Chapter 10

Asuka had slept, overwrought with guilt and agony. During that time in all her dreams, her beloved uncle appeared, and her precious moments with him started rushing in front of her eyes. She came to remember the drastic turn of moments in her life after the fifth Tekken tournament. Her heart started burning with anger towards the man who had murdered her and Jin's uncle, Heihachi Mishima. By now, she too had come to think in the same line of thoughts as her brother; that this bloodline of theirs was nothing but a wretched curse and they had to end it, by any means necessary.

She woke up at 6 pm, and made her way to the office to have a word with Jin. He was looking at the view of the city from the huge glass wall, smiling as if he didn't care. Asuka was enraged at him and slammed her fist to the wall. Jin looked back at her with the same smile, adding fuel to the fire.

"You moron! Our uncle's dead and here you are, smiling as if you don't give a damn about it. What are you, a heartless machine?" As usual, Jin had expected it and gave her a pitying look.

"You are still in the dark, aren't you Asuka? I have received some extremely good news. Our force was able to retrieve Oji-chan alive. Sure, he is in a critical condition; suffering ballistic trauma at multiple points on his rib cage, but doctors have said that it can be rectified easily. Mom and Dad have went to pay a visit."

"Then what are we doing here, aniki? Shouldn't we be there too?"

"No, we have more pressing issues to be dealing with. One, we better start making a plan to kill that old fool, before he has another go at another member of our family. We need to lure that bastard out in the open. Two, we must rectify some defects in our fighting style." Asuka raised her eyebrows when he said 'defects'. Jin understood she didn't get what he said.

"It's simple. The Kazama-ryu is too much dependent on defensive maneuvers. You can see this for yourself, as you use mainly throws and reversals to deal damage. Kyokushinkai Karate, on the other hand lacks such reversals and counters and it is too biased towards offensive style of fighting."

"So aniki, you mean to say our fighting styles are complementary and we need to mix them up like you had mixed up Mishima-ryu and Kazama-ryu back when you were 19?"

"So, you finally understood. See, they can cancel each other's defects and become a formidable martial art. Now on to the first problem, we need to announce the seventh tournament quickly, with the Zaibatsu's ownership as the prize."

"The ownership? Isn't it a tad too risky? You are aware of the consequences when such a evil man gains control of this powerful organization. Aniki, he was tough to beat even with the two of us and our wretched powers. How will we face him head on alone?"

"We won't be facing him one by one. We'll change the rules of the tournament to include a tag system where two fighters will battle it out with another two fighters. Obviously we both are the owners, we must become tag partners. As far as the prize is concerned, it is a huge gamble, as anything less won't satisfy him. Moreover, any sane person won't join hands with Heihachi, and we'll make an exception in his case as he is quite powerful on his own. What do you think of this plan?"

"No problem, but I just can't imagine the combination of Kazama-ryu along with Kyokushinkai Karate, Aniki." Jin sighed and looked sadly back at her

"I wish if I had killed him back there itself, Asuka." Asuka was surprised when she heard this.

When we weren't able to defeat him back at Ogre's temple, how in the world could he come close to killing him?

"You had the chance to kill him and you didn't? Why?"

"Yeah, back at Hon-maru dojo during the fourth tournament. I was captured by Heihachi to retrieve the mixed gene from me and was held captive there. I don't know how many days I was held there, as I had passed out probably due to drugs during that time. I was struggling to keep my gene from overcoming me and only heard father's voice saying 'Hate me' and 'Curse me' .

When I did become awake though, I found myself held up in chains. I broke them down and found father standing there and then I mustered my strength to make him pay. I knocked him out unconscious and then Heihachi challenged me to a fight. I was too much for him to handle and defeated him. When he was in my clutches though, the akuma finally gained control over me and I transformed into that monster, ready to give the final blow. But then I had a vision of mother, and I calmed down. I told him to thank mother for my sparing him alive, and flew off into the night. That was exactly when I burned down a whole forest in Yakushima. You still don't know many things about our wretched past, sis."

"Like?" Asuka looked at him curiously, for more facts. Jin looked at her and replied: "Like why our father has such hatred towards Heihachi."

"Why is that?"

"Heihachi took away the corporation from our great grandfather and its founder, Jinpachi and inprisoned him somewhere. As I have heard from Wang-san, a close friend of Jinpachi, he was a kind and generous man, well respected and famous all over the world. Dad had a close feeling of attachment towards him. When he was 5, he was thrown off a cliff by Heihachi. Dad barely survived and had to make a deal with Devil to take his revenge.

He did the same thing to Heihachi in the first tournament's finals and took control of the Zaibatsu. But in the second tournament's final match though, Dad lost to Heihachi. This time Heihachi decided to take a step further and threw Dad's body in a volcano."

"What! How come he is alive then?"

"He was resurrected by G Corporation with the help of the Devil Gene. As a result one iris of his turned red, indicating both his ego's had come to an mutual agreement. No one knew about this until he made a comeback in the fourth tournament." Jin gulped down a glass of water and stood up.

"I am going to sleep. Wake up early from tomorrow, for we shall begin serious training. Also, finalize the list of invitees for the seventh tournament and send out the invitations; but keep the introduction of the tag system as a secret. Understood?" Asuka nodded and sat on her chair while Jin went to his room.