KOF 2001
by Darth Wraith

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and KOF is not mine.

' ' - thoughts | " " - speaking

Ranma watched the two flame wielders in amazement. Never has he seen such a type of power and such an amount of it as well. He could've sworn that anyone within a 2 mile radius could feel the heat of the flames radiating from the center, because he was sweating like a hog now. Not that the two seemed to notice. Ryoga finally stopped throwing off mini-shi shi hokodans and observed the two fight.

Iori grabbed on to Kyo's shirt and slammed him down. With an evil grin, he channeled a massive burst of purple flame down his body. Kyo winced in pain, but retaliated the unaware, evilly laughing Iori by grabbing on to his shirt and doing the same thing, only this time, throwing him up. Both seemed too concentrated on the fight, because the room was heating up ever so steadily, yet they don't feel anything. Suddenly Akane noted that their dojo was made out of wood, and things that are made from wood can catch fire easily. As the room got hotter, she couldn't hold it anymore, and shouted for the two combatants to stop. Ranma and Ryoga looked at her, also realizing what she realized. They too, tried to persuade them to stop.

Kyo by now was on the losing side of the battle. Iori kept punching and shooting flames at his weakened body. Kyo rashly followed and Iori promptly sent him up with a fiery uppercut. Then as his concentration faltered, he heard voices.

"Stop it now!" Kyo heard a girl's voice.

"Oi Kyo! Not in the dojo! Take it out somewhere else!?" Kyo could make out another voice. He fell to the ground, dazed.

"Shut up!" Iori turned sharply at the girl. "Don't even think of interrupting our fight." Akane widened her eyes at his sheer coldness. She couldn't help it as she was knocked a few feet, Iori with extended hands. "Hmmph," he snorted, "you're lucky I'm not in a killing mood."

Ranma, Ryoga, Mousse, Taro, and the Tendos could only gape in horror as Akane flew out of the dojo onto the backyard. Soun and the others immediately went to Akane's side. And as Ranma and Ryoga recovered, their battle auras also grew larger. Iori turned to them, and smirked.

"SHI SHI HOKODAN!" Ryoga unleashed a huge ball of chi at Iori. Ranma meanwhile charged at Iori with blazingly fast punches and kicks, drooling in feral rage as thoughts of Akane hurt flashed through his mind. Iori responded with his own flaming projectile and nullified Ryoga's shi shi hokodan. Turning to Ranma, he uppercutted him, interrupting his chestnut fist, sending him to the air. "Damn it," Ranma muttered, "he's strong. And so calm...this is not his full power, yet he cancels my chestnut fist as if it's like swatting flies." Iori was ready to prepare another uppercut when chains suddenly wrapped around his body. Growling in anger, he looked for the source of the chains. It belonged to none other than Mousse. "Stop. It. Now." Mousse glared at Iori.

"Heh. As if that's gonna stop me? I'll simply melt it away!" Iori grabbed the chains and channeled fire, slowly melting the chains. Mousse could only hope that someone would start attacking Iori and stop him from killing anyone.

Suddenly Iori felt somebody grab him, and his body started to feel hot. (NOT IN A SICK WAY...SHEEZ!) Recognizing it as Kyo, he made a desparate attempt to finish him, but Kyo beat him to that. A huge explosion rocked the dojo, and Kyo performed his SDM, the 524 Shiki Kamijiri. His whole body flamed up, and with a combination of kicks and punches coupled with white-hot fire he sent Iori up, and Ryoga came and gave him a good uppercut as he landed. Iori fell with a loud thump.

As he stood up, he muttered to Kyo, "This isn't over." Turning to Ranma and the others he sneered, "You were lucky because Kyo saved your butts. If he weren't here, neither would you right now."

Benimaru's fist tightened, lightning crackling. "Don't forget about me, Iori."

Iori chuckled, and it slowly generated into his trademark psycho laugh. "I'll see you at the tournament!" And Iori hobbled out of the dojo.

"At least his laugh isn't as bad as Kodachi's," Ranma weakly muttered. Ryoga laughed.

"Akane! Are you okay?" a voice agitatedly shouted.

"Akane-san!"

"My poor girl! WAAAAH!!!"

Akane slowly opened her eyes. 'What happened?' she thought. Then she remembered being forcefully knocked out into the backyard. She could remember one thing: red hair. Her first thought was Ranma, but something else unnerved her. It was short, red hair, and it wasn't tied into a pigtail. She looked at Ranma, who smiled a warm, caring, and concerned smile. "Ranma?"

"Hey Akane. You okay?" Akane nodded.

"Oh thank God!" She looked at Ryoga who was looking up the sky ranting thanking the gods she was all right. Akane rolled her eyes and smiled, 'Ryoga can be so...overemotional, but he's a great friend, nevertheless.'

Ranma then did something nobody would've thought he would do. He slid an arm under Akane's leg, and another arm under her back and carried her up. "Come on 'Kane, I'll take you to your room." Akane's cheeks flamed so red a rose would turn green if it saw her. Her instincts started kicking in, but she willed herself to enjoy it while she can. She smiled, relaxing on Ranma's muscular arms and closed her eyes as he walked up towards her room, leaving behind a very stunned Soun, Genma, Nabiki, Mousse, and especially Ryoga.

"Oh happy days Saotome-kun!" Soun started up Souniagra Falls.

"Indeed Tendo-kun!" Genma hugged Soun, slowly changing to a panda as Soun's tear poured on Genma's shoulders. Kyo and Benimaru widened their eyes in amazement, seeing the supposed human changing into a panda. Kasumi walked up to the two men and said, "I'll explain later." Kyo and Benimaru nodded dumbly.

"Damn! I should've brought my video camera!" Nabiki pouted. She hurried to get some sort of spying device. Kasumi just smiled. 'About time,' she thought.

Mousse blinked. 'All this time I've been fighting because I thought he wanted Shampoo? What a fool I am!'

Ryoga was the most stunned of them all. "A..Akane-s..san? Why him?" He realized that it could've been his arms that carried Akane, but was beaten by Ranma. He bashed his fists on the ground, creating two dents. "Damn you Ranma...damn you. Why? Why can't I have more courage? Oh well, if she's happy with Ranma, I'll make sure they will be the happiest couple ever. Saotome...if you dare to hurt her in anyway, I will personally gut your brains and..." he muttered, cursing and blessing Ranma.

Ranma reached Akane's room, admiring the sight. He rarely visited her room, since he usually got booted by the uncute tomboy if he even dared to step inside. Slowly, reluctantly, he put her small, sleeping form on the bed. He noted her beautiful dark blue hair, and her tomboyish though cute face. "She may be a tomboy," he said quietly, "but she definitely ain't an uncute one. I feel like an idiot calling her uncute." He helped cover her with the blankets and lightly kissed her on the forehead. "You'll be fine. Sleep tight, my *cute* tomboy." He stood up and started to leave the room, but not before he felt his hands being grabbed by another one. He turned to see Akane grabbing his arms, blushing furiously. Ranma responded with a blush of his own. Starting to get uncomfortable, he said the first thing that was on his head "Uh...it's not what you think! Besides what do I care about an uncute tomboy!" He mentally slapped himself for saying such a stupid comment.

But Akane knew what Ranma really thought of her. She was very aware that he carried her into her room, helped her to bed and kissed her on the forehead, saying those loving, soothing words. "Ranma no baka," she said teasingly, "I heard what you said. Thank you, my gallant hero." she pulled Ranma close to her and kissed Ranma on the lips. Ranma could do nothing as he succumbed to her love, returning her kiss.

After a few moments, he very reluctantly broke the kiss, saying "You're...you're welcome. Well, I guess it's time for training again." He quietly closed the door and proceeded back to the dojo. 'My cute tomboy...I like that.'

Back in the room, Akane closed her eyes and slept peacefully, having nice and pleasant dreams concerning Ranma (NOT IN A SICK WAY...SHEEZ!). 'My gallant hero...I like that.'

Ranma went back to the dojo to see a crying Soun hugging a large panda. Mousse rushing to shake Ranma's hand, and Ryoga sulking in a corner. "Congratulations! I hope you and Akane are happy!" Mousse shouted. Ryoga shuddered slightly at the mention of Akane.

"Gee Mousse, it's not what you think," Ranma blushed at Mousse's comment, "But at least you finally figured out that I'm not trying to steal Shampoo from you."

Mousse felt quite embarrassed. "Eh...no grudge I hope?"

Ranma smiled. "Nah." He walked towards Ryoga. "Hey Ryoga. Don't take it too hard on yourself." Ryoga suddenly stood up and slammed Ranma into the wall, grabbing his shirt.

"I warn you, Ranma, if you even hurt a hair of Akane or hurt her heart, I will find you and kill you," Ryoga continued warning Ranma with gruesome details on how he was to deal with him if he hurt Akane. After ten minutes, Ryoga released his shirt, concluding, "I wish you best, Ranma. So now, with Akane out of my mind. Let's practice!"

"All right!" Ranma and Ryoga started sparring. Mousse turned to Taro. "We haven't started practice. Shall we?"

"Ok Mousse. Let's see how tough you are." Taro cracked his knuckles.

Kyo turned to Benimaru. "Well, it's us two. Shall we?" Fire and lightning formed from their hands. "Ikuso!" (Let's Go...not sure how to spell it XD)

Meanwhile, in some other place in Nerima...

Two blonds were in a cafe, eating ramen.

"You know bro, their ramen is pretty good. It took what, 30 seconds for the food to come after we ordered. And it's fresh too! I must say that the cooks know some stuff about martial arts. Heh."

"Maybe. But in any case, this is *good*!" Suddenly the doors burst open, revealing a hysterical looking boxer, with brown, spiky hair, like Benimaru's. "Holy moly! You two, come out! I think I've met the first ghoul in existence!"

The two blond men rolled their eyes. "Oh boy, this had better be good," they muttered. They quickly finished the last bits of ramen and left the money on the table. Wherever that money went, it's not their problem anymore. As they arrived outside, they were surprised that their boxing comrade was telling the truth! There, along the grassy area, stood a wizened ghoul on some sort of pogo stick. "Wow, Joe, you're right! Ghouls do exist after all!"

"Heh. Told you so Terry," Joe proudly smiled, but not before getting a nice whack on the head. The old ghoul (er..Cologne) exclaimed, "Who are you calling old ghoul?"

Joe rubbed his head. "Wow, you're strong for a baby ghoul. OW!" Another bump formed on his head. "What did you do that for?!"

Cologne's battle aura fired up. "I dare you to call me that again!" Terry and his brother Andy sweatdropped. "Um..." Andy said, "my friend didn't mean it. Come on, stop this stupid fi-"

"Hah! You want a fight, mini-ghoul! You'll get one!" Joe started to punch randomly, slowly increasing spead. Cologne smirked. "Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken!" Her pogo stick went into a blazing flurry, aiming towards Joe's body. But Joe was unfazed. His punches also became a blur, and started going towards Cologne. Cologne widened her eyes. 'Masaka! His punches are even faster than my own! Yet he needs time to get that speed! Shoot! I should've hit him before he gets into such a frenzy!' Cologne started to block the flurry of blows, and started to prepare for her Hiryu Shoten Ha. No one knew about it, and Joe was unwittingly being forced into the center of the vortex. Suddenly Joe felt an odd sense of cold. As he stepped into the center, Cologne smirked. "HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" A terrible twister formed. But Joe responded with one with his own.

"SCREW UPPER!" Another twister formed, and as it collided with the Hiryu Shoten Ha twister, they both collapsed. Joe smiled. "Heh old ghoul, I know your tricks. Trying to lead me into a spiral to release your wind? Heh the thing you don't know is that I was hoping that that would happen as well. You see, the hot and cold auras we were both feeling were collided into a spiral. I needed to release my heat energy, and you needed to release your cold energy. So in all, they cancel out." Cologne was amazed. This was the first time besides Herb that someone could cancel out the Hiryu Shoten Ha. But Cologne knew something else that Joe doesn't know. She gave Joe a tap on the side, and Joe ever so slowly, passed out. Terry sighed.

"Looks like Joe was a bit overexcited." Andy laughed. "Who are you anyway, old lady?"

"I'm Kuh Lon...people call me Cologne though since it's hard to say my name." Cologne responded. "Don't worry about your friend," she continued, noting Terry and Andy's worried expression, "I just tapped a shiatsu point. He'll awaken in no time."

Terry nodded. "I'm Terry Bogard and this is my brother, Andy."

"Hi." Andy bowed. Cologne bowed back. "You're the Fatal Fury team, aren't you."

"How did you know?" Terry asked, not too surprised, since Cologne did live for nearly a third of a millenium.

"I do, child, I do. The techniques Joe used are quite similar to my tactics. I'm real surprised that his power nearly rivaled mine, and at such a young age as well."

Terry nodded. "I noticed. You're much faster by default, if you get to Joe fast and quickly he'll be down in no time. But after that, have fun trying to stop him. But you aren't using your full power. I can tell that Joe was."

Cologne chuckled. "Well the tournament will start in three days time. You should practice."

"Yeah I should. Come on Andy, let's help get Joe and find a place to practice." The two blond brothers picked up Joe and walked away from the Nekohanten.

NOTES: Hmm...I have a question for y'all...should I name the techniques people will use? Like if Ranma was going to use his moko takabisha should I do something like:

"MOKO TAKABISHA!" A ball blasted from his hand. I'm asking this because there are probably gonna be lots of fights so I don't wanna have to keep naming moves...it's quite a pain.

That part with 'My (blah blah)...I like that' ... comes from 'A Kiss to The Victor' the AU that starts @ Romeo and Juliet episode.

And of course, R & R! Thank you!