I must confess I've never been outside of Europe before. I have been outside my own country, visiting France, England, Germany, Spain, Italy... but this was my first time in another continent. Too bad it wasn't under the circumstances I'd loved to be there, like having time to go sightseeing and all that.

When we arrived, we looked for that Heihachi... whatever his last name was. That bit was easier for Talim to remember than it was for me. For that matter, it was easier for her to even read the yellow pages. In any case, we found an address, which we visited. There we encountered someone who claimed to be Heihachi's son. He told us to go look for his father at mount Fuji. So we did.

I've read how the Japanese look at Fuji, so this is a good opportunity to confirm whether any of that is true.

Luckily it wasn't to far away from Heihachi's home. There was a small entrance to the mountain. Or rather volcano. We entered that. Eventually, we heard some noises.

"What is that noise?" I asked.

"Sounds like someone's struggling!" Talim said.

I didn't agree on that: "That's not all I'm hearing!"

"Let us go and see!" she replied.

She was about to run, but I hadn't completely recovered from my wounds yet, so instead we sneaked towards the origin of the sounds. When we got there, we saw a somewhat unusual sight: there was a man, wrestling with a bear, on top of some kind of a rock, which stood right in the middle of a lava stream. Talk about hell on Earth! Being trapped upon such a ring, forced to fight a bear for the remainder of your life, if you weren't already dead, trying to stay focused in this heat, knowing that a ring out would burn you up.

Talim was the first of us two to make a sound: "Heihachi!"

Her call distracted him, so the bear saw his chance to knock him down. When he got up, he grabbed the bear as if it were some kind of pet animal, climbed down the rock, jumped to another rock, and climbed his way up to us.

Upon his arrival, he began cursing something to both of us. I was likely the only one who had no clue about what he was saying.

"Er... I'm sorry, but I don't speak..."

"Didn't think you would, either!" Heihachi said, as if he has some kind of hatred towards people like me.

"Please!" Talim begged, "I'm sorry if made you lose, but..."

"Lose!" he cursed, "You were lucky I wasn't knocked into the lava! Do you have any idea about how dangerous this exercise was?"

I was trying to stay calm as I said: "If I may... distractions can occur on the field as well. You should be happy she called on you like that!"

It didn't seem like Heihachi had much to say on this. I didn't realize I had that much influence on people.

"About what we came for..." I started.

"It better be worth it!" he remained angry.

"We were told that you know about Soul Edge!"

There was a look on his face that said 'How do they know?', but it quickly changed back into an angry face.

"Never heard of it!" he claimed.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Do I look like someone who's even interested in some stupid old sword?"

"If you've never heard of it, then how did you know it's a sword?" Talim said what I just thought.

We had him trapped. Perhaps the long exposure to the heat around here made him lose much of his concentration. He decided to tell us what he knew.

"There's now way to make you forget about it, is there! It's been that way long ago, and clearly it still is."

I was trying to make him cut to the chase: "You know where to find the sword?"

"No." he answered, "When I looked for the sword, I met someone who wanted to go home just as much as I do. He suggested that we should work together if we wanted to get any chance at all. At long last we found the sword. That other guy, Spawn or something, thought he should have it, and went away to hide it away from anyone else. I returned home at last, while he hid the sword."

"And you trusted that hell spawn into hiding the sword?" I asked, surprised to hear him telling us all this.

"I take it you know that I traveled back into time!" he nearly barked.

"So I read!" I told him.

"So we heard!" Talim told him.

We both said that almost simultaneously. It would have been funny if the heat wasn't catching on us, or if Heihachi didn't remain so serious.

"If he were to use the sword to destroy the world, this age wouldn't be as it is now! Would it be?"

"How do you know it's not an hallucination?" a thought that just crossed my mind, and I needed to ask.

"That would make you an hallucination too, wouldn't it?"

He had a point there. Assuming that that hell spawn can be trusted, I asked Heihachi: "And that Spawn... did he ever say where he was from, or..."

"All I know" he answered, "is that he resides somewhere in the darker alleys New York City known as Rat City, for reasons he doesn't even know himself."

I said to Talim: "America! Another trip with the airplane!"

Talim didn't seem too sure: "Isn't New York City huge?"

"It is!" I confirmed, "But I suppose if anyone ever saw a hell spawn, it would be something to remember for the remainder of their lives. So we should have no trouble at all to locate him."

I turned back to Heihachi to say: "Thanks for your info!"

Heihachi didn't reply. He took his bear back to that rock, and continued his training.

"As he pleases." I said as if not really caring about what Heihachi thinks or does, which I still don't really, "Let's get back to our transport!"