InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 59

[ 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 59

Kagome watched the door mat swing and the miko and Haname walked away from the house.  For a moment, she didn’t do anything, torn between wanting to scream and wanting to run after the two women.  Instead, she felt her throat tighten and her eyes sting.

“Do you want me to go find InuYasha?”  Shippou said, looking up at the young miko.

“No, I don’t think so,” Kagome said, dropping to the floor.  Shippou hopped into her lap.

“Why not?” the boy asked.  

“They need to take care of that youkai,” she said.  “Plus, if you told InuYasha, he’d run back here angry.  It’ll be better to let him come back later, after Tameo and the village elders figure out what to do.  But there’s something you can do.” She moved Shippou off her lap.

“What is it?” Shippou said, sitting himself more comfortably on the floor.

“You can go tell Sango that Rin and I may be late getting over to see her after lunch.  Let her know I’ll be at Tameo’s.  Will you do that for me?”

“Sure thing, Kagome,” he said.

“And Shippou, if you go by my house,” Kagome said, “don’t let the Haname see you.  It doesn’t sound like she likes youkai very much.”

“She doesn’t.”  Shippou looked up.  “She threw salt at me the last time she saw me by myself.  I’ll be careful.  I’ll wait a few more minutes to let them get up the path before I leave.”

Kagome nodded, and then moved back to where she had been making medicines.  Carefully moving the ointment pot further away from the fire, she next began picking up the bags and boxes of herbs she and Kaede had been using  and putting them back where they belonged.

“Are you going to be all right, Kagome?” Shippou asked.  He handed her a packet of a particularly fragrant herb, and, and as she took it from him, he sneezed.

“Better than you are, Shippou-chan.  At least these herbs don’t make me sneeze.” She took the packet and put it back in a wooden box, then placed it up on a shelf.

“If you’re sure,” he said, sneezing again. He wiped his nose on his sleeve.  “I’ll go tell Sango.”

She ruffed his hair, and gave him a hug.  “Thanks, Shippou-chan.  I’ll see you when you get back.”

The kitsune nodded and, left, sneezing once more as he passed through the door.   She bent down to pick the last of the bundled herbs up and put them on the shelf with the others, then sank to her knees by the half-prepared medicine they had been making for Daisuke.

“It’s just not fair,” Kagome said, slapping her hand on the floor.  The herbs in the mixing bowl danced a little at the vibration.  “I had just got our garden in, too.  Kinjiro worked so hard to get the ground ready.”  She picked up the mixing bowl and the mortar with the half-ground ginger root on Kaede’s work table, then knocked the fire down so she could cover it.  “I hope InuYasha is having a better day with Miroku.  And that Tameo and the elders get things taken care of before he gets home.  He’s going to be so angry when he finds out.”

With a final look around the old miko’s house, she grabbed her workbasket, and stepped outside

As the door mat to Kaede’s house closed behind Kagome, up on the hill at Sango’s house, a door slid open, and a small girl ran to see the visitors standing in front of her house.

She was quickly followed by her mother.

“Noriko!” Sango said.

The small girl heading towards  the cluster of men standing around Aki stopped.  Sango scooped her up before she actually made it to them.

“I’m sorry,” she said, bowing a little bit to the gathered men.  “She got outside before I could stop her.”

Daitaro laughed.  “Spirited girl.  I like that.  How’s Isao?”

“He’s still out of it,” Sango said, bouncing her daughter on her hip.  Noriko crawled up in her arms and pointed at the group.  “He’s got quite a bruise on his forehead and another on stomach.”

“Cow,” Noriko announced.

“Yes, yes, baby,” Sango said, then turned to go.  “I hope Kaede gets here soon.  I’m pretty good at treating injuries, but that bump on his head has me worried.”

Tameo nodded. “Head injuries are serious.”  He watched her walk with her protesting daughter back to the house and sighed.

“Maybe we should send word to Katsume,” Kinjiro said, looking up at his father. “His father ought to be here when things like this happen.”

“After four years gone, who knows where he is or even knows if he’s coming back?” Daitaro said, spitting. “Shinjiro will return with Amaya.  At least the boy will have his mother here.”

Tsuneo knelt down behind his grandson.  “Haname gets word from time to time.  She and her nephew, they grew close after the attack that took the rest of their family.  Last I heard he was off fighting for the Houjou somewhere.”  He began working loose the bonds that held Aki in a kneeling posture.  “You owe Isao much, boy.” The knots came loose. “I’m letting you stand up because of how your grandmother would react if she saw you tied up.  You will not run off.  You will stand here and answer our questions.  You will not lie.”

Aki slowly stood up, rubbing his wrist.  A tear track crossed a dirt smudge on his face, and his kosode was ripped on his shoulder where it had gotten snagged on something during his run.  Standing slump-shouldered, he did not yet meet his grandfather’s eyes.

“Is . . . is Isao going to be all right?” he asked, his voice barely audible.

“We don’t know yet, boy,” Tameo said.

Joben, looking at his son, stood there clenching his fists.“We know why there’s bad luck over here.”

“Because stupid boys did stupid things,” Daitaro said, giving the man a dark look.  Taking a deep breath he scratched his cow’s ear one more time. “What I want to know,” he said as he regained his composure, “is why? Why did you let Masami out of her pen?  If my bull was still with her, you two could have been hurt even more.”

Aki shrugged.  “I...don’t know.”

Tsuneo gave his grandson a small shove.

“I mean Isao and me, we . . . ” Aki swallowed.  “Chichi-ue and Obaasan say the kami cursed this side of the village.  We . . . we . . . wanted to see how people act when they think the kami are mad at them.”

Daitaro shook his head.

Joben muttered something that the others didn’t hear, and Tsuneo slapped him hard.  Turning to Tameo and Daitaro, his eyes were angry, but his look was resigned.  “Well, what do we do with these boys?”

Miroku and InuYasha had no doubts about what they were going to do as they continued their journey.  Their pace was easier this last leg of the journey; the ground was flat, the road was good, and InuYasha, even as he scowled set a slower pace.  The road was even deserted.  The merchant who had passed them earlier had either gotten a large head start or had turned off somewhere, and there was no one to ask favors or give them strange looks as they continued.

But it was rather quiet.  InuYasha was in no mood for conversation. As they moved along, at one point the silence got to Miroku and he began to hum a song as he walked, beating out the rhythm with his staff, and began to sing, very softly:

“That girl who works at the teahouse,
I hear her walking, walking, walking,
Her pretty white feet in black geta,
While her customers are talking.
She should come sit down next to me.”

InuYasha stopped for a moment and looked at his friend. “Damn it, Bouzu,” he said.  “Do you sing trash like that around Sango?  I don’t know what’s worse, the children’s songs or this.”

“Was I singing out loud?” Miroku asked as he stopped, looking surprised.

“Loud enough for me to hear,” the hanyou said. “You forget how good my ears are?”

“I must have,” Miroku said, smiling.  He began to walk again.  “But you shouldn’t make fun of that song.  My father taught it to me when I was a boy.”

InuYasha snorted.  “For some reason that doesn’t surprise me.”

Miroku shook his head.  “Mushin always told me I was a lot like him.  But you’re right.  I don’t sing that version to my lovely wife,” said the monk smiling. “I sing this one:

“That girl who fights like a whirlwind,
I hear her walking, walking, walking,
her pretty feet in black geta.
While her children they are sleeping,
she should come sit down next to me.

“Sango seems to like it.  It makes her laugh.  You should try singing to Kagome-sama some time.”

InuYasha shook his head.  “I don’t think so. But I’m still amazed that Sango doesn’t brain you sometimes,” he said. “If you have to sing, shouldn’t you be singing something holy, instead of about women?  Even if you are a bad monk, you’re still a monk.”

“I could, but those songs aren’t the best things to walk to,” Miroku said. “I could chant the Heart Sutra again, if you’d like.”

“I think I’ll pass,” InuYasha said.  “Once a day is enough.”

The monk laughed.  “The ladies, they are more pleasant to contemplate than emptiness.  I’ll give you that.”

InuYasha gave him a withering look which Miroku, as usual, ignored. “Just be quiet, Bouzu.  We’re getting close and I’d like to keep my ears open just in case.”

“In that case, all right,” Miroku said, and kept his song and thoughts to himself.

They reached their turnoff not long after. The road to the village ran along the base of a rock wall that cast a shadow across the road and into the woods on the other side.  But as they rounded a bend, they could see the village spread out in front of them, fields green with barley, waiting to ripen before it would be harvested and the fields flooded to plant rice.

As they neared, they could see a small group of men waiting for them under a large tree that overhung the road. Ryuu, the man who had hired them, spotted the two and waved, and the others with him stood up.

“It looks like we have a welcoming committee,” Miroku said.  “They look rather desperate.”

“I’m not surprised,” InuYasha said, resting his hand on Tessaiga’s hilt, and taking a deep sniff of the air.  “This place reeks of bakeneko.”

Miroku took another step, his staff jingling.  “Ah, I see Ryuu-sama is with them.  Seems he’s going to be the middle man here, too.”

“I hope they know what they’re in for,” InuYasha said.

“I hope we do, to.” Miroku said, as he moved forward to meet the waiting men.