The King of Fighters Tournament

Journey of the Bosses and Clones

Igniz and Clone Zero stared in shock when an entire school bus stopped in front of them.
"He came in a school bus?" Clone Zero asked in shock, watching as the kids rushed out with Zero all the way behind them. "Is he bringing his kids?"
"I won't be surprised," Igniz sighed, shaking his head. "I'm just hoping he booked tickets for them too."
Clone Zero frowned as he remembered something. "Hey, Igniz, didn't we book first class?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, then are those kids taking first class with us?"
Igniz realised what he was getting at. "Yeah... I see what you're getting at. How did he pay for all of those tickets?"
"Probably children discount," Clone Zero shrugged. "Either that, or he has one heck of a sponsorship."
Igniz nodded. "That seems likely too."
Original Zero finally came to them, smiling as he led all the children. "Alright, ready to go?"
The children cheered happily. Igniz and Clone Zero weren't sure if they had to be amused or touched, this wasn't the kind of Zero they were expecting at all. They knew, of course, that Original Zero loved children and caring for them. It was cool that he even decided to bring them along.
"Come on," Igniz chuckled, entering the airport. "Misty is waiting for us at the check-in.
One of the kids were having trouble walking on such tiny legs so Original Zero wasted no time in carrying the little boy. He followed the rest to the international gateway, at the children's heels to make sure that all of them were with him.
"Alright, everyone, take your passports out," Zero instructed, taking his own one out.
Igniz and Clone Zero watched as the children took their bags off to take their passports out. All of them had a little travel wallet that had all of their travelling credentials in it.
"That's adorable, ain't it?" Clone Zero piped up, giving Igniz a nudge. "All of them having one of those little wallets."
"Yeah, cute, I guess," Igniz agreed. "I knew Zero loves children, but never expected this."
Clone Zero just shrugged and helped his original to take the children to the checkpoint. All of their baggage were checked and processed.
"Zero, why are they taking our bags?" One of the children asked. "I left my Teddy in there!"
Original Zero gasped, seeing how the little girl would not go even an hour without her teddy, let alone sixteen. He pondered what he should do but was left to dismally watch as the bag went down the treadmill, disappearing from sight behind a curtain of black strips.
"Noo! They took away my Teddy!" The girl cried. "Teddy!"
She tried to run towards the treadmill but luckily Misty caught her. "No, no, you can't take it now, girlie. You'll get it back once we reach Japan, I assure you." Misty crooned to her.
"But I want Teddy now!" The girl sobbed softly.
Igniz spotted a gift shop and quickly went over. He found a white Teddy Bear with a nice ribbon bow around its neck and quickly bought it before going back to the rest.
"Here, I found this," Igniz said, handing the Teddy Bear to the little girl. "You can have it until you have your Teddy back."
The girl gasped and immediately took the Teddy Bear, hugging it tightly. Zero smiled and gave Igniz a grateful nod.
"Let's go have some lunch, we still have a long time left for our flight," Zero said. "My treat."
"It's fine, this time it's on me," Clone Zero quickly said. "Feels like I didn't really do anything since I got here."
Zero begrudgingly agreed and followed the rest, bringing all twenty of the children with him.

Kusanagi looked at the bus ticket that Kyo-1 handed to him. It was an eight-hour journey from the Yokohama Station. He shook his head and turned to the rest. "This is long, let me go get some stuff so we can snack during the journey."
The Kyo clones were about to protest but Kusanagi quickly ran to one of the nearby provision shops and got some snacks before rejoining them, grinning.
"Alright, I got us some mochi, some cookies, onigiri, chocolates, some soda, and some yoghurt," Kusanagi grinned, rummaging in the bag. "Also got these from the bookshop." He held up three different copies of a famous manga. "Got one for each of us."
"Awesome!" Kyo-1 grinned, taking the book that Kusanagi handed to him. "Hey, this would look great in our bookshelf! Don't you think so, Two?"
Kyo-2 nodded, flipping through the pages. "Yeah. Our bookshelf back home looks awfully empty."
"Great so we're adding three books now," Kusanagi chuckled. "Alright, when can we get into the bus?"
"The driver isn't here yet, apparently," Kyo-2 complained, pocketing his phone. "Wonder how long he's gonna take..."
As if an answer to his complaint, the drivers appeared and got into the bus. One acted as a conductor while the other perched himself behind the wheel. The three of them showed their tickets and went to their seats.
"So, make yourselves comfortable, take a nap if you like, it's gonna take a while," Kyo-1 sighed, taking his earphones out. "I'm gonna do start this manga. Thanks, Kusanagi."
Kusanagi smiled back and took his own book out to read.
The journey was scenic, passing through different states with different atmospheres. Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 eventually fell asleep, leaving only Kusanagi awake. He looked out the window, watching one car pass after another. A blanket covered his legs, his book laying on his lap. Kusanagi nearly forgot what it was like to not live underground. His eyes were still glowing red, just the slightest, so it still made everyone who noticed think that he was an evil entity. But in reality, that wasn't even true.
Kusanagi leaned back in his seat and sighed. He used to blame Chizuru for everything, how she just created him under the influence of evil and resulted in him to look like this. Why she chose Kyo's image, he still didn't know. What made it worse was she abandoned him right after she was out of Botan's spell. And he was left to wander alone.
He looked over at the sleeping Kyo clones, who faced similar fate at the hands of different people. Images of Kyo only to be abandoned without a home. At least they looked more human than he did and they managed to use their looks to earn an honest living as Kyo impersonators, playing the guitar and singing on stage. Kusanagi smiled, wishing he had tried to do the same.
Maybe he can start now. This tournament might serve as a fresh start.