I Have a Girlfriend in Marvel

Night had fallen, and the city lights were shining. It had been three hours since Mai Shiranui had declared her intention to duel Su Ye.

Outside the dojo, by the roadside, Terry turned to Joe. "Brother Joe, I'm hungry."

Joe glanced at the dojo in front of them. The lights were off, and the door was shut. It had been three hours—what were those two doing in the dark? Playing hide-and-seek?

"Let's go eat!"

Joe stood up and headed straight toward Chinatown.

"Brother Joe, what are we eating?"

"Grilled skewers—let's start with thirty lamb kidney skewers!"

"That's too many; I'm good with five."

"Make it fifty then!"

The next day arrived quickly. Su Ye, Joe, and Terry packed light and hailed a cab to the airport.

"What's up with you two? You look awful. Did you drink last night?"

The legal drinking age in the U.S. was 21, but rules could always be bent. The two had snuck off to a small bar in Chinatown and drank all night—no one saw them, so it wasn't an issue.

But now their breath was a potent mix of alcohol and lamb kidneys, which was hard to tolerate.

"It's all your fault!" Joe glared at Su Ye.

"If you had just beaten Mai earlier, we wouldn't have had to drink all night or be too scared to come back."

Su Ye scratched his head. "Honestly, I did knock her out quickly, but she wouldn't accept it and insisted on fighting all night…"

Amid the roar of jet engines, the three left New York, heading for South Town.

Meanwhile, in the Shiranui Dojo, Mai Shiranui lay on her bed, utterly exhausted, when her phone rang. The caller ID displayed "King."

"Hi, Mai. What have you been up to lately? Want to hang out?"

Mai instantly perked up. "King, wait for me. I'll be there right away… actually, give me a couple of days."

Mai had initially planned to leave immediately, but considering her current physical condition, she decided to rest for a few days. Moving around was still difficult.

"Su Ye, you beast!" Mai muttered after hanging up, though her face was lit with a blissful smile.

South Town is in New Mexico. Despite "Town" being in its name, it is actually a highly developed modern metropolis. Its airport is large, with direct flights to many major cities in Europe and Asia.

When Su Ye and his group got off the plane, several other flights had just landed, including international ones. The terminal was bustling with travelers from all over the world.

Some, like Su Ye and his companions, traveled light with just a backpack. Others had rolling suitcases, and some even brought four or five large pieces of luggage, practically moving house, requiring airport staff to assist with pushing carts.

Unfortunately, one staff member was particularly reckless, pushing a luggage cart through the terminal like they were drifting an AE86. The cart swerved and hurtled toward a lone little girl licking a lollipop.

The girl's parents were surprisingly careless. In such a large, crowded terminal, they left her alone just to enjoy her lollipop. Was the candy really that good?

Seeing the cart about to hit the little girl, Terry leaped forward and stopped it just in time.

Little Girl's Affection Level: +10.

At that moment, three distinctly styled men approached.

Leading the group was a man with a middle-part hairstyle, his forehead wrapped in a strip of white cloth as if he were in mourning.

Next to him was a man over two meters tall, incredibly muscular, but apparently blind, with a similar white cloth wrapped around his head.

The last one was the most flamboyant. He had long golden hair slicked back with half a tub of gel, styled into a broom-like shape even taller than Joe's. Worse, he wore white suit pants with a black, tight, midriff-baring top, coupled with flamboyant, exaggerated movements. He was truly a sight to behold.

Seeing these three, Su Ye instinctively stopped in his tracks. Terry and Joe joined him, and the two groups stood face to face.

Su Ye couldn't help but click his tongue. Their appearances and outfits were too iconic. There was no way they weren't the Japan Team from King of Fighters.

The man with the middle part, the team leader, spoke politely, "Hello, I'm Kyo Kusanagi. This is Goro Daimon, and this is Benimaru Nikaido. We're fighters from Japan. You three must be here for the KOF tournament as well!"

Benimaru—an adult man with a name that sounded like a girl's coming-of-age nickname. Truly… hard to take seriously.

Fighters, whether in physique or spirit, were distinctly different from ordinary people. Since the group in front of them also consisted of three people, matching the KOF tournament's team format, Kyo Kusanagi was confident in his assumption.

Su Ye thought to himself, So it really is these three. He realized that they were now experiencing the scene from King of Fighters: Destiny where the Japan Team first meets Terry.

Initially, Su Ye had thought Mai Shiranui's DLC only included the Fatal Fury storyline, but it turned out to be King of Fighters: Destiny.

But wait, there weren't any giant posters of Mai's infamous "bent-over" pose on the nearby billboards… Honestly, wasn't that a good thing? Su Ye wasn't like Andy, the green-hatted simp, who seemed to enjoy showing Mai's pose to the entire world.

However, there was one problem: Su Ye and his group hadn't received an invitation to KOF. They were simply here to cause trouble for Geese Howard.

According to the storyline of King of Fighters: Destiny—set in KOF '94—this was the first KOF tournament, hosted by none other than Geese Howard, the man who killed Terry's mother.

Geese Howard was the undisputed ruler of South Town, controlling vast wealth and a powerful underground network. He was also a formidable fighter himself, which allowed him to fund the tournament and invite fighters from around the world to compete in South Town.

Geese's goal wasn't simply to "exchange martial arts"—he had more sinister plans in mind.

But that didn't matter. With Su Ye here, Geese Howard's schemes were bound to fail. Whether the KOF tournament would even proceed as planned was now uncertain.

"I'm Su Ye. This is my friend Joe Higashi, and this is my brother Terry."

Despite his racing thoughts, Su Ye didn't delay introducing himself.

"Your brother?" Benimaru Nikaido was visibly puzzled about how a man from Dragon Country could have a brother who looked obviously Western. But no one paid him any attention.

"We're fighters, I guess, but we're pretty unknown. We didn't come here to join KOF. That said, if we get the chance, we might check it out."

After saying this, Su Ye exchanged contact information with Kyo Kusanagi and then prepared to leave.

Kyo suddenly suggested, "I've heard there's a Kyokugenryu Dojo in South Town. Su, would you like to check it out together?"

"We have some things to take care of, so we'll pass for now. Kyo, you guys enjoy," Su Ye replied, nodding before leading his group away.

Behind them, Kyo twitched his fingers, muttering, "Uh, my surname is Kusanagi, not Kyo…"