Author's Note:  Footnotes follow at the end of the chapter.

******

There and Back Again

Chapter Two:  Car Rides and Tea on the Lawn

            The rest of the day was tedious for the grandson of Inutaishou, and flat out boring for Hoshino and Jaken.  All that Hoshino could accurately remember was that her adoptive parents, Misumaru Yurika and Tenkawa Akito, would meet her at the estate of the Inutaishou family.  From there, she would be given free rein to study the idea of traveling back in time using a combination of Chulip Crystals and Shikon no Kakera [1].  The Nergal suits didn't like the idea of having the research conducted outside of their labs, but their guest would not hear of allowing the research to occur outside of his own home.  Finally, at around 3:00 in the afternoon, a settlement was reached which involved little cash outlay from Nergal, a fact that pleased the suits and the suits above them more than anything else.

            Hoshino Ruri found herself standing outside the Nergal offices with Inutaishou Inuyasha and the odd creature Jaken waiting for a company car to arrive.

            "Inutaishou-sama?"

            "Inuyasha is fine.  Other youkai in this day and age are rare.  I haven't fought enough to earn the title Inutaishou-sama."

            "So, you really do believe everything you said in there?"

            "It is not a case of what one believes or disbelieves.  Do you think that most legends and myths have a grain of truth in them?"

            "It is not unreasonable."

            "Then why not more than a grain?"

            The car pulled up, and Jaken busied himself relieving his master of the youkai's sword.  ("You try sitting in one of those boxes wearing a sword!" Jaken had said.)  Hoshino lapsed back into silence until they were on their way.

            "Inuyasha sam..san," she started, realizing they were one member short of when they stood outside Nergal's offices, "where is Jaken-baka?"

            "The trunk."

            For one of the few times that Hoshino Ruri could remember, she had no comeback.  She simply stared at the man across the seat from her. "The..."

            "Trunk.  Yes.  Jaken-san... never took to cars.  He can barely stomach a speedboat.  I tried to get him to fly with me once.  That didn't turn out too well."

            "Baka.  Everyone rides in cars and planes."

            "Forgive me for saying this, but 'baka' yourself. How old do I look?"

            "20."

            "And yet I remember my uncle's death.  That means I must have been born before 2075.  That means I'm how old?"

            "A hund..." Hoshino's brain was flying through gears trying to reconcile what she was hearing and heard earlier against what she was seeing.

            Inuyasha thumped the rear window ledge.  "Jaken-san.  How old are you?"

            "I am.. *urk* over nine hund... oooOOooOOoOO... when will it be oooOOOoOOver??"

            Ignoring further sounds emanating from the trunk, Inuyasha continued.  "My uncle, for whom I was named, was the younger of the two children my grandfather sired.  Inuyasha-sama was a hanyou, a half-breed, because of his human mother.  Thus, had he not chosen to follow Aunt Kagome in death, his lifespan would still have been roughly half that of a full youkai, such as my father Sesshoumaru and myself.  You still don't have enough evidence to believe me or disbelieve me, do you?"  The girl shook her head, and they quietly rode out the rest of the trip.

******

            Pulling into the home of Inutaishou, Hoshino recognized her parents' car, and saw them out in the garden apparently having tea with a distinguished-looking gentleman.  Upon approaching them, Ruri watched Inuyasha bow politely before his father and then her parents.  Sesshoumaru extended Ruri the same courtesy, and the two latecomers joined the trio.  The elder of the Inutaishou clan skipped further pleasantries with his son.

            "How did the meeting go?"

            "It is as you feared, father.  They wish to use the Shikon no Tama to move backwards through time.  I am also not sure that they are merely interested in bending time.  Furthermore, I do not think they are fully cognizant of the disruption that could be caused by one person going backwards in time."  The younger Inutaishou caught the blank stares coming from the other couple, and turned to Hoshino.  "Ruri-san, care to 'naze nani' this for us?"  [2]

            "Baka.  I won't put that hat back on, ever.  It is simple.  If you go back in time, and kill your mother before you are born, how could your mother bear you so that you could in the future, and past, kill her?"

            Looks of "I get this.  Okay, not really.  But sort of.", flashed in the eyes of Hoshino's guardians.

            "While there are many subtleties and variations to the theory, you are essentially correct.  Moving backwards into the past creates the possibility of doing something to irreparably harm the present.  A blind way to provide rebuttal would be to claim that history is history, and paradoxes such as the one you described cannot exist.  The truth is that we don't know.  Kagome-obasan did travel forward and backward in time, as did Inuyasha-sama, but we simply don't know if they were just lucky or you really can't alter the timeline to create paradoxes.

            "Oh!  Hoshino-san, forgive me, for I had forgotten.  Sesshoumaru-sama, at least one of our guests does not necessarily believe in youkai.  May I provide her with proof?"

            "Indeed.  Just do not destroy the fountain.  It was only recently that it was repaired from the last time I lost my temper."

            "Arigato, Otou-san," Inuyasha said, bowing as he rose to his feet.  He walked out into the middle of the open garden.  Out of curiosity, Ruri followed him until he stopped and turned to her.  He turned and faced her, his eyes flashing bright red.  Frightened despite herself, Ruri took several steps back towards her parents. As she retreated, the youkai took steps away from her as well, and with a flash of fire and heat, transformed into a horse-sized white dog.  Ruri's eyes became even wider than normal as she stared at the transformed youkai.  Misumaru Yurika's fear for her child was plain, but a comforting hand on her shoulder from Sesshoumaru calmed her somehow.  Ruri slowly walked up to the beast, who kneeled down before her and lowered his head as she approached.

            "You... really... are... " Ruri started.

            "Indeed.  It is safe, Hoshino-san, I have no intention of harming you."

            Despite her normal reserved-ness, Ruri climbed up onto the back of her acquaintance's new form.  Much to her surprise, he leaped off of the ground and began flying in a lazy circle around the compound.   Akito and Yurika were not sure which to be more surprised at, their daughter taking to an almost complete stranger, or the fact that the stories they heard about ghosts and goblins as children just might be true.

******

Footnotes:

1.  Shikon no Kakera – The shards of the Shikon no Tama

2.  Naze Nani Nadesico! – In an effort to keep crew morale up, as well as to explain some of the particulars of their ship, the Nadesico, to her crew, Yurika created a television show for the ship and called it Naze Nani Nadesico.  She drafted Hoshino Ruri to help her, as Hoshino knew even more about the ship than the captain herself did.  For Naze Nani Nadesico, Captain Misumaru wore a big fluffy white bunny suit, complete with ears and fake nose, and Hoshino was forced to wear bright orange overalls with a salmon T-shirt and a green beanie (sans propeller).  Literally translated, "naze nani" is "the how and why".  For another piece of Nadesico fandom on this, check out the Naze Nani strips on www (dot) megatokyo (dot) com. In them, Piro == Ruri, and Largo == Yurika.  NNN was a really good way, in my opinion, to avoid the boring monologues that always seem to occur in sci-fi anime.