Chapter 12: Puppet Strings notes
March 8, 1999

A little over two months to finish this one. It's just close to
impossible to write really fast and juggle college courses at the
same time. I'm on spring break right now, though, so I hope I can
get a good start on Ch. 13 before classes resume.

The title is of course a very direct metaphor; I've had a vision of
silver puppet threads running from Lee's hands to Bryan's neck for
some time now. The epigraph is something I've been waiting to
use, from a very powerful fantasy novel about a witch who must
temporarily enslave an ancient dragon to her will. In the end, she
becomes a dragon herself - but only for a short time, choosing to
give up power and immortality so that she can return to her
husband and children.

List of things taken directly from Namco's storyline/rendered
movies:
  -Bryan's hatred of bright light
  -that Lee likes to decorate everything with unicorns (Lee's TK2
ending)
  -Bryan's TK3 ending!
  -Lee's hobbies (hang gliding, paragliding, kite flying, smoking
menthols)

List of deviations from Namco's storyline
  -that Bryan is a heroin addict/Abel kept him on methadone
maintenance
  -probably Lee's whole personality. ^_^

 Not when I already pushed my dinner date back an hour
   -Bryan is in fact having dinner with a certain woman tonight, and
he's a bit nervous about it. So that the interviewer is receiving some
of Bryan's displaced agitation.

Originally, my outline didn't call for Lee and Hwoarang to meet at
all. But I rather regretted this, as the two would almost certainly
have a history from the Great Invasion. Even if Hwoarang's role in
the Great Invasion was so small that he's never seen or mentioned
by name in "Ashes." Also, this scene provides the perfect
explanation as to how Hwoarang is able to sneak into the Mishima
syndicate.

     Lee changed.
     Of course I couldn't see what he turned into.
  -Lee has assumed his mortal likeness (note that he speaks in
normal quotes instead of * signs). In an early draft, I tried writing
him in his true form, but realized that Lee wouldn't do that yet. Not
only because his true form gives off a potentially risky amount of
light, and not only because Lee is still wary of drastically shape-
shifting Bryan's body until he has completely adjusted to it. Also
because Lee finds his true form embarrassing.

     "Guardians, by definition, do not labor for reward."
     "Stop parroting their slogans! You sound like they burned
away half your soul!"
     "I would hardly call it half."
  -Lee is, in fact, not 100% aware of the severity of the changes that
have been forcibly wrought in his psyche. He does possess free
will, more or less, but certain core rules and codes have been
literally branded into his mind. It's a similar effect to having
something drilled into you every day at school or church. You see a
reflection of it whenever Lee unthinkingly repeats the slogans of
his masters - like the taped slogans drilled into the "happy" citizens
of "Brave New World."

(He does not age as a mortal would. He is a vampyre, one of the
unliving slave caste originally created by true vampires to serve
their vile whims.)
  -if any true vampires are left in the world, they'd doubtless be
even harder to find than vampyres. The Great Invasion was not a
good time for rogue, evil undead on Earth; their black souls were
among the first to be collected by Shao Kahn, and blood-borne
diseases all but wiped out what was left.

When did my TV show switch channels from "Touched by an
Angel" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? 
  -I tried to sit through an episode of "Touched by and Angel" once.
Couldn't do it. Just too sappy. And I don't understand why the
angels are messing around with comedy teams or whatever when
plain, ordinary humans (policemen, public servants, charity
workers) do so much more to serve and protect those who truly
need it. As for "Buffy," I'm not even going to TRY to sit through
an episode of that. Way too icky. My dad's a huge "Buffy" fan,
though.

     "Why didn't you tell Kazuya what I was?"
     "For the same reason that your master Baek kept the secret.
My role in the Mishima syndicate's atrocities pushed me to the
brink of madness. I did not know how to stop the slaughter. All I
knew was that exploiting your blood would only make it worse."
  -two purposes served here. 1) foreshadowing (hehhehheh). 2) an
explanation of why Kazuya never exploited Hwoarang's vampyric
nature in any way. Kazuya didn't know (he could use his Power to
spy on almost anyone, but in practice he's not going to
meticulously study each one of thousands of people), and Lee/Baek
never told him because, deep underneath the surface, neither one of
them was 100% evil.

     "Never." My field of view humbled itself, and I got a good
look at dried-out winter grass stalks crumpled in the cold earth. "I
am deeply sorry for the wrongs that I have inflicted upon you."
   -Lee is bowing on one knee. When I imagine angel Lee as a
Tekken character, I see this as one of his victory poses - even
though he has shown himself stronger than you, if you are both
good at heart and in need, he would offer his services to you.

     A funny feeling settled on my mind. Not exactly pain. It
was more of a piercing brilliance. Like forgetting to wear shades
for your morning drive to work. When the sun rises right in front of
your damn windshield, it's probably doing permanent damage to
your eyes and all you can do is squint.
  -well, the one time I forgot to wear sunglasses on a morning drive
gave me a headache to remember. So I almost always keep my
prescription sunglasses in my car, now. I only use them for driving,
anyway.

     No man can defeat an Angel. I remembered that from one
of the old church sermons.
  -actually, I'm paraphrasing it from "The Lord of the Rings"; the
master of the Ringwraiths is so terrible that no man can defeat him.
It is Eowyn, a woman (with some help from a hobbit) who destroys
him.

I saw how Hwoarang deliberately hid the look on his face, and I
heard how carefully he chose each word. Too carefully. 
  -Hwoarang's real reason for coming to the Mishima syndicate will
probably be shown in Ch. 13... and it's a lot more than he's telling.
He's lived 400 years as a periodic slave, compelled by the curse to
truthfully answer his masters; he knows all the tricks.

Only a dozen civilians dead?
  -four scientists, two businessmen, one homeless man, and five of
Hwoarang's gang members (including Yukie), as seen in Ch. 7.

There was an internal wall, a stopping point that deliberately kept
his buried resentment from exploding into outright hate.
   -Lee is deliberately controlling his emotions, partly because he
does not have proof that Lei Wulong murdered Kazuya, and partly
because he knows Jun dearly loved Lei.

"Did wardrobe just prep me for a guest shot on 'N.Y.P.D. Blue'?"
  -my all-time favorite currently running TV show. And they have
all sorts of guest actors - once I even recognized Ed Wasser, a.k.a.
Morden of "Babylon 5." ^_^

"In realms of the psyche, you are as you perceive yourself. It is
common for mortal souls to perceive themselves as they once were,
shortly before they died."
     "What are you talking about? I hung up this damn suit eight
years ago."
     "My condolences." He sounded like he really meant it, too.
  -Bryan's decline began with his promotion and transfer. Part of it
was how he let his jealousy of Lei Wulong eat him up inside, and
part of it was how the Mishima syndicate had already corrupted the
work environment of his new job. So that Bryan began to "die" in
spirit soon after he turned 21. 

"This is what you're doing to get me out of here?" I said, folding
both arms behind my back and strolling closer.
  -this is, of course, one of Bryan's two intro animations in a TK3
match (the other one being his practice punches, as written into Ch.
4).

     "Uh-huh. Is what the pretty boy said about you true? Are
you really a computer program?"
     "Only in the sense that all intelligence is."
  -a paraphrase of a classic question/response in a Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book. Splinter asks Ninjara, a fox-
woman, "Are you a child of the atom?" and she responds, "I am -
but only in the sense that everything is." Implying that she was
born a fox-person, instead of being a radioactively evolved fox...

     "This?" He absently touched the ligature marks crossing his
throat. "Never, ever wear a chain necklace in a street fight."
  -Lee is no longer wearing his necklace because Liu Kang took it
off him shortly before he died. Similarly, Lee isn't carrying his
fighting knives because Jun stole one, and he left the other in
Ganryu's body. Lee could perceive himself as carrying a knife,
easily, but his sword is much more powerful, versatile, and useful.
  BTW, "ligature marks" is a phrase I first heard used on "N.Y.P.D.
Blue".

     "Why not? Wulong knew about your death-link, didn't he?"
     "Well... yes, he did. But-"
  -here, Lee is thinking back to his one meeting with Lee Wulong,
in the prison cell with Jun Kazama (and also Liu Kang). Jun clearly
referred to Lee's death-link in front of Lei.
  -Lee and Lei were both such pivotal characters, and such favorites
of mine, that I somewhat regretted how their one meeting in
"Ashes" was so brief. They barely said a few sentences to each
other, and they never got to fight. An upcoming chapter of
"Phoenix" will, of course, rectify this... 

     "When Wulong discovered I was Jun-chan's fiance, he... he
had such a look on his face... I thought he would turn into a demon
then and there."
  -and this refers back to Lei's startled "HE is your fiance!? Him?
_Lee Chaolan_?" in Ch. 19 of "Ashes."

     "Did he threaten to kill you?"
     "Yes... but the circumstances were-"
  -that Lee was threatening Jun at the time. So that Lei said, "If you
hurt her, if you touch her, I will disembowel you. I will not need to
be insane to do it."

     You ever see a dead man sigh? It's the damnedest thing.
He's sitting there, not breathing. Then he slowly takes in a breath
and lets it out, deep and meaningful like. Then he goes back to not
breathing again.
  -I've been meaning to get this comment in for some time. When
you're dead, breathing is strictly optional. ^_^

"Part of me continually monitors your physical condition, including
your psychogalvanic skin reflex."
  -i.e., the amount of sweat that unconsciously appears on one's
skin. It's what some lie detectors used to measure.

     The season finale cliffhanger is: do I believe a word of this
shit?
  -this was "The sixty-four thousand dollar question" in the rough
draft, but then I realized Bryan would have been born long after
that game show was taken off the air. *I* can dimly remember it,
though. And to think it was fixed all along...

     "Is it merely stubbornness? Or do you have a reason that
you are reluctant to say aloud?"
  -in fact, Bryan does have a reason, which is hinted at in this
chapter. It will be expressly spelled out at a later time.

     "This realm is your psyche, and you are only a mortal," he
answered, calmly. "You can't threaten me with violence here, not
in any significant sense."
  -if Bryan had supernatural Power or will on the level of the
Toshin, he might be able to conjure something dangerous like
Byakhee in his own psyche and truly threaten Lee, but that's not the
case...

Okay. It's not exactly a fight scene, since Lee isn't fighting back,
but it's the closest there's been in three chapters now. It starts off
with the beginning to Bryan's strings (b+3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 4). There's a
point here in Bryan's strings where various possible continuations
can be blocked, dodged, countered, etc. so instead of continuing
the string, Bryan goes for his "Gravity Brain Buster" basic throw
(2+4). The last move he tries is his unblockable (long windup)
Meteor Smash (b+1+4).

     "Don't just eat it like a - like a damned WOMAN!"
     "Is that an insult? Grey Kingdom. How dare you call me a
nurturing, sensitive caregiver with a tendency toward emotional
introspection?"
  -paraphrased from "The Cartoon History of the Universe."

"But there is a glimmer of light left within you, a memory of the
good soul you used to be."
  -this is the smattering of light that illuminates Lee's workstation,
in place of a desk lamp. ^_^

This time I saw camouflage pants, a black T-shirt, black gloves,
and plain brown shoes.
  -this is Bryan's outfit from his TK3 ending. Basically, it's his
camouflage pants outfit with a shirt. He'll get a chance to change
into his other outfit several chapters down the line - I always liked
his vest outfit better anyway.

"There is something you must understand, Bryan."
  -when Lee's transparent form is outside of Bryan, it happens that
Bryan can still hear him as if speaking with a physical voice. It's
only when Lee is completely within Bryan that he uses a mind-
voice, i.e. his speech has parentheses.

"I am keeping your body alive. My influence within it is what
allows you to perceive me. I will use that influence against you if
your actions leave me no other choice."
  -The specifics of how Lee can perceive & interact with Bryan
seemed a bit too technical to detail here (Lee correctly guessed that
Bryan wouldn't have the patience to listen to it anyway.) 
  Normally, only the dead or the dying can perceive Lee. Right
now, Bryan is not dead or dying, but since Lee has influence over
Bryan's body, he can also affect Bryan's senses (sight, hearing,
touch, pressure, etc.) At this moment, Lee is actually using his
Power to superimpose a vision of himself on Bryan's retina. He is
in effect making Bryan hallucinate (complete with auditory, tactile,
& pressure sensations), although it isn't a "hallucination" in the
sense that Lee isn't there - he really *is* there. Lee's pathological
truth-telling compulsion would not permit him to induce a false
hallucination in Bryan. 
  If Lee were to actually hit Bryan, Bryan would not only feel it; at
Lee's option, it could do damage to Bryan just the same as a regular
punch.

     "Or perhaps you'd prefer to stagger around for ten minutes
and drop dead in the street? Let whoever finds your body worry
about its disposal?"
  -Bryan would not perish instantly the moment Lee left; the signal
pulses Lee has set up would continue working for a short while.
But not for long.

Lies. He had to be lying about all this. It didn't make sense
otherwise. I had control of my own actions now, didn't I? I could
move and breathe just fine.
  -actually, Lee has simply rerouted the control of Bryan's voluntary
muscles to Bryan. It still has to go through Lee first. However, the
complicated logistics of spiritual and physical possession mean that
once Lee has given up control, he can't take it back from Bryan all
*that* easily. Not unless Bryan gives it up, or falls unconscious.

And now for Bryan's TK3 ending. Faithfully rendered, complete
with an explanation of why Bryan could shrug off bullets when a
few well-placed body blows can render him unconscious, same as
any other TK3 char. Answer: it's an angel's AT field. ^_^ Seriously,
Lee is protecting Bryan with a projectile ward similar to the one
Kazuya used in "Ashes." Lee's Power is much more limited,
though; he has only his own essence to draw on, not the essence of
three thousand enslaved souls.

It's important to have a limit on Lee/Bryan's combined Power; can't
make the story *too* easy for either of 'em...

Even the two guys driving the tank hopped out and pounded the
pavement for all they were worth.
  -this isn't actually shown in Bryan's TK3 ending. But at first we
only see five Tekkenshu leveling machine guns at him; then we see
seven Tekkenshu running away, just before the big explosion hits.
So I figure the other two guys were driving the tank.

"That was you holding back on my throw, wasn't it?"
  -of course, Lee's not going to break his code against killing, not
even on Tekkenshu. And if you look closely at Bryan's ending,
you'll notice that the explosion does fall somewhat short of the
fleeing soldiers. 
  There's another reason why sparing the Tekkenshu was wise,
although Lee is too drained to spell it out. If Lee/Bryan had killed a
single one, it would incite Jin to hunt them down personally - Jin
would be guilt-ridden over having turned Lee/Bryan loose to kill
one of Heihachi's men. Ch. 13 will probably go into precisely why
reinforcement Tekkenshu didn't immediately hunt Bryan down,
even though he didn't get too far from the conflict scene before he
had to hole up because of his wound.

The outfit that Lee wears in angel form is largely taken from that of
Crusaders (1095-1250 A.D.), what with the hauberk and the
surcoat. It's not quite the same, though. He isn't as fully armored -
no sleeves on the hauberk, no leg armor, no helmet or mail coif
around the head. No scabbard for his sword, either, since it's part of
his essence and he summons/dispels it as needed.

It's my opinion that Nazi references are extremely overused,
especially as symbols/metaphors, in writing or in anything else.
There is even a "law" on the net (can't remember the name of the
"law" right now) that whenever anyone brings up Nazis to support
their side in a debate, they automatically forfeit the entire debate
(because Nazi comparisons were just so overused). Personally, I
tend to have a questionable at best opinion of any, I mean *any*
fictional story that has Nazis for its villains. So I didn't want to do
any Nazi referencing or name-dropping trivially. But the name-
calling did fit Bryan's belligerent personality. This is probably the
last of it for the novel.

     Then again, just how was I going to read an angel's mind?
Was it anything like scanning a Vorlon on "Babylon 5"?
  -Bryan only saw B5 seasons 1-4 when he was a child. He didn't
have access to satellite TV, so he didn't see season 5 until much
later in his life (he bought it on video). Of course, humans perceive
Vorlons to be angel-like beings, so there is some correlation
between this and Lyta's scan of Kosh in the B5 pilot...

Also used to like kite flying and kite-fighting, so much that he'd
model new kite designs on his damn computer software. 
  -although hang gliding, paragliding, and kite flying have been
listed as Lee's hobbies in Namco's official sources, kite fighting -
the competition of maneuvering kites to sever each other's strings -
is not. But it certainly felt appropriate for Lee. ^_^

Was especially vain about his silver hair. Used to brush and neatly
part it in front of a mirror, several times a day. 
  -in all of Lee's various rendered art pictures, including his select
portrait, his hair is painstakingly neat and parted. I'm assuming
that's not an accident...

Like a giant DVD set with all the scene indexes messed up.
  -I don't have a DVD player, and have never seen a movie on
DVD, but I did buy myself a Tekken anime DVD for the day when
I get a DVD player. Scene indexes strike me as an interesting, yet
clunky and limited way to get around the lack of a rewind or fast
forward feature. ^_^

Now, here's something that I never originally planned to include:
how Lee first met Kazuya, and was adopted into the Mishima
family. I've never seen the details of this explicitly given in any
official Namco storyline; only that it happened when Lee was
twelve, that he was an orphan before then, and that Heihachi
adopted him to provide Kazuya with a rival. I have seen hints that
Kazuya & Lee were "friends" before Lee's adoption, but that
doesn't make sense since they were presumably living in different
countries. Were they pen-pals, or was Kazuya going to a boarding
school? Nah. I am keeping to the storyline that Kazuya & Lee
started out close, like brothers, and only later drifted apart.
  In creating this scene, I also build upon Kazuya's personal love of
beautiful things, and Heihachi's disdain of them (he only cares for
strength). There's only a few references to this in the past, but one
is in "Ashes" Ch. 18. When Jun infiltrates the syndicate along with
Lei and Liu Kang, she notices that Kazuya has lavishly decorated it
with beautiful works of art, while Heihachi used to keep the place
bare and spartan.
  The syndicate is of course spartan once more. Much of its art was
looted after its fall in the Great Invasion; Heihachi took it upon
himself to destroy most of what was left, out of hatred for his son.
In retrospect, it is not something he'd do all over again, since the
more practical (and stronger) course would be to sell the art works
for money, but sometimes his emotions and his temper get the
better of him.
  However, Jin has inherited his father's love of beauty. He's an
amateur artist himself, as will be seen in an upcoming chapter...

"I believe you have something that belongs to me."
  -Lee was never a very good thief (if he were, he wouldn't be
starving to death). After all, Jun was able to lift his dagger without
his noticing it in "Ashes."

"This wretched piece of refuse has proven himself stronger than
you are. You must train yourself harder; you are no son of mine
until you have become strong enough to crush the likes of him."
  -Sort of an ominous foreshadowing of Kazuya's eventual victory
over Lee in the TK1 Tournament, which is recounted later...

All the other scenes in Lee's memories are taken from "Ashes of
the Phoenix": the night he drove away Jun (only from his
perspective, this time), his TK1 fight with Kazuya (this time with a
little more on what it feels like to receive a death-link), and the
vengeful torments of Michelle's soul. The last wasn't in the rough
draft, but one of my prereaders suggested it, and in retrospect it
really did fit.

I'll admit that I'm getting dangerously close to overusing an idea
here, namely the idea that if you look into another person's mind
(and especially if you force your way in), you can get a hell of a lot
more than you bargained for. Liu Kang vs. Lei in "Ashes," Jin vs.
Hwoarang in Ch. 9, and now Bryan vs. Lee, and that's only to start.
It won't recur that much more often in the rest of "Phoenix
Reborn," though. Except possibly with Nina and/or the Toshin;
since neither of them is ever interviewed, there's no other direct
way to show what they think...

     *Sleep,* Lee said, and last thing I remember is this nagging
feeling that I'd forgotten all about something important.
  -namely, about getting revenge on Lei Wulong. And by the time
Lee actually makes it to Tokyo Mishima General Hospital, he
realizes that Lei is gone (Lee is dimly sensitive to the demonic
residue in Lei's blood - not enough to track him across any
distance, but definitely enough to tell whether he's anywhere in a
short radius.) The Lee/Lei confrontation is not for several chapters
to come, unfortunately...
  Bryan's final diatribe against Lee is purposefully written like a
reflection of his hate for Lei Wulong. It seemed to be Bryan's style,
anyway...

And finally, the off-format piece of text. At first I wasn't sure what
it would be; then I realized it would certainly be prudent to set up
Lei's escape for his next appearance in Ch. 13... or Ch. 14,
depending on whether Ch. 13 runs long (and I suppose it probably
will. *sigh*) I have ER going through the back of my head for no
good reason when I wrote this, since Heihachi's hospital is
radically different from ER's County hospital.
  In particular, Heihachi's hospital accepts virtually no one without
insurance, or else a lot of money. (Lei was a special case; Heihachi
had him directly committed because he needs Lei alive, so that
Lei's living soul can help lure the Toshin). Of course they're
instructed to give treatment of Heihachi's soldiers and other
employees absolute first priority. Most of the cases the hospital
was recently swamped with were Tekkenshu casualties.

Next: Heihachi meets Hwoarang, and Mitsurugi meets Xiaoyu.
Guess which of these will end up in a fight? ^_^Chapter 13: Unlikely Alliances notes
May 15, 1999

Again, a little over two months to finish this, which seems to be
my going rate when college classes are in session. I *have* to
drastically speed up the pace over the summer, if I'm going to
finish this novel before Tekken Tag (the latest arcade game,
currently being tested) becomes too widespread...

The title is a bit cliche, but descriptive, as several unlikely
alliances/friendships/etc. have their roots here. Heihachi coerces
Anna Williams and Hwoarang into his "alliance," while Xiaoyu
begins to form a friendship with Jin & Mitsurugi, and Mitsurugi
falls head over heels for Anna...

The epigraph is from what is perhaps my all-time favorite
nonfiction book: "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman.
I've never seen such a straight-written, easily understandable,
critical look at the politics of the Middle East. It is overwhelmingly
impressive. I've been looking for a chance to use a quote for some
time now. 

List of things taken directly from Namco's
games/storyline/rendered movies:
   -that Heihachi plans to end the "doomed dynasty" of the House
Mishima"
   -Heihachi's fight intro pose
   -Xiaoyu's favorite foods (again)
   -that Xiaoyu hates math

List of deviations from/creative liberties with Namco's storyline
   -that Anna actually signs up to work for the syndicate again - this
isn't mentioned in her TK3 storyline, although Nina's TK3 ending
suggests that Anna has some connection to the syndicate, and is
using its technology (with Dr. B's help) to try to restore Nina's
memories.
   -that Nina is not officially on the fight roster for the TK3
Tournament - she's actually in banishment limbo somewhere, until
she's summoned out of it...
   -that Hwoarang ever became under the control/subjugation of
Heihachi Mishima

I've been trying to think where or how to work in a psionic
verification session of Anna Williams for some time now. This
turned out to be the necessary place, because it helps clearly
establish her hatred of the House Mishima in general and Jin in
particular, and it sets up her first encounter with Mitsurugi. Also,
it's nice to just use the off-format text transcript instead of Anna's,
Heihachi, or Jin's POV because it allows a break from straight
description.

K: Just - please be patient with her. She saved my father's life once,
and I - I think he hurt her. Badly. Her outrage and misery are so
strong-
   -of course, Jin knows that Anna saved Kazuya's life because Lee
told him last chapter...

KIMURA: Hush, cousin.
   -both Kimura's & Jin Kazama's last names start with "K," which
is a bit tricky for the transcript. Since Kimura only speaks a couple
times, though, I figured I'd just write his whole name out each time
to avoid confusion. Ishida and Kimura weren't originally supposed
to have any individual lines at all for this session, but I added 'em
in for a revision because these two are just a little too personified
to stay completely silent...

M: On the contrary, Miss Williams. For over twenty years, the
Mishima syndicate has expended considerable resources to
preserve you and your half-sister in coldsleep.
   -it has been pointed out to me that the Mishima syndicate could
not "legally" hold Nina/Anna in debt for cryogenic hibernation that
was inflicted upon them against their will. Nor could Anna be
"legally" held responsible for Nina's debts or crimes.
    Well, there's "legal," and then there's the Mishima syndicate. In
Heihachi's mind, of course, Anna is "legally" and morally
responsible to uphold the debt of her cryo upkeep (Heihachi wasn't
the one who made her an icicle, after all). Heihachi is also old-
fashioned enough that he tends to see family members as a unit; if
one commits a crime, then all are, to a degree, responsible. In
practical terms, this doesn't mean that Heihachi would have Anna
arrested for murder. It does mean that Heihachi feels free to offer
the promise of a "pardon" for Nina as a bargaining chip with Anna.
  Anna is far too distressed here to contest Heihachi's legal grounds
for her "indebtedness" - she wants to save her sister, not argue
technicalities. However, after she's had some time to calm down,
she'll do a little research and find out that the Mishima syndicate
really *is* holding the remnants of the Williams estate "in trust" -
i.e. they don't have complete legal ownership of it yet...

W: No. Not again. I've heard this line before, and I am not falling
for it again!
  -of course, Anna heard this line before when Lee talked her into
working as Kazuya's bodyguard to "save" her assassin sister...

If she were to learn the whole truth, can you be certain that she
would not take revenge on Miss Julia Chang? Are you willing to
stake Miss Chang's life upon it?
   -actually, Anna wouldn't intentionally murder Julia. She might
beat Julia up, though. In any case, it's not a risk Jin is willing to
take... 

     "I will assume responsibility for investigating this crime," I
told him. "If Abel had any accomplices, I will deal with them
accordingly, as well as the doctor himself."
   -I wouldn't stake a high life expectancy on any of the control
room technicians that were with Heihachi during Toshin-Nina's
attack. Heihachi isn't going to execute Abel though, because a) Jin
knows Abel, and might suspect something if Abel were to
"disappear" and b) Abel may yet prove useful in reconstructing the
Cyborg Army. There are more ways to undo a memory block than
simply having the telepath who put it in take it back out...

However, Chaolan always did have a possessively vindictive spirit.
Like a rabid mongrel, eager to bite the hand of its master. 
   -there is a grain of truth to this description of Lee, or at least, of
the person Lee once was. It's true that Lee used to be extremely
possessive, not to mention jealous and short-tempered. However,
Heihachi's assessment falls short of the whole truth. Even at his
worst, my Lee still loved his adopted family. And of course, twenty
years of afterlife have changed Lee a great deal...

"I will continue the hunt for the prototype, but not with soldiers."
   -this is a half-truth. Heihachi will hunt for the prototype with
spies and undercover agents, and if they find it, *then* Heihachi
will send in his soldiers.

     It is a paradox. A most regrettable one.
   -I originally wrote this last section of Heihachi's journal entry for
chapter 6, but it seemed out of place. So I kept the text in a
"dumping ground" file I use for false starts and deleted paragraphs,
until I found what seemed like the right place to paste it in. 

     I missed you. This is another weekend you've just up and
disappeared! 
   -the interviewer took Sunday, February 11th off to relax & have
some fun. 

     'Caffeine-free chocolate'? I didn't know they made that. 
    -I'm almost certain this exists. But if it doesn't now, I'm sure
someone will have invented it by 2018. ^_^

     But it's kind of boring. You sure? I can tell you all about
my biiiiig fight with-
   -Xiaoyu's first big match will be recounted in an upcoming
chapter (perhaps as soon as Ch. 15), but not through Xiaoyu's eyes.
There might not be much detail, either; Xiaoyu already got her big
fight scene in Ch. 6. Then again... well, I'll wait and see. If there
are no other fight scenes in the chapter, then I'll have to go into
detail - gotta keep including regular doses of some kind of action.
:)

There was even fresh clothes set out for me - really funny clothes.
White-on-black top like a sailor, and a really super-short skirt.
   -I thought about describing Xiaoyu's school uniform in more
detail, but it didn't seem right. Xiaoyu isn't likely to go into such
minutiae. Mitsurugi might, if there were a special circumstance;
but he'd see Xiaoyu's clothing as fairly ordinary. He (barely)
graduated from a high school where all the female students wore
something like that, after all.

Although y'know, he is sort of a cross between handsome good-
looking and sinister evil-looking, isn't he?
   -it has been pointed out to me that since Xiaoyu is 16, she
probably has at least a few female hormones coursing through her,
even if she is primarily obsessed with her amusement park. So I
added this line. BTW, Mitsurugi's looks are at best average, at
worst nerdy/spindly (in a "typical anime hero" sort of way). So
Xiaoyu would be much more inclined to see him as a "playmate"
than as a "cute guy" or a "hunk," even if he weren't dressed in the
black suit of a syndicate servant.

     A couple minutes later, Jin appeared near the top of the
stairs. He quickly came down and said, "Oh, before I forget - are
you carrying your IdentiCard?"
   -are you wondering what the whole point of IdentiCards is? Um,
well, I'm working on it. It started as practically a throwaway line
from Mitsurugi in Ch. 4. Here, well, it serves two purposes. One is
a very oblique sidestep of the fact that foreigners staying in Japan
are required to carry some form of identification, etc. with them at
all times. Another is simply as a conversational lead-in to Jin &
Xiaoyu's exit.

Or I could say how I started my first half a day at school, and got
put in the tenth grade.
   -Namco's storyline doesn't say what grade Xiaoyu is in. I'm
assuming 10th because that's what grade most 16-year-old kids are
in here (a few who were born late might be in 11th grade, but
Xiaoyu really doesn't strike me as an upperclassman yet). Despite
her ADHD, Xiaoyu isn't behind in her studies thanks to a) Wang
Jinrey's careful tutoring, and b) the fact that she truly isn't
unintelligent... just easily distracted.

and one of the other teachers was really weird, I mean REALLY
weird, all the kids would call him crazy and make fun of him
behind his back. But I bet Julia can tell you a lot more about him,
she got to know him a lot better than me.
   -this is of course setup for Professor Shingo Yabuki (from King
of Fighters '98), whom I hope to introduce next chapter...

And there's a geometry quiz today, too! I hate math.
   -this is of course from Namco's profile about Xiaoyu, which
explicitly states "math" under her list of dislikes (possibly "math
teachers" as well. :) Personally, I used to like math a lot more than
I do now; but I do respect it for being unambiguous (except maybe
for fuzzy logic math...)

You know what I really wish I could eat, right now? A succulent
helping of steaming hot sukiyaki
   -sukiyaki seems to be the deluxe Japanese meal of choice in
Rumiko Takahashi's manga, particularly Urusei Yatsura & Maison
Ikkoku. It certainly looks & sounds appetizing enough to me, even
when drawn on a manga page...

I encounted my first big time-frame-reference conflict with this
chapter. I realized that I needed Mitsurugi to encounter Xiaoyu,
Jin, & Anna here, especially because the Heihachi/Hwoarang fight
would be best told through Mitsurugi's eyes. But last chapter, I
didn't have him waking up until around 11:00 a.m. or so on a
school day; if Jin/Xiaoyu had gone to school at 8:00 a.m., they'd
have missed him entirely. As a hasty save, I let it be implied that
Xiaoyu slept late, and Jin skipped his first half of classes to help
his grandfather evaluate Anna Williams. Also, Jin was rather
wiped out from last night's events... he recovers quickly, but he
was still dragging after he helped Lee/Bryan to escape. And Jin has
no particular fondness for attending school anyway, for reasons
that should be better detailed in Ch. 14...

     "Wh-what?" I stammered. "Y-you said my next lesson
wasn't until-"
     "That is for combat. I have been assured that your injuries
are not serious enough to prohibit lighter training. Get up, or I will
make them serious."
   -this is another hasty save. I originally thought Mitsurugi's next
lesson wouldn't be until the following day; then I realized there
wasn't enough time in the plot. So, a quick little qualification to
Taki's pronouncement in Ch. 13 was in order. These are the pitfalls
of finishing a novel one chapter at a time...

-well, just why am I being threatened by so many women lately?
First Taki, then that horrible Ogre-woman, and now this tiny little
creature zipping about like a magical pixie or whatever. 
    -this same question occurred to me as I was writing Mitsurugi's
section. I don't know the answer, either. It honestly isn't
intentional... I think...

BTW, "Hyperdolls" is the name of an old anime - nothing special I
think, just a flashy one-shot about futurama teen wrestling girls in
skimpy outfits a la Metal Fighter Miku. Or something. Anyway,
the name seemed rather appropriate for Xiaoyu (at least when she's
not on her Ritalin. :)

And she was heedless of what her short skirt failed to cover during
her gymnastics.
     Her panties are dark blue, I noticed.
    -while I tend overall to raise a dubious eyebrow at the
fascination with women's underwear so prevalent in Japanese
comedy anime/manga, who am I to argue with an entertainment
genre so laced with panty shots? :) 
    TK3 trivia: Xiaoyu won't normally do her upside-down leg-split
victory pose in her TK3 school outfit. If you want to see her do that
pose in that outfit, you have to beat the game with her; she'll do it
at the end of the replay sequence. However, she does show a little
underwear during some of her high kicks, which is how I
confirmed their color.

"Or maybe he should share Kimura's wife. It's not like she could
tell the difference."
   -Taki is semi-serious here, in a derogatory way. She is also
wrong. While she is very intelligent, she is not perfect and not right
about everything. Kimura's wife knows her husband well enough to
be able to distinguish him from Ishida just based on differences in
tension, vocal tone, etc. (Also, while Ishida & Kimura are close,
they would never, EVER consider anything like polyandry).

"You?" my boss asked, pointing to me as he raised a questioning
eyebrow. "_You're_ the descendant of the legendary Mitsurugi?"
     He didn't have to say it like it was so hard to believe.

    -while modern-day Mitsurugi does resemble his legendary
ancestor's phenotype, modern-day Mitsurugi isn't anywhere near as
heavily muscled, due to the fact that he hasn't worked out as much.
At least, not until very recently. Modern-day Mitsurugi also doesn't
have exactly the same personal history, so of course he doesn't
have cool, imposing, ruthless demeanor of the Hollywood-style
master samurai shown in Soul Edge/Soul Calibur select portraits...

I recognized him from the cover of Time magazine - they made
him Man of the Year in 2012. 
    -Heihachi actually did *not* pull any strings specifically to
achieve this. He earned the cover of Time from his sheer stature a
global leader. Anyway, it may be a bit of a stretch to assume that
Time is published in Japan twenty years from now, but I think it's
not altogether unreasonable.

Mitsurugi's first impression of Heihachi is something I didn't have
set until I started writing it. I looked at the character, and realized
Mitsurugi *would* be *profoundly* impressed. Heihachi's
charisma and authority are VERY strong. This motive helped
shape the rest of the chapter; I originally didn't plan for Mitsurugi
to deliberately take on Hwoarang, or to strongly declare his
allegiance at the end. Sometimes, the characters tell me what they
say, instead of me telling the characters...

"THIS frightened weakling?" Mishima-sama boomed, rising to his
full, terrible height and gesturing to me with one hand, fingers
flexed like tiger claws. "THIS is the descendant of the legendary
Mitsurugi!?"
   - this is actually drawn from a line in Battle Athletes anime
("This girl? I have to race THIS GIRL!?"), a fun OVA set about the
ultimate high school girl P.E. class. I personally hated P.E. when I
had to take it, but I liked the videos. Even if the supporting heroine
(Kris) was far more interesting than the main heroine (Akari). Even
if the supporting heroine got gypped of the Cosmic Beauty title that
was rightfully hers...

     'Hwoarang'? Was that like a name or something? Just who
was Mishima-sama talking t-
    -in the rough draft, I had Mitsurugi referring to Hwoarang by
name even though he'd never heard the name. Oops. Gotta
remember that first person POV doesn't have the omniscience of
third-person POV...

Now for a quick prelude to the main fight scene. Hwoarang
ambushes Mitsurugi with his back throw, the Slaughterhouse (1+3
or 2+4 when behind opponent), which is a lot easier to see on the
game screen than to describe in words. That alone would take off
about half a lifebar; then Hwoarang follows it up with his ten-hit
string (2 from left stance or 1 from right stance, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4,
3). Mitsurugi is out of the action.

You might note that Hwoarang doesn't kill Mitsurugi, even though
such an act would certainly have been within Hwoarang's power.
Hwoarang isn't that evil - he's pushing the boundaries of his dark
side to attempt an assassination of Heihachi, without murdering
any stiffs who just have the bad luck to work for the man.
However, if Heihachi had specifically required Hwoarang to kill
Mitsurugi as a precondition for single combat, Hwoarang probably
would have done so. Hwoarang may not be that evil, but he IS that
desperate.

One last book landed on its spine, right in front of my eyes, and
flopped open to a diagram of human pressure points.
    -nearly all the books in Heihachi's study have to do with fighting
techniques, pressure points, war strategies, ruling strategies, etc.
etc. "The Book of Five Rings" and "The Prince" are two of his
most studied volumes.

     "Interesting style of Tae Kwon Do," commented Mishima-
sama's gruff, oddly distant voice, and I knew he wasn't talking
about me. "Its ruthless bloodletting is reminiscent of Baek Do
San."
   -this is, of course, why Heihachi allowed Mitsurugi a "chance" to
take on Hwoarang & keep his job. Heihachi never expected that
Mitsurugi would so much as break one of Hwoarang's nails, but
Heihachi did get an excellent opportunity to study his enemy's
fighting style.

"You think?" sneered my attacker.
    -one of my friends at Magic guild says this to me, from time to
time...

Indigo electricity crackled about the old man, framing him in a
thunderstorm nimbus as he stood, arms at his sides.
    -this is one of Heihachi's two TK3 fight intro animations, the
other one being that he fixes his shoes/geta before he turns around
and faces his challenger.

Now for the big fight scene, which I moved to the end of the
chapter so that everything else could build to a climax. ^_^ This
was the hardest scene to write, even with my PSX; having to finish
various computer programs for college didn't help.

Hwoarang leads off with his Grand Theft (f+4~4), attempting to set
up a juggle combo, but Heihachi dodges with his Shadow Step (b,
b, N+3+4). Hwoarang scores a few hits with the Rejecter string (1,
2, 3); then Heihachi gets him with the Neck Breaker (a.k.a.
"noogie") basic throw (1+2).
      While the Neck Breaker is escapable (1), it's a bit of creative
license for Heihachi to have Hwoarang in the headlock before
Hwoarang breaks free; in the game, if you escape any basic throw
you step away before the throw grabs you at all. But Hwoarang
really can't have his neck broken this early in the fight, so he breaks
out and throws Heihachi. Thanks to the previous Hwoarang fight
scenes (one with Seung Mina, two with Jin, and sort of one with
Mitsurugi) I'm running out of Hwoarang throws to write in - except
for the roll & choke throw, or the Dead End side-throw, both of
which appear lethal. Aside from those, the one throw I have left is
the leg hook throw (d, d/b+1+3), which despite being annoyingly
difficult to excecute, is rather unspectacular to watch, does no
additional damage, and is just as escapable as the basic throws.
Heihachi's a bit too surprised to escape this one, though.
       Hwoarang's ground attack on Heihachi isn't in TK3 at all; it's a
Kim Kaphwan move from King of Fighters '98 (Kim stomps the
ground and the whole screen trembles). Hey, it looked good. I just
might snatch a few more KoF moves for Hwoarang's fighting
arsenal too, if only to add a little more variety to his next fight
scene (he should have at least one more). Not too many, though;
several of Kim Kaphwan's special moves are freaking impossible,
after all.
      Anyway, Heihachi gets out of the way with a lengthwise roll
(1) and a quick rise (2). Meanwhile, Hwoarang chambers a Left
Flamingo stance and strikes out with a Step Kick, lands in Right
Flamingo stance, and finishes with a Snap Spin Kick (f+3, 4, b+4).
The falling books are extra damage, though Heihachi tries to shield
himself with his Demon Breath power punch (1+2).
     Although Hwoarang has the advantage, he loses it when
Heihachi bates him with a variant of his Auger taunt (2+3+4);
instead of tossing a nonverbal insult, Heihachi appears weakened
for an instant (this is an older, craftier Heihachi, who is not above
sacrificing a bit of his pride for a good setup). So Hwoarang
charges straight into Heihachi's Heavy Power Punch (d, d/f, f+2), a
staple move of almost every Paul/Heihachi player. And that move
on a counter hit takes off more health than if Heihachi breaks your
freaking neck. Heihachi follows up with a dash forward and his
Jumping Low Kick (f, N, d, d/f+3), which is actually very
deceptive since it resembles his equally dangerous Jumping Mid
Kick, which must be blocked high. 
      Heihachi tries to finish off Hwoarang with an accelerated
version of his Lightning Hand unblockable (D+1+4), while
Hwoarang staggers to his feet and whips off a jumping spin kick
(u+4). Technically, Heihachi *can't* reverse the jumping spin kick
on my home PSX, at least not automatically, even though it is a
high right kick. But mix a little creative license and desperation in,
and Heihachi pulls off his Charging Hard reversal (f, in response to
a high right kick). This is such a spectacular move that I've
envisioned writing it for a fight scene since before I knew what the
plot of "Phoenix Reborn" would be. However, as stunning as the
reversal is, it doesn't look quite as potentially deadly as the Geta
Stomping (d+4 on fallen opponent only), so Heihachi uses that to
end his battle with Hwoarang.

Heihachi may have four victory poses (form moves, horse stance,
overhead elbow, kneeling) but none of them seemed appropriate
here (the horse stance is particularly suspect - it looks like he's
constipated, for goodness' sake) so skip it.

"I asked _you_ to watch over Grandfather, not some student with
scarcely three days of training to his name!"
   -I originally planned for Jin to ask both Mitsurugi and Taki to
protect his grandfather, until Jin pointed out how little sense that
made. Which led to the question of why Mitsurugi would be there
in the first place. Which led to the answer of Taki's setup - when
Jin gave her a pretext that could be used to bring Mitsurugi before
Heihachi, she jumped on it, hoping that Mitsurugi would get
himself expelled from the syndicate before he wound up dead.

I don't know if it was rage or something deeper that gave her such
superhuman strength.
   - While not on the level of Gun Jack or Kuma, Taki is in fact
much stronger than a normal woman of her size, even if said
normal woman were in peak physical condition. There is a special
reason for this; its revelation just has to wait for several more
chapters...

"You're trying to intimidate me," I said, "but it's not going to
work."
    -Perhaps just a little bit borrowed from a recent episode of DS9:
"I don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but it's not going to
work," Solbor states, moments before Kai Winn murders him in
cold blood (stabs him in the back, actually). I'm going to miss DS9
when it's over, and the only Trek left is Voyager, a.k.a. "TNG Lite"
(and I daresay TNG was a better show).

Tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can talk Xiaoyu into bringing me a
steamed pork bun, after her school lets out.
    -This is one of the first chapters I can remember where I
honestly didn't have the last line in mind until I was pretty much on
the last page. Chalk it up to the characters pulling surprises on
me... I'm beginning to understand why food and its desire are such
prevalent themes in sword-and-sorcery anime such as Slayers; it
makes for lots of quick and easy gags/setups/closing lines. ^_^

Next up: Julia meets Professor Shingo Yabuki, a.k.a. "Crazy
Shingo"...Chapter 14: Teacher's Pet notes
June 1, 1999

Half a month to finish 33 pages. On the positive side, this is four
times as fast as I've written each of the last four chapters. On the
down side, I need to double the speed again if I'm going to finish
this novel over the summer. Maybe I'll cut down on my anime
habit to make time, I don't know...

I stole another catchphrase for the title. It's just been firmly in my
mind, ever since I decided to write Shingo Yabuki in as the role of
Jin's teacher. Shingo really is the star of this chapter, which
basically serves three purposes: 1) tying up assorted loose ends,
from Julia's translation protocol to the rest of the story on the
Ikebukuro disaster, 2) introducing Julia to various folks in the
Mishima syndicate, and 3) introducing Shingo. 

The epigraph is from a classic short horror story, which I'm sure
almost every American high school student has to study in some
English lit class or other. I once saw it made into a short narrated
television-style spot; pretty interesting, actually. I was very young
when I saw it, but they repeated one of the opening lines ("Why
will you say that I am mad?") as an ad-lib for the end, and the
voice stayed in my memory. Edgar Allan Poe is an author that has
my deepest respect, both for his pioneer writing in the detective
story genre, and for the fact that he is the only poet whose poetry I
can respect and comprehend (with the possible exception of
Shakespeare's iambic pentameter).
   In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the madman is so crazy he murders an
innocent old man, dismembers him, then confesses his crime to
police when driven beyond the brink by the hideous "beating" of
his victim's heart. Shingo's insanity certainly isn't anywhere near on
such homicidal scope; however, he does have an emphatic side,
which is only briefly seen vs. the girl with the mirror. It will
resurface in the future...

List of things taken directly from Namco's
games/storyline/rendered movies:
    - Mitsurugi's & Xiaoyu's sword stances (Xiaoyu's is from
Xianghua of Soul Calibur)
    - Xiaoyu's TK3 victory pose
    - Xiaoyu's TK3 ending (as a dream sequence)
    - the description of Jin's school (from the TK3 background &
Kuma/Panda ending)

List of things taken directly from SNK's KoF storyline, etc.
    - Shingo's high school uniform (his KoF '98 outfit, default color)
    - the Orochi-driven "Riot of the Blood" that erupted out of KoF
'97
    - that Shingo likes lizards (actually, he likes lizardmen...)
    - Shingo's past association with Kyo Kusanagi
    - that Shingo dislikes milk
    - the members of Shingo's family (mother, father, older sister,
younger sister)

List of deviations from/creative liberties with Namco's storyline
   - that Julia works for the syndicate 
   - that Xiaoyu wants a panda (in the official storyline, she just
tolerates her panda)

List of deviations from/creative liberties with SNK's KoF storyline
   - the death of most of Shingo's family, in the 1997 Orochi Blood
Riots
   - KoF '98 doesn't have a storyline. So my whole background
about how it took place, with Rugal calling everyone to the
Demiplane of Souls, Kyo becoming a god, Shingo being maimed
and driven half-mad, etc. is all artistic license. I hear rumors that
KoF '99 is coming out this summer, too; I'm sure it'll completely
contradict everything I ever refer to.

This time around, the main purpose of the off-format piece of text
is to establish a little background on the King of Fighters
Tournament, and the Orochi Blood Riots, since I expect many
readers of my fanfic won't be familiar with the KoF '97 storyline.
BTW, this documentary aired on the twenty-year anniversary of the
Riots, according to my continuity. Chizuru shows up for a cameo
in her interview; she is not slated to make a personal appearance
later on, although I suppose it isn't impossible. 

K: That depends on what you mean by "survived."
   - here, Chizuru is thinking of Kyo Kusanagi and Shingo Yabuki,
neither of whom "survived" KoF '98 in the same sense that she did.
The documentary makers wanted to interview Shingo, BTW, but
Shingo's older sister/legal guardian wouldn't allow it.
   As for who really survived KoF '98 and who didn't, and in what
capacity... most of that falls well outside the scope of "Phoenix
Reborn." I don't find most of the KoF chars interesting enough to
write fanfic about anyway, although if I weren't busy with "Phoenix
Reborn," I'd be tempted to try my own hand at an Iori story. Except
that it HAS been done, many, many times... so, eh.

 No, I was going to put Heihachi behind bars. Lock him up and
throw away the key.
   -as in Lee's TK2 ending - the one scene (along with Kazuya's
imprisonment) that, by necessity, wasn't written directly into
"Phoenix" Ch. 5.

     And why was the damn window tinted black?
     Oh, I knew why. Because it helped Jin block out Tokyo's
psychic background noise-
    -finally, a chance to slip in why the syndicate's windows are
black, as noticed by Mitsurugi in Ch. 4. One teeny-tiny loose end
tied up...

Next thing to address was introducing Julia to Mitsurugi, Taki, &
Xiaoyu. Originally, I planned for her to meet Xiaoyu at the
breakfast table & Mitsurugi/Taki in the next chapter, but adding a
big meeting scene here served several purposes. First, it got
introductions out of the way, freeing up a bit more room for Ch.
15, which will probably be rather packed as it is. Second, it was an
opportunity for a fight scene, albeit rather clipped, with an added
bonus of showing off a Xianghua move from Soul Calibur. Third,
it provided a much-needed segue into Julia's confrontation with Jin
over the translation protocol.
   Introductions are rather a pain in this story, since I'm writing
*nine* different character perspectives and many of them meet one
another for the first time as the story progresses. And that's just the
main characters. Fortunately, Shingo should be the next-to-last
significant character I'll write in, with the last being Dr. B (and his
role will be almost as minimal as it was in "Ashes").

"Hey!" cried the security guard. "You're not supposed to treat a
sword like that."
   - traditionally, the sword is the soul of the samurai, after all...

It's actually convenient to keep the kendo fight scene brief. While
Mitsurugi's stance is reminiscent of his into pose in Soul Calibur,
Xiaoyu's warmup is pretty much original for her. She probably
wouldn't spin her sword by the blade if it weren't wood, though. As
for the actual fighting bits that Julia sees, Mitsurugi's first attack
isn't exactly out of the game; you see it on behalf of the 1 million
bad guys who always charge our lone wolf hero in this or that
samurai movie. Xiaoyu's counter is one of Xianghua's moves from
Soul Calibur; one of my friends likes Xianghua a lot, so I've seen
her fight several times, although I don't play Soul Calibur much
myself. I beat it on one credit once with Lizardman and once with
Taki; that's good enough.

This time, however, I was fully aware of my inclination to
prejudge, and I promptly stepped on it.
   -loosely adapted from a line in Steven Brust's "Brokedown
Palace," about the fifteen-year-old Countess Mariska squelching a
side of herself that wants to encourage a fight. Although Julia has
never met Taki before, she actually recognizes something in Taki
that will be hinted at in Ch. 15, and fully revealed much later.

The fact that I knew her name startled me more than it did her,
though it shouldn't have. 
     Taki's eyes gained a nasty gleam.
   - Taki is amused because Julia's Japanese speech, and Julia's
knowledge of Taki's name, have as good as confirmed Taki's
suspicion that Jin has messed with Julia's mind...

She pressed her palms together and dipped in an overly cute bow,
saying, "Hah!" 
   - this is one of Xiaoyu's victory poses - press 1 or 2 when she's in
her high school outfit, or 2 when she's in another outfit.

I thought back to everything I'd said since getting up, and how one
of Jin's bodyguards had been so startled the other night because I
could understand him...
   - another tiny loose end tied up. That's sort of a recurring theme
for this chapter, especially what with it being about halfway
through the novel and all.

There was a large, jagged black mark on his left upper arm. Like a
pair of zigzag slashes, overlapping one another. It couldn't have
been a scar or a burn; it was too neat, too intricate.
   - Jin believes the mark on his arm is a scar from the Toshin's fire,
and in a sense, it is. When the Toshin burned him, it permanently
destroyed a camouflage layer of Jin's skin and made this body
marking visible. Jin was in fact born with this brand under his skin,
a hidden symbol of his cursed blood. 
    This is of course creative license, for Namco's rendered intro
shows the Devil giving Jin the mark when Jin is an adolescent. I
relegated that scene to a Ch. 7 dream sequence with metaphorical,
rather than literal meaning. My story differs fundamentally from
Namco's story because in my version, Jin isn't possessed by a
Devil; he *is* of Devil blood...

     "You were about to forfeit your life!"
     Jin's thick eyebrows came together, inquisitively. "No, I
wasn't. Did you think I was?"
    - another tiny loose end tied up. Originally, though, I had it
planned that Julia had just spared Jin a lot of pain and
convalescence; then, I looked back to my chapter draft and noted
that she'd patched him together in time for his upcoming Iron Fist
match.
    A close look at Ch. 10 will of course show that Heihachi never
actually _said_ his grandson was dying... he just acted ominous and
let Julia draw false conclusions.

He wanted me to link with his grandson. He wanted me to be weak
and disoriented from the aftermath of sharing my life force, the
better to pressure me into an alliance with the House Mishima.
Like a good corporate salesman, schmoozing a client by getting her
drunk first.
   - what Julia didn't know was that Heihachi had one more ulterior
motive. He wanted to bring Julia and his grandson closer together...
because an affectionate bond between them would be useful to
Heihachi's secret plans. Jin is, of course, completely clueless about
all of this.

I've since gotten used to kneeling at low tables, although I doubt I'll
ever make a pair of chopsticks do what I want them to.
    - I see the Tendou family eating breakfast while they kneel at a
low table often in the Ranma 1/2 anime, and it just doesn't look
comfortable at all... but I suppose you get used to it.

     The waffles were marvelous. Light, fluffy, and golden
brown, with just the right chewy texture. The syrup was a rich,
sugary maple, neither too sweet nor too thin. The butter was
whipped so fine it was like cream. And where had they found fresh
strawberries in December? 
     I decided that I liked Jin after all.
    - unlike Xiaoyu, Julia does not have her favorite foods listed
under her likes and dislikes. So I'm free to invent her favorite
breakfast, which was actually an extremely rare treat for her back
home. I added the description of the food after I thought back to
the movie "City of Angels" (the ultimate chick flick/polar inverse
of "Devil's Advocate") where the angel Seth mentions that he likes
Hemingway because the guy describes how everything tastes. I
never cared much for Hemingway's writing myself, but the angel
has a point.
    BTW, a delicious breakfast used to put someone in a good mood
is from the Steven Brust novel "Taltos," in which Vlad's new
friends, Morrolan and Sethra, invite him for breakfast to warm his
good graces before persuading him to run an errand in the Paths of
the Dead.

Now for Xiaoyu's TK3 ending, recounted as a dream sequence
since it certainly isn't going to happen literally in "Phoenix Reborn"
(Xiaoyu's actual amusement park ended up looking like her TK3
background stage). It's all straight from the ending movie, except
for the line about balding Japanese salarymen - that's a suggestion
from a friend. ^_^ Originally, I started writing an antagonistic
conflict between Xiaoyu & Julia, but that didn't make sense. Julia
is in no hurry to make enemies when she's already living in a
potentially hostile syndicate. Besides, I just did a scene of Xiaoyu
& Jin making up last chapter; I'd rather not be obliged for a similar
Xiaoyu/Julia scene. Too much else is going on.
     The names of the attacks that Xiaoyu says she used on dream-
Heihachi are, near as I can tell, the actual moves she clobbers him
with in her ending movie. Her Hydrangea into her Fortune Cookie
power punch are actually the second and third hits of her three-hit
sequence [u+1+2, 2, 1], where the first hit is her Double Fan. It's
very useful for ticking off block damage and probably my favorite
single Xiaoyu move in the game. But it doesn't leave her in her
Rain Dance fighting stance (with her back turned); the movie just
cuts to the second hit of her Dark and Stormy sequence [2, 1 in
Rain Dance]. Then it shows her assuming her Art of Phoenix
[D+1+2] into the Skyscraper Kick [4 while in the process standing
up], which is a bit redundant since she doesn't need to be in her Art
of Phoenix to do that kick; she can just crouch and do it.
Apparently, Xiaoyu's ending movie shows short clips of a lengthier
beating, and my Xiaoyu is just babbling the highlights. 

And I was thinking maybe I _really_ screwed up when I made a
deal with him!
     - Xiaoyu's ending movie suggests that Xiaoyu is thinking
"Chigau daroo!" which more or less translates as "I [or someone]
really screwed up!" The American version of TK3 just has her
thinking "JERK!" in reference to Heihachi. Same general emotion,
vastly different translations. I stay closer to a more literal
translation here, because it has a nice, ominous bit of future
foreshadowing with regard to Xiaoyu's and Julia's deals with
Heihachi.

Jin's psychic conversation with Julia serves two purposes. First, it
is the tying of yet another loose end, i.e. Heihachi's desire for Julia
to stay silent about classified information. Heihachi in fact does not
trust Julia to stay silent, but he knows he can't make Jin put a
memory block in her against her will. So, Heihachi is gambling
that Julia doesn't know enough about Nina, the medallion, or the
Cyborg Army project to cause any real problems (it's not as if Julia
knows how to build a Cyborg Army soldier or anything).
Heihachi's real purpose in classifying the information, along with
maintaining general secrecy to protect the syndicate, is to keep Jin
and Julia from comparing notes too closely about the other night. It
could ruin all Heihachi's plans if Jin were to figure out that
Heihachi almost had the Cyborg Army prototype murder Julia. 
     This is all very convenient for me, as writing in or even glossing
over a summary of everything Jin knows about the rogue Cyborg
Army prototype would be exhausting and bulky to fit in. And then
I'd have to write in Julia's reaction, especially since Lee Chaolan,
her mother's killer, is involved... nah. It's easier to leave things here
and save Julia's next meeting with Lee for later (much later,
actually. Almost certainly not until the novel's climax).
    The other purpose that Jin's psychic conversation serves is to
give a baseline, contained within this chapter, for Shingo to
compare against when he discusses how it is that he talks to
Kusanagi-sama.

     (All right, all right. Sorry. I give you my word I'll... be
discreet about Nina Williams and this 'Cyborg Army project.')
   - Jin completely misses it, but Julia has NOT promised to remain
silent. Just that she won't blab to too many people. The public at
large probably wouldn't believe her, anyway...

Now for the start of a new micro-mini-subplot: Xiaoyu's desire for
a panda. It is creative licence, as Namco's storyline states that
Heihachi assigned Panda as Xiaoyu's bodyguard(!), and Xiaoyu is
disdainful yet tolerant of Panda. To which I say, "Huh?" I'm sorry,
but that's just too loopy for Heihachi. It is not, however, too loopy
for Xiaoyu.
     As the respectful son of the nature-loving Jun, Jin is at worst
aghast, at best skeptical of the concept of owning wild animals as
pets. Hence his initial reaction to Xiaoyu's demand. And while
Xiaoyu is immature in some ways, she is wise enough to know
when not to push things too far. So that she is not going to demean
herself by throwing a temper tantrum, but rather just take a
cheerful wait-and-see attitude about persuading Jin.

     "The bear's name is Kuma. Grandfather raised him from a
cub, and takes very good care of him."
    - in "Ashes," it was my creative license to kill off the old Kuma.
Namco's TK3 storyline had the old Kuma live until at least 8 years
before TK3, because the new Kuma is the old Kuma's child, and
the new Kuma is 8 years old. So, is my new Kuma still the child of
the old Kuma? Ummm... well, maybe he's actually the grandchild.
Or maybe he was just an adopted cub. Since the new Kuma is not
slated to personally appear in "Phoenix Reborn," it doesn't much
matter. 
     And I'm not messing with Namco's dippy Kuma/Panda
unrequited love story, either. The two bears *are* different
SPECIES, so it's extremely unlikely they would have any
biological attraction. About as unlikely as, say, attraction between a
human and a gorilla, who also belong to different yet related
species. 
     BTW, I honestly did look up what giant pandas eat, and their
species name, in my encyclopedia. Julia has the species names of
most mammals and many other critters memorized because of her
personal interest in science, classification, etc.

     "It's your IdentiCard," Jin clarified. "You should carry it
everywhere you go. It's like an all-purpose visa."
    - one more loose end tied up; since Xiaoyu got an IdentiCard last
chapter, I suppose Julia needs one too. I think I just like writing or
saying the word "IdentiCard." In this chapter, the IdentiCard serves
a tiny function in giving Shingo one more thing to regard
skeptically when he talks about Julia's identity as a Navajo. Still,
perhaps the single biggest overall reason for IdentiCards in this
story is to give it a tiny little futuristic trapping. Like the com
badges on Star Trek or the Links in Babylon 5.

     "I've already graduated from high school. And I'm not
staying here long enough to attend any Japanese colleges."
     Jin looked at me.
     It was dead silence. A complete and utter break in
conversation. As if some unearthly force had frozen the passage of
Time around him.

    - Jin has just been hit over the head with the realization that Julia
does not plan to stay for very long. He knew it before intellectually,
but...

     Jin snorted. "Does your brain ever shut off?"
    - again from Steven Brust, this time "Orca." Kiera describes
Vlad as one whose brain never shuts off. Julia's brain in fact does
shut off/switch to lower gear on rare occasions; but only if she is
sound asleep, severely stressed, or otherwise distracted.

Now to tie up a medium-sized loose end: the complete story behind
the Ikebukuro disaster. Jin has settled into a biweekly routine of
visiting Fujisawa at Serenity Consolation Asylum, and inquiring as
to his progress. The description of the observation hall, with the
speaker and the one-way mirror, is loosely taken from the N.Y.P.D.
Blue suspect interview room. Serenity Consolation just recently
added it to accommodate Jin's checkups on Fujisawa (which is,
conveniently, about the same time that Shingo left the asylum).

     I raised an especially suspicious eyebrow. Wouldn't the
option of pressing or dropping arson charges be up to a District
Attorney, or the Japanese legal system's equivalent thereof? 
    - I actually have no idea whether Japan's legal system has a D.A.
or what. Fortunately, Julia doesn't know either, which saves me the
effort of having to look it up. 

And now to tie up another medium-sized loose end, i.e. how it is
that Jin survived a broken neck. BTW, I really did learn about
osteoblast and osteoclast cells in my Human Anatomy class...

Reaching Jin's high school. The high school scenes in general have
two strong influences: 1) high schools as shown in Japanese
anime/video games, from Ranma 1/2 & Utena to Persona, and 2)
my own high school experience. The literal description of the high
school, with its iron gate, clock, and paved 'courtyard,' is from the
view in the Kuma/Panda cinema ending. The view in the
Jin/Xiaoyu high school background doesn't quite match; you can
see more, including lots of faraway buildings and a grassy knoll
with a soccer net or something, etc. I'm not going to lose sleep over
it. 
    BTW, the American version of TK3 translates the names of Jin's
& Xiaoyu's school as "Mishima Polytechnical School." Interesting,
but I much prefer to stay with the literally translated name
"Mishima Industry Senior Specialty School." I didn't slave to look
all those kanji up in a dictionary for nothing, dammit.

     "How do you block it out at all?"
     "You build walls in your mind."
    - Jin's description of a telepathic block is loosely based on
telepathy in Babylon 5: "Mundanes want us to fill our heads with
noise and babble, just so we can't hear them screaming at the top of
their lungs."

The only light came from a tiny clip-on lamp, atop a desk covered
with scattered papers and lizard-shaped paperweights.
    - Shingo owns a few minor knickknacks that look like lizards or
lizardmen, because he likes them. Seriously. It's on his King of
Fighters '97 character profile. BTW, the description of Shingo's
office is extremely similar to that of my room. Right down to the
digital clock, although mine is perched on a bookshelf. It's all
about writing what you know...

Shingo's claw cane is taken straight out of "Frasier," my favorite
sitcom still running. I've seen nearly all the old episodes on reruns,
and go out of my way to watch each new episode when it airs.
Frasier's quirky brother Niles Crane is my favorite character. It's
Frasier's father Martin Crane who uses a claw cane to get around,
because of his bad hip. Shingo prefers the claw cane over a crutch
or a simple staff because the claw lets him just set it down and pick
it up later without leaning it against something. He deliberately had
it painted a nonreflective, waterproof grey.
   Shingo does know how to use his claw cane as a weapon, and
practices with it daily. He can use it to vault in a Shingo Kick, or
make direct attacks distantly similar to Billy Kane's. However,
there is nothing magical about Shingo's claw cane, nor does it have
anything like a hidden sword. It's Shingo's gloves that have a secret
Power, so well concealed that even Jin hasn't noticed it.

I lifted the thing - no small feat, since it was filled with some
twenty pounds' worth of folders - shoved it back in its slot, shut the
other cabinet drawers, and turned on the lights. 
    - I wanted Shingo's office to be dark at first, allowing a little
mysterious buildup to Shingo's eventual description. But why
would it be dark? Answer: because open file cabinet drawers have
been blocking Shingo's access to the light switch since early
morning... one kind of needs two hands to put the heavy things
back.

Shingo's maiming honestly didn't come from any ill will that I have
toward him - he's my favorite KoF character. But he isn't in the
Iron Fist Tournament, and I had to figure out a reason why. The
King of Fighters Tournament certainly isn't running concurrently or
anything. So, I had to settle on Shingo being severely physically
challenged, to the extent that the Iron Fist probably would not have
admitted him, even if he had applied. I extended his disability to
virtually his whole left side - arm, leg, eye, and ear - partly as an
outward physical reflection of how half his mind is lost in
delusions of a shadow world.
    Similarly, Kyo Kusanagi's ascension to godhood didn't come out
of any particular love for the character. Kyo strikes me as a spoiled
brat, and a damned annoying hero to shoulder the fate of the world.
Especially given how disdainfully he treats his faithful servant &
student Shingo, even though Shingo would never see it like that.
Short version is, I needed Kyo out of the way, since Shingo is close
to him but there's no place for Kyo in "Phoenix Reborn." Yeah, I
could've just killed Kyo off, but that's much more depressing.
Besides, I enjoyed putting together my own KoF '98 storyline that
interprets Kyo's fade-to-white scene in the arcade intro as divine
ascension. 
    Kyo's girlfriend Yuki has also become a goddess, BTW. The two
are literally a match made in Heaven. ^_^ However, Shingo never
really knew Yuki as well as his idol Kyo. So that while Shingo is
respectful of Yuki-sama, he doesn't hold periodic conversations
with her as he does with Kusanagi-sama.
    Kyo and Yuki are both gods of Light, along with Fujin of MK4
and several others. Kyo is the patron god of courageous fighting
souls (not just tournament fighters - also honest cops, soldiers who
fight for just causes, etc.) His aspect is the Sun. Yuki is the patron
goddess of those who love courageous fighting souls
(boyfriends/girlfriends/spouses/family/close friends of all of the
above). Her aspect is Snow.

Shingo tends to address/refer to Kyo as "Kusanagi-san" in the KoF
games. He now calls Kyo "Kusanagi-sama" out of properly
elevated respect for a god. I've extended this trait of Shingo to have
him address Julia as Chang-san and Jin as Kazama-san; it just
seems to be most in character for him. And translating this as "Ms.
Chang" or "Mr. Kazama" didn't really sound right.

"Uwah, ahryarya!" he exclaimed, unsteadily keeping his balance on
one leg while using his working hand to pull the notebook up by
the string.
    - This is literally what Shingo says when he drops his notebook
during his taunt in KoF '98. I looked it up in my KoF '98 mook
book :) when I was painstakingly translating all of Shingo's game
sayings. Most of Shingo's Japanese interjections in this chapter are
meaningless exclamations, except for one line...

It was a prime-time ratings grabber all over the world, especially
back when the Iron Fist went on hiatus.
   - KoF '97 took place a few months after the Great Invasion put a
temporary end to TK2, Kazuya's Iron Fist Tournament. Namco's
storyline states that after TK2, the Iron Fist was not renewed until
the time of TK3.

The description of Julia's attitude toward Navajo customs and
taboos is largely taken from what I learned about Navajos during
my Native American History course. I even wrote papers on 'em
for both my class projects. I've been looking ever since for a way to
clarify my ignorant assignment of belief in a "Great Spirit" to Julia;
Navajo religion doesn't exactly have that. But it's just as well, since
Julia has adopted many beliefs and ways of thinking that are not
traditionally Navajo.
   In any case, these paragraphs serve a dual purpose - by
establishing a little more history & depth for Julia, and by setting
up some background for when Shingo starts to question Julia's
identity as a Navajo.

"In my language, the difference is expressed through the choice of
grammatical particles, as used to convey a meaning similar to the
definite and indefinite articles of English-"
    In other words, Shingo thinks Julia has become confused about
the Japanese particles "ga" and "wa."

"NAMAE BOSHUU CHUU!"
   - this is what Shingo yells during his overhead elbow drop in
KoF '98. It literally translates to "Name-register-middle!" I don't
know what it really means, but I can hear the aggressive attitude in
Shingo's voice. Shingo isn't doing an actual elbow drop here, but
he's outraged enough to consider it. BTW, I believe Shingo's
scream "Dowaa!" is what he yells if he's hit out of the elbow drop,
at which point he gets an immediate counterattack (a very strange-
looking kick).

The standing in the hall punishment - in particular with Xiaoyu
balancing a bucket on her head - is of course straight out of various
anime, including Ranma 1/2.

"Wee aru baree foruchunato tsuday, beecauzu wee hafu a nateebu
supeekaru wiss us."
   - okay, this is me trying to directly transliterate a very thick
Japanese accent, which I tend to hear in subtitled anime whenever
characters talk in English. Particularly when Onsen-sensei was
teaching English in Urusei Yatsura cartoons. Shingo has a strong
enough accent when he yells "SHINGO KIIIIKU!" in the game, so
I feel justified in presuming that he keeps it to age 37, especially
since he hasn't traveled abroad much in the last 20 years. Part of
my attempted transliteration is simply trying to fit the English
words into what they (probably) would be if they were adopted as
katakana loan words. In particular, though, I often hear anime
speakers say "ss" or "sr" instead of "th".

     "Of course. My own school had a metal detector at the
gate."
     "To stop anyone from bringing in knives or guns?"
     "Or bombs."
    - Yes, I have the Columbine tragedy on my mind. In my future
world, American high schools have adopted similar protections as
airports to protect their students. 

     "Wait - that isn't how they do it where you're from, is it? I
think I remember hearing something about that. It's the students
who move from room to room over there, is that right?"
    - I read an article or two about different high school class system
in Japan, so I'm making a token effort to try and incorporate that
information here...

"Half-Devil, actually. On his father's side. But you know how the
Divine Sanctions work; if you have one drop of Devil blood in you,
you're considered to be a Devil."
   - Loosely based on "To Kill a Mockingbird", which is set in the
old American South; there's a line, spoken by a young kid, on how
if you have a drop of black blood in you, you're considered to be
black.

"You must understand something about Devils, Chang-san. When
the curse of their blood consumes them, they turn upon friends,
enemies, and family alike."
    - Shingo knows of how Leona, possessed by Orochi blood,
murdered her parents. And how Iori, consumed by his Orochi
blood, murdered his teammates Vice & Mature.

At the same time, though, he curled his right hand into a fist and
held it close to himself, clearly displaying the sun sign on the back
of his fighting glove. "I know the risks I'm taking, Chang-san. I'm
ready to protect my class, if it ever comes to that."
    - Shingo's gloves carry the blessing of Kusanagi-sama, and
Shingo is ready to use that blessing to shield his students from Jin
if necessary. Shingo has kept the true Power of his gloves a secret,
though, because he doesn't want to tip Jin off about them.

"By the way, just so you know - women bow with their hands in
front of them. Like this."
    - I learned the difference between how men & women bow when
I was studying the Japanese language for a year.

All I can say for certain is that Professor Yabuki lives half in a
shadow world - an endless, dreamlike memory of the King of
Fighters Tournament.
    - this is an inside joke on the subtitle of KoF '98: Dream Battle
Never Ends. ^_^

I originally planned to write the Jin/Lei fight into this chapter, but I
ran out of room. So I'll just leave it on an anticipatory edge, and
start off Ch. 15 with a rousing fight scene.

Next Chapter: Vengeful half-Devil vs. dying middle-aged cop.
Place your bets... :)Chapter 15: Prelude to Confession notes
June 10, 1999


Ten days for another 33 pages. This is the fastest I've ever
completed a chapter of this length. At this rate, however, I still
won't finish four chapters a month, which means I won't finish the
novel over the summer like I was hoping, and I won't be able to
write more than a couple chapters before the end of the year once
classes start... argh.
    Part of the problem is polishing. I just can't seem to do a good
job of ironing out the kinks in a rough draft unless I spend at least
3-4 days at it. Argh, argh, argh...

I'm sure I've seen the title before, but I can't remember where. I was
originally thinking of calling this chapter "Ill Omen," but various
other omens that were originally planned for this chapter (such as
Mitsurugi getting a gun - I've had that scene written & in a
metaphorical drawer for two chapters now) didn't have room to
appear. And I hate bad puns. I also thought of "Shadow
Confessional," but that sounds too much like Babylon 5 (I just saw
the premiere of the sequel series, "Crusade." It's OK, even if the
lieutenant looks like he was cast as a ripoff of Harry Kim from
Voyager.)
    "Prelude to Confession" worked as a title on more than one
level, though, since Shingo also begins a partial confession about
how fragments of reality seep into his delusional, shadow world.
Lee also has a complete confession, but there's a subtler confession
prelude with regard to what Bryan says about Taki. This will be
taken up at a later time...

The epigraph is from "Blade of the Immortal," a *very* unusual
and distinctive manga series, about an immortal samurai who has
pledged to kill 1,000 evil men in exchange for death. It is also a
VERY brutal, graphic, and gory series, and issues of the "On Silent
Wings" mini-series are about as nasty as the manga gets. But it's
not like the gratuitous gore and sex crimes in garbage like "Crying
Freeman." (I KNOW other people disagree with me on this - some
of them VERY strongly! - but I the best thing I can say about that
trashy manga is that the artist taught the much-worshiped Rumiko
Takahashi how to draw). Even the most brutal, stomach-churning
horror in "Blade of the Immortal" has a purpose, and a pathos,
necessary to the story, and the ideas in the manga are so powerful
at times that I feel unworthy offering one up here.
    I don't collect the series, though. I'd lose sleep at night if I had
those images on my manga shelf.

List of things taken directly from Namco's
games/storyline/rendered movies:
    - Lei's TK2 intro movie
    - Lei's elaborate Chinese clothing
    - Lei's & Jin's TK3 fight-warmup poses
    - that Julia likes various Chinese martial arts
    - Jin's TK3 ending pose
    - Lei's TK3 intro movie
    - that Lei hates criminals
    - the Angel's TK2 ending movie (adapted to involve Lee
Chaolan)
    - that Boskonovitch's daughter was made sick and cryogenically
frozen

List of deviations from Namco's storyline
    - that the "humanized" Jack-2 of TK2 took Boskonovitch's
daughter away

List of things taken directly from SNK's KoF storyline, etc.
    - that Shingo likes microwaved food
    - that Shingo treasures notebooks full of fighting moves,
including one special notebook of moves he learned from his idol
Kyo Kusanagi

Re: the sunrise... I found a nice web site,
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/ for calculating sunrise times, and
in 2017 the Tokyo sunrise is supposed to be around 6:35 a.m. or
so.

I can't remember the title, but it was the movie in which Wulong
crashes headfirst through a store windowpane, even as a fiery
explosion erupts behind him; you see his escape multiple times
from different angles, in that ever-popular cinematographic
technique.
   - This is, of course, Lei's scene in the TK2 intro movie. I never
found a place to use it in "Ashes." But it works great here,
especially since the intro scene really DOES show Lei crashing
through that window four times from four different angles. I'm sure
it was for campy effect to describe a scene that allegedly takes
place in Lei's life, but it makes much more sense to work in here as
a movie scene. Also, since this is the TK2 scene, it takes place 20
years before TK3, when Lei was logically younger.

Have you ever seen Wulong's public service announcements? The
thirty-second television spots in which he identifies himself as an
alcoholic, and urges other victims of the addiction to get help?
Those were filmed after he'd turned forty.
   - there was a reference to Lei making PSA's last chapter, so it
only seemed sensible to fill it in here. Besides, it lets slip a bit of
info about Lei's alcoholic background, in case any of my fanfic
readers forgot (it was creative license with Namco's original story,
anyway). 
    I've seen almost every episode of Hill Street Blues; one of the
young, nice-looking lieutenants, Henry Goldblume, recently
showed up on a TV commercial. Man has he gotten old (he's still
thin, though). So I had that on my mind when I was writing this.
The reference to Lei's weight gain is because, well, he just looks
*wider* in TK3. Especially in his detective outfit (as opposed to
the Chinese clothes). My Lei has lost a great deal of weight by TK3
though, due to his illness.

That's what the name "Lei" literally translates to, of course.
"Thunder." His first name "Wulong" means "warrior dragon," or
something similar.
    - "Wu" means military/warrior/chivalry/etc. "Long" is more
straightforward; it means "dragon." Although looking these up
were a little tricky because all I have is a Japanese (not Chinese)
kanji book. They classify "Long" as a radical, and there are several
different ways to write it. But IMO, "Thunder Warrior Dragon" just
*sounds* like a nice translation of Lei Wulong's name.
    In my storyline (unlike Namco's), Julia's grandmother is Navajo,
not Chinese. So that Julia is bilingual in English/Navajo, not
English/Chinese. Julia does know a little Chinese from her
grandmother (who learned it from her husband) but she isn't fluent
by any means. Jin is fluent in Chinese - he learned it from Lei
Wulong - but he only put knowledge of the Japanese language in
Julia's head, since that's all she 'asked' for. However, Julia has
browsed assorted web sites honoring her Super Police hero/idol,
and one of 'em had the translation for Lei Wulong's name. That's
how she knows it.

     Xiaoyu turned to Jin and put her hands on her hips,
defiantly.
    - at least one rendered art picture shows Xiaoyu in this pose.
Although the picture also shows her in (shudder) that awful orange
fighting outfit, and with a happy expression on her face. She isn't
completely happy here...

Re: Xiaoyu's speech about why she has to stay and fight in the Iron
Fist... the High-Spirited Robust Girl completely took over for this
section. Originally, this part was to be quicker, with Xiaoyu acting
brattier and actually demanding a Panda as a literal bribe.
Somewhere in there, the character started pointing out to me why
she felt the way she did, and that her guilt over accidentally killing
a man/seeing Seung Mina get crippled played a large part of it.

"You're not running away from me this time, son. You're not
calling your damned bodyguards to hustle me from your sight."
    - as happened in Chapter 4: Challenges.

Lei Wulong removed his cloak.
     If this had been a movie, he would have whipped it off in a
supremely valiant gesture, and cast it to the swirling winds.
    - as I have seen in countless anime, including but not limited to
"Yotoden."

Wulong's outfit, as described here, is not just the Chinese clothes
of his punch-button TK3 costume. That outfit is simpler, with a
shorter surcoat and cherry-red rather than cerise pants. No, this is
the similar, but significantly more elaborate costume of Lei
Wulong's TK3 ending and assorted rendered art pictures. Complete
with Imperial dragon embroidery. ^_^

The luxurious, feathery ponytail of his later movies had
degenerated to a stiff tangle, reaching down his back and tapering
in a point. Like a frayed piece of rope, dipped in a sticky substance.
    - I've been rewatching Lei's TK3 ending movie a lot, for this
chapter (which is primarily about Lei, after all). It's just gorgeous
what they do with his rendered hair. However, in the actual video
game his ponytail really does look this crude (and stiffly pointed!),
which is why I put the description in. 

     Wulong folded his left arm over his right, and defiantly
tossed his head a slight amount. Jin rested his right hand on his hip,
and unconsciously tossed his head in exactly the same manner. If I
hadn't already been convinced these two were related, that would
have done it.
    - TK3 is the first Tekken installment to have fight intro
animations - two for each character - and when I saw these two
particular fight intro poses for Jin & Lei (hold down a kick button
for either of them at the beginning of the fight), I thought, "Good
grief. Someone's been reading my fanfic, and decided to make Jin
and Lei related!" I'm sure that's not what really happened, but still...
it's touches like this that make fanfic writing fun.

He was constantly moving, taking short side-steps to the left or the
right; not at a particularly fast pace, but with a steady enough
rhythm to make his stepson continually readjust.
    - if Lei is just left in his fighting stance for an extended peroid of
time, and his opponent does nothing (say, in practice mode), Lei
eventually winds up at the opposite end of the screen with his back
turned. Go figure.

Okay, now for the fight scene you've all been waiting for! I've also
been waiting to show of Lei's new Arts for TK3. Nearly all of Lei's
old TK2 moves have already been shown off in "Ashes" anyway,
while Jin has had plenty of opportunity for fancy stuff vs.
Hwoarang (twice!). So this fight scene deliberately keeps Jin's
moves simple, while the star Lei gets his moment of glory.

Jin starts with his Dragon Uppercut into the Spinning Middle Kick
(f, N, d, d/f+1, 4). Jin can also do a Spinning Low Kick after this
uppercut (3 instead of 4), which can't be sidestepped and quite
possibly would have ended this fight before it began, like Julia
later suggests. However, as Julia also explains, Jin is not in the best
state of mind. So that Lei manages to evade these attacks and
counter with his Razor Rush and Mid Kick (f, N, 1, 2, 1, 2, 4) into
the Art of Crane (briefly hold up or down afterward). Lei can
assume different animal stances after various points of his Razor
Rush in TK3, unless he finishes it with a low kick instead of a mid
kick. BTW, the mid kick finisher to the Razor Rush *does*
normally knock Lei's opponent down, only Lei isn't at full strength
here. Lei also takes a single step closer in the Art of Crane. 
     Trivia tidbit: TK3 Lei can move forward or backward in all five
of his animal stances (not counting the Phoenix Illusion), but he
can't block, run, or crouch (although he naturally crouches low for
the Panther stance; high attacks will whiff over the Panther's head).
Also, if Lei's enemy tries to get completely behind him while Lei is
an animal stance, Lei will automatically turn around. Lei won't turn
if an enemy simply tries a side-throw, though.

I have long had a passing interest in reading this or that about
various Chinese martial arts; it's one of my lesser hobbies. That's
how I could recognize Wulong's Art of the Crane. I suppose
anyone familiar with assorted kung fu movies would also have
known it, instantly.
   - Namco's TK3 profiles lists "various Chinese martial arts" under
Julia's "likes" section, so I have something backing me up here.
Besides, it's nice and very convenient that Julia knows what she's
talking about, when she describes Lei's fight. Xiaoyu would know
too, but it wouldn't be in character for her to stick around and
watch this battle.
    Also, a fellow was once showing me Lei's new animal stances
on a TK3 arcade machine. When I asked about Lei's Crane stance,
he said "Haven't you ever seen 'The Karate Kid'?" (I have, but it
was a loooong time ago...)

Back to the fight scene. Jin tries a spinning roundhouse kick (b+4),
which is a powerful attack but has the dual disadvantages of being
both slow and high-hitting (most of TK3's high-hitting attacks have
the compensation of being fast). Not the best choice against Lei,
who hits him out of it with his fabulous Crane Dance (3, 4, 1 3 in
Art of Crane), which may be the single most exotic attack sequence
in TK3.
    The Crane Dance knocks Jin down. Jin rises up with a kippup. A
normal TK3 kippup (b, b+3+4) is a rather loopy thing that sends
the character shooting foward in a gravity-defying attack. Just a
little too weird. So Jin's kippup is more normal, like the one Lei
uses to rise if he's lying with his feet toward his enemy (3+4 in
knockdown position). Only Lei's rising kippup is ridiculously slow
and only connects on a counter hit. Jackie Chan has done kippups
faster and better than anything in TK3, in movies like "New Fist of
Fury." The trace of blood trickling from Jin's mouth is reminiscent
of Mortal Kombat: the Movie, in which Liu Kang kicks the crap
out of Shang Tsung but that's all the blood we see (gotta keep a
PG-13 rating, I guess).
    Lei goes into the Art of Snake stance (f+2+3), which is the only
one of his five animal stances that can be assumed directly as a
move in and of itself. All his other stances can only be obtained by
moving the joystick after Lei is in the Snake stance, or after he has
completed certain moves. The Rushing Snake's *extremely* rapid
fire punches are a favorite of many TK3 Lei players, but they also
hit high; for better effect, my Lei goes for the Snakebites (2, 2, 2,
hitting mid, mid, low) into the Art of Panther (hold joystick f after
Snakebites).
    The Panther automatically crouches low; Jin recognizes this and
tries to hit the kitty with his mid-level Heavy Head Blow into the
Laser Cannon (b, F+2, 1, 2), one of my favorite Jin moves vs. the
CPU, but Lei's Panther Scratch (1, 2 in the Art of Panther, hits low-
high) is very fast and hits Jin out of the first punch. It also knocks
an enemy down, but again, Lei isn't at full strength here.
   Lei now goes into the Art of the Drunken Master (f+3+4). Unlike
his five new animal stances, but like the Phoenix Illusion, Lei's Art
of the Druken Master naturally ends after a couple seconds. It can
also be used as a high/mid punch reversal, if Lei goes into it just as
the punch is thrown. Lei does not automatically reverse punches in
this stance, though, so it's a touch of creative license to show him
staggering around before he swings Jin. 
   Lei's punch reversal actually tosses his opponent to the side,
instead of completely behind him. But as Jin tries a turnaround
kick (4 with back turned, a high-hitting attack) Lei actually does a
Xiaoyu-style dodge (Lei doesn't have this as a move in TK3) to get
behind Jin and perform his back-throw.
   Lei's TK3 back-throw, the Booby Trap, is brand new. His old
TK2 back-throw was the Bulldog, and he shared it with Law &
Lee. Now Forest Law has a new back-throw (he stabs at your
throat), and Lee is gone except for a few moves preserved in Ogre
(Ogre's back-throw is the telekinetic slam). However, the Bulldog
throw still exists - Julia has it as a side throw (now called the
Headlock Face Crusher). I'm not sure whether she'll have a chance
to use it in "Phoenix Reborn."
   In any case, I wanted to show off another of Lei's new throws,
but both his side-throws look rather nasty (and Lei isn't going to
attack his stepson in a *really* nasty way), as well as requiring a
lot of strength. His back-throw actually appeared the most benign,
plus using less strength, which is why Lei applies it here. 
   Lei tries to follow up his back-throw with the Falling Tree
(u/f+2), which is like his Play Dead lie-down only with an elbow
drop attack. But Jin gets out of the way, and even as Lei tries to trip
him (3 from the Play Dead), Jin counterattacks with one of my all-
time favorite Tekken moves, his Demon Scissors. It's slow, but
particularly useful against "sleeping Lei." ^_^ Jin doesn't quite
realize the fight is over, so he further brutalizes Lei with his High
Pounce (U/F+2+4) into repeated face punches (the game has these
after a tackle, not an aerial pounce, but hey) before Julia finally
breaks up the fight.

     Jin folded his arms and looked away, disdainfully.
    - this is, of course, one of Jin's four TK3 victory poses (hold
down 3 after winning), inherited from his dad Kazuya (also
Devil/Angel).

"Now that you've had your petty revenge, give me one good reason
why you shouldn't scan his memories, and find out the whole truth
for yourself."
     "Because he wants me to." 
    - from a very powerful Babylon 5 episode, "Intersections in Real
Time," where the tortured Captain Sherdian is asked to give
confirmations on some info that the corrupt Earthgov already
knows. Why won't he? "Because you want it."

"I'd send you to Antarctica before I'd send you inside his head."
    - this is an in-joke; one of the Tekken 1 background stages is
apparently Antarctica, according to the music title on a TK2
arranged soundtrack CD. Snow is constantly falling in this
background, and you'd think that the more scantily-clad Tekken 1
fighters would've had a rough time of it...

     "You've never tried to track down your real parents, have
you?"
    - I've been wanting to work in somewhere why Julia never tried
to track down her real parents. Or why Lee didn't, either. Lee's
answer will have to wait for another chapter, or possibly even
another novel (aieee... I don't want to think too much about that
possibility), but it's nice to find a way to get Julia's response in
here.

Glancing at Wulong, I asked, "That is right, isn't it? Kazuya didn't
know he was going to be a...?"
     "No. He didn't," the detective whispered, hoarsely.
   - in my storyline (different from Namco's!) Jun didn't even get
pregnant with Jin until six months after Kazuya died. The details
will, I hope, be explained next chapter (they're also mentioned at
the very end of "Ashes," but I suppose not all my readers
remember...)

"Kazuya was your father. And... and he was Heihachi's son, too. I
know you love your grandfather, Jin. For his sake, for your
stepfather's sake, and most of all for your own sake... don't you
want to know?"
    - again, I'm drawing influence from Babylon 5, this time when
Captain Sinclair was confronted about a "hole" in his mind...
"Don't you want to know?" asks Sinclair's accuser.

     Jin didn't touch Wulong. I think he didn't need to; his
telepathy was that powerful. He simply extended his hand, palm
out.
    - Okay, I admit it. I have no original ideas! I STEAL
EVERYTHING! ESPECIALLY FROM BABYLON 5!!!!! This is
reminiscent of how the psi-cop Bester scans Talia in "The Gift,"
only Jin has much stronger ethical standards than Bester - he's not
going to shred Lei's mind. Even though he hates Lei.

"If you can't make peace with her memory... if you can't let the pain
and hatred go... you will lose. Just like Kazuya lost to me."
    - Lei's whole fighting advice speech here is loosely inspired by
Rayden's speech to Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat: the Movie (did
I mention that I have no original ideas of my own?) "If you are
afraid to trust... you will lose." However, Lei's speech is also
grounded in the events of "Ashes," because he really did beat Devil
Kazuya by a) letting his own pain & hatred go, and b)
baiting/exploiting Devil Kazuya's pain & hatred.

"And don't you dare assign any bodyguards to watch me. Heihachi
tried to offer that when he proposed an alliance, and I refused."
    - originally, I planned for Jin to assign Mitsurugi/Taki to watch
Julia, and then they'd meet Lei, etc. etc. But I was running out of
room, and Mitsurugi/Taki have their own things to do (next chapter
may go into how Mitsurugi fared while Jin/Julia/Xiaoyu were off
at school), and Julia pointed out to me that she'd never stand to
have bodyguards, anyway.

The blue-and-white diamond-patterned band is something that
Julia wears on her arm in her punch button outfit. I deliberately left
it off Julia's initial description, in order to give it an exotic purpose
& origin later. It will probably be important in an upcoming
chapter. Then again, it may be another stupid IdentiCard idea that
doesn't go anywhere and hangs around as a fancy trapping, I don't
know.

"Enchante, mademoiselle. Have you a hotel of preference?"
    - This joke is something that I had in mind from the beginning of
"Phoenix Reborn," although I didn't write it fully into the rough
draft. My Lei used to be quite the ladies' man, a long time ago...

"You think a normal man could keep all his hair through months of
chemotherapy?"
    - I used to wonder how the heck I was going to explain Lei
keeping his hair, if he really had been fighting a vicious battle with
cancer. One of my ideas was that he'd shaved it off, had it made
into a wig, and wore the wig. But I just like his natural hair too
much, even if it's like a willow stick in his TK3 game sprites. The
answer hit me as I was working on this chapter - Lei's hair follicles
are simply too tough to give up in the face of a little radiation. ^_^

     "Look, um... Detective?"
     "Just my name is fine."
     "First or last?"
     "Doesn't matter. Lots of folks confuse 'em anyway."
    - Okay. This, plus an earlier paragraph of Julia's speculations,
are as close as you're ever going to get to an explanation of why
"Ashes" occasionally has the phrase "Detective Wulong" in it, and
why Lei's friends call him by his last name, while enemies/people
who don't know him so well call him by his first name. They all
got confused. And those of his friends who didn't get confused
found "Lei" a more fluidly appropriate name. That's my story and
I'm sticking to it.
     (Aaah, I confess, I confess. I used to think "Wulong" was his
last name and "Lei" was his first name. And I wouldn't admit
otherwise even after other people pointed out the truth. Why does
Namco list Japanese characters' names first-last and other Asian
characters' names last-first, anyway!?)

"Michelle Chang used to be in the Iron Fist. She and Catsclaw both
fought against the Great Invasion. I never knew either of 'em very
well, but I knew 'em."
     - Lei never actually meets Michelle or Catsclaw during the
events described in "Ashes." However, he does mention in "Ashes"
that he briefly encountered Michelle during the TK2 tournament,
and isn't sure whether she'd remember him. Lei also had the
opportunity to meet Jun's friend Catsclaw after the battle for the
Mishima syndicate. The last time Lei saw Catsclaw was at an
Outworld Investigation Agency-sponsored benefit for veterans of
the Great Invasion.

"And I'll tell you this right now, sweetheart: going to the gym once
or twice a month doesn't make you a martial artist."
    - one of my RPG books said that going to the gym three times a
week doesn't make you a martial artist, and Julia doesn't hit the
gym even that often. She did practice her martial arts a few times a
week, mostly to stay in shape, and usually in the desert. She
learned most of what she knew from Catsclaw, but as mentioned,
Catsclaw didn't see her as much as she'd like.

"I can't expose Heihachi's crimes in a court of law, not yet. But if
can gather enough evidence to convince Jin that Heihachi is a
monster - if I can make him understand - then he'll be warned, and
he'll have to turn against his grandfather."
    - originally, I was going to have Lei dig up evidence on the
monster that is Heihachi. But Julia is the one who really has a
passion for digging, and Lei is in a weakened state, although he
still might pull a few strings behind the scenes to help her...

"That was twenty years ago. Most of the old guard is out of the
picture now. Retired, settled down, or murdered by the Toshin."
   - This is, of course, the understatement of the year about Tekken
3. The only "old guard" veterans that Lei Wulong fought alongside
in the Great Invasion are Paul Phoenix and Yoshimitsu.
Yoshimitsu is an enigma even to Lei, and Paul isn't very
bright/cops a major attitude, so Lei's a bit reluctant to go to either
of them. 

"I do have a partner, but she's got a little girl, only two years old. I
already lost one partner to a Mishima syndicate assassin, a long
time ago. I'm not going to let the same thing happen to that little
girl's mother. I'm just not."
   - Lei is referring to Tracy (his living partner) and Yue (his
murdered partner) here. I wasn't completely sure why Lei didn't
want Tracy's help, especially when she flew across the ocean to
visit him in the hospital & offer assistance, but once again the
characters take over and speak to me. Lei just flat-out explained
that he's not going to risk losing another partner to the Mishima
syndicate, and that's that.
   The Tekken 2 storyline makes it clear that Lei is in the
Tournament to arrest Bruce Irvin, the criminal who killed his
partner. The Tekken 3 storyline doesn't say anything about Lei's
partner at all, or even if he has one. As much as I disdain all that
"believer in fate" spiel to lure Lei into TK3, at least Namco didn't
reuse a cliche and turn Lei into a Plague Carrier that keeps losing
his partners to the syndicate. I would have hated that a LOT more
than I dislike the "believer in fate" spiel.

"So I looked away, and from the emptiness in my hollow, soulless
shell, I promised her. I promised her I'd do everything I could to
see that Kazuya was taken alive."
    - in "Ashes" Ch. 17: Soul-Searching.

"You were in that movie, right? The one where you're running on a
bridge, and the bad guys are trying to machine-gun you from a
helicopter?"
    - Lei's scene in the TK3 intro movie, of course. The scene
doesn't make much sense by itself. You can assume Lei's TK2 intro
movie scene is something that happens when he's digging for info
on Bruce Irvin, but what's going on with that helicopter, anyway?
Who's trying to machine-gun Lei, and how does Lei survive?
Heihachi presumably wanted a live Lei in his Tournament, not a
dead Lei; Heihachi extended the invitation personally, after all. It
really makes no sense unless you assume it's all a scene from one
of Lei's movies. ^_^

"I've heard of a screwball idiot who tried to enter the King of
Fighters Tournament by himself, making solo challenges to three-
person teams of combat veterans. Saw the whole absurdity on TV,
a long time ago. They played it for comedy relief between real
matches."
   - this is, in fact, the only way you fight CPU Shingo in KoF '98
(as a bonus round between matches, if you fulfil certain
requirements). In KoF '97 (which is the Tournament where Lei saw
Shingo on TV, before the Orochi Blood Riots tore apart Tokyo),
you actually only fight CPU Shingo if the CPU mixes up its default
teams, but hey.

     "Ah, well, my bones got broken when I challenged the
Tournament sponsor to single combat."
     "Oh? I never saw that on TV."
     "I was, ah, bending the rules. Tracked him all the way up to
his airship in the sky, and that sort of antagonized him."
    - Shingo tracked Omega Rugal through the Demiplane of Souls
up to the metaphorical recreation of his airship, the Black Noah,
just as in the final stage of KoF '98.

     I hate criminals.
   - listed under "dislikes" in Lei's Tekken 3 character profile.
Really.

Now, here's a new piece of off-format text for the chapter: an
excerpt from Shingo's notebook. Which is actually me trying to
describe Kyo Kusanagi's axe kick, flaming uppercut, and victory
pose (one of 'em) as Shingo would've written it down, in his single
most treasured notebook. Hey, I needed to keep this short, the
whole chapter was pushing my 33-page limit...

Karate, Tae Kwon Do, wrestling, capoeira
   - In KoF, Ryo Sakazaki uses karate, Kim Kaphwan uses Tae
Kwon Do, regular Shermie uses wrestling moves, Yashiro
Nanakase uses some capoeira moves (especially his swinging low
roundhouse, a la Eddy Gordo's "slippery kick"), and various other
characters - most notably Chris and Heidern - use some particularly
unusual styles.

Also, his bathroom mirror has been pried out of the wall.
   - which wasn't easy for Shingo to do with only one hand. He had
to apply a crowbar.

Why, it's the blood of a lamb. Nothing's more effective at hiding
you from angels. I saw it in a movie, once.
   - Shingo is not all that familiar with Biblical lore, but he has seen
"The Prince of Egypt." Serenity Consolation Asylum occasionally
plays movies (that aren't too violent), domestic and imported, for
its inmates. :)
    I always thought Exodus described a cruel God... sending the
Angel of Death to murder innocent children. I couldn't reconcile
with that when I first read it as a child. I think the movie does
impressive justice to the Biblical story, though, even if it does take
some creative license.

     Then I realized I was sitting on the roof of a skyscraper.
   - this whole scene - sitting on the building, diving off, and
summoning white light - is a reinterpretation of the Angel's ending
in TK2, only with Lee Chaolan in her place. However, I checked a
web site (http://saatel.it/users/lore/moon.html) and it confirmed
that the moon won't be full on December 8, 2017, like it is in the
Angel's ending. Can't be helped, I suppose. Lee has been hanging
out in his angel form after dark because it doesn't require food, and
he wanted to conserve Bryan's life energy.

 (*My brother Kazuya was _not_ a Devil. Kazuya was _possessed_
by a Devil. It is NOT the same; the monster controlled him, it
made him commit his crimes!*)
    - this is an important note I added for the final draft. It's
something I very much wanted to mention before the end of the
story.

     (*And I was using my Power to detect demons, not Devils!)
     (What's the difference?)
     (*Devils can use sorcery. Demons cannot.*)
     (Doesn't sound like much of a difference.)
     (*It is if you have to fight one.*)
   - reminiscent of the difference between a god and a demon in
Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series: demons can be summoned and
controlled; gods cannot. "If a god is just a force with a personality,
it would make a big difference if it can be controlled, wouldn't it?"

     "It has been a long time since I had to live off the streets,"
Lee explained, apologetically. "And I was never very good at it."
    - as evidenced in Chapter 12: Puppet Strings. Lee was starving
to death with the Mishima family took him in.

Regarding the death of Boskonovitch's daughter - Namco's
storyline doesn't give many details on this. Just that she was sick,
frozen in cryo, and that Dr. B wants Toshin's blood to cure her.
And to cure himself, for he has also contracted a terminal illness. It
was my creative license to say that a Jack-2 unit took Dr. B's
daughter away in TK2 (and that was before I knew that the little
girl who likes Jack-2 in TK2 is really "Jane," no relation to Dr. B's
daughter). 
   But I'm not alone. The Tekken anime also takes creative license
with this; it completely ignores Dr. B's daughter, gets Jane cured,
and destroys the Jack-2 in a different way than it "dies" in the TK2
game ending. Go figure.

Well, you might notice the end of this chapter pretty much wraps
things up for Lei, Lee, and Bryan, for several weeks to come.
That's out of necessity; the big Lei/Lee fight scene isn't until later,
as this story inches to a climax. The next 2-3 chapters will get back
to Jin/Julia/Xiaoyu, as well as Mitsurugi/Anna. But not for too
long - soon we'll reach a point where the characters skip ahead over
a few weeks, to a later date in December, and then things will
really heat up.

Next up: Julia visits the Land of the Dead. Well, not really, but for
a moment it almost seems that way...Chapter 16: Personal Business notes
June 20, 1999

Another ten days for this chapter. So far, this appears to be my
maximum speed, and while it isn't *bad*, it's not really *good
enough*, dammit. Well, tomorrow's the start of another week.

With this chapter, I've now written approximately as many pages
for "Phoenix Reborn" as I did for "Ashes of the Phoenix" (450+).
And it's still going. Definitely past the halfway point, but argh! To
think I expected this to be *shorter* than "Ashes"...

I chose this title in part because I like oxymorons, and partly
because this chapter just happened to cover some very personal
matters, all the way through. I still don't know if I'm going to use
"Ill Omen" as a title for anything - possibly not.

The epigraph is from Steven Brust's "Orca," continuing my self-
imposed tradition of having one quote from a different Vlad Taltos
book for every fanfic that I write. With seven fanfics (five MK
stories, an "Ashes" chapter, and now a "Phoenix" chapter) I've now
quoted from seven of the (currently) eight Vlad Taltos books. If I
write a sequel to "Phoenix Reborn," it'll have to contain an
epigraph from Steven Brust's "Dragon" somewhere.

List of things taken or adapted from Tekken
games/storyline/rendered movies:
    - Anna's work outfit (from her TK1 ending movie)
    - Panda's "outfit" (i.e. the bracelet with bells)
    - the antechamber & pocket dimension (from Kazuya's & Devil's
TK2 stages)
    - the picture of Kazuya's mother (from "Tekken: the Movie")
    - Bernard Chang's name (from "Tekken Saga" comic, not
Namco's storyline)
    - Heihachi's TK2 ending movie (with his wife in Kazuya's place)
    - the arcade TK3 intro movie (with Jin/Jun/Kazuya)

List of deviations/creative license from Namco's storyline
    - that Michelle's father worked for the syndicate, was Chinese
instead of Navajo, etc. (although "The Tekken Saga" comic also
takes this approach)
    - that Heihachi (allegedly) murdered his wife
    - a hell of a lot about Jin's origin... :)

     I wonder if she knows she's literally calling me 'Honey.' 
     As in, 'Sweet stuff made by bees.'
- I actually checked my Japanese dictionary *after* I wrote Xiaoyu
calling our hero 'Mitsu' into Ch. 14. I was pleasantly surprised to
find that it made a rather humorous joke.

She was dressed to stand out, in a bright scarlet, sleeveless red
jersey. A tan belt suspended her shiny black pants. Matching black
gloves graced her tender hands. A gleaming pearl necklace
ornamented her immaculate throat.
    - Anna's outfit from Nina's TK1 ending, with one difference -
way back then, Anna dyed her hair black and practically kept it tied
in dreadlocks. Modern-day (Tekken 3) Anna just has short, brown
hair. I originally wrote Anna in her loopy PSX TK3 zebra stripe
outfit, but it was just too ridiculous. I'm not sure if my Anna will
ever put that thing on or not; she's supposed to be the one character
in the game with a strong fashion sense...

     She has such enchanting eyes. Light blue, like sunny
morning sky...
    - from Tanya Huff's "The Last Wizard." Where a demon
describes the evil Kraydak has having eyes "like sunny bits of sky."
    So, since Anna is half-Indian (i.e. her mother was a Muslim
from East India), then how can she have blue eyes? Um. You can
clearly see that her eyes are blue in her various TK3 endings... OK,
take your pick. Either Anna's mother was carrying a recessive gene
from some family intermarriage with a blue-eyed fellow/gal a
generation or two back, or Anna's wearing colored contact lenses.
Those are my possible stories and I'm sticking to 'em.

 'Men Seeking Women,' 'Women Seeking Men,' that sort of thing.
    - well, that's what I see in some local newspaper personals (they
also have "Men Seeking Men" & "Women Seeking Women," but
its anime notwithstanding, Japan has long had a general keep-it-in-
the-closet attitude toward its homosexual population. I'd be
surprised if a mainstream Japanese newspaper actually had that sort
of thing.)
    In fact, I have no idea whether *any* Japanese newspaper would
actually run personals like this. But if it's absolutely unheard-of,
then, well, I fall back on my regular excuse: it's twenty years in the
future, and there have been a few changes. :)

Would you believe me, darling, if I told you I've had a 'crash
course' in your lovely, yet very oddly written language over twenty
years ago? Sewn directly into my head, no less.
    - When Kazuya was messing with Anna's mind, one of the
things he did was put the Japanese language in there, so as to make
her a more useful servant. It wasn't quite as successful as Julia's
translation protocol because a) unlike Julia, Anna did not strongly
desire the language, and b) Jin is a more powerful telepath than his
daddy. Also the passage of twenty years - even in cryogenic
suspension - has caused some of Anna's implanted knowledge to
fade. She still retains a great deal, though; more than enough to get
by on her own, if necessary. Anna can speak Japanese at roughly
the same level that Mitsurugi can speak English under stress, i.e.
halting and with a horrendous accent. Without help from a
dictionary, she can read about 75% of the newspaper. Meanwhile,
Julia unconsciously has almost perfect fluency in speaking,
reading, and writing the language.

     Something brushed my cheek, but I couldn't believe it was
there. That any of this was happening, that-
     I fainted for real, this time.
    - of course, a kiss has a much stronger connotation of love/lust
in Japan than it does here. That Anna doesn't kiss our hero on the
lips mitigates this somewhat, but even so...

And now for the chapter's off-format text piece, an article on the
death of Kazumi Mishima. Yes, I originally thought the Tokyo
Sunrise was a newspaper that sprang up after the Great Invasion,
but then I changed my mind. Because as long as I'm making up
articles, they should belong to made-up newspapers...

Kazumi's name is not from any official or quasi-official storyline
that I know about. Even Tekken: the Movie doesn't give a name for
her, although her picture in Kazuya's locket is fairly significant.
However, I did see the name "Kazumi Mishima" listed for her on
one Tekken fan's website, and heck, it seemed appropriate. The fan
also tried to suggest that this really *was* her name. However, he
also insisted that Paul is gay (which is not something I'm ruling out
either, but...)

Kazumi's death is not detailed in any Tekken storyline that I've
ever come across. Any suggestion that Heihachi murdered her is
unquestionably creative license on my part, although for the record,
there is nothing in any Tekken storyline that would rule this out.
There *are* hints in "Tekken: the Movie" that Kazumi died before
Heihachi tossed Kazuya off a cliff, since Kazuya is already
carrying her memory in his locket when Heihachi chucks him.
Since Namco's storyline sez Kazuya took the fall at age 5, this
would indicate that Kazumi died before her son reach that age (I
can't imagine the loving Kazumi as allowing her baby to get
pitched if she were still around in any case). 
     In my storyline - and this is mostly in alignment with Namco's
version - Kazumi died when Kazuya was 4, and therefore before he
was old enough to retain any clear memory of her. Of course, the
locket picture is indeed swiped from "Tekken: the Movie," and it's
probably the only freakin' thing you're going to see from that cut-
budget slipshod plot goody, either.

     You're early, for the moonrise. 
    - according to the web, the moon will rise around 8:30 on
February 13, 2018. The interview's at 7:45.

Round ears and stubby black tail
    - The Panda that comes with Xiaoyu's action figure has a white
tail. But Panda as shown in the game has a black tail. You don't
really get a good look at Panda's tail in the Kuma/Panda TK3
ending. So I go with the game sprites and give Panda a black tail.
    This is probably going to be Panda's only appearance. I'm most
likely not going to write in any of her fight intro animations, win
poses, etc. because they're too anthropomorphic.

Not to be confused with the lesser "red" panda, Ailurus fulgens.
    - from my Compton's encyclopedia - this critter belongs to the
raccoon family.

This particular creature looked gigantic, even for a full adult.
    - Namco's stats on Panda list her weight at a whopping 200
kilograms = 440 pounds, when most adult pandas reach a
maximum of 350 pounds. Freak of nature or genetically
engineered? You decide...

Maybe she had put bells on it to warn smaller pets, in the same way
that some people bell their cats to warn away young birds.
    - hey, that's what we do with our cat.

She's from the Tokyo Mishima Zoo and Jin says I can keep her
only if I treat her real well and take good care of her and she
doesn't slack off eating or get sick or lonely he says if she isn't
happy here then she'll have to go back to the zoo
    - as the son of the nature-loving Jun, Jin Kazama would keep an
exotic animal in the syndicate only under these conditions. Also, he
would only get a Panda from a zoo; he would never, ever kidnap a
wild animal (especially not an endangered species) to keep as a pet.
Fortunately, the Tokyo Mishima Zoo had two pandas as a gift from
China (the Mishima syndicate has massive influence with the
People's Republic), and it just so happened they were having a
problem with this Panda. She kept bullying her so-called mate, and
generally seemed restless, although not sick or going off her food.
So Jin was able to finagle a change of scene for Panda, on a strictly
trial basis, since she didn't seem happy in the zoo anyway...

Hwoarang. The immortal, blood-drinking vampyre.
    - this whole paragraph is massive, repeated exposition -
annoying as all hell, but unfortunately necessary in a novel that's
been presented chapter-by-chapter, especially given that
Hwoarang's undead curse is 100% creative license to begin with.

"If I speak when the girl is in the area, it does NOT mean I am
talking TO the girl!"
    - this is another tidbit that's been a "Phoenix Reborn" scene in
my head for a long time - Hwoarang bending the letter of his
command (not to talk to Julia) to pervert it in spirit. He's been an
off-and-on slave for 400 years; he's learned every trick in the book
for twisting his master's literal wishes...

It was a diamond-studded crucifix. Yukie's crucifix.
    - I originally meant to have Hwoarang wearing this in Ch. 13,
when he tried to assassinate Heihachi, but, um, I forgot. Ah, he
probably would've kept it tucked under his shirt anyway. Lee
Chaolan found out the hard way what a disadvantage it is to openly
wear a necklace in a fight...

"I had the kitchen staff save something for your return - you are a
vegetarian like me, aren't you? You're lucky you're with us; it's
difficult to find meatless cuisine in general Tokyo. I've looked."
    - according to the "Anime Companion" most traditional
Japanese cuisine involves meat in the form of seafood. Strict
vegetarians are strongly advised to bring their own cooking
ingredients...

Ghosts are a source of mortal terror, to a Navajo.
    - most of the details about Navajo beliefs are from the stuff I
researched in my American Indian History college class. I still have
a paperback titled "The Navaho," which I double-checked as a
reference for this.
     It really wasn't until I started taking this class, and looking up
information about Navajo Indians, that it began to sink in what an
*atypical Navajo* Julia is - that perhaps, she might not even be a
Navajo by any reasonable definition. However, Julia's shaky-at-
best ties to her tribe (outside of her grandmother) actually serve the
story, as they help justify why, after the Toshin crises ended, she
has chosen to live with Jin in the Mishima syndicate (and give
interviews, etc.)

Both the description of the antechamber and the pocket dimension
are, of course, straight out of TK2. The antechamber is Kazuya's
background, and the pocket dimension is Devil/Angel's
background. Both were of course described in "Ashes of the
Phoenix." There isn't all that much to talk about in the antechamber
anyway, but "Ashes" only gave a rather general description of the
pocket dimension. Julia's restless curiosity allows me to give a
much, much more elaborate depiction of the place, right down to
the spotlights, and how she peers over its side. 

     "I'm not exactly sure where we are. A pocket dimension of
some kind, I think."
    - Namco never actually specifies where the heck Devil/Angel's
background is, anyway. Is it a pocket dimension? Is it a rendition
of the mind's eye? Is it the border between Heaven and Hell? It's
where Kazuya's Tekken 2 ending is set, but that scenario is
something of a crazy fantasy anyway - it didn't even actually
happen in Namco's Tekken 3 continuity. 

"You can't sense anyone's thoughts in here, can you?" I inferred.
"Not if they're outside. Unless I use divination sorcery to spy on
them."
     - For reasons of upcoming plot, I need this place to be naturally
cut off from the psychic chatter of Earth. But then, how did Kazuya
telepathically command his army from in here? Answer: he used
divination spells to spy on them, which allowed him to target his
telepathy/sorcery across worlds. That's my story and I'm sticking to
it...

Instead, it showed a bird's-eye view of the outside antechamber. I
presumed that it was currently functioning as the extravagant,
sorcerous equivalent of an apartment door peephole.
     - Jin keeps in practice with his limited knowledge of divination
sorcery, like this. He is being somewhat modest when he says he's
not very good at it; though he isn't as skilled as his daddy, and he
doesn't have any souls to help him, his raw talent is still pretty
strong. Anyway, this mirror with a view is how Jin knows that
Julia (or anyone else) has entered the antechamber to see him.

Jin's family shrine is loosely based on a Japanese Buddhist-style
family memorial, albeit much more elaborate. The hand-drawn
pictures of Lee and Yukie are Jin's own artwork. While the
Kazuya/Jun photos aren't really described in depth (seemed to be a
little too much detail - describe one in two paragraphs, and you
have to describe 'em all in two paragraphs) they're actually
Kazuya's & Jun's character selection portraits from Tekken 2.

I recognized him from my past research: Jinpachi Mishima, the
original founder of the Mishima syndicate.
    - I made this up. Namco's storyline does not state who actually
founded the Mishima syndicate; however, it does mention how
distraught old Jinpachi was, at the evil his son & grandson brought
to the family name. It would only deepen the wound if they had
taken the syndicate that Jinpachi originally founded, and twisted it
to malevolent ends.
     When Heihachi was a young man, he forcibly took the Mishima
syndicate away from his dad Jinpachi. This was partly because
Jinpachi was not a cutthroat businessman, and the syndicate was
teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Ashamed, Jinpachi went
wandering, and saw very little of his grandson Kazuya. BTW,
Jinpachi never knew for certain that Heihachi murdered his wife,
yet he may have suspected. 

"He was thinking, 'Gods curse me.'"
    - a sentiment that Heihachi echoed in his journal in "Phoenix"
Ch. 2. :)

     "Yes. Bernard Chang. Michelle Chang's father. He used to
work for the Mishima syndicate, around forty years ago."
    - Bernard Chang's name is, of course, taken from the "Tekken
Saga" comic book. It just doesn't seem right to make up a name for
him when I have one already, albeit in a quasi-alternate universe
Tekken storyline. In "Tekken Saga," Bernard challenged Heihachi
directly to single combat, and Heihachi killed him. Here, I stay
closer to Namco's storyline, in which Heihachi simply arranged for
Michelle's daddy to be killed... although Namco's storyline also had
Michelle talking to her daddy on his deathbed.

"Here's a question for you: how common are incidents of random
violence on the, um, reservation where you live?"
    - when I was researching my final paper on the Navajo/Hopi
land dispute for my history class, I came across a disturbing
magazine article that said random violence was on the rise in
Navajo communities...

It's not the same here; you're not supposed to hold up your pain for
everyone to see. 
    - this is partly taken from Joel Rosenberg's "The Heir Apparent,"
when Andrea loses her husband: "She will not hold her grief up for
your inspection." It's also partly taken from what I've read about
Japanese culture - it is not unheard of for a Japanese person to
smile as they say that a relative has died. Culturally, as I
understand it, the idea is to avoid making others uncomfortable
with one's own grief. Although John Doe American would find it
inexplicable and disconcerting as all heck...

     "A live volcano?" I gasped, genuinely horrified. "Heihachi
hated her too much to cremate her, or inter her within a normal
cemetery? He had to cast her into the closest thing the Earth
Surface has to the fires of Hell?"
    - this, and the later description, are of course Heihachi's Tekken
2 ending movie with Kazumi in Kazuya's place. Heihachi's TK2
ending movie simply did not happen in "Ashes," after all -
Heihachi waited out the Iron Fist and the Great Invasion in his
remotely isolated shrine, serving refreshments to Shang Tsung.
And Kazuya's cadaver wasn't tossed in any volcano; Sub-Zero
appropriated it for scientific research...

     "Grandfather is very traditional. He strongly disapproves of
such invasive procedures on the dead."
    - according to an Usagi Yojimbo comic book, a few hundred
years ago almost anything resembling an autopsy was as good as
prohibited by law. Nowadays, well, I imagine the more traditional-
minded folks still wouldn't like the idea. BTW, it's only very
recently that Japan has revised its legal code to allow for the
existence of brain death, thus making organ transplants effectively
possible within the nation.

"Any police detective knows that when someone dies under
dubious circumstances, then the first - the absolute _first_ person
you should suspect is the spouse of the deceased."
    - unless the spouse has an airtight alibi, that is, but this is a very
real truth of homicide investigations. Statistically, you're more
likely to be murdered by the ones you love...

At the very least, Heihachi should have been fined for improperly
disposing of a body. 
    - I have no idea if Japan actually does impose fines for
improperly disposing of a body, but it's done here according to
N.Y.P.D. Blue and Julia's on a roll anyway. :)

"The only reason why they weren't suspicious, why they didn't even
question Heihachi, would be if it _was_ murder, and he
deliberately exerted his influence on them!"
    - this is a variant of a telling conclusion within Brust's "Orca,"
where there's something wrong because the Empire's Investigators
say a shady fellow named Fyres wasn't murdered. The investigators
had done their job for only a week, and the only way in the Empire
you could conclude something like that in a mere week would be if
Fyres *was* murdered, and someone wants to cover up the truth...

"I don't understand you!" I insisted. "How can you be so forgiving
of Heihachi Mishima, and so unforgiving of Lei Wulong?"
    - when my parents were prereading this chapter, they suggested
to me that even Jin's lengthy response doesn't satisfactorily answer
this question. Dad thinks Jin is under some kind of "hate" spell,
arranged by Heihachi Mishima. The complete explanation for Jin's
irrational hatred of Wulong, when he tends to be so kind and
forgiving to everyone else, will have to wait for the last chapter of
the story.

Crackling, illusory flames danced about the bottom and sides of the
mirror. They burned without heat, boiling like solar flares, and
parted before a black background.
     I saw Jun Kazama.
    - this is the first half of the Jin/Jun/Kazuya arcade intro movie
for TK3. The second half, which shows the Toshin holding a
severed head, was adapted into Chapter 2. The part in the intro
movie where Jin throws a punch could be any number of places in
my novel; I don't see much point in expressly putting it in. 
 
     "It's not just that it hurts. He... you know how much he
looks like me... it's almost like seeing myself in the mirror. Like
I'm seeing my own future."
     - The final part of Wulong's memories - the view of Kazuya's
corpse - serves an additional purpose to just being a grim omen. It
also allows Julia to get a good look at Kazuya's dress suit. So that
when Heihachi eventually puts his grandson in a suit just like it,
she'll recognize it at once... and shudder with horror...

"You're wondering if you're the product of rape," I interpreted,
quietly. "And whether Wulong allegedly murdered Kazuya in order
to avenge your mother."
    - Namco's storyline isn't explicit on the nature of Kazuya's
relationship with Jun, or whether there was truly any love involved.
What it does say is that Jun was "drawn" to Kazuya, and wanted to
free him from the Devil. "Tekken: the Movie" covertly suggests
that Jun and Kazuya were sweet on one another, though. With one
thing and another, I believe Namco's Kazuya/Jun relationship
involved at least some sort of love, on both sides...
     ...however, my Tekkenverse had a different path set for Jun's
heart, and my Kazuya was not a literal rapist (he was evil in many
ways, but not that way). So it necessitated a different origin story
for Jin.

     "When were you born?"
     "May 20th, 1998."
     - Jin's birthday is something of a personal in-joke; it's exactly
one year after I finished & posted the last chapter of "Ashes of the
Phoenix." It also has the convenient advantage of being in the
springtime, which appears to be the time of year when the Toshin
murders Jun, if you squint real hard at the Toshin's scene in the
TK3 arcade intro movie.

     "Lei Wulong. Is he sterile?"
     "That's not exactly something I've ever asked him," Jin said,
a tiny note of hysteria creeping into his voice. 
    - my Lei Wulong was in fact sterile, a detail that is mentioned a
couple times in "Ashes of the Phoenix." I started making a note or
two about it once I learned of Jin in TK3, and wanted to adjust my
story accordingly. It was creative license; while Namco's Lei
Wulong is presumably not sterile, it would appear that he's never
married or had kids (with Jun or anyone else). Chalk another one
up to the alternate Tekkenverse, folks...

     "WHY!?" Jin exclaimed, semi-frantically.
     I shrugged. "Kazuya was a megalomaniac."
    - another nice little scene I've had in mind since the beginning of
"Phoenix Reborn." Conveniently working in the explanation of my
Jin's alternate origin, without being overly expository. In the
process it also gives Julia a chance to a) show off her deductive
skills, and b) get a little closer to Jin. :)

     "You really do love the old man, don't you?"
     "With all my heart," Jin confirmed, emotion shading his
voice.
    - this is a deliberate repetition of how Jun responded when Lee
asked her if she still loved Lei Wulong. When Kazamas feel love
(whether romantic or family love), they feel it all-out...

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because it's TRUE!?"
    - this line is ripped straight out of what Nelle says in the TV
show "Ally McBeal," when Nelle is asked why everyone complains
that their taxes are so hard. My one, absolutely blatant
plagarization of the chapter... :)

"No, Hwoarang is avoiding me. It's just as well; his mind is so
tortured that I can hardly function around him."
     "But..."
     "It'll work out for the best."
    - in my fanfic, "It'll work out for the best" belongs in the same
classification as "it'll be all right," i.e. it means everything is
heading for Hell in a handbasket... ^_^

The end of this chapter concludes "Phoenix Reborn" Part III:
Deception. Next chapter begins Part IV: Lamentation (at least, I
think that's what I'll call it...)

Next up: Jin's big first match in the Iron Fist! Julia's big first match
in the Iron Fist! Mitsurugi's big date with Anna! Only I'm probably
gonna gloss over 2 out of 3 of these things, if only to keep the
chapter within 33 pages...