through the arch and flung the package onto the shadow of the table, heedless of whether it was breakable, and snapped on a light.

Squeezing her eyes shut and waiting to adjust to the sudden brightness, her mind flickered to what it could contain. Months earlier she had convinced him to see a movie. It involved the protagonist's girl being taken hostage and in a letter it told him how much money had to be taken to a certain place or otherwise her throat was cut.

Akira shivered. She had a few dollars hidden away in her loft, but if this was a ransom note, she doubted she could pay it.

Or maybe it was a letter bomb or had some deadly bacteria in it? Jin was hiding from somebody, she knew that for certain. Maybe they had found him!

She gave herself a mental slap. You're being stupid! Just open it!

She rattled though the draws of the kitchen till she found a knife and slit it open carefully. When she didn't explode, she found an intricately folded letter with,

Akira

scribed in Jin's slanted calligraphy. Akira laughed shakily. Her anxiety had been unfounded and it seemed petty now, but something still in the back of her brain held onto that uncertainty. Again she scolded herself, she fiddled with the paper until it was neatly spread.

Akira sat on an oaken chair with the letter, her chin resting in her palm. Flipping her fringe out of her face she began to read

My dear Akira

First know that these years I have spent here are incomparable and above all others. I can almost see your sceptical expression on that pert face of yours and I smile. By no means think that my leaving has anything to do with you. I'm sure you have suspected for a long time that I was in hiding and it is now time for me to emerge and finish what started three blissful years ago on a night of pain horror and betrayal.

In light of this I have secured your place in the world. The dojo is now yours, the deed is on my pallet. Electricity and water have been paid in advance and I have left clear instructions on how to withdraw money from an account of a friends. Do not worry, if you only take what you need he shan't notice. There are also listed the few passwords I have still left in place on the computer. Yes, after all your fevered pleadings to snoop they have been granted.

Now the time has come to say what I know I must, goodbye. It makes me regret we never went on any of your camping trips or amusement parks but time was against us from the start. I will miss your curious habits, pacing, cursing and studying every feather you find, all will be remembered fondly. The last gift I left I hope you will keep and remember me with love too.

You will always be in my heart Akira

Jin

No eagle soars to high, as long as it is with her own wings

Akira dropped the letter speechless. Her mouth gapped like a fish and she trembled, unable to comprehend what was happening. She reread and a strangle sob escaped her despite the tremendous efforts to act indifferent, but she just didn't know what to do.

Part of her snapped that she didn't care, she never cared. It was a little crush and if he left he obviously didn't care as much as he said. That meant she didn't care either. Good riddance.

He's gone! she moaned, grabbing a hunk of her hair and pulling on it.

She picked up the envelope and shook it, not hard in quivering hands. Then, more pieces of paper fluttered out.

One was the instructions of the account of the friend, the second was a list of passwords, and the third was a check.

Akira shoved aside that sentimental part of her and focused. If she wanted to find Jin, she had to be logical and not some pitiful little girl lost in the supermarket. He had left at least three hours ago so there was no point in trying the airport, what next.

Her gaze strayed to the pieces of paper. The computer! She snatched them up, crumpling them a little and ducked into Jin's study, leaping into the chair and flicking the on switch so it hummed to life, though not quick enough for her liking. After passing numerous passwords, she was in.

Even in a time like this, Akira couldn't help but roll her eyes at Jin's lack of imagination. A plane blue screen, with one folder in the upper left corner labelled, 'Documents'. Akira frowned, unsure how to go about the search, but she was positive he would have cleaned out most of it before leaving. Opening the folder, she was right, empty.

Akira growled as she searched the windows pop up, nothing! She wished she was some computer genius but she only knew the basics. Chewing her lip, she opened Outlook Express, his email, and a popup immediately requested a password. She glanced at the second piece of paper, she had used them all up so she tried them all again. Nothing. Now she guessed and five minutes later there still wasn't anything to show for it.

Akira smashed the keyboard with her fist, and a happy 'ping!' sounded before letting her in.

"Ha! Never thought of dumb luck, and Dumb Luck is my middle name!" she smirked triumphantly at the screen. Even when her world was going crazy she still managed to be childish.

There were only two emails, one from a girl and she was thanking Jin, but that was all her meagre Japanese could decipher. She glowered at it possessively for a moment.

The second was only an attachment. As the window appeared, she gave a squawk as a bloated face took up the screen. Akira swore as it was also written with Japanese characters and she had to rely on pasty memories of the torture that was her L.O.T.E classes in highschool. After minutes of tedium, she had it deciphered as a fighting tournament, with a date, a prize and where it was held.

Iron Fist, she mused. Mishima Empire…… where have I seen them before…..

Her eyes strayed to the pieces of the paper and skimmed till she found what she wanted. There on the page explaining have to access the 'friends' account. Held in respects of Heihatchi Mishima for the purpose of Mishima Zaibatsu.

She read it through carefully and crunched it into a ball when it held nothing useful. Realising what she had done, she fished it out of the waste paper basket and slid it safely into a draw. This venture would more then likely fail so she would need funds to fall back on.

Akira ground her teeth and played with her fringe to the point of tearing clumps of hair from her scalp. She desperately needed information and all she had was a fighting tournament with a crusty old man glaring at her. She glared back, moving the mouse in aimless circles around his head like a blowfly.

Out of the blue, she double clicked on the internet icon and typed Iron Fist Tournament, near Heihatchi Mishima, near Mishima Empire in the search box. The speedy modem loaded it with eight or nine viable sites. She clicked on the first one claiming, THE IRON FIST TOURNAMENT'S! I, II, III and IV, THE LEGACY CONTINUES!

She scrolled through the pages, and found so many startling discoveries her mind rebelled. The first tournament dated back more then 25 years ago with two main fighters, Heihatchi and his son, Kazuya. After a bitter struggle, Kazuya won and hurled his mysterious father into the volcano.

Some years later, another tournament was held, this time by the new leader of the Mishima, Kazuya. By some bizarre circumstances, Heihatchi returned from the dead to take the stage. This time Kazama fell to the fate, Heihatchi should have and was thrown into the depths of the same volcano, but not before meeting another competitor, Jun Kazama.

Rumours were they fell in love and after Iron Fist II, Jun disappeared into the forest from whence she came. 15 years later, she vanished with many of the world martial artists, but her son emerged onto centre stage, a master in his own right. Heihatchi cherished his grandson, or so it seemed, until the final of Iron Fist III when he was 18. He lost to his grandson and in a fit of rage, unable to admit defeat, he pulled a pistol and killed him, three years ago……

Among the links were biographies of each of the competitors who ever competed. Serious competitors received invitations, the rest turned up on his island to fill up the other places to make sixty four competitors in all. It didn't say how they were chosen but it seemed that these were merely showboats. Heihatchi made a fortune broadcasting the tournament.

Akira's eyes lay on one competitor in particular, her heart skipping.

The grandson.

Her mind reeled. He seemed young, boyish, innocent, a nervous smile for the camera.

Jin…….

Her eyes bulged, standing abruptly and shoving the roller chair flying across the room to clatter against the wall. She had spent the past three years with the world martial arts master, and a dead man.

What began three blissful years ago on a night of horror, pain and betrayal…..

"Yep," Akira muttered in a pensive voice, cracking despite herself. "Getting shot by your grandfather would certainly fit those criteria."

The realization finally sunk in, like jamming the last piece of the puzzle in even though it didn't fit.

Jin had gone to challenge Heihatchi, and more then likely kill him at IRON FIST IV.

Akira pulled up the poster again, staring blankly. She could let him do this, or at least not alone. Akira had to calm down, sit down and think this through.

She needed something to eat……

Another belated chapter. In all honest I had completely forgotten about submitting here. I'll also be submitting new chapters to the site, akiraslightning so pop round in a few days.

Ice Phoenix: You are once again my favourite reviewer and in line for thanks. You're so dedicated to this fiction, I like to make an offer to you. If you care to email me for it, I'd love to repay you for it.

TheNextSentinel: Thankyou for your praise and more shall come! I hope you've enjoyed your reading so far

Skylight Angel: I shall keep up the writing.