InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 61

[ 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 61


Susumu, followed by Kagome and a Shippou who was busily complaining under his breath about stupid humans and their stupid human ways, reached the gates to Tameo’s compound

As they passed the entry gate, an old woman, leaning heavily on her cane, walked up to the two of them.  She once must have been a beauty; even though time had creased her face, Kagome  could still trace the lines of it.  But there was more there that time couldn’t fade - she had a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she stopped in front of them. She nodded a greeting.

“Ah, young Miko-sama, it is nice to finally meet you,” she said, as Kagome returned her bow. “And you, Susumu-kun, causing trouble like normal?”

“Ah, Hisako-obaasan, you know me,” Susumu replied, “As much trouble as possible.  How is Daisuke-ojiisan doing?”

“Complaining, like normal.  If Chichi-ue would actually do what he was supposed to, we’d both get more rest.” She squinched up her nose and made a face.  “Be careful, young man, or you’re going to end up like him, old and complaining.”

Susumu chuckled.  “If I’m that lucky.”

“You’re Daisuke-sama’s daughter?” Kagome asked.

“Yes, yes,” the older woman said.  “I have that privilege.”  She gave Kagome a thorough look, judging what she saw. After a moment, she smiled, as if pleased by what she saw. “So you’re the young woman causing so much talk. A little thing you are for all that.  I like it.”

Kagome tilted her head a little, surprised. “Am I, Obaasan? People are talking about me?”

“Oh yes,” the older woman said.  “Haname-sama has been talking nonstop, as well as her daughter Chiya. But we don’t pay her much mind. The medicine Kaede-sama said you made for my father is working well.  I believe you have the healer’s touch.” She gave Kagome a bright smile. "People will talk. It doesn’t mean we believe the gossip!”

Kagome looked up at Susumu.

He shrugged. “People do talk. Usually nonsense,” he said. “Most know the story about how you were Kikyou-sama’s reincarnation, and how you avenged her with InuYasha-sama’s help. Most who’ve said anything are glad you’re back. Some think you’re lucky, and are going to be good for the village. You know how Chichi-ue feels about you. Most are following his lead, but some aren’t. It’s just the same way they talk about InuYasha-sama.”

Hisako nodded. “Much nonsense.  Still, be polite and keep your ears open, child.” The old woman gave Shippou a nod, pursed her lips and pointed a finger at him. “Now you, young kitsune, I’ve been hearing stories about you, too. Don’t you come around trying to trick my otousan. I’ve put ofuda on the door and windows.  He’s told me how he’s seen fox fire in his yard.”

Shippou looked sincerely surprised. He sputtered. “But . . . but . . . I never - ”

Hisako chuckled and patted his head. “Then you have nothing to worry about. Now I have to go home and see if my father took his medicine today. Take care.”

Bowing once more, she walked slowly out of the gate.

“That was . . . interesting,” Kagome said, turning to watch  the older woman slowly make her way back to the street.

“I’ve never gone over to Daisuke’s,” Shippou said, pulling on Kagome’s sleeve. “Never. Well, maybe once with some of the kids.  But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Oh, I believe you, Master Kitsune,” Susumu said, laughing. “Hisako-obaasan has the talent of knowing just what to say to fluster people. Some of us wonder if she isn’t part kitsune herself.”  

Shippou turned his head and looked at the old woman, then back around. “Don’t think so.”

“But I can understand why they might say that,” Kagome said.

This made Susumu laugh more.  “Let’s get you to my mother, cousin, before she comes out looking for us herself.”


As usual, there was a lot of activity around the house.  One of the older women was hanging up laundry, and two young men were busy pounding mochi rice in a large pestle. The air was alive with the smells of lunch cooking.

In front of the big house, Rin was playing with several children - Yume, the girl from the neighboring village, who was looking surprisingly not tired, Yorime, Susumu’s eldest daughter and Mitsuo, his son.  Hiseo, Yume’s brother, sat on the ground, watching the younger children. They were standing in a circle around Rin, tossing a ball back and forth to her while she sang:

“There are some who dance,
there are some who sing,
there are some who watch,
yoi, yoi, yoi.
“There are some who pull
there are some who push - ”

At that moment, Yume tossed the ball and Rin missed it. It rolled toward Kagome and Susumu. Shippou darted ahead and picked it up.

Rin spotted the group. “Shippou-kun, there you are!” she said. “And you, too Kagome-sama, Susumu-sama.” She gave them a little greeting bow. “Throw it back, Shippou-kun, or we can’t finish our game.”

Emi, Susumu’s wife, who had moved her spinning wheel outside was sitting on the verandah to keep an eye on things.  Hearing Rin, she looked up and wound a length of thread on the spinning wheel’s spindle.

“Welcome, Kagome-sama.” That done, she stood up, and bowed a greeting. “ Please come in. Haha-ue’s been expecting you.”


“No escaping now, cousin,” Susumu said. “I’ll leave you in my wife’s care. Back to my duties.” And with a brief bow, he turned and headed back out, but before he left, he said, “Once Chichi-ue and the others get back, the afternoon promises to be interesting!”

“It’s already more interesting that I think I like,” Kagome said, then walked to the house to join Emi.

Susumu’s father Tameo was not having as an amusing time as his son, although it was rather interesting.  The headman stood in front of Aki, his arms crossed. To the right, his son Kinjiro stood, hoe resting over his shoulder.

Haname looked past them, craning to see her family behind the two. “What are you doing with my grandson?”

Kaede and Amaya, Isao’s mother reached the knot of people.  

“Where is Isao?”the younger woman asked wringing her hand.  She looked tense and worried. “Is he . . . all right?”

“Ah, Amaya-sama, he’s at the monk’s house,” Tameo said. “He had taken a nasty fall or something and hit his head. The monk’s wife is taking care of him.”

Amaya turned whiter, and swallowed hard, like she was having trouble breathing. Kaede reached out and patted her hand.  "You hurry there, child.  I’ll be right behind you.”

She nodded at the miko, and quickly walked around the knot of people and headed towards Miroku’s house.

Haname looked at Amaya a moment, and then looked back at Tameo. “Don’t play games with me, Tameo.  What are you going to do with my grandson?”

“Haname,” Tsuneo said sternly.

She ignored him and tried to push through the two men.

Aki sniffled.  “Obaasan,” he said.  “I . . . I . . .”

“Let me through,” she demanded, as Kinjiro shifted his position to block her.

Tsuneo stepped up and grabbed her by the shoulders. “That’s enough, woman.”

The woman looked at her husband, wide-eyed with surprise. “You . . . you are standing with them?”

“This is village business now, Haname,” Tsuneo said.  “Our grandson let out Daitaro’s cow, and Isao-kun was injured because of it. Maybe seriously. He’s done other harm to the people here.”

“But . . . he’s your grandson!” she said, breaking free of his hold. “There’s no telling what those people will do to him.”

“We will do nothing more to him than he has earned, woman,” Tameo said.

“Haname,” Kaede said, coming up behind her. “We should go.”

Haname whirled around. “You’re one of them, too,” she said to Kaede. “You may be a miko, but you’re Tameo’s kinswoman.” Her surprise at Tsuneo was turning quickly to fury. She turned back to the group of men. “You’re all bewitched. Did that little witch you let in the village put a spell on all of you?  How dare you lay hands on my grandson.” She struggled again, trying to reach him.  

Aki began to sob. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Obaasan.” He rubbed his eyes.  “I didn’t mean . . . ”

“Enough!” Tsuneo said, grabbing his wife again. “Joben, take your mother home.  We are going down to Tameo’s, where we’ll sort this out like men.”  

Joben, even more angry than earlier, gave his father a hard, cold look, clenching and unclenching his hands.  

“You will do this now.  The two of you will go down the hill and let us do what we must do, or so help me, you both will find yourself without a home to go to,” Tsuneo hissed.

Joben bowed stiffly.  “Yes, Otousan.  You are head of the family, and I must do as you say. Yes, we know that you and your friends will do whatever you want to.  There’s nothing I can do that will make a difference.  But we will not forget whose side you chose.”  He moved past the men and gently took his mother’s hands.  “Come, Okaachan.  We’ll let Morio say a prayer and cast the sticks.  Maybe he can remove the blindness from the eyes of these old men.  With a spell this strong, it’s going to take a lot of work.”

Together, slowly, they headed down the path, with Haname looking back over her shoulder until the path led them out of the line of sight.

“That was . . . ” Daitaro said.  He scratched his head.  “Interesting isn’t the right word.  Who’s Morio?”

“Intense?”  Kinjiro said.

“Maybe,” the older man said. “I think you’re going to be eating cold rice a long time, Tsuneo my man.  And have a cold bed.”

“At least a month,” Tsuneo said, nodding.  “Morio’s some sort of yamabushi want to be that has my son’s ear right now.  Don’t think much of his abilities, but my son’s paying for his feeding, not me. Let’s get this done.  Even if I don’t have much of  a home to go back to, I want to make a future for my grandson.”

While Joben and his mother walked away, in the village of Kagemura, InuYasha, Miroku and Ryuu, the villager there who was acting as the middleman for their youkai extermination, were joining a different cluster of men.

After introductions, Osamu, the village headman, turned to Miroku.  He was a stout, haggard looking man, wearing a straw hat against the sun.  He, like several of the other men, was very fatigued, as if he had not been sleeping.

“Thank you for coming, Houshi-sama,” he said. “Ryuu tells me you think our problem is a bakeneko. But are you sure it’s not a black kitsune?  That’s what the yamabushi who tried to get rid of it said it was.”

“You are welcome, Dono,” Miroku said, giving the headman a sympathetic look. “Finding and removing youkai can be a difficult business, but  I believe the yamabushi who tried to aid you was incorrect about your problem. Perhaps that is why his spiritual powers did not drive the youkai off.” Lifting his staff and dropping it down to make the rings jingle, he continued. “Listening to Ryuu and young Hiseo tell the tale of what had happened here, I decided that it was clear that your problem was most likely only one of two things.  One could have been an avenging ghost,  a yurei, but I was informed no one in your village had died recently. Am I right?”

“Alas, my mother passed away two weeks ago,” Juro, one of the youngest of the group, said.  “I think the curse of the village reached her.”

Two of the men nodded their agreement.

“I am sorry for your loss, Dono,” Miroku said, making a blessing sign with his hand and bowing slightly. “I will say a sutra for her, if you wish before I leave. But no one died around the time things began happening?”

“No, no one,” said the headman.  “That’s what the yamabushi asked us, too.  But he couldn’t find a trace of a ghost in the village.”

“Then that eliminates the first type of being that could be causing you all this trouble,” Miroku said. “But when the girl from your village arrived at our miko’s house, she smelled strongly of bakeneko.  My friend there,” he said, nodding in InuYasha’s direction, “will vouch for that.  He and I have had experience with these monsters before. There are other youkai that can drink a person’s life spirit, but kitsune do not, as a rule. Some bakeneko prefer to kill and eat their prey, but others, like yurei, will drink down their life essence.  That was what had happened to Yume-chan.”

The elders nodded and whispered to each other, giving InuYasha some questioning looks.

“Is he a dog youkai?” one of them asked Ryuu.

InuYasha’s ear flicked, and he gave a soft growl. Two of the men jumped back at the sound.

“That answers that,” the questioner said.

“He is of the bloodline of the Inu no Taisho, the silver Inu youkai,” Miroku said, tapping his nose. “He knows what he smells.”

The elders looked impressed. That youkai was a legend from their childhood. “Nothing like a dog against a cat,” the headman said.  

 “Exactly,” Miroku replied. “Let’s head toward the houses and get to work.”