The Colour Purple Chapter 60: Ballad of Medusa, 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.

If in ninety-eighty, 1980, if you too, silently spent 13 long years watching that decrepit, old man, perhaps your mind too would be absolutely [captivated] as you devoted your life to a single purpose. The miasma of emotions would become indistinguishable from each other… and it would be very likely that you would know that one man better than [he] knew himself.

"…and for a mortal man, there is no greater gift." Rugal smiled as he bent downwards to massage the nape of his velveteen panther that snuggled by its master's feet. Rugal's omnipotent eye glowed in the darkness.

…

Chapter 60: Ballad of Medusa: a Sequence of Uneventful Mornings part 6

Yamashita hunched down with her body almost horizontal as she ran, her footsteps peppered the ground like a wild typewriter, like a bullet ripping through the air, her L shaped arms pumped up and down. Her lips moved but Eiji couldn't hear because his ears were numb from the loud ringing sound, he could do nothing else but watch petrified as the woman pulled her body ever so desperately closer to the man – when the tension – the attraction between a man and a woman was too much to bear, about to tear the Earth, their bodies propelled themselves to each other, powerless to the magnetic attraction that now closed the distance between the two.

This was an emotion that was now muddled by the cruel folly of time. [It] had become indiscriminate and indistinguishable. The gravity that drew us closer to each other, what made the logical thoughts in my mind devolve into a meaningless collection of mumbles and screams? It was now useless to describe these feelings, and give it a name. This feeling and this emotion that commands my body to tax itself to the limit had value just by simply existing.

He couldn't see for her lips were hidden under her mask. However, he already knew and understood that from under that mask she simply uttered…

…No matter what you do, Eiji, I can see the future… and you are powerless to defy me.

LIVING A LIFE OF CONSTANT MISERY, WHOMEVER LOOKED UPON HER FACE WOULD BE TURNED TO STONE. THIS IS THE TRAGEDY OF MEDUSA.

Each attack was relentless, merciless and had behind it the momentum of Yamashita's entire weight. Even if he realized it, Eiji was trapped in reactionary mode. Yamashita made up for her smaller stature by making sure she used the weight of her entire body with every attack, so that his heart, his mind and his body, so that Eiji's defenses were rendered useless.

Just like when facing Eiji's technique. Blocking the counter was useless and futile.

…but even with all that Eiji was not granted even a moment's rest and instinctively his body pleaded as he crossed his arms over his face again without a second thought.

Purposeful, focused, with an obstinate fervour Yamashita dashed towards her staggering opponent and propelled her entire body into spinning jumping back kick that embedded itself into Eiji's crossed arms that just barely protected his face but without enough conviction so that Eiji's head still flew back from the recoil and banged painfully into the tree behind him once again. Eiji's eyes slowly shrank into pinpoints, his helpless pupils now drowned in a white globular pool that stared out blankly into the clear blue sky.

A hammer hit the back of Eiji's head and his head tilted forward from the aftershock of hitting the wooden tree trunk behind him. The back of his head slowly grew cold and he didn't even realize that his once crossed arms had stopped acknowledging his commands and slowly slithered down the sides of his limp body helplessly, rendering him defenseless.

"OWARI DA! It is over, Eiji Kisaragi!" Yamashita proclaimed with snarled, sinister grawl as she jumped straight up and launched forward, a 150 pound push kick right towards unprotected Eiji's face without mercy.

"Eh!?" Billy couldn't follow every blow but he was quick enough to notice Eiji's arms slowly drop down lethargically diagonally down his chest when his lifeless image transformed to a charcoal drawing of black and white. "OLD MAN!" Old man to him, shouted Billy.

"Ahh…" Eiji's face faded into a pale shade as he now stared downwards into the dirty ground. Little by little Eiji's knees began to weaken and he could feel his back lose traction, slithering down that wooden tree trunk like a slug that had been stomped and was slowly deteriorating into a dark descent.

WHAM! Yamashita's foot drove itself deep into the place where Eiji's head once was. However, by some serendipitous fate, she only splintered wood for Eiji's failing legs had folded in half and made his barely conscious body comet downwards. When his bottom hit the ground, the audience couldn't help but gaze in awe at the old man's fortunate, last minute escape.

"Yoketa!?" 1 uttered dumbfounded. "Eiji dodged the final attack?" He didn't notice himself smile – now totally confused as to which side he was supposed to cheer for.

"Old man!" Billy pumped his fist with a fang toothed roar. "YOU ACE!" shouted Billy, a slang probably only familiar with Brits like himself.

"Eiiiiiijiiiii!" Yamashita snarled looking down at the old man. She had committed her entire body to the attack and with her entire center of mass hunched forward, so much that her chest was touching her knee, she couldn't even pull herself back to follow up. Totally off balance, the captain's entire weight pendulumed forward into her right foot that was embedded into the now ragged, splintering tree in front of her and trapped her in a locked position. She could only stare at Eiji's eyes that had now begun to regain colour.

…

It was a familiar sight when she gazed condescendingly down at him from high above. A vision she remembered intently and cherished close to her heart for she had little left to call her own. There was a time when the woman, her youth encumbered, thought that she would grow old simply watching this man from the secret sanctity of her perch up in the trees in that calm forest clearing, until the end of time. She watched – however, this time - instead of the sound of silence, a time when she could do nothing but watch every night when Eiji trapped himself alone with a sorrowful face that was about to break into tears, when the young Yamashita could not look away when Eiji sat by himself in the dark as he wallowed in self pity, instead of a feeling of helplessness as she stood so far away, refusing to avert her gaze like a God that watches his children – instead of a feeling of loneliness… This time, Eiji looked back at her – looked up at her defiantly, a penetrating gaze that cleaved the sky that enslaved us - with stern pinpoint RAGEFUL eyes, as if the world had just ended and that now, nothing else mattered because she was the last woman alive in the sky blue Earth we loved.

Mayhaps, mayhaps indeed, as with every other woman who walked this Earth, you didn't realize it then, but maybe, as I do now… Mayhaps, amidst our loneliness, you simply wanted someone to watch YOU instead. …and here I am watching you, Yamashita. As if you were the last woman alive on this Earth.

"HUUUWAGUUAUUUUGHHHH!" Cried Eiji when he pleaded his legs to move back to life. His legs that were rendered into unmoving hard stone when he sat helpless before a Gorgon monster. MOVE! PLEASE! MOVE. He begged his body to succumb to his wishes so he could at least – for a [sublimation] so undying - meet her half way.

…

Medusa was a monster, one of the Gorgon sisters and daughter of Phorkys and Keto, the children of Gaia and Oceanus. She had the face of a fair maiden with snakes instead of hair – and whomever looked at her face was immediately turned into stone.

She was punished by Athena in a most terrible manner. Each wavy lock of once beautiful hair was changed into a venomous snake; her once gentle, love inspiring eyes turned bloodshot and furious which excited fear and disgust in the mind of all men.

…and she became the embodiment of female rage simply by her very existence.

…

{True.} Eiji thought. {The human body was not able to withstand being taxed in such a manner when all its muscles contracted all at once. 20 seconds? 10 seconds? A minute? How long would it take for it to recover?}

HOWEVER.

Eiji thought, {While it is not natural for a human's body to contract all 100% of its muscles all at once, there is ONE instance…} There is ONE moment when a human body naturally experiences this moment.

and THAT… That is in DEATH.

A yellow coloured fog erupted from Eiji's knees, his joints from his pelvis and out the corners of his gritting, foaming mouth.

"HAKAI!" 6 yelled. Somehow, this relationship had devolved into more than just practice, and now they had both come to kill each other with a will of destruction.

"Are you going to kill each other now!? Eiji-sama!" 4's voice broke in a place that was between a jeer undertoned by a sincere dread.

"MUDA DESU!" It is useless, no matter what you do, it is futile EIJI KISARAGI. "EIJI KISARAGI!" Yamashita roared when she crossed her arms across her chest. Her face rocked and the clear crystal in front of her eyes broke into a thousand, million, billion pieces as the world shook uncontrollably. Do not you realize it yet? "Do you not understand it yet?" she said as her voice cracked in familiar manner when she pulled tight the hard, noble iron shield that completely covered her body.

Still fearlessly, Eiji, with renewed strength propelled the rockets under his knees to launch his body upwards from zero in its sitting position into an instantaneous explosion. The world shook in such a manner that it was impossible to keep track of the expression on his face. He twisted at the waist and cocked his bent right arm behind his back in an impossible angle now. With no thought to defense he put all his facilities to a relentless, massive attack.

Yamashita rolled her shoulders forward and crossed her arms close to her chest.

Silently exchanging cold glares, Eiji propelled his body skyrocketing upwards.

"I can see the future!" Yamashita protected her midsection when she welcomed the attack.

Ah… yes.

The abuse to my old haggard body, the look of my dead wife's face staring ever so condescendingly back at me, the mockery to everything I had built till this day. This was not the true punishment a merciless God bestows onto me. Living in the world was a continuous trial of suffering… But Yamashita, a woman without a first name – gazing upon your face that turned me to STONE was not the true punishment borne from rituals of the cruel, man made God.

"Eiji! No matter what you do… If it is you, and you alone, I can see the…" As she crossed her arms over her chest, Yamashita…

At the very least… IF YOU MUST PUNISH ME, let me meet you half way…

…

A sneering old man Eiji once knew 10 years ago laughed when he repeated it in 1984. In 1984, a time long forgotten. {Old man, Gensai.} Eiji remembered warmly with a tingling emotion. Their father laughed. "Fighting… is a COMMUNICATION!" he ROARED to all. Takuma Sakazaki reminded everyone who had the patience to read up to this long.

…

WHAAAKOW!

The true punishment… soft noted - penetrating the air surrounding our ears.

Now, it was now Yamashita's eyes that would devolve into pinpoints amidst a pool of white – Eiji's fist found its home into the bottom of her jaw when his relentless uppercut reached its apex. Just as she felt, in a split second that her mind separated itself from her body, she could imagine her head separate from her neck – as she had wished 13 some aught years ago. Eiji propelled his fist and with a feeling of RAGE stabbed it into the flawless identical face of the only woman he promised to love until the end of time.

…

She felt each knuckle invade her body.

Yamashita's head cocked back and with a Hollywood style movie fervour, her flesh curled backwards and tumbled over each appendage. First, her elbow plowed into the ground and the middle of her sleeve skidded back and ripped. As best as her mindless body tried to resist, she twisted and rolled, now her shoulder and then her back felt the rocks rip and render her flesh into a bloody scathe. Left then the right upper arm. A body, a thoroughly abused and raped woman by a lascivious God that was thrown out of a moving car when her body was no longer of use to his story. A girl who was thrown aside – she was now that.

The globular tears of red crimson floated up in the air, the serrated ground devoured her. Was this, the only purpose? Yamashita's eyelids parted wide as far as they would go, exposing the stark white canvas that held no more consciousness.

Her last thought.

Defense! DEFENSE! Like exploding cars and petroleum filled barrels that erupted as they displayed a firework display from the movies we saw that was disconnected from reality… To roll back and tumble tens of meters behind her from a single punch, Yamashita's body made due and obeyed her final wish before her brain finally shut down from Eiji's punch.

ROLL your body.

ABSORB the punch.

DO NOT DIE.

Because there is still a tomorrow for me, even if God regarded me as useless.

Yamashita, even though her mind was now a stark white blank state, her body, trained mercilessly for so many years could still listen – and IT would OBEY without question, with relentless passion. Just before all three out of four knuckles made its home into her chin, she was still able to release one last plea. I… I COMMAND YOU, my body. DO NOT DIE, yet. ROLL with the attack… because I am not done meeting you half way.

Sir Newton said once ago, that for every action – was an equal and opposite reaction. Eiji's body, even if it was 170 pounds of weathered, tempered, old muscle, it was impossible for it to propel 150 pounds of female flesh 20 yards as it did now as it unfolded in front of us.

Justifying the movies from the 1980s that Eiji Kisaragi loved so much Yamashita's body tumbled backwards autonomously. When her spine could bear no more, her face scraped the rough rocky ground and tore her face open, only to then catch her toes and propel her like a vertical stick thrown head over heels. The blood flowed freely and was set free to catch the sunlight.

…

Once upon a time…

Aru hi – zuuto zuuto mukashi. Aru tokoro de…

Once upon a time, from a time and place so far away.

Chiisa na onanoko ga iru saa. Sou, kono kanojo wa, sugoku chissakatta.

There was a small girl. Yes, she was ever so small.

Demo, aru hii.

However, one day.

Onaji you na, kanojo wa, onaji chiisa na SHONEN wo aimashita.

She met, like her, a small boy.

The boy was deaf and he was blind.

Every single day she could not help but find herself visiting that boy in systematic fashion. However, no matter what she did, she could do nothing but WATCH.

{I COMMAND YOU, my body. Not yet… For this life is gleaming.}

However, no matter what she did, she could do nothing but WATCH. No matter how much her heart screamed, the boy was so far away and he could not HEAR her, and he could not SEE her. There was no way for her to reach out and communicate to him.

Was there a way that she could one day TELL him, tell him, how much she loathed him – how much she pitied him – and from the bottom of her young, innocent heart, how much she…

…

{A!} Eiji, looking downwards from the sky, looking at his own body when his soul floated in heaven, looking down at his possessed, dead body. The instant that his bones touched the soft cloth of her mask that protected Medusa. There was a sensation that filled his body just like when the water erupted and filled a ruptured boat in its final moments.

Watching from high above, the little girl screamed so LOUD but the deaf and blind boy under her could not take notice. …and now the flow of time reversed.

Do you hear me now? Do you see me now? Watch me…

…

That storybook little boy, who was robbed of his vision and his hearing, was left only with smell, taste, and simply – touch. When finally cheated of it all, that boy could only touch and feel. That was her last desperate plea. The touch, a sensation that would reach him from ever so high above from this heaven.

…

The back of her head hit the cold ground at the end of her journey. Now, she had flown 30 yards from Eiji's fist.

…and after a life of nameless MISERY, deliverance came to Medusa in the shape of death, when her horrendous head was freed from her body.

At the end of its flight, the yellow embers caked the tips of Eiji Kisaragi's knuckles. His right arm darted high as a spear that cleaved the heavens. In a few moments, as Eiji's eyes reassured us that his consciousness had returned, the yellow hue grew weak and dissipated into a colourless fog as if it never existed.

The TRUE punishment was forcing my hand to destroy the face that I once loved more than my own life. The salty, warm tears ran down Eiji's cheeks and soiled the mask he had tried to keep immaculate all these years.

…and in so doing, I, like the rest of my peers, have grown comfortable, with the thought of LOATHING a God as despicable as you.