Chapter II : A Fateful Encounter

A/N: I don't own Tekken.

Sorry for the late update!

Plz R&R!

Tokyo Cultural Centre

Kazuya Mishima elbowed his way through crowds of people sporting numerous colours and speaking in countless tongues. He soon fell into step beside his father, who was taking quick lengthy strides, seemingly unperturbed by the sea of people. Kazuya smirked as he looked over his shoulder and saw how far behind Lee had fallen. The smaller of the two boys was struggling to catch up, and when he finally emerged from the crowd, he was in a dishevelled state.

Not a very promising start, Kazuya noted snidely.

The two Mishima boys were dressed alike for the occasion: T-shirts, jeans and sneakers, and carried gym bags containing their gi-s and other fighting gear. Kazuya smirked yet again; he could not imagine, for the life of him, Lee lasting more than a minute in an arena. Unbeknown to him, however, it was Lee's extraordinary fighting prowess that had led Heihachi to adopt him in the first place.

When they reached the busy registration booth, Kazuya and Lee had to wait for their turn to be handed their participants' passes by the harassed looking lady in charge, while Heihachi waited for them with his arms folded. When the procedure was over, they made their way back to their father and were surprised that he was not alone.

Heihachi was standing to one side, conversing with a man Kazuya had never seen before. You're such a hypocrite, Father! Kazuya wanted to roar. Heihachi had always disliked foreigners and disparaged them, and yet there he was, making small talk with a man who was obviously a gaijin.

While Heihachi was decked out in traditional Japanese garb, the colour of which matched his thinning grey hair, the stranger was well-dressed in the prevailing Western style, his thick, flaxen-blond hair neatly slicked back. Kazuya was amused at finally seeing a man who was as tall and broad-shouldered as his father.

Heihachi noticed his two sons coming and put on an artificial smile." Ah, there you are! Boys, this is Sir William Arnholt, newly appointed English Ambassador to Japan. Arnholt-sama, these are my two sons, Kazuya and Lee."

The man smiled graciously, and shook hands with each of the Mishima boys in turn. He had a surprisingly strong grip, Kazuya noticed, and when he spoke it was in cultured, flawless Japanese, as was probably dictated by his position.

" Pleasure to make your acquaintance, boys." He directed his next words at Kazuya," Mishima-sama tells me you are a chess prodigy and a formidable fighter." Kazuya had no response to this; he was startled that his father, who never saw eye to eye with anyone who approved of his eldest son, would be praising him now.

The man's sharp, cerulean-blue eyes swept the Mishima boys as he said, " My daughter, Katherine," and indicated the girl standing quietly by his side. Lee smiled at her, as his hand instantly flew to his untidy silver hair, while Kazuya merely gave her a curt nod.

The girl's appearance was not endearing to the older Mishima boy. He perceived her as this diminuitive, insignificant thing with loose fair hair that combined with her palor to give her the look of a drowned person. She was wearing a red blouse and a white skirt, and Kazuya was tempted to consider her three years his juniour, but the hard little apples poking out of her chest convinced him that this wasn't the case.

Another runt, another freak of nature, Kazuya found himself thinking. She and Lee are just perfect for one another.

XXXXXXX

Kazuya sat there, waiting for his opponent's next move, aware of the crowd's eyes on him. His own eyes strayed to the spectators to settle on Lee and the girl called Katherine, who were sitting side by side and chatting animatedly. Lee must have just said something highly amusing, as the girl was laughing, her head tilted back.

Kazuya absently moved a knight in response to his opponent's move, then inwardly cursed himself for his carelessness, as the opponent's queen quickly took it. He gritted his teeth and focussed his mind back on the game at hand.

XXXXXXX

Lee was a swift and agile fighter, but he was quickly defeated and eliminated, much to Kazuya's satisfaction, by the young Tae Kwon Do prodigy, Baek Do San. As Kazuya made quick work of the Korean, he noticed that Lee had not returned to watch this match, and that the English girl was also absent.

XXXXXXX

Kazuya wandered the sprawling maze of the Tokyo Cultural Centre on his own, looking for the exit where he was supposed to rendezvous with his father. He had won all his matches, but instead of sheer satisfaction, he felt sheer irritation, and had unceremoniously dumped all his trophies and prize money into his gym bag. He suddenly heard footsteps ahead, and he went deathly still. It was her.

Katherine Arnholt had obviously just finished with her own performance. She had not changed from her skimpy ballerina outfit, and was carrying a large bouquet of roses, her pale face flushed and her hair drawn up in a tight bun, the strands that had come loose plastered to her forehead with sweat. She uttered a faint " Oh!" upon seeing him.

" You're Lee's foster brother," she began breathlessly in Japanese, treating him to a smile.

" I know I am," Kazuya replied with a faint sneer.

The girl's smile wavered, but she chose to ignore his sarcasm. " So, umm, you do understand my Japanese..."

" Hardly," and he paused, before taking her by surprise by abruptly switching to English. " A five-year-old can speak better."

The girl's expression instantly hardened, leaving no traces of her former serenity. " You know, Lee did tell me you're one nasty piece of work, but I didn't think you'd be such a prat!" She said all this in rapid English, and Kazuya inwardly winced at her haughty, imperious tone. No-one had ever addressed him that way; it was apparent that his scornful remarks would never break this girl, so he resorted to Plan B: intimidation.

He took several steps forward, so that he now towered above her, and hissed dangerously in her face," Anything else you'd like to say?"

She did not flinch. " Not to a git as foul as you! And don't you take that tone with me!" And she stormed off, pushing past him as he tried half-heartedly to block her way. Kazuya felt a grim satisfaction as he watched her leave in a huff, but it was soon replaced by an almost overpowering feeling of listlessness.