Trigger warning: implied child abuse.
Nothing is graphic or described in detail, but it's there.

Mana

There's a moment in time
And it's stuck in my mind
Way back, when we were just kids

"Oh come on, that's cheating!"

A choir of laughter echoed in the garden, followed by several young female heads popping out from their hiding spots with big grins on their faces.
Kyo groaned.
"I can't play hide and seek with you two!"

The laughter slowly faded away together with all the female figures, until just two giggling twin girls remained.

"You sure you don't just suck at games, Kyo-kun?"
"Maki! That language!"
"What? Mom isn't around to scold me" one of the two girls said, while her sister just sighed. At least this time they were wearing matching dresses in different colors, so telling apart Maki from Chizuru was a bit easier. This, and the first one's terrible attitude.

Kyo pouted. "I don't suck at games, you're just a cheater" but Maki didn't flinch and smirked at him.

"Anything goes in war!"
"This isn't war, it's hide and seek!"

The little girl just laughed, followed shortly after by her sister.
Kyo rolled his eyes and started wandering around the garden, annoyed by the Yata twins mocking him.

He really didn't know where to go or what to do to keep himself busy, though: the estate they were currently in wasn't his home, nor it was owned by one of the two other clans, but it was instead a 'neutral ground' - whatever that meant - where their families would held meetings and talk about… clan stuff.

Kyo wasn't really sure what those meetings were about, he was just six years old and those were things for adults to handle. He was still too young to know, to understand. What he did know, though, is that it was boring. And he really hated being bored.

"What should we do now?" he said, turning toward the twins. "I'm tired of hide and seek, anyway."
The two girls exchanged a pensive look, then Maki - it was always her - smiled. "Let's go listen to the meeting!"

Kyo grinned. "Eh, why not. I've always wondered why they have to talk behind closed doors!"
"Wait, no! What if they see us?"
Chizuru was the only one concerned by the possible outcome of that idea, but ended up following them regardless.

The room where the meetings were always held was a separate one from the main house, located in the west side of the garden. The kids quietly approached it, hearing loud voices coming from inside.
"Are they fighting?" Kyo whispered, tip-toeing around the building until he noticed the fusuma had been left slightly open, just enough to peer inside the room.
"As per usual" Maki said in a low voice, already peeking through the small opening. Kyo and Chizuru did the same, trying to be as quiet as possible: from their position, Kyo could clearly see his dad Saisyu sitting across the room, looking big and strong, and some other clan members around him. Next to his dad there was Kagura-san, Maki and Chizuru's mother — a serious woman with long black hair and a stern look, also surrounded by other members of her clan.
Someone was obscuring who was sitting on the left side of his dad, though Kyo didn't need to see him to know who he was: he could recognize the deep, terrifying voice of the Yagami headmaster everywhere. The tall, scary red-haired man was someone you hardly could forget, and the few times Kyo saw him were more than enough to not want to do anything with him. He also spotted some other members of the Yagami clan, as they were all red-haired and with blue eyes.
It was always a fascinating but eerie sight, this big group of people with the same hair and eyes, pale skin and serious look, but none of them as scary as their headmaster. He carried an aura that had always made Kyo uncomfortable, to say the least: that man wasn't ugly by any means - no one in that clan was, apparently - nor he'd ever said anything that could make him nervous, but… there was something wrong with him that he couldn't really explain.

Meanwhile, the meeting went on but it was impossible to understand what they were talking about, as everyone seemed to talk over each other and the only words Kyo could discern were a lot of "no" and "has always been like this", though he wasn't sure what they were referring to.
"Maybe we should go away, they seem to be pretty angry at each other… and I wouldn't want to be caught here" Chizuru suggested, and for once both Kyo and Maki agreed. If the adults found them while snooping around it could have ended badly for them.
The kids promptly left the wooden porch, when Kyo slipped and fell heavily on the grass, letting out a loud "Ouch!"
"Shh!"
"Who's there?!"

Chizuru and Maki quickly grabbed him and hid behind a large tree before someone came out of the room looking for the source of that noise. After a few seconds whoever that person was went back inside, and Kyo let out a big sigh of relief that Maki - of course - interrupted with a slap on his head.
"Hey! What was that for?"
"You almost got us caught!"
"I didn't fall on purpose!"
"Stop bickering!" Chizuru interrupted them. "Let's go somewhere else before they hear us again!"

Kyo and Maki glared at each other but followed the lead of the other girl without complaining. They quietly walked for a few minutes, when something caught Kyo's attention.

"Who are those kids?"

In the room in front of them a young boy and a young girl sat there in silence, busy probably reading or doing homeworks.
"They have red hair… so they're from the Yagami clan" Chizuru answered, and Kyo widened his eyes: up until now he took part in probably four clan meetings and it has always been just him and the Yata girls. This was the first time he actually saw children from the other clan, as he was pretty sure they'd never attended a meeting before.

Kyo ran toward them, kicking out his shoes before entering the room, excited at the idea of talking to them.

"Hello! What are you doing?"

The two kids raised their heads in unison and looked at Kyo - who was surprised to see another pair of twins - then lowered their gaze again and ignored his presence.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Still silence.
"Why won't you answer me?"
The little girl shyly glanced at him, seeming eager to talk to someone new, but her brother stopped her.

"Mitsu. "

She looked so sad, but still went back to her notebook.
Kyo frowned.
"Why don't you let your sister play with us, uh? Aren't you bored staying here reading, anyway?"
He tried to look at their notebooks but the pair withdrew them, as if they thought Kyo would snatch them or something. He knelt in front of the boy and smiled. "Come on, why don't you come to play with us? Isn't that better than staying here? We can play hide and seek or statues! Did you ever climb trees? It's fun, I can teach you!" he said and tried to grab the boy by his wrist, causing him to scream.

"OUCH! OUCH OUCH!"
Kyo let him go immediately, scared. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I-I didn't want to-"
"Kyo-kun, what did you do?!"

Maki and Chizuru joined him inside the room, looking concerned at the other crying boy. His sister was hugging him as if she was trying to protect him. "Please don't hurt Iorin!"

"I-I'm so sorry, it was an accident!"

He looked at the boy, afraid he really hurt him badly: the kid was leaning over his sister holding the offended arm and, Kyo just noticed it, there was a bandage around his right wrist that probably went down his forearm. He just didn't see it before because of the sleeve hiding it. Upon a closer look, he also saw a few dark bruises poking from under the collar of his shirt, and his sister seemed to have some as well.

Maybe they fell while running or during training? Kyo had a lot of bruises because of the training with his dad, and since the Yagami had their own martial art style it would make sense they practiced too and had bruises from it, right?

Yet… there was still something off. Kyo wasn't sure of what , though. It was just a feeling without any real explanation, but it was still bugging him.

"Please… leave us alone."
The red-haired boy finally spoke.

"Please. "

'Cause your eyes told the tale
Of an act of betrayal
I knew that somebody did

His voice was surprisingly firm despite everything, but his eyes told Kyo a totally different story, being full of sadness and fear. Of what he didn't know, but it was there, hidden in those big, still watery blue eyes.

His thoughts were interrupted by the fusuma being opened violently, and the Yagami headmaster entering the room. When the man noticed Kyo he suddenly grinned, making him shiver.

"My, my… if this isn't the little Kusanagi brat."

Had been another person, Kyo would have clapped back at him. But that was the scariest person he knew, so he remained silent and hoped he would go away soon.
The red-haired man kept looking at him, then turned to his children and completely changed expression.

"Did you do your homework? Or you've let this kid distract you from your duties?"
"No father, we have finished our homework."
The young boy answered, his head lowered, voice still firm.
"Then what he's doing here?"
"We don't know. We just ignored him and kept studying, as you've told us to do."

The man went closer to the table the kids were sitting at and thoroughly inspected their notebooks. Seemingly satisfied from what he saw he then gave them a simple order.

"Iori. Mitsuru. Pack your things, we're going. Now ."

The twins didn't waste a second. Kyo looked at them and the urgency to obey their father, who meanwhile crept closer to him and stared with a creepy look in his eyes.

"To think one day you'll be the rival of my Iori… he'll crush you, I'm sure."

Rival? What was he talking about?
The man then exited the room, calling his kids again.

"Get to the car. Don't make me wait. "

The little girl was the first one to run away without saying anything. Her brother was going to do the same, but then stopped and turned to look at Kyo and the Yata twins: his expression was completely different from earlier, now incredibly sad and scared.

"I'm so sorry… really..."

And with that, he ran away too.

Kyo turned toward Maki and Chizuru, who looked as shaken as him.
He felt like he'd witnessed something terrible.

"Dad?"

Curled between his parents in the backseat of their car, Kyo raised his head and looked at his father. The man smiled at him. "Yes, Kyo? Something's on your mind?"

"When I'll grow up… will I have a rival?"

His dad blinked in surprise. "Why this question all of sudden?"
"I… heard someone talking about it and… "

It was a lie, but Kyo felt like naming the Yagami headmaster would have been a bad idea: he didn't know all the details, aside from the well known fact that their clans had a feud going on for centuries and that there was probably no hope of stopping it.

Saisyu looked at him in silence, then averted his gaze. Maybe he shouldn't have asked?

"Things should go that way, yes" he sighed. "But… it won't happen, not if I can avoid it."

His dad smiled at him — a tired smile, maybe the meeting wore him down.

"I see…"
"You're still too young to worry about this. Let dad take care of it until you're grown up, okay?"

Kyo nodded and moved closer to the man, hugging him tightly. His father's hand brushed his hair, making him relax a bit.
His mind went back to the Yagami twins, especially to the little boy with the big, sad eyes. What was his name again…?

Iori.

His name was Iori.

Kyo wondered what he was doing now. If he and his sister had someone that would take care of them, because their father surely didn't seem like the kind of person that would give them attention and love.
He wondered where their mom was.
If those bruises were really the result of playing or training… it had to be that way, didn't it?

Because the only other option he could think of was so terrible he didn't even want to imagine it.

Iori, are you doing okay?

Kyo sincerely hoped he did.

Oh, waves of time
Seem to wash away the scenes of our crimes
For you this never ends…

Kristy, are you doing okay? - The Offspring

Notes:

I had the idea of these clan meetings a while ago, and the more I thought about it, the more I imagined Iori, Kyo and Chizuru as kids. And that meant... dealing with Iori's childhood.

*Now, while canon is very vague about it (to the surprise of no one), we have bits here and there about his childhood, most notably kid Iori crying in KoF: Kyo (manga). It has always been implied that his childhood had been rough at best, but my angst-loving mind decided to make it worse... and if you know the song I used here, you can even guess it.

*Of course we know nothing about Yagami senior too, but the fandom pretty much agree that he was a shitty person (and some KoF mahnwas seems to validate this idea, KoF 2000 for example), and in this story I've been able to flesh him out a bit and presenting him in all his delightful self. You'll see more of him in the future.

*Mitsuru is my fanon twin sister of Iori, born many many years ago, way before I discovered he has a canon-ish sister. I was reading the infamous KoF Zillion at the time, and one of the characters was Ioriko (or Yuki/Yuna in different translated versions, but in Italy she was creatively named like that), headmaster of the Yagami clan and Iori's cousin... that looked identical to him because she was actually Miss X. The authors decided to make Iori's fake identity her own character and use her like that. But my young self didn't like the explanation, so I just turned her into his twin sister: same role in the clan, but at least their identical appearance made more sense, lol. Her name is inspired by Mitsuru from Persona 3, a suggestion I've got from someone in a server I'm in. Fitting, since the hairstyle is identical to the one I have for "my" Mitsu. You'll also see more of her in the future, as I want to show her as an adult too.

*As for Maki, Chizuru's dead twin sister... we know nothing. Of course. Aside that she was a boss in one of the games, she was more powerful than Chi and helped her with her bike. But personality-wise we know nothing about her. Looking at the few illustrations of her that exist, though, I always had the idea that she was more extroverted than her sister... and for some reason, she evolved into this walking terror here, lol. I mean, if you have read Nirvana (that is just a few clicks away), you know that in my headcanons she met Iori years later too, and even if I didn't write it, I have this idea that her nickname for him was "idiot"... she was delightful, lol. I don't know why she became a Nabiki Tendo 2.0, but I like her this way.

This story has two sequels because I kept having ideas (especially while talking about it with Rin (RinoaDestiny on FFnet), and I wanted to try and close it on a lighter note than this one, so get ready for that.

I have to say, writing from kid!Kyo's PoV was a delight. He's weirdly adorable. Why you couldn't stay that way, Kyo, why do you have to be an ass at the age of 20? *sighs*

Sadly I can't draw kids to save my life, as you can see in the fanart that is on AO3 and all my other socials cause Fnet won't allow to add it. *grumbles*

Until next time,

Mana