Disclaimer: SNKPlaymore are the sole proprietor of KOF and anything connected to it. I claim ownership of any OCs to this work of fiction.

Shikkoku: Two simple words: Last. Chapter.

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KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Final Chapter: Over as Fast as it Started…

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"Yo, Krysten. We're going to be late." Raven shook his brother awake.

"What? No, give me 5 more hours…" Krysten mumbled in his sleep, which forced Raven to kick him out of bed. "Ow!"

"We are going to miss our plane if you don't get your lazy ass up." He pulled his brother up. "Zyon, Xion and Irena are already packing up."

After they have gotten back to town from what was a very long day, the SSC and Irena got something to eat and immediately went to their rooms and passed out on their respective beds. They were exhausted, and all they wanted to do was sleep. Now with that out of the way, the SSC were preparing to go back home at last.

"Hey, hurry up in there!" Zyon voice came through the door, "If you want to have some breakfast before we leave, you better get moving."

"Yeah yeah! Shut up already!" Raven shouted back, "We'll be out in a moment!"

"I can't believe that only a few days ago we were starting this tournament, and now it's over." Krysten yawned, "It went by so quickly…"

"Maybe to you, but to me it seems like we've been traveling around forever. Hopefully next year they'll hold the entire thing in one place."

"If we're so fortunate to make it in…"

"After what we did yesterday? I doubt it if we didn't get invited next year."

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A half an hour later, the SSC left the hotel, feeling refreshed after a decent night's sleep. Their plane wasn't leaving for a few hours, so they had time to get a quick breakfast in before they had to go to the airport. But there was someone missing…

"Where's Zyon?" Krysten asked.

"I don't know. He said he'll be back in a few minutes, though." Irena answered.

Zyon did come back a few minutes later. "Were did you go?" Irena asked.

He shook his head. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

"Fine. Let's find someplace to eat before it you leave. It's on me."

While Irena was asking someone for directions to the nearest restaurant, Zyon got the rest of the team together

"What is it, Zyon?" Xion asked.

"While you were getting ready, I snuck out to the mall got Irena a nice little gift. You know, as a thank-you present of sorts."

"Well that was nice of you, I guess. How much did it cost?"

"Eh…er….a few hundred something…"

Everyone was shocked. "What? How did you get that much money?"

"From some stuff I had saved up in the bank that Tera wired to me, of course. I'm not that poor, you know."

"I understand that, but your job doesn't pay enough to be throwing money around like that!" Xion warned, "Don't you remember that you want to go to college after you graduate?"

"Don't worry. I can compensate. One of the benefits of having a affluent friend." Zyon shook him a bit, "Just don't tell her, okay? I want it to be a surprise…"

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After breakfast, it was time for the SSC to go home. They arrived at the airport an hour early, so they had no choice but to sit at the gate and wait. Zyon was talking to his sister on the phone, who, with no surprise, was incredibly relieved to hear his voice, while the others did various things.

"Hey, Irena? I have something to ask you…." Raven said.

"Sure, what is it?"

"That day at the mall, when we first met you, was that planned, or was our encounter just one big happy accident?"

"To be honest, it was always my intention to find you and invite you to fight in the tournament, but during that day, I wasn't really looking for you at that time. It just so happened that we were in the same place. I guess some could say our encounter was destined to happen, but I doubt that."

"The only destiny is the one you make yourself.'"

"That was deep. Who said that to you?"

"….I don't know. It's something that sticks in my head but I can't seem to pinpoint a source of that. It's a fragmented memory, I guess."

"Is it because of the amnesia?"

"Probably. I guess that it probably comes from a book, or some person, but I don't really care much about it." He noticed Irena looking at him funny, "What's wrong?"

"I just noticed how your hair is still black…It's been like that since yesterday, right?"

"Kakusei always does that. For some reason it reverts my hair back to its natural color whenever I use it." Raven rubbed his head. "It'll go back to normal after about 24 hours or so. My powers are strange like that."

Irena just smiled and tugged his hair. "I like it that way, it suits you."

An intercom announced that the plane would be arriving in about 5 minutes. Irena decided that it would be her last chance to address her team.

"Hey, everyone! Listen, there's something I want to tell all of you before you leave." Everybody turned to her. "It's been a long journey, but I'm sure you wouldn't have it any other way, right? I'm very happy to have had you as a team, guys."

"And we're happy to have had you as a representative, Irena." Zyon gave a thumbs up. "Are you going to keep contact with us?"

"I wish I could. I'm probably going to be doing damage control because of what happened, but I'll do my best to keep up with you."

"Nice. Irena, do you remember me telling you that we owed you something?" Zyon reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny object. "Well, this is it."

Irena took the object from him. It was a silver necklace with a small heart pendent attached to it. "Wow, it's lovely. I-I don't know what to say…"

"Think of it as a gift from all of us." He gave a warm grin.

"How sweet of you all to do this for me…" She gave each of the team a big hug. "You guys are the greatest. And don't worry. I have a nice surprise waiting for you back in Japan."

"Surprise?" The entire team spoke at once.

"Yep, but you'll have to wait till you get home to find out, of course!" She beamed. "Just trust me with this one; it will be most certainly worth the wait."

Finally, the airplane was ready to accept passengers and the SSC started to get on board, but Raven still needed to tell Irena something…

"Are you sure that you'll be okay?" Raven placed both hands on her shoulders, "We don't want you getting hurt…"

"I'll be fine. I can defend myself, remember." She pushed his arms away, "And I do have friends at the cartel; They will make sure nothing happens, I swear."

"I hope so…"

"But don't worry about that, you need to get going." She kissed him on the cheek, causing him to turn completely red for a moment.

"Well then. Goodbye, Irena."

"Goodbye, Raven. Goodbye everyone." She waved to them as they went through the gate. She felt kind of sad to see them go, but happy that they were in good spirits. As she watched their airplane leave, however, she could only wonder how big of an effect would their presence in the tournament have for the cartel….

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After a four hour long flight, they were finally back at home. The only one that was there to greet them, however, was Tera, who all but tackled her brother the moment he appeared out of the gate.

"Zyonii, I missed you!" She said while she squeezed him half to death.

"I missed you too, Tera." He gently pushed her off. "Have you been doing well? No people have called wondering where I was at, hopefully?"

"Nope. Everything's been cool. Kristal has been staying with me."

"We should be getting home." Raven interrupted, "I hope nobody tried to rob our house again…"

"Who would think that we would have anything of value over there?" said Krysten.

"I hope that I haven't been evicted…" Xion mumbled absentmindedly as the team picked up their bags. Along with their usual stuff was a medium sized box addressed to them.

"What is that?" Zyon picked it up and started to shake it.

"It must be that 'surprise' that Irena mentioned before we left…."

"There is a note attached to it." Tera showed the others a piece of paper with writing on it:

This is my final gift to you for now.

If I were you, I'd wait till you get home to open it, just to be safe, of course.

See you next year…

Irena

"That was rather cryptic." Krysten said, "What do you think it is?"

"Since we can't open it here, let's go to our place and find out." Raven recommended.

The SSC took the first bus they could find and went straight to the Kirishima's residence, where they gathered around the package. Carefully, they opened the box from the top; it was filled with Styrofoam padding. Reaching into it, Raven pulled out a large brown envelope.

"A package inside of another package…Going a little overboard, aren't we?" He thought as he tore open the envelope. His eyes widened the second he saw the contents.

It was cash. Quite a bit of money to be exact; it wasn't an extraordinary amount, but it was more than most of them have ever seen in their lives.

"Wow, this was a surprise." Raven said, "this must be the cash prize for coming in third at the tournament. There's three more envelopes for the rest of you as well."

Zyon quickly opened his envelope. "Well Irena sure didn't disappoint us, did she?"

"Wait, they actually was giving away money at that tournament? I thought it was all one big trick to lure us in?" Xion said. He wasn't sure about were this money came from. "Is this stuff even legal?"

"Who cares, Xio-kun? The point is that it's ours, that's all that matters." Zyon gave his friend an envelope. "Besides, we can trust her, right?"

"Yeah, I guess you are." Xion went through his portion of the cash, "So what happens to us now?"

"What do you mean? Now that the tournament is over?" Raven asked, "We go back to our normal lives, simple as that?"

"I think Xion is concerned that we might have to deal with some other things. After all, we did sort of mess up the plans of a criminal organization. I don't think they'll just overlook that."

"I have a feeling that whoever they are has more pressing concerns to deal with than just us, after all." Zyon retorted, "But if they do decide to mess with us, then they'll have a fight in their hands."

"Besides, Irena would probably warn us ahead of time anyway." Raven added, "Either way, there's no reason to worry. KOF is over, and for the moment, so is the Shin Sekai Chitsujo. Now we are just Raven, Krysten, Xion and Zyon…."

"Good choice of words there, Raven." Zyon said. "It's still pretty early, what do you say we go somewhere and celebrate?"

"Hey, I know your school is out for summer break, but ours still has classes tomorrow."

"I know, but you not telling me you are going to worry about school the day after you get home from a grueling tournament, are you?"

"Heh, you're right. I guess I can skip one more day. So, where do you suppose we should go?"

"To my job of course. I think my boss would be willing to let us eat there on the house for once."

"If she doesn't, you're going to have to pay for it…" Xion reminded. "Are you going to cook for us?"

"I might if you're nice enough." Zyon smirked, "But probably not. I just got back, I'm not going to do work right now."

"In that case, let's not waste time arguing." Raven stretched a bit as he got up off his seat, "I'm starving after that trip. It's been a tough journey, but we earned this. Let's go crazy, alright?"

Everyone gave a sound of enthusiasm as they left the house. The sense of normalcy was a welcome relief after what seemed like a never-ending battle, but they wouldn't forget the feeling that being in the heat of battle gave them. The Shin Sekai Chitsujo: Raven Kirishima, Krysten Kirishima, Zyon Kasanari and Xion Shinlon, may not have won, but they achieved the main goal for their purpose; to prove to themselves and to everyone else that they could hang in there with the best of them. To them, that was the most they ever could have wanted. The SSC had made their mark, and very soon, the effects of doing so will be made prevalent to them.

This story has not yet come to an end….

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*Confetti falls from the sky as Shikkoku raises his hands in triumph*

Shikkoku: IT'S DONE! I've finished my first story on this site! *Cheers* Not only that, I kept my promise of focusing primarily on this story as well, even though it took waaaaayyyy longer than I had originally planned and I blew almost my entire summer break just working on one chapter, but it was still worth it. Now that it's done, I can go back to working on my neglected stories that desperately needs updating.

Notes:

I really want to thank all of you for reading this and sticking with this for so long (if you did). I've always wanted to post a story on this site, so finishing this is a very important achievement to me. Of course, there are parts of the story that still needs some improving here and there, and I'll try to get to it later, but for now I really want to focus on other stuff…

As stated, the next story in this saga will be a bridge between the two acts. It will expand on the SSC's characters a bit more and add a few more OCs to the cast. That's right, this is going to be an OC heavy saga; if that's not your thing, then you should probably…no, definitely avoid the rest of the story. That's not to say that the main cast is going to be shoved aside of course (some of them have pretty big roles). I'll do my best to balance the two out, but OCs will be the primary focus.

Anyway, the next story will be short. Probably 6 or 7 chapters, really light on action (at least I think it will be) and heavy on needless plot exposition. Of course, I'll still post a small epilogue to give you a taste of what to expect, but it'll be a while before the story is posted.

As for the other stories? Two chapters of TnK and two chapters of KT:K are what's coming up. And there's still the matter of THE FALLEN…First chapter's pretty much done, just need to tweak some things before I post it. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So that's it. Review or PM if you want to. Heh, I'm so used to posting the Next Chapter preview at the end of every chapter that I don't know what else to say….

For everyone out there, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this story, thanks to those who reviewed, and until we meet again, Sayonara.