Chapter 17: Tough Love notes
June 27, 1999

I finally - *finally* got the writing time for a chapter down to seven
days! In a chapter with two fight scenes in it, no less. As Julia says,
"All right!" All I need to do now is keep at this pace for the rest of
the summer, and hope no more chapters explode beyond my
control, and oh yeah, I'll still have another two chapters to finish
the story once fall classes start, but by then I'll probably be
practiced enough to dash 'em off in my sleep (or lack of it...)

This is the beginning of Part IV: Lamentation. Julia's tears are only
the beginning; there's going to be a great deal of grief and misery
ahead, including but not limited to Lei Wulong's long-awaited
confession...

The title "Tough Love" is a cliche and a half, I suppose, but it
serves a nice purpose in tying Mitsurugi's date dilemmas in with
Julia's school-of-hard-knocks comeuppance...

The epigraph is in fact the rough English translation of what
regular Shermie (as opposed to the Orochi Shermie of the Violent
Lightning) says to most opponents, at the start of her King of
Fighters '97 matches. It's changed to "I'm going to hurt you" for
KoF '98, but her KoF '97 quote not only fits the chapter much
better, it's also something that the interviewer would more readily
have access to for an epigraph. Shermie herself is thoroughly evil,
about as "gentle" as a razor-sharp battle axe, and has a giggle
almost bad as Xiaoyu's. Shermie's body is much more, uh...
"mature" though. :)

List of things taken or adapted from the actual video games &
storyline
    - Eddy Gordo's outfit, also Xiaoyu's orange Wu Shu outfit
(again)
    - Jin's, Eddy's, Julia's, & Xiaoyu's fight intro poses
    - that Mitsurugi hates guns
    - that Shingo loves to watch/fight in Tournaments
    - description of Ling Xiaoyu's background (the horror! the
horror!)
    - Shingo's motives for being in King of Fighters

List of deviations/creative license from video game storylines
    - that any Iron Fist match would have spectators (you can never
see any, although you can see the whole background revolve)
    - that Eddy Gordo would have reason to hate Jin Kazama (at this
time in the Tournament)
    - that Shingo's little sister loved to watch him fight (no details on
her in SNK's storyline)

Only two parts of this *whole* have been planned/envisioned from
the nearly the beginning. One is Heihachi offering Julia as Jin's
bride. The other is Mitsurugi bugging the women for advice on his
big date with Anna. Both these scenes were loosely in the head,
and seemed rather important, yet I didn't have any context to
properly set them up - was Mitsurugi just going to walk in on the
women hanging out? Was Heihachi going to drag Jin off by the ear
and say, "By the way..."

No, no. And the deeper I got into the story, the more I realized I'd
have to resolve Julia's involvement in the Iron Fist, given that I've
established her character as more of a thinker than a fighter. Plus I
knew Jin's first match was coming up, ever since I suddenly
decided it was three days away in Ch. 10. The rest is all
extrapolation. Originally, I didn't expect Xiaoyu to have more than
the one fight scene on Heihachi's boat, and of I course I didn't
know I'd be writing Shingo in until I'd reached Ch. 12 or so. It
wasn't until Ch. 15 that I realized the perfect setup: Julia is slated
to fight Hwoarang, but Jin switches her match to Xiaoyu instead. 

HEIHACHI MISHIMA: What you ask is impossible.
    - Literally taken out of an issue of "The Ever-Changing Palace"
with a text story about how Allynrud first forged an alliance with
the Golden Realm. When he went to Queen Joo-sama, she
understood the everlasting possibility of such a thing, yet her realm
was so strongly entrenched in its isolationist traditions that she
whispers, "What you say is impossible..."
   Completely different context & inflection, but it's still a great line
to steal.

 I didn't know what to do. And then, when you had the list of
today's matches delivered to me this morning, it said that I should
come to you if there were any problems-
    - added for the final draft. Heihachi is actually not as careless
with Julia's life as he appears to be. He put both Julia and Xiaoyu
up against very strong opponents, and sent this to Jin, and waited
for Jin's reaction. Sure enough, Jin shows up, and Heihachi both a)
reads his grandson, and b) very cleverly manipulates his grandson.
The full explanation of Heihachi's insidious true motives is for
later in the story.
     Heihachi also had the "switch-the-matches" solution in his evil
head all along; it's just that he was waiting for Jin to suggest it.
And it was damned annoying when Jin kept suggesting other things
instead; didn't his grandson have any intelligence at all...!? So that
Heihachi finally gives up and writes out the answer.

The Iron Fist is Strength. It is Truth. Its fighters champion our
crusade. Blood, bone, and soul; they risk it all to survive.
    - I listened to the opening monologue of "Tekken: the Movie"
(and I *still* say they should've put a P.C. or two of the Angel for
it) before writing this. Trying to get a feel for what would be good
(or bad) to say. However, Heihachi's words are not, repeat _not_
directly taken from the Tekken anime. And about 90% of his actual
anime dialogue ranges from corny to ridiculous... (and don't even
get me started on anime Heihachi's lame fable about lions tossing
their cubs off cliffs - it's not true, folks! Male lions may EAT cubs,
especially if fathered by another male, but they don't throw away
perfectly good food!)

M: So far, there have been a few others in the Iron Fist as unskilled
as Miss Chang. Some of them have already suffered dearly for it.
    - most of these would be non-video-game characters - ordinary
idiots who wanted Heihachi's dream prize and got wasted during
the preliminary qualification rounds.

Taking an ink brush and a small blank paper from his desk, he
swiftly writes four sets of strokes, one set upon each corner.
Heihachi draws a crisscross pair of lines to connect the strokes, and
pushes the paper away.
    - Heihachi is, of course, writing down the names of Xiaoyu,
Julia, Gun Jack, and Hwoarang, and drawing lines to indicate a
switch in pairings.

M: I shall be the one to inform Hwoarang.
    - added for the final draft because a) Heihachi has to order
Hwoarang personally; Hwoarang is no longer required to obey Jin's
orders, and b) Heihachi doesn't want Jin anywhere near Hwoarang.
He's already ordered Hwoarang not communicate with or approach
Jin in any way. This is because Heihachi doesn't want Jin to pick
up on what Heihachi really plans for Hwoarang...

[Heihachi's mouth curls in a tight-lipped smile.]
    - akin to the smile you see in his TK2 ending, after he dumps
Kazuya into the volcano...

well, maybe there was something more. Something about the
spectators' gallery. When I mentioned it, a chill settled on Anna
    - it's the same spectators' gallery where Nina almost killed Anna,
and where Devil Kazuya almost killed Nina, over twenty years ago
(as mentioned in Ch. 5).

What did they say, 'FAISCA'? I've never heard of an English word
like that. Maybe it was the name of his clothing designer. 
    - I don't know what the word on Eddy's clothes means either, but
that's my best guess. BTW, I picked Eddy's green-and-yellow outfit
because it's the uglier of his two looks, and I figured I'd get it out of
the way. Save Eddy's cool outfit with shades (or the tuxedo of his
TK3 ending) for later, or possibly even a sequel.

     Originally, I didn't plan for Eddy to appear this early - if he
appeared at all, it would be in a big group cameo close to the end,
as all our heroes team up against the Ultimate Evil (tm). The
necessity of picking Jin's opponent for the first Iron Fist match
changed that. Eddy made a good opponent both because he is a)
dangerous as ALL hell - any TK3 player knows that even a
spammer Eddy player is a headache to deal with, and b) has reason
not to like the Mishima syndicate.
    This ties into a couple minor threads from previous chapters. I
wanted Jin to be forced to put his fighting advice from Lei Wulong
to good use; he couldn't have a blow-off victory here, that would be
too easy. Also, I wanted an opponent who would have reason to
hate him, and thus offer some time for Jin's speculation about the
nature of hatred, afterward. Nina/Anna also hate Jin, but Nina is
banished, and if Anna was fighting then Mitsurugi wouldn't be able
to take his eyes off her, much less ask the other women about his
forthcoming date.
     Involving Eddy this way also requires a bit more creative
license. In Namco's actual storyline, Eddy joins the Iron Fist so that
he can *enlist the syndicate's help* in avenging his murdered father
(and avenging himself, what with being forced to unjustly spend
eight years in prison and all). Eddy's TK3 ending suggests that the
Mishima syndicate - especially Kazuya (how? Kazuya had been
dead for over a decade when Eddy's father died) - were involved in
the crime against Eddy's family. Eddy's TK3 ending presumably
doesn't take place until after the Iron Fist is over, though.
    Here, Eddy's TK3 ending - where he apparently learns the
Mishima syndicate murdered his dad - may not have taken place
yet, either. Because if I do write a sequel, that ending is going in
(could be a flashback, though). However, and this is my point of
deviation from Namco's storyline: Eddy knows something is up.
He knows the syndicate at least had a hand in his father's murder,
or collaborated with his father's killers, or possibly even ordered
the hit. Even if he doesn't have proof, even if he doesn't know for
absolute certain... he gets the same, supernatural sense of antipathy
almost everyone else gets from Jin. Eddy's own history and
suspicions magnify that antipathy a thousandfold - to the point
where it proves his undoing.

     Something occurred to me, just then. Something I'd never
thought to wonder about, before.
     Turning to Taki, I pointedly asked, "Why aren't you fighting
in the Iron Fist?"
    - this question actually didn't occur to *me* until this chapter,
but it was the perfect place to fit in the answer - Taki is not an
assassin, nor is she as murderous as she usually pretends to be.
She's not all that nice either, but...
    Originally, I planned to have Lei mention this, but as it turned
out Ch. 15 had enough material without Mitsurugi and/or Taki
meeting him.

Okay, now for the first fight scene! Since I've got a more in-depth
fight scene coming up later in the chapter, and since I'm naturally
lazy anyway, I only give bits and pieces of Jin's fight with Eddy. As
Julia later points out, every last detail isn't extremely important in
any case.

Start off with fight intro animations: hold down buttons 1 or 2 for
Jin to readjust his fighting gloves, and 3 or 4 for Eddy to stretch
out his arms. I didn't put in Eddy's off-the-cuff gesture because I
couldn't tell whether it was a taunt or a salute, and if it was a salute,
well, Eddy wouldn't be in the mood to show Jin any respect...

Only a few pieces are shown: Eddy's Rio Special or Rio Deal basic
throw (could be 1+3 or 2+4, they both look very similar), and Jin's
2+4 basic throw, the Over the Shoulder Reverse. Eddy later gets
his Wheel Kicks into the Sao Paulo Special (while sidestepping,
3+4, 3+4, 3+4). The final encounter is Jin's extra-strength
unblockable, the Lightning Screw Uppercut (B+1+4) vs. Eddy's
Slippery Kick (3~4), which incidentally is the same move as the
crouching power roundhouse of Yashiro Nanakase in KoF '97-98.
If Eddy had gotten his kick out sooner it would've countered Jin's
attack, but Eddy reacted a bit too late and *wham*! Fight's over. 
    However, Julia does later offhandedly refer to Eddy's helicopter
kick (4 from handstand position), and Jin's left kick reversal
(b+1+3 or b+2+4). 
     I was tempted to work in Jin's back-throw on Eddy, but you
know what? It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get behind Eddy Gordo.
Or even get on either side of Eddy. Whether Eddy is standing or
crouching, his natural dancing movements automatically keep him
in line with whatever fool tries to sidestep him!

     "Almost any business in Tokyo will accept your credit
through your IdentiCard. However, the syndicate does level a ten
percent monthly interest rate for the service."
    - here is another pathetic, yet useful in its own trivia tidbit way,
thing about IdentiCards, which are rapidly becoming the mascot of
this freakin' story. They explain how Mitsurugi (or any of our
heroes) can buy stuff without carrying large amounts of cash
(Mitsurugi doesn't get his first paycheck for a few weeks yet). 
    BTW, I've read that Japanese salarymen actually get to take
home envelopes full of cash, in low-crime Japan. Then, typically
the wife worries about household finances while the husband gets
to spend his allowance. Seriously...

The section in which Mitsurugi gets his gun had been written, and
tucked away in my "not now, maybe later" file ever since Chapter
14. It just didn't fit there, and didn't fit the next chapter, or the
next... until now, which is really the last chance before his big date
with Anna, so it has to fit. There will be more about Mitsurugi's
gun next chapter...
    ...and incidentally, Mitsurugi's instinctive loathing of guns can
possibly be traced all the way back to how Tanegashima shot up
his ancestor, in Soul Blade.

Despite the literal translation of his last name, he was not 'fat' in
the slightest
    - Eddy's last name, "Gordo," literally means "Fat" in Spanish.
Probably also in Portuguese, which is the main language spoken in
Brazil and rather closely related to Spanish.

"Be like water," he whispered to himself. "Mind clear. Face
expressionless. Soul focused on the fight..."
    - if Jin had not taken to Lei Wulong's advice to heart, he very
likely would have lost his fight against Eddy Gordo. Eddy might
even have killed him, although that is not by any means a certainty
(either with regard to Eddy's lethal intent or Jin's Power to protect
himself from death). BTW, Xiaoyu's impromptu fix of Jin's
dislocated arm is akin to something I saw on an ER rerun, recently.
Although, Xiaoyu doesn't have to be as precise as an ER doctor -
her patient's own Power can patch up any mess she makes of his
muscles & tendons, once his arm is back in place.

     "You gotta come to my first match!"
     "And mine," I added, smoothly.
     Jin said, "Of course."
     Xiaoyu giggled.
    - more than one of my prereaders honestly didn't guess that Jin
switched the matches until they at least saw Xiaoyu's arena. I
thought it was reasonably apparent, given Xiaoyu's covert reaction
plus even the limited view of Heihachi's actions, earlier. Oh, well.
"Phoenix Reborn" may not have a big murder mystery a la
"Ashes," but it's still fun to tease people with little mysteries, even
if they're only a chapter long.

I looked up the words "catoptrophobia" and "eisoptrophobia" on
the web, at

 http://www.sonic.net/~fredd/phobia1.html 

and there is some precedent for Julia knowing the words, since
there's a reference to her calling Jin ochlophobic way back in Ch.
1. In fact, if there's anything like a species name, a minor factual
detail about human anatomy, or other such thing, Julia is the most
likely of our heroes to know it and/or casually mention it (also Lee
Chaolan, but that's because of the Knowledge he received when he
was made a Guardian).

And now, for the description of Xiaoyu's background. I checked
TK3 on my PSX in depth here. Got down most of the words on the
displays, although one word (under the dragon) was too indistinct
to make out. 
    BTW, 'Wonder Eggs 2' actually has the word 'Namco' written
above it, but I left that out for the same reason why the Tournament
is called the "Iron Fist" and not "Tekken," and why I never used the
words "Mortal Kombat" in any of my MK stories. I don't want any
too-obvious suggestions that this is really a video game; it could
risk breaking the suspension of disbelief or general mood. I wasn't
thrilled about referring to the "King of Fighters" tournament in so
many words, either, but it couldn't be helped; according to the Fatal
Fury anime, it really *is* called the "King of Fighters" tournament
(in heavily accented English, no less). However, my fanfic will
refer to it as the "King of Fighters Tournament," or "King of
Fighters 1997" (or some other year), not "King of Fighters '97"
(which is the game's actual name).

     Taki watched me like a lazy cat. One who sees a plump,
tender baby bird flutter from its nest. Whose tail involuntarily
twitches in response to the live prey. Yet who, in her well-fed
feline indolence, is too lethargic to actually nail the little squawker. 
    - this is our kitty girl, who has gotten too fat for her own good.

A note about Xiaoyu's outfit. Jin described it in depth before, so
only the quick version is given here, but I do make up for failing to
mention the white sigil on her back last time. BTW, Lei's green
outfit has a similar sigil, suggesting that maybe they both did train
at the same Temple of Light after all. :)

     "After you prove yourself against Ling-san, then I'm sure
you'll have plenty of opportunity to battle stronger warriors. It
doesn't matter who you're up against right now; we'll all be rooting
for you. Won't we, everyone?"
    - I originally had Shingo berating Julia here, but one of my
prereaders pointed out that in Japan, there is a LOT more respect
given to face, i.e. you *don't* dress people down in public. Also,
berating Julia was way out of character for Shingo, in any culture.
Plus, the revision gave me the chance to sneak in another in-joke or
two, and make Julia a little more mature, as she realizes on her
own that she is acting petty toward Jin (let's get this relationship
out of the Ranma-Akane trap, shall we?).

     I'm ready, you tent-stake-haired, woolly-caterpillar-browed,
Zorro-sign-marked, glorified lightning rod.
     - the "caterpillar brow" bit is shamelessly stolen from a Devil
Hwoarang darkfic by a friend of mine; I've got a link up to her web
page, now. In general, though, this was a fun description to write -
and I deliberately set it up for new readers (or readers who have
forgotten when Jin looks like) with previous references, contained
within the chapter. A reference to Jin's lightning, a reference to his
brand, a reference to spiky hair, and a reference to his bushy
eyebrows, and it's full loopiness ahead. ^_^

Now for the big Julia/Xiaoyu fight. Half the fun of this whole fight
scene is that, due to Julia's disdain of Xiaoyu, she gets to call her
by a different nasty name practically every other sentence. And so I
get to work out all my latent hostile feelings against the annoying
little wood tick who had the temerity to replace my beloved Jun. I
think my favorite disparagement is "bright orange pixie menace to
society." :)

Start with the fight intro animations - both of them have "bow to
opponent" poses (punch button for Xiaoyu, kick button for Julia).
Julia's does her Twin Arrow [1+2], and Xiaoyu counters with one
of her 10-hit strings... mostly.
   The Xiaoyu 10-hit that her sequence is based on is [u+4, 1, 2,
1+2, 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 1]. However, I've tried it many times, and I can't
make the 1+2 do anything - a glitch? I can only make Xiaoyu do it
automatically during "combo training" practice mode.
    What happens here is, Xiaoyu doesn't bother with the jumping
kick [u+4] at the start of her string. Instead, she does 1, 2, 2, 1,
which is the two-hit Bayonet, followed by the April Showers into
the Belly Chop. The rest matches the moves displayed in her string
- the Peg Leg, the Double Map Sweep, into a Skyscraper Kick and
the Storming Flower. BTW, the Bayonet in particular is
*extremely* fast and can indeed hit Julia out of the rather slow
Twin Arrow, if timed right.
    Xiaoyu taunts Julia with Greetings [2+3+4], and when Julia tries
to nail her with the Mad Axes throw [d, d/b, b, F+2], Xiaoyu
escapes [1+2]. In the actual game, you only hear Julia's scream if
her throw is escaped; she doesn't actually whiff the punch, but hey.
Creative license.
    Now Xiaoyu tries a cartwheel dodge [f+1+2], which actually
ends in her Rain Dance (back turned) pose, but then Julia tries her
own Spin into the Spinning Kicks [3+4, 4, 4, 4]. This is too good
an opportunity for Xiaoyu to ignore, especially since Julia gets her
spin all wrong and Xiaoyu manages to dodge behind her. This
leads to Xiaoyu's inescapable back-throw, the Crank Up [1+3 or
2+4 from behind opponent].
    Julia's not in very good shape right now, and then she sees
Xiaoyu go into her Hypnotist walk [b+1+2] followed by her
unblockable Thunder Strike [1+2 from Hypnotist]. Like almost all
Tekken unblockables, the Thunder Strike has Xiaoyu generating
sparklies before she hits, but instead of making Xiaoyu a
sorceress/ki-tossing pixie, I just explain it as the carnival lights
sparkling off her outfit.
    BTW, the damage of the Thunder Strike depends on the distance
walked, and Xiaoyu got pretty much her maximum three steps
before nailing Julia. Julia tried her (rather slow) standing Uppercut
[WS+1, or 3~2] to hit Xiaoyu out the Thunder Strike; too little, too
late.
     I didn't write a Xiaoyu win pose in here, because this is through
Julia's eyes, and Julia feels too humiliated after the match to look
directly at Xiaoyu... OK, so I actually forgot to put it in. But the
rest is true, too.

And so Julia loses her first and only match in the Iron Fist. Sad, but
I do have the game itself supporting me on this; Julia's slow speed
and short range overall make her as hard to play as her mommy
Michelle was, if not harder. She *is* good against the arcade CPU,
because the CPU is an idiot that falls for a lot of her rushing
lunges, especially when it's getting up from a knockdown. The
arcade CPU sometimes plays her mean too, but that's all. Against a
human player with any amount of skill, Julia is in big trouble.
    However, my Julia's strength isn't in her fighting skill. It's in her
mind - she is easily the smartest of the kids, and can see many
things more intelligently than most adults. And she just gotten a
little bit wiser here, as her one, irrational fantasy about herself was
pounded into pancake.

     That's only a guess, because from my point of view it was
as if someone had just zapped her with a fast-forward button.
Twice.
    - one of our VCRs speeds up extra if you hit the FF button twice.
An older VCR goes back to regular play mode if you hit FF twice,
but I figure most folks reading this will have newer VCR's. :)

 I saw a swaying, double-vision glimpse of the people watching me
from the merry-go-round steps. Shingo, intently jotting down
details into one of his pocket notebooks.
    - Shingo is not "rooting for" Julia quite as enthusiastically as he
does for his teammates in KoF '97 or '98, but then, he isn't Julia's
teammate. And he would want to write down as many different
things about Xiaoyu's more exotic moves as he could.

Shingo's story about the grand dreamweaving is of course the
whole KoF '98 storyline that I made up. In condensed form,
summarized from his perspective. I originally didn't know when or
if I'd be able to work it in at all, but it was perfect for here. Also,
it's nice to be able to mention what happened to Kyo Kusanagi's
girlfriend Yuki (which is more than what the actual KoF video
games ever say... they don't ever mention whether she was rescued
from her kidnaping or not, although one '98 ending picture might
suggest that she was.)

     "So why didn't you give up?" I mumbled.
     "Ah, let me think. Loyalty to Kusanagi-san... wanting to be
strong like him... wanting to test my own courage... maybe just
wanting to be alive."
     - all pretty much straight out of the KoF '97-'98 storyline for
Shingo.

I'm sure his tympanic membrane vibrated in response to the sound,
and that the cochlear branch of his acoustic nerve carried the signal
to his brain. But somewhere, in his electrochemical process of
neurotransmission, the meaning of what I said became lost.
    - technical auditory details courtesy of my Compton's
Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. I refer to it, but Julia's probably as
good as memorized it. ^_^

     "It's a long story. All you need to know is, Rugal
Bernstein-san was a very bad person. He'd make Heihachi
Mishima-san look downright nice."
    - for one thing, Rugal was given to making his defeated enemies
into statues, whereas Heihachi usually lets them come back for
another Iron Fist Tournament. Usually.

Sometimes, exotic or hard-to-translate Japanese words would reach
me in their original form, rather than in concept and meaning. 
    - Such as Shingo's "NAMAE BOSHUU CHUU!" in Ch. 14,
which literally translates to "name-register-middle" but for
practical purposes does not make any particular sense to me...

     That was the moment. That was the turning point.
     The point when Shingo _really_ started to lose his mind.
    - Don't get me wrong, Shingo is a great late character to write in.
But he's almost *too* good, in that he came with a subplot, i.e. his
own insanity, and it'll probably take the better part of a chapter or
two to resolve that subplot... aaargh, I probably still have at least
11 chapters to go...

Next up: The Morning After, as it were... for Julia and Mitsurugi
both.


Chapter 18: Trials of the Heart notes
July 5, 1999

Eight days for this chapter instead of seven, but I should be able to
make up for it. I hope. Next chapter has more of Shingo, and
Shingo is rapidly becoming one of the quickest, easiest, and most
fun characters to write. I just have to be careful, or I'll slip up and
write him out of character, i.e. too sane. ^_^

The first title I thought of was "The Morning After," but soon I
realized that this chapter would be the point where the story stops
going pedantically day by day, and skips ahead until later in the
month. So, its events couldn't be confined to one morning. Then,
once I realized how this chapter was really getting into the
love-stor(ies) aspect of "Phoenix," I called it "Affairs of the Heart,"
but changed to "Trials of the Heart" to reflect a) the epigraph, and
b) the fact that some of our heroes are indeed getting put through
trials of one sort or another.

The epigraph is from a very touching, almost wistful Quest story of
the young princess Kirila. She seeks to find the Heart of the World;
but neither the journey, her traveling companion, nor the outcome
is anything like what she would expect. And in the middle of her
quest, she falls in love - not with some demon incubus trying to
snare her; she is truly in love with a young prince named Laril.
True love makes the gyve all the tighter.
    The epigraph seemed particularly significant with regard to the
line of "turning into something your not." Of course it's clear Julia
is trying to turn herself into something else, but there's also echoes
of it reflecting Jin, Shingo, and Taki as well. Mitsurugi is staying
completely true to himself, but he's in way, *way* over his head...

List of things taken or adapted from the actual video games &
storyline
    - Julia's kick button outfit 
    - Shingo's & Julia's fight intro poses
    - Shingo's victory pose
    - that Shingo once thought he could learn to throw flames (and
Kyo didn't bother telling him the truth)
    - Kyo's method of "teaching" Shingo (demonstrating each
technique only once!)
    - Xiaoyu's victory pose (on the wooden beam).

List of deviations/creative license from video game storylines
    - that Shingo's little sister would hound him for fighting lessons
    - *any* kind of relationship between Jin and Xiaoyu, aside from
attending the same school
    - any kind of relationship between Jin and Julia, for that matter...
but hey. :)

A few ideas in this chapter have been envisioned from the
beginning. One was showing some kind of aftermath for
Mitsurugi's date with Anna (including the lipstick on his collar).
Another was that Julia would look at herself in the mirror and not
like what she saw (although *nothing* about her own reflection
talking back to her). Then there was the idea that, as time passed,
Jin & Julia would be close in some ways, yet somehow prevented
from admitting any feelings for each other. I came up with the idea
of a questionable Jin/Xiaoyu relationship early on (the whole story
between them will eventually be revealed, but not for a few
chapters yet). In Julia's case, though...
    ...well, it would be nice if she had something going that would
make Jin think twice about asking her out, even though she wasn't
really in a romantic relationship. Even though she might even
*deny* being in a romantic relationship. That's why writing in
Shingo was such a godsend. He has three main purposes in this
story. One is to hide Lei from the syndicate (and Lee Chaolan!)
until the proper time. The second is to provide a foil to the Jin/Julia
relationship, opposite to Xiaoyu. The third won't be for a while yet,
though... and in the meantime, Crazy Shingo requires a subplot of
his own, regarding his insanity. It makes me want to claw at my
hair (the novel's too long as it is!) but it can't be helped.

BTW, I did not originally plan for the interviews of this chapter to
take place on Valentine's Day. It just worked out that way, and it
was *extremely* convenient! Fit the whole mood perfectly. I love
it when that happens. ^_^

My friends at school told me that on Valentine's Day here, women
are supposed to give chocolate to men, isn't that funny? 
    - I learned this in my Japanese language class. In the rough draft,
it was Jin who had told Xiaoyu, but then I realized that if he'd told
her then he would have been quick to clarify that he didn't
personally like chocolate.

     You're gonna love your chocolate! I tasted a couple pieces
just to be sure!
    - more evidence that the interviewer is male, although this has
already been hinted at, without ever being outright stated. So far,
I've gotten one correct guess of the interviewer's identity (and I'm
surprised it took this long). Lee Chaolan says I'm not allowed to
confirm or deny any such guesses, but I imagine it'll be glaringly
obvious by the end anyway.

Are you gonna interview Anna about her big date? 
    - good grief no. I've dreaded writing anything about Anna's dates
with Mitsurugi - I had a few scenes in my head, but they were way,
way racier than I'd ever feel comfortable writing - and finally
decided to skip it. It really isn't directly relevant, and this story is
running long. All the important details (Mitsurugi giving Anna his
gun, etc.) are either mentioned elsewhere, or mmm... best left up to
the imagination. ^_^

     My dearest lady
     Lightning Scarlet stole my heart
     I love you always

    -this is, of course, the one off-format piece of text for the
chapter. If it were translated, I don't know whether it could fit into
the five-seven-five syllable line format of a haiku, so what the
heck. Mitsurugi's writing it for Anna, so he probably would try to
read it to her in English. Therefore, the haiku is in English, and
doesn't lose anything in translation (not that it had much to begin
with... I'm *not* a poet. Fortunately for me, Mitsurugi's not really a
poet either.)
    Originally, this was going to be something much more inane,
such as "I think Anna likes me" repeated 100 times or whatever,
yet as I got to know Mitsurugi better I changed my mind. He's not a
master poet, but he is more intelligent than many people (including
me) are inclined to give him credit for. Even though he *is* in
way, way over his head with Anna. I also decided not to directly
put an excerpt of Mitsurugi's journal into this chapter, because that
could come close to describing his date with Anna. I really do think
the reader could do a more, mmm, interesting job of imagining that
than I ever could.

She used his suit to wipe the blood off her sword.
   - when Taki cleans blood off her sword on Mitsurugi's suit, it
doubles as a pat-down search... and she notices that he's not
carrying his gun.

     "What we say now is not being monitored," she told him,
dark and mean and just as deadly serious as he was.
    - Adapted from Steven Brust's "Phoenix," where the Empress
Zerika turns the Imperial Orb white with her will and decrees,
"What I say now is not being remembered." Then she warns Vlad,
"The Organization will kill you, you know." To which Vlad
answers, "Maybe. They will certainly try."
     Lucky for me, Taki is a sorceress who can effectively do this.
Otherwise I'd have no explanation for how no one finds out
Mitsurugi disobeys orders and fires him. Or how no one hears
enough of Taki's confession to guess that Prototype Alpha is at her
home - except Xiaoyu and possibly Mitsurugi, but they keep
whatever they figure out of that secret to themselves.

     "SHE PUT HIM IN THREE-LIMB TRACTION!"
   - Anna used her back throw (1+3 or 2+4 from behind enemy), the
Leaping Triangle Hold. It's a three-limb break attack, mostly
unchanged from Tekken 2. Tekken 1 doesn't have back-throws; if
you try to throw an enemy from behind in TK1, you can't touch or
hurt them. You might make them cry out, though, if you're close
enough.

     "No. Anna loves me for who I am; as much as I want to
serve Mishima-sama, I have to stay true to myself first. And to
her."
    - this sends Taki over the edge for reasons that have nothing to
do with Mitsurugi's attitude toward her. He is not deliberately
trying to incite her at all.
    Adapted from "The Wyvern's Spur," where our hero Giogi gets
the villain Flattery to attack all out of control, all out of proportion
to Giogi's taunts, such as "You're not a man at all." Wouldn't have
worked unless Giogi's taunts just happened to have some basis in
truth.

Now for a very quick Mitsurugi/Taki fight scene. Simply, Taki
tries to use her Assassin's strike (f, F+B) on him twice. The first
time he dodges, and grabs a wooden sword. The second time, he
does his attack reversal, which is something I've been hoping to
work in from very early. The CPU never(?) uses it, and I've almost
never seen a human player good enough to do it at the arcade. I got
it to work a couple times in practice mode, but that's all.
    Mitsurugi's reversal is b+A+G, and has to be timed *perfectly*.
It only works on Taki's stabbing attacks; not her normal A or B
strikes. In the game, he pushes his attacker past him and then stabs
the poor sucker in the back - sword right through the chest. That
would be lethal, though, and my Mitsu's only got a wooden sword,
so he thwacks and traps Taki instead. In fact, his chokehold on her
isn't one of his moves in the game. If anything, it probably
resembles Taki's own Back Stabber slit-the-throat throw (B+G),
which she got Mitsu with at their very first meeting in chapter 4
(without actually slicing open his throat, though). 

I've seen her train Mitsu sometimes, and she is _so_ fast when she
wants to be, but now she was slower, and stopping to make that
scream slowed her down more. So maybe, somewhere deep inside,
she didn't really wanna hurt Mitsu.
   - Mitsurugi has only been training for a few days. Even though
he's had some kendo practice before, and even though he's got
some of his legendary ancestor's natural talent, he would not
normally be able to overpower Taki. It's just that Taki's got two
disadvantages. One, she's driven beyond all reason; and two, there
is a part of her that doesn't truly want to murder Mitsurugi (or
anyone else). That's the part that slows her down considerably.
Otherwise, poor Mitsu just might have been toast.

     "Anna... Anna told me about a rumor she'd overheard. She
said that Prototype Alpha of the Cyborg Army had gone missing in
Tokyo. That Mishima-sama had sent his Tekkenshu looking for it,
and they couldn't get it back."
    - this was spur-of-the-moment writing. I wanted to work in what
had put Taki over the edge, and remembered that Mitsurugi knew
about what seeing Bryan Fury/Prototype Alpha had done to her. It's
a bit of a stretch to imagine that Anna would be able to learn about
so-called "classified" information, but... maybe she managed to
tease it out of one of the Tekkenshu. She is a very, ahem, charming
person. ^_^

     Taki wasn't as old as she looked.
    - I have been waiting for a chance to put this in, too. The
legendary Taki is 22 in Soul Blade, and 25 in Soul Calibur (so is
the legendary Mitsurugi). My Mitsurugi & Taki are both only 20.
It's Taki who looks much older than she really is. Most people's
first impression is that she's anywhere from 25 to 35.

Taki whispered, "I couldn't face him."
    - my Taki knows that Bryan Fury is staying at her home; her
warning spells told her. She tried to confront him last night, and
couldn't do it. Couldn't even let him see her, and now... well, she's
not in the best mental health.

She said, "Abandon the Iron Fist. Leave the syndicate, and don't
come back."
    - one of things that really hurts Taki is that she sees all these
innocent kids around her - Xiaoyu, Julia, and Mitsurugi especially -
headed for death and destruction. And there's really not much she
can do to stop it; she's too deep in despair to even try very hard. It
eats at her, to the point where she takes a 'Fine. Put your necks on
the chopping block. I'll laugh when the headsman lowers his axe!'
attitude, as a psychological defense mechanism. Then her defenses
generalize, and she takes out her misery by gossiping with/mentally
torturing Julia.

     "You'd better take off that spell or whatever you did to the
cameras, okay?" I told Taki. "'Cause if it stays on for too long, you
could get in trouble. Okay?"
    - in fact, someone has noticed, and Jin also sensed Taki's
distress. He came on the scene sometime after Xiaoyu, and even
confronted Taki about it, but by then she had calmed down. She
apologized and said she was fine. Mitsurugi also told Jin that
everything was fine, when Jin questioned him, so Jin let the matter
drop.

I got you Toblerone chocolate; it's the best kind.
    - I remember eating Toblerone chocolate at Spanish-language
camp. Mmm... I've actually tasted better, but only from a special
local gourmet chocolate-maker that isn't anywhere near Julia's
home.

But if I gave him chocolate, he'd feel obligated to eat it, and I
wouldn't want to put him through that for a food he doesn't like. 
    - anime is rife with men feeling obligated to eat food that woman
get for them (or especially cook for them). Video Girl Ai, Ranma
1/2, etc. etc. It seems cruel to me to force anyone to eat anything,
with social pressure or any other type of coercion, unless they're
freaking anorexic. But then, I suck at cooking.

     No, I'm not looking to take over your job. Jin chose you to
make this record, and I respect his decision. But I want you to
make a note of my objections, all right?
    - in the rough draft, I wrote Julia threatening to hold back details
a la Xiaoyu. Then one of my prereaders pointed out that this was
out of character for Julia, so I fixed it. Julia might appeal to the
interviewer's sense of fair play, but she does not threaten lightly,
and she's not inclined to bluff either.

     "Have to organize Shingo's office." This was another lie.
Shingo didn't expect me to start that project until Monday morning.
    - when I originally set a date for that, I didn't know what the
heck I was doing. I was thinking maybe Julia would talk to Shingo
while cleaning up his office, or something like that. Later, it all
worked out perfectly, with Shingo giving Julia her first fighting
lesson on Saturday instead. I love it when my blind guesses as to
what would be good for the story work out without a hitch...

There was also a sketchy diagram of the high school grounds, and
an arrow pointing to a smallish, wooded-over alcove east of the
soccer field.
    The Jin/Xiaoyu high school background is actually a rather
wide-open place, but hey. Creative license.

Don't ask me to reconstruct it from memory
    - Julia eventually destroyed the disclaimer, as she said she
would, which is nice because it saves me the confusion of having
to learn actual (or even a crazy person's) legalese.

"Never, ever sue poor people."
    - a very useful piece of advice from a Bloomsdale(?) comic strip.
Shingo isn't actually dirt poor; his teacher's salary is modest
enough to afford a decent apartment. Still, he doesn't really own
enough to make him worth suing. His older sister is another matter,
though; the Mishima syndicate gave her ample remuneration for
consenting to let her crazy little brother out of the asylum...

     "...this is..."
     "A friend at Serenity Consolation taught me how to
properly word these things. He used to be one of the best lawyers
in the business, before his minor breakdown."
     "...insane."
    - literally speaking, "insanity" is a _legal_ term, not a medical
term. The legal definition of insanity is quite different from the
medical definition.

He straightened. His hand went to his chest, and he took a long,
deep breath, exhaling it slowly. Then he rested his chin in his
fingers, and looked at me. 
    - this is Shingo's KoF '98 fight intro pose, against any opponent
except Kyo (with whom he has a special intro dialogue). Shingo
normally says, "Kuuru ni ikouze, Shingo!" to himself ("Stay cool,
Shingo!"), but that particular line is being saved for a later point in
the story. Besides, Shingo is older (even if he won't admit it), and
better able to keep his cool now. Most of the time.

Shingo's fighting stance is different from KoF '98. He still keeps
the side of his body turned, but his arms aren't up quite so high
anymore. One arm's pretty much gone, and he needs the other to
hold his claw cane.

I  brushed my hair back, just to be sure it wouldn't get in my eyes
   - a variant of Julia's more elaborate punch-button fight intro pose.

And now for the Shingo-Julia fight scene! Maimed or not, Shingo's
still got it. It's true that he can no longer run, but he has stayed in
practice, all these twenty years. And then some. He is, BTW, still
capable of doing that crazy hand-spinning AB that he and Kyo both
have in place of a standard roll, in KoF '98.
    Shingo nabs Julia with his f+C basic throw, an overhead toss
(his other basic throw is a shoulder ram). In the game, he actually
uses both hands, but a) he's older & has maximized the strength of
his right arm, b) Julia's not all that heavy, and c) creative license,
dammit. Then Julia tries to go for some low kicks (d+4, 4) but she
is way, way too slow. Shingo gets her with his trademarked Shingo
Kick (d, d/f, f+C or D), which can be used to set up a combo at
close enough range. So that he proceeds to nail her with the
three-hit Shingo Throw (f, d, d/f+C or D), the move that actually
qualifies him as a grappler. He volleys her for one last hit with the
Unperfected Flaming Uppercut (d, d/f, f+A or B). It's a stretch of
creative license to suggest that Julia lands on her face, but hey.
    BTW, Shingo's outcries during this attacks are all sound effects,
or just plain loud yells. So they're written directly out of the KoF
'98 technical manual, as is.

His arm was _very_ powerfully muscled, like a professional
bodybuilder's.
    - if you look closely at Kyo or Shingo in KoF '98, you'll notice
this... it's practically disproportionate to their bodies.

     "Yosh!" The pressure left my neck, and I sat up. Shingo
raised his clenched, sun-sign gloved fist to chin level, and lifted his
eyes to the sky.
     "I did it for you, Kusanagi-sama!"

    - this one of Shingo's KoF '98 victory poses (hold down button
A when he wins). One change - in the game he's a bit more
celebratory, and says "Yoooshi!" It's "Yosh" here because a) the "i"
is silent anyway, b) I don't want any confusion with Yoshimitsu's
name, c) Shingo isn't going to be *quite* as fanatically joyous over
defeating young, inexperienced Julia as, say, an Orochi-blood
demon. He certainly isn't looking to humiliate her; however, he
knew from the start that he'd probably have to demonstrate a little
skill before Julia/'imouto' would ask him for fighting lessons.
    The second part of Shingo's quote is actually "Yarimashita yo,
Kusanagi-san!" in the game. I decided to (loosely) translate it into
English for the final draft. And in this case, Shingo really *was*
fighting in the name of Kusanagi-sama, since Julia imprudently
made him swear by the name of his god...

BTW, the cliche of the "Crippled Master" (actually a Jackie Chan
movie title, I believe) is an old one in Hong Kong movie lore, and
probably from stories long before then too. I didn't originally
intend to draw upon it; I first devised Shingo's disability as a
reason to explain why he isn't in the Iron Fist. It isn't that Shingo
can't fight anymore; he can certainly take out someone as
inexperienced as Julia, easily. However, he's badly enough injured
that he's a better teacher than a fighter now. Even through his
insanity, he recognizes that if he'd entered the Iron Fist, he'd lose -
he might even get killed - as soon as he met someone with equal
skill and greater physical advantage. Which is to say, most of our
Tekken 3 heroes (or villains).

Once, I complained that I would never use anything as extravagant
as a jumping, spinning, tornado-style uppercut in a real battle. 
    - although Julia is learning Kusanagi-style techniques, her
kempo is still what she prefers. It's unlikely that I'll write her
performing any of Shingo's special moves, especially since she has
a large repertoire of her own moves. Then again...

Once in a while, I'd start to tire and he would notice. He'd call a
break, and tell me one of his stories about the heroes, demons, and
mercenaries of the King of Fighters Tournament.
    - heroes: Kyo, Benimaru, Goro, Chizuru, Mai, King, etc. etc.
Demons/Devils: Yashiro, Shermie, Chris, Iori, Vice, Mature, (also
technically Yamazaki & Leona). Mercenaries: Ralf & Clark
(leaning toward good), Billy & Yamazaki (much more evil), etc.
All of Shingo's stories are fanfics or background tales for other
folks to write... I have my hands full with the Tekken characters.

'Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his
moccasins.'
    - I've heard variants of this old saying before, but I got this
version, and the tribe it is attributed to, from
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/wisdom.htm

'Ah, yes. That's when I discussed the Mishima Eleemosynary
Foundation with Mrs. Neko Tonegazawa.'
    - this loopy little item is half from "Orca" (identifying oneself by
the code phrase, 'Adrilankha Eleemosynary Society') and half from
one of Rumiko Takahashi's short stories, about a widow named
Tonegazawa ("neko" means "cat" in Japanese).

I'm being grandiloquent.
    - also from "Orca"; my official word-for-word plagarization of
the chapter.

When Julia discusses Jin's Iron Fist battles, she refers to his
reversal [b+1+3 or b+2+4] on Yoshimitsu's overhead sword swipe
[d/b+1]. She also refers to his reversal [3+4] of King's figure-four
leglock [D/B+1+2].

Jin seemed almost wistfully reluctant to fight King
    - this is due to his happy childhood memories of watching the
predecessor, King the First, kick ass on TV (as recounted in Ch. 1).
But, Jin's on a quest to avenge his mommy... can't let even happy
memories get in the way.

If I were to guess, though, I'd say it was on account of what Jin's
father Kazuya once did to her. "Rise and Fall of the Devils"
summarizes the whole, violent story. But you've already
interviewed Anna about it, haven't you?
    - in Ch. 5. And Anna's interview gives a much more detailed
account, since Doctor Boskonovitch had to draw a lot of material
from inferences, talking to other survivors of the Invasion, etc.
Anna also lists the rest of her reasons for hating Jin in Ch. 13. Most
notably, she hates him because Nina succumbed to the Toshin to
get revenge on him. No, it's not fair; emotion rarely is.

 It reported how twenty specially hired linguists, working for the
Mishima syndicate, had all perished in a mysterious 'accident.' 
    - as recounted in Heihachi's journal, in Ch. 6. I fear this may be
the last reference, which isn't fair to all the poor dead linguists.
Then again, maybe not. It doesn't seem right to kill off so many
linguists and then just totally forget about them. I hate it when
shows like "Voyager" do stuff like that. Or even the Batman
"Sub-Zero" animated movie. :) :) :)

"There was a time when I didn't understand, either. I thought that if
I kept on doing this, eventually I'd be able to create jets of fire, just
like Kusanagi-san. He was wise enough let me discover the real
truth for myself. Don't worry, and keep practicing. One day, you'll
find the real truth too."
    - In KoF '97-'98, Shingo fanatically desires to throw flames, and
Kyo can't bring himself to tell Shingo "Not possible. You don't
have the Power." Besides, Kyo finds Shingo useful as an all around
errand-runner and part-time semi-slave, and for such little cost
(Kyo just demonstrates a technique once, every now and again).
Kyo is way too lazy to give that up.
    Well, my Shingo is crazy, not stupid. It's been twenty years, even
if he won't admit it; part of him has finally figured out that some
folks just don't have sorcerer's blood. Doesn't dampen his
enthusiasm or his loyalty to Kusanagi-sama one bit.

"Oh, Kusanagi-sama, I'll have to beg your forgiveness, but... I have
no idea whether he was a good teacher. I never saw him try to be a
real teacher. He would demonstrate a technique for me once - only
once! - and then I had to figure out the rest for myself."
    - what I had in the rough draft was way, way out of character for
Shingo. I looked back at Shingo calling Kyo a "horrible teacher,"
and realized that was *me* talking. I hate Kyo, but Shingo idolizes
Kyo. Okay, okay, fix it up for the final draft. But my Shingo's not
going to gush about Kyo's skills as a teacher, because he knows the
truth about Kyo. Shingo may be mixed up in the present, but he has
the past straight.

It was as if he'd been infected with a Y2K variant
    - Why does Lee call it the "year 2000 problem" while Julia calls
it Y2K? Because Lee died in 1997, before the acronym "Y2K"
became all that widely used. That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

As the weeks passed, though, he'd tend to take breaks, pausing to
give the students a short 'moment of silence.'
    - Shingo would never force his belief in Kusanagi-sama, or even
a general prayer, on anyone. Especially not his students. But a
'moment of silence,' to rest and give thanks for what is good in the
world, as long as it's discreet... that wouldn't infringe on anyone's
rights, Shingo reasons, and he so dearly feels the need. After all,
his beloved little sister has finally come back...

She balanced on her hands, atop a wooden beam in one of the
syndicate's many training halls.
    - Xiaoyu's pose and gymnastics are from one of her victory
sequences (hold down button 1). Incidentally, she's too modest to
undertake this pose if she's in her school uniform. Unless you beat
the game with her, that is - and that may be only in arcade TK3,
which shows replays of your victories when you win, followed by a
final victory pose on the Toshin's stage. 

BTW, I have definitely ripped off the trick Xiaoyu plays on Julia
from somewhere. A TV show, I think. Cannot remember where.

And I was grudgingly starting to like Xiaoyu, too. Almost against
my will.
     - This is me talking (used to hate Xiaoyu... started to grudgingly
like her the more I wrote about her, especially with Ch. 6),
although it's accurate for Julia too.

"I have trouble with calendar dates. My performance on that last
history quiz was-"
    - after all, Jin never noticed the significance of his own
birthdate, with regard to the exact date of Kazuya's death, until
Julia figured it out.

"And I can also feel traces of your aura; you have carried his
writing close to your heart."
    - because Julia absently stuffed it inside her shirt when Shingo
first gave it to her.

The mirror scene was never something I originally planned. I
wanted to work in somewhere that Julia wasn't particularly pleased
with her appearance, but I didn't have an idea like this until just a
few days ago, as a dark way to put some strength into the chapter's
ending. Julia is of course dressed in her kick button outfit (the one
without the feathered headband).

The most disturbing thing is that one of my pre-readers said the
mirror scene was akin to the Disney movie "Pocahontas," which is
something that I can respect only as an alternate-universe fantasy
(the sequel even more so). Oh, well...

Next up: Julia takes some of her heart's advice... well, to heart. Her
conscience is bothering her about Shingo, and she feels obligated
to confront him...


Chapter 19: Unhappy Holidays
July 13, 1999

Another eight days for this chapter, which is annoying, but I
suppose it couldn't be helped. 33-page chapters are hard to crank
out on schedule, especially when they've got a major fight scene.
Actually, the rough draft originally reached 35 pages; I trimmed
back some extra stuff, though, and I think the chapter is better for
being kept to an arbitrary maximum.

Oh, and before I started concentrating too hard on Ch. 20, I stopped
to read the new issue of "Tekken Saga" that just came out. Now
there's a rendition of the Iron Fist Tournament that's almost the
polar inverse of my prose... all quick takes on various fights, and
almost no break for any kind of characterization. :) I'm tempted to
post another summary of it to my web site, but I'm at least a day
behind schedule in my fanfic. I'll probably put a quickie review of
it in the "misc video game comics bibliography" section.

The first title I thought of was "Merry Christmas," but that didn't
work because no one was particularly merry. Everyone in the
chapter is feeling at least a little depressed, at once point or another
(Heihachi Mishima himself had a nasty shock when his grandson
confronted him). "Unhappy Holidays" is probably not an original
play on words, but I think it's infrequent enough, and it certainly
describes the overall chapter pretty well.

I happened to start work on "Phoenix Reborn," shortly before
Christmas, but oddly enough, it would so happen that the actual
Christmas-time chapters get written in July. Oh, well. One other
problem with writing a chapter set around Christmas time is that I
had nothing on hand for an epigraph. So I hit the web, and searched
out an online copy of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." I read
it maybe around ten years ago, and the original story made more of
an impression on me than any number of smarmy movie remakes
ever could. It even influenced an old writing project of mine, that's
still (almost) all in pencil and paper alone...
    The epigraph that I picked out seemed rather arbitrary at first
(and *good grief* but those long sentences are a pain to follow -
I'm sure the educated gentry were trained to talk like that once, but
ordinary folks like Scrooge's nephew? We're talking serious
suspension of disbelief, here). But I think it fits. The bit about
"fellow-passengers to the grave" has some especially ominous
foreshadowings...

List of things taken or adapted from the actual video games &
storyline
    - more on Julia's kick button outfit (in particular, her elbow
guards & fighting gloves)
    - Jin Kazama's Tekken 3 stage
    - Kazuya's TK1 intro scene (with Jin in his place)

List of deviations/creative license from video game storylines
    - that the Mokujins hang out in Jin's stage (or that they used to
hang out in Heihachi's stage)

One idea in this chapter that has been envisioned from the
beginning: that Julia would find the tape of the Toshin's release, as
transcribed from the prologue, and present it to Jin. This is why the
prologue transcript of the original Toshin Expedition truly
*doesn't* mention Heihachi Mishima's name. Another idea that's
been planned from the beginning is that Julia would be forced to
have it out with Jin, and call the Mokujins to her aid. 
      Almost everything else was made up along the way, including
anything to do with Shingo - the scene where he mistakes Julia for
his older sister has been in my head for less than a month, and I
didn't think to write any more about Serenity Consolation until I
first started typing this chapter. And while this is the beginning of
some Very Bad Things for Mitsurugi, I didn't originally plan to
start it off this way - with him just missing, and Julia wondering
what's going on.

By the way, this is the third chapter so far that's been entirely from
Julia's perspective, aside from the off-format piece of text. None of
my other characters have been so honored as of yet - Anna, Lee,
and Bryan each have had only one chapter all to themselves, and
the rest of the chapters have been combinations. 
     Since Julia has been interviewed in every chapter since 14 so
far, she has practically taken over this story. I knew from the
beginning that she would be the main heroine, but since she hardly
appeared in earlier chapters, the total reversal has taken some
getting used to. I've gotten to know her much better, and the more I
know her, the more I like her as a heroine. Although she has a good
heart and (mostly) pure soul like Jun Kazama, she is very different.
The somewhat harder edge to Julia's overall attitude allows a little
more freedom to have her think nasty thoughts (she's not always as
nice as Jun). Her penchant curiosity is also great fun, since it
means she pries into all sorts of extra little details that would be
harder to squeeze in with a more discreet heroine.
     I know that Michelle is back for the new Tekken Tag
Tournament video game (also Kazuya and Jun). It would be nice if
Julia were back too, even if only as Michelle's third outfit. If Julia's
not in Tekken Tag, then I suppose it won't be the end of the world.
But if Namco's freaking murdered Julia, I'm gonna start breaking
things. It's nice to have my Jun back, but Jun's life for Julia's is
NOT an acceptable trade...

     'Hello, Grandmother. I'm sorry, I still can't come back
because I've developed feelings for Jin Kazama...'
    - this whole paragraph is, of course, the inevitable exposition
crammed into a chapter-by-chapter story... but I think it works.

    As mentioned before, Julia's visit to Serenity Consolation was
not originally planned. I originally gave Ms. Akashi a name in Ch.
14 because the flow of dialogue seemed to require it; I didn't
imagine that she'd actually appear in the story again. The Serenity
Consolation scenes were something that grew out of the character's
own insistence. Julia stressed to me that she would *not* consider
sending Shingo back unless she knew Serenity Consolation was an
okay place. 
    In the end, I think the Serenity Consolation scenes worked
nicely. I get to show off several background details. The subtle
perks of Julia being an 'honored guest' of the Mishima syndicate
(there's those IdentiCards again - I am having so much fun with the
things! :) The background story of Shingo's life at Serenity
Consolation, and how he got such privileges living there.
Foreshadowing on the Power that Kusanagi-sama invested in
Shingo's gloves. That Chizuru Kagura has been Shingo's financial
patron.

I suppose I could describe everything from the wallpaper patterns
to the brand of applesauce they served at snack time, but I don't see
the point. Serenity Consolation is within walking distance of the
syndicate, after all; there's nothing to stop you from checking it out
for yourself.
    - this is half a cheat, but also logical, and something of a relief
on my part... a good reason why I get to save the extended
descriptions for Jin Kazama's Tekken 3 background. :)

I believe it had something to do with another group of patients,
who feared that their food was being poisoned. Then we
accidentally received a shipment of unpasteurized milk, and people
started getting sick.
    - since Shingo dislikes milk, he didn't drink it or get sick. That
made him better able to resist the rioters, and channel his life-force
through his gloves to protect the hostages.

He has occasionally received visits from a friend, Ms. Chizuru
Kagura, but she is currently traveling abroad and can't be reached. 
    - The Toshin's impending return from its banishment has had
some nasty side effects. Nina Williams is not the only person its
proximity has influenced for evil. Chizuru has spent the last six
months or so traveling around the world, and even between
dimensions, sealing rifts and preventing unholy invasions. It is
because of her efforts that the weather is merely unseasonably
warm, instead of literally raining hellfire.
     Chizuru knows about the Toshin's impending return. However,
her calculations are that it will come back in another six months;
she is unaware of Heihachi's plan to summon it early, into his trap.
Chizuru's own plan is to hopefully get a few interdimensional
allies, learn about the Toshin's weaknesses, or just find
SOMETHING to help save the world, by the time the Toshin
returns. Unfortunately, Chizuru's far-flung quest has left her way,
way out of touch with her home temple in Tokyo. Heihachi's ritual
to summon the Toshin will very likely call Chizuru's attention from
between worlds, but she probably won't make it back in time to
fight... only in time to help clean up the damage.

Something about 'Kagura-san' telling him that he'd 'saved the
world.' He hadn't said anything about whether she was affluent,
though.
    - After the Orochi clan's Power was all but broken in King of
Fighters '97 & '98, Chizuru helped clean up the debris... and took
over their assets. She is much, much richer than she will openly
admit. However, she uses only a tiny fraction of this wealth on
herself personally (she likes parties and riding her motorcycle, but
she hasn't had much opportunity for either, these past several
months). Most of it is applied to various causes, of which Shingo's
care has been only the least. Others include the dedication and care
of her temple, and funding all sorts of expeditions to help uphold
the Divine Sanctions and keep the Earth safe from supernatural
evil.

     Shingo wasn't home.
     His answering machine responded.
    - Shingo can't afford a video phone on his modest teacher's
salary. He's fortunate he can afford a decent apartment. However,
Ishida's and Kimura's families can afford video phones (or at least
they were able to buy 'em, before Heihachi docked Ishida's &
Kimura's salaries.)

Ishida and Kimura weren't originally slated to appear in this
chapter, either. I really liked putting them in, though. They're the
closest things to completely original characters in this whole story,
and when I look back to their first appearance in Ch. 1 (in the
recording log), I can hardly imagine that I ever wrote them so dry
and indistinguishable. Although the reason why there's so
monotone there is that they're both addressing Heihachi Mishima,
so they naturally act extra-formal around him. That's my story and
I'm sticking to it.

"If I have to sit through one more omiai with a desperate, homely,
biological-clock-ticking- ah, forget it."
    - an omiai (misspelled in the rough draft) is, of course, a
traditionally arranged first meeting between potential marriage
partners. In the KoF '97 storyline, Kyo's friend and teammate Goro
Daimon is getting old enough (late 30s) that he's starting to
consider an omiai.

"His mother is even less talkative than he is."
    - in the rough draft, I wrote in that Kimura's mother was dead.
But since Kimura is only 26, his mother wouldn't be out of her 60s,
so what did she die of? Nah, I've had enough of mothers dying at
an early age, what with Kazumi, Jun, and (sort of) Michelle. I like
final draft's suggestion a lot more - that Kimura acquired his very
quiet personality largely from his mother (especially since Ishida's
& Kimura's fathers died during "Ashes," when their kids were only
6 years old).

"Don't send me back there. No one needs me there."
    - in chapter 14, Shingo is much more offhanded when he
comments that it's nice to be needed, even if by a Devil such as Jin
Kazama. Here, the barriers holding back even Shingo's core
feelings are stripped away...

"'Otou-san,'" I repeated, in shock. Then, "Lei Wulong?"
    - this is another idea that didn't come to me until just before I
started the chapter. Another case of the characters (Shingo, this
time) taking over...
    Shingo doesn't talk to Lei Wulong as 'otou-san' in Ch. 15
because that was when they had just recently met - before he even
started calling Julia 'imouto.' Now, Lei is not thrilled at being
called 'Dad' by a crazy person, but he can't afford to waste his
dwindling strength on useless protests.

Lei Wulong's letter is this particular chapter's piece of off-format
text. I set it (and Shingo's notebook excerpt in Ch. 15) off by
breaking it into blocks, each block double-indented twice, so that
they're still set off when I narrow the margins for converting the
document into text format. If I were to just narrow the margins, it
would be a pain to deal with every time I wanted to re-save the
chapter in text format.

Head for Chizuru Kagura's temple in Tokyo. Yabuki knows where
it is. So does Heihachi, but Kagura's wards are one of the few
things that can repulse his Tekkenshu. A scientist called Doctor
Boskonovitch is also hanging out there. You can trust him. 
    - Added for the final draft. Not only would Lei Wulong want to
tell the kids about a safe hiding place, but I have been agonizing
about an annoying problem for some time now. Namely, that if the
Mishima syndicate knows where Dr. B is (as evidenced in Ch. 11),
then why haven't they kidnapped him yet? Or at least put him
under 24-hour surveillance? 
    Answer: because Dr. B has found the one place in Tokyo that is
warded even from Heihachi's Tekkenshu. Chizuru herself isn't
around, but her acolytes are strong enough to keep the wards going,
and knowledgeable enough to shelter people they trust. 
     Lei Wulong has learned of Chizuru's temple through Shingo.
Dr. B has his own history with Chizuru, dating back to a little
interdimensional mess in Switzerland that he helped her clear up.
Anyway, Lei Wulong might be inclined to go to Chizuru's temple
himself, except for one little problem: he's part demon. If he were
healthy, Chizuru's wards would weaken him to where he could
hardly crawl, just like Sanctuary's wards in "Ashes." In Wulong's
current condition, even approaching the temple could outright kill
him. Chizuru's acolytes don't dare let down the anti-demon wards
for an extended period of time, either; Chizuru has too much bad
history with too many nasty demons herself. It would take nothing
less than either Chizuru's return, or a celestial sign to persuade her
students to offer sanctuary to Lei Wulong...
    However, Wulong is able to use Shingo as a go-between with
Chizuru's acolytes. It was Chizuru's students who enchanted the
armband that Wulong gave Julia. The favor that Wulong cashed in
was to get the armband originally made to match the prototype
design specs of the armband Jin gave Julia (which Wulong saw in
Ch. 15). That way, Julia could wear her protective device without
drawing too much undue suspicion...

It housed a pair of brown-black, fingerless fighting gloves. They
were similar to Shingo's, only without the solar symbol on their
backs.
    - okay. As I was finishing Ch. 18, I noticed my description of
Julia Chang doesn't mention any fingerless fighting gloves, like she
wears in her kick-button outfit. Did she bring them with her?
There's been no mention of them so far... no, no it worked much
better simply explaining them as a gift from Shingo. That they
didn't have the Kusanagi-symbol on their backs is apparent from
the video game picture, and it was left to me to figure out a reason
why...

     Some situations don't have a 'right' choice. All they have is
a bad choice, a bad choice, and perhaps another bad choice. You're
left to pick the least of several evils, and live with the
consequences. Sometimes, those consequences can be cruel indeed.
     - this paragraph is flat-out ripped off of Robert Aspin's
"Myth-Nomers and Impervections." 'Sometimes there is no 'right'
choice - just the least objectionable of several options.'

Of course, I fired up my good old PSX for the description of Jin's
training hall. I'd actually never noticed the dragon in the
background before (just like I never before noticed the dragon in
Xiaoyu's background), and I'm supposed to be a dragon fan. ^_^ In
the original, it looks like Jin's training hall is in the middle of the
wilderness. The fits with the Tekken anime's suggestion that the
Mishima syndicate's headquarters/Tekken staging area is on some
remote, forested island. However, it doesn't fit with my story,
where the Mishima syndicate headquarters is close to Tokyo
(Heihachi needs to live in the capital to do an effective job of
power-mongering) so I say the view is in Jin's enchanted scrying
glass, fixed upon the Yakushima wilderness.
      Because Jin deliberately made the enchantment permanently
fixed on a single view, it always shows the same thing despite
whether Jin gets beaten up/focuses on the mirror at all. Unlike the
mirror in his family shrine, which can scry various things but
reverts to a normal mirror when Jin isn't paying any attention to it.

It was, of course, necessary to the plot that the Mokujins be here
too. They used to be in Heihachi's training hall (as described in Ch.
3 & Ch. 6). However, I imagine Heihachi's wish to clear them out
would have precedence, and Jin is really the one person in the
syndicate who gets the most use out of them...

Jin's left fist darted out and back, within a millimeter of the candle
wick. The living flame vanished beneath his knuckles, leaving only
a winding trail of smoke.
    - this is, of course, Kazuya's Tekken 1 intro scene, where he
snuffs out a candle with a single punch. Writing this scene in had
the additional bonus of giving Jin a frame of reference, by which
he could tell that he'd been unconscious for a good while (i.e. the
candle burning down to a stump.)

"This is your mother's death." I was unyielding on the outside,
hurting on the inside.
    - Namco's storyline doesn't say, but strongly implies that Jin
doesn't know about Heihachi being, one way or another,
responsible for killing both Jin's parents. In my story, the scene
where Jin learns the literal truth about Kazuya's death is yet to
come. However, I wanted to put in something left out of Namco's
storyline details, and that's the point where Jin learns of Heihachi's
role in killing his mommy...

"You remember how much he loved Anna? Well, I remember what
a pest he was."
    - Mitsurugi didn't just pester Julia during Jin's first match in the
Iron Fist. Mitsu has also questioned her with regard to Nina
Williams' fate... Julia hasn't mentioned anything of those
conversations so far, since she was concentrating on other things at
the time. However, there will probably be a reference or two to it in
the next chapter, which gets into what's been going on with
Mitsurugi during this time frame.

BTW, Jin's destruction of the tape wasn't entirely planned, or
conscious - it was his emotions getting out of control. One of a few
instances where his Devil side quite literally got the better of him...

     "You MUST fight me, or else you will FORFEIT YOUR
POWER!"
     "That's NECROMANCERS!" Jin shrieked, in confusion
and indignity. "_I don't steal souls_!"
    - the beginning of Julia's speech is a deliberate rewording of
what she said to banish Toshin-Nina. The last, though, is a sort of
in-joke to the Mortal Kombat-esque mythology of "Ashes of the
Phoenix"...

It was, of course, far too late to back out.
    - Okay. This is my one word-for-word plagiarization of the
chapter, a sentence taken out of Steven Brust's "Taltos" when Vlad
Taltos first accepted a Morganti assassination contract, and
receives the evil, soul-destroying weapon.

Now for the big Jin/Julia/Mokujin fight scene! Okay, time to fire
up my PSX again...

Julia is not only slow and short-ranged. One of the things that
makes me consider her a weakling is that she doesn't even have
Michelle Chang's killer combo: f+1, 2+3, 1. Julia still has the
moves, but the 2+3, 1 won't juggle an opponent hit by the f+1,
unless Julia hits them from the side. It sucks.
    So instead, Julia hits Jin with a different combo. When she tricks
him into letting his guard down, she gets him with her Flash
Uppercut [f+1], and juggles him with her Party Crasher into the
Elbow Skyscraper Kick [f, f+1, 4]. Although in my fanfic,
"juggles" don't usually toss someone in the air, but rather just stun
them so much they eat further beating.
    When the Mokujins wake up, they both identify with Julia's
style, since she called them. Jin blocks one, repels the other with a
turnaround kick [3 or 4, when opponent is behind you].
Unfortunately, this leaves him wide open to Julia's Palm Explosion
[f+1, 2], which stuns on a counter-hit. While he's stunned, Julia
smacks him some more with her Rapid Counter Attack into the
Lightning Bolt [d, D/F+1, 2]. The Lightning Bolt also stuns on a
counter hit (Julia probably has more stun moves than anyone else
in the game), but when used after a stun it'll just send Julia's target
flying away.
    As Julia closes in on Jin, he catches her with the "Kensei" or
"Pick-off Kick," which is the new rising attack of TK3. It can be
done with d+3 or d+4 from a head-up, feet-first ground position,
although either command will still invoke a kick with the right leg.
Then Jin gets himself some more space with his helicopter kick
[u/f+4, 4, 4, 4] which is one of my all time favorite Kazuya moves
that I never got to write into "Ashes." Although the low-sweep hits
of Jin's four-part kick can presumably be stopped by Julia's Low
Parry, it seemed almost impossible to get in practice mode on my
PSX. I figure that even if TK3 Julia may technically have the
capability, my Julia isn't quite *that* much of an expert yet - she's
learning, but it has been only two weeks. So Julia just blocks Jin's
last two kicks.
     Then Julia tries to smack him with her regular standing 1
(actually the first move of her G-Clef Cannon - it's a straight
punch, not the slow, overhead pound that follows). Jin snares her
with his attack reversal (b+1+3 or b+1+4), just like he snared
Hwoarang in Ch. 8, and perhaps a little like Kazuya snares
Michelle in the Tekken anime (only without the obnoxious
attitude). But then, Julia turns around and gets him with an Attack
Reversal Reversal [f+1+3]. (Attack Reversal Reversals are f+1+3
for a reversed left punch/kick, and f+2+4 for a reversed right
punch/kick). I tried this out on practice mode (kind of tricky when
it's just you fooling around with two controllers), and actually
managed to pull it off a few times. Julia really does knee Jin in the
gut for trying to reverse her. ^_^
     As Jin has to deal with the Mokujins again; he sidesteps one [d
or u], then hits the other with his Tooth Fairy uppercut [2 while
sidestepping], a move he inherited from his mommy. Julia smacks
him with her Spin Behind [2, b (punch must successfully
connect)]. The male Mokujin gets Jin with Julia's standard Tekken
low kick [d+3]. Jin can't take much more of this, so he cuts loose
with his sorcery; yet his Power doesn't protect him from Julia's
Calf Branding back-throw [1+3 or 2+4 from behind opponent].
      Michelle Chang's back-throw was the German Suplex (shared
with Jun) in TK2. Julia Chang has a brand new back-throw for
TK3 (although she still has a suplex for one of her basic throws).
It's toned down here. In the game, she actually grabs her victim by
the *neck* and hurls him, but my Julia isn't going to risk breaking
Jin's neck, so she grabs him under the arms instead.
      As Jin and Julia recover, Julia tries to bait him into acting
rashly with her Welcome taunt (2+3+4), which is actually pretty
cute, and this was my last chance to write it in. When it becomes
apparent that he can't walk, though, she charges him with
something else I wanted to work in: her Heavy Uppercut
unblockable [F+1+4].
    Shingo's training, and Julia's talk about Chi/Ki, prove a nice way
to rationalize around the orange sparkles of Julia's unblockable
attack, whether they're really there or not. I originally didn't plan to
reuse Shingo's talk about finding the flame in one's soul; that was
written to close up an old bit of KoF background on Shingo. It
seemed to work well for Julia's unblockable, though. As she hits
Jin, he also connects with his own uppercut [WS+2]. Both Julia's
unblockable and Jin's uppercut can juggle opponents, but since
both Julia and Jin are KO'd from the double hit, they don't have the
chance. The brief description of Jin lying passed out is dimly
reminiscent of the dead(?) Jin Kazama in Heihachi Mishima's TK3
ending...

     "Where am I?" I murmured.
     "Mishima syndicate recuperation facility," he replied.
    - this is the same general place where Mitsurugi wound up, after
Toshin-Nina knocked him out. And again, after Hwoarang
pounded him.

"Could you do me a favor? Don't tell Xiao-chan you took me to a
draw. She'd never let me hear the end of it."
    - if either Jin or Julia were to be forced to obey their respective
concessions upon defeat, it would put a stranglehold on the plot. A
draw lets me off the hook... and also lets Julia get her first real
fight scene in. She's probably due for at least one more fight,
before the end of the story...

"Grandfather has promised me that he'll send Mitsurugi to see us,
afterward. Since we all like him so much."
    - in other words, after Jin/Julia/Xiaoyu are safely dead, then if
Mitsurugi is still alive (which is possible, but not a certainty),
Heihachi will kill him too. May as well let the kids have their
favored servant in the afterlife...

"And of course, Anna's still gone; I wonder if she's even going to
show up for her Iron Fist match against me."
    - no, Anna isn't. Anna remembers how Kazuya tried to use the
Iron Fist to trap and murder Nina; Anna has no intention of falling
for the same trick.
    As of now, Jin has battled eight Tekken 3 opponents: Hwoarang
(Ch. 4 & Ch. 8), Nina Williams (Ch. 9) Lei Wulong (Ch. 15), Eddy
Gordo (Ch. 17), Yoshimitsu & King (Ch. 18), and now Julia &
Mokujin(s) (Ch. 19). So I feel justified in skipping a Jin/Anna
battle. But don't worry, Anna's still got a *major* fight coming up -
two of them, actually...
     "Phoenix" is almost loosely patterned on a TK3 game vs. the
CPU with Jin as the hero, just as "Ashes" was loosely patterned on
a TK2 game vs. the CPU with Lei as the hero. However, Jin may
end up fighting the Toshin before he fights his grandfather - it
depends on how the climactic chapter turns out.

Originally, I didn't plan to have Jin relent and admit that Lei
Wulong didn't abandon Jun Kazama to the Toshin this early. Just
another case of the characters (in this case, Jin) taking over and
telling me what they think. But the Angel said in Ch. 3 that Lei
couldn't heal the rift between him and his son until Lei confessed
his guilty secret, and so it is...

     Truth. Integrity. Honor.
     These were also what Shingo had been trying to teach me.
    - I actually didn't think to address why Shingo's gift wasn't
marked with the Kusanagi symbol until right around this point in
the chapter. Nor did I expect Julia to confess the truth about her
relationship with Shingo this early, but I think the end result
worked. A *lot* of things in this chapter were that way. Overall,
I'm more pleased with it than most other chapters in the story.

     "But, what about his love letter?"
    - whenever there are references to a "love letter" in anime, they
speak it in English loan words: "rabu reteru." Those words just
stayed in my mind, from some anime I can't remember, and worked
themselves into a little sitcom-style legal disclaimer mixup...

     "What's that?" I asked, pointing to the jagged brand on his
left upper arm.
     "This?" Jin's other hand drifted to the mark.
    - I've also been waiting for a chance to have Julia ask Jin about
his shoulder brand. This was perfect, since Julia's not going to
forcibly browbeat Jin into giving up details about what he's got
going with Xiaoyu - she likes and respects him too much for that.
It'll be revealed in a few more chapters, possibly as early as Ch. 22.

     "That's impossible. Or at least, incredibly improbable.
Besides, doesn't healing sorcery-?"
     "Prevent scars? Sometimes. Not always."
    - Not in Lee Chaolan's case (when Kazuya healed his suicide
attempt), nor when Heihachi put a scar on Kazuya's chest. Kazuya's
healing Power never was anywhere nearly as strong as Jun
Kazama's, and when he got possessed by a Devil full of hatred, it
didn't help. And when Jun Kazama healed the damage to Lee's
throat, she was running low on energy - she barely had enough left
to save his life, let alone prevent a scar.

Just when _are_ you going to interview Anna again, anyway?
    - probably not until Ch. 23, actually... describing things from her
viewpoint lends her sympathy, but she hasn't been behaving very
sympathetically, lately.

Next up: how Mitsurugi fell from the syndicate's good graces... and
Taki's own descent into despair. And if there's space, the return of
Lee Chaolan and Bryan Fury...

Chapter 20: Season's Evils
July 20, 1999

Seven days for this chapter, which seems to be my absolute
minimum for finishing 33-pages (and even then, a chapter with a
large piece of off-format text and no in-depth fight scenes). 

I've been watching some more Tekken Tag, and it looks like this
game is going to suck up my money for a long time to come. I love
the special team intros. At least one Tekken Tag detail is definitely
going into my fanfic, and that's Nina's white hair... by the time she
gets called out of banishment, it'll have permanently lost all
coloration from sustained contact with the Toshin's horror. Right
down to the roots.

Since this chapter overlaps with the previous "Unhappy Holidays"
- in fact, the events herein conclude well before the Jin/Julia fight
scene - I wanted another holiday-pun title for balance. I tried
"Season's Grievings," but that just didn't have as nasty a ring to it.
"Season's Evils" seemed appropriately dark, especially as this is
one of the darkest chapters I've ever written, possibly outside my
Mortal Kombat fanfics.

The epigraph is from Saigon Kick, a band that seems to be about
darkness. In "Ashes," I used a lyric from one of their songs about
suicide in Ch. 3; here, well, it's the chorus of another song about
suicide, on the same album. "Edgar" is about the singer's Uncle
Edgar, who took his own life...

List of things taken or adapted from the actual video games &
storyline
    - Paul Phoenix's Tekken 3 arena (Lei is slated to fight Paul there)
    - The crimson armband of Bryan's TK3 punch-button outfit

List of deviations/creative license from video game storylines
    - It would seem that just generally killing off various Tekken
characters (especially Lee!) and keeping them dead now counts as
creative license with Namco's Tekken Tag storyline... whatever it
is.

Several major ideas in the chapter are from the original concept for
"Phoenix Reborn." One is the manner in which Heihachi can
exploit Hwoarang's blood to create, not full vampyres, but rather
lesser bloodslaves. Another is that Anna would betray Mitsurugi,
leading him to become the first successful test subject (if you note
the timing of Ch. 19, you'll note that Jin says Mitsurugi is alive
well past noon on Christmas Day... meaning that Mitsurugi
'survived' his 'atonement.' If it can be called living, much less
atoning...) Another is that Taki would be driven to self-destruction.
    Does it seem like I'm especially harsh on the Soul Edge
characters? Rock died in "Ashes." Seung Mina became paraplegic
in Ch. 1 of "Phoenix." Now Mitsurugi's a bloodslave, and Taki's
poisoning herself... all I can say is that it isn't from any particular
dislike of the Soul Edge game, or its characters. (OK, so I thought
that all the original Soul Edge character designs were ripoffs, and
so I didn't like playing Soul Edge because of the freaking block
button, but hey.) 

The audio transcript has the same origin as the transcript from Ch.
10, in that it was secretly recorded by Doctor Abel. Abel is a crafty
old conscienceless bastard, who is privately documenting
Heihachi's crimes, unbeknownst even to Taki. Abel knows better
than to betray Heihachi unless Abel is absolutely forced into a
corner. But if worst comes to worst, and Abel fears that Heihachi
will destroy him, Abel plans to use these recordings to at least
make the old man suffer.
    Incidentally, Hwoarang knows that Abel is making these secret
recordings - his vampyre senses are keener than Heihachi's, akin to
Lei's supernatural demon sensitivity. Hwoarang has said nothing
about it though, nor will he. He knows that if he speaks up,
Heihachi will most likely find out about the recordings, have them
destroyed, and replace Abel with someone more loyal. Hwoarang
would much rather wait and see if Abel is ever pushed to betraying
Heihachi. Hwoarang can't take any action to harm his 'master,' but
if someone else takes such an action, Hwoarang isn't required to
interfere unless ordered to.

One nice thing about the off-format piece of text is that it frees me
entirely from any sort of description, setup, or personal viewpoint,
allowing me to concentrate exclusively on dialogue. Much more
convenient than, say, an entry from Heihachi's journal. Also, a
cold, direct rendition of Satake's screams and pleas helped drive in
raw essence of Heihachi's evil. Narrating this from Heihachi's point
of view would have made him more sympathetic, and he's the
badass villain here. This is the same reason why there is no
interview with Anna, in this chapter - her point of view would
make her more sympathetic, and she's the careless seductress.

The off-format text wasn't quite planned from the beginning. In
particular, when Heihachi described the punishment of his three
surviving honor guards in Ch. 6, I thought that would be the last
reference to them. In effect, I thought they'd survive the story.
Hehheh, no such luck. As soon as I realized I needed victims for
Heihachi's evil, these three were the logical choice. Jin knows
them, yes; but Jin has had little chance to check upon them, since
they were demoted and transferred (Jin calls them 'out of the
picture' in Ch. 13). Since Heihachi intends to destroy his grandson
in a little over a week (on January 2nd, the night of the full moon)
he figures it's a worthwhile bet that Jin won't ask after Satake and
the rest in the meantime. If Jin does, Heihachi will just assuage Jin
with a similar line to what he fed Jin about Mitsurugi.
    BTW, Satake's name was "Noguchi" in the rough draft, but then
I realized that all three of the chapter's poisoned characters -
Mitsurugi, Taki, and Noguchi - had names that ended in "i." That
was a bit much, hence the change. Satake's name is from the end
credits of the Tekken anime.

As to what is actually happening - Heihachi forcibly injected his
former honor guard with a mixture of his own blood, Hwoarang's
vampyre blood, and a few other vile ingredients. Heihachi did the
actual poisoning, not Abel, because the bloodslave created by the
poison will owe some loyalty to the hand that brings it, as well as
the donor of the blood that is in it. Abel's job was to oversee the
transition, study it, and (when the first test seemed to be failing)
keep Heihachi's victims alive. 
    A bloodslave so created will also owe some loyalty to
Hwoarang, as well as to Heihachi. The bloodslave will be loyal to
Heihachi first, because Heihachi is Hwoarang's master, yet this
little detail is one of the few things Hwoarang has managed to
conceal from Heihachi.

You want to be Immortal so badly; why don't you see if I can
transmit my curse to you?
    - I originally wanted to put in the reason why Heihachi doesn't
go for Hwoarang's brand of Immortality into Ch. 13. But it didn't
make sense - Heihachi would not allow such information to be
overheard by Mitsurugi. So I put it off, until here, which seemed to
be the perfect place.

I am not seeking to create more vampyres, as well you know.
    - the word "bloodslave" is specifically avoided here, in order to
add a little more mystique, but it will be spoken when Hwoarang
next shows up - perhaps as soon as three chapters from now.

Then cease. Have the bodies incinerated.
    - ah, the Mishima syndicate incinerator... there's no more
effective way for making bodies disappear. The same incinerator
into which I chucked Namco's original Tekken 3 storyline, and it's
really too late to dig much of it out from the ashes. Even though it
is nice to have Tekken Tag with my Jun back...

You will become a worse monster than any vampyre that ever
despoiled the Earth.
    - Hwoarang has never created vampyre bloodslaves before;
however, he has heard a little about them, back when he was under
the control of a vampyre clan. Through Hwoarang's eyes, at least
the vampyres who created bloodslaves were themselves already
dead, miserable creatures. For a living, human man to do this - a
man possessed with the free will and mortality that Hwoarang can
only long to have - the travesty is even greater.

H: I saw him. He has possessed your escaped 'Cyborg Army
prototype' as his mortal vessel. 

M: WHAT!?
    - Heihachi suspected in Ch. 13 that Lee's 'vengeful' spirit had
possessed Prototype Alpha. However, Hwoarang is not only
confirming Heihachi's suspicions. Hwoarang is also feeding
Heihachi's fears when Hwoarang tells him that Lee is 'on the side
of the angels.' Devil Kazuya once kicked Heihachi's ass. Now
Angel Lee is coming for Heihachi, and Heihachi's mistrust of the
divine is even greater than his mistrust of the diabolic. After all,
Heihachi is not one who would defer to anyone's will... not even to
the will of God.

M: You are hereby taken off this project. You will devote all your
efforts to devising a weapon that can destroy the rogue Prototype
Alpha, starting _now_!
    - I've also been waiting for a chance to get this in. Even
considered having Abel write a journal of some sort, but Abel's
really too busy with his work, and most of his records are on
computer file. One way or another, though, I wanted to establish
that Abel is set to work on a weapon to use on Prototype Alpha.

M: There is my own knowledge. I have overseen your work, on
occasion.
    - Heihachi only oversaw Abel's work on Bryan Fury once, while
Bryan was conscious to remember it. However, Heihachi has
dropped by a few times when Bryan was unconscious, and when
the Cyborg Army project was in lesser planning stages. In any case,
I needed *some* excuse for Abel to work around Jin's memory
block; this was actually a spur of the moment idea.

M: My grandson is _not_ expendable!

A: Then who is?
    - here are two lines that have been in my head from the
beginning of the story... and they're a nasty lead-in to Mitsurugi's
journal entry, as his name is the first thing seen after them.

The way she called me by my first name.
    - I realized that when Anna confronts Mitsurugi again (what's
left of him) I don't want her calling him "Mitsu." That's Xiaoyu's
pet name for him (Julia also uses it on occasion, when she wants to
needle him, or when she doesn't feel like pronouncing his full
name). I wanted Anna to call him "Heishiro" - and she'd probably
be the only one who would, too. So, here's a couple of paragraphs
to quickly explain & set it up. I suppose Anna might also have
called him "Shiro," but I figure that one nickname-in-use is enough
for Mitsurugi.

Anna felt terrible, because she knew that a horrible monster - Anna
says other people are calling it the 'Toshin'
    - Heihachi originally wanted to keep the Toshin's name a secret,
but so many people know it now, including Julia Chang - heck, Lei
Wulong learned it from the Angel, and he told his whole damn
police department (which is why they called Lei's case the "Toshin
case," before Heihachi reached out to make 'em drop it). With one
thing and another, the Toshin's name has gotten around. But that's
not its real name anyway...

     "Give me at least a little credit?"
     She giggled. "Buy me an ice cream cone?"
     "Sure," I said, and immediately did so.
     "I didn't even promise to tell you anything!" Xiaoyu pealed,
happily licking her treat. "Boy, you really are easy to push around!"
    - added for the final draft. It made a nice symmetry that
EVERYONE is telling Mitsu, in one form or another, that Anna is
only using him. Also, Xiao-chan is just greedy enough to eke a
treat out of Mitsu, although not so greedy that she'd press him for
even more (although she honestly had not given her world to tell
him anything).

     "Okay, okay. Nina Williams. Jin told me about her! She
broke his neck, she did she did, only he just barely managed to heal
himself and Julia helped. Julia shared her life-force with him, didja
know that?"
    - Jin normally would have been reluctant to discuss any of this
with anyone, but Xiaoyu was just so... exuberantly curious... that
he gave her the bare minimum rundown. He kept it to a minimum,
though, rather than give her any classified information.

     "Has anyone ever told you that you are extremely
annoying?"
     "Dad, when I used to ask him if Mom would come back
and live with us again. Is there anything else you'd like to know, in
exchange?"
    - a bit of a takeoff on Deep Space Nine, "The Wire." Garak says
to Doctor Bashir, "Has anyone ever told you that you are extremely
annoying?" Bashir immediately replies, "Chief O'Brien, all the
time, and I never listen to him either."

Julia has all but taken over the story since Ch. 14; she's been
interviewed in every chapter, often for most of the chapter, and she
took up all of Ch. 14 & 19, aside from the off-format text. So here,
we finally get a break from her perspective... and what does she
do? She completely takes over her one scene. She's that insistent. It
looks as though she'll be back for another interview in Ch. 21, too,
unless the Lee/Lei confrontation runs excessively long.

"All right," Julia relented. "I'll tell you what happened to Nina
Williams. You and Anna will keep it exclusively to yourselves, and
you will tell me everything you know about what Jin and Xiaoyu
are doing, whenever they vanish together. Deal?"
    - this was a fun bit I wrote in on a whim - originally, I didn't see
Mitsu tricking Julia. I just wanted to write in Mitsurugi being a
pest, as justification for when Julia calls him a pest in Ch. 19.
     BTW, although Julia is tricked, she is not *completely* duped.
She deliberately modified the bargain so that she'd tell Mitsu "what
happened to Nina" instead of "everything I know about Nina." So
that Julia is holding back a few details. Most notably that a) Julia
was herself the one who banished Nina, b) that Julia used the
sacred medallion of her tribe to do it, and c) the date of the
Toshin's impending return.
    Julia is holding back these details for the reasons she mentioned
above - that Anna is potentially dangerous, and she did sort of give
her word to Jin (that she would 'be discreet' - she did not, however,
agree to Jin's original request 'not to breathe a word to anyone.')
Also, Julia worries that this potential screw-up Mitsu and his
girlfriend Anna may well be caught by Heihachi, and Julia doesn't
want to get too deeply entangled in that messy web.

Mitsurugi's crime - that he stole Kimura's IdentiCard - is something
I made up even as I was typing words into my computer. I'm taking
a break to pace in my study, and wham. There it is. The perfect
nonviolent, nonintrusive, not-overly-savvy but still horrendous
crime for poor Mitsu. I knew that somehow his snooping on Anna's
behalf would go too far and get him nailed, but not exactly how.
This is why Jin's references to Mitsu's misdeeds are so vague in
Ch. 19.
    I love it. It ties nicely into Ishida's & Kimura's scene from Ch. 19
(which was also something made up on an instant), and also
ultimately sets up a good reason for why Ishida and Kimura are not
made into bloodslaves... there is a different fate in store for them.

Here - I've already gotten a couple proxies made for you. If you
switch one of the fakes for the real, then I can switch the real one
back later, and they'll never know.
   - How Anna managed to get realistic-looking fakes of Ishida's &
Kimura's IdentiCards is a story that I don't have space for. I just
trust that Anna is a resourceful woman. :) In any case, getting the
fakes made was tricky enough that it delayed her until the holiday
time.

     "He's never like this around Mishima-sama. Or the young
master. Or the other kids, or Taki, or - he won't show it around
them, he won't even talk about it around them. He always has to be
this emotionless, dutiful, perfect goddamn servant, nothing ever
shakes him up, and he NEVER breaks down, except around me!"
    - this was necessary both to set up Ishida's dialogue in Ch. 19,
and also to explain why Jin never telepathically picked up on
Kimura's distress before now. Kimura's thoughts really are as quiet
as his physical voice.

He might drink, and if the young master catches one whiff of
alcohol from him - ah, you don't want to know.
   - it isn't that Jin would severely castigate Kimura for being drunk
on the job. Rather, it's that Jin is somewhat susceptible to
telepathic drunkeness... and a drunk Fatal Lightning is not
something Ishida or Kimura would want on their hands. :)

     I drew my sword.
     It's a real katana now, not just a wooden practice weapon.
    - The legendary Mitsurugi's katana in Soul Edge is named
"Korefuji." But even if that sword had survived the generations,
neither Mitsu's dad nor Taki would be inclined to bequeath it on
modern-day Mitsurugi... yet.
    BTW, modern Japan does have rules against openly carrying
swords, just like it has rules against guns. However, as with guns,
there is an exception made for Mishima syndicate security
personnel.

     "The same thing that everyone else calls you, and you know
it! You're a-"
     "You are FIRED!" the young master howled, pointing to
me as if to send a lightning bolt through my heart. 
    - what really hurts Jin about being called a 'Devil' is that he fears
two of the people he loves most - his grandfather and Julia - see
him this way. In truth, his grandfather does and Julia does not (ever
since a brief flash of fear at their first, unexpected meeting).
However, Jin is rather afraid to directly ask either one of them...

Tonight, the cloth that covered her was crimson red, instead of
black.
    - Crimson red didn't seem to me like a good color for
camouflage, so Taki doesn't usually wear it. Here, though, she's
wearing her Soul Edge colors... in part as justification for the
bandage Lee/Bryan will eventually have tied around their shared
arm.

     "You once told me that you couldn't help me escape from
them."
    - in Ch. 9, after Mitsurugi saved Taki's life.

     "No crime of yours is worth the punishment you're going to
suffer! How dare you pretend that you deserve - you don't know
what they will do to you! You DON'T!"
    - originally, I planned to have Taki see Mitsurugi as a
bloodslave. But Heihachi probably wants to keep his new test
subject under wraps for a couple days, and the overall time frame
was too narrow. I think it works better if Taki just has a dark guess.
She did glimpse Hwoarang in Ch. 13, and she knew enough about
monsters to deduce what he was...

Mitsurugi surprised me a little in this chapter, when he pointed out
that he'd deduced Taki's secret. It worked, both as an illustration
that Mitsu is not *completely* stupid (if anything, he's just decent
to a fault), and as a nice place to lay out the assorted hints as to this
particular secret, before it is openly revealed.

"Do you think I have forgotten what it is, to be deceived by a
woman's charms? To be seduced and betrayed for 'love'?"
    - Heihachi is referring to his wife, Kazumi Mishima. From
*Heihachi's point of view,* she actually did 'seduce and betray'
him. Kazumi's 'betrayal' was the reason for her untimely death...
before her toddler son Kazuya could ever grow up to truly know
his mother.
     Ever since, Heihachi has been something of a misogynist - he
never remarried, and he's more interested in furthering his Power
and Immortality than love affairs. He has, in a sense, forgotten
what love is. Perhaps he never truly knew to begin with.

     Mishima-sama looked at me, in the most curious way. As if
he were puzzled by what I was saying, uncertain of why Ishida's
and Kimura's welfare would be so important to me.
    - Like any good sociopath, Heihachi can mimic certain human
emotions, or ideals, when it suits him. However, honest human
*decency* genuinely confuses him. He will work around it, and
take advantage of it, and he's had to cope with a LOT of it from his
grandson, but he doesn't truly comprehend it.

"Hey. If one of us is always using my body at every hour, day or
night, won't that be bad for it?"
    - I did want to slip in somewhere how someone (Lee or Bryan)
could be using Bryan's body round the clock, without ill effects.
The answer: it's like the "Revitalize" spell I used to cast on my
Might and Magic: World of Xeen characters, after a hard day of
adventuring. A little sorcery, and poof! They're all as good as new,
no need to waste time sleeping.

(Then I give you my word. I shall awaken you when Wulong
comes.)
    - this promise is going to work against Lee next chapter, because
instead of Bryan's help, he will have Bryan's hindrance when
confronting Lei Wulong.

I also left a minor integrity ward about Taki's home, in addition to
the many wards that Taki herself used to protect it.
    - the idea of an "integrity ward" is loosely taken from Steven
Brust's "Orca."

It wasn't exactly fear, or rancor, or mortification, yet it was similar
to a combination of the three. I felt that I should understand what
his emotion was, and what it meant; maybe I had even experienced
it myself, a lifetime ago.
    - In other words, the emotional hallmarks of seeing someone
again after a bitter breakup. Lee felt something similar to this,
when he first learned that Jun Kazama had come back for the Iron
Fist Tournament... but she made no effort to contact him
personally.

When I'm in control, his eyes change color to what mine used to
be.
   - another detail I'd wanted to mention, somewhere. Next chapter
should start with something from Lei Wulong's point of view, and
Lei Wulong will at least remember that Bryan had green eyes.

first, they will take the children. The full moon is coming. On that
night, they will sacrifice all the children who still survive.
    - Taki is referring to Jin, Julia, and Xiaoyu, even though she's
not much older than any of them.

Taki's half-mutant blood is something written in from the
beginning of "Phoenix Reborn." In particular, her grating voice is a
tipoff. Anyone who's read "The Blood On My Hands," might have
noticed that Mileena, a female mutant, has a similarly harsh voice.
This was how Julia figured out Taki's secret; Julia had seen some
of Catsclaw's memories of the Great Invasion, including the cry of
mutant voices.

Another minor secret written in from the beginning is Taki's &
Bryan's affair. There didn't seem to be much need to recap the
hints, especially since some of the strongest ones (Taki had a few
of Bryan's clothes in her home, after all) are in the chapter itself.
Other hints date back to Taki's misery when she first learned of
Bryan's death, and her reaction to seeing him reanimated. My
father is one of my prereaders, and he figured out Taki's and
Bryan's relationship after he read Ch. 4.
    Jin did not know about the love affair, however. If he had, he
never would have tormented Taki by assigning her to investigate
Bryan's death. This is why Jin is so nonchalant and Taki is so
rattled during the psionic verification session of Ch. 3, when Jin
says that he "already knows" of their relationship (Jin thought they
were just coworkers).

Bryan's story about the suicide girl was a off-the-cuff extrapolation
of a line in Ch. 12, when he remember having seen a suicide scar
like the one on Lee's arm, before.

     "I DON'T HAVE THE POWER TO HEAL!"
     (Could have fooled me.)
     "I can make YOUR body heal itself because I'm
POSSESSING it! I can't transfer to her!"
    - These details have been mentioned before, but they bear
repeating for the casual/poor-memory reader. Working them in as
Bryan's distraction is a nice way to keep anyone from wondering
"Hey. Why doesn't Lee just-?"

He could make himself solid to me, yes. He could even try to hit
me. But making himself solid also left him vulnerable to being hit
    - this idea is, I must confess, ripped off of the Malibu Mortal
Kombat komics. Yes, it is taken from the Scorpion/Sub-Zero
battles where Scorpion must make himself solid in order to hit
Sub-Zero, and that also leaves Scorpion vulnerable to being hit.

Originally, I thought I'd have a long Lee/Bryan fight scene here, but
it didn't quite work out. I was running out of space (for my
arbitrary 33-page maximum), and besides, Lee and Bryan have a
whole lot of battles lined up for 'em anyway. Lee is taking on Lei
next chapter, and later, Lee/Bryan are gonna be up against
Toshin-Nina. Plus an extensive fight would distract from the
darkness of the chapter. Finally, Lee would know better than to get
dragged down into a semi-corporeal battle, especially when he's
losing that way, and when Taki's time is running out. When Lee
switches over to his angel self, he wins without an extensive fight.
    So the Lee/Bryan fight scene boils down to Lee rushing in with a
few fast punches (1, 1, 1, string or whatever), while Bryan knocks
him out of it with a properly timed Slash Kick [f, f+3].

I saw a vacant lot, between a railway and a set of disused
apartments.
   - Paul's Tekken 3 background. It should be described in more
detail through Lei's eyes, next chapter.

     There was something tied around my arm. Something
colored deep crimson.
     Taki's mask.
    - In Tekken Tag, the band around Bryan's arm is now deep blue,
in his punch-button outfit. It's not a bad look for him. It's his
shaved-bald kick-button "Doctor Evil" look that's absolutely
hideous...

Next chapter: Lei Wulong vs. Lee Chaolan... and if there's space,
Shingo's final breakdown.


Chapter 21: Requiem Confessional notes
July 30, 1999

Ten days for this chapter. It took extra time both to squeeze in the
Julia Chang interview at the end, and to properly polish everything.
The rough draft was especially shaky with regard to Lei's
confession to Lee.

I'd hoped to get another five chapters done before September, and
the start of my next college semester. It may be that I only get four
done, or four and a half. We'll see. I suppose it depends on how
much time I spend playing Tekken Tag between all-night writing
sessions... :)

I wanted this chapter to have "Confessional" in its title, in order to
tie in with the title of Ch. 15: Prelude to Confession. What type of
confessional? Not exactly a Catholic confessional (those are
supposed to be strictly private, after all). I settled on "Requiem
Confessional" as appropriately haunting, even if it does take a noun
and use it like an adjective...

The epigraph is from one of my all-time favorite TV shows,
N.Y.P.D. Blue. It's especially appropriate for Lei Wulong, Super
Police. In fact, a lot of things about Lei's and Bryan's police
background is drawn from that show (also "Hill Street Blues" -
although I didn't get a chance to see that show until a few months
before I wrote Lei in "Phoenix" Ch. 15).
    This particular quote is the cop Andy reassuring his lawyer wife
Sylvia. Sylvia feels terrible remorse because, as a prosecutor, she
accepted an innocent man's false confession and sent him to jail,
where he was eventually murdered. When she tried to bring the
real murderer to justice, she couldn't even get a confession out of
him, since he was dying of leukemia anyway. 
    This was the "Suarez" plotline which came about because the
actress who plays Sylvia demanded "meatier plotlines" for her
character. I thought it was a compelling plot; it was a much better
rewrite of a so-so "Hill Street Blues" plot. This last quote
_especially_ got to me. But it wasn't good enough for the Sylvia
actress, whose prima donna attitude was so much that she as good
as quit the show. The writers necessarily had to kill off her
character. So I suppose Sylvia ended up facing Heaven's judgement
sooner than anyone would have thought...

List of things taken or adapted from the actual video games &
storyline
    - that Lei hates criminals (again)
    - that Paul likes his motorcycle, pizza, the smell of gasoline, and
dislikes Japanese freeways
    - Paul's life as a drifter who never holds a steady job
    - Paul/Bryan's Tekken 3 arena (in more detail, this time)
    - Bryan's TK3 punch-button outfit (and eye color)
    - Lei Wulong's Tekken Tag kick-button outfit, including the dark
colors, and gun/handcuffs/badge.
    - Paul's TK3 kick button outfit
    - Paul's TK3 punch-button intro animation
    - Paul's TK2 & TK3 ending movies
    - Forest Law's age, reason for entering the Iron Fist with Paul,
etc.

List of deviations/creative license from video game storylines
    - that Paul/Bryan's arena is in a burakumin ghetto
    - Paul's sexual orientation (also his misogyny) ^_^
    - that Shingo's gloves allow him certain sorcerous abilities

The core of this chapter - that Lee Chaolan would finally force Lei
Wulong to confess to the blood on his hands - was from the very
beginning, especially *DID YOU KILL MY BROTHER!?* and "I
could have tried. I could have tried so much harder than I did." One
of the virtual movies that kept playing in my head was angel Lee
aloft, wings spread wide, bringing down his terrible sword of Truth
upon the hapless Lei.
    Other details came later. I didn't know Shingo would be a
character until almost halfway through the story; Shingo's
personality was so strong that it required a subplot where he
attempts to kidnap Julia (in order to protect her). Also, Shingo
lending Lei strength was an idea of last-minute necessity - Lei
needed some kind of edge to give his confrontation with Lee a fair
amount of tension.

If Chapter 5: Winter Night Sky was like a missing chapter of
"Ashes of the Phoenix," then this chapter is like a missing
epilogue. Lei's confession and assorted things tie so heavily into
"Ashes," that it requires a *lot* of recapping for anyone who hasn't
read it (or who has forgotten it). There's also all sorts of recapping
to be made for anyone who starts on my fanfic with this chapter. 
     The result: A FREAKING LOT OF RECAPPING! Recapping
about Shingo's disabilities, how Bryan died, that Lee betrayed
Kazuya, how Lei killed Bruce, how Kazuya died, how
Anna/Mitsu/Taki are all missing, blah blah blah. It drags on
somewhat, despite my attempts to keep it sparse and balanced. Ah,
the pitfalls of writing a massive epic one chapter at a time...

I can't remember how many times I've collared a crook, and then
tricked him, threatened him, appealed to what remnants of decency
he still had, or sometimes even lied to him. I've forgotten how
often I've evaded lawyers, bent the rules, everything. Everything
and anything to break down a criminal's mental defenses, and make
him write a statement of what he did.
    - this is, of course, the core plot of *every* N.Y.P.D. Blue
episode (well, almost). Hill Street Blues had much more varied
plots: cops on the street, cops testifying in court, cops having union
disputes, etc. etc. So, N.Y.P.D. Blue is much more formulaic
overall - most of the story is about the detectives catching &
breaking criminals, with a little left over for their home life/sex life
(hey, nothing like a little sex to spike those ratings. :) Both shows
are compelling (and they're both mostly written by the same
people), although N.Y.P.D. Blue tends to be somewhat smoother
and more succintly written. That's only to be expected, I suppose;
practice makes closer to perfect.
   BTW, out of all the N.Y.P.D. Blue characters, Lei most strongly
resembles Bobby Simone. In overall temperament as well as
physical appearance. OK, Bobby is neither short nor Chinese, but
he does have the black crew haircut of Lei's TK2 kick button outfit,
and he also has Lei's "good cop" persona for dealing with
criminals.
    Oh, and the character of Bobby also wound up dead of heart
failure. The show was ANNOYING in that they never mention
what disease killed Bobby. I say it was something he picked up
from tending to his damn pigeons.

     What can I say, about Paul Phoenix?
     There's one thing that he lives for, above all else. One thing,
and that's the fight. 
     Paul _loves_ to fight.
    - it's not a complete coincidence that this is similar to the
characterization of Ryu from Street Fighter: Ryu lives only for the
fight. The fight is all. The fight is more important than claiming his
victory trophy... except in SF2: Turbo Hyper Fighting, that is.
    And BTW, I'm beginning to suspect that Ryu might be gay. I
mean, come on. Every other anime, comic book, or fanfic in the
Universe has Chun Li going after him, but he never reciprocates
her affection... he's still a drifter on foot by the time of SF III. If
Ryu isn't gay, then I swear that he is asexual - just burned all
thoughts of love and lust out of himself, in order to devote himself
to the fight.

There's other things that he likes. Drinking in bars, riding his
motorcycle - to Paul's credit, he knows better than to mix the two,
but he drives like a maniac anyway - also hair gel and pizza, fried
chicken and the smell of gasoline. 
    - Paul's love of his motorcycle, pizza, and the smell of gasoline
are from his character profile. His vanity about his hairstyle is
extrapolated from his Tekken 3 kick button intro, where he preens
himself. Another item from Namco's official background is that
Paul is a drifter who never holds a steady job (although he
apparently drops by Marshall Law's dojo about once every 3
months). The rest is made up.

Yes, the part about Paul being gay is creative license. It's not a
wholly original idea; I got it off an old Tekken 3 website, the same
place where I got Kazumi Mishima's name. I'm not sure of the
URL though, or even if it's still around. To any Paul Phoenix fan
who doesn't like it... all I say is, it's an alternate Tekkenverse.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ^_^
    There is no overwhelming plot/storyline reason why I put this in
for Paul's character. It's just a minor touch to add variety (and hey -
Lei used to be *very* good looking, enough to get propositions
from all *sorts* of people). Another nice advantage is that it
explains why Paul doesn't have much in the way of close kinfolk,
_without_ writing in yet another character whose entire family (or
most of it) has been murdered/is long dead.
     Paul certainly isn't carrying on any kind of love affair with
Forest Law (or anyone else, at this time). In particular with regard
to Forest a) Paul knows that Marshall would kill him, and b) Forest
is heterosexual, and occasionally confides in Paul about his
girlfriend. As a limited misogynist (Paul distrusts women, but does
not necessarily hate them on sight) Paul finds this trait of Law's
moderately annoying. However, Paul tolerates a LOT from Forest
that he'd never take from anyone else. This is partly because Forest
is paying for their Iron Fist fees, etc. on his credit card (also from
Namco's storyline), and partly because Paul likes Forest as a friend
(at most, in the same way that Julia liked that
cute-high-school-guy-who-she-knew-she-never-had-a-chance-with
as a friend).
    Paul is, strictly speaking, closeted with regard to the Law family
- they don't know. Paul generally believes in a don't ask, don't tell
personal policy.

That's assuming he doesn't crash his motorcycle first, and splatter
his brains all over some dusty interstate. He doesn't wear a helmet;
he's too vain about his whacked-out hairstyle.
    - Tch... every time Paul is shown riding a motorcyle, he's
without his helmet. Hwoarang isn't wearing a helmet while on his
motorcycle in his TK3 intro scene, either. My Hwoarang has the
excuse of being immortal. As for my Paul - well, if you're going to
show a bad example, might as well at least slap on a warning label.

A short-fused hothead, temperamental enough to take on Heihachi
Mishima himself.
    - Paul's Tekken 3 label is "Hot-Blooded Fighter." That really
doesn't work as a nickname, but as a general personality
description, sure.

I remembered something about Paul, from the last Iron Fist
Tournament. A certain personality quirk of his. He liked to case his
Tournament fighting arenas at midnight, the night before his
match.
    - Okay. Yes, this is something of a convenience detail, to better
set up Lei's absence at the time of Julia's kidnapping attempt. Still,
there is some justification for it in Paul's TK3 intro movie... he's
hanging out around his TK3 arena with the elevated rail tracks
(along with a rowdy crowd, but hey). And it sure looks like it's
around midnight, so maybe he is casing the grounds.

Thanks to Heihachi's machinations, my first battle in the Iron Fist
had gotten put off until January 1st, 2018. I wasn't sure I'd live to
see 2018, which might have been Heihachi's intention.
    - okay, this is actually me having a little trouble assigning dates
to the events of my story. I originally thought that Lei's match
would be scheduled for sometime in late December...

My primary source of reference for the paragraphs about the
burakumin are

http://www.infonet.co.jp/Aso/Win/int-news/1997/in970102.htm
http://www.blri.org/blri_e/somu/so_index.htm

It is stretching creative license to set Paul/Bryan's arena in a
burakumin ghetto, although having Paul/Bryan share the same
arena is in fact out of the TK3 game. However, in the game Paul's
arena is surrounded by English-language signs, suggesting that it is
in America.
    In my fanfic, though, Heihachi had to hold this Iron Fist
Tournament in Tokyo, to gather all the fighters' energy in a
concentrated area, the better to lure the Toshin. So Paul's arena is
in Tokyo. Making it a burakumin ghetto was a spur of the moment
decision (and one that cost me some hours of research). 
    In "Ashes," I devoted a little time to refer to discrimination
against Korean-Japanese citizens. So, mentioning discrimination
against buraku-Japanese citizens seemed like a logical mirror for
the sequel. The burakumin are never mentioned in any
anime/manga that I've ever seen, and I expect a lot of
anime/manga/fanfic/video game fans have never heard of them.
Hey, it's my 2 cents worth of educational value. We now return you
to your regularly scheduled blood and soap opera...

BTW, most of the main Japanese characters in "Phoenix Reborn" -
Jun, Jin, Heihachi, Mitsurugi, Ishida, Kimura, and Shingo - are not
of buraku background. If Jun had been, Heihachi never would have
let her be even Lee's fiancee, and if Shingo had been, Heihachi
would never have let him teach at the Mishima Syndicate Senior
Specialty School. Ishida and Kimura are from lines that engage in
extensive background checks, and Mitsurugi is from an old
traditionalist/samurai/nobility line. Although Shingo is himself not
burakumin, however, he knows several (and always treats them
with the same respectful politeness that he treats everyone else).
He's bought much of his stockpiles of animal blood from them.
    Taki might be partly burakumin, on her Japanese side. That's
something I wouldn't feel qualified to dwell on, however, not
without a *lot* more research than I've already put in on this topic.

There was some graffiti, scrawled on the fence's grey wooden
boards, but none of it was derogatory or obscene.
   - in particular, the graffiti says "Soul Edge," but it's not repeated
here because that would be speaking the name of a video game,
which could undermine reader suspension of disbelief. Also, the
words on the various billboards/stores in Paul's arena aren't
mentioned 'cause they're in English, and this is actually supposed to
be a similar-looking place in Tokyo.

My demon side is sensitive to people's auras, dammit.
     It's not a completely natural ability. I've had to train myself
to get good at it, ever since the Great Invasion.
    - this is actually something I didn't realize until I was writing this
chapter. It works, though, partly as a lead-in to the recap of Bryan's
death. It also ties into something about "Ashes"... how Jun's quiet
purity was so beautiful, just being near her helped ease Lei's pain
from the theft of his soul. His demon side was sensitive to her
grace.
    However, since this ability of Lei's wasn't expressly written into
"Ashes," I added a line about how he wasn't able to train himself to
get good at it until after the Great Invasion. 

There might have been a residue of sorcery about him. That was
all. If I ignored his breathing, ignored his heartbeat, ignored
everything about him that looked and acted human, he'd feel about
as alive as a kitchen table. Or a computer. Or maybe a Jack-2
robot.
    - The cybernetics in Bryan's brain interfere with Lei's reception,
just like they interfere with Jin's telepathy. 

Now we get to the description of Bryan's cool TK3 punch-button
outfit, which he'll most likely be wearing for the rest of the story.
Of course, he retrieved it out of Taki's closet. There's no mention
of the letters on the back of Bryan's jacket because Lei is seeing
Bryan from the front. Perhaps it'll be worked in later... I can't really
make out what they're supposed to say, anyway (AT-T, like the
phone company?) 
    BTW, it was a fellow Tekken Tag player who called Bryan's
outfit "SWAT-team" wear.

Warned us all of the impending mob ambush, killed my would-be
murderer in single combat, and then took seven Glaser Safety
Slugs, any one of which could have been my death knell.
    - Glaser Safety Slugs are the kind of bullet that REALLY wreck
your body, when they rip into you. I've been waiting for a chance to
mention the bullet's name ever since Bryan described what it felt
like to get hit by them in Ch. 3.

Bryan's eyes - the Bryan I had known, the Bryan who had worked
with me, argued with me, and spilled his lifeblood on a dirty floor -
his eyes used to be green. The green of slick, slimy moss, clinging
to the underside of an ocean rock.
    - Bryan's eye color is NOT obvious when you look at his TK3
ending - it's too shadowy. You have to stare closely at his character
select portrait (it's more apparent in some blown-up photos of that
portrait, that were advertising TK3) to know they're green.
    Incidentally, Marshall Law's eyes are green in his TK1 ending,
and brown in his TK2/TK3 ending. Colored contacts, or spiritual
possession? You be the judge...

I almost never know for certain what a given chapter's off-format
piece of text will be, before I write it. Here, though, repeating
Julia's note to Lei Wulong seemed to be the logical choice,
especially since I had already set up the existence of a message in
Ch. 19. It also made a nice parallel to Lei's note to Julia.

I haven't hissed like that since the Great Invasion. Since when
Kazuya's demon curse used to take me over, and turn me into a
mindless killing machine.
    - Lei actually made a noise like "HssssSSSSSSS..."

My phobia is mostly under control, now. Behavior therapy. Haven't
had any real trouble from it in years. 
    - specifically, Lei underwent systematic desensitization therapy
to remove his phobia. Lei also mistrusts canines, especially dogs or
wolves, ever since a dog bit him as a child. That mistrust has never
quite been strong enough to qualify as a phobia, though, and it
doesn't generally disrupt his life. It is, however, why he and Jun
never got Jin a pet dog. (They never got Jin a pet cat because
instinct would drive it to hunt, and Jun couldn't bear to have little
dead birds left on her doorstep...)

Bryan straightens, and rests the blade of his terrible weapon on his
own shoulder. 
    - in a manner similar to Yoshimitsu's normal fighting stance.

Okay, now for a fight scene that turned out to be much briefer than
I originally thought it would be. Lei starts by trapping Lee in the
Closing Fan side-throw (1+3 or 2+4 from opponent's right side).
Then, after a brief interlude, Lee cuffs his own wrist to Lei's, and
smacks Lei with a complete ten-hit string. This is Lee's Tekken 2
ten-hit: d/f+1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4.
    Lee's ten-hit has two guard points where it can be broken: once
after the second punch, and once before the second kick (the one
that hits low). Both times, though, Lee uses Lei's handcuffs to
make sure that Lei takes the whole string.
    Finally, Lei comes at Lee with running side kick (f, f, F+3 from
some distance away) and Lee retaliates with an almost Tekken-2
style long pounce... in his angel form (BTW, you can actually see
TK2 Devil/Angel flap their wings if they perform a long pounce).

One of the nice things about this fight scene is that they let me use
Lei's gun & handcuffs for more than just decoration, which is all
they are in his TK3 kick-button outfit. A later scene even lets Lei
use his police badge. In particular, I get to go into why Lei doesn't
just shoot his enemies in a fight... because he's a good guy,
dammit. ^_^

(Lei, I swear to you, that is not why I _had_ to spare Kazuya's life.
The wind spirits warned me that if I destroyed him, it would be our
ruin. We must break Kazuya's power through single combat. We
must not kill him.)
    - the memory of Lei & Jun's conversation is from "Ashes," Ch.
17. It proved a nice, easy-to-copy way of recalling Lei's literal
promise.

*If you cannot bring yourself to admit the Truth... if you keep this
darkness in your soul, to your grave and beyond... they will not let
you in. They will allow no place for you. You will not be reunited
with Jun-chan, beyond the gates watched by the Guardians of
Paradise.*
    - it really wasn't until when I started work on this chapter that
Lee told me of another reason, above and beyond any personal
rancor, why Lee _dearly_ needed to confront Lei before his death
(and why Lee panicked so much in Ch. 15 when he feared Lei
might have already died).

I could have put him in a sleeper hold
   - such as Lei's 2+4 basic throw.

Lei's confession was too sparse in the rough draft; I think the final
draft is much improved. In any case, though, the seed for this
chapter - in fact, one of the basic seeds for "Phoenix Reborn" - was
something that bothered me in retrospect, after I finished "Ashes."
Namely: why didn't Lei try to knock Kazuya out, and stop him
from killing himself that way?
    It actually wasn't solely because of Lei's inner darkness. The fact
that Lei had lost a lot of blood in his fight also had something to do
with it. People don't always think straight when they're hurt.

*If there cannot be forgiveness, then there cannot be an end to the
cycle of hate and pain. If the cycle cannot end, then there is
nothing.*
    - this is a deliberate parallel to Kazuya's farewell speech in Ch.
2. 

"Uhh..." I muttered. "Does this story have a point?"
*Don't count on 'angels' to solve all your problems.*
    - or, "God helps those who help themselves." However, we are
probably dealing with an atheist and an agnostic here, so...

He came to a stop before us, and smacked his knuckles together at
chest level; his leather fighting gloves made audible <slap>
sounds. Then he lolled his head to either side, as if stretching the
bones in his neck.
   - this is, of course, Paul's punch-button fight intro animation in
TK3. Paul is wearing his black motorcycle leathers, naturally.

"I'M GOING TO KICK THE OLD MAN'S ASS!" he shouted,
shaking his fist as if daring me to deny it.
    - this is loosely based on one of Paul's win poses, only with
words.

     "Can you fix a ticket for me?"
     "What?"
     "It's these damn Japanese freeways. The trucks move like
they're harnessed to giant turtles, but when I tried to pass one-"
   - this is Paul's TK3 ending, where his out-of-control driving
earns him a ticket (and does he ever deserve it!) BTW, Paul's
profile indicates that he dislikes Japanese freeways.

     "Forest is twenty-five. He ain't a kid anymore, and by the
way, he _never_ whines about my driving."
    - actually, Forest is TERRIFIED of Paul's driving, and HATES
riding on the back of Paul's motorcycle (it's listed on his character
profile under "dislikes"), but he's a little too intimidated by Paul to
even buy a helmet for himself (since Forest is not wearing one in
his TK3 ending).

     "So, how has Forest done in the Iron Fist?" I asked, putting
away my badge.
     "He went up against Anna Williams."
    - when I wrote of Anna's first victory in the Iron Fist (in Ch. 18),
I deliberately didn't mention her opponent's name, thinking that it
was just some nameless guy. Only now, I realize it works in
perfectly to make her antagonist Forest... especially since it means
Forest has had three weeks to heal from his three-limb traction, and
therefore probably can make it to Kagura's Temple (with Paul's
assistance).

     "YOU AMBUSHED ME! Your goddamn soldiers trapped
me with a rockslide, shot me up with sleeping drugs, and then
_you_ stuck me in Kazuya's freezer! I WAS SUPPOSED TO
FIGHT HIM, DAMMIT!"
    - a variant summary of Paul's TK2 ending/TK3 storyline. In
Namco's version, Paul was supposed to fight his 'rival' Kazuya, but
a rockslide stopped him when he was en route by motorcycle. In
my version, the rockslide was engineered by Kazuya's forces, who
captured Paul, and then Lee had Paul frozen along with the other
"strong souls" of the Iron Fist Tournament.

Originally, I thought of ending this chapter with just Lei's section.
But Julia was VERY insistent, the woman has absolutely taken
over. Besides, cliffhanger endings are nice... so I worked in the
beginning of Shingo's kidnapping attempt, and stretched this
chapter to 33 pages.

Also originally, I wasn't sure where Shingo would kidnap Julia - to
an Old Abandoned Warehouse, or what? But Shingo couldn't be
wandering around if he gave up life-force to Lei, and Lei couldn't
be wandering around if he didn't get a dose of Shingo's life-force,
so Shingo would have to be in his apartment... which would be the
logical place to set a trap for Julia anyway.

"Kusanagi-sama invested them with his divine blessing, yes," he
acknowledged, absently.
   - Shingo's sun-sign gloves, which he gets from Kyo in his KoF
'97 ending, and wears in KoF '98, are in fact nonmagical in the
KoF storyline. Shingo believes they're the key to throwing flames,
and they're not, and Kyo doesn't have the heart to tell him.
    In my KoF '98 storyline, though, Kyo blessed the gloves when
he ascended to godhood. So that they give Shingo a number of
sorcerous abilities. Shingo can create wards, shields, seals, transfer
his life-force, etc. However, the gloves can only be used for
defensive and protective sorcery - not offensive sorcery such as
throwing flames. The Divine Sanctions forbid the godly creation of
deadly weapons.

He's so sick that it took a lot out of me, just to give him a few
hours of normal strength.
   - Shingo basically gave up around 24 hours of strength just so Lei
could have 3 hours. The ratio is 8-to-1 because Lei is so sick.
Shingo has been napping for a couple hours, so he's not falling
asleep in place anymore, but he's still rather wiped out...

     "Xiaoyu could be in danger, too."
     "I tried asking Ling-san to come here, but she wouldn't. She
said I was crazy," Shingo mumbled, looking downright wounded.
    - Xiaoyu players have been kicking my ass a lot in Tekken Tag,
lately. Perhaps that's why I didn't think to write in our heroes'
concern for Xiaoyu more clearly until my very last pass over the
final draft.

Next up: Shingo snaps! After her heart-wrenching escape, Julia
reaches the Mishima syndicate party... too late?