I'm thinking it's about time to start getting past the fluff and into the action. I'm honestly feeling a little bit impatient myself. If you're aware of jojoDO's Grand Kumite story (which I assume you are at this point since I've mentioned it in earlier chapters of this), the opening round is mostly meant to cull what is generally the weaker end of the roster, and to build up those who win for the possibility of them being cut down in the second round or further. Yes, some characters that you don't expect to make it past the first round likely won't, but there may be some upsets ahead.

Also, my quest for playing various KOF games has evolved, since after getting myself a buttload of PlayStation Store cash, I managed to snag King of Fighters XIV and all its DLC during the holiday sale. I won't be playing it a lot, but I'll try to ease myself into learning a bit more about it heading into 2019. With that out of the way, enjoy.


The participants of this well-awaited private tournament had initially arranged around the start of the afternoon. 3 hours had passed in that time, giving everyone more than enough to talk amongst themselves (whether the banter was friendly or hostile was dependent on the characters) or to prepare themselves for what they may have to face heading into the tourney.

By the mid-day, around 5 PM, all 32 of these ladies were gathered back into the foyer where they stood in their initial arrivals, as the hostess of the tournament was about to address what everyone was expecting to be how this tourney starts off.

With how the participants arranged themselves, it was clear to see some sorts of alliances hanging around – from the classic Women Fighters, to the Another World duo, to the ladies of Hakkesshu, and so on...

Yuri was among the few actively gathering their fighting energy with a bit of stretching and hopping about in place.

King was amused with the optimism beside her. "Calm yourself, Yuri. You don't even know where you've been placed yet."

Mai added, "Too much sugar in the system, kid?"

Yuri giggled excitedly. "Head in hard, jump out of it harder – that's the Sakazaki way, isn't it?"

"'The Sakazaki Way' is shit, you know!" Detractors were not far from where Yuri stood. From across to the other side of the foyer, Malin was again trying to heckle the young karate girl. "You're not impressing anybody!"

"Ugh, shut up, you brat..." Lien was a few footsteps to the right of where Malin stood, leaning against the railing near the bottom of the central stairs. The youthful end of the spectrum of fighters was clearly starting to give her a headache – from Malin, to Nagase, to Mignon, and so on...

Elsewhere in the room, 'Cosplayer' Kyoko had a spot standing alongside the Another World duo that she bumped into some time earlier, Nako and Love, alongside a few more like Leona, Fio and Ai. Being next to such colorful characters was starting to get her both fascinated and nervous, given she was a powerless high-school girl who was a huge fan of Kyo.

"You okay down there?" Aoi was standing on the left side of where Kyoko was crouching about, seeming a bit more composed after earlier. "You're getting all jittery again. Starting to worry us."

"Wouldn't you?" Kyoko responded, slightly distressed. "Look at these girls, this line-up is insane!"

"Yeah, you'll get used to it soon." Aoi gave the cosplayer a light pat on the shoulder. "We all have to."

It only made Kyoko's nerves a slight worse, knowing she was just touched by a relative to Kyo. "I—uhhh... okaaay..." She may need to remind herself to never wash her shoulder. She'd definitely forget, for sure...

From up until now, it all felt like the world's most intriguing get-together – but with this moment, the prelude was reaching its end.

Heading down the stairs at a collected pace, Elisabeth garnered the attention of all participating parties in the room as she stood in the middle of it all. The presence alone of the tournament's hostess was enough to calm the murmuring around the room.

Interestingly enough, Chizuru followed not too far behind the noblewoman with composure to match – being somewhat important to the arrangement of the tournament, it was necessary for her to be included in the meeting, especially with what was going to be discussed. Some weren't even aware of the priestess' presence, while the more notable veterans of the bunch certainly recognized her from past experiences alone.

Elisabeth began, "I see you've all been treating yourselves well in the time you've been here. Know that your patience will be rewarded the only way possible – with opportunity." She then acknowledged her business partner, "I'm sure at least some of you are aware of Miss Kagura behind me – she is here for a reason. Being my first time arranging a fighting tournament of this scale, I found it necessary to collaborate with someone with experience in regards to a tournament. Together, we were intent on making sure all goes well."

Elisabeth continued. "Like I said, it was up to me and me alone to decide the matches, and so too shall the locations of these fights. Due to the expansive nature of this mansion, a fight can begin nearly anywhere in the building – over the coming hours, a 'combat zone' will be decided at random, and a pair of competitors will be asked to make their way towards it for their fight. All the other competitors will be able to watch, whether they are nearby when the fight begins, or if they're on the other side of this residence, as each of these 'combat zones' is fitted with one of the cameras I've made you aware of. However, all of you being here right now has more of a reason than you'd think. Starting within the minute, we will have our first few matches in this very room, for all to witness, right now."

The silent anticipation of the fighters skyrocketed for the moment before called, "Moe Habana! Kyoko Haruna!" *

The two selected girls approached the center of the room. Moe seemed a little caught with surprise by the spontaneous call to the fight, but very much willing to go ahead, while Kyoko was just plain caught off-guard by being brought in for the very first fight – much sooner than she expected. That, and being addressed by her full name didn't help her nerves at all.


OPENING ROUND – FIGHT #1
Moe Habana vs. Cosplayer Kyoko

Moe and Kyoko stood inches from each other, with Elisabeth standing in between them, her stoic stare lingering between the two.

"I know that the both of you haven't quite taken a full grasp at success at this point of your lives – for one of you, you hadn't yet gotten a chance of the sort until now," Elisabeth said. "This is your chance to prove yourselves to your peers – to the young and the experienced. Make of it what you will, as there's no going back. Your fight will begin on my command – are you ready?"

Opposing responses between the two set to fight.

First, Habana – "Yeah."

Then Kyoko – "No?"

Elisabeth took a few steps back to keep herself out of the warpath that was going to form – not that it was completely a benefit overall, since the outline of the impromptu 'combat zone' composed only of the others who spectated.

...

"Begin!"

The two girls on the metaphorical spotlight circled around the radius for a moment, a means to ease into the fight without going straight into a cacophony of flying fists.

Kyoko's stance was very on-the-spot, attempting to emulate the confident stance of Kyo. "Uhhh... should we talk a bit about this first?"

"Don't think everyone would like a war of words," Moe responded. "Just give it your all, girl."

If she wasn't so optimistic on the inside in front of so many notable fighters, the slightly unprepared Kyoko would've chosen 'flight' over 'fight'. She lunged in with a fast sprint, attempting her damnedest to make the first move count.

A clutched fist was thrown forward... and was caught right in one of Moe's hands. She shrugged and smirked a little, before she shoved Kyoko's hand aside and went beneath with a couple of light backfist jabs. The last jab of the bunch hovered higher, just upside the chin of the cosplayer, and knocking her back.

Okay, not off to a great start for Kyoko, but maybe her punches weren't the right of way towards a considerably experienced competitor, even if it was a lesser-known fighter like the heart-shirted Habana.

She ran forward again, almost as quick as last time, and stretched a leg out with intention to catch her opponent in the chest. again caught the strike before it struck, and she came in with a swinging kick of her own, bringing her leg crashing against Kyoko's midsection, her knee specifically getting a square target on the cosplayer's gut. Then there was a bit of a spin-around between the two before Moe pushed Kyoko away with a foot pushing against her back, and the cosplayer stumbled away.

Kyoko was already starting to get worried about herself, and her reception from the peers. However, seeing the competitors circling around for the fight, and then at Elisabeth and Chizuru, she couldn't find anything negative or positive on anyone's face yet. The fight did just start, so not much to find a first impression from.

Kyoko found more struggle finding an opening against Moe than she would've with calculus. Ultimately, it all culminated in her mind at 'fuck it', and she charged forward for a third time, this time not for a punch or a kick, but a straight-up football tackle.

Initially, it worked, as Kyoko clung herself around Moe's waist while dashing further forward. 'Initially' is the key word here, as Moe started to lift herself up and over Kyoko's shoulders. Ultimately, she managed to flip over behind the cosplayer, and grabbed her with an arm going around Kyoko's face. One heave-ho brought Kyoko over with a flip backwards, back to facing in front of Moe as she did a half-circle spin forwards and struck the cosplayer real hard with an elbow smash that sent her flying into a splatting thud on the floor.

As she fell to the floor, Kyoko swore she could see a little pile of cherry blossom laying at the side following that big strike from Moe. She was more focused, however, on the offense she was taking and what she wasn't managed to connect with.

"Jeez, you're fast," said Kyoko. "What the heck kind of fighting style is that?"

Moe answered, "Jeet Kune Do. What's the matter, you never heard of it?"

Kyoko shook her head. "I dunno if you've figured it out, but I don't usually fight."

"You ever watch a Bruce Lee movie?"

"...Ohhhh, okay," Kyoko realized, "was that what that's called?"

"Don't get your hopes up; it's really hard to learn from just watching movies, you miss a lot of other important things."

Now was Habana's turn to charge in for some choice strikes. Knowing she had to go on defense for the moment had Kyoko in a bit of a panic, but as the fists went flying at her, she managed to avoid most of them – but what hit, hit hard against her, but she still made it to the end of the sequence in a light stagger.

Moe brought Kyoko around the isolated radius of the makeshift 'combat zone' with a shoulder throw, and then continued to level the cosplayer with some kicks to the back. She eventually backed off to see just how much was left in Kyoko's tank after so much damage taken.

Short answer: not a lot.

Cosplayer Kyoko was growing very exhausted from the beating she was taking, and everything was just plain against her favor with this fight, although it's not like it would've been in her favor with anyone else, admittedly.

On the other hand, Moe seemed slightly demotivated with how things were going... "You know, I was kinda looking forward to what you could do for your first time fighting – I might be a bit rude in saying this, but I feel like everyone's expectations weren't that high on you... and you somehow went below that."

Kyoko wiped away the sweat beneath her headband. "Yeah – there's a reason for that."

"And that is?"

"I. Don't. Fight."

Moe was just confused now. She dropped her fighting stance fairly early in this conversation. "Then why did you accept the invitation for this?"

Kyoko explained, "I thought it was just a big party! For just the ladies! I didn't know I was going to head into a bloodsport or some shit!"

The general atmosphere of the fight started to gather impatience and confusion among the competitors watching. As for Elisabeth – she had a palm against her face, clearly not amused with the current situation before her.

Moe responded, "I'm pretty sure you would've gotten the gist that it was going to be a tournament of some kind if you heard at last half of what everyone was speculating around you."

Kyoko retorted, "You say that assuming I'm not amazed and confused by the people around me. You're not trying to make me feel like a dumbass for jumping on the chance, are you?"

"You are a dumbass!" Moe went straight for the jugular with that response. She didn't have to be blunt about this, but she was starting to get irritated. "If you wanted to get in on this, you should've known what you were expecting!"

With words like that being thrown her way, Kyoko was starting to brew some motivation to fight for real despite her inexperience.

"Alright. That's it. Now I'm going full force."

The cosplayer made a run for it once again, and Moe was less prepared than usual given the conversation that ensued over the past minute. The punches that came barreling in seemed significantly more rough, being generated from a scorned high-schooler's emotions piling out.

Kyoko's swinging punches seemed to loosely emulate her Kusanagi idol, and her gratuitous Japanese matched with it. "'Bodi ga, amee ze!'" She actually managed to get a couple of those strikes to connect to Moe's mid-section, but Habana managed to avoid getting truly messed up by the attempted combos going in.

Although Moe was particularly surprised by the turn of events going on, she was also a bit impressed. She thought, "Well, what do you know? Maybe you needed a bit of motivation to get that drive going..."

Moe started to counter-act with some punches of her own, but it evolved quickly into an all-out brawl that was impressively even, and the 'crowd' regained that energy from the atmosphere of the fight, that was lost some moments ago.

However, as expected, Moe gained the advantage after a particularly hard elbow to the chest of Kyoko. It was followed up quickly with a spinning punch; at that point, the cherry blossom petals that Kyoko believed she saw were all indeed real – but they weren't simply flower petals that magically emerged, but the sakura-themed aura of Moe Habana.

"Here's the clincher!" She declared with optimism, as she took the advantage with both hands, and started to enact the finale of the battle with what she had next.

With transparent petals of sakura surging through her fists, Moe started to spin like a helicopter as she comboed and juggled Kyoko across the room.

It culminated in a leaping spin that uppercutted Cosplayer Kyoko nearly the whole way up to the ceiling – 'the finale of the battle' seemed about right in terms of the move's power against the powerless cosplayer; as Kyoko dropped down onto her back, it was clear that she was close to unconscious before she hit the floor, from her eyes closed shut.

WINNER: Moe Habana


The winner of the battle landed gracefully from the spiraling finish, and everything stood in silence for a moment as the first battle of the tournament met a decisive end.

"How was that, ma'am?" Moe turned her head towards Elisabeth, welcoming criticism regarding that match. "We didn't disappoint too much with that match, did we?"

Reflecting on words said earlier, Elisabeth knew the expectations weren't particularly high for a fight involving someone that doesn't fight. "I've seen odder bouts," she said, "but I'm glad it's out of the way now rather than later. It's far from your fault, anyways..."

As the noblewoman walked ahead, past Moe, she began to stand over the KO'd cosplayer. "Clearly you were not meant to be here – but you had the determination to at least try."

Elisabeth turned her head towards Chizuru. "Make sure she's comfortable when she comes to." The hostess' next focus was clear, as she then directly addressed the other competitors. "As for anyone who expected more – we will have one more bout right here, right now."

The first participant of the next match was decided by the noblewoman fairly quickly. "Mignon Beart!"

The salmon-pink haired witch was tending to Cosplayer Kyoko on the ground when her attention turned towards Elisabeth. Her expression resembled a kitten being mesmerized by a cat toy which, considering how she modeled her 'well-crafted' fighting style, was an odd fit.

Mignon sprung up from her crouched position, meeting eye-to-eye with Elisabeth. "Oh my gosh – you're really giving Mignon her due?"

Elisabeth explained, "I've heard you're a prospect in white-mage magic – I'm interested in seeing it in person."

Being given the opportunity to showcase what she considered her best got Mignon very giddy. "Ohmygosh thankyouthankyouthankyou! You won't be disappointed!"

Hearing the cacophonous excitement and feeling the extremely tight embrace of the good witch around her body almost made Elisabeth very regretful for giving the young girl the spotlight at this starting phase of the tournaments. It also wasn't helping that Mignon was nearly burying her face front-and-center in Elisabeth's bosom during this hug, right in front of just about everyone else.

Thankfully, the hug wasn't for too much longer, as Mignon noticed what was yet to be addressed for her match and had to check her optimism at the door for a moment. "Wait... who's my opponent?"

Elisabeth kept her expression neutral as she adjusted her jacket. "If you're done expressing your gratitude to me, I'll gladly let you find out for yourself." She withdrew the riding crop from her side and handled it with precision as she scoped out the rest of the sizable roster with a slow and anticipating pace.

She eventually stopped on the one certain character of choice. "You."

Without hesitation, Mignon's opponent sprung out into the center of the room with a literally-electrical force trailing by her. The clownishly-colored Sylvie Paula Paula didn't need to wait long for her time to shine! "Hello-hello~!"

This was her first time meeting the electrokinetic oddity head-on, and already Mignon was expecting something weird out of this matchup...


* 'Haruna', Cosplayer Kyoko's last name, is a reference to Haruna Ikezawa, the voice actress for Kyoko from when she first appeared as a striker in KOF 2000 - at least that's what the SNK wiki said, I don't know if she appeared elsewhere.

With each and every chapter, I keep wanting to go for 5K words or more with what I expect to do – and then I decide at the last moment, after 2 to 3 thousand, I'm like "Yeah alright, I guess I can just push the next scene to the next chapter."

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed whatever holidays you celebrated earlier this week, and since this is more than likely my last thing posted for FFN until the new year arrives in just a couple days, I'll see you in 2019!