Chapter 12: An Aura of Fate
Jin angrily searches for Rhima after he and Lars learned from Roderick that she had left, not interested to see how stronger they were sparring. Therefore, he heard noises coming from the parking lot. To his surprise, Rhima is fighting Leroy in a sparring match.
"Rhima... I thought she had left. And the same old guy who trained her back in Luang Prabang."
Lars and Roderick came to follow him and they noticed the fight. Both Leroy and Rhima exchanging move for move as Leroy unleashes his Heat while demonstrating his moves being in tandem with other of his new moves. He eventually attempt to knock her with his cane, executing his Master's Lesson but Rhima blocks the cane with both of her hands when he attempt to take the last hit.
"You've gotten improved than the last time, young lady. If you're saying that you had stopped fighting, which means you've slacked off for the kiddies's teaching lesson."
"It was instinct..." Rhima grunted as she pull out the cane and grapples him down with a powerful gut kick.
Rhima unleashes her Heat state in which she executes most of her Wing Chun moves much like Leroy's. However, Lars and Roderick had seen the blue aura within her.
"That blue light..."
Jin was horribly shocked to see Rhima is using her power whenever she was in her Heat state and remembers the time he almost killed her when he executed his Rage Art which she had survived due to absorption.
"She used her power again. If she uses this then she will faintly collapses. She must have absorb my devil powers when I almost killed her from my Rage Art."
"What was that?" Lars said after learning of this.
Rhima then executed her Rage Art which Leroy had saw this, she quickly hits him with a right roundhouse kick and a straight kick. Her eyes changed from brown to blue as her ki glows in glowing blue and white, showing her Psychic-Assassin form. The trio were surprised to see her appearance.
"I've never seen Rhima like this before."
"Stop it, Rhima-san! Your body can't take it!" Jin tries to stop Rhima from using her power. She runs in a quick pace as she jumps Leroy from behind and hits him with a powerful heavy blow to the spine as blue ki engulfs around the elbow and heavily knocks him back with a powerful force.
Rhima reverts to normal as her necklace is revealed to be glowing the whole time when she executed the move. Leroy finally stand up and seeing her improvements in fighting.
"I'm impressed, young lady. That move can break someone's spine. I'm glad that you knocked me off with that heavy blow. That was also a Wing Chun move."
"..."
"That technique will be very useful against that Kazuya fellow. Cause they're not showing their weaknesses. Whenever they turned into demon wing folks, their spine will be their weak point because their wings are showing in each side from their backs." Leroy said giving Rhima some advice in how to defeat people with Devil Gene as well as their transformation and weaknesses and decided to leave while he slightly looked at her. "Young lady... I'll be taking my leave. And don't worry, I'm also right by your side if that Kazuya fellow would come and get you."
As Leroy leaves with Sugar following him, Rhima watches him leaving the rebel base and soon collapses by sitting on the ground. Jin immediately comes to her side as both Roderick and Lars follow him.
"Rhima, are you okay?"
"I'm okay... I was just being overwhelmed by my power." Rhima answered calmly as Lars faces her and tells her.
"You earned yourself a break. That fight with the Wing Chun master was more intense than our sparring with Jin."
Jin realizes the necklace that Rhima wears is the necklace given to her by his mother Jun and he remembers the time he treated his injuries by his mother after she allows Rhima to pummel him for his horrible actions.
Flashback:
"Mother, you also have the same power as Rhima who utilized ki. You're the only person can supress the Devil Gene like mine."
"I don't think that I'm chosen to restore the link between both worlds. This power is not compared to Rhima's." Jun said calmly as she tells her son. "You need to see for yourself, Jin. Any people in this world can be chosen by Rhima in whoever is the key."
"I'll try to see for myself, mother... That beatdown she gave me almost broke my teeth. If Xiao sees me like this, she would be so angry and make effort to take vengeance on her." Jin said decided to find out for himself in whoever is the key to Rhima's mission.
Flashback over:
Jin wants to know whoever is the key to Rhima's current mission and why she came here to their world.
On sunset in the city of Tokyo, Xiaoyu is revealed to be accompanied by Asuka Kazama who remained annoyed because her rival Emilie de Rochefort had bought the Kazama-Style Martial Arts Dojo.
"You're still finding that idiot?"
"After I spoke to Jin following our reunion after this mess is over, he remained calm and stoic. I think he was so over to that girl in the picture." Xiaoyu said and was childishly annoyed because Jin is with someone else only for Asuka to retort in her Kansai accent.
"Come on, Chinese crested. Ever since you keep searching on that idiot relative of mine, you're completely obssessed with him. How long can you get over this stupid search since you already found him."
"..."
"Cheer up, I know the girl in the picture. Do you remember when someone released us from their world, we already seen her before. And I'm always there as part of a vigilante crusade group." Asuka said remembering as how they met Rhima in the real world and Xiaoyu was shocked because Rhima and the girl in the picture are the same person.
As soon as everyone is asleep, Rhima watches the view to see the city lights. She became upset as she gets the necklace from her neck, blaming herself for joining the E-Sport gaming group.
Flashback:
Rhima was recruited by a gaming group who played E-Sports as Tekken 7 is one of the E-Sport games being played in the E-Sport gaming tournament. The group are named Devil Slayer which they participate in the E-Sport Tournaments. In the finals of the game, Rhima battles the Korean player using with their respective characters in the game. She was outplayed at first until she turns the tide while showing her genius intellect to play the game. However, she heard a voice who calls her in desperation causing her to get distracted. But she eventually defeats him, causing them to win a championship.
When the group are discussing about the next tournaments in which they referred about the global E-Sport Tournament. Rhima became upset because most people think she became crazy and showing hallucinations after hearing someone's voice. She decided to quit the group afterwards.
"Can't sleep..."
Rhima looked to see Jin who is still awake while in his sleepwear and became gloom over his appearance while blushing towards him.
"I keep looking at you being bare chested."
"When did you decide to walk away from us? It's like you don't like it." Jin said as he begins to scold her. "That look on your face, it seems that you don't want us to see how strong we had gotten in our sparring match."
"You don't even get it, Jin. When I watched you and Lars fought, it's like I was playing the whole game that you came in." Rhima said who finally raises her brow. "As a gamer like myself, I want to know more of how you guys were given some new fighting moves as well as your new powerful Rage Arts. But right now, I felt so off to see you two do it."
"..."
"I was recruited by a group of gamers that participated in the E-Sports gaming tournament where I can play the game that you came in. Because of your desperation to call on me, they think I'm crazy and hallucinating anybody which is why I quit the group so that I will be avoided not to hear from your voice ever again." Rhima said who finally scolds him while crying remorsefully.
"Rhima..."
"I wanted to quit gaming by playing as you. So that I want to live normally. Playing video games is just a hobby." Rhima said sadly while she continued whimpering about her current state. Jin lowers his head after learning that he was mainly responsible for bothering her while she lives in the real world as he thought.
She was playing the game that we came in, I was very desperate to call her because I miss her. It turns out that I had made things worse for her. They ostracized her to think she was a very crazy person just because she heard my voice. And now she decided to call it quits, I couldn't accept this...
"Don't give up." Jin finally speaks to her in English which surprises Rhima.
"!"
"Don't give up on me, Rhima-san. I did not know that I frequently bothered you from my desperate calling." Jin convinces Rhima not to give up playing as him while he continued speaking in English. "It's all my fault that I made your life turned upside down while you're living at your world."
"Why do you say about this?" Rhima said questioning him as Jin replies sadly.
"Because you're the only person who knows more about my fighting abilities and as a character like myself. I already got overpowered by my own father just to stop him from making a bloody carnage around the globe. That's why I desperately called you while you're still living at your world."
"..."
"It's because of our long separation, our lives between our worlds became much more miserable. I'm really sorry for what I've done to you." Jin finally apologizes to Rhima for ruining her normal life on her world and soon tells her while declaring to protect her. "I won't be bothering you if you go back to your own world. But now you're in my world and I've seen you again, I'll protect you from my own father."
"Jin... I..." Rhima wanted to say something to Jin until he spoke to her again.
"I heard you and your friend just spoke about the key of restoring the broken link between our worlds."
"Huh? You heard us?" Rhima said surprisingly which Jin tells her in a serious tone.
"I heard what you two were saying after I got checked and treated at this medical facility. I already told mother about this but she says that she is not the "key" to your mission."
"I told Uncle Roddy about this that I need to find someone to-" Rhima remembers how she discusses with Roderick about what person from this world is chosen to restore the broken link until Jin quickly kisses her, surprising her.
That kiss causes both of their respective auras are glowing within them until he stopped kissing her.
"The power of the Devil is connected to Rhima's ki. No way, am I..." Jin looked at his right hand and soon faces Rhima who is deeply surprised as she thought.
Uncle Roddy was right, Jin is the real key to my mission. It's because of his love to me, he wanted to repair my current relationship with him. Even Uncle Kei was telling me about this if he and I were completely in sync together, which allows us to restore this broken link between our worlds.
"Jin, you were indeed the real "key". I was hoping if you're going to protect me." Rhima said finally allows Jin to protect her while she stays in their world as he smiles and hugs her deeply. Both are soon watched by Lars after seeing the entire events as he mumbled.
"Looks like you're the real answer to finish Rhima's mission. No matter what, I won't let you two get separated from Kazuya. Because he had already sent his commander to infiltrate this base."
Trivia:
*The title of the chapter is Rhima's moniker in the entire story and as the counterpart to Jin's moniker as the Lightning of Fate.
*Some of Rhima's Heat moves are also from Leroy's during her spar with Leroy and her Rage Art is the counterpart to Jin's Polar Demon Gauge Rage Art in Tekken 8.
*Asuka Kazama made a brief appearance in this chapter while she accompanies Xiaoyu from finding Jin.
*Rhima's participation in the E-Games sports tournament during flashbacks was the same as in real-life where players from different countries had participated in EVO Japan or Esports World Championship.
*It was revealed that it was Jin who ruined Rhima's current life in the real world due to his role in the current main plot of the story of Tekken 8 which led him to deeply apologizes to her as Jin himself was in fact the real key to Rhima's mission to restore the broken link between their respective worlds.
