THREE
A man they assume is Kurenai's brother sprinted through the park's gates the moment they came into sight.
"Sis!"
He came to a halt in front of his little sister and his olive green eyes flared at the state she's in; the left arm of her jacket and left leg of her pants are slashed open with blood seeped bandages underneath and her right foot hovering over the ground tells him that she might have sprained it.
Kurenai's heart sank at the horror in her brother's eyes as they raked over her. "Hey brother, I'm home." she smiled, praying it eases him somehow, "It's not as bad as it looks, they're superficial wounds and a sprained ankle. Let's talk in the car, it's not ideal for us to be out here too long."
Knowing his sister's right, he forced his worry down and smiled back at her, "Okay. Welcome home, sis." finally expanding his vision to the people with his sister, he smiled at Sango, "I'm Ren Moretti, Kurenai's older brother. I'll help carry her instead, please go to the car."
The slayer let her friend go and hesitantly walked towards the modern mode of transportation that Kurenai told them so much about.
The vehicle's black, shiny façade is hypnotic but the thing that stood out the most to the guests from the Feudal era is the absence of horses, or dragons, or an ox to perform its transportation duties and they wondered how it will work.
Ren opened the door for the backseats and Kurenai began instructing them, "Sango, go in first to the very back and sit next to the window; Shippo, sweetie, go in next and sit opposite Sango next to the window." She turned to Sesshoumaru and Rin, "Sesshoumaru, I'll need Rin to sit next to Shippo since it will be more comfortable for the smaller ones to sit at the back," she asked of the daiyoukai.
Despite his ire at the human woman once again telling him what to do and not using honorifics to address him, he gave his approval, "Go ahead, Rin."
Inuyasha helped Ren get Kurenai into the car to sit between Sango and Rin then Ren slid his gym bag into the space between Inuyasha and Miroku's seats and elevated his sister's injured foot over it. Inuyasha and Miroku hopped in the car next and Sesshoumaru occupied the front passenger seat.
Ren handed out bottles of cold water to his passengers before driving them back home and Kurenai began telling the story of how they got to this turn of events.
"So they'll be staying with us for now." she concluded.
"I see. Well, we're gonna have to buy their necessities later," Ren said, keeping his eyes on the road.
Driving through LA, the car echoed with 'woahs' and 'wows' of their guests from the Feudal era as they took in the foreign landscape of the modern city. From the towering skyscrapers, to the rows of different shops, to the pedestrians' outfits or lack thereof—which of course was a thrill to a particular monk—and the different modes of transportation. It was an overwhelming surge of foreign images and information that they can barely keep up with and the siblings can't help but smile watching their faces light up with wonder.
Sesshoumaru however, is not as bright-eyed as the others. He frowned at the revealing clothes of not just the women but also the men and the sight of the vehicles spewing black smoke into the air made his skin crawl. There are things he found amazing, but not everything impressed him. His only consolation is Rin's excitement at the new things she's seeing, but everything changes to irritation at her high-pitched squeals.
Kurenai checked the time on her phone; a little before 9am. Perfect.
"Ren, what food can we serve them at home?" she asked while tapping away on her phone.
He glanced at her through the rearview mirror before focusing back on driving, "I planned chicken macaroni soup for lunch and the broth I made for that last night is fantastic! There're also porkchops marinating in the fridge and I just bought some ingredients for salad yesterday." He chuckled at the choir of growling stomachs.
"Geez, thanks for teasing us bro." She groaned sarcastically before pressing her phone to her ear. "Hi Ryan! It's K, how are you? I'm good." Her friends craned their necks towards her with frowned faces as Kurenai spoke a language they don't understand with her phone pressed to her ear.
"Listen," she continued, "I need a favor, can you come over quickly? I have an emergency remodeling project for you. Yes. Sorry for the short notice. Really? Thanks, see you later then." Kurenai hung up and smiled at the innocent curiosity in her friends' eyes staring at her.
"As you know," she started another one of the many explanations she and her brother will give her friends about the modern era, "we're in a foreign country and this country has a different language than Japan which is called English, that's what you heard me speaking earlier. Ren and I know both English and Japanese because our biological father was a native of this country while our mother came from Japan."
"Why didn't we hear the voice of the person you were talking to like when you spoke your brother earlier?" Sango asked.
"Hmmm..." she thought a simple explanation to the question.
"We'll have A LOT of hard questions to answer won't we?" Ren grinned.
"You see, conversations over the phone are often preferred to be kept private so normally, you can only hear the person you're talking to when the phone is pressed to your ear. But with my conversation with Ren earlier, because I need both my hands to go through my bag, I pressed the loud speaker button on the phone and that made his voice loud enough so I can hear even if the phone is far from my ear." seeing the acknowledgement on their faces, she continued, "I called a friend of mine who is an expert on organizing and decorating homes because I'd like modify the house to suit our current needs."
"There's no need to go through so much trouble Kurenai." Miroku told her.
"Hell, we've survived with camping in forests and sleeping in a small hut so your home wouldn't be so bad." Inuyasha added.
Their driver chuckled, "Oh... It's not bad at all I tell you." he stated proudly and got another set of inquisitive looks. "You'll find out soon enough, we're almost there."