Disclaimer: SNKPlaymore, KOF, and its various characters are not owned by me. The original characters, however, are owned by me and may not be used without permission.

This is my first story, and forgive me if it looks bad, I'm getting used to this uploading proccess. My name is Shikkoku Kiyoshi, and despite my newbie status, I've been going here for about a few years now. I had this idea in my head for a while, and now seemed a good time to finally get this posted.

Enjoy the story, I hope you like it.

The King of Fighters: New Blood

Act 1: Arrival

by Shikkoku Kiyoshi

The King of Fighters. The more people think about it, the more they realize that while the whole idea of a tournament filled with various styles of combat seems exciting, it never seems to work out in an orderly fashion. Some madman always seemed to come around, bragging how the whole tournament was a front for their evil plan, with evil laughter, and getting his evil ass kicked, only for some new madman to come around next year, bragging how the whole tournament was a front for their evil plan, with evil laughter, and etc. Yet, fighters old and new still seem to enter, despite the fact that the same team pretty much wins every year.

So in 1999, violent fighting came again.

"WHO IN THE HELL CODED THIS SHIT?" A blonde man shouted, causing the rest of the arcade to wince. He breathed heavily, shaking the dyed black bangs out of his eyes. "Damn." He sighed.

"Let it go, Raven." The boy behind him said, leaning against the wall with his hands behind his browned haired head. "The whole game was made rather quickly, so it's didn't get tested for bugs."

"He didn't hit me! That punch was right on him! I blocked that move, why did I take full damage?" The boy named Raven almost pulled his hair out. "Krysten, help me with this!"

The boy named Krysten moved his brother out of the way. He gave the side of the machine a hard kick, causing the game to malfunction, and instantly the ending played. Raven's mood lightened immediately.

"That's better." He rubbed the back of his head. "Now, what do we do next?"

"I wanna go eat something now." Krysten said in a voice that sounded almost like a whine.

"Fine, fine." Raven sighed made his way towards the exit, Krysten following him. "I'll get you something at the food court."

The two boys went out of the arcade and into the food court, where it was bustling as always, with most students out on summer break. The brothers had been lounging around in the arcade below, playing "Demon Fighter". It wasn't a very good game, so Raven played alone, just to see how long it took him to beat it. Obviously, it wasn't very pretty. Now, they were sitting at an area near a few TVs, which displayed news about the rumors of a new King of Fighters tournament. Obviously, this was the talk of the town lately, but it affected Raven and Krysten more than people would think.

Raven Kirishima, (or at least that what he believes his name is), and his brother Krysten were their school's top fighters, though that was impressive in of itself since the school not only wasn't very skilled at combat arts, they actually depended on the brothers to defend their status. But they were considered high level by the few people that fought them.

Lately, their classmates at their school have been questioning them about joining this year's KOF, so they could get a chance to fight with real skilled combatants, rather dumb jocks, street punks, and losers who took two classes of karate and called themselves 'black belts'. But the problem is that Raven doubted that the team he had in mind could last long in a tournament filled with bloodthirsty killers, pyromaniacs, and crazy psychics. Krysten had doubted that they had the credentials to get in. And they both had doubts that their two teammates would even want to enter. However, that didn't stop them from dreaming.

"Krysten, if we do enter this tournament, then how do you think we would do?" Raven asked, focusing on his food.

"I don't think we can win the whole thing, but I think we have the potential to last." Krysten continued to look at the TV screen. An image of Iori Yagami appeared, and the brothers cringed. They couldn't fathom the appeal of that guy, even after he rips his teammates to shreds of meat on a constant basis. AI don't want to miss out on this opportunity, but we need to figure out how we are going to get in the damn tournament first."

"Um..."

The sound of a girl's voice caused both Kirishima's to turn around. A young girl about their age was standing by their table. She wore a loose black hoodie and grey jeans her hair was a darker blond than Raven's and was seemingly dyed that color, though it looked like she only did it in random parts of her head. She had a plate of noodles from an Asian restaurant.

"Excuse me, but did you say you wanted to enter The King of Fighters 1999?" She said quietly.

The two brothers nodded. "Well, my name is Irena, and I'm a representative of the sponsor of this year's tournament."

Raven and Krysten looked at each other. It seemed a little too convenient for some girl to just appear out of nowhere, and say that she knows the sponsor. There's no way in hell that it could be that easy…

That is till she showed them her card that confirmed that she knew the sponsor.

"Heh...Well..." Raven smiled. "Nice to meet you, Irena. My name is Raven Kirishima and this is my brother Krysten."

"Hello..." Krysten said with a slight shyness in his voice.

"Can you really get us in the tournament?"

"I most definitely can." The young girl answered. "I've been hearing a lot about you two. You have quite the reputation around here, so I was hoping I would meet up with you."

"Well, I'm flattered." Raven turned a little red. "But I doubt that we fit the requirements."

"We don't exactly fit your idea of being a fighter." Krysten added quietly.

Irena shook her head. "I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a fighter. That's all I need. But, obviously, I would also need you to get a team together before I can register you."

"I think I can manage to gather up a few willing participants." Raven laughed inwardly.

"Alright. How about I meet you in the lakeside park tomorrow?"

"Deal. My team will be there tomorrow."

"Good. I'll see you later." Irena smiled and left the brothers to contemplate what just happened.

"Well, that's one problem solved." Raven resumed eating.

"Didn't it seem a little too easy?" Krysten asked. "One minute, were talking about entering, the next minute, some girl comes out of nowhere and says she can get us in."

"Believe me, you don't want to know how I was planning to get us entered." Raven replied, making his brother cringe, knowing what he meant probably involved gratuitous amounts of unnecessary violence. "Now that our first problem is solved, we have to break the news to our prospective teammates..."

Zyon Tohsaka Kasanari was what some would call a very good example of an enigma.

He was very smart alright, but it made him look even smarter when you consider the fact he barely went to school on a regular basis. He spent some days wandering the town, looking at shops, eating out, and talking to girls, ect. How he even got into high school is a mystery to everybody.

Nobody knew anything about his past, and he never seemed to want to talk about it. He kept to himself some days, but if confronted, will just smile and tell them he's fine.

Right now, however, he was currently lying on a bench, a lone cigarette hanging from his mouth. It was very peaceful, not a cloud in the sky except the wisps of smoke that he blew out.

The cellular phone at his side started ringing, and for a moment he considered not answering, but he figured it could be his sister, so he pressed the button.

"Hello?" He said flatly.

"Zyon, It's Raven." The voice said.

"Hey there," Zyon sat up taking the stick of tobacco from his mouth. "What's going on?"

"Well, I have a something I need to ask of you."

"I'll go get my shovel. Meet you a the usual place?" Zyon grinned. There was a brief silence on the other end before Raven sighed.

"No, idiot, this is something you might be interested in."

"In that case, I'll listen."

"Well I'm not going to tell you now, so come by at six and me and Krysten will enlighten you on everything. But could you ask Xion to come with you?"

"I don't know where Xio-kun is at, but I'll find him eventually. I'll see you later." Zyon hung up the phone. Taking one last drag of his cigarette, he threw it in the grass and walked off.

It didn't take him long to locate Xion's apartment building. Zyon looked up at the window on the thirty-eighth floor. It was a pretty long way up, but he wasn't concerned. Hopping around for a bit, he jumped to the side of a broken lamppost, running up it a little bit before leaping off and landing the balcony of the third floor, landing neatly on his feet.

"Visiting Xio-kun is very good training." The boy snickered before jumping from balcony to balcony (and occasionally a ledge or a telephone pole). Finally, he reached his destination, the empty balcony of Xion Shinlon.

Xion sat in his room, finishing polishing his seventeenth sword. He polished his swords about every few weeks. He had about fifty swords scattered in his apartment. The obsidian haired boy collected them for years, and he kept them in top shape by polishing, sharpening, and cleaning them regularly. It also was very relaxing for him, though now that school was out, he really wanted to get back to doing outside stuff.

The sounds of tapping on his window made Xion put his sword away and walk to the sliding windows in his living room. Surprisingly, he wasn't startled by the grinning blond boy at the door. Opening said door, Zyon stumbled in the room.

"Hey, Xio-kun!" He gave his best friend a big smile which Xion returned.

"What brings you here?" He asked. "You usually don't bother me this time of day."

"Raven and Krysten want us to come over later. They seem to want a favor from the both of us."

"Oh shit, do they need us to pay their rent again?" The dark haired boy groaned.

"I have no idea. All I know is that we need to be there at six." Zyon went back out to the balcony.

"You're leaving already? Don't you want to stay for a while or anything?" Xion asked.

"I'm on my way to the store to get some…er…stuff, so I'll have to decline. I'll see you at the Kirishima's house. Stay out of trouble, Xio-kun." He jumped off the balcony, but when Xion looked out, he was already gone. Xion sighed, closed the door, and went back to his swords.

Xion arrived at six as specified, but Zyon was apparently late. Then he heard the sounds of snapping branches, and saw his friend descend ungracefully from a tree.

"Ouch…Hey Xio-kun." He got up and proceeded to kick the door twice. An irritated Raven opened the door.

"What did I tell you about doing that, Zyon?" He said slowly, but let him in anyway. Xion followed suit, saluting his friend.

"Whatever." Zyon waved him off. "Where's Krysten at?"

"He's up in his room playing video games as usual." Raven picked up a book and threw it upstairs at his brother's bedroom door. Krysten came out and threw it back at him.

"You're messing up my game, damnit!" He shouted, before noticing Zyon and Xion. "Hey guys, what's up?"

Xion scratched the back of his head. ANothing much." He replied. Zyon just shrugged.

"I ordered a pizza; it's in the living room if you want it." Krysten went back into his room. "I'll be down there as soon as save my game."

Raven, Zyon and Xion went to the living room and started eating. After a few minutes, Krysten joined them (but not before smacking his brother in the back of the head for earlier).

"Okay." Raven finally spoke. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I and Krysten have been considered for The King of Fighters tournament."

Zyon and Xion stopped eating.

"You've been considered? WOW! I can't believe you actually got in. I thought they only wanted good fighters?" Xion smacked him on the head. "Hey!"

"Ignore him," Xion glared at his friend. "What I want to know is how did you get in?"

"A girl named Irena came to us at the mall and overheard us talking about the tournament, and she said that she was a representative of the sponsor and might be able to get us in." Krysten stated, some what concerned with the unimpressed looks that they got.

"So you'll do what some cute girl asks you, even though it's most probably a scam to get personal information and stuff?" Zyon frowned. "Is 'Kirishima' Japanese for 'Gullible Idiot'?"

"Shut up." Raven sneered. "I have faith that she's telling the truth."

"Yeah, sure." Xion replied. "Some guy came up to me wearing a big hat and invited me to fight in Mortal Kombat."

"I got invited into Killer Instinct by some dork sitting next to me at school." Zyon added. They both started laughing.

"I wouldn't be laughing so hard once you heard what I have to say." Raven sighed. The other two stopped their display long enough to listen. "Who do you think I want to team up with?"

"No..." Zyon mouthed.

"You don't mean..." Xion said.

"Yep. It's you two."

There was a moment of silence.

"I understand you have doubts, but I promise you, if this turns out to be some cruel joke, I'll give you full permission to enact your revenge on her."

"Raven, you do realize that The King of Fighters is a tournament of which no other tournament can fathom comparing themselves to." Zyon said, before smiling wickedly. "I'm in."

"If Zyon's in I guess I am too." Xion shrugged. "Anything to kill my boredom."

"In that case," Raven grinned darkly. "We need to discuss some things..."

So what do you think? I'm rather pleased of how this thing went out, though your thoughts are appreciated.

A few things. One, this new team is not going to be a bunch of overpowered kids who throw flames, have better powers than everybody else, and go through the other fighters like they were five year old girls. Only one person can use flames, and even then, it's he's not very good at it yet.

Two, I'm not very concerned with negitive reviews. I'll comment on it, but most of the time, I'll take any flames and use them to make me some hot chocolate while I continue to write. Positive reivews are always welcome, however. Great, now I got a craving for hot chocolate...

Three, this story will be updated whenever I get the chapter finished. I work quickly, but the cruel hand of real life might prevent me from updating as fast as I want. Especially once college starts again. (shudders)

And.. that's about it. As for the next chapter: The new team get registered, decide on a name, and are forced to wait a week to start fighting. The actin will start a chapter three

Until next time... (Goes to make hot chocolate.)