Chapter Twenty: Up the Rabbit Hole
They walked the rest of the way back to the village in relative silence. After a little needling from Ruri, he called in his mind the image of his old girlfriend, which somehow helped her get over her jealousy. And Ruri said youkai were weird.
'I heard that, baka.'
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They returned to Kaede's hut shortly before dinner, and helped the miko prepare the evening meal for the group. At dinner it was decided that the quartet of the two Inuyashas, Kagome and Ruri would go time-hopping in the morning.
Each had their own thoughts on the departure. Ruri was certainly looking forward to getting back to a time where should could escape into a climate-controlled environment where power cells running down weren't as big a deal and running water wasn't confined to streams and rivers. At the same time it meant dealing with Nergal again. She'd even heard rumors already that Nadesico was about to be put back into duty, and soon. Granted, Akito-san and Yurika-san would be on the ship, no doubt, but Inu-kun wouldn't be there. 'I wonder if there's not some function he could serve aboard ship,' Ruri thought, momentarily forgetting their link.
'Sorry imouto. But don't worry. As we use this more, it appears to becoming stronger, not weaker. Distance I'm sure will create some problems, but not insurmountable.' He looked over at her, and in Ruri's mind she saw herself. She blinked. She saw herself blink in her mind. He blinked. The picture vanished to black then returned. Inu's mind laughed and his face smiled. 'I'm finding more and more that minds are like servers - once you figure out where to look for the 'hardware' directory, it's a lot easier to share information between 'devices'.'
'Hmm. I guess I'll watch what I'm wearing when I brush my teeth from now on.'
It was rare when Ruri laughed, but she laughed until she cried at the youkai spewing a mouthful of rice and stew onto Miroku. Ruri quickly sought out how to transmit her eyes to him and showed him the look on his face at her comment, which caused him to return the laugh.
As the duo sought to calm their laughing, the rest of the room began having serious doubts as to the sanity of the two. Ruri leaned on Inu's shoulder, knowing that it might be the last time she would be able to do so for some time. There was no telling what would happen once they got back.
Inu, for his part, was looking forward to returning so he wouldn't have to worry so much about the flow of time. He didn't want to really leave imouto's side, but he knew that he had businesses and investments to take care of back home.
Miko Kaede wasn't looking forward to the two's leaving. She kept hoping that some of his nephew's manners might rub off on Inuyasha. She sighed. That was an impossibility.
Sango and Miroku weren't looking forward to Inu's and Ruri's departure. Miroku was sorry that he hadn't had a chance to try to get Ruri to bear his child. Futile, he knew, as he had guessed that she would wait around for the youkai, but still, it was his duty to try. Sango, for her part, was sorry that she wouldn't have a chance to finish their fight and kick the youkai's ass in the end.
Kagome looked forward to getting to go to the future and see what the shrine would look like, and maybe what her children looked like. She wondered if anyone she knew besides Sesshoumaru might have lived that long. Would Kagura or Kanna still be around? Would Naraku evade them until then? For that matter, would she bump into Shippou? If Inuyasha's brother could live that long, it would be entirely within the realm of possibility that the kitsune asleep on her lap might live that long as well.
Inuyasha wondered if they still had instant ramen in the future.
The next morning dawned bright and clear. The whole group walked to the well to see the travelers off. Goodbyes were short. Shippou cried, even though he really hadn't known the two very long. Kirara purred happily as Ruri scratched her ears goodbye, and Miroku managed to avoid grabbing Ruri's posterior in the process. A withering glance from Sango plus a threatening gesture at the tsuka of one of Inu's swords helped his strength in resisting. Sango decided to hug both of them goodbye. Even though she hugged Ruri first, and longer, Inu still felt a short flash of jealousy from Ruri when Sango hugged him. Without further ceremony, the four hopped through the well and into the twentieth century.
The four reconvened outside the well house. Kagome sighed, glad to be home if but for a few minutes. Inuyasha breathed deeply, smelling once again the strange scents of this time that he was slowly becoming accustomed to. Ruri for her part was impatient. Hanging out here was akin stopping for lunch by a "Home - 35 mi." sign. She then sighed at nii-chan. Gears were obviously clinking in his head. She heard with a portion of her mind Kagome-san making noises about stopping to take a bath. That was appetizing, but Ruri still wanted home, even if home was now more a time than a place. Unfortunately, her mind heard Inu-kun agree with his aunt.
Her mind returned back to the other two as she heard the elder Inuyasha making noise about having to keep moving. Inu raised his hand to stop his uncle. "If the girls wish to stop to shower, we shouldn't stop them. Frankly, if the same amount of time has passed in our time as passed in Sengoku Jidai, then we'll be in for a fight when we step through the tree. Nergal will have a private army waiting for us. Besides," he continued, clamping a hand on his elder's shoulder, "there are plenty of times when they win arguments on their own. No harm in letting them win an argument once in a while." Further argument was academic. Kagome was headed inside with Ruri in (slightly resistant) tow.
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