Well, another year, another semester of college. This is will easily be the busiest I've ever had, but at least Thursdays are light.

Just be warned everyone: from here on in I have no idea what's going to happen next!

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For as long as I have known of their existence, I have considered the Kazama clan to be the yang to my Mishima clan's yin. Just as there is a Mishima curse that has lingered in the family possibly even before my "other self" approached me, the Kazamas have a power flowing in their own veins that seems to counter the powers of the Devil entity. I have not yet discovered the full extent of their powers, but I never suspected that the Kazama family had their own demons within the clan.

This Ryoku Kazama that I had summoned entirely by coincidence happened to have been the most powerful and vengeful spirit the afterlife had to offer, which still comes as a surprise to me even now. Perhaps even more peculiar was how Jun knew exactly when and where to come and find me. Was it possible that her father's spirit was so powerful that it could communicate with the living: with his daughter?

Even though I could not get her to enlighten me with the first question, she did tell me that not only was entirely possible, but it had happened in the past. It was actually Ryoku who informed Jun of my other self, setting off a chain of events that would later result in the birth of our children. Suddenly, the coincidence of Ryoku happening to be the resurrect-ee of my latest experiment didn't seem like such a coincidence anymore: it would seem that he had a hand in this well before I had acquired the power of ShinkenSlayer.

What was also peculiar is that when Ryoku passed on, it was when Jun was at a very young age: it would seem unlikely that she would remember much of her father when she was adopted by relatives in Tokyo, unless her brother's memories fared better than her's. All she truly remembered was his voice, and how it had told her to act as she did during that fateful second King of Iron Fist Tournament.

Once I had found our mutual friend some clothes, I wondered what exactly would I do if this Kazama decided to betray me with his body radiating power beyond most people's imaginations…

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"Father…I must ask you something," Jun said quietly while she approached the couch that Ryoku just sat down at. The Japanese man was wearing a black t-shirt with the kanji "metsu" etched on its front in dark red, with black sports pants and red sandals. Ryoku turned his head to his daughter while he reached for the remote control to the TV that was sitting a couple of yards in front of him. Seeing that she had his attention, Jun continued, "Why is it that you asked me to help you?"

"…Because you're my daughter, that's why," he said with his deep, manly voice, sitting up straight so that he could show his daughter that she had his full attention. "Isn't that enough?"

"What I meant is, why did you want to return to the land of the living?" Jun's voice did not show a hint of frustration, remaining in that eerily gentle tone that people close to her had become accustomed to. "Life and death have been separated for countless eons: why do you wish to break that balance?"

"So in other words, you're wondering why I told you not to interfere with your boyfriend's 'hobby' and just go about your business with his brother in America," Ryoku concluded while he grabbed the remote control from a nearby table and held it in his hand. "It's really quite simple, kiddo: I just had something I needed taken care of in this world, and I couldn't do it if I was still dead."

"What sort of things?" Jun raised an eyebrow: the first sign of emotion she had made public since she had begun speaking to her formerly long-deceased father.

"Well for one, there is the matter of my sister," Ryoku looked up at the ceiling while he mentally looked back to a day and time that was long past. "Did I ever tell you about your aunt?"

"…" Jun's silence did nothing to hide her ignorance as to what her father was talking about. All she ever knew about her aunt was what her other relatives spoke about her. Most of the relatives she lived with came from her mother's side of the family so much of the Kazama heritage was learned from their point of view, and her brother's.

"She was so much like you, kid," Ryoku continued, taking Jun's silence as a no. "She loved life in all its forms, and she was also highly psychic. She could predict the future almost as accurate as you can, and possibly even more." However, as soon as he finished that sentence, his arrogant smile faded and became a grimace. "Unfortunately for her, she was killed far before her time: butchered like an animal by someone who was never identified."

"So the reason you wished to return to the living was simple revenge?" his daughter asked, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses while she put her hands in the pockets of her black trenchcoat. "Truly, father, I would have thought you beyond such impure thoughts."

"It's a lot more than just simple revenge, Jun," Ryoku continued to frown, and his eyebrows twitched ever so slightly to show a hint of rage. "There's an impurity in this world, and I feel the need to cleanse it. Inside every man, woman, and child on this planet Earth, you'll see a devil that is just as real and monstrous as the one that sits in your boy Kazuya's head."

"I disagree."

Ryoku's frown disappeared instantly upon hearing that comment and let out a deep, manly laugh. "I had a feeling you would say that. Sure, there ARE good people in this world: your aunt and your mother were two of them. What happened to them? They died an early and totally undeserved death." Suddenly, Ryoku stood up from his seat, tossing the remote control in his hand away from him and raising his voice. "That's why you have to fight fire with fire! Use whatever means necessary from stopping these demons to tearing you apart!"

"Violence only begets more violence, father," Jun replied calmly while she took a few steps backward. "We Kazamas are healers, not destroyers."

"Oh, that's just a bunch of rubbish," Ryoku looked at his daughter with slight confusion before regaining his composure to slowly advance upon her. "You and your aunt were healers, but I was always a warrior. I had to be: I only got a small portion of our holy power that you seem to wield as easily as…well…Hank Aaron would swing a bat!"

As Ryoku said that, however, he noticed that Jun had slowly begun to raise her arm, and they eventually formed the position that was her fighting stance. Ryoku laughed as he assumed his own stance, identical to Jun's safe for his considerable muscle advantage. "So you've had enough talking, huh? Alright…show me what you've learned while I was away!"

Rushing at his daughter with inhuman speed, Ryoku rammed his shoulder into Jun, and followed up with a monstrous punch to her stomach, concluding with an open-palmed blow that knocked her over. Continuing his opening assault, Ryoku grabbed the prone Jun and lifted her off the ground before throwing her back down onto the hard floor with a devastating body slam.

"You know what's funny about us fighting like this, kid?" Ryoku said out loud while he picked up his daughter once again and tossing her onto the floor, this time leaving a crack where she landed. "Even when you were a little squirt, you never picked a fight, but this time you were the first to get ready. Times have changed, wouldn't you say?"

Rolling away to avoid yet another throw, Jun regained her footing and hit her father in the neck with her left palm, following up with a right palm to the face. Using all of her might, Jun pushed her father's head with such force that he bent over backwards and lost his footing. Jun continued to push his head as she banged the back of Ryoku's skull off the ground. "I would not have attacked if I did not sense the malicious intent from you, father," she said quietly as she removed her hand and took a couple of steps back. "I would never fight unless I had to…"

Jun let her guard down for a mere instant, and paid for her mercy with a powerful kick to the jaw courtesy of her father's rising cartwheel kick: the Kazama-ryu's famed Moon Scent. The force of such an attack sent Jun rocketing upwards, giving Ryoku the time to get up and continue the assault with his daughter helpless in the air. Cracking his knuckles, Ryoku pummeled his daughter with a couple of uppercuts, followed by a swift vertical kick and kept her airborne. Concluding his assault with a powerful spinning kick that left a streak of dark green ki in its wake, Ryoku watched Jun crash into a wall and let out a sinister chuckle.

"You sadden me, Jun," Ryoku rolled his head around as his neck let out loud cracks. "Truly you didn't think I was going to let this end just because you got two lucky blows in. What have your aunts and uncles been teaching you, anyway? If you have an opening, don't give the opponent the chance to breathe!"

"You are not my opponent," Jun replied, standing back up while dusting herself off with the same eerie calm that she had maintained throughout her time in Kazuya's lab, "you are my father. Even though we have differences, we are still family, and should treat each other as such." Resuming her fighting stance, the Japanese woman looked up at her father. "I wish to make this as painless as possible."

"Then it looks we aren't going to get anywhere soon," Ryoku shrugged before slowly walking towards Jun. "I hope you're ready to start fighting serious, because this is where I stop holding back!" The slow walk soon advanced to a brisk one, and an instant later it had evolved into a full run. However, a very unpleasant surprise awaited him as he prepared to strike.

"YOWCH!!"

Ryoku yelped as Jun's knee shot up and collided with his groin area. Ryoku gripped where he had been struck and cried out in pain as he cursed under his breath. "That was a low blow, Jun," he said with a forced whisper before being struck with a powerful thrusting elbow that sent him screeching across the floor. Ryoku righted himself with a flip and dusted himself off before continuing. "You make me proud: that's what I want to see."

Before her father could react, Jun continued her offensive with a low kick to his shin, followed by a backhanded punch to his jaw. With another blow to his face, Ryoku was sent sprawling backward with a high roundhouse kick to the neck. Chasing after her still-airborne parent, Jun grabbed onto Ryoku's legs and continued to run before jumping up into the air. The two of them fellow back onto the ground with a sickening thud as Jun drove her father into the ground with a running power bomb.

What the hell was that, Ryoku thought to himself with surprise as he rolled away. I don't recall power bombs being intertwined with my marvelous art! Ryoku threw a well-aimed punch at Jun that hit her in the chest and caused her to reel back in pain ever-so-slightly. When he tried for a foot sweep, however, Jun leaned down and grabbed his leg, and then used the momentum of the sweep to send him spinning uncontrollably behind her: the Kazama-ryu's trademark Vacuum Throw.

Ryoku landed on his hands and righted himself so that he could have proper footing, only to a jumping knee to the face that once again rendered him airborne. Jun juggled him around in the air with a duo of spinning Shaolin kicks, followed by a standing flip kick that propelled him even higher off the ground. Concluding the aerial assault with a powerful forward kick, Jun watched Ryoku land flat on his back while she resumed her fighting stance.

"What the hell was that," Ryoku hissed as he slowly stood back up. "What have you done to bastardize our glorious art? You've added moves from other styles!"

"This is one of the abilities I was given after I was brought back into the land of the living," Jun quietly explained. "All I need to do is watch another style, and with practice, it can become my own."

"Is the art I taught you and your brother not good enough?" Ryoku raised his voice in stark contrast to Jun's quiet tone, his body burning with dark green energy. "Is that how it is, kiddo!?"

"That is not my intention, father," Jun raised an eyebrow as she answered his question with the same aura of eerie calm, "I merely wish to end this as quickly as possible, and try to help you regain your senses."

Ryoku growled as he reared back his right hand. "Jun, for the first time since I married your mother, I'm thinking as clearly as ever. What I see is that you've disgraced our holy technique despite being the 'Chosen One' of our clan. Now I'm going to have to really beat you down!" Swinging his right arm in a wide arcing vertical motion, Ryoku fired off a blade of energy that shaved the ground as it made its way towards Jun. She narrowly avoided the blast and watched it connect with the wall to her back. The blast dissipated as it created a tall but narrowly cut on the plastic and steel wall.

"You speak of sullying our style, and yet you utilize such a lethal technique?" Jun pushed up her sunglasses as she finally took to the offensive. "Father, what has death done to your soul? You are not the same man who helped me over twenty years ago." Taking to the air, Jun leapt forward and shot out a clockwise right kick, but Ryoku caught her leg with ease. Helpless, she was unable to stop her father from tossing her behind him with a Vacuum Throw.

However, Ryoku didn't intend on letting her fall to the ground so soon. Quickly gathering ki into his left hand, Ryoku shot out a burst of green power that hit his daughter while she was still in the air. Jun was sent sprawling into the couch that Ryoku had been sitting at minutes earlier. "I'm not sullying anything, daughter dearest," the powerhouse finally said as he threw down his fist at Jun, who barely had time to move her head and get away from the couch to leave his fist to collide with the couch's cushion. "I was going to teach you these techniques before my untimely demise. Maybe if you apologize, I'll give you some lessons."

Jun answered not with words, but with a powerful elbow that rocked Ryoku like a hurricane, forcing him to topple over like a tree that had been cut down. Jun stomped on her father's chest with a cartwheel kick, but that did not have the element of surprise that caught Ryoku off-guard. The recently revived Ryoku snatched her foot while he was still lying down, and stood back up to tip her over.

"This brings back some memories," Ryoku used his free hand to rub his chin while Jun dangled helplessly upside-down. "I held both you and your brother like this when you were only a few minutes old. Your mother gave me grief about it, but the doctor said it was fine." Ryoku crouched down slightly while keeping his arm elevated to look into Jun's eyes, which had just been revealed thanks to her sunglasses being shattered by his previous attack.

Jun said nothing as she used the momentum of her dangling to swing her arm into her father's neck, but Ryoku merely grunted while he suddenly tossed her upwards into the sky. Taking a sharp breath, he slowly rotated his arms while his body crackled with dark green energy. Once his left arm was pointing directly upwards and his right downwards, Ryoku tucked his arms in while Jun plummeted back down to the ground. Just before she hit the floor, Ryoku shot out his hands and blasted her with all of his gathered might. She spiraled away and was about to crash into a door…

…until she was saved from such a fate by Kazuya, who had opened the door a split-second before impact and used his lightning-quick reflexes to catch her. "What sort of nonsense is this?" Kazuya growled while he looked at Jun's bruises. "Ryoku, have you betrayed me so soon?"

"Well, if it isn't my dear 'son-in-law,'" Ryoku smirked as he wiped the sweat off of his brow before crossing his arms. "Don't mind us; we were just having a sparring session. Sorry if it got a little too intense for ya, kid." The white-haired man uncrossed his arms and put his hands to his hips before bowing. "You did pretty good, all things considering."

Kazuya looked down to finally notice Jun had been resting her head on his chest ever since he caught her. Jun looked up at him with her light brown eyes for what seemed like forever but was in truth a four-second pause before turning around to her father and returning the bow. "…I must be leaving now. Father, the clothes you requested are in the brown suitcase next to the television."

"Leaving so soon, Jun?" Kazuya raised an eyebrow as Jun started to walk past him. "You have just been reunited with your father: I would have thought you would be far more willing to stay and talk with him."

"We have said everything that was necessary to be said," Jun replied coolly before turning around and leaning to Kazuya's ear. As she did so, she whispered in his ear quietly so that her father could not here. "Goodbye Kazuya…please be careful." Kazuya moved his head away and continued to give Jun a puzzled look, but she had already resumed going out the door, gently closing it behind her.

That was no sparring session, Kazuya thought, remembering the look in Jun's eyes. She was warning him that her father was a wild card, and he was not about to ignore such advice. His Kazama power might not be as intense as Jun's, but he contains both Astaroth's energies and my own. I cannot be surrounded by such powerful and malicious allies and not expect them to turn on me someday.

"So tell me, Kaz," Ryoku cracked his neck and he righted the tipped-over couch that he had tossed Jun into and sat down on it. "When are you going to introduce me to my grandchildren? I'm anxious to see what kind of kids you and Jun manufactured."

Kazuya turned to Ryoku with a slight expression of surprise on his face. "How would you know about them?"

"I'm a Kazama," Ryoku answered with sarcastic wit. "I know everything. It's my job."

Kazuya did not find such humor amusing, but made sure he didn't let Ryoku know that he was getting on his nerves. "You shall be seeing them soon, I can promise you that. Astaroth, get in here!"

In mere seconds, thunderous footsteps could be heard as the black-clad golem entered the room. "What do you want this time?" the Astaroth asked with his voice full of boredom. "I am sick and tired of playing cat and mouse with the Shinkenger: if you're going to send me out, at least let me break at least one of their limbs!"

"That is exactly what I was going to command you to do," Kazuya said with a smirk as he crossed his arms. "The Shinkenger are no doubt using this pause to figure out the connection between all of our missions, and thus discover the location of our lair. The time has come to finish them once and for all." Kazuya's left eye glowed in two colors: the iris bright red, and the pupil neon blue. Raising his hand as if to give himself a dramatic flair, Kazuya continued, "Astaroth, I want you to slay the Tekkenshu Sentai Shinkenger, and bring ShinkenRed and ShinkenWhite to me, alive but helpless."

"What's so special about red and white?" Ryoku butted into the conversation unexpectedly. "Are those my grandchildren?" The Japanese man turned his head to face Kazuya. "Kaz, my boy, do we get satellite link so we can watch our man do his thing?"

"As a matter of fact, we do," Kazuya nodded his head. "I did not know you were a fan of watching such sport."

"In that case," Ryoku stood up and looked to Astaroth before giving his own decree. "Astaroth, you can forget about bringing those two alive. I want to see what they can really do when you turn up the heat!"

"So does that mean…all of them are fair game?" Astaroth's eyes widened and Kazuya could swear that he saw a tear of joy drip from one of them. Ryoku looked to Kazuya, who remained quiet for some time, visibly surprised to hear such a remark from a Kazama, a clan that was supposedly devoted to the side of good. However, he nodded his head in approval, and Astaroth responded accordingly. "YES! I promise you, boss, that I will bring you their heads!"

After Astaroth took his gargantuan battle axe Kutules that was leaning next to the door frame, he ran out the door roaring a battle cry. Once Kazuya was certain that Astaroth was out of earshot, he turned to Ryoku and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "You are certainly not what I expect from a Kazama, 'father-in-law.'"

"Death can really piss off a guy," Ryoku shrugged as he sat back down on the couch and turned on the television. "I'm sure you can understand that…"