Chapter 9: Departure

Kazuya would stay at the orphanage for nearly a year before he finally decided that he learned enough and that it was time to leave. He had no idea where he would be going, but he simply knew that he couldn't stay there. In the short term, the abandoned gym would be a good place to return to his original routine, but he wanted some new scenery. Also, he couldn't keep on stealing from the same stores—there were already policemen; they might smarten up and actually get a camera. He was bound to get caught—that was something he never wanted to deal with.

He hadn't known specifically when he might leave, but he felt that day getting closer and closer just as his recent attacks of reoccurring nightmares continued with more and more fervor. The dreams themselves weren't scary, but he would always wake up in a cold sweat. The only thing he kept seeing was fire and for some reason he would feel this uncanny anguish and want to strike something only to realize that he had nothing to strike at—that was the worst feeling in the world. In the middle of the night some days, he'd sneak outside and begin pounding away at an unsuspecting tree until his knuckles began to peel. It only brought temporary relief. It wasn't worth the pain he would feel later when he realized what he had done and have to have his knuckles wrapped in bandages.

Benjamin was always there asking him questions wanting to understand and while at first Kazuya might have spoken to him he soon became distant. Kazuya hardly said anything to Becky even at the times when they ate. They could feel it too, the coldness emanating from him. It took real courage to even speak to him any longer. When he wasn't with the teacher learning from her or trying to read, he would be doing absolutely nothing perhaps even staring out to blank space with a dead expression on his face. He would flex his fingers back and forth slowly just so he could agitate the soreness of his wounded knuckles. Since he was learning to write, he also had to curl his hands around a pencil each day and never once did he complain about it. Ms. Tucket grew overly concerned for Kazuya's wellbeing—just watching him write pained her, but still he told her nothing.

Benjamin grew accustomed to the extra movement in the bed beside him since it seemed that Kazuya could not sleep for the whole night anymore and would leave and then come back only to leave again. He sighed wearily at this, but he knew there was nothing he could do especially since Kazuya would never open up to him. Benjamin waited until Kazuya climbed back into bed again to say something.

"What did you do?" Benjamin asked.

"Nothing worth talking about," Kazuya responded coldly.

"Sorry I asked."

"I know what you're trying to do. Don't."

"Okay."

That was probably the most they had said in a while and the entire thing had felt awkward to Benjamin. And then Kazuya went MIA for three whole days. Benjamin told Becky that he had probably left. It only made him more surprised when they saw him again.

"Kazuya!" they both cried together when they saw him enter the room one afternoon soon after class had ended.

They had never hugged before, but the two of them felt compelled to do so at that moment. However, they might as well had been hugging a piece of brick. Not only did he not hug them back, he pushed them away quickly. Benjamin wasn't nearly as surprised as Becky.

"We were only trying to be nice. We hadn't seen you in days! I don't know if you know this or not—but you're 'posed to hug after a long absence like that!"

Then Becky noticed his hands dripping with blood.

"Oh my God, what did you do, Kazuya!"

Kazuya raised one of his bloodied hands and clenched it. His expression was enigmatic. They couldn't tell if he was angry, sad, or hurt. It didn't help that he chose to say nothing at all. He simply turned from them and, after a confused look at each other, they followed him to the nurse's room where he easily stole some rubbing alcohol and bandages. Then they tailed him to the bathroom (and yes, Becky followed them into the boy's bathroom) where he washed his hands in the sink. Then he put the stopper in and emptied the entire contents of the alcohol into the sink. Without hesitation, he placed both of his badly scarred hands in. All that could be heard was the sizzling sound of the alcohol working through the open wounds. They couldn't help but winch at the scene, but Kazuya's expression remained neutral. It didn't take long for the sink to become thick with blood. After the sizzling sound calmed, he lifted his hands again and proceeded to wrapping bandages around it. He pulled mercilessly hard on the cloth on each turn—it might have been enough to cut circulation; in this case, it easily stopped the bleeding.

"Kazuya, are you going to tell us what happened?" Benjamin asked when he finished.

"I wanted to punch something…" Kazuya said slowly with little emotion, "I wanted to kill something…so I imagined his face and kept pounding at it…and kept pounding at it…and kept…pounding at it until he was dead…only to find that he was still there laughing at how weak I am. I've just been slacking this whole time." Kazuya had taken to closing and opening the top of the alcohol bottle, but soon he stood up to throw it away.

"You're thinking about leaving, aren't you?" Benjamin asked.

"I wish I could fast-forward time and get this over with already," Kazuya said ignoring his comment.

The only thing Kazuya did was walk in between the both of them and trudged off to his bed. He left them dumfounded. Becky looked to Benjamin for answers, but he could hardly give any. Benjamin had really never seen him like this before.

That night, Benjamin never heard Kazuya wake up in the middle of the night. It was the first time in a while that he slept all the way through. Benjamin looked over at his still form and took a deep breath before placing his backhand on his forehead to check his temperature. His eyes grew wide when he found that it was cold to the touch, but he was frozen still when he felt Kazuya's eyes on him.

"What are you doing?" came the monotone of Kazuya.

"I was…well I was…"

Then Benjamin felt the crippling force of Kazuya's hand around his wrist. He almost thought he had lost his hand for good when Kazuya finally threw it back. Even then Benjamin could feel the chilling temperature.

"You're Benjamin, right?"

The question caught him off guard. Not to mention the foreign look in his eyes, one that Benjamin had never seen before.

"You're not…you're the same person…from before…" Benjamin spoke with disbelief. The two glowing red eyes flashed through his mind.

"I don't always have to be so obvious, but it seems you catch on quick."

"Who are you?"

"Someone who you don't want to know."

Benjamin might have thought this was split personalities, but what he had seen before forced him to realize that it was something else altogether.

"You're the one…you must be the reason he was out there all alone. You're the reason he has so much trouble with making friends. I bet if you never existed, he'd be a completely different person!" he whispered angrily.

Benjamin only received a mischievous smile from him.

"Kazuya, you have to snap out of it right now."

"Oh, how late you are. This was set in motion well before you ever met Kazuya. I've waited and waited for him to come around, but to no avail. He has simply become too attached. He thought he could defy me that weak little bastard. Me? He thinks he has a chance against me? Ha! I'll teach him a lesson he'll soon not forget."

"You leave him alone," Benjamin said defiantly.

"There's nothing you can do."

And then Benjamin saw it—the illuminating red eyes. Was there any chance now? Would Kazuya pull himself back from the brink once again? Benjamin tried to grab for him again, but he was thrust back by strong arms. The only thing he could hear was laughter—a loud and raucous laughter that woke everyone up at once and Benjamin soon smelled the scent of burning. Lasers bounced everywhere at once and kids were screaming and running around causing more and more confusion. The lights were never turned on as flammable covers caught on fire along with the carpet.

"I'll destroy everything!" Devil called out gleefully, "All of you shall die!"

Benjamin struggled to find Becky, but he was knocked over by other scrambling children and then knocked out completely when he fell back into a dresser.

/

The wind swept intently through the thick forest and whistled as if it were haunted with ghosts. The moon was full that night and shined even brighter than the stars. If there were werewolves, they would have been rampant that night. There was howling and leaves rustling incessantly and yet there was a comforting silence. As the leaves bustled about, they snapped off their branches and fluttered to the forest floor. Out of all of them, the lucky few fell upon a small boy who had taken refuge on the forest's carpet of soil and twigs. He might have been mistaken as a corpse as the body remained motionless for days and days until one day the fingers began to move. It felt the smoothness of the soft, moist soil and a confused expression came to his face. The fingers burrowed all the way into it before being lifted once again.

"Mama…are you here…will you forgive me?"

Kazuya finally opened his eyes lazily and realized that he was still alive.

"Then again…even if I were to die…I probably wouldn't be in the same place as you. All I have left to look forward to is life."

He struggled to sit up and held his head when he momentarily felt it swimming with pain.

"Devil?"

But Devil never responded. Again, it felt oddly absent.

"What happened? Someone tell me…"

But no one ever did. The longer he sat there, the idler he became. It was when he stood up that he realized that he was near the abandoned gym. He continued to walk forward until he was upon the building once again. Then he went through the open door only to find a shoe box sitting in the middle of the room.

"A shoe box?" Kazuya said to himself.

He stepped over to it and carefully opened the lid. There sitting in it were the shoes that Kazuya had first complimented Becky for wearing. For some reason, he found himself blinking back tears, but one managed to get through. He had no idea how or when it had gotten there, but here it was. All he could do was look at the purple shiny shoes. He only let one finger slide down the length of it before closing the lid.

His hands were still bandaged from before and had already begun to throb more and more. When he flexed his fingers once again, he felt a cold, searing pain slowly traverse down his hand and then repeat. Kazuya wondered what he had been thinking doing in a tree like that with his bare hands—it certainly wasn't one of the smartest things he had done. He lifted up the box shakily with his hands to put it in his lap, but then noticed a small sheet of notebook paper that lay flattened beneath it. Putting the shoebox aside, he picked up the paper instead and began to read it.

Kazuya,

Benjamin told me you might be leaving soon so I thought I might give a parting gift…I heard you don't like gifts and I really didn't want you to get annoyed so I asked Benjamin if there was some place I could put it where you were sure to find it. So here it is. It's kinda' windy here so I had to put this underneath. Even if you never look at your gift at least you can read this note. Kazuya, I guess I can say this 'cus I'm just writing it, but I really really like you and I would be really really sad if you left. Please stay. Please. This is my last resort. Kinda' pathetic, I know, but I knew I couldn't convince you any other way. Whatever mission you have in life, whatever is making you want to leave…if you really must do it, please consider taking me with you. I think it's really gonna' suck without you around and I love adventures. I want to see the world too.

Aiko (aka Becky^^)

"Hm, Becky, you're a pretty good writer, but…I couldn't take you with me. What I have to do, I have to do alone. And now…I guess it's impossible for you."

After reading it over again, he placed it inside the box as well. He looked towards the punching bags which hung from the ceiling in front of him and that was as far as he got before he heard someone come through the front door. Currently, his back was to the door. He turned his head in order to look at the intruder. The man who stood there at the entrance looked rather official and wore a black suit with a white dress shirt underneath.

"Are you Kazuya Mishima?"

Kazuya set the box on the ground and stood to face the man—he moved soundlessly into his fighting stance.

"That form…I guess you are. Your grandfather sent the Tekken Investigative Force (T. I. F.) to find you. You may call me Mr. Hiroshi."

"Why would Grandfather look for me? Everyone thinks I'm dead. How did you know where to find me?"

"Fair enough," Mr. Hiroshi said calmly. "Your grandfather always suspected foul play ever since the day your father announced your death. Just like your mother's death, your grandfather was suspicious that your father had a hand in it. He had no proof, however. This time, there was no body and the excuse your father made up for your death seemed all too convenient. Apparently, you had slipped and fell. The first place we investigated was the cliff. We found traces of blood on a sharpened rock and a trail of it that led to a rather large area of blood splatter. There was enough there to assume that you might have bled to death there. If that were true, the body would still have to be there—and there was no traces of that.

"Your grandfather wanted you to be alive. Since the evidence was not conclusive, he urged us to continue searching. The trail had grown cold by then. For the longest time, we were simply going off hunches and wild guesses. And then there was a break in the case—Jun, the last person to have seen you. Since she claimed to have seen you even after your supposed death, it was made official that you must have been somewhere keeping a low profile. We scoured town after town and found nothing and suddenly there was the orphanage. The only reason it had caught our attention was because of the strange occurrence of a fire which so far has no cause. It was all over the news. We looked further into this place and found that there was a boy who lived there by the name of Kazuya. There were two children who survived the fire and we questioned them. Our search ended up in this forest. Here is the abandoned building that was mentioned, and here you are."

"The two kids…" Kazuya said slowly, "What were their names?"

"Benjamin Kato and Aiko Suzuki."

Kazuya looked away as sudden flashes of memory came to him, but they were wholly incomprehensible.

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Mishima?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Well, it seems as if our work is done. Now if you will, gather all the things you would like to take with you—since it seems like you have stayed here for a while—and follow me to the car."

Kazuya was almost speechless. He hadn't even seen this coming. In fact, he had forgotten about his grandfather, but apparently, his grandfather had never forgotten him. Kazuya picked up the shoebox and left with the clean-cut man to his private T.I.F car. His partner was clearly glad to see the other man come up. Mr. Hiroshi opened the door for Kazuya who slipped in quietly. The entire way to Jinpachi's mansion, he never took his hands off the shoe box.