InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 20

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi




Chapter 20

Suzume ran into the house.

“So that’s who lives in this place,” Kagome said, looking around her.  “I never knew.”

“Yes,” Kaede replied.  “Tameo, Hisa, and his oldest son Susumu and his family. Suzume is Susumu’s middle daughter.”  She pointed towards the right.  “Tameo’s younger son Kinjiro lives in that house there.”  

 A woman, sweeping the grounds in front of the house saw the group and standing up for a moment, waved and greeted them.  “That’s Matsume, his wife,” Kaede said.

The compound was a busy place, filled with the smells of a prosperous peasant family, compost and things fermenting, and animals and food.  Children were playing around the grounds, hunched over tops and other toys, and one older man was shoveling compost into a cart.   A rooster, acting if he owned the compound, strutted between buildings. A woman washing clothes in a tub shooed the rooster away as he got too close, but not until he ruffed his feathers and let her know who was king.

As they walked to the main house, a door slid open and Tameo himself stepped out on the verandah.   He was about Kaede’s age, gray, thick through the middle, and dressed in black and red. An eboshi cap, not quite the right size, perched perilously on his grizzled, balding head, held only there by the hat’s strings, something that ought to have looked silly, but on him, gave him an air of friendly man, secure in his place in the world.  Seeing the group, he gave them a welcoming bow, then held his arms out.

 “Ah, friends, cousin, come in, come in,” he said.  He led them into the main room of the house.  It was twice as large as Kaede’s whole house.  There was much evidence of family industry - food hanging from rafters along with protective ofuda, a spinning wheel and loom near the window, huge storage jars along one wall.  Built in cabinets lined another wall.  A sliding doorway led to more rooms in the back. The area around the fire pit had sturdy mats laid out for those who joined them at their hearth.  An attractive young woman sat at the spinning wheel, keeping an eye out on a small toddler at play while she worked.  She looked up as the group entered.

“Kaede-obasan, you’ve come to visit us?” she said, winding her yarn on the spindle. “And you’ve brought company!”

“Yes, Emi-chan.  And I’ve brought InuYasha and his wife Kagome with us.” Kaede said.  “Emi is the wife of Susumu, my nephew and Tameo’s eldest son.”
Emi stood up and bowed.  “It’s good you’ve come to visit us,” she said.  “I had heard you returned, Kagome-sama, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to visit you yet.”

“Emi-chan,” Tameo said.  “Could you go find Hisa and tell her we have company?”
Emi nodded. “I’ll be right back.” Then she turned and slipped out of the room into the back.

The child she had been watching, looked up from the toys she had been playing with and noticed Emi was gone, and began to fuss.  

“Now none of that, Aomi,” Tameo said, walking over and  picking the toddler up. “Your mama will be back soon.  Until then, you’ve got your grandfather.”

“Ojii,” the child said. “Okaa gone?”

“That’s right,” he replied, swinging her onto his hip. “She’ll be back with Obaasan.”  With one hand, he gestured to the fire pit.  “Sit down, friends.  I’m glad you’ve finally decided to come down the hill so we can get a good look at you both.”

Kaede settled down on one of the mats. Taking Kaede’s cue, InuYasha and Kagome took their seats next to her, and Tameo joined them in the father’s seat.  Aomi slipped out of his lap and looked at the newcomers warily.

“When Kaede-oneesan told me you had come back to stay with us, it made me very happy,” he said to Kagome. “I never properly got to thank you for removing the monster that took poor Kikyou-sama away from us.  And now destiny has brought you back to us, and,” he said, grinning at the couple, “to InuYasha-sama as well.”

Kagome and InuYasha looked at each other briefly, blushing slightly from the knowing tone of Tameo’s voice, and from his gentle chuckle at how they reacted.

Tameo turned to Kaede.  “Destiny sometimes surprises us and does the right thing, eh, Kaede-oneesan?”  Aomi, a finger stuck in her mouth, toddled away from her grandfather, and toward Kagome.

“Yes, sometimes it does,” Kaede replied, looking at her cousin with a calm, but amused eye.  “It certainly surprised me.”

“Keh,” InuYasha said, looking at his wife.

Aomi stopped in front of Kagome, and shyly held out the toy she had in her hand, a carved wooden stick doll.

“Is that your baby?” Kagome asked.

The girl nodded.

“You want me to hold her?”

The girl nodded again, and Kagome took the doll from Aomi’s hand, which Aomi took as a sign to crawl into Kagome’s lap

“The right thing indeed,” Tameo said, smiling. “And babes, they can sense the right better than even grizzled old men like me.”

Just then Hisa, Tameo’s wife, slid the door open, followed by Emi, carrying a tray, and a young man who looked like a less portly, less gray version of Tameo.

“Welcome, welcome,” Hisa said.  She, too, was not young, but instead of stout was tiny, but not frail-seeming at all.  She smiled at her guests and her face lit up. “Let me offer you some refreshments! I’m sure my husband hasn’t even thought about it yet.”

He looked up and laughed.  “That’s why I married you, woman.  You’re the one who’s supposed to remember all that stuff.”  

“I do my best,” she said, sitting down next to Tameo.  

He turned to the younger man. “Well, Susumu, I’m glad you could join us.  I was afraid you’d miss this meeting, welcoming our Kagome-sama back to the village.”

Susumu smiled.  “When Haha-ue said I could keep chopping straw or come visit our company, it wasn’t any question which one I’d rather do.”

Emi sat the tray down next to Hisa, then rescuing Kagome from the attentions of her daughter by picking her up, joined her husband.

Kagome looked at Susumu, tilting her head.  “I think I’ve met you before, Susumu-sama.”

“Probably,” the man said.  “I remember seeing you a number of times.”

Kagome’s face lit up as a memory surfaced. “You’re the one who thought I was a kitsune the day I first came here!”

Tameo barked out a laugh, and Hisa and Emi covering their mouths, joined in, but gently.

“My apologies, Kagome-sama,” Susumu said, bowing.  “But you have to admit, your coming here was a bit unusual.”

InuYasha turned to Kagome.  “They thought you were a kitsune?”

She nodded.  “Until Kaede-obaasan got there.”

“We were all rather surprised,” Kaede said. “A confused strange girl popped up, and nobody knew what to make of her.”

“But now we do,” Hisa said, pouring tea. “She’s our welcome guest.”  She passed a cup of tea to InuYasha and another to Kagome. “Tell me, Kagome-chan, how have you been doing since you returned to us?  I only hear good things about you, you know,” she said. “I hope you found the food I sent useful.  I would have loved to send you fresh food, but it’s a little too early.”

“Thank you very much, Hisa-sama,” Kagome said.  “The gift was lovely, and we really appreciated it.”

“Keh,” the hanyou said.

“So, Kaede-oneesan,” Tameo said, sipping his tea, “tell me why you have brought our young friends to visit with us today.”

Kaede sipped her tea, holding it with both hands, before resting the cup in the flat of her hand.  “We discussed your kind offer yesterday, cousin.  Today, after thinking it over, Kagome-chan has asked to be my apprentice.”

“Good, good!” Tameo said.  “Welcome to our family!  I was hoping you would accept.  Hisa, we must have a celebration tonight.”

“Ah,” said Susumu.  “This is why Haha-ue wanted me here.  Welcome, Kagome-sama, a kitsune no more, but my cousin.”  He grinned at her.

“You will have to visit often,” Emi said.  “Another woman in the family will be a lovely thing!”

Kagome found herself nodding her thanks and blushing under the outpouring, not exactly sure what to say.  She took a sip of tea.  “Thank you all,” she said.  

 Tameo turned to towards the couple. “It’s been ten years at least since the last time we added a branch to our family, and never anyone quite like you.”

“I bet,” InuYasha said, both confused but pleased by the outpouring of good feeling aimed at his wife. “So what does it mean, becoming a branch family?  I left home before I learned about stuff like that,” he said, and then looking at Kagome, gave her hand a little squeeze. “And I think they did stuff differently where Kagome came from.”

“It’s true,” she replied.

“Did they?”  Tameo said.  “It’s hard for me to think of living any other way.  Huh.”  He took a sip of his tea, and snatched a sweet off the tray next to his wife.  Putting down the tea cup, he unwrapped the treat and popped it into his mouth.  

“Let’s see,” he said after a moment. “Well, you’ll belong to our ko, our kinship group.  It’s the most important thing a person can have, a ko.  The kami that watches over our family will also watch over you, as will all our ancestors. When our family meets for the family festivals, three times a year, you will join us here to celebrate.  When it’s time to plant the rice, you help until all the rice is planted; likewise at harvest time.  We in turn will stand by you, like family does, in time of need, or if one of the other families has a dispute with you.  If someone tries to treat you like an outsider or outcast, they will have to deal with our family, and since more than half of the villagers belong to our ko, that will give you a good buffer in case of trouble, and a fairer position if they bring up charges to you with the village elders.”

Picking his teacup back up, he took a deep drink, then gave the young woman a serious look.  “When you came back, Kagome-chan, I knew that there would be people in our village who would disapprove of your choice for husband.  I believe I heard one of them already tried to show his displeasure.”

Kagome nodded.

“He better not come back and try any of that stuff,” InuYasha said.

“He will not,” Tameo said.  “Or if he does, it will cost him far more than he wants to pay.”  He put his tea cup down.  Hisa moved to refill it, but he motioned her not to. “I tried to think of a way that would protect the two of you.   I could not adopt you into my family, InuYasha-sama.  I am sorry.  It’s not that I wouldn’t want to, but there are some things even an old, headstrong man like myself can’t accomplish.”

“But I’d love to see old Haname’s face if you tried it,” said Susumu. “I doubt if Tsuneo could ever calm her down.”

Aomi began to fuss, and Emi stood up with her daughter, bowing apologetically.  “Oh, that would be a sight,” she agreed.  “But please excuse me.  It’s time for my daughter’s nap.”  She left.

Tameo smiled at his son.  “It would be almost worth it, but no.  You understand, don’t you, InuYasha-sama?”

InuYasha nodded.  

“But Kaede-oneesan mentioned that she believed that Kagome-sama still had full use of her spiritual powers, so I talked with Susumu and my other son, and a few other people within the family and they agreed that if she would be willing to train with Oneesan, even though she would be married to you, InuYasha-sama, then they would support her being adopted into the family.”

“You agreed to this?” InuYasha asked the younger man.

“Oh yes.  I want to talk to you about you joining the village guard, too,” Susumu said.  “Daitaro-ojisan  told me we should have brought you in after you helped with the bandit attacks last year.” Susumu picked up a chimaki off his mother’s tray.  “He was probably right.  That old man has a lot of sense.”

“You know, your family’s weird,” InuYasha said.

Tameo laughed.  “Maybe so, my friend, maybe so.”

“But you’ll like us, cousin,” Susumu said.  “Welcome.”