The Colour Purple Chapter 63: The Broadsword Rhapsody, 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.

1980. The 55th year of Showa.

In heaven we will be waiting, and one day you will know the satisfaction of a selfless life.

"You know, people like us cannot hope to exist in the outside world."

HE smiled, before Masao, a simple man who endeared life, bellowed an echoing primal scream that resonated throughout the ever so familiar Yagami complex he once called his own. Eventhough SHE begged and pleaded. To the high almighty God above who ruled all with a fist of justice deceiving us as he had always done, with a cruel a mask of compassion that instead hid deceit. Even if she begged so much, "Please, please let me make it in time…" as she leapt from one rooftop to another with enough determination and feverish resolve that she was sure her knees would break at any moment. It would be too late. This was the evening that the ninjas Masao and Mikaido died, and in exchange, granted their friend, Eiji, a life eternal.

…

Chapter 63: The Broadsword Rhapsody: a Sequence of Uneventful Mornings part 9

A S.U.M. of. 9

The 47th year of Showa – 1972. Aki, Showa Yon Jyu Nana Nen.

'Aki' is autumn, and the most beautiful season in Neo-Japan in NHK, Neo Hong Kong. A country, a slice taken apart from history where numerous nationalities gathered in such a small place, and housed an interesting story. This place we have grown accustomed to. Where the colours start to change, and warm shades enveloped us no matter which way we looked. …and this is the Yagami palace.

"Agh. I am so hungry." I recall myself hearing a voice grumble behind my back. Even when back then, that annoying sound made my ears bleed, now, as I look back, I too reminisce.

Back then – I did not appreciate the show, but now, as these blurry visions come back to me as lifeless memories, I wished that things remained the same as they were back then. All throughout the night, the boys around me just complained about their empty stomachs.

That you never left me all alone, after you had given me this gift, and this responsibility.

At the last Saturday of every month, in Yagami palace – there was a ritual – a time treasured ritual that perhaps everyone around eventually took for granted… and most likely, it soon became meaningless. At the end of every month, each Yagami captain took turns to hold a special event for all the ninja guard under them.

Most of the captains, with Hajime Yagami's funding, had simply made do, since it was the easiest, to order large amounts of food brought in to appease their soldiers and increase morale in the simplest manner. With that, most of us were satisfied.

However, during the fall of every year, at the end of August, was a peculiar event. One ninja captain called upon, not amounts of salty, oily foods, but, something quite different.

I looked forward to this event ever since my first year. This captain, a peculiar man distinguished from his peers, and instead of food to sate the hunger of petty boys and girls, he would hold a brightly lit stage for us to which I would watch with a strange, eager fascination.

The months of July, January, December and March, for Hanami – the cherry blossom festival, were reserved exclusively for the festivals sponsored by the three ninja masters and Hajime Yagami himself. However[,] August was the one I looked forward to the most for some oddly peculiar reason.

HE would invite a troupe of slant eyed Chinese dancers into the palace to dance on our stage. Half of the boys around me would grumble about the lack of food, while the other likely gazed perversely at the demure pre-teen Chinese girls that would dance for us all.

My silent world, a quiet peaceful home, was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

I did not move. I forced my body to stay still, pretending that the old man behind me had not just snuck behind my back without my knowledge. My shoulders tensed but I commanded them to calm and relax as to not give my surprise away. I just pretended that his presence was inconsequential to me. As I looked back at it all now, I feel a pang of sorrow and slight regret.

"Yes." I replied so blandly with a deadpan face that did not want to care.

…

"Is it fascinating; it is not?"

Where the colours start to change, and warm shades enveloped us no matter which way we looked. …and;

…

It is fascinating, is it not? The broadsword – a massive, unwieldy weapon, that was favoured by Nordic knights, he chuckled, no, by unshaven barbarians could be held by dancing, frail 13 year old girls. Without so much as a reply from me, he, with his own broadsword slung on his backside that was his chosen weapon, and I looked up as we had some time ago, at how these demure Chinese dancers, probably not more than 70 pounds in weight could hurl and sling weapons over half their weight, effortlessly. It is fascinating is it not? He said.

At a weight of near or over 40 pounds, brutes could barely swing these weapons up and down, left and right. However even if their movement was limited and their speed came too slow at first, the Vikings could propel an attack that was IMPOSSIBLE to defend against, this perfect fascination was something the Vikings would introduce, but the Chinese would perfect.

"It was an ATTACK that could NOT be defended against. Even if you do not use it, you should still learn it well… and commit it to memory" HE said.

Perpetual movement. These weak statured Chinese girls had to use all their strength to lift those pieces of sharpened steel, but once they started them moving, their graceful dance was soft, smooth and limitless – as they turned like the ballerinas they were, moved that hulk of metal from a turtle's pace – they would move it and command it to fly in the air like swans in a silvery moonlit night. What was once massive boulders that lay unmoving – in front of those half dozen young Chinese girls on stage – as they performed in a dance – the streaming rifts of cloth on their dresses – they revealed to all of us how they could command steel to bend to their bidding.

…

"Is it fascinating; is it not?"

When these colours start to change, the glow of the sunrise crossed our faces that looked upwards this way, and warm shades enveloped us no matter which way we looked. …and;

IF you provide a dog, a warm bed to sleep, and hearty bowl of food to eat – it will naturally protect you without a shred of reservation, nor fear for its own well being…

…and; if you give a woman asylum, and a ready opponent – she will FIGHT for you.

She curled both fists and pushed them into her eyes to counteract the pressure that was about to erupt. "Why?" she asked, "WHY; why will not this fighting stop?"

…

While most of the other boys would have rathered a belly full of meat, I could not help but be so very CAPTIVATED by the dancing wisps that entertained me this cool night. In about a minute of circular movement, those small girls were able to hurl, spin and dance with those swords, those devastating weapons, as if they weighed absolutely, absolutely nothing.

"How old are you now?" The man asked.

"I just turned twelve years old, sir." I replied.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" He said.

…At their grand strength as they danced beautifully, synchronously in silence for us.

I turned round and looked over my shoulder.

As I turned round and looked over my shoulder. The lower part of my face was covered by my mask, as it had for a year or so now. Where the ends of my brows met in the center of my face, my eyes glared a tense scowl when I replied. "I am enjoying myself, Captain."

"Are you?" He did not break his gaze from his perch, from high above me now.

Without thinking much of it, and even if I would be punished if I did, I tucked my right index finger over the top and underneath the cloth of my ninja mask that covered half my face just under the bridge of my nose. Pulling it back across the tip of my nose and over my once concealed lips I turned my head left and right until that mask cleared the last bit of my chin and exposed my naked face.

I never understood it, why we ninjas endured this, but when the cool night air touched my sweaty lips, the freedom, normal people took for granted tasted so much sweeter to me.

Is there some reason, some deeper meaning that ninjas, soldiers like myself, were not allowed to peel back that cloth that covered our faces? For the longest time – I did not know why I pulled my mask down that one time, and what deeper meaning it had.

Until this day I still do not completely understand WHY, why ninjas were obligated to cover their faces with dark coloured masks. WHY we were not allowed to fly – WHY we were not allowed to die – at a time of own choosing. Why, this mask had to cover our faces.

Where the ends of those brows met in the center of my face, those eyes glared a tense scowl. The captain who looked down at his disciple likely wondered how those words could sound so empty, yet the sarcasm in my voice was bolstered by my stern, angry brow.

However, when my mask crossed my nose and exposed my lips – "I am enjoying myself." When I pulled down my mask and looked up, the curl of my lips were mismatched from the stern, terse cross of my eyes that I had HARDENED relentlessly for a year or two now.

As I pulled that mask down, the angry look in my eyes was betrayed ever so softly by the warm curl of my lips and the happy gleam of my smile. "This is so enjoyable – Captain Masao."

It was a brilliant smile, a TRUE joy that radiated fearlessly, into the dark night.

A scuff, a hark and gruff cough soon erupted into a hearty and a deep laughter. "Hahaha!" He said. "I am happy…" He said. "I am happy..." with arms crossed and a large broadsword on his back. I treasured that picture in sweet, tender memoriam.

"…Yamashita…" said ninja captain Masao.

…

Present day – and – present time.

The woman drove her right foot into the ground in front of her as she swung her upper torso, her 150-pound pure muscle body cracking the dry soil underneath into a spider web pattern. As response the world underfoot drove strength up her calves and finally into her arm.

Yamashita clenched her teeth, and in a simultaneous fashion the rigid sinews on her stomach curled and twisted together as she pulled her face backwards to dodge yet committed her entire body to swing her right fist in an uppercut to once and for all END Eiji Kisaragi.

When. "When did this become a death match, 3?" 6 shouted. "We have to stop this."

"You fooking Ninjas! What the FUCK are ya doing?" Billy clenched his fist.

In reply 3 just grinned with a fang-toothed gleam under his cloth mask. "Often times, big brother," he muttered. "What is visible to the naked eye, is so misleading... Who are we to judge the road these two walked before we were even so much as born?"

These lovers are now in a world of their own choosing now. To us, what started with a simple training exercise had suddenly evolved into something much deeper. THIS.

This is something we cannot hope to understand unless we walk their shoes. Our beloved Captain, and Eiji are now fighting a WAR, from so much as a fire that was lit a decade ago, one so much as [we] CAN NEVER HOPE TO UNDERSTAND. Yes.

"Yes," 3 said. "They've lost themselves in a place so very long forgotten…"

We can not hope to understand even if we tried.

Time had regressed 10 years in an instant, and we are not privilege to understand IT.

{Eiji.} A cold, echoing, long departed voice with a soft yet firm called out with arm outstretched. {It was not your fault.} Masao said. That we died. You do not have to become [invincible] – and live [FOREVER] for our sake, my friend… Please, let it go…

{To ABSOLVE MYSELF from sin.} Yamashita pleaded with a sorrowful feeling as she unleashed an uppercut attack where there would be no return. I know, and everyone who reads our story knows, that [I] was the cause of your pain. It has become my responsibility to atone for my actions. So… with this punch, {I release you from your duty, Eiji.}

FROM MY ORIGINAL SIN – I RELEASE YOU! FROM YOUR OBLIGATION.

EIJI KISARAGIIIIIII!

To Eiji it was no different from all those YEARS his body could not forget – for he bore this painful duty alone – with no release. This burden. {Do not walk this road, lest you regret. Your shoulders, weak and female, I would not lay it on that unready,} a gentleman reassured.

…

Behind this all – was the unbearable WEIGHT when an old man carries the burden of almost 4 decades forgotten by youth. I will make it ALL disappear.

"Saa, owari ni shiyou yo!" Eiji now grew tired and weary, LET US FINISH THIS he called, YOU; the disciple of my friend, Masao. Eiji jabbed his left leg just half an inch forward in an instant. Just a moment when Yamashita was certain that Eiji's nose would KISS hers.

"Saa, otonashiku," Just be quiet, Eiji commanded, and let me FINISH THIS. In 1984.

The ZERO SHIKI, the ZERO STYLE had one more ability. [Zero Shiki] to iu no wa, mou hitotsu no tsukaikata ga aru de gozaimasu.

Accept your FATE with dignity, Ninja Captain Yamashita.

"Yes," 3 said. "They have lost themselves in a place so very long forgotten…"

When teenage lovers met eye to eye, compared to this, it would be so inconsequential. When two people meet at [a] perfect moment, this chemistry is something an estranged wayward heart could not comprehend.

Where love and hate – hope and regret limited by mortality, meet at a slit bloody line.

…a line that was drawn on the mortal arena of the ground by the tips of Eiji's toes as he took a half inch step forward.

"The Captain and Eiji are in a different place now – and we are helpless and cannot but just be subject to watch as all these cruelties unfold." They are fighting a war deeper than present comprehension.

"A!" Yamashita gawked, her stunned face painted a picture to be seen now that her visage was uncovered by a mask that had flown by the wayside. Just before her four knuckles upon her right fist crossed her vision, her pupils dilated and the clear, clean focus grew muddy and milky. Ants that crawled between her legs looked up only to witness a vast plain of nothing.

Kieta!

VANISHED!

Eiji had disappeared. He was gone. ZERO SHIKI to iu no wa, the ZERO STYLE, mou hitotsu no tsukaikata ga arimau, had another purpose. When Yamashita's very own uppercut punch crossed her vision, the world declared to her that Eiji had vanished from her sight.

…

Eiji Kisaragi did not need to look down at his enemy's feet for he already knew that Yamashita had already committed her entire 150 pound body's momentum with a fierce uppercut just inches below his chin. That trap was already set. When he turned the steering wheel HARD to the right, his left heel pushed forward, dug deep and pushed the soil up to form a berm as he turned his ankles with so much force that the old man's brittle tendons, the ligaments and tendons from his ankles, knee and hips, up his spine and his neck, all threatened to snap at any given moment when only 20 degrees of rotation from his foot compounded exponentially and would turn his entire body 360 degrees like a taut towel. Eiji felt his heart race up and lodge itself into his throat when the sharp searing pain ran up and down his spine and made his eyes pool with burning bloody tears. From his ankle, the weathered tendons held on and despite the screaming punishment was able to transmit the shock throughout his being. His lower back cracked and crumbled but held on with chipped rails made of bone - held on with rusted screws when the rear tires of that old obsolete race car simply lost grip by design and skidded round in place. But Eiji would endure, he would persevere. And – just before Eiji Kisaragi's mind would black out from the pressure, so too would the world in front of Yamashita turn to face a blinding ebony curtain when Eiji's upper body tilted back into a black wall of viscous liquid quagmire, letting the darkness engulf him, just as the very tip of his nose sank down and disappeared into the nothing of a black box that trapped them both.

Eiji had disappeared.

The sequence of events were disjointed and were taken out of order. Eiji's uppercut she saw never happened and instead Eiji had removed himself from her frame of vision.

…

"Kieteimashita. He disappeared." The words crept from Yamashita's lips. She knew it was impossible. Just as men would walk on water and fly in the air in an unbelievable manner – even if this was a cheap arcade game called the King of Fighters, if those precious moments subdivided into easily comprehensible sub sections, she could overcome the impossible.

However, when her own curled uppercut came into the center of vision – the next instant Eiji's head unhooked up and curled back, and in the next instant he was gone, only to leave a room devoid of light. BY MY OWN CHOOSING; I am the [soldier] of my master, the ninja captain Masao. And. YOU ARE A [MANIAC]. …trapping them both in a box.

…

All the six ninja boys could not comprehend why their captain stood motionless. They watched her body freeze motionless in a split second that seemed to span an eternity. Their attention was focused entirely on her fist, and not just her ALL OF THEM were NOW so perplexed that Eiji had now become invisible to EVERYONE.

…

Stop.

At the last moment, Eiji changed direction, titled back and twisted CLOCKWISE.

Yamashita, still left in a void of stupor, her eyes glazed over looked wide and far forward, and in doing so was her undoing. When the back of four knuckles emerged from the shadow of darkness behind the far backside of her right eye. From the dark pool, a crocodile would come up its lair. An ancient predator, that looked upon a beloved face – as punishment.

How does a crocodile kill? It would lay in wait and from your blind spot would clamp down so hard without your knowing and drag you down into the murky depths. Once in its domain, it would enter into the 'death roll' a violently spinning sequence of events where it would slowly tear your tendons and kill you. The more you struggled the quicker you would meet your end. This twisting, progressive broadsword attack was the perfect embodiment of this vicious reptile's cruel mode of attack. A poem, a serenade, and a rhapsody that would silence all of man's sins.

…

As I realized… in that memory – what do you see – and how does it differ from reality? In her warm memory was the tearful [place] that they shared for moments at a time. In that place – and frozen clearly and perfectly. Frozen so perfectly. 10 years ago.

3 opened his fists and laid his open palms, all fingers outstretched radiantly, shoulder width in front of him. Wordless, none of the 6 ninja boys who stood and watched uttered no words yet somewhat understood what the genius would explain. When you are looking at an object far away, his arms were stretched out in an open wide triangular cone, your field of vision was still vast enough that if your ENEMY disappeared mid step 6 feet away, one could still catch your attack even if you sidestepped and disappeared, however…

3 slapped both open palms together, folded both arms diamond in shape at the elbow and pulled his glued hands just half an inch in front of his face. At THIS distance, with your peripheral vision limited, if one were to disappear… "Well then, perhaps I will explain it to you some other time," 3 sighed as he watched from the outside. "So MAGNIFICENT!"

SAVE for your MISERY, Mister Kisaragi!

Your ZERO SHIKI was half a century beyond the grasp of petty youth.

…

Ah, am I such an inconsequential character… in this story? Just a weak woman, and like every other worthless story, to be used, and had a pre determined purpose and one moment just disappear? Oh, you so high, DISGUSTING God. Will you forget me when this page reaches its end? …and I become meaningless just as I regarded my master when I turned to him that cool August night?

Yamashita's body did not flail even when she felt her soul sink deeper into that deep abyss that was like a swamp devoid of light. She accepted the reality that a dark water enveloped her – couldn't feel and see nothing at all when she sunk slowly into convoluted chaos.

In that darkness, despite the silence, she could still feel the menacing presence of that predator that waited underneath her. In an instant, that indestructible, iron fang-toothed jaw would grab her as it sunk its teeth into her thighs and send her into a spiraling death.

Yes, she knew the ATTACK would come without warning; those globular, reptilian eyes would open behind her when she could not see and drag her into a pit of no return. Those eyes, over her shoulder crept so close now, and she could do nothing to defend against it.

…

Even that British boy, Billy Kane, as tension twisted his heart even tighter, felt his soul waver. This bitch – this cruel Oriental woman he despised so much, the story that unraveled was too intense that he too felt but a bit of [pity] even though his mind could not put it to words.

He had forgotten for an instant where his allegiance laid, because for this instant, this one second as his mouth opened and his speech stammered with his fists curled in tight. Billy Kane could not help but understand and appreciate the desire and the warm, sweet joy when a weaker soul would finally desire to overcome a SUPERIOR OPPONENT.

To reach THE SKY – that was taken away from Billy Kane.

While he hated that Oriental BITCH so much, and that was no secret - he couldn't stop himself from saying unconsciously, "Don't lose…" Billy could not stop himself from uttering, "Move. MOVE, you bitch!" and FACE that superior being. Your master. Eye to eye.

…

"Are you enjoying yourself?" He said. "Is it not so fascinating, this broadsword attack?"

…

"YES!" The middle aged woman, so old that time had passed her by and now there were no handsome boys left who would take her away. Even then, it would become little to no consequence if she could understand those things that were invisible to the eye.

Yamashita did not understand exactly why that memory of that cool August night came to her, but as a blessing and perhaps as a gift from [a] master [to] student. JUST LIKE THAT time in 1972 that everyone by now forgot, the enraged scowl that was painted so plainly on her eyebrows, seemed so very disjointed from the tearful smile on her now unmasked face.

From the vision of our eyes, those who watched in the audience, the anger in Yamashita's twisted brows – then to the sorrow in her tearful eyes, then as those salty globs of water tucked themselves around and into the dimples and edges of her lips, was a warm smile that glowed in happiness.

Those three emotions – ALL at once.

ANGER; SORROW; and, then, a JOY. Without a cloth mask to conceal it – it radiated outwards so wonderful and bright, it would be okay if this character died this lazy afternoon.

At first…

As the years passed, I did not notice it, but I had grown to HATE you, Kaori Kusanagi.

…Yamashita said. A dead woman who looked upon us from heaven with cruelty…

…

I have DECIDED now.

{Oh how tragic,} Eiji whispered as he waited backstage, invisible to his audience. {Kaori, my love, how will it feel when I destroy your beautiful face?} …and in doing such, will that selfish action now… set me free? I will fall you – and I can finally sink into a realm of slow death. Please, WILL THIS BROADSWORD – allow me a solemn peace, and allow me to justify my actions with crumbled logic? And now become an evil man? When I become evil… When I become an evil man, will you finally release your reigns from me, my dear love?

…unable to take another bite, that clump of rice fell from the young Eiji's lips when he curled both hands into fists and plowed them into his tearful eyes. Defiantly to stop the tears.

CHOOSE! WILL YOU BE A SLAVE? OR, WILL YOU BE MY SWORD?!

One day may you free my dear friend from his cruel chains of misery.

…

MISERY.

So soft, a tender pastel coloured memory dashed past us… "Oriental women are naturally cruel, Billy." Eiji scoffed at the young boy. "That is why, the day when I first laid eyes on Kaori Kusanagi… I made certain," That I would spare no time – to make her my wife.

…

a SCREAM… echoing in place. Then the world became quiet save for one voice…

"You are such a cruel woman, Kusanagi…" Yamashita finally gave in to the [feeling] and faced her one last true, natural ENEMY. WHY? Why will you not let us free? The streams rushed down their faces. Man and woman.

Time after time.

…

If driven to the edge of a man made human endurance – will a good man – a man who was once good – be forced to become an evil man? I WILL DESTROY YOU, KAORI!

Eiji Kisaragi curled both fists and pushed them into his eyes to counteract the pressure that was about to erupt. "Why?" he asked, "WHY; why will not this fighting stop?"

The fighting will never stop.

…

Stop.

"Did not I remind you?"

"Captain!" 1, and all six of her boys pushed and called out on their own without voice.

time and time again…

…

If you are lost, you can look…

…and you will find me.

TIME after TIME.

If you fall, I will catch you…

I WILL be waiting… Time after time…

If you fall, I will catch you… I will be waiting. Time after time…

…

Please let us be… Kaori… SHE begged.

"Did not I TELL YOU!?" Yamashita answered. "Did I not SAY to you..?" On instinct Yamashita leaned into her right foot that swerved 45 degrees to the RIGHT, and in so doing, her entire upper body followed her command.

That this story, as I LIVE, my story, will never become [insignificant].

That girl's right hand curled into a hard, solid fist and threw itself to the right side without any more further reservation, with enough thundering force to counter Eiji's "That…"

THAT YOUR PETTY TRICKS WILL NOT WORK ON ME!

From the dark water of invisible, Eiji's eyes and slowly his body from the tip of his nose from his face, down to his neck, his torso then to the outstretched arm bubbled and rise from a dark shadow that was once unseen.

The back of ninja captain Yamashita's wrist met Eiji's broadsword attack backfist half way, and for a moment held it at bay motionless.

The sadness that enveloped the tears in that now old woman's eyes radiated in a sweet, glowing pastel hue of happiness. Without a wall to conceal its joy… the warmth came without inhibition.

Was this why GOD, so cruel, made us cover our faces?

Did I not tell you, Eiji Kisaragi…

"YOUR petty tricks, will NOT…" Yamashita, "Will NOT WORK ON ME!"

EIJI KISARAGI!

A thunderclap so loud, that it soon deteriorated into silence, the back of Yamashita's hand met and made peace with Eiji Kisaragi's final attack. THEN…

…was an answer and a calm peace. .. .a second hand unwinds.

If you are lost, you can look, and you will find me. Time after… time.

If you fall, I will catch you…

…I will be waiting.

TIME after TIME.

The back of Yamashita's fist met Eiji's backhand broadsword… half way.