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She awoke with a groan, the Saiyan woman sitting up in the bed she had for herself at the sound of a ship blasting off into space.
She sat up to find her lover stepping back inside the capsule house they’d been given by a strange scientist woman.
“Did she leave, Nokota?” She asked.
“Yeah, Mom said that another job came up.” She said, scratching the back of her head, then smiled gently. “Sorry if she was a handful Aru.”
“It’s fine.”
It really didn’t bother Aru much, how eccentric her girlfriend’s mother was.
“Is it my turn to hunt for the day?”
“Hm, yeah, but you can go back to sleep if you wanted to. I can handle it.” Nokota gave a wink, hand on her hip.
“No, it’s fine.” Aru slid out of the bed, standing up, stretching her arm. “I’ll be back soon.”
She picked up her simple tube top and skirt, placing them over her body, and stepped outside, tail tucking itself around her waist a moment later.
Unbeknownst to either of them, however, they were being watched.
“... I see. These Saiyans don’t seem hostile to life.” A bespectacled woman glowing eyes faded to gray, earrings dangling from her earlobes. “Hopefully the Supreme Kai of Time won’t mind me intruding on this timeline.”
She took a deep breath, then rose to her feet.
“Kai Kai.”
When the figure appeared outside the house, Nokota didn’t feel their energy, but a faint pressure of power emanating off of the source.
Frowning, she stepped outside, eyebrows raising at the sight of the point-eared woman standing outside.
“Hello.” The spiky pink mohawked woman smiled gently, donning a business suit.
“Uh... hey there.” She answered warily. “Who are you?”
The newcomer glanced down, gray eyes pensive with thought.
“If I were to tell you that I’m your ally, would you believe me?”
“I can take your word for it, but I’d be way more willing if you gave me a name.” She smirked.
“Hm... that would make sense.”
She gave a faint bow, hand placed over the left side of her chest.
“My name is Callow. I’m one of the Kais, albeit not of this universe.”
“Kais, huh? Never really heard of THAT race.” Nokota crossed her arms, before her golden eyes perked up. “Oh, I’m Nokota, a Saiyan! Well, uh,” her tail swayed, and she chuckled, “if it wasn’t already obvious.”
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Callow smiled.
“So, what was this about you being an ally, exactly?”
“Yes,” her finger pushed her wire rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose, “it’ll be a bit of a doozy to explain, but long story short, there are people coming, people that will be working to sabotage this planet.”
“Sabotage, hm?”
“Yes — they’re operatives sent from Planet Root, and I’ve pursued them to this planet to stop them.”
“What exactly are they trying to do?”
Callow thought over how to explain it.
“Planet Root is interested in expanding its military might. To do that, they’ve started mining planets, and digging out their cores, to create weapons of cosmic destruction. They’ve marked this planet as their next target.”
“Really? Hm. And what exactly happens, when they do that?”
“When the planets support life, it causes their life cycles to get shortened dramatically. Cores act not unlike a heart in a person.”
Nokota hummed in understanding.
“Why me though? Why come to me?”
“I thought that, given your power, you could stand a good chance of defending it well.” Callow answered. “I think the same as the other person who left, a few minutes ago.”
“Uh-huh. You been watching us?”
“Not for long. Only for this morning, really.”
“Not that I wouldn’t help anyway, but — don’t you have anyone else you can ask? Are you just by yourself?” Nokota wondered.
“Not usually.” She placed a finger against her temple, then shook her head. “It’s a bit complicated.”
“Well, you say you’re not from this universe, right? I think it’s kind of a given.” She shrugged in a lighthearted manner. “I take it you’re a LONG ways from home, eh?”
To her delight, this got Callow to crack a smile.
“You could definitely say that.” The Kai chuckled.
There wasn’t much further a distance one could get from home, when “home” was in another timeline entirely, Callow thought.
“Well, if I learned anything from Aru, the least I can do is give a guest a proper welcome. You hungry by any chance? Can’t have you fighting on an empty stomach.”
“I appreciate the offer, sincerely, but Kais don’t really need to eat. I don’t mean to intrude, but I wanted to give you fair warning, before the threats arrived.”
“I see. How long, exactly?”
“Long enough for me to test your skills for myself.” Callow replied, Nokota raising a brow as Callow undid her suit jacket’s buttons. “That is, if you’re willing.”
Nokota bore an ear-wide grin, then nodded.
“Yeah, YEAH, that sounds PERFECT!” She clenched her fists. “How about we take it a bit away from here though? Can’t have the house get destroyed!”
With her shift in mood, the smirk she bore, Callow smiled in response.
“Of course. As long as I can set these down.” She said, suit jacket and glasses in hand after taking both off.
“Oh, yeah.”
With this being done, they flew off, quickly finding a secluded waterfall, which flowed into a wide river that they floated over.
Gauging the Kai, left in a tight fitting tank top, Nokota took note of the woman’s lithe, supple frame, Callow doing a number of stretches for herself.
“Alright, you ready to start?” Nokota smiled.
Callow took another deep breath, then looked to her, nodding while floating down, so she was just above the waters, hands raised up.
“Yes — please, don’t hold back on my part.”
Nokota floated over the waters in turn, hearing the crashing of the waterfall into the river behind her.
She breathed in, clenching her fists, then loosed a breath, smiling.
“Alright.”
She burst forward, so fast her form became an afterimage, so abruptly that she parted a path in the waters beneath her. She was before Callow in an instant, the former’s right fist rocketing forward towards the latter’s chest, Callow blocking with her forearm but holding her position, the backlash of the impact sending a wave of water flying upwards behind Callow, Nokota persisting as she thrust another punch forward.
Callow shifted her right elbow into the Saiyan’s wrist at the last second to divert it, using the same motion of her body to spear a hard palm strike towards Nokota’s chest with her left hand, which was blocked by the Saiyan’s right palm.
Energy concentrated rapidly into Nokota’s mouth, as Callow’s eyes narrowed; neither wasting a second, Nokota fired a beam of energy from her mouth while Callow spoke — “CREATE!” — a fierce, concentrated strike of pressurized air ramming directly into Nokota’s arm, the pair both getting blown back through the air.
As they slowed to a halt, however, their eyes met, before Nokota sped forward, Callow flying to meet her charge as they readied themselves — Callow threw a hard jab towards Nokota that she weaved to the side of whilst concentrating energy balls into her feet, seeing Callow spinning in mid-air still mid-punch to thrust her opposing elbow at the Saiyan as she flew behind her, who caught the opposing attack with stacked hands, Nokota grunting, then lifting and ramming her foot into Callow’s side, the energy ball at her foot bursting out to launch Callow violently through the air, her giving a yell of pain.
Yet, just as she got launched through the air like this, she twisted around to face away from Nokota, yelling, “Kai Kai!”
Teleporting herself to be behind Nokota, while still being blown through the air, the Saiyan gave a confused expression at Callow’s disappearance — only the faint pressure that had alerted her to the Kai’s presence alerted her in time to turn back, catching sight of Callow aiming to swing her leg at the last second, Nokota having the energy ball at her other foot erupt into a beam to more abruptly thrust her knee up into Callow’s shin, a shockwave bursting outwards from the collision.
“Oh, so you can teleport.” Nokota grinned teasingly. “Any more tricks where THAT came from?”
Callow, despite her concentrated expression, managed a smile.
“You’ll just have to see for yourself.” She flew herself back, Nokota smirking before flying towards her, Callow playfully flying away in response, flying over the waters of the river, toes running along the surface, Nokota raising a brow at the coy expression she had.
Flying after her, a geyser of energy burst from beneath the waters up at her, Nokota’s eyes widening as she flew out of the way, only for another geyser of energy to burst from underneath her, Nokota looking down in baffled confusion, seeing balls of energy floating beneath the surface, her realizing then that Callow’s act of dipping the tip of her shoes into the water had been for the sake of setting the energy beam equivalent of remote energy mines throughout the river.
Smiling broadly at this, she concentrated her energy, then burst towards Callow with this in mind, eyes fearless as Callow, realizing she’d caught on to her trick, only grinning mischievously, continuing to plant energy mines beneath the water’s surface and make them shoot upwards, Nokota flying and weaving around the beams as they shot out while laughing merrily.
Though the chase was a playful one, that they rapidly ended up speeding along the river — going from a lightly forested area to passing a hill-filled area — led to the river itself expanding further and further, until, finally, the river spread out into a vast lake.
Realizing where she’d taken her, Callow blinked in surprise as she looked around.
“Oh... looks like we went a bit far, huh?” Callow gave a sheepish smile.
“I don’t mind. All the more room to get comfortable.” Nokota answered, hands on her hips. “Now, you feeling like getting to part two?”
“Yes.” Callow nodded, toes dipping into the waters once more.
Nokota dipped her head, then sped forward again with great speed, Callow flying backwards as she made more energy beams geyser upwards to slow Nokota’s approach, but her making less of an abject effort to go about flying away, instead bracing herself for an attack.
With the Saiyan blurring as she sped towards Callow again while dodging around the beams, just as Callow raised her hands and tensed her knees in preparation, Nokota abruptly veered off into another direction completely, acting to start flying around her — to Callow’s surprise, she moved with great controlled efficiency.
To those who couldn’t properly sense ki, or lacked the requisite power level to track her movements, it looked as if Nokota had completely disappeared from sight, only slowing slightly to have her afterimages form just long enough for them to create a spectral image of her, only fade back to nothing — with her speed, she took total advantage of the process of creating afterimages, slowing down and speeding back up as she sped in a controlled orbit around Callow.
With the speed of her actions, however, the waters beneath them were given a current, a whirlpool forming beneath her, tossing and hurling the energy mines she’d sunk into the waters about.
Nokota sunk a number of energy mines of her own into the waters as it persisted, the whirlpool sending them about, the energy mines colliding with the ones Callow had sunk into it, with them exploding on contact, blowing twin beams of energy upwards at Callow, multiple beams firing up haphazardly, with the Kai flying about to dodge the beams as they touched, the energy balls forming a strange sort of cage around her, Callow looking to see Nokota suddenly bursting with golden light as she shot forward towards her at many times the speed as before, Callow narrowing her eyes before charging up to her full power.
Her power just below Nokota’s level at Super Saiyan, Callow thrust her elbow up at Nokota’s punch, Nokota leaning her head to the side at the retaliating blurred punch that grazed her cheek, leaning to the other side at the second punch of the other fist, thrusting her knee harshly into Callow’s stomach, her doubling over, then gritting her teeth, a double palmed strike ramming into Nokota’s chest to shove her back, Nokota grunting, before a wall of telepathic force compounded the strike to blow her away, Nokota concentrating to fly against it.
Looking up at her, however, Nokota saw her mouthing under her breath.
“Kaioken.”
Red energy bursting around her body, Callow let the telepathic wall dissipate, Nokota sensing the potency of the power inside her as she gained a 50% boost in power, then grinning.
They concentrated their powers, then burst forwards towards one another.
They each threw a punch towards one another, knuckles grazing against each other as the pair sped past one another, each outpacing the potent shockwave they left behind, Nokota twirling around as Callow flew upwards, turning around and spreading her hands apart, sucking in a breath of air.
“CREATE!” She roared out, thrusting her hands together as a dome of creation energy burst outwards from her, prior to forming a number of miniature moons around her, a swipe of her hand making them spin around her body at a blurred speed, a thrust of her palm propelling the cluster of small Moons down at Nokota, who concentrated energy into her palms, crossing her forearms briefly before whipping his arms apart, letting the beams shoot out to go about piercing through the Moons at their center, all of them exploding violently.
As the ten explosions erupted from the Moons, Nokota looked down as she saw Callow flying under them, flying at an upwards curve at Nokota and delivering an uppercut into the Saiyan’s jaw, thrusting her up a foot, Nokota’s tail unwinding to wrap tightly around Callow’s wrist, tugging herself back down, grinning savagely prior to ramming her knee into Callow’s sternum, the Kai grunting with pain, then wrapping her arms tightly around her thigh — “Times 2!” — twisting herself around before spinning about rapidly, Nokota giving a yell before she was thrown through the air.
Grasping her forearm and aiming a hand, with another invocation of Creation, Callow fired a ball of creation energy that shot forward towards the Super Saiyan, Nokota looking, eyes widening as it exploded into a tiny star, her looking towards it briefly, prior to seeing it unstably erupt into a supernova to blow her backwards.
As it did, however, it briefly fizzled into something newer — something that physically hurt her eyes to try comprehending as she was pulled towards it briefly — yet Callow teleported behind her, hugged her from behind, and teleported a larger distance away as the forming of the event horizon fizzled out seconds later, gone.
“Sorry — I got a bit carried away there.” She told her.
Nokota looked back at her, then grinned, entering a fit of laughter.
“Geez, you Kais are REALLY something else, aren’t you?”
Callow’s cheeks glowed a faint red.
“It’s not something EVERY Kai is capable of.” She lamented, pulling away, Nokota turning to face her while crossing her arms.
“Still, you managed to keep up with me with Super Saiyan, before you did that red thing, huh? You’ve REALLY been holding back on me, haven’t you?”
She stroked a hand through her hair.
“Sorry — I asked that you not hold back, but I didn’t really do the same until I was sure you could handle it.”
“And? What’s your verdict?” Nokota’s teal eyes glimmered with interest.
“You’re definitely an incredibly powerful warrior.” Callow replied, dipping her head. “I think you’ll be more than capable of defending this planet, when the time comes.”
“Alright.” She tilted her head with a smile. “Think you’d be fine with going another round? There wasn’t much of a clear winner there, huh?”
Callow thought it over.
“There doesn’t really NEED to be a clear victor. I just wanted to gauge your power for myself after all.” She met the Saiyan’s eyes. “If it’s for fun though, it can’t hurt.”
Nokota grinned, each of them bracing themselves, before they shot towards each other, shockwaves from the collisions of their attacks pulsing through the area above the lake like a cluster of invisible bombs began to go off.
When Aru eventually found herself investigating her girlfriend leaving, with a person’s suit jacket and glasses on the couch to boot, she didn’t really have much context to Nokota fighting so fervently against a pink haired woman she didn’t recognize.
She gazed briefly at the bout for a brief moment, and then leaped upwards, transforming into Super Saiyan.
“Raining Stardust!” She yelled over the cacophony of sounds erupting in the air, hands firing a barrage of energy balls that shot towards the skirmishing pair, Callow looking back and flying to dodge out of the way of the attacks while Nokota, hearing the name she shouted, made to fly upwards into the air, all while Aru continued to barrage energy balls in Callow’s direction that she dodged about.
With a focused expression, she held her mental hold on all the attacks as they passed Callow, then lifted her hands up as Nokota entered position, Callow looking as all the energy balls converged towards Nokota, whose hands teemed with energy as Aru’s energy balls clumped together into a singular orb.
Not missing a beat, Nokota ejected beams of energy from her fingers into the ball of energy, clumps of the energy guided by the finger beams raining down over Callow, who tried once more to dodge around it. Aru however, in the interim, concentrated on those energy clumps still, and as the nail beam guided clumps of energy were dodged about, she thrust her palms together briefly, all of the energy clumps abruptly shifting movement to go to Callow from all sides, her eyes widening at the sudden shift in movement of all the attacks, looking around to see no path of escape.
“Kai Kai!” She yelled, teleporting herself out of the way of the blasts, yet was still blown forward by the force of impact from the explosion.
“Whoo! Hey Aru, did I keep you waiting?” Nokota asked, placidly flying along.
Seeing her lover being so lax about following up on the attack, Aru’s features softened.
“Sorry, am I interrupting something?” She asked her.
“Just a friendly sparring match! ... Well, we got a bit carried away.” Nokota lamented with a sheepish grin. “She’s pretty fun to fight.”
“I see. Sorry to get involved with it.”
“No, not at all.” Nokota smiled. “You’re perfect, as always.”
Looking to Callow, she gave a sheepish expression.
“Sorry if you’re confused, this is my girlfriend, Aru!” Nokota called to Callow, gesturing to the Saiyan beside her.
“Sorry for attacking you!” Aru added. “I didn’t know that this was just a casual fight!”
“Well, that’s, err, fine.” Callow called back, looking back to the dust of the explosion for another moment. “You two seem well in sync with each other. Do you fight like that often?”
“We used to, when we first started working together.” Aru crossed her arms, then looked to Nokota. “Still, I’m surprised. I wasn’t gone for long, couldn’t have been ten minutes, yet you’re already fighting someone else.”
“Well, it’s for a good cause?” Nokota shrugged. “Apparently some people want to mine our planet for a super weapon or something?”
“Wait, what?”
The pair explained it to her, and Aru sighed softly.
“It seems like you can’t go a week without people trying to figure out how to blow more things up than before.”
“I never really understood the fascination with that myself.” Callow admitted. “Why DO people focus so much on how powerful an attack is, or how much people can destroy?”
Nokota gave an aside glance, then shrugged her shoulders.
“Anyway, that’s the situation. Callow wanted to try fighting me a bit to gauge my power, but we ended up just fighting for fun by the end of it.”
“I see. I’ll leave you both to it then.” Aru said, turning to fly away.
“Wait, could I... fight you as well?” Callow called to Aru.
“There’s no need.” She answered, looking back at the wild spiked-mohawked woman. “I’m weaker than Nokota. That’s sufficient for you, isn’t it?”
“Well... maybe. But I’d like to fight you both as a duo, if that would be fine.”
“Are you sure? Your powers are pretty even with mine, so wouldn’t it be unfair to you?” Nokota wondered.
“Well... I still have a couple tricks up my sleeve, some powers to even the playing field a bit.” Callow admitted.
“You’re really a bag of tricks, huh?” Nokota chuckled.
“You could say that. But I’m not quite used to fighting people like you two.” She admitted. “Ready to start?”
The pair shared a look, then entered fighting stances.
“Yeah, I’d say we are.” Nokota smiled impishly. “Let’s see what else you can do.”
The two Super Saiyans charged up, as did Callow, concentrating their powers.
“Kaioken — times 3.”
Callow sped forward at a high speed, Nokota glancing to Aru and winking, Aru speeding forward to meet Callow’s charge.
As before, Nokota sped forward at her flank, only to disappear from sight, Callow seeing an afterimage of her preparing to strike from her right, the blow nearly landing, Callow feigning a flinch as Nokota’s feint afterimage dissipated, Aru throwing a punch towards her that Callow caught in her hand, Aru, although surprised she could sense through the feint enough to recover, opening her fist to tightly wrap her fingers around Callow’s wrist to restrict her movements, Callow sensing Nokota plummeting down from above her, but Aru holding tight as she tried retching away, Nokota hammering an elbow strike at the Kai’s back, Callow’s eyes widening, Aru letting go of her hand as Nokota rammed her knee into Callow’s stomach, the pair intertwining their hands together before doing a double hammer strike down the woman’s back again to send her flying down.
Despite her pain, however, Callow persisted, teleporting herself just above the pair without stopping the inertia of the double strike of the two Super Saiyan, her crossing her arms as energy rapidly concentrated into her palms, the pair looking up to find her plummeting down towards them.
With them flying away from one another, Callow forced herself to stop short where they’d been a second ago, thrusting her hands apart to aim at each of the pair, the balls of energy releasing large beams out towards them, Nokota thrusting her palms against the torrent of energy, Aru dodging out of the way of the one aimed at her, her speeding towards Callow at a curved path that made the Kai close her hands to fists, blocking the punch with her lower forearm, responding by swinging her elbow in response, in a manner akin to a punch.
Aru leaned her head back to dodge, barely doing so, then did a mid-air back flip to swing her feet at Callow’s jaw, Callow flying back to evade — only for the Callow immediately lose the red tint of her aura, the Kaioken wearing off.
“Are you alright?” Aru said at this, looking to Nokota, who frowned.
“Yeah — I can’t keep that power up like you all use these golden haired forms.”
She grasped at her chest, taking a deep breath, before concentrating — “Times three.” — red aura bursting around her body.
“Sorry to slow you both down on my part. Let’s continue.”
They gauged one another, then nodded, the duo speeding towards Callow once more.
Blurring about as they began to go about fighting around the skies, it persisting in the way it had for several moments more.
Often, what ended up happening was that the pair got a gradual understanding of the Kai’s ability — she could maintain it at times 3 for roughly 30 seconds, as much as that time limit mattered for people who could all move faster than light — and had adjusted as much to it to give her a few seconds rest between bouts to do it.
Eventually, one such bout took them over a clearing in a forest, them fighting as they had before, ultimately with them rapidly descending without disengaging from their deadlock in combat.
The three landed on the ground abruptly, Callow landing flat on her feet, Aru landing into a crouch, facing away, Callow looking as Aru swiftly twisted herself around at breakneck speeds to do a sweeping kick at Callow’s legs, Callow jumping upwards at the last second as Nokota jumped and did a spinning kick towards her, Callow aiming her foot in turn to ram her foot into Nokota’s, each bending their knees against the other’s foot, both concentrating energy before it erupted in a small explosion that launched both of them back, Callow doing a backflip and landing with the inertia far from them, while Nokota flew herself downwards to drive her feet against the grass, huffing.
Aru snapped her eyes up towards Callow, golden hair glowing brightly, before she launched herself at Callow at many times the speed of a rocket at the Kai, who huffed, gauging the power of her in this state, bracing herself as Nokota, seeing what Aru was doing, concentrated energy in turn to form a ball of energy in her palm.
As opposed to flying straight at her the entire way to striking distance, Aru stopped flying altogether abruptly, feet skidding hard against the ground while she kept moving with her inertia, barely slowed down, and with learned timing, as Callow furrowed her brows in confusion, Aru jumped up and flew over her opponent, Callow looking to see Nokota as she fired a potent beam of energy at her.
Left with little time to react, Callow thrust a hand forward, a wall of force ramming into the beam to keep it at bay, yet Aru, still moving with her inertia while concentrating energy inside herself, finally stopped herself short, speeding herself down at Callow’s defenseless back and ramming her foot harshly there, Callow’s eyes widening at the fierce strike, breath coming short as the wall of force she’d erected faltered, Nokota’s beam breaking through to ram into Callow briefly, long enough for her to give a soundless scream of pain, as Aru reared her other boot back to swing it into Callow’s side, just as the beam dissipated.
Getting flung through the air, Callow nonetheless thrust her palm against the ground, then shoved herself back up through the air to do a twirl, landing on her feet again, panting faintly.
“Are you alright?” Nokota asked, eyes concerned.
Callow’s shoulders shook, head lowered, and just as the pair of Saiyans shared a look, Callow burst out into uproarious laughter.
“Yes, YES, I’m MORE than fine, ECSTATIC even!” She cried. “You both have such WONDERFUL coordination! So much natural TRUST — there’s no hesitation between EITHER of you!”
“Well... thanks.” Aru smiled gently, hand on her hip. “We’ve had our fair share of battles together.”
“Yeah.” Nokota nodded.
“I see, I see.” She looked between the pair, as if gauging them. “With that close a bond — how much STRONGER will it be, I wonder?”
Aru and Nokota shared a look again, both confused, before looking back to her.
“What are you talking about?” Aru asked, only for Callow to take off her earrings.
“I’d like to try something. Can you trust me?” Callow asked.
At their curious consent, they watched as Callow flew up to each of them, going to Aru first, attaching the earring to her ear.
“I need you to stop using this golden haired form, if you’d be willing.” Callow instructed, telling Nokota to do the same, placing the opposing earring on the woman’s ear when she and Aru both were in their bases.
Once Nokota’s earring was placed on her, and Callow stepped back, the earrings pulsed with a strange energy, the Saiyans looking with disquieted confusion for a brief moment, before, as if an abrupt magnetic force came over the both of them, they both yelled as they were violently flung towards one another.
“What—Why am I FLY-IIIING—“
“WHAT THE—WaitwaitwaitWAIT!”
These were the last words they spoke, Aru struggling while Nokota flailed her arms about, before their bodies rammed violently together, their bodies engulfed with a bright light.
Those seemed like fusing words if Callow ever heard them, the Kai thought.
As the light faded, a singular Saiyan stood where they once were, looking in startled confusion at herself.
Donning a mixture of the fuseés hairstyles, with a band binding the locks behind her neck, while many other locks flowed on the sides of her head, the fusion had merged fabric of Aru’s clothes with Nokota’s spandex, which had expanded into short leggings that all hugged her fit but curvy body.
“Oh, this power — it’s just immaculate!” Callow exclaimed with joy, clapping her hands and hopping in place.
“You’re REALLY excited this happened.” The fusion noted with a taken aback expression.
“Oh, but what to name you?” Callow wondered to herself, clasping her chin, eyeing the fusion. “Aru, plus Nokota... Arukota? No, no, maybe... Nokaru?” She spoke as though tasting the words on her lips, looking to the fusion. “Yes, yes, “Nokaru” has a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you say?”
“If it’s your preference, knock yourself out.” Nokaru smiled gently. “So — what did you want me — us? — to DO exactly?”
“Test the scope of your powers, of course!” Callow said. “With this power, you can reach new heights yet unfound!”
Nokaru glanced to her hand, humming, then nodded gently.
“Alright, let’s see.”
She clenched her hands into fists, then breathed as she began to power up, power mounting higher and higher, the wellspring of energy she had erupting around her as she grunted softly, but kept a neutral expression as she charged further and further up.
“This power — it’s more than I could ever dreamed of having.” She said to herself.
“I wish I could give you a fight.” Callow stroked her own cheek, elbow held up by a hand. “If only we’d met centuries earlier — I just might have been able to.”
“Well... why don’t you try?” Nokaru asked. “With the tricks up your sleeve, I bet you could do that really well.”
Callow hummed, then chuckled gently.
“I appreciate the offer, but my skills as they are can’t really compensate for the strength I’ve lost.”
“Really? Did you give up on fighting somehow?”
“Not necessarily.” Callow turned her back to the fusion, then slid her tank top up the length of her back, the fusion seeing a number of elaborate markings on her back. “Kais have a special ability — by sacrificing our power, we can seal people away. I sacrificed a vast sum of my powers for the sake of sealing away many threats.”
“Oh. That’s a shame.” Nokaru frowned. “Why are the markings on your back though? Do you get a new one for every sacrifice you make?”
“No. I actually just placed the seal on myself.” Callow answered. “Most Supreme Kais would just use their seals on their targets, with it showing in different ways. Unfortunately, I had far too many targets to seal each of them individually. Even now, the seal’s slowly draining my powers to keep those hordes of demons at bay.”
“Oh.” Nokaru looked to her with sympathy. “Sorry about that. Wait, so you’re not just ANY Kai, but a Supreme Kai?”
Callow stiffened with realization at her saying this, then sighed.
“I WAS a Supreme Kai, before I broke a few rules. I was demoted as punishment.” She replaced her tank top over her back. “I can’t face you in even combat because of my reckless sealing in the past, but I still have ways to fight against others. I’ll aid you as best I can for the battle ahead.”
“Alright. So, uh, can you turn us back?”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’ll wear off.”
“Oh, really? In how long?”
“... the time can be a BIT inconsistent.” She answered, then explained it to them.
Such was how the day eventually ended, treating the guest to dinner after finally being satisfied with what they’d managed.