Funfact: I never watched Death by Degrees, in all these years which is a shocker, seeing how Nina is one of my favs (Jin being the other). People said it was a bad game with a boring story so that's why it flopped. I've just started to look at it now and I see what they mean. I think I didn't watch it because I wanted to make up my own headcanons for Nina's past life and not rely on others.

Now I'm going to design a new game for Nina and make the story very compelling. It will be set before Tekken. :D

And Nina just watching Lana Lei lying on the floor and thinking, "Damn this dead bitch still talking."

Published 23rd December 2023. (Really want to get this story finished before this year ends.)

Chapter Twenty Eight

.

.

.

Jin opens the envelope and pulls out a picture of a beautiful blonde woman in a little black dress and red lipstick. It was Nina.

His Nina.

So gorgeous. He stares at it, breath almost buffering. It's the first time he's seen this picture.

It should be a sin to be that beautiful.

From whom this picture came from was obvious. She didn't give herself to him yet but a picture. Befuddled mind wonders if this is her convincing herself a picture of her will keep him company. He looks at it again and his gaze falls on her arms. Remembers how they were warm and protective around him. Then he looks at her legs and remembers how tight and inviting they felt around him when they teased and sparred with each other.

When he looks at her painted lips, he recalls how soft and fierce they felt on his own.

She gave him this picture as a way of telling him this was his now, to keep. To be satisfied until they met again next time but he is not satisfied with a mere picture, even if he hugs it to his chest. Nothing can compare to having Nina in his arms. It is torture.

He almost kisses the photo.

Jin picks up his phone up and gets it on the voice recorder.

Brings it to his lips and presses the button.

When Heihachi killed him and when he was saved by the devil, Jin initially thought that the devil wasn't a threat. He is scared and confused by the entity and spend a long time wondering if he was crazy. The devil told him things that he was powerful if he only accepted him and made peace with the fact that his body was a vessel.

Jin hates that. He wanted his body to himself.

It hurt Dr Bosconovitch, who else did this creature hurt? Would he have to change his identity? Just when he got settled in this city…

It's frustrating.

If Kazuya is indeed alive, all Jin would do is wait for the man to come to him.

He hates speaking to it but he ran out of options, ever since finding out about that note some girl dropped off.

He could talk to Nina but she moved out of the apartment she shared with Julia and changed her number. Even Julia had no idea where she was. There was no way to reach Nina anymore.

Time went on and some months later, after getting more skilled in Karate and spending time with his mentor and his daughter, Jin finds himself at crossroads. It was a 'what now?' phase in his life. His time was almost up in this city and he'd have to tread back into unknown waters.

Should he just accept the devil or keep fighting him?

The kata he performed earns him claps and praises. He misses Nina more than ever and wondered what she was doing. Izumi notices him been upset and offeres to take him to a casino to see what it was like. Of course he wasn't going to gamble, they were just going to have an experience watching other people waste their money away. He invited Julia but sadly she can't make it. He emails Nina if she was interested in turning up. It would have been nice to see her after so long.

It sucked that he didn't even know if she got his voice note or not. He emails it to her but there is no response.

Keeping a low profile, she never encountered the alligator or Detective Coke again. Eun found a place for her to stay and lent her money to live off on. Nina could leave her job and focus on other things.

The last two or three months were hard. Moving place, training, getting used to holding guns and knives. Eun was a great teacher. By now, Nina possessed such skills that could do serious damage. How to squeeze neck fatally from behind was one of them. She learnt so much about the weaknesses of human bodies and how she used to know best places to cripple someone for life. It made her shudder in fear, knowing that she had actually crippled people and could do it again.

Her body is now a weapon.

The one thing that took her mind off it for a while was Jin's new email. He asks if she was okay and that he is going to this particular casino at a particular time. God, she needs to get a glimpse of him.

So she invites Eun to go with her and the woman brought an outfit for further training.

It is laid out on her bed.

A horrible hot pink latex suit that if worn, her tits would be sure to spill out. Harlot barbie vibes. She folds her arms and looks at Eun-Seo, tapping her left foot on the floor. Waiting. For an explanation.

"Ah, we used to go clubbing a lot. In soho, the nightlife was booming back in the nineties. I remember you not wanting to dress revealing clothes but it helped didn't it? ON our mission, showing a bit of boobies attracted our targets to us."

Wearing that outfit would show almost all the boobies, Nina thinks. Anyone could just reach in and get the entire breast out. Nipples would be exposed. And she is a D cup. They would slip out.

"It's sad isn't it, showing a part of your body to a man in a bar gets him up from his seat and next to yours."

"The blokes can't get enough of wimmin. Tits and arse. Tits and arse. They want it."

She rolls her eyes and remembers some horny bastard slapping her arse at a club. Eun-Seo wasn't wrong of course.

"We had a lot of nightlife hits, our targets liked clubbing and we had to compete with the other women for their attention so wearing these…," She lifts up the suit. "…things…helped."

"You began to wear things which had a slit right about your belly button so yeah, your tits were right out. You just had to wear invisible sticky bras to hold your tits up."

Nina groans. She looks at the pink suit and thought she'd stick out like a sore thumb at the casino.

"What sort of shoes will go with this disgusting outfit?" She asks Eun.

White boots with a hot pink outfit, a choker, purple gloves and a pink pair of sunglasses. She had a purple clutch bag with her because there was no way she was going to do any gambling, she didn't trust her bluff skills yet and it wasn't like she was earning millions. She is unemployed.

No one leers at her much apart from five or six dirty men who ogle her titties. One even walked past and said nice tits. Eun was in a jumpsuit too but it was a navy one. Cleavage shown. Even she gets leered at.

"You'll get used to it." Eun tells her. "Our tits are what draws targets to us."

Nina still hates it. Her dad never taught her that and he still managed to kill people.

She finds Jin already there, with that Izumi girl near him. She is dressed in some fancy cocktail dress, tits not shown, hair done up nicely with a diamante clutch bag as if she was going on a date. Nina feels a stab of jealously, that could have been her right now.

Maybe Jin was rubbing it in her face that he moved on while she hadn't. He catches her eyes from across the room and it is a moment of her heart leaping to her throat. Time slows down. He says something to Izumi and excuses himself and walks in Nina's direction.

She excuses herself and leaves Eun behind, walking towards Jin to meet him halfway.

"It's good to see you." She says first, not giving him a chance to complain that he was putting in all the effort and she was just being lazy.

She really didn't like seeing him with Izumi.

"Same. How have you been?" He asked, his eyes did their best not to stare at her boobs but when they were right out in the open, she couldn't blame him. If he fell on top of her, his face would literally be trapped between them. Secretly Nina wanted Jin to still be attracted to her. She liked him looking there.

I've missed you so much, Jin.

She looks over her shoulder, hoping that evil alligator isn't watching them. Shit.

She spent months looking over her shoulder, suspected every tall blonde man of being the Alligator. There was plenty of them here.

"You're like me, a statue. We don't feel anything." Nina lies to him. "I have no feelings for anyone. If the past months we spend together taught me anything, it's that I am not the type to feel anything romantic for anyone." Nina lies again because those lingering feelings they had for one another could spark up again.

Strolling away, she looks at him over her shoulder.

She blows him a kiss, in a feigned mocking fashion.

It wouldn't take long for an ex to become a lover again with her and Jin. If he hated her, that wouldn't happen. His hate would keep them apart. His hate would eat her up alive too. She kind of deserved it. Leading him on despite having a shady past. He deserved better than her.

In a slightly dramatic fashion, he throws her kiss down onto the ground and stamps on it, glaring at her in response to her winding him up.

It would have been funny if she hadn't seen the pain in his eyes. She caused that. Instead of showing her true feelings- one of regret and sadness, she wears a smirk on her face, a mocking smirk.

She turns away and sighs, blinking away water in her eyes. Forcing a smile she keeps on walking.

Just give it a little more time, she thinks.

She tries to find Eun and then a loud crash startles Nina.

.

.

.