Chapter 8: Closer

Disclaimer (Help me! I'm running out of corny lines for this segment!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

A door to a spacious apartment in a small village in Japan exploded inwards, flying across the room and smashing into splinters upon the opposing wall.

Gusts of air flowed through the apartment from the gap where the door used to be, and the very air outside of it seemed to have darkened to an oily black, likeink from some ghastly sea serpent.

"Today, Kyo Kusanagi, is the day that you will wish you had never crossed the path of the Orochi!" A voice boomed from the abyss. Goenitz emerged, winds so ferocious that they were practically visible swirled around him, carrying him into the room like a great deity of men. He jerked to a stop just inside the room and stared in wonderment at the scene before him. Two women were in the apartment, one was young with long, blonde hair and wearing a purple leather bodysuit and the other was tall with black hair tied in a bun and wearing a blue tank top and skirt. They stared back at him in disbelief. They were sitting in front of a tv screen and each of them had a device in their hands that Goenitz wasn't familiar with. He pointed a slightly shaky finger at them.

"You, tell me where to find Kyo Kusanagi!" He roared. The younger of the two women fidgeted anxiously, but the older stared at him with a strange expression he didn't recognise.

"Well, this is K's apartment, we're just, like, looking after the place..." the younger one said, but then she blushed as Goenitz's eyes turned to look about the room; there were empty pizza boxes, socks, coke bottles, square plastic boxes with odd names like Tekken and Ridge Racer, a sunglasses rack and a sword laid across the carpet. "Just how he left it!" The younger one squeaked hurriedly.

"Who is this K'?" Goenitz asked weakly.

"He's a clone of Kyo." The older one said helpfully. "Anyway, I love the accent!" She said with a grin. Goenitz blinked at her.

"How many of these 'clones' are there?" He asked miserably. His prospects of finding Kyo suddenly dropping. "Do they all look like him, act like him?" He muttered.

"Well, there was about 100 or so to begin with..." The younger began. Goenitz sagged visibly. "But most of them are dead, so now it's just K'. And he doesn't look or act like Kyo, he's way cooler!" She chirped, grinning broadly. Goenitz concentrated, he could indeed sense two aura's like Kyo Kusanagi's, apart from the one from this apartment. When people live in a place they touch things, which leaves some of there individual 'scent' or 'aura' behind. One of the two other auras he could sense was stronger than the other, he wondered if this K' was much stronger than Kyo, or whether he was much weaker and Kyo had gained much strength since the last time Goenitz had fought him. He would go to the stronger aura first.

He became aware of the older woman standing right in front of him.

"Pardon?" He asked, realising she had spoken.

"I said; Doesn't that hurt?" She said, with a hint of curiosity and slight admiration in her eyes.

"Excuse me?" He said, not understanding. She looked down at his chest and he followed her gaze. A sword was imbedded in his chest up to the hilt, but there was no blood coming from the wound. Goenitz touched the sword hilt experimentally, it seemed real enough. He hadn't felt anything when Diana had stabbed him. He pulled it out quickly and watched as the wound closed quickly behind it, he still hadn't felt anything. He looked up at her angrily.

"What happened to you saying; I love the accent!" He said angrily. Diana grinned at him, feeling like she was running out of options. A seemingly invincible man had burst into the apartment that they were supposed to be taking care of (heaven knows how she was going to explain the door to K') and now he was angry at her.

"Well, I do like the accent, but if I walked into your apartment uninvited, blowing the door off upon entry, then I think you would be annoyed too." She said quickly. Goenitz's face turned from angry to an apologetic look.

"Ah, yes, sorry about that." He muttered, stepping towards the door quickly. "I'll just be on my way..." He muttered, then spun around and vanished in a tornado.

Kula walked up beside Diana.

"Who was he?" She asked, in between sucking on a lollipop.

"I don't know." Diana said quietly. "But I think Kyo Kusanagi is in for a tough fight..."

He was in the inter-dimensional void. A kind of space between reality and the Orochi realm.

It was how most Orochi travelled from one place to the other. It was actually quite slow, but compared to flying around the world on a plane it was fast. It was always deathly quiet in the void, like a vacuum of sound; you could hardly hear your own thoughts. But right now they were loud and clear, because they were in communion with a higher being.

"So you noticed my modifications?" The voice of Orochi said in his mind.

"I'm invincible! How?" Goenitz replied excitedly.

"I have granted you much of my power. Coupled with your own, already impressive powers, they have made you a force to be feared." Orochi's calm voice said.

"I won't fail!" Goenitz laughed evilly.

The void swirled onwards.

An old woman looked up from her book as the shop door opened. Firstly a young man with wavy blonde hair and wearing a black tank top and black trousers entered. He turned and held out his hand to another youth, who was wearing a corset and a skirt and had her hair curled into two huge pigtails. She looked like someone out of the book the old woman was reading.

They approached her and the young man, who's strange coloured eyes shone brightly, gave her a polite smile.

"Excuse me, but I would like to enquire as to whether or not you had seen someone?" He asked with extreme politeness. The old woman found herself taken aback, it had been a long time since she had heard such a soft-spoken youth. "He would be taller than me, with similar hair to my own, a moustache and one of his eyes would be missing."

"Yeah, a customer did enter matching that description, it was yesterday though, he would be long gone by now. He had a right sinister look to him, but he seemed kinda confused, him and his lady friend." The old woman responded, trying to hide her deep Southtown drawl to sound more polite. The young woman, who was obviously much less polite and was giving the old woman a look of barely hidden disdain, raised an eyebrow at the mention of a 'lady friend.'

"Did they happen to mention where they were headed?" Adel asked, hiding his own emotions better than his sister. The old woman seemed to give it some thought.

"I can't say they did, they bought some clothes, changed and left. If it's any consolation, I think I overcharged them." She grinned slyly, but Adel's face remained motionless. He suddenly put his hand in his trouser pocket and pulled a large amount of dollar bills out. The old woman's mouth dropped open as he put them nonchalantly on the counter in front of her, they were all 100 bills.

"You have been most helpful." He said, flicking a strand of unruly hair away from his eye. He then turned and took Rose by the arm, as the old woman counted the bills without noticing them further, and walked out into the empty streets. Rose looked about at the 'rude words' on the walls.

"Where do we go from here, dear brother?" She asked a hint reproachfully. Adel looked about himself with a studied eye. He knew about places like this, it was quiet as the grave right now, but at night time it would come alive. Thankfully his sister was less studious in this kind of place, she tended to read more sugar coated books, although it was hard to believe it when you scorned her.

"I suppose we could look around some more, but I foresee little success." Adel said wearily. "In such a long time father could have travelled a great distance." He muttered. They walked across the narrow street and studied a public chair that had seen better days before people had used it as a privy and a chewing gum disposal bin. Rose turned away in disgust.

"Eww! These people are barbarians!" She said tartly. Adel grinned to himself, that was probably the harshest insult in her own personal vocabulary. Then an idea struck him.

"People!" He shouted excitedly. "Someone may have seen him, with his unusual appearance people would probably remember him, so we should look for a place with lots of people in!" He surmised. Rose looked at him blankly.

"Where would that be?" she asked with genuine incomprehension. Adel grinned at her broadly in triumph, which unnerved most people because of his pale complexion and strange red eyes, but Rose was used to it.

"A drinking establishment." he said, as he turned and began walking in a random direction. Rose ran to keep up with him.

"A house of ill repute?" She muttered miserably as she fell into step beside him.

"A house of information, dear sister." He corrected. "You really need to broaden your horizons, here's your chance."

"There's a 'house of information' this way?" she asked, staring at the narrow streets before them.

"In Southtown? most definitely."

Damp footsteps echoed through the streets. It had turned from a fine day into a horrible, rainy and misty day as soon as he had stepped outside. His trench coat did nothing to stop him from being drenched; although it needed a wash anyway. He didn't necessarily dislike the rain, and the fog was always a nice touch for a days 'work.'

He grinned at a passing person, who had tattoo's covering both his bare arms and a shaven head.

"Alright, Blenky." He said through golden teeth. The behemoth grunted in acknowledgement as he passed by.

He was on a special assignment, which meant that Konrad wanted him out of the way. He hated Konrad's frozen guts, the goddamned stiff had been promoted to Krizalid's 2nd in command over him. 'Bollocks! God knows that I'm better than that stiff.' Carrik thought to himself gloomily. He opened his coat slightly and fumbled about in one-of-many hidden pockets. He cursed under his breath and eventually pulled out a half-empty bottle of whiskey. He took a long draught, but paused mid-drink and listened, his eyes narrowing dangerously. He screwed the top back on casually and thrust it back into the recesses of his coat. He continued on walking with his typical hunch-backed strut and turned a corner. He threw himself against the wall and waited.

Any observer would be impressed by the cat-like movements and utter silence of the shadow that moved along the wall not 10 feet behind him. It peeped around the corner and then shrieked; a high-pitched cry which suggested that the shadow was in fact female. Carrik's hand shot out and grabbed the ninja around the throat, pulling her around and against the wall in a vice-like grip before she could defend herself. He held his arm across her throat and brought his rat-like face as close as possible to hers; which was difficult, because she was actually taller than him.

"Who sent ya?" He hissed. She struggled and reached behind her back to grab at a concealed weapon. A butchers knife flashed in front of her eyes and she went stock still. "I asked you a question." He said, reaching behind her and pulling a long, thin knife out of her grasp. She hissed at him before answering.

"Unhand me, vermin." She growled. Carrik's face broke into an evil grin. He took in her full appearance slowly. She was wearing a strange outfit for a ninja, practical but effective. She wore a black scarf around her mouth to conceal her identity. She also wore a full black cotton bodysuit and a belt around her waist. The collection of blackened knives of various shapes and sizes on her belt drew his attention, but his attention was mainly drawn to other assets, like the pervert that he was.

"Why, when I thought we could have some fun?" He said, his hand lowered from her wrist and gripping her behind roughly. She pulled a knife from the wide selection on her belt with her free hand as fast as lightning and pressed it against his neck, point upwards, as the butchers knife in his hand waved inches from her nose. The grin on his face didn't cease, but he let go of her behind as she pushed the knife upwards painfully. They stared at each other for some time.

"How did you know I was there?" She asked angrily.

"I always know when women are about." He said, without moving his jaw much. "Call it male intuition." He muttered, and then licked his lips. She cringed at him.

"You're disreputable!" She said angrily. Her eyes flickered to the butchers knife that could probably take her nose off if she were to push the knife upwards into his brain, it could trigger a sudden hand movement. He knew this as well, it wouldn't kill her, but it would hurt like hell.

"Sticks and stones, babe." He said, his teeth glinting as he grinned slightly. "But we seem to have reached a stale mate, as you posh birds might say. You put yours down and I'll put mine down."

She glared at him with mistrust.

"I'm not being paid to kill you. You put yours down first." She said, her eyes flicking back to the butchers knife. Carrik slowly pulled the butchers knife away and put it back in his belt. The ninja slowly, but surely lowered her own blade.

Carrik breathed out and rubbed his chin, a small blotch of blood had formed where the knife had dug in.

"So, Konrad sent you, did he?" Carrik suddenly said. The ninja gasped.

"How did-?"

Carrik pointed to a small marking visible on her left-upper arm. The K symbol.

"I didn't only look at your breast's, babe." he said with a grin. She glared at him with disdain. "What's your name, you might as well tell me, or I'll just beat ten shades of shit out of Konrad until he spills the beans." He continued as he sat down against the wall, regardless of the puddles and the terrible weather conditions. She wasn't so used to the harsh weather, and she shivered slightly. Any gentleman might have offered her his coat, but Carrik wasn't a gentleman, and she wouldn't take his horrible coat if he did offer it.

"First, tell me one thing; how did you know I was there?" She said as she moved closer to the wall where the gutter high above shielded the ground below from the rain.

"The zip on your bodysuit caught the wall as you sidled along it." He said absently. She blinked a few times. "Most people would have missed it, but I've been on the streets long enough." He explained. A good thing she was wearing the scarf, because she blushed in humiliation.

"My name's Alla." She muttered. He barely heard her through the rain.

"Right, Allah..."

"It's Alla."

"...Fancy gettin' langered?" He said as he reached into his coat and pulled the remainder of the whiskey out. She looked at the bottle for a while before declining. Anything that had been near his mouth probably wasn't drinkable by other human beings.

Krizalid and Whip looked up as a figure appeared before them.

"Ah, Konrad, is it done?" Krizalid asked.

"Yes, the message was delivered." The tall figure replied, his gaze flicking to Whip for a moment.

"Well done, now you may go." Krizalid said dismissively. Konrad bowed quickly and then turned and walked out of the great hall. He had learned to hide his feelings long ago, so the soldiers who saluted him as he marched towards his office had no idea that he was very, very annoyed.

So far not much had come up about this 'Muchiko,' it was like she had never existed until recently. Or, most probably, her history had been painstakingly erased by her former employee's; the NESTS cartel. He had only been able to find that out about her, other than the fact that K' was her brother. Like most things that NESTS had touched in some way, she was more trouble than she was worth.

His time was approaching, he didn't need some little bitch screwing it all up.

"I can hardly wait!" Whip said happily. Krizalid grinned under his high collar despite himself. "I know it's only been a short while since I've seen him, but things were going really well until the whole kidnapping thing..." She said, forgetting her present company. Krizalid frowned again, like he did most of the time these days. "...we still have so many places to see." She continued on without noticing, staring at an open manual in her hands labelled 'The Wondrous Sights and Sounds of Southtown!'

"It isn't the best place for sight seeing." Krizalid remarked. Whip turned the manual around in one hand and thrust it in front of Krizalid's bemused face. He took it gingerly in one hand. On the page were a number of landmarks which Krizalid had never seen, or heard of, before.

"The Arch de Geese?" He said, raising an eyebrow. Whip grinned broadly.

"Yup, it's on the main street just a small walk from Howard park." She said excitedly.

As he stared at the strange and wonderful landmarks Krizalid felt an unusual emotion, one which he couldn't quite pin down. He turned a page of the leaflet and saw 'The Southtown museum of international art.' It wasn't particularly flashy, just an old building. But it was one of the few buildings that had survived when everything else had fallen around it like confetti. Inside it works of art, or more precisely works of peoples imaginations, dreams and feelings, had survived unscathed. K' probably didn't care for art or sculptures or famous places, but Krizalid was different in that way. History was important, he knew. He would like to see these sights as well, but he would enjoy them that much more with Whip by his side.

"Could I-" He began, but turned and looked at her, meeting her eyes. The words came back and hit him like Maxima with a grudge.

I'm not your sister!

I don't want to be involved with you anymore!

"Yes?" She asked politely as he froze mid-sentence. He handed the leaflet back to her without another glance.

"Never mind." He said.