The Jin Saga 2: Chapter 3 – Nightmares

Jin managed to find a secluded place to stay in Yakushima as he had desired. He was away from everyone and everything, set apart from all the world. He never felt more alone than he did now. Although he had always put distance between himself and others, he was never so far that he didn’t speak to them when spoken to.

Now, nobody could speak to him…nobody except Devil. The mere thought of Devil made him wince. He recalled the quiet malicious voice’s reaction to Heihachi’s death. It had come out as if it was a passing thought in Jin rather than a separate entity from him. That was what disturbed Jin more than anything. Would he reach a point where he wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between themselves?

I certainly hope so.

The voice echoed louder than it ever had in his mind; Jin widened his eyes in his empty room at the thought. “No,” he muttered. “No, I don’t want that to happen.” He spoke as if to reassure himself.

The voice kept quiet and didn’t argue.

That night, deep within his sleep, Jin felt himself falling surrounded in darkness. Down and down he went, unable to bring himself to scream. What good would it do? No one would be able to hear him. The fall was slow and light-did he really have reason to even be afraid?

As if to answer him, he felt himself finally hit bottom-and he hit it hard. Excruciating pain spread through his backside where he had fallen, and he could feel himself being drained of life as his blood spread underneath him. He could not move but for a small twitch of his fingers.

“You are nothing without me, Jin Kazama,” a sinister voice whispered in his ear ever so close.

His own face listless, Jin gathered all he could of himself to ask, “Devil…what are you doing to me? Am I going to die?”

Deeper, stronger, and louder, the evil spirit laughed. “I am changing you. You died two years ago when Heihachi shot you, child. I want your soul, your body, your name, all of you…and I shall have it.”

Before Jin could cry out and deny such words, he awakened in a sweat, breathing intensely. His body ached, and he sensed that he had been fighting off a transformation while asleep.

It was only the first in a series to come. Constantly crashing down into oblivion, he fell over and over, night after night. Sometimes he could hear screams in the distance and an eerie voice saying to destroy them and put them out of their misery, and sometimes he’d wake up in a place he did not know from a demonic flight he could not remember.

Power is everything.

Each nightmare ended with these words drilled into him through a voice that sounded like his own. He valued power. He knew that deep down. There was no denying it. But did he value it so much as to place it above all else?

Over time, he grew to realize he was not going to find the answer in Yakushima. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on,” he told himself. Nearly two months had passed, and his condition had only worsened. He was transforming more often, and he could feel the dark desires and hunger from his evil counterpart growing stronger.

One day, as he stood up gazing at the sunlight by a pond, awakening from yet another nightly venture he must have had, a torn newspaper flew towards him and wrapped itself on his lower right leg. Jin picked it up and saw an announcement for The King of Iron Fist Tournament 5.

He knew in his heart it was the only thing he could do, the only place he could go. Something was there that he needed to find and confront to put an end to the evil that plagued him.

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