InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 60

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


Chapter 60


Kagome had barely gotten out of the door of Kaede’s house when she was met by Susumu, Tameo’s eldest son. Today, he had a brightly printed headband tied around his head, and over the blue and white farmer’s kosode, he was wearing the padded chest protector she had seen him wear the first time she met him, although he carried no weapon.

“Hello, Susumu-sama.  Doing guard duty today?” she asked.

“Ah, cousin,” he said, giving her a small smile and a slight bow.  “I was hoping to find you. It must be our lucky day.”

Shippou, who had been waiting on the roof instead of hurrying to Sango’s house,  jumped down and ended up on Kagome’s shoulder.  “Why’d you want her?” the kitsune asked, crossing his arms in a very InuYasha-esque manner.  Kagome turned to look at him, half-expecting him to say “feh!” at any moment.

“I thought you had gone to see Sango, Shippou-chan,” Kagome said, looking at the kit. “Behave yourself. Susumu-sama is my new cousin.  I’m sure he’s only here for good reasons.”

“Indeed, Master Kitsune,” Susumu said, nodding.“My father sent me here to keep an eye on her.”

“And InuYasha told me to watch her,” Shippou said, giving him a hard look, which, although stern, seemed funny for a small child sitting on a woman’s shoulder.  “I wasn’t going anywhere until I was sure she was safe.”

Susumu worked hard not to laugh, and managed to keep his amusement to a small grin. “And no doubt you are doing a good job, Shippou-kun, but I, too, have to obey, since my father is the village headman. I am sure we both can share the duty, unless you would prefer my brother to do it.  I can assure you, I am better company, tell better jokes, and do not like to hunt foxes like he does.”

“Hunt foxes?” Shippou said.  His stern looked melted and he gave  Kagome a big-eyed look.

She lifted him off her shoulder, gave him a reassuring smile, and let him slide to the ground. “I’m sure Kinjiro-sama wouldn’t hunt a kitsune like you, Shippou-chan,” she said, ruffing his hair.

“True, true,” Susumu said.  He knit his brow in a mock look of sternness. “Unless you’re the one getting into my father’s store rooms.  Yesterday, I went there and someone had spilled miso on the ground.  There were tracks in it that looked rather fox-like.” Turning his head to the side a little and crossing his arms, he gave the kitsune a sharp look.

Shippou shook his head.  “No, that’s not me. Must be field foxes.” He looked down, scuffing the ground with his foot.  As if suddenly realizing that his feet were also fox-like, he looked up. “They aren’t youkai, anyway. They just cause a lot of trouble.”

“So I’ve heard.  But it’s not just foxes that can cause trouble, I’m afraid. That’s why I came looking for you, cousin,” Susumu said to Kagome. He had lost his smile, and had turned more somber. “There’s been a bit of trouble. Let’s go to my father’s house. He wanted you there anyway, just in case this becomes . . . well, noisy.”

“It’s already gotten noisy,” Shippou said.

“That’s where I was headed,” Kagome said as they began walking down the street. “Kaede-obaachan sent me. Does the trouble you mentioned have to do with the story that Haname-sama came running to complain to Kaede-obaachan about?”

Susumu sighed, and rubbed his hand over his forehead.  “Haname came to find Kaede-obasan?”

“Oh yes.  She wanted to blame Kaede-obaachan for everything,” Kagome said, sighing.

“I told you it was noisy. Haname turned so red,” Shippou said.  “I don’t know if I’ve seen anybody but InuYasha turn that red before.”

“She does have a temper,” Susumu said, nodding.  “But Shippou-kun, you haven’t seen her daughter Chiya when she gets mad.  She gets even redder. So you’ve heard about the incident, then, cousin.”

She nodded.  “But not really what happened,” Kagome said. “You know people here much better than I do.  Do you think there really will be a problem?”

“Probably not. But since this involves Daitaro, one of our cousins, and possibly you, whom everyone now knows is under Chichi-ue’s protection, this is something that can’t quite be hushed up, and Haname knows it. Still, it’s better to be ready when dealing with squeaky wheels, and Aki is Tsuneo’s oldest grandson,” Susumu said. “Spoiled rotten and a brat, but someone who might be important some day, if he ever grows up.”

“What happened?” Kagome asked.

“According to Shinjiro, Aki and his cousin Isao  let out one of Daitaro’s cows.  The cow ended up at your place,” Susumu said.  “Hope the cow didn’t trample up your garden.  That would make my brother very unhappy. He does not like his handiwork destroyed.”

Kagome shook her head.  “He’s not the only one.  InuYasha . . . ”

“I bet he’s going to be mad I didn’t go get him,” Shippou said.  “You’re sure I shouldn’t, Kagome?”

“I’m sure, Shippou-chan,” she said, laying a hand gently on his shoulder. “He’s got important work to do, too.  And we’re in good hands.”

“And there’s that,” Susumu said. “We don’t want anything to reflect badly upon you and InuYasha-sama.  It’s going to take some delicacy.  And your husband  not overreacting.”

“Fat chance,” Shippou muttered as they walked past the gate that marked the entrance to Tameo’s family’s compound.

While Susumu and Kagome talked, away in the village of Kagemura, Ryuu, the villager who had come to hire InuYasha and Miroku, walked ahead of the cluster of older men waiting for the two of them.

InuYasha took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with, Bouzu.”

“All in good time,” Miroku replied. “Let’s figure out what’s going on first.”

“Feh,” the hanyou said. “Just don’t take too much time.” Steeling his face into a neutral mask, he followed the monk to meet the village elders.

As they walked, Miroku’s open, cheerful face changed.  The hanyou had watched this happen many times before, as the monk put on what InuYasha thought of as Miroku’s “make the money” face - slightly haughty, slightly otherworldly, carrying himself like a man of authority who could be trusted to have the answers to their spiritual problems - the type of manner that evidently villagers associated with serious holy men. His aura heightened too, as he pulled on his own spiritual powers, just enough to give the hanyou a slight tingle as his own youki brushed the monk’s reiki.

InuYasha didn’t understand why people fell for it, but they always did.  It had gotten them into more than one rich man’s home or inn when they were on the quest for Naraku.  Now it got them respect, and often, larger fees when they went on a youkai extermination.

It seemed to be working this time as well.  The men waiting for them began talking among themselves as they neared.  A boy who had been sitting near the men while he played with a top was called over, given a tap on the shoulder, and sent running into the village.

“Well, we’re not going to be a surprise,” InuYasha said.

“Doesn’t look that way.” Miroku took another step, his staff jingling.  “Nice that Ryuu-sama is going to be the middleman here. We seemed to be comfortable together back at the village.”

Ryuu, walked up to them, bowed formally, and quite deeply. “Thank you for coming so quickly,” he said.

“Keh,” InuYasha said, flicking an ear and crossing his arms.  “We said we’d be here, didn’t we?”

“My friend is exactly correct,” Miroku said, returning the bow, but not nearly as deep. “Have things changed since the last time we talked?”

“Things are no better,” Ryuu said.  “In fact, while I was at your village, they’ve gotten a bit worse. We’ve had a couple of other people get the sleeping sickness, just today, like young Yume.”  He bowed again. “Nothing like this has ever happened to our village before.  Please, if you can, remove this scourge from us.  We will do what we can to pay you for your troubles.”

Miroku rested a hand on the man’s shoulder.  “We are ready to do just that.  InuYasha and I will make sure you are relieved of this pest.”  

InuYasha, not paying much to Miroku’s professional banter, studied the scene before him.  Just past the tree where the village elders gathered, he noted the group of houses and fields beyond.  The village was in a valley.  Beyond it, there was a large, rocky hill, its face too sharp for more than shrubs to grow on.  It was smaller than his own village, and there was forest where the fields ended.

“Not much room for fighting,” he said to himself.

He turned next to the small group of elders, not yet ready to move forward as Miroku and Ryuu continued to speak.  There were six of them, none younger than forty, and they were watching him in return.  

One man, dressed in a red and black striped kosode, nudged another, nodding to his friend. “I told you this monk had a tame youkai,” he said in a whisper, but still loud enough for InuYasha to make out. “He’s got to be very good.  We should have never wasted time on that yamabushi.”

The hanyou resisted rolling his eyes, and instead merely gave the men a solemn look and stuffed his hands in his sleeves.  It was an old story when they did youkai exterminations.  

“Always the inugami,” he muttered.

Miroku  shot him a look that said sorry, then shrugged. “Shall we get started?”

About the same time that Miroku was discussing business with Ryuu, Tameo the village headman stood in front of Miroku’s house, and  looked down at Aki.    He scratched the back of his head. “We need to do this right. I think,” he said, “that perhaps we should talk to Toshiro before we decide what to do next.”  He looked up at the boy’s grandfather.  “What do you think Tsuneo?”

Before Tsuneo could say anything, Joben stepped in front of him. “Why bother?” the younger man said, crossing his arms.  “You know you’ll do whatever you want to my son, anyway.”

Tsuneo shoved his son back beside him. “Be silent,” he hissed. “Do you really want to make things worse than they have to be?”

Aki looked up at Joben with huge eyes.  “Otousan?”

Tsuneo gripped his grandson’s shoulder, sighed, and looked at the boy regretfully.  “You will have consequences, boy.  This is how a man lives.”  He looked up at his son.  “If you do wrong, you pay the price and learn from it.  You don’t blame others for your bad luck. And you take it like a man, without complaining.”

“Otousan . . . ” Joben started. The anger in his eyes reflected in his voice.

“Enough,” the older man said.

Daitaro, being sure not to look at the father and son, instead looked at the headman, raised an eyebrow, scratched his head, then thinking a moment, nodded.  “That makes good sense.  That way, no one can say our family is being unfair.” Taking a quick glance at Joben, he turned back to his cow, patting her neck.  “Unlike some people I know, we value fairness.”  

“And Toshiro was always one who could figure out how to make something good out of a pile of shit,” Kinjiro said.  He took a sip out of Daitaro’s flask, the last of the group to do so.  “You really need to teach me to make saké like that, old man.” He handed the flask back to him over the back of Daitaro’s prize cow.

Daitaro laughed as he took it back.  “Come see me after rice harvest.  Toshiro’s a gifted one. He always was the best farmer of the lot of us.”

Kinjiro sighed, as if it were a sore point.  “Maybe.”

Tsuneo unhanded Aki, and looked at Joben who was standing there, clenching his fists, then nodded.   “This affects more than us,” he said to Joben.  “If you’re going to take my place some day, you need to learn to put the good of the village ahead of your pride.”

The younger man spit.

He turned to Tameo.  “Yes, let’s get Toshiro.”  He put his hand on his grandson’s shoulder once again.  “Give him something to do besides be in that house full of women waiting for the new grandchild.”

Tameo sighed, relieved. “I suggest then, we head back to my place, where we can discuss what to do,” Tameo said. “We’ll figure out what to do with Isao after Kaede-sama decides he’s well enough.”

With a murmur of assent, they began heading toward the path leading them back to Daitaro’s house and the village beyond.  They were about halfway to Daitaro’s farmhouse when Kinjiro stopped the group.

“Wait,” he said.  “I hear something.”

“What is it?” Tameo asked.

“Trouble,” Kinjiro replied.

A moment later, Kaede, Haname, and Isao’s mother Amaya crested the rise that let them get a good look at the group of men.  Haname, looking at all of them, but especially Aki’s dirty clothes and tear-stained face began to hurry toward them.

“What have you done to my grandson?” she demanded.

Kinjiro looked once again at his father.  “Like I said, trouble.”

Tameo nodded. “Let’s get this over with.  We have work to do.” He moved forward to intercept her.