The Woman of White Wings

Chapter Three: In Which the Nature of Asuka is Revealed

She called it "justice." Any other name, and she would have to admit all she was really doing was butting into other people's business and solving all their problems with a good solid beating. Most of the victims of Asuka's justice didn't cause any more problems and the ones who did were sure to be quiet about it. The Kazama girl was trouble and because of that, when the dojo was trashed by an unknown assailant, around the neighborhood, they called it "justice." Maybe a few people thought it was unfair that the students and their teacher got the punishment, but guilt by association was still guilt in Asuka's eyes. Justice.

No one ever said so, but a lot people who'd had run-ins with Asuka in the past were thrilled when she left for Tokyo. Maybe she wouldn't come back. They didn't much care if she was beaten into submission or humiliation by the suspect the Interpol agent told her could be found at the King of Iron Fist tournament, or if she got a job in the capital or transferred to another school. It didn't matter to anyone why she wasn't around, just as long as she was gone.

A rough around the edges teen fit perfectly into the world of the tournament, where assassins, millionaires and martial artists lurked around every corner. She was surprised to learn that she wasn't the first entrant to clear a match with two successive knock outs in a high school uniform, but she was more surprised to learn that over the twenty-someodd years in which the tournament had been held four other times, and only roughly thirty people had ever made it to the main event, from countries all over the world, there had been two people named "Kazama" to come before her. It wasn't a common name, and even if it was, less than half of the competitors were Japanese. The odds must be astronomical.

Jun Kazama.

Jin Kazama.

Their names sounded so similar that Asuka wondered if they were related to each other, never mind related to her. Though they did use the same kanji as her family and according to the records, Jun used the traditional Kazama style, identical to what Asuka had been taught by her father. She'd always found coincidences like that to be suspicious.

So she'd been left in the dark about something. Asuka tried not to be too offended, after all, she wasn't twenty yet and even when she was an adult, that didn't mean she was entitled to know everything. But as the person who'd come to the tournament to redeem the Kazama name and get vengeance for her father's stunning defeat, she at least deserved to know if the attack was related to these two people. The same name, the same style and a history at the tournament which was the next stop for her unknown Chinese kenpo-fighting enemy…it was too much. Was it possible this person attacked her father as retaliation for something done to him by Jun or Jin Kazama?

Asuka considered herself pretty well versed in the art of investigation. After all, no one in Osaka was willing to tell her what really caused their feuds, she had to find out for herself and fix it herself. First things first, she had to identify the attacker on her dojo. That was simple enough, if indeed he was to be found here at the tournament.

She looked up the entrants by nationality and found three Chinese fighters—Wang Jinrei, Ling Xiaoyu and Feng Wei. She checked on the Americans next, since you never could be sure about what someone could mistake them for and found two of Chinese descent, Marshall Law and Julia Chang. Finally, came a category she discovered by accident—people who claimed no nationality. She was able to rule out Kazuya Mishima easily enough, since his name matched that of the Zaibatsu, he was obviously Japanese. Raven was clearly not Chinese or even Asian, same with Jack-5, who had a very strange look to him that she couldn't place. Yoshimitsu's face was covered and the name he used probably wasn't a real one, which left him in the running. Wang Jinrei, she ruled out because he was a very old man, and not what Lei Wulong—of Hong Kong and not a suspect—had described to her. Ling and Chang were women and to top it of, Chang didn't even look very Chinese. (The entrant information, of course, did not say anything about Julia being adopted into the Chinese-American/Native-American family.) So her suspects were Feng Wei, Marshall Law and Yoshimitsu.

Before beginning her Stage One and Stage Two battles, Asuka had asked her opponent if they had seen anyone who fit the description given to her by Lei Wulong. Neither had, so she gave them both a sound trashing to ensure her continued to participation in the tournament and the search for the man who had injured her father for no known reason. By Stage Three—another double knock out, of course—Asuka was becoming impatient. How could it be that no one had seen someone who was supposed to be at the tournament?

Her fourth match opponent Feng Wei was getting the usual questions until she got a good look at him. Without question, he was the one she had been looking for. It wasn't just that he fit the description that the Interpol agent had given her. When he turned to face her and their eyes met, he looked at her with the ugliest stare she'd ever seen. He had some sort of goal, she was sure, something more than the revenge against Kazamas that she'd half-expected. This man had a goal and he'd hurt anyone who stood in the way as badly as he might have needed.

With a very sinking feeling, Asuka realized this goal lay at the top of the tournament, and four stages in, she had found herself in his way. All of her notions of justice suddenly stopped making sense. This man had nearly killed her father and had to get through all of his students to get to him. However strong Asuka was, however strong she believed herself to be, she was not stronger than all of them combined. This man was.

As all of this tumbled through her mind, this man attacked her. He smashed through all of her blocks and her counters were ineffectual. She could do nothing against him without mediation, but he wouldn't give her even the few seconds she needed to warm-up the strike. Visions of her own death danced before her eyes and she thought in the split second before she lost consciousness that she'd been blinded by a white light that seemed to emanate from her own body.

After the confrontation with his father, Jin hadn't been able to shake Angel for a moment. If she wasn't where he was, then she arrived where he was going before he did. She seemed to have grown tired of gossip, which didn't happen soon enough for Jin's taste but there was something else on her mind that was just as distracting. She tended to jump as though she'd heard something not even he, the possessed boy who fought Mayan gods and chatted with angels, could detect.

After one such an occasion, she stared for sometime at nothing in particular and when she remembered that Jin existed, began tugging on his bangs and muttering about his mother. He asked if she thought Jun might be alive somehow and got no response. More questioning got the same silence until he stopped. Jin never really expected an answer, anyway. Angel was good at making demands and equally talented in dancing her way out of any of his.

When she was ready to talk again, she asked to hear about the tournament entrants, any new names or unfamiliar faces especially. She asked to know about people who'd been involved in the tournament twenty years ago often enough that Jin had a list folded up in his back pocket at all times. With an internal sigh that might as well have been voiced given who he was dealing with, Jin started scanning the list.

"Skip to the K's."

One right under the other, Kazama, Kazama. Jin swore. How could he have missed that for so long?

"Don't ask me," Angel said with a shrug, despite the fact that he'd asked no one. "I only know what you know."

Still taken with the name that was actually above his, Jin muttered, "But you had intuition…you knew to look."

"Your mother had this power, when she was near, sometimes it was like Devil didn't even exist. I don't know why it was triggered, but someone near by has Kazama blood." She held a hand up to stop him before he even opened his mouth. "Not you. That-" a peek to the much abused sheet of paper, "Asuka Kazama, she's not tainted like you are. She's pure and she's purified something else on top of that. I think it's important that you meet her. She could be the greatest ally we can hope for in this war."

Even though Angel had been able to sense the Kazama power, she couldn't guide herself or Jin to Asuka now that it was dormant again. As usual, all the work involved with hunting the girl down fell on Jin's shoulders. In most respects, Angel was unable to affect the physical world at all though Jin's hair was certainly in the realm of what she could touch, given how often she pushed his bangs away from his forehead or tugged on them. Whether or not anyone else could see his hair moving was one of the few internal questions that Angel didn't have an answer for or opinion on.

His questions regarding whether or not Angel was real in her own way or some sort of hallucination also hadn't been answered, (Jin didn't care to find Kazuya and ask his father about any experiences regarding her) Asuka Kazama was real and they found her hospitalized.

Though she was a stranger and a handful of years younger than him, Jin could see a resemblance in her face. He'd never met a relative on his mother's side of the family before. As a child, he had believed that he and his mother were just without other family. Learning of the Mishima clan at fifteen had disproved part of that theory and Asuka Kazama took care of the rest.

Taking note of the heavy bruising on her face and arms, Jin asked Angel, "Do you suppose she lost a fight against Kazuya?"

"No…if Devil was out there fighting, we'd both know it. It was a human who sinned of his own accord that did this to her."

"Heihachi?"

Angel shrugged. "There are other people out there as evil as him. Probably."

Jin grinned. It was the first time he'd seen through her. "Yeah, I doubt that, too." She noticed it as well, because she crossed her arms, sniffed and mumbled something about being allowed to hate people. It made sense as far was Jin was concerned. No matter how good Kazuya's good side was, it wouldn't be without hatred. It was Kazuya, after all.

"Am I dead?"

Both of Asuka's visitors were startled to hear her speak, as they had thought she was sleeping, or possibly unconscious from the fight.

"Why would you think you're dead?" Jin asked.

"I failed to restore my father's honor. I knew when the fight was over that I could never go home again and now an angel has come for me. I must be dead." The girl's voice was weak and painful to listen to, not only because speaking must be difficult with her injuries but for her resolve as well. She'd be beaten to this degree and believed because of it that she could never return home. In such a circumstance, anyone would rather be dead.

"You can see her?"

Asuka was either confused by the question or concussed from the fight. "Why wouldn't I?"

Angel was grinning. "Jin thinks he's losing his mind and that I'm just a hallucination he's been having."

Both of the Kazamas spoke at once, one piecing together the truth behind Jin and Jun, and the other declaring that he was losing control of who he was and that was as close to losing one's mind that anyone was likely to come.

"No," said Angel, still smiling as broadly as Jin had ever seen, "You've won, Jin. You won the moment we entered this room. Pure Kazama blood is stronger than half the Mishima curse.

"Her light is chasing away the purple haze that came upon you the night your mother's light faded.

"Maybe you can't see it like I can, but Devil Jin is gone."

Jin shed his jacket and shirt. The mark on his arm that branded him as a demon was gone and there was no trace that it had ever been there left, not even the echoing scar of a removed tattoo.

"Then it's over," Jin breathed. Had he ever been this relieved before?

"Not yet." Angel's smile had turned into a smirk. "Twenty years ago, Devil and I fought to a standstill many times. But since then he had lost half of himself to you, an essence that no longer exists. Devil is half as strong as he was then, but I am exactly the same as I always was. I can defeat him now.

"And then, it will be over."

Next—The Fate of Those Who Heed the Call