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King of Fighters 15, The
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Ice Doll
Kula Diamond is a cybernetically modified human crafted by the syndicate NESTS to exterminate K'.
Though the results of such modifications have their drawbacks as she looks and behaves like a child, the cryokinesis she acquired allows her to instantly turn water molecules in air into ice. After the destruction of NESTS, she teamed up with K' and his allies. However, all that came undone after a fight with K', with her then running away from the group. All alone, she is snatched up by Krohnen and Ángel where she is added to their team.
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King of Fighters II
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King of Fighters '01
"Hmph, ridiculous. Completely!"
A man plopped down at his desk in the center of a darkened room rants.
Two women stand around the desk.
"Why?"
The girl who looks particularly distinctive with her hair gathered up answers him.
"Copies of the subject surfaced all over as a result of the previous battle. Hasn't his usefulness past?! Well?! Isn't that right, Foxxy?!"
"That's exactly why we need to do away with the original. ...Kyo Kusanagi, he is an impediment to our syndicate."
"Hmph, whatever. ...But where is the clone that received those abilities, huh? And what happened to K'? He successfully escaped our grasp, didn't he? Why do we have to wipe up after our predecessors' failures! Well, Leader?!"
"You should mind your tongue, K9999!"
The other tall woman with her arms crossed puts in her two cents.
"It's okay, Diana. He'll be our teammate after all...won't you?"
"Ugh, well, whatever. Then we'll meet at the tournament next. We all have piles of work to attend to, right?"
"Yes, very well. Until the tournament, then."
K9999 leaves the room and slams it shut, ignoring their farewells.
"How did it go?"
A figure waiting on the landing calls to K9999, who climbs up the stairs, stomping on each step as he goes along.
"Kah! Those freaks are making a monkey of me!"
The figure's face still remains visible, owing to the glare of the lighting behind it, but it's clear from the silhouette that the lithe body is that of a woman.
"I'm telling you that's just not so. Don't be so oversensitive, K9999!"
K9999 continues to rage, as if he didn't hear a word the woman said.
"Hmph. Compare me to K', will they?! Did you hear me, Angel? That walking defect!!!"
"You're the strongest in the world. You, K9999! K' is not fit to lick the soles of your shoes! And you'll always have me!"
"Eeeeeeee-nough!"
K9999's voice thunders through the dark corridor.
"I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!!! Him, most of all! I and I alone will crush K' with my own two hands!!!"
Muttering his threat, he dashes up the stairs without giving a glance to Angel.
"Hey, wait up, K9999."
Angel hastily follows him up the stairs.
Meanwhile the two women that K9999 had previously argued with remain in the dark room.
"Hmph, what a troublesome bunch of team members we have this time, huh?"
"Yeah, sure is."
"We should watch ourselves, Foxxy. Not only Angel, that K9999 is no normal being. I don't think he has the syndicate's best interests at heart."
"Yeah, I got the same feeling. But his abilities are equal to the syndicate's number one and two. If we watch ourselves, we should come out on top."
"I'm sorry. But this time I haven't officially received the order to enter the tournament. ...So, it'll probably be the kid."
"Understood, Diana. Leave Kula to me."
The two fall silent. The affairs regarding this year's tournament, their duties, and KulaÑthis time something other than NESTS best interests concerns them. But orders are orders. And there's their loyalty to the syndicate. The two scan each other, as if conversing. The silence continues. The two continue facing each other wordlessly. Bidding each other leave with a glance, they exit the room.
It was a dream...A dream of falling earthward...Will I die...? But amazingly there is no fear of death...Someone watches over me...Yes...That's it...!!!"
"Candy-eeeeeeeeeee!!!"
She suddenly awakens. Tears run from her eyes. How much time has passed? The woman nears the window, without wiping her tear-filled eyes. The sunlight flowing in from the opened drapes is dazzling. Being here alive, able to see the sunlight, is all because of Candy. That's what she believes. Surely if she went to the syndicate, she could see Candy. Candy would surely come to her aid. But the Candy she knew then no longer exists. A robot...can always be rebuilt. I am a living being, and must die. But...these days, I know this: I, too, can be rebuilt, can't I? Am I, without my former memories, really a human being?
The woman looks at herself in the mirror in her room. Who...in the name of Creation am I? Am I nothing but a robot?
...As this feeling wells up inside her, a feeling of disgust throws her head back and she strives to suppress these thoughts.
In spite of this...In spite of this, the cursed one still lives! The traitor to the organization, the manipulator of the flame!!! He is in some way involved with me. He knows me, doesn't he? He is not of the syndicate, but closer to me....
"No, it cannot be!"
I sling my body from the bed. Enough thinking for today. I feel sick....
"Ah, do I have nothing to look forward to?"
Although I don't believe it, maybe if I start talking, things will change, but then providence calls...literally.
Bring, bring...bring, bring...bring, bring....
"Ah, it's from Diana!"
Kula quickly pounces on the telephone.
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King of Fighters XI
"Far beyond the mountain, happiness is what man fears.
A groan cannot convey the tears of those who walk alone."
There was a small public park across the street from the parking lot of a huge hospital, and a young girl was there playing, all alone.
"Look at that girl, Diana," Kula said to the tall woman standing next to her. It seemed the girl was always playing down there, or at least, at every opportunity. Her alabaster skin only accented her extremely thin body, and she regularly spent her time there on the swing.
"Would you like to be friends with her, Kula?" asked Diana gently, and Kula nodded her assent.
Tomorrow, Kula decided, she would call out to the little girl. She always seemed so lonely. In that, Kula felt she could sympathize. She had felt lonely every single day in the last three years. The girl was at the hospital regularly, but who knew what was wrong with her. But no matter... they would be friends, and Candy would be there with them in spirit.
The next day, the little girl did not show up as she normally did. Kula sat on the swings alone, barely rocking back and forth. There was no sign of the girl approaching from the hospital... and as Kula looked up in the sky above, there was a thin line of vapor winding its way up and out of sight. Eventually, it faded away and was no more.
Diana looked at Kula gravely. "I'm led to understand that she died yesterday, Kula."
"Yeah," Kula sighed. "I suspected as much."
Diana leaned against the supports of the swing and continued. "She went through many different operations. There were treatments that could have helped her live longer, but she wouldn't go through with them."
"What kind of treatments?"
"Machines, mostly," the tall, raven-haired woman replied. "She would have to stay hooked up to them to keep her heart beating."
Kula looked puzzled. "...So she didn't want to live anymore?"
"I think there was more to it than that."
This was met with a shake of the head. "I'd choose to go on living, no matter what," said Kula. "Even if they had to make me all machines. I could even handle being like Candy, if that's what it took to keep me alive..."
She looked directly at Diana and asked, "So what makes me different from that little girl?"
But Diana had no answer for her. Undaunted, Kula pressed on. "Come on, Diana. What makes me different from her?"
***
"I'm getting back some of my memories," said K'.
But what had returned was hazy and impossible to make sense of. Moreover, who could tell if they were real memories, or ones that had been implanted into his mind? Why did he go on fighting? Though he had never been to this blink-and-you'll-miss-it town before, it all looked so familiar.
He walked around for a bit, and the impressions kept coming to him. But most of these were neither the ancient memories that man had told him about, nor of his own past. It was of the things that he truly did remember on his own.
NESTS, KOF, Maxima, Kula, Kyo Kusanagi, Ash Crimson, Mukai.... If his true memories came back to him, what would happen to his memories of all these people and things? Then he scornfully clucked his tongue and shook his head. "Bah, this isn't getting me anywhere."
He figured he could leave the worrying to Maxima. For now, he would be content to give as good as he got from any of them... Ash, Kyo, Mukai or anyone.
As he walked down an unfamiliar street, he looked up at the sky, and saw a thin stream of smoke working its way upward. The clouds, too, seemed familiar to him.
"So, where did this memory come from?" he thought to himself.
***
As he stood on the balcony of his room, Maxima watched the sky turn colors from orange to a rich, vivid blue. Though he had quit smoking years ago, the old habit caused him to unconsciously reach a hand into his pocket for his cigarettes.
Looking down, he could see K', who had been wandering idly about the town all day. It looked like he was finally coming back to settle in. Maxima stared thoughtfully at his friend, thinking of all that had happened to him. The power of Kyo Kusanagi had been forcibly made a part of his body. This left him with ties to that occult figure, Orochi. Then there was Mukai and crew, who seemed dead-set on acquiring Orochi's power.
Perhaps it was possible for a man to change his own destiny. To stand against all odds and survive. Perhaps there would be more for the so-called "Second Flame of the Kusanagi."
"What's with the strange look, Maxima?" K' asked as he entered the room and stepped out on the balcony. "Something wrong?"
"Nah, nothing important," Maxima replied, scratching his head.
"'Far beyond the mountain, happiness is what man fears'..." muttered K' to himself.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
K' gave a wan smile and said, "I think it means that happiness is further away and more fleeting than a wisp of smoke."
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King of Fighters III
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Kula Diamond
Kula is a modified human engineered by NESTS in order to oppose K'. She is able to instantly freeze the moisture in the air. As a result of her remodeling, she appears to be younger than she actually is. After the fall of NESTS she made peace with K' and began operating alongside him.
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