Amber eyes scrutinized the bright white of the environment in which they were, failing to associate it with any of the memories crammed in his memory. He was aware of even the most basic action, he distinctly perceived the air filling his lungs and coming out immediately after, the blood flowing in his veins, the bones weighing in his body, the heart beating in his chest. He felt reborn and totally alien to the reality in which he was standing. Where was he? What had happened? The only thing he could remember was him groping in the dark and the voice of Devil annihilating him. He thought he was dead, but he realized he wasn't, maybe he ended up in some kind of limbo... Where was he? In heaven? Impossible, he never deserved to end up there.

As his brain connected the various pieces, he also realized the environment around him: a white room, no windows and then monitors, computers, cables... When he tried to move he realized he was not only wearing a heavy straitjacket, but was also tied to a bed from head to toe.

"And so you're back among us!" a deep voice exclaimed, coming from his left.

That tone was familiar to him, and turning his head in the direction from which the sound came, he found himself in front of three equally well-known individuals: his war machine robot, his former Tekken Force boss and his uncle. She watched them in silence, letting his mind gradually unlock all his memories.

"How are you feeling?" Lars asked again, in a firm tone.

Yeah, how was he feeling? Physically fine, maybe just a little sore. Mentally? Too early to answer such a question. He distinctly perceived the watchful gaze of the former Tekken Force officer pointed at him waiting for him to give further signs of life, probably of his eventual misstep. It was obvious that he did not trust him and could not blame him, but lying on that bed could hurt very little, since he was tied from head to toe by thick belts with huge buckles. Lars' impatience was increasing exponentially, eager for answers, explanations, information. How did he survive the fight with Azazel? How did he end up in the Middle East? What was really behind all this war? I how, where, when and why? The frustration at seeing his nephew not utter a word as he continued to contemplate the ceiling was eating him alive.

"What, did the cat eat your tongue?" he commented sarcastically, trying to shake off that state of apathy.

"Lars, don't be impetuous. On the other hand, our dear Jin has just awakened from a long coma. How do we know if he got any rest or not?" Lee replied, approaching the boy with a mocking smile.

And so was he! Obviously! Who but his father's half-brother could be at the forefront of opposing the entire Mishima dynasty, despite the fact that he owed it his life? Lee was a strange guy and Jin had never been able to understand him properly: he was mostly indifferent to him, until Violet System had opposed the Mishima Zaibatsu when he was in charge, for reasons unknown to him. His uncle was certainly not what one could call a hero at the service of justice like Lars, surely he had interests to redeem. He soon realized that a third pair of eyes was watching him with impatience and even more precision, as they were not human: even Alisa, his former robot who had betrayed him, was there in trepidation. Boskonovitch had just failed to use his daughter's body as a base for a ruthless android, that damned latent consciousness had cost him a precious ally. There were three of them and everyone wanted answers from him. Yes, but about what? He did not remember anything about what happened and even if he had been certainly not the right people to whom to make certain confessions. Yet it was useless to pretend and try to keep a tone when you were more inert than the stone: they were the ones who had the upper hand.

"What happened?"

Lars' eyebrow rose of his own accord, painting on his young face a perplexed and at the same time frowning expression.

"What do you mean with wgt happened?" he replied coldly.

"It means exactly what I said: what happened?" was the dry answer of Jin, who looked grimly back.

"Don't try to be ironic, otherwise..."

"Lars, Lars, Lars..." Lee interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. " Can't you see he's in a state of confusion?"

"Affirmative. His vitals are stable, but his brain activity is slightly confused. It's like he has amnesia, just like you had after the explosion in the lab, Lars."

"Do you remember who you are, boy?" asked the CEO of Violet System, checking it from head to toe.

"I know who I am and who you are! I simply have no idea what has happened in the last..."

Yeah, the last few? Days? Months? Years? How long was he trapped in that limbo? Time never passed and he had no sincere idea what had happened meanwhile in the outside world.

"Three months. Well you did miss a lot of things, I wish I could say pleasant, but unfortunately they are far from it."

Somehow he knew it. While he was fighting his demon in the oniric dimension, in the real world terrible things had happened. He perceived anxiety and anguish distinctly in the air and knew that all this was caused by the consequences of his actions.

"How about we untie you from there, you stretch your legs a little and we explain everything to you over a nice cup of hot tea?"

"WHAT... Have you lost your damn mind, Lee?" Lars said, incredulous. " Do you want him to kill us all?"

"Relax, my friend! I am sure that our Jin is so greedy for information that he would lay a finger on those who can provide it to him. On the other hand... We're all here because of you, aren't we?"

What the hell was wrong with him? He was all of a sudden senile?

"Seriously, you don't want to..."

"We are inside the complex of Violet System that is my property: if it blows up I will take full responsibility." answered the man, passing elegantly a hand between his silvery locks.

"How can you trust a man like him, grandson of Heihachi Mishima and son of..."

"Even in your veins flows the blood of Heihachi Mishima and I know very well WHO gave birth to Jin together with that beast Kazuya. Guards, untie him and let him get up!"

Lars watched in disbelief as Lee's staff prepared to carry out those unhealthy orders, wondering what was going on with him all of a sudden. He was convinced that he was on his side and that he hated Kazama as much as he did, and instead here he was, ordering to untie him, make him stretch his legs and even offer him tea!

"What does this mean?" the Swede hissed, dragging Lee to a corner of the room.

"Relax, my dear! We can trust him!" he replied softly.

"How can we trust him? Do you realize that you are treating as the best of guests the worst of criminals? He has been spilling blood for almost a year all over the world and you treat him like a prince?"

"Lars..." the Chinese replied, nailing him with a firm look. " Don't think I've lost my mind! I know you're right, I know what he's done, and believe me, I'm the first person who wants to make him pay. But he's the only one in the world who can fix the mess he's made and send our demon brother straight to hell. He's not gonna hurt us. Mishima blood may flow through his veins, but he was raised by a Kazama, and believe me, you have no idea how much his last name influences him. Trust me on this!"

The former officer remained silent weighing word for word. It was a fact that Jin was the only candidate to destroy that damned dynasty. What did it matter now his last name? Lee was an eccentric and prone to making the wrong connections, but at what price? However, he had little choice and decided to rely on what he hoped to be common sense. He watched with serious eyes the young raven-haired man get up and take his first uncertain steps, like a child learning to walk. There was something innocent in him, even though his past said otherwise. But how long could he remain pure of heart when was born under the sign of the devil?

"Do you prefer a classic Japanese green tea, or are you more of an earl grey type?" Lee asked his nephew.

"Get it over with, Lee!" Jin replied, swirling his shoulders in an attempt to loosen the tension.

"Grumpy are we? A good tea can never be refused, even if at this point I think a chamomile would be better!"

"Instead of wasting time on pleasantries, you better explain me what's going on!" Jin said, more and more eager to know the truth.

"Everything in its time boy, also it is not a story that can be summarized in five minutes, if you allow me I would like to get comfortable! We're all in this together now..."

The young Kazama did not answer, he simply continued to loosen the muscles made numb by the coma. He tried to maintain a neutral expression, but probably with poor results because inside of him was boiling the desire to know everything and immediately. Yet Lee was right: he needed them and probably should have made compromises: he never imagined that his plan would fail and find himself in such a situation, to the point of having to ally with those who had hindered him. He didn't hate them truth be told, he would not want to hurt them, but whoever stood between him and his goal automatically became an enemy, an obstacle to be eliminated. The only people he really hated were his father, his grandfather, Ogre, and Devil. He would never have wanted the evil to live within him, even if the latter could have given him huge powers. His flood of thoughts were inturrupted by a waitress who made her entrance into the room pushing a huge silver cart, with cups of steaming tea and pastries of all kinds. He could not help but raise his eyes to the sky in front of another manifestation of eccentricity.

"Very well, sit down and suit yourself. You haven't eaten solid food in months, you must be hungry..." the Chinese chirped, sinking into his leather chair.

"I'm not hungry." Jin replied, becoming impatient.

How long did they have to drag it out?

"Meh, you don't know what you're missing... Anyway... Are you ready?"

The grim look he received in response was an incentive to stop teasing him and get to the point.

"It pains me to start with a question, but it is necessary! What is your last memory?"

His last memory. Jin frowned, rummaging through his memories in hopes of finding a precise answer.

"Me facing Azazel. I run towards him as he attacks me and I punch him in the chest until he falls into the chasm from which he came."

"So basically what Lars told us. Very well!" Lee replied, blowing on the cup. " Well, boy, I'm sorry, but what happened to you after that or what you did, it's a mystery to us, too!"

"So why do you have to waste my time?" Jin hissed back.

What kind of game were they playing?

"Our story begins a couple of months after it happened when our Lars found you dying in that market in the Middle East. Do you remember this episode?"

Middle East? And how did he get there? He shook his head bitter to see how many holes in his memory he was finding.

"I see. Well, it all started a week after you supposedly disappeared: although you disappeared into that cliff with the monster behind you, none of us in our hearts believed you were really dead. There was too much calm in the air, even the G Corporation had remained silent in the shadow, probably waiting for your return. And since trusting is good and not trusting is better, Raven in agreement with Lars had decided to send troops into the desert to find you."

Raven? What did that spy have to do with him now?

"The search spread like wildfire: for ten days they proved fruitless, but then a soldier reported that he had found you half buried in the dunes. Raven came in to check, and it was actually you. He gave the order to retrieve you, too bad that you thought, or better, that monster inside you thought, to exterminate those innocent men and disappear who knows where again."

The boy looked horrified, at the thought of having continued to reap victims even after destroying Azazel. Why didn't he just burn in hell?

"Oh yeah, and before you also blew up a helicopter because the monster has been acting up. Anyway..."

The Chinese stopped for a moment to enjoy the terrified expression of the boy: it wasn't like him to be so cynical and contemptuous, but if he wanted to leverage the shred of humanity and compassion that he hoped Jin would still have, he had to use some brutality.

"Having caused quite a ruckus you certainly did not go unnoticed in the eyes of the Tekken Force, which, by the way, was back under the control of your dear grandpa. It wasn't long before they found you staggering and limping in a market in the Middle East. But lucky for you, our Lars was smarter and better than them, and he managed to save you and get you here safely."

Jin looked up and for the first time since his awakening, he met his uncle's. The Swede, for his part, tried not to show his feelings to him, but the hostility he harboured towards him was evident from his irises.

"As you well know, old Heihachi was a tough guy, he didn't like to lose, much less get in his way. So he didn't give up and sent all the artillery to try to recover you."

"And...?"

"Well, you're here with us! So I dare say he failed again. Even though I lost the headquarters of Violet System."

"When you say "was"... you mean..."

"Heihachi is dead. You father Kazuya finally killed him."

No, it couldn't be. It wasn't a pain that the damn tyrant was finally finished once and for all in the other world, but it was terribly distressing that Kazuya got the better of him: his grandfather was surely dangerous , probably the strongest human being that ever lived on earth. But his father was a hundred times more lethal, because he shared with him the same curse that caused that disaster. With the only and substantial difference that he was married to it.

"Needless to say that this epilogue of your family feud is incredibly dangerous for all of us. Kazuya will stop at nothing and no one will stop until he gets what he wants, which is to dominate the whole world. And we're all pretty sure that right now he's feeling more powerful than ever, so much so that his part of Devil's Gene is so bursting that it woke yours up, too, that's why now you're out of coma."

Jin remained silent reflecting on that frightening conclusion. Everything was spinning in his head. It could not be a mere coincidence that his awakening corresponded to the fall of Heihachi and the triumph of Kazuya. What now? If he thought he had faced an insurmountable problem with Azazel, this was proving to be far more difficult. Perhaps, however, it could really be the key to closing that matter once and for all. Devil's words came back to his mind, when he called himself old as Earth... and there had to be a way to defeat him! The most drastic way had not worked anyway, perhaps the key to destroy it was to take a completely different path: to eradicate he had unleashed wars, shed blood, crushed lives, generated chaos and pain, all to give it a material form to face and defeat. But what if he had been off track from the beginning? If the only way to get rid of it was through peace and not war?

Yes, the peace! The one he had always dreamed of, but who, objectively speaking, had never done anything really concrete to bring it back, or at least nothing conventional. How could he hope to obtain peace and erase evil, causing more and more? He suddenly realizes how stupid he was to take the hint that Devil was whispering in his head. Yeah, for the first time in his life, Jin Kazama had to surrender to the idea that he couldn't do it alone. Of course, Kazuya was ruthless, evil and literally possessed by demons, and one could hardly imagine that he would accept a surrender with flowers and peace treaties. But it was also true that he needed the help of people who had always fought hard for the good.

Lars, Alisa and Lee noticed his frowning face, wondering what was going on in his head. But it was the clever Chinese who had enlightenment at the right time.

"Come with me. Yes, you too, Jin! Do you feel like walking?"

He was amazed by that request, as well as the other people in the room, but he accepted: he definitely needed to stretch his legs and curiosity was eating him up.

"After you..." Lars hissed, urging him to advance in a threatening manner.

Jin won't bat an eye. Although he had Mishima blood in his veins, he was able to stretch it in a few simple moves, but it was definitely not the case. The quartet headed down a corridor illuminated by cold, aseptic neon lights hanging from the ceilings, until they found themselves in front of a steel wall. For Lee it was easy to open it with a fingerprint and eye scanner , revealing an immense terrace overlooking the city. And once he crossed the threshold, Jin's seemingly calm gaze turned into an expression of horror in no time. Tokyo, his city, was reduced to a battlefield. A sinister reddish light illuminated smoking rubble and devastated bridges, while the dust saturated the air and made it almost unbreathable. When did this happen? What happened? If anything, Lee's plan had worked, putting Jin in front of the horror of his actions had literally opened his eyes.

Lars approached the balustrade of the palace and observed the devastated horizon, feeling the blood that he so hated boiling in his veins.

"Looks like G Corp isn't going to finish the war." Lee exclaimed, approaching the Swede.

"Yes, different regions are experiencing invasions! Things aren't good..." Alisa replied.

"This is the world without Heihachi, Jin..." Lars said, slowly turning to his interlocutor. " You are the one who sent this world to hell, so now it is up to you to bring it back!"

And those words couldn't be truer. He knew that his acquired uncle was perfectly right, that it was time to take responsibility and that the time had come to eradicate evil at its true root.

"There is no one else..." he replied, advancing towards them with a firm step and a firm voice. " Yes, it all depends on me! The devil's blood runs through my veins..." he murmured, slowly lifting the palm of his hand, before clenching it tightly in a fist, more furious and determined than ever to fix things and end it once and for all. "... So it's up to me to kill Kazuya!"

Sinister black tribal signs appeared on his face, a sign that the real war had just begun...

Author's note: hi everyone! Been silent for months and now here I am with 4 new chapters in a row. Actually these chapters have been written loooooong time ago. Since Tekken 8 is coming, along with trailers, I've decided to ask a friend of mine to help me with translations. Her English is far from being perfect (like mine, lol), but I'll fix grammars and stuff one day, as my goal is now posting everything I've written so far and finish this everlasting story before Tekken 8's release. Otherwise it won't make sense anymore. I've just finished chapter 31st, so if my friend is quick you'll get to read the rest very soon. Sorry but work and life in general doesn't allow me to have the time too write as I'd like to...Hope you''ll enjoy anyway. See you soon!