Hello everyone! Here's chapter 8! As always, thanks for reading and your reviews, they're much appreciated! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, they are all property of Namco!
Hell hath no fury like a furious Jin. All those under him witnessed this first hand upon his return to the Mishima Zaibatsu, things had began to change very rapidly under his strict new rules. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, a blazing fire had been lit under the asses of the soldiers and all employees. Again, security had tightened and the already ludicrous rules he had enforced had much harsher penalties and consequences should he find that any of them had been broken. The privacy of employees was now almost nonexistent. Conversations were monitored, curfews were in full effect, and the Central Tower was now on lock down. It was his fortress of solitude, but to others, a prison. Those who could clock out and leave for the day were enviable, for to some this was a new way of life.
It was very evident, to her at least, that this was due to his paranoia being in full swing and a bruised ego caused by his father's cunning ability to remain a step ahead of him to thwart his plans from progressing. Kazuya's spies were everywhere, watching their every move and reporting their activity to him. However, with some finessing and coaxing on her part, she was finally able to convince Jin to let her take her rightful place on the battlefield to fight alongside the Tekken Force to give them the edge they needed to overcome the G Corporation soldiers. With her new battle tactics in place, she had successfully honed the skills of several men in one of her many areas of expertise, sharpshooting. Running in with their guns blazing to take out as many enemy soldiers as they can was purely child's play, but with the use of several snipers on the field they were able to decrease their casualties and increase the number of enemies dispatched. With these new tactics, they were finally able to stop G Corp from impeding their attempts to secure new bases in several regions of the world. It was the first step of many that would lead Jin closer to his goals.
After a long week of jet setting around with the boys to oversee their missions, Nina had finally been able to return to HQ. Despite her busy new schedule, she was secretly exhilarated to be doing what she was best at, and her time away from Jin's shadow and his watchful gaze was much needed. She still needed time to process everything he had revealed to her. Even for a hardened killer such as herself, the things he confessed to her were beyond her belief, but she knew for certain that he would not lie about something like that. Devils, Angels, Ogres...she didn't want to believe in these fantastical things, but she had no choice, and for Jin this was a constant reality for him. 'I shouldn't be shocked by any of this. All those years ago, I had always seen Kazuya as the devil, but I had no idea how right I was,' she thought as she walked down the long, deserted corridor leading to her employer's office.
She was due to give her reports to him earlier shortly after she returned, but she postponed it to unwind and de-stress herself from her previous missions. The click of her heels echoing off of the marble floors finally ceased as she stopped outside of his office and used the biometric scanner to scan her fingerprint to gain entry into his domain. With a final roll of her neck and shoulders to relieve the pain and tension from her old battle wounds, she finally stepped into the office and wondered what madness she was in for tonight.
The room was dark, save for the soft glow of the desk lamp situated on his large desk. Was he in one of his gloomy moods or was he just saving electricity? She walked over to his desk slowly and apprehensively, observing the chair turned towards the large windows silently. She took extra safety measures around him, not because she was frightened, but because he warned her of his "curse" and his inability to control his actions if his other side ever took over. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to bear witness to that anytime soon, or ever. It had been a while since she was in his office, in fact, it had been a while since she had seen him face to face. Although she was excited to be more involved with the Tekken Force, a small part of her missed loafing around his office, drinking tea whilst quietly exchanging glances with her employer.
His strong voice interrupted the silence coolly and abruptly, "You're late."
"I know, " she replied calmly, not bothering to give him any excuses. "I'm here now, finally. Do you want my report now, or should we resume this meeting in the morning? " It was late and she really didn't feel like going into great depth about her activities for the last few weeks.
Jin slowly rotated around in his chair to finally get a good look at his bodyguard. She stood before him, clad in one of her usual black skirt suits. His eyes raked over her like a fine tooth comb to completely register her appearance, after all, it had been a while since he'd seen her. Upon his inspection, he noticed that she had acquired a few new bruises, her left hand was wrapped with thin white bandages, and on her neck he observed a slightly faded purplish bruise marring her porcelain skin. He wanted to chastise her for practically begging him to let her leave his side to fight on the battlefield, but knowing her temperament he knew that would be foolish. He was somewhat disappointed in her decision to leave to go off seeking more thrills, but he had to realize that as an assassin she would never be satisfied with simply watching over him everyday. Hopefully, some good results came from this change.
"Was it successful?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
She gave him a single nod of her head as she placed a file on his desk and slid it towards him. "You'll find the details in here. You'll be pleased to know that your bases have been secured and you have units stationed in almost every corner of the world on standby waiting for your next command," she reported in an even tone. He was oddly unresponsive to this news, and he seemed drowsy and lethargic. She sighed to herself. Isn't this what he wanted? It was the prelude to the grand war he was going to orchestrate, securing those bases were paramount to moving on to the next phase of his plan.
The dark haired man remained silent as his eyes settled on the untouched file on his desk. He was finally seeing the results that he wanted. He should've been pleased, yet somehow he felt a deep feeling of malaise settling within him. His imminent demise was on the horizon much sooner than he expected it to be. In some form of strange irony, in her efforts to carry out his orders and keep him safe, she was also bringing him closer to his premeditated death. A wry smile formed on his lips as he brought his eyes up to meet her crystalline blue gaze. "Well done," he commended her. "I didn't think it'd go this smoothly."
The blonde shrugged slightly. "It was nothing, besides with proper supervision and motivation the soldiers weren't half bad," she said with a smug smirk.
"It looks like you've had quite the time out there. Maybe next time you'd do well to be more careful," he commented, obviously referencing her wounds. He couldn't simply ignore it. Had she stayed in the office, she wouldn't have sustained those injuries.
Nina tightened her lips at his remark. Was that his weird little way of expressing concern for her well being or just his cocky attitude surfacing once again? "What's wrong, boss, you don't like seeing me a little banged up from all the dangerous missions you send me on?" she teased playfully as she placed her hands on his desk. In her profession, small wounds like the ones she endured was nothing compared to the many things that could go wrong. Besides, she loved to get a little down and dirty from time to time.
"Hmph," Jin smiled inwardly at her retort. Her absence was obvious the last few weeks, without her, he had no one to converse with on a personal level. Honestly, he was glad that she was back safe and sound.
Now that their playful jibes were over, she decided to shift the conversation into a more serious direction. "Jin, how have you been?"she asked, seriously. While she was away, she was admittedly worried that something would go wrong. It was unlikely for her to care for her clients in the past, but given his extenuating circumstances, she couldn't help but to keep his well being in the back of her mind.
The question lingered in the air for a moment as he meditated on her words. He figured that she distanced herself from him because she was secretly frightened of him and the secret things he revealed to her that he didn't deign to share with anyone else. In truth, he felt a little abandoned by her leave, but he wasn't ready to confront the reasons behind those emotions. As he looked into her eyes, he was slightly taken aback by the genuine concern held within them. It was a nice sentiment considering her normally cold demeanor. "You needn't worry about me, I'm fine," he responded calmly. "I've found a way to keep myself calm, despite the many nuances of running this company."
Not exactly what she was asking, but his answer would suffice for now. "Good," she said as she looked him up and down skeptically one final time before making her way to his bar. Maybe she'd have wine instead of scotch tonight. "Have you been sleeping well without taking those pills?" she asked boldly while looking for the perfect bottle of wine to open.
That question took him by surprise. Did he tell her about that as well? "That's not your concern, Nina, I told you that I'm fine." His tone became stern and cold.
It was her concern, especially when she could see the stark differences in his behavior. In the beginning, she thought that it was just his personality, but on some occasions she had seen a different side to him, presumably when he wasn't under the influence of those pills. "You look half dead when you take those things. Did those cretins from the lab tell you to take them to help your situation or are you intentionally taking them?"
Jin sat up in his chair and glared at her as she made her way over to the sofa and sat down with a glass of wine. Why was she attacking him all of the sudden? They were having such a nice conversation before she brought this up. "Why do you care?" he snapped lightly.
"It's my job to keep you safe, and I don't think it's safe for you to be doping yourself," she replied.
"It's none of your damn business! " Jin shot at her angrily.
Nina sighed as she took a sip of her wine. She was making him angry and she regretted her attempts to call him out about it so insensitively. "I'm sorry, but I don't like seeing you so 'out of it'. If you truly believe that they're helpful to you, I'll look the other way, but taking anti-depressants and sleeping pills like that isn't a good idea, Jin," she expressed solemnly.
Jin brought his palm up to cradle his face and sighed heavily. How did she know all of this? Was she snooping around in his belongings? It didn't matter how she found out because she obviously had enough information on him to throw it in his face. He had already told her everything he felt she needed to know in order to do her job, but he figured there was no use in lying about it any further, besides she was very intuitive and good at reading people. "It helps...in a way to keep my thoughts centered and to suppress my moods. I don't have control over the Devil Gene and most of the time it's triggered whenever I'm in an emotional state of mind, so I started taking the pills to aid me in keeping it under control," he confessed.
Upon hearing his words, she felt a little guilty about bringing it up, especially since it was apparent that he was reluctant to tell her this secret. She had no idea how much he had struggled to deal with his cursed blood. Now, she felt even more sympathetic about his predicament. The blonde assassin looked over to her employer and hoped he wouldn't be too upset with her for meddling in his business, but she wanted to stop his dependency on those things. "I didn't know, I'm sorry," she apologized in a low voice. "I just wanted to warn you about them."
He finally looked up again as she said this. "How did you know what they were?"
She bit her lower lip at the question. Now she was in the hot seat. She couldn't flat out refuse to answer his question considering the fact that he answered a very difficult question for her. 'Great, you opened a can of worms now...' she chided herself in her thoughts. "My sister forced me to take them after waking up from cold sleep. When I lost my memories, I was as helpless as a child, solely dependent on her to take care of me. I did suffer from depression and became too difficult for my sister to handle, so dear old Dr. Bosconovich told me to take those pills, but Anna lied to me and told me they would help me regain my memories. Like a fool, I took them religiously until I became near catatonic, and when my memories didn't return it only made me hostile and again, depressed. I didn't mean to look at the bottle that night in Phuket, but the name brought back bad memories, and it only made me curious about why you were taking them," she revealed to him in a somber tone.
Jin let her story sink in as he sat silently behind his desk. He learned something new about his bodyguard and she learned something more about him, they both had many secrets. He didn't imagine that their reunion meeting would turn out this way, he would've been content with just sitting in silence while watching her drink his wine, but perhaps this was something that needed to happen between them. He remained silent as he still reflected back on their conversation.
Nina figured that it'd be best to leave him with his thoughts, besides it was getting late and they both could use some sleep. She stood up from the sofa and turned towards his desk. He seemed to be very pensive at the moment. "I'm turning in for the night. I'll see you in the morning, goodnight."
He watched her as she walked towards the door and wondered how such a dangerous, fatal woman became something akin to being his only companion. At first, he would have preferred it if she were the cold, calculating, emotionless killer the files painted her to be, but in a sense he was secretly satisfied with being able to connect with her on a personal level. In spite his own aloof and reclusive nature, he still needed a tiny bit of socialization to keep himself grounded. The assassin may have been oblivious to it, but he intended for her to be the last person he'd confide in before his fate beckoned him away. 'If she saw me for the monster I truly am, would she still stand by me?' he contemplated deeply whilst sitting alone in the dimmed office.
There was a neverending tug of war between G Corp and the Mishima Zaibatsu, and in their last clash they had lost the upper hand once again. Dozens of their top commanding officers were taken out, thus crippling their manpower significantly since many units were left without strong leadership. This could be an easy fix, but for someone in particular, this was a devastating blow. Kazuya sat behind his desk with his arms folded across his chest and listened to the angry ramblings of one of his old trusted associates who, if he were a more sentimental person, he could consider as an old friend.
The tall, dark kickboxer paced back and forth in front of his desk, completely livid. How in the hell could they recover quickly after losing some of their most prized soldiers? "We had those damn Mishima dogs cowering with their tails between their legs until that bitch showed up with those fucking snipers!" he hissed angrily. Everyone knew that Bruce Irvin prided himself on how he trained his men to be the strongest and fearless soldiers around. This loss was a personal blow to his ego.
Kazuya had heard the story many times over from different sources and had already let his anger and disappointment fade. Now, he was more interested in knowing their next course of action. "It's a tragedy, " he said nonchalantly. Soldiers were expendable, so he honestly could care less. "Just appoint new captains and train them." Kazuya offered a simple solution to this, but Bruce wouldn't let it go.
Bruce stopped pacing and looked at Kazuya in disbelief. Clearly, he didn't understand the magnitude of this situation. Now, he was getting pissed. "Top soldiers just don't appear overnight! I poured my heart and soul into training those men and now-" he was interrupted.
"They're dead, get over it!" he finished, cruelly. "Train more and be done with it!"
"That's fucked up, man, real fucked up," Bruce said as he shook his head with a judgmental gaze. He always knew Kazuya was a no nonsense leader and a cold-hearted bastard to boot, but his apathy towards this dilemma was appalling.
Kazuya only smirked smugly at the angry man. Bruce was a dedicated soldier and a skilled fighter, but his compassion was always his weakness. Since he always bragged about his abilities and drill tactics it shouldn't be an issue for him to whip more soldiers into shape. His eyes shot to the door as another person entered his office.
The brunette woman casually strutted into his office as she normally did, dressed in a red skirt suit with black fishnet tights. Her red lips curved into a small smile as she looked at the two men. "Did I miss anything important, fellas?" she asked as she made her way towards her employer's desk.
Bruce eyed the woman disapprovingly and crossed his arms. Had she taken the opportunity to kill her sister when she had the chance, his men would have still been alive. "Are you devising a plan to kill that bitch for good, or are you just playing around?" he asked in a pissy manner.
Anna feigned surprise at his accusations. "Oh, Bruce, you know my plans always involve her death. It's not my fault that she always manages to slip away. She was always the lucky one," she explained with a shrug. "But don't fret, Brucey, I'm setting her up on a little play date soon."
"That's real cute and all, princess, but my men are dead because of that bitch!" he sneered at her. "Maybe you should stop playing and get serious!"
She nearly rolled her eyes at his incessant whining. He was like a feral dog with a bloody bone, he just wouldn't let go of this issue. "We'll pay them back when we can, but I can assure you that Nina is the least of your worries. Our forces are weak, so what are you planning to do about it?"
The mohawked man nearly growled at her as she said this. "It all falls back on me, huh? What exactly is it that you do around here besides get on your knees and bl-"
"Screw off, you asshole!" Anna interrupted before he could finish. "I do just as much as you or anyone else around here!" she snapped angrily, finally losing her cool.
"Enough!" Kazuya finally interjected, growing tired of their idiotic squabble. He couldn't believe that he had allowed such immature morons to work under him. "Both of you better hold up your end of your bargains and get me the results that I need! Now, get out!" he ordered as he swiveled his chair towards the window.
Anna and Bruce exchanged furious glances before taking their leave from his office. Just as she was about to leave, Anna turned to face her boss once more. She was distracted by Bruce's bitching and completely forgot to tell her the news she had for him. "I have a plan," she started as she took a few steps back into his office. "But it's solely up to you to follow through or not," she said with a sly smile.
He should've known that she wouldn't be easy to shake off. She wasn't easily intimidated, which was something that both annoyed and intrigued him. He turned his chair to face the bold woman as he stared her down with his two toned gaze. "What are you talking about?"
The sexy brunette slowly sashayed to his desk once again. Once she was close enough, she took her usual seat and crossed her legs. "I don't know if you've been watching the news lately, but the media is beginning to weigh in on the clash between the two companies. Since your little son is making so many enemies and has many "suspicious activities" coming to light, it seems that we're deemed the lesser of the two evils, " she reported.
"Tch, I don't care about what the media thinks, they're clowns. Why are you telling me this?" Kazuya asked, feeling slightly disinterested in the topic.
She sighed with a small roll of her eyes. "Think about it, Kazuya, if we play up that angle, with a little cajoling and puppeteering, we could have the public eating out of our hands. With the public supporting us and antagonizing Jin, we can make it more difficult for him to make whatever moves he's trying to accomplish if the public's scrutiny is on him full force," she further elaborated with a devious smile.
Another smug smirk graced his features as he thought about her plan. 'I don't know what that damn whelp is up to, but he's been persistent in trying to position his troops everywhere he possibly can. He's going to start something big...he's preparing for war. If he does, he'll be the world's most hated man.' He smiled evilly at this realization.
Anna looked at him and wondered why that evil grin was plastered on his face. Was he finally understanding what she was getting at? "If Jin and the entirety of the Mishima Zaibatsu will be shunned, they'll look to anyone to save them from the tyranny of that company...even to someone like you," she scooted off of his desk and made her way over to his side. "I can see the headlines already: 'G Corporation Fights Back Against Jin Kazama', 'Kazuya Mishima: Hero and Saviour'..." she spoke softly into his ear, pulling him further into her fantasy.
Her views were amusing. The public was easy to manipulate and he could use this to his advantage. More funding, positive press, and the opportunity to piss off his estranged son, it was perfect and the perks were worth it. "It sounds effective, " he remarked with a satisfied grin. "How do we go about doing this?"
Anna began massaging his shoulders lightly with her hands with a sexy smile. "You just leave that to me, darling," she said reassuringly. She was ready to go on a grand smearing campaign against their enemies, and it would bring her great joy to possibly have a chance to drag her sister's name through the mud.
Sorry if this chapter was a tad bit depressing...but I feel like they both have difficult pasts and dark secrets to discuss. The next chapter won't be as dark! R&R!