After many long moments of silence, the knight removed the helmet of the armor, revealing an almost femininely-beautiful face, youthful, flawless, and possessing of an supreme arrogance that was almost tangible in its magnitude.
Thin lips and a sharp nose led up to a prominent forehead, framed by a great mane of silvery-gray hair which arched over his head and descended down his back, falling like a waterfall in a myriad of colors, at one instant sheer white, and the next a black deeper than any thousand nights.
But it was the eyes, those unearthly eyes which held and captivated the assembled crowd. Glowing with an unearthly inner light, the green agates seemed to contain within them to full sum of creation. Heaven and hell, all held within a prisms of perfect emerald.
Prisms which were completely devoid of anything resembling compassion or human emotion.
They were...alien.
Of course, not being a Japanese native, so were Cologne's. But that's beside the point.
"How many years has it been, old woman?" the figure spoke, smiling coldly. "How many years since you lent me your....help," he spoke the last with a tone of obvious distaste.
Cologne narrowed her eyes, momentarily ignoring the rising murmur of voices behind her. "Do I know you?" she asked carefully. She didn't like this one bit. The presence the tall man exuded suggested that he should be emitting enough chi energy to power Tokyo, but instead she felt...nothing. And that's what worried her.
It was one of the primary tenants of martial arts: everything contains ki; it is the force which supports and sustains, the breath of creation and the spirit of life. Every plant, every animal, every rock, every person, every being had ki. Even corpses had ki.
Yet, the man before her had none.
It was almost like he was a self-contained void, a black hole which absorbed and negated the universal force. Cologne couldn't stop herself from shuddering. This man's very presence could rip the world's leylines asunder.
"You wound me," the man smirked, "how many hours did we spend, simply talking? Me the pupil, you the teacher, listening eagerly as you fed me lie after lie, poisoning my ears? Not that we could do much else. Cross-dimensional communication does have its limits, after all..." the man said with an exaggerated sigh.
Cologne's eyes turned searching for a minute, then suddenly widened, accompanied by a quick intake of breath. "You...!" she gasped.
"Yes, me," he replied coldly, his eyes suddenly piercing her own, all traces of pleasantness banished. "I should think that you of all people would remember my name, old woman. If it weren't for you, I would have achieved my dream. My one perfect dream, my absolute ideal. You were the one responsible for ruining it, not that woman, not even that boy. I asked for guidance and you fed me lies. How many actions, how many plans gone wrong? You set me up to fail, woman, and for that, I shall see you dead!"
"Sounds like Ryouga," Ranma noted from his position in front of the TV. Akane rebutted with a mallet to the head.
"Hear me, now!" he suddenly yelled, his voice reverberating through the assembled throng. "I hold in my hands the scales of fate. You are to be judged and I am to be your executer, fate has decreed it such! However, if you and your world consent to give me the head of this woman, I shall personally guarantee the safety of this world...for 100 years."
"And at the end?" Setsuna asked coldly.
The man smiled coldly. "Fate is a harsh mistress. Your lives are assured, but your children's are forfeit. Neither life nor death can escape her judgement for long." The man suddenly straightened up and turned back towards the portal, "I shall return for your judgement in 24 hours. I suggest you decide before then."
The assembled fighters watched with a sense of dread as the figure departed the way he came, his dissappearance carrying with it the almost tangible air of malign that had settled over the hushed crowd.
"Great-grandmother?" Shampoo asked somewhat shakily, "Who that? How you know him?"
Cologne resisted the urge to correct her granddaughter's atrocious grammer. Now was neither the time, nor the place. With the proclamation issued, this had the potential to turn very ugly very quickly.
Clearing her throat, she turned to address her granddaughter, unaware that the assembled TV crews were currently broadcasting her on national television. She probably would have been annoyed by the fact that the censors were blocking out her face "for the good of all involved."
"Child, listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you. A long time ago I used an ancient Amazon artifact to contact a being in another dimension. He was...nothing short of a madman. He had designs upon the inhabitants of his own dimension, and I purposely guided him towards failure. I had not thought that he had survived, but...well...life surprises you sometimes."
"Aiyah! That too-too bad Great-Grandmother, but what his name?!"
"Show some respect for your elders, girl," Cologne barked, absentmindedly cracking her granddaughter over the head with her cane, drawing outraged crys from hormone-addled perverts and animal cruelty officials across the nation. "His name...is..."
(Posted Tue, 04 Feb 2003 00:05)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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