InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 87

[ 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 86


Kagome lifted the door mat to Kaede’s house. “Such a sad story,” she said, stepping across the threshold.

“Indeed,” Kaede replied, letting the door mat drop behind her.

InuYasha and Daitaro were sitting in front of the house under the window. Chiya stood in front of Miroku with her head bowed as he chanted something in a language only he knew, and made a sign of blessing over her.  

Hearing Kagome, he concluded his chant rather quickly, and giving her a small smile, said “I am sure Kwannon of the thousand eyes and hands, ever merciful, will keep an eye on your mother.”

“Thank you, Houshi-sama.  Please come by my humble home later; I am sure I will have something to donate for your temple.”  She turned towards the two women. “You’re done?” Chiya asked. “I can go back in and check on Okaasan?”

Kaede nodded.

She almost ran to the door. For a moment Kagome was afraid she was going to knock her out of the way, but Chiya stopped in front of Kaede. “How is she?”

“She’s asleep,” Kaede said. “That last dose of medicine will probably have her sleeping for at least a couple of hours. I think it will be safe for her to go home when she wakes up.”

Chiya nodded, and pushed past the two women to reenter the house.

InuYasha and Daitaro stood up, InuYasha with liquid grace, and Daitaro with a grunt as he lifted his weight.

“Ah, youth,” he said, looking at the hanyou.

“I’m older than you, old man,” InuYasha said, smirking.

“But younger in body,” Daitaro said. “One day, if the heavens are merciful, you’ll live long enough to know what I mean, and remember this day.”

“Maybe so,” InuYasha said, moving next to Kagome.

“Karma has a way to balance things out, you know,” Miroku added, moving next to the women. “You probably should be careful who you mock, InuYasha.”

“So they say,” Daitaro said, dusting off his hakama.  “Alas that I won’t be there to see it.”

“If that’s true,” the hanyou said, smirking, “you’re going to be in a heap more trouble than me, Bouzu.”

“Amida is known for mercy,” Miroku said, putting on his most professional monk face and stamping his staff on the ground.

“So,” InuYasha said, changing the subject and looking first at Kagome, and then to Kaede. “Sounded like no more magic.”   

“No,” Kaede replied. “Haname’s mind seems to be free of that spell.”

“One less issue for the day,” Miroku said. “But why do you look so troubled, Kagome-sama?”

Kagome sighed. “I...I had heard something had happened to her when she was a young woman,” she said.  She took InuYasha’s hand, and gave it a small squeeze. “But I had no idea what it was like.”

Kaede nodded. “I think the medicine freed Haname’s tongue.  She spoke much more than I would have expected her to, especially telling you that.” The old miko shook out her sleeves, then, almost InuYasha-like, crossed her arms and slipped her hands in her sleeves. “It was such a dark day, that day. That was the first youkai attack I had to cope with on my own, and I don’t know who was more frightened, her or me. I can still hear his roar in my mind as my arrow hit him. He went down easily, but Haname took a long time to recover, and with so much loss, it’s not surprising.”

Daitaro sighed, remembering. “I was with the group who put out the fire and helped with the aftermath,” he said, looking down at his feet, and making a pattern in the dust with his toe. “I do not want to see what I saw in that house again.”

Kaede shook out her sleeves, as if chasing the memory away. “The past is the past,” she said. “Today is today, and we need to work with what is at hand, and not what we cannot change.”

“That’s the best way,” Daitaro agreed. “Dwelling on what should have been you can’t do anything about just makes the heart heavy.”

“It is said we are what we think,” Miroku said. “All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world. If we dwell on what should-have-beens or regrets, they become our world.”

“That’s what I just said,” Daitaro said, giving the monk a sharp look. InuYasha snorted.   

Kagome, though, ignored the jab at the monk. “I don’t know if Haname has learned that yet.”

“It is a hard lesson sometimes,” Miroku acknowledged.

“I guess,” Kagome said.

Kaede touched her pupil’s hand. “You did well, Kagome-chan.”

“Thank you,” the young miko replied. She gave Kaede a small, uncertain nod. “But I didn’t do much of anything.”

“You did more than you realize. You didn’t know how she was going to react, but you didn’t panic,” Kaede said, resting her hand on the younger woman’s arm. “You didn’t do anything to make her condition worse. You listened to her when she wanted to talk. You were kind. You stood your ground where you needed to. All these are traits that healers need.”

Kagome chewed her bottom lip, taking in the older woman’s words. “If you say so.  Somehow...”  

“I do indeed. And you will be needing those traits. People who are ill often need to be handled with firm, but gentle touch, just like you managed, even if they aren’t your friends.” She smiled. “Although, dealing with a cranky hanyou who didn’t want to be bothered probably gave you some practice with that.”

This brought Kagome out of her funk for a moment and she smiled knowingly at her husband. “I have had practice with that one.”

“Hey,” InuYasha said, with a mock-scowl, quickly turning into a grin. “Maybe.”

“Besides that,” Kaede said. “I suspect you and I will be checking on her for a few days.  It’s going to take some time for her to get better.”

“Talking about checking on things, I believe we need to get to Tameo’s,” Daitaro said.

Kaede nodded. “I’m not so sure how long my cousin’s going to keep you, Kagome-chan,” the old miko said. “But you can go home when he’s done instead of coming back here.”

“Are you sure, Kaede-baachan?” Kagome asked, surprised.

“Yes, yes,” Kaede said, yawning. “As soon as they take Haname home, I’m going to take a nap. It was a rough night.” She smiled at the group. “I would prefer not to have any more crises to deal with for a day or two.”

“You aren’t the only one,” InuYasha said.

Wishing her a good nap, they made their goodbyes and headed to Tameo’s.

“So, Daitaro-sama,” Miroku said as they walked down the street, “what do you expect will happen today?”

“Eh,” said the old man. “We were thinking about having the boys do a few months punishment work to help them learn how not to get into trouble together before we were interrupted by more...interesting events.  Sometimes, even good boys, when they play together, can bring out the worst in each other.  I remember when Susumu and Shinjiro were that age...”

“They gave you some trouble?” Kagome said.

“Every bit as wild as Aki and Isao,” Daitaro admitted.  “Why’d you think I have so much gray hair?”

“Uh,” InuYasha said. “You’re sure you want an answer to that?”

That made the old man laugh.  “Oh, I’m sure you can think up an idea or two. Anyway, they’d broken a fence by old Daisuke’s vegetable patch, and his ox got into it and between stomping and eating, he lost half the crop before he got the beast out.  Didn’t do the ox any good either, and it got sick. Thought the old man was going to skin the two of them alive.” He sighed. “That was a hard year. Had to pay him back for my boy’s half of the damage, and plow his rice field for him when it came time.”

“So,” Miroku said. “What happened to the boys?”

“Tameo’s father sent Shinjiro to work for Daisuke for six months, until the last of the rice was in. Old man worked him hard, too. And Susumu, well they gave him to me the same way.  Got some good use out of the brat he was, too, but I do believe he got tired of cow patties before the time was up.” He pushed his cap back and scratched the top of his head. “We kept the boys so busy they didn’t have time to get into trouble. They weren’t even allowed to talk to each other the first two months, which was just as well, since they mostly worked until they dropped, barely staying awake to eat.” He straightened his cap. “Both seemed to turn out all right in spite of it.”

“You think they’ll do something like that to Aki and Isao?” Kagome asked.

“I suspect,” Daitaro said.  “Although whoever tries to get young Aki to work hard might be the one who feels like he’s being punished. Boy’s been indulged.”

“It might do him some good,” Miroku said.  “I remember - ”

“Feh,” InuYasha said, crossing his arms. “I can’t believe old Mushin got you to do anything you didn’t want to.”

Miroku rubbed his backside. “You’d be surprised. He was quite good with his staff until I got old enough to run faster than him.”

Daitaro slapped him on the back, laughing. “I bet. Well let’s get to Tameo’s and get all this sorted out.”

At Tameo’s compound two figures, one fully grown, and one a small boy, were squatting in the courtyard.

“And then the brave samurai leaped over the wall with his horse and the wall went splat!” Morio said, knocking down a row of stones he had built up with a toy horse. He hit a few sticks that were standing in the ground near the stones.  “All the oni  fled or were killed, expect for the king of the oni, leaving all the gold for the hero!”

“Yay!” said Mitsuo, Susumu’s son squatting next to the strange former yamabushi.  He play galloped his toy horse over the heap of rocks toward a stick stuck in the ground.

“Let’s kill the oni king!” Morio said, play galloping along side of Mitsuo, hitting the stick with his toy horse.

“That is the oddest thing to watch,” Emi, Tameo’s daughter-in-law said.  She sat on the verandah of the main house, working her spinning wheel and keeping an eye on her son as he played, as well as on Morio.

Kinjiro, leaning against the door frame felt less charitable. “You couldn’t leave him at home?” he said, crossing his arms.

“No, no,” Joben replied. He leaned against the wall of the house on the far end of the verandah, looking at his charge. Sighing, he crossed his arms. “Akina’s with Okaasan, and Amaya was willing, but he started to cry like a toddler. I was afraid he would hurt her or the house. He may think like a small child, but he has the body and strength of an adult man. I didn’t know what else to do, so I walked him here with Aki and Otousan.”  He scratched the back of his neck. “I can see when I decided to claim him for my obligation, I had no idea what I would be getting myself into.”

Kinjiro moved out of the doorway as his mother stepped out.

“Well, you did a good thing, Joben,” Hisa said. “The kami will bless you for it.”

Joben shrugged.

She gave him an encouraging smile and turned to her son. “So, Kinjiro,” she said. “Where is everybody?”

“Otousan, Tsuneo-ojisan and Toshiro-ojisan are in Otousan’s office,” Kinjiro said, the ghost of a scowl on his lips, just enough to show his impatience without inviting his mother to fuss at him. “I’m not sure where Susumu is. We’re here waiting for Daitaro-ojisan and InuYasha-sama. Kaede-obasan’s girl told us they had to stop at her house for a little while.”

“Susumu is here,” said Kinjiro’s brother, stepping out of the house.  He had a bright red scarf tied around his forehead, and wore his armor once again, with a sword stuck in his obi.

“You look ready to take on a bandit prince,” Kinjiro said.

Susumu laughed. “And you look ready to make him drop dead just by looking at him.”

Kinjiro intensified his scowl. “There are other things that need to be done,” he grumbled.

Susumu looked at the yard in front of the house. “Where are the girls?”

“After Rin-chan stopped by, they all decided to go to Matsume’s. Something about the present company bothered them,” Emi said, nodding to the scene in front of the house.

“Yes,” Mitsuo said, cheering. “We’ve killed the king of the oni!”

“Want to do it again?” Morio asked.

“Yeah!” the little boy said.

Morio began rebuilding his fort of rocks.

“Ah, I can understand that,” Susumu said. “No wonder you look ready to eat an oni, Kinjiro. Don’t worry. It’ll be over soon.”

“It better,” Kinjiro said.  “I’m going to join Otousan.”

Susumu watched his brother walk down the path. “Is it going to be one of those days?”

Joben, who had sat down while the two brothers talked, banged his head lightly against the house wall. “Aren’t they all?”

“No,” Hisa said. “Some days have a remarkable twist to them. But on this day...who knows?”

“I wonder how InuYasha’s going to react when he sees Morio?” Susumu asked.

Hisa watched her grandson and the childlike man playing in the yard. “Do you think we should get them inside?”

“Too late,” Susumu said. “Our company is already here.”

InuYasha and Kagome headed toward the main house, with Daitaro and Miroku close behind.

Joben stood up. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” he said, moving off the verandah. Susumu, nodding, followed him.