The King of Fighters Tournament

Ikari Warriors

Commander Heidern called his best soldiers for a meeting. He adjusted the black eyepatch around his eye and straightened his beret. "What is it, Commander?" A woman known as Whip asked. Her real name was actually Seirah, after the woman she was cloned from, but still preferred to be called Whip because of the weapon she used. "Anything important?"
The commander silently took out five cream-coloured envelopes and put them on the table. His underlings instantly knew what they were for. "I have just received these in the mail today. We are all invited to join the upcoming King of Fighters tournament."
Colonel Ralf Jones smirked, cracking his fists. "That's good. So how many teams would be going?"
Heidern crossed his arms. "Two. I, Ralf, and Clark will be in one team. Leona and Sally will be in another team."
Lieutenant Clark Still started counting the people around him. There were only five people in the room.
"My apologies, Commander, but there are only five of us," Clark pointed out with a frown, straightening his sunglasses. "We are one man short..."
Heidern smiled slightly. "Who says we are?"
The door suddenly opened, and a man with dark brown hair walk in. Leona Heidern stood up in surprise.
"Papa?" Leona gasped. She then turned to her Commander, who was also her adoptive father. "Commander, you want Papa to join our team too?"
Heidern smirked and shook his head. "Not in our team, in your team. I'm teaming up with the Colonel and Lieutenant Still. You're teaming up with Sergeant Seirah and Gaidel."
Seirah started cheering. "Thank you, Commander! For a second, I thought you were gonna put me with the Colonel!"
"Hey!" Ralf scowled.
Heidern let out a small chuckle. "I'm not that evil, Sergeant. You'll be teaming up with Corporal Leona and Gaidel. You're okay with that, right?"
Leona smiled faintly and turned back to her biological father. "You're teaming up with us?"
Gaidel grinned and took out a cream-coloured envelope of his own. "I don't wanna waste this invitation."
Leona hugged him, much to his surprise. Seirah smiled and came over.
"We need to register for the tournament," Seirah said, taking out her whip, which she calls Voodoo, out of her belt. "And we need to train."
"Well, you guys don't have to," Heidern said. "I've already registered for you. But as for the training..."
"When can we start?" Gaidel said with a smirk.

***

Leona staggered up to her room after training and sank on her bed, fatigued. She laid down and groaned, her eyes closed. Though she was exhausted, she was thoroughly satisfied with the training session.
She finally summoned up enough strength to make it to the bathroom for a bath.

This is your destiny...

Leona's fingers slipped off the edges and she gasped awake, finding herself in the bathtub. She almost drowned in the soapy water, trying to get off the tub. She quickly pulled the plug to drain the tub before climbing out. She heaved a sigh of relief and pulled her bathrobe on.
Leona didn't even know that she fell asleep in the tub, but what was that voice...?
She scowled and wrapped her hair up in a towel as she walked out of the bathroom. She realised that she needn't be afraid of Goenitz since she had already mastered the method of resisting the Riot of Blood, which she learned from her father.
She went to her closet and started taking out a pair of pyjamas. Leona looked at the time on the wall clock and noticed that she had been in the bathroom for almost two hours. She frowned and started changing, keeping her wrapped hair in place as she slipped her shirt on. Her mind started thinking about the upcoming tournament.
Leona couldn't help but look forward to it, but something still did not sit right. She knew that Rugal had nothing sinister up his sleeves, but there was still something. She just didn't know what.
She decided to ask her adoptive father about it later. Surely, he would know something about it.

"Father... are there any threats from Goenitz?" Leona asked Heidern as soon as she sat down for dinner.
Heidern swallowed his food and shook his head, his blind eye now covered behind a simpler eyepatch. "No... no threats from him so far. Why are you asking?"
Leona sat down, getting herself a serving of salad, together with a few intestinal sausages. "I don't know... for some reason, I feel like there's something more to this tournament, and it's not because of the Bernsteins."
Heidern frowned thoughtfully. He finished his sausages and went to his room. Gaidel soon joined his daughter, confused at why Heidern just rushed past him in the hallway.
"Where's Heidern going?" Gaidel asked, sitting down next to Leona.
Leona just motioned for him to wait, looking in the direction where Heidern went. The one-eyed man eventually returned, carrying a laptop. He went over to the living room and put the laptop down on the coffee table. Leona and Gaidel soon joined him, holding their plates.
"What are you doing, Commander?" Gaidel asked, forking some of the salad into his mouth.
Heidern motioned them to wait. Confused, they just continued eating, wondering what Heidern was doing.
All of a sudden, Heidern smirked and turned the laptop screen over to Leona.
"This is the only threat he's apposing for now," Heidern smirked, motioning towards the screen.
Leona put her plate down on the coffee table and leaned towards the screen to take a better look. To her surprise, it was a picture of Goenitz, watering his garden of vegetables and fruits trees. He was even breeding mushrooms.
"What is it?" Gaidel asked, seeing how Leona was actually amused at what she was seeing on the screen. Heidern chuckled and turned the screen a little more so that Gaidel could see too. "Is that... Goenitz?!"
Heidern nodded. "Yes, it is. He is now a farmer, who takes part in a lot of nature campaigns. The only threat he's apposing now is... he's using his own faeces to fertilise the crop."
Heidern then showed them another picture, this time Goenitz was suspiciously shovelling something onto the soil. It was dark brown, almost the same colour as the soil. Leona snorted, eventually bursting into robust laughter. "Crop? Faeces?! Oh my gosh!"
The two older men couldn't help but smile at her reaction. But still, it was quite funny to see that evil Goenitz, the man that had been terrorising humanity with his wind, was now farming—using his own poop as fertiliser.
"I'm just hoping that he keeps his vegetables to himself, rather than selling it to the public," Gaidel added with a grin. "I hope he doesn't eat toxic things to harm the poor plants though."
Leona burst into laughter again. "I still can't! He fertilises the plants with his own poo? Goenitz?!"
Heidern chuckled. "We have video proof for it, Leona. We planted cameras all around his home, and this is the only threat he's been opposing as of late."
Leona chuckled and took her plate of food from the table to continue eating her sausages and salad. Her mind now held a sense of relief, knowing that Goenitz was not trying to control her in any way.