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Serendipity

Living on the run wasn't easy. Sleep was restless, and beds weren't always an option. But the nights he had spent on a king-size luxury mattress, living in a mansion, had been restless, too, so in the end, it didn't really matter. In those days, he had been plagued by nightmares of fire. Now, his dreams were different but no less unpleasant. Sometimes, he dreamed of chains and echoing laughter and others, he dreamed of bullets piercing through his body, tearing his flesh open, shattering his bones. But not every night was restless, and not every dream was bad.

Jin was on a bed in a cheap hotel in Kagoshima City, waking up from a good sleep. He didn't want to open his eyes, wanting to hang on to a vivid dream that was quickly becoming fleeting images. He had been shopping for fruit with his mother in an open-air market. There was something about a family dinner, and his grandmother sat beside him. She kept refilling his bowl of ramen whenever it was half-empty, and no matter how much he ate, he still felt hungry. It was a silly and mundane dream, but if he opened his eyes, all the images would disappear, and he would be fully awake in his cold and lonely reality. And mundane, blurry dreams were better than reality. But he had a task, and it was important.

Even though his mind and body begged him to stay in bed, Jin opened his eyes and sat up. He looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was much later than he anticipated. He got out of bed and took a quick shower, and when he got out, he put on the last items of clean clothing he had in his bag. He would have to find a place to do laundry before the end of the day.

He ignored the rumbling of his empty stomach as he pulled an outdated laptop out of his backpack and set it on the bed. He needed to take advantage of the free wifi before he ventured out. He took out a notepad and pen, then put his dirty clothes in a plastic bag while the laptop booted up. He sat down and started his search. He wrote down the addresses of the places he needed to visit, scribbled some directions, and sketched a simple map. When satisfied, he finished packing up and left the first bed he had used in days as he resumed the search for his mother.

Jin took off down the busy street on his motorcycle. His first stop was close, so it was best to get it over with. But traffic was heavy. It would have been better to stop somewhere for breakfast and start his search later in the day, but it was too late to change his plan, and food could wait. As expected, he found nothing at his destination, so he decided to get a meal to have enough energy to get through his next disappointment.

He nearly crashed into the vehicle in front of him when his gaze was pulled to an oversized billboard announcing the King of Iron Fist Tournament V. His jaw grew tight, and his muscles tensed. There was no way that he was going to enter. No way he was going to fall into Heihachi's trap again. His stomach reminded him that it was lunchtime, and he'd had no food in almost twenty-four hours.

He chose a small restaurant with outdoor seating. If he sat inside and Heihachi's men found him, he would damage property and hurt innocents as he tried to avoid being captured. Outside, he could just run.

He ordered a beef bowl and pulled his laptop out of his backpack while he waited for his food. He opened it to a bookmarked social media page. Xiaoyu's bright brown eyes stood out immediately in a group photo. She had her arm around Miharu and another girl he'd never met. They looked like they were in front of some sort of carnival game. It was from two days earlier and was captioned: Last fun night out before I get serious about my training! Wish me luck!

Jin exhaled softly as he scrolled down the page, hoping against hope that- He stopped at a post from three days earlier. Xiaoyu standing in front of the Mishima building. He read the caption and felt his stomach drop. Newest King of Iron Fist Tournament contestant! I have a good feeling about this one!

Jin closed the laptop. Why did she enter? He had emailed her before the fourth tournament, warning her about Heihachi, and she still entered. During the tournament, he had told her in person that being involved with Heihachi and the Zaibatsu put her in danger. And as soon as a fifth tournament was announced, she entered yet again. Why? It was like she had no sense of self-preservation. He was going to have to email her again. He entertained the idea of creating a fake account and sending her an anonymous message, but she would know it was from him, and it would probably backfire somehow. And maybe Heihachi was monitoring her social media accounts. He had to think of a different way to warn her.

The food wasn't that great. Or maybe the news about Xiaoyu entering the tournament stopped him from enjoying it. But at least he could continue his search on a full stomach. He went to his second destination and found exactly what he knew he would find: disappointment.

Jin was exhausted and disheartened when he walked through the hospital's sliding glass doors. The third and final stop of the day. He pulled back the hood of his jacket as he walked in. He'd had some hope in the morning, but now it felt like a futile search. And it probably was because he was in Kagoshima while Jun disappeared in Yakushima, an island over one hundred kilometers away. It seemed ridiculous, but something told him–

That it took your mother seven years to swim across the sea. Devil's laugh echoed in his head.

A heavy feeling settled in his chest. Every time Devil was silent for a long while, a tiny bit of hope found its way into his heart. A small glimmer that tried to form a light inside him. But it dissipated whenever the demon's voice rang in his head or when Jin's anger surged at something that should have been an annoyance at most. Devil was claiming his soul little by little. Causing subtle changes in him. But if Jun was alive, if he could find her, she would help him get rid of Devil.

Never…

Jin inhaled deeply and walked to the information desk past patients and guests in the waiting room.

"Good evening." He bowed his head as he spoke to the nurse behind the desk.

"Hello. How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for someone who might be a patient here."

"What is the name?"

"Jun Kazama."

As the nurse looked up the information on her computer, a young man in a lab coat stepped behind the desk and began to look through a stack of files.

"I'm sorry," the nurse looked up at him, "we don't have anyone by that name. Maybe at one of the other hospitals."

I am shocked. Devil laughed. Shocked.

Jin shook his head. "I already checked the other hospitals in the area."

The young man looked up from the clipboard in his hand. "Is she a relative of yours?"

"She's my mother."

The nurse touched a hand to her chest. "Oh, no. Was there an accident?"

"No, she's…missing."

"Did you check with the police? How long has she been missing?"

Jin was so tired of that look of pity everyone gave him. He just wanted to turn his back on her and walk away. "A while."

The nurse looked taken aback. "Why are you just looking for her now?" The phone began to ring, and she picked it up.

There was no way to explain it to anyone. How would anyone understand that he just had a feeling? How could he tell anyone that he saw her for an instant as he was about to kill his own grandfather?

Jin turned around and began walking toward the exit when he noticed the young man keeping pace beside him.

"May I speak to you for a moment?" The man moved away from the middle of the hallway to the wall, and Jin followed him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to search through it. "There was a strange event at a psychiatric clinic in Tokyo last week." He turned the screen and showed it to Jin.

Electrical Fire Causes Evacuation at New Hope Psychiatric Clinic.

"Tokyo?"

The man put the phone back in his pocket. "There is one important detail you won't find in the article. One of the patients went missing. It was a woman. A call went out to all the medical facilities in the country. If you're looking for her here, you probably don't expect her to be anywhere near Tokyo, but you said she's been missing for a while. Maybe she made her way north or somewhere else." He put his hands in his pockets. "I'm not trying to give you false hope, but if it was my mother, I wouldn't leave any stone unturned."

Jin bowed. "Thank you, doctor."

The young man laughed. "I only work in the lab." He bowed in return. "Best of luck."

It felt like a break in the clouds on a rainy day. Jin's heart drummed in his chest as he left the hospital. He made his way to the nearest coffee shop. Once there, he sat at a table hunched over his laptop, finding any information he could on the clinic or the incident, writing down phone numbers, addresses, and directions. When he was satisfied with the information, he went to find a place to sleep for the night.

For years, he had been fueled by revenge. He had used it to push himself to accomplish feats that shouldn't have been possible. He had let the thought of revenge nearly consume him, leaving little room for Jun's teachings and philosophy. He had become cynical to the point where the word kindness seemed childish and naive. But Jin had been shown kindness by the young man at the hospital and had been guided to him by some coincidence or maybe Jun herself. That was enough for the little spark of hope to take hold. Even if the missing woman turned out to be someone else, he would never stop searching.


"Jin." He heard Jun's disembodied voice in the darkness, soft and clear.

Then came a blinding brightness, and he saw her. She was standing in the white nothing, wearing her gardening clothes, a headband keeping her hair back. As Jin walked toward her, the scenery around them began to fall into place, almost like set pieces on a stage. First came the bright, blue sky with scattered white clouds, then the green, rolling hills followed by towering cedars, shrubs, and yellow wildflowers.

He stood some distance away, listening to birds chirping and letting the sun warm his skin as he waited for the next set piece to fall into place: their tiny home with its shuttered windows and faded, red door, followed by Jun's vegetable garden. Each plant fell around her until it was just as he'd remembered it. He saw his mother standing among her vegetables and flowers, holding a watering can, her worn jeans dirty at the knees.

She opened her arms and smiled. "I miss you, Jin."

He walked toward her, but the distance between them didn't change, so he ran, but it made no difference. He jumped and began to fly, finally advancing, his powerful black wings propelling him toward her. Something felt wrong. Jun's smile faded, and she took a step back. Jin was closing in too fast; he tried to slow down but couldn't control his speed.

Jun dropped her watering can and turned to run, but he tackled her, and she fell face-first into the dirt. Jin screamed, horrified by what he had done, but he was still standing a distance away, watching Devil as he attacked Jun, talons ripping into fabric, skin, and flesh as she called for her son.

"Stop!" Jin yelled at the top of his lungs.

He tried to move but was stuck to the ground. His legs wouldn't budge. And his hands were wet. He looked down when he felt the water drip from them. It was red. It was blood. His mother's blood. He was above her, straddling her at the waist, watching her immobile form as blood flowed from the gash in her throat.

He opened his eyes, his heart drumming violently against his chest as the cool wind dried the sweat off his skin. He wasn't in his bed. He wasn't in the hotel at all. He looked around, stunned. He was in the middle of a field, the moon his only light source.

How did I get here?

You want to find your mother, boy? Let's do it. I'll be the first to greet her.


A/N: I haven't had a chance to watch the Tekken 8 story, so no spoilers, pretty please.