"I challenge you, Iori Yagami!" Kiki stood tall in the alleyway, pointing to the man in front of her.

Iori looked over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes at the woman behind him. Her small stature, her short black hair, her bright brown eyes burning with determination… Iori grew tired of seeing all that every single afternoon for the past week. With a groan, he turned around. "Haven't you had enough already?"

"Hell, no, I'm not!" Kiki declared. "If I beat you, I'll definitely get invited to KOF!" She stretched her arms, bounced in place, and readied herself into a fighting stance. "Come at me, Iorin! I can totally take you on this time."

He shook his head, "I told you to not call me that." He positioned himself into his fighting stance: slumped over with legs wide apart and fingers sprawled out as if ready to claw into his opponent. "If I beat you, never show your face to me ever again, got it?"

Kiki smirked and nodded. "Sure, but I don't plan on losing."

The two of them stared each other down then rushed towards each other, raring to land the first hit. Iori jabbed straight at Kiki's face, and his fist connected with her cheek. Knocked back by the impact, Kiki stumbled and brought her forearms up in front of her head, anticipating another blow. In response, Iori crouched and kicked his leg out, striking Kiki's ankles. The girl yelped as she got knocked to the ground. She attempted to get up, but Iori pressed down on the middle of her back with his foot, pinning her down to the ground. As she made another attempt to stand, Iori pressed down harder. She continued to wriggle free from Iori's sole for a while longer until she finally gave in with a huff. Kiki craned her head up, looking into the man's cold red eyes pleadingly.

"Get out of my sight." Iori turned around and started to walk away, unaware of the girl propping herself up on one knee behind him.

"W-Wait…!" Iori looked over his shoulder with a scowl as Kiki steadied herself against an alley wall. With labored breaths, she called out to him, "I'm… I'm not through with you!"

Iori sighed and turned back, "Damn it, woman, give up already. At this rate, I'm going to kill you."

"No!" Kiki cried. "I'm getting into KOF no matter what. Screw what everyone else says. Screw what everyone else wants me to do." She coughed, still breathless from struggling earlier. "I made this decision on my own, and I'm gonna see it through. I'm not gonna let anyone tell me what to do anymore. I'm making my own future!" Iori perked up at Kiki's last statement. He faced her once more.

Hunched over, she rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. "I don't care if I win." She straightened her back. "I don't care if everyone beats me." She lifted her head. "I just wanna live my own life." She broke into a sprint and reeled a fist back. "I ain't gonna back down from anything anymore!" Kiki shot her fist straight towards an unsuspecting Iori and landed the blow straight to his gut. With the wind knocked out of him, Iori collapsed onto the concrete with a thud.

The adrenaline in Kiki's body began to subside. When she looked down and saw Iori's unmoving figure on the ground, her entire body froze up.

"Oh, shit."

Kiki clamored towards Iori and kneeled next to him, bowing repeatedly and apologizing profusely, "OH MY GOD IORI I'M SO FUCKING SORRY I LET MY EMOTIONS GET THE BETTER OF ME ARE YOU OKAY I DIDN'T BREAK YOUR STOMACH DID I-"

A cough from Iori stopped Kiki's rambling apology. He pushed himself up and glared at the girl. Every muscle in her body tensed. Sweat began trickling down her forehead.

"You win, okay?"

Kiki sighed in relief as the fear rushed out her body. She stood up and offered a hand to Iori. With an averted gaze, he took it.


A/N: Alright, I've decided to add in my author notes from AO3 into the version of the fic as well. You'll often see me referring to "the original one-shots" in each chapter's notes. I'm referring to "The Moon and Polaris (One-Shot Collection)" which I only published on AO3. I won't be posting a direct link here because I don't think FF will be too happy about me linking to a NSFW work. But, I did link my AO3 account on my profile, so you may access it through there. Anyway, on to the actual author notes for this chapter!

In terms of changes from the original, the most obvious one is that the section at the end where Iori offers Kiki to be his student was omitted. I feel that something like that would be best saved for Chapter 2 or Chapter 3 at the latest. Also, that thing about Kiki dropping out of college? I do plan on introducing that in the story, but I feel like that part of her backstory would be best introduced later.
Other little things:
God damn, Kiki cried a lot in the one-shots. Nothing wrong with that, but like, damn girl. I feel like if she cries too much, it'll lose impact.
Oh hey a physical description for Kiki. Short girl with black hair and brown eyes. ... Better than nothing, right?
I tried to make Iori more distant here. I feel like the original version had him warm up to Kiki a little too quickly.