The Colour Purple Chapter 59: A Woman Among Men, 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]

ORIGINAL CHAPTER.

"The WEAKEST?" [he] said. "Captain Yamashita – the weakest? How is that even possible?" As he finished his sentence, the world rushed back in quick pace and focused back into 3's stern gaze before he could even twist his face back in disbelief.

Understand – that God dothes not give us any burdens our hearts cannot bear.

Understand, that this is likely what poor people reconcile themselves with in order to calm their souls, continue living, and justify their pitiful, weak existence…

Understand, this is also what brave men repeat to themselves, to hang onto courage.

Have twenty years already passed us by? Yet this story never ends.

Which [character] are you?

…

"How long did that fight take?" 4 asked out loud to anyone who would listen to his cheeky attitude. Grinning under his mask he rolled his shoulders and looked back and forth.

Not able to stand the tense twitching spasms from the back of his neck, the boy who stood in his blue denim overalls, a few meters by the side of the group of pajama clad troupe rolled his wrist and put his watch up to his face. On the watch's front was the cheesy Union Jack, the flag of his homeland – and likely seethingly ironic was the brand name BOY LONDON printed by 6 o'clock as the third hand ticked lazily across the bold typeface.

From when Yamashita made the call, until the last blow, "That was 30 minutes ago." Billy grunted.

"Hoooh?" 3 droned with his hands crossed, not even turning his gaze to Billy.

That retort was followed by silence as each of the ninjas exchanged glances and didn't even bother to make eye contact with the foreigner. This irritated Billy further and he simply spat out the foul taste in his mouth and marched away. "Facking chinks. Whatever."

"Hey, hey," 6 didn't even pay the Englishman any heed and in a wide eyes glee turned to his comrade, the stern faced 3, eagerly waving his curled fists in request. "Hit me, 3!"

"What?" 3's brass bespectacled face turned slowly to the side on its own, almost robotically while his cross-armed body remained perfectly still. "Excuse me?"

"I said, PUNCH ME!" 6 gleefully snarled, now waving his fists up and down before thumping his hand onto his diaphragm. "Do it. Eiji-sama's one inch punch," he made the motion to the section just above his belly. "If Captain can parry it unharmed, then watch me. I can do it too! Just do it!" He pleaded.

"What?!" 3 repeated again as the voice from his throat cracked into a hoarse resonance – and even the always calm demeanoured, stone cold 3 couldn't help but find his speech break.

"I said," 6 repeated. "I want you to hit me with Eiji's zero style – one inch punch right here, and I will parry it! Just like the Captain!"

"6," 3 said in a deadpan, his right eyebrow was now cocked in an awkward angle over its left just like his head tilted to the side in utter inconceivable, appalled confusion. "6, that is NOT how it works."

"Just do it, okay. Just do it!" 6 begged, with that famous coined phrase that was only 4 years old now, when he put his open palms over his belly and bent his knees in a position that was ready to catch a baseball with both mitts head on.

3 slapped his forehead in weak surrender before he ran his open palm down his masked face. He held his hand over his mouth and kept it there for a time that felt like an eternity, and despite his best intentions, 3 peeked through the crack between the fingers of the wall in front of his face, but his teammate didn't change the coy smirk in his eyes. In a finality, 3 put his right fist by his waist. "You are an idiot," he reminded.

3 turned his left foot and splayed his toes outwards to the left as far as it could go to maximize his rotating mobility, then with his right hand he slapped his right thigh and said, "okay, okay… watch this right leg." He said.

"Okay. I'm ready." 6 replied.

"The attack is going to come from here…" 3 continued to remind him. "Right here." 3 continued to tap and massage the meaty part of his right upper thigh. "You just don't understand th…"

In mid breath, 3 hunched down and willed as many muscles of his body to tense hard and leap forward. Right here! 6, ready as ever put his hands ready at the defense at his midsection and relaxed both legs to mimic his Captain's movements. 3 moved in an instant, the dust below his toes brushed forward, before immediately stopping, then as if, coming back, the air was sucked back in reverse back into the vacuum - and he did his best to clone the move he had seen only once before, just 20 minutes ago… and darted forward.

However, while 6 concentrated on his opponent's right leg, the leg that 3's taunted him repeatedly with, instead, 3 launched his LEFT LEG first!

"Huh?"

Just as 6 twisted his head to the right side to keep pace with the offensive left leg, 3, the genius had already launched his opposite RIGHT leg forward now. It was just an instant, and now 3 had leapt up and spanned three yards forward, his right foot STOMPED down, just as he had remembered. When the tightly woven hemp sole under his boot mashed the ground, 3 had realized that he had miscalculated and had missed his opponent's foot, unable to trap it.

Whatever.

6 grinned under his cloth mask. Here it comes. He could do it. The boy hunched down and tensed his midsection with both hands ready and waiting to take the attack and lift his feet backwards to dissipate the blo…

WHADON!

The motion was so fast, the world had to forcefully rewind the flow of time – it had to rearrange and redefine the definition of seconds, minutes and hours to slow their movements. 3's left fist nestled itself by his chin in an instinctive defense, all the while pulling his body in and compressing tight – before rolling his shoulders and releasing that stored energy all at once.

WHADON!

An awkward sound. Even when 3 couldn't perfectly mimic Eiji Kisaragi's move, a move that was patiently and painstakingly honed, and perfected for 20 years or so, 3's incredibly petrified body was now only a foot away from his enemy's own body.

{This is it! To counter his one inch punc…}

6 was not even granted the privilege of finishing his train of thought when the hard fist – three out of four knuckles embedded themselves, NOT on the boy's stomach, but into his JAW!

6's hands were still dangling mid height as his head contorted in an irresponsible manner to the one side. BANG! As the air did its duty to maintain equilibrium, a mass of dust exploded into a cloudy mist behind his head, and to everyone watching, they imagined in black and white an x-ray of the stubborn 6's skull crack a little bit when 3's fist made full, firm contact with his head.

"Ghughk!" was the only sound that escaped 6's mouth just before his ENTIRE body deteriorated into rigor mortis, while his mind and soul didn't comprehend it YET, his young body came to accept that the punch had disconnected his human body from his immature mind.

…and in a hard thud and a silent chorus, his body, stiff as a wooden board tilted backwards and made itself one with the earth once again as it did a teenage ago.

3 breathed out through his mouth slowly and purposefully in a valiant effort to empty his lungs and command his muscles to once again relax – he had strained his flesh to the limit and in a worrisome panic he pleaded his body to simply calm down, lest his own body shut down from the shock and find himself toppling like the boy he had just rendered unconscious.

{This.} 3 stuttered silently in his mind – lightning, 3 felt penetrating his temples, then rushing down his spine, only to end at his toes. {Did? Did she…? Captain. Even this much did she even know that Eiji-sama's body?} As best as he tried 3's body was completely petrified after the one inch punch. Instantaneously, 3, the genius felt his body fail to succumb to his pleas.

I CAN NOT MOVE!

"Oh damn!" 4, the jokester blurted out just as his hands clawed into his forehead. "That is not how it is supposed to work, man. Knocked out twice in a day. You will give him BRAIN DAMAGE, brother."

He did not even care what his comrades uttered, for 3 was still trapped in a vortex of confusion and disbelief. Then it came to him in a twinkling. ALL the men beneath heaven were never meant to surpass GOD, and by the limits of the human body, all our muscles operate in pairs. Much like our brain, it was impossible for ALL our muscles, to operate ALL at the same time. Scientists, that much he knew, determined that we couldn't hope to use more than 8% of our brain power, and at the same time it was unlikely that we could command 100%, ALL the muscles in our man made bodies to instantaneously tense without taxing our body to failure. This was the paradox of the one-inch punch.

But…

If without Photoshop, without camera tricks, and before the CSI television show, if you believed that a small and weak Oriental man could propel another 6 feet away… in 1969…

…then - such a thing is possible.

…Because, in this [world] where MEN could float high in the sky, and hurl fireballs from these palms, maybe the ability to utilize ALL, 100% of your body's muscles at once was possible.

…and while such a superhuman feat was possible… here… just here…

3 let himself feel the last bit of air exit his lips before he breathed back in to feel his body succumb to his will once again. "That is NOT how it is supposed to work." 3 scolded 6's unconscious body. Even if he couldn't perfectly replicate Eiji's MASSIVE attack, perhaps in his own way he was able to prove his point. "Captain's parry was not just about the bodily ability to execute a single technique."

What made her so unbelievable – was she could SEE the attack.

…at FULL SPEED.

…and while such a superhuman feat was possible… what was more unbelievable, just as it was awe inspiring to see an Italian boy walk through the air as his feet rolled calmly as if he was riding a bicycle that floated with wings, just as you could see fire erupt from a man's fingertips – it was more AWE SOME – that a woman who could be no more than 33 years of age understand, and trust – that I – and EIJI KISARAGI – was absolutely petrified after executing the one inch punch.

"Let me tell you." Your request is absolutely USELESS… brother…

…

Chapter 59: A Woman Among Men: a Sequence of Uneventful Mornings part 5

What kind of [G_O_D]?

What kind of GOD sits idly – from his perch held up so high up in heaven… Intently, gingerly and nonchalantly looks down upon his children, with the same gaze in his eyes as a young girl who played with dolls molded in her own image? What kind of [G_O_D] could sit in his throne so silently, and watch, as is children SUFFER within the world that lay under his feet?

…and in his image his children live only to make others SUFFER – to cause each other pain, like ants they scurry about in this dirty Earth. But… it is okay.

For when I close my eyes, it is 1995 all over again. 01.10.2015

Shut up – and DANCE with me.

…

In the slow unraveling moments Eiji watched as Yamashita's feet floated upwards in a coy position that looked like that childhood playground scene when a little girl would command her entire body relaxed and leapfrog in reverse over her friend's body.

However, Instead of taking the full brunt of the impact she slowly folded her arms and legs by the elbows and knees, then like an uncompressing spring, floated backwards, gradually she accordioned outwards - dissipating the force as she flew effortlessly. From the edge of the Ninja captain Yamashita's toes – a hard snap and as it was followed by silence… a SONIC BOOM erupted from her BLEEDING toes.

"She…" 1 began to utter unconsciously.

"Captain blocked Eiji-sama's zero-attack." 3 finished so matter of factly.

Now – in utter disbelief, just as the pace of time slowed – as Yamashita floated backwards, totally unaffected by Eiji's sudden, unblockable attack… Just at the last moment was silence… a quiet time when her small body floated down like a weightless leaf, when she was sure that the last of the impact had dissipated safely, passing through her body that did not resist even a little bit - her legs began to move.

A harsh thunder rocked the Ninja captain's brain like a hammer that hurled itself to the back of her head – in the same moment, her legs began to move. Still in mid air her thighs rolled over each other. More powerful than a steam driven locomotive she commanded her legs to move. To MOVE without thought to logic, without care for physics and… without mercy.

Still suspended in mid air, as if like a car that had leapt out from the back of an airplane in mid flight, she willed her legs to run in place. Left and right – again and again, even when she didn't feel the ground beneath her, and without the solid reassurance of the ground's friction to answer her – with a wide eyed determined stare, the ninja captain Yamashita still threw one L shaped arm forward one after the other in Olympic sprinter's fashion.

The world wrapped itself around Eiji's disbelieving body, and while ever so slow, Eiji realized soon enough that…

{Damn it.} Eiji screamed in his mind in a panic. {God damn you.}

Yamashita grit her teeth as she floated in her own deep space, running foolishly even though her actions were futile, because in due time… her right toe would hit the ground.

SUDDENLY – as her entire weight finally made contact through the one point on her big right toe, the energy she had built up in her coiled body thrust itself into the ground, and in the same moment – the EARTH returned it into her body and rewarded her, just as her stumbling body regained its grip onto reality when her rear end fishtailed out of control – her upper body fell forward uncontrollably – tossing pebbles into the air.

The Earth rewarded her with a sensation as the four wheels of that car that had leapt off fearlessly from that airplane dug deep into the ground beneath. Through her shins, the spring coiled suspension in her knees instantaneously buckled from the strain of 150 pounds of pure muscle suddenly rocketing itself through her small female frame.

Yamashita's foot slipped for an instant, but her left leg threw itself forward to calm and balance her body that was unable to stop its momentum. The warmth of her lower back radiated outwards in a sharp pain, and while she stumbled a bit, with her arms swaying continuously, her upper body parallel to the ground trying its best not to tumble over and fall, she was able to steady her running body as she teetered left and right ever so slightly.

…and now, from zero to sixty in a split second, Yamashita darted headstrong into her enemy. Eiji's body stood unmoving, and even if he pleaded it so, his limbs remained still.

What laid underneath that mask as that woman's face looked at me intently when she spanned 6 feet in an instant. For this moment, 1.8288 meters – the span of a tall man that belittled everyone weaker than him, this distance seemed so small, and inconsequential.

…

Do you not understand it yet? Eiji Kisaragi? To someone like me…

Eiji's eyes widened in shock yet everyone else could do nothing else but stare with mouth agape, staring back at that woman. Their relationship had somehow become a reason to destroy.

She smiled. The future is meaningless… it is meaningless to me.

"How would you feel?" 1 mumbled out loud when he looked outwards and willed his entire conscious mind to concentrate so he could witness what happened in an instant, at a normal pace. The small grains of dust pelted the exposed flesh that his mask couldn't cover. "When at the same time, your peers were much too busy living a warm existence, wallowing in invincibility, tasting the sweet air of the springtime of their youth – blossoming into women, crying, laughing, then falling in love." He said, "Only for that simple dream to be taken away, day by day, for twenty three long years…"

A little girl who was no older than ten years of age, taken away from her family and taught nothing else but to fight beyond her means – and since 1980 to put her life on hold and be subjected to an existence to day by day, watch a middle aged man turn into a hard, bitter thing?

Surely, I too, would feel an obsession of rage.

…

…but even with all that Eiji was not granted even a moment's rest. With his body totally petrified from the ramifications of the one-inch punch. In an equivalent exchange, when the old man willed all his muscles to move simultaneously – shortly after they immediately shut down into a cold, silent darkness.

Purposeful, focused, with an obstinate fervor Yamashita dashed towards her staggering opponent propelled her entire body into spinning jumping back kick that embedded itself into Eiji's head. His head flew back from the recoil and banged solidly into the tree behind him with a loud crack that was too painful to even hear. Eiji's eyes slowly shrank into pinpoints, drowning in a white globular pool that stared out blankly into the sky.

"How is this even possible?" 6 stuttered out loud. "I could not even see it. She blocked, no, was able to fully counter Eiji's unblockable punch before we could even see him take the first step?"

"She can see it…" 3 replied.

"What?" 1 cut in. "What can she [see] that none of us six can? Can she see the future?" 1 scoffed in a sneer and sarcastic tone.

Too many thoughts; too many lines of logic intersected 3's mind – too much that it was impossible to answer either of his peers with a simple and terse statement that was invincible to debate. "Say, if in 1970, you were stolen from your family, during the dawn of your feminine desires…? How would you feel?" 3 begged the question.

IF, at that time, you were FORCED to become A WOMAN AMONG MEN.

IF in 1980, when you knew other girls your age were living a life of blissful ignorance walking in beautiful clothes and rendering boys into a stupor. Unable to experience the warmth in your heart, unable to experience the frightful sensation as your knees trembled at the EXACT moment when you fell in love?

IF in that 1980 you spent every waking day, every waking hour, every waking moment watching a middle aged man harden his mind and his heart into a dying machine. Everything he did – every chore and every punch, everything he thought – every woe and every cry, listening intently, unable to shut your ears from listening to everything he said out loud when he thought no one else was listening – if you listened to all that - if you watched all that…

In 1980 the ninja captain Yamashita was about 20 years old, and for 13 long years she watched wordless up in that high tree, and refused to feel pity for Eiji Kisaragi. Wordless and silent, she kept it all inside.

Then, all those inquisitive lines crossed and intersected into a point, and delivered a clear quotient. "How would you feel?"

IF you were destined that life, even if you were indeed the weakest of all your peers, it would not be far from unlikely – that JUST for this one man, and this one man alone – a man you devoted 13 years of your youth - you COULD see the future.