Chapter 24: Shadow Ninja: Raven

On the way to the small town, both Jin and Rhima continues to walk. Rhima finally asks Jin about the Jack-8 he had defeated.

"That Jack-8 who attacked us yesterday? Does your father can even make a multiple of them?"

"Kazuya had mass produced all of the Jack-7's, Rhima-san." Jin answered and looks at her. "The Jack-8 they've sent to get you must be a reject. The real Jack-8 was sided with Nina as her right-hand man when she led the army of Jack-7's in her command."

"!"

"I'm sure I will tell you more of this, Rhima-san. Even both Xiao and Hwoarang knows what happened here too." Jin said calmly to her until both noticed the sound of the helicopter.

Lars looked to see both of them are okay as Roderick sees Rhima was fine.

"Rhima, get in!"

Both eventually gets inside as the helicopter flies off.

At the rooftop of the UN base, a blue clad American ninja in a red framed glasses had waited for the helicopter to arrive. Therefore, the helicopter arrives just in time to land on the rooftop to park. They get down to see him as Lars reunites with his former partner Raven.

"It's good to see you again, Raven." Lars greets Raven by giving him a handshake as a sign of greeting and he sees Rhima which he plainly greets him.

"So this is the girl that G Corporation had been currently manhunted?"

"Yeah, she's from the real world and she was sent here by her father, Hunyo Panganiban." Lars said as he looked at Rhima while both Jin and Roderick are with her.

"It's the same guy I've met before and now I've seen was his now grown daughter. And Lars, not just you came here with them. You have visitors to see you." Raven said reminiscing as how he met Hunyo in the real world and telling him about the visitors who came first.

Inside the UN base, Raven accompanies Lars and his rebel group including the trio and Rhima noticed a siamese cat wonders off the area.

"A siamese cat? You look lost?"

"Rhima! You're okay!" Asuka happily rushes to see her again and Rhima looked to see them along with Xiaoyu, Hwoarang, Leroy and Lili to see them.

"Asuka, and Hwoarang... how come you brought Xiaoyu and Leroy doing here and Lili is with you?"

"Yo, Kazama! I know you're still pissed after Xiaoyu had caused some trouble for what happened to Rhima." Hwoarang smirked to see his rival again as Jin looked at both of them but he remains angry to Xiaoyu because of her actions. Hwoarang eventually pushed Xiaoyu's back to apologize to Rhima while scolding at her. "You don't show your puppy dog eyes at Kazama, Xiaoyu. Just apologize to Rhima."

Xiaoyu became saddened because Jin was still mad at her and looks at Rhima who eventually cries remorsefully for her actions.

"You're Rhima, right. I'm really sorry... I'm sorry for the way I treated you so badly to think you're on to him. I was very overprotective to Jin because of my strong feelings for him. But they are right about you, you were separated with him and I didn't see it clearly and attacking you instead. Can you forgive me?"

Rhima then comes to see her and tries to cheer her up and tells her.

"I forgive you, Xiaoyu. Jin doesn't like you to act this way. You always cared about him the most and not seeing him from the inside. I hate myself to become a love rival and trying to avoid contact with him. But Jin was so persistant to chase after me because he wants to reason with me. If you're chasing after Jin, then Jin is chasing after me. It's complicated."

"..." Jin wonders off when Rhima knows what he was doing as Xiaoyu begs him not to get mad at her anymore.

"I already forgive Rhima, Jin. Please... don't mad at me any longer."

"Okay. I'm not mad at you, Xiao." Jin replies in a sigh and soon tells her. "Rhima hasn't done anything wrong and she was right about me."

"Really?"

"Can you look after Xiao, Rhima-san? I had to discuss with my uncle Lars and his ninja friend who rescued me in the desert before my devil powers are getting out of control."

Rhima looks on to see Jin goes with Lars and Raven while Roderick decided to stay with them.

"He seems like he's becoming more responsible than the last time, Rhima. And now, you're looking out on those teenage people."

"I've never seen Jin has changed since our reunion and he simply acted to Rhima like his real girlfriend." Xiaoyu childishly mad while raising her brow and Hwoarang calms her down.

"Calm down, Xiaoyu. Kazama was like that to Rhima ever since the two are very close. You don't know exactly how they get along with each other."

"..."

"So, Rhima... what Kazama just told you? He acts like a boyfriend material to you and Xiaoyu is mostly jealous about it." Hwoarang asked what Jin had asked her which she replies while facing them.

"He told me to look after Xiaoyu especially, some girls almost at her age. He knows that I'm no longer teaching elementary students. I'm currently teaching eleventh graders or perhaps high schoolers."

"What!?" Xiaoyu said surprisingly about Rhima's occupation as a teacher and Asuka became mad at Jin's asking.

"That idiot really needs to teach him a thing or two!"

"Take it easy, Ms. Kazama... she seems pretty smart enough to know more about her as a teacher." Lili said trying to stop her from confronting Jin and Leroy congratulates her.

"Young lady... I never thought that you're now teaching teenage brats. I was wrong about you about your continuous teaching on the youngsters. Congrats on that..."

"Sounds fantastic... you're teaching high schoolers. I wonder what subject you taught them?" Hwoarang smiled amusingly on Rhima's occupation as she response.

"Social Studies... I always teach them social studies so that they learned how to enjoy schooling."

While walking around the hallway, Asuka asks Rhima about how she taught the students at her world.

"Rhima, I've never seen you're a high school teacher. It's pretty rough... I'm sure you would take those bullies out with your punches."

"It would be against the school's rule book, Asuka." Rhima shrugged and Xiaoyu was relieved to see her occupation was more on Social Studies than Math classes because of her dislike of her Math teacher.

"But how can you deal with your students? Is it just like in the Mishima Polytechnic?"

"It was different. I was assigned at one of the 11th grade section that cause more class terrorism. I mostly used my head at times." Rhima said remembering the times of how she had taught them a lesson. "It's probably without guidance and not good enough to taking care by their respective parents which is why their anger leads them to bully anyone to show their frustrations. They really conceal their actions into thinking they are nice."

"So what did you do, Rhima? I know you're the smarty pants around here." Hwoarang asked in Korean language which Rhima answers his question.

"I secretly took viral videos on them and exposing their horrible actions to the principal and sometimes caught them off easy. It was already increasing its numbers on school bullying."

"Gladly that Jin and I were not involved on school bullying while we studied together at the Mishima Polytechnic." Xiaoyu childishly smiles in relief.

As they arrived, they've seen Jin acting like a spectator and realizing that the UN had made an exhibition match. He looked to see his friends including both Rhima and Roderick.

"Hey, Kazama! Still watching a street fight!?" Hwoarang arrogantly commented which Jin replies in a confident manner.

"Uncle Lars will be present on that area. They're going to have an exhibition match with the ninja agent."

"Wow! So that means us fighters... are going to be spectators for this." Asuka smiled excitedly as Leroy noticed that both men are getting ready to face off.

"Looks like both men are about to display their newly improved fighting skills because of their respective training. In case, if all of us would even used the Heat thingy during the battle."

Rhima remembers about what Jin had told her about their fights from the game is real in his world and they are not making any spoilers as she thought.

Jin was right about their actual fight. I have reasons why I don't want to watch their fights because of game spoilers. But now, I've never seen Raven before because of his ninjutsu fighting style and I think he was very well trained with his new techniques.

"Seems like it's going to take time for us to spar, don't we?" Lars smirked as he goes in his fighting stance as Raven replies.

"I'd like to test my new ninjutsu skills during my training and you'll see the results."

Raven goes into his fighting stance and both finally exchanging their blows and the fight is all about speed. Lars executes his Lightning Screw which Raven dodge the move and demonstrating his ninjutsu fighting style. Raven makes a combo work out against Lars while showing his mastery of using the shadow cloning similarly to his move, Alter Ego. The girls are surprised to see him using the shadow clone and they can't even count the numbers.

"Look at him go, there was a shadow can hit him down." Asuka smiled surprisingly as Xiaoyu complains.

"I can't even count of how many of them?"

"He used shadow cloning coming from his new moves." Rhima said pointing out about Raven's new moves as she tells them. "Since we can see one shadow clone. But he would do two more of them."

Both girls were shocked and Hwoarang was in disbelief when Rhima had said it about Raven can do two more shadow clones.

"I tried so hard to get intense training for this..."

"I think the reason Lars was chosen to fight Raven because they're both fast and agile which is why sometimes they can exchange their blows for a short time." Rhima said noticing of how the two had fought.

"Are you saying that their fight is about speed?" Asuka asked in a brash tone and Rhima shrugs to answer her question.

"You were right about that, Asuka. It's all about speed."

Raven goes on his Heat to demonstrate more of his new moves as Lars does the same. He eventually blocks when he unleashing two shadow clones at his disposal either his Heat Rush or a Heat Smash. Lars was amused to see Raven has gotten improved.

"I'm amused, Raven. You're getting more improved than the last time we had fought."

"Your fighting style hasn't changed a single bit and it seems that your Entry stances can switch in between." Raven smirked when he noticed that Lars is able to switch stances between the Silent Entry and the Dynamic Entry and taunts him. "Why don't you show me your trump card? I like to see how you can defeat me."

Lars eventually executes his Rage Art which is his Zeus Unlimited when he raises his left hand with a blue lightning embedded it to smack the opponent and turns himself into a volley of lightning to damage him then goes into a powerful downward punch into the ground forming a powerful lightning blast. Everyone watches the scene and Lars slightly looked on Raven and to his dismay, he executed the move by just dispersing Raven's shadow clone.

"A shadow clone?"

"Now it's my turn!" Raven smirks and goes to his ninjutsu hand stance by making a heavy blow at Lars, executing his Rage Art.

Raven puts his right hand on the ground forming a ninpo-like structure filled with large orbs. He soon summons a multiple of shadow clones to disperse his opponent as Raven jumps and lands a powerful leaping side kick with a red kanji embedded in it, knocking him down. Everyone were surprised to see Raven's Rage Art and they couldn't count the most hits.

"Darn it, I can't even count how many hits they put each of them out." Asuka said complaining about the number counting and Rhima comments in a sigh.

"That's their respective fighting styles."

"Hey, Kazama... do you think you can keep up with those two since they are the fastest?" Hwoarang arrogantly teases his rival Jin which he remains ignorant until he convinces Rhima. "Say, Rhima... what do you think if Kazama can keep up with those two at least now we know how faster they are to pull off their punches and kicks."

Rhima knows how ignorant Jin is when it comes to battle against speed as she answers Hwoarang's question.

"Jin is power and agile and I think he can't keep up with both of them because he's more focus on the offensive."

Both Xiaoyu and Asuka were shock to hear what Rhima speaks in her mouth and causing Jin to react angrily while raising his brow at her.

"Just shut up, Rhima-san! I can also do that too if I could!"

"Hahahaha! Oh my God, Kazama you reacted because she was right about you!" Hwoarang laughs at his rival because Rhima was right about him focusing more on the offensive and both Xiaoyu and Asuka are surprised to see him react to Rhima's comments about him.

"So this is about Jin's personality from the inside? I've never seen Jin was reacted so quickly when Rhima just spoke about him being on the offense." Xiaoyu ponders about him and Asuka happily laughs at her.

"I told you, Rhima was really good, haha..."

"She's feisty when it comes to teasing Jin. Hmmm, I might try do this to Ms. Kazama..." Lili mutters about how Rhima teases Jin about his current status on the fight.

Raven helps Lars to stand up to his feet and seemingly accepts his loss on the exhibition match until a black and blond haired woman in dreadlocks showed up to see them.

"It's all right Lars, she's my superior. She had watched us our exhibition match." Raven clarifies to Lars that woman is his superior until he wonders if her name is the same.

"Raven... is your superior had the same name?"

"You were right about that. Raven is my subordinate and I'm his master, Master Raven." Master Raven said finally introduces herself to Lars and was surprised.

"This is a coincidence, same names in different titles."

"It means business." Master Raven said and she looked at Rhima who is present with the other visitors and decided to allow Raven to join with Lars to protect Rhima at any costs. "I'll let my subordinate to aid you to protect that girl you're saying. It's petty for G Corporation would keep targeting her without a reason."

"Rhima is from the real world and she came here to restore the balance between our world and theirs. And Kazuya wants to fight her because of her powers." Lars said telling them both and Raven complies.

"All right... I'll join you. We can't let Kazuya to capture the girl."

"It was settled... I had a personal meeting with someone I knew from the UN and he's also a fighter." Master Raven allows her subordinate Raven to join with Lars's group and she immediately teleports using teleportation.

After watching the exhibition match, both Rhima and Roderick are having a fall out because he wanted to get back to the real world.

"Rhima how long do we stay here? I just wanted to go back to our world. I'm becoming concern of seeing you getting caught."

"Uncle Roddy... this is my dad's mission and I don't want to abandoned it. Don't you see my dad's life was already on the line to get rid of that Korean bomb terrorist who attempted to terrorize the Metro."

"But Rhima... I was only concerning of your safety too." Roderick said sadly and she raises her brow.

"What Mr. Mishima want me captured is just to have his trophy to humiliate my dad further and I don't want this to happen again and I won't let him to disrespect my dad."

Their arguments are overheard by Jin who remains calm because it was his fault for bothering her in their world and Xiaoyu came to see him.

"You like Rhima so much, do you?"

"Yeah. What do you ask, Xiao?" Jin answered confirming his liking to Rhima and Xiaoyu became serious to see him as she reacted angrily.

"Why do you keep concerning at her, Jin? I'm also here too."

"Because this is Rhima's mission, Xiao and I don't need your concern. She came here to restore the link between our worlds and you'd been so jealous of her." Jin said angrily to Xiaoyu while scolding her for being too concern as Hwoarang arrives to help him.

"Can't you at least put your petty romance over Kazama, Xiaoyu? It's not going to help her if you keep being envious at her. Rhima is our friend from her world and you don't have a choice."

"But..."

"No buts, Xiaoyu... We need to help her clearing her mission and I also misses the old man from their world. Just put aside on your petty feelings for Kazama and we need to team up to help her." Hwoarang strictly scolds Xiao to put her feelings with Jin aside and decided to team up to help clearing Rhima's mission.

"Xiao, I want you to do me a favor and Hwoarang was right. We have to help Rhima to clear her mission and it was her father Mr. Panganiban who asked her to do this difficult task. It was also my fault for bothering her in the first place and I didn't know that I just ruined her life in the real world." Jin said finally gives Xiaoyu a favor and admitting his faults for bothering Rhima in the real world. "I wanted to make up my lost time with her and I won't let my father put his dirty hands on her again."

"Jin... okay... I'll help you let Rhima to finish her mission. I never knew you two would even teaming up to scold me despite your rivalry." Xiaoyu said chidishly agrees while being annoyed on both are teaming up to scold her as Jin looks at them again as he thought.

Don't worry about your mission, Rhima-san. I'm trying my best to convince my rival and Xiao to help you. I'll protect you from others including Kazuya to getting their filthy hands on you.

Trivia:

*Raven finally makes his debut in this chapter as his moves with Lars are based on his reveal and gameplay trailer.

*Master Raven who is the playable character in Tekken 7 finally makes an appearance in this chapter and it reveals to be speaking with one of the members of the UN which happens to be one of the new characters in Tekken 8.

*When the characters can't count on how many hits Raven did to Lars from his Rage Art is much like in the manga/anime, YuYu Hakusho.