060. The Fate of the King of Fighters

Night had fallen and the city lights glimmered. It had been three hours since Mai Shiranui had loudly declared her intent to duel with Su Ye. Outside the dojo, by the roadside, Terry turned to Joe. “Joe, I’m hungry.”

Joe cast a glance at the dojo before them. The lights were off, the doors still closed. Three hours had passed—what could those two possibly be doing in there in the dark? Playing hide and seek?

“Let’s go eat!” Joe stood up and strode off toward Chinatown.

“What are we having, Joe?” Terry asked.

“Grilled skewers. Let’s start with thirty skewers of kidneys.”

“No need for so many, five will do for me.”

“Then fifty skewers!”

The night slipped by, and by the next day, Su Ye, Joe, and Terry had packed their simple luggage and were in a cab heading for the airport.

“What’s up with you two? You both look terrible. Did you go drinking last night?”

The legal drinking age in America is twenty-one, but as always, where there’s a law, there’s a loophole. The two had slipped off to a small bar in Chinatown, drinking the night away out of sight and out of mind. The only problem was that their breath now reeked of alcohol and grilled kidneys—a stench that was hard to bear.

“It’s all your fault!” Joe shot Su Ye a glare. “If you had just beaten Mai earlier, we wouldn’t have had to stay out all night and wouldn’t have been afraid to come back.”

Su Ye scratched his head. “I was going to finish her off, but she wouldn’t accept it and insisted on fighting all night…”

Amidst the roar of the plane, the three of them left New York for South Town.

Meanwhile, back in the Shiranui Dojo, Mai lay sprawled on her bed, as limp as a rag, when her phone rang. The caller ID read “King.”

“Hey, Mai. What have you been up to lately? Want to come out and have some fun?”

Mai instantly perked up. “King, wait for me. I’ll be there… well, in a couple of days.”

She had wanted to head out immediately, but given her current physical state, she decided to rest a few days first—moving around was not exactly easy right now.

“Su Ye, that brute!” she muttered after hanging up, though her face was alight with happiness.

South Town, located in New Mexico, was a thoroughly modern city despite the “town” in its name. The airport was enormous, with direct flights to many major cities in Europe and Asia. When the three of them disembarked, several international flights had arrived at the same time, and the terminal was teeming with travelers from all over the world.

Some, like Su Ye and his companions, carried only simple backpacks. Others wheeled slim suitcases. Still others brought four or five large pieces of luggage, as if moving house, requiring airport staff to help push their carts.

As luck would have it, the staff member pushing one such cart was just as unreliable. He whipped the luggage cart around the terminal like a drift racer, fishtailing it directly toward a little girl who stood alone, licking a lollipop.

Her parents must have been remarkably carefree, to leave a child by herself in a bustling terminal like this—was the lollipop really that good?

The luggage cart was about to crash into the girl when Terry leaped forward, steadying the cart just in time.

The little girl’s approval rating: +10.

At that moment, three men with striking appearances approached. The leader wore a center-parted hairstyle, a strip of white cloth tied around his forehead as though in mourning at home. At his side was a man over two meters tall and broad-shouldered, but with no visible eyes and a similar white cloth wrapped around his head. The last was the most flamboyant: golden hair slicked back with half a pound of gel, standing upright like a broom, even taller than Joe’s own wild hairstyle. Worse still, he wore white suit pants with a tight black cropped top, his flamboyant gestures radiating such affected flair it was almost painful to look at.

Su Ye stopped in his tracks at the sight of these three, and Terry and Joe joined him, so the two trios stood face to face.

Su Ye couldn’t help but click his tongue. Their looks and outfits were so iconic—if they weren’t the Japanese Team from King of Fighters, he would eat his hat.

The leader, ever polite, spoke first. “Hello, I’m Kyo Kusanagi. This is Goro Daimon and Benimaru Nikaido. We’re martial artists from Japan. You three must be here for the KOF tournament as well!”

Benimaru—a man with a name that sounded more appropriate for a girl’s first blush—was simply too much to take.

Martial artists, whether in bearing or spirit, are clearly distinct from ordinary people. Moreover, the trio before them matched the standard KOF team lineup, so Kyo was confident in his deduction.

So it really is them, thought Su Ye. So this scene he was experiencing was the moment when the Japanese Team first meets Terry in “King of Fighters: Destiny.” At first, he’d thought Mai’s DLC was just loading the “Fatal Fury” storyline, but it turned out to be “King of Fighters: Destiny.”

But something was off—there were no giant posters of Mai’s iconic pose on the advertising boards nearby. Actually, that was for the better; Su Ye was no Andy, the green-hatted fool who liked letting the whole world see Mai’s pin-up shots.

There was, however, a complication: Su Ye and his friends hadn’t received an invitation to KOF. They were simply here to cause trouble for Geese Howard.

According to the plot of “King of Fighters: Destiny,” which is to say KOF ’94, this was the inaugural tournament, hosted by none other than Geese Howard—the man who murdered Terry’s mother. Geese was South Town’s undisputed overlord, with immense wealth and a powerful criminal syndicate at his command. He was also a formidable martial artist, which is why he’d poured his fortune into organizing the tournament and inviting fighters from all over the world to South Town.

But Geese’s true intention was hardly as simple as “making friends through martial arts.” He had far more sinister schemes in mind.

None of that mattered, though. Now that Su Ye was here, Geese’s plot would surely come to nothing. At this rate, the KOF tournament might not even go ahead as planned.

“I’m Su Ye. This is my friend Joe, and this is my younger brother, Terry.”

Su Ye was lost in thought but still managed to introduce himself.

“Your younger brother?” Benimaru seemed puzzled by how this man from Dragon Country could have a brother who so obviously looked like a Westerner, but no one bothered to explain.

“We’re martial artists, yes, but we’re obscure and not here for KOF. Still, if we get the chance, we might go and have a look.”

After exchanging contact information with Kyo Kusanagi, Su Ye prepared to leave.

Suddenly, Kyo said, “I’ve heard there’s a Kyokugenryu Dojo here in South Town. Su, care to check it out together?”

“We have other matters to attend to, so we’ll pass for now. You go ahead, Kyo.” Su Ye nodded and led his group away.

Behind him, Kyo wiggled his finger. “Actually, my surname’s Kusanagi, not just ‘Kyo’…”