Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Tekken, all characters are Namco's.
She wasn't even halfway through her story, yet Steve was already struggling to process what he had just learned. Her mother was a real mystery to him and as she revealed herself he discovered incredible things. A God of war? How could such a thing exist? And did it really want to kill Jin? Oh God, what a mess!
"But...What do you mean with..."
"Ogre had possessed my mind and assumed total control of it. I felt him inciting me to commit the murder of that young man I had never heard of, promising me a large reward if I completed the mission. Of course I was a very easy prey and I didn't make a stand at all. I let that hideous beast guide my actions, as I routed one competitor after another, including Anna. I was stronger and more determined than ever and in no time I got to the final match. I still remember Jin's puzzled look, who didn't expect such impetus and ferocity from me, but above all his dismay when the monster revealed itself. His rage was huge, but it was clear that he was holding back his blows for to avoid to hurt me. Unfortunately he had to, and he hit me quite a lot to knock me down, but when he did that was when Ogre came out in his true form. When he realized that I had been possessed and that I was about to be killed because I was no longer needed, he didn't hesitate to attack him to protect me. I will never forget his compassionate gaze, just like his mother's when he looked at me, despite the fact that I had tried to kill him! I owe him my life."
A pause for reflection followed from both of them. Nina continued to stare at the ceiling with her eyes lost in memories, Steve instead observed the ground with his hands under his chin, while his brain worked at its maximum to process everything and formulate questions.
"I don't understand..." the blond began, raising his head. "If Kazama was that good, what the hell happened to him to get his hands dirty with all that destruction?"
"We are getting in there..." the woman replied, observing him with a bitter smile. "Jin fought Ogre to the bitter end, it was a no-holds-barred match, but in the end he was able to defeat him. He had won the tournament and his grandfather Heihachi appeared for the awards. He was really exhausted and could barely stand on his feet, but he found the strength to lift his head and smile at the man he was so grateful to. I'll never forget the old man's disgusting smile before pulling out a gun, pointing it at his forehead and shooting him without remorse."
"What?" the boxer screamed in disbelief.
He knew that Heihachi was ruthless, but he didn't think that he was such a coward too.
"I know...I was astonished too. I couldn't believe my eyes, in fact I thought I was dreaming. But what happened next was even more absurd, as well as the explanation for all of today's uproar."
Steve stiffened in his chair, but invited her to continue with a nod.
"I thought he was dead. He was on the ground, and Heihachi's psychotic laughter echoed aloud. He turned away from him and walked off in defiance, while his henchmen were busy with disposing his body. It all happened in a blink of an eye... " Nina broke off briefly, turning pale."Jin's body leapt off the ground and he literally threw the men away without the slightest effort, but there was something strange about him. He had changed, he was different. Strange tribal marks had appeared on his chest and face and his eyes...They had turned ice-colored. He lunged in murderous fury at his grandfather and smashed him through the brick wall effortlessly. The last thing I saw before passing out was a pair of huge black wings flying off into the night."
They both remained silent for a few minutes. Steve couldn't believe those words, they were so absurd. Monsters didn't exist! They were all legends and nonsense made up to write horror books...Or weren't they? From what little he knew Nina he was aware that she had always been bloody sincere and rational, so the things she was telling simply had to be true. The boxer got that she still had so much to say, so he made an effort to compose himself and invite her to continue.
"So...That thing was Kazama?"
"It was. When I met his father, Kazuya Mishima for the first time I understood that he was not a human being like all the others. His mere presence made me feel uncomfortable and caused me a sense of anguish. When I was captured by his men and brought in front of him before being subjected to the experiment, he had looked at me in a way that made my skin crawl. There was a mixture of hatred and pure evilness in those eyes..." She shivered at the memory. "That transformation Jin had undergone was due to the presence of the Devil Gene inherited from his father."
"Gene...Dev...Devil Gene?"
"That's right. Kazuya has this particular gene and literally lives with a demon in his body, which infests his mind, gives him superhuman strength and of course makes him evil and ruthless. His red eye is not a colored contact lens for aesthetic purposes , but the proof of that entity that lives in him. I guess Heihachi is the bearer of it, even if he has never shown characteristics peculiar to his son's, except for the unheard-of cruelty. Needless to add that when Jun conceived Jin with Kazuya, the Devil Gene has been passed down to him too."
"So you're telling me that Jin actually...Isn't human?"
"Not exactly. Kazuya and Jin are in fact human, but they possess this particular genetic mutation. The difference between the two consists in the fact that his father, who had grown up in hatred and resentment, embraced the Gene, let himself be possessed by it until they became one, while his son was raised by the unconditional love of a pure-hearted woman and always hated her curse with all his heart."
"But if he hated being evil, then why did he do what he did? Kill all those people? Start this damn war? Destroy everything? How can you defend him?" He suddenly snapped, trying desperately to make sense of all that madness.
Take it easy, I'm getting there. When Ogre killed Jun, Jin swore revenge. When Heihachi tried to kill him that was the drop that made the vase overflow and eventually awakened the Gene that for years had been asleep thanks to the presence of his mother. Shortly after the third tournament, Jin ran away to Australia and completely disowned the Mishima blood, even their fighting style. He hated his curse with all his heart and his only desire was to end his dynasty. But when the fourth tournament was announced, he returned to Japan to take revenge on his grandfather there met for the first time his father, who had been believed dead for years. Kazuya attempted to absorb Gene's part of his son, but failed. Short after Jin won the next tournament and became head of the Mishima Zaibatsu. And then I entered the scene..." Nina's eternal story was coming to an end, but Steve understood that the strong part was coming. "As I already said, it was Jin himself who asked me to work for him as a bodyguard. Reluctant as I was to work for a Mishima, he managed to convince me for several reasons: pay was good, but the idea of getting my revenge over Kazuya was so very tempting. Also, as you already know, it was only thanks to him if I was still alive after escaping from Ogre's clutches. I honestly didn't imagine such a war would ensue. Initially my job was to protect him in the apparitions but I soon realized how badly organized the Tekken Force was. He decided to listen to my advice and soon I became his second-in-command and put me in charge of troop training. Meanwhile, G Corp had become a thorn in our side and that's when I discovered that my dear sister had allied with Kazuya. The situation was getting worse every day and I began to doubt Jin myself. I must admit that on a human level, not considering the early days when he seemed an amorphous and furious with the world kid, we had established a good relationship of mutual respect: I was held more and more in consideration and day after day I saw him opening up a little more towards me. For my part, I felt more and more empathy and I noticed how my opinion influenced him. He soon became the closest thing to a friend I've ever had. Until one day he told me that we were leaving for Egypt and that he would explain everything to me during the journey."
"And...did he do it?"
"Of course. He had finally decided to reveal to me the reason why he had started the war. He had been hearing Azazel's voice in his head for months."
"Azazel?" And now who on Earth was this?"
"Azazel was an ancient, very ancient spirit, generator of every evil in history, who had awakened precisely due to all the wars and massacres that had taken place over the centuries. Jin thought that he was the origin of the Devil Gene and only those who possessed it were able to defeat it. But as long as it was in its spirit form he couldn't, so it had to assume material form again. And the only way to make this happen was to fill the planet again with negative energy, so that he could finally face it and destroy it together with the gene once and for all. For this reason the war broke out."
This all sounded even more absurd than the Ogre story.
"Ok, let's see if everything's clear. Did Kazama really start the war so he could kill this Azazel? Is he goddamn nuts?"
"For fuck's sake, don't you understand, Steve?" The woman scolded him, annoyed. "Jin knew that in order to get rid of Azazel and eradicate the Devil Gene from the world, he would have to sacrifice himself. He gave his life to free us from evil, because he was convinced that it would be the only way to restore peace to the world. He acted with the best intentions, although the end seemed not enough to justify the means. But it was all in vain unfortunately…" She froze again because now the tears were flowing copiously down her cheeks and choking her voice. "Yes, Azazel has been defeated, but the cursed Gene still exists and the war isn't over yet! Kazuya and Heihachi are destroying everything, Jin has been captured by the Violet System and I don't even know if he's still alive...He had me promised that I would live in a better left me alone and I...I don't...I don't know what to do, I...I feel so lost without him..."
The silence was broken by a desperate cry...
Author's notes WITH SPOILER: hi everyone! I've just one thing to say: I'M PISSED! Ok? I'm really, really pissed off! I was so happy and triggered by all those Tekken 8 trailers coming out, and suddenly I've read the updated bios on Tekken's website and pufff...Nina will be working for Kazuya and G. Corp. I mean, what the fu**ing hell? Harada, what's wrong with you? This doesn't make sense at all. Sure, I wasn't really expecting Jin and Nina to interact at all, not to mention any kind of relationship between them, but this...I would have rather expected her to interact with Steve, or coming back the her previous job as assassin. So yeah, I'm disappointed like crazy. I was waiting for inspiration to come back and finish this story (I'm stuck again on a chapter, but the end is really close) and this ruined everything. I don't mean to overreact over this, but after all these years waiting, it feels like a bad prank, especially after everything they went through together during Tekken 6. Such a news right at the end of my story is a bitter pill to swallow. Anyway, I'll try to move on nonetheless and keep translating what I've written so far (currently I'm trying to write the 31st chapter), but it takes me a lot of time, that's why I'm so slow to update here as well (I'm publishing this story on another website, but it's written in my mother tongue and we all know that Google translate sucks). Whatever…I hope to find the inspiration again and finish this story, it's been way too long. See you soon!