I do not own Dragonball Z, Justice League, Teen Titans, or Inuyasha
Chapter 03: Tainted Once More
Caliwone opened his eyes, his hunters instincts aroused by something not quite right. Almost like someone or something was watching him from the depths of the darkness that surrounded this little camp they had all made. His eyes roamed the darkness but not even his eyes could completely penetrate the curtain of black.
Inuyasha remained asleep in his upright position, eyes closed and his breathing slow and nearly silent. His sheathed blade of his Tessaiga rested between his crossed legs and threaded neatly through his folded arms. The dented and rusted looking hilt rested on his left shoulder from where Caliwone expected he would have easy and quick access to it should they be attacked. His ears gave the occasional turn and twitch that was very dog like as he unconsciously kept an ear open for danger.
Miroku's position was nearly mirror that of Inuyasha, his staff taking the same role as Inuyasha's sword and leaning his back up against the side of the small structure to which e had been summarily kicked out of by Sango as he had tried slyly to sneak in to where the women and Shippo were sleeping.
Kirara, Sango's demon saber tooth feline, slept between Inuyasha and Miroku in its full demon form; a not so subtle attempt to keep the heavy hitters outside with Caliwone to keep an eye on him. Even as Caliwone's eyes roamed through the darkness and across the others, Kirara's head lifted and locked eyes with Caliwone. Caliwone held the feline's eyes for a few moments then lifted himself silently into the air and to his feet.
Kirara stood as well, her stance and posture indicating that she was not sure whether he was going to attack or run. Caliwone waved a hand dismissively and made a sniffing motion, trying to communicate with the feline. Kirara cocked her head slightly and took a sniff as well, then sat back on her haunches and watched Caliwone lift himself off the ground again and hover silently away into the shroud; allowing both Inuyasha and Miroku to sleep peacefully.
He moved deep into the woods that lay none too far from the camp site, his mind stretched out and being sure to keep tabs on creatures who may pose a threat to him in his weakened state and ignoring the ones that could not. Far enough away from the camp, Caliwone lowered himself to the ground and continued onward on foot still more or less silently despite the spattering of downed branch's and sticks.
He peered hard into the shroud afforded by the tall overhanging trees and with its help, Caliwone's senses imagined the sight of a young woman in the kind of kimono this region seemed to prefer step out from behind a thick tree.
"So, you are Caliwone," the woman said, snapping closed what Caliwone could only guess was a fan of some sort. "I have heard a lot about you lately."
Caliwone cocked his head slightly in mock surprise. "Interesting since my arrival here was no more than mere hours ago. Someone has great informational resources."
The woman seemed to shrug slightly and for just the briefest moment, her fan caught the little light that had managed to stream down through the tree canopy and flash across her face. Like her voice, her eyes were sharp and wary and only in shape were they human. Her ears, pointed much like Beast Boy's from the Teen Titans immediately labeled her a demon in this era.
"In this area, news travels as quickly as the winds." She took a step toward him and Caliwone noted that not a sound reached his ears, nor did any wind rustle the leaves from her passage. It was as if she existed in a void of natural law. "I just felt compelled to warn you about your new friends."
Caliwone snorted derisively at that. "How kind of you although I have to wonder where a demon would find such kindness in her heart to do so. It's hard, I know. Trust me, I've been called one."
Caliwone could practically feel her smirk slightly, as if he, an alien, could be compared to a demon. "Fair enough. The man I work for-" the dark that surrounding her was too dark for Caliwone to see her scowl "-feels your presence here with those dangerous people is not good for him or his land."
"Oh really?" Caliwone said, amused. "And your boss is who, exactly?"
"His name is Naraku," the woman said. Even in this darkness, Caliwone could see her eyes glint.
"Naraku," Caliwone repeated. "Interesting. They say the same thing about him."
"And yet they hold secrets from you," Kagura said. "That girl recognized you from your present, correct? So she must be able to travel back and forth freely. Yet they hold that from you." Kagura tapped her closed fan lightly against her chin thoughtfully. "Why would they do that, I wonder?"
Caliwone thought that through for a moment. "I am a stranger to them," he answered. "Who says they have to tell me everything?"
"They don't," Kagura said. "But I would have thought that if they feared you, they would send you back to your time as soon as they could to be safe from you." She continued to walk toward him like a snake slithering toward her prey. "But if Inuyasha and the rest of his little band of friends intend on trapping you in this era, wouldn't that make them the bad guys here?" She came to a stop a few feet from Caliwone, close enough now for Caliwone to take in the details of her face. She lifted her left hand and opened it revealing a glowing purple shard of a jewel.
"Naraku is willing to show you how to return home and to your life provided you do a small favor for him."
Caliwone look hard into her unblinking face but did not reach out immediately. "Let me guess," Caliwone said. "Take out Inuyasha?"
"This shard of the Shikon jewel will return your missing powers to you," Kagura said for an answer. "You will need this to both defeat Inuyasha as well as to return to your own time. I suggest you do not lose it."
Caliwone narrowed his eyes slightly against the idea of doing someone else's bidding but if it meant returning back to Shayera and Kal-El... Well, he didn't much care for Inuyasha anyway. He hesitated once more then reached up and took the shard.
Inuyasha looked up as Caliwone strode back toward the group, a sour expression set on his face. Miroku was awake as well, standing pensively as the sun finally started its slow climb up past the horizon line. He turned as he heard Caliwone's approach and smiled as warmly as he could.
"Good morning, Caliwone," he said. "My, aren't you an early riser."
Caliwone ignored him and went straight to Inuyasha.
"What's your problem?" Inuyasha asked, standing up as he realized that he was the focus of Caliwone's attention. He didn't have a chance to say anything else. With a mighty swing, Caliwone's fist slammed into Inuyasha's face with enough force to shatter concrete. Inuyasha's head smashed into the ground and slid. With impressive speed, Inuyasha slapped a hand onto the ground and vaulted himself back to his feet.
Miroku was fast, alright. Before Inuyasha had even finished sliding, Miroku had stepped forward, lifting his right fist and dropping the cloth that covered his right palm.
"What's the matter with you?" he shouted, looking angrily at the Saiyan.
"Showing your true colors after all," Inuyasha snarled, his fangs barred as he pulled out his Tessaiga. "Fine. You asked for it."
Caliwone's face darkened subtly, although Miroku was not sure whether the effect was due to the rising sun or some inner demon ready to burst forth. "You have kept secrets from me," Caliwone snarled. "You know the way back to the present, yet you have hidden that truth for me." Energy sparked dangerously. "You intend to leave me stranded in this pathetic penitence of a world full of demons and weaklings. Abandonment in a perennial Hell."
"You've lost your mind-" Inuyasha started to say but Caliwone didn't wait for words. With a roar, golden light erupted around the Saiyan with enough force to shake the ground upon which they stood. His hair flashed to blonde as did his eyebrows. His eyes turned ice blue as the air around him sparked and sizzled with erratic energy.
Despite the danger he was in as Caliwone's fist slammed into the flat of his blade, Inuyasha marveled at the speed and power of which this alien commanded. It was like nothing he had ever faced before. Raw power.
The image of Ryukotsusei flashed through his mind briefly before his mind was forced to focus on his recovery from the blow. In flash of realization, he realized that he was suddenly fifty feet backwards from where he had started and where Miroku was left to spare with the Saiyan. With a snarl of irritation, Inuyasha hurried back.
Miroku, having decided that a purely physical attack would be highly unsuccessful, he had pulled out several sutra scrolls and was trying hard to find a spiritual spell that would halt the brute. Already there were several sutra's stuck to Caliwone, sparking and sizzling in some cases but Caliwone casually ignored them as he lifted a single hand to point at Miroku.
"Caliwone, calm down for a minute so we can talk," Miroku yelled over the roar of Caliwone's aura. From the small building, Sango, fully dressed in her demon slaying uniform and carrying her Hiraikotsu rushed out to stand beside Miroku. Kagome peeked out of the building as well, a bow and arrow held ready in her hand while Shippo quivered at her feet.
"This is how he is in my time as well," Kagome shouted and leveled her bow and arrow at him. Her eyes widened suddenly as she caught sight of something glowing in his chest.
There was a flare as Caliwone readied a bolt, red energy warping the air around his hand. Swearing, Inuyasha lifted his blade and slammed it to the ground. "WIND SCAR!"
The ground erupted in a wave of fire ahead of the half demon. Caliwone turned, a look of surprised crossing his angered face before the attack struck home. The Saiyan was blown backwards, engulfed and disappeared in the flash.
Inuyasha let out a long breath but kept his blade ready. Through his connection with the Tessaiga, he had felt the attack hit but not obliterate. Which meant that Caliwone was probably still alive. The dust cleared, revealing Caliwone walking forward in the middle the destroyed ground, not so much as limping from the blow.
Inuyasha gritted his teeth. "Had enough yet, psycho?"
For answer, Caliwone lifted off the ground slightly and the red warping energy returned to his right hand. "Yes, I have." The energy built, dangerously so and Inuyasha became suddenly aware of Kaede's village directly in the path of this battle. Even now, he could see the terrified eyes of the children and women that lived there, the angry helpless eyes of the men. Their fates rested solely on him.
"Get out of the way," Inuyasha snapped at Sango and Miroku. He dashed forward, stepping directly in between him and the village and raising his blade once more. Caliwone was barely able to be seen now, his body hidden by the red glow of his attack. He could sense the flow of energy in the attack, twisting and rolling as if in agony. Quietly, Inuyasha smiled.
With a roar, Caliwone fired his Sphere of Destruction, the ground ripped itself apart as if a gravity well stronger than mother Earth's was pulling it apart. With only half an ear, he could hear Kagome scream but knew that Miroku or Kirara would be sure to keep her safe. Lifting his blade, Inuyasha blasted his own attack. "BACKLASH WAVE!"
His Wind Scar streaked out and pierced the attack to its heart. There was a moment of hesitation and then, impossibly, the attacks burst into tornado's. Caliwone drew back, retreating as his own attack whirled toward him. He barely dodged the first on but it turned, tracking him. In a burst of gold, Caliwone tore upward, trying to escape the onslaught, this sudden reversal. There were too many of them. Another set of tornados honed in and just when all hope seemed lost for the enraged Saiyan, a bolt of lightning lanced down through the center of the Backlash Wave, neutralizing it.
Inuyasha stared in complete disbelief as Caliwone floated unharmed back down to the grown. Inuyasha stood dumbfounded as he say his attack disappear around him until he saw what the lightning had brought. Two figures now sat in the clearing smoke. One was a large, three eyed cow, its jaw working slightly as it stared blankly into the clearing sky. The second figure both Inuyasha and Caliwone recognized.
"Oooh!" the man wailed, tears falling from his bulging eyes as Totosai climbed off his cow and brandished a sheathed sword in one hand. "What have you done? What have you done?"
"Hey, old man," Inuyasha shouted from behind Totosai. "We are in the middle of a battle here. And thanks for killing my attack, by the way. Why don't you get out of here?"
"You," Totosai wailed, turning his back to Inuyasha as if the half demon wasn't there at all. "My greatest work, ruined by the likes of you."
Caliwone watched the old man walk closer, vaguely remembering that he owed this man a great deal of pain...for some reason. But the reason didn't matter to him much. As Totosai approached, Caliwone's left hand shot out and grabbed Totosai around the throat.
"Let go of him," Miroku shouted, raising his right hand warningly.
The Saiyan scoffed, his eyes only briefly diverted from the stupid man who had foolishly approached him. His eyes returned to the old man, his mind struggling silently behind his icy expression as to how he knew this man.
"Let him go, Caliwone."
Caliwone frowned slightly as he directed his attention toward the voice that seemed to command such authority. His sense's flared at the tingling of power as his eyes fell upon the girl, Kagome. Her bow was held ready in her hands with an arrow held ready against the taut string.
"I can see your jewel shard," Kagome said, her voice still with the tone of command in it.
"A jewel shard?" Sango asked.
"Where is it?" Inuyasha asked darkly.
"In the center of his chest," Kagome reported. "Just to the right."
Caliwone sent a snarl in Kagome's direction and in that instant, Inuyasha leaped forward and brought his mighty Tessaiga slashing downward. Caliwone easily sidestepped the attack, allowing the blade to miss him but the reflexive move opened his chest to Kagome's arrow. Before he could move, the arrow struck him dead on target. Impossibly, the arrow threw Caliwone backwards with incredible force. His grip was lost by the surprise of the attack and Totosai fell to the ground as Caliwone was slammed into a tree twenty feet back.
Caliwone looked down at the arrow and was surprised again to see the arrow had not penetrated his skin at all. It hovered an inch from his skin, a dark glow surrounding the arrow and a darker glow emanating from the sacred jewel shard in his chest. There was a crack and his Super Saiyan state dropped in unison with the darkness in the shard. The arrow fell harmlessly to the ground and stuck itself between his feet.
He rubbed his head with one hand, confused with what was happening around him. He looked up and found himself staring at the sharp tip of Inuyasha's blade. Inuyasha himself, along with the rest of his group, all stood around him brandishing their various weapons. He couldn't have cared less about that but the anger he felt at his own lack of control was unbearable.
He stood up and ripped out the jewel shard that Kagura had given him. He held it up for a cursory examination, than wrapped his fingers around it.
"Wait," Miroku said urgently and Caliwone looked at him. "We need that shard. Please don't destroy it." Caliwone considered for a moment then tossed the shard to Miroku and brushed past Inuyasha.
"Where did you get that?" Kagome asked, stepping in front of the Saiyan and blocking his path with fire in her eyes.
Caliwone looked down imperiously at her for a moment, curious to see if she be frightened enough to move out of his way but she remained unmoved. Apparently, she had a stronger sense of courage than she had displayed earlier. "Some woman named Kagura," Caliwone said at last. He looked around as he sensed the sudden tension from the others. "You are familiar?"
"More than familiar, I would say," Miroku said with simmering hatred.
"She is an incarnation from a very dangerous demon," Sango said.
"Naraku," Inuyasha said with a snarl.
Caliwone looked between them, his face emotionless but a simmering rage beginning to burn in his soul. "This Naraku," he asked carefully. "He is a demon of this world, is he?"
"A half demon, yes," Sango said. Despite the turn this conversation had taken, she remained on guard around him, not allowing the conversation to lower her defenses. A professional indeed. "He fell in love with a priestess that he could not have when he was badly injured and made a pact with a thousand of demons to restore his body." Sango gave a slightly uneasy look over at Inuyasha.
"That Priestess was named Kikyo," Miroku said, picking up where Sango had left off. "She was the protector of the Sacred Jewel when it was still whole. You were given a small shard of that very same jewel and look what power it afforded you. He killed Kikyo in order to obtain that jewel but a series of events prevented him from obtaining it. Kikyo, as she was dying, asked that the jewel be burned along with her body to take it out of this world all together." He placed his hands together in front of his face and bowed his head slightly. "A very noble act."
"Right," Caliwone said dryly. "Yet the jewel remains."
All eyes very briefly turned to Kagome.
"Kagome is my sister Kikyo's reincarnation from 500 years into thy future," Kaede spoke up. "With her return to this time, she unknowingly brought the jewel back into existence."
"Yeah, ok," Inuyasha said with the aire of strained patience. "If you want to know the whole story, go read the manga. Shall we continue here?"
Caliwone nodded slightly and turned back to the strange old man.
Totosai was right where Caliwone had dropped him, laying on his back and staring off into space with his sheathed sword clutched in both arms. Caliwone stood over him for a minute before nudging him slightly with one booted foot.
"You awake, old man?"
It took a few moments for the old man to respond, but when he did, it was sudden. "Oh, how horrible," he wailed. "Look what you have done! Ruined!"
"Get a grip, old man," Caliwone admonished disdainfully. "What are you talking about?"
"What's your problem, Totosai?" Inuyasha asked as well, walking up next to Caliwone but neglected to sheath his sword, Caliwone noticed. Inuyasha sent Caliwone a withering look before returning his attention to Totosai.
"I haven't seen you this upset since Sesshomaru demanded you make a sword for him," Sango said, stepping to Miroku's side.
"Worse," Totosai wailed, his bulbous eyes rolling slightly as if in agony. "Far worse." He pointed a finger dramatic at Caliwone.
There was silence for a moment as all in the party waited for Totosai to finish his accusation.
"Spit it out, old man," Inuyasha snapped, finding himself as low on patience as the Saiyan.
Caliwone reached down and pulled the Totosai off the ground and to his feet with one strong arm. "Enough games. Speak before I rip your tongue out and you speak no more."
Totosai raised the sword for Caliwone to see. Taking it, Caliwone let Totosai fall back to the ground on his back. It was a simple blade sheathed in a simple wood sheath with gold trim running around the edges and down the sides. Even to Caliwone's untrained eyes in craftsmanship, he could tell that it had been designed by a true master. Caliwone pulled the weapon clear and examined the sharp new blade but saw nothing else special about it.
"What about this thing?" Caliwone scoffed, dropping the sheath down onto Totosai and letting the blade fall into the ground. It sank into the ground halfway up to its hilt.
"It won't work for anyone else," Totosai said, sitting up and looking imploringly up at Caliwone. "Not even me."
"What are you talking about?" Caliwone said. "Are you afraid it's going to bite you?"
Totosai didn't say anything right away. "Only the swords true owner may reveal its inner power."
"What, you mean like an energy weapon or something?" Caliwone asked, then his eyes brushed across Inuyasha's Tessaiga. "Wait," he said as the implications finally clicked in his head. "Do you mean like dog ears' sword?"
"Who are you calling dog ears, monkey boy?" Inuyasha snarled.
"Watch your tongue, half breed," Caliwone snapped back.
"Enough, children," Miroku said, clapping his hands together to get their attention, the rings on his staff jingling slightly. "Totosai, can you please explain this?"
"Well," Totosai started. "I'm not really sure. I can only guess that when you came crashing down into my home while I was in the process of finalizing this sword, some of your blood or hair got thrown into the final mix and changed the nature of the sword entirely. Because of your alien nature, the sword will only respond to you and your alien aura."
"It doesn't matter," another voice said from behind them all. They turned and saw a taller demon with long flowing white hair, missing left arm, and decidedly more demonic look to his step. A Prussian blue crescent marked the center of his forehead along with two magenta stripes on each cheek. A cloud-like sash flowed over his right shoulder to trail behind him with nearly the same grace as his walk while a spiked pauldron reached over his left shoulder.
He reached his remaining arm to his left side, a slow and purposeful movement, and drew out his sword. "He is an abomination not meant for this world and I will see to it that he is erased from it."
To be continued...