They did not understand his mood, they didn't know the reasons behind it. They remained powerless to astonished staring at him gaping, wondering what had happened to him so suddenly. They had no idea how much pain and despair he was going through at the time. They couldn't figure out what set him off like that... No longer able to sit in the chair, Jin had collapsed on his knees amid the sharp shards of pottery that were tearing his hands and trembling and gasping as if in the throes of a violent respiratory crisis: his body seemed to be at the mercy of an electric shock of very high voltage and the more time passed, the more the situation worsened.

" What the hell is wrong with him?" Lars blurted out, keeping Lee and Alisa at a distance to protect them.

" I don't know, he was checking Nina Williams' file and he started acting like this after he read that she died...".

"Nina died?" exclaimed Lee, completely in shock.

Jin's ears were deaf to everything at that time, except for those words. A heartbreaking scream born in his throat and rang through the room, making everyone present shudder. At that moment only Lars understood why there was hell inside his nephew's head.

"What a pity... I liked that woman, so resolute, so deadly... If only you hadn't both gone soft with your useless feelings of love, maybe she'd still be alive by now..."

"SHUT UP!"

He knew it! Far from being asleep, Devil had again taken possession of his thoughts and his every word was filled with hatred and sadism. He was delighted by Jin's reaction to that discovery, and his desperation had led him to come out and stop hiding for the sake of pouring gasoline on the fire.

"Who knows how it happened? After all, she was nothing less than an insignificant human with no power... She was a good killer, no doubt about it, but if she got herself killed maybe she wasn't as excellent as you thought..."

"DON'T YOU... DARE..."

"Who knows how she died? Maybe under a barrage of shots? She blew up like a firecracker? Or maybe your dear grandpa took her out... I wonder if he even raped her before he killed her... After all, you left her a great job managing the Mishima Zaibatsu when it was obvious that both Heihachi and Kazuya would try to get it back with you out of the way. Come on, did you really think a woman on her own could stand up to your family, you idiot?"

Jin threw up. He couldn't and didn't want to believe that his Nina was gone. But Devil was right: How could he be so stupid and naive not to think that his family would definitely try to take back the company and that Nina would become a target to eliminate? He had exposed her to enormous danger, but he was too focused on his fight with Azazel to care about the consequences of his request, from which of course she had not backed out because she was always so damn confident and dismissive of the danger.

"Poor little Jin... See? Anyone who gets too close to you faces a horrible end... First your dear mommy, now your beloved Nina. It's your fault, you know? How do you feel to have the burden of her death on your conscience?"

Jin didn't reply, and clenched his teeth desperately trying to hold back tears. He hadn't cried since he was a child, except when he realized he had lost his mother and now felt he was about to explode, a blind rage clouded his mind and prevented him from carrying out even the most basic reasoning. And Devil was well aware of this.

"Tell me... Wouldn't you like to avenge her?" The demon knew what keys to tap to get his attention at a time like this. " Think about it... The old man is already underground, you arrived late... But your dear daddy is still out there, alive and well, which your sweet Nina is no longer. On second thought, maybe it was him and his hated sister Anna who took her out... Also do you remember what he did to her? He used her as a lab rat and gave birth to a bastard son!"

Suddenly he felt the forces that for so long he had missed coming back and flowing powerful in him like fire in his veins. Devil was infusing them again as lifeblood, using all the pain he felt to reinvigorate himself. He knew that it was only a matter of time before something upset him to the point of making him an easy and manipulable prey again, making him believe he had become weak and then make him stronger again at the right moment. His plan had worked even better than expected, he would never have imagined such a reaction to such news. The sweetest news for her ears: Nina had always been a real pain in the ass for its attempts to control Jin's mind and it was a little sorry that she passed away not by its hand. But it didn't matter anymore, Jin was once again a slave at its mercy and could have made him what it wanted; its goal was always to recover its missing part and destroy humanity.

"Good, good boy..." the demon whispered, "Let yourself go, give in to me... We'll make them pay... We'll make them suffer..."

They could do nothing to stop him, wonder and even a good dose of terror following that excruciating scream had paralyzed all three. They watched, stunned and motionless, the big black wings sprouting from his shoulder blades and unfolding ready for flight, the tribal marks appearing on his face, his eyes becoming glassy and his canines sharp like tiger's. There was nothing they could do to stop him from leaping up and breaking through the roof to fly away in the night, to who knows where.

"JIN, NO!" Lars yelled, but it was all useless...

It was already a distant dot, swallowed by darkness.

"Oh no..." Lee muttered, observing the extent of the damage with his hands in his hair. But it wasn't the hole in the roof that worried him as much as the consequences of what happened. "What the hell was wrong with him? It can't really be that he found out his former bodyguard is gone!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," the Swede replied, pinching his nose.

"Come on, Lars, you're not gonna tell me that those two..."

"Yes."

"Look, I know Jin well enough to call him the most amorphous man on Earth, and I know Nina even better, to say that nothing can melt that woman! Nothing! She has no feelings." replied the Chinese.

"Normally I'd agree with you... but his reaction simply confirmed the suspicions I had long ago. Those two had a way of looking at each other that went far beyond the relationship boss-employee, despite they always looked flawless and deeply focused on their duties. To everyone's eyes, they were two pieces of ice with a heart of stone. But what Nina did for him, the way she protected him and never backed out of anything was way too much if she did it solely for the exorbitant pay she received. It was absurd how obvious they were bound to each other..."

Nobody said a word anymore. It was all too strange.

"The file reports that she was killed during the raids in the neighborhoods, imposed by Heihachi, she was accused of high treason." Alisa muttered. "It's not clear what happened to the corpse."

"It doesn't matter... Now the biggest problem is another one!" Lars replied, in a serious tone. " Jin has completely lost his mind and is at the mercy of the Devil's Gene again. We don't know if he'll ever come back to his senses. In fact... We don't know if he'll come back at all..."

He no longer knew where he was, nor even how much time had passed, he had continued to fly tirelessly, destroying everything in sight. The blind fury didn't show any signs of abating and prevented him from formulating any rational thought, pushing him to devastate everything in his sight. He couldn't stop and really didn't even want to, no destruction could compensate for his inner self. His heart was broken, hatred and despair clouded his mind like never before. He had lost her. He had lost the only affection he had left after his mother's death and all because of him. He knew Devil was so right, he was so focused on achieving his goal of clashing with Azazel to destroy it and then his entire bloodline, who had not thought at all that his beloved bodyguard was simply human and as such vulnerable as anyone else. Once again selfishness had irreparably compromised his yardstick and he would never, ever have forgiven himself. He continued to fly for a time that seemed endless, when he suddenly stopped by a lake in the middle of a forest that showed the devastating signs of his passage. He studied his demonic image reflected in the water, illuminated by the pale light of the full moon, making him feel even more hatred and disgust towards himself.

"Not a bad start, slave..." Devil whispered to him. "You've done a lot of damage around here. As usual, all you're able to do is destroy, I'm proud of you!"

Jin did not reply. He simply didn't have the strength, and at that point, didn't even have the will.

"I hope the warm-up was helpful, your show didn't go unnoticed..." the sadist beast laughed.

"What do you mean?" replied the boy.

"We have visitors..."

It was only then that Jin realized that the moonlight was not as bright as before and above all he noticed a creepy shadow projecting on the surface of the lake. A terribly familiar silhouette... A dark profile of two huge jagged and pointed wings, similar to those of a giant bat. Blood froze in his veins and only then understood the words of Devil. Again, his naivety and lack of self-control had catastrophic consequences. Because in front of that energy exploit, there was a man who had perceived it from the beginning and immediately understood its origin, who smiled maliciously while peering at the landscape from the top floor of the gigantic building of the G Corporation. He knew it was only a matter of time before he came out and he couldn't miss the chance for a family reunion... Devil Kazuya looked scornfully at his son, with a terrifying grin that disfigured his face already distorted by the transformation: he had lost no time, he had immediately assumed the demonic appearance and was ready more than ever to recover what was his rightful, that Gene's missing part that had transmitted involuntarily to the result of his past relationship with Jun Kazama. Oh Jun, sweet, stupid Jun... She really believed that her love would change him, that it would be enough to defeat the curse that had made him so powerful. If only he had not been thrown into that damn volcano and had known before the existence of his son would have taken care of it when he was still unable to harm! But it didn't matter anymore: Jun was dead and soon Jin, that bastard, would end up the same miserable way. The latter was paralyzed. He didn't expect such a meeting, not at that time, but on the other hand he soon realized that the growing activity of his part of the gene would inevitably warn the other half immediately. It was predictable, indeed, obvious! Yet he had messed up everything again!

"Well, well, well... The little worm crawled out, finally..."

Kazuya slowly descended towards the surface of the lake, remaining suspended a few meters above it, enough to observe Jin from above and instill even more fear. The purple skin, the crimson eyes, the horns that came out of his temples, the scales and the dragon's tail were all terrifying details, but even worse was the purple aura that gave off and made him chocke.

"Foolish for you to show yourself in such a plaetal way, especially so weak! You have always been scant, but now you look really poor!"

Jin gritted his teeth, but decided not to reply. He was in trouble... He didn't feel ready to fight against his father yet, he wasn't mentally stable and also a clash between the two at that point would devastate miles and miles of territory, causing a disproportionate number of victims: there would be nothing left, just smoke, ash and the winner, which was certain not going to be him.

"How dare you let that bastard talk to you like that? How dare you not react when you have access to full powers?" Devil screamed into his head.

"N-n-n-no..."

"NO WHAT? You dare to rebel now?"

"I can't... I can't..."

"Can't you what? Don't you want to destroy your hated father? Don't you want to eradicate your bloodline from the world? Wasn't that your plan all along? What a way to repay Nina's sacrifice..."

Jin was desperate, but Devil was furious. He couldn't tolerate such insubordination and cowardice, especially since it felt the overflowing power of its missing part a few meters from him and would do anything to rejoin it. If only his slave cooperated...

"Are you ready to end up like your grandfather and that insignificant Akuma?" Kazuya shouted, dismissively, scrounging his knuckles.

"Look who you're looking at! He, he is the evil of all evils, the one who made your mother Jun suffer and then Nina, he used them, tortured them, hurt them! And you're still just standing there?"

"S-s-stop it..."

"Let yourself give in to me and you will have unlimited powers to destroy him. Let yourself go and you will crush him once and for all. DO IT!"

"NO!"

An almost deafening silence followed. Kazuya enjoyed observing the scene, perfectly involved in their inner dialogue. Those stupid feelings would have been his ruin.

"So be it..." Devil hissed. "You chose to act like a coward... And you will die as a coward..."

Another scream tore the air, followed by a thud of Jin falling on his knees. Never in his life has he felt so weak, he couldn't even stand up. He saw his image reflected in the water and with horror he realized that he regained his human appearance: Devil had abandoned him once more and there he was again, helpless and in the presence of evil in person. The situation went from critical to desperate.

"Pathetic, really pathetic... I'm glad you took your mother's name because you're not worthy of the Mishima line! You're just a weak, low-life parasite... And parasites like you should be mercilessly crushed..."

Jin felt a shooting pain in his stomach. Devil Kazuya had lashed out at him at such incredible speed that he had not even noticed the movement and had thrown a powerful punch that had drained his lungs. Unfortunately for him it was only the first of a long series.

"What are you doing by not reacting? Fight, coward, if you dare..."

But he had no strenght left. Perhaps his end had really come, perhaps burning in the flames of hell would have been a more pleasant torture than the whole series of blows and wounds that his father was inflicting on him relentlessly and mercilessly. He felt his bones break, his bowels twitch, his skin tear, his eyes tear nonstop, yet he wasn't able to react. The torture seemed to go on forever, when Devil Kazuya grabbed him by the neck and lifted him effortlessly, paying homage to him with a scornful look and a spit in the face.

"Look at you... So brave and bold before, so useless and miserable now... You don't even deserve to take another breath..." he blew, increasing the grip on the boy's windpipe, preventing him from breathing.

He was ready to strike the final attack, when a sudden silvery glow in his son's dying gaze made him desist.

"Stop!" dipped the Devil's voice in his head. " If you kill him now, you'll never recover the other half of the gene at its full power!"

"What?" replied Kazuya.

"Yeah...It's hiding and deliberately reducing its energy in order not to get caught. We can't kill him now and so easily, we have to take him out when his side is furious, uncontrollable and powerful again. Only fighting will make his power grow excessively... Otherwise everything will be useless!"

The demon was right: it wasn't like Jin not to react and not having even a shred of residual energy to sustain a fight, whether he liked it or not, he was still a Mishima. It was obvious that there was something wrong and he hadn't waited all that time to get a mutilated victory... After all, what difference would have made him to wait a little longer... Indeed, the humiliation of that unequal struggle would have worn him out even more. Smiling sadistically, he let him go suddenly, making him fall badly on the ground. He crouched in front of him and grabbed his hair, forcing him to look straight into those fresh-blooded eyes.

"I will kill you, Jin Kazama... I will destroy you... But not today! It makes no sense to attack a creature as low as you... I'll see you when you'll be worthy of the blood that flows in your veins!" He ended by hurling his son's face at a rock next to him, knocking him unconscious.

"You're lucky Jin... But next time you won't be this much..."

The moon was again obscured by those gigantic black wings, before illuminating that scene of desolation and ruin.