The thing Kyo disliked the most was putting in effort. Thus, his insuperable skill in martial arts, which had cost him enormous efforts year after year, was as precious to him as life itself. The heir of Kusanagi couldn't imagine life as a normal, weak man, but he was sure losing his power would have been as shocking (and, on the long run, as deadly) as finding himself unable to breath.

So, naturally, he was quite pissed over a certain freckly bastard who, after stealing Yagami's and Chizuru's power, had claimed Kyo would be next. If a couple of years ago Kyo had been told that the day would come when he'd despise somebody more than he did NESTS, the brunet would have snorted, blissfully oblivious to the existence of Ash Crimson.

Ironically, in a way Ash had actually been a blessing for Kyo. Thanks to the theft of Yagami's flames, Kyo's long-time stalker had finally stopped following him around to start stalking Ash instead. Good riddance!

Or so Kyo had thought.

Despite the fact that Yagami was a freak obsessed with killing him, since the end of the latest King of Fighters Tournament Kyo had surprised himself by wondering time after time whether the red-head was doing all right, and even by worrying for him.

It was perfectly normal, there was nothing weird or wrong about that. After all, the Champion of the Tournament was a good guy, and Yagami had been a constant in his life for ten years. They had even defeated a god and saved the world together once, and according to Chizuru they were going to do it again soon. Considering all that, If Yagami was in trouble of course Kyo'd be concerned. It's not like Kyo missed him or something, it was just the brunet's innate kindness.

Besides, Kyo had to admit it was sort of fun to have a worthy rival. One might even have said that the heir of Kusanagi enjoyed fighting Yagami, no other opponent was as tough and persistent.

Now that Yagami had lost his power and switched his focus from Kyo to Ash, Kyo couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever fight his archrival again. The last time they had met, two weeks ago in a burning city, Yagami had not stopped to challenge him as usual, instead had just informed him that Ash had escaped, made the same old same old blah blah blah death threat, and left without throwing a punch.

Kyo should have been happy. Ok, so fighting Yagami was kind of fun, but it wasn't worth the trouble. Who wanted a stalker? Let he-of-the-Pretty-Woman-fingernails deal with the hassle. Kyo should have celebrated. He certainly shouldn't have felt cheated. It was stupid and it made no sense. Who wanted a stalker?

It's not like the red-head didn't have an extremely good reason to consider Ash his top priority now, anyway. It's not like Yagami had ditched Kyo over some random guy.

…Kyo didn't like the direction his thoughts were taking. He decided a nice ride on his bike would help clear his mind.