King Of Fighters Fanfiction X Dead Or Alive

Memories

"You okay, Aiko?" Athena asked while the others played.
"I'm fine," Aiko said, attempting a grin. "Just got a little emotional back there..."
Athena gave her a half hug and quickly picked up the mic when the others started playing My Love. Aiko chuckled and grabbed her violin to play too.
After that, they played Falling of The Nightingale for Foxy. She actually got goosebumps when hearing her favourite song being played live on stage. And then Shining Brave for the girls. Then they played Rhythmic Hallucination.
Lastly, they played a remixed version KD-0079. K' still loved that song the most.
They finally stopped playing and the audience started cheering for them. Some people came and got their autographs, even the artist from Place du Tertre. Ash, Saiki, Shingo, Gaspard, Adalene, and Georgina met with them backstage together with the others.
"Are you okay, Mademoiselle Yagami?" Adalene asked, concerned. "I saw how you cried."
"I'm fine," Aiko said with a smile. Then her hand slowly started pointing to someone. "Not sure about Niisan though..."
Everyone turned to look at Iori, who was silently packing his vintage bass, slowly. K' and Kyo went to him.
"Yagami?" K' said, just to piss him off. "Are you okay? Why are you so slow motion?"
"I'm fine..." Iori said without turning away from his bass case. And K' confirmed that there was indeed something bothering him.
The two of them walked away a little further to Zayn.
"He isn't..." K' said. "He's okay if anyone besides me and my team calls him Yagami. He just doesn't like me calling that, rather, Iori."
"So I've seen," Kyo said. "I've been calling him Yagami since forever, and he never told me that. He told me call him Iori once, but it didn't work, and I ended up relapsing into 'Yagami'."
"Something's up," Zayn said, equally concerned. "We need to find out."
"There's no need for that," Aiko said, joining them. "I know exactly why he's upset."
They leaned forward a little, gesturing her to continue.
"It's because we skipped visiting our father's grave this year," Aiko said. "And that song, it must've... reminded Niisan of him. Well, it made me cry too..."
"He's probably crying in there too," K' said, glancing at his friend's back. "Just that, he doesn't wanna show it."
"We need to bring him there," Kyo said. "Where's he buried?"
"In our family grave, Tsukishima," Aiko said. "That's where we're originally from, but we moved to Shibuya after my mother's death. It must've reminded dad of our mothers' passing."
"We need to take him there," Kyo said. "Come on."
"But it's almost night!" Zayn said, pointing to the evening sky seen through the windows.
"Not in Tokyo, it isn't," K' pointed out. "It's midnight there."
"Isn't that even worse?" Zayn asked, confused.
The others grinned and the two men put their elbows on his shoulder.
"Zayn, you see," Kyo explained. "What does Yagami say before hanging up from a phone call?"
"Umm..." Zayn uttered, trying to remember his last phone call with Iori.

Remember me when you look at the moon!

"Something about remembering the moon?" Zayn said, confused. Then he realised. "Oh I see what you're getting at."
So they brought Iori to Tsukishima after having a light meal. Iori was surprised to see that they were all wearing black, including himself for that matter.
Then they led him to the Yagami cemetery and to his father's grave. His grave was between both his mother and Aiko's mother.
"Father..." Iori murmured, kneeling down in front of the tombstone.
He suddenly whipped out a cigar and a lighter. He lit the roll of tobacco before placing it on the grave. He took out another and lit it for himself.
Aiko was surprised that he still had those on him. She wanted to pull it out of his fingers and step on it, but decided against it. After all, it was his tradition to honour their father's death since he used to smoke too. Aiko always wondered if that was the actual reason he died. But given her uncle who never smoked or even drank much, she realised that it wasn't the reason.
The others let the Yagamis have their moment with their father alone and went to a nearby bar instead. It was the only thing open at that hour, and they decided to just sit there and have a drink or two.
"Funny what a song can do to someone," Kyo said, taking a shot of gin. "To be honest with you, I've never seen Yagami so emotional before..."
"Wait, wasn't Iori always emo?" K' asked, confused. He took a sip of his cola before continuing. "Like... it's Yagami. Always dressed in nothing but black and red, talks to no one, literally talks to ghosts, has no friends? I mean, had no friends..."
"Yeah but he was always cold and... homicidal..." Kyo said. "But not outside of combat, though."
"That's true too," Ash said. "The guy didn't even care when I stole his flames..."
"It's Yagami, what do you expect?" Kyo said again. "He didn't even care when he actually killed Vice and Mature because of his blood..."
"I think he was just so done with his life," Zayn said with a shrug. "Born into a curse that would taunt you and eat up your life is actually kinda miserable. I actually understand how he felt since I kinda felt the same when all of my 'brothers' died during experiments. I was the only one who survived. How do you think I felt?"
"I know exactly how you felt," K' said. "But awaiting your death is just horrible..."
The Yagamis eventually found them and joined them with a few beers.
"So, done smoking?" Kyo asked with a chuckle. "Something tells me that was just a reason for you to resume smoking."
"I just took a few puffs and threw it out," Iori pointed out. "I only did that for my father."
"Do you think your father would be happy to see you smoking and ruining your life?" K' said. "I mean... yeah... cigars aren't healthy."
"He wouldn't," Iori said. "But still, it was just a gesture to honour him."
"That makes sense, I guess..." K' said with a shrug. "Anyway, we're in Tsukishima. The name speaks for itself. What do you wanna do?"
Iori shrugged.
"Is Monja Street still on?" Kyo asked.
"I don't think so," Iori said. "It's midnight. The place is usually only lively till like ten or something."
They decided to just go back to France since the place was actually getting pretty eerie. Especially since they were near the graveyard of a family that was cursed for generations.
Paris on the other hand, couldn't be livelier. It was only around eight and still very alive, compared to the midnight in Tsukishima.
So, they went around, guided by Ash, and enjoyed themselves in Montmartre. The day came to a perfect end.