Chapter Text
"Here Jin, eat up" Jun handed him a bowl of vegetable soup at the dinner table before taking a seat herself on the opposite side of where he sat.
"Thanks, mom. This looks really good" he said when he took a look and thankfully nodded for the meal. Soon he grabbed his spoon and began eating his dinner in a rather hasty manner.
"Haha, slow down. It won't run away from you" his mother laughed gently as she also began eating. Jin paused and swallowed the liquid that was still swimming in his mouth before responding.
"Sorry" he quickly spoke before eating a bit more slowly than before. The woman just shook her head and chuckled softly as the two were eating in silence for some time. Finally she finished her bowl first and turned her head to the young boy before speaking the following words to him:
"You know, Jin. A healthy diet is important for any martial artist, but even the most healthiest of diets can cause you to face unexpected consequences"
"Hm? What do you mean?" he looked up to her in confusion.
"Even if something is considered healthy, it can harm you in some way like choking you when you eat too quickly. Too much of any food can give you trouble," Jun explained and paused for a moment before continuing her speech " Always keep that in mind, Jin"
"Okay I get it, I won't talk with food in my mouth anymore..." Jin rolled his eyes while talking with a stuffed mouth and his mother just sighed and slightly laughed in response, knowing the teen probably won't get what she means. She then stood up and carried the dishes into the kitchen to start washing them.
"And go get some sleep after you're done. We have a long day ahead of us" the woman shouted from the other room and her son nodded agreeingly.
"Will do" he said as he brought his empty bowl to the kitchen. Before he could leave though he suddenly felt something strange...as if someone was violently shaking him? It wasn't his mom for sure as she was busy doing the dishes but then he heard a familiar voice calling him from somewhere.
"Ji...Ji...Jin..." a faint female voice occurred and it seemed to be getting closer by the second until he forcefully opened his eyes and woke up. He wasn't at his mother's house anymore, instead he was lying in a bed with someone hovering above him. His vision was blurry for a moment but he eventually figured out who has been calling out his name.
"Jin! Finally! How did you not wake up from the loud music?" it was Xiaoyu, a young woman and good friend Jin had ever since attending the Mishima Polytechnic Highschool during his teen years.
"What...mother..? Oh, it must've been just a dream..." Jin mumbled in a tired voice before sitting up straight on the bed. He took a moment to realize his surroundings and he only noticed after a while that they were in some strange room with loads of beds and tons of people around — possibly even hundreds?
"Were you dreaming about Jun?" Xiaoyu asked him worried as she sat next to him on the bed. When Jin took a closer look at her he also noticed that she was wearing a strange outfit and right away he saw that him and all the other people were wearing the same exact blue-green track suits...only with different numbers printed on them.
"Where are we?" he asked her while looking around visibly confused.
"I don't know and seems like everyone else is just as confused as we are. Did you...also get a strange card from some suited guy? Maybe that's how we ended up here.."
"Yeah, I remember...hmm, you're number 41? Does it have any meaning?" Jin pointed to the number printed on her chest but the girl shrugged.
"I have no idea. Come on, let's go down where the others are gathering. Looks like there'll be an announcement soon" Xiaoyu grabbed his arm and pulled the young man out of bed as they rushed down to where the majority of the other people were starting to gather. They patiently stood among the crowd and waited for some sort of announcement but in the meantime Jin got to listen in to what the others were saying around him.
"Wha-why are you here?! Isn't this about people who want to earn money? I think you have more money than you can spend already!" Asuka's voice shouted from nearby as she noticed her rival Lili.
"Oh, you're right for once. I have no reason to join these silly games but I just figured you might show up. And here you are!" the blonde haired girl spoke in a snobby way and that angered Asuka a lot.
"So you came here thinking to beat me? Hah, forget it, barbie! I'll beat you first!" the Japanese girl argued but Lili just laughed at her.
"It'll be fun to look at your face when I snatch the prize money right from your hands" Lili talked back and soon the two of them entered in a feisty back and forth bickering competition, as they usually do whenever they're in a room together. Suddenly Jin got pushed to the side by Xiaoyu as something very big just hugged her and when he turned to look, he saw Panda completely overwhelming the poor girl.
"P-panda?! You're here too?" Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise as she hugged her pet.
"I'll always be by your side, Xiaoyu!" the bear roared energetically and was very excited to see her owner.
"Hehe, good panda! Let's win this together, shall we?" the girl giggled and sounded pretty enthusiastic especially after reuniting with her beloved companion. Suddenly the large door in front of them opened and a bunch of strangely masked individuals walked through. Some of them were even armed which made Jin worry quite a bit.
"Welcome Players. As you may or may not already be aware of, you will soon be playing a total of six games where the winner will be rewarded a large sum of money in the end" the guard in the middle made an announcement but soon the crowd broke out in confusion.
"Uh, why are you guys wearing these creepy masks?" Lucky Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What kind of money are we talkin' about here?" Law questioned curiously.
"What games are we playing exactly?" Lars inquired next. The guard patiently waited until most people had asked their question and demanded the crowd to quiet down before he could give an answer to all of them.
"We understand that you've got a lot of questions. We wear these masks to protect our identity and you will find out soon enough which games you will be playing. As for the prize money...you will earn a total of 45,6 million Won for completing every game"
"Wait, how much did he say?!" Paul was shocked and so was the entire crowd of people. It was very loud as everyone couldn't believe how much money they could earn for simply playing some games.
"Is that really true? You're not lying to us, are you?" Law felt suspicion as he heard that amount of money being mentioned so casually.
"It's all true. The winner of this game will earn a total of 45,6 billion Won" the guard assured them but they still couldn't believe it.
"Did you hear that, Jin? If we actually get so much money I can finally build the amusement park I always wanted!" Xiaoyu was excited and eager to play these games, but Jin felt otherwise. He wasn't sure whether to fully believe what the suspicious guards were saying or not but he had no other choice but to go through with it anyway. He had no idea where they were even located and at first glance he had no idea if there was even any way they could escape this facility.
"The first game will begin in 30 minutes. Please prepare by then" the guard finally said before him and the remaining guards left the contestants by themselves.
"I won't have to worry about debts anymore and I can get my dojo back with this money!" Law said to his best friend Paul as his eyes were practically glowing at the thought of getting his life back together.
"Yeah dude, but only IF you win. I won't split the money with you if I turn out to be the winner" Paul replied in a rather sarcastic tone which also had a hint of spitefulness.
"Huh, ungrateful much! Do you know who trained you all these years in that very dojo?"
Jin and Xiaoyu decided to sit back on the beds and talk in a more secluded area, away from the busy crowd although there were still quite a few people around them and the commotion from the others couldn't really be ignored.
"What do you think? What kind of games are they going to make us play?" Xiaoyu asked her friend but he honestly had no idea what to expect.
"I don't know. Let's hope it's some games that I am familiar with at least"
"Since when does THE Jin Kazama want it the easy way, huh?" suddenly a new voice sounded from above in the bunkbed and when they took a quick glance, they saw Hwoarang, Jin's year long rival, relaxing on the bed above.
"Hwoarang? You too?" Jin was rather shocked to see his face.
"What do you mean? Everyone wants to win some money, right?" Hwoarang scoffed while not even looking at the two below him.
"What a coincidence! Guys, how about we work together so we have a better chance at winning? They'll definitely give us some team based games!" Xiaoyu spoke happily and even though Jin didn't want to work together with Hwoarang, he had to admit that she was right and it was best they team up in unfamiliar situations like these.
"Agreed. What do you say, Hwo?"
"Eh, I'll pass. I'll win this game all by myself, just you watch" the red haired man glared at Jin before jumping down from his bed and moving to the center of the giant room.
"Oh, alright...Let us just stay together for now then" the young woman looked at Jin weirdly after Hwoarang just left with such attitude. The dark haired man nodded to her words and they then proceeded to wait out the rest of the time until the first game would finally begin.
"Players, please head outside as the first game will begin shortly" a somewhat robotic sounding female voice spoke through some speakers after the 30 minutes concluded and everyone formed a line where they walked out of the large room with the beds and into what looked like a colorful maze of stairs. Soon they arrived at some monitors where they had to take pictures of themselves one by one, which Jin found rather absurd. Right after that though, they walked through a different door which finally lead them to the arena where the game would take place. After a while of everyone gathering inside, the same lady spoke through the speakers again, explaining the process of the game.
"You will now be playing the game 'Red Light Green Light'. Be sure to not let her see you move or else you'll be eliminated!"
"Red Light Green Light? So we're playing some dumb kids games..." Steve spoke as he stood next to Jin, but the young man had an awfully strange feeling while looking at the giant robot girl in front of them and the few armed guards standing right next to it.
"Hah, the money's in the bag!" Paul stretched his limbs in preparation for the game.
"Don't be so overconfident or you'll end up losing!" Law pushed him to the side jokingly.
"Let's stay next to each other, Jin. We can do this!" Xiaoyu encouraged her friend and he nodded to her kindly. Soon the doll's head turned away from the players and a timer above it lit up before a voice spoke loud and clear:
"Green Light"
In that moment everyone began moving frantically trying to get as far as possible, but Jin and Xiaoyu went slowly to be extra careful in their steps. When the robot shouted 'Red Light' and turned its head around to check, nobody was moving a single muscle until it turned around again and gave the according signal so they could keep moving onward.
"This'll be a piece of cake!" Lucky Chloe jumped forward happily and she was one of the fastest people right now. Of course everyone stopped once again when the robot shouted 'Red Light', but then it seemed like Paul had a cheeky idea to annoy and eliminate his friend, especially since he was standing right behind him in this moment.
"Hey Law. Watch your step!" the American shouted and pushed his friend forward trying not to move much himself.
"Ugh, darn it! You bastard, why did you do that?!" Law turned around to him angrily but before anyone could say another word or even move their eyes to check the commotion, there was a loud gun shot and seconds after that Law was lying dead in front of his friend. Paul stared down at him with blood splattered on his face and clothes as he couldn't believe what just happened. It was a few moments of silence until many more people began freaking out upon seeing a dead body and they ran away in hopes of finding a way to escape. But it was of no use since there was nowhere they could run to. One by one more people got shot amidst all the screaming and merciful begging, leaving pools of blood everywhere. Jin looked over to Xiaoyu hoping she wouldn't panic like the others, but she just looked back at him with pure terror in her eyes while trying to remain calm. Screams of fear, agony and pain sounded from all directions as it seemed like people were getting shot endlessly. Finally the situation calmed down and the robot turned its head back around calling 'Green Light'. Not many moved though as they were just too terrified to do so after witnessing what happened.
"I...are these people actually..?" Xiaoyu mumbled as she stared down to the corpses around her.
"Xiao, please keep your guard up" Jin told her while moving forward a bit. She nodded silently and followed right behind him while also looking to see how Panda was doing and was relieved to see she was still alive.
"What...what have I done...Law, please wake up! Quit fooling around already, man!" Paul mourned his dead friend instead of moving forward like the others and cried rivers of tears. Then he had to stop quickly as the robot shouted 'Red Light', not wanting to face the same fate as Law this soon. After checking and after a few shots, the game continued and now everyone moved forward, except Paul. He was the one furthest behind still sitting by Law's corpse. There was so much blood and dead bodies around it was incredibly surreal for everyone involved, but they had to focus on surviving and try to ignore this brutality for now.
It felt like an eternity but Jin, Xiaoyu and Panda all managed to reach the line at the other end thanks to Jin's quick guidance and cool thinking but there were still many people who had to reach that point. Jin was mostly concerned about Paul as the man just stayed in one place the entire time without moving an inch further and he could only imagine what would happen to those who didn't reach the end in time.
"Green Light" the robot girl said as the clock showed 1 minute remaining and yet Paul still hasn't moved. Suddenly Steve looked behind him noticing the man being far behind and decided to make a very risky move. He rushed over to his friend picked him up by the shoulder to support him and guided him forward.
"Steve? D-don't come back for me! You could die!" Paul cried as he was still staring at Law behind him "I don't want to be the one to blame for your death too..."
"Oh shut up, will ya'? I can't let you die here" the Brit scolded him and tried to move as quickly as he could but then he heard the words 'Red Light' again and abruptly stopped. Most of the people, who hadn't died yet, have already reached the end by now while Steve and Paul were pretty much the last ones left. They really had to hurry up if they wanted to win this game because there was only about 30 seconds remaining on the time. Finally the robot turned back around, allowing them to continue moving and everyone had to watch intently as they came closer to the finish line but also as time was getting shorter and shorter. Steve and Paul only had to walk a few more steps to reach the end but that's when the robot turned its head around once more, forcing them to lose some more time as they stood still. Steve was constantly staring at the time but he was determined that he could bring him and Paul across safely, although he would have to use all of his energy that he had left to run as only 10 seconds remained when the robot finally said 'Green Light' for the last time. Then they began moving, faster and faster. 5 seconds remaining.
"Steve...I'm sorry! You should've just left me there and saved yourself!" Paul cried louder.
"That attitude really doesn't suit you, old man!" Steve shouted and pushed him violently across the line before finally making a big jump at the very last second only hoping he made it right in time. Luckily for them they actually made it to the end and everyone else was incredibly impressed by Steve saving Paul, losing a lot of time and still making it despite having to deal with so much pressure. The crowd cheered for them as the two of them took deep breaths after that exhausting run.
"That was...amazing. I really doubted they would make it in time" Xiaoyu mumbled and Jin couldn't agree more. A lot of people patted Steve's back to show their respect, but it was Paul who had the most respect for the man now.
"Steve...thank you, buddy. You're truly something else" he thanked him gratefully, his voice still dreadful though.
"I'm sorry about Law, but turns out this game is way more serious than I thought. We have to be careful. We gotta win for him...and all the others who lost their lives just now" Steve replied to his friend and the other players couldn't agree more with his statement.
"This game has concluded. Congratulations to everyone who wasn't eliminated! Please proceed back to the lobby" the same lady from before announced again sounding almost enthusiastic even after what just happened to those who got eliminated. But as she said, it was time to head back and everyone else did so in a depressing manner after what they had to witness.