The King of Fighters Tournament

Fooling Around

"You guys didn't warn us about the surprise just now," Yashiro said when the BOF finished their first performance. "A whole team of Kyos."
Iori groaned. "Tell me about it. And I thought having one was bad. Now I have to deal with four of them."
"I'm just glad it was me who got cloned and not you," Kyo added, smirking. "Or else, I'd have an entirely army stalking me."
"And an army going crazy," Shermie added with a chuckle.
"Thanks to your clan," Iori countered, silencing her instantly. But then he smiled casually. "Anyway, break a leg." He motioned towards the stage. "That's some crowd there."
"Yeah, I'm sorry I said that, Yagami," Shermie said before going over to the stage.
Iori shrugged. "Eh, it's fine."
Kyo watched the CYS leave in surprise before turning back to Iori. "Wow. You just made a Hakkesshu apologise."
"Come on, they're cool now," Iori shrugged.
"Not a few years ago, they weren't," Kyo smirked. "Snowhead came for you like how you came for me."
"You want me to continue hunting for you like that?" Iori grinned, almost sinisterly as he leaned closer to Kyo. "I can make it happen again, just say the word."
Kyo was taken aback, quickly shaking his head. "No thanks. I rather have peace."
"Peace and what else?" K' added, smirking at Kyo.
Kyo sighed. "Peace and you guys as friends."
"Nice," Iori chuckled. "Kyo be acting like he didn't just pester me earlier."
Athena chuckled as she came over. "I like how you guys are friends after whatever that happened before."
"I like that too," Kyo grinned. "Way less stressful."
K' snorted. "Speak for yourself."
Kyo grumbled and turned back to the stage to watch the CYS perform. Iori snorted to himself as he thought about how he had threatened Kyo like that.
"I feel like you should hunt for him like that," K' added. "Just for fun."
Iori couldn't help but laugh. "I should. Make sure you record his reaction."

Kusanagi stopped in front of the NESTS Bosses, grinning. "Hey, dudes."
"You one of the clones?" Original Zero asked. "Or are you the original?"
"Nope," Kusanagi took his sunglasses off, making them gasp in shock. "I am the EEEEEVIIIL counterpart of Kyo, summoned from the Upside Down World! And I'm here to avenge Kyo and all of his clones!"
Without a word, Clone Zero took hold of Igniz's shoulders and pushed him forward. "Here, this is the man you want. The two of us ain't got nothin' to do with that."
Igniz turned to look at him in surprise.
"Come on, you said you were a god, right?" Original Zero chimed in, his solemn tone making it funnier. "Nothing you can't deal with."
Igniz groaned. "Please, I just wanna participate in this tournament."
"Yeah, but now you have this Evil Kyo in front of you," Clone Zero added. "Good luck with that, I'm outta here."
To their surprise, Kusanagi started laughing hysterically. Just then, the Kyo clones caught up as well.
"There's three of them?!" Igniz said in surprise. "Does this mean the Upside Down World has counterparts of Kyo clones too?"
Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 exchanged confused looks while Kusanagi was just there, helpless with laughter.
"I'm kidding," Kusanagi finally said, holding onto his middle. "I'm not really an evil Kyo counterpart. But I wasn't really lying about the Upside Down World part, though. I'm reflection of Kyo's from the mirror realm." He held his hand out at each of them, which they each shook in a daze. "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Kusanagi."
"What about those two?" Igniz asked.
"Oh, they're products of your factory," Kusanagi said, pushing the clones both forward. "And they both have something to say to you guys."
Original Zero shook his head in surprise. "I can't believe it. The last survivors of the project."
Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 just nodded in return.
"So, how's it going for the two of you?" Clone Zero asked.
"Did you not see us perform?" Kyo-2 asked, sour grapes in his tone.
"You performed?" Igniz said in surprise.
"We can be musicians too," Kyo-1 added. "We were the first act too, the three of us. How can you not notice?"
A moment of silence.
"We just came," Igniz said at last.
"And there's your answer," Kyo-1 frowned. "I'm glad NESTS shut down. A merciless company that couldn't care less for human lives." With that, he turned around to leave.
Kyo-2 gave the NESTS Bosses the thumbs-down before leaving as well.
"Why am I not surprised that we have haters?" Clone Zero stated, then shook his head with a sigh.
"Because we are the bosses of SNK," Original Zero said. "And we also have terrible people here like you and Igniz."
"Then what about you, don't act like you didn't do anything evil," Clone Zero scowled.
Original Zero smirked. "Am I the one who lied to Krizalid and killed him?"
Clone Zero grumbled and turned away angrily.

"Isn't the organiser Rugal?" Rock said as he nibbled on some jelly. "Shouldn't the organiser be showing his face by now?"
Andy shrugged and pulled out the flyer with the tournament's agenda, now crumpled. "It says here that he is the last act in this opening ceremony."
"That makes sense," Rock nodded and went on with his jelly.
"What's in that thing anyway?" Andy asked, nodding towards the jelly in his hand.
"Coconut jelly," Rock said. "Nata de coco. You should try some, it's really good."
Andy shrugged and got himself a cup from the snack bar before seating himself down with Rock again. "This is actually really cold, you know it was snowing last night?"
"It was?" Rock asked in surprise. "Well, the spring sun's shining now and I'm sweating."
Andy snorted and continued to eat his jelly. "You okay?"
"What?" Rock asked, looking up from just jelly cup. "Why wouldn't I be okay, Andy? Just because I'm sweating?"
"No, not that," Andy frowned. "You looked pretty down earlier. Just makin' sure you're okay."
"I am," Rock nodded. "I thought about what you guys said earlier, about how I can go through with it no matter how bad it is." He shrugged. "Besides, I have you guys by my side." He spine more of the jelly into his mouth, crunching onto a piece of the nata de coco.
"That's good," Andy smiled. "I'm glad you're joining with us this time."
"I'm glad too," Rock smiled as well. "Anyway, where's Joe? Haven't seen him since we saw him at the hotel."
Andy snorted. "Provably getting beaten up by Billy." He shrugged. "Then again, maybe not."
Rock chuckled. "Yeah, Billy's been pretty cool after he's met... Billie."
"I like how their names match," Andy grinned. "Billy and Billie. The Billies."
Hotaru soon came up. "Hi!"
"Oh, hey," Rock greeted. "Where's the Cat?"
Andy burst into laughter. "Rock!"
"He's looking for Elisabeth," Hotaru chuckled. "My dad's loitering about somewhere..."
"Where's Ash?" Rock grinned, looking around. "Oh, I really like seeing him going after your brother."
"You and me both," Hotaru grinned back. "But not sure about how Niisama feels about this, though."
Rock frowned, playfully in thought. "You tell me, should I call him Niisama like you do or should I call him Cat?"
"Ash calls him Meow-Meow," Andy added with a snort.