Chapter 11: A Girl in a Man's Disguise

Rhima remains sad and upset after learning her mother was being targeted first before her. Just like Jin, she wanted to protect her from harm's way and her father Hunyo also felt it as well. Knowing she is also been targeted by the Black Devil organization led by Domon who swore vengeance of his lost in the past tournament. Jin looked to see her sad and wants to comfort her.

"Rhima..."

"I feel so bad to come back here in my home country. I didn't expect our enemy is attacking my mom. And now I felt my dad's concern in wanting to protect her." Rhima said sadly and soon cries. "My mom and I shouldn't get involved on that bastard's revenge. We had nothing to do with this..."

"Rhima, don't cry... Your father might be in Bangkok to strengthen himself to stop him. For now, you have to protect her at all costs." Jin said comforting her and he continues to cheer her up. "I don't want to meet the same fate as how I did to my mother too. I tried to protect her from Ogre but I was taken down easily. Now is the right time for you to pose as someone else. Not just about me."

"You were right... Just because I was target by the enemy. I need to pose myself like I did to the Bravantes. They really think I'm a guy but they knew I was a woman in a man's disguise." Rhima said as she dried her tears.

Jin remembers how he was bullied by some guys in his teenage years for being a mama's boy and how he tried to fend himself to beat them up. He decided to tell Rhima about his past.

"You were so lucky, that you live peaceful with your parents and not being bullied. As for me, me and my mother lived in the mountains in Yakushima and learned how to fight but I was constantly bullied by other guys because I was being dependant on my mother well, growing up with her together."

"How come you were bullied by those guys? You'd never told me more about you and what you told me is how your mother died 6 years ago and all the things had happened to you since and how you unlearned your original fighting style to your current one just to swore vengeance over both of your father and grandfather." Rhima reacted shockingly and Jin tells her in a serious tone.

"That's the time when my mother trained me in Kazama-Style Traditional Martial Arts before Ogre had burned our house down on my 15th birthday and how she had died from his hands, I was a helpless teenager at that time when I was 14 where three guys are cornered me to think I was weak and fragile and being dependant to call my mother to beat them up and I was ganged up by them in a beating. Remembering my mother's word and her teachings, this is how I learned to fend for myself by beating them alone."

Rhima was speechless when Jin reveals he was initially a bully victim as a teen in which most teenagers from his age within her world involves on physical beating when being bullied to the point of beating them to death. She remembers her time as a high school student in her senior year when she had witnessed her male classmates had physically beat a sophomore student causing her to tell the guards about the ordeal. Once they are caught by the security, she and the Marshalls from the school had taken the student to the hospital immediately for treatment. Upon learning that student they had helped him died from the physical beatings cause by her male classmates. She was responsible of exposing her male classmates for killing the student from getting bullied to the school's principal which resulted to their expulsion.

"Rhima, are you okay? Did my words hurt you when I told you about my past when I was a teenager?" Jin said worriedly to her which Rhima shakes her head in a nod.

"No, Jin... it reminds me of my time as a senior high school student. If you were bullied at 14, I witnessed their bullying at 13. I saw my classmates just ganged up on a sophomore student, beating the crap out of him. Like you said, you were ganged up, right. But here in my world, bullying is more constant in either public or private schools they were attending to study. I tried to save that student, but it's already too late. Just like how Miguel attempts to beat the crap out of you with his brass knuckles."

"!"

"Sorry that I shared with you about this. I realized that you were a lucky guy who knows how to fight against them." Rhima said apologizing which Jin understands of her past.

"When I attended Mishima Polytechnic before I became a high school drop out, there is no bullying incident. I always focus on my vengeance against Ogre. I guess that I was lucky enough to survive from that beating."

"..."

"Rhima, I'll just watch over you when you disguised yourself. I'm sure the enemy would be around." Jin said finally changed the topic to look after Rhima while she's disguising herself as a man which she accepts.

"Sure..."

The following day when she arrives at Santa Cruz in Binondo, Manila, Rhima disguises herself as a man named Jun Arasaka wearing a white loose sweatshirt hoodie with the hood up, a dark red undershirt, black trousers and white sneakers and wears yellow bracelets in each wrists and a black face mask. As the song "La Nina Del Panuelo Colorado" has been played, she walks around and tries to take down the enemies behind her including saving other people from thieves who do the street crime by stealing their belongings and jewelries. Jin continues to watch Rhima from afar in his main hoodie attire in case if the fight becomes difficult for her. At Brian's Noodle House, both Brian and Crimson had seen a disguised Rhima who wonders around the streets in Binondo while Hwoarang and Marissa had seen her presence.

"That guy look familiar... it's like Jin who loves to wander around the place." Hwoarang reacted and Marissa noticed of who it is.

"That face of his looks like my daughter Rhima... I knew it was her."

"I think I should follow her... This is going to be tricky."

When Rhima tried to do the Macarena dance, a thief attempts to attack her from behind which she had jumped to avoid getting stabbed and soon knocks him with a straight gut kick to the groin and was tripped into the ground. She was soon found by Brian who easily recognized her disguise.

"I knew you would be back, Rhima."

"Mr. Navarro...?"

Jin looked on to see them and knowing that Brian had seen her which he shrugged to show himself to them.

"Don't worry I'm watching over her. Because more mercenaries are still lurking around the place."

Back at the noodle house, Marissa reunites with Rhima after Brian had saw her disguise, she eventually learns of what happened to both of them.

"I never thought this Merkova guy would do anything to harm you, mom."

"I heard Hunyo just went to Bangkok while you went to Luang Prabang. I thought you would never come back here." Marissa said sadly while Jin eats some beef flavored noodles.

"Lars and the others would come shortly. Lee just saved her from getting shot when she attempted to shoot her. We came back here because we investigated someone who also works with Black Devil organization. And that guy who became a fake woman was his right-hand."

"I never thought this Merkova was like how I horribly behaved previously before I reformed myself and starting this noodle business. This guy could not accept defeat in a real fight. Hunyo was like that." Brian said knowing of their motives and decided to let Rhima continues her disguise and warns her about the LGBT community. "You know Rhima, you're pretty good to disguise yourself as a man. Every people around the Metro would be deceived over your delicate looks. But for the LGBT community, you need to be careful out there. Some gays or bisexuals would think of you as a real guy but you are a straight woman. They can be misbehave at times whenever they get interested on you."

"I just don't like what happened to me after I saw hers..." Hwoarang said remembering the times during the Songkran festival in Bangkok.

Continuing her disguise, she saw most of the mercenaries are spotted around in Divisoria to search for both her and her mother Marissa to be assassinated until someone just ravaged someone's belongings within the 999 mall. Realizing that these mercenaries were sent by Veron who is actually Harry Bravante.

These people won't learn don't they.

Once the mercenary attempts to kill the seller, he was saved by a disguised Rhima as she took them down in an instant while the other grapples the soldier with a single Stunner. The seller was intrigued for saving his life.

"Oh thank you, thank you... linigtas mo ko, bro! (You saved me, bro!)

Rhima nods as she salutes the seller and leave the premises and the guy was intrigued over her appearance.

On the monitor, it was Veron who is watching the turn of the events and became annoyed over someone who tries to thwart his plans and he couldn't forget of how Rhima resembles his late former wife Raquel, showing his grudges towards her.

Rhima decided to take the matter of her own hands to put these mercenaries into a halt while disguising herself as a man as Jin is looking after her in case if the fight becomes difficult and tricky like she did in Bangkok. Her disguised form is finally born.

Trivia:

*Jin reveals he was a bully victim as a teenager before taking them down with his fighting skills which contradicts his teenage appearance in the upcoming anime series, Tekken: Bloodline.

*Rhima reveals the bullying incident in real life on the real world.

*Rhima's disguise name Jun Arasaka comes from the character, Nao Arasaka from the Is it Love? game series who had an understated appearance and being androgynous.

*The color scheme of Rhima's disguise form is taken from the karate attire worn by Tsugumi Higashijuujou from the manga/anime series Cyberteam in Akihabara.

*The scene where Rhima took down the street thugs within Binondo, Manila is taken from Lee's Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ending while the other scene where she knocks the man with straight gut kick to the groin while tripping him into the ground is taken from the real life scene made by Victor Dela Cruz who had stopped the thief with just a single kick to the groin that also trips him into the ground.

*The seller resembles the Filipino actor and comedian Lassy.