The Flame Is Gone, The Fire Remains Ch 1 Rain, a king of fighters fanfic

Story of KOF fighters. Mostly pertaining to Iori and Kasumi and their developing relationship. Basic outline is Iori Yagami is sick of wasting his life away and decides to go back to school (picture him 18 or 19 instead of 20+). While he's at school, he meets some fighters, his Rival Kyo Kusanagi and Kasumi Todoh (plus additional fighters when I feel is nessesary to introduce them). Iori is basically going through a time of newal, Kyo is becoming really popular, Kasumi is class president, but she wants to change her goodie-goodie image.

It's my first Fanfic...Like ever. I really hope you find it easy to read. I hope it isn't boring either. I think it starts off slow, but I hope you can give it a chance. Much of this was written at 3:00am too, lol. Let me know of any changes or improvments. I want to make this nice and easy. I'm currently working on Ch.4.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch.1

The rain pounded on the fogged window. The dried streaks from earlier showers were being washed away as new heavy rain fell. A red haired man stared out into the dimly lit streets of Southtown and picked up a crinkled packet of Marlboros sitting at the concrete ledge of the window of his one room apartment. He clamped his teeth on a cigarette and pulled one out. After placing his pack back down on the ledge, he raised his index finger to the tip of the cigarette. With a small pulse from his hand, a tiny violet flame sparked from the top on his nail. His dark brown eyes concentrated on the flame for a few seconds and his mind wondered into deep thought. After letting out a breath of air, his face relaxed and he let his mind free itself of his concentration. The dancing purple flame approached the cigarette and began to singe the end of the rolled tobacco. He deeply inhaled the smoke and slowly closed his eyes to embrace his lungs filling up.

The moment was interpreted by three obnoxious pounds on his door. The man opened his eyes and exhaled the carbon and smoke, and slowly strode over to the door, which had seen many more poundings before in its day. The crimson haired man creaked the door open to only reveal half of his face, which was covered by a large bang and haze from his cigarette. His brutish figure was draped in an oversized white dress shirt and red, form-fitting jeans. He eyes glared at the figure in front of him, but no words left his mouth.

"Yagami Iori, you're late again. I will not allow this to happen anymore! I want this month's rent at this very moment or I'm evicting you! You hear me in that damn empty head of yours! I want my money now!" The landlord was no more than five inches away from Iori's face and the veins on his forehead began to pulse with intense adrenaline. Iori still kept his eyes on the landlord and raised his hand to his cigarette and held it between his two forefingers and inhaled deeply. He chest rose as he took in his breath. The landlord felt no intimidation with this maneuver as he gritted his teeth at Iori.

Ten seconds slowly crept by and no man took another breath or spoke another word. Iori, fed up with the silence, let the smoke out slowly into the landlord's face and slammed the door. The loud booming sound jolted the whole floor and dust from the ceiling fell onto the floor. The landlord stood his ground and yelled to Iori's door, "Goddamnt Yagami! You're getting the hell out of here tomorrow! You hear me? You better get your shit together!" The landlord's feet stomped away until it became a distant booming sound from across the hallway.

Iori sat on his broken springboard that was known to him as a bed and finished his tobacco. He let the butt hang out of his mouth as he pried his window open. He held the window open with one hand as rain fell in his room onto the glossy concrete and his face. From a distance, the rain would have been mistaken for lonely tears, but no tears have ever escaped from this man's dark eyes. He flicked the cigarette butt out of the window and released his hand from the window frame. The window fell and shut on its own, creating another loud banging sound that echoed throughout the apartment. He let his body fall back and land on the cushion on his springboard. Iori felt an object poked deep into his back but he did not wince, but only shut his heavy eyes and dealt with the growing pain.

"Maybe I should…" he sighed heavily. He knew there was no place for him, not his kind. No family to take him or friends to welcome into their home. He was alone. The rain continuously pounded on his window at the same throbbing rate. He concentrated on the noise outside and eventually fell into a deep sleep. He dreamt of nothingness that night. As every night.

Oh, constructive crit, no flaming. Please.

All characters are property of SNK. This is a work of fiction and entertainment with no purpose other than to entertain readers on .