A/N: Well, I have some pretty bad news for you all. First, I wasn't able to update twice last week, second, I was totally exhausted on Wednesday after getting back from D.C. and couldn't write, third, I couldn't find the time to write yesterday, and lastly, I have a couple other stories that are near their conclusion and I owe it to my few reviewing readers for those to update and finish them ASAP. In English, this means that ASD will be having a slow-down in updates, where I'll write two chapters for this, then one chapter for any two of my other fanfictions, then two more of these, and so on. Rest assured, "A Single Decision" is still the fanfic I love writing the most. And this author's notes is getting way too long, so I better make this chapter a good one!

Oh, but before I start, I will kill for a Spartan: Total Warrior/God of War crossover fanfic. I want it that badly.

Disclaimer: The usual.

Kim got back up to his feet promptly, and he took another good look at Shingo. The kid lacked experience, that was sure… but the ferocity he put into his blows, well… Kim knew that more than made up for it from being on the receiving end for it. But lacking experience was still lacking experience, and Kim grinned before approaching Shingo again.

"Ready to continue?" Kaphwan asked. Shingo nodded.

Both fighters charged, Kim striking at Shingo's lower leg as the teenager struck with an overhead punch. Both attacks connected, Shingo suddenly slamming to the floor as Kim took a hit to the chest. Yet Shingo was still on the ground, and Kim smashed his foot down repeatedly. There was a small part of him that was drawing the connection between his current savagery and the abuse Geese had handed to him before, but the rest of him quickly denounced it as evil.

Of course, such an act required much of Kaphwan's focus, and Shingo used those precious milliseconds to roll away, hand-spring backwards, and then plant his feet in Kim's face. The Tae Kwan Do fighter stumbled back a few steps but charged afterwards, Shingo already spinning around, ready for a roundhouse punch.

Kim's kick to the sternum hurt, like none other, but to Shingo at that moment, something was more important… winning. His entire life, he was the bumbling, naïve loser that tried his best, got too high on his horse and couldn't see the big picture when he got introspective, and as painful as it was to admit, Shingo knew Kyo probably mocked him behind his back.

But nobody would mock somebody that beat somebody even Billy Kane had trouble with… and the bone-crushing punch to Kim's face let Shingo know this was his chance. Screw winning a tournament, just having a Rocky-esque moment would be enough.

"SHINGO KICK!" Shingo turned backwards, his right foot smashing into Kim's head before Yabuki slammed his hands on the ground, and raised his left foot to slam it under Kim. "SHINGO SPIN!" With nothing but upper-body strength, Shingo spun himself, throwing Kim into the wall again and then getting up.

Shingo was panting at the sight as Kim collapsed on the ground.

"Winner…" the ref announced, "Shingo Yabuki!"

He… he had done it. He had-

WHAM!

"Winner," the ref immediately continued with, "Andy Bogard!"

Sie and Benimaru looked at the second fighter on the Rival Team, the younger Bogard looking down at the unconscious schoolboy. He had lost his cool, and had paid the cost. Andy then grinned, Mr. "Not Man Enough to be Gay" was stepping up to fight next.

"You won't win again," he said as Benimaru threw Shingo's unconscious body over to Sie. After all… there always remains the power of the darker part of a Shiranui ninja, ready to emerge at any necessary moment. And Nikaido will be on the receiving end too. I've spent so long perfecting it… I know I won't lose this time!

Beni and Andy stared opposite each other, both blondes ready for battle the second the ref declared it. No sooner had the word escape his lips did the two go at it, bone-crushing punches slamming into each other.

Benimaru knew he had the advantage when it came to these close-range battles. After all, by temporarily frying Heidern's nerves, he had defeated a far stronger enemy, and Andy was weaker than the senior Ikari. Bending away from Andy to dodge a point-blank Hishou Ken blast, Beni crouched down and countered, spinning around and slamming his legs into Andy's in an attempt to sweep him.

The Shiranui ninja took the hit without too much consequence, however, and jumped into the air. He rocketed down at Beni, flames erupting from his legs, but Beni jumped at him and spun in mid-air, again tapping into the incredible conductive power of the Neo Electrigger. Electricity coursed through his body as he delivered Andy's head to the mat hard before springing away.

Surprisingly, however, Benimaru was surprised to see Andy pull himself off with little more than a few bruises and some minor swelling.

"That all you got?" Andy asked as he dashed in front of Benimaru, elbowing him in the face and sending him slamming to the mat hard, blood dripping down from a bruised and bloody cheek. "Take that, pretty boy… how do you like your beautiful face now? Gonna start screaming out 'My face! My face!' or something?" He turned to Sie. "And you're next too."

The Psycho Soldier shook his head, pointing back to Beni. "He's not done yet."

"Yeah…" Beni muttered as he got back to his feet. "And you think I'm just going to start screaming and lose my cool? Wrong... I'd wear any life-long scars as a medal, a reminder for me that one day, I beat up somebody stupid enough to think I'd thrown in the towel just because of a few little scrapes!"

"Strong words…" Andy mused. "Shall we continue?"

"Sounds peachy!"


"I'll handle this one," Mary said as she stepped up to fight Ralf, "Thanks again, Joe…"

"No problem…" Higashi answered, "My pleasure taking the initiative…" He staggered forward, Billy catching him. "Thanks, now win this fight!"

"No problem," Mary answered.

Ralf, on the other hand, was doing some stretches and then nodded. He was set. This would be a bit tricky, this was their first time against the Fatal Fury team, and Leona was already down and out of it. Time to even the odds.

Ralf and Mary stepped out on the airfield, taking a good look at each other before dropping down and preparing for battle… the grappler against the pugilist.

Mary started out quickly, jumping forward but stopping as soon as Ralf let out a flurry of rapid-fire punches. She had no idea what to block first, so she didn't even try. The detective rolled away, and although Mary caught a few hits, it wasn't anything serious and she sprang at Ralf from behind, kicking him in the back of the head. Ralf turned to late to escape, but he at least managed to jump in the air, letting Mary's impact do the real dirty work. Spinning in air, Ralf, rocketed down back at Blue Mary, he grunt of pain music to his ears as he quickly went to work on her with another flurry of punches.

This time, Mary had no choice but to throw up what defense she could for such an unpredictable barrage. Ralf didn't hit like a tank, that would be putting it rather mildly, but then again, she realized something.

This flurry of punches seemed actually a tad slower than Joe's… and with that in mind…

Ralf was utterly shocked as Mary caught his next punch in her Atami Nage style technique and then sweeped his legs out. Ralf began falling to the ground, but Mary promptly kicked him in the face, sending him careening in the air.

He landed without any serious injuries, however, and pulled back for his most dreaded technique.

"GALACTICA PHANTOM!"

Mary stood on her toes, waiting until just the right second.

She wondered if Ralf even knew the entire lower half of his body was completely unprotected.

Just as he hit, Mary drove down and grabbed his legs, then pulling back for a suplex than hammered his head hard into the ground. The impact was devastating, and as Mary let him go to fall on the ground, he said only one thing on it.

"No… no way…"

Joe and Billy were amazed by the comeback, cheering happily as Clark immediately complained that he wouldn't get to fight, to which Leona promised he could in the Loser's bracket against whoever they would face.

Billy smirked at the change of events, knowing that their next match-up would be against Team Kyokugenryu. Although Billy didn't feel bad about his first-round defeat to Ryo last year, he was certainly looking forward to a rematch as he, Joe, and Mary walked back to one of the choppers to leave.

"Wait."

He turned to see Leona looking up at him, a little sore (literally) after Joe's victory, but otherwise fine. "Tell Geese that we've got our side of the field in order."

Not really understanding what she meant, but understanding it was something important, Billy nodded. "Sure. See you in Southtown!"


Andy and Benimaru continued to exchange murderous blows, the bone-breaking strikes of Kopo Ken against Benimaru's mix of electric and Muay Thai themed moves. By now, the injuries they had previously wrought on each other had been forgotten, mainly by the much bigger ones now being shown, but their ferocity in battle was not compromised in any way.

Dammit he's good… Andy thought, our last fight was cut too short to see what he was really made of, but this… I'm starting to think there was no weak link in the Japan team.

They punched each other in the head at almost the exact same time, getting knocked to opposite sides of the arena before springing back at each other.

Andy sprang up in the air, shooting down as Benimaru flipped backwards, a bolt of electricity his hatchet man for this occasion. The lightning hit Andy's legs, numbing them entirely as Nikaido kicked Andy in the face as he landed before charging up his finisher, Bogard completely unprotected.

"RAIKOKEN!"

The gigantic electric burst fried Andy entirely, and one more kick for good measure sent him smashing into a wall.

Whew… beat him…

But no sooner had Beni thought that did Eiji Kisaragi appear from behind, grabbing Benimaru and pounding him into the ground hard. The wear and tear of the previous battle, in addition to this surprise attack, was more than enough to knock Benimaru out as well.

"So it's just you and me now, then," Eiji said as he stared at Sie.

"You forgot the ref."

"He doesn't count."

Meh MEH meh meh… Sie thought snippily as he strutted out. Okay, this shouldn't be too tough. Just one Millennium Breaker and it'll all be over! He flexed his muscles, gathering his strength and bringing himself to a state of readiness for the battle. He snapped his eyes open…

And was rewarded with a fist to the face. Sie staggered back, Eiji standing arrogantly in front of him.

"Might be smart to do all that stuff before you step into the ring," Eiji commented. "I mean, I don't claim to be a professional battle consultant, but you really need to take things a little more seriously." He promptly reflected back a Psycho Ball that slammed into an unsuspecting Sie. "And if you get pissed, try to at least not just lash out with whatever seems convenient!"

Sie shook his head and charged, punching and kicking at the cocky ninja bastard. Eiji really didn't bother block that much, preferring to dodge and weave around the strikes. Eventually, however, a precise punch on Sie's part knocked Eiji back and gave Sie the opening he wanted.

"MILLENNIUM BREAKER!"

Sie flew past Eiji, punching him once in the head, and expecting the glorious sounds of 1000 punches doing the dirty work he wanted.

Instead, Sie gasped out in horror as numerous slashes sprung up all over his body.

"Tell me truthfully," Eiji asked as Sie turned around, trying to catch his breath. The ninja was smiling at him, spinning his knives around in his hands. "Did you do any serious training for this tournament whatsoever?"

Sie gulped. Okay, so there was the crazy stuff he did with Shingo… but he had seriously expected the strength that had demolished Yagami to still remain with him, just requiring the standard cliché of "getting angry enough to unlock latent powers."

And here he was, staring down a professional assassin who had to beat off Strider Hiryu fanboys with a stick at every waking moment… and getting schooled by him, literally.

"Shall we continue?" Eiji asked as Sie gulped nervously. "Well? Fine… I'll take that as a yes!"

Eiji jumped into the air, firing down rapid-fire kicks as Sie rolled away before springing back, retaliating in kind and actually landing a series of kicks that sent Eiji to the floor.

"Okay, you at least maintained forward momentum for most things," Eiji continued as he rose to his feet. A flurry of Psycho Balls shot at him faster than he could track, let alone decide what to counter first.

So instead he just slashed down with a gigantic energy wave and blew them all away. Sie was hit hard by it, sliding backwards and trying in vain to catch his breath. And Eiji didn't let up on him for a second.

The Kisaragi ninja shot forward, grabbing Sie and jumping into the air before landing a painful and very hard landing which made Sie start seeing stars.

"Take training seriously next time," Eiji said as he walked away. He suddenly stopped as he jumped into the air happily. He knew what had just happened…

His team HADN'T lost in the opening round!

"YAY!" Eiji shouted happily, jumping for joy.


"Well… we're still in this then," Geese said as he rested his weary body on sofa next to Marie.

"I know you would, though… and it was nice to see that awful woman get what she deserved," Marie answered. "Incidentally, what happened to her?"

"Locked up in an asylum until she regains some vestiges of sanity… probably won't be there long too," Geese answered, kissing Marie gently before wincing in pain.

"You alright?"

"Yeah… these are just a message from the Sakazakis saying most of what's happened is over with…"

"Nice to know." She smiled weakly once, as if there was something on her mind.

"What is it, Marie?"

"Nothing," she answered, "Just thinking about how none of us have all the time in the world we want…"

"Don't talk like that, Marie," Geese said, "That's not the kind of think to say to the captain of the team that'll either fight the Japan or Rival team tomorrow."

"Sorry…" she answered, her expression improving a bit.


"So… been enjoying the tournament this time around, Ash?" Elisabeth asked as she and her subordinate rested in two beds in a Southtown hotel.

"Just seeing more of the same, if you ask me," Ash answered, running his hand along the scar that Elisabeth's whip had inflicted during the Wyler incident. "You know you're walking a tightrope this time."

"We always are, Ash. If you're really worrying, I can give you the name of a surgeon that works wonders when it comes to reattaching your ba-"

"That's enough of that," Ash answered, irritated and getting up to get out of earshot of his least favorite bitch. "Where's Chris?"

"Oh, you mean the Orochi? I saw him playing 'Starcraft' down in the computer lab. Worst case, I'll buy him some hentai or something to keep him out of trouble."

"You could have just come clean to-"

"Out of the question, Ash," Elisabeth countered. "The less everyone knows about you, the less your enemies do too. Seriously, I wonder how the hell you got by before I started calling the shots."

I'm sure, Ash thought in retaliation as he walked away.

A/N: As the second day of the tournament springs up, intense battles and vicious rematches are abound, Andy and Eiji itching for revenge against Iori Yagami and Ryo battling once again against Billy Kane. In spite of it all, however, All Eyes are on Athena.