Author's Note: Footnotes at the end of the chapter.
******
There and Back AgainChapter Three: Ruri, Tetsusaiga. Tetsusaiga, Ruri.
The transformed dog demon gingerly returned to the ground, and kneeled to allow his passenger to gracefully slide off his back. With Yurika still staring at the youkai and her daughter, Tenkawa Akito walked forward and kneeled on the grass in front of his daughter.
"Um, Ruri-chan, are you... okay...?" he managed to get out.
She reached out and patted Akito on the head. "Baka."
The rest of afternoon tea was rather uneventful. Conversation mostly centered on the history of the Shikon no Tama. The conversation lasted longer than any of them realized, as they suddenly noticed that the sun was setting. Sesshoumaru finished up most of the history as they gathered everything up and turned to go into the house.
"In the end, Naraku was slain by the miko Kagome-sama. The shards he held, however, were not enough to complete the jewel."
"Did they ever find all of the pieces?" Yurika asked, still unsure whether she believed it all or not, but enjoying the telling all the same. Sesshoumaru didn't answer, but merely looked at his son.
Inuyasha took the cue. "Please follow me." They dropped off the dishes in the kitchen and walked through the house. The five stopped before a set of heavy wooden doors, scarred and pitted with age. There were several darker blotches on the doors that Yurika decided to tell herself was just a really bad paint job.
"Before we continue any farther, let's get one thing straight. Are we out to do Nergal's dirty work? I'm sure as hell not." Sesshoumaru noted just how much like his brother Inuyasha his son sometimes was. Every once in a while, he truly earned that name. Ruri for the first time saw a side of her acquaintance that was something other than calm and composed.
"Nergal abused the power of the Chulip Crystals for its own profit. They will do the same again." Akito and Yurika nodded in agreement with their daughter's words.
"Good." The fierceness left the young youkai. "To answer your question, Misumaru-san, yes, they did complete the jewel. It was not until this morning, however, that my father revealed to me how the Shikon no Tama was finally completed."
He opened the door and strode inside, the others following. They were greeted by an immense collection of modern and ancient weapons. In the center of the room was a glass case. Inside were four small, pink shards.
Ruri surmised their purpose quickly. "Jewel shards."
"Indeed." The young demon faced Ruri and addressed her directly, leaving his father and her parents out of the conversation.
"You are familiar with Einstein's theories of space and time?"
"Hai."
"Then you can accept that an object can only occupy a single point in space, but multiple points in time."
Hoshino paused for a second and then responded. "Yes, I am standing here in the past moment, the present moment, and will continue exist in this space into a future moment."
"And if five minutes from now I took you ten minutes into the past?"
"Then there would be two Hoshino Ruri in existence."
"Would that mean that there are now two Hoshino Ruri or that Hoshino Ruri exists in two points in space and time?"
Hoshino simply didn't have an answer. It was, in fact, her mother who spoke next. "There's only one Ruri-Ruri!" [1]
Hoshino stared at her mother as if she'd grown the proverbial second head. "But Yurika-san! That would mean... Einstein would be..."
The younger dog demon placed a hand on Ruri's shoulder. "Remember Ruri-san, that Einstein also said that it would be impossible to move faster than the speed of light, but it was later proved that by warping space you could travel in sublight, to yourself, but faster than light to the rest of the universe. The Theory of Relativity never goes out the window, because everything in this universe is relative to something else. The simple fact is, we don't know. No one has yet gone back in time and shaken their own hand."
"Except, of course, for Bill and Ted." The young family stared at the elder of their hosts, completely missing the reference he appeared to be making, while the demon's son slapped his forehead in frustration.
"You know, you never were the same after Kagome-obasan introduced you to THAT movie."
"But it was most excellent," Sesshoumaru retorted, watching his son's eyes narrow to slits, demonfire flashing behind them. "Say, Akito-san, you're a cook aren't you? It's getting about dinnertime; care to be introduced to my Cuisinart collection?" [2]
Akito and Yurika followed Sesshoumaru in the direction of the kitchen, Akito and the demon already discussing the merits of Cuisinart. Hoshino watched them go and turned to where the younger Inutaishou was standing. The moment of panic at being left alone subsided when she noticed Inuyasha standing before another piece in the collection. She ran over to where he was standing, and looked up at the sword he was staring at. It was an ancient weapon, with deep cuts and scars in its scabbard and hilt.
"This is Tetsusaiga [3], my uncle's sword," he said, to acknowledge her presence. Ruri looked up behind the weapon, and saw a large painting of the man before her, except in bright red kimono [4] instead of the dark red kimono he was wearing now.
"Vain, aren't you? Baka."
"Huh?" Inuyasha responded, his reverie broken. "Wha... oh. Baka yourself. That's Inuyasha-sama my uncle, not me. I can't even touch his sword."
"Why not?"
"Take it down off the wall." He lifted Ruri so she could grasp the sword easily, then walked closer to the door. Puzzled, she followed him. When he reached an open area near the door, he turned back to her. As he reached toward the sword, Ruri thought she felt it start to move towards her, as if it was repulsed by the demon. When he actually touched the sword, lightning arced around him, sending his body into convulsions. He released the hilt and sat down on the floor, panting.
Ruri's eyes were wide with fright, but seeing that he was all right, stared at the sword in disbelief. "How..."
"Inutaishou-sama put an enchantment on the sword... so that only someone with human blood... could actually use it."
Ruri's expression changed from fright to amazement. She slowly withdrew the blade from its home, expecting it to be as keen-edged and perfect like the... Tenseiga, had he called it? What she saw was a far different blade, its metal scarred and pitted. It was lighter than the sword she had earlier held, even though they were the same size. When she finished drawing the sword, it sparked and then became engulfed in flames. It was Inuyasha's turn to have his eyes widen in amazement. The flames died away and Hoshino was left holding a sword longer than she was tall.
She looked over at the demon still sitting on the floor. "What..."
"You can use Tetsusaiga...." Inuyasha's voice was barely above a whisper, not having seen his uncle's sword in its full form since he had died.
"My son, would you..." Sesshoumaru's voice disappeared as well when he walked into the room. Ruri looked from one to the other, unsure if she had done anything wrong. Sesshoumaru managed to regain his senses enough to see the confusion on Ruri's face. His son... well, he was once again reminded of his brother, particularly by the dazed expression the younger youkai was wearing now.
"Hoshino-san, you have no cause for fear. You have done nothing wrong. It appears that the Tetsusaiga has responded to you. It would seem that your complexion being similar to ours is not as much of a coincidence as anyone in this time might realize. Congratulations on your new sword, hanyou."
"Han.. you..." Ruri's puzzled face had to be replaced when she noticed Inuyasha's head jerk toward the window. A moment later, she heard what he did. A helicopter. "Nergal apparently does not trust you to simply hand over the ability to travel backwards in time."
"Probably not. They've had time to do a little more research and perhaps find out the true power of Shikon no Tama." He picked up Tenseiga and placed in his belt, then paused. He walked over and picked up a giant boomerang. "Let's see if I can throw this thing half as well as Taijiya Sango [5] reputedly could. Coming? Don't forget your sword."
Without thinking, Ruri grabbed the scabbard and replaced the sword, only afterwards realizing that it would have had to transform itself back to do that.
The demon smiled. "You learn quickly, Ruri-san."
******
Footnotes:
1. Ruri-Ruri – this is something Yurika started doing without Ruri's permission back on the Nadesico when their relationship was more Captain/Comp Operator than Mother/Daughter. It's a term of endearment that tends to confuse Ruri a bit, but she's gotten used to it. Also, for those who don't know, Akito and Yurika are both only a few years older than Ruri – they're both 18 in the TV series, making them only between 21 and 23 in Prince of Darkness. (There's a three year gap between the series and the movie, but I'm not 100% sure how much time passes in the series.)
2. Sesshoumaru the Cook – yes, there are certain things about Sesshoumaru that are out of character for the series. (Don't worry, I'm not done with having fun with him, either.) I view it this way. There are hundreds of years of personality development that he goes through that we don't get to see, so he has to change some things about himself to be able to survive as society in Japan evolves.
3. Tetsusaiga – yes, I'm spelling it this way instead of Tessaiga. Generally, manga is considered more authoritative than anime (at least for me), since the manga is generally done first and the anime will leave some parts of the manga out to make it fit better in a television timeframe. If it helps, think of it this way – Tetsusaiga and Tessaiga are like plural "you" and y'all. Edumacated people just say you, down har we say y'all. Or something.
4. Kimono – Kimono doesn't just mean the traditional women's robe which instantly makes any female character in anime kawaii (cute) and even more so if they already are kawaii. It also refers to clothing in general. Inuyasha does refer to his garments as "Fire rat fur kimono," if I remember correctly. In breakdown, his pants (as well as Kikyou's) are called hakama. His "jacket", the part he throws over Kagome in the Yura of the Hair episode, is a haori, and his white "undershirt" is just called kimono. (Remember also, early in the series in the episode where the jewel was shattered, one of Kagome's captors tugs her skirt and says "hey, look, her kimono's shorter than mine!")
5. Taijiya Sango – Demon Slayer Sango.
