K9999

*For informations pertaining to his new identity, see here.*
**K9999**, pronounced as "**Kay Four-Nine**", is an original character in ***The King of Fighters*** series. He debut as a violent and unstable man, and appears as a member of the ***NESTS Team*** in ***The King of Fighters 2001*** and in ***The King of Fighters 2002*** (the story arc's ***Rivals Team***).

## The King of Fighters series

### Past & Creation

After the death of Krizalid, the failure of Project Krizalid and the betrayal of K' & Maxima, NESTS decided to comb their research for errors. K9999 became the "perfected" 9999th Kyo Kusanagi clone. Built from the ground up, K9999 wielded an exorbitant amount of power. Like K', he was given a special glove that helps him control his shapeshifting powers and keep them from going berserk.

### NESTS Chronicles

#### The King of Fighters 2001

Prior to the 2001 tournament, he was tasked to form a team with Foxy, Kula Diamond, and Ángel. Their main purpose was to dispatch the rogue creations that had escaped from NESTS's grasp, as well as disposing K', Kyo Kusanagi, and anyone who would get in the cartel's way. K9999 hated the idea of working with Foxy and Kula, due to the former being way to authoritarian for his liking, and the latter being too annoying. He did seem to enjoy working with Ángel, as she seems to have the same interests at heart.

Sometime after the tournament's conclusion (when K', Maxima, Whip, and Lin were reaching Igniz via a blimp), K9999 and Ángel attack Foxy from behind, seriously injuring her. When the NESTS base crashed into the ocean after Igniz's defeat, K9999 and Ángel escaped via a helicopter. Shortly after this, he discovers that he is a clone himself until after the destruction of the cartel.

While it is implied that Foxy is killed by him and Ángel, this ending is considered non-canon. According to the second 2001 novel written by Akihiko Ureshino, he disappears after an encounter with K' and Kula alongside Ángel. His current whereabouts and fate are unknown, but...

*K9999's life would continue on under a new name. For more information, click here.*
## Personality

K9999 is considered to be a man not to be tampered with. He has a very short temper and is easily driven to violence. He hates K' with a passion and intensity, and considers him his ultimate rival.

He also develops a rivalry with Kusanagi in ***The King of Fighters 2002***, though this is non-canon. Ángel, another **NESTS** agent, is the only person he considers to be a friend, but most of the time, K9999 despises everyone around him, including his superiors. In a fight, he attacks with such ferocity and strength that, at times, he doesn't even mind being hit, as long as his opponent falls to the ground. A true psychopath, K9999 continues the path to his own destruction.

## Abilities

### Powers

* **Pyrokinesis** - K9999 can control fire, but his ability is quite limited in comparison to Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami or even K'. He can only create fire, cause highly-heated gas to erupt from the ground in front of him, and attack with streams of fire in a slashing manner.
* **Limited Shapeshifting** - K9999 can shapeshift his hair to resemble K's. K9999 can also shapeshift his clothes.
* **Psionic Shield** - K9999 can create a moon-shaped shield of psychic energy.
* **Tentacle Summoning & Transformation** - K9999 can transform his right arm into a fleshy tentacle and lash his opponents.
* **Polymorphic Arm** - K9999 can transform his right arm into an iron drill, a blade or a shotgun-like weapon.
* **Full Power Energy Attack** - By using his full power, K9999 can release energy through the air causing damage to anyone nearby. This power is non-canon since it is exclusively used in the original version of *The King of Fighters 2002*, a Dream Match.

### Skills

* **Motorcycle Driving** - K9999 can be seen riding a motorcycle very well in the 2001 novel.

### Fighting Style

K9999 fights with his polymorphic arm. The arm can transform into claws, blades of different sizes and shapes, and into a shotgun. He knows some basic fighting techniques.

## Fanon Appearances

### Game Appearances

* The King Of Fighters: Masters - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Disaster in the Story - Single entry character
* The King of Fighters Memorial Lv3 - Playable character

## Similar Characters

* Nameless
* Krohnen McDougall

## Controversy & Removal from the Series

Several of K9999's mannerisms, attacks, and animations directly reference Tetsuo Shima, the main antagonist of ***AKIRA*** (specifically its anime adaptation); he quotes some of Tetsuo's lines from the film and is voiced by Tetsuo's actor Nozomu Sasaki. While SNK has designed several characters after others from more famous series (e.g. Benimaru's design in early installments was based after Jean Pierre Polnareff from Hirohiko Araki's ***JoJo's Bizarre Adventure***), K9999's similarities to Tetsuo Shima was singled out as blatant to the point of nearing plagiarism.

K9999 has not appeared in-story and in-game since ***The King of Fighters XI*** (in ***KOF 2003***, he appears as a background cameo only in PS2 version). **SNK** has taken several measures to remove him from official media, including retconning the ***NESTS Chronicles Saga*** to remove K9999's role. His last appearance in a SNK game was in *KOF x Garou Densetsu*, but he remains unlikely to appear in a mainline KOF title.

* ***The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match***, a remake of ***The King of Fighters 2002***, introduced Nameless, a new character created specifically to replace K9999. After ***KOF 2002 UM*** release, his character portrait was completely removed from the ***KOF*** website and his developer description was replaced.

* The ***The King of Fighters XIV'***s manga adaptation, ***A New Beginning***, and the mobile game ***KOF All Star*** depict Ángel as the only one to betray the ***NESTS*** at the climax of the ***KOF 2001*** tournament, without mentioning K9999.

* K9999's portrait in ***The King of Fighters Character Encyclopedia***, which features every ***KOF*** character in the series up to ***The King of Fighters XIII***, was censored into a black silhouette.

* K9999 was edited out of all past artwork that featured him in ***The King of Fighters XIV's*** Gallery, which also includes every artwork where he was paired up with other characters. However, he can be inserted through photo editing through hacks and cheat devices.

* K9999 is not even mentioned in the new ***KOF Character Portal Page***, being replaced by Diana, an NPC character who would be part of the ***NESTS Team*** in ***KOF 2001***.

A commonly held myth among SNK fans was that K9999 had been disowned by **SNK** to avoid legal action from **AKIRA** distributor Toho and/or creator Katsuhiro Otomo. ***SNK*** community manager Krispy Kaiser corroborated this rumor in 2019 when speaking to the Brazilian fansite ***Power Geyser***, stating there was an unspoken rule within SNK that K9999 could not be mentioned by name except by non-descriptive terms (e.g., "the one replaced by Nameless".) and going far to claim that "from now on, in any SNK game, he'll never return." Furthering this, a 2019 post from ***The King of Fighters All Star***'s official Japanese twitter replied to a fan: "K○○○○...? I'm afraid I don't know who that is (You get the idea)".

In 2015, former SNK artist Falcoon stated on Twitter that K9999's removable from the series wasn't "for the reasons you think", and that his removal "was really peculiar". When asked about K9999's fate at Gamescom 2016, SNK producer Yasuyuki Oda answered, "Maybe one day we’ll find out what happened to Ángel's partner, K9999.".

Krohnen McDougall, a new character debuting in ***The King of Fighters XV***, appears to be an updated version of K9999, with traits from Nameless and Alba Meira. Krohnen possesses the same moves, color scheme and even some mannerisms from K9999 and Nameless, but sports a new appearance. In the Team Krohnen storyline, K9999 is confirmed to have resurfaced as Krohnen, and the name is a mere alias.

Following Krohnen's reveal, Krispy Kaiser stated on the official SNK Discord channel, "I had to keep the lie going for years", implying that the legal issues around K9999 were faked for years and his omission from official media and manga were publicity stunts.