He had never been bored and felt in a cage so much in his life. The sense of impotence and weakness and those huge four walls where he had been hiding for weeks only increased his anxiety and his inner torment, which by now had reached unbearable levels. Grueling training wasn't helping him regain his powers. How was that possible? In front of the destruction left by the fight between his father and his grandfather, he had sworn to end that hell and felt the Devil's Gene inside himself strong and vigorous as never before. Then suddenly it was all over: the voices in his head had disappeared, his physical strength had greatly diminished, his tattoo had faded more and more. It was like he just ran out of energy. Yet he knew that his curse was simply pretending to sleep for the sake of pure revenge and mock against him, that he was so trying to eradicate it. He knew that Devil was still there in some remote corner of his head making fun of him and enjoying seeing him weak and desperate, fully aware that without his support he could never, ever defeat Kazuya. And surely spending his days in front of monitors and hundreds and hundreds of folders containing the most varied information about the whole damn world did not help him as Lee had predicted. After only a couple of hours his head would burst and his eyes would burn, but he knew he had to go on. He had no choice. Moreover, he never missed the watchful and inquisitor gaze of his former subordinate, who did not lose sight of him for a moment and this made him extremely nervous: Lars would not forgive him for his crimes, even after a million years and would have been more than happy to make him pay if he had only made a false step... Weak as he was, it would have been a piece of cake for him, without even having to bother Alisa.
Yet in all that oppressive situation a fixed thought continued to torment him, a thought that obviously couldn'tt share with anyone: what happened to Nina? Had her already forgotten him? Had she left? Had she taken over the reins of the Zaibatsu as she promised? He was terrified that something had happened to her, even though in his heart he felt she was still alive and kicking somewhere: smart and talented as she was, she would never get caught and find a way to save herself under any circumstances. However, he could certainly not begin to investigate what had happened to her, or where she was: he was perpetually marked tight by Alisa and Lee, also could not risk nor that they thought it was an act of insubordination towards them in the name of who knows what attempt to put their hands on Zaibatsu and even more to expose her to any kind of risk. If he had survived the confrontation with his father then perhaps he would have sought her, but for the moment his priority was to keep her safe from all danger, as she had done tirelessly with him until the final battle with Azazel... On the other hand, he knew he had broken her heart by choosing to end his life for the good of everyone, but he would never back down. She deserved to live in a better world... She deserved to start over and who knows... maybe find someone worthy to be with her. No matter how much he suffered, he couldn't help but think that it would be better to let the only love of his life go, he had already caused her too much suffering. And of course, no one outside of them could even imagine what they shared. He would never forget her, and yet out of love he should have let her go...
Demoralized and exhausted by yet another unsuccessful workout, he dragged himself back to the computer room where they were waiting for another grueling data check session. They weren't even halfway through, it would've taken them months to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"Welcome, Jin. Would you like a cup of tea?" Lee chirped, pouring the drink into his porcelain cup.
The Chinese excelled in many things and annoying him with his usual mellifluous tone was at the top of the ranking. He should have been used to it by now. Exasperated he took that damn cup of tea and then took a seat next to Alisa.
"Cheer up boy, today we have interesting files to analyze!" began, snapping his tongue against the palate. " You gotta check all the files of the competitors of the various tournaments of the Iron Fist from the first edition to the last. It should not be too tiring, apparently it was information in your archives at Mishima Zaibatsu, I guess it won't take you long to verify that they are correct or not."
"What's the point, Lee? What the hell is the information of the old fighters for, when no one can fight Kazuya?" he shouted in front of that colossal waste of time.
"Wouldn't you be interested in reading your mother's file?" he replied sneakily.
Jin stayed silent. He did care, but he did not see what could be so mysterious and unknown to him.
"Just relax and... It would be counterproductive for us to make you aware of our darkest secrets, almost certainly nothing that is written will be new to you. It's a dirty job that someone has to do, we need to know if someone other than the usual subjects known to us as Anna Williams and Bruce Irvine can have anything to do with Kazuya. We must keep our eyes open, we have way too many enemies."
He had a point, he'd be stupid to take risks like those. Resigned he began to look through the various dossiers on all the fighters, divided by edition and alphabetical order. As he suspected, Jun Kazama's file did not reveal anything new about her mother, it only served to make him boil the blood in his veins in front of the phrase "connections with Kazuya Mishima" and "status: deceased, or presumed such". Even Jun's usually bright look seemed melancholy in that photo. He continued side by side with Alisa, who in the process compared the information in real time with the archives of G Corp, any paper and those of the Mishima Zaibatsu. How many people he had met along the way, of which he now had no news, such as Hwoarang, one of her most bitter rivals in battle or the same Xiaoyu who had given her the torment for years. Centuries seemed to have passed since those rosy days when he led a normal life, naturally saddened by the loss of his mother, but all in all normal, between friends, school, sports and training. How much he had lost in so little time, how he was feeling already so old, alone and finished at little more than 21 years... Sipping his tea, he moved the mouse to the next file, and then opened none other than Nina's. A shiver ran down his back in front of the image of his former bodyguard, feeling as always in awe of her icy eyes. Only he could boast of having seen the fire of passion burning into them and a feeling of love and affection beyond measure. Despite knowing what was written in the file by heart, he could not help but feel a deep sadness when he read the part related to the experiment she had undergone during her cryogenic sleep, from which her son Steve Fox was born: he knew very well how much Nina had suffered once she discovered everything and how deeply ashamed she was of being used and violated like that. All the more reason for him to hate his bastard father who authorized that outrage. He went further among the palmares of her victories, the name of all her victims, the list of all her assignments... Then suddenly time stopped.
Everything happened in slow motion: the ceramic cup crashed to the ground with a thud, spreading tea and shards everywhere. His posture suddenly stiffened, his eyes suddenly blackened and his ears buzzed. The cold sweat ran down his spine and beat him mercilessly from head to foot. Then the fire: the tattoo on his biceps literally began to burn as if glowing iron had been placed on his skin, soon the chills were replaced by uncontrollable spasms. Useless were the questions from Lee, Alisa and Lars about what was happening to him, their voices were too far away, their frightened looks weren't seen. The pain that was clutching his chest in a vise to the point of not letting him breathe was too strong. It took two simple words on that file about Nina to hurt him, to make him feel the most atrocious pain he had ever suffered, as mush as his mother's loss.
"Status: Deceased".
Author's note: shit is starting to hit the fan, let's move on. Sorry Jin, sorry Nina, I promise you to stop being an asshole with you soon!