InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 33

[ 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 33

Rin, wearing an old and worn hemp kosode, patched and faded blue, instead of one of the bright silk ones that Sesshoumaru provided for her, walked along the rice paddy dike, heading back from one of the garden plots Kaede used for her own needs.  She had dirt smudges along one cheek and stains on her knees, looking very much like a farm girl, carrying a hoe over one shoulder and a partially filled basket with her free hand.

It was a nice spring midday.  The paddy lands she was walking by didn’t have rice in them, but instead were green with young barley plants, not yet old enough to turn golden.  She had managed to pull up enough wild plants that she knew were worth eating to take back, and she was ready for lunch.  It had been a pleasant morning.

“Some days the sun shines bright
some days the clouds grow dark,
some days the rain falls soft,
some days the snow falls hard,” she sang, not noticing at first that someone had spotted her.

A boy was walking along another dike that met the path she was taking. He was about twelve, and like her, dressed in indigo blue clothes, marked with the dirt of his morning’s work. Looking up, he saw Rin walking and waved.

“You sing nice,” he said as he drew nearer. “Where are you going?”

She saw him and smiled, then quickly looked down.  She knew him. His family was related to Toshiro, the head of the second most important family in the village. “Hello, Nakao-kun,” she said, smiling. “Rin was working in Kaede’s herb garden, but now is going back home for lunch.”

“Ah,” Nakao said, nodding. “I’m going back to the village too. Can I walk with you?”

She looked up at him. He wasn’t much taller than she was, but he had an open, friendly face and  a soft and pleasant smile. She had seen him working and playing around the village. Once in awhile, he would do an errand for Kaede.

She chewed her bottom lip. Outside of Kaede and Miroku and Sango, she didn’t have much to do with the villagers. They were uncomfortable with the girl who was under the watchful eye of such a powerful youkai as Sesshoumaru. Even though he  didn’t appear often, he had made it clear that she was under his, and his hanyou brother’s protection, even if she lived with their beloved miko. Iya and a  few other girls had befriended her, but boys for the most part, like their parents, gave her a wide berth.  But Nakao looked at her with a pleased, waiting smile.

 For some reason, she didn’t want to make that smile go away. “If you want to,” she said. “Rin is tired of pulling weeds.”

Nakao nodded again. “I don’t blame you. I had to do that yesterday morning for Haha-ue’s garden. Today, I was helping to mend one of the dikes. That's why I have so much mud on my legs. But that's done, and Chichi-ue let me go do what I want for a while. I was thinking about going down to the river.”

Rin looked down and saw that his legs were indeed mud streaked. He wiggled his mud-caked toes as she looked, and she giggled a little, softly, behind her hand.

When she looked up, she gave him a tentative but definite smile.  “Kaede-sama let me go do whatever I wanted today, too. I wanted to work in the garden,” Rin said, adjusting the basket she was holding.

“You wanted to pull weeds?” Nakao asked, amazed at her revelation.

She nodded, chewing her lip to avoid giggling again. “Kaede-sama has been very nice to me, and gave me a part of the garden to grow flowers in. It hurts her, some days, to work in the garden.”

“My obaasan's like that, too,” he said, looking down, nudging a rock with his toe.

“But now I want to get back,” the girl said.  “Kagome-sama started training with Kaede-sama today, and  Rin wants to say hello to her before she goes home.”

“That’s that woman who likes the hanyou? Who was gone for so long?” Nakao asked.  “Chichi-ue, he’s kind of scared of him.  Doesn’t like that we have a hanyou living in the village.”

“That’s stupid,” Rin said, frowning. “InuYasha-ojisan is a good person.  He saved me more than once.”

“Really?” Nakao asked.  He chewed his own lip for a moment.  “Did you ever see him use that sword of his?  I heard it gets really big when he takes it out.”

“It does!  And - ”

“Nakao!” a voice shouted.

The two children turned to look as a boy in his mid-teens came walking up. “That's Sukeo, my brother,” Nakao said. The boy sighed.  “I bet he’s thought of something else for me to do.”

Rin shifted her grip on the hoe she was carrying as she watched the older boy join them. He looked much like his younger brother, but had a worried, out-of-breath look about him. He was about fifteen, and unlike Nakao who still wore his hair in a boy's cut, Sukeo wore his tied up tea-whisk style, like an adult.

“There you are!” the newcomer said.  He avoided looking at Rin, but tugged on his brother’s shirt. “Haha-ue’s been looking for you!”

“Oh! I guess I have to go, then” said Nakao. “I'll see you later.  Maybe you can sing the rest of your song to me.”

She nodded.  “Maybe so.”

She started walking again, as the two boys took the other path, but was not quite out of earshot when she heard the older boy saying, “What do you think you were doing? Don't you know she's that youkai's girl? Be glad Chichi-ue didn’t see you.  No telling what would happen if you got too friendly with her. Haven’t you heard the stories about Sesshoumaru-sama?”

Suddenly, Rin felt very lonely and she stopped, turning to watch the two walk off, the older boy slapping the younger one in the head.  Sighing, she turned around to walk home, when she almost bumped into a wall of red fire rat.

“Hey,” InuYasha said, looking down on her.

“Hello, InuYasha-ojisan,” she said, not meeting his eyes.

“Did you hear what that baka said?” the hanyou asked.

Rin nodded.

InuYasha rested a hand on her back for a moment.  “Sorry you heard that, kid.  Sukeo’s father’s a jerk.  He tried to chase me away when I was after those bandits last year, and it took Susumu bopping him a hard one to get him out of my way and let me get to work. He still gives me evil looks when he sees me.  Looks like Sukeo’s taking right after his dad.  The kid though, Nakao, he seems all right.”  He took the hoe from Rin’s shoulder.  She looked at him as he settled it over his own.  “Wanna go see if they’re ready for us yet?  I’m getting hungry.”  

“You’re always hungry, InuYasha-ojisan.”  Rin finally looked up at him, and smiled a little.

“That’s so I can keep up with you and Sango and Kagome and Kaede-babaa,” he said. “It takes a lot of energy.”

This time, the girl laughed.  

Abruptly, InuYasha turned his head, and his nostrils flared as he picked up on a scent. Straining his ears forward as he listened for some sound, he rested his hand on the girl’s  back again. “You go on ahead, Rin. There’s something here I need to check out.”

She looked up at him, and into those amber eyes she thought were so like yet not like her  Sesshoumaru’s. His brows furrowed in concentration as he sniffed again. They were busy scanning the forest beyond the fields.

“Should Rin tell Kaede-sama you’ve seen something? Is it dangerous?” Rin asked.

“Nah, just something I need to take care of. I’ll catch up with you.” He handed her back the hoe and bounded off to the woods. “Don’t let’em eat all the food!”

Rin watched him as he dashed off, until he moved into the edge of the wood.  Shaking her head, she headed home.

InuYasha entered the woods carefully, his senses on high alert. The scent trail was still clear, but knowing who it belonged to, he suspected he had missed his prey. Leaning back against a tree, he took a deep breath.

That unmistakable scent was still there, lingering but dissipating. He could smell it on the bark of the tree.  

“Listen, bastard.  I don’t care what you do to me, but that girl deserves better.  She’s lonely, and still doesn’t fit in. You need to come visit her, and not just hide on the fringes.  Either do that or get the hell out of her life.”  He spit.  “I know you keep watch on her.  Bet you saw all of what just went on. What she sees in you is way beyond me, Sesshoumaru. Don’t you make her life as miserable as you made mine.”

He punched the tree once, which made it sway and drop a broken branch.  Still clenching his fists, he headed back the way he came.

From a vantage point not really that far from the tree, a white robed youkai watched.  Staring at his brother but not revealing either his position or his emotion, he took off into the sky.