Einherjar Stadium, about seven AM
Night turned into morning, and with that, a new tournament day.
It was supposedly the day that said tournament was set to reconvene in about five hours…but there was a little bit of an issue.
The host was dead.
While the gang had dealt with crazy hosts, weird hosts, surprise hosts, and even the occasional decent host, and there was no lack of hosts blowing themselves up or something, this sort of thing didn't usually happen so early on. So, a lot of the usual heads were busily investigating-while also trying to figure out how to keep the tournament running smoothly to ensure both the people got what they came for, and to make sure whatever was happening behind the scenes didn't turn into actual chaos.
For now, the usual suspects were waiting out front, cups of coffee in their hands. The morning air was chill as people's breath showed when they spoke; it hovered perhaps just a degree above freezing, with the patches of grass around the stadium glistening with frost. The weather channel in the morning had said today wasn't getting much over five degrees at its warmest point in the afternoon.
Uttering a jaw-cracking yawn, Ralf stretched and took a swig of his drink.
"I hope I'm not up first," he said.
"Did the dancer tire you out the day before?" Whip teased. Ralf's fight with Duck King had been quite one-sided on the soldier's side.
"Pfft. More like we were up all last night trying to figure shit out."
"C'mon. We've gone on less sleep than this," Clark grinned.
Looking around and having a drink of coffee to wash down some of the pastry he had grabbed on the go, Seth took stock of the group. All five Ikaris, all three of his Agents, and Adel were on tap, the latter being a sort of 'honorary' member of the mercenaries at this point. Chizuru and her 'spies' were also on their way.
"All we need to do is wait for the announcers," he said. "I talked to the older one. Roger. They should be here soon."
Almost on cue, a large car-almost a limousine-pulled up. A driver stood, moved around to the back and opened the door, with the two familiar looking hosts stepping out. Both of them had coffee as well-likely getting it from the same place in the hotel lobby, due to it being open so early-and looked somewhat sleepy. Roger less so; the older man looked fairly well composed, but Jay's scruffy hair and slightly heavy eyes showed that he perhaps had a few too many the night before.
"Morning," Roger said first, nodding as he pulled his long jacket around himself.
"Hello," Heidern replied.
Jay rubbed his eyes, his brightly colored jacket swishing as he moved his hands about. His coffee was the largest that he could get from the place. "Heya." He nodded his head.
The commander chuckled, nodding back to him. He was perhaps fifteen years Roger's junior. Heidern was decent at discerning ages, and he put him in his mid-thirties, but he could tell that they worked together quite a while at that. He could also definitely tell Roger was the more responsible of the two, but it didn't take a perceptive person to really tell that.
Seth nodded as well. "The sooner we get inside, the better."
"Sure thing. Follow me."
"We have a few more coming."
"Just let me know. We'll let them in."
The group all made their way inside, around the now-fairly quiet stadium's hallways, and over toward the areas that housed the various offices and other employee areas.
"Damn. Nice place," Ralf said, looking around.
"Yeah."
"You know we can come back here whenever," Heidern said. "The security knows."
"Huh. Well then."
"I kinda like it out there," Adel said. "That couch looks nice, though."
Indeed, the area was quite nice. Once they had crossed the threshold and keyed in the necessary code, they were back in an area with a fairly cushy lounge, several offices, and even a sort of living room looking place with a very comfy couch that one could crash on if one wanted to.
It was the lounge they had ended up coming into in the end, since it was large enough to hold the bunch.
Filing in one by one, they all positioned themselves around the room; luckily it was spacious enough that Chizuru and whoever she was bringing along would also have room.
Slumping into a big chair, Ramón stifled another yawn as the Ikari crew all went around the table, Heidern and Seth standing at the head. Hearing a buzz on his phone, Heidern saw it was Chizuru. Looking up, he looked over in the Agents' direction.
"Could one of you let her in?"
"I got it." Mary headed out into the hallway for when she was arriving.
Roger looked around, scratching his head. "So…fill me in here. I understand some things happened, but…you couldn't get into it all?"
"Yes. First, have you met a man by the name of Ivar Andersen?"
"Can't say I have. Andersen is a pretty common Norwegian last name, though."
"Me neither," Jay said, sipping his coffee. He slumped in the other chair, liking Ramón's idea.
"That was the host. Who…well, is dead at the moment."
Roger blinked. "The host died before the end of the tournament?"
"I said the same thing," Ralf chuckled. Adel snorted, pushing back his hair as he sipped more coffee.
"Yeah," Seth replied. "We found the papers. They're all here." As he set the briefcase on the table, Mary came back in with Chizuru, Eiji, Billy, and Duck King; after they were all in, Heidern closed and locked the door. The priestess had Gato keeping an eye on things outside, and knew he was still back at the hotel.
Jay looked in confusion at the rest. While he understood the Ikari unit and the Agents were together, with the blond lad being close-knit with the Ikaris, he wasn't sure why the dancer, the ninja, and the staff fighter were there.
"Uhh…quite a crew we have here," Jay chuckled.
"Billy and Duck happened to witness some things outside. Before we get into that, however…who did you guys deal with?"
"And what's going on with the brackets?" Adel asked.
"I wish we knew more," Roger said. "We were told by a few gentlemen whose full names we didn't even get-which isn't unusual-that the brackets were going to be 'secret' this time. It sounded fairly normal to us."
"These tournaments run by different rules all the time," Clark said.
"Which is why we thought nothing of it," Roger continued. "We've heard of extra members, tag-team, and other weird rules, including one where one random teammate was blindfolded. Secret brackets seemed pretty innocuous."
"I think I remember hearing about that blindfolded one," Vanessa mentioned. "Smaller tournament. Nothing exploded."
"What did these guys look like?"
"Just guys in suits," Jay piped up.
"Huh," Duck said. "We saw a lot of those guys in black SUVs riding around the hotel and the tournament. Probably the same ones."
"Black SUVs? Doesn't sound shady at all," the scruffier-haired man said.
"The men were a bit on the elusive side," Roger said. "But if they were working for him, why…kill him?"
"Wanted to take over and get the money?" Ralf rubbed his chin. "Maybe one of them turned on him."
"Plausible," Seth agreed. "Maybe they had an argument about something, and it escalated until one took him out."
"Was probably by surprise," Whip pointed out. "The lack of defensive wounds hints to that."
"So he just hauled off and shot him or something?"
"That's the thing. It wasn't a gunshot, either. Seemed to be a piercing wound right through the heart."
"Huh. Strange."
Jay rubbed his eyes, looking into his coffee cup and swirling it. "It's too early for this shit." Roger snorted laugher and nodded in agreement.
"So, as you can see, we sort of have a two-pronged problem here," Seth said. "We have a dead host, a tournament that needs to go on, and a killer to find."
"Do the police know yet?"
"I have spoken to them, yes. They seem somewhat…ill-prepared for something like this, though they are letting us cooperate."
Roger chuckled. "We chatted with the police beforehand. While they seemed like decent enough fellas, they all seemed a little nervous about the tournament here. I guess they've heard the stories."
Adel nodded, sipping his own coffee. "I got the impression when I saw them chatting with Heidern that they were all too happy to let someone else deal with things."
"Do you guys have an idea of how to keep the tournament going?" Jay asked.
"Why, yes," Seth chuckled. "We, the Agents, are taking it over."
Everyone except for Heidern looked at him.
"We are?" Vanessa asked, confused.
"Wha?" Ramón asked.
"I didn't think 'Tournament Host' would be part of my duty this weekend," Mary added, blinking.
"Don't you guys worry," Seth said. "I'll be handling most of it, along with Heidern here."
"Uhh…while I usually don't speak over our leader," Ramón started, sitting up somewhat before speaking again, "Why didn't you just leave the hosting to one of these guys who had already hosted before?" He motioned toward Adel and Chizuru.
"Well, for one, it'll possibly give us a little more information," he said. "Two, I did ask them quietly in the background before we turned in last night, and they seemed to prefer taking a bit more of a backseat this time. And three…" He coughed. "After my friend here and I had discussed it, I admit, I was curious."
"Well, I mean…I suppose 'KOF Tournament Host' being on the resume isn't a…bad thing?" Vanessa said after a brief pause.
"Especially if we keep it from being a disaster."
"Plus, Adel and I will give any insight we might have," Chizuru said. "Having done this before."
"I…am curious about something," Leona finally asked, having been quiet, as she usually was, most of the morning. "What are the rules for this sort of thing?"
"We looked into that," Heidern said. "The rules for the King of Fighters tournaments are fairly loose, as one might imagine. There really isn't anything stating that a host has to stay on."
Roger spoke up. "I've seen tournaments change hosts several times before," he said. "A smaller one, and no one died, granted, but I've seen it."
"Wait a sec," Adel asked. "Was that the one in South Town?"
"Yeah! You've heard of it?"
He snorted laughter and shook his head. "A bunch of underworld goons decided, with the help of a certain crime lord that shall remain unnamed at the moment, to throw together a tournament to make off with all of the profits," he said. "Pretty basic swindling scheme. Only all of the people involved started fighting each other for the split, and either ended up quitting or being thrown off of the scam. It never did work out. I think the last two crime bosses fought and the tournament was called."
"Ahh, so you know," Roger chuckled. "Anyway, Jay and I won't even have to mention the host anywhere. It's not like we knew who it was anyway. We'll just mention it at the end, if you even care for us to."
"That's another thing we'd like to know," Seth mentioned. "Where did you get the fight cards from?"
"Just one of a few guys in suits," he said. "They'd come drop off an envelope with the next fights. Never saw the brackets."
"Do you guys have a bracket now?"
"No, but we could work with you guys to put one together." Roger looked at the others. "We'll even do it for you, to keep full neutrality."
"That would be great," Heidern said, his concern over impartiality solved rather quickly. Checking his watch, he ran a hand through his hair. "It's seven forty-five. Fights were due to start after noon. If you two could prepare the brackets, we'll go finish looking through the briefcase."
"I'm still trying to remember where I heard that name," Duck said.
"Didn't he say Andersen was common?" Billy asked.
"Yeah, but there's something I just gotta feeling about."
Chizuru looked toward Eiji. "Do what you guys have been doing," she said. "If you see anyone from yesterday, try to get them toward the rest of us so we can ask them a few things."
"When are you gonna announce yourselves as the hosts?" Adel asked Seth.
"I figure we'll let it go for a while more," he said. "Remember, we're still looking for a motive since we don't know what else is going on behind the scenes. Don't want to scare them off if they saw we caught on."
"Right."
"If we do find anyone that looks suspicious, want us to try to nab them if they look like they're going to escape?"
"Discreetly, yes."
"So…run down what we're looking for?" Ramón asked, wishing he had a morning shot of something or other for his coffee. Jay looked the same. He raised his cup and nodded, the other announcer doing the same.
"Anything we saw yesterday. The vehicles and any of the same people. And anything new."
Seth nodded to his group. "We can be back in the VIP lounge. I think we're best served up on that level. Heidern's crew will be covering the other levels."
"No complaints here," Vanessa chuckled.
"We'll get to go through the taps."
"Carefully." Seth eyed Ramón. While the luchador was a trusted and skilled agent, he did have a habit of hitting the bars at tournaments a little too hard. While Vanessa was no stranger to it as well, she usually practiced a little more temperance.
"Of course." He flashed a smile and drank more of his coffee. He was just about awake now.
"Okay. We'll get the brackets ready soon," Roger said.
"We can keep the secret brackets," Seth said. "It's kind of interesting. Keeps everyone on their toes."
"Gee, thanks, boss," Vanessa smirked.
Ralf shrugged. "I'm up for it! I'd rather not know." He crashed his fists together.
"I have another idea for later in the tournament, but I'll have to consult someone on this in private."
"Ooh, spicy."
"You're getting into this, aren't you?" Mary grinned.
Seth shrugged. "I admit, after Heidern had his turn, I was sort of curious. I only hope this one doesn't end in disaster."
"Alright. Let's get out and about. We have about four hours before the fights kick off, and people are going to start arriving around ten or so. Many want to avoid waiting. I have a few of my own men working security."
"Roger. We'll reconvene in the VIP bar in a couple of hours."
At that, the group started making their way out, with Seth walking up to Adel as he and Whip moved out of the door.
"Excuse me," he said. "Mind if I pick your brain about something real fast?"
"Sure," he replied, yawning. Looking at Whip, he smiled. "I'll catch you outside."
Scandic Luxury Hotel Lobby
The remaining fighters were mostly up and about, some of them milling around the hotel lobby while others chose to remain in their rooms, get room service and perhaps train or warm up on their own. Some fighters took their time-mostly it was the ones who were already knocked out the day before, but others, like K' who didn't really care, were fairly slow as well.
Bob and King were already up and having a chat about day two and how things could possibly pick up business wise; they were handling things pretty well as a duo for now but wondered how much busier it was going to get on the second day. The Kyokugen crew were all taking their time, as well. Still in their respective rooms-Ryo and Marco in their own rooms, with Robert and Yuri having gotten one together-they planned on rolling in an hour or so before the fights were set to start.
Terry Bogard, on the other hand, was doing some early push-ups in his room. Mary had to leave even earlier due to her duties, which he was used to. Terry had just gotten them an early room service before crashing back out for a half hour; he was now awake and trying to warm himself up for the day. Andy and Mai were in the room across the hall, possibly showering at this point. Mai was probably going to warm up, but she was relatively laid back at this tournament. She and Andy more entered for fun and a little bit of extra training.
Finishing up his push-ups, he went into a few of his fighting stances, though Terry was always a fellow who fought as much on instinct as he did Tung's training. Funnily enough, despite Andy being the stricter 'book-training' type of the two, it was Terry that was able to keep himself from making hasty decisions. One could guess that linked to his instinct and experience-despite Andy's adherence to the stricter type of training, his flaw was still that he could be impulsive. All the structure in the world can't help if you jump into the fray a bit too quickly. Mai figured he would pick up on that soon enough.
One group that was all together this morning-having filled up at the buffet and were now on their way out-was Duo Lon, Shen, Ash, and Elisabeth. Ash was quite delighted to find out they were all awake at once, and that they would all be in the hotel at the same time, and insisted on breakfast together. It didn't take much to get everyone to agree.
"This dressing down…Duo Lon, dare I say it suits you," Ash said as they sat in the lobby, cups of extra coffee taken to go. He couldn't help but notice that lately the assassin had taken to wearing his more laid-back outfits; today choosing a qipao with his usual choice of easy-to-move-in black trousers and boots. His leather jacket was slung over the seat next to him.
He shrugged. "It's comfortable," he said quietly.
Shen folded his arms and grinned. "Ready for the big day?"
"Well, I'll be taking it easy," Elisabeth said. She did not look overly disappointed, however. She was more of a 'business competitor', one who entered more often with a fairly big reason behind it. In fact, this may have been the first tournament she entered for leisure in a very, very long time. Ash had sort of insisted, one for practice, and two because he wanted to make sure he could take her out and about somewhere nice in a different country for a while. He had other plans for her birthday when November came around.
"I certainly am," Ash said. "I do hope that I do not have to deal with one of you, however. Not yet, anyway."
"Too early for that, eh?" Shen cracked his knuckles.
Duo Lon only chuckled, eyeing Ash with a smirk.
"I wouldn't know who to bet on," Elisabeth said with a grin.
"Aww, really?" The brawler looked at her with a fake disappointed look. "Still backing them, eh?"
The assassin played his best poker face, of course-not that he even had to play, given that he didn't really mind either way. Ash had his own sort of poker face, given he always looked playful.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, shall we head toward the stadium?"
"How do you want to get there?" Elisabeth asked him.
"I don't mind walking. It's a nice brisk morning and may serve to be a nice way to digest some of this morning fare before we have to beat the daylights out of each other this afternoon." Reaching down to pull Elisabeth to her feet, the rest of the group adjusted their jackets and headed out, passing by various fighters on their way.
Over in a small restaurant, one of the more quiet ones-Gato was finishing up a meal as Hotaru came over to the table.
"Hey," she said. Ito chirped, sliding down her arm and onto the table, next to the big man. He sniffed at his plate, which held a couple of remnants from his breakfast.
He sipped a cup of coffee as he looked up at her. His hair was down today; it wasn't up in its usual braid, and it cascaded over his shoulders onto the seat of the booth. Hung next to it was his long jacket and hat; he otherwise wore a tight, black t-shirt today, blending in fairly low key, or as low key as the large, incredibly intimidating man could. Gato didn't even have to try to scare people, he just sort of did.
"Hello," he said quietly. "I didn't see you today."
"I was chatting in the room. I just got room service."
He knew she was likely chatting with Rock Howard, whom he knew they had a bit of…something going, though he wasn't sure how deep that went, nor did he much care about personal things of that nature. "I considered it, but this place is quiet enough."
Ito sniffed around his hand as he absently patted the marten. Hotaru chuckled at this, pulling her own jacket around herself. She had opted to dress down herself more often; she simply wore jeans, sneakers and a sweater otherwise, with cold weather not being her favorite. Scratching the marten herself, she sat in the booth across from him.
"I notice you're pretty busy at this," she said.
"I am helping somewhat, yes," he said. Hotaru was perceptive-she likely saw him chatting with the likes of Chizuru, who she knew he didn't know very well. "In fact, I do have to get to the stadium somewhat soon."
"Can I ask what it's about?"
He nodded, absently patting the marten. "Between us, it's simply keeping a lookout for certain figures. Mostly in suits and unmarked vans." He snorted. "You'd think they'd make themselves less obvious."
"To what ends?"
"That's what I don't know. I don't think she does, either. I'm also keeping a bit of an eye on my old teammate." That was more for himself, to be sure, but he didn't mention that.
Hotaru didn't even need to ask which teammate that was. "Did she approach you?"
"Yes. To what end, I'm not sure. I don't really know many people. Not that I mind keeping it that way."
She chuckled at that. "Maybe that's why."
"Could be." He was being more talkative today than normal, but he was in a relatively decent mood…for him, at least. Whether or not that would stay was another story entirely.
Reaching out for Ito, Hotaru was fairly content at the moment. After the last tournament, her brother had tried to break away from her once again-however, after many calls, many chances to chase him down, and a very long discussion-not to mention Itokatsu's somewhat strange ability to ever -so-slightly soften the hardened young man-he had hesitatingly agreed to let her into his life once in awhile, on the understanding that if he left to hunt down a certain person suddenly, that she wouldn't interfere, as well as that he needed a lot of space.
These terms were more than enough for her, and the fact he had agreed to come to the tournament had shown how the past few months had started opening him just a little bit more. They would meet up every so often for a meal or the like, with Itokasu extremely affectionate toward the big man. This amused her, of course, given he was usually a bit hesitant at first around strangers, but he sort of knew.
In fact, he held out one of the pieces of fruit that was on the side of his plate, allowing the marten to snatch it, settling back next to Hotaru again with the snack. It was to the point that no one would say anything about the pet if Gato was there especially, restaurant or not.
"I'll be in the same seating area," she said. "Around where a few of my friends are." She was friendly with quite a few of the fighters, to be sure, especially the crew from South Town. Thanks to Rock, she had gotten to know Terry and Andy, and found them fairly cool to hang out with. Joe was a bit of a piece of work, but Itokasu's habit of wanting to nest in his spikey hair or just nipping him was always amusing. Mai was easygoing as well, and she had gotten along with her quickly, too.
"I'll look for you at some point," he said. "When I'm finished."
She nodded, reaching out to scratch Itokasu again as the pair sat quietly a few more moments. Gato's phone buzzed soon after; he checked it, knowing it was likely a message for him about where they were. Nodding to his sister, he grabbed his coat and stepped off, allowing the marten to grab a few of his leftovers.
The rest of the morning went by without a hitch. No shady individuals popped up, and even someone like Yamazaki didn't bother anyone or look like he was out to make trouble at the moment, grabbing a coffee and several donuts from one of the international chains at the hotel on his way to the stadium. A few long-time fans moved about, hoping to catch a glimpse of a favorite or two, but were mostly respectful and kept their distances.
Slowly but surely, the crew all ended up where they had to be.
Einherjar Stadium
Seeing Duo Lon walking toward the VIP lounge-currently uninhabited, as the actual crowds had not started to enter yet-Leona smiled and waved; he noticed her and walked over, his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.
"Hello," he said.
"Catch up with your crew?"
"I did. A nice brunch. How are things?"
"Well, they're…interesting." She knew she was able to discuss things with the assassin; Heidern trusted him, and anyone in their direct circle-who they had worked with before-they'd discuss business with. Heidern, in fact, had told her to let him in on things, and given they were alone in the area, it was not an issue. Not that the fighters weren't going to find out in a few hours, but mostly to keep it discreet among anyone else.
As she explained things in broad strokes, his eyebrow raised. When she finished, he snorted laughter and shook his head.
"Well, I can't say I would have expected that," he said. "Usually, that happens afterward."
"That's what everyone said," she agreed. "That's what they were all dealing with outside of the luxury hotel yesterday."
"I'm sort of glad they let us be last night." He stretched out, rubbing his shoulder-both of them had ended up staying up just a little bit later than they had originally planned due to some post-concert intimacy.
The soldier smirked at that, knowing she was hiding a few bite marks places that were luckily covered. "Anyway, we'll be busy today. And thank you for helping. Heidern will be grateful."
"Of course. And you know, this place has always given me a bit of a strange vibe, if I had to be truthful."
Leona blinked at this. "Strange…vibe?"
The assassin nodded, leaning against the wall. His heavy braid swung as he turned, the weights acting like a bit of a pendulum. "When you've had my sort of training, you can sense certain things."
"What do you feel?"
He folded his arms and crossed one long leg over the other. He spoke after closing his eyes for a moment.
"Definitely like things had happened here in the past. Maybe not in the stadium, but in the general area." He paused, opening his eyes. "It's not an…active, malevolent feeling, if that makes sense. But residual."
Leona cocked her head to the side as she leaned against the wall next to him, sliding her hands into the pockets of her open bomber. "Active?"
"It's nothing that's affecting anyone," he said. "It's underlying."
She smirked softly at that. "So nothing's going to jump out or start possessing people."
Duo Lon chuckled at that. "Exactly. Besides, that sort of stuff gets very much overstated.. But…there is something here."
"I remember overhearing there are some superstitions about the place," she said.
"Same," he said. "Mostly due to the story about where it was built. Which, in hindsight…it shouldn't surprise me that I feel this way."
"Wait, what was that?"
"About a century ago, a mansion used to be here. The owner apparently went mad one night from something or other, took an axe, and…well, it was during a party. I forgot the total body count, as I had just glanced at the article."
"Wow," Leona said. "I wonder if that's why people are weird about the place."
"I suppose this is what I am feeling," he said. "I think I will read into it more. It should be easy to find old articles on the subject."
"So…you're saying this place is haunted?"
The tall man looked at her with a knowing smirk. "If you knew how many places were haunted, this wouldn't even be surprising. In fact, it's probably why I didn't even think of the article until now. I think a better question might be to ask what place isn't haunted."
The soldier snorted laughter again at this; he was completely blasé about this fact, and it was probably why superstitions did not affect him. "Why am I not surprised?"
"I'd say if most people could see the other side they'd never leave their houses…but that wouldn't matter."
A chill crept down Leona's spine; the assassin noticed and quickly rubbed her shoulder. She smiled at this, touching his hand. "I'll let the others know in private. Maybe not about the last thing you said," she said with a soft laugh.
"Of course. If you think it will help."
"Right now we have nothing to go on, so it's as good as anything." She stretched, looking around. "I'm wondering when we'll know the brackets."
"Yeah. Unless they plan on just keeping it going as is."
"I wouldn't mind." She smiled again. "Adds to the suspense, I guess."
As the quiet pair chatted off to the side, Jhun Hoon and May Lee were poking around the VIP bar, which Bob and King were almost done setting up in. It would open in a couple of hours, but they were likely going to get something from one of the better kiosks around there to snack on. Kim was going to arrive with Terry and the rest of that bunch; he found he quite enjoyed catching up with his old friends after the day before, as he hadn't seen them for longer than a few moments at the previous tournament.
"So…that's the team that has the robots?" Jhun asked.
"No, those-the ones in the more pastel colors-just use the belts. This other team in the bolder colors, they ride in the robots." May Lee was flipping through one of her tokusatsu magazines, sipping another iced coffee as Jhun peeked over her shoulder at him. He was very much unfamiliar with the topic.
"Huh." He flipped the page. "And who's this guy?" There was a man in a rather elaborate pose, looking ready to kick the ass of something in the name of justice.
"Oh! That's Spark Saber. He's in one of my favorite shows!"
He looked at the blue, green and black colored hero and chuckled. "His outfit looks good."
"I have all of the DVDs so far."
"At least I know what to get you for Christmas," he joked.
She perked up. "There are a few action figures I don't have yet, now that I think about it."
Jhun laughed quietly at this as he sipped on a bottle of water. He had gone heavily on the coffee this morning, and decided to go for some more natural hydration for now since he had no idea who he'd be facing today. He looked down. "Does he take the mask off?"
"Oh yeah! They usually walk around like that." She flipped the page, pointing toward a young man with long, white hair. "That's him." She looked up at him and chuckled. "You know, he kinda looks like you."
He cocked his head to the side and rubbed his chin; he had let his bangs grow out since the last tournament, giving his hair a more uniform length. "Huh. I might be more handsome, though."
"Maybe," she said, suddenly starting to giggle. Sipping her coffee again before she stuttered something awkward out, she closed the magazine and looked around. "I hope we're starting soon."
"I don't know," he said, shoving one of his hands into the pocket of the leather jacket he wore; it wasn't a biker-style jacket, but it wasn't fancy, either-it sort of fell somewhat in between. "I wouldn't mind being a bit laid back for the first few fights."
"There's always the VIP bar afterward!"
"This is true." The two walked off to go locate Kim and the others.
Heidern, who was making his way back down to the field, noticed Adel grabbing two sets of something or other at one of the VIP cafés-he walked over to him and raised his hand as the blond turned.
"Hey!" Adel said with a smile. They were the only two there; he took the drink holder and the bag and turned, moving away from the kiosk itself as he saw Mai and Andy wander up behind him, nodding in greeting.
"Got done chatting with Seth?" he asked as they walked.
"Yeah. I gave him a few ideas."
"I'm curious about what he asked, but I suppose I'll find out," the man smirked. "Dare I say he is looking forward to this."
"He seemed it. I'm surprised anyone would want to host one of these." He shook his head.
"I think he may have one of the least turbulent lives of all of us. He may welcome the challenge."
"There is that. Despite doing…what he does, he never seems bothered." Adel looked around, his eyes scanning the halls as he saw Whip at the other end, leaning against a pillar and looking out over the field. "Ah! There's Seirah."
"Yes. I'll leave you to it. You two can come find me after the first couple of matches."
Wandering over, Heidern watched as he handed Whip her bag, a bottle of water, and a cup of coffee as the young woman snuck a kiss toward him; this made the commander smile warmly as he turned to go find his men. He knew Ralf and Clark would be somewhere in the seats already, setting up a sort of 'home base'.
Slowly but surely the fighters trickled in, all of them before the gates officially opened; after that, the fans themselves started to make their way in. Some of them took their time-the ones whose favorites didn't make it past the first day, or those who may have gotten themselves a bit too much of a hangover-but due to the surprise brackets, more than usual were lining up outside in the chilly early afternoon to get in. With bouts set to start after noon, the security did their best to make sure people got in smoothly and quickly, and they would be notified when the bouts were starting.
Up above, setting up in the office once again, Roger and Jay looked at each other and nodded, hooking their microphones up to their collars as they would. Jay's hoodie was up, despite the fact the office was fairly warm. The view was nice; they had a view over the field from about the second level, and, of course, all of the televisions showing the ring from several different angles.
It felt the same, despite all of the stuff going on in the background.
"Ready?" Jay asked, refilling his coffee from the thermos.
"Yes. Believe it or not, I'm optimistic this time. Slightly, anyway. Despite everything."
"We just sit tight for the next fights, I guess?"
"Yep. They've been working on them." Roger poured his own coffee, checking his watch. "Ten minutes."
"Almost time!" Jay went to fumble under the desk, bringing out his bottle of bourbon, which he sat on the side. The older man chuckled, shaking his head.
"Early start?"
"It's for after lunch. I ain't that crazy."
"There was that one time…"
"Oh yeah," he replied. "Though could you blame me?"
Shaking his head, Roger settled into his chair, checking all of the monitors as there was a knock at the door. "Come in," he said.
A middle-aged man-one of the fellows who kept the back rooms tidy for everyone-stepped through the door and handed him an envelope. "This was given to me by…Seth, was it?"
"Yeah. He'll be dealing with things behind the scenes. Any of those guys are fine."
"Gotcha." He turned and left.
"Let's see what we got!" Jay said.
Sliding his thumb under the flap, Roger opened it, the pair seeing who was up next, curious to know what the next round would bring…for better or worse.
A/N: Alrighty then! We have a new host/set of hosts, and a whole lot of me bullshitting my way around unwritten KOF rules, since SNK certainly doesn't really go into this. And given this is a Not Numbered Tournament, I figure I could go a little bit on the weird side with it.
Everyone sort of has their own ideas for these tournaments; I like to imagine a few smaller ones happening each year along with the Big Ones. Which I don't seem to be alone on when it comes to headcanons(it's how these tournament fics are able to really function, when you think about it.)
None of the tokusatsu series that I mentioned are like, anything real-life; it's all "KOF Brand", if you will. (If readers hadn't caught on by now, I run with the 'Slightly Off-Brand' method of KOF, where it has real-life, real-world locales, but "World Specific" chains and such, and the arena is an original creation as well.)
The Rock/Hotaru thing I sort of hint to-it's not a creation of mine at all, if anything, I saw other people pairing them up first and decided 'hey, they kinda work in a cute way-I see why folks do it.' They are likely to never be main characters in any of my fics(I like them more as 'casual characters', if you will), so it's more or less a background thing.
So, in any case, we have one part of the mystery settled, but we still have more to solve…and of course, the whys behind all of this happening. What else awaits the crew? What weirdness is going on in the background? And importantly, who's going to move forward to the Top 8, after Round 2, which starts up in earnest in the next chapter?
We'll start to find all of this out next time!