Tekken Fan Fiction ❯ Canto ❯ Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Jun awoke that next morning stretched out on the couch still clad in the clothes she had worn the day before. She glanced over towards the kitchen and saw that it was after nine, then looked over to where she was sitting. A near empty bottle of rum sat at her feet. She chuckled harshly then groaned in pain as she realized that she had a terrible hangover. The phone rang and she cringed and stood up. She then stumbled over to the kitchen phone and picked it up clumsily.

"Hello?" she mumbled.

"Hey, Kazama, I've been calling all morning!" Lei sighed into the phone. "Where've you been?"

"Asleep," she replied sheepishly. "Why so frantic?"

"You didn't hear?" Lei asked, astonished.

"Hear what?"

"About the car bombing at the Louisville Bar--"

"--What?" That woke Jun up, and she sat down slowly in one of the barstools at the counter. "Did anyone get hurt? I mean..."

"Yeah. One person got killed, a Hiro Takahashi. And one injured, a Nina Williams."

"Nina Williams? I know her!" Jun gasped. "Is she alright?" The girl waited nervously for a reply. "Wulong?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Got a few cuts and bruises. Nothing too serious. Last I heard from Bryan was that she was being kept at St. Michael's Hospital under observation."

Jun sighed with relief, "That's good. Then I can go see her!"

"Wait, you know we're here undercover..."

"Lei, she and I grew up together. I have to see if she's okay."

"Alright. I'll even go with you, if you'd like."

"I'd...love that, if it's not too much trouble," Jun smiled to herself. "I'll be waiting for you to pick me up, alright?"

"Yeah, sure thing. See ya in a bit." With that Lei hung up, and Jun did the same. The girl then hopped off of her seat and scurried to the bathroom to shower and dress.

It only took Jun about twenty minutes to freshen up, and she threw on a white sundress and a pair of sandals. It wasn't long after she fixed up her hair that she heard a knock on the door. She ran out of her bedroom with her purse in hand to the door.

"Hey," Lei greeted brightly as the door opened. He smiled fondly at Jun as she stepped out of her apartment, closing the door behind her. "Sorry for the bad wake up call."

"No, thank you," she sighed as they began to head down the hall to the elevator. "I would had found out eventually. Better to hear it from you." She smiled wearily as the two of them stopped at the metal mirrored doors. She pressed the down button.

Lei tugged at the suspenders he was wearing with his khaki pants and white t-shirt as he waited. There was a bright, metallic "ding!", and the doors parted. The two stepped on. Lei closed the doors.

"Bryan told me the FBI thinks it's connected with Heihachi Mishima," Lei said quietly as the elevator descended slowly. Jun blinked and turned attention to her partner.

"Nina didn't have anything to do with them, as far as I know. I mean, aside from her little sister always hanging around Lee Chaolan..." the girl whispered nervously.

"Not her," Lei shook his head. "That Hiro guy...he was a former employee for Mishima. He was let go after some squabble thirteen years ago... Something to do with an attempt on Mishima's life and the death of another former employee." The doors parted and revealed the lobby. The two detectives stepped out and headed toward the exit. Both were silent until they had left the building and were at Lei's rental car.

Jun shook her head, "Former employee? You don't mean all those shootings here thirteen years ago, do you?" She waited as Lei unlocked the doors then got in the car as he did the same.

Lei nodded as he shut his door, "Yeah probably, some guy named Andrew Wang that used to work for Heihachi in their California branch. Apparently, he was skimming a lot of money from the company, and Hiro helped him do it. He was living here at the time." He started the car, then turned to Jun and frowned. "He was going under another name, though. Something like Mao Chung--"

"--Chang," Jun replied sadly as she hung her head. "My best friend, Liz, her dad was killed around that time...His name was Mao. That's also around the time when Nina lost her dad." The car pulled out and began to slowly maneuver around the other parked cars until it hit the street and rolled into morning traffic. Lei stepped gently on the gas and sped up. Jun then slumped back in her seat and rubbed her temples. "They never seemed like bad people..."

"Hey, don't get too bent out of shape," Lei smiled slight as he drove. "I don't think your friend has anything to do with our case, aside from being an innocent bystander."

"You don't understand though," Jun frowned. "That whole year was so weird, though. First, someone tried to kill Mr. Mishima, then Mr. Williams was shot and killed that next day. Then Mr. Chang was killed at his house like a week later. And nobody knew why then."

"Well...Williams still doesn't fit completely into the picture. Aside from his kid nearly getting blown up last night..." The hospital slowly came into view as Lei drove closer to it. Jun was silent for the rest of the trip and kept her attention to the passenger side window and would sigh heavily occasionally. Lei frowned as he pulled into the parking lot.

"You know," Lei began softly as he parked, "I wonder what Nina's father has to do with Heihachi Mishima..." He stopped the car completely and turned off the engine.

"Nothing, I hope," Jun replied as she opened her door and got out. Lei sighed heavily and did the same and followed the girl as she marched through the hospital entrance. He only managed to catch up with her when the other detective had stopped at the front desk to ask where Nina's room was located. As he stepped up to Jun's side, Lei nudged her to get her attention. She turned, startled, then sighed with relief when she saw it was only Lei then nudged him back with a slight grin.

"She's on the second floor," Jun informed the older man as they headed further into the hospital and toward the elevator lobby. Lei nodded as they entered the hall and headed to the nearest set of elevator doors. He pressed up, then glanced over at his partner and frowned slightly.

"Hey, Kazama...," he began as they waited. "You're not getting too worried, are you?"

Jun frowned, "Why would I?"

Lei shrugged, "I know she's a friend, but remember why we're in Dreyfus."

The doors parted in front of them; there was one other person on the elevator, a well dressed middle aged man in a long black trench. His light brown hair was streaked with grey and slicked back. He glanced over at the two, then adjusted the collar of the dark grey blazer he was wearing.

Jun sighed heavily as the bell dinged and the metal doors parted. All three people stepped off and turned toward the patients' ward. She strolled ahead of Lei and down the hall. The man was still behind them and followed.

The halls were quiet and empty. As the three made their way down to the patients' ward, the only sounds were of Lei's loafers and the dress shoes of the older man following the two detectives. It wasn't long before they reached their destination. Jun peeked her head into the room and saw Anna and Kazuya sitting and chatting with the blonde. Nina's hands where bandaged up, and there was a bandage on her forehead and several little cuts and scratches marred her skin. She glanced away from her sister to Jun, Lei, and the other man. Her eyes brightened and the smile she had already been wearing grew.

"Jun! Emil!" she cried happily as Jun ran over and hugged her friend. Nina threw her arms around the other girl. "Oh my goodness! I haven't seen you in ages, love!" Jun pulled away to sit down and nodded, then glanced back at the man that had been following them, Emil. Nina smiled fondly at her fiancé and beckoned to him. The older man smiled slightly and walked pasted Lei, who chose to stay outside; the detective stepped outside and leaned against the wall outside the room, crossing his arms as he waited. At the mention of Jun's name, Kazuya glanced up. When he saw Jun, his face darkened, and he frowned then stood up.

"I have to go," he said quietly; Jun turned her head at the young man and gazed dully at him as he leaned over and pecked Anna on the lips. As much he was trying ignore the detective, however, the nervousness he was emanating was very evident to both her and Anna. The younger Williams sister bit her bottom lip up at Kazuya and frowned. He smiled gently and added, "Call me."

"Of course," she grinned slightly. Kazuya then nodded at Jun to finally acknowledge her, offered his seat to Emil, and headed out of the room; Lei lifted a brow as Kazuya hurried past him, then shrugged to himself. Back inside, Anna sighed lightly as she glanced over at the door then back at her sister and Jun, who were both dumbfounded.

Nina lifted a brow, "Now, that he's gone, may I ask, exactly when did you and him become an item?"

"Can we not talk about that?" Anna sighed, she glanced over at Jun, who raised both her brows at the girl nervously, then at Emil. "Now isn't a good time, with you being here and all..."

"I agree," Jun added softly.

"Alright," the blonde sighed. She then turned her attention back to Jun and grinned, "Now, you! What have you been doing all this time? Ever make it in New York?"

The detective smiled slightly, "Kinda. Ended up not dancing though."

"Aw, and you were so good at it!" Nina's grin grew, "Remember all those ballet classes that we skipped--oops, I mean took together?"

"Yeah. You, me, and Liz," the other girl chuckled. "Those were crazy times..."

"You and your bumming rides to class from Paul..." Nina laughed. "Speaking of which, he said he was going to drop by later. Have you called him yet?"

Jun frowned slightly and looked down at her feet then back up at her friend, "No...not yet. I've only been in town for a few days."

"I see...Oh, and where are my manners?" Nina smiled over at Emil. "Jun, this is my fiancé, Emil Ricter. Emil, this is one of my best friends, Jun Kazama." The older man extended a hand at the detective. Jun glanced down at his hand then shook it gingerly.

"Pleasure to meet you," he said thoughtfully as he stood up and turned to Nina, "I can't stay. I just wanted to check up on you before I went to work." He leaned over and kissed the blonde on the forehead and smiled down at her. "I'll be back in the evening for sure." Nina nodded once at him and smiled. Then the man headed out of the room.

Lei had walked down the hall to the water fountains by the elevators to get a drink. He lifted his head as he heard footsteps to see Emil coming towards him; the older man had his cell phone out was and dialing. He stopped walking as he put his phone to his ear and waiting. Lei turned his head back to the fountain to get a drink.

"Yeah, Tracy, this is Emil," the older man started. He waited quietly then replied, "...No, she's only got a couple of scratches. He's going to be pissed when he gets back from Boston." Lei looked up again and blinked. "I told you it wasn't a good idea...." The older man began to walk towards the elevators again, slowly as he listened into his phone. "Look, I don't care if we got him. If he was that big of problem, Mishima would had taken care of him years ago--" Emil finally noticed Lei, who was peering intently at him. The older man's eyes narrowed, and he stared hard at the younger man. "Tracy, we'll talk later. Good-bye." Keeping his eyes on Lei, Emil pulled the phone away from his ear slowly and turned it off. He then marched up to the younger man.

In response, Lei grinned and nodded at Emil as he began chattering quickly in Mandarin. The older man blinked as Lei continued to talk and gestured wildly him as if he didn't speak or understand English.

"Did you...understand anything I said?" Emil asked slowly as he placed his phone inside of a pocket in his coat.

Lei smiled, shook his head, and responded in his native tongue, "Of course. I understood every fucking word you said, asshole!" and then said in broken English and a fake accent, "I cannot make your words... Please say slower?" The older man shook his head and turned away from the younger man to press the down button for the elevators. Immediately, the bell rang.

As the doors opened, Emil adjusted his coat and mumbled himself, "Damned foreigners..." then stepped on. Lei sneered and flipped off Emil to his back as the doors closed. The young detective then rolled his eyes and hurried back to Nina's room.

He stopped in the doorway as he overheard Jun say, ". . .I'm so sorry, Nina." The girl then looked over at Anna, "Anna...I know these past few days must had been tough."

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Anna murmured. "Besides, Mama had lived a great deal longer than the doctors thought she would. Especially after she decided to go off of the chemotherapy." The redhead smiled at Jun then glanced over at the door. Lei slid his hands in his pockets and leaned in the doorway, nodding once at the girl.

Nina also noticed the young man standing in the doorway, "Oh, you're a friend of Jun's?" Jun turned her head then gasped.

"Oh, no! Wulong, I'm sorry! We were supposed to go meet Bryan in a few minutes!" she exclaimed as she stood up and grabbed her purse. "Nina, I'll have to stop by the house and catch up with you sometime soon."

The blonde smiled, "That would be nice." Jun leaned over and hugged Nina one last time. "And you know, it wouldn't hurt if you called sometimes," Nina laughed as Jun pulled away. The detective nodded and smiled back then turned back to Lei to hurry out the door.

As they walked down the hall, Lei asked quietly, "That guy in the coat...did you catch his name at all?"

"Um, yeah. Emil. He's engaged to Nina, I guess," Jun shrugged. The two stopped at the elevator doors; the doors parted on their own and two doctors stepped off. Lei and Jun walked past them and got on.

"I see," Lei said thoughtfully. He was quiet for the rest the time they were on the elevator and as they walked through the lobby towards the exit.

Jun walked ahead of him then stopped and turned around, "Hey, Wulong?"

"Hm?" Lei replied, also stopping. He shoved his hands in his pockets again.

"You saw that Asian guy leave, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Jun shrugged, "That was Kazuya Mishima."

Lei blinked at that statement, "Wait...why was he here?"

"Eh, don't ask me," she sighed as she turned to start walking again. Only, she didn't walk and blinked as the glass doors in front of her opened as Paul and Michelle walked in. The female detective's face soften with both friendliness and remorse as she saw the blonde walk towards her, his head turned at his girlfriend as he talked in a low voice to her. He then looked forward and stopped walking, and his forehead wrinkled up in thought as he stared hard at Jun. His eyes then brightened as he finally recognized the girl.

"Junie," he smiled as he marched up to her, Michelle following. The younger girl carefully eyed Jun then glanced over at Lei, who shrugged at her. Paul stopped about a foot away from Jun and gestured at her. "Well?"

"Well what?" Jun asked as she smiled nervously.

"Where's my hug?" The girl sighed with relief and hugged the biker. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of black jeans that were covering his work boots that day, and his hair pulled back in a ponytail. He pulled away and smiled fondly at Jun, "It's been awhile."

"Yeah," Jun managed a small grin, her eyes troubled. Paul nodded quietly, still smiling.

He then glanced back at Michelle, who lifted a brow at him. He sighed and turned back to Jun, "We'll have to talk later, I guess." Jun nodded as Paul patted her on the shoulder once and smiled at her again, then he turned and gestured at Michelle to follow him to the elevators. As she did so, however, Michelle kept her gaze on Jun as she walked past her.

As the couple rode up the elevators, Michelle asked quietly, "Who was that?"

Paul looked forward and let out a heavy sigh, "A friend."

The bell rang, and the doors parted.