The Colour Purple Chapter 128: the Saikyou Kougeki, a king of fighters fanfic

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

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 2016]

An awkward, and peculiar silence ensued for a moment, and even when Takuma was indeed prepared for its inevitability, all this time, he was not sure how he was to answer it.

…

After what seemed like an eternity of mediocrity, I discovered the true joy of 'fighting', despite my Master's apprehension. I now think to myself, even after fighting so hard, I still can't win. However, instead of apathy I once felt long ago, I now feel a seething rancor. A feeling of bitterness and long standing resentment.

But maybe it is true as the Irish say, it is better to be fighting, than to be lonesome.

Though I wonder, why I am thinking of it right now? As I cling desperately to sanity?

There was nothing out of the ordinary when the breeze softly blew across, easing the fluttering small slivers of shattered wood that floated down in the wake of her brother's massive attack. From the corner of Takuma's eyes, he mindlessly watched the top of his daughter's hair flutter in tune with the wind just as the pressure reached a calm equilibrium.

An awkward, and peculiar silence ensued for a moment, and even when Takuma was indeed prepared for its inevitability, all this time, even as the father repeated the scene over and over and over again in his mind - he was not sure how he was to answer it.

"Master… What was momma like?" Yuri asked.

His daughter asked it repeatedly, most of the time out of the blue, perhaps unconsciously in the hopes to frustrate Takuma to the limit and have him spurt out the answer he had kept a secret, or maybe it was more innocent, just catch her father off guard for just one moment.

"She was kind, she was brave, and she loved you very much." Takuma replied automatically, as he always did, though he could already feel the muscles on the back of his neck twist into knots because he knew that he had to brace himself for the inevitable and logical follow up inquiry his beloved daughter would ask next.

Master….

"Master…" Yuri asked again with a blank stare in her face, lost in a forlorn expression. Almost as if she didn't even hear what Takuma said seconds earlier. "Why did she die?"

"Yuri…"

She said – what she said, but what Yuri wanted to ask, when she stood faithfully by her father who loved her more than the world itself, and her brother who had no peer – in a memory that was shelved in her mind, but was a pernicious influence that kept her enslaved. What she wanted to ask was "Why did she HAVE to die?"

Takuma was interrupted by the guttural hacking cough from his son who was now doubled over with his left arm braced on his knee and his right hand around his throat.

[For me.]

"NII-CHAN!" Yuri hurried to her brother's side, putting one hand over Ryousuke's back and the other on his bicep to steady him.

"Oi! RYOUSUKE!" Takuma shouted, frozen in his tracks. The master's face was split between petrified fright, and another rancid look frustrated at his son who would simply not listen to him.

"Nii-chan," Yuri repeated. "Are you okay… Ni…" Yuri's eyes slowly grew large in horror when she realized that a steady stream of blood was sheet flowing down her brother's lips, thick clumps of mass solidifying in mid flight, dropping into the ground in between his feet.

"Ryousuke-nii-chan, what's happening, are you…"

A monstrous, indecipherable growl bubbled out from Ryousuke's throat, like a beast wanting to escape from a rancid, acidic swamp.

Yuri nodded, immediately understanding. "Master!" Yuri said. "Ni-chan is okay, he said to get him water."

Takuma unfolded his arms and forced his stomach to decompress from the unbelievable pressure moments ago. He calmly walked past the bag next to them and grabbed a bottle of water. Snapped open the cap and handed it to his son.

Ryousuke's diaphragm calmed down from the sudden shock, as if finally expelling the last bit of a poison, vomiting blood on the ground below. With his core weakened, the man dropped to both his knees. Though in due time, his breath slowed to a calmer pace.

"Drink something, boy." Takuma instructed.

Ryousuke grunted, but without hardly any energy left simply released the bottle from his hand and put both hands on his knees. "GGGHhhKKKGkkkk…" the sound from Ryousuke's mouth still gurgled from the remnants that still remained lodged in his throat. "Gaggh," A strange sequence of incomprehensible groans.

"You mean MASTER. How many times do I have to tell you THAT?!" Takuma scolded.

"Master." Yuri said, a lonely voice that seemed to desire to speak for two. Yuri looked up to her father. "Tell me. What is…"

What is Ryousuke-ni-chan sacrificing… in exchange?

A master, a daughter, and maybe even a stupid son stared at each other in a lazy afternoon here, absolutely oblivious to the inner workings of the world.

Though, if you were to have a complete stranger walk into the scene and silently observe – certainly that stranger would roll back his shoulders, furrow his brows at the preposterousness of the question. Even as you and I and an entire audience watched – even if we screamed the answer to these three – we were all powerless and relegated to watch in silence as these characters doomed themselves in a life of ignorance.

They asked repeatedly , but for some unknown reason, trapped in a vortex desperately unable to escape, they could not understand – what was the price they paid for IT.

The invisible stranger to looked upon it all weakly shrugged because it was so simple.

…

"Kyokugen hissatsu saikyou ougi. Tenchi Haou Ken. Kyokugen's final ultimate attack. Even, even with enough determination and mental fortitude, little girl – even if you are able to put 100% of your mass behind your punch, your weakened main body, your flesh, bones and your tendons, will be unable to withstand the equal and opposite reaction from the sudden discharge of mass destruction. It would result in immediate, irreparable damage." As you wallow in the folly of your ways, your mind and body will disintegrate, instantly.

With your main body cannibalized completely from the mass exchange, in order to fortify its molecular and spiritual structure, [it] would need something [else] in compensation.

So, what must I sacrifice?

….

…and even after all this, I still drift to the very distant past, confusing the present with yesterday. Because mayhaps I wanted to retreat to the dark crevices of those memories, where I know I would have no power. Where I can revel in my own weakness without guilt. Because. I know I can leisurely watch, and feel no guilt as I am simply unable to change any of it.

"I don't hire children… Go home."

"WAIT!" Yuri called out; She jumped forward to put both hands on the door… However, a slightly strange feeling raced in the back of the little girl's mind. A smell of sweet smelling orchids confused her. As if a pair of scissors had suddenly cut an array of film from the tattered old roll, the exact moment both her open palms slapped to a now closed door.

The record skipped erratically, momentarily, and now Yuri stood, alone, in front of a large wooden door in front of her in downtown Southtown.

Perplexed, she recalled… Yuri tilted her head to the side, furrowed her brows and looked down at her hands. She looked around, but she was all alone. So very alone…

…and she did not know what she was doing HERE.

THIS BLIND DESIRE.

…

"Hey."

"What." Yuri, 4 years old replied flatly.

"My name is Robert Garcia. Pleased to meet you."

"What?" Yuri looked forward. The sweet memory, every inch of the Sakazaki dojo, every detail was presented in extremely high resolution, down to the stinging sour smell of the fire retardant chemical from the treated tatami mats. A smell, though horrid, she had grown to love, as she reminisced about the old times, even the sad times, with tenderness. However, the little girl was so confused now, as she stared at a blank wall. She turned around, and only she existed in this empty room save herself, even though she felt as if something was missing.

IT OVERWHELMS YOU.

…

Yet, if given the chance – would I? Would I choose differently? In order to change my destiny?

"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.

The little girl tilted her head up – up to the night sky. She stretched her lips blandly to opposite sides of her face, so far that her dimples revealed themselves easily. She forced a small smile, but when that became too much of a burden she replaced her expression with one of melancholy as she continued to innocently shuffle her legs up and down on the grass.

A quiet time for a little girl, with only her - and how could she be lonely with the thousands and millions of stars in the sky above her. A lovely twinkling tapestry for only her to enjoy. Though after a slight moment, the clear night sky littered with diamonds and precious jewels slowly became blurry.

She did not completely understand it but Yuri ran the back of her arm over her eyes to wipe away tears that mysteriously began to flow feverishly from her eyes and down her cheeks.

"Eh…" Yuri chuckled nervously. She did not understand many things back when she was still 4 years old, and she did not understand why tears were suddenly flowing down her face.

"It would have been nicer…" she mused, "If there were friends with me now."

Yuri did not understand completely, but it felt natural for her to wrap her hands over her face and cry into them slowly as her voice broke and her shoulders shook uncontrollably.

IT DEVOURS YOU

…

I am so alone. Is it acceptable to reach heaven even if you are the only one left? It's okay.

"It's because I LOVE you." Yuri said, now fearless, after all this pain, after hundreds of thousands of words – speaking out loud to the darkness. It took a while for Yuri's eyes to focus, but she could clearly see the moon outside the window. THAT window. There was no answer. The dark room, the empty walls were there once again, to serve as the silent observers to the people who play actors in this twisted drama.

In times of extreme stress she…

Yuri found herself once again, in this place – the dark den in La Bijoux - she revisited time and time again, repeating the memory in her mind and hoping that, maybe, if she replayed it enough times, if like a broken record, or even a video cassette tape rewinded and played, rewinded and replayed until the film had frayed and was masked in static snow, the playback would eventually, randomly, spontaneously, change. That her regret would cease to exist, that she had somehow, SOMEHOW misremembered and it had not gone the way she recalled it.

A soft and warm, a rising eruption in her chest bubbled up in the hopes that it would end in a sparkling climax. With her arms out, she welcomed the finality that after all this PAIN, after all this REGRET she…

BUT…

IT IS TRUE, IT IS FAIR, AND SOME MAY GO SO FAR AS TO CALL THIS – [JUSTICE].

Yuri stopped. The smile of elation on her face had suddenly turned sour – a face of frigid horror when the realization had caught up with her. Just as when Adam and Eve bit off of the fruit of knowledge.

"Nnno…nn… No…" No. NO NO NO. Yuri cracked in fright, shaking her head in defiance at the FINAL realization – the clear and concise understanding of WHAT she had to give up. She was all alone in this place. "No, wait… please… I…" Now, feverishly her voice had broken down to groveling, tears GUSHING from her eyes.

NOT THIS. She gnashed her teeth in rage. Anything… ANYTHING, but... THIS….

You DO understand don't you?

"PLEASE, GOD, please." She, now broken, began to plead for mercy.

An EVIL yet JUST God reminded. You already completed a willing contract with me, and that you must abide with clear and conscious remuneration.

"So this is it. This is…" Yuri kept on talking, talking out loud because she instinctively realized that something very, very important was about to slip away from her grasp. Caught in between a world of sleep and wake, how little girls tried to keep on talking to themselves defiantly so they could remember the sweet, sweet dream they just had just as morning came to take away those wonderful thoughts. "Something else… not this… you have to take away some… thing…"

Yuri found herself in a dark room in La Bijoux, and just as she had once recalled her shirt was unbuttoned for some strange reason. She thought to herself, why were her arms stretched out, as if she was reaching out to something wonderful, to trap it in a warm embrace. So too did she wonder, why streams of tears had run down her face and peppered the floor under her. In the space between her toes.

The END of La Bizarre Love Pentagon – part 42.

Is it okay to reach HEAVEN alone? That, I ask to God.

JUSTICE does not recognize an emotional appeal, it does not distinguish between what is pleasing or fair, and what is anything else… Its course is virtuous as it is true - this is its luxury.

…

Should not LOVE, be a privilege, that everyone, be given equal opportunity to attain?

1993.

I am SO very tired of this story, and I so want to END it. Between you and me, even as the strands of memory hold me back.

The distinct SNIP, the sound of a pair of sharp scissors clipped an array of film, dropping it to the floor, to disappear. The colour from Yuri's eyes faded now into a plain milky white. The world erupted. Enveloping hell with blinding light. An innocent girl's last defiant cry. And I hope the words reached you. Out there.

This is the END… Yuri Sakazaki pulled back her right hand back, then, at the end of its apex she twisted her shoulder in a painful manner and as her muscles defied her, even when her master warned against it, she PULLED back 6 inches further…

Chains clinked when they pulled back taut, each and every one of Yuri's jagged fangs interlocked within the peaks and valleys of her monstrous mouth.

"SHIT!" Clark's lower back crunched and twisted at the strain as his body willed itself to turn and escape, pulling itself into three opposing directions all at once. But as a result made him freeze in place.

"Tenchi…" Heaven and Earth meet here.

…

KYOUKUGEN SAIKYOU OUGI.

TENCHI HAOU KEN.

Once again, for the final time Yuri Sakazaki's ultimate weapon launched headstrong into Clark's left eye. Yuri Sakazaki, 16 years old, daughter of Takuma Sakazaki, sister to Ryousuke Sakazaki, held no reservation – and would harbor not a shred of guilt when she came to the calm and clear understanding that the instant her punch connected with Clark's face, it would leave behind in its wake, certainly, a mist of crimson blood and remnants of pulsating bone and flesh. Now, the concept of MURDER and of JUSTICE was of equal par in order to face a MONSTER.

Chapter 128: the Saikyou Kougeki

…

The Saikyou Kougeki. The Ultimate Attack. I sometimes think to myself, when it is dark and lonely, do you think of me too? I wonder, what could be a word, like [nostalgia] – but a word that describes a feeling when you've forgotten something – once so very important, desperately trying to remember IT.

Yuri's right arm – now in slow motion – a straight and true trajectory calmly made its way to its intended destination. As the final realization hits you – that was what Clark thought – similar to being the helpless, silent observer to a horrible memory, one you are indeed powerless to change, Clark could not move when his mind pulled his body voraciously in three directions all at once.

But, let me ask you…

Pushing through the thick sludge that was the sequence and flow of time, Yuri's fist cleaved through the empty air in front of her, jackhammering slowly and purposely through the invisible concrete. It's flow, time was so slow now that her consciousness was totally aware and driving itself at a thousand miles per hour past a history that could not even keep up. Centimeter by centimeter, second by second her will, backed by four knuckles… a hundred percent of her heart, a hundred percent of her mind, a hundred percent…

…ask you a simple question…

As was promised, the heavy weight was immense - the tension was so severe, the individual fibers of her calves began to separate and fray that her heels dug into the concrete roof, cracking it, yet solidifying the mathematically impossible formula DEFYING ALL OF NEWTON'S LAWS of a hundred percent body supporting a hundred percent attack.

As time seeped away, so did the distance.

…a question… are you a girl, who had a cause that was virtuous…?

Then, at the end of its journey, the last six inches between Yuri's fist and Clark's left eye.

Yuri screamed out, but the sound that escaped her mouth was silent, when the irises of her eyes became a milky white when what was most important evaporated and was nowhere to be found now.

…or are you a boy, beholden… to a true promise he was obligated to see to the end?

The concrete cracked further, chunks of it tilting from the floor - jagged stalagmites erupted upwards. The muscles in Yuri's calves exploded, propelling her final attack to the very last final distance in an explosive rush.

…

Which character are [YOU]?

…

"Huhn."

"A." She gawked in denial.

The sides of Clark's smile curled round and round in a devilish spiral. The man's face had opened wide in a monstrous Cheshire cat grin.

…

How…

…

Yuri's shoulder was contorted, her elbow locked frozen in place. Her right arm was fully extended, so much that it felt like she had dislocated her arm at the joints in two places from the extreme inertia.

Yet, her knuckles floated in the air, just tens of millimeters from Clark's nose.

Clark sighed a soft breath, the aloof, despicable sense of confidence wafting from the glow in his face now. The man relaxed his shoulders, slouching forward before relaxing his posture backwards.

The horror on Yuri's face was clear to see when she realized that at the apex of her punch it had somehow stopped short by some inconceivable cruel destiny.

Some call this phenomenon, providence, but the question is, to whom is more deserving and to which side it would tilt in favour of in its final destination?

Yuri's hyperextended arm, her fist stopped short 15 centimeters from Clark's nose.

…