He was in critical conditions when he was picked up by Lars, Lee and Alisa on the shore of that lake, surrounded by acres of charred forest. The smoke was still rising from the ashes of that disaster, drawing sinister motifs in the air and releasing a strong burning stench. Once again the bloody Mishima blood had caused enormous damage and the end of all that evil could not be seen at all... Everything was destined to be wiped out. When they laid him on the stretcher he barely breathed: they wondered how he could still be alive after all those very serious injuries suffered. They handled his body with extreme care, because they were afraid that it would fall apart, and that was actually what was about to happen. But the most disturbing thing was that if the boy was so badly beaten, how powerful had he become that monster of his father? And how much had he actually weakened from not being able to stand up to him at all? They were aware that these questions wouldn't be answered so soon, to save his life was necessary to induce him to coma again so that those terrible wounds could heal properly, In fact, they had to wait patiently several weeks with their hearts in their throats, before Jin opened his eyes and regained consciousness. Again, the three were eager to know what had happened, but the interrogation was much shorter than they thought..

"I rebelled against the Devil Gene and lost my powers." It was the only lapidary phrase to come out of his mouth to bring down a dark curtain on the already heavy atmosphere.

In that clash with his father Jin couldn't do nothing against him, he was certain that he would die, yet Kazuya had spared his life: it was obvious that there was a very specific reason behind that apparent flash of mercy that certainly did not belong to him and this, if possible, distressed him even more. That nightmare life had not ceased yet, it had sown again panic and destruction and what was worse was that he was no longer able to stop it, as he had promised to do. His recovery was slow and the days were literally heartbreaking. Every time he opened his eyes he regretted not being dead, he would rather burn in hell than continue to lead such an existence. He also began to refuse food and Lee was forced to feed it intravenously. No one would have imagined such an epilogue.

"Letting you die won't solve things..." Lars told him one afternoon, in a lapidary tone.

As usual he persisted to keep an eye on him, fearing who knows what change in him, or any instinct to escape, even if at the current state of things he himself began to convince himself that it was just a waste of time. He could have used it in a more constructive way, for example helping Lars and Alisa in their spying activities, or even better, to train to become stronger. If Jin was really out of the game, he remained the only hope to destroy the hated half-brother and was well aware that he would never, ever be able to do so.

"Dying would be so easy for you, wouldn't it? After what you did, it would be the end you deserve..."

"Believe me, that's what I wish for..." the boy replied, looking away from the window of his room.

The sun was setting behind the huge skyscrapers and the horizon was red and orange. He liked a lot to observe it from the top floor of the Mishima Zaibatsu, from above he felt powerful, untouchable, away from all problems.

"I don't doubt it. Instead you will live, because you are the only one who can pull the entire humanity out of the abyss where you brutally threw it, whether you like it or not!"

"I can't! I can't fight anymore, I told you! Devil abandoned me and..."

"And I can't believe Jun Kazama's son has to rely solely on his curse to defeat his father! What a disappointment you are, and a great insult to her memory!"

Jin fell silent. This was a low blow, but he knew he deserved it all. If only his mother was still alive, she wouldn't even recognize him as her own flesh and blood, no matter how charitable and kind-hearted she was. He felt he had crossed every humanly acceptable line and probably would have disgusted Satan itself for how low he had sunk.

"It doesn't matter... I'm only able of hurting people around me. First my mother, then..." he could not finish the sentence because it died in his throat, but the Swede didn't escape the suspension of it. Who else could have hurt to make him sad?

"Then...?" urged him to continue.

But Jin remained silent, unable to go any further; the thought of it hurt him even more than the wounds he suffered. He closed her eyes trying to hold the tears back and kept his teeth shut until his jaw hurt, while chaos exploded in his head. It was terrible to live like this, it was horrible to think that he was still there and she was gone because of him. He hid his face between his hands as the sobs shook him from head to toe. Lars was clearly amazed by such a reaction, but decided to turn the knife in the wound to try to extract as much information as possible. He almost felt sorry for him, but now he couldn't afford it. Not now that after afternoons on afternoons spent in absolute silence he could finally see a crack in that armor of muteness and indifference.

"Stop whining, you're pathetic! That's not how you help the people close to you get out of this mess! React, for fuck's sake!"

Yeah, he was totally right: he was pathetic.

"I don't care anymore...She's dead too..."

She. Of course! The former captain of the Tekken Force mentally cursed himself for not getting in there before: perhaps because even in front of the disbelief of Lee and Alisa faced with the reaction that Jin had weeks before, which had cost him dearly, he was the only one who understood what had triggered it, he himself struggled to conceive of such an eventuality. It was just too absurd, too... Impossible. And yet...

"You're talking about Nina, aren't you?"

The boy's body went from trembling with sobs to motionless like stone. He stared at the void and didn't even dare to meet his uncle's inquisitor gaze, a little out of embarrassment, but certainly also for the enormous pain he was experiencing. That silence, however, was an eloquent response that left no room for doubt; he decided to continue to strike the iron while it was hot, so he took a chair and dragged it to the bed where the grandson was resting, turning it with the back facing him and sitting astride, so as to comfortably support the elbows and observe him better.

"Spit it out, Jin. What happened to her?" he asked point-blank.

Obviously the didn't answer, but his body spoke for him: although he stubbornly fixed an indefinite point on the adjacent wall, it was clear that he was suffering and that in his head a river of thoughts was rushing furiously. Dark thoughts, sad thoughts, tormented thoughts, all feelings that Lars could almost see flowing through his vacuous gaze. He knew that he felt somehow responsible for that woman's fate, he knew that it had been a blow harder than what his father would strike him. But he had to understand, he had to know...

"Jin! Talk!" he ordered him so harshly in his voice, that he managed to reawaken him.

Jin sighed heavily over and over again, before letting go exhausted on the mattress. He continued to avoid the eyes of his former captain, but finally decided to open his mouth.

"It's my fault... It's all my fault."

"Explain yourself."

"She... She... if only I hadn't involved her in this, she'd still be alive, she'd still be safe. I should never have asked her to replace me, I should never have asked her to protect me... I should never have..."

"... Fall in love with her?" the Swede concluded.

Even his own words resounded absurd to him, and yet he had finished that sentence straight off, as if he could read his nephew's thoughts like an open book. The silence that followed was again eloquent.

"Why did you bring her into this mess if you were aware of the risks?"

"Because I was stupid, Lars. Because I knew once I got rid of myself and Azazel and the Devil's Gene with us, Kazuya and Heihachi wouldn't be a threat anymore. I was sure that they would destroy each other, that yes, they would still be dangerous, but just two very ordinary human beings. I felt that I had accomplished an infallible plan in every way, so I asked Nina to take over Zaibatsu and start making up for all the horrors of the war I had to unleash."

"How could you possibly think that Nina, a ruthless, calculating killer like her, could fix such a disaster?"

"You underestimate her. Indeed Nina was a professional assassin and she was damn good at what she did, but she didn't kill anyone in cold blood if they didn't really deserve it. She had decided not to accept any more assignments aimed at killing innocents, but only the scum that populated the suburbs of this city."

It hurt him to talk about her in the past. The doubtful look of Lars in front of his words risked to make him lose his temper, on the other hand who was Nina to decide who was worthy to live, or not? Yet from the day she decided to spare Steve's life, something in her had changed. Despite being his accomplice in that bloody war, she had nevertheless done everything possible to limit the damage and try to save as many civilian lives as possible.

"She was a brilliant woman, the smartest person I've ever met. Precise, methodical, far-sighted and incredibly wise. You can be as skeptical as you want, but if there was even one person who could clean up my mess and do it right, it was her."

"And why would she accept such a task? How could a killer like her provide for thousands and thousands of people who lost everything because of YOU TWO?" replied, emphasizing the words "you two" to mark his skepticism.

Jin smiled bitterly as a matte veil began to obscure his amber gaze.

"Because I asked her as my last wish. She has always known everything, she has always supported me, she has never abandoned me, regardless of the risks, she has always been dismissive of danger, sometimes to the point of making me die of fear. I begged her to do it and she agreed."

A flashback crossed the soldier's mind, when in front of that huge chasm that had swallowed Jin and Azazel, Nina confessed to him that she had been aware of her boss's plan. He still remembered her empty gaze and the tiredness and resignation with which she had spoken those words. In fact, it was only now that he understood that it was her best attempt to mask the pain of loss, because a woman like her, Nina Williams, would never promise anyone to restore the balance of things, not even for all the gold in the world. No, the only reason she had to accept was necessarily different. Lars sighed, finally everything was clear to him. He understood why Jin would never, ever heal. It was not defeat that had destroyed him morally, it was not humiliation, it was not the wounds he suffered: in his chaos he had found someone who kept him afloat, who kept his human part alive and who prevented his demon from taking over, someone to trust, someone to love. Someone who had then lost, causing him an even bigger wound and impossible to heal. The loss of that woman weighed on his conscience and prevented him from concentrating, from wanting to heal, from wanting to fix things. He kept him anchored to an abyss of pain and pity, devoured him day after day like a fierce beast, tormented his conscience and massacred him with guilt. Yet Jin was the only one who could solve that disaster. He had to come to his senses and to bring him back to life, he had to risk everything.

"Months ago, when you were still in a coma, Nina tried to take you out of our custody..."

Jin tore his eyes at hearing those words, literally gaping. At least Lars knew he had his attention.

"She did. She broke in with the Tekken Force soldiers, trying to rescue you and take you away. Going through the Mishima Zaibatsu database the other day, it turned out that that mission was assigned to her by Heihachi, who had already taken over the company. However, updates from Nina and three other soldiers didn't match the report. The next moment she claimed she couldn't find you and that you had probably been moved elsewhere, she was watching you through the glass."

There followed a silence charged with tension and awareness on both sides.

"She was going to free you and hide only God knows where, she would never let Heihachi harm you. She didn't sell her out to him as we thought at first, she wanted to protect you. That is why, following that failed mission, an arrest warrant has been issued for her. I'm sure she knew she'd be blacklisted, yet she didn't hesitate for a moment to risk her life trying to save you."

"She...Wanted to... Protect me."

Jin had always been a special boy. As a young man, he masked his insecurities behind a frowning expression and iron will, but Jun Kazama's son had a big heart, unfortunately obscured by his curse as the years passed. He had endured so much and suffered the pain of hell, he had lost his mother, his house, had known on his skin the betrayal of his grandfather and the contempt of his father. But thanks to Nina he had managed to see a glimpse of light in all that darkness, a breath of oxygen after an apnea lasted years. That unexpected confession had the power to shake him from head to toe. His eyes began to tarnish, while a couple of mischievous tears managed to escape and turn his cheeks. How long he had to keep his feelings bottled up, good or bad. For how long had he forgotten what it meant to feel human? Only she had managed to give him the strength to go on. A hand on his shoulder made him wince, bringing him back to reality. He couldn't believe his eyes that it was Lars himself who made that physical contact and that now he was staring at him with such intensity and firmness that nailed him on the spot.

"I know you loved her, Jin. And I know she loved you. You tried to eliminate evil by generating more evil and you realized that you had failed, it was not the right path. Nina risked everything to get you a second chance, and she gave up her own life in the attempt, so don't let her death be vain. Honor her sacrifice, for once choose to defeat darkness with light, not the other way around. Admit your mistakes, dry your tears, get back on your feet. You owe it to her, Jin. You owe it to the whole world. It's time for you to get up. Jin Kazama, it's time for you to reborn!"

And while those words made inroads into the mind and heart of the young man, who closed his eyes, ready to start from scratch, thousands of miles away, a pair of cerulean irises opened wide in throes of excruciating pain. The heartbreaking scream that tore the silence of that night made the boxer burst into the woman's room, noting with horror a huge pool of blood that was forming on the mattress.

"NO, NO, NO, NINA..." he screamed in panic.

"Help me St-teve, it's t-t-t-ooo e-e-arly now..."

"Carry on, carry on, I'll call an ambulance! Breathe, breathe deep, everything will be fine..."

But she couldn't hear those words. Everything had become dark...