InuYasha Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Not Your Normal 9 to 5 ❯ Showdown ( Chapter 12 )

A/n Well folks here is the next chapter and also the next three afterwards to complete the story. I had a stroke of inspiration and was able to nail the end of the story in quick succession. Enjoy


Chapter 12: Showdown

"KAGOME!"

Kagome's eye's snapped open when her name was called the second time, not from the valley across from her, but from above and behind her. The energy blast was almost on top of her now, the one that would end her short life, when a form swooped out of the sky. It looked like a bird but with a popping noise the bird changed form into the familiar shape of the fox kit she had grown to love. Shippo landed in front of her and raised his hands towards the incoming blast.

"Fox Fire!" he cried and to Kagome's amazement, as well as all the onlookers, an azure blaze swept up around Shippo and Kagome, forming a flaming dome. The Energy blast connected with the dome, and time seemed to freeze. The initial impact almost caused Shippo to pass out. This was nothing like rocks or water. He figured the only real reason he maintained the shield was his fierce desire to protect Kagome. The two energies flickered and snapped against each other for domination. Kalin's orb crushing down into the fiery dome.

Shippo pushed back as hard as he could, but he could tell that the blast would break through if he tried using brute force. He could feel the energy impacting his shield and started to use the technique Lennex had shown him. The energy instead of staying in one point on the shield, started wrapping around it and flowing off harmlessly. Shippo continued to divert the energy around his shield watching as the orb grew smaller and smaller until finally it was gone.

He had done it. He saved Kagome. He let the shield drop, falling to his knees, and wiping the beads of sweat that had accumulated across his forehead. It wasn’t much longer before his friends joined them. Inuyasha went straight for Kagome, to make sure she was ok. Sango and Miroku touched down on Kirara and while glancing at Kagome to see that she was not harmed, their eyes rested on Shippo. The fox gave them a little grin as he continued to catch his breath. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to stare directly into the golden eyes of Inuyasha. Shippo was vaguely aware of Kagome smiling down at him from Inuyasha's side, but the thing that had his attention was the look of pride and joy in Inuyasha's eyes.

"Looks like you’re not totally useless after all runt." He spoke to Shippo. But while the words were nonchalant, Shippo could hear the real emotion behind them. He had surprised his friends and came through when it counted. The rest of his friends started to ask him questions along the lines of where he had learned this new trick, and a few questions about where he had left Lennex and what had happened on their journey. Shippo would have been glad to answer them all, but a loud scream interrupted them.

They looked into the sky to see Kalin; his arms raised and head tilted back, shouting at the top of his lungs. His aura seemed to increase and flicker violently around him, looking as if it was getting stronger still. He finally stopped shouting and looked back down at them

"Glad to finally have your attention back you fools. The little demon deflected one blast, and the effort almost toppled him. I wonder if he has the stamina to do it again." He dropped his hands towards them, another orb starting to form.

The group tensed, knowing what was coming. Shippo knew that Kalin was right, another blast like that and there was no way he could stop it. He'd need to train a lot more to do this on a regular basis. He could also feel the power building into this next ball of raw power. It was slowly rising to the power of the previous one, but Shippo knew it would be stronger, just so Kalin could prove his point. The rest seemed to know it also. He watched Miroku dismount Kirara, but remain by Sango's side, knowing she couldn’t really walk on her injured leg. He gripped his hand, which Shippo could now see was badly burned, but readied to use the wind tunnel to protect his friends if he had to. He watched as Inuyasha gripped Tetsusaiga and readied it in a defensive stance. He watched Kagome knock an arrow and Sango ready the Hiraikotsu.

Shippo understood one thing in that moment. The gestures were not just his friends being brave, or refusing to go down without a fight. They all knew that their attacks were not phasing this enemy, but they were not thinking about themselves. They were thinking about each other. Trying to save each other instead of themselves. It’s what drove their desire to fight, and it’s what made these individuals a real family. It was something Shippo could gladly accept and make his own. He stood even with his friends instead of behind them like normal, and summoned his fox magic. The fire started to glow around his hands, a physical representation to his power. He could see his friends glance out of the corner of their eyes at him and nod their approval. Inuyasha voiced their thoughts.

"Glad to have you with us Shippo." he said and tightened the grip on his sword once more as he watched Kalin’s energy orb expand at an alarming rate. It was now the size of a large boulder. They could see swirls of energy coursing through it as if it were alive.

Kalin looked down at them and saw their futile gestures of resistance. "Try blocking this one!" He called out and prepared to throw the killing blow.

A sizzling sound from the east caused Kalin to glance in that direction and what he saw made him loose all concentration on his own attack. He quickly flew backwards, his energy attack dissipating due to lack of concentration as another Ki blast came rocketing forward. Kalin dodged the attack and watched in surprise and shock as it impacted into the cliff face underneath his partners.

What had once been delight and satisfaction turned into shock and dismay in the eyes of Naraku and his group. The blast impacted below their feet and vaporized the rock, causing the ground beneath them to crumble and fall. Kohaku quickly grabbed onto Kanna and leapt backwards, finding solid ground once more. Naraku and Hakadoshi stood next to each other as a barrier formed around them, keeping them afloat. Kagura, seeing the two safe cursed Naraku as she fell. It wouldn’t have taken him any more power to include her in the field but instead he let her fend for herself. She quickly grabbed a feather from her hair and transformed it into a large feather boat that could ride the wind. She rose up next to Naraku, glaring at her master. How she despised him right now. But Naraku wasn’t paying attention to her. He slowly set down next to Kohaku and the barrier faded. She followed suit and jumped out of her floating feather and looked at what had Naraku's attention. Like Naraku, the site caused her to frown.

From the valley floor, another group looked up into the sky, only with them, what they saw brought smiles to their faces. Especially Shippo's.

"It’s about time you finally got here!" The fox called out, laughter in his every word.

Kalin, after seeing his master safe on a stable part of the cliff face quickly turned back after hearing Shippo. He looked in the direction the blast had come from and he could no longer keep surprise from his face. A man floated in the air, close enough to be seen easily, but still a good distance from himself. This stranger wore almost the same pants as Kalin wore, but instead of a vest, he wore what looked to be a tight fitting black shirt covered by an outer gi top. The colors of the outer shirt and pants were a dark blue. Around his wrists were blue bands, designed to keep sweat from slicking up the hands in a fight. This man had his arms crossed and smirked at Kalin in absolute insolence. He quickly dropped to the ground to stand next the half demon and his friends. Watching this man do everything Kalin had been able to do was enough to send him into a momentary lapse of action.

Naraku cursed his indecision. He recognized this man. He was the one that had dared to glare at him, the night Kalin had made his appearance at Inuyasha's village. He should have killed him then and there. If he had done so, Inuyasha would be dead by now.

As Lennex landed on the ground, he noticed his new friends staring at him with wide eyes. He noticed their injuries right away and cringed inwardly. Had he been any later.... He chose not to think on that. Like he had told Korin on his departure, no one was dead so there was still time to help out. He looked down at Shippo.

"Nice job Shippo. As I was racing here, I could feel you using the shield technique. I was on edge for the first part of that little battle, but I’m glad you pulled through like I taught you."

"You and me both!" Kagome piped up. Inuyasha nodded and looked at Lennex.
"The runt was able to save Kagome with whatever it is that you taught him."

Lennex grinned ear to ear and said "I told you I'd have your mind changed on how useful he was in a fight."

Inuyasha made a noise that sounded something keh and turned away, but Lennex saw the pride in his eyes. He knew Inuyasha wouldn’t doubt Shippo again. He greeted both Miroku and Sango, and saw the bruises on both their faces, among other injuries.

Kalin watched this entire interaction from the air and finally had had enough. He formed a ball of energy, no were near as big as the one he was forced to abandon and fired. The blast raced for the group on the ground.

Inuyasha noticed it first and the rest quickly saw it for themselves. The only one who didn’t see it was Lennex, who had his back turned and was still talking to Miroku and Sango about the way they looked tired and worn out from their journey. The blast was almost on top of them when Lennex calmly turned to present his profile to the energy ball, and just as calmly raised his hand and backhand the lethal ball of Ki. The blow sent the destructive blast harmlessly off towards the horizon before disappearing from view, and Lennex did all this without missing a beat in his sentence.

"So I think you guys should rest up a bit. Sit this one out and let me handle this guy." Lennex said throwing a thumb over his shoulder at the now gaping Kalin.
"Do me a favor though and keep an eye on our friends on the cliff. I don’t want any surprises from them."

Inuyasha nodded looking up at Naraku. He seemed to be in the same state as Kalin was, and secretly Inuyasha was a bit beside himself also. The trouble they had had with those attacks, and Lennex just knocked it away without paying hardly any attention to it.

The group nodded their agreement to the new plan, thankful for the reprieve.

Lennex smiled again and turned around, rising up into the air until he was level with Kalin.

"It seems I wasn’t the only one working on raising their power in this land." Kalin stated flatly. The man across from him smiled back at him

"You could say that. Although I didn’t have to cheat to raise my power by using pieces of a magical jewel." The barb was untrue. Lennex had used the Dragonballs to transform himself into a Sayjin to gain the power he needed at the time, but Kalin didn’t know that, and the jab worked. Kalin immediately bristled and the same purplish black aura flared up around him. His power level rising as he got angry. Lennex didn’t mind though. After all, this was a whole new ball game.

A bright white aura flared up around Lennex, showing Kalin that the game wasn’t going to be as easy anymore. It flickered and flared just as Kalin's did.

"Shall we begin?" Lennex asked mockingly.

Kalin darted forward. To the onlookers on the cliffs and ground, it looked as if he disappeared and then reappeared right in front of Lennex, throwing his right hand into Lennex's face, only Lennex wasn’t there anymore. In the same blink of an eye Lennex had seemed to blur out and was now behind Kalin. Kalin spun around to receive a blow to the face. The attack sent Kalin spiraling through the air before he was able to right himself and stop his flight. He looked back and saw Lennex once again grinning. He heard the cheers from the ground, egging Lennex on.


Inuyasha couldn’t help joining the rest of his friends in their cheers at the first solid hit scored on Kalin. He thought he maybe would have felt a little annoyed at not being able to take care of his own fight, but Inuyasha was smart enough to understand that these powers were new and different then a demon's normal abilities. While his Iron Reaver, Blades of Blood, and most notably, his Adamant Barrage attack were able to cut through the man's defenses, the blatant speed and ease at which these two men were flying around in the sky, and slamming into each other, was quite different indeed. He continued to watch as Lennex and Kalin traded blows again.

Lennex increased his speed to the point of blurring out from his original position and racing to appear right in front of Kalin, leg bent and ready to deliver a side kick. The kick met empty air as Kalin disappeared. Lennex cursed himself for being to careless when something slammed into his back. He quickly turned to see Kalin behind him.

"Look familiar." The man asked him and Lennex realized that in the short time they were fighting, Kalin had learned the maneuver he had first used against him. Maybe the jewel wasn’t the only strength Kalin had after all. Lennex zipped forward and threw a right cross connecting with Kalin’s face, sending him soaring to the left. Lennex followed and hit him again, changing direction of his flight to upwards in the air. Lennex raced past Kalin and stopped above him, readying a strike to send Kalin crashing to the ground.

Kalin had other ideas. He saw his enemy above him and quickly reached out, his hands closed around Lennex's ankles and Kalin stopped his momentum and started spinning. The move caught the Sayjin off guard and Lennex found himself being swung around. Kalin let go and watched his opponent spin down to the ground. When Lennex hit, the Earth shook and an explosion of rock and dirt flew into the sky and fell back to rest.

Kagome put her had to her mouth in shock as she watched Lennex disappear into the ground. The people around her also started at the blow. Moments later they were able to relax as the dust cleared and they saw Lennex standing in the crater he made, calmly brushing the dirt from his clothes. He looked over at them and winked before blasting off the ground to reengage Kalin. The two traded punches and kicks so fast that their audience was unable to follow the movements.

Lennex had to admit that Kalin was good. In his own time he may have been able to become a great fighter, but instead he took the easy way out by dealing with Naraku. But during the fight Lennex had steadily put more and more into his moves and power, and Kalin had kept up with him. Impressive indeed, but Lennex was a Sayjin, and there was no way Kalin would be able to compete with that kind of power. Lennex went into a punch combo followed by a reverse kick, and was surprised at the ease at which Kalin had evaded the move. Kalin had been doing that lately to him. There were certain moves that Kalin was blindsided by and then there were moves that he seemed to be able to come out of without a scratch. Lennex tried to find a pattern to his discovery but had to put it on hold as Kalin came in throwing kick after kick at Lennex's head.

Lennex evaded the blows and counterattacked. Once again, some of his moves met with success, while others met with utter failure. He started experimenting with some of his techniques. Mixing some combos from Piccolo's fighting style with that of Goku's or Vegeta's and then repeated the process merging his three fighting styles. He mostly used them in conjunction, but for some reason that wasn’t working this time. After a few more trial and errors he was able to make an educated guess. Every blow he tried using Goku's techniques were shrugged off or blocked easily. He would have to stop using that style all together. It was a good thing he had two other styles to draw from. Well three if you counted his martial arts training when he was a human. He would have pondered the thought further but Kalin was back on the offensive.

He dodged each blow, quite content with his head attached to his body and readied for a counter attack. If Lennex was right, Kalin had reached his limit. During the brief skirmish he had steadily increased his power and Lennex matched him. It was time to finish this.

Lennex kicked out, sending his attacker away from him and quickly shot his power to the max, just below the barrier of Super Sayjin. He felt a small tug in the back of his mind when he accessed the power. That invisible wall was trying to rebuild itself, but luckily Lennex was able to keep it down. The higher he went however, the stronger the wall tried to come back. He ignored it for the time being, knowing that in a few moments it would all be over. He finished powering up and a white aura appeared around him during the increase. He looked calmly down at Kalin.

"This ends now, you can’t beat me, and you never could." Lennex called out. Kalin’s face turned red in anger and his power shot up a little more, but no were near strong enough to compete. Kalin struck and struck but never once hit Lennex. The Sayjin calmly crossed his arms and moved only when necessary. A head roll to the left, turning to his side, to let a kick fly by. He learned this little trick from Vegeta. Look as if your opponent was boring you, and he would become angry enough to make a mistake. Not that Lennex needed a mistake to win this, but he liked rubbing it in Kalin’s face that he wasn’t as strong as he thought he was.

Kalin gave a warriors cry and punched straight forward, putting everything he had into his punch. This time Lennex didn’t move and the fist connected on Lennex's right cheekbone. Everyone, including Kalin, gasped in surprise as Lennex calmly stared back at Kalin. The fist still outstretched in the punch, but Lennex's head didn’t even twitch. To Lennex, the blow felt as if a feather had fallen on his cheek. He couldn’t resist another barb.

"That all you got?" He bit out, trying his best to sound as cold and cruel as Vegeta did when facing an enemy.

Kalin gritted his teeth and quickly put some distance between them, charging up and energy blast. He fired and the ball hit Lennex with the same effect as the punch. Kalin fired again and again, each blast coming faster then the next, showing the desperation he was feeling in trying to regain control of the fight that, minuets earlier, he had been winning.

Lennex just sat there in the air, taking each blast without a problem. Shippo stared up at his friend and knew that he would definitely have to work to make his shield that strong, but at least he had perception. Shippo was able to see, or rather feel the energy barrier that Lennex had formed around him. His barrier was almost a second skin and that’s why his friends were seeing the blasts hit him and not harm him. Shippo was grateful for the new skills he had once again. He watched as Kalin willed another energy blast into existence with both hands and hurled it at Lennex.

The blast exploded on contact and when the smoke went away Lennex continued to float in the air and remain unfazed. Kalin started to sweat, his mind racing for a way to beat this new opponent. He tried to calm himself; he knew he couldn’t think straight in a panic. But the man kept throwing out insults that clouded his better judgment. Like now.

"Pathetic," Lennex called out, letting his arms drop to hang at his side. "I thought you were supposed to be good. I thought someone with all these magical jewel shards would be a little stronger then this. I guess that jewel is useless against someone with my power."

Kalin froze. That was it, the answer to his problem. Kalin let a smile finally surface on his face and he reached inside his vest.

Lennex was a little confused about the smile he was receiving. Kalin had been almost hysterical up till now. He heard a girl’s voice calling up to him from the ground. He looked down to see Kagome waving her arms. He lowered himself down a little so he could hear her.

"He isn’t using all of the shards! He's only drawing power on less the half of what he has!"

Lennex whipped his head around to look at Kalin. He continued to hover over the ground and Lennex watched as he dumped pinkish glass shards out of two bags into his open hand. There must have been close to thirteen shards in his hand now. Kalin gazed upon the shards before glancing up at Lennex, their eyes locking for a brief moment. The silent communication was brief but Lennex got the message. The real fight was about to begin.

Kalin jammed the shards into his chest, blood seeping between his fingers as the shards pierced his flesh. He threw his head back and screamed as his aura appeared around him, this time going so black, that the purple was barely visible. Lennex felt his power skyrocket and crossed his arms in front of his face as dirt and debris was whipped around in the small maelstrom that was caused by Kalin’s power spike. It was over almost as quick as it began, and Lennex stared at his new and improved enemy. The aura continued to flare and small jagged bits of purple electricity ran over the aura. Kalin’s eyes glowed a deep dark purple, a testament to the corrupted jewel shards that now gave him power.

Kagome gasped as she watched each shard turn black as night, becoming tainted by this man who was under Naraku's control. Even the ones she had purified fell to the raw negative emotions Kalin held. She looked at Lennex and hoped he had some more tricks up his sleeve. She may not have had the benefit of the training Shippo had, but even she could feel the energy emanating from Kalin.

Kalin gazed at Lennex and smiled lazily. "Shall we continue our match?" He called out softly

Lennex stared back and uttered the only thing that came to his mind.

"Oh shit."