Afterwards: The Fourth Tekken Novel

Lunching

Kazuya walked out of the toilet and came face-to-face with a woman, dressed in a neat black suit, complete with a bow tie, with her hair tied up in a neat bun secured with a silver kanzashi that was just enough to support the bundle of hair. Kazuya gave her a quick scan, it seemed like she was working here, probably one of Heihachi's servants, and his gaze stopped at what seemed to be a walking stick secured to her belt. He scoffed and walked past her, ignoring her polite smile, and made his way back to the living room.
'Must be his new girlfriend,' Kazuya thought to himself as he navigated his way back to the main room where his family had gathered. 'No surprise.'
He sat down beside Jun, and immediately a welcome drink of fruit punch appeared before him, brought by one of the servants.
"We were just talking about the humidifier," Jun said. "Apparently, Heihachi's planning to get the same one that we got at home. Jin sent him the link."
"I see," Kazuya nodded. He took a sip of his punch as he turned to Heihachi. "So, I met that lady in the dining hall."
Heihachi grinned. "Oh, you mean Kiara. She's my butler."
"Butler?" Kazuya snorted. "Why do you need a butler when you got so many servants?"
"Someone needs to manage things around here, am I right?" Heihachi shrugged. "Besides, she's also a trained fighter."
Kazuya nodded, remembering the walking stick in Kiara's belt. "She Irish?"
Heihachi nodded. "Yeah, how did you know?"
"The stick in her belt," Kazuya shrugged, leaning back to take a sip. "It's a shillelagh, right?"
"You scanned her that far?" Jun asked, surprised.
"I thought she was our friend's new woman," Kazuya shrugged. "Besides, she was right in front of me, and that stick is practically... sticking out." He laughed at his own joke.
Heihachi sighed. "No, she's not my girlfriend, but I can see why you're thinking that. The Old Fart dated anyone he could get."
"Yuck..." Jin scowled.
"Come on, if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't be here, right?" Lars piped up, looking proud of himself.
"You aren't the only one," Heihachi added.
Kazuya groaned. "Eww! There's more?!"
Lars looked kinda hurt. "Come on, man."
"No, I wasn't referring to you," Kazuya quickly said, placing his glass down on the coffee table. "It's just the fact that our friend had so many relationships, and also we have more siblings than we thought." He just realised something. "Wait, speaking of siblings, where's Excellent?"
"I called him earlier, but he declined, saying that he has plans or something," Heihachi shrugged. "Eh, I don't blame him. I'm actually surprised that you guys came. It's a very last-minute invitation, after all."
Kiara stepped into the living room. "Master Heihachi, lunch is ready."
Amber snorted. "Master Heihachi."
Kiara turned to her with a rather amused look, but didn't say anything as she ushered them over to the dining hall. Kazuya cleared his throat as he walked past Kiara, Jun trying to contain her laughter beside him.

"So, we're just leaving Jin behind now?" Steve asked as got into the Hyundai Ioniq 5 beside Hwoarang
Hwoarang shrugged, squeezing the steering slightly. "He's having a grand lunch with his grandpappy, what's he missing out on?"
Shasha burst into laughter in the backseat. "Grandpappy!"
"What's it's true, isn't it?" Hwoarang snorted. "Also, he seemed happy that he didn't have to come."
"Right, now it just hurts," Steve sighed. "By the way, why aren't we invited to this grand lunch of his again? Did Hei forget that we kinda housed him at some point?"
"And roomed with him," Shasha added, amused.
"Because of you," Steve grunted.
"Well, yeah," Shasha said nonchalantly. "Because I knew full well that it would do him some good staying in a nice family instead of sitting in a chalet alone."
Steve sighed. "Alright, whatever. My family is comely."
Hwoarang chuckled. "I'm actually surprised your grandparents accepted him after all that attack-planning."
"Tell me about it," Steve sighed. "They were giving him death glares even as we were leaving for Chigasaki."
"Okay, that was funny," Shasha chuckled. "Also, where are we going to again? As you can see, I dressed up in case you guys decide to go somewhere fancy." She smirked. "You guys seem like that too."
"Oh, yeah, it's fancy," Hwoarang grinned. "Sheralbon!"
"Nice!" Shasha grinned. "Wait, how come I didn't know?"
"Don't look at me, I didn't know either," Steve added.
"Your boy Kazama gave me the tickets," Hwoarang smirked as he drove. "So, yeah. Sheralbon!"
Steve smirked. "Alright, then. At least I don't have to pay anything. I'm eating for free! Just like you guys."
"Yay for a free lunch," Shasha chuckled. "Okay, we gonna take some pictures."
They arrived at the Sheralbon Hotel in Tokyo and Hwoarang had the car valet parked before stepping out at the lobby.
"This place is nice," Shasha said, opening her blue sling bag to pull her phone out. She immediately started taking pictures of the chandelier and the grand crystal centrepiece. "This is going to Instagram..."
"We should ask what air freshener they're using," Hwoarang suggested, sniffing the air with a smile. "Shall I?"
Steve shook his head, frowning slightly. "No need. I know this smell. It's designer perfume. My mum's perfume."
Shasha sniffed the air and nodded. "Yeah... it's Dore... Dore's Venom."
"How do you know this?" Hwoarang asked, looking at her.
"My mum got me a bottle, she has the same one too," Shasha shrugged. "Nina probably recommended it to her at some point. I rarely wear it, it's really expensive. It feels barbaric to use it as air freshener though."
Hwoarang shrugged. "Well, they're making like millions every night, what's to say they can't afford it?"
Shasha shrugged. "Well, maybe they got some air freshener edition or something."
"Is that even a thing?" Steve asked, surprised.
"Who knows?" Shasha snorted.
"I know it's a thing in Beauty and Bath Works, though," Hwoarang said as he started going over to the front desk to ask for directions. "Also, we should ask where the cafe is. I have never been here before."
The other two nodded and followed him to the receptionist's desk and watched as he asked for directions. Soon, they were headed towards the restaurant. As soon as they stepped in, they were greeted by soft jazz music, something that sounded like Ryo Fukui's piano music, and also the sound of cutlery being moved around.
"Alright, let's find our table," Steve said, smiling at the sight of such a large buffet setting. "We're gonna really tuck in today."
"But my shirt's already tucked in," Hwoarang pointed at the shirt under his unbuttoned blazer. "What else to tuck in?"
"Jumpsuit," Shasha added, pointing at her outfit. "What to tuck in?"
Steve sighed. "It's just an expression. It means eat up heartily." He frowned at Shasha. "You... I thought you like reading Enid Blyton's works or something? I recall seeing that term used dozens of times in her works."
Shasha chuckled. "I know, I was just messing with you."
Hwoarang laughed and brought them to the counter. "Hi, we have these tickets? They were given by a Kazama Jin?"
They were immediately ushered to a table of three, quaintly made with the napkins neatly folded to resemble water lilies.
"Oh, gosh, look at that," Shasha excitedly sat down, bringing her phone out yet again to take pictures. "They made flowers with the napkin!"
"Yeah, you do that, I'm gonna go get some food," Hwoarang said, eyeing the nearest buffet table that served various types of salads. "See ya."
"Eh?!" Shasha watched him leave in surprise. She turned to Steve and watched him leave as well, just as a waiter came up to pour them some water. Shasha sighed and decided to watch over the drinks while the other two had wandered off. 

Seriously, I once went to a five-star hotel and the air did smell like designer perfume. Like why would they use designer perfume for air freshener? I know it wasn't some rich lady walking around with too much perfume since it smelled like that all the time in that hotel's lobby.