Chapter 95

The next day, after waking up, taking our Alchemical Hangover Remedies, and heading to the Arena, my Team and I found ourselves the second-to-last team to arrive. I frowned and looked over at Nightwolf, who, along with T. Hawk and Michelle Chang, had apparently been one of the first teams to arrive. I had to wonder just how it was that he'd managed that after the Red Room last night, but figured it was probably the benefit of experience. Nightwolf was older than me by a lot, after all. Even if you took the weird aging thing I had going on into account and just judged me by my apparent age of seventeen, Nightwolf was still a good eight or so years older than I was, and he'd been practicing his magic that entire time.

Shaking my head at the unfairness of it all, I looked around to try and find who our missing team was. As I did so, I lit up a Red Apple Cigarette, taking a deep drag as I looked around the arena. Team New Faces was here already, and I tried not to show any outside signs of discomfort when Chris flashed me a grin as he noticed me looking around. The look would have seemed perfectly innocent to anyone who didn't know better, but that didn't include me. Looking away from them showed Yagami Iori already here, leaning against the section of wall under a billboard advertising for Comel Cigarettes, which was hilarious to me given how, ever since I'd taken up smoking, various people had tried to take my own cigarettes away from me. The other lone fighter, Shingo Yabuki, was already here too, just sitting down with a Bepsi and scribbling on his notepad. That meant that it had to be Team Japan that was the last ones to show.

"Great, looks like our opponents are late." I grumbled.

"Could be worse. Maybe if they're late enough, we'll get a bye due to forfeit?" Questioned Kensou.

"I don't think we're that lucky, Kensou." Sighed Athena.

"Or unlucky." I reminded.

"Right. I forgot we're supposed to make nice." Groused Athena.

"What's that about?" Queried Kensou.

"You should've come with to meet with Nightwolf and his group instead of trying to head to the Arcades." I answered.

"I'll have you know I met a perfectly nice girl there. She's into martial arts too." Protested Kensou.

"At an arcade? What was she fourteen?" Asked Athena.

"Just cause Makoto turned out to be fourteen didn't mean I didn't have fun. Granted, when I found that out, things took a major turn for the platonic, but still." Defended Kensou.

"Kensou, I implore you, get a hold of yourself before you turn into a major scumbag." I deadpanned.

"Seriously." Added Athena.

"She and her friends had to leave after a while anyway, the stupid Takoyaki-haired one tripped and sprained her ankle. Besides, it's not like I go out looking for junior high girls, these ones just sort of found me." Griped Kensou.

"Yeah? Maybe find different places to hang out that aren't arcades in the future." I smirked.

"I mean, sure, if you don't like fun." Huffed Kensou.

"Anyway, we were talking about Team Japan. We need them ready to fight for when shit goes down with the Yamata-No-Orochi." I insisted.

"Yeah. Apparently, we'll need one of them, Kusanagi Kyo, to be able to seal the Yamata-No-Orochi if it possesses Chris and goes berserk." Nodded Athena.

"That bad, huh?" Questioned Kensou.

"Yeah. You don't wanna know how many people die if we don't manage to stop it." I intoned.

Before anyone could say anything else, however, Team Japan arrived. They strolled in not a moment too soon, as well, because about five minutes later, the Arena Announcers welcomed everyone to the Arena for the Last Half of the King of Fighters Ninety-Eight Tournament. Fortunately, this time, it seemed that we weren't kicking things off with another stupid idol performance, though there was a brief video package played up on the big screen with appearances by a number of Champion Fighters and Martial Artists, including Takamura Mamoru, the current Unified WBC and WBA Boxing Champion, the current Champion of the King of Iron Fist Tournament and CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Heihachi Mishima, and the current Champion of the Tenkai'ichi Budokai and Master of the Eightfold Arhat Style, King Chappa.

Heihachi, I understood how they got. His Megacorporation was partnered with Kagura Enterprises for the King of Fighters Tournament this year and he stood to gain from ticket sales just as much as Kagura Enterprises did. Takamura, I also understood. He was a shameless self-promoter and, honestly, given how his Sport was largely for Mundane, Non-Chi Adept, Boxers, I wasn't entirely certain he understood what it was he was promoting for. King Chappa, though? The Budokai was up there with the Mortal Kombat Tournament in terms of mystical prestige. Held only every three years at an ancient Temple on Papaya Island in international waters roughly halfway between Taiwan and Yonagumi Island, it was the only top-level, non-invite-only Mystical Tournament on Earth. The Winner of the Tenkai'ichi Budokai could rightly be said to be the strongest person in the World.

Furthermore, King Chappa Himself wasn't generally someone who would do promotion. The man was practically a monk. His Temple in the Shan Hills was already well attended enough for the monks, his students joining him in contemplating the Eightfold Way of the Fist, were already numerous enough to effectively keep the local villages free from the various Warlords that tended to crowd the Shan Hills. He didn't need the promotion and it largely wasn't in his nature to do it. I had to wonder just why he was up there on the screen talking to the crowd. Had Chizuru gotten him to say a few words by mentioning the Yamata-No-Orochi? I wasn't sure, but it was pretty likely. Either way, his appearance had me pretty excited.

By the time the video package stopped playing and the time came for the first of the Semi-Final Matches to commence, I was more determined than ever to not only win but also defeat the Possessed Chris. After all, the next Budokai was coming up a year from now, and I was determined to compete, if only to tell King Chappa that I was the one who defeated the Yamata-No-Orochi that he had been induced to agree to a video package because of. As I stubbed out my Cigarette, the first match was set. Surprise, surprise, it was us versus team Japan.

"Let me handle this." I grinned, flicking my cigarette butt away.

"Are you sure?" Queried Athena.

"Yeah, I'll make sure they're in condition to fight later." I nodded.

"Sure, less work for me, I guess." Smirked Kensou.

I stepped up into the arena from the Fighter's Viewing Section and was surprised to find that instead of the Hotheaded Nikaido, or the more instrumental Kusanagi, I was facing off against the Taciturn Judoka, Daimon Goro. He grunted at me as I entered the ring and looked over at him. Compared to most folks, Goro was huge, but I wasn't most folks. I had about an inch on him, even if my build wasn't as muscular. Seriously, the dude obviously worked out for the sake of it.

"Did Kusanagi tell you about what's going down in the background of this tournament?" I asked.

"He did." Rumbled Goro.

"Good, that'll save me some time. Listen, I don't suppose you'll be willing to stand aside?" I questioned.

"Can't do that." Insisted Goro.

"Why not? You know you'll all still be here when shit goes down, right?" I queried.

"Why do you not step aside?" Asked Goro.

"Because I'm being directed by higher powers here, and no, that's not a euphemism." I answered.

"Kyo is similar. I will not stand aside while he fights. Nor will Benimaru, for all his bluster." Intoned Goro.

"Can't be helped, then. Fair enough, I'll try not to rough you up too badly." I sighed.

"You should worry more about yourself." Warned Goro.

As he said that, he shucked off his Gi Jacket before kicking off his wooden geta sandals. The second his bare feet touched the arena tiles, I felt it. A spark of power surging from him down into the ceramic tiles, Geokinesis, and not something he'd been granted by a higher power like the Yamata-No-Orochi, this was power earned. I took up a stance, preparing myself for the battle ahead as the announcer called out to check if we were both ready. I nodded, as did Goro. Then the Announcer called for the battle to begin.

For a few moments, we just stared each other down. Neither of us made a move to begin the fight. Instead, we searched each other for openings with a sharp eye. My powers of Analysis were sharper than any mere Martial Artist's observation, though. It didn't help me much, as I learned pretty much everything I already knew about Daimon Goro. He was primarily a Judoka with a bit of his own striking style thrown in. His stance was perfect, without any gaps for me to probe at. And, of course, that he had the ability to manipulate earth and stone with his Chi. I frowned, knowing he was going to come to a similar conclusion about me.

In the absence of an opening in your opponent's guard, the orthodox strategy would be to force an opening to appear in your opponent's guard. That was what happened next. I almost missed the glimmer of Chi that gathered in the palms of Goro's hands, so intent was I on trying to figure out a way to break open his guard. I barely had time to jump into the air when Goro began to move, slamming both palms down flat on the ceramic tiles and rippling his chi out into the tiles, causing a massive fissure to open up in the ceramic surface of the arena, a chasm splitting open toward where I had been standing just an instant before.

Fortunately, I had caught the glimmer of Chi and managed to leap into the air in time to avoid the fissure, flipping around in mid air and descending down at Goro with a falling, Chi-powered, Axe Kick. Goro, though, simply snatched me out of the air by the ankle and moved to throw me into the tiles behind him. To avoid being spiked into the arena floor, head-first, I drew upon one of the techniques of the Great Kung Lao, sinking Chi down into the Dragon Lines and teleporting away, racing along the Dragon Lines to appear standing whole and unharmed a few paces away from Goro.

"Not bad." I acknowledged.

"Not bad yourself." Grunted Goro.

As the fight continued, I realized suddenly that I was having more fun with this than I probably ought to, given the stakes involved. I couldn't help it, however, that was the first time I'd actually been truly on the backfoot this entire tournament so far. I wanted to see what else Goro could pull out of his bag of tricks before I finished this bout. After all, I had to get my fun in while I could, didn't I?

I somehow doubted I'd be able to do that while fighting the Yamata-No-Orochi, after all. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. The Semi-Finals of the King of Fighters Tournament are underway and Ulysses is up against Team Japan here. It turns out that Daimon Goro is probably the most technically proficient fighter on Team Japan, and his style is a grappling one that tends to be a hard counter to striking-heavy styles like the majority of what Ulysses does. Add in that Ulysses is trying not to really hurt the guy so Team Japan will be around for the Yamata-No-Orochi Fight, and you've got a recipe for a difficult fight. Of course, the difficulty just makes Ulysses enjoy it more.

Other nineties stuff in this chapter includes mentions of the Great Kung Lao, the Mortal Kombat Tournament, and Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat, Michelle Chang, Heihachi Mishima, and the Mishima Zaibatsu from Tekken, Red Apple Cigarettes from the Works of Quentin Tarantino, Comel Cigarettes from Future GPX Cyborg Formula, Bepsi from a number of Anime including Lupin the Third, T. Hawk from Street Fighter, Takamura Mamoru from Hajime no Ippo, the Tenkai'ichi Budokai, King Chappa, and Papaya Island from Dragonball, and Makoto Kino from Sailor Moon. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

At any rate, the next chapter will continue the fight with Goro as well as get into the next bout afterward.

Stay tuned. . .