Chapter 23: Surprise Visit
For a while, they continued to drive on the highway. Eventually, they took an exit and entered a very suburban area. Jin's eyes grew big despite the desperate situation they were in as they passed mansion after mansion. They were all surrounded by a ridiculous amount of land and greenery.
"Where are we?" Jin finally asked breaking the dead silence that had fallen in the car
Kazuya only afforded the other a glance. "The rich person's part of town—where people have too much time and too much space."
"Is that a bad thing?" Jin asked curiously.
"Not for our purposes. Better that we're somewhere remote."
Jin noticed that Kazuya drove considerably slower here. In fact, he seemed to be driving the speed limit, not that Jin was complaining. He simply continued to gaze at all the beautiful manor's that they passed by. It was a long trip. Jin counted about three hours before they arrived at the right place and it was the largest building of all. The driveway was hard to miss. It made their car seem small and insignificant as they drove up it.
"Wait a minute," Jin said as something dawned on him, "You mean people live in these buildings?"
"Sometimes," Kazuya said nonchalantly as he stopped the car and climbed out of it.
"What do you mean sometimes?" Jin continued in his line questions.
"As in sometimes," he replied exasperatedly. "Some people actually have families and live here; others just buy something like this to come to from time to time—like on vacations. It just depends."
"Oh," Jin said simply as he looked up at the mansion they had stopped at.
Now that he was outside and closer—the house seemed even bigger than before. They had parked as close as they could to the front. The garage door was closed so there was no way in telling if the entire place was abandoned or not. It was very quiet—something that Jin was used to as he grew up in a very remote place, but there had been more wildlife. Here, there were no noises whatsoever. It was as if everything was dead. It was a bit spooky. Jin stayed close to his father as he proceeded to walking to the front door. He had not taken out Jun just in case his plan was a bust and the person he wanted to see was not there.
The only thing Jin heard was his and his father's footsteps as they trudged up the slight incline to the door. Kazuya knocked on the door vigorously for a few seconds and then waited. He thought better of it and used the doorbell instead. Jin looked around a little uncomfortable with the heavy silence. There was a nice tulip garden to his right with varieties he had never seen before. They seemed fresh and kept up. His eyes brightened a bit.
"Dad, look, that garden. Someone has to be here," Jin said indicating what he had been looking at.
Kazuya looked over at it as well, but then shook his head, "An easy task for a gardener. The owner wouldn't have to be here for that."
"A gardener?" Jin asked.
Kazuya looked up to the sky in desperation—he did not feel like answering more questions at this point and it was as if the heavens had responded as the door opened up before them like magic. He expected to see the person who opened it immediately, but Kazuya saw nothing at all except a very spacious and decorative front area. Kazuya hesitated in walking in not knowing if he was really invited or not. Then he heard his voice—the unmistakable voice of Lee Chaolan.
"Come, welcome friends!" Lee said upon entering the front room. He bowed to them thereafter. When he came back up again from his bow, he was able to take a good look at his guests. One of the people he thought he'd never see again was standing right in front of him as if he hadn't been declared dead all those years ago. "Kazuya!?" His pleasant voice had turned to complete and utter shock.
Never once had Kazuya thought about the fact that to the rest of the world he was dead. His mind had been elsewhere—like how was he going to get help for his woman. For once, Lee seemed to be at a loss of words. To add to the surprise, there was, of course, Jin who perhaps no one knew even existed. But for what it's worth, Lee regained his composure quite quickly. It must have been clear to him that Kazuya could only have shown up for something quite urgent indeed. They weren't exactly on good terms with one another. In fact, they hated each other's guts. At this moment in time, however, that didn't matter—the shock was too heavy in the air.
"There's someone who I need you to help," Kazuya said steadily. He spoke as if they were on good terms and that asking for the other's help was a customary occurrence.
"And who might this someone be?" Lee asked at once keeping his voice calm and measured. In reality he was quite mystified, intrigued, and distraught all at once. A million and one questions had already formed in his mind.
"Jun," Kazuya replied.
In an instant, their sibling rivalry was placed on hold. Jin could hardly read either of their expressions. It was as if he wasn't even in the room and that he was simply an observer. Jin had tried to get more information out of his father about who this uncle could be, but he had gotten almost nothing. It was hard for Jin to believe that this well-dressed, silver-haired man could possibly be related, not even remotely. But judging from their reactions to one another, they must have known each other.
"Jun?" Lee repeated, "But what—
"It'll all be crystal clear to you when you see her. Follow me."
Kazuya ordered Lee just as he would order him around, Jin noted. Instead of protesting, however, Lee simply followed his wayward brother sensing the urgency in his voice, Jin along with him. As soon as Lee was shown Jun's condition, his expression became quite serious.
"What did you do to her?" Lee questioned the other in surprise, "What happened?"
He was already moving forward to lift her silent form from the car. Jin could tell that his father had wanted to do as much, but he surrendered to his brother's stern look. Never had Jin seen his father back off from anything with a simple look. Was there guilt there in Kazuya's eyes, Jin wondered.
"She should be at a hospital. Not in the back of some car you've obviously stolen from somewhere. What were you thinking? Her wounds—
"Listen, I can't explain everything right now," his voice had become tinged with desperation. "Can you help her or can you not? As you can see, there isn't time for bickering."
"Yes, Kazuya, of course I can help her—you leave me no choice."
Lee's eyes hadn't left Jun as he took her inside. Kazuya was close behind and Jin followed. Jin thought he had stepped into a palace. They climbed a long spiral of stairs before they stopped at a spare room that Lee placed her in. And without a second thought, Lee was on his cell calling people. Jin could see the worry now in his father's expression.
"What are you doing? Who are you calling?" Kazuya demanded of the other.
Lee barely gave the other a passing glance. "Last I checked, I am no doctor. If you want her to survive, then we'll need an expert."
"But—
"What's more important, Kazuya? Her life or hiding from whoever it is you're running from?"
His tone had become quite judging and it only served to piss off Kazuya even more. "Fine, I don't care anymore—just call who you need to."
"Good. I'm glad you've started acting rationally again."
The only break in their arguing came when Lee was actually on the phone talking to someone. Besides that, they seemed to be at each other's throat constantly. Jin was quite put off by it. There his mother was, silent and unmoving, and all they could think to do was fuss. Jin had never seen his father hate so passionately, but he always suspected his father was quite capable of such things. His mother kept him on a leash, Jin realized, and now that she wasn't there to make a difference—he was completely unruly.
At some point, they broke it off. Kazuya simply left the other's presence after being told to leave Jun in his care. In the end, Kazuya had no choice but to acquiesce as he could do nothing more for Jun. Jin watched his father leave down the steps, but he had no desire to follow him just as it had been in the dream—Jin opted to stay by his mother's side.
Lee had said nothing to him the entire time he had been there—he'd been too preoccupied with his father. Jin watched as the other paced about for a bit and then his eyes turned to the child as if it was first time he had seen him.
"You must be Kazuya's son," Lee finally said.
Jin could only nod. He wasn't sure how Lee had guessed right, but then remembered that he and his father shared quite a few physical traits.
"Apologies for my poor introductions. I'm Lee Chaolan; your father's brother—adopted if you wanted to know."
That explained everything. Lee held out his hand so that the other might shake it, but Jin was certainly not well versed in such manners and only stared curiously at his outstretched hand. Lee could only smile at this. He bent down a little and took up one of Jin's hands and shook it. Jin was completely puzzled by the entire exchange.
"There. So next time someone holds their hands out to you, you won't make them feel so stupid."
Jin looked up to the other when his hand was released. "You're weird."
His remark had exactly the opposite effect on the other—Lee was clearly amused. "Well, you know what they say about first impressions. I think I may have botched mine with you. This is certainly not how you expect to meet your brother whose come back from the grave—I'm sorry you had to be witness to such childishness. Now, aren't you going to tell me your name?"
"Jin," he said simply.
"Jin Mishima, then."
He shook his head. "Jin Kazama."
"Ah, I see. So you were raised by your mother." It confirmed to Lee, that Jin was indeed the result of Kazuya and Jun's consummation—as odd as that sounded. Then again, he doubted they had ever been married. "You must be very worried right now. I can't imagine how it must have been for you with your mother in such a condition. I've called the best and nearest doctor to come and help her. She's in good hands."
"I know," Jin replied confidently.
This drew surprise from the other. "You know?"
"Dad always takes care of Mom."
He hadn't been worried, Jin realized. Since she had gotten shot again, worry was something he hadn't done. He knew that his father would do everything in his power to help her—and he was just along for the ride. Jin simply could not imagine his father allowing her to die.
Lee smiled at the other once again. It was only then that Jin became a little anxious in the other's presence. He smiled far too often and his voice was unnaturally pleasant. Lurking there beneath the surface was something sinister. Jin sensed that he could be quite ruthless and that he was only protected from it due to his age. He'd already seen it when he lost his composure with his father. How quickly he had regained his practiced expressions didn't sit well with Jin.
"It's never good to talk behind someone's back so I won't disagree with you on that point."
"You don't like Dad very much," Jin stated plainly. "You don't think he has her best interest in mind."
"At heart," Lee corrected the other.
Jin looked confused at the other as if he had spoken in a foreign language.
"You don't think he has her best interest at heart," Lee clarified.
"At heart, then," Jin said tiring of the expression already, slightly embarrassed that he had gotten it wrong.
Lee paused before he responded probably thinking whether he should respond truthfully or curb his obvious dislike for Kazuya. "I suppose you want a straight answer. I don't. I have no idea what kind of trouble your father is in, but it has placed Jun into harm's way. That's the worst thing you could do to a lady especially one who you claim to love."
"It's not his fault."
"You don't have to make excuses for him."
"I'm not," Jin said in nearly pleading tones.
"Alright," Lee said putting up his hands in a small truce. "Alright," he repeated for good measure. "If there's one thing I don't want to do, it's make you feel uncomfortable here."
Just then, the doorbell rang. Lee left the room to go and greet the person who had arrived. Jin supposed that it was the doctor. He walked over to the bed to look down at his now frail mother. She still breathed, but it was barely perceptible. Jin hoped the doctor could work a miracle this day. She had become paler than usual and even Jin could tell that she was dying. He should have started tearing up, but for some reason, the feeling never came over him. He simply kept looking at her, unable to turn away. He felt nothing. He felt empty. He felt utterly alone.
His father was off fuming somewhere unable to keep his anger in check especially with his mother in the condition she was, his mother was now unreachable and Lee was not only creepy but a complete stranger. Jin didn't know what to make of anything. All he could do was stand there.
The doctor came and he hadn't even noticed the man's presence even if he did come in with a lot of medical equipment and he made all the noise in the world. Jin didn't hear when he was told to leave until someone touched his shoulder. He looked back to see that it was Lee with an expression that vaguely reminded Jin of concern.
"Come on now. Let the doctor do his work. He's doing a special favor for me by not letting the local police know about your mother's condition."
In the end, Lee took Jin's hand and led him out the room. He closed the door behind him quietly.
"Jin, I think rest would be good for you right now. I've set a room up for you."
Jin didn't even bother looking up at the other; his very presence was setting him on edge. His voice was deceivingly gentle. Nothing he ever said had sounded sincere as if he always spoke contrary to what he was thinking. Lee continued to lead the other and this time he took him to yet another spare room, large and unused. Jin looked back to the other when he left his side.
"Get some rest, alright?" Lee repeated. "You've been through a lot."
Only when Lee was out of sight did Jin take his advice. Immediately upon his head touching the overly soft pillow, he fell asleep.
/
Jin found himself roaming the halls endlessly. There were three floors and he continually got lost on each of them. He'd gone to see his mom several times, but each time there was a nurse there who told him his mother needed peace and quiet for now. No one would tell him how she was really faring. Jin had a knack for telling if an adult was outright lying to him—he could hear it in their voices. They just didn't want him to feel bad. It was too late. The flood of emotions did not come yet. Somehow they were kept suspended perhaps in the belief that it was impossible for his mother to die this way. They had been so close to achieving the family they were only now piecing back together.
Pessimism began to set in on the third day of wandering around. What kind of relationship did his father even have with his mother? Were they even right for each other anymore? The whole time Jin was there, he hadn't heard from his father—he seemed to be hiding. When he asked the nurses, they couldn't tell him. He hadn't even gone to visit. Lee was absent too for that matter—a fact he was glad of.
He went outside at some point, tiring of the inside. He still couldn't believe how large the backyard was. On any normal day, Jin would have been compelled to run around endlessly in such a large space. Now all he could do was look at it with fascination. Eventually, he sat down and tugged mindlessly at the grass, but then stopped himself when he thought he might have been ruining the yard that way—it seemed well maintained.
"So there you are."
There was that too pleasant voice that Jin had not wanted to hear again so soon. His head turned to him as he stepped out of the house.
"I've been looking all over for you. You never seem to be in your room."
This time there had been real concern in his voice which surprised Jin. "Sorry," Jin replied. "I couldn't sleep. They won't let me see Mom. Where's Dad?"
"Your parents seem a bit worse for wear. I want to discuss at length what exactly has happened with your father, but he seemed comatose—I couldn't for the life of me get him to wake. That doesn't seem to surprise you," Lee noted at the end looking at Jin's unchanging expression.
"He's been that way for a while now; low on energy. Mom did something to him."
"Ah, everything is not as it appears to be. I would hate to trouble you for an explanation—"
"I'll tell you everything."
"Only if you feel that you can."
"It's no problem," Jin reassured the other. It would be a nice diversion to doing absolutely nothing.
"Let's do so over dinner. It doesn't appear as if you've been eating much these past few days."
Jin knew better than to say that he simply didn't feel like eating right now. Lee would probably insist that he did and it was probably for the best anyhow so Jin simply obliged the other.
Jin followed the man through the maze of a house to the dining room where he already smelled food. Just the smell of it sent his stomach growling and Lee must have heard it since he gave him a knowing look. Lee took a seat on the left side of the table and Jin took a seat across from him. Jin turned his head when a brunette lady with high heels clicked towards the table and set down their bowls with hot steamy food. Jin looked at the woman curiously. She gave him a welcoming smile and Jin smiled back courteously though his heart wasn't in it.
"Who's she?" Jin asked when the lady left them to themselves.
"My cook," Lee said simply.
Jin was mystified by this. "So she's your wife?"
"Wife?" Lee said with a laugh. "Not by a longshot. What has your mother been teaching you?"
Jin stared and gave him a confused look.
"Nevermind. She's been my cook for three years now—and she's proven to be quite good at it."
"Okay," Jin said simply still not fully understanding her purpose.
Before Lee could say anything more, a different woman than before walked very quickly into the room holding a small stack of papers. She wore thin reading glasses and quite a bit of makeup. The blonde seemed concerned about a prototype. Jin didn't understand it all, but Lee was obviously interested in what she had to say. Jin simply watched their exchange as he dug into the food. To be fair, this was the best teriyaki chicken he had ever tasted.
"So, Jin, how has life been?"
Jin looked up at him. He couldn't even begin to answer that question.
"I see. Too complicated to put into words. It comes to my attention that we don't know very much about each other—sad, but true. One would think an uncle would know more about his nephew than just his name and that he's really shy around strangers. I'd like to change that before you dive into your thrilling tale of how you happen to arrive on my doorstep."
"I'm not shy," Jin declared to the other.
"Oh? You're not?"
"I just don't like you very much." Jin couldn't believe he had managed to say as much, but perhaps his father was rubbing off on him.
Lee seemed unfazed by his comment. "And what have I done to garner your disapproval?" The pleasantness had not left his tone.
Jin was quiet after this. He couldn't quite put his thoughts into words. Jin could see the other studying his face perhaps trying to glean the answer from his expression.
"I confess, I'm not very good with kids. The last time I came in contact with one, they ran off crying to their mother. I always seem to have that effect."
Jin stuffed more food into his mouth stopping himself from saying something completely rude. He didn't want to get on the man's bad side. Jin had a feeling it might rival even that of his father.
"It's alright; you can speak freely here," Lee said, "No need to walk on eggshells for my sake. I promise I won't get upset."
Jin struggled to hear the sincerity in his voice. Lee ate slowly before he continued.
"Well, perhaps you're a little put off after my candid disagreement with your father from the other day. I apologize. We do have a history of rubbing each other the wrong way—a very long history."
"That doesn't matter," Jin said before the other could say any more.
"Really?" Lee said in an unbelieving yet pleasant tone.
"People don't like Dad. He rubs a lot of people the wrong way—in fact, I think he makes a habit of it." Jin could tell that the other was quite amused by his reply. "Even my mom sometimes doesn't like him. I'm not even sure if she likes him anymore right now. It's not surprising that you don't like him as well."
"You are very observing, aren't you? In any case, I'm glad that's not the reason. I'd have no way of recovering myself in your eyes otherwise."
"I can't say why…I don't like you. I just don't."
Still Lee seemed unperturbed. "But at least we can speak civilly. That's always a start.
"Do you live here alone? I never see anyone here besides you."
"Basically. I do have plenty of assistants on my payroll who visit me on a regular basis and I do on more than one occasion allow them to stay here if they like, but as for actually living here, it is just me."
"That's weird."
"Yes, well as you've stated before, I am a 'weird' person—although I've never been called that before. Would you like a second helping, Jin?" Lee asked as he saw the other finish off his bowl quite efficiently.
Jin could only nod since his mouth was still full. As if on cue, the brunette came back in and took his bowl. It took only a minute to come back in with another one. Jin began on it immediately.
"Reminds me of when I was your age, freshly plucked from the streets of Japan. I could empty a bowl so quickly. It feels like ages ago."
Jin looked up at him curiously so the other continued.
"Well, if you want to hear about boring old me," Lee said pausing.
"You grew up with Dad?"
"Yes, I did. We were friends once. I was around eleven when I met him."
"What did you guys do?" Jin asked finding it hard to believe that they had ever been friends.
"Oh, normal kid things—pickpocketing, stealing candy from side stores, playing pranks on unsuspecting folk."
Jin's eyes grew big. "Really?"
Lee laughed a little at the other's expression. "We didn't have a lot of morals growing up and I was worst of all. Nothing the way I'm sure Jun is raising you. I was just a kid off the streets and your father had the unfortunate luck of having Heihachi for a father. It was all in good fun. It didn't last as you know."
Jin waited for the other to continue when he paused again.
"Heihachi, your grandfather, thought to adopt me. I thought he was being unbelievably charitable. I'd never met the man—I just thought he must have been awfully caring. How wrong I was. Kazuya and I we were pretty ecstatic about the new arrangement. I was the brother he never had. We could live together and never be bored. It started out that way, but then things began to change. Without me even noticing, everything became a competition. I realize now, it was instigated by none other than our loving father. That was sarcasm," Lee said when he saw the other's look. "Kazuya, well he's always excelled at combat—he has a special knack for it. But I always wanted to be better. He crushed me every time I thought I was getting better. Our rivalry grew to hate. Anything we did together became a contest and anything we said to each other became an argument. Eventually, when we were old enough, we simply parted ways."
"So you hate him now."
"I don't hate him…Well, maybe I wish I didn't. I know about your father, Jin—what Heihachi did to him. I hadn't been there to protect him. Kazuya was always better than me at fighting, but part of the reason was that Heihachi pushed him and pushed him past his limit most of the time. I didn't actually matter to Heihachi—I was just there to fuel Kazuya's need to become stronger. I think I chose to ignore it, but Kazuya was mentally terrorized every waking minute to always be the strongest, the best. No matter what the cost. I remind myself of that, but not enough. I look at what he's done and I'm disappointed, I'm hateful. And even now, I still want to best him in fighting. Old habits die hard."
"He's not so bad, you know," Jin said in a small voice. "I guess he's rough around the edges, but…"
"It's easy for a child to forgive, isn't it? But you've noticed it too haven't you—adults are different."
"They are."
"Maybe when you're an adult, you'll understand."
"I don't think I want to understand."
Lee gave him a smile that suggested that he wouldn't have any choice in the matter. Jin saw the other in a new light—not quite as strange as he had seemed before. If his father had once been friends with him, then perhaps he could do so as well.
"So, Uncle Lee, do you want to hear how we all ended up here together at your doorstep?" Jin asked feeling confident enough to tell the story.
"Why, of course."
And Jin started from the very beginning when he first witnessed his mom crying to herself at night. Once he got started, he couldn't stop. It was well into the night when Jin finished and somehow he had been able to keep Lee's attention the entire time.
"So all of you are just trying to get back home," Lee said neutrally when he was done.
"That's the plan."
Lee purposefully kept the questions he had formed in his mind to himself. They weren't ones that Jin could really answer anyway. The child seemed optimistic and he didn't want to be responsible for dashing his hopes and literally his dream. Personally, he believed the relationship Kazuya had with Jun was ephemeral at best. Jin had simply guilt-tripped both of them into liking each other somewhat once again after so many years. They weren't in love anymore; that had fizzled out years ago. There was only lust now—the very thing they had initially built their relationship around. How could something like that survive? Kazuya wasn't going to change any time soon and Jun was simply too good for him. Lee always thought that she deserved someone better, someone who was capable of real, lasting love. He couldn't tell these things to Jin. Jin only saw something broken and wanted to fix it. Kazuya was always going to be his father and Jun was always going to be his mother. In his mind, they were supposed to be together. In Lee's mind, he thought it would be a very tragic day indeed if that ever happened again.
/
AN: For all those who are still reading and didn't lose interest long ago—I'm flabbergasted, honestly. Feeling a bit guilty for taking so long with another chapter. I'm just glad I was able to finally do it for my dedicated readers. I hope you've enjoyed. I don't want to make promises, but I am working on the next chapter as we speak—(or more like, as you read). Wasn't sure how portray Lee here for the longest time, but for some reason I always thought he'd be horrible with kids.
