So, it's been a while since our last short. AP exams are right around the corner, so my writing ability is currently limited as I try to study enough to pass the damn things to a satisfactory degree.

Anyhow, I still can't think of a good short idea for the Ikari warriors. I'm getting there, but I don't have anything worth writing yet. So instead we're going to move onto some of our old friends. We won't be getting back to K' and Kula for awhile, since they worked out their current problem, but we'll see them again eventually. I decided that I'm going to try and loosely tie these shorts together if I can. The ones that are not "What-if" chapters will likely link together just a bit. Naturally there will be a few inconsistencies and the timeline will be vague... but I think it'll be OK.

So, Mai and her band of sexy badasses are against the Psycho Soldier team, and Yuri notices that her opponents are way out of whack. Kensou's depressed and Athena is looking mighty uncomfortable. And being the kind of person she is, of course she's going to get involved!

"You think they had a lover's spat or something?"

Yuri Sakazaki posed the innocent question to her two older teammates, but neither of them responded. Mai was too busy shouting at Andy, who was in the crowd watching the fight somewhere on the stage, and King's thoughts had been elsewhere for several days now. Yuri assumed that had something to do with Ryo, although that was just conjecture.

Either way, Yuri knew the answer to her own question. She was trying to be funny, but she knew that Kensou and Athena had never had a relationship like that. But still, they had always been very close, so what had happened to make the two of them as awkward as they were right now? Kensou, who was usually all smiles and enthusiasm, had the look of a manic depressive about him, and Athena, who usually greeted her fans with exuberance, barely gave them a nod of acknowledgment. Neither of the two fighters had even spoken to each other yet, as far as Yuri could tell. Only Chin seemed to be himself.

The young martial arts practitioner's musings were cut short as the announcer decided that it was time to start the fight. Still, they had decided that King was going to go first, and she found herself against Athena, who hardly looked focused, although King wasn't quite so either.

Yuri 'watched' the fight, but she didn't really catch most of it, because she kept finding herself glancing over at Kensou, who was surprisingly not even watching Athena battle out of concern for her safety. Something was seriously wrong with him.

As distracted as she was, Yuri hardly noticed when King successfully knocked Athena out with a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of the head. Once again, Yuri found it disturbing that Kensou didn't even wince at the sight of it. He didn't even look slightly concerned about her well-being.

Chin decided to take the stage next, and he took King out pretty easily. Not only was she already a bit winded, and pretty unfocused on the fight, but Chin was a martial arts master, despite his unorthodox moves. Since it was obviously time for another one of the girls to step in the ring, Mai did so. Yuri was eager to fight herself, having finally gotten the final stripe for her black belt (in a way her father most definitely didn't approve of), but Mai had interpreted her attention to Kensou as the desire to fight him, so she took Chin instead.

The fight was long and arduous, but Mai prevailed over the old geezer eventually, even though it took far more energy than she expected it to. The old coot may have been a master, but his age was still getting to him. Unfortunately, Mai was so fatigued after the difficult fight that Kensou beat her without much effort, despite his lack of focus. So, that left only himself and Yuri to duke it out, even though the girl in that formula was looking to figure out the reason for his distress while she was at it.

The youngest Sakazaki sibling stepped out onto the stage and gave Kensou a little wave.

"Hey there, it's been awhile huh?"

Kensou's response was hardly more than a mumble. "Yeah. I guess..."

Yuri frowned, perturbed by the lack of Kensou's usual friendliness. "Are you feeling alright, Kensou? You seem kind of down."

"I'm fine."

It was pretty clear that the Kung Fu wonder-boy was anything but fine, but the announcer cried out for a start to the fight, so Yuri decided to show her distaste at being so blatantly lied to with a straight kick at Kensou's stomach.

He caught her foot pretty easily, more so out of reflex than actually paying attention, and shoved Yuri away, knocking the girl of balance. She took her inevitable fall with a roll, getting back on her feet in seconds. Kensou didn't make a move towards her, so Yuri took the offensive again, going through one of her offensive katas in an attempt to land a blow.

Kensou blocked most of the attacks, although he took a pretty solid punch on his shoulder during his defense. He retaliated with his trademark rapid punches, but they lacked their usual speed, allowing Yuri to block them easily. The two combatants rolled away from each other after the attack, trying to gain some distance, and Yuri took this opportunity to interrogate Kensou again.

"You've never thrown punches that slow in your life! There's no way everything is peachy with you right now."

Kensou looked a little irritated to be questioned again. "It's not really any of your business Yuri..."

Yuri wagged a gloved finger at him. "Oh, but it is! I came here for a good fight, and here you are being a wimp! If Athena were conscious she'd be appalled!"

The mention of his teammates name caused a twisted grimace to cross Kensou's face, and Yuri knew she had hit the mark. "Aha, so there is something! You had a lover's spat with Athena, right?"

She had said it with a smile, meant it as a joke, but Kensou looked anything but amused. In fact, his face was twisted up in a snarl of rage, and he charged Yuri with renewed vigor. "Would you just shut up! You don't even know what you're talking about!"

Yuri was hardly prepared for the aggressive assault from her opponent, having believed that he was going to be out of it for the whole fight. She found herself on the receiving end of several rage-induced blows, each one more vicious than the last, as if Kensou was releasing some terribly powerful pent-up energy. She could do little more than block what she could.

Yuri's arms failed her after the umpteenth heavy blow landed on them, and they fell to her side uselessly. At this moment, she believed Kensou would let up. However, she could see the blind rage in his eyes as he swung another vicious fist at her face, and Yuri was proven wrong in the most direct way possible as she fell to the floor, unconscious.

The youngest Sakazaki sibling groaned in pain as she found herself buried in the sheets of the emergency treatment room for the tournament. Before even opening her eyes, she mentally kicked herself, aware that she had just lost the match for her team.

Although it took far more energy than she wanted to give, Yuri opened her eyes and forced herself to sit up in the bed, despite the aches and pains that coated her arms and face. She glanced around the generic white room, finding little of note besides who was sitting in the chair in the corner. It wasn't one of her teammates, as Yuri would have expected, but actually the very one who had put her here, Kensou.

The boy glanced up at Yuri as he realized she had awoken, and his face was immediately filled with guilt. "Yuri, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to... not that hard..."

Yuri wondered if Kensou was referring to her face or not, but she accepted the apology anyways. It was a fight after all. People were bound to get hurt. She tried to offer Kensou an easy smile, even though it hurt like all hell.

"It's fine Kensou. A fight's a fight, someone had to win."

The brown haired martial artist shook his head. "Yeah but... I wasn't fighting for the sake of the match up there... I just took all of my frustration out on you. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for that. I just..."

Now it was Yuri herself who was feeling guilty. After all, hand't she been the one to provoke him?

"It's really OK, y'know. I mean, I'm the one who pressed your buttons and all... by the way, how does my face look?"

Kensou shifted uncomfortably as he scrathed the back of his head. "You've uh... got a pretty nasty bruise on your left cheekbone, but it's not puffed up or anything... just black. Er...sorry...again..."

Yuri winced as she gingerly touched her fingers to her face. That was probably going to be there for awhile. She glanced down at he arms too, noticing that they were likewise covered in bruises. She knew Kensou was too gentle for such ferocity, even though he was a fighter. Despite the fact that it had landed her in this painful situation, Yuri found her curiosity piqued yet again.

"Say, Kensou... do you want to talk about it?"

Yuri noticed how his body tensed up at the mention of his problem.

"Er... um...no. Not right now at least..."

Yuri frowned, hoping she had guilt tripped the warrior into sharing his secrets with her, since he had inflicted these wounds on her, but apparently that hadn't worked.

"Not right now, huh? Well... how about next week?"

Kensou threw her a look of confusion. "Huh?"

"Both of our teams are going to be in town for at least the next two weeks, so why don't you and I head out to town on Saturday, and we can talk then? Hopefully this bruise on my face will fade by then, and you won't have to be embarrassed by being seen in public with me..."

Kensou interjected vehemently. "Hold on, I would never be embarrassed to be seen with you, even if you had a bruise or something! Sheesh, what do you take me for!?"

Apparently Kensou didn't even realize how sweet he had unintentionally sounded. Regardless, that made Yuri smile.

"Well then, you should be down for this no matter what state I'm in, right? Please? It'd be a lot of fun, y'know..."

Both of them were aware that this sounded like a date, even though they both knew it wasn't. Apparently Kensou was going to be talking about some pretty serious stuff if he agreed...

"F-fine... I guess... talking about it might help..."

Yuri's smile grew by a few centimeters. "Great! It's a date then!"

"It's n-not d-date!"

"I know, but I just had to make you squirm after clocking me in the face like that..."

Unorthodox pairing for the win! Screw KyoxAthena and Yuri and whoever people usually pair her with! We're blazing our own trail!

Anyway, this one is kind of short, but then again, the word 'shorts' is in the summary of the fic, so that's kind of the norm around here. I don't know when I'll get back, taking the end of school into account, but hopefully I won't be too terribly long.

Anyway, I won't make you guys leave five reviews as a requirement for the next chapter. Now, it would be nice, but I'm well aware that the KOF archive has a smaller audience, so I'm cool with cutting some slack. Have a nice day.