Fanfiction Histories and Mysteries #6: The Esaka Destiny "Saga" (Part One)
Well, hello again. Miyu Prower here. This time, I'm set to dissect Sony Love's Esaka Destiny... saga. This time, there's a lot of information, so I can't breeze through this as fast as I did with "La Péril". Of course, I will try my best to break it down piece by piece, so you can absorb it all. That is what I'm here for, after all. Now, thanks to its massive length, it's split into two parts.
This part contains the history on how the stories came to fruition, the basic character development (namely, with Emi and Keiko), the rundown of the first story, and the summary of the rewrite (where Miyuki pops in). That summary of the rewrite includes what would have happened in the discontinued Final Struggle.
I guess we can begin now, eh?
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1.1: Foundation
See, sometime around 2004, S.L. was under a major period of
writer's block (this is what makes this a little tricky here), and she became a
little hooked onto something new to her, since she's behind the times and
everything. Yes, this is when she first got her hands on the King of Fighters
series, namely the years of '94 to '98. Yes, she'd get up to date on the series
anyway, so bear with me. After a while of immersing herself in the series,
namely using the music for inspiration and everything, she decided to use the
opportunity to create a few new characters of hers out of boredom. This is
basically the birth of the Tsukino sisters, Emiko (better known as "Emi") and Keiko... though at
this time, they were just Emi and Keiko Tsuki.
1.2: Character Development
You see, after S.L. came up with the appearances of the sisters, she lacked the personalities for them. They were basically paper-like canvases. She figured that she should make their personalities unlike those of the six Baxter sisters (who were also going under a bit of heavy development themselves). So, after careful consideration, she decided to have the typical "sweet" and "stubborn" sisters. So, yes, Emi is the shy and sweet older sister, and Keiko is the rather overprotective and feisty younger sister. It has always been that way, and always will be. Well, almost, considering Emi's personality in the second version... of course, we'll get to that in a little bit.
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Alrighty, it's now time to give the basic history on the stories. Now, the first version of the story only brought in one canon character from KOF... and obviously, it's none other than our good old friend, Kyo Kusanagi. Knowing him, he probably wasn't too happy on being used in the first two versions (especially the second). But I digress. Let's jump into the summaries now.
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2.: Kyo and Emi: Who the hell is this "Yuki" person? (written in 2004)
Actually, the whole title was called "Kyo and Emi: A Love Story". It still sounded like "Yuki who?" to me, because she was nowhere to be seen. This was basically a barebones sappy lovestory which was originally going to throw Kusanagi (Kyo's clone) into the fray in later chapters to finally further the plot. Hey, you gotta find something to work with when you're under the path of writer's block, right?
Long story short, you can probably think of this as
Twilight: The King of Fighters Edition. Not good. Funny thing is...
this actually preceded Twilight by a freaking year!
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3.1: A Story of Destined Love: Yuki did what? (written in 2005)
There are two options to read these fics here; through the Fanfiction section in their untouched forms, or from "Mystery Science Theater En Masse" in their critiqued and riffed forms.
If you're opting to read the "En Masse" versions, keep this in mind: All three of these riffed fics are specials (where eight people are sporking it at once), and the Neo Esaka members (consisting of Kyo, Benimaru, Emi, and Keiko) stick through all of them. They're riffing with the Egg Spiral members (Sonic, Sonia, Manic, and Amy) in this one. This is the third special in the series.
Anyway, this was basically a rewrite of the "Love Story" here. The introduction and the first chapter is the same, a motorcycle scene is added for the second chapter, and the end of the third chapter is changed when Emi receives a kiss (she was originally sent to the hospital due to Kusanagi's Koto Moon Positive technique). It changes into a new version once you reach the fourth chapter, in which Yuki conveniently cheats on Kyo with Emi's own pulled-out-of-the-ass boyfriend.
Canon couple nuked! And now you two can go hump each other with the excuse that you're destined to do it! Never mind the fact that Kyo doesn't care about fate!
Miyuki Fujiwara (Emi's best friend, introduced under the name of "Miyuki Kumebara" here) makes her pitiful debut in this story to fawn over Kyo like a rabid fangirl, and Kusanagi makes his full random appearance in the sixth chapter just to be a jerk antagonist. His terrible role involved snatching poor Emi's virginity away by force (and yes, "snatching" is one terrible word choice here). Also, Benimaru and Shingo are just strung along for silly canon and original character balances.
Now, let me explain old Emi's personality here;
I'm going to specifically focus on
her speech. Her current incarnation does not have her swear at all,
unless she's reading something that's written. So, if
another rewrite's made, expect her to sniffle, struggle, and wonder if anybody
is going to save her if she's captured. Asking Kyo to "get her out of this shit"
will be a thing of the past now.
3.2: Kusanagi's Wrath: Kyo can't fight to save his soul, Benimaru puts up a
better fight than he does, and Miyuki does nothing of importance. (written in
2005-2006)
In "En Masse", the Neo Esaka members shuffle through this one with the Black Crow members (with myself, Kyo LeMaire, Jessie, and Cassidy). This is the series' fourth special.
The story begins with our "destined" couple fulfilling their humping requirement, and it all goes downhill from there.
In this really speedy trainwreck, Kyo smashes his old character into microscopic dust by swearing enough to make a sailor blush. Also, he still can't muster the strength to actually defeat Kusanagi, thanks to some stupid pills that he may or may not have been taking during this fic's duration. He required Keiko to actually kill the crazy shadow twin while he's shackled up and his lover is being raped again (A little spoiler: it was randomly revealed to be Kyo-1 in the next story). He also needed Benimaru to fight the real clone off after the Kusanagi heir injured his right arm in an attempt to rescue Emi.
And what does Miyuki do in this story, anyway? Well, she just tries to free a shackled Emi... and she screws that up. Yeah, that's all she did.
Now keep in mind, Kyo's supposed to be one of the strongest fighters in the KOF universe, but he always got owned by Kusanagi here. But then again, in canon, he got trumped by the resident Gary Stu, Ash Crimson. Does it cancel out?
No, not really. However, while it was nice to see a vulnerable side from a strong character... it would've been even better if this fic, you know, kept everyone in character. Seriously, Kyo swapped personalities harder than a two-way mirror.
Also, there was a little something on the drawing board; this story (which was originally called "Wrath of Kusanagi" back in 2004) was going to be a standalone with a horror-like feel. Kyo was supposed to die, and Emi was left to plot sweet, delicious revenge. The entire story was supposed to take place in Kyo's home, where he and Emi were constantly being stalked by the clone. They then leave the place and decide to battle Kusanagi to get him off of their backs, but they horribly fail in the attempt. You can read the end result in "Losing You" in the fanfiction section here.
May I also remind you all that Kyo was supposed to die (yes,
that again!) somewhere between the eleventh and fourteenth chapters? And that
Emi was going to hook up with Shingo while they avenge his death in a beta plan
of "The Final Struggle"? It's not stated where that would happen, since the ideas
were never written on paper. But of course, those random thoughts from S.L. were
obviously scrapped in the end.
3.3: The Final Struggle: Apparently, Goro Daimon does not exist. Also, Kyo gets
better...? (written in 2006-2007)
In "En Masse", the Neo Esaka riffers tackle this one with the Crazy Train members (Mai, Axl, James, and Rory). This is the fifth special in the collection.
Anyway, to answer that question from earlier... no. No, he doesn't. Kyo and Emi discover that there are new clones of themselves, and after a crazy chain of events where Kyo is constantly being posessed by his clone and is ruthlessely tormented by Emi's clone after a terrible first impression, he somehow lets his gentle girlfriend enter KOF with her sister and fangirly best friend. I'm semi-convinced that Kusanagi controlled him and let him do that. Also, Kyo chooses Benimaru and Shingo to join his team. Now, there's nothing wrong with the latter teammate, but... it looked like he never bothered to ask Daimon before he made his final choice. Yeah, the big guy's got a family and all, but still.
And no, there's no explanation on how Kusanagi cloned Emi to create Tsuki (Blood? Hair? Certain bodily fluids?). There's also no explanation for Kyo-1.5's mysterious appearance. Now this could fly, since there were numerous Kyo clones waiting to be deployed during KOF '99. We also don't know how Kusanagi set up the tournament (King of Fighters: Revolution) with his magical Monopoly money.
I can only quote a certain line from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Love Theme: "It's just a show, I should really just relax."
Too bad that this excuse will not fly here... because it's a story. And stories need logical explanations.
Oh! And here's a little note: "The Final Struggle" was initally called "Painful Revenge" to coincide with Kyo's (now non-existant) death.
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4.1: The Final Struggle: What would have happened. (Chapters 20-25)
After Kusanagi and Tsuki force Emi to undergo the same reactions as Kyo did way back in the end of "Kusanagi's Wrath", the young heir has had enough of the shadow clone's garbage, and he rallies his friends to prepare for the tournament. After they leave for their destination (Tokyo), Kusanagi decides to mock Kyo once again. Later, Keiko decides to watch the tournament introductions with Shingo. She meets Jessie, the third of the infamous Baxter sisters, and she witnesses a fainting spell of one of the contenders (Rock Howard, from a very illogical reaction to Kusanagi).
Later, the clones of the titular couple decide to go ahead and control their counterparts so they can attack their teammates. This sounds just like something ripped out of KOF '97.
After the ordeal, the Esaka Heroines team (Emi, Keiko, and Miyuki) barely defeat their rivals (Jessie, Blaize, and Angelica) in England, while Kyo's team has a slight problem putting the New Fatal Fury team (Terry, Rock, and Sonia) in their place in Monaco. Apparently, taking Rock down was a bigger problem than they thought. Besides, he took down a half-weakened Benimaru (finishing teammate Sonia's job), easily defeated Shingo, and left a little dent on Kyo before finally falling.
After their return trip to Japan, Kyo and Emi commence their requirement of "making whoopee". However, Benimaru unintentionally catches them in the act. Cue his taunting, ladies and gentlemen.
And we have some notes here. The title of Chapter Twenty was called "Eclipse". Now you go on and think about that.
And yes, Emi and Jessie, Keiko
and Blaize, and Miyuki and Angelica are all rivals to each other. Blair Baxter
(the fifth sister and Blaize's twin) was originally going to be on the Baxter
Sisters team, but she was replaced by Angelica, mainly because Blair battles as
a last resort and Angelica will not pass an oppurtunity to fight. The "Sonia" in
question is S.L.'s own character, Sonia Sheridan.
4.2: The Final Struggle: What would have happened. (Chapters 26-30, and the
Epilogue)
Kyo's team barely defeats Emi's team. See, Shingo defeats Miyuki, but he's defeated by Keiko, then she's thumped by Benimaru, and he falls to Emi. So, Kyo and Emi were conveniently placed last. Yes, Kyo fries Emi, even when he denied her request to forefit. I guess it hit a bit harder when he addresses her by her full first name when he tries to snap her back into reality.
After the battle, everyone sans Kyo and Emi meet up at a nearby restaurant to discuss the tournament's endgame. Once they leave, they're ambushed by Kyo-1.5 and Kyo-2, who are hell bent on avenging Kyo-1's death... and of course, Keiko's their target. Unfortunately for them, and with the help of Benimaru, they're sent to join their deceased friend somewhere.
Also, it must have been a requirement to have Shingo and Miyuki suck beans in fighting, since they were knocked out for the entire duration of the battle. Yes, and those two were supposed to be the determined fighters.
For some reason, Kyo's suddenly sent to fail when it comes to watching his own girlfriend, because she's mentally manipulated by her clone to come to Kusanagi... you know, so that requirement of "Emi must be raped once per story" can be filled. See, this wouldn't have been so bad if Kusanagi controlled his counterpart to stall him out, but that wasn't written in any beta plans. It's even worse when you consider that Emi has to leave one building, then arrive in another one to even reach the guy.
Now, here's where I'm going to gripe a little; if Tsuki is supposed to be Kusanagi's lover to "replace the girl that he can't have", why is he still obsessed with the original when he wanted to kill her in the prequel?
Anyway, the rape attempt fails... thank goodness. It's also too bad for them that Kyo unmasked Tsuki when she attempted to pose as Emi. This is shown when he actually forces her to spill the beans on his girlfriend's whereabouts. This turn of events is certainly surprising, especially when you consider how rock stupid he's been throughout the whole fic series.
Afterwards, Kyo and Emi reunite after the failed rape attempt and team up to battle Kusanagi one last time. This comes with a dirty catch: whenever Kyo's hit by his clone, Emi will feel the exact same pain, and vice versa. Yes, you can think of this as a "two people share one lifebar" dramatic battle from your fighting games.
Again, no explation is given to this. I am now convinced that Kusanagi's some sort of crazy wizard.
Keiko is watching the battle from a distance, along with her own sister's clone, which she somehow befriends. And once again, there's no logical explanation. By the way, Kyo and Emi come out victorious. They just pass out from their extensive injuries after the fight ends.
Apparently, somebody can't take defeat well, for our resident clone/wizard goes insane and attempts to murder our lovely "destined" couple. And yes, he's rewarded... with Keiko's own sword being lodged through his stomach. He tells her not to pity him and that he regrets nothing as he dies in a pool of his own blood. Also, there is no explanation as to how Keiko got away with murdering three people throughout the course of these stories. But hey, they're all Kyo's clones, so it's okay! (That last part's sarcasm. Also, it's implied that Kyo's team wins this backwater tournament.)
So, after the Revolution tournament ends, Tsuki appears in Osaka, watching Kyo and Emi prepare for another day. This time, it's battle-free. Or is it?
Yes, Kusanagi is dead, but apparently, our resident ghost/wizard can still screw around with Kyo's mind. This is shown when Emi notices that his right eye has taken a bit of a red hue once again...
Oh, and here are some more notes. "The Ballad of Sonia Sheridan" was supposed to be a sequel to this. Apparently, Tsuki's also a wizard, for she had magically managed to set up a KOF tag team tournament (under the beta title of "Sanctuary") to avenge her fallen lover, and she somehow managed to clone Rock and Sonia, who were nowhere near her at any point. Maybe it's because they were participants in that backwater tournament.
Anyway, Kyo and Emi are dragged into the fray (and they become a team for the tournament) after Benimaru, Shingo, Keiko, and Miyuki were sent to the hospital for mysterious injuries that were inflicted on them prior to the event. (Spoiler: The Rock and Sonia clones were allegedly responsible for that.)
Other teams included Terry and Blue Mary, Rock and Sonia (much to the former's chagrin, and the latter's joy), Jessie and James (S.L.'s characters still), and Angelica and Shona (leader of an all-girl group, and the former's one of said members). Some positive notes include Kyo being a lot less stupid, and Emi gains a sense of bravery. This is proven when the two save Rock and Sonia from their clones and help Terry and Mary investigate the tournament.
Also, "The Ballad of Sonia Sheridan" was supposed to have a sequel. It was titled "Deep End", where Sonia returns to Southtown at the age of 21, reunites with an also older Rock (he's 22), and they set out to discover the true identity of Rock's sudden twin sister... kind of. Apparently, Rock's a bit stubborn about it, since he doesn't want to drag her into the mix. I'm not going to spoil the rest, since it's now being set under a sequel to the "La Péril" series.
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Hey, you're done with Part One. Are you ready for Part Two? Yes? Then click here so we can continue. If not... you can go back to the main Histories and Mysteries page here.