Tekken Fan Fiction ❯ Canto ❯ Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

The sun hadn't completely risen yet, and it was quiet that Sunday morning as Michelle crept out of her room and down the hallway to the living room. When she reached the end of the hall, she peeked her head around the corner. There was no one else up, which surprised her. Usually, her grandfather would already be awake and practicing his Tai Chi until the womenfolk of the house finally woke up. The young girl sighed with relief, turned, and headed back down the hall. She stopped at the door to her father's den and carefully turned the knob. She pushed on it, and the door creaked opened slowly.

Nothing in the room had been touched since Mao's death. There were still papers on the desk by the window, yellowed from age, and not a single book from the two walls of shelving had been moved or misplaced. The room was thick with the smell of dust. Michelle let out a small cough as she breathed in the stale air and stepped fully into the room, shutting the door behind her. She glanced around.

It reminded her so much of her childhood, especially on those Saturdays when she would run into that room and hugged her father's legs as he worked. He would always smile and muss her hair up, sometime picking her up and seating her on his lap so she could draw on his yellow legal pad. There was still even an unlit cigar on the desk laying by the glass ashtray, which hadn't been emptied, and there a faint scent of burnt vanilla from the ashes. She smiled lightly to herself then frowned as she looked up at the window when something flashed and caught her eye.

Hanging from the wall next to the window was that gold pendant. Michelle had never remembered it being there before, even as a child. She glanced over her shoulder then trotted over to the desk to better look at the small gold necklace. It was still too high up for her to see very well, so she climbed up and stood on the leather swivel chair behind the desk. Cautiously, she lifted a hand to unhook the chain from where it hung and then hopped off the chair. She looked down at the pendant in her palm.

The charm itself was no bigger than a dime and was a small, tarnished coin set in gold. It had an engraving an highly stylized bird on it, nearly completely worn away from age. Michelle flipped the coin on its back and squinted. The back was hidden by the flat gold setting, which had a Japanese inscription on it, to which she could barely read.

" 'To......from.......the gift of life'?" she read out loud slowly. She sat down in her father's leather chair, still staring down at the necklace. The door to the den opened, and she whipped up her head.

"Michelle, you know you shouldn't be in here," Wang said gravely as he shook his head at her. The young girl gave her grandfather a nervous grin and jumped up at out of her seat so she could leave. When she reached the door, however, she stopped and listened; no one else was up. She let out a heavy sigh and opened her palm up to show Wang.

"Where did Dad get this?" she asked quietly. The old man looked down at the small coin in his granddaughter's hand and frowned.

"I told Helen to get rid of that thing," he sighed heavily. "It's useless."

"Grampa?"

"It's not your father's. He wasn't supposed to have that. He was keeping it for, I think, Rich Williams." The old man moved to the side to let Michelle out. "I can tell you a bit more outside. But only if you promise to get rid of it afterwards."

She nodded as Wang quietly latched the den door shut. The old man then beckoned at the girl to follow him and began to make his way down the hall and out the front door. When outside, he sat down on the concrete steps then gestured for the young girl to join him. She obeyed quickly.

"Show me again," he said. She nodded and opened her hand up. The old man shook his head with remorse as he looked at the pendant again. "The coin, it's from Mexico. Rich and Heihachi had went on a business trip out there. Heihachi had bought it and had it set as a souvenir for his wife."

Michelle frowned, "I guess that explains the Japanese on the back. But why did Dad have it?"

"Like I said," Wang began again, "He was keeping it for Rich. I guess...the coin's worth a small fortune, and Rich had stole the thing and promised Mao half. Also, there's this silly legend that the bird on the coin symbolizes eternal life granted by some Aztec god. But I doubt Mao or Rich cared about that."

"What about Heihachi, though?"

"Well, actually, he might had. His wife had been ill for quite some time. I remember, when I used to work as a gardener at their manor, she was constantly in the hospital or bed-ridden. It only got worse after she had that baby..."

The old man frowned, and his forehead wrinkled up with thought, "Now that I think about it, the whole household took Kazue's pregnancy as an ill omen." Wang stopped and looked out towards the morning sunlight. Michelle looked down at the necklace again.

"Heh, imagine," Wang chuckled as he stroked his beard, "being hated just for being born." His granddaughter frowned and stood up.

"What should I do with this?" she asked, dangling the pendant in front of the old man.

"If it was me, I'd take it to Kazue's grave." He shook his head again and stood up slowly. "But, that's impossible to do. She's buried in Okinawa."

Wang chuckled and added softly, "Just throw it away." The old man began to shuffle slowly into the house.

"Grampa?" she said again. Wang turned around slowly. "This is the reason Dad died, right?"

The elderly man shook his head, "Your father, he did a lot of bad things to the Mishimas. I think Heihachi would had forgiven Mao had he just told the truth. I really do."

"Is this the reason, though?" Michelle repeated.

"No." With that, the old man went back inside of the house and left Michelle to herself.

The sun had finished rising by then, however the girl could see clouds gathering. She then frowned as she heard an engine in the distance rumbling and growing louder, until finally she saw Paul turning the corner on his bike and speeding towards the house. Michelle sat back down and waited as the blonde pulled up into the driveway.

"You're pretty brave," she commented after Paul turned off his motorcycle. The blonde shrugged and hopped off.

"I wanted to call, but you know how it goes..." His voice trailed, and the biker frowned as he made his way to where Michelle was sitting quietly. "I got worried when you stormed off the other day." He sat down next to the younger girl. Michelle didn't reply but looked out towards the street, avoiding eye contact with the older man.

When she didn't answer, Paul added softly, "I'm sorry, I should had told you the truth, Shelly."

She was awoken by the faint sounds of water running in the apartment next door, and Jun found herself still in Lei's arms that morning on the couch. She pulled away, taking care not to wake him and sat up to rub her eyes. Lei groaned a little and shift a bit next to her, still not fully waking up, and the younger woman sat up fully and turned to watch Lei sleep.

Of course, nothing had happened. Jun wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed about that. Maybe a little of both or maybe neither. It was finally registering for her that she had cried in front of him, in his arms even, and he had said nothing and just held her. She still didn't know exactly why she was upset. Now, however, it had nothing to do with her being left out or coming home.

Jun hadn't shed a tear since she was a teenager. It was something she promised herself that she would never do again, after the last time she had spoken with her father after that night she returned from Paul's. The older man never knew that she hadn't been to prom at all, yet it was seeing those shoes in the trash and finally a small rip in the skirt of that white dress was when he questioned her morals.

She had simply replied, "I don't have any morals, aside from yours."

Her father slapped her in response to that.

She brushed a lock of dark hair out from Lei's eyes as he slept and smiled weakly at him. She hadn't meant to involve him like that, to force her problems onto him. Until the previous night, their relationship had been nothing more than professional, though friendly. She felt terrible that he had seen this side of her, something that she herself had been afraid to look at. Lei twitched a bit when her hand left his face, and his eyes slowly blinked opened. He gazed up at Jun for moment, his face unreadable, until he sat up slowly and looked ahead towards his front door. He then glanced over at his partner and back at the door.

"Wulong--Lei," Jun began softly. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to keep apologizing," he murmured as he leaned back onto the couch cushions.

She shook her head, "I don't like putting my problems on other people." Lei frowned at that explanation yet kept silent. "You were right. I hadn't been pulling my weight at all. I promise, I'll be focused on this case from now on."

"Would you just forget about the fucking case for a second?" the older man mumbled as rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Look, Jun, it's okay to be upset. It's okay to get angry sometimes." He pulled his hand away from his face and sat up. Lei then turned fully to face the younger woman, his face stern. "Nobody can go through life being content all the time. Nobody should expect anyone else to."

She grinned wearily, "Weren't you the one that said to stop being so pessimistic all the time?"

"I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic," Lei shrugged before cracking a small smile and nudging her. Jun looked forward again, chuckling softly to herself then turned her head and gazed at Lei. She crossed her arms and leaned over her knees as she felt her eyes watering up again, and she looked away. The younger woman let out another small laugh before she felt tears rolling down her cheeks, and she sat up a bit to free an arm to wipe them away. She sniffed and looked back up at Lei, who was frowning at her.

He then leaned in, his face to hers, pulling away a bit as he hesitated. The older detective bit his bottom lip then finally let out a heavy sigh before he closed his eyes and leaned in completely, gently kissing Jun once. Her eyes widened when his lips touched hers for that brief moment, and when he pulled away, she saw that he was still frowning.

"Heh," he started, "I guess that was a mistake." He slumped back into his seat and sighed again. He glanced back at Jun and shrugged.

Jun blinked, still a bit in shock, but she managed to reply, "No."

"Whatever you say, Kazama," Lei murmured as he closed his eyes. A weak grin crept across his face. "You know, the more we sit here and talk, the more we keep screwing up what we had before, huh?"

Jun smiled to herself, "Whatever you say, Wulong." He started chuckling and before long was laughing fully. Jun felt herself snickering and doing the same.

After several minutes, Lei finally managed to control his laughter, "Just forget that I did that, alright?" He glanced over at Jun, grinning fully.

She stopped chuckling and frowned a bit, "And why would I want to do that?"