Jin didn't see his grandfather the next morning either. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or not by that. He felt oddly lonely, even though he was surrounded by mostly the same people as usual, and had met a lot of people yesterday. He felt like he ought to tell someone that there was a problem with school, but he wasn't sure who. That lady from the office that he didn't like? The Tekken Force Captain who wasn't about? The butler who brought him his polished shoes? Or should he wait to speak to his grandfather? He really didn't want to tell him how much he seemed to be behind everyone else.
"Is that captain taking me to school again?" Jin asked one of the butlers as he sat on the step and tied his laces.
"I do not know the affairs of Tekken Force and they do not interfere with mine."
The man even seemed a little affronted by the idea that he might know the whereabouts of a Tekken Force member. Now that Jin thought about it, he'd never seen anyone in Tekken Force armour inside the mansion. Maybe they inhabited only the environment outside, and had territorial disputes with the estate staff, like turtles at feeding grounds…
Once Jin was in the limo, he opened the compartment between him and the driver.
"Excuse me, do we have to take the limousine? Can't we take something less noticeable?"
"If we change cars now, you may be late, Master Kazama. Would you like me to get another car out the garage?"
"No… But, in future can it be a smaller car?"
"As you wish, Master Kazama."
"Are any Tekken Force coming with me today?"
"I don't believe so, Master Kazama. They were instructed to accompany you for your first day."
"Oh…"
Jin sat back. The driver took the conversation as finished and pulled them away up the drive. Jin had liked that captain's frank way of talking. He realised he didn't even know his name, so couldn't even ask for him. He spent the journey even more agitated than yesterday, leaning over a map of the school, trying to familiarise himself with it.
Jin knew when they were drawing close to the school because he could see his grandfather's golden head sticking out over the top of nearby buildings. He opened up the compartment again to speak to the driver.
"Can you drop me off here? I can walk to the school entrance from here."
"Sorry, Master Kazama, I'm under strict instructions to drive you to the gate, for safety reasons."
Jin sighed and steeled himself for another fanfare entrance. He checked his appearance in the darkened glass and put on his sunglasses. He got out the limo and glanced up at the statue of his grandfather, glaring in the sunlight. There was so little subtlety to anything his grandfather did… He wondered if Heihachi could conceive of being a fifteen-year-old boy who wanted a quiet first few days of school, where being the grandson of the Mishima Zaibatsu CEO wasn't being trumpeted to the world. Probably not… Probably wanting a low key few days was disgracing an illustrious past…
Jin headed up the steps and pushed open the main door to the school.
"Yooooo, check out this guy coming to school in a limo!"
"Is he, like, famous?"
"Isn't he the guy who broke Ikeda's nose?"
"Shit, you're right. Yo! How come you broke Ikeda's nose, bro? Not cool!"
Jin walked resolutely through the commotion, trying to keep his vision tunnelled and the distressing volume of noise from throwing him. A girl got in front of him though-
"Hiii! You're Kazama Jin, right? We're in the same class together! Want to walk with me to the homeroom?"
"He doesn't want to walk with you, Miyata! He probably already has a girlfriend."
A sea of students surrounded him and were closing in. Jin's head ached badly and his breathing became more erratic. Everyone was too close and jostling him with their shoulders. There was too much happening all at once, too much noise, too much light, too many people. He raised a hand to shield his face and tried to move forward without touching anyone. He could hear his heartbeat roaring in his ears.
"Kazama? Kazama!"
He looked up – the school secretary whose office he'd been to yesterday was calling to him from over the crowds.
"Out of the way!" she said, and a reluctant path opened up for her. When she got to Jin, he was almost thankful. "Please come with me to my office, Kazama."
Jin followed in the teacher's wake, though still caught snatches of some boy yelling-
"I'm coming to find you at recess, Kazama!"
Once in the office again, Jin immediately went to the plant by the window. He touched its smooth leaves and started to feel calmer. It was still in a sorry state, but the soil at least seemed a little more moist.
"Kazama-san," the secretary began. She didn't sound nearly so aggressive as yesterday. She sounded almost polite, even. Jin glanced at her. "I know your situation is a little different to others, and that yesterday was something of an outlier by any standard, but there are some things we need to talk about. Will you come and sit down?"
She gestured to a seat before her desk. Jin's gaze lingered on the plant, then he reluctantly came and sat in the chair.
"I've already received two complaints regarding your behaviour yesterday, not including the boy who's nose you broke."
Jin regarded her steadily, face neutral. He was deeply upset. He had tried so hard yesterday. The secretary, Miss Konishi, produced a piece of paper and slid it over the desk to him.
"Do you recognise this?"
Jin did. It was his list of turtle facts. He looked over the sheet. It was accurate, and the pictures weren't terrible. He looked back up and nodded.
"Can you tell me what this is?"
"It's a list of loggerhead sea turtle facts."
"Why did you hand in a list of loggerhead sea turtle facts to your English teacher?"
"Because the poster in the room was wrong."
Miss Konishi gave him a sharp look, like she may not believe him, but she then seemed to grimace and give him the benefit of the doubt.
"You were asked to do different work. Why did you do this instead of what you were asked?"
"I wasn't asked anything. Someone just spoke a lot of nonsense I didn't understand, and then they asked for my paper, which had turtle facts on it."
"If you didn't understand the assignment, you could have asked the teacher."
"I could have? I didn't know. The teacher just kept talking in another language."
"Did you not learn English in your previous school?"
"Yesterday was the first time I went to school."
"I understand that, but-" The teacher paused. She went back to a file she had and flicked through again. Then she clicked a few times on her computer. She turned back to Jin. "Do you mean the first time you've ever been to school?"
Jin nodded.
The woman rubbed her eyes.
"Is that also why you handed a blank sheet of paper in yesterday to your maths professor?"
Jin scowled now. "He was showing maths with strange letters in I've never seen before. I'm not sure he was a real maths teacher…"
Miss Konishi chewed her lip. She was quiet for a while, so Jin's attention slipped back to the window. He was in time to see a bird alight on his grandfather's statue. He didn't have the right angle to see what kind of bird, so tried to lean back surreptitiously in his chair to see.
"Kazama Jin."
Jin's chair legs hit the floor with a thud as he returned his attention to the school secretary.
"We're going to need to rethink the best way for you to get the most out of this school if you haven't ever been in formal education before. I will need to telephone Mr Mishima and consult him on this matter."
Jin paled. He couldn't think of anything more mortifying than someone telling his grandfather all the ways he was falling short.
"For now, you better get to your homeroom. Stick with it today and I'll see if we can't arrange something that suits you better. In future, if you're struggling in a class, let the teacher know, okay?"
That was alright for her to say. She didn't have to come in the room when everyone was staring at you and then produce textbooks that didn't exist or listen to different languages or look at writing that didn't make sense whilst everyone else treated that like it was normal.
Jin got to the classroom relatively easily today, and even whilst other people were still entering. He wandered over to the window and looked out. They were on the first floor and had a good view down onto the playing fields below.
"Ummmm, hi."
Jin glanced round. A girl with her hair in a ponytail had sidled up to him. Two friends of hers watched on from the desks a row away, tittering.
"I was wondering, do you want to sit here by the window for classes?"
Jin looked outside, then back to the girl. He nodded. The girl turned to her friends and gave them a smile.
"You can have my seat", she said, and pointed to a chair near Jin.
"Oh… thanks."
Jin sat himself down in it. This interaction seemed to have caused ripples in the classroom, but Jin really wasn't very interested in that. He ignored the girl's friends who were trying to get his attention, and instead tried to identify the different trees he could see out the window.
The homeroom teacher was a harried looking woman with large glasses and a bored voice. Jin switched off and didn't listen to anything she said. It was very hard to concentrate in this room with all its desks facing one way. He felt unsettled and agitated, and the need to move around even though he'd only been sitting down for five minutes. While he was being talked at, he got his timetable out. His first class was 'physical education'. That sounded a lot more promising than his other classes so far and at least might mean he didn't have to sit in this room the whole time. The room number though was only 'Gym 1', so Jin decided he'd be best off following other people.
As they got up to go to their first class, Jin made his way to the girl who'd given up her seat for him.
"Excuse me, are you going to 'Gym 1'?" he asked her.
She gave a small gasp. "No! That's for boys only!"
Jin faltered and excused himself before hurrying down the corridor to find a boy to follow.
Before Jin had got very far, two guys seemed to be walking very close to him, one on either side. A third guy cut across him, and begun walking down the hallway backwards, so that he could see Jin as he talked.
"Sooo, you're Kazama, right?" he asked. He had a lazy manner of speaking, full of confidence.
"Right…"
"I'm Toyama Sho."
Jin didn't have anything to say to that.
"Is it true you rock up to school in a limo each day, Kazama?"
Jin didn't like that guy's tone one bit. "Walk to the side, please. You're in my way," he said curtly.
To his surprise, Toyama hastily stepped to one side. He seemed to remember himself a moment later though and laughed a little, cocking a smile at the boys flanking Jin. He made to cut across Jin again, but Jin sped up and Toyama had to settle with matching his stride beside him.
"Is your daddy, some bigwig, Kazama? Is he some rich and famous guy?"
"Apparently," Jin grated. He should have stayed quiet, but something about this guy really pushed his buttons.
"What's he in, finance? Politics? Come on, try me – my father knows everyone who's worth anything in Tokyo – I think that limo is just for show. You like to feel like you're special, don't you, Kazama."
Jin ignored him and took a flight of stairs, following the boys in front.
"Come on! Just tell me! What's there to hide if you're not a phony? Tell me your father's name or I'll start a rumour that you chickened out, and then the whole school will know you're yellow."
Jin turned and grabbed the guy by his sweater. Before he could even think, he'd pushed the boy into the wall. Toyama's face lost its smile and Jin saw a flicker of fear lance into his eyes. His cronies flocked to his rescue, grabbing at Jin's arm. Jin's fist only tightened in Toyama's sweater, and his voice lowered.
"Back off," he growled.
Being bad at English and Maths was one thing, but Jin knew if a rumour of cowardice got to his grandfather's ears, he would be in real trouble. He could see an ounce of defiance in Toyama's eyes. This was going to keep being a problem. If only he hadn't come to school in a limousine. Jin pulled Toyama forward and then pushed him harder into the wall, so that the boy flinched.
"My father was Mishima Kazuya. Go and ask your father about him if you must, but speak to me of him again and you'll get a nose like Ikeda's."
He let go and shook Toyama's half-hearted lackeys off him. He tossed his head in irritation and stalked off down the stairs.
Have compassion, Jin. Do not wield your strengths against others. Use them only to protect those weaker than yourself. Be slow to anger and quick to forgive. Know that the pride and boasts of others are only insecurities presented to shelter injured hearts. Jin paused and closed his eyes. He put his knuckles to his forehead. His mother wouldn't like the way he handled that.
That was the first time Jin had told someone Kazuya Mishima was his father. It felt like a treacherous thing to do. He had no idea who this man was, and by all accounts there was little good that could be said of him. But Jin had just been answering a question honestly, that was all, it wasn't like he was boasting. Or was it…? He had to admit he was a little interested in the warped picture Heihachi painted. One moment, his grandfather would scathingly mention some heinous thing Kazuya had done, and in the next he was barking at Jin that he hadn't yet mastered what Kazuya had been able to. And then there was that mention of Kazuya and Chaolan being accomplished academically. It was hard not to be a little impressed by all those accolades. It was hard not to want a little of that shone on him too by association...
Jin didn't have the right clothes to change into for physical education.
Apparently, there was a special different uniform he was meant to have. The teacher went and found him a spare set that sort of fitted him alright.
"I hope you're good at baseball, Kazama." Toyama was standing behind him in a sleek athletic fit. He turned his hand, showing off a red leather baseball glove. His smug smile had returned very quickly. He seemed to have recovered from the shake Jin had given him. He stretched obnoxiously and his cronies whispered and nudged one another.
Jin froze. Baseball. He'd seen some matches on the television in the café at home, but he'd never watched a whole match before. He racked his brain, trying to remember the rules. He'd held a baseball bat before – maybe? He remembered hitting a ball with a bat on the beach once or twice at least. There was nowhere to hide his ignorance on a playing field. He couldn't put his arm round his work and secretly hand in a blank page. Everyone was going to see he had no idea what he was doing.
Jin glanced back at Toyama. He was waving at Jin with that red gloved hand, then he mimed hitting a ball, then shading his eyes as the invisible ball shot off into the distance. Jin turned away and pretended to retie his shoelace.
"Alright, welcome, boys!" The gym teacher was a tall, lean man with a cheery face. "Now, I know you were all looking forward to baseball this term, but unfortunately we've had a scheduling clash and one of the senior years needs to use the playing fields during our class time this term, so we're going to be using the gym hall." There was some collective groaning going round that the teacher waved down. "Settle down, settle down," he said. "This term we're going to be indoors, doing judo."
They were going to- huh. Jin glanced around. The rest of the class were huffing, still sore at not getting their promised playing fields. Judo. They were going to do martial arts. His chest lifted in hope. Judo had a substantial amount in common with his mother's Kazama Ryu. He chewed his lip. Don't be prideful, Jin. Do not put others down to elevate yourself.
"Scared, Kazama? I've done two years of jiujutsu, so you better be."
Only two years? That was a kind of embarrassing thing to admit.
Jin managed to not say that out loud. He simply took off his sunglasses and put them away carefully, then stood in line waiting to enter the gym.
The gym was spacious and light, with markings on the floor and basketball hoops at either end and a stack of mats in the corner. It was no Mishima Dojo, but it was still a good deal bigger than anywhere Jin had been used to before arriving at the Mishima Estate. They were first instructed to lay the mats out on the floor, tessellating so that there were no gaps, then they all spaced out there in lines, facing the gym teacher.
"Alright some warm-ups first!" he said enthusiastically.
Most of the boys looked a bit morose about the matter. Their attitude shocked Jin some, who had become accustomed to the rigid regimen of Heihachi's training. The teacher had them running on the spot first, then doing push-ups and sit-ups. It was a far cry from what Heihachi asked of Jin, or what Jin asked of himself. He followed along though, and tried to keep a relatively low profile. He made an effort to match the pace of most of the rest of the class even though it was a lot slower than his usual routine. He had time to glance around and see what everyone was doing, he realised, as they heaved and gasped through the numbers the teacher was calling out. He caught the teacher looking at him, and Jin bent to the task at hand.
"Alright, before we go any further – I know some of you are in the judo sports club, so let's divide the class up. Everyone who's a beginner stand over here, please, and those with experience, stand on my left."
Toyama looked just a little disgruntled when Jin moved to the experienced side along with him. Jin was trying very hard not to let all this go to his head. It was the first time at school he'd felt confident though. It felt so good not being at the bottom of the class and looking around clueless and anxious.
The teacher gave instructions to the beginners first, giving them some simple grappling on the floor to get the feel of. When he came over to Jin's group, Jin stood straighter on instinct.
"Alright, boys, I need a bit more of an indicator of where we are in terms of experience here. Hands up please."
They all obediently raised an arm.
"If you've done less than six months of judo, hands down, please." The teacher nodded when one hand went down. Jin kept his up. "A year or less?" A few more hands went down. "Two years or less." Each time, the teacher nodded and made a note. "Three years or less."
Toyama's hand was still up, Jin realised. Hadn't the guy told him he told him he only did two years? Toyama was glaring at him. Was he really going to pretend to have expertise just to compete with him? Eventually it was just Jin and Toyama with hands up.
"Name," the teacher asked Jin.
"Kazama Jin."
"How much judo have you done?"
"I practised a family style based on aiki-jiujutsu for as long as I can remember. I believe it has a lot in common with judo."
"Aiki-jiujutsu, interesting, yes that'll be useful indeed." The teacher turned next to Toyama. "And you? Toyama, isn't it?"
Toyama didn't look quite so cocky as he had before, but he was apparently willing to ride or die on this. "Yeah, that's right. I've done loads of judo. Like at least since I was ten."
Jin frowned. Hadn't Toyama said jiujutsu earlier?
"Some regular pros here today," the teacher said, raising an eyebrow at the posturing. "Well, how about a little sparring match before we go on. Might as well have some demonstrations. Kazama? Toyama?"
Jin said nothing. He kept his expression level and neutral. He had nothing to prove. He could see Toyama itching in his place out the corner of his eye.
"Sure, I'll spar," Toyama said, "If Kazama isn't too chicken."
Jin sighed internally. He bowed his assent to the teacher, who nodded. They were cleared a space, and the beginners moved to the edge of the mat, until everyone was sitting or kneeling cross-legged on the edge. Jin and Toyama moved to the centre of the mats. Jin bowed to him, and then to their teacher. After a moment, Toyama did likewise, then he immediately lifted his hands palm out, ready to grapple.
"Do you either of you need a run-down on the rules?" the gym teacher asked.
"Of course not," Toyama sneered. He was shifting his weight back and forth, raring to go.
"Yes, please," Jin said, calm and even now that he was in his essence.
"No striking, including punching and kicking – especially you, Kazama. This isn't aiki-jiujutsu. No touching the face or attacks to joints, keep on the mats."
The limitations thrilled Jin. This was the opposite of a lot of what he'd been doing with Heihachi. It was exciting to try out something different and work more in his old style. Jin kept his hands open, lifting one high and one lower in an easy open grapple guard. He glanced to his right. The gym teacher was stepping in close. He put a hand on his shoulder and murmured lowly to him.
"Take it easy, Kazama. No injuries."
Jin bowed his head to him. Toyama's face was livid, clearly straining to hear whatever had passed between them.
"Alright!" The gym teacher had reached the edge of the mats. "Begin!"
Despite his posturing, Toyama was wary. Jin realised he could look at him and read him: read everything about him. He moved his weight like was uncomfortable in his own body, like his limbs couldn't keep up with his thoughts. Jin didn't need to move to mark the guy. His actions were telegraphed by a thousand small tells.
Toyama tried to circle around him. Jin only turned on the spot, keeping Toyama before him. His calm posture was clearly working the guy up. Jin could see agitation and frustration stiffen his movements. Suddenly, Toyama reached to grab at him. Jin was in in a flash. He wrapped the arm extending towards him and thumped his other hand into Toyama's far shoulder, off-balancing him. He swept a leg at the ankles and Toyama went down in an instant. Jin dropped his knee into his chest, chased the wrapped hand so that he snagged the wrist, and leveraged his free arm to force on an armbar behind the elbow. Toyama writhed and tapped out. Jin released him and stood. The teacher counted the score in his favour.
"Again," Toyama said, gasping as he got to his feet.
Jin could grudgingly respect his tenacity at least. There was murmuring at the edge of the mats from the other students.
The teacher hesitated and looked to Jin. Jin nodded his assent.
They took up positions again. There was something cold in Toyama's eyes this time, something determined. Jin's eyes were bright, eager to meet that challenge.
Toyama struck out a punch for Jin's head. Jin blocked it with a hard Mishima block, taken by surprise. Toyama winced.
"Hey-! Stop!" The teacher called to intervene at the illegal strike. Toyama was already moving again. He threw a feinted kick at Jin's shins, that Jin already knew didn't have enough power in it to merit a response. Then Toyama struck high, powering a punch toward Jin's face.
Jin was ready this time. He stepped to one side, grabbed Toyama's arm as it punched, pulled him forward so that he off balanced, then Jin stepped the other way, taking Toyama's arm with him. He locked up his wrist and threw Toyama over his own arm. Toyama landed heavy on the mats. Jin planted another knee in him, this time straight into his side onto a floating rib. He folded up the arm in another armbar and glowered down at Toyama.
"Alright, break it off, break it off. Let him up, Kazama."
Jin did so. Toyama stayed down, holding his side where Jin's knee had connected.
"On your feet, Toyama!" the teacher barked.
The boy slowly got up. He righted his clothes and gave a sullen frown.
"If you can't play by the rules or listen when you're instructed to stop, then you have no place in this class. Go and get changed."
Toyama glared at Jin and slunk off the mats.
Jin passed a blissful hour training the fundamentals of groundwork after that. Initially, there was some wariness to partner with him after the display in the sparring match, but as soon his classmates understood he wasn't out to show them up and only wanted to practice holds with them, they were more amenable. Some even asked him for help when the teacher was busy. Jin was flattered, but ground holds weren't his speciality, and rigorous tutelage under Heihachi meant he'd never dare give instruction with a teacher in the room. Instead, he would ask their questions for them, and save them the humiliation he always felt when he didn't understand in other classes and was too ashamed to ask for help.
By the end of the class, he was even chatting to a few different boys and smiling a little.
"Good work class, hit the showers and get changed," the teacher said. As they headed back to the changing rooms, the teacher gave him a nod. "Good job out there, Kazama."
Jin's chest swelled with the recognition, and he felt dizzyingly happy. It was strange how much those few words could do. Not just the validation, but the sense that he was doing something right – managing to fit in and be a part of what everyone else had here. Jin had never really had that feeling before. He liked the way fellow students thanked him and gave him a smile. He liked feeling helpful. He liked feeling like he understood instructions and could achieve them. He realised it was maybe the first time that being around other people felt rewarding and exciting. He didn't immediately want to run off and hide, or take a long walk in solitude. Being near others could sometimes be kind of nice.
That night when Jin went to bed, he did not dream of the ogre and its fingers closing around his neck. He dreamed he was in the Mishima Dojo and it was filled with students. At the front was Heihachi who was instructing the class. He would walk up and down the rows, nodding. When he got to Jin, he paused and smiled and said,
"Excellent work, Jin, you're improving vastly, and in such a short space of time. I'm proud to have such a top student."
Jin looked up at dream Heihachi, eyes shining.
"Will you give me a hand today and go around correcting the form of the other students?" Heihachi asked.
Jin bowed and murmured 'yes, sensei', and took on his task joyfully. He smiled in his sleep.
