Afterwards: The Fourth Tekken Novel

Beach Picnic and Discussing

Xiaoyu squealed when Jin handed her the bouquet of pink flowers, much to the others' amusement.
"Aww, look at her," Jun smiled as she watched her fawn over Jin in the distance. "They make an adorable couple."
"Wouldn't the same be said for us?" Kazuya smirked as he put an arm around her.
Shasha chuckled and reached for a sandwich. "You guys do know that you're still my number-one ship, right?"
Jun chuckled. "Yeah, I know."
Kazuya shrugged. "How can we not know? You mentioned this like a million times."
"Yeah," Shasha giggled. "Anyway, do we have any plans tomorrow? It's our last day before departure."
Amber sighed as she sat herself with them. "Yeah, so fast. And we barely enjoyed too."
"Come on, at least we had a barbecue party," Shasha pointed out. "Lots of fun stuff happened."
"And some not-so-fun stuff happened too," Kazuya pointed out. He realised that all of them were giving him a strange look. "What? I'm just sayin'."
"I agree," Amber said, helping herself to a sandwich as well. "This holiday has been a wild ride."
Shasha groaned. "Why all holidays? First Yakushima, then Rikubetsu, and now this."
"I thought this was planned?" Kazuya reminded. "Weren't you a part of this?"
"Regretfully," Shasha ruefully admitted. "I was dragged into this mess by the lady beside you."
Jun quietly nibbled onto a fried rice cake.
Kazuya turned to look at his wife and sighed. "I don't know if I can blame her. I mean, her plan did work, I do feel less stressed now."
Amber nodded slowly. "Same with me. Especially after last night's... epiphany..."
Shasha shook her head. "Why only you have to go and stand like that in the dark, I still don't know."
"I just couldn't sleep," Amber defended herself. "Besides, I like going out at night. It was a nice night too."
Jun snorted. "Why were you worried for Jin anyway? Like, none of us were."
Amber frowned. "You didn't go through what I did. He didn't even see me as a human being, let alone the fact he abandoned me."
"You know, it was a good thing you were abandoned," Kazuya frowned. "I mean, I know you were possessed by an evil spirit and all because of your unstable powers, but look at Steve. You would've suffered at that lab too. And besides, the Old Fart wasn't a pleasant person to be around."
"I agree," Amber nodded slowly. "I may have been possessed, but at least I don't remember half of what I was going through."
Shasha put an arm around Amber and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Don't think about all of that. Now, we enjoy."
"To whatever we have of this holiday," Jun made a toast with her sandwich since she didn't have a drink near her. She chuckled and put an arm around her husband. "I'm sorry this hasn't been what you expected."
Kazuya shrugged. "Well, I guess I made a friend. A very... unexpected friend." He shuddered when he spotted Heihachi loitering about in his fundoshi not far off.
Jun snorted and pulled him closer to whisper something. "Maybe we should get you one too."
Kazuya turned bright red as he stared at her in surprise.
Amber hid a smirk and turned to Shasha. "You wanna go for a swim?"
Shasha nodded, stuffing whatever's left of her sandwich into her mouth as she got up. "Yep."
"Jun!" Kazuya groaned. "Look what you did, you just warded them off."
"Come on, I'm sure they didn't hear that, your reaction was more obvious," Jun chuckled and got up. "But maybe we should go for a swim too."
"But who's gonna watch our things?" Kazuya sighed.
Jin practically appeared out of nowhere with Xiaoyu, having just gone for a swim together. "We can do it," she excitedly said. "We're hungry anyway."
Jun chuckled. "Go on, help yourselves."
Xiaoyu excitedly sat down, tugging Jin along with her. The roses he gave her laid upturned in her beach bag to keep it away from the heat. No one saw what difference that would make, but she seemed proud.

Lars stared at Heihachi in surprise when he revealed his plan of hosting another party.
"Do you know how much work it requires?" Lars pointed out. "No way, I'm not doing it again."
Steve nudged him and shook his head. "Come on, man. For your brothers?"
"You agree to this?" Heihachi asked, mildly surprised.
"Why not?" Steve shrugged. "You totally flunked the party, why not try again." He turned to Jin. "You're okay with this, aren't you?"
Jin nodded shortly, leaning back in his chair.
Steve turned back to Lars. "So, what's holding you back? It's usually Jin that wouldn't agree with these ideas, but even he gave the green light. What else do you want, guv?"
Lars frowned. "Don't guv me." He sighed as he turned back to Heihachi. "Fine. But don't blame me if it blows up in your face."
"I know that would happen if I did it myself, that's why I'm asking for your help," Heihachi pointed out. "Also, I apologise for my... grand entrance."
"Grand entrance? More like Scare entrance," Steve couldn't help but say. "You know, all of us panicked when Shasha informed us of... you..."
Heihachi frowned slightly and shrugged. "Well, she didn't seem all that panicked."
"Probably because of the stuff she'd seen since the time she came in," Lars shrugged. "There was the tournament, the masquerade, what else? Jun returning, Amber."
"This guy in his Devil Form," Steve added.
Jin nodded. "Yeah, she ran off. And then she was in denial for a few days, and then she got used to it."
Steve shook his head. "Not something to be proud of, Jin."
"Yeah," Jin sighed. "But still not as bad as this guy."
"Yeah, back to the story," Heihachi said with the flair of making a master plan. "What do we do? I want it to be tenfold of what you guys did."
"Are you saying that we didn't do enough?" Lars frowned.
Heihachi firmly shook his head. "No. I just want it to be better. And..." he smirked. "We're going shopping! Let's schedule days."
The three of them groaned.
"Speak for yourself," Jin groaned. "Ain't nobody got time for that."
Steve sighed and pointed a hand at him. "Gentlemen, my boss."
"Our boss," Lars added.
Jin frowned at him. "No, I don't boss you around. You and I are practically equals, Lars. You take care of the soldiers, defences and all of that, and I take care of the company."
Lars smirked slightly and leaned forward. "So the Tekken Force isn't under you, then."
Jin clicked his tongue at that and turned away. Heihachi shook his head in amusement, suddenly being reminded of his oldest son.
"I think you should take Hwo with you," Steve smirked. "The guy has a lot of time in his hands, too much time to waste for his own good."
"What does he even do with that much time?" Lars couldn't help but snort.
Steve shrugged. "Mostly picking fights, spars, street fights, stick his nose into gang fights."
"That doesn't sound wise of him," Heihachi couldn't help but say.
"Since when has he been wise," Jin piped up. "He goes biking for fun, then gets tons of speeding summons. You'd think he'd learn from all of Baek's scoldings, but nope."
Steve snorted. "I'm just surprised that guy is still taking care of this infant."
Lars laughed. "Infant."
"Take him with you if we're unavailable," Jin added. "Take Shasha if she's free as well."
If she had heard this she would've screamed at them for constantly getting her involved into things that doesn't even concern her.
Heihachi nodded. "It's a deal, then."