Awakened Orochi Team

The **Awakened Orochi Team** also known as **Orochi Team** (in *The King of Fighters '97*), **Orochi New Faces Team** or **Ura Orochi Team** (in *The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match*, according to its official profile) is a team of *The King of Fighters* that appears for the first time in *The King of Fighters '97* as an important element of the from Orochi Saga.

This team is made up of Orochi Yashiro, Orochi Shermie and Orochi Chris, who previously made up the Orochi Team. They all wear magenta in their clothes and a darker skin tone than in their normal versions. In addition, their personalities are also affected, becoming cold and a bit sadistic, apart from being totally faithful to Orochi.

## Story

The team is made up of the New Faces Team, with Chris, Shermie, and Yashiro Nanakase, who had originally signed up for the tournament to take revenge on Iori Yagami, as he had stolen their performance at a band act.

However, the presence of Orochi was present, and its essence passed through their minds, allowing them to remember who they really were: they were the 3 remaining members of the 4 celestial kings of Orochi, and, in the middle of the tournament, they prepare to try to revive Orochi by giving them the energy they obtained from the tournament. At the end of KOF '97, they activate the blood riot on Iori and Leona, to attack the winning team.

However, they are defeated, which makes them prepare to fight themselves, in this case against the team of the 3 sacred treasures, made up of Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami and Chizuru Kagura. The Orochi Team is defeated, but the spirit of Orochi takes possession of Chris's body, and his companions, Yashiro and Shermie, sacrifice themselves to give all their energy to the god.

Despite how powerful Orochi was, Kyo, Iori and Chizuru can win the fight, but even so, Orochi regenerates, and activates the blood disturbance in Iori to attack his comrades, but Iori's willpower is stronger and attack Orochi.

In a brief moment, Kyo has a contact with the deceased spirits of the Yasakani (Yagami) clan who ask him to finish off Orochi, restoring all his power to Kyo for it, with the purpose of amending his great mistake of making a pact with Orochi.

Kyo accepts and with the energy that the Yasakani gave him, he prepares to attack Orochi so that Chizuru could seal him again, where he manages to hit him with a blow. After that, it was not known what happened. Kyo disappears, and the two other members go their own ways. As for the Orochi Team, everyone is left dead after the tournament.

This team also made an appearance at The King of Fighters '98, The King of Fighters 2002, The King of Fighters Neowave, The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match and The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match. However, these games are not part of the story, as they are Dream Matches.

## Music

* **Rhythmic Hallucination - The King of Fighters '97, The King of Fighters '98 and '98: Ultimate Match (Orochi Yashiro theme)**
* **Fanatic Waitz** - The King of Fighters '98 and '98: Ultimate Match (Orochi Shermie Theme)
* **Mad Fantasy** - The King of Fighters '98 and '98: Ultimate Match (Orochi Chris Theme)
* **Violent Fire, Lightning, Earth** - The King of Fighters 2002
* **Butterfly Emerges from Chrysalis** - The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match

## Gallery

The King of Fighters 2002The King of Fighters '97The King of Fighters '97 after being defeated.The team wearing the Hakkesshu costume (click to enlarge)The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited MatchOrochi Team in The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match
## Trivia

* They had not had an official Artwork since KOF '97 and '98, however they received it in 2002.
* This team does not debut at KOF 2000 as strikers, as their normal versions were included.
* In KOF Neowave, Yashiro's original outfit is similar to his Orochi state.
* In some Arcade updates in KOF 2002 when it comes to fighting with this team, the difficulty seems to be easier to defeat, no matter what difficulty the game is in, even so they are very easy. This is due to the lack of artificial intelligence that the secret characters have in this game. Another error is that some versions the background music does not play with a chosen character although in other updates it has its original melody.
	+ However, they were added as opponents at KOF 2002 UM, where this bug has already been fixed and they have no movement glitches.