Chapter 25: Recovery

The white pristine ceiling burned his eyes as he gazed upon it for the first time. He heard the now familiar beeping noises of all the machines he happened to be hooked up to. It was brain numbing. He dared not even to move as he saw at least three IV's in total coming out of his body. Not to mention the tubes coming out of his nose and the dull throbbing pain of his chest. He felt like he was falling apart. Going to the gym was the furthest from his mind. A nurse silently came in to check his vitals. She smiled at him in a disturbingly phony fashion when she noticed his eyes on her and went on her way. He couldn't speak for the oxygen mask on his face. He couldn't move the mask out the way for the soreness of his arms. He got the fact that he was in the hospital, but how in the world had he gotten there?

He could hear voices just outside his door since it was left wide open. One of the perks of being a nearly comatose patient in a hospital was that people thought you were hard of hearing and couldn't possibly eavesdrop on a conversation nearby.

"Is he awake yet?" a man's voice asked.

"His eyes are open, but pushing him to talk might be too much for him at this time. He still needs to recover more," a woman probably a doctor answered back.

"When do you think he'll be ready for questioning?"

"You cops have no soul. This man barely even survived his ordeal and you're already trying to disrupt what peace he can find. He is a victim, you just remember that."

"Miss, we understand that he's in the middle of recovery, but time is of the essence. Heihachi Mishima has been on our radar for years now and this may be the last straw. This kid could be our ace in the hole."

"And if he doesn't know anything?"

"He should. He'll tell us who did this to him and we'll finally have Heihachi."

"Listen, boys, just wait a few more days. I won't feel right about you two hammering him with questions until then. Now please, I don't want to see you until Friday."

Suddenly a machine near him began beeping at a much faster speed than before and the doctor who had been talking to the cops rushed in to see what was the matter.

"Well now, what's got you so excited?"

Kazuya felt her cool hands on the sides of his face and calming eyes looking straight into his anxious ones.

"There's no need to get worked up. Was it a bad dream?"

"Miss, I think he's trying to say something."

The doctor glared at the two cops, "And what if he is, now isn't the time." Then she turned back to Kazuya, "Shhh, now, shhh. You're safe now. No one's going to hurt you in here."

Kazuya only became even more irritated. The cops were right; he did want to say something. No amount of coaxing from the doctor could change this fact. She eventually pulled the oxygen mask away from his face when she realized that there was no other way to sooth him.

"Hei…hachi…" Kazuya managed.

One of the cops moved in a little closer, "Was he your attacker, son?"

"Y..es…Hei…hachi."

"Thank you, son, you've done a brave thing. Now you just focus on getting better."

But Kazuya found that he could no longer breathe on his own as he tried to use his weakened lungs. He was glad when the doctor seeing the signs quickly placed the mask back on his face.

"Are you happy now?" the doctor said in a voice that sounded none too pleased, "Do you want to be responsible for his death?"

"Um…no, miss…"

"Then get out of here already. You've caused enough trouble."

Kazuya began to feel drowsy before long as his eyelids began to flutter.

"It's alright to fall asleep. No one's going to hurt you here. You were admitted here over a week ago and you've been here ever since. You've had quite a few close calls, but now you're stabilizing…"

Her voice began to sound echoic as she continued to explain his condition and how much time she thought it might take for him to recover. She stopped when she saw that he was fast asleep. She went over to the blinds and closed them and then walked out of the room after flicking off the lights.

"Sweet dreams, Kazuya Mishima."

/

Kazuya couldn't believe the flowers that had collected in his room. Jun was still in college, right? She was the only person that came to his mind when he thought of those who were responsible for it. He asked the nurse about it when she came in and only told him that he must have a lot of secret admirers. Kazuya doubted this completely. When he was strong enough, he checked out the name tags and found them to be only vaguely familiar. Then it hit him when he returned to the hospital cot—it had been the name of Jinpachi's closest employees. Had they really come over without him even realizing it?

"Out of bed again?" a nurse questioned him as she walked in to see him sitting on the side of his bed.

"Well, I don't plan on staying here forever."

"That's the spirit, sir. Here are some pills for the pain."

The pills turned out to be two large horse pills in the small paper cup. Kazuya silently wondered if he was getting addicted to those things. Pain wasn't an altogether bad thing to feel, but it could be annoying and surprisingly excruciating when left unchecked. What had Heihachi done to his chest? He was afraid even to press too firmly on it else it cracked under the pressure. And what of the headaches? There was no telling when those would come back with a vengeance for no apparent reason.

"Some help you are," Kazuya said under his breath to Devil, "It's like you can only heal sparingly."

Once again, no word from the peanut gallery. Kazuya didn't even want to think what that meant for him.

/

In slow motion, Kazuya saw the bottom of Heihachi's mammoth foot coming down to wreak havoc upon him, but this time it wasn't his chest he had to concern himself with. In just a few moments, his face would be smashed into the ground beyond recognized. But then an even more horrifying thought came to his mind—something far worse than the physical trauma he would have to go through if it had really occurred like that…Would Jun even want to go out with a dented-faced Kazuya? Or worse, what if he no longer had one? Damn you, old man! Was nothing safe? Would he take away Jun's love as well? But then why was he so confident that he even had her love in the first place? There was no time to even think about that now as he felt his nose disintegrating under the pressure. He hadn't been able to move before and now he seemed cemented to the floor. Of course, that was when the dream ended—really it was a close call. At least his face was still intact…A demolished nose, he could deal with.

The doctor who was overseeing him was a little caught off guard when she felt him flinch beneath her touch. It was obvious that he had been having a bad dream.

"Are you alright, Kazuya? You've been muttering things about your father for quite some time. Is he such a terrible man?"

He could feel the other's hand running through his hair in a very motherly way. "If you only knew him…"

"I've seen those kinds of eyes before. Revenge doesn't always have to be the answer."

"On the contrary, revenge is the only solution."

The doctor sighed, "In any case, it seems you may miss your chance. Your father, Heihachi Mishima, may be sent to jail before you know it."

"Hmph, no he won't. That scheming bastard wouldn't go through all the trouble of killing my grandfather and deciding to keep me alive, if he thought he was going to jail."

"Such a pessimist. I don't see why he shouldn't get in trouble…"

"I'm glad to see that there's more than one naïve person in the world. But then being on the outside looking in, you can afford to be, right?"

The doctor's eyebrows furrowed at this, "You think you know everything about the world yet you've hardly even had a chance to see it—you're just a kid. If I seem naïve, then maybe you're too much of a naysayer. Someone in your shoes…You have enough to worry about already. For example, what exactly do you plan to do after you leave the hospital? You can't go back home."

Kazuya hadn't even thought about that. He hadn't even begun to plan out his next course of action. Here he was fuming about his father and he didn't even know where he'd be lodging in the meantime. He could very easily become some homeless bum certainly unfit to take on his tyrannical father. What job could he obtain? His résumé was pathetic at this point. He hadn't realized that he had been depending on Jinpachi to such a degree. He hadn't been independent at all; in fact his entire life was riding on Jinpachi's charity. How had he let it get so far? He understood now, Jinpachi's "man" speeches. At least he could drive and the car he had driven before had been in his name.

"There, now you have something better to think about," the doctor said when he didn't have anything to say back for a while, "Hate is a grievous thing to dwell on for any period time. It can only beget destruction both to you and the people associated. Leave your father to the justice system."

The doctor hoped that his silence was a good thing. Since he wouldn't respond to her any longer, she decided to depart and leave him to his own thoughts whatever they might be.

Kazuya looked over at all the bouquets that had been left on the windowsill. Those guys at work might have felt sorry for him, but there was nothing they could do about Heihachi's hostile takeover. Kazuya would not want to work in the same place as his father. There was no way he would go back to that place and ask for some type of job. Wasn't there something else he could do? What skills did he have? To find an honest job was going to be impossible at this rate. Really, he had never worked a day in his life and the thought of it didn't sound altogether appealing. What exactly was there left for him?

No matter what, I'll be the one to kill you, old man. Even if it seems impossible now.

Kazuya looked towards the door when he heard the knob being turned. He half expected it to be the doctor again, but the clinking of armor told him immediately that it was someone else altogether. He waited for the person to come further in so that he could see, but it never occurred.

"I know someone's here. Show your face already."

Kazuya was about to take off his oxygen mask so that he could simply walk over until the intruder stopped him. "Don't bother getting out of bed. You need your rest, don't you?"

"That voice…Yoshimitsu."

"Glad you managed to remember me. Perhaps you also remember the promise you made to me."

"I remember it."

"Were you just saying things to get rid of me that day? If that is the case, then it wasn't a very smart thing to do."

"I wasn't lying. Not really. Shortly after you made your exit, I accepted my grandfather's intention of passing his title on to me."

"Then, are you saying that all that has transpired was out of your hands?"

"How was I supposed to know when that old man would move in for the kill? Even now, I have no idea how he pulled it off. He could have gotten rid of me as well, but I was spared for some reason."

"I see. I heard what Heihachi has done to you—you are extremely lucky to be alive. There are few people who can survive so many broken ribs."

"I won't be able to fulfill that promise."
"Don't be so hasty. There may yet still be a chance. All that you need to do for now is live."

"Easier said than done."
"I know that you are in a precarious situation, but it seems that Jinpachi has good foresight. He must have known that his life was in danger. He set aside a large sum of money that only you could gain access to just in case you were left to fend for yourself. He died before he could tell you as much."

If I hadn't been so weak… "That's good news."

"I'll leave the name of the bank and the account number on your table later. Even though, you have this money to fall back on, I suggest you find some other means of financial stability. Now, I must go."

"Wait a minute, how exactly am I going to confront my grandfather's murderer? Do I just stroll in through the front door?"
"Whatever you do, don't do that. I told you, concentrate on living for now. Sometimes patience is the best next course of action. A perfect opportunity is bound to arise."

Kazuya heard another clink of armor and then the door closing softly. Yoshimitsu had made his exit. Help could come from the most unexpected of places.

Jinpachi was gone. Jun had her own problems to deal with now. He was left to fend for himself. Just thinking about it sounded tiring, but he was not about to back down from the challenge. Recovery would come first. Then gathering up the shattered pieces of his life and starting anew—it wasn't an altogether new process for him yet this time felt different.

He stayed in the hospital for about two months before the doctor thought it was safe to release him. Kazuya left all the flowers in his room, took the sheet of paper that would lead him to the money, and headed off at once towards that location. He didn't have access to his car at the moment so he had a lot of walking ahead of him. The visit to the bank was painless. He thought he would have a debit card made for him, but he had no address for which they could send it. Instead, he created a checking account and transferred some of the money that was in the trust fund to that—enough so that he could use it to rent some small place to live. He was able to obtain a credit card on the same day. From there, he went to an ATM and took a small amount out of his checking account. Then he used his cellphone which was miraculously still working and called for a cab to take him to Jinpachi's place.

The place was deathly silent and strangely uninviting. The door was unlocked so he had an easy time finding his car keys and driving off with the car that he had been given. The faster he could get out of there, the better. It had all seemed foreign. This was the place that he had lived in for many years and now he could hardly recognize it. It was as if along with Jinpachi's death, the house had also been robbed of its warmth. Kazuya never wanted to step foot in there ever again.

He drove and drove and drove until his stamina almost gave out on him completely. The pain in his chest had grown to a point that he was forced to take the pills prescribed to him so that he could breathe properly. Kazuya had no idea where he was—someplace far off from where he had lived before, someplace where Heihachi wasn't so nearby. The very next hotel he spotted he decided to rent a room in. The price was cheap and so was the room, but those things didn't matter to Kazuya. He only had a set amount of money to use and he had to use it wisely until he could find some way to have a steady flow of money. It was still too much to think about as he laid sprawled on unpleasant sheets. He just wanted someplace to sleep, someplace which he could call home.

/

AN: Sorry, Underclass Kid, this is shorter than the last chapter, but I couldn't put anything else in it. Asdfqwerty (clever name, by the way), there will sure to be more Kazuya/Jun in the future. Kazuya is hot (I agree :D), yes!—someone noticed the foreshadow! AniDenDav, the legend thing—maybe not, especially after receiving my official second "flame" review and it happened to be in this category. Seems like I'll need a beta-reader or something. Anyways, I have recaptured the plot bunny.