-Just as I always ask, please reading the boring author’s notes…
-A/N: So I finally wrote another new crap fic... (That can actually be posted on fanfictiondotnet, that is, LOL...) There are eleven chapters, but I’ll be straight forwards that this fic actually has not even light smut in it, though there are three yaoi/shounen-ai pairings to be found. Edit: They are JinxHwoarang, BryanxLei, & KazuyaxLee. (Like you expected anything else from me, anyway.) But yeah... came and edited this to give them anyway, because I knew by leaving them surprises (when I know it’s obvious, anyway..) I was just setting myself up to be flamed. -.-;;
-This fanfic actually isn’t even R, yet I’d go over PG-13 just for the language in parts, and for some of the implications, so therefore I’d give it an M15 rating. I’ll put it under R rather than PG-13 anyway, though, just to play it safe. ;P
-The title ‘In the Shadows’ comes from the Story of the Year song, since once again, many of my ideas are sparking from music I listen to. (lol) Except for chapter 3, which came from this weird dream I had a little over a month ago...
-Once again, PLEASE no flames/over extensive CC... I am a wiener... -.-;;
-Disclaimer: Again, I do not own anything but the cruddy fic... And this nice SoBe energy drink I’m partaking of. Mmm, SoBes...
In the Shadows
Chapter 1 - Meetings and Greetings
We speak just like the closest enemies...
-- Dan Marsala
Detective Lei Wulong sat alone at one of the many small, scattered tables about the relatively large coffee shop, newspaper in hands.
Things were blatantly getting worse...
In recent timings, the mafia outbreaks had gotten out of control. People were dying one after the other, many times for no apparent reason. Before Lei eventually did leave Japan to return to his homeland of China, he was determined to piece this new mystery together. Or was it a new mystery? Maybe... just maybe, it was an old mystery rekindled...
“Afternoon, Lei.”
Lei lowered the newspaper which had bee blocking his view, a smile now gracing its way to his facial features. “Hello, Jin. How are you?”
Jin pulled the chair on the opposing side of the small, round table from underneath; a skidding noise surfacing in the air from the scrape against the smooth floor before the Karate fighter then sat down.
“I’d be lying if I said everything was going smoothly,” Jin admitted with an alongside sigh. “My life seems to get more and more complicated by the day.”
“I can relate to that very well indeed,” replied Lei with a sigh of his own, before folding the newspaper in hand and placing it to once again rest on the table’s top surface. “It seems you’ve lost your conservative wardrobe for a change.”
Jin nodded at this. “Ever since my grandfather’s death, I no longer have concealing faces following my every move.”
“Be it may, Jin, you can still never be too careful. Even most pleasant of faces can be a mask,” Lei assured.
“I very well know that,” responded Jin, who looked out the clear and large window lining the full side of the coffee shop. “Which is why I’m once again leaving this place shortly. Many unpleasant feelings and memories I do not wish to experience the displeasure of are held here.”
“Normally, one making a statement such as this would be in for a very long and boring speech on how running away from your fears and problems never solves them, but unfortunately, I agree with you...”
Jin laughed ever so slightly, as did Lei. “Now, what is it you wanted to talk about?” inquired Kazama.
Lei elicited a log exhale, gathering the right words before speaking them. “Jin, I know this is a subject both of us do not wish to discuss, but I must know... I have a feeling Kazuya may very well be the hidden ringleader pedaling the newly arisen mafia around town...”
“I highly doubt that,” Jin responded knowingly, “I’d say it’s rather obvious who the ringleader for this outbreak is...”
“Bryan Fury, I know...” murmured Lei, facing the table. “But that’s just it... Fury’s not one to order the dirty work, he’s one to do it...”
“So you think Bryan is working for the Mishima Conglomerate?” Jin questioned, not sounding very much appealed to this suggestion.
“I really don’t know... There’s both evidence that supports this idea, yet contradicts it. The nature of so many of these killing sprees and even the individually targeted deaths do not always represent Fury’s style... He is not one to conceal himself, nor his motives. He wants us to know who and how he’s going to kill someone before he does it, to show us his power...” Lei whispered, sounded sickened at the thoughts, “Yet the targets are dying off in such... strange ways... It’s as if... they died from nothing...”
Jin looked utterly perplexed. “Lei-san, I’m a bit lost here...”
“Trust me; you are not alone in that department... It’s got everyone living in a world fed by curiosity. Point is, this is not Fury’s style of ‘dumping the trash’ as he puts it... These people are not poisoned, not mutilated, hell, not beat up or blemished in any way at all. They just die, and no one can figure out how. Bryan’s even been factually proven to be in a completely different location from that of the occurring deaths at the same time they, in fact, occurred.”
“Why is it you are telling me this?” inquired Jin with his own now flared spark of curiosity. “Shouldn’t this technically be confidential evidence you could get into a heap of trouble for sharing with anyone?”
“Technically...” Wulong began with a sigh, “Yes...”
“Than why?”
Lei looked down, staring into his partially empty coffee cup. “When I went to question Kazuya yesterday, I... saw something... Something I surely wasn’t meant to see... It was Kazuya and...”
“Ah ha!”
Jin and Lei both turned with startled jumps.
“There you are, Kazama. I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Thought you could get away from me, huh?”
“Hwoarang...” Lei sighed with annoyance, “How pleased I am to once again be greeted with your presence.”
“And fuck you too, Wulong,” Hwoarang spat, giving him the finger with a sarcastic smile.
“I told you to stop calling me by my given name. Don’t you have any respect?” Lei criticized with a hand gesture.
“Hmm, let me think... No,” Hwoarang laughed.
“Hwoarang! There you are, and Jin! And Lei!”
Jin sighed as Ling Xiaoyu bounced her way over to join the ever growing collection of fighters, while rude glances were profusely thrown about the coffee shop in relation to all the sudden noise.
Xiaoyu hugged Jin from behind, before running around the table to do the same to Lei.
“What are all of you doing here?” Xiaoyu asked the detective.
Just as both Jin and Lei opened their mouths to answer with a different, offhand excuse, Hwoarang was quick to cut in first. “I found an open letter in Kazama’s living room from miss priss here, telling him they had some ‘private’ business to discuss,” Hwoarang smirked.
“What did you just call me?” Lei asked in an aggravated voice.
“But Jin,” Xiaoyu protested, leaning forwards to support her upper weight on the table, “You already promised to go to the theme park with us.”
“I know, I know, and I have every intention of still going.” Jin smiled, trying to make his statement seem more authentic.
“How about you, Lei-Lei?” Xiaoyu brightly asked, “Would you like to come, too? So are Miharu, Steve, and Christie. We’re going to have a blast!”
“Sshh!” a good number of people stated, one who was a man poking his face around his Toshiba laptop to shoot the fighters all an annoyed glance.
“I don’t know...” Lei said with a shrug.
“Well, there you have it; we’re all going, the cop’s not, so lets those of use who are get the hell out of here already,” Hwoarang declared, once again tugging at Jin’s arm.
“No, I think I’ll go after all,” Lei smirked, shooting the redhead a rude look from beneath his thick tendrils of bangs.
“Whatever,” Hwoarang then growled, “Can we all just leave then? We’re already late as it is.”
“Fine,” Jin sighed, beginning to rise from his seat at the small table. As the detective made his way to do the same, many hopeful glances from those seated nearby were to be seen in the hopes of actually getting some peace and quiet.
“Maybe I’ll get a chance to discuss more of our business there,” Lei stated, looking at Jin.
“And what business is this?” Hwoarang asked suspiciously.
“It’s about my mother,” Jin answered. “I’ll explain later...”
“Oh...” Hwoarang remarked, knowing this was a subject the Karate fighter most certainly liked avoiding. Xiaoyu was already waiting at the revolving doors up front, waving for everyone to come on.
“Today’s going to be a day to remember,” Xiaoyu said in a cheerful voice.
In a large, custom-carved desk, Kazuya Mishima sat in an all too temperate manner. His glance was directed primarily at the double doors to his front as he continued to sit. Just waiting. Kazuya had been waiting for surely an hour by this point in time, and his patience was wearing thin, though his composure was kept smooth, as always.
Kazuya smirked to himself.
He had to have one crappy security system, if he did say so himself.
“I’ve been in here for quite sometime, you know,” a dark voice laughed, originating from the shadows within Kazuya’s huge office, which he almost always kept at a dark atmosphere.
“I know that,” Kazuya grinned. The two Tekkenshu on either side of the entrance doors raised their guns as expressions furrowed in both confusion, and fear... “Leave us,” Kazuya ordered the set of soldiers, who were obviously more than happy to abide.
“They lack even more intelligence than I can remember,” the hidden man smirked from the darkness. With a quick snap of Kazuya’s long fingers, light was instantaneous in filling the room. Bryan Fury had been casually seated in an armchair the whole fucking time, it seemed.
“Very true,” the Mishima sighed, knowing it was. “It’s getting harder to find men who can actually serve me accurately.”
“Which is why you called on me, I’d say,” Fury replied simply enough. “Mind you Kazuya I do not serve you. I’m in for the game.”
“That’s why I know I can count on you to get the jobs done,” Kazuya remarked in the same tone of voice. “It’s the ones in it for the money I have to second-guess so incessantly. It’s rather pathetic, wouldn’t you say?”
“Quite,” Bryan responded. “Now, let’s get down to business. I’d like to get back down to my own as soon as possible.”
“Very well then,” the CEO replied rather nonchalantly. “Wulong never returned earlier today, I gather?”
“I’d say from the tone in your voice you know that already. That wasn’t a question, it was statement,” Bryan growled.
Kazuya’s derisive grin heightened in amusement. “I like the way you negotiate, Fury. We could use men like you in the business world.”
“Don’t try to flatter me, Kazuya,” Fury remarked in the same coherent voice filled with spite. “Get to point.”
“You know what I want,” Kazuya smirked in response, “And I know you want. However, Lei Wulong must not be allowed to die just yet. That’s what this is all about. I have plans for him...”
“I know that, yet as much I enjoy playing this little game of yours, I’d much rather play by my own rules.”
“You can get back to that shortly, I assure,” Kazuya guaranteed with a casual hand gesture of the sorts. “You will be well compensated, and I’ll make sure you are able to leave Japan without any trouble. Not to mention enough money to last you a year in whatever is the country of your choosing. I just received word Lei Wulong was seen with my son Jin Kazama no less than ten minutes ago, already discussing the two of us. He’s getting close... Too close. He already knows too much as it is.”
“Definite proof that maybe your hidden actions are not being concealed as well as they should be,” Bryan assured with a mocking grin. “How many have died for the same reason, might I ask? Eight? Ten?”
“I have a reputation to maintain,” Kazuya growled in response. “You don’t. Now, Wulong has joined my son and their little friends in going to a theme park on this night.”
“Won’t there be quite a few people there?”
“Exactly.”
Bryan’s grin curled. “I like it.”
“Everything will be set up before they even arrive.” Kazuya menacingly grinned. “Now get to it, and make it look believable.”
“My pleasure...”