"This seems pretty big doesn't it?" Lei spoke, making conversation

"Er…I guess so." Jun replied shyly

"Oh, pardon my manners," Lei fumbled, "I'm Lei Wulong from Interpol."

"I know," Jun answered back, with a slight giggle, "Mr Lee introduced us."

"…Oh yeah" the cop realised, "And you're…Kazama Jun, right?"

"Yes," she replied, "But most people just call me Jun."

"Ah, well, Ms Jun," Lei spoke, "Shall we 'peruse' through these invites?"

Jun thought about it. He didn't seem to be of any harm, but then if he was, she could easily defend herself. One of the major gifts of Kazama-ryu Ju-Jitsu is a huge scale of defensive moves, a style that wasn't reliant on too much offence.

"Ok." She chirpily replied, perhaps too chirpily.

The two sat on a nearby bench and read through the invites. On one side, the front cover, it had the M.F.E logo, 'Iron Fist' written in the traditional kanji characters, and on the other side, the back, it had the official invite, written in English, Romanji Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin. It stated thus…

'To the owner of this invite…

Through your magnificent skills in mental and physical faculties, you have been given the chance to prove yourself against other equally strong fighters to officially become the world's strongest warrior. If you are abroad from our location, this invite can also be used as a first-class airline ticket to our main building in Tokyo, Japan. On arrival to our building, the CEO of the Mishima Financial Empire, Mishima Kazuya, will give you details on the tournament himself. If you manage to beat your opponents, and finally, the previous winner, you will be the world's strongest fighter and you will be given a trophy and 1 billion dollars American spending money. If you manage only to get up to the finals, you will be given a trophy, in the traditional silver, and 1 million dollars American. If you only reach up to the semi-finals, you will be given a traditional bronze trophy and 5 hundred thousand dollars American. To officially gain your place in the tournament, simply write your name, profile and medical needs (if any) in the necessary lines below and hand it in at the checkpoint set up in the Zaibatsu.

Terms and Conditions: Contestants have to be aged over 18 and have a record of their achievement in the martial arts. After elimination, you can only reside for 2 days to gather belongings. The Mishima Zaibatsu will officially pay for your flight home and will not be held responsible for any loss of possessions, accident or bodily harm during the tournament duration.'

"It seems like your average martial arts tournament to me." Lei stated

"Only this tournament is supported by a fringe business empire." Jun reminded her companion, "Not to mention involved in animal smuggling, organised crime and assassination."

"Well, that's a given," Lei agreed, "But we don't have any proof on that."

"Guess we'll have to go to the tournament to find out." She replied

Lei put on a look of surprise, perking up and turning to face Jun.

"Are you serious?" he exclaimed, and then quietened down when members of the public faced him.


"It's the only way," she sighed, "Besides, if I'm lucky, my skills will gain me at least enough time to get some evidence."

"Same here." Lei replied, seeing where Jun was coming from, then he looked at his watch, "I've gotta go and report this. How about we meet up on…say…Thursday?"

"Hmm, I don't know…"

"I won't try anything funny, honest!"

"Ok," she replied with a slender smile

"Great. I'll be around here around 6pm." Lei stated, "Bye for now."

"Bye"

Lei disappeared amongst the crowd of shoppers and tourists. Jun looked up to the sky and sighed. She was onto her first big case in WWWC, and it was very big news. If she got the necessary evidence, then many officials' heads would roll around like marbles spilt from a bag all over the floor.

'Do I have what it takes to get through this?' she thought, beginning to doubt her own abilities.

She got up from the bench and slipped into the mould of people rushing into shops, whether to buy a Playstation, a game, or other junk littered in various stores.

What a friend we have in commercialism and capitalism!

2 months later…

The tournament dawned on the Zaibatsu in a few hours. Some fighters had already arrived too early, such as two new combatants. Kazuya checked their identities up on his own little computer. Most of the people who entered the tournament were with him in the last one, now these two come along. A Mr Lei Wulong and a Ms Jun Kazama, one Chinese, the other Japanese, one likes movies, the other like woodland forests, the other hates crime, the other hates pollution, but both worked for the legal authorities! He felt something off about the two, he had never seen them in close combat in any martial arts tournament, unlike Paul Phoenix, another person who came in early along with his friend Marshall Law and strangely enough, his big brother Rex Phoenix, who was acting as Paul's 'manager' so to speak.

'Four people,' he thought, 'The world's biggest martial arts tournament, aside that one in Southtown, and only 4 people arrive!'

He heard about the Southtown tournament, something called 'The King Of Fighters', but he didn't care for it. Southtown was just a little junk pile of a city, yet he was amazed that his father's previous partners were involved in it, such as Geese Howard and Rugal Bernstein. He was sent away to a boarding school during Heihachi's talks with Geese and he was away anyway when his father talked to Rugal. But either way, he didn't care. All he cared about now was to see if his father would turn up, or if the letter was a hoax and the tournament's purpose would simply be a bunch of people beating the shit out of each other…and of course, him beating the shit out of the winner!

Though another thing kept sparking in his mind. The 'Kazama woman' looked similar to the pale-white woman he saw about 2 months ago. Of course there were little differences, but he couldn't shake it off. He switched off his laptop and closed it up.

Daytime dawned, along with the tournament. Kazuya himself would officially announce it open at 11am that day, as the invite stated. The entire fighters taking part had now gathered. Aside Jun, Lei, Paul and Marshall, the King wrestlers had turned up, followed closely by a large man with a blonde mohican who went by the name of 'Jack'. A few minutes passed until the next few fighters turned up, being Michelle, the daughter of the woman Kazuya had kidnapped for some strange reason, Nina Williams, famous assassin who was unlucky last tournament, the ninja Yoshimitsu wandered in, getting many raised eyebrows, in surprise or in shock. Then the rest of the fighters, Baek Doo San, Wang Jinrey, Kunimitsu, etc, came in by turn. Kazuya watched the whole thing unfold before his eyes. Nearly everyone, save for his 'bodyguards', who were also entering the tournament, and his father were standing outside below his balcony.

'Hmph! I knew it.' He thought, checking to see if 'daddy dearest' was amongst the crowd

That was when he turned up. The previous Mishima Zaibatsu CEO Heihachi Mishima made his slow and steady way amongst the crowd of fighters. For a former businessman, he was dressed quite casually, holding a bag of whatever items he head with him after Kazuya left him for dead, crow food. He looked up to the balcony and saw his son, his ingrate for a son, and Kazuya looked back at his father, his vicious fascist for a father. They frowned and growled as it each other, yet the distance between them was about 4 storeys.

Lee entered the office and saw his stepbrother standing on the balcony ready. Lee took a piece of paper out from his breast pocket, Kazuya's greeting speech, and walked over to him.

"Your speech is ready Kazuya." He stated, yet he got no reply.

"Kazuya?"

Nothing.

"Kazuya?"

"Can you see him down there Lee?" he finally responded

"See who?"

"Father of course!" Kazuya exclaimed, "He's down there!"

Lee looked for himself and spotted him, no one else had that style haircut outside the nightclubs. Heihachi spotted Lee and responded with divided attention. He was just bothered with his son, not his stepson. Lee frowned; it had been that way ever since he was invited into the Mishima household! He gave Kazuya his speech and walked out. Kazuya wiped his forehead, brushing back any stray hairs. Though surprised, he couldn't fear. He found that out ages ago, the Day The Old Kazuya Died, which was also the Day The New Kazuya Was Born…