The Colour Purple Chapter 37: a shooting star & spent wishes, a king of fighters fanfic

The Colour Purple... The King of Fighters '95

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This (chapter) fanfiction was originally written circa: [XX.96] (Thank you)

"Which Character are you?"

Note to self: Legacy chapter numbering (32- - -), does not match. [Original chapter written 2013]

SPENT WISHES ~*~ ***~ ~*~

Do not pity a fallen star. (Judas Gospel 11.27.2013)

For they say, that a star that has fallen from the sky, has done so only after fulfilling its one, lifelong purpose. That is – to grant a wish to a mortal man.

A brave, COURAGEOUS man, who had separated himself from all other men.

As such, stars should not be pitied, but instead, ENVIED.

For as many stars there are in the sky, how many men in the world have died unfulfilled, and how many MEN could free themselves from the prison of time.

…

"Good job. Thank you for your efforts, gentlemen… and… lady." Takuma boomed at the end of that, another Friday evening.

Ryo, Robert, and so did Yuri behind the two boys bowed low, respectfully. Ignoring the aching screams of their bodies, the boys kept their head low until Takuma proudly, with great conviction – with pride lowered his own head deeper, in a bow deeper than his pupils.

They didn't understand it yet, for these BOYS were too young to comprehend.

Takuma Sakazaki kept his head bowed low, making sure it was lower than his students. Pulled down by the earth, his knees buckled, he bent his knees and put his head to the ground. The boys kept their eyes to the ground so they didn't see, as Takuma, put his head humbly to the dirty ground. Like a peasant to a king. He put his head to the ground. I thank you. When his children couldn't see him because they were too busy paying their respects and gazed upon the Earth.

Chapter 37: a shooting star & spent wishes

"It's such a nice night." Yuri (4) said as she smiled that evening. The year was 1981. Chilly somewhat, but not so much to be outside in the dark evening. She bobbed her legs playfully on that grassy hill with her best of friends, her big brother, Ryo (16), and her friend, Robert (16).

"Are you having fun too, Oniisan (big brother)?" Yuri asked playfully.

…

"Hey, Ryosuke." Takuma said distinctly so. "I have to clean up the dojo. Why don't you take your sister and Robert to Star Hill."

"We can help you." Robert offered. "Sakazaki-shishou. We can help you."

Takuma laughed. Whatever! "I don't need your help, kid" Takuma sneered. Robert's shoulders rolled back, speechless. "Uh.. yes." Takuma said, catching himself. "Ryosuke, go on. Walk off that sushi. This is something…"

[This is something I have to do alone.]

…

KYOKUGEN KARATE – even if a cruel art crafted by the folly of man-made hands, even if unable to reach the sky, was all it could do. An ULTIMATE wish. This special wish, separated you from all others of your peers.

Ryo shrugged his shoulders and kept his gaze upwards lazily, if simply only because the world was humid and plain. Ryo shifted his weight back and coughed, mumbled once again, incessantly to himself.

Robert knew better by now. Before Yuri could open her mouth again to catch her big brother's attention, he interrupted. "He said," Robert said, "He said he's having SO much fun." Robert rolled his tongue and sneered. Ryo, his friend turned his head to the side and scowled. Still not a word escaped his lips.

Robert didn't bother to return the gaze and just looked upwards, if only simply because everyone else did so. "It's fun… this is so much fun." Robert grinned widely. He put his left hand over his right rib and kept it there to ease the pulsing pain that lingered. The bruised and battered body that Ryo's father, Takuma left him to remember. Robert didn't know if he was more thankful for another painful Friday night – where Takuma reminded him he was ALIVE. Perhaps, or perhaps he put his hand there to ease his full and satisfied belly from all the take-home sushi he ate thanks to his master.

All these years he wondered – he wondered to himself, Robert, what a Friday night could really mean. Pain and pleasure. All in the dark galactic heaven.

In due turn Ryo rotated his sore shoulder in its socket. It was definitely sore now, it would surely hurt in the morning. No matter how older the old man became as the chains of time bound him like a clock. With every year, every month, every Friday, he was SO full of life. As if he was giving his soul to those three children, because there was not enough time left in his coiled, mortal body, to impart all his stars, his warmth, his mistakes, his sorrow and his pain. …and his happiness, and the happiness he couldn't take, and wrap in his arms as his own. Yeah, this will hurt in the morning, Ryo thought to himself. "Augh.. ouch."

"Ah!" Robert broke the heavy, dank mood. "A shooting star!"

"Where?! What?!" Yuri jumped up ripping out of her skin almost, and put her arms over Robert to look skyward. "A!" Robert yelped, easing Yuri's weight from his painful body. "Up there." Robert pointed.

"A! I see it!" Yuri said in glee.

"Ya'll better hurry up, Yuri." Robert rolled in his southern tongue he couldn't hide when he was excited. "Best make a wish. When ya see a fallin' star…" Robert cleared his throat. "You can make a wish – and if you do… it will come true."

"Really?!" Yuri's eyes watered and glistened eagerly. She put both her hands together, weaved her fingers tight in great prayer. "Really really?!"

"Yeah… but you'd better hurry." Robert warned. "A star only has one chance." It has only one chance. A hundred years it glowed brightly – in the sky. It listened to the world. For a hundred years it only lived for this one purpose.

Glowing radiantly.

For they say, that a star that has fallen from the sky, has done so only after fulfilling its lifelong purpose. That is – to grant a wish to a mortal man.

"Three people've seen the star. A star only has one wish. The first one to make the wish gets it!" Robert said. "Ain't that right Ryoooo?" Robert teased.

"Didn't you hear me?! I said – It my name's RYOSUKE! Ryosuke to ii'tt'eba yo, teme!" Ryo cussed, cocking his head down and squinching his eyes in furious demeanour. Actually – no I didn't. You've been silent all this time. "I don't need to make a wish. I'm very happy the way I am. Yuri can have it." Ryo breathed out his nose.

Yuri looked up, turned to Robert innocently, pleading with tears in her wide, shining, bubbling eyes.

With such an innocent, pure face, Robert couldn't resist.

"Okay. Okay." Robert put his hand on his forehead and shifted his bangs from his face. "The wish is yours, Yuri-chan. Hurry up…"

"Yaay!" Yuri all of 4 years old cheered, her hands clasped in prayer in front of her chest. All ten fingers interweaved in each other tightly -

"Mister star…" Yuri begged. "Mister star in the sky." Hoshi-san, yo.

Ryo looked up to the dark sky – eventhough he made sure to be the bigger brother. He would just need to take the pain for his sister. Eventhough she annoyed him everyday. Eventhough Robert reminded him, that he was a fortunate man, because some others were not granted the luxury… the joyful luxury of a baby sister that reminded you that you were alive – that reminded you that you once existed in the world.

The meaning. Hoshi (a star) sounds the same as Hoshii (a wish), here.

Ryo looked up to the sky. Tried to remember Takuma's lesson earlier that afternoon. Of math. The numbers that plagued him the week past. Of The Catcher in the Rye. The books that he read. Anything, just anything to muddle his mind and keep it silent. Ryo kept his mind busy, because even because he was so much older, and bitter, no longer believed in the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy, and nor Santa Claus. Just for this time, he kept his mind garbled so he wouldn't accidentally make a wish before his sister could in, in turn in, that dark night with the stars in the sky.

IN EXCHANGE. For reminding me that I am alive. That I once existed. I will protect you, only you, until it is over, to the end of the world. MERCILESSLY DESTROY anyone who dared harm you for their own selfish purposes.

It's yours, Yuri. Robert said to himself in due turn. If I were to make a wish. It would be to make a wish, to wish that YOUR wish would come true. "Hurry."

Hurry.

"Okay!" Yuri closed her eyes tight. "Mister star. I wish…" she prayed in earnest feverish pace before any other girl in the whole wide world could beat her to it. "I wish… I wish." She smiled, with a face that looked like it was about to cry, but it instead remained proud and valiant.

"I wish," Yuri pleaded with ALL her might. Because in 1981, we still believed in stars. In courage and bravery – in its TRUE meaning. "I wish, that my brother, Ryosuke… Would smile more."

[Courage] was [the] fundamental foundation of [Shonen].

It defiantly stood against logic. Yuuki ga areba, NANI mo dekirun'da!

Ryo unconsciously looked the other way, pretending to be trapped in his own indifferent, uncaring world. Even if he didn't know what the word 'indifferent' meant.

"I wish," Yuri, the baby girl asked. "That my mommy is happy in heaven."

"Ah." Robert stopped his thoughts in mid flight.

"I wish," Yuri prayed so much – "That Master – no, m.. my daddy…"

Takuma pulled up a chair behind their dojo. Broomstick leant against the wall to the side. He pulled that chair and sat down cautiously and purposely. Takuma lit a purple candle on that patio table. So clean and polished with painstaking care, so much that it reflected the pale moonlight.

This world of his own, a boy, that had suddenly become an old man now. Such an old, old man. With many mistakes, many pains, but also an abundance of joyes.

Takuma sat down and leaned back, the chair creaked as loud as his own body.

"I wish, that my daddy won't be so sad. That my daddy won't miss my mommy so much." Yuri wished, without a care to her own body, she threw her soul outwards.

"…and I wish."

Takuma poured that red wine, and filled two glasses that stood on each corner of that table. The table that he kept perfect and pristine for all these years. Protected it, in exchange for a clean and pure house, unsoiled by the cruel Earth, his house in heaven would welcome him – as BRIGHTLY. Only – this is something only I can do alone.

Takuma's lips hadn't touched wine for near five long years now. Still he kept pace with his ritual, as if it was determined by second nature. "I… wish," Takuma said skywards. To the cruel heaven that had [left him] behind.

"I wish... that my big brother, Ryo, and my friend, Robert…" Yuri said finally. "That we would be friends forever." For as long as the world turns, and allow us to stay chained to the prison of time.

Then… The star that had fallen from the night sky glimmered defiantly at its last moments, and, and was no more.

…

"I hear you." Little girl. I will grant your pure wish.

…