Preemptive Strike (Or Why Y'All Gonna Regret Coming Back)

Written By: RinoaDestiny

King of Fighters, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, and Chizuru Kagura belong to SNK

"This," Iori Yagami growled, "is ridiculous."

"Yeah," Kyo said, agreeing with his long-time rival for once. Normally, agreeing with the likes of Yagami made him question his own sanity, but this time, there was nothing to disagree on. "Kagura-san," he asked, poring over the printouts she'd handed him, "how much of this is confirmed? Or are these just rumors?"

"The only confirmation we currently have is Ash Crimson."

"Fuck him," Iori snarled next to him. Out of the three of them, Crimson had invaded the personal space and stolen the treasures of Yagami and Kagura-san and even though Chizuru said nothing else, Kyo could see the consternation marring her brow. Iori, on the other hand, looked positively murderous, which wasn't surprising. Kyo considered himself lucky. If Crimson had gotten to him, he'd probably want to kill him, too.

For once, he'd sympathized with Yagami.

"What 'bout the others?"

"Hearsay. Rumors on the wind but nothing concrete yet. We may need to wait for the next tournament before we –"

"Bullshit!" Iori interrupted, tossing his own sheaf of papers aside. "Why wait?"

"We don't have any –"

"Bring the fight to them, woman! Why sit around till they invite us?"

Leave it to his rival to be rude and blunt and in this rare case, right. Kyo wasn't looking forward to doing a rehash of 1995 to 1997. Just the thought of it exhausted him. Being the heir of the Kusanagi clan wasn't all it was cracked up to be and if he had to fight and reseal Orochi and his Heavenly Kings again, he'd consider quitting. Like that'd happen.

"Yagami-san," the woman sitting across from both of them said; voice even and patient, "we can't go across the globe destroying things until we have proof. That happens during the tournament."

"Tch," the redhead said. "Stupid, if you ask me."

Again, Kyo couldn't disagree. Was Yagami actually making sense here, or had he been around the other too long? Teamed up with him too much? Or was he just getting annoyed himself at the prospect of facing these enemies again – would they just die already and stay dead – while not doing anything to stop them beforehand?

"Kusanagi-san, what do you think?"

Kyo looked at his rival; Iori stared back at him, no less intense. Chizuru had invited them both to a private tea ceremony and mentioned briefly in the sparse invitation that she needed to discuss something with them. Tea ceremony usually meant kimonos and formal manners, but Kyo hadn't done one in a while and arrived in his usual biker jacket and jeans. Iori, looking like he'd just finished band practice, came in lugging his bass guitar in its case and wearing another one of his outlandish outfits.

It was obvious the man liked purple. Besides the black leather pants with its multiple buckles and straps, Yagami also wore leather wrist cuffs dyed purple and a violet top with a loud pattern on it. It also bared his midriff and Kyo wondered if he'd just recycled his tournament outfit or if this was his usual way of dressing. But that wasn't what confounded him as he returned his opponent's unwavering stare.

Kyo himself sat casually, cross-legged. It was comfortable and still within normal etiquette.

Yagami, on the other hand, sat seiza style. With leather pants. It boggled the mind.

He was really confused today. Agreeing with Yagami? Yagami knowing how to sit properly? Chizuru not chiding them like children?

Did wonders never cease?

"I agree with Yagami. We should be preemptive."

"Interesting coming from you, Kusanagi-san. Your reasons?"

"I thought you didn't put effort into anything, Kyo." His rival smiled, smug and arrogant. If they weren't in Chizuru's formal tea room – Japanese calligraphy on the wall, garden outside, and tea kettle whistling in the middle – Kyo was highly tempted to deck him right there. But that would start a fight and Kagura-san was scary when pissed.

"Shut up, Yagami."

"Ooh, I'm scared."

"Boys."

He straightened up right away. Yagami did the same; Kyo cracked a grin, seeing it.

"If we can stop them, they won't keep coming back. You do realize I'm tired of facing them again?"

"It's your destiny, Kyo Kusanagi," Chizuru said matter-of-factly, succinct and all business.

"Bullshit."

"Yeah, what he said," Kyo said, glancing at Iori.

"You're agreeing with me, Kusanagi?"

"In this, yeah. If they're coming back, they'll drive you nuts too, right?"

"Hmph."

"Since I can't dissuade you both from being extraordinarily bloodthirsty," Chizuru said, looking somewhat perturbed in the serenity of her elegant kimono and surroundings, "do you have any questions?"

"Yeah." The redhead leaned forward, angling off his crossed feet. "Names, woman. Who's coming back?"

"Any you are particularly interested in?"

"Wind boy."

Kyo snickered at the nickname Iori used for one of their most infamous enemies. He remembered the stadium, the flying cows, and the constant spamming of tornado attacks until he himself went cross-eyed trying to spot them before he got hit. "Didn't he crucify you or something?"

Iori fixed him with a stare, unsmiling. Oops. That was still a sore spot.

"Goenitz. You mean Goenitz, Yagami-san."

"Yeah. Is he coming back? Don't want to fight the fucker again."

"It all depends if the Heavenly Kings return."

That reminded him. "Kagura-san, doesn't that include Yashiro Nanakase?"

"Yes."

"Well, fuck me." His rival growled, swiping at the ceramic tea bowl next to him. Kyo blinked. "Him, too?"

Didn't those two have a rivalry as well? Did Yagami make enemies with everyone around him? He watched as Iori took a drink from the tea bowl, the motion oddly delicate. He was done being confused. Delicate and Iori Yagami did not go together in his mind – shouldn't even be linked. Where did he learn any of these manners? He thought the other man uncouth and abrasive. If Yagami had shown up in a kimono, Kyo would've had to pick his eyes off the ground.

"What you looking at?"

"Surprised you have any manners, Yagami."

"Tch. You aren't the only one who knows."

Vague. Nice. Just like Yagami to answer him without answering him. "That also means…"

"CYS."

"Huh?"

"CYS." The other man put his tea bowl down and settled back onto his heels, looking completely at home on the tatami mat. "They formed a band. Went against mine. Mine's was better." There was a savage satisfaction in the other's voice. "Chris, Shermie, and that fucker Nanakase. If Nanakase's gonna be back, his girlfriend will be as well."

"Chris –"

"He's Orochi. I ain't letting him come back." Iori grinned.

"We did seal him not too long ago." Chizuru interjected, drawing their attention back to her. Kyo saw her brow knit again, as if in deep thought. "But even if that accounts for all the Heavenly Kings, we still have the other Hakkesshu to think about."

"Hey, Yagami – I believe two of them are yours."

"They won't be a threat. Keep coming back each year. Think they like me or some shit like that."

This was the weirdest conversation he was having with his rival. It was also the most he'd heard Iori Yagami say outside of meaningless death threats. Chizuru was playing mediator, so perhaps that was why they weren't trying to kill each other. That, and Iori's bass guitar was propped against the wall, so maybe Yagami was restraining himself as well.

He knew Yagami was in a band but seeing his instrument in hand was something else.

"You actually play that?" He pointed at the guitar case.

"Yeah," the other man said lazily. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing."

"You curious, Kyo?"

He shrugged. Okay, he was. A little. "You any good at it?"

"Beat out CYS, didn't I?"

"While I'm glad you boys are actually being civil, let's get back to the discussion at hand, shall we?"

It seemed that any time he and Yagami were in the same place together, it was easy to forget the rest of the world outside. Something about their natural connection, being rivals and all and how even Kagura-san's beautiful ceremonial tea room faded from his attention. Looking at Iori, he noticed that the same happened to the other man, who refocused on Chizuru with sharp eyes.

"You sure, Yagami-san, that Vice and Mature will not –"

"They're goddamn with me all the time. They won't. They know that."

Kyo heard the underlying threat in the words. Considering the two women were Yagami's teammates, perhaps he knew how best to control them. Not a word he liked to use but it seemed to apply in this case with the intonation Iori used.

"Kagura-san, you know the rest?"

"There's also Ryuji Yamazaki."

"Oh, him." He'd traded blows with that crazy bastard in the arena before. Guy was as psycho as Yagami. Perhaps just a little bit more so, since he didn't even speak normally. "But he's still around. Verse didn't bring him back."

"That leaves us with the last one: Gaidel."

"Who?"

"Yeah, who's that?" Iori asked next to him, interest apparent in his voice.

"He's Leona's biological father. You should know whom I'm referring to. Heidern's daughter."

Well, that was surprising. Kyo didn't even realize she wasn't Heidern's actual daughter. The two seemed like father and daughter to him, just military-style. Finding out she actually had a father out there – possibly resurrected thanks to Verse – was an eye-opener. He just hoped that Gaidel wasn't like Goenitz, Nanakase, or Yamazaki. Leona wasn't a bad person or even someone he disliked in or out of the arena – she seemed well-put together, with the exception of her Riot of Blood. If her father was decent, Kyo would like to keep his hands clean.

Which brought his attention back to Yagami.

His rival was off his heels again, leaning forward. The ends of his straps hung loose, spilling onto the clean tatami mat and the sharp planes of his face gave him a feral appearance. "Leona's old man, huh? Well." A dark chuckle emanated from his throat. "Be interesting fighting him."

"Oi, Yagami."

"What is it, Kyo?"

"We don't know if he's like the rest of them. Hadn't even heard of him before."

"We'll find out, won't we?"

There was that. "Suppose we will. Kagura-san, that's all of them, correct?"

"Yes. Now before you boys go tearing off setting things on fire, listen to me. We don't know their locations. Most of this is, as I said, hearsay. The smart thing to do is to stay in Japan. If we hear anything, we'll know soon enough. Most of Orochi's minions cannot keep from revealing themselves. You both know this as well."

"Woman, I went searching for Kyo years before and found him. Before anyone else. Finding those snakes won't be hard."

"Yagami-san, you're the last person who should stick your hand in a snake pit."

"She has a point, Yagami."

Iori bared his teeth. "Bite me, Kyo."

"If I team up with you – again – how do I know you won't Riot on me? Can you guarantee that you won't?"

"That's up to you, isn't it, Kyo? You trust me enough to do this together?"

"Did you just willingly offer to team up with me yourself?"

Iori laughed. "Don't think I'm going easy on you, Kyo. I'll still kill you one day. But if we're going up against those snakes, Kusanagi's a name they remember."

"All team efforts."

"Still." The other man shrugged, casual and dangerous. "You agree with me? Take them out before they blow shit up in our face next year?"

"Yeah."

The expression on Chizuru's face was one Kyo hadn't seen before. Was she puzzled, relieved, exasperated or a little bit of each? Usually, trying to yoke them together as a team was like linking a water buffalo with an ass – Kyo already knew who was the ass – and needed her direct intervention. And here they were, him and Yagami both, overriding her objections so that they could work together to make first blood on unsuspecting enemies.

Maybe she was confused.

Considering how today was going, she had company.

"So," he said, glancing at Iori and then back to Chizuru, "when do we start?"

"Have a concert tour to finish first." Yagami said, nonchalant, already reaching for his guitar case. "When I'm done with that, I'll find you, Kyo."

Kyo rolled his eyes. "Of course you will."

"I'm off," his rival said, standing and nodding at Chizuru Kagura, whose expression altered a bit at that. "You hear anything, I want to know. You coming back next year?"

"I'm considering it."

"Kagura-san, please do." While they've only teamed up a few times, it made all the difference. "Not quite the same without you."

"Pleased to hear that, Kusanagi-san."

"Hmph."

"You can be more polite, Yagami."

"Tch. I'll find you, Kyo. Don't disappear."

"Yeah yeah." Like all their other meetings, Kyo found they naturally concluded and usually without any formalities. "NESTS is gone. I'm going nowhere."

"Good," the redhead growled.

"See you, Kagura-san. Nice place you have here."

"Keep yourself safe, Kusanagi-san. Yagami-san, watch yourself."

As he made to leave, Kyo saw that remark slide off his rival without Iori even acknowledging it. The other man already made for the gate, bass guitar across his back and each stride casual and free. Kyo knew he only had to make for his bike and then off he went, zipping through this side of Osaka with the wind in his face. To home, to his parents, to Yuki, and to what promised to be an excellent meal to end the day.

Yeah, that sounded good.

"Yagami," he said by way of farewell as he passed him on route to his bike.

"Kyo," the other responded by default. Some things never changed.

"Don't break your back looking for me."

His rival snorted and turned towards downtown. Laughing, Kyo passed him, already increasing speed. Before they smacked down Nanakase, he had to ask the other fighter just how good Yagami's bass skills really were. He was, after all, curious.

Notes: The part where Kyo makes that remark about Iori being crucified by Goenitz is referencing the semi-canon manga, "The King of Fighters: Kyo" where Goenitz does exactly that. Not one of Iori's best moments and really shows how much of a douchebag Goenitz is.

Was planning to make this a one-shot, but I'm considering leaving it open. Thinking about post-KoF XIV Kyo and Iori being so sick and tired of all the old enemies returning so that they go proactive amuses me. May consider adding more content in the future, because this team-up outside of the tournament is bound to cause some crazy stuff to happen.

Was listening to the Okami soundtrack while writing this. Hilarious in hindsight, considering the whole premise of that game's story (hey there, Japanese mythology!)