"Never thought I'd give you the creeps, Yagami, y'know?"

Iori had seen his fair share of scary things in life.

Some, he went through it. His whole childhood was one of those.

But this… this was absolutely unexpected.

Kyo was standing in front of him in that empty, dim lit hallway that led to the tournament arena. No one was there except for them. The other fighters were already back at the hotel for the day, fans were gone too.

No one was there to witness that.

"To think you're usually the one who's considered scary…"

Kyo stretched and moved away from the wall he was leaning against, getting closer to Iori.

For the first time in years, Iori didn't want to be near his rival at all.

It all started like just another bantering between them, poking fun at each other, teasing, an insult here and there.

And then Kyo changed.

He stared at Iori with a blank face, eyes empty.

"Honestly… I'm tired of faking it."

Kyo has always been very expressive – either sporting his trademark cocky grin, a lazy smile or a stifled yawn, his face has never been emotionless.

Until that moment.

"You think I care about the tournament? The clan feud? Orochi?"

It wasn't like Kyo had never voiced his lack of interest in those things. But never once he looked this creepy while doing it.

"I don't care about it. I don't care about much at all, to be fair."

His voice was flat, toneless.

"I don't care for people, either" he admitted, head cocked to one side. "I mean, they're fun to have around and to use as I please, making them fuel my ego. That's the extent of my interest."

The sudden switch in his rival's attitude made Iori's skin crawl.

That wasn't Kyo Kusanagi, not the one he knew… or thought he knew.

"I don't care about you."

That last line hurt, but Iori managed to not show it.
He'd realized just recently that he never hated Kyo, that it was just a response to his clan's brainwashing, and that also his desire of befriending his rival would have never seen the light of day thanks to his past behavior.

But to hear that so clearly, in that monotone, eerie voice, caused Iori way more pain than it should have.

"No reaction? Not even a growl, an insult? Boring."

That snarky comment was proof his poker face worked like a charm, at least. Giving Kyo more reasons to make fun of him wasn't part of his plans. Right now, Iori just wanted to understand.

Kyo had always been an asshole, everyone knew that. But at one point in time, he got worse.

Being a jerk to Iori was to be expected, but he started to act like that even to people who were nice to him – hell, he'd been an ass to Terry Bogard too, who was friendly to everyone, even to Iori.
His and Chizuru's suspicion was that the whole N.E.S.T.S ordeal did something to him, that he refused to acknowledge his trauma by acting all manly and tough, that he was just trying to keep appearances up.

"You here, Yagami? The cat caught your tongue?"

But now that Kyo was in front of him, revealing his true self, Iori understood that N.E.S.T.S had nothing to do with his behavior.

Kyo was a sociopath, always has been. He'd just been very good at hiding it.

Iori tried to keep his composure.

He knew a thing or two about people like him, as he grew up with one of them. His father had been the most terrifying, violent sociopath he'd ever met, and not even all the maniacs that ended up being behind every tournament would ever reach that level of craziness.

Kyo stopped just a couple steps away from him.

"Why are you telling me this?"

His voice came out quite calm, luckily. Kyo looked at him and shrugged. "Just felt like it. As said, I was tired of keeping faking it."

"And you decided to reveal it to me, of all the people?"

At that question, Kyo smiled.

"Oh, you were the perfect choice. I mean… even if you decide to talk to someone about all this, who will ever believe you?"

...he didn't think about that.

"You're the one considered a psycho between us" Kyo went on, getting way too close. "Who will they ever believe? The one who screamed death threats at me for years, or everyone's beloved tournament's hero?"

Sadly true. It was his word against Kyo's, and the latter was considered more reliable.

"Booo!"

Iori was so nervous that dumb, small noise had been enough to actually startle him. His rival smirked. "Never thought that revealing the truth would have been the only way to scare you. I should have done it sooner, maybe" Kyo averted his eyes, as if he was wondering about scenarios where he actually did that. He then stepped away and stretched again. "Anyway, I'm tired. Gonna catch up with my… friends, since this year I'm forced to team up with you and Kagura."

Iori didn't move, determined to stay still until he'd been left alone.

"You know… Orochi paid a visit to me."

His heart almost skipped a beat.

"Now I know why you find having him in your head all the time so annoying" Kyo smiled lazily. "But… his offering was very tempting."
"Wait, no-"

"He almost lured me once… I'm curious to know what would happen if I let him do whatever he wants."

Iori widened his eyes.

No, no no no, that can't be-

"Well, I'm out. Guess you'll have a lot to think about, tonight."

With a last chuckle, Kyo disappeared outside the hallway.


"So our suspicions were wrong. The situation is even worse."

"You saw it."

Chizuru breathed deeply, lips pressed in a thin line.

The idea of watching Iori and Kyo's talk through her mirror had been hers, to keep an eye on him and be sure Iori was safe. She had the feeling something was very, very wrong, and insisted on doing that.

Iori was glad she did it. At least he wasn't the only witness.

"What should we do now?"

Iori took a deep drag from his cig. "Nothing. Who would ever believe me?"

The priestess looked at him, but didn't say anything. She knew he was right. And probably even she wouldn't be believed at first, since it was Kyo they were talking about.

Kyo Kusanagi.

The beloved tournament's hero.

No chance someone would ever believe he was a sociopath. Especially if Iori would say it, the one who acted like a psycho for years just to keep people away, and possibly avoid the risk of going Riot on them.

The irony of all that wasn't lost to him.

Iori sighed and slumped against his seat. Below them, in the empty arena, Kyo was talking to Nikaido and the two Chinese kids who debuted during the previous tournament: his rival was joking, laughing, being his usual bratty self. He then turned to the bleachers and noticed him and Chizuru.

And smiled.

The creepiest smile Iori had ever seen on Kyo's face.

A moment later Kyo went back to Nikaido and the kids, his friendly mask on as if nothing happened.

That brief scene was enough to send shivers down Iori's spine.

Next to him, Chizuru looked as scared as him.

"What will we do if Orochi shows up?" she asked. "We can't trust him anymore."

The group moved, but Kyo turned again to look at his teammates with empty eyes, creepily smirking again.

Iori gritted his teeth.

"Nothing, Chi. We're fucked."


Notes:

So. This is another idea that came up while talking to Rin (RinoaDestiny), where I had this epiphany: if you remove all those traits SNK considers funny from Kyo (his laziness, his jerk personality, etc), what remains is… a sociopath.
Now, I don't believe he is one, BUT… the idea was too intriguing to pass it up, so here it is. Now that sociopath!Kyo is out in the wild, I can come back to "my" Kyo, the one who collects questionable undies.

A couple notes:

*I've debated a bit about defining him a sociopath VS a psychopath, considering sometimes the line between them is quite blurred (and Hollywood representations in movies didn't help at all), but after a while I've settled on the first after reading the definition given by an Healthline article. It was the most recent and updated I could find (at the time I wrote this story), and quite fitted the mental image I had and some of Kyo's behavior.
*Iori realizing he doesn't hate Kyo anymore sprouts from his SNK Heroine's ending (that we know it's considered canon), and Tung Fu Rue pretty much confirmed it in their special interaction in KoF XIV.

*Iori's father is all headcanoned by yours truly since SNK likes to being vague about everything, and we only know he was violent. I went wayyy worse, if you want a taste you can read about this delight of a man in my Child Games series (Hide and Seek, Paper Planes, Truth or Dare). It's just three oneshots and a few clicks away from here.

*Orochi has almost lured Kyo in the KoF: Kyo manga. He also managed to lure Souji (Kyo's cousin and the original Kusanagi heir), and we all know what happened to Saisyu back in '94. No one is safe from the Snake, it's not a "Yagami thing".

*The Chinese kids are clearly Shun'ei and Meitenkun, as I decided to settle it during KoF XV… when I was still thinking the plot would have been slightly deeper and 3ST story mode a bit more interesting. Silly me, I guess. :°D

*The title is one of the most iconic lines from Twin Peaks, I thought it was very fitting for this story.

If you've read this far, thank you!

Mana