Chapter 78

South Town International Airport was busy, as it usually was. With so many people from so many different countries, all living and working in a single town, that was bound to be the case. South Town did, after all, have large communities from East Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America, with a smaller, but still notable, European Community. Accordingly, lots of airlines from foreign countries ran service to and from South Town. It might actually be one of the very few Airports in the United States that had more international traffic than domestic traffic.

Currently, Chin Gentsai and I were waiting for his students to arrive at the Big Kahuna Burger stand near their terminal. Athena Asamiya and Sie Kensou were arriving on Oceanic Flight Six-Four-Two from Haneda Airport in Tokyo, and hadn't that been a surprise? Athena Asamiya, the famous Japanese Pop Idol was one of Chin Gentsai's students. I guess it really was a small world in a lot of ways.

I sat eating a burger and fries, washing it down with a sip of Jooky while Chin Gentsai paced anxiously. Looking over at him, I didn't get why he was so concerned. Sure, Oceanic Flight Three-Four-Three had been hijacked a few years ago en route to Washington DC, but any students of Chin Gentsai's ought to be able to handle a few hijackers. Hell, if Former President Marshall had been able to handle Hijackers a few years back during the Air Force One Hijacking with no supernatural powers, then a couple of Chi Adepts with additional Psychic Powers should do just fine.

"Don't worry so much. It's not like they wouldn't be able to deal with any hijackers." I soothed.

"It's not that. They had to book a last-minute flight. It had to be routed through Potusan." Sighed Chin Gentsai.

"Oh. That could be an issue." I blinked.

It was true, Patusan had, until recently, been under the thumb of Colonel Chi, whose regime had been backed by the Ultratech Corporation. Colonel Chi had been overthrown in a popular revolt led by King Jao-Ni the Seventh just a year before the Ultratech Transdimensional Fiasco caused his Corporate Backers to go under. The uprising, combined with the sudden lack of Corporate investments, made Patusan a very unstable country. That wasn't helped by the Black Dragon, who had recently begun operations in Patusan's Countryside, stirring the pot. Word was, King Jao-Ni was planning to abdicate and cede power to a national assembly soon, which would only add to the chaos.

"Yes, Oh. With the current situation in Patusan, things could escalate any day. While I have no doubt they'd be able to handle themselves, it does mean that Athena and Kensou would be incommunicado. I'm an old man, let me worry." Nodded Chin Gentsai.

"Sure. Do what you need." I conceded.

Finishing my burger and Jooky, I wolfed down the rest of my fries and stood up, stretching. We still had a half an hour before their flight was supposed to get in and I felt like I needed a cigarette. I made to head for one of the nearby exits for a smoke since smoking in airports had been banned a few years ago.

"Where are you going?" Demanded Chin Gentsai.

"I'm going for a smoke. Can't do it in the terminal." I shrugged.

"Those things will kill you, you know." Warned Chin Gentsai.

"Not the way I do it." I pointed out.

"Just get back here soon." Huffed Chin Gentsai.

I nodded and began heading to the exit. I passed by the Cabo Air Terminal and headed out the door. I pulled a battered packet of Red Apple Cigarettes out of my jacket and lit up, taking a drag off the cigarette. As I breathed out, I formed a smoke ring with the exhale, letting the ring hang in the air before taking another deep pull off the cigarette and breathing a jet of smoke through the center of the smoke ring from the previous pull.

"Neat trick." Came a female Voice from off to my right.

"I think so. It's amusing at any rate." I shrugged, turning.

Standing there, in a pair of blue jeans a short tank top, and a leather jacket, was a Short-Haired Blonde with a well-trained, substantial, Chi signature. I frowned at that, in this town, that can only be one person, 'Blue' Mary Ryan. My downloaded information told me that she worked for the Howard Connection on a contract basis, which meant that this was probably going to be a fight. I readied myself, internally calling up my Chi and getting ready for a showdown.

"Easy, I didn't come here to fight." Placated Blue Mary.

"You work for the Howard Connection. I embarrassed them yesterday." I frowned.

"I'm an independent contractor. I sometimes do work for the Howard Connection, they don't own me. I haven't worked for them in a couple years." Clarified Blue Mary.

I took another deep drag as I chewed on that information. It was the first time that any of my downloaded information had been out of date in some way. I'd known that was going to become a problem at some point, but dealing with ancient conspiracies and Demonic Species the past year or so had lulled me into a false sense of security. Those sorts of things didn't tend to change. Or at least, they didn't change so quickly. The state of the criminal underworld, on the other hand, did change fast at times. I'd have to start doing my own intel gathering to supplement my downloaded information from now on.

"So what did you come here for?" I questioned.

"I'm here to give you a warning. Because you did more than Embarras the Howard Connection, you injured some of Geese Howard's top men." Answered Blue Mary.

"So? That's a good thing, isn't it? Makes it less likely that they'll send more after me?" I queried.

"Not directly, no. But that just means that Geese is going to come at you from another angle." Insisted Blue Mary.

"Fine, I'll bite. How's he going to do that?" I asked.

"He's sending Yamazaki after you. The Yamazaki-Gumi and their leader are going to be on the lookout for you." Explained Blue Mary.

"Yamazaki-Gumi? You mean Ryuji the Heretic?" I pressed.

"Yeah." Confirmed Blue Mary.

That could complicate things some. Ryuji Yamazaki, AKA the Heretic, was the leader of the Yamazaki-Gumi Yakuza syndicate that ran the Yakuza in South Town and in Okinawa. Ryuji himself split his time fairly evenly between Naha and South Town, flying back and forth whenever he had business in either place. He was a Chi Adept, a minor Sorcerous Talent, and most importantly, completely unpredictable. They called him Ryuji the Heretic because he was completely insane and you never knew how he was going to act in any given situation.

Notably, he rose to power in Naha after the Murakawa Massacre cleared the way for a new gang to rise in Okinawa. He showed up after a stint in the Triads down in Hong Kong, leading a mix of Ex-pat Yakuza and Chinese Triad Members to form the Yamazaki-Gumi. His unpredictability and ruthlessness won him the top seat even with all the guys jockeying for the spot during the power vacuum left by the Murakawa Massacre, during which, both the Nakamatsu and Anan Yakuza Clans of Okinawa were slaughtered by the Assassin Murakawa from Tokyo.

"That's not good." I sighed.

"No. You might wanna skip town." Advised Blue Mary.

I took another drag off my cigarette at that. If Ryuji Yamazaki was hunting for me, I'd need to be very careful. I could predict what a guy like Geese Howard would do if I was dealing with him. Hit him hard enough, and he'd back off and send third parties after you. With Ryuji Yamazaki, if you hit him hard enough, he could just easily hit you back twice as hard as he could back off. There was no way to tell until it happened. I exhaled before stubbing out the cigarette and flicking the butt away.

"I can't leave town right now, that's not going to happen." I admitted.

"Your funeral. I just thought I'd give you the heads-up. If you're not gonna take my advice, that's on you." Shrugged Blue Mary.

"Appreciate it." I nodded.

"Yeah." Waved off Blue Mary before turning and heading off.

As soon as she was gone, I made my way back into the terminal and over to where Chin Gentsai was sitting. He'd moved to a small group of chairs in the terminal and waved me over. I sat down next to him with a grunt.

"Something the matter?" He questioned.

"Yeah. I'll tell you later, though." I insisted.

"Fair enough. I just received word that my students' flight will be landing in the next ten minutes. It seems they weren't delayed by the instability in Patusan after all." Informed Chin Gentsai.

"That's good." I offered.

"Yeah." Agreed Chin Gentsai.

We lapsed into silence after that. Another ten minutes went by before the plane taxied up to the terminal. Five minutes later, passengers began to exit the plane. As Chin Gentsai and I stood, I spotted two people with large, well-trained, Chi Signatures, both of which I got a psychic ping off of. That had to be Athena Asamiya and Sie Kensou.

Sie was a shorter, Chinese, Guy in white shorts, a white T-shirt, and a denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up to just past his shoulders. His brown hair was cut in a hairstyle that was parted down the middle and he seemed to be the somewhat less well-trained of the two.

Athena on the other hand was dressed in a red skirt and vest over a white blouse with darker red tights and a string of prayer beads she was using as a necklace. Her black hair had purple highlights in it and was worn long with a red hairband holding it back. She was obviously the more well-trained of the pair, but there was also something else to her, a sense of power that pinged on my mystic radar. Something familiar.

As she looked up and locked eyes with me, that was when I realized what that familiar feeling was. Athena Asamiya was a Champion of the Goddess Athena, just like how I was a Champion of my three Patrons. I instinctively knew that she realized the same about me.

"So, you're the one who Sifu told us about then?" Queried Sie Kensou.

"I'm Ulysses. I'll be taking Chin Sifu's spot on your team for this tournament." I answered.

As we made our introductions, I knew that Athena and I would be having a talk about our respective patrons later. I honestly didn't mind doing so. After all, she was the first other Champion I'd met since I'd woken up if you didn't count Angel, which I didn't. Not since he turned evil, anyway.

Once we'd gotten their luggage from the baggage claim, we all piled into my Camaro and headed back into town. Sie wanted to stop for food and I was feeling a bit hungry myself, even after the burger and fries. Big Kahuna Burger wasn't exactly big on portion size, after all. Hard to make money in fast food that way. We would stop at a place called Pao Pao Cafe, a sort of restaurant, bar, and nightclub all rolled into one.

It would be while we were there that Athena cornered me at the Bar for our talk. . .

XXXX

AN: I was able to get this done while my folks were packing up to leave the family reunion. I packed last night, so you get a chapter thanks to foresight.

Here we have the arrival of Athena Asamiya and Sie Kensou who will be Ulysses' Teammates for the King of Fighters Tournament, plus Ulysses being warned about Ryuji Yamazaki being sicced on him by Geese as well as some worldbuilding. It was unfortunately set up, but I managed to put in a bit of intrigue at the end.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes mentions of Big Kahuna Burger, Cabo Air, and Red Apple Cigarettes from the Works of Quentin Tarantino, Patusan and the overthrow of Colonel Chi is from Surf Ninjas, Ultratech is from Killer Instinct, the Black Dragon is from Mortal Kombat, Oceanic Airlines and the Hijacking of Flight Three-Four-Three is from Executive Decision, while the Air Force One Hijacking and President Marshall are from Air Force One. Finally, the Murakawa Yakuza Massacre is from the movie Sonatine, which is pretty well-known in Japan, but obscure elsewhere. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the Talk with Athena along with strategizing for the Tournament.

Stay tuned. . .