Heart of Battle: Chapter 3

“A Search for Lost Love”

A new school day arose for the students of Gedo High School in Tokyo, Japan. We turn our attention to one student, Asuka Kazama, who was rummaging through her locker. When she closes her locker, she is surprised by her best friend Ling Xiaoyu, a transfer student from China. She tells Asuka that Jin Kazama, who is Xiaoyu’s boyfriend and Asuka’s older cousin, had not been in contact with her for more than a few days, and that she is very worried about it. Jin and Xiaoyu had agreed to call each other every day ever since Jin began his martial arts training under his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima. Realizing this was the first time she was hearing about this, Asuka told her not to worry and that they can go to the Mishima Dojo this weekend to look for him. The perky and upbeat Xiaoyu refused to wait until the weekend, so she left as soon as school was dismissed for the day. Asuka realized what was happening, so she informed her siblings, Daigo (her older brother) and Akira (their younger sister), what was going on and then she followed Xiaoyu. The girls met up at the edge of the city, where Xiaoyu intended on taking the rural path to the Mishima Dojo in the mountains, accompanied by her panda bear, simply named Panda. Asuka said that she couldn’t convince Xiaoyu not to do this, so she might as well come with her and Panda to find Jin, just to help to make sure Xiaoyu is okay. They traveled by bicycle for several hours to the Mishima Dojo, with Panda riding in a side car on Xiaoyu’s bike. The castle-like Mishima Dojo, straddling the side of a tall mountain, soon caught the girls’ eyes as they got closer to it. Upon reaching the gates of the building, the girls got off their bikes and headed inside. There was no one inside, not even any security guards who work for Heihachi and his corporation, and yet the lights were on. Not even any stray animals or pests were inside. Xiaoyu, Asuka, and Panda searched the large dojo for any sign of life… and Xiaoyu and Asuka found two. But it was not Jin, nor was it Heihachi. It was a young man, around their age, unconscious and bound in chains. The two girls got over to him, but then a rumbling was heard from a wall, and a beast blasted through it! It was a grizzly bear but wearing a dark-grey gi and a red headband around its head! The bear, who they do not is Heihachi’s pet bear Kuma, fought against them using some rudimentary martial arts style that he knows against the martial arts they know. But at the tail end of the fight, just when it was about to strike down Asuka, Panda rushed into the room and tackled Kuma out of the way. The grizzly bear looked up from his knocked-down position and… was immediately infatuated with Panda? He tried to hand her a flower from a vase that was knocked over, but Panda rejected this offer and struck back against Kuma hard, sending him flying through a wall and out of the dojo! Kuma, injured and heart-broken, retreated back into the woods of the mountainside. Xiaoyu, Asuka, and Panda returned to the attention of the prisoner. He awoke after the girls undid his bonds, and they asked who he is. They stepped outside the dojo to get some fresh air. The young man said his name is Kyo Kusanagi, and he explained himself. He’s the leader of the Kusanagi clan, a family line of spiritualists and exorcists. He was investigating the resurgence of the cult of Orochi, a demon that the Kusanagi clan sealed away around six centuries ago, and that his investigation led him to this dojo. He saw that it was empty, but when he stepped inside to see, he was knocked out from behind by “something or someone huge”. And when he awoke, he saw these girls and their panda. Xiaoyu and Asuka explained their deal, and that the large bear they just fought maybe who knocked out Kyo and… put him in chains? That’s when a tough male voice was heard coming from the forest, saying HE’S the one who knocked out “the intruder” and locked him up, then ordering Kuma to keep an eye on him. A tall and intimidating man with boxing gloves on his fists stepped from the forest, yelling that they’re “all gonna get their skulls caved in”. Calling himself Balrog, the man pressed a button on a device connected to his waist and a rumbling was heard. Five mechanical humanoids, called JACKs, ripped through the dense forest, and Balrog ordered them to “beat ‘em up and then lock ‘em up; the boss will wanna talk with them”.        

Notes:

* Asuka and her siblings Daigo and Asuka are orphans, raised by a friend of their family.

** Their relationship to their cousin Jin is through Jin’s late mother Jun, the sister of their late father.

* Xiaoyu is a legal ward of Heihachi while living in Japan, now looked after by his assistants after he left for his dojo to train Jin.

** Though she did not know of Kuma, Xiaoyu was given Panda by Heihachi to be her bodyguard.

* Duncan Bush, aka Balrog, was a boxer from the mean streets of an American city before being recruited by this unknown boss of his to protect Mishima’s dojo.

** Balrog’s nickname is based on the Balrog, a massive demonic monster from the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.

** I decided to give him the real name of “Duncan Bush”, which is a portmanteau of Michael Clark Duncan and Grand L. Bush, the two live-action actors for Balrog.

* I would like to have made microheroes for Panda and Kuma, but I had NO IDEA how to do that, so I skipped it.