On the night before the tournament began, Jin sat quietly in the back seat of a car on the outskirts of the Mishima Zaibatsu compound near a forest while it was raining. As the driver started the car and turned on the headlights, Jin caught sight of a figure up ahead on a motorcycle and recognized the fiery red hair. Hwoarang turned his head in the car’s direction and smirked. He quickly started up his bike and drove off, satisfied that Jin knew his presence would be at the tournament for their promised re-match.

Jin’s 19th birthday arrived the following day and with it, the curtains rose on The King of Iron Fist Tournament 3.

Each match was to be held at a special location where two fighters would meet. The locations were all across the world. Heihachi had explained to Jin that the final match against Ogre was planned for Mexico. Jin was expected to enter the tournament as a regular participant and work his way up as any other fighter would. Heihachi was confident that Jin would make it that far without any trouble.

An unusual trait of the tournament was that Jin would not know who else was fighting who and progressing through the tournament. The brackets and the list of fighters were not public information. Additionally, names of opponents were not given until right before a match. There were no referees during the matches, but officials would wait on the outskirts of a given fighting location for the winner to approach. Spectators were allowed at only a few locations. The only person Jin realized he might be able to track through the tournament was Xiaoyu if she relayed whether she won or lost to him herself.

Jin’s first few matches were easy and forgettable. Xiaoyu sent him a text message through her cell phone that simply stated, “I lost. :(” Sympathizing, Jin dialed in a reply message: “It’s alright, just train harder for next time.” He did not see it, but his words brought a comforted smile to her face. They showed her that he cared, and for that, she was happy.

Then Jin had a match with Hwoarang. This match was held outdoors at a temple. Jin wore his black pants with the flame on them, red gloves, and red footpads. Hwoarang wore a Tae Kwon Do uniform.

“Alright, Kazama, let’s do this!” Hwoarang declared, balling both his hands into fists as he firmly prepared his stance.

Jin nodded in agreement and followed suit. Their fight was much like the one in the summer only taken to a new level since both had trained so hard these past few months. Both were relentless. Both were fierce. Both were bound and determined to win. Blow upon blow to each other reeking of a new intensity between them.

But this time, Jin won out in the end.

Weakened and with a broken a voice, Hwoarang uttered, “Promise…me another re-match…Kazama!”

“Another one?” Jin inquired with a calm that burned Hwoarang with humiliation. He couldn’t stand how Jin acted so casually about the intense fight they just had.

“Promise!” Hwoarang demanded.

Realizing how important it was to his defeated opponent, Jin nodded respectfully. “Very well. Promise.”

He fought another few matches and then had a match with a woman named Nina Williams. She had a chilling blank stare with cold blue eyes. The way she looked at him…it made him feel as if she wanted to kill him.

Nina looked Jin over. Finally, she had found her target. She would kill him and accomplish her mission. The way his black hair stuck up in the end looked familiar though she knew it was impossible for them to have ever met. After all, he had been born while she was in cold sleep. Not that it really mattered that he looked familiar. The important thing was to obey and kill. She made diagonal motion with her hand parallel to her throat, as if to threaten him.

Jin did not take notice of this motion as he adjusted his gloves.

Nina wasn’t as difficult to fight as Hwoarang, but it was no simple task either. He’d hit her a few times, and sometimes she’d block. She would do the same, and he would block. At one point, she threw him to the ground and started twisting his leg, but Jin was able to shove her off. Eventually, he knocked her unconscious with a powerful thunder god fist.
He turned and began to walk away. A white mist lifted itself from her body and evaporated into the air as Ogre released his hold on her. Jin thought he sensed something and glanced back at Nina. He saw no evident change in the scene and so continued walking, unaware of what had just happened.

After another couple of matches, Jin learned he’d be on his way to the final part of the tournament in Mexico.

There was, in fact, another fighter that made it as far as Jin did, the very same fighter Jin had heard his father had fought, Paul Phoenix. Paul and Jin were not informed of each other as part of a picture Heihachi wanted to paint for each of them in his delicately drawn out plan for Ogre’s capture. Two very strong fighters would be better than one for this task, and each would be guided along the necessary path for the plan at work.

…

In Uxmal, Mexico, Heihachi, Paul, and a squad of the Tekken Force stood outside a structure known as the Pyramid of the Magician. The night air was comfortably cool, and a full moon graced the midnight sky. Soldiers surrounded the base of the pyramid on both sides. Heihachi and Paul were on the western side gazing at the long staircase that led upwards. This place had been chosen based upon Heihachi’s own research and consultation with Dr. Boskonovitch, who had suggested that Ogre was most likely inside this particular place, awaiting the arrival of a worthy soul. The pyramid consisted of five temples, each with varying rooms and decorations.

Heihachi wore a hakama and no shirt. Paul Phoenix had a tall flat top of blonde hair and was dressed in a red gi, prepared for the fight ahead.

“Ogre is inside,” Heihachi explained to Paul. “He won’t appear right away. Just go up the stairs and wait inside the room there. He will arrive in due time. When you’re done with the fight, exit out the other side of the building. I have something else to attend to so the soldiers waiting on the other side will escort you home afterwards. Understand?”

With a nod of his head, Paul gruffly replied, “Yeah, I got it,” and began his trek up the steps.

Heihachi glanced at his watch. Timing was crucial, and fortunately for him, going as planned. Only a few minutes later, Paul was inside the pyramid. He saw an open area with intricate paintings on the walls and further up, there were two lines of pillars that followed into a darkened area, to which he continued his walk. Outside, a limo drove up to Heihachi and stopped. The driver opened the door, and Jin stepped out, dressed in his fighting attire.

Inside the pyramid, Paul and Ogre came upon each other. Paul balled up one of his hands into a fist, pounded it to the other hand, and cracked his neck. “Let’s do this.” Ogre had sensed Jin’s arrival outside the pyramid and that there was an intruder he, Ogre, wanted out of the way before the real enemy came inside. Ogre said not a word, and the two commenced their battle.

At the base of the pyramid, “There?” Jin asked, lifting his head upward to the chamber where he did not know of the fight taking place.

“Yes,” Heihachi said with his arms folded. He and Jin stood side by side. “Only a few more minutes Jin…” He could feel the fierce grimace his grandson made, hear a frustrated low growl, and sense the tension with which he knew Jin was clenching his fists. “Remember,” Heihachi said in a low, cautious whisper, “it cannot be too soon or too late. You must trust me for when the time is right.”

Jin bowed his head for a moment, then nodded in reluctant obedience, and looked back up at the doorway he longed to enter with the same fierceness and determination in his brown eyes that he’d carried with him ever since he had first encountered Ogre.

And so, just as his grandfather advised, he waited. He didn’t know specifically what they were waiting for, but certainly Heihachi had gone to great lengths to prepare everything in such a fashion.

After awhile, on the other side of the pyramid, an exhausted Paul Phoenix walked out. He nearly collapsed as two soldiers grabbed him, but he was grinning ear to ear with tremendous drunken pride. “I did it…I beat him,” Paul said through tired breaths. The soldiers walked him down and one of them relayed a message through a walkie talkie to Heihachi. “Sir, it’s ready,” was all he was allowed to say.

Jin felt the outside of his body stiffen yet his blood race wildly within his veins as he looked at his grandfather with widened eyes after hearing these words.

“It’s time,” Heihachi said in a low voice. “Go on up and do me proud, boy. We’ll be right behind you.”