Author's Note: Well, I suppose I should summarize right quick - we're now halfway through the ordeal, so it's a good place to recap. In the future as I've written it, after completing the jewel Inuyasha opted to return through the well to Kagome's time and become human. Not how I'd personally like the series to end, but works for a plot device here. Sesshoumaru also lives through the Meiji Era and beyond and gets to the "present" time the "normal" way. Sesshoumaru took a mate in the 20th century who bore him a son whom he named after his brother. It was during this time that Sesshoumaru also took on a surname to better hide within society, that of his father Inutaishou.
Fast forward yet another 200 years, Sesshoumaru's still around (demons != mortal, remember?), and his son Inuyasha is in demon maturity about 20, 22 despite being far older in "people years". The company who controls gate-based hyperjumping on earth (the concept's similar to Bebop if you haven't seen Nadesico) in researching jumping found legends about the Bone Eater's Well. Searching for profit by any means, Nergal contacted the house of Inutaishou about it, and the two parties "agreed" to conduct research into it. However, Sesshoumaru and his son had found jewel fragments which existed beyond the completion of the jewel, and therefore sought to return them to their rightful owner to seal off the possibility of paradox.
Yeah, I think that's about it. Oh, and Nadesico fans? The Inutaishou Inuyasha/Hoshino Ruri does not follow the same pattern as Tenkawa Akito/Hoshino Ruri. Neither will I burn your eyes. You have my word. Well, looks like all the pieces are on the board now. Time to play some memory mahjongg.
There and Back AgainChapter Thirteen: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Kagome stared down at the vial which now contained twice the shards it had earlier held. This was certainly not a turn of events she'd expected. She thought wistfully for a second that she should have been at home by now, getting ready for the date with Hojo tomorrow evening. "Oh well, what's one more stood up date?" she muttered.
"Hmm?" Sango said.
"Oh, nothing, nothing." Kagome looked over at the two guests they had at their fire tonight. One, the spitting image of her hanyou friend, the other one the spitting image said was the reincarnation of her hanyou friend. And no blood relation between them, Ruri had been quick to point out. A look between the two oldest girls at the campfire said they agreed on what that meant. By his lack of reaction, it also proved one of two things about the younger Inuyasha. Either he was as dumb as Inuyasha senior when it came to women or he was even cooler-reacting than Sesshoumaru was. Either way, he was a grandson of Inutaishou, that was for sure.
The names problem was also quickly worked out. Shippou started to call the younger "Inu-kun" as Ruri did, but was quickly told by her he should do otherwise. Shippou cried after that and cried even harder when she called him "baka", so the group quickly decided the new arrival would simply be "Inu-san." They also worked out that when Kagome next went back into the well, Inuyasha, Inu-san and Ruri would go with her. Inuyasha and Kagome would travel forward in time with Inu-san and Ruri, and then use one of the blue thingies to get back to Kagome's time.
Further looks were shared between Sango and Kagome when Ruri stacked Inu's and her sleeping mats together. Kagome did find herself jealous, however, as the mats they carried fluffed out much farther and rolled up tighter than her sleeping bag did. For the most part, however, the evening was uneventful, consisting of lots of boasting from Inuyasha towards his nephew, which generally elicited more than a few baka's from Ruri. This was always much to the enjoyment of the rest of the group, as it never failed to infuriate the hanyou. Kagome did notice that Inu always referred to his uncle as Inuyasha-sama, but was under no false pretenses about the hanyou's crudeness. Must be Sesshoumaru-sama showing through, Kagome thought.
One by one the party fell asleep. Kirara and Shippou were the first to fall asleep, Kirara by default, as Shippou had fallen asleep on her. The third was Ruri, having laid down with her head in her senpai's lap as stories were swapped back and forth. Inuyasha shortly headed into a nearby tree, and the houshi was dozing. This left Kagome, Sango, and Inu still up, and the two girls decided they were going to grill him about Ruri, since the rest of the party was too male to pick up on any signs.
They plopped down in front of the youkai between him and the fire, enough space between them that the firelight still illuminated his face. Inu was suddenly reminded of pulp detective novels, with the good cop/bad cop alone with the crook in an empty room illuminated by one light directly over the crook.
Kagome had apparently decided to play bad cop. "So, no blood relation between you two?"
Inu saw where this was going. It was going to be a long night. He stroked Ruri's hair to keep her asleep as he responded. "No, no blood relation as we define it." His future aunt had obviously only meant that as a "getting to my point" question, and so was caught completely flat-footed by the response.
"Huh?"
He briefly told them of Ruri's history and the genetic manipulation she went through. Kagome was able to somewhat follow it based on what she knew from biology class, but Sango was lost. Inu stopped and decided to summarize in a way that might make sense.
"There is no parental way to say that we are related, but if you compared our blood you would probably declare us to be second or third cousins." This Sango caught, and made everything else he'd said earlier in the conversation make more sense. But it was distracting them from the original purpose of the conversation. Kagome was clearly trying to figure out how to get back to what she wanted to ask, so Sango decided to speed things up.
"So, what is the relationship between you and Ruri-chan?" Kagome was shocked at Sango's directness but couldn't argue with the question. After all, it was what she wanted to ask in the first place.
Inu laughed slightly, careful not to awaken Ruri. Looks like both wanted to play the bad cop. "I'm well aware of how we behave and I'm also aware of the signals she gives off that my uncle and the monk are oblivious to." He paused and then gave a more direct answer. "I am her temporary guardian while we're in this time. I am also in a sense senpai to her in that I am a child leading a child in battle, as the only experience she has in fighting is space... ship-to-ship combat. In the time I've known her, I guess you could say that I have grown to love her, but as a sister. No romantic involvement here - she's thirteen. It's pretty obvious how she feels about me, I'm aware, but there's also a good chance it's just confusion since I'm probably the first un-romantically-involved male she could call 'senpai.'"
Satisfied, the girls returned to their spots around the fire and let themselves fall off to sleep. Inu stayed awake a while longer, listening to the sounds of the forest.
******
Near the midnight hour, Miroku's head snapped up. Something wasn't right. He surveyed the campsite, not noticing anything out of place. He saw that Inuyasha's nephew was still awake and assumed the same was true of the hanyou. Miroku noticed the nephew subtly motion him over. He slowly rose and crossed the camp, seating himself by the youkai in dark red.
"So, you sense it too, Houshi-sama?" he whispered.
"Indeed, just now I sensed a great disturbance, as if some tremendous evil were nearby. Do you think it could be Naraku?"
The youkai shook his head slightly. "I believe Kaede was correct in saying that Naraku is drawing demons to the south. In all the stories I heard as a child, I gained the very clear picture that battles with Naraku all took place on his own grounds. If he wanted to go to someone, he sent a minion to do it. He never came out to fight himself. Not only that, the presence of Shikon no Kakera would have awakened Kagome-obasan."
"Indeed. Considering that, it's probably not one of his minions, either. Whatever I'm sensing is quite strong, the kind of demon that Naraku would certainly absorb into himself instead of using it as a minion."
"Hai. Such a power would be a difficult minion to control. No, I think we are dealing with an independent demon or demons."
"You believe there to be two?"
The youkai listened for a moment before continuing. "I believe that we have been watched all evening. I sensed an evil presence, although slight, even before we dined this evening. As you awoke, I felt the evil increase drastically. We may be looking at a weaker youkai watching us all evening that was just joined by a stronger--"
Both men froze in mid-conversation. They no longer sensed the presence nearby. Miroku stood and moved to sleep sitting behind the youkai, facing away from the fire. Inuyasha the younger nodded in agreement to the defensive position. Inuyasha the elder snored.
******
