A/N: Yo yo peoples! Another chapter of Phoenix Tail is up by the one and only, Thee Slushee. Yes! Exams are now officially over! I've gotta work on this music essay thing that's due on Monday tho but I swear I'll get to that after this is up. Now to my ever so awesome and patient reviewers:
Henred5: Yeah, there was no way Lili wudve beat Christie….even tho I don't really know Lili's fighting style but still…..so glad u liked, even tho it was sooooo short…..I made this chapter longer than usual to thank ya'll 4 being so patient with me!
XxxTekkenBabexxx: Ooooh, an extra long as review frm u! Hwoarang is a really cool dude and I'm so glad u like I believe….shud b updating that soon. Yup, everyone shud kno by now who J Mishima is…..(You cant hide the truth frm us NAMCO……well, we don't think u can anyway) Thanks heaps 4 supporting me throughout my story and I really appreciate it! Hope u like this chapter.
Astral Slayer Asuka: Yeah, that was a good one…..oh well, cant b bothered changing it now. Well I'm not too sure bout Lili yet, I mean, I wanna see what kind of person she'd be like…..she cud b the complete opposite of the stereotypes who knows? Don't kno 4 sure yet if I like her or not…shes pretty tho….anyhu, glad u like and hope u keep reading!
MooNTeARZ: Coolies :D I'm not terribly good but oh well…….Not entirely sure if Lili is going to b mean……she cud b the complete opposite! All comes down to the info that NAMCO release bout Tekken 5: DR….if that comes out on PS2, that wud b a complete ripoff to everyone that got Tekken 5!
Xjmaster: Thanks heaps but I don't think Lili will make another appearance in my fic. That's really interesting to know…..everyone seems to have a prob with the Mishima Zaibatsu, LOL Keep reading!
Tekkengeek01: Yup, I kinda figured that whole part out where J. Mishima comes in. SO happy u liked and I totally Luv ur new fic! Its really gud. Cant wait 4 an update to ur stories!
Jelly: Lili sounds cool? I was trying to make her sound snobby and bitchy (don't comment) Ur not spose to like her, LOL Well, that's the typical Jelly….Exams r now finally over so yeah, I'll try to update frequently, despite the homework mounds. I'll update I believe soon.
For the billionth time, I don't own the Tekken series and I never will. If I did, I wudve majorly stuffed up the plot line and it wudnt b as gud as it is now so thank god I don't own it.
Chapter 22: Feelings realised (Random title I know)
Dawn had broken in the city of Tokyo. Xiaoyu, Miharu and Julia were lying once again, on the floor of Xiaoyu's apartment. (A/N: Gee, how many times have I used that line huh?). Miharu had taken the place of Asuka since she had been invited back into the tournament. Instead of Xiaoyu's Axel F Crazy frog ringtone, she had changed it to the new crazy frog song, Popcorn (A/N: That's a cool song!). Xiaoyu sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Her vision was blurry so she had to blink a couple of time for everything to come into focus. The orange blob seen in the corner of her eye seemed to be the source of the noise. Xiaoyu picked it up, flipped it open and a familiar voice greeted her.
"Rise and shine, Xiao." Asuka's cheery voice said through the other line. Xiaoyu groaned and glanced at her watch.
"Asuka, you guys don't normally tell us the fights until 8. Why'd you wake us up at 7:30?" Xiaoyu asked, shifting her vision to her friends beside her. They are stirring on the ground, a couple of annoyed groans coming from the two.
"Coz, the fights today just couldn't wait!" Asuka said excitedly.
"Alright, who are you, Steve, Hwoarang and Christie up against?" Xiaoyu asked, the urge to shut the phone so all three of them could get some more sleep forced aside.
"Guess who's back in the tournament?" Asuka asked. Xiaoyu's silence indicated that she just wanted to skip to the point.
"Kazuya!" Asuka said. At that moment, Xiaoyu's annoyed, sleep-deprived tone was out the window. She was immediately awake.
"What? But how? Steve knocked him out of the tournament." Xiaoyu said, confusion setting in on her.
"I suppose he got an invite back to the tournament by the CEO like me and Jin. This is honestly really weird. I wonder why we're all getting invited back." Asuka said.
"So, who's fighting him?" Xiaoyu asked.
"Christie's up against him. Xiao, you should think over coming to see her fight today. He almost killed you the last time you saw him! It's too dangerous if he knows you're still alive." Asuka said, concern evident in her voice.
"I'm totally coming to support my friends whether he likes it or not." Xiaoyu said, a smile creeping onto her face.
"Xiaoyu, think about it. He doesn't forgive people that easily……..actually, he doesn't forgive people at all. The fact that you let him know that it was you that tried to save him but failed is enough a reason for him to kill you." Asuka said, trying not to think of the possibilities is she did attend Christie's fight.
"Don't worry so much Asuka, I'll be fine. Who's everybody else fighting?"
"Well, Steve is fighting Nina Williams (A/N: Oooh, that should b interesting eh?), I'm up against Heihachi Mishima. I wonder if I'm related to him." Asuka said. At the mention of Heihachi, Xiaoyu's eyes widened instantly.
"He's alive?" Xiaoyu said without thinking. (A/N: I didn't exactly say that she knew last tournament huh?).
"But…he got blown up by some robots! How could he have possibly survived that?" Xiaoyu asked herself.
"Beats me, but I'm going against him that's all I know. And Hwoarang is up against my big bro again! The rematch of the century!" Asuka said excitedly. Xiaoyu's spirits lifted at the thought of seeing Jin again. Xiaoyu chuckled; thinking of Hwoarang's reaction if he lost to Jin…the short lived victory on Hwoarang's part.
"Well, this match should be good. This time, your bro's gonna redeem himself right?" Xiaoyu asked.
"You betcha! I'll bet Hwoarang would be totally steamed if he loses to Jin on this one."
"I'm not going to lose to Kazama! If I beat him that time, I can just as easily do it again." Came Hwoarang's angry reply to Asuka's comment. Asuka giggled.
"Well, Christie's match is at the virtual simulator at 11. You've got to rethink going to this one Xiao." Asuka said.
"Hold on a second." Xiaoyu said, searching frantically for a piece of paper and a pen, completely ignoring Asuka's last sentence.
"Christie…versus….Kazuya…11…sim..u..la..tor." Xiaoyu murmured as she wrote down the details.
"Steve's is at the secret garden stage at 12." Asuka stated, waiting for Xiaoyu to scribble down the details so she could go on with the next fight's details.
"Mine is at the poolside at 3." Asuka informed.
"And Hwoarang's is at the virtual simulator at 5:30." Asuka finished. Xiaoyu scribbled down the last of the fights down.
"Thanks for the info Asuka. Tell everyone that me and the others will be there supporting them!" Xiaoyu said excitedly. Just before Asuka could protest against her decision about going to Christie's fight, Xiaoyu snapped her phone shut and shifted her gaze back to her two friends, who were just sitting up on the ground looking at Xiaoyu.
"I wrote down all the fights." Xiaoyu informed and handed the piece of paper to her friends to have a look at it. As soon as Miharu and Julia glimpsed the first fight, their eyes widened and stared at Xiaoyu.
"When you said that we'll be there supporting everyone, does that include you when you head on to Christie's fight?' Julia asked.
"Why is everyone so worried? It'll be fine." Xiaoyu asked, tired of her friends being so worried about her.
"No it won't. This guy almost threw you off the roof of a building AND he chucked you into a raging river! Are you insane? When he finds out you're still alive, he'll go just as berserk as he did the other times!" Miharu said.
"Yeah Xiao. Kazuya Mishima absolutely hates you. He doesn't forgive people that easily." Julia added, reinforcing Miharu's point. Xiaoyu sighed in annoyance.
"Its not like Kazuya has a dagger hidden in his tux and he'd leap out at me and stab me the moment he sees me." Xiaoyu said, rolling her eyes.
"This is serious Xiao." Julia said sternly.
"Yeah, this guy has issues and it's best to steer WAY clear of him." Miharu said, cutting both her hands through the air as she said this. Xiaoyu pouted and crossed her arms.
"You guys can't make me not go to Christie's fight just because a guy's out to kill me…" Xiaoyu said, later realising what she had just said.
"That came out wrong…you guys can't make me not go to Christie's fight just because of…him." Xiaoyu added after a few seconds of her last statement.
"We're asking you as friends, Xiao. If you got killed by him, life just won't be the same without you." Miharu said solemnly. Xiaoyu looked at both of her friends. They had worried looks in the eyes and they clearly didn't want Xiaoyu to go, which was understandable. Xiaoyu sighed in defeat.
"Alright, I won't go…but tell Christie that I'm with her all the way alright?" Xiaoyu said. Panda had just walked into the living room from Xiaoyu's bedroom and as soon as she saw her, Miharu stood up and walked towards Xiaoyu's furry companion. She whispered something into her ear and Panda nodded in reply. As soon as Xiaoyu realised what Miharu did, she stood up, put her hands on her hips and her expression read, "Why'd you have to go and do that!"
"Miharu! That's totally not fair! You're not meant to tell Panda." Xiaoyu complained.
"We knew that you wouldn't listen to us Xiao, so we had to tell Panda to make sure you won't come." Julia said in a logical manner.
"Oh come on you guys, I just want to go to support our bud Christie." Xiaoyu pleaded.
"Yeah, but the guy she's versing kinda wants to kill you." Miharu said, raising an eyebrow.
"But still…" Xiaoyu started but she couldn't find any other reason as to why she should go.
"Still what?" Julia asked.
"Argh! Fine! I won't go." Xiaoyu finally gave in.
"That's good. So, onto other important matters, what's for breakfast?" Miharu asked.
"Since I've been torturing you guys with my instant food menu, we'll eat out." Xiaoyu said.
"That's great to hear. I've heard that the café down the road from here is really good." Julia said.
"Ok then, to the café down the road we go!" Miharu said excitedly.
(A/N: I definitely thank everyone who has had patience with me so I'm making this chapter a little longer than my usual ones. This'll include Xiaoyu trying to tackle her boredom while everyone's at Christie's fight.)
Xiaoyu lay on her bed staring at her ceiling, taking in every detail she could. She was incredible bored. Miharu and Julia were down at Christie's fight. She thought she could go down and talk to Steve, Hwoarang and Asuka but they must've been training for their fights that were up soon. A completely unrelated thought sprung into her head. Jin…Xiaoyu had begun thinking about her latest confrontations with Jin. Jin had saved me from the bullet that almost drove itself into my skull from Bryan's gun…and I felt really strange when I was talking to him too. He told me to get out of the tournament and away from here? Who did he think he was talking to? I'm Ling Xiaoyu, I won't give up on anything I set my mind to and at the moment, it's helping the Mishima family however I can. But Jin's right, there's no way I can really do anything to stop the Devil Gene growing inside him and Kazuya…and Asuka as well. I know it's getting really dangerous in this tournament; Kazuya wants to kill me for crying out loud!
She sighed and sat up on her bed. Maybe I should stop trying to do anything to destroy the Devil Gene. I mean, I'm a mortal. There isn't anything I can do, unless I randomly get angel powers or something. I don't even want to think about the odds of that. All I can do is to stand by Jin and Asuka and do all I can to at least keep the Devil being in control to an absolute minimum. Xiaoyu noticed that Panda didn't seem to be anywhere. A small smirk spread across her face as she stood up and stealthily walked out of her room. She slipped her sneakers on by the door as silently as she could. Xiaoyu was about to turn the doorknob when a growl from behind her sent a chill up her spine as it instantly snapped up. Xiaoyu squeezed her eyes shut in frustration. Damn, I'm caught. Xiaoyu turned around to see Panda looking up at her and shaking her head. Xiaoyu screwed her face up.
"Please Panda, let me go to this! I promise I won't get murdered by Kazuya." Xiaoyu pleaded, even though she wasn't entirely sure that she'd keep her promise. Panda shook her head twice.
"Panda! What am I going to do then? I'm dying of boredom here." Panda cocked her head to one side and stared at Xiaoyu.
"I guess I can just talk to you." Xiaoyu said and walked towards the couch and sat down. Panda followed her and sat on the ground looking up at Xiaoyu with a look saying, "What's on your mind?"
"Well Panda, I've been thinking a lot about Jin, Asuka and Kazuya…"Xiaoyu began.
"I've accepted the fact that I really can't do anything to stop the Devil Gene growing inside them but I can at least stand by Jin and Asuka and stop the Devil from taking control." Panda cocked her head to one side, looking confused.
"I did it once. At the last tournament, the Devil had taken control of Jin but just before he killed me, I managed to knock him back to his senses." Panda's head veered back but then, as if she was recalling something, she nodded. She looked back up at Xiaoyu with her beady black eyes. Xiaoyu figured that Panda was asking her if there was anything else she liked to share.
"Well…there is one other thing…" Xiaoyu began again.
"I've been thinking about Jin for some time now. I don't exactly know why. Whenever I hear his name, I always feel strangely happy, even for me. And when I'm around him, I always feel kinda unusually shy and that's another thing that isn't me." A coy smile appeared on Panda's fuzzy face.
"No, it can't be what you're thinking." Xiaoyu said, dismissing the idea. Panda nodded her head slowly, the coy smile still in place.
"No way Panda, he's just a friend. That's all." Xiaoyu said, telling herself that over and over again but she knew that Panda was right.
"No…way…do I have a crush on Jin Kazama?"
A/N: Yes………interesting aint it? LOL okies well, if you thought that this chapter wasn't that great, I have come up with a number of excuses as to why it is. I had my exams about a couple of hours ago and that stress is still with me which is why I'm writing so badly……ok, useless excuses eh? HAHA Well, I hope you didn't find that too bad and it was worth the 3 weeks that I've left this story. Longer than usual to thank every reader for being so patient with me! Don't get used to it, I think it's going to be the usual short as chapters with the author's note being more than the actual story, HAHA. REVIEW!