While Aiden was thinking, the first round between the Fatal Fury Team and the Art of Fighting Team had already ended on the ring, the winner was Robert from the Art of Fighting Team.
But Aiden only glanced at it before going right back into thought.
'If she didn't just wander off, then it's possible she was kidnapped. But why kidnap her? Could it be that someone learned she's the reincarnation of Kushinadahime? It's possible. So… could it be… NESTS?'
Suddenly, Aiden remembered the plot of KOF 2000. When Yuki was searching for the missing Kyo Kusanagi, she had been captured by NESTS agents.
And based on the information from Goenitz earlier, Aiden had already guessed that NESTS had probably found another method to resurrect Orochi. Maybe NESTS had somehow learned in advance that Yuki was the reincarnation of Kushinadahime, and planned to use her as the final sacrifice.
Thinking this, Aiden pulled out his phone, preparing to contact Mature and Vice, planning to ask whether they had managed to pry any NESTS-related intel out of Rugal's mouth.
But before he even opened his contact list, Maki's phone rang.
"They found her?"
"Injured?"
"Severe blood loss?"
"Where is she now?"
Maki fired off several questions the moment she answered, then spoke a few more lines before hanging up.
"Intelligence Division says the girl named Yuki was found in an illegal clinic. She wasn't lost, she was kidnapped. And she's in very serious blood-loss condition. Someone drew more than 800 milliliters of blood from her. She's just been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment."
"Over 800 milliliters…" Hearing this number, Aiden and the others were stunned at the same time.
"A healthy adult male starts feeling obvious weakness after losing more than 600 milliliters of blood. A girl in her teens… 800 milliliters, that's basically killing her, isn't it?" Helena clicked her tongue.
Chizuru spoke doubtfully, "If they wanted to kill her, they wouldn't draw only that much. The human body has at least four to five thousand milliliters of blood, if you drew all of it, you could fill half a bucket…"
"But why kidnap her just to draw her blood? Selling it wouldn't fetch much money, right? And it risks killing the victim. Wouldn't ransom be better? I remember the Kusanagi family has at least some money."
"Could it be that this girl has something special about her?" Shermie hit the key point.
'You're exactly right…'
'She's the woman you Hakkesshu almost sacrificed to Orochi over a thousand years ago…' Aiden thought. He was starting to get a clear picture.
"She's just a normal high school girl. Her family background is average too," Maki said, remembering what Intelligence had casually reported about Yuki's personal and family data.
"So it really was done by black-market blood traffickers? Only to extract her blood and sell it? But that doesn't make any sense!" Chizuru still felt something was wrong.
Maki nodded, "Yes, it really doesn't make sense."
There's nothing "doesn't make sense" about it. It's just that NESTS learned she was the reincarnation of Kushinadahime, so they drew her blood for cloning research.
At this point, Aiden had already guessed the truth. After all, NESTS had done the same thing to Kyo before, but he hadn't expected them to use the same method on Kyo's girlfriend now.
'NESTS' way of handling humans is really inhuman!'
'But their technological level really is terrifying, they're clearly a whole tier above this world's normal tech.'
'Also… would using the cloned reincarnation of Kushinadahime as a sacrifice to Orochi even work?'
'And where would they get the vessel? The Hakkesshu aren't easy to find, and even if they found them, barely any of them are willing to become Orochi's vessel now, right? Don't tell me they'd use Yuki's clone for that too? That wouldn't be very effective, would it?'
Aiden frowned, a chain of questions filling his mind.
Unfortunately, no one could answer them. He'd have to see it with his own eyes, but by the time he saw it, it would already be too late.
'We still have to find NESTS first. But they're buried too deep. In the original plot, when Kyo went missing, several factions searched and none of them found NESTS.'
'Still… this doesn't really have much to do with me.'
However, even though Aiden wasn't from this world and felt no real sense of belonging to it, he didn't want to see the world destroyed… Even if NESTS only wanted to control it, once Orochi was released, who knew whether they could handle him.
Honestly, Aiden wasn't worried. Even if a cloned reincarnation of Kushinadahime could be used as a sacrifice, whatever Orochi they summoned would probably be very weak. Aiden himself wouldn't even need to act, maybe even the Three Sacred Treasure families could handle it easily.
'Whatever the case, everything starts with finding NESTS, or waiting until something happens. Otherwise we're just blindly guessing here.'
'Yeah… and I should find a time to tell the Three Sacred Treasure families that Yuki is the reincarnation of Kushinadahime. And Goenitz and his group… No, forget it. I should only tell the Three Sacred Treasures. Aside from Shermie, I still can't completely trust the others.'
Thinking this, Aiden lowered his voice and chuckled. Listening to the women around him continue discussing Yuki's situation, his eyes shifted back to the ring.
The third round of matches had already begun, Takuma Sakazaki versus Joe Higashi.
Robert, who had narrowly defeated Andy the previous round, had been beaten by Joe. But judging from the situation on the ring, Joe was no match for Takuma. After all, he'd been injured by Aiden yesterday and hadn't fully recovered.
Very quickly, Joe was defeated by Takuma and temporarily lost his ability to fight.
Next came the fourth round, Fatal Fury's ace, Terry, entered the ring.
And Terry's strength was on a completely different level from Andy and Joe. If this year's King of Fighters tournament were an individual event, Terry could easily make top five, losing only to Aiden, Kyo, and a few others.
So the result was exactly as Aiden expected, the older Takuma was completely no match for the young, strong Terry. He was knocked off the stage after barely a dozen moves.
Then the fifth round began.
Ryo Sakazaki versus Terry.
These two were roughly the same age, and in their respective storylines both were protagonist-level characters. Naturally, their strength was evenly matched.
Their fight was also the most spectacular one of the day. The evenly matched pair countered each other move for move, drawing waves of shouts and cheers from the audience.
Aiden finally settled down and watched intently.
However, unlike Aiden and the other spectators, the remaining two members of the Japan Team were wearing gloomy expressions.
Kyo Kusanagi probably wouldn't be coming. He had to stay at the hospital to look after his girlfriend. With only the two of them, fighting teams like the Ikari Team or the Kim Team might still be doable, but against strong teams like Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting, they were completely powerless.