"Howard Waldrop - Man Mountain Gentian" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

of the ring. The two of them stayed tensely immobile on their respective
marks.
Killer Kudzu's neck muscles strained. With his left hand he reached and
quickly opened the votive box.
Man-Mountain Gentian and the other wrestlers on the east side of the arena
drew in their breath.
Ground Sloth Ikimoto was a vegetarian and always had been. In training for
traditional sumo, he had shunned the chunkonabe, the communal stew of fish,
chicken, meat, eggs, onions, cabbage, carrots, turnips, sugar, and soy sauce.
Traditional sumotori ate as much as they could hold twice a day, and their
weight gain was tremendous.
Ikimoto had instead trained twice as hard, eating only vegetables, starches,
and sugars. Meat and eggs had never once touched his lips.
What Killer Kudzu brought out of the box was a cheeseburger. With one swift
movement he bit into it only half a meter from Ground Sloth's face.
Ikimoto blanched and started to scream. As he did, he lifted into the air as
if chopped in the chest with an ax, arms and legs flailing, a wail of
revulsion coming from his emptied lungs.
He passed the bales marking the edge of the ring one foot dragging the ground,
upending a boundary bale-and smashed to the ground between the ring and the
bales at the plastic walls.
The referee signaled Killer Kudzu the winner. As he squatted the gyoji offered
him a small envelope signifying a cash prize from his sponsors. Kudzu, left
hand on his knee, with his right hand made three chopping gestures from the
left, right, and above thanking man, earth, and heaven. Kudzu took the
envelope, then stepped through the doorway of the plastic enclosure and left
the arena to rejoin the other west-side wrestlers.
The audience of eleven thousand was on its feet as one, cheering. Across Japan
and around the world, two hundred million viewers watched television.
Ground Sloth Ikimoto had risen to his feet, bowed, and left by the other door.
Attendants rushed in to repair the damaged ring. Man-Mountain Gentian looked
up at the scoring clock. The entire match had taken a mere 4.1324 seconds.
It was three-twenty in the afternoon on the fourteenth day of the Tokyo
invitational tournament.
The next match would pit Cast Iron Pekowski of Poland against the heavily
favored Hokkaidan, Typhoon Takanaka.
After that would be Gentian's bout with the South African, Knockdown
Krugerrand. Man-Mountain Gentian stood at 13-0 in the tournament, having
defeated an opponent each day so far. He wanted to retire as the first Grand
Champion to win six tournaments in a row, undefeated. He was not very worried
about his contest with Knockdown Krugerrand slated for later this afternoon.
Tomorrow, though, the last day of the January tournament, his opponent would
be Killer Kudzu, who after this match also stood undefeated at 14-0.
Man-Mountain Gentian was 1.976 meters tall and weighed exactly two hundred
kilos. He had been a sumotori for six years, had been yokozuna for the last
two of those. He was twice holder of the Emperor's Cup. He was the highest
paid, most famous Zensumotori in the world.
He was twenty-three years old.
He and Knockdown Krugerrand finished their shikiris. They got on their marks.
The gyoji flipped his fan.