Later the next morning, Kiki entered the living room with a cheerful, "Morning, Mr. Yagami!" Iori grumbled as he blinked his tired eyes open and sat up from the couch. Kiki rolled the amp towards him and gestured to it with a flourish, "Ta-da! All fixed!"

"I'll be the judge of that." Iori slipped off his seat and trudged over to his bass case sitting in the corner of the room. "Plug it in," he said as he popped the case open. Kiki rolled the amp over to the outlet closest to him and plugged in the power cord. Iori took out his bass and connected it to the amp. After turning the dials down, he turned it on and fiddled around with its settings. Kiki sat on the floor as she watched Iori pluck at the bass strings. The tones resounded from the speaker as he played a simple scale. Nodding to himself, he set his bass down and turned off the amp, "Not bad."

Kiki smiled wide, "Glad I could help, Mr. Yagami!" He headed to the kitchen. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Gonna make a few calls," he replied. The girl followed him and observed him as he picked up the receiver and dialed a number. After a few moments, Iori spoke up, "Mizushima? It's me." A pause. "Got my amp fixed." Iori recoiled a bit and held the receiver a few inches from his ear. Bringing it back, he groaned, "You're too damn loud. Look, are you free later or not?" A pause and a nod. "Alright, we'll meet at the café at one and schedule our next practice. I'm gonna give Izumi and Mochizuki a call too." Another pause. "Yeah, yeah, bye."

Kiki leaned against the fridge as Iori called up the other two people he mentioned. Once he was done with his last phone call, Kiki piped up, "Your band?"

He nodded. "You're coming with me."

Kiki raised an eyebrow, "Huh? Why?"

"When they find out you're living with me, I'll never hear the end of it," he grumbled. "Might as well get it over with."

"... Never hear the end of what?"

A few minutes before the meeting time, Iori and Kiki arrived at the café with him entering first and her behind him as usual. Surveying the area, Iori found a familiar face sitting at a table near a window on the other side of the building. If Kiki didn't know better, she would have mistaken this man as a KOF fighter himself with his large muscular body. If he moved too much, his polo shirt probably would have burst at the seams. The man waved to Iori and he waved back.

As he and Kiki seated themselves at the table, Iori greeted, "Hey, Mochizuki."

"Good to see you, Yagami." The man spoke in a deep, but gentle tone. Mochizuki turned his attention to Kiki, "I'm Shun Mochizuki, one of Yagami's bandmates. Drummer. And you are?"

Kiki smiled brightly and bowed to him, "I'm Kiki Cruz, Mr. Yagami's student. Nice to meet you."

Shun raised his eyebrows, "Student?"

"Training her to get into KOF," replied Iori.

"Oh?" Shun chuckled, "Well, don't work her too hard."

It was exactly one o'clock when another person had entered the café. This time, it was a young woman with short, bleached blonde hair. A denim jacket, jeans, and bright pastel graphic tee were not what Kiki expected another one of Iori's bandmates to wear, but the fact her eyes glinted with a sense of familiarity when she spotted Shun and Iori let her know that this woman was, undoubtedly, part of the band. She skipped over to their table with a bright smile on her face, "Shun! Iori!"

"Hi, Izumi," Shun gave her a small wave, and Iori nodded to her.

She cocked her head at Kiki, "And who might this be? Did one of you guys get a girlfriend without telling me?"

A blush colored Kiki's cheeks, "Eh?"

"She's Yagami's," Shun teased.

Kiki jumped, "Eh?!"

"Don't say stupid shit," Iori groaned. "Izumi, this is my disciple, Kiki. She wants to fight in KOF one day."

"It's very nice to meet you," Kiki bowed to her.

"Nice to meet you too!" Izumi grinned. "I'm Aya Izumi. I'm the band's guitarist." She leaned into Kiki's ear and whispered, "If Iori's causing you any trouble, you come straight to me, okay?"

"E-Eh?"

Iori shot Aya a glare, "What was that?"

She pinched his cheek, "Don't worry your little head over it, Iorin." He rolled his eyes and swatted her hand away. Aya giggled at his reaction and took a look around the café. She pouted and put her hands on her hips, "Probably shouldn't even bother asking, but where's Yuta?"

"Late as usual," replied Iori.

She sighed, "Of course he is." Shaking her head, Aya took a seat next to Shun. "Seriously, Iori, you gotta schedule these meetings better."

"Ain't my fault the guy can't keep track of time," he said with a shrug.

As if on cue, the final band member burst through the door. Now, this is what Kiki expected a member of Iori's band to look: a slightly unbuttoned shirt with sleeves rolled up, a multitude of bracelets around each wrist, pierced ears, and a look in his eyes that could make any woman's knees go weak. He waved at the group with his whole arm and greeted them loudly as he paced to their table, "Yagami! Mochi! Aya! Hey!"

Iori waved back at him, "Mizushima."

"You're late, Yuta. Again," Aya grumbled.

"Aw, it's fine," Yuta gestured dismissively. "Besides, this meeting's supposed to be short. Who cares if I'm a minute or two late?" He pointed at Kiki with his thumb, "Who's she?"

"That's Kiki," said Iori. "She's my disciple, and she's living with me."

All three bandmates blinked, then cried in unison, "What?!" They began clamoring all at once. "You have a girlfriend?!" "Why didn't you mention that last part earlier?!" "... Huh."

"I now see what you mean," Kiki quietly quipped to Iori.

"Will the three of you shut up already?!" Iori bellowed. The trio shut their mouths immediately. "Look, she just needed a place to stay, and I took her in. Nothing else to it." Kiki nodded in confirmation.

Yuta squinted at him and crossed his arms, "Uh-huh. Sure. Whatever you say, Yagami. By the way," he smirked at Kiki, "the name's Yuta Mizushima, best vocalist this side of Osaka. And if you ever change your mind about staying with Yagami, my place is always open-"

Iori yanked him by the sleeve and forced his ass down to the chair next to him, "Just take your damn seat."

A few moments later, a waitress approached the group and took their drink orders. For the rest of their time there, the five of them discussed when their next practice would be and the possibility of future gigs. Once they were done, they all went their separate ways.

"They were really nice," Kiki said as she and Iori walked back home.

"Is that how you'd put it?" grumbled Iori.

She giggled, "It must be fun being in a band with them."

He shrugged, "I guess. Anyway, I'm bringing you with me to our practice next week."

"Huh? Are you sure?" She rubbed the back of her neck, "I don't wanna get in the way or anything."

"It'll probably be better than sitting around doing nothing at the apartment for an hour," he remarked.

"I could always train on my own while I wait," suggested Kiki.

"True. Still," He looked down at her with a slight smile, "I just have a feeling they want to see you again."

Kiki showed him a wide grin and pumped her fist in the air, "Okay!"

A/N: Man it sure has been a hot minute, hasn't it? I'm glad FF got its act together and got everything working again. If you haven't yet, please read chapters 9 and 10 which were released during the site outage as well as the author notes I added to all the previous chapters! Anyway, onto my actual notes.

Ah yes, Iori's band who we never got any canon info about. Except for in KOFG where we at least get introduced to the vocalist through Iori's side story. No, he doesn't get named at all. Hell, I'm not even sure if I got his personality right but whatever.