K′ or , is a video game character from The King of Fighters fighting game series developed by SNK Playmore (formerly known as “SNK”). He debuted as the leader of the Hero Team in The King of Fighters ’99 released in 1999. He stars as the reluctant hero in the NESTS story arc of the series. He was created to be a “dark hero” in contrast to the previous protagonist from the series, Kyo. K′ is a young man who lost all his memories when the NESTS syndicate captured him and injected the DNA of the powerful fighter Kyo Kusanagi into him to copy Kusanagi’s pyrokinetic abilities. K’, wanting to prove that he is more than just an artifact, betrays NESTS and decides to destroy them for using his body and deleting all his memories. Although he hates tournaments, K’ uses the King of Fighters tournaments to find the NESTS members and defeat them. In his search, he meets allies who have the same goal and join forces. Aside from the main series, K’ also appears in several other media series, such as spin-offs and crossover video games, as well as printed adaptations of the series. Ever since introduced in the series, K′ has received both positive and negative comments by video game publications. The character’s gameplay has been praised for its style and differences from previous known fighting styles. His absence in The King of Fighters XII was found controversial and his return in the following game was made mainly due to popular response for the character.