Chapter Text
Japan, Asian B Block Prelims
"The top-16 brackets rage on, and in just a few minutes, we will go forward with the next match! Who will be one step closer to representing Japan in the King of Iron Fist?"
The confidence of the ring announcer and the roar of the crowd... almost muffled in the distance but still clear enough for the fighters roaming the backstage area of Japan's 'King of Iron Fist' Arena, either on their eventual way out after some poor luck in the brackets, or getting ready for the next battle on the horizon in their next round ahead.
One fighter in particular represented the still-surviving latter:
Asuka Kazama, the young 'pride of Osaka', and probably an unlikely candidate for the top-16 of a fighting tournament, let alone the premiere fighting tournament.
She had somehow surpassed roughly half of these preliminaries' brackets, advancing her the furthest she had gotten in any tournament before or perhaps after. Either the regional split enforced this time around depleted the talent by a good chunk, or there was somehow no motivation in a lot of those fighters, despite the fate of the country being at the hands of an honest-to-god 'corporate demon' – a term that proves way more literal than she expected it to have any right to be after that initial broadcast announcing the tournament's return.
She may still be a growing fighter, but she was as motivated as she could get to get anywhere close to triumph.
For the sake of her dojo, her close family, her friends (and maybe Lili) and her town as a whole, Asuka could finally be well on her way to becoming a true hero—
—"Oof!"
Asuka's train of thought came to a screeching halt the moment she took a turn around the corner of the long-hall, as she walked into something solid and sturdy, sending her falling on her butt.
"Dammit..." Grumbling to herself, Asuka climbed back to her feet, holding ill will only towards herself for not looking straight ahead. "Sorry about that – I keep being lost in my thoughts someti—"
And then she stopped herself the moment she looked at who exactly she bumped into.
And her blood started to boil.
She recognized that spiky fringe of hair almost immediately – and in return, Jin's icy, stone-face glare came back Asuka's way, seeing merely a person ahead of him and not much else.
Asuka knew Jin was a part of this same block of brackets in the prelims, and that she had a lot of frustration she would've loved to unleash on him in the chance they shared the ring out there – but for the first time in god knows how long, she was face-to-face with the 'Kazama family disgrace' (as she had called him several times in her own time) live and in person much sooner than she expected.
To Jin, however, this wasn't exactly a reunion worth stopping in his tracks for.
"...Excuse me."
He simply walked past her as if she was nothing in particular – though, to him, interacting with anyone of the surviving Kazama family was most likely way in the back in terms of things he was focused on at the time being.
Asuka, on the other hand... well, 'seeing red' was a light way of putting it.
"Oi! Don't just say 'excuse me' like I'm just some kid in your way!" She reached out and tugged on one of the sleeves of Jin's jacket to try and get him to turn around, but his unbudging walk simply had her almost stumbling over her feet. Rather than try again and risk tumbling down again, she instead matched his walking speed in order to keep up with him.
She walked up right in front of him, and next thing she knew, her right hand came across Jin's face with the force of a bullwhip, complete with a meaty thwap that sent flying some of the sweat on his face from the efforts he put in his previous fight tonight.
The fact that the slap managed to at least stop him in his tracks should've done enough to catch Asuka herself by surprise, but she was busy verbally unleashing a little bit of those frustrations she had built up in her over the past year or so.
"Do you realize how much mud you've been slingin' at our family name because of the shit you've done!? You give a middle finger to the rest of the world, and then you just waltz back into the tournament scene like it's nothin'? The concept of peace is nearly dead, and chaos is reigning, because of you, ya prick!"
Asuka could've gone on for a while if it wasn't for the strict scheduling of the tournament around her making it difficult to hold a conversation for longer than a few minutes – after outwardly calling Jin a prick, she had to grit her teeth to at least allow him a chance for an apology before she even considered physically laying into him a little more.
However, Jin simply stared back down, his face maintaining that slightly gloomy nature. It barely even looked like confusion; neither the one-sided confrontation with the ball of Osakan frustration, nor the slap that could probably pierce armor, felt like anything worth his focus.
Of course, the only one who could figure Jin out would be Jin, so from the other point of view, Asuka was effectively staring down a brick wall that blocked off the hidden motivations of her relative.
And he simply had one thing to say to her.
"How long have you been waiting to do that?"
"Months," Asuka snarled.
Jin then bluntly questioned, "That long, for one slap?"
"I'd much rather wait to make your ass-beating public – out there, in the ring, in front of god knows how many people who shouldn't trust you even the slightest."
Asuka clenched her fists tighter.
"Justice hurts, Jin. Hurts worse than anything you must've felt these past couple years – physically, mentally and emotionally – and believe me, it's not just about family at this point."
Even despite the diatribe against him, Jin didn't budge. His face didn't look any less indifferent – and the longer his gaze fell onto the shorter bundle of familial fury that was Asuka, the more she started to understand that her rage against him was going further and further into 'nowhere' territory.
She closed her eyes, hung her head to the side, and – after a deep breath in and out – spoke up.
"Right. I get it. I'm just a runt. You probably don't even remember I was part of the family, do ya? I wanna be worried sick for you – I really do – but I also just wanna friggin'..." She slammed one tight-fisted hand into the loose palm of another, "...break your face in—"
"Asuka."
"Uhh...!?"
She didn't expect Jin to recognize her by name. Turns out she might've been wronger than she thought.
Her fists completely unclenched and her eyes shot back up to meet Jin's. The gloom that was only somewhat recognizable on Jin's barely-emotional face was shrouded by what felt like him... understanding, maybe?
"Don't be sorry for me," he said. "I've got a lot to atone for."
Then, again, he walked past her.
Only this time, Asuka didn't try to catch up to him, standing in place as the emotions she built within herself about him had been mostly defused by the thoughts of concern and confusion.
"I-I... I swear, I didn't think you'd know who I am..."
"I already know our family name's tainted..."
Jin looked back, one more time, "...and I know what must be done in order to fix that."
From his point of view, he didn't need to say anything more; he continued roaming down the corridor with only his own personal goals in mind.
Asuka was back to being left alone, her sight ultimately falling away from the departing repenter and onto her hands.
After all that, the catharsis of beating some sense into Jin slipped away from Asuka's mind – no use beating on a guy that wants to be beaten, because in her eyes, that's not justice, that's almost bordering on the line of 'sadism'. Granted, for the 'goody-goody ass-kicker' attitude she loved to maintain, the definition of sadism she had was a little hazy.
On top of that, she'd already figured out what spot in the brackets it had to be for them to meet in the ring, but now she had gone from anticipating the possibility of catching him by surprise later in this tournament, to dreading having to actually fight him if both of them were to make it to the semi-finals together.
Asuka sighed, her momentary introspection dealt with, and she turned around—
"Whoa!"
—but she was again met with something in her way; not enough to send her back to the floor like the first time – however, she narrowly avoided slamming herself against whoever was in her way this time.
Standing right in front of Asuka, was someone roughly around the same age, clad in a clearly thematic purple and black – right down to her black hair shading into purple at the tips. Despite the somewhat punky look, she looked rather friendly, if a tiny bit smug with what her first words to Asuka were.
"Easy there; I come in peace – unless you're looking for a fight on purpose, at least~"
"Oh... no worries," Asuka replied. "The only fighting I need to do right now is in that ring out there – and believe me, I've done more than enough so far tonight."
She took a second to look up and down on the presumably fellow fighter before her, from the dyed-tips hairdo to the half-and-half scheme on her jacket; nothing necessarily suspicious as far as Asuka saw, but she knew there had to be some sort of story behind the choice of look.
"So, uh, I'm Asuka, nice to meet you..." She crossed her arms, trying to hold herself still during the little spouts of dead air. "What would ya want me to call you?"
The purple-clad girl chuckled.
"My mistake. Knew there was something missing after we nearly bumped into each other." She respectfully bowed in greetings. "Name's Reina. I'm repping Mishima Polytechnical School."
Asuka's eyebrows slightly lifted in intrigue. "Polytech, huh?"
Reina nodded. "Yep. Weren't you enrolled there, too?"
"Nope – Osaka loud and proud," Asuka replied, confidently. "Always felt like Polytechers seem like the type of people to pick us regular high-schoolers."
"I wouldn't confirm nor deny the idea of that," Reina said. "We are naturally more trained in martial-arts than most schools."
"Well, yeah, that makes sense given the guy who funded the place, y'know?" said Asuka. "Anyways... what's your story? You just happen to meet me by chance or did you want to talk with me?"
Reina replied, "Oh... it's nothing – just wanted to say..."
"The next match is just about to begin!" Suddenly, the ring announcer of the arena sounded off.
"Both fighters, get ready for the next battle!"
This briefly caught Asuka's attention, as Reina finished responding.
"...that you might wanna head back to the ring~"
"...Right, we'll talk later," Asuka nodded, tapping Reina on the shoulder as she carefully maneuvered around her. "Not worth wasting everyone else's time standin' around here...!"
Just like that, she was sprinting off in the direction of the ring entryway that was more than a decent jog away.
"Good luck!" was as much Reina was able to greet back as Asuka gradually disappeared further down the corridor, into eventual action ahead.
As she felt more certain she was alone in that spot, the ingenuity of Reina's grin cracked slightly.
On the inside, were thoughts that didn't seem anywhere near as friendly as she perceived externally...
You have no idea what's coming your way, do you... Asuka Kazama?