Author's Note: Footnotes are at the end of the chapter.
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There and Back AgainChapter Seven: Ruri Takes the Red Pill
The next morning, the Akito's and Yurika's car pulled out of the driveway with two people in the backseat, both with white hair. Well, if the watchers had been paying attention they'd have realized it was one person and one box with a wig-wearing melon on top, as well as the fact that the other person in the back seat was the elder Inutaishou, not the younger. They radioed their boss that the target was moving and followed them quickly. Unfortunately, they were rather loud in following the car, and it was easy for Inuyasha to tell that their shadow had disappeared. His boot kicked the starter and the Yamaha darted out and headed the opposite direction the parents had gone, leaving Jaken choking on the dirt bike's exhaust fumes.
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The shadows didn't realize they'd been had when the car drove back into the driveway. They had an inkling something was up when Tenkawa and Misumaru didn't wait for their daughter to exit the car, and just headed into the house. They were outright suspicious when it was Sesshoumaru who got out of the passenger side instead of Inuyasha. But they didn't figure everything out until Sesshoumaru opened the rear driver's door, pulled out "Ruri's" head and took a large bite out of it, then went back inside. He did, however, pause before entering the house to chunk the melon at the two men shadowing the house, which he followed with an American-style single-finger salute. He then ducked into the house, closing the garage door on his way in.
******
For Hoshino to say that Inuyasha drove like a demon would be accurate except for the fact that he was indeed a demon. Thankfully, though, they'd arrived at their destination, the shrine of the Shikon no Tama and ancestral home of the Higurashi family. A teenager opened the door at their knock.
"Inuyasha-san! Father is expecting you!" Higurashi's eldest son reminded the youkai greatly of the pictures he'd seen of Kagome-obasan's brother at that age. Of course, considering how much he looked like his uncle that shouldn't be surprising.
The elder Higurashi greeted the young Inutaishou warmly.
"So, your father tells me that you're going to try to use the well to get back to Sengoku Jidai, hai?"
"Actually, the Goshinboku." This caused a shocked look from the priest.
"You can't go through a tree though."
"But the well has a very definite flow of time. Every minute that passed in miko Kagome's time passed in Sengoku Jidai. If that remains true, it would get us either halfway past or halfway to whichever time we wanted." That made sense in Hoshino's mind.
"I suppose that's true. I keep forgetting you're older than I am and not my son's age, you know. And I suppose this young lady is the Hoshino Ruri your father mentioned."
"Hai," Hoshino said, bowing slightly.
"Will the two of you at least stay for tea?" the monk said, returning the bow.
"Thank you for you invitation, but Nergal will already be aware of our deceit. We must act quickly," Hoshino responded.
The two walked over to the Goshinboku and the graves of Kagome and Inuyasha, which currently was also the perch for a man who appeared to be twenty-something years old by Ruri's estimation.
"Oi, Shippou, still hanging around here, huh?"
"Hai. Still hard for me to leave Kagome's side. I still think of her as 'kaa-san.'" [1]
"But Kagome-sama wanted you to live your own life once you were old enough to leave her care. Live for the future she helped create instead of living in the past."
The man gracefully leaped out of the tree to stand before the youkai. "You're a fine one to talk dog-boy. I've got a half century on you, respect your elders," he stated, crossing his arms.
Hoshino walked in between Inuyasha and the man and stood staring into Shippou's face. "So you are youkai as well?"
"Yeah, and what of it?"
Inuyasha laughed. "I may have got his name, but she got his soul, so you make damn sure you don't piss her off."
"Her? Inuyasha?" the kitsune smirked down at the girl. He wasn't fast enough to block the wakizashi tsuka that Ruri rammed into his hip. "OOOF!" [2]
"Baka."
"Told you so. Besides. If you go back in time with us, I guarantee you'll meet yourself. That can't happen."
"So, your going back in time is fine, but if I went it wouldn't be?"
"No, my going back in time isn't fine, and I'm not happy with it, and your going back would be even worse, baka-kitsune. The point here is to make sure that history happens as it apparently was meant to be."
"So fight me, baka-inu. I win, I go back in time with you. You win, I stay here."
"Fine," the dog demon replied, thumbing loose one of the two swords he was carrying. "Just remember, you couldn't block Hoshino-san, what makes you think you could block me?"
"Heh, the lesson is, get in the first shot," the fox demon retorted, leaping into the air. "Kitsune-b – oof!"
Inuyasha had moved under Shippou the moment he began to form foxfire, and leaped up behind him and tapped him on the back of the skull with his boot. Shippou collided rather hard with the ground, his opponent landing a few feet away. Ruri walked up to him and leaned over his face. "Boot to the head."
Inuyasha walked up to the tree, followed by Ruri. From one sleeve he produced a jewel shard, from the other, a Chulip Crystal.
"You have great faith this will work."
"This was the tree which my uncle was bound to for fifty years, and through this tree miko Kagome-obasan talked with Inuyasha-sama once when they were forcefully separated in different times. These 'time trees', as Kagome-obasan said Kaede-sama called them, exist apart from the fabric of time. Besides, history's already been written on this, hasn't it?"
"Baka."
"Baka yourself." With that, he jammed the shard into the crystal. The crystal glowed with contact to the shard.
"Oi, Higurashi-san, have Shippou-baka hide my bike when he wakes up."
"Hai."
The two travelers shouldered their packs. Ruri grabbed her sempai's hand, and, with his free hand, Inuyasha placed the combined crystal against the tree. The fabric of space itself bent around his hand, and they walked into the tree--
--And out the other side. Inuyasha looked down at his hand, still holding the combined crystal, now blackened. As he watched, the black crumbled away to nothingness, leaving only the Shikon no Kakera.
"Baka. We're not in Sengoku Jidai. We're standing on pavement, there's the shed, the fence, the-- umf" Ruri was suddenly hoisted by the demon who then darted behind the nearest shed.
"Souta! Pick up the pace while Kagome's in the warring states era! You've got a lot more chores to do around the shrine!"
Ruri peered around the youkai's shoulder to see an older man in traditional garb sweeping the ground clear of falling leaves. A young boy appeared to be hampering the process as much as helping it.
"Who's that?" She whispered, "Higurashi's father and youngest son?"
The demon shook his head. "Kagome-obasan's grandfather and younger brother Souta. Baka yourself - we're now in the late 20th century, maybe early 21st."
"So, why are we hiding?"
Inuyasha shrugged. "History dictates," he stated flatly, sticking out his tongue. "Ain't the past a bitch? Besides. They'd either go running off in fear or mistake me for Inuyasha-sama."
"Hai. How long do we wait?"
"As long as it takes for them to finish and give us a chance to get over to the well."
They were forced to wait another full fifteen minutes, each one marked by constant fear of being spotted by one of Higurashi's relatives. The pair finally finished their yard-work and retreated inside. Youkai and hanyou cautiously crossed the courtyard to the Bone Eater's Well. They stood on the edge of the well staring at each other. Ruri was obviously having doubts. The youkai offered his hand to the hanyou. Taking it, she jumped in, dragging the youkai with her.
******
Footnotes:
1. Kaa-san - mother
2. Tsuka – "hilt", or even more loosely translated "handgrip".
