A/N: So it took me four days shy of five years to finish this up. I think that's a personal best for me, even Monochrome didn't take that long! I want to thank every single person that left me a review for this fic, you guys are awesome, and I'm so grateful for all your feedback and support. I'm so happy that you stuck with me even though more often than not, I took ridiculously long breaks between updates. I especially want to thank Razer, because without her enthusiasm and encouragement, it would probably have taken even longer than five years for me to finish this! I really hope that you guys enjoy the last chapter, and thanks again. As ever, let me know what you thought of it, I'd be super happy to hear your feedback one more time.

NEVER EVER

We keep walking,
Moving towards the next stage,
We keep shining,
On this road that continues on forever.

Chapter Twenty Nine: Never Ever

When I wake up to see a blurry skull hovering over me, its glowing green eyes studying my face, my first instinct is to freak the hell out. I swear, the only reason I don't let out a deafening screech is that my heart has leapt into my throat and I don't think I could make a sound even if I wanted to.

"Forgive me. I didn't mean to frighten you."

The voice is gentle, calm, and once he moves away, I finally let out the breath I was holding. It ends up coming out as a tired groan, and I bury my face in the pillow. Not just because everything hurts, and I'm getting kinda sick of always waking up in some sort of pain lately, but also because I'm getting really sick of glowy eyed monsters. Seriously. How many times? At least this one hasn't attempted to strangle me, though I suppose there's still plenty of time for that yet.

My eyes are still struggling to focus, and I push myself up into a sitting position. Skull guy aside, I've gotta say it's a hell of a lot more comfortable to wake up on a sofa with a soft pillow and a blanket over me instead of finding myself outside in the freezing cold again. A fire's burning brightly in the hearth; the crackling sound sends a fuzzy memory into my head of falling. I remember being caught, saved.

"Here."

I accept the glass of water that's being offered to me and gulp it down, surprised at how thirsty I am. I can't remember when I last had something to drink, come to think of it. What time had it been when me and Hwo had set off out to get dinner? It must've been sometime in the afternoon. God only knows what time it is now, or what day it is, even. I forgot to put my watch back on after my shower at the hotel. It seems like so long ago.

"Are you in a lot of pain?"

I shake my head. It isn't that bad. Not so much that I really notice it, anyway. I'm more aware of the fact that something's missing. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I feel as though there was something pressing down on me for such a long time that I got used to it. Maybe it was Jun's presence, or my own worry and confusion over whether I could get through to Jin, I don't know. But now it's gone.

"We haven't spoken before. You were in the last tournament too. Ling Xiaoyu, correct?"

I finally meet his eyes, and I can place him now.

"Yeah. And you're Yoshimitsu, aren't you?"

"That's right."

"Were you the one who caught me?"

He nods, taking the empty glass, and I draw my knees to my chest, pulling the blanket tighter around me. It's a faded grey, the scent of earth and oil clinging to it. Looking around the room, I wonder if it's supposed to be some kind of caretaker's shack or something. There's garden tools propped up in the corner, a shabby looking table covered in coffee rings, an unlit lamp and a few cracked cups and scraps of paper littering its surface.

"Hon-Maru is not an easy place to find."

I guess he's talking about the shrine. I'm aware of the unasked question hanging in the air, but I've got no idea how to answer it. Kind of hard to explain that it was Jun who led me there.

"You were in the other tournaments, right?"

He nods.

"Do you…"

I trail off. Yoshimitsu says nothing. He doesn't prompt me to carry on. Instead, he just studies me, waits.

"Do you know anything about Jin's family? Heihachi and Kazuya?"

"I know that they are both obsessed by their thirst for power. That nothing else matters. I assume you want me to go into more detail than that, though."

"Yeah."

"What else would you like to know?"

I look at him, the flickering light from the fire reminding me of that last dream.

"Everything."

And he sits down and explains. How Heihachi was presumed dead after the first tournament, killed by his own son. How Kazuya had taken over the Mishima Zaibatsu, the things he'd done with his newfound power. How Heihachi had returned, consumed by the need for revenge. How not even death could stop Kazuya. How it continued even now, a vicious circle that neither of them wanted to break.

Even though it's not easy to listen to it all, there's a part of me that's relieved. 'Cause finally, someone's been willing to just talk to me. To answer my questions. No obscure hints, no hiding things, no hesitating. Just clarity. Everything makes much more sense, now. I'd thought that finding out the truth would make me angry, but more than anything, I'm struck by how needless it all is, and it just makes me kinda sad. I can't help but wonder just what Jin knew, how much he kept to himself.

"I also know that he is not like them." Yoshimitsu tells me. I open my mouth to answer, but he holds his hand out, silencing me. "I think it would be best that you keep this. To reassure you of that fact."

I look at the feather in his palm. It's a brilliant white, impossibly perfect, and the more I look at it, the more I really believe that things'll start getting better. After all, Jin told me that he'd keep fighting for as long as he could. I smile at Yoshimitsu, reaching out to take the feather from him, and he nods, satisfied.

I'd hoped that by the end of the tournament, I'd at least be able to leave with some sort of sense that things'd turned out for the best, and you know what? I think I just might be able to do that. Okay, so they didn't go how I expected, or how I wanted, but well… that doesn't matter any more. What really matters is that I helped Jin in ways that I never thought I could. The feather's proof of that. And that's pretty awesome, right?

Being back home after everything that went on in the fourth tournament is kind of surreal. I'm sitting in the cafe waiting for Miharu and watching people go on with their lives, buying their cappuccinos and sipping on hot chocolate and waiting to be served. There's a group of girls I recognise from school, huddled round a table, giggling over a magazine and tapping away on their phones, just like Miharu and me must've done about a million times over the last couple of years. I can't wait to see her again.

I take a look at my watch, the bottled water I bought sitting untouched in front of me. I called her on the way home from the tournament, fending off all her questions about Jin and whether we'd gone any further than last time and if he'd be coming back. And then there was my attempt to explain the whole thing with Hwo and the soldiers.

"I can't believe him!" she'd exploded. "Talk about inconsiderate! I'm dying to see him again and he's too busy being in jail! And as if that was his lameass excuse for running out on the army? Because he was bored?" Then the worry had crept into her voice. "Is he gonna be okay? What's gonna happen to him?"

I'd told her what Jung had said about how he might just end up with a fine, but honestly, I was just as worried as she was. After I'd finished the phonecall, I'd pulled out his letters again, wishing they'd have got to me the first time around. Because maybe that way I could have replied and he wouldn't have skipped out in the first place, and he'd have been able to come home with me like last time. I remember being on the ferry with him, how clear the sky had been, how I'd tried to make him smile since he was so down that Baek hadn't shown up at the tournament.

He'll come back. He has to.

Oh, you know how I just said I'd told Miharu what Jung said? Well, I conveniently left out the part where Jung said that Hwo had left because he wanted to see me. I kinda wanna keep that to myself for now. One of the last letters though… it pretty much confirmed what he'd said.

So, you're probably wondering what I've been up to lately. Well, I picked up a couple of injuries saving other people's asses. And people wonder why I fucking hate teamwork. Might help if the majority of these guys weren't complete and utter morons, but I guess that's asking too much. Anyway. I've been bored as hell, and I've spent way too much time thinking about stuff. Wishing I was back home. Wanting to go back to a couple of years ago, before Baek took off. Wondering where the hell he went, and what he'd make of these idiots I have to work with. He'd probably just go on about tolerance and respect and all that shit, but I'd rather put up with another one of those lectures than be stuck here. And I didn't think I'd ever say anything like that.

I was thinking about you guys too. Miharu and you. Especially you. I always think about you lately. Because you're really fucking annoying, you know that, Xiao? Like that whole thing with you being all in love with Kazama or whatever. I mean, Jesus, as though he's worth all that moping and whining over. I bet you're still doing it now. Dunno whether it's ever occurred to you kiddo, but if someone makes you that fucking miserable, it's not a good sign. Have I ever made you that miserable? Or anywhere even close? Have you ever even thought about that? I'm guessing not.

You do my head in. And I miss you. Funny what being stuck doing fuck all can make you realise. Or admit. Or whatever. I suck at saying stuff like this, and reading it back, I'm even worse at writing it. None of this is coming out right. And maybe it's 'cause I'm so damned fed up right now that I'm probably rivalling Kazama in the mopey bastard stakes, and so sick of just sitting here and not doing anything, and the fact that if I'm honest, I've sat there not doing anything for ages, even when I could talk to you any time I wanted to, even at five in the morning if I felt like pissing you off. But the more I sit and think about it, the more I find it really fucking hard to believe you haven't noticed how I feel. So I guess this is me telling you, no matter how lame it sounds. So. You know how you feel about Kazama? Well, that's kinda how I feel about you.

There's a short letter dated a couple of days afterwards saying that he'd been drunk when he'd written it, (no kidding, his handwriting was atrocious) and he definitely hadn't meant for it to be sent out, so I should ignore it. First off, I was gonna show it to Miharu, have her help me figure out what to do about it, but I dunno now. I guess I'm much more worried about whether he'll ever be allowed to come home than how I should act around him if he does. But that doesn't mean that reading the letter didn't throw me into a whole new level of confusion. Now I've got the time to sit and think things through, I really don't know whether I want to. I don't know how I feel, and I'm not ready to figure it out just yet. I just know I want to see him again. Maybe we'll talk about it, or maybe we won't. But either way, I want him here. Back home. For good this time.

A pair of gloved hands cover my eyes, and the scent of Miharu's vanilla perfume envelops me.

"Guess who?" she asks, and I've missed her so much that I nearly start crying. I don't, though. Instead, I just leap to my feet and throw my arms around her. Miharu laughs and hugs me back just as tightly, and I can hear her bracelets clinking and what's probably the water bottle bouncing onto the floor.

Later, after she's persisted with the Jin and Hwo-related questions, I've persisted in answering them as vaguely as possible, and she's brought me up to speed on all the gossip I've missed since we last spoke, we end up stopping off at the park on the way back to my house. It's a cold, crisp morning, both of us bundled up in scarves and gloves, our breath clouding the air. Miharu offers me some chocolate as I stare off into the distance, my mind wandering, searching, not really settling on anything in particular.

"So then." she says. "What're you gonna do now? Try and find Jin again?"

"No. I'm gonna focus on the entrance exams." I stuff the chocolate in my mouth, glancing at her.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, who are you and what've you done with my best friend?"

She's staring at me suspiciously, and I swipe her arm.

"I need to make my dreams come true by myself, right? I can't rely on other people forever."

"That doesn't sound like something you'd say."

"Why not?"

"Too mature."

I narrow my eyes at her, mock-annoyed. Miharu just smiles, and I sigh, looking down at my hands.

"Okay. So maybe it was Jin who told me that. But still…"

"Thought so. So you guys did have a big tearful goodbye then, huh?" she teases. "I knew you were holding out on me."

Straight away I remember him in my room, telling me he could never make me happy. In my dream, saying he'd keep fighting. Telling me goodbye.

"Yeah. I guess we did."

There's a long silence between us, only disturbed by the sound of someone's feet crunching on the frosty grass as they walk past with their dog. Eventually, Miharu nudges me, smirking as I turn to look at her.

"So, since you just said you're gonna make your dreams come true by yourself, I guess that means you won't be needing my revision notes?"

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're not gonna share!"

"What did you just say?" She laughs, getting up and starting to walk away. "That you can't rely on other people forever?"

Okay, maybe I did say that, but even so.

"Starting from tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow, huh?"

I hop to my feet and shove my hands into my pockets, feeling the feather sliding across my fingers, and a smile spreads across my face because I've got this feeling that it's all gonna be alright.

"Yeah, definitely tomorrow!" I call out, running to catch up with her. My phone buzzes with a text message, and when I glance at the number, I know for certain. It's not just gonna be alright for Jin, but for Hwoarang too. And me. All of us.

We're starting again,
From here.
I wonder how we should do it.

- NEXT LEVEL, Ayumi Hamasaki