Cultural Exchange

by tartar12345

Story is set shortly after the Tekken 6: Scenario Campaign ending. Who are Julia Chang's real parents? How is she and Michelle Chang connected to Ogre? Warnings: Some re-edits & retro-add-ons. Julia-centric. Raw & highly self-indulgent & potential angst backfire. Currently NOT planning to follow T7 plotline/characters. Relatively OC-heavy, moments of OOCness, & AUishness.

3. PI-Prologue 3

Pre-Warnings/Clarifications:

(1) Julia Chang will sometimes be addressed by several other characters using an alias I (partially) made up for her, and of whose AU-ish background will be explained here. This alias will be active for some chapters, with various characters addressing her by different names, but will start falling out of use after the next 2-3 chapters.

(2) Unsavory and outrageous portrayals of Michelle Chang & Mr. Rochefort. The Tekken canon (up until TTT2) hasn't been keen on their character developments/backstories, which I'll be exploiting.

(3) Julia's character will broken into bits and re-assembled to my liking in this chapter: via elaborately melodramatic child-to-adulthood traumas. Her apparent recovery may have far-fetched elements.

(4) Lei Wulong will be playing a very AUish crucial role in Julia's past & present. Lars and Alisa are quite central to Julia's present. All three characters' portrayals may appear very OOC at times, depending on POV.

(5) Michelle and her family will be distinguished from Lei and his family, using the terms "Adoptive" and "Foster", respectively (from Julia's standpoint as having been an adoptee of both the Changs and the Leis).

(6) Much of the legal/law enforcement related technicalities and realities - which I have next to no factual knowledge about - are mostly fabricated.

(7) An OC of relative (but not central) importance will be introduced in the last part of the chapter. I'm planning to have her play a key role in Lars's developing character - and later on, a major influential factor concerning his relationship with Julia Chang.

(8) As a chapterly reminder, I'm planning for this fanfic to disregard post-T6SC official developments, including T7 & its characters (at least so far, as trying to integrate them will significantly de-motivate & discourage my storywriting incentives at this point). Thus, I'm currently going to actively ignore T7-related facts, which will likely render the Tekken in-universe facts of this story canonically obsolete, contradictory, and/or highly inaccurate.

Disclaimer:

I do not own Tekken, its original characters, or the mainstream fictional works that inspired and from which I derived my storyline/characterizations/plot devices/OCs/character names.

I do own the OCs presented here, along with the chosen naming & self-invented backgrounds of both playable & previously nameless canon characters with little or different background info (up to Tekken 6: Scenario Campaign).

Part 1 - Prologue III

*****
One morning, three months later at Violet Systems...

Julia heaved a weary sigh as she scanned her employee card to her laboratory-office. She awoke this morning from another episode of that recurring nightmare of encountering the ethereal clone and following evisceration ordeal. They've been increasing in frequency in the last few weeks.

Other than Her hair, skin tone, and facial features, the glowing Figure's physical appearance had also started taking on other variations when Julia got face-to-face with Her.

One night the Figure's pale-silver skirt transformed into a form-fitting, full-body-covering, inner wrap-robe of the same color and design, with loose flowing sleeves, and robe-skirt still flaring at Her mid-thighs...now worn over the white-and-gold breast-scarf, and with the tassel-ribboned macrame belt still wound around her waist. In this slightly modified version of goddess-maiden attire, a bright, pale-platinum colored halo - manifested right behind Her neck - as a ring-shaped image of light, with radius that stretched almost a foot below Her shoulders and above the top of Her head.
The halo ring had an intricate Mandala-like design, and seemed to be comprised of threaded lasers and soft candlelight.

In another recurring dream, instead of the sparkling see-though aqua robe, elegant scarf-strap, macrame belts, jewelry and skirt/inner wrap-robe, Julia would sometimes find the Figure clad in battle suits...where the only piece of fabric remaining on her was that floating gauze sash-shawl, wound-draped around Its upper arms like before.

In the skimpier battle suit variation, Her armor was entirely forged from some semi-transparent, glacial quartz-like material.
Large crystalline claws protectively clutched Her perky and bountiful breasts, while relatively smaller pieces - resembling rows of long, flattened canine teeth - densely clenched themselves on both sides of shoulders, hips, and torso.
The nether region's slit - presumably along with Her posterior's and the forbidden flesh in between - was only minimally concealed by a tiny crystalline layer shaped-like a condensed Aries symbol.
An armor collar was plastered around the area just below Her throat, and just above Her chest.
Battle gauntlets were attached to Her arms - reaching a few inches of Her biceps - in a fibrous manner...as did the armor boots, greaves, and cuisses that climbed to the bottom half of Its upper thighs. The limbs' armor parts were contoured in separate armor pieces that optimized flexibility and joint mobility.
A tiara-like headpiece was worn just above Her forehead. The headpiece was fashioned so as to sit loosely over Her bangs, covering Her temples and parts of Her cheekbones, then curving inwards and thinning out to fully expose Her cheeks and ears, ending at the innermost sides of Her jawline. The thick, ice-like hairband was finely carved into a detailed emblem - a flat frontal shape of an oriental dragon's face, which rested right in the middle of the tiara. Five crown-like spikes sprouted upwards from the top of the emblem, in a fan-like arrangement. The vertically erect center spike was of a narrowed, stretched diamond shape, and bore a relief image of twin dragon bodies intertwining with each other in a spiraling dance. The surrounding four spikes were shorter and considerably thinner pointy plain icicles - perfectly smooth and straight in shape.
She half-leaned on a ice-like, double-edged lance that She held in Her small dainty hand. The lance was nearly as long as Her height.

The other battle suit variation was an upgraded and more well-covered version of the former - with the addition of some ice-armor parts, a battle helmet, that ring-halo design again, and a presence of a strange hyaline material layered around certain areas.
An armor girdle had been attached onto Her waist, abdomen, and diaphragm, like thick twisty vines of ice. At the center of the girdle was a modest-sized, detailed relief image of some Eastern serpentine-insectoid goddess figure: Richly adorned with jewelry and soft fabric; Hair was neatly tucked under an elaborate imperial crown that covered top of head; Possessed eight arms, four on each side of the torso, and six hands wielded a different ancient Oriental weapon; Had at least three faces...only the profiles of additional two faces were visible on either side of the head, and Julia would wager there was another face where the back of the face would be; the Lower body of the emblem Goddess was snake-like...legless, thick, and scaly.
The Figure's girdle tapered off into twin, figure-conforming armor plates on each side of Her hip and reaching high up Her upper thigh - almost like a solid mini-petal-skirt that was split in the middle.
An arm protector was clasped firmly over one of Her gauntleted forearms.
The oriental dragon emblem on the tiara was converted into a full battle helmet, covering the entire back of Her head. The battle helmet was fashioned in the likeness of the oriental Dragon head's upper jaw, with branch-like icicle antlers pointed backwards. The fan of crown-like spikes were relocated, jutting between the Dragon's helmet's bottom half was fashioned in long, curving blades resembling the lower jaw as its anterior edges, acting as full ear protectors and large protruding cheek guards. Her bangs and hair were still entirely visible, falling freely from beneath the helmet.
The mandala-like halo had become crystallized into a frozen-solid frame, somehow attached to the lower nape of Her armor collar; the halo frame's large, hollow ring center allowed Figure's hair to flow freely through.
Her arm protector, the eyes on the dragon helmet, the relief images on both central crown spike and the armor girdle, the halo design, and Her double-lance staff shone with some shiny substance - that looked like a combination of semi-transparent glass and semi-reflective mirrors made into crystal prism form, with internal facet structure akin to infinite mirrors.

Most times, the Figure's long hair manifested as a a fluffy feathered hairstyle of spiral-like inward-swirling locks (somewhat deviating from the nature of normal human hair types, as with the Mishimas'), with down-like individual hair strands that gradiently leveled with colorful hues - from light mauves and brilliant Fuschias torich royal purples and deep violet-tinted ultramarines.
Although occasionally, the locks would remain in that form-clinging, gleaming liquid-like cascade of uniformly navy-blue - which they always appeared as from the distance.
However there was that one uncomfortably arid night, where Julia had to turn on the humidifier before bed - Her hair took on gentle, neat, and gracefully billowing long waves. That time, Her hair took on a gossamer-fine and almost translucent feel - much like a perfectly, tidily spun veil of spider thread. That time Her locks possessed a gorgeous horizontal gradient ofcyans, turquoises, jades, aquamarines, spring greens, and sea-greens.
Uncannily enough, Her unusual hairstyle managed not to look like some obscenely experimental or bizarrely-flamboyant hair-do. Rather, they somehow seemed exquisitely elegant and perfectly in-place, gracefully complementing and flawlessly blending into the Figure's unique supernatural beauty.

Julia's own naturally soft, fine, yet thick and lustrous hair - plain and straight, which flowed gently to her waist - was an intense, pure maroon.

While She was wearing Julia's facial resemblance, the Figure possessed that radiant tawny complexion of goldish orange-tinted deep amber-honey skin tone they both shared.
But when the Figure adorned that stunning girl-goddess-like face, the Figure's skin remained ivory-seashell-tinted porcelain with warm slightly pinkish vanilla-champagne undertones.
Except there was a handful times the heaven-like room was lit not by moonlight, but fading rays of sunset - Her skin tone took on a creamy translucence of a pale milky peach, tinged with a deep rosiness underneath, and emanating a pinkish-gold glow.

The Figure's alternate ethereal girl-goddess face looked almost an opposite of Julia's own - but definitely spades more beautiful than Julia's, and in her eyes also more beautiful than the female faces she's seen in her life...she's seen plenty of drop-dead gorgeous females, from Mishima-related places or her womanizing employer-friend's corporation.
This girl-goddess face bore down-turned, prominent-lidded, very round doe-eyes that opened large and wide like a toddler's, and were abundantly wreathed with very thick, long curly lashes.
Those eyes brimmed with a beguiling blend of sweet tenderness, vivacious innocence, a heartbreakingly expressive soulfulness, and dainty feminine elegance.

In contrast, Julia's own abundantly long-lashed eyes were big classic almonds, full of keenness, feistiness, and vigor.

Other than the mundane warm liquid dark-brown, Her large, round gem-like orbs would take on unusual eye colors - Glittering amethysts of pure dark crimson, deep dark purple, or intense dark violet. And on rare occasion, glistening pitch-black obsidians.
Whichever color Her eyes chose to possess, from time to time there'd manifest a pale-platinum glowing pattern illuminating from within Her irises - in the shape of some fancy ring-shaped insignia - that surrounded each of Her big round pupils.
Upon closer inspection, those glowing iris-rings comprised luminescent threads of twin helixes, tightly coiling and intertwining with each other around a circle exactly 10 times. On each helix incurve outwardly sprouted a round, twisting whorl. And inside the helix rings were decahedron prism-like outlines, which snugly encased the pupils in a perfect fit within their center pentagonal facets. Each decahedronal edge coincided with each helix-ring incurve. From the pupil emitted luminescent bubble-like dots of increasing size that swirled out to each incurve - like 10 cephalopod arms - in perfectly proportional waves.
It took a little while for the young scientist to realize that those glowing eye-rings were actually a simplified version of the Beings' innermost mandala-like halo on Her upper back (with the "pupil" piece acting as the central hollow that let through Her flowing hair).

Julia's own large, round, gem-like hazel orbs - shimmering vibrantly, translucent, and iridescently crystalline - were a gorgeous blend of light-to-rich golden-browns, reddish-browns, and a vivid array of lush forest-greens...sprinkled by bright red, orange and gold flecks. Coincidentally, she also possessed weaved band - of pale, pure, and deep aqua blues - around her own big round pupils.
Almost all of Julia's family, friends, friendly acquaintances, or even passing strangers would immediately notice - and comment quite admirably on the unique colorfulness of her hazels. Of course, one of those exceptions just had to include the very person she'd eyes for...Lars Alexandersson.

The girl goddess face usually sported a flat and slightly upturned little button nose, with a dollish and petite round tip.

Julia's own medium-sized, medium-high nose had a relatively narrow and smoothened tip.

The girl goddess's tantalizingly kissable small lips were a lusciously thick, puffy, and ripened-strawberry-colored cute heart-shape of sparkling sheen, exuding both doll-like loveliness and enticing sensuality.

Julia's flesh pink-colored lips had graceful sharpness and a modest fullness.

The girl-goddess's facial shape had appeared as a perfectly smooth heart with delicate, adolescent structures.

Julia's notably more defined and womanly oval-diamond shaped visage often gave the superficial impression that she was physically older and more mature than her actual age.

The only similar constant among the Figure - and Julia herself - was their body figures...bodily shapes, lengths, and height, to the nanometer.
Their physiques were neither tall nor short, and neither stocky nor petite. They possessed an almost unworldly exquisite balance and thorough set of conventionally ideal feminine enticements - Sinfully curvaceous voluptuousness; Elegant litheness; Daintily sculpted, gentle athletic tones; Gracefully long, slender limbs, torso, neck, hands, and feet; Overall thin-boned structure, most prominent at Their wrists, calves, fingers, toes, throat. All Their body parts - down to the most subtle details - were of soft, fine, and shapely feminine perfection...that managed to flaunt all attributes to their full tempting and intricate beauty, whilst maintaining an impeccably proportioned, and congruous flow of overall appearance.
Relatively smaller shoulders, torso, and arms made their upper bodies appear narrower, slenderer, and more delicate - save ample yet perky breasts - due to wide flaring hips, along with delectably shapely rounded legs and buttocks. Although their bodies did not qualify as the conventionally coveted hourglass, they possessed their own femininely irresistible allure.
Julia had always been too fashion-diffident and indifferent to realize how her bodily assets possessed (in a modern and conventional viewpoint) near-mythical perfection and beauty, until she saw them mirrored by the Figure Herself. Even that one time she uncharacteristically wore those "Native American-themed Strip Teaser" fighting garments to the tournament that one single instance - which of course earned her a huge outburst of leers and lecherous applauding from the male spectators, and even more lewd admirers (thankfully short-lived for the most part, as she immediately reverted to wearing so-called "unflatteringly prudish" and "homely tomboy" outfits afterwards) - the young scientist's very introverted and dorky personality kept her common-senselessly clueless and disinterested regarding "that sex-goddess figure" her male admirers and catcallers had claimed to her about herself.
No matter how hard and long the young scientist trained her body - up to an extremely stingy limit - it simply and illogically refused to compromise any of its feminine shapeliness, curves and smooth slenderness, for the sake of building muscularity (but thankfully and perplexingly, in only the visual sense - the physical power from the training was for some inexplicable reason allowed to be effective).

"Dear Twelfth Incarnation...", the Figure had always addressed Julia for more than ten recurring dreams - almost as if She was actually eleven separate entities, taking turns introducing Themselves to her, via the same dream.

They always smiled that same unnerving smile at Julia upon eye contact...save one single dream Figure, who looked almost nothing like that either that goddess-girl or Julia herself.

This particular Figure had large, child-like roundish-almond eyes of the darkest brown, even darker a shade than the girl-goddess's more mundane eye color.
Her pitch-black hair was in angora-sleek and soft curls, which coiled into graceful ringlets at Her neck, then tapered into loose corkscrews that hung down to Her waist. Her beautiful plush skin was a rich copper tone. It possessed a small, straight nose.
Her full lips were of a more mellow shape and a light-pink color. And Her face was a soft oblong shape.

This Odd Figure Out had said nothing to Julia since their first dreamscape encounter, and was always gravely silent. This one never smiled at her at all. In fact, She seemed to want to avert eye contact. Her expression held genuine sadness, regret, and pity instead of the cold, hopeful satisfaction of Her Other counterparts. It made waking up from those recurring dreams a bit easier for Julia.

The nightmare sequence of by getting brutally dismembered and disemboweled remained the same, save two exception: Once, the sound of the baby crying was absent; And in the other, Julia saw a tattered, wounded version of herself- tear-ravaged face contorted with sorrowful rage and seemingly grief-stricken to insanity - looming over, arms upraised with a huge rock in her hands...and then slamming the rock right into Julia's face.

After almost two months of enduring that recurring dreamscape terror - Julia now nicknamed the "Doppelganger Dream" - the young scientist finally decided to give psychiatric therapy a try.
Although overall therapy sessions were of limited help, her psychiatrist did help Julia realize something very curious: Those Doppelganger Dreams started around Jin Kazama's supposed death.

Was that it? Julia wondered grimly. Do I still have some lingering feelings for Jin Kazama, somehow negatively affecting me upon news of his death?

But her prior attachment towards Jin was very different from that towards Lars, which was undeniably romantic in nature...was it not? The young scientist merely sympathized, empathized, and strongly admired the Kazama-Mishima boy before he became a slaughtering madman, and that was it. Wasn't it?

Those disturbing dreams were definitely not caused by psychological trauma induced by her G. Corp. prisoner ordeal, as the psychiatrist firmly believe was a fact that Julia had to stop denying in order to overcome.

There were things that truly scared the young scientist, and painful deaths certainly weren't among them.

The young scientist had tense dreams reflecting her anxieties when Michelle was kidnapped, but they were never so strange or lucid, and went away very shortly after her adoptive mother was back home with her, safe and sound.

And those horrible nightmares that plagued her from late childhood to mid-late adolescence...one traumatic half those dreams rarely resurfaced shortly after she rescued and reconciled with Michelle years ago.

The other half drastically dwindled to insignificance when she managed to develop a counteracting solution in real life.

It didn't help that Julia started experiencing even stranger personal phenomena in reality not long after. Peculiarities concerning her physiological aspects that were subtle enough to overlook, but now made themselves too glaring to ignore.

*****
That very afternoon, at Violet Systems...

Lars Alexandersson made an unannounced surprise visit around 3pm that day, strangely bringing Alisa with him .

The Boskonovitch gynoid usually stayed behind in Lars's portion of Mishima Zaibatsu base to help keep an eye on things, while the half-Swede Mishima CEO would periodically come by Violet Systems in person to obtain intelligence pertaining to G. Corp. from Lee. And discuss privately with Lee about strategies against their common family-member enemies.

Turns out that Lars was forced to use his dearest gynoid companion to help him to re-download information on recent intelligence and weapons inventory.
Last night, a series of JACKs surprise-attacked the intelligence headquarters of Lars's Zaibatsu faction, causing partial destruction of their hard-drives. Fortunately, Julia constantly kept all copies of the Mishima Zaibatsu digital information at Lee's Corporation as backup service.

But for the time being, Lars's faction only had Alisa as their option for maximum secure transfer and storage of such vast information.

Julia led the two to Violet Systems' research center and got Alisa connected to the central computer database. Lee had to excuse himself from his guests for a board meeting, leaving his computer specialist to handle their customers. As Julia and Lars were waiting for Alisa's downloading to finish, they chatted amongst themselves.

The half-Swede was wearing his usual Yggdrasil-Zaibatsu Head-tailored regalia: A calf-length, gray trench-coat with a split at the back end, with a miniature lion's face insignia pinned on the lapel - the same lion's face that graced the middle of his rebel-officer battle armor. His coat's design resembled those which both Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama wore as heads of their respective empires; A form-fitting, semi turtleneck-black sweater; Plain black straight trousers; Plain black leather loafers.
So plain, so simple, and so modest, yet so dashing at the same time, Julia often thought admirably to herself.

"You've become one of our most indispensable staff against G. Corp. and Heihachi, Jaycee." Lars told her, his voice filled with gratitude. "We probably wouldn't have lasted a month without both you and Lee risking yourselves to assist our faction."

Julia forced herself to smile politely in reply. She still hated how Lars insisted on addressing her with her false identity name - "Jaycee" or "Ms. Childress" - all the time...even though she preferred that everyone else did.

The young scientist once worked up her courage to seek Lars out in private and shyly request to the half-Swede Mishima (and only to him, alone) that he should call her by her real name when they were out of public earshot - they weren't strangers, after all.

Lars only chuckled good-naturedly, saying that can't trust himself with handling duo identities. He was likely to get "Julia" and "Jaycee" mixed up at the wrong time, and wouldn't want to risk Julia's long-held false identity.

The young scientist inwardly sighed. Lars was completely right. Her feelings for him were seriously regressing her once steady, mature sense of judgment.
Not long before, Julia's decoding and hacking skills seemed to have enhanced ten-fold...even she couldn't answer her amazed employer and client how; she was just as baffled herself. Many highly intricate and advanced subjects suddenly seemed so intuitively easy, since...well, around the time Lars had started his regular visits.
The young scientist cringed at her own thought process. Her mind is becoming too obsessive and ridiculously silly over her Crush.

At times Julia found herself wishing there some kind of memory-suppressing drug available, so she could forget her almost detrimentally silly infatuation towards Lars, and revert to the sensible, prudent adult scientist was before.

But again, even if there was such a thing, that would open a whole can of worms, starting from the day Rochefort came...she shivered at the notion.

Julia briefly recalled the creation of her fake identity several years back, and stuck with it ever since.
Lucky thing she kept it too, as it allowed her to become undercover mole for G. Corp. - and now essential contributor to Lars's battle against many dangerously powerful enemy organizations - without having to constantly worry about Michelle and her family, or Lei and his family, becoming targets of personal reprisals.

The only people Julia had disclosed her original identity - other than to those she considered family - were Asuka Kazama, her father Mr. Kazama, Lee Chaolan, Lars Alexandersson, and by obligatory default the combot Alisa Boskonovitch.

Not that any of them except Lei, Michelle, selective family members of both...and Mr. Laurent De Rochefort knew of the more complex details of her childhood and adolescence.

Julia told everyone else that the fake identity was merely to keep her dear ones from becoming harmfully involved because of her risky ventures against enemy Mishima. And they just bought it without question - never bothering to dig deeper - as she had correctly anticipated.

Because the whole story went much deeper and further back than that...

*****
Eighteen years ago, in Arizona...

That almost year-long childhood ordeal, the terrible revelation two years later, and the following reactions of the barely-adolescent Julia Chang...the aftermath which irrevocably turned her 11-year and 5-months old life upside down.

Officer Lei Wulong usually followed rules of law enforcement to the tee. However, there had been many, many complicated and unusual factors in Young Julia Chang's case to consider. None of them stemmed from the fact that Michelle Chang's late father had once been on his Mishima Zaibatsu-related prime suspect list...no, it was that an 8th grade murderer -- of three 13 year-old kids, brutally beaten to death -- happened to be Michelle Chang's officially adopted child.

The real beginning of the whole mess arguably began when Michelle started seeing an aspiring botanist, Malloren Wright, who shared her passion for nature's green wonders.

Michelle apparently decided that her then-6 year old Julia could use a father-figure as well, since she and Malloren were married within months of dating. The nature-loving couple had their own son -- Julius Wright - a baby brother for their little adopted daughter.

The kindergarten-graduate wasn't as thrilled about her new, adoptive baby stepbrother. The adoptee was even less happy with the presence of her new stepfather in her life. Little Julia also liked her and Michelle's old family name "Chang" better...pronunciation of "Wright" somehow did not feel as strong or prideful to the little girl.

Malloren was indeed a kind, honest guy who truly tried his very best to care for the little girl as his own. Except most of the adoptive stepfather's attempts at being a loving parent to little Julia only provoked her ire and indignation. Most notably, Malloren's stance against Michelle's hunting hobby as "animal cruelty"...and even worse, allowing a tender-aged child like little Julia to witness such graphic violence.

The married couple had fought over what constituted as "proper parenting" for little Julia. They finally reached a compromise -- little Julia is not to be allowed on hunting grounds again, until at least another 4 years later, when their adopted daughter reaches early adolescence.

The little girl naturally felt her life turning somewhat sour and bitter. since Malloren and Julius's unannounced, almost intrusive entrance. Before then, little Julia had Michelle's undivided love and attention, not to mention fresh and uncurbed learning experiences.

As fate would have it -- another 2 years later, as Michelle's husband was driving their son to his pediatrician, when a major car accident killed Malloren and left Julius alive, but in critical condition. A possible life-saving surgery would be very risky, and for Michelle at the time - unaffordably expensive.

Malloren and Michelle had recklessly neglected to apply for life insurance -- money was already tight enough as is.

Mr. and Mrs. Wright, the grieving widow's in-laws, refused to spare one penny for the medical expense -- they legally and officially disowned their son for choosing to marry Michelle, a woman they considered far beneath their social status and culture.

Michelle's own surviving family members were already hard-pressed due to the very modest insurance income left by her late father, thanks to the Mishima Zaibatsu assassinations of the men in their family.

Michelle's acquaintances within her tribe were generally of excellent health and got by just fine, but by no means financially abundant enough to spare meaningful amounts of donations.

Michelle herself never finished her high school education, nor had the means to get a decent-paying job since her father was murdered.

Michelle's friends and family had tried to talk sense into her -- that she sometimes had to accept fate as is. Just like Mother Nature isn't always kind...young animal offspring were frequent choice of prey for ruthless, hungry predators. Beautiful vegetation succumbed to weeds. Even large ancient trees were eventually choked to death by younger subspecies competing for root space and soil.
But the stubborn widow would hear none of it. Michelle had always the utmost love and respect for nature and its rules, but she also had her own willful spirit and ability to make decisions for or against destiny --law of nature or not.

Perhaps that is why the adoptive mother of the 8 year old Julia was acting uncharacteristically amicable towards that...uncomfortably affectionate foreign gentleman, who assertively came up to introduce himself while they were exiting the hospital one day, after another visit to a deteriorating Julius Wright.

That day, doctors had gently suggested taking her son off life support if he wasn't to undergo surgery, and the mere suggestion incited his mother to fly into a raging diatribe, causing quite an ugly scene. The staff had to usher the family visitors off their premises.
Michelle had been inconsolably tearful as she and little Julia were exiting the hospital. Little Julia - scared and lost nearly to tears herself - had been helplessly trying to find ways to comfort her adoptive mother, to no avail.

Little Julia disliked the approaching gentleman stranger the moment he laid eyes on her. The way he looked at her sent inexplicable chills down the little girl's spine, even with his lips always curving into a nice smile. And stole glances at her quite often, whenever Michelle wasn't looking at him.

The gentleman stranger was quite tall, and had dark-blonde hair and blue eyes. His facial features were strong and prominent. He had a fragrance of mildly pleasant cologne. He was alsorelatively young...a few years Michelle's junior.

The man's name was Laurent De Rochefort, who was born and lived in Monaco -- a "French speaking country in Europe", little Julia was told. Mr. Rochefort would soon be taking over an extremely profitable and thriving oil enterprise from his retiring father.

Laurent had been on a year-long business trip -- almost a temporary relocation -- to take care of company's U.S.'s subsidiaries. He had about another 8-9 months to go. In the meantime, he sorely wished for some "unofficial companionship" to help him get through the lonely and stressful time away from his young wife and baby daughter back in Monaco.

And he observed that Michelle C. Wright clearly had external dilemmas -- many of which he certainly had the resources to help with.

The wealthy Monaco gentleman argued that it would be a win-win deal for both of them -- with the benefits much more long-term and advantageous in Michelle's favor.

Eight year-old Julia watched with worry and confusion as her adoptive mother looked taken aback at Mr. Rochefort's proposal. Michelle then tilted her face away from him as she suppressed a cringe. After a prolonged moments, the widowed mother gave him a strange, unnatural smile of approval.

What the Chang mother and little daughter did not know was that Laurent had been stalking the pair for almost a week, whenever he had non-business leisure. The woman and her little girl had unknowingly caught the eye of the wealthy tycoon heir while they happened to be walking on the sidewalk, within good eyeshot from his limo.

It was want and desire at first sight.

Life changed very abruptly. Adoptive mother and adopted little daughter moved into a big, luxurious condo near the area Mr. Rochefort was working in. Huge, beautiful school campus. Laurent lavishly praised little Julia when the 8-year old passed school entrance tests that placed her in the 5th grade, two years beyond her average peers.

Shortly after, Michelle took little Julia to large, fancy shopping malls to buy expensive and "proper-lady" outfits for both of them.

Little Julia felt stifled in her very flowery and frilly girly dresses, but her adoptive mother strictly ordered her to wear them whenever Mr. Rochefort is visiting, which he found plenty of time to almost nightly.

Michelle herself wore very low-cut dresses designed from beautiful fabric, along with very shiny and ornate jewelry when he was present.

It wasn't that little Julia did not admire nice, pretty things...the little girl just preferred toys and clothing which she didn't have to pay tedious mind not to taint or damage. Such delicate items and her wild penchant for playing outdoors or tinkering with broken electronic equipment - they did not mix well at all.

There had been other relatively minor downsides to the "companionship deal": Laurent made his stance against physical fighting and any practice of it bluntly clear -- the activity was coarse, barbaric, and definitely not for ladies...especially those who he'd be closely associating with.
And to little Julia's great dismay, Michelle acquiesced to his wishes with no protest. In front of Laurent, her adoptive mother personally forbade the little girl to practice any more Kempo, much less teach her anymore.

But when their gentleman companion was away tending business matters, Michelle secretly continued to train her little daughter in the martial arts, and warned her little daughter to be extra watchful in strictly keeping her practice sessions out of Mr. Rochefort's awareness.

On top of that, little Julia much disliked her fellow students and teachers at her new school. The kids there called her "book-freak"; "ugly nerd"; "goody-two shoes"; "unrefined savage"; and "redskin tramp"; even in the clear presence of adult school authorities, who said and did absolutely nothing about the bad behavior.
At first, little Julia tried to fit in by attempting to imitate the "fine mannerisms and etiquette" both peers and teachers chided her of lacking. Attempt to do so was mostly met with cruel mockery, ridicule, and scorn -- often followed by the claim that any lady must be "born into" elegance and refinement, thus it was impossible for the "unrefined savage" to ever reach their class.

The 8 year-old prodigy misfit eventually stopped caring...for her, it actually felt more of a relief rather than a disappointment.

Most of little Julia's teachers looked at her with a cold, scornful gleam in their eyes, even though she acted like a model teacher's pet -- always politely quiet and respectfully following instructions to the letter.

The 8 year-old 5th grader was never called on in class, even when she frequently raised her hand...eventually, she gave up on her teachers' approval, too. She immersed herself in the peaceful and fun world of books, studying, and academic learning. Such was more than enough for her, to occupy her loneliness at recess and lunch

At the time, eight year-old Julia could rather easily bear all those dislikeable aspects about living under Mr. Rochefort's "companionship". She almost started to become grateful for his presence in their lives.

Sure, their new gentleman caretaker imposed some irritable restrictions on her lifestyle. But ever since his arrival, Michelle had stopped crying or looking so very sad and helpless. Little Julia's adoptive-stepbrother finally got the surgery he direly needed, at the best hospital in the West coast.
Julius C. Wright's surgery was announced to be a success, and he was reportedly recovering just fine...even though he'll have to remain in the hospital for a good number of months, just to be safe.

And to little Julia's delight, Michelle changed her and her children's family name -- from "Wright" back to "Chang" -- at Mr. Rochefort's suggestion. Such a strong, vigorous woman should shed her mournful identity of a widow, he had stated.

But not long after, other increasingly less bearable aspects about Mr. Rochefort started to surface -- slowly, but steadily.

Mr. Rochefort was indeed most definitely interested in Michelle -- her appearance, her body, her more womanly charms.

But it seemed no one had suspected that he possessed strong appetites for females of a broader body and age range, as well...much less the fact that he was fully and meticulously prepared when he started making his moves on an 8 year-old Julia Chang.

The benefactor "companion" made extra certain long beforehand that his enormous sense of generosity was absolutely indispensible to both Michelle's emotional well-being, and Julius's physical well-being.
This was the "prerequisite lessons", of which he required Michelle to drive the thorough comprehension -- along with all its implications -- home to little Julia...instill the veiled blackmailing notions into the deep corners of the child's psyche.

The 'core courses' Laurent subsequently taught little Julia himself, in private and with insidious patience. He made sure she thoroughly understood the most important takeaway first -- that his sense of generosity was directly tied to the child's ability to meet his standards of satisfaction...or rather, fulfillment.

Mr. Rochefort took on a very patient, good-humored nature as he 'instructed' the little adopted daughter, but at the same time was extremely strict and excruciatingly demanding.

The little girl's sheer compliance to any level of physical touching, feeling, and extremely uncomfortable insertions in different places...all those were not satisfactory enough for Michelle's new boyfriend.
Neither was forcing herself into very active and accommodating participation, which included following Laurent's very precise specifications of her many and numerously varied performance requirements to the lightest of caresses.

His much younger "female companion" must learn to hide all hints of emotional unwillingness, discomfort, and unhappiness -- such would dent his ability to enjoy "teaching" - and by extension, "being 'generous'" to her family.
Such is enforced "during class", or when they are engaged in other simpler, normal activities in private, anytime when they are in public, and when her adoptive mother is present. The rest of the time too, when she is not completely alone.
Any signs of unpleasant or upsetting behavior at school, and her adoptive mother will be very, very sad again. Her little adoptive brother may not get the care he needs, and may get very unwell again. Same goes if the eight-year olddared to shed audible tears her bedroom by either him or Michelle.

When her "teacher" deemed that little Julia had successfully mastered the "art of elegant stoicism" in "properly entertaining a gentleman", the next step is learning how to express herself as the most "pleasant little gentle-lady companion" while they are "enjoying each other's company".
As this is the final, most advanced part of the "core classes", Mr. Rochefort was naturally much stricter about the fine details of her expression -- a flawless imitation of cherubic little fairy or angel children -- those little boy and girl couples often seen painted on valentine postcards - engaged in sweet, innocent puppy love.
At this point, the now 9 year-old Julia was not allowed to have any slips to mar a perfectly delightful and satisfying session.

The Changs' wealthy benefactor "disciplined" any of the 8 year-old's reluctance by having her recall how sad and worried her mother always was before he showed up, then see how happy and relieved she looked now.
The man also initially included in his arsenal of "disciplinary insurances" the habitual emphatic announcements how wonderfully her adoptive step-brother is recovering each day -- after the apparently successful surgery -- whenever the family went to visit Michelle birth son. However, Michelle's boyfriend prudently stopped this tactic, the moment he caught little Julia shooting Julius a look of deep bitter resentment.

After 8 excruciatingly long months, Laurent finally departed the U.S., having finished his business there. He was ready to go home to Monaco for good. The Changs' "Gentleman Companion" left Michelle the luxurious condo in her name, fully-paid tuition at the best local schools in the area for Julia until high school graduation, and a huge sum of money for daily necessities and expenses.

Michelle and little Julia saw him off in front of their condo, where his limo was waiting to take him and his belongings to the airport.

Before Mr. Rochefort left, he crouched down close in front of the 9 year-old Julia, and remarked in a low voice that he thoroughly enjoyed her as his "student", giving her a casual wink.

The little girl just stared blankly as the man got in his limo and drove away. Michelle asked in a casual tone what Mr. Rochefort had said to her, which little Julia refused to answer.

One day, less than a year after Julius was discharged from the hospital, Michelle's 3 year-old son suddenly fell over in pre-school, body writhing in spasms.

Michelle and little Julia had gotten to the hospital in time to stay with him for the last 12 minutes of his consciousness...and his life. The doctors informed that there were unexpected complications after the surgery, undetectable until it was too late; the surgery was ultimately a failure, despite their best efforts and best medical care money could purchase.

A thoroughly crushed Michelle locked herself inside her room for three days, completely ignoring her little daughter's constant and tearful pleading calls, until little Julia finally exhausted her energy and voice from all her own crying and pleading.

Fortunately for little Julia, she had more than plenty of allowance money from Mr. Rochefort, and there was a small shopping center within walking distance of their condo. The 9 year-old was soon buying groceries for both herself and Michelle on a daily basis...the latter share remaining an untouched pile right outside of Michelle's doorway for the first few days.

When her adoptive mother finally emerged from her bedroom and started going about her own basic necessities again, she barely spoke to her little girl. Little Julia found herself taking on the many house chores Michelle neglected to do, and buying food or cooking for both of them.

Her mother still locked herself up almost daily, but will come out to nibble on the food her adopted daughter left outside her door - at least once a day. That was the way things were for about a week, before Michelle turned to chronic heavy drinking.

Little Julia had a sneaking suspicion that Michelle somehow inwardly hated her adopted daughter for being still alive and well -- while her own dear flesh-and-bloodchild was long dead.
However, such a notion was too horrible for the adoptee to entertain -- Michelle raised her years before she met Malloren and had Julius. The little girl herself had been the one and only in her adoptive mother's eyes back then, in those wonderfully happy times long past.
Julia would desperately assure herself that she's all Michelle had -- and has now. It would only be a matter of time until the old Michelle came back - that fun, strong, and caring woman...who cared for her orphaned self with unconditional love and devotion.

In the mean time, little Julia determined, she herself must be strong and loving for the both of them.

The precocious 9 year-old adoptee mechanically kept her own crushing fears at bay. She managed to do so by over-studying, strenuous care-taking, andtedious house-keeping: Cleaning the house, laundry, preparing healthy meals, mailing checks for expenses or bills, monetary management, buying groceries along with other daily necessities...and most importantly, constantly pestering Michelle to eat, to take care of her own basic hygiene, and to authorize financial payments or withdrawls.

For more than a year, little Julia found it increasingly easy -- almost relaxing -- to play the dual role of both middle school student and home-maker. It kept her mind busy, peaceful, and distracted -- along with a powerful sense of pride in being so helpful and productive.

Little Julia often got odd looks and suspicious inquiries from clerks or concerned bystanders when she went grocery-shopping alone. But the young child would simply say that she only lived with her mother, who broke her ankle in an accident and thus could not run grocery errands herself.

It turned out to be very helpful that Michelle had indeed once broken her ankle before when she was out hunting with small Julia, many years back -- before she met Malloren Wright. Michelle and Julia had to stay with Julia's adoptive paternal aunt -Tiffany Qingcao Chang, who did all the errands, while at the time Michelle herself could only help with the simplest house chores -- those that she could do while sitting on her wheel chair.
At the time, having heard her adoptive mother's sad, angry laments about herself being nothing but trouble for her relative, a 5 year-old Julia felt obliged to watch, learn, and help her aunt Tiffany family as much as her tender age allowed with house maintenance, cleaning, and shopping -- on behalf of Michelle. Despite the burdens and stress her adoptive mother's injury brought forth, those days were actually part of the simple and joyful old days of obligingly eager learning experiences to Julia...

Michelle did afford temporary periods of sobriety to instruct her barely-adolescent adoptee how to manage their monthly bills, while she herself wrote the payment checks, withdrew large sums of cash allowance for young Julia to use...and stock up on heavy alcohol, purchased some liquor store far from where young Julia would be seen shopping or going to school.

All this did not matter much to young Julia. The more the young girl did right now, the prouder Michelle will become of her adoptee -- and cherish the over-achieving child more than ever before -- once the grieving woman finally "woke up" again.

This wasn't the first time Michelle wallowed in drink and frequently locked herself away from human company, from the world. She's done that for a while after her husband's funeral, too.
Back then, the mourning widow also neglected almost all personal responsibilities except the most fundamental necessities of sparse food/water intake, using the bathroom, and of course -- sneaking out to buy liquor.
Fortunately last time, both Michelle's mother and sister-in-law made themselves immediately available to care of everything else, including both children. Michelle's previous episode of drunk neglect had only lasted for a little more than two months before she got back on her feet, threw aside the bottle, and took control of her life -- along with taking care of both her kids by herself.
Little Julia's adoptive aunt had gone well out of her way to reassure the little girl that it's only a matter of time before the "old" Michelle comes back...after the failed revenge attempt for her father against Heihachi Mishima, the adoptive mother had also fallen in a temporary alcohol-incapacitated phase.
The 8 year-old adoptee loved being around Michelle's sister-in-law, except for Aunt Tiffany's unfailingly tendency to address both her and Michelle by their Chinese given names, which Michelle's father's kid sister graciously gave them -- "Xingqu" for Michelle, and "Yongqing" for little Julia. Although it was her adoptive aunt's way of showing familial endearment, the little girl found a Chinese nickname embarrassingly and senselessly inappropriate...unlike Michelle, little Julia herself was fully American, and had not a drop of oriental blood within her.
Little Julia would've loved a tribal name from her adoptive maternal side, but Michelle's mother had harshly rejected the little girl as a family member upon their first meeting, and screamed at her adoptive mother for dragging their tribe's "Bringer of Woes" into their household, right in front of the 3 year-old adoptee. Ever since, small Julia made extra certain to steer clear from her adoptive maternal grandmother.

This time, Michelle stayed with the bottle much longer than before. But after the first few days of locking herself in and eating nothing, at least the adoptive mother did a tad more to help this time -- taking up her part of life maintenance tasks that required adult authority, while occasionally teaching and instructing young Julia how to manage the rest.

If only Michelle would talk to her young adoptive child about something else other than brief, one-time instructions on how to do certain house-keeping or maintenance tasks...young Julia would be elated and much more comforted as she patiently waited for Michelle's drunken phase to end.

At age 11, young Julia was well on her way to graduating from Junior High School. The fact that she was a huge social outcast helped lots. They left her in peaceful, comforting company of textbooks, reference studies, and assignments. She learned how to discreetly fend off any attempted bullies by cleverly devised counter-threats or antics which effectively creeped out further intentions to interact with her in any manner.

But then there was the Switchblades, a six-member clique of the most popular -- and feared -- 13 year old delinquent male students on campus. None of young Julia's counter-tactics worked on them...they just served to escalate the boys' means of harassment.

The 11 year-old girl once cut her tongue due to a small piece of broken box cutter mysteriously inserted in her cafeteria lunch. Fortunately the cut was not deep, and more importantly -- discovered before she swallowed it.
Heaven only knows what might've been snuck in her food before, but young Julia decided not to think about it and focus on being properly paranoid.

Another time, the precocious 11 year old was "accidentally" knocked down a long flight of linoleum stairs. The nasty tumble gave her quite a few nasty black-and-blues, but luckily no injured bones or joints. Due to the injuries, she had to do house work with very decreased productivity, and bandage ice packs on herself every day.

Concerned adult bystanders asked about the bruises while she was outside -- some of them almost interrogatively demanded whether they were done by another adult. Young Julia would force an impudent-looking smile, saying that she'd been fighting with her little brother, and he looked much worse than herself -- he's being grounded right now, while it'd be her turn tomorrow.

The young girl decided to temporarily refrain from any outside errands for almost a week, until the bruises on her face had faded.

The staircase incident was the last straw for young Julia. After the 11 year-old recovered, she sought out the Switchblades and issued a direct challenge against them, which ended in a one-sided beat down -- of the Switchblade leader, who was quite accomplished in American-based karate for his young age.

Unsurprisingly, the 11 year-old girl was forced to take full blame and penalties for the physical fight. She was suspended from school for a month, with the threat of being expelled should such an event ever happen again.

The principal initially planned to have a private meeting with her guardian over the incident, but young Julia managed to persuade him otherwise. She pleaded that her mother had a bad case of flu, and needed a lot of rest -- not to mention her sick guardian might spread contagious germs to anyone talking directly with her.
This is one of the rare times the school authorities' callous indifference towards young Julia worked in her favor -- the principal decided it wasn't worth the time or health risk to "check the facts".

After her month-long suspension was over, young Julia was forced to rely on exceedingly fine precautions, vigil, and creative ingenuity to avoid any further harm or contact from the Switchblades. The young girl was successful for the most part, and able to minimize harm from any failures by lightning-quick thinking on her feet.

A surprise visit from Aunt Tiffany suddenly broke the year-long routine.

Young Julia's adoptive paternal aunt had been wondering why no one was picking up the phone -- it was her mother-in-law's birthday, and Michelle never before failed to wish her own mother another healthy year. The Chang matriarch had also been hoping to hear that her grandson Julius was now a healthy, happy kindergarten boy...thus sent Aunt Tiffany on her weakened elderly behalf to check on Michelle and her grandson.

Both Michelle's mother and sister-in-law knew about Michelle's' sudden turn of fortune upon meeting the kindest wealthy gentleman -- Laurent De Rochefort. Tiffany Chang even met the man introduced, introduced as Michelle's new boyfriend, and was elated that the little boy was given solid hope of survival.

However, both women were also kept in complete darkness about subsequent events of Rochefort's sudden departure -- along with Julius's sudden death.

Utterly infuriated and grieved by her sister-in-law's current condition -- even more by the irresponsibly imposed burdens upon her young adopted niece -- Aunt Tiffany violently broke down the door to Michelle's bedroom, stormed in, and gave her wallowing widowed sister-in-law a furious chastising, complemented by a heavy slap on the half-drunken woman's face.

Young Julia watched as her adoptive aunt demanded why the very adult mother did not call for help from her, when she was in dire need of it -- selfishly risking both her own and the barely-adolescent adoptee's well-being.

After she was done with her scolding and slapping, Michelle's sister-in-law went to hurry back home. She promised her young adopted niece that she'll be moving in with them to help out, but first she must go back to pack her belongings, then make arrangements for taking care of the house and Michelle's mother.

Aunt Tiffany vowed to be at their home again within 3 days max to stay as long as needed, and asked for young Julia to bear with her lonely situation for just a bit longer.

Michelle's sister-in-law then patted young Julia softly on the head, tearfully remarking how poor little "Yongqing" must be over-exhausted, but the young girl needn't worry -- she won't be alone in her burdens for much longer, and they both will ensure that Michelle gets back to her feet again by next month.

Immensely moved by sudden display of care, warmth, and hope she was deprived of for years, young Julia only broke into tears as she nodded, and softly bid her adoptive aunt goodbye. The young adoptee's once strongly disliked Chinese nickname almost sounded like a soft, loving verbal hug at the moment.

The 11 year-old girl silently watched as masses of dark clouds gathered rapidly into the evening sky. It was going to be a long, stormy night.

Young Julia was well asleep that night when she was suddenly startled awake up by Michelle's loud, uncontrollable sobbing, which had risen above the sound of drumming rain. The frantic young girl got out of bed to locate her adoptive mother, and was surprised to see Michelle no longer drinking in her room, but sitting right at the dining table with her face buried into folded palms.

Feeling deeply pained and forlorn by Michelle's display of such grief, young Julia tried to comfort her adoptive mother by telling her not to worry...auntie was coming to help them, and she promised that things will only get better.

The young girl was taken aback by her adoptive mother's sudden drunken raging directed at her -- stating that she did not deserve anyone's pity, not her family's, not her friends'...and least of all not young Julia's.

The deeply intoxicated Michelle then broke down with a tearful confession that shattered young Julia's inner world to pieces.

It turned out that the unthinkable suspicion that little Julia suppressed into denial -- that Michelle preferred her birth son's survival over her adopted daughter's -- was not too far off at all.
The widowed mother had tacitly agreed to involve her little girl as part of the "companionship" agreement, the very night before Laurent agreed to pay for Julius's immensely costly surgery and following healthcare...that was the only way she can keep both children -- and ensure a solid financial future for them.
Michelle had cooperated by making certain beforehand that her adoptee knew just how important Laurent was to all of them, especially to Michelle herself - stealthily and firmly inculcated the idea into the little girl's head. Then the woman managed to feign persuasive ignorance in front of her little adopted daughter she was knowingly wronging - all for the sake her birth son's survival...until the latter unexpectedly died, and her awful complicity in helping Laurent hurt her innocent little girl turned out to be for nothing.

Young Julia blanched at Michelle's admittance, and started quivering violently all over.

Stepping slowly away from her adoptive mother in stunned horror, the young girl hoarsely accused Michelle of making all that up in her drunken state.
But the adoptee child knew well in her heart that Michelle wasn't lying...the look in the swollen, deeply intoxicated eyes pierced crystal clear honesty and grief.

And there was the undeniable fact that her adoptive mother could never have been aware about Laurent De Rochefort's misdeeds against the young girl, unless he for some reason told her himself. The Michelle that young Julia knew and loved would've immediately traveled to Monaco just to kill him in the most painful way possible, and gladly pay with her own life to avenge her little girl...that Michelle was gone forever. Replaced by this treacherous, lying drunkard who willingly sent a faithfully and blindly trusting little Julia through endless days of hell...simply because the woman loved her birth child more.

Next thing the 11 year-old knew, she had thrown open the front door and was running blindly into the rain, clad only in her thin layer of nightclothes -- away from Michelle, and away from the unbearable revelation unleashed upon her just moments ago.

Freezing cold, sopping wet, and panting in exhaustion, the young girl found herself standing in front of her Junior High School campus. Raw instincts slowly took over as she mechanically slipped over the gate to seek shelter for the night.

Young Julia finally came upon the school gym, which had a canopy roof built over its outer steps. Huddling against the corner of the door, the young girl kept on sobbing even after her tears were cried dry, until her insides loudly protested from dehydration, until she vomited all over her soaked and muddy night gown. Then she resumed dry-sobbing again while she hiccupped uncontrollably.

The next morning -- during a clear-sky dawn, the Switchblade clique came across their favorite muddy, wet, and vomit-covered bully victim -- who had just nodded off less than 2 hours ago.

It was a weekly gang ritual for them to sneak out just before dawn, to vandalize as much priceless public property as possible with various pointy objects. They were striving to break last week's record, until one of the gang members caught sight of young Julia's huddled, dozing figure.

The young girl was awakened by a sharp pain just above her eyebrow, and found her school bullies 6 feet away, walking towards her. One of the Switchblades had chucked a sharp rock to rouse her awake, and the scrape wound started to trickle blood.

The approaching boys' expression held a hodgepodge of pleasant surprise, strong revulsion, slight but apathetic bewilderment, clear malicious intent, and intense anticipation.

Through her aching daze, young Julia caught amused utterings of "Well, if it isn't the half-breed Gold Digger's little Squaw", and "Did your Redskin Chink mommy throw you out for being mean to her boyfriend?".

Followed by mocking imitations of indigenous American "savage" battle cries, and then howls of laughter.

Unbeknownst to the clique, their intended bully target had currently been suffering from the following: Serious sleep deprivation; Illness-induced delirium due to running for almost an hour in a pounding storm, completely unprotected and unsheltered; And temporary thought-incapacitated, landmine mentality -- filled with extremely misplaced and distorted rage of uncontrollable, deadly intensity.

The following cumulative results: 2 junior high boys savagely pummeled to death; a 3rd into a deep injury-induced coma, and eventually died about four months later; another 1 severely maimed, later revealed for life; 2 of them suffered from serious -- but neither permanent nor life threatening -- injuries.

Officer Lei Wulong had been quick to arrive on the campus's murder scene. Lei's profession usually didn't involve lesser cases like juvenile delinquents or gangsters, but one of the murdered boys was the son of a prominent criminal case target. Diary notes -- both investigatory and personal in nature -- revealed the following:

The youth victims were all 2 years her senior, and possessed considerably bigger, more massive physique. All six victims had ganged up against her alone. The largest of them had been learning Karate for 5 years, while four others were highly competitive athletes in sports such as soccer and baseball. The gang clearly did not hold back much, either -- if at all.

The young girl's head and face sported bloody flesh abrasions; Large cut on lips; Blood flowing from her nose and mouth; Several knocked out teeth; Huge black bruises covering her body, eyes, and cheeks.

When the medics came, the 11 year old female student was further diagnosed with varying degrees of fracturing on nose ribs, hip, and jaw bone, ruptured spleen, a dislocated shoulder, as well as a bad concussion from her fight. The murderer herself was already severely fatigued and burning with a high fever that morning, early before the fight.

A wild brawl erupted between Julia Chang and her victim schoolmates that morning. The few teachers and guards on campus were prohibited by the clique leader from interfering with the fight -- or even calling the police -- until the fight concluded. With completely unexpected and tragic consequences mainly on their own part.

However, the adult witnesses had the decency to explain that the situation was escalatory on both sides, with the boys cruelly mocking and insulting the girl's muddy, unkempt appearance as she was huddled and shivering silently in the corner of the gym steps.

To her antagonizers' great surprise and affront, their long-suffering victim retorted with vicious evenness at their taunts. Enraged that the "classless, filthy redskin" dare defy them so openly - ever since her last "lessons" - they started to resort to physical violence against her. Hostile pushes quickly became vicious shoves.

The bystanders recalled the girl screaming over and over, "She'd never hurt me or lie before! You did all this! YOU DID ALL THIS!", as she was ferally bashing the face of a boy that she had straddled -- and either temporarily deafened from her rage, or ruthlessly ignoring the young male victim's desperate pleas for mercy.

Further investigation reported that the six youth victims -- who dubbed themselves "the Switchblades" -- were 13 year-old gang members in eighth grade. The clique leader's father was a prominent head of vastly successful underworld activities, of which scope reached international flourish -- and happened to be the man Lei had been preoccupied with busting for almost 2 years.

The kingpin's son apparently had influence over school authority, frequently abusing his father's powerful and intimidating position to coerce the teachers to stay 'out of their fun'. Including the increasingly frustrating attempt to 'Stomp the Half-Breed Gold Digger's Redskin Stray back into her place'.

Julia Chang herself had been the widely unpopular at her prestigious junior high school, and often sneered-at as the uncultured, creepily weird nerdy dork, She spent most of her school time virtually friendless -- in fact, many students actually disperse whenever she approaches, as juvenile displays of repulsion, spite, or fear.

Yet, teachers noted that the Odd Student Out rarely seemed to mind lack of acceptance or company, as long as she had her books with her.

Stranger yet, the ostracized 11 year-old 8th grader was rarely a victim of bullying, with the exception of the Switchblades clique.

Julia Chang usually tried to ignore cruel taunts or abuses, until they became directly physical towards her, vandalisms of her valued belongings, or insults directed at her adoptive mother.
Then the bully or bullies would suddenly and completely avoid their previous bully target as she strode past them the day after, terror present in their averting eyes.

Julia had actually tangled with the Switchblade gang months before their 'final showdown', badly humiliating its leader by easily taking him down in a one-on-one physical fight -- despite her petite, frail-looking physique, age difference, and gender - in front of a crowd of students.

The 11 year-old female student aggressor was suspended for almost a week, and upon returning, apparently decided to endure any level of cruel bullying from the Switchblades with tightly clenched teeth.

That is, until that fateful morning after the storm, when the tolerating nerd-combatant finally decided to fight back again, with a terrible vengeance.

Her legal guardian did not answer phone calls from the police that very morning of the incident. When they went to seek out Michelle at her then-luxurious condo, her adoptive mother was found heavily unconscious from excessive intake of hard liquor, head slumped against the table and vomit all over herself.

The doctors were amazed that that the perpetrator girl did not die, as well.

It was a baffling wonder to them that she did not even acquire any detectable traces of permanent skin, bone or organ damage, given her already very ill condition, on top of over-depletion of stamina and the heavy injuries sustained during her struggle against the six junior-high boys.

In fact, all her bodily damages healed completely with surprising quickness, and with no signs of scars or lingering disabilities.

But the young girl's troubles were far from over, as she quickly discovered just a few days after she regained consciousness. She had to face the scorching hatred from rich and powerful families of her victims -- who wanted no less to tear her to pieces, slowly and painfully as possible.

Officer Lei Wulong stepped in at this point to staunchly defend the young adolescent Julia from the wrathful clutches of the murder victims' parents. He managed to keep young Julia and Michelle safe from hired criminal retaliations, until the situation came under control - taking down the Switchblade boy's relentlessly vengeful criminal kingpin family in the process was a side bonus.

There were sparingly rare exceptions where he underhandedly utilized his position and surprising wealth of influential connections for conventionally unlawful purposes...such purposes when he knew the legal system would bring much more harm than good.

The cop deemed in young Julia's circumstances -- unwarranted cruelties and abusively misapplied 'corrective treatment' would await an already damaged, tender-aged victim of many distressing injustices herself. But Lei's influence and pulled strings weren't enough, however much he tried.

Ironically, the pivotal lifeline that ultimately pulled young Julia from her desert of burning societal quicksand...that came from the root of the tragedy itself -- Laurent Rochefort.

Apparently having heard of young Julia's crimes and dilemma surrounding the prestigious school he paid for up to her graduation, the vastly wealthier and much more influential Mr. Rochefort covertly undertook many extremely effective maneuverings and investments against Julia's legal and societal adversaries concerning the murder case. And the European oil tycoon helped erase young Julia's original background records off the face of the Earth.

Julia Chang was far from the first of Laurent Rochefort's underage victims. He'd without fail successfully brush off those who attempted to seek justice for themselves, via legal means. Why the virtually untouchable Monaco CEO suddenly went out of his way to lend a philanthropic hand - to one single victim among many -- is anyone's guess...maybe even his own.

During an unofficial questioning by Officer Lei at their home, Michelle was all too willing to identify the man who had sexually abused eight-and-a-half-year old Julia and gravely injured the child's psyche...along with her own passive complicity in the crime. The guilt-stricken mother was ready to pay for her crimes, and requested that her sentence not be mitigate by any sympathetic circumstances in court. In Michelle's own eyes, she was much more to blame than the perpetrator himself.

However, 11 year-old Julia -- who had hid herself in the corner, eavesdropping -- could not accept the possibility of her mother being locked away for an undetermined time...in her mind, she feared it would be forever. The young girl fell into a fit of tearful, hysterical pleading for Lei not to "take away" Michelle -- so intense and prolonged, that the child started to hyperventilate uncontrollably.

Lei Wulong grudgingly found himself relenting to another "exception" in his job. The young victim's permanent psychological stability was at stake, here. He told himself that letting Michelle off -- and forcing her to deal with that on her conscience too -- was perhaps even more fitting punishment than serving legal time, anyways.

Lei went off with young Julia in his hand, leaving Michelle alone to deal with herself. But not before warning the inconsolably weeping mother that she can no longer afford any more selfishly self-destructive indulgence out of self-pity or self-hatred, for her victimized adoptee's sake -- the only right she can do for the very wounded young girl is to immediately stop inflicting further self-harm or self-ruin. The cop claimed that if Michelle Chang truly cared about her barely-adolescent adoptee more than herself at this point, the adoptive mother will have to prove it by refraining from binge drinking or other substance abuse -- and of course -- suicide from depression.

The young adoptee remained pretty much hidden from the world -- and for a long while, from Michelle Chang. Leaving the 11 year-old girl with her adoptive grandmother or aunt was not an option -- both women needed to stay with and care for the thorougly broken widow.

Amazingly, young Julia eventually found it within herself to start valuing herself, her strengths, and most of all -- forgiving her adoptive mother, with a clear heart and conscience. For this Julia gave almost full credit to Lei Wulong -- along with his family members who cared generously for her as one of their own.

When she was first settled into the Lei household, 11 year-old Julia had initially been dying to abandon martial arts forever, cursing it as the monstrous murder weapon that killed three of her schoolmates and maimed others. But Lei was extremely persistent -- albeit patient and gentle - that she must learn to not hate or blame her physical power...otherwise, the "monster killer" she sees in her Kempo will consume her soul.

One particular evening, the cop had the 11 year-old adoptee sit at his study room deskwhile he lectured her. The young American girl was acting extremely recalcitrant at home for the past few days, refusing to eat little more than a few small bites of food. It was all because earlier that night, the young girl sullenly justified that she must make herself as weak as possible...to ensure that her "evil" Kempo will never hurt or kill anyone again. At that point, Lei sternly told her to meet him at his study, right away. Julia obeyed without complaint, trudging silently after him.

After seating young Julia in his large desk chair, the cop stood in front of the window, staring outside for a minute.

"You know, you really shouldn't have survived that fight, young lady. Uh, I mean logically speaking, of course," he quickly corrected himself.
"It's a pure miracle that everything is perfectly intact, and look at yourself...you're good as brand new. Given your over-exhausted state and internal bleeding, a fever that high would've at least burnt up your kidney or something."

Lei then walked to his desk and crouched on a knee, so he was directly facing the expressionless young adoptee, who staring intently at some coffee stains on his desk.

"Listen, Julia...if you keep up this hate and blame towards your amazing strength, then it'll consume you alive. From the inside out. You begged me to leave Michelle alone, after what she's done to you. If you're forgiving her-."

"I'm not forgiving Michelle!" the 11 year-old suddenly burst out, snapping her head up to glare at Lei, her eyes blazing fiercely. "I don't want to see or talk to that-that horrible liar ever again! I-it's just that...she's been through so, so much sadness and heartache already. I don't know if -if she can take anymore..." Tears spilled from the young girl's eyes, which softened as grief replaced rage.

Lei gave her a warm, affectionate smile. He stood up and gently ruffled the top of her head.
"You're a precociously empathetic kid...well, in other words you understand true kindness more than many adults in the world." He withdrew his hand and looked at her squarely in the face. "But you need to tell me the truth - do you hate Michelle? Even a little?"

Young Julia looked down again. "I-I really don't know."

"Okay, then. Do you want to hate her?" Lei tried again.

Young Julia was silent for a minute. Then she slowly shook her head "I...don't know."

The cop heaved a deep, frustrated breath. After a few minutes of pacing around in silence, he then asked in a grave tone, "What if...I said I was going to arrest Michelle Chang, and I really do want to have her pay her share of crimes against you...as a police officer, I'm supposed to, anyways. Unlike you, she has inadequate mitigating justifications against her willing acts of criminal complicity."

Young Julia suddenly looked up, face paling from horror. "But you promised you wouldn't - right in front of us!"

Lei shrugged nonchalantly. "That wasn't an official statement, or with other witnesses. I can easily change my mind."

The young adoptee jumped to her feet."Y-you can't do that to Michelle! Or else...or else you'd just be a liar like her!" Rage and desperation filled her voice.

"So what? Maybe I'm just a bad person who got a law enforcer's job. Maybe I don't even care about protecting people, but just pretend I do to get credit and bonuses." The cop gave young Julia a grim, cynical smirk.
"What's in it for me to be a good cop, anyways? I'll do my job, bring Michelle Chang in, and get my pay for it. Why should I care if she gets herself so sick from sadness, and then dies in jail alone? And you, Little Miss Julia, are just too scared and angry to use your powerful Kempo skills to stop me from harming Michelle. Or aren't you?" Lei tilted his head questioningly at her.

The young girl's fist clenched so hard, her nails drew blood in her palms. She gritted her teeth. "You're...you're worse than Mr. Rochefort!" She accused. "I don't care if I'll have to go to jail too for hitting a policeman. I won't let you take Michelle!"

Lei allowed himself a small grin as the 11 year-old charged at him in blind fury and determination. His counteracting moves were purely defensive, dodging and blocking the young girl's wild attack against him.

The cop was surprised that he actually had to concentrate and work up a bit of sweat...young Julia sure had potential in the martial arts department. Just another reason why he couldn't let her reject this part of herself out of severely misplaced self-blame. Almost 5 minutes later and after a lot of toppled or destroyed office furniture, young Julia finally stopped in exhaustion.

Startled by the noises from the fight, Yanan -- Lei's sister-in-law who lived with him and his father -- had rushed in the office earlier whilst the young girl was still focused on pummeling the cop.

Lei had quickly assured his sister-in-law with an awkward grin that all's well, and asked her to please leave them be. He claimed that he was just administering some necessary "shock-therapy", and they'll be done in a few minutes, tops.

Yanan had gazed at him with hesitation and bewilderment, but the woman respectfully left, shutting the door behind her without another word.

Utterly worn out and confused from her one-sided beat-down, young Julia collapsed to the floor and broke down, sobbing harder than before. Strangely enough, she felt much better...the tight heaviness that had been strangling her innards had loosened considerably.

The cop went over to put a Kleenex box on her lap. He then busied himself in tidying his office disarrayed by the fight, as he waited for young Julia to calm down. When the yong girl's cries finally faded to sniffles, Lei plopped down on the floor against the wall, right next to her.

"See? Your Kempo skills saved your life. And Michelle's, too...just now, because it convinced me she's too important for me to-uh, further inconvenience. It's just like my gun, here. You can use it to hurt or kill people. Or you can use it to protect good people like yourself and those dearest to you, from real monsters who kill because they like to. So why not think about using your gifted martial skills to fight against those who try to hurt Michelle? Or those who harm Mother Nature?" The cop inquired gently. Good thing Lei knew that much about Michelle Chang - her extraordinary passion for nature, which he (correctly) assumed was passed down to her adopted daughter.

Young Julia suddenly looked up at the cop. His expression was calm, but completely stern and solemn."Those boys -- they attacked you first for no good reason. Take my word for this, Julia - those Switchblades wouldn't have cared if they killed you in the fight...they wouldn't feel half as sad or guilty as you're feeling for them. I have files on them. They've put nice kids like you -- who never did anyone harm -- in the hospital before, with their bullying. Some of those nice kids died in the hospital. Still, they keep beating up other kids because they just like being horrible...and because their families are so rich, those money grubbing, chicken-shit school authorities just let them do what they want."

The young girl's eyes suddenly widened at the cop's rising tone and use of insults. Lei cleared his throat and apologized for the slip.

"And you know what? Michelle would definitely not have been able to take it if you died too, like her son. Kempo protected you from getting killed, and fate kept you alive and completely well by sheer miracle." The cop's eyes were very soft, almost pleading for Julia to consider his argument. "There must be a definite reason...you have yet much good to do for the world and everything worth protecting in it."

Lei then smiled warmly, extending a hand in front of her. "I'm going to make you a deal. If you're willing to try to stop hating yourself- and your Kempo, then I'll be convinced that you don't hate Michelle...so she'd be worth me turning a permanent blind eye for what she did. And from now on, you'll only use your gifted strength and skills to protect what you love. Good enough?"

Young Julia accepted his proposition, and started forcing herself to eat normally until it became natural like before.

And by echoing Lei's lectured logic and encouragement in her mind like a mantra, young Julia's once-unbearable aversion towards Kempo gradually dissipating, until they no longer became a handicap to her training and learning of martial arts.
Lei's family further bestowed her with a wider variety of martial arts and combat training that greatly supplemented the Kempo skills she learned from Michelle.

Lei Wulong's sister-in-law was a highly accomplished expert of Neijia -- many varieties of which she taught to her own daughter, Lei Wuji, and occasionally to young Julia. Learning and practicing the basics of the internal arts helped her cope with her painful trauma, due to their focus on internal balance, harmony, and meditation.

Lei's father Lei Tienfa mastered more external-oriented Chinese martial arts -- including the Five Animal Forms -- which he passed down to his son. It also happened that the Lei Patriarch's vast martial arts expertise range overlapped with Michelle Chang's own arsenal: Xingyiliuhequan, Military-style Sanshou, andChangquan.
Sadly, Tienfa was an incurable alcoholic...despite the fact that his health was already failing from liver disease. Thus, he was only too glad to have a talented and diligent Kempo disciple to impart as much of his other set of mastered arts, before his imminent death -- which turned out to be less than a half-decade later.
Even though Michelle learned only the more modern forms of their martial arts, while Lei's father knew of only of their traditional counterparts, the highly intelligent young adoptee cleverly worked out her own uniquely effective styles from her continued martial arts tutelage - managing to self-modify or modernize by intuition and mental deduction - some of the traditional moves that Tienfa taught her.

Lei Wulong himself did not have the time - nor felt the need - to teach young Julia any of his hand combat skills. However, the cop would occasionally teach her firearms handling -- where Julia realized her unusual marksmanship potential -- and simple weapons disarming techniques.
Under their persistent training and influence, she worked harder than ever to master refined control over her speed, agility, precision, striking power, and most importantly -- psychological self-control.

Young Julia gradually found herself once again fully pursuing her love of academics via self-study, openly socializing with the Lei family, and freely practicing martial arts with steadily decreasing psychological inhibitions.
However, no passion ever rivaled young Julia's fondness of being around nature's green wonders. Sometimes she'd find herselfstarting to become strained by physical training or just simply being around people, and gradually even academic intake...

Young Julia was undoubtedly filled with gratitude and love for all Lei and his family had done for her, and trusted them as much as a child psychologically damaged by a hard-hitting violation and betrayal possibly could.
But it felt impossible for the young girl to push away the persevering paranoia that circumstances would force any human soul -- no matter how loving or benevolent -- to commit cruel betrayal when they have other dear ones in their hearts...just like Michelle Chang.
Lei and his family most definitely had many dear ones to lose, long before they took young Julia in as one of their own. And perhaps both Michelle's deeply instilled nature-lover influence, combined with young Julia's own experiences, have bred a persevering -- albeit mild -- misanthropic streak within the early-teen adoptee.

Fortunately, there was still nature, and a nice park trail surrounded by trees not far from her foster home. Inexplicably enough, young Julia's attachment towards natural surroundings remained almost completely untainted by her grudge against adoptive mother, the way the Chang-style Kempo skills, and many other Michelle-influenced aspects of herself once did.
A 10-minute stride alone, surrounded by lush trees leaves, grass, and flowers -- from a huge lone tree in the middle of the park and back -- would be enough to revitalize her soul to the core - she'd go right back to training with renewed vigor.
Why couldn't human beings be more like trees? Young Julia often thought to herself, during her soul-clearing walks. Trees don't need parents to raise them strong, healthy and functional. Trees don't require each other to survive. Trees don't want or need companionship. Trees can heal themselves, then unconditionally heal and nourish the Earth - along with its more active living things, who steal from them and hurt them for their own survival or greed. Why can't I be more like that huge tree, all by itself alone - yet still thriving? Was the young adoptee's biggest inner lament for a long time to pass.

Once she was approaching her mid-teens, Lei convinced a Julia into starting life anew with a brand new set of personal records and identity.

The adolescent girl would eventually grow into adulthood, and live her own life...a life as a normal citizen in society, filled with successful opportunities.

The 13 year old adoptee instead took on the new identity of "Jaycee Childress" - whose new background record stated that she grew up in an orphanage since kindergarten, after her parents were killed in a car crash. Upon reaching adolescence, "Jaycee" was placed in a foster home -- the family of Officer Lei Wulong.

The process of adapting to her new identity, and re-entering society hadn't been that difficult for the teenage Julia. Her years of diligent and efficient self-study enabled the 13 year-old Julia to join the junior class -- grades ahead of many high school students her age -- and graduated with a transcript full of completed straight-A Honors, IBs, and APs.

By her sweet sixteen, the teenage adoptee started to tolerate visits from Michelle, but only barely. Even though time and again, teenage Julia made it unequivocally clear that she wouldn't mind the least if her adoptive mother moves on and leaves her alone forever, Michelle simply wouldn't give up.

The older woman sent plenty of child-support money to Lei, who stubbornly refused at first, but relented after her insistence and tearful pleadings -- though they agreed that teenage Julia is to be kept in the dark about the financial aid.

Michelle daintily tread her way back into the grudging teenage girl's heart, with seemingly infinite patience, prudence, and understanding -- especially careful to avoid any impressions of impatient or intrusive insistence towards her estranged adoptee.

Teenage Julia gradually started to open her heart to her adoptive mother since the time the latter had deeply wronged her. They even started hanging out with each other, but the adolescent girl still couldn't bring herself to go back living with Michelle...yet. That is, until that fateful day the Mishima Zaibatsu took Michelle Chang with them by force.

When 18-year old Julia heard that Michelle was kidnapped by Heihachi Mishima, the young scientist did not hesitate a half-second divert all her focus on rescuing her adoptive mother. For the first time, Julia truly appreciated having a fake background identity.
It was definitely advantageous to Julia's rescue mission -- just in case the tournament did background checks of participants, or Heihachi somehow suspected her being related to Michelle due to same last names and decided to look further into her...and as a result, sabotage Julia's attempts to save her adoptive mother.

Michelle Chang was moved to tears at the sight of the both overjoyed and worried Julia sprinting towards her in the temple Heihachi's men had abandoned her in, calling out her name. The older woman apparently wasn't expecting her adoptee to go through all that trouble and risk in trying to rescue her.
But when Julia informed Michelle that she's taking her adoptive mother home to safety, the latter had stubbornly refused at first -- she was planning to head back to the Mishima Zaibatsu, the moment she regains her wits and strength.
The older woman insisted that the Pendant -- the most precious treasure of their tribe, which her father had died for in the first place -- must be retrieved and righteous revenge must be taken against man who murdered him in the first place...once and for all.

Michelle had mulishly refused to budge at Julia's indignant exasperation, as well as the latter's pleas that she couldn't bear the thought of her adoptive mother in danger again. The older Chang told her that she had decided in captivity that it is to be her life's mission -- to avenge her father, and take back what's rightfully theirs...and she'll be doing so with or without her daughter's help.

It was only when a forlorn Julia finally embraced Michelle tightly, whispering "Let's go home together and live in harmony with nature, like you always taught me as a little girl. Please, mother...". Only then was that gesture persuasive enough for the older Chang to relent, and forsake her vengeful determination - at least for an unspoken time being.

Julia had planned to start fresh with a completely different lifestyle with Michelle Chang, and together they'll get by fine. Since Julia's six-year refuge with Lei Wulong, Michelle had sold all fine property and leftover money from Laurent De Rochefort, sending most of the proceeds to Lei Wulong as compensation and child support for taking Julia in.

Michelle kept a modest sum of it for herself - in order to buy all the necessary equipment, material, property, and knowledge references on agriculture. She purchased and moved to someplace far away from civilization -- a small, cultivatable plot of land, located relatively close to a thick, protected forestedarea. There she obtained a simple transportation vehicle, hunting/trapping tools, farming material/equipment, and built her own little lodging.

Apparently, Michelle had fully heeded Lei's warning and "locked herself away from the world" in a much healthier and productive way after young Julia's 7-year departure from her life.
Instead of drowning herself in liquor whilst shut up in her room, she instead chose a new, highly isolated but extremely self-sufficient way of life -- largely reclusive from human society and living in harmony with nature.

Julia was prepared to join Michelle's new lifestyle: Living off by their own hunting, trapping, and farming -- just the two of them. Only occasional and minimally simplistic interactions with other human company -- usually during hunting season or farmer's markets -- would be required.

However, news of G. Corp.'s GENOCELL project came up soon after, which Julia saw as an excellent opportunity to work towards her and Michelle's greatest dream - reforestation of their deteriorating desert-home land.

And luckily, she always kept in mind Lei's warning that Kazuya Mishima -- an immoral, ambitious son of Heihachi's, who is after his own son Jin Kazama's life for his own personal gain -- has been working closely with G. Corp. head in some sinister project. And that Kazuya was on his ambitious way towards taking over the mega-corporation itself.
Joining the GENOCELL research team had been too promising of an opportunity for Julia to pass up, despite Michelle's concerned protests. The young scientist wouldn't be swayed, however; she believed achieving big dreams required taking equally big risks.

Thus, Julia Chang decided to strictly remain "Jaycee Childress" in formal identity, employments, and as Iron Fist tournament participant, even after so many years since her ugly junior-high incident had passed. Such is to protect any of Julia's dear ones from become potential targets of retaliation or blackmail.

In her second Tekken tournament participation, Julia noted that Emilie De Rochefort -- the treasured daughter of Laurent De Rochefort -- was one of the contenders. Julia briefly wondered if the teenage girl had also suffered similar treatment at the hands of her own father...and had joined the tournament as some kind of personal retaliation against her elitist, combat-abhorring father.

But the blonde teen looked and acted way too clueless and carefree...she even loudly proclaimed her immense love and respect for her father, that she cannot afford to dishonor his reputation by failure.
Perhaps Ms. Emilie's too deep in denial, like I once was. Or it may even be consensual and mutual enjoyment of...Julia couldn't help quiver as the perverse possibilities crossed her mind. She suddenly felt a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder, steadying her.

"Hey, Kiddo. Fancy seeing you here again." Lei's chirpy voice greeted from behind her. Julia turned to face the grinning cop -- who had attended the tournament for job-related reasons again.

Like Lars, Lei feared getting Julia's real and fake names mixed up in public. Thus, the cop went by the general nickname "Kiddo", which he frequently used to address Julia ever since he took her in.

Lei suddenly bent forward so that he could whisper to Julia. "I know what you're thinking, and I assure you it's not what you think. Based on Laurent's court files, we can safely deduce that his fetish is strictly fixed on 'exotic' females. All his victims and illegal "female companionships" on record are either non-Caucasian or of mixed ethnicity.

Julia felt her heart lighten with relief for the Rochefort daughter, even though she knew next to nothing about the teenager's background and personality.

"What about Mrs. Rochefort? Looking at Emilie, her mother is likely of Caucasian descent." The young scientist whispered back curiously.

"Unofficially and likely unwanted arranged marriage, by their respective parents. You've never seen Mrs. Rochefort in picture or person, I take it. She'd definitely fall below Laurent De Rochefort's standards in physical attraction. But the poor woman IS the daughter of Rochefort Co's most important business partners, back when Laurent's daddy was running the company." Lei informed with a small grin.
"Their marital bond has evolved into an unofficially open marriage, too. Both parents have been reportedly indulging in very frequent adulteries against each other, and neither seems to make a deal out of it."

Julia bit her lower lip. "Is Laurent De Rochefort still being followed? Or have the DAs and detectives gotten off his case?"

Lei's grin vanished. "With the guy's influence and connections, law enforcement has nothing to get him with regarding his past underage victims." The cop's voice turned solemn. "I'm sorry to be blunt, but you also need to acknowledge that it's the same power he used to help us get those juvenile murderer prosecutors, lynch mobs, and revenge-seekers off your back."

Julia brusquely brushed off Lei's hand, flashing him a look of angry disappointment. "I really don't need to hear this Lei. I'm sorry to be blunt too, but I'd expect a lot more tact and prudence from you."

The two stared at each other for a moment. Lei's expression turned sad and sympathetic.
"If it makes you feel any better, there has been no more records of pre-adults involved in his sexual activities in the past three years. After your murder incident, his known targets of interest gradually but clearly narrowed down to females strictly eighteen or older. Maybe his daughter has somehow inspired him to grow a conscience. Or your incident has somehow profoundly impacted him-"

"-or perhaps my so-called 'gentlemanly savior' simply found a better way to hide his pedophilic crimes!" Julia retorted, realizing too late that she'd blurted her statement out too loud. The young scientist tensed up as several participants standing around her spared her a inquisitive glance, but only for a few seconds. They turned back to what they were doing, uninterested and oblivious.

Lei gave Julia a resigned smile. "I'm not attempting to speak on Rochefort's behalf...nothing he does or tries will change the fact that he knowingly hurt you and many others very deeply, for his own very selfish purposes. I just don't want this hatred to follow you for the rest of your life -- you deserve much better. So even if this guy really does manage to escape Karmic justice for the rest of his life, keep in mind that you helped spare countless other potential victims." Lei turned away and started strolling towards the dining area. But he suddenly stopped to look at Julia again.

"Be careful and best of luck, Kiddo. If you find yourself facing me -- or young Lady Rochefort -- on the arena, keep your mind fully focused on winning. No irrelevant self-distractions allowed, you hear?" The cop gave her a brief wave as he left.

Two years later, Julia stumbled upon a very rude and unpleasant revelation: Her persevering painful grudge against Mr. Rochefort's misdeeds wasn't the most worrisome of many still-open psychological wounds from her past...

After Lars finished dropping a 21 year-old Julia off at Violet Systems, Lee had remarked how lucky she was that the Tekken rebel leader had stopped by, just in time to save her --unsavory as his adoptive father was otherwise, Heihachi Mishima had a handful of redeeming traits - such as being genuine philogynist, which is largely why Michelle was spared from real harm during her captivity, and eventually set free...Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama would definitely not have had any qualms with brutal torture and heartless disposal of their opponents, especially traitors.

Julia s then half-jokingly asked whether Lee would've been too occupied with his company to save her himself, which Lee chuckled and replied that Julia knew the risks of the undercover job when she took it.
The young scientist managed an uneasy half-smile at her employer-friend's response, saying that she couldn't understand his sense of humor at times.

After a moment of awkward silence, Lee requested to understand the details behind her failure to escape G. Corp.'s clutches on her own. Violet Systems had invaluable undercover agents in many dangerous organizations -- thus, meticulous SOPs and pre-designed failsafe methods for the meticulously pre-contemplated possibilities and scenarios of blown covers. If there were any flaws in the set for G. Corp., they'll have to take corrective measures immediately.

Julia just sighed in response and asked for a night off over the ordeal, and promised to fill him in first thing tomorrow morning. She'll have to stay at one of the Violet Systems-owned business hotels nearby, in the mean time -- until she can safely retrieve her belongings from her current residence, and move elsewhere clear off G. Corp.'s radar.

Late that night in the hotel bar, Julia sipped a small glass of brandy as she recalled how at least a dozen soldiers -- G. Corp. military guards accompanied by giant JACKs -- snuck in for a surprise "arrest".
Her G. Corp. apprehenders were all highly trained professionals, and a dozen of them filed into the research facility all at once. Julia was caught off guard, but her survival instinct had kicked in timely. The young scientist was in perfect physical condition that day to fight and flee with full potential. Her mind was calm, clear, and focused -- she had to prove to Violet Systems her ability to remain mentally and emotionally level-headed in moments of crises before she took the G. Corp. undercover job, and trained herself to excel in both.

The undercover young scientist's core reason of failure: The struggle to fight her way out had been seriously complicated by an overwhelming, crippling phobia of killing -- for pure self-defense and necessity of survival -- that abruptly manifested just when she'd successfully wrestled a powerful automatic rifle from a defeated soldier, and was ready to blast her way to the emergency escape route she had mentally pre-planned since day one in the enemy's den.
The second before she was about to pull the trigger, Julia's limbs had suddenly started shaking so bad that she dropped the gun, feeling herself on the verge of hyperventilation.
The young scientist's knees started to feeling like jelly, and experiencing tunnel vision. Visual and auditory flashbacks then flooded Julia's senses - her 11 year old screams of murderous rage; vision tinged red as blood squirted all about a terrified 27 year old Rochefort's face; the older man's features suddenly morphing the Switchblade boy's, bashed and bloodied beyond recognition; herself staring at a child's blood-coated palm; frightened, agonized whimpers of mercy and not wanting to die.
The violent manhandling of her swarming G. Corp. captors snapped Julia back into reality. Still staggering from shock and disorientation, the young scientist did her best to break their hold by counter-grappling or close-range blows with free limbs, but she only succeeded in blindly flailing about.
Julia only barely managed to send that distress call to Lee Chaolan before she was completely overcome and restrained, and forced to await a rescue she never suspected would come...

Bafflingly enough, never did first-hand witness of corpses, dying people, and even carnage of innocents trigger even a hint of phobia in Julia, ever. In fact, she remained unusually composed and almost desensitized - other than emotions of rage and/or grief for the people or victims.
Since her 3rd birthday, Julia had been in close visual and olfactory contact with gruesomely bloody, twitching or decaying carcasses of both adult and baby animals -- ranging from the most adorable little bunny rabbits to magnificent adult deer. Michelle never pulled her punches when teaching her barely-out-of-toddlerhood adoptee about the nature of death while she took Julia with her on her hunting trips. In fact, her adoptive mother believed that such basic lessons about life's natural cycle should be taught as soon as possible.

Julia had also been present at deathbeds and burials of family members:

Her stepfather Malloren's when she was 8 years old, her adoptive little-kid stepbrother Julius's she was 10 years old, and then her foster grandfather Lei Tienfa's when she was 17 years old -- more than a half-decade after her committed murder incident.

Julia had also been forced to help with discreet disposal of some horribly mutilated teenage corpses when she was 15 years old. The reason managed - if only barely - to be defensible, and the stakes against Lei would've been too high if she hadn't done so.

At age 20, Julia went to visit the Lei residence one day, only to find the prone and very bloodied form of her Lei Yanan. The young scientist's Neijia mentor-cum-foster aunt was profusely nose-bleeding, coughing, weeping, and sweating blood...with a disturbingly joyful and content smile on her sheet-pale face. Julia's 16 year-old foster sister simply stood there, without moving a muscle -- calm and peaceful as a plant -- as she observed her mother bleeding to death, in the most rapid and terrifying bizarre manner, at her feet.

Some time after Jin Kazama became CEO and declared war and suffering upon the world, 21 year-old Julia had temporarily volunteered some of her time at a hospital.
She had been working on her reforestation project in a modest but sufficient research center Lee had funded for her. One day, neighboring areas were designated as rebel and Tekken soldier war zones. The assistant staff were evacuated whilst Julia decided to continue working alone.
One day, a local charity hospital spread public word for volunteers of war-related casualties, most of them poor citizens. Julia felt obliged to contribute -- it'd be utterly self-serving and cold-hearted of her to completely ignore the suffering of innocent people, while single-mindedly focusing on her personal dream goal. Her conscience wouldn't allow her passionate enjoyment of her project if she didn't do something to help.
Her sub/urban professional medical expertise was limited, but her vast working knowledge in biology and physiology were helpful assets, as were her extensive expertise of non-sub/urban first-aid and illness-related survival remedies learnt when living in almost entirely isolated wilderness with Michelle.
The young scientist's experience regarding emergency care became quite enhanced to include professional hospital-staff level handling: Directly tending various injuries of various degrees, caring of infections, extensive first aid, and handling technical equiptment - all of the sub/urban hospital and clinical varieties.
She was also closely surrounded by victims of hideously disfiguring wounds, as well as the agonized, despairing expressions and cries of dying citizens or soldiers.
One day, Julia witnessed a close-up event of an anti-Mishima Zaibatsu rebel force storming in and massacring injured Tekken soldiers that the hospital compassionately took under its wing. The soldiers had obviously been stranded by their own, deemed too wounded or permanently handicapped to serve further use in the force.
The shoot-out from both sides killed a good number innocent citizen patients in the process. The hospital had taken in wounded of both sides, with the strict policy that hostilities must be suspended, until the warring parties are at least 10 miles away from the hospital.
Now it was forced to bar any wounded soldiers, or any suspected to be rebels outside to die, with no care of any sort.

That was the final straw which persuaded Julia to finally join Lee's undercover agent group, to help stop the war. The young scientist closed down her research center, put her reforestation project on indefinite hold, and packed up all her things for a one-way trip to Violet Systems.
After several-month long covert meetings with Lee, Julia relocated to an apartment within the vicinity of G. Corp.'s central research headquarters. She had been stubbornly reluctant when her employer-friend initially proposed.
The young scientist loathed the notion of acting in willful treachery after being deeply wounded by it -- even if against an unsavory group or person. But she cannot let her personal emotions or values override the goal of saving innocent lives...

Furthermore, none of Julia's post-adolescence experiences required the necessity -- or even consideration - of killing for self defense, or even to save another. During her first tournament participation, the young scientist was confident she'd be capable of doing all that's necessary to save Michelle from Heihachi. Possibility of such a phobia existing never even crossed her mind, as she was so preoccupied with achieving the rescue.
Unnecessary or excessive violence was also strictly prohibited in the Iron Fist Tournament , possibly intended to be a public facade of compassion on Heihachi's part. Any hint of unnecessarily excessive force would result in instant disqualification. Lethal consequences would result in a permanent ban.

After the G. Corp. hostage incident, Julia spent some sleepless nights to self-develop a solution -- personally dubbed "TSK-16" -- that will counteract the crippling effects of her "traumatic child murderer" complications, shall similar situations ever rise again.
The young scientist managed to concoct a ready-at-hand liquid drug that temporarily imitates the symptoms of feverish delirium and physical fatigue present during her child-killer mode. The drug significantly neutralized the dysfunctional, allergic instincts of the phobia she'd dubbed "Thou Cannot Kill", which dangerously hinder self-defense and protection of herself, innocents or dear ones -- even when absolutely necessary.

Julia carried a small pouch of these counter-crippling trauma injections with her wherever she goes. Not to suppress uncontrollable impulses that may harm or kill others, but the exact opposite -- so she canlet reign raw instincts to kill in defense and effectively take lives when circumstances demand such.
This last-resort survival solution has its drawbacks, of course -- as it counteracts the psychological effects of her self-incapacitating "Thou Cannot Kill" impulse complications, TSK-16 also would immediately impair her physical functioning and mental clarity by at least 25 percent and steadily worsening.
Under its simultaneously liberating and debilitating influence, Julia would have 10 minutes tops to do all that is necessary to get herself and/or other innocents out of danger, then find a safe place to collapse and wait for the drug effects to wear off.
And like any other drugs or medication, TSK-16 must be used very sparingly -- lest her physiological system gradually adapts immunity against its effects.

The less obvious traumas from Rochefort's sexual violation vs. the child murder incident. Given that she needed to keep her screwed-up child-to-adolescenthood buried six feet under, Julia naturally refrained from considering professional psychiatric help for the childhood trauma. She initially relied on Lei and his niece as a young girl - and later herself - to deal with them.

That vast difference between the degrees of traumatic impact from her sexual abuse and her unintentional murders, which recently came to light...it felt sickeningly unfair and perplexing to the young scientist.
Was it because her own conscience thoroughly despised her for killing out of misplaced rage, that she cursed herself with incapacitating panic attacks -- due to her truly unintentional murders -- whilst leaving both her conscious and subconscious relatively intactfrom Rochefort's repugnant sexual transgressions by comparison?

On top of that, even Julia herself often wondered how she managed to forgive Michelle Chang's painful treachery and deception so quickly yet fully...even though she knew she did so with an open, clear heart.

The grudge against her adoptive mother had all but dissipated into genuine understanding, compassion, and love. On the other hand, the young scientist still couldn't help thinking bitterly of her poor long-gone stepbrother -- and stepfather -- as the root cause of all her unhappiness related to Michelle Chang.
Julia could not re-direct that resentment against Julius and Malloren to its proper source -- Michelle -- even if she tried. And in all honesty, deep down she'd sometimes find herself wishing that she could.
Even with the relieving freedom from bitter rage towards her once-betrayer, that involuntary emotional generosity, along with the relatively innocuous but immovable misplaced blame...all those aspects within her psyche made Julia feel a like a pathetic doormat, too spineless to confront the truth - which in turn, significantly chagrined her sense of pride and confidence.

Had her conscience been attempting to kill her out of contempt and hatred -- via self-loathing, poisonous resentment, and now a bizarre survival-instinct dysfunction?

Julia felt a heavy migraine creeping into her temples, and decided it was high time she stopped speculating about the subject - for today. The completely worn-out young scientist paid the bill for her half-finished brandy and went straight to sleep once she reached her hotel suite.

Upon long and deeply analytical introspection, the young scientist finally deduced that the murders she committed towards similar-age victims of her misplaced rage -- the experience was a completely abrupt and out-of-the-blue shock, full force of the traumatic aspects crashing directly and non-stop upon her all at once -- like a rapid, raging waterfall, with its devastatingly crushing force.
The nature of the Rochefort-induced trauma, in contrast, would be a gentle trickling stream instead: Carefully paced and gradual -- a systematic conditioning, almost akin to brainwashing.

Whatever harmful influences of Laurent De Rochefort lingered within Julia have been deeply ingrained -- and perhaps even embracingly integrated -- as a solid part of her psyche. So deeply, that she could not consciously sense or feel the effects - save, maybe, her then-assumed asexuality and consistent disinterest in romance and sex-related matters.

That is, of course, until Lars Alexandersson showed up as her knight in shining armor. No. Why kid herself now?Why be a coward who cannot face shameful facts about herself?
Just a few years before, another Mishima - a boy barely older than herself - aroused frighteningly foreign, yet so achingly sweet feelings - just by being there and being himself...

*****
Back to the present, Violet Systems database center...

The 21 year-old young scientist inwardly shook herself out of her train of reminisces. Dwelling in the past will only be counter-progressive, Julia. Stop it.

"I was just thinking, Mr. CEO, are you able to confide this important staff member on the latest progress of the Zaibatsu's Yggdrasil faction?" Julia suddenly asked Lars in a half-teasing tone, to sway her mind from her past.

After civil war broke out within the Mishima Zaibatsu between Lars and Heihachi, the half-Swede CEO dubbed his contending faction the "Yggdrasil", after his old military rebellion group.

Lars's good humor vanished at the young scientist's friendly inquiry. "Actually, several more of the Zaibatsu's original allies and partners have either severed ties with us, or defected to Heihachi's faction," he replied grimly.
"Apparently, many of the Zaibatsu's long-time partners and top officials considered my rules of empire-running both childishly idealistic and meaninglessly inflexible. When I tried to persuade them into following more philanthropic ends, they derided my reasoning as absurdly gainless. They claimed that only the kind, generous, yet wisely pragmatic Heihachi can rebuild the Zaibatsu into its former thriving and mutually beneficial glory."

Julia gave him a small, crooked grin. "I'm sure Lee would be more than willing to impart helpful advice, especially when it comes to besting Heihachi Mishima. My employer is definitely on the 'pragmatic' side as well when it comes to material profit and spiting competition, but he has clear boundaries he'd never cross. Otherwise, I wouldn't be working in good faith under your adopted brother at all, much less trust him as a friend."

Lars shook his head. "I actually did seek Lee out for some business advice before. His standards of 'pragmatic' management is still a tad too...extreme for me. I simply don't believe in using any kind of blackmail or other psychologically coercive tactics, in order to force any party into submission. No matter how 'necessary' circumstances may render them."

The half-Swede then sighed wearily. "And several days ago, another several dozen disgruntled soldiers of our Tekken Force military troops defected from their 'traitorous rebel' of a 'former-comrade-turned-usurper'. A good number of them were actually my ex-superiors and commanders, before I got promoted to officer status and then 'went rogue'. Many others seem to have possessed some old fear and respect towards Heihachi, so it wasn't difficult for the old man to sway them to his side.
"It was only sheer luck that the deceptive turncoats left a trace of inconsistency that tipped us off. Otherwise, we'd have been unsuspectingly navigated by them into Heihachi's trap and suffered severe casualties." Lars raked his hair with one hand, then gripped it in frustration. "We'll have to install new measures, to keep a closer eye on isolated gathering of our soldiers."

What is it with Mishima men and irony? Julia inwardly mused. Lars Alexandersson, the once irresistibly charismatic Tekken commander rogue, who successfully gathered dead-loyal Tekken force mutineers against the Mishima Zaibatsu -- of all things -- by countless dozens...

A mixture of both pride and indignation crossed Lars' face. "Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya Mishima, Jin Kazama...and even my Mishima-raised brother with none of the cursed bloodline within him - they all have no qualms with less savory methods. For ends of personal gain, pure survival, or even selfless intentions. I am of Mishima blood, but I was somehow born with a lead fist...or so Heihachi claims."

Julia cocked her head slightly . "A 'lead' fist?" She asked curiously.

"The old bastard apparently believes all Mishima men are born with 'iron fists' - in the figurative sense, that is." The half-Swede clarified.
"For ruling our empire with an iron fist, treating dissenters or slaves with an iron heart, and bashing our enemies with an iron knuckle. He stated my fist and heart was of soft metal, or else I'd have assumed full power over the Mishima Zaibatsu already, like his 'rebellious ingrate of a grandson' once did."

Lars's lips suddenly curved into an amused smile. "Heihachi actually took several minutes to reprimand me about my being the shame and disgrace of the Mishima bloodline - while we were temporarily joining forces to hold off Kazuya's sudden assault on both our factions."

Julia chuckled in disbelief, and Lars joined her briefly before continuing. "According to the old man, I'm obviously a deviant weakling in the Mishima lineage. Well, after my 'overly soft-hearted' grandfather Jinpachi, that is - whom Heihachi boasted was promptly overthrown and disposed of.
"He confided that he'd once assumed his grandson was also one, as well. But since last year, Jin Kazama impressed him by proving himself very much a Mishima - by seizing the Zaibatsu, controlling its followers with an iron grip, and wrecking terror upon the whole world."

Julia shook her head. "So Heihachi thinks that immorality and familial backstabbing is the most esteemed trait of a Mishima?"

"During our last encounter at Azazel's temple, Kazuya actually declared to me that it's written in the Mishima genes to betray and eliminate our kin - entirely for our own individual benefit." Lars informed her.

Julia crossed her arms, her expression turning humorously ironic as she stared contemplatively at the floor. "Actually, I theorize that Heihachi does care about his next of kin...in his own self-serving, perverse way. The extent of his offspring's resemblance to Heihachi's own unparalleled greed - it sounds like such is a source of twisted pride for the current Mishima patriarch." She heard the half-Swede laugh softly at her half-joke.

The young scientist looked up to face Lars again. "I've always been curious, Lars. Why have you chosen to identify with your Japanese heritage over your Swedish?
"I'm guessing you kept your mother's maiden like Kazama did, to preserve anonymity from the Mishima relatives at first.
"I further venture to assume that you dutifully trained and served in the Tekken force, patiently waiting for the opportunity to strike down Heihachi.
"Or was realizing your full Mishima power potential also part of your ambitions?" Julia teasingly asked that last question.

Lars gave Julia a rather bitter smile. "All your assumptions are more or less correct, Ms. Childress. Although my initial reasons weren't as simple or glorious as you assume. My mother birthed and raised me in Sweden - as a pure Swedish native - with zero exposure to Japanese culture, language, or identity of my birth father.
"It's just that mother and I never got along - pursuing her many boyfriends were always a definite priority over taking care of her child. Since I was 7 years old, I'd fantasize about meeting my father - who I assumed unlike mother, would love and value me like any good parent should.
"I enthusiastically learned the Japanese language and customs on my own - mostly via self-study - to 'get in touch' with my Japanese half.
"When I was a young teen, I heard about the famously immense powerful empire - both social and militarized - of the Mishima Zaibatsu. I left Sweden behind once I became of legal age, and accumulated the resources to survive in the then-foreign country of Japan.
"I managed to infiltrate the Tekken force troops by stealing one of the new recruit's uniform - which happened to be a kid named Tougou's...and who eventually became my best friend in the force.
"Tougou did try to beat me to pulp at first over the theft, but unexpectedly covered for me as another new recruit in the force when the superiors came over. Tougou later told me that the other new guys seemed too uptight and boring - I'd make a great bash-buddy to keep him amused. Yet, I...woudn't have lasted a week in the Tekken Force, if it weren't for Tougou."

Grief and nostalgia flickered across Lars's face upon his last sentence, and Julia perceived that his best friend was no longer with him.

Lars continued with his story. "I initially strived to strengthen myself to the most elite fighter in the Tekken Force, in order to impress and gain special attention from Heihachi...I'd thought that only then would I have the courage and confidence to reveal myself as his illegitimate child.
"But it wasn't long before I sensed my birth father was far from the generous, compassionate man the world made him out to be. After a while, I finally realized what a monster he truly is...and how he must be put down. I decided to remain as low-key in the force as possible, while secretly training myself to exceed Heihachi...and get strong enough to take him out when the opportunity comes."

Lars sighed. "When I first heard that Jin Kazama usurped throne, I initially assumed I could abandon my assassination plan on Heihachi.
"Three years before, I caught wind of Heihachi ordering his bodyguards to kill his once-cherished grandson on a cruel whim, and a vengeful Kazama later swearing to the old man he'll terminate all those of 'vile Mishima bloodline' out of existence - himself included. My curiosity was aroused, and I went to observe my half-nephew for the first time in a televised Iron Fist tournament fight.
"There was something blazing in Kazama's eyes that resonated with me back then, when I first saw him - I just felt some strange sense of trust, some kind of emotional connection upon first sight...although it was filled with vengeful hatred, that determined look was completely different from both Heihachi's and Kazuya's - a pure selflessness, devoid of any malice or greed."

The half-Swede chuckled humorlessly. "I'd never dreamed that the youngest Mishima would be the one to force my hand into urgently drastic action, to an outright uprising..."

Lars suddenly stopped when he noticed Julia's darkened expression, but directed not at him - she was staring at the wall almost bitterly, lost in her own thoughts. "Jaycee, what's wrong? Was it something I said that-" he started a bit anxiously.

"No, Lars. I apologize for my sudden strange behavior." Julia turned to face the half-Swede again, and awkwardly gave him a comforting smile. "It's just that what you just talked about reminded me so much about myself and my feelings.
"Like you, I felt greatly disillusioned when Jin Kazama intentionally started all those terrible wars, no matter the reasons behind them..."
The young scientist managed to catch her tongue before she blurted that she could empathize with him, when it came to emotional abandonment of mother figures. Julia wasn't quite ready to reveal the less savory truths of her past to her idol of romantic affection. Not to mention Lars himself constantly kept a friendly distance between them.

"...I'm also truly grateful that you got Lei Wulong out of danger, when G. Corp. was going after him too." Julia told him instead. "Lei has been...a most important helping hand in my darkest hours. I truly have to count my blessings, considering what you, Jin Kazama...and even Kazuya Mishima had been put through, because of Heihachi Mishima."

There was a moment of silence between the new half-foreign Zaibatsu CEO and the young scientist. Lars suddenly spoke up again.
"I've been wondering for a while, Jaycee. Did you run into some G. Corp.-related threat or danger? Since the last month or so, I notice every time I come by, you have some weary and uneasy look in your eyes. I do not want you involved if your personal stakes are becoming too high..."

Julia felt herself brightening up considerably at her Crush's show of thoughtful concern towards her. Even if she was at the same time just a touch offended and disappointed by his unintentional undermining of her fearless dedication to their struggle for justice.

The young scientist crossed her arms. "You are most thoughtful, Sir Alexandersson, but you should know that I'm not the type to turn tail from danger...especially when I could be of use in such crucial times." She didn't bother to hide the hint of irritation in her voice.
"Besides, Lee put in extra measures to ensure my safety after you got me out of G. Corp. When I agreed to continue working under him, he converted one of our office building's spacious meeting rooms into a cozy little studio home, just for me.
"I'm carefully guarded by state-of-the-art 24/7 security and surveillance, along with plenty of humanoid robot guards standing guard. It's just that I've been having strange recurring dreams lately, involving some stupid ghost or spirit..."

"Just dreams about a ghost?" Lars laughed softly "What kind of ghost would unnerve such a fearless lady as yourself?"

Julia shook her head shyly. "Just some random, weird dream. Nothing to do with G. Corp., or any other realistic threat..."

Lars half-leaned a forearm against a computer apparatus next to Julia. "If so, then if you could quench my curiosity by sharing it, Ms. Childress? I loved ghost stories and fairytales as a young child. Seems I never quite outgrew my fondness for them."

Julia chuckled in amusement but had to avert her eyes from his face, lest her face bursts from blushing. Her Crush's beaming smile was irresistibly adorable, and he almost looked puppy-eyed.
"W-well, if you must know...I get these dreams about some glowing look-alike of myself. Reminds me of a doppelganger, where you see a ghostly projection of yourself - a warning that Death is coming for you. Except the thing was wearing some long, floating sash-veil around it...just like a Tienshen."

"Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with the term 'Tienshen'. Is it some native American-based fairytale entity?" Lars asked.

"Well, actually an oriental fairy of sorts...originating from Hinduism - where they're known as 'Apsara', if I recall correctly." Julia replied. "Basically, Tienshen are some kind of female Cloud Spirits who serve the gods. Their popularity quickly spread throughout Asia. They're known as 'Tienshen' in Mandarin Chinese - literally meaning 'Celestial Fairy'."

That was how Michelle described the mythological entity anyways, when asked by a then-6 year-old Julia. The little adoptee had been admiring her adoptive paternal aunt's tea box depicting a Chinese maiden floating among the clouds, who wore beautiful ornate robes, fancy hairstyle pinned with gemstones, and a sash-like shawl around her upper arms.

"Constant dreams of yourself as a heavenly spirit? Many people would feel that's an auspicious or even divinely fortunate sign, rather than an omen to fret about." Lars remarked amusingly.

Blissfully savoring his playful attention towards a personal matter of hers, Julia eagerly began to describe the more lurid part of her dream to her Crush.

"Yeah, but in my dreams that cloud spirit-thing appeared to be- " The young scientist started, but was cut off by the gynoid, who remained completely quiet until right then.

"If you don't mind me supplementing, Ms. Childress, 'heavenly maiden', 'celestial nymph', and 'celestial immortal' are all much more conventional Western translations for 'Tienshen' than 'cloud spirit' or 'celestial fairy'." Alisa suddenly interrupted Julia in her gentle, girlish voice. "According to my Mythology Trivia database, they are indeed sky-related guardian spirits in the form of beautiful nymphs - originating from Hindu mythology as 'Apsara', and spread their way through Asian folklore via Buddhism."

Julia shot a look of subdued frustration towards Alisa, but the female combot did not notice. Alisa's eyes were closed and her system focused on extracting supplementary information for her friends, as she continued with her lecture.

Lars himself only had a resigned, knowing look in his eyes, and directed at Julia an apologetic smile, which non-vocally sighed, "There she goes again, please excuse her".

"Tienshen are indeed associated with the clouds, but are also popularly known as Divine Servants, Media, or Messengers of both worldly and heavenly supernatural powers...occasionally elevated to Goddess status in worship; Ladies of Fortune and Fate; Artistic Muses and Divine Inspirers; Shape-Shifting Seductresses of male beings; and last but not least, Nursing Guardians of Fallen Heroes.
"According to popular legend, Tienshen wearing fabric sewn from lighter-than-air material to enable flight. For example, ancient Japanese folktales describe Tienshen donning robes made from magical feathers.
"Some other Asian cultures maintain that as cloud-based fairies or nymphs, they wear garments of made from alchemically controllable wind and water elements.
"Most notably - their sash-like shawls of woven cloud and air - are used for levitation, wind-speed flight, and converting their human-like flesh into pure air or water themselves. Sometimes to punish humankind on behalf of angry gods, the shawls can create powerful storms, whirlwinds, "heavy air", or "receded air" - the latter two likely referring to air compression, or air vacuums, respectively.
"Their robes are said to be sewn from pure Hydrogen dioxide - they can also use their robes to perform water-related natural disasters, such as flooding water waves or heavy torrential rain; thick fog or mist; and solid ice crystals - as wide-scale congealment, blizzards or giant glaciers in their desired forms.
"Certain folklore even go as far as to claim that a Tienshen's blood comprises some supernatural fertility and elixir substance, and their flesh is said to possess the power of eternal youth...the magical effects of age reversal."

Like your own "eternally youthful" robotic flesh, Ms. Motor-Mouth Trivial-pedia? Julia thought dryly, more than a bit agitated by Alisa's well-intentioned but unwanted intrusion of unnecessary information. However, the young scientist managed to keep her mouth politely shut as the gynoid went on.

"Some early Western archeological studies have referred to Tienshen as Holy Succubi, Cloud Fairies, Amazons-Nymphs, or Celestial Muses of Asian mythology. They've also been compared to Angels of Abrahamic religious systems, or Valkyries of Norse mythology."

Lars suddenly looked wistful and murmured, "Valkyries...my grandmother used to tell me fairytales about them when she tucked me to bed at night."

Julia turned to him, her eyes softened with affection and curiosity at his nostalgic tone. "If you don't mind me asking...did you see your grandmother after you left to join the Mishima military?" She ventured nervously, worried that her inquiry would potentially intrude on painful memories.

Lars tilted his head upwards and let out a deep breath. "No. She died a long time before that, two months after my 9th birthday." He let out a deep breath. "Grandmother would've been sorely disappointed by my defection from my Swedish heritage." He whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

Julia tentatively touched the half-Swede's shoulder, feeling pained on his behalf.
"Lars...you went all out against the other Mishimas, once their wickedness and insanity revealed themselves. You were the main force that stopped a campaign of worldwide destruction. I'm sure your grandmother would've been really proud of what you've become."

Lars turned to look at her, and managed a grateful smile at her gesture of attempted reassurance. "Thank you...Julia." He finally used her real name. "Please excuse me. I need to step out of the building for some fresh air, but I'll be back within ten minutes." With that, he gently shrugged off her hand and exited.

Julia just stood there for a while as she inwardly swam through conflicting emotions. She felt sad and guilty for bringing up Lars's past regrets, which she failed to assuage. At the same time, she couldn't help feeling her heart soar - Lars finally and intentionally addressed her by her real name. Perhaps, just perhaps, that was a tacit sign of Lars feeling more emotionally open towards her...

"Please don't be hard on yourself, Ms. Childress. It is impossible to grasp perfect tactfulness, when sensitive human emotions are infinitely complex." Alisa's gentle voice interrupted Julia's train of merry thought.
"I myself have the advantage of sensing subtle changes in internal bodily functions, analyze them, and then hypothesize what a flesh-based human may be feeling.
"Still, I cannot imagine I'll ever be able to grasp the concept of many emotional nuances. And as a person much more inclined to use her left brain, you'd naturally have a harder time with emotions, much less emotional perception."

"...I'm not sure I follow, Alisa." Julia decided not turn to face the gynoid. The young scientist didn't trust herself to bite her tongue this time round, if she made direct eye contact at her unintentional offender.

You're in no position to lecture me about human emotions, you human-wannabe robot that would've killed Lars out of mindless 'Duty to Master Jin Kazama'. After Julia finished inwardly venting her acerbic accusations, she felt some shame and self-disgust wash over herself.
At this rate, she would be turning into a petty, infantile Mean Girl that no one would like or respect. Especially not Lars - and definitely not herself.
The young scientist already had a whole skeletal closet full of much deeper issues to painstakingly hide from, or at least compromise with herself, and eventually her unbendingly idealistic hero-knight with extreme discretion...

"After our fight against Kazuya Mishima in G. Corp. headquarters, Lars and I found that Mr. Tougou had been mortally wounded in battle. There was no means to save Lars's best friend in time.
"I could sense that Lars was filled with extremely painful emotions, and I very much wished I could help him feel better. I just didn't know the right thing to say or do." Alisa explained, then gave Julia a comforting smile. "Humans learn from their mistakes, Ms. Childress. I learn from observing human mistakes."

Feeling oddly touched and her anger largely subsided, Julia finally turned to Alisa and replied with a heartfelt, gracious smile. "Thank you, Ms. Boskonovitch. People tend to forget that mistakes and failures are simply part of a learning process. I appreciate your kind reminder."

Just then, a computerized voice informed them that download was 100% complete. Julia disconnected Violet Systems' backup system from Alisa's CPU memory bank.

"Let's go find Lars, shall we? He's only been gone for four minutes, and should still be outside the building." The unpleasant weight of irate jealousy and frustration suddenly lifted from Julia's mood. She felt a lot happier and more at ease. For the time being, at least.

Alisa smiled. "Of course, Ms. Childress. And as it is now six minutes after 5pm, Mr. Lee's board meeting should be over and thus we'll likely bump into him as well."

It turned out that Lee was indeed finished with his meeting, located Lars wandering right outside Violet Systems and went to accompany his adoptive half-brother with some casual man-to-man chat.

Julia and her employer-friend saw their ally-visitors off in front of the building. Whereas it was dry and sunny that morning, the afternoon weather had become stuffy and humid.

Right before Alisa boarded the armored Zaibatsu limo that came to fetch them, the gynoid halted and turned to face the young scientist, looking as if she just recalled something important.

"Ms. Childress...my sensors had detected a physiological anomaly just now." Alisa stared at Julia intensely. "The natural texture of your hair has undergone abnormal changes under a minute.
"Individual strands have abruptly taken on the biological qualities of flat, straight hair. But they had possessed a prominent waviness when we were inside the building.
"I neglected to analyze your hair strands until now, because I initially assumed that you had them artificially altered. However-"

"Alisa," Lars cut in impatiently, "We've got to return to the Yggdrasil intelligence center ASAP. Jaycee has more than enough other important work on her hands, too. Maybe you'll get to study her when - or if - we all have the time and she's in the mood. Let's get moving!" He gave Lee and Julia a brief nod before getting in the front passenger seat.

The gynoid directed a sulky pout at Lars's general direction, but obediently climbed into their vehicle. Alisa casted Julia one last curious glance - slightly tinged with concern - before the car's chauffeur shut her side of the door.

Then Alisa, Lars, and their bodyguard troops were sped off back to their base.

Julia blankly stared at the vanishing armored luxury vehicle, not knowing what to make of Alisa's sudden strange comment about her hair. After several minutes, the young scientist realized that Lee had been standing still and silent next to her all this time, seemingly contemplating whether or not to say something.

Julia was getting nervous by this uncharacteristic display of emotional hesitance from her employer-friend.

"Lee, what's wrong? I'm getting the feeling that you're dying to say whatever's on your mind, but you're afraid it'd hurt our camaraderie." She tried to give him an encouraging smile. "I prefer bluntness, you should know by now. And it can't be worse than what you said last time at that party-"

"-it's just another one of my humble fashion opinions Julia." Lee interrupted. Then he let out a small sigh. "I didn't want to share it at first, because I know your twin braids are more than a mere means of sacrificing tastefulness in favor of practicality. It's your symbol of cultural pride.
"But since you insist on knowing what I think, here's my candid advice - if you are going for such an elegant Godiva look with your hair, don't waste it by persisting with childishly plain and old-fashioned pigtails."

With that, Lee spun around and strode back into the building before Julia could respond.

*****
Thirty minutes later, at Violet Systems' research laboratory...

Sitting at her lab desk by herself, Julia looked down at her braids again.

Only upon Lee's casual comment did she notice - to her great consternation and embarrassment - that her braids were no longer merely waist-length, but fell nearly a half-foot down her upper thighs. Overtime at work, thoughts about Lars, and those Doppelganger dreams caused her to neglect some basic appearance-maintenance, she mentally chided herself .

Her mind must have been so occupied by those three matters that she somehow failed to notice while she washed, brushed, and braided her hair. Her thoughts were interrupted by a faint buzzing. A small mosquito had found its way into her lab, and was buzzing wildly around on the other side of the large room.
Already in a bad mood, Julia absent-mindedly flicked a small plastic eraser in its general direction, to express her annoyance more than anything.
When she later went to retrieve the eraser, she discovered that the tiny piece of vinyl plastic had hit its target flat into the wall, a perfect bulls-eye. It took a second to realize her uncanny feat. She then shook her head, telling herself that it was sheer luck.

Had Julia's mind not been cluttered by Lars and the many recent strange events, it would've occurred to her too that her selective hearing sensitivity had vastly improved - the mosquito was flying at least ten feet away when she heard it, crystal clear.

That night back in her apartment, Julia was about to cut it, and was startled that the length and nature of her bangs have drastically changed - no longer evenly halved and hanging flatly down her to her chin.

A good tuft of her long fringes now took on the shape of long, springy side-parts with oddly neat feathery layering, and fell in a very stylish, sexy curtain, curving upwards from her forehead, and down her across her cheekbone, almost veiling an eye.
My hair is starting to resemble...no way in hell! Julia quickly sheared her hair back to waist-length, and forcefully fixed her bangs to their original middle-part shape the best she could, using copious amounts of hair oil.

The young scientist couldn't muster the practical curiosity to analyze the very unusual physical occurrence; she felt mentally worn. Maybe she'll go see her physician for an overall checkup, but that'll have to wait until next week. She couldn't wait for the weekend to come.

It'd be Julia's 22nd birthday next Tuesday, and designated once-in-a-blue-moon venture outside Violet Systems' protection for a real weekend off, to hell with risks and responsibilities. Of course, she'll still be extra cautious sneaking both in and out of Lee's premises, and remain vigilant of anyone tailing her.
Besides, she's been cooped up in Violet Systems' for so long, she doubted G. Corp. would suspect her suddenly sneaking out - Kazuya's organization already having its hands full with crushing its many other enemies.

Wanting to hang out with Asuka and see Mr. Kazama - after almost two years - was one of the main reasons Julia would risk sneaking beyond Violet System. Asuka's father hadn't been doing so well lately, and Julia wanted to see him in case she never gets a chance to in the future. He'd been generously open and welcoming towards Julia since she was first introduced by his daughter.

The young scientist knew that Lee would allow any of her friends or relatives within protective distance of his corporation...anyone except those related to the Kazamas, whom his initial strong distaste towards seemed to have escalated to outright hostility.

Julia wished she could go stay with Michelle and see her adoptive aunt too, but free time was getting scarcer and her situation riskier. Going back to Arizona would take too long, and she spent all her previous birthdays visiting Michelle and aunt Tiffany, anyways. The young scientist would just have to spend her birthday with her adoptive mother and aunt over the phone this time. Then she'll make up for lost time in Arizona later on, after this whole Zaibatsu-G. Corp. mess is concluded.

Lee had thoughtfully found and pre-trained a fill-in employee for Julia's employment duties, just in case she needed a break from Violet System...or of course, for more tragic scenarios.
Her substitute wouldn't be expected to reach Julia's unusual level of competency, but he was certainly adequate as a replacement, if the situation required.

First, Julia would visit Lei and his niece for a night - after her semi-foster aunt Yanan had died from what was reported a "tragically bizarre, self-induced accident" several years ago. Then the young scientist will meet up with Asuka Kazama to spar before having lunch together. Afterwards, they'll visit Mr. Kazama in the hospital.

The young scientist cringed at the prospect of sparring with Asuka. She's been so engrossed in her professional work for so many months, she seldom makes time for even basic physical workouts - much less strengthening her martial arts and fighting skills. No doubt her younger friend will kick her atrophied ass sideways, and then give her a good earful about being a lazy bum.

"Tshk." A deep girlish female voice suddenly scoffed from outside the window behind Julia.

The young scientist spun around in alarm, and caught a glimpse of a cloaked-draped and fully masked figure clad all in white, crouched upon the 41-story ledge. However, the spying intruder leapt off into the darkness before Julia could get a better look.

What was that? Julia strode to the now-empty window, gingerly brushing her fingers across the 5-inch bullet proof corporate glass pane as she anxiously peered around the beautiful night-city scene. There was no trace of movement, save the rushing car lights from the speeding traffic in the distance. The young scientist slowly sank to her knees and closed her eyes.
A new G. Corp. operative...? No, Kazuya Mishima's assassination policy strictly orders target elimination upon being spotted. And Lee Hallucination...just a hallucination. I must be too tired from the dreams and the weird stuff happening...she attempted to comfort herself.

Still, Julia made an extra-important mental note to layer up on her disguise during her birthday vacation tomorrow...

*****
Meanwhile, in the hallway towards the Agency's East Wing Conference room...

As Jin was marched towards an unfamiliar section of the Agency base by several highly-trained Agency guards, he had his chin high and eyes trained straight before himself - expression stubbornly refusing to give any emotion away, as usual.

For the last two months or so, he saw or heard nothing from Raven or any other Agent, sans the masked psychic Agent who almost always accompanied Zafina during the latter's visit to the Agency.
Since then, any information provided would be completely sided - from him to petty messenger staff; any knowledge that Jin requested - other than broadcasted news - would be completely ignored. Even during his re-charging of Azazel-Devil suppression manacles, he would be drugged into a barely conscious state while Zafina and the psychic agent, so as to incapacitate his auditory inflow or verbal outflow.
Apparently, the Agency was attempting to brainwash him into thinking it - and it alone - were in charge of his destiny, as its captive. The Mishima boy would've laughed out loud at its efforts, if not for the fact that - given his current social and psychological state - such was becoming almost half-true.

But today's sudden change of communicative means still caught the Mishima boy by surprise. He was to participate in a conference with full mental clarity and free of any verbal restraints - which indicated the liberty to speak his mind, and possibly even negotiate. Moreover, at least one high-ranking member of the Agency would be present. Raven would be present.

Despite his mounting curiosity, Jin kept all internal inquiries hidden behind his indifferent facade as he was escorted into one of the meeting room chairs. A cursory glance indeed revealed Agent Raven leaning against the back of the center chair, his arms and legs crossed...beside him, sat the Zafina in a perfectly straight and elegant posture.
The two turned to scrutinize the Mishima boy, who merely stared back at them with a hint of brazenness.

As soon as the escort guards shut the conference doors from outside, the ninja agent leaned forward on the conference table, folding his fingers together. "Kazama. We're here to offer you some choices. Although none of which would particularly bode well for you, of course."

In spite of himself, Jin couldn't help curve his lips into a sardonic smirk, then imitated Raven's previous sitting position by leaning back and crossing his arms. "Is that so? Then by all means enumerate the options your employers have most graciously bestowed me."

"...not exactly just the Agency, Jin Kazama." The middle eastern mystic cut in coldly before Raven could reply. "Unfortunately for you, I'm the one who possesses the power to contain - and forever seal - the evil within you. So it's only fitting that I be the one to fill you in on the finer details. It's true that none of your current choices will grant you a happy ending. On the brighter side, they should allow you an easier fate. If you think of yourself...and yourself alone, that is."
"First of all, you can choose to surrender your human life prematurely - and then let your human soul move on into the afterlife meant for ordinary human souls. The Azazel-spawn that absorbed His master's power will be at His most vulnerable, the very moment your human side ends itself. Once the spawn within you is driven from the material realm, His other half within Kazuya Mishima will be weakened as well...enough for me to take him out. Along with Lars Alexandersson's Zaibatsu faction, we will indiscriminately crush to pieces G. Corp. and every other militant faction. Foes - but perhaps also old acquaintances - alike...such as old terrorist rebels, or those who preferred to take Heihachi Mishima's word over the truth."
As Jin's smirk vanished at Zafina's finishing words, her sharp stare then relaxed into her usual stoic calmness. "However, depending on the level of your cooperation and how well events turn out after your death, we may consider becoming generous about going out of our way not to harm certain foolish nuisances, whose ignorant incentives of causing us trouble are indeed quite poignant and justified. But of course..." The middle eastern mystic's lips curled up slightly. "...neither I nor the Agency can speak on behalf of G. Corp. or your half-uncle's faction. We won't go out of our way to protect them or halt any crossfire for their sake, under any circumstances."

"Another option offered to you...force your father into his Azazel-spawn form with your own, and then fight him to the death. We will create the opportunity to isolate the two of you, so as to make such a scenario possible. Then the exhausted victor - you or your father - will die by our hands, and your human souls shall also be liberated from any supernatural entanglements. As such will make things easiest for me, the Agency and I shall return the favor - by not only sparing the lives of any of Lars Alexandersson's enemies fighting under the ignorance of avenging you, but ensuring their protection - up until the world is completely free from threat of Devil, Mishima, and G. Corp again." Zafina's countenance had returned to its unsmiling impassiveness.

Jin straightened in his seat and narrowed his eyes into glowering slits. "And what if neither choices are good enough for me?" His jaw tightened. "I refuse to participate in either of your half-baked schemes to rid Devil and the other Mishima."

Raven sighed in response, while Zafina merely smiled her enigmatic all-knowing smile.

"You seem to misunderstand your bargaining position, Jin Kazama." The middle eastern mystic replied evenly. "The truth is, you have none. We could easily force you into whatever situation we deem most convenient for ourselves.
"However, if you insist on making things difficult for yourself...there is one final alternative you may consider, which will require your devoted assistance in a non-Mishima-related issue. Moreover, you shall re-take your Mishima Zaibatsu seat and help stabilize the world you once plunged into chaos - a task Lars Alexandersson has proven himself inadequate. The very big downside - and risk - in this deal is that you must stay alive and human as long as possible, until the Azazel spawn you within takes over your human soul...and by then, I'll be forced to seal it along with the Azazel spawn, condemning you in the same unworldly limbo for eternity."
Zafina paused for a minute to allow Jin to digest what she just said. The Mishima boy was now staring hard into his lap, his facade of composure and stoicism starting to fail him. "As with your first option, your most passionately loyal human friends may survive...as we won't attempt to either kill or protect them. You can see to such yourself when you win back your Zaibatsu throne, but you won't be able to step outside the base for a long while...until the Agency deems that the world is ready to accept you. Moreover, the Agency shall help you frame all your ghastly war crimes onto an unsuspecting individual, thus clearing your name. So the world and your friends - should they survive - may remember you as a wronged victim...or even a misunderstood hero." Distaste fluttered across her face as she uttered the last bit.

There was a long moment of silence. Then Jin looked up at Raven and crossed his arms again, attempting to mask his churning emotions with trained indifference. "And who would this unsuspecting individual be? If the Agency gets its hands on Alisa and brings her to me, I already have such a plan fully ready and functional-"

"-that involves a few so-called 'official' memos and a dead guy's pre-mortem voice recordings as proof. So very convincing... but still a bit too simple and convenient to be ruled out as over-coincidental to the masses." Raven cut in a sarcastic tone. "Especially for a man accused of global war crimes, and in the process carelessly allowing his father's once-shady-reputed empire rise to heroic glory. Wouldn't you say so, Kazama?"

The Mishima boy fell completely quiet in disbelief for a moment or two, before glaring dangerously at Raven. "...how did you-" He demanded tensely.

"-we didn't." The ninja agent interrupted in reply. "When Alexandersson took Boskonovitch's combot to Violet Systems for repairs, Lee Chaolan's staff somehow overrode the self-destruct protocols you had installed within her, and extracted that program...among a few other things. We managed to hack into your adopted uncle's central computer - just enough to review your 'Operation Scapegoat' installation and remain undetected. We're planning to find out how it was done within the next few days.
"In the meantime, the Agency will be embellishing your Scapegoat program with its own supplements...including live bait to pin your crimes on."

After a pause, Jin sat back again and glared intensely at Raven. "You didn't answer my question. Who is this 'live bait' you've determined for me to take my fall?"

"It's the leading lady of that 'non-Mishima' issue you'll be helping us with, should you agree to your last option." Zafina then turned to glance at Raven. "That Child-Mercenary of yours...she should be back soon, shouldn't she?" The middle eastern mystic inquired impatiently.

The Mishima boy blinked. The legendary Child-Mercenary...he had researched Zaibatsu files when Lars Alexandersson encountered his grandfather for the first time, and revealed the Tekken force rebel leader's familial ties with the Mishima. Heihachi was involved in some Scandinavian operation 30 years ago - where the old patriarch slept with his half-uncle's Swedish mother.
Further brief perusal of the operation's nature revealed it was Heihachi's brief financial support for a military corporation - fighting to weed out the many protesting groups against the Mishima Zaibatsu's overseas influence. And to extend the Mishima patriarch's human experimentation projects.
About four years ago however, almost every one operation's bases were burnt to the ground overnight, their occupants all but slaughtered.
The base's corpses revealed that many of the guards and army commanders were young teenagers, and active field combatants or soldiers-in-training comprised young children...a legion of orphaned child-soldiers. A tiny handful of the destroyed base's survivors - all non-combat staff - have all but lost their minds, traumatized into catatonia.
Before falling into shock-like coma, one elder staff managed to insanely babble out his eyewitness account: Seven kidnapped sibling children forcefully drafted into their legion, showing unusually strong combat instincts and lightning-speed learning abilities on the battle field. Several years later, three of the siblings - including the youngest - suddenly started killing each other over unknown reasons, with only the youngest emerging as victor. That youngest - a daughter who was only half-related to all her siblings, either paternally or maternally - dutifully fought and killed for her legion. And became increasingly infamous within the region, for her unusually brutal and violent methods of dispatch.
That is, until about four years ago...after a particularly successful assault upon one of the legion's main faction of terrorist enemies. Several hours after wiping out the opposing group, that young daughter abruptly went berserk over no apparent provocation...single-handedly slaughtering all of her comrades and superiors - including her remaining half-siblings - leaving alive only a meager handful of unarmed base staff - mortally shaken to insanity.
Heihachi was reportedly livid, suspecting that his old (and either deceased or psychologically debilitated) foreign partners had finally discovered a feasible solution for creating obedient transhuman soldiers...and withheld the results from him for their own advantage. The Mishima Partriarch's business advisors managed to convince Heihachi that there was no reliable proof. And more likely that one-child army was merely a particularly crafty and rebellious girl - who craved freedom or vengeance from her military owners, then managed to rally a mutinous group of like-minded child-soldiers, to turn their superiors and fellow soldiers against each other via ingenious methods. The incident was thus dismissed and dubbed the "Child-Mercenary" rumors.
Whatever the truth may be, Jin had brushed aside the curious matter to focus on his own increasingly complicating Azazel project.

"Agent Valkyrie. You sure took your time investigating a simple and relatively unguarded target." Raven's voice cut into Jin's thoughts.

The Mishima boy turned to see that masked psychic agent - the same one who often assisted Zafina during any situation that involved managing his Azazel-Devil power - had crept into the room without a sound...and more surprisingly, undetected by his Devil gene-heightened senses.

Agent Valkyrie weakly bowed her head at the ninja agent. "My apologies, Raven. I wanted to make extra certain of Julia Chang's current understanding of her own awakening powers."

The masked agent possessed a deep, raspy voice - but unmistakably one of an adolescent girl, with a fittingly whiny edge to it - and her tone leaked a child-like embarrassment which she very obviously had attempted to conceal via self-rehearsals beforehand. He had never heard the masked psychic agent speak, or Zafina addressing her by any name...the middle eastern mystic merely gave strict instructions and commented on the Mishima boy's current, in which the assisting psychic agent quietly followed or listened to. Not once in front of him had the apparently young girl agent revealed her fully masked face, or removed the long white cloak concealing her upper body down to her lower thighs.

Jin threw a scrutinizing glare at Agent Valkyrie. "The rumored Child-Mercenary...what is your connection with Heihachi?" The Mishima boy demanded in a harsh tone.

Valkyrie looked at Jin behind her mask. "I don't answer to self-deluding martyrs, especially those blindly following that manipulative bitch who calls Herself Angel." She snapped back, her sullen but haughty voice loaded with wrath-filled emotions and deep contempt. Despite her tall figure and intimidating outfit, the Child-Mercenary indeed sounded no older than a mid-teen girl, and seemed to have an attitude of such as well.

The Mishima boy raised his eyebrows slightly. He and this girl-child had one curious grievance in common.

Zafina smiled again. "Jin Kazama, let me formally introduce your...how should I put it... backfired-pawn-turned-backup pawn for the Azazel awakening problem. More precisely, both cause and result of Angel's original plan against Azazel gone awry - and the main reason why She was forced to request the darkening of your own soul and prematurely awakening Him in the first place." The middle eastern mystic cut in before Jin could open his mouth.
"Well, this young lady here is ex-backup at this point - since you hadn't failed to take that monster deity's life. The Child-Mercenary became Angel's Plan B and Her last desperate resort, in case you lost to Azazel...a rather baleful wild card among Her initial set of failproofs, which Angel had pre-devised even before your own birth - via under-the-table deals with an unearthly foreigner.
"And no - Agent Valkyrie isn't the target who'll be shouldering your war crimes. The child will merely be aiding us with both the Mishima problem and the upcoming non-Mishima issue you'll be helping us with."

"We'll be filling you with the appropriate details before we start making our moves." Raven promptly continued for Zafina. "Agent Valkyrie's true identity won't involve your concern towards Devil or your Mishima enemies. Just know she'll be an important chess piece in stopping your father and his troops, and aiding Zafina in finishing off Devil...especially if you go with your last alternative.
"The real target you'll be assisting us on the side...Julia Chang. She's a young lady only a few months your junior, and participated in every Iron Fist Tournament that you have. She, her adoptive mother, and her adoptive grandmother have had a hard grudge against Heihachi Mishima - quite some time longer than you have. She also long knew of your father's true kill-happy and power-hungry nature.
"But most relevantly - she's in fact clone of a supernatural alien species related to that extraterrestrial being called Ogre...or Toshin, if you prefer His East Asian title. She was born as a normal human being, but recent data shows her slowly reverting back into her true alien form."
Raven stopped talking briefly, in order to allow a completely silent-and-still Jin take in what was just said. The current topic about Julia Chang turned out to be intriguing enough to divert the Mishima boy's attention away, from the Child-Mercenary's mystifying background and function.

"Chang indeed belongs to the species at furious odds with Ogre's, Raven." Agent Valkyrie reported. "It's all too clear that she's completely unaware that her own species exist, much less that she is one of them herself."

Raven spoke again. "We will compel Chang into helping us exonerate your war crimes...and when she's finished her part, we shall pin all your wrongdoings against the world onto her unsuspecting self. That way, she'll no longer be able to live as herself without being prosecuted and persecuted to the ends of the Earth - thus forcing her to hide in our experimental labs and allowing thorough research...and maybe later on work for us as one of our identity-concealed agents, for however long we need her around."

The ninja agent cocked his head slightly upon seeing Jin's eyes casted downwards at his lap again, the young man's expression in a troubled frown.
"What's the matter now, Kazama? Having a fit of conscience now, of all times? Maybe if you went through your Azazel campaign actions with a bit more tact and decency, you'd be able to afford the luxury of arguing ethical-"

"-don't think you can trick me into believing you can read my thoughts," Jin abruptly shot to his feet and slammed his palms against the table. "With that kind of pathetic bullshit!"
Eyes blazing, the young man's fingers dug into fists against the cracked table surface.
"A so-called top field agent attempting to play insultingly stupid mind games with me, of all people...that senile old fart Heihachi would laugh himself to death if he knew."

Agent Valkyrie strode to Raven's side. "Says the gullible idiot who believed Heihachi Mishima trustworthy, just because his equally dumbass mother said so. And then waged pointless wars, just because a Devil-fearing piece of chicken crap told him to!" She shot back in a vehemently defensive tone.

Jin momentarily directed a poisonous glare at the masked agent, but then relaxed his expression into a taunting smirk. "Why should I heed a bitter whiny child, whose infantile psyche desperately craves for some silly adult approval? You're obviously trying to deceive yourself and everyone else that you actually possess some emotional maturity and strength - with your pathetic attempts at bullying."

"You sorry, self-satisfied piece of-" Agent Valkyrie started forward with menacing steps, before Raven threw his arm in front of her and firmly waved her back.

"What now, Valkyrie? Trying to prove Kazama's point with your unprofessional conduct?" Raven turned to face his subordinate.

"But I was just-" The masked agent started to protest in a stricken tone.

"-from now on, no more provoking or speaking to Jin Kazama - anywhere or anytime. Now get on with your next mission." Raven waved a dismissing hand at Agent Valkyrie.

The masked agent stood still for a half-minute, then managed a stiff nod. "..yes sir." She uttered in a sulky tone before hurrying out the conference room.

The ninja agent turned back to face Jin. "Well, Kazama?" He crossed his arms. "Are you going to pick one of the choices presented to you, or will you forfeit that privilege to us?"

The Mishima boy slowly directed his eye contact, until he and Raven were staring at each other. Then the young man's expression hardened with resolve.
"I need to see this mission all the way through - as long as my Devil within can be controlled. And ascertain myself that personal relationships and ethical considerations are put aside as necessary for its success."

A/N:

The Doppelgangers' appearance details were inspired by Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2, Sleeping Beauty (Disney), Pocahontas (Disney), Naruto, Detective Conan, Transformers series, Street Fighter Series and Google Image Search: "Mandala".

Alisa's encyclopedia-ish complementary rambling was largely inspired by one of her & Lars's Street Fighter x Tekken rival cut scenes. Its sole purpose was to explain core plot points.

The story's Lars x Alisa romance is meant to be completely one-sided (on Lars's part), and either will stay that way or eventually dissipate.

I chose "Jaycee" as Julia's fake first name because it is her TTT2 stage name, and could also pass as a gender-neutral first name.

Fake surname "Childress" is intended to be a pun of sorts for one of Julia's unique biological traits later on.

I selected Mr. Rochefort's/Lili's father's first name "Laurent" and Michelle Chang's OC late husband name "Malloren" - based online info on origin of name "Lars". Mr. Laurent De Rochefort will be making several more (non-significant) appearances.

Michelle Chang's Hong Kong-based lineage allowed me excuses to come up with OC Tiffany Qingcao Chang (Michelle's fabricated sister-in-law), along with alternative Chinese names for Michelle and her adopted Chang daughter. "Qingcao" - "Green Grass", "Xingqu" -- "Star-Song/Verse", and "Yongqing" -- "Ever-Green".

OCs Malloren Wright & Julius C. Wright are one-time characters who have already served their plot purposes, but will be mentioned occasionally. Both "Malloren" and "Wright" are intended to be lame portmanteau wordplay.

OC Lei Yanan will be appearing in the next chapter in more detail, then only mentioned rarely and casually after that, if at all. "Yanan" - "Second Boy/My Next Child Shall Be a Son" (I vaguely recall).

OC Lei Wuji will be playing a more significant role, and be popping up on a more frequent occasion. Be forewarned: much of the next chapter will be detailing Lei Wuji & her back story, as one of Julia's closest confidantes - as well as a foil character of sorts. "Wuji" - "No Extremes".

OC Lei Tienfa will appear in minor mentions next chapter & that should be it, except in regards to his succeeding martial arts variety. "Tienfa" - "Sent from the Heavens".

OC agent Valkyrie/Child-Mercenary will be playing a relatively important - albeit temporary and not central - role in upcoming chapters, especially in regards to Lars, his relationship with Julia, and Julia's developing character. Inspirations of the OC's personality/background came from Rurouni Kenshin, Naruto, Inuyasha, Marmalade Boy, Nausicaa,Full Metal Alchemist, Omega Tribe, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Final Fantasy VII & Spinoffs, Equilibrium, Teen Titans, Shadow of the Dragon(Garland), Assault on Precinct 13,First Blood, The Thing, Scarface/TWIY, The Untouchables, The Breakfast Club, Predator, Heathers, Broken Arrow, Silence of the Lambs, The Negotiatior, The Rundown, Soldier, Equilibrium, Salt, Black Snake Moan, Wanted, Man on Fire, Law-Abiding Citizen, Legion, Iron Man 3, Star Trek into Darkness, Automata, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Hercules (2014), Horns, & CA2: Winter Soldier.

Most of the traits I used Alisa to describe were straight from Wikipedia, except for the term "Celestial Fairy ", "Heavenly Immortal", "Ladies of Fate", "Inspirers", "Media/Messengers of the Divine", "Cloud Fairies", the alchemical magic of Apsara garments (Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Full Metal Achemist, X-Men and Raimi's Spider man III-inspired), "Blood possessing elixir & fertility powers, and Flesh capable of bestowing Eternal Youth (Princess Mononoke, Firebird, and Mermaid Saga - inspired)", "Benign Succubi" (Bishop's Sebastian - inspired), and Aphrodite's Amazons. I made those up myself specifically for my story plot.

Julia's fabricated childhood-to-adulthood story was inspired by Nausicaa, Hana Yori Dango,Young Kindaichi (original), Rurouni Kenshin, Child's Toy (Manga), Darkside Blues, GTO,Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, Bitter Virgin, Shamo, Neon Chou, Himizu,Omega Tribe, Street Fighter series, Peter Pan (Disney) Water World, Sleepers, One Eight Seven, Dark Knight Trilogy, City of God, Dogville, The King Maker (2005), Aftershock (2010), Iron Man, The Prestige, Black Snake Moan,Salt, Law & Order series, Masters of Horror series, Phantom Nights (Farris), and Shadow of a Dragon (Garland).

Julia's "Jaycee" alias partly inspired by Infernal Affairs, Bourne Ultimatum, James Bond films, and the Dark Knight trilogy.

I came across the surname "Childress" by One Eight Seven.

"Qingcao" is a name of a character from a Chinese drama TV series.

"Malloren", "Laurent", "Julius" and "Tiffany" were all selected with help from Google Search.

Lei's OC family member names - "Tienfa", "Yanan" and "Wuji" are based on various characters from Wuxia novels/TV series/Comics.

Additional Apsara/Doppelganger appearances inspired by Doraemon,Ayashi no Ceres, Saint Seiya, Nausicaa, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Mortal Kombat, Megaman X series, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, Iron Man, Witchblade (Top Cow), Transformers: The Movie, Someone to Watch Over Me (Kleypas), Buddhist Mythology, Hindu Mythology, Chinese Mythology..