At this moment, the three women were not training inside the dojo building itself. As outstanding fighters, a little sparring from them could easily blow the wooden dojo to pieces. So, they could only train on the brick-paved ground beside the dojo. But even the specially reinforced bricks were now covered with marks and footprints.
After coming in, Aiden sat down under a big tree and watched the three women sparring there.
It had to be said, when female fighters sparred, it was truly a beautiful sight. Especially Mai Shiranui. Although she had changed into a modified version of her fighting outfit that was less revealing, every move she made was still eye-catching. Aiden could confirm that if he were to spar with her, he wouldn't be able to focus at all…
After watching for a while, the sparring between the three ended with Mai's super move, Ninpō: Fire Bee, scattering flames everywhere. Then, the three women walked together toward Aiden.
"Whew… so hot!"
Unlike King and Yuri, who were only slightly out of breath, Mai, who used ninjutsu from the ancient Shiranui-ryu martial arts as her main killing techniques, was drenched in fragrant sweat from head to toe.
After all, most of her ninjutsu involved manipulating flames for attacks. That was also one of the main reasons her outfit was so skimpy, to help with heat dissipation.
Even so, half of Mai's clothes were soaked through, with certain parts of the fabric clinging tightly to her skin, perfectly outlining her figure.
Fortunately, her red battle outfit was made of thick, opaque material. Otherwise, Aiden would never have let her participate in the fighting tournament like that.
"Mai, the iced tea's ready."
As Mai walked closer, Aiden handed her a cup of iced tea. Then, as a breeze passed by, he caught a whiff of the faint, sweet fragrance coming from her body, stronger than usual. The sweat of a beautiful girl was naturally fragrant. That's not up for debate.
Mai took the iced tea, drank a sip, then shoved Yuri aside and naturally sat down beside Aiden. Yuri glared at her unhappily.
Mai pretended not to see it. After putting down the tea, she used her butterfly fan to fan herself with one hand while pulling open her collar with the other to cool off. Naturally, Aiden's gaze was drawn toward her… and she was doing it on purpose.
'Nice. Big. Perfect.'
Aiden praised inwardly.
If it were before, Mai would have been embarrassed being looked at like that by Aiden. But now, it was different, his unrestrained gaze was the highest form of compliment to her.
"Tch!" Yuri, seeing this, clicked her tongue disdainfully and muttered, "You're only showing off because Shermie's not here."
When Mai heard that, she immediately glared at her. Teammates were teammates, but when it came to Aiden, they were far from acting sisterly.
However, thinking of Shermie's figure, Mai snorted again, but she had to admit, when she first met Shermie, she had taken a fatal blow. Shermie's chest was simply an insurmountable mountain.
"When she gets old, they'll sag. Mine are the perfect shape." Mai also muttered to herself, but in a low voice. First, because saying that out loud would be embarrassing, and second, because badmouthing someone behind their back felt a bit wrong.
Hearing the two women's whispered exchange, Aiden shook his head slightly, then reluctantly pulled his gaze away and poured Yuri and King each a cup of iced tea.
As they drank tea and chatted, the conversation soon shifted to the upcoming KOF tournament.
King took a sip of tea, frowned, and said, "I still don't know what the tournament rules are."
She was probably the most concerned about that. If it was a single-elimination system, losing once meant going straight home, and she definitely didn't want that. She wanted to fight in as many matches as possible, especially since the appearance fees were high.
"It's probably like soccer, with a point system, maybe even divided into winner and loser brackets," Yuri said, resting her chin in her hand thoughtfully.
"My idiot brother said that's the most reasonable format."
Mai, however, had a different concern. Frowning, she said, "I don't really care about the format. I just don't get why it's three-person teams. If it were four-person teams, then Ye could compete too."
'Four-person team formats were still a long way off. After all, this was the first time such a world-class tournament was being held, and there were still many things to improve…' Aiden thought to himself from the side.
But he figured the competition could follow the same system as real arcade tournaments. Still, he'd heard it wasn't much different from a soccer-style point system.
Actually, he wasn't too sure. His knowledge of soccer and arcade tournaments was shallow. As for arcades, they were just childhood memories, he hadn't really watched any tournaments. And soccer… well, maybe he'd care once the national team actually qualified for something. Until then, zero interest.
"But Oni-chan's strength still isn't enough to compete, right?" Yuri said softly when she heard Mai mention wanting Aiden to join.
Lately, Aiden had resumed coming to the Shiranui dojo to train. But his progress wasn't huge, when he wasn't using his "burst," he could barely spar with them. Once they powered up, he could only take the beating.
The problem was, in this world, the basic requirement for being a fighter was being able to use one's "burst." Only then could you unleash the full potential of your moves. Like Mai said, if she went all out with her Super Ninpō: Fire Bee without worrying about exhaustion, she could set half a street ablaze.
So, Yuri's words were already quite polite, she'd only said Aiden was "a bit short," not that he was outright weak.
Then Yuri continued, "My idiot brother also said that there aren't many invitation letters for this tournament. So even if Oni-chan wanted to form a team and join, he doesn't have one."
"And even if he had one, Aiden doesn't have teammates," King added from the side.
Finding teammates, though, was actually the smallest problem.
That was what Aiden thought next.
He could easily find Shermie and Helena, or even the Kagura sisters. As long as he asked, they wouldn't refuse.
Mai had thought of that too.
"If Ye wants teammates, that's easy. Just ask those Kagura sisters."
"True…"
"Right, I heard the Kagura family and several big companies are trying to take on the advertising contracts for this tournament," King said.
"But apparently, they haven't been able to contact the organizers yet. No idea why."
"Maybe because the organizer's identity is too mysterious."
"Rich people are always mysterious."
"Damn rich people."
That last line was King's addition.
At that moment, Aiden didn't join their conversation. Instead, he kept thinking.
Recently, the Kagura family had been trying hard to get in touch with the tournament organizers. It was a great business opportunity, advertising, promotions, all that, but the issue was, this event was privately sponsored. So, up until now, they hadn't managed to reach the person behind it all… Rugal.
Though they hadn't contacted Rugal, rumors said the first round of the tournament would be held in the Asian region.
So… Aiden was already waiting for the American team to arrive in Japan.
Thinking that, he started to feel excited.
The Hero Team, the Fatal Fury Team, the Psychic Soldiers Team, he wanted to meet them all.
It was just a shame that, since this was the first KOF tournament, the number of participants wasn't large. Otherwise, it would have been much more lively.
However, Aiden suddenly thought of another issue, if he were to participate, what name should he give his team?
That, he felt, was the biggest problem.
———
"Aiden, what's wrong?"
That evening, at the dining table, Maki held a wine glass and looked at the somewhat absent-minded Aiden.
From the time they got home until dinner, he had been like this, as if deep in thought, which puzzled both Kagura sisters.
After a moment, Aiden finally lifted his glass and said, "Maki, Chizuru, if I were to join this fighting tournament, what kind of name should I give our team?"
"Aiden, you're planning to join the tournament?" Both sisters froze for a moment. Then Maki frowned and said, "But you don't have an invitation letter."
They didn't ask about teammates, they naturally assumed that if Aiden formed a team, it would be with them.
But Chizuru suddenly got excited. "If we don't have one, we can just buy one! That woman called Mai Shiranui has a teammate named King who's strapped for cash, right? We could spend some money and buy their invitation!"
Maki immediately poured cold water on that idea. "You think that's possible? Chizuru, the invitation belongs to Miss Mai. Maybe others would sell, but she definitely wouldn't agree to sell it to us."
Only then did Chizuru remember, they were rivals in love with Mai. There was no way she'd sell them her invitation and let them team up with Aiden.
"Then we'll just buy it from someone else." Chizuru began counting on her fingers.
"Let's see… the Kusanagi family has one, the Kyokugenryu Sakazaki family too, and the old master Chin Gentsai in China also has one…"
"Stop!" Maki interrupted her.
"That's enough, Chizuru. None of those teams are possible. The Kusanagis are fellow Three Sacred Families, they don't need money. As for the others, they're pure martial artists. For them, a fighter's honor is worth far more than money."
"So we can't get an invitation at all?" Chizuru said gloomily. "Why did the Kusanagis get one and not us?"
"Because the Kagura family isn't very famous in the fighting world," Maki sighed, looking at Aiden with a hint of guilt, as if she felt bad for not being able to help him.
"Looks like we'll have to wait for next time," Maki went on. "This tournament is just the beginning. Our family's think tank analyzed it, after this one, it'll explode in popularity worldwide. Then there'll be plenty of invitations."
"But Aiden…"
"Don't worry, I have a way to get one." Aiden interrupted Chizuru, then looked at Maki. "Maki, I'll have to trouble your intelligence division again soon…"
Maki immediately understood what he meant. "The intelligence division… Aiden, who are you planning to find? I'll call them right now."
"Don't rush, tomorrow's fine." Aiden quickly shook his head. It was late at night, better to let those poor workers rest. There was still time; even a few days' delay wouldn't matter.
"All right then." Maki put her phone back down.
But seeing Aiden fall into thought again, she remembered what he'd said earlier and asked, "Still having trouble naming the team?"
"Of course. That's the hardest part," Aiden nodded.
Honestly, he was terrible at naming things. Back when he used to play games, he'd spend hours, sometimes a whole day, just trying to come up with a name. And usually, after all that, he'd end up having to change it because it was already taken.
Though that wasn't a problem now, he still wanted to think carefully about it.
Seeing Aiden's troubled face again, the Kagura sisters started thinking too. Suddenly, Chizuru clapped her fists together and said, "Ah! I've got it! Since my sister and I will be joining you, how about calling it the Sister Flowers Team?"
Aiden and Maki both gave her the side-eye.
Chizuru laughed awkwardly. "Not good?"
Maki nodded. "Feels a bit tacky."