InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 169

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

Chapter 168


Kisoi, the man who had agreed to become Morio’s guardian, stood on the verandah of the big house that would be his home for the foreseeable future. It was built on a rise not far from the river, on the northwest side of the village. As if nervous about being on the edge of the community, the front of the house faced the village, making its claim to being included. From the verandah, there was a good view of the houses and the paddy fields, now green with barley. Sunlight glinted off the water in an irrigation channel. Even though it was still fairly early in the day, people had begun going about their business, some heading down the dykes that separated the paddy fields to the dryland fields and woodlands beyond.

“Funny how Tsuneo’s family decided this wasn’t the place to live anymore,” Kisoi murmured. “I’m surprised the elders didn’t put someone here just to keep watch. It’s definitely better than my little spot against the ridge.” Shaking his head, he walked around to the side of the house.

An ancient cherry tree stood there, big and very tall. There was another house just beyond it, neat and trim, with a solid roof anchored by the usual boards and stones. Beyond that was a small orchard of persimmon trees. As he neared, his wife stepped out of the little house, cleaning rag and bucket in hand, their infant daughter strapped to her back.

She was a small woman and her blue kosode was faded with many washings. Her sleeves were tied back and a patched bit of fabric marred the pattern of her wrap skirt. A smudge of dirt had caught the edge of her plain head scarf, and the area around her knees were damp, but as he watched her, something warm stirred inside of him, pride and love and hope, all mixed together, and he gave her a big smile. “All done?”

She nodded, returning his smile. “As done as you can be with an empty house. There wasn’t really that much to do.”   

“I’m sure that’ll change soon,” he said, looking around the area. “But where are the boys?”

Moving a little way away from the house, she emptied the bucket of water and dropped the rag back into. “Haha-ue showed up, and took them on a walk. She was talking about taking them to see if they could find some spring greens to collect, but mostly I think she was trying to give us a little bit of time to get settled.”

Kisoi walked up next to his wife, and wrapped his arms around her.  “Ah, your okaasan is a good woman, Nana. I’m still amazed she let you marry me, even after all these years.”

“She liked you better than I did when you first started coming to see me,” Nana said. “Smart man, charming my okaasan before me.” She chuckled a little. “It’s still amazing to be staying in a place this big. I never thought I’d get to.”

His look went serious. “Don’t think we’re not going to earn our keep. I’ve seen that...person...we’re going to be watching. He really behaves like a boy about Touru’s age. It’s kind of unnerving to see him.”

“You’ve told me that,” she said nodding, but she pursed her lips slightly, as if she was bored by the discussion already. “Tameo-sama’s told me that. I am to treat him like he really is a boy of five or six summers.” She leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder. “After Hidaka and Touru and Katsuo, I’ve had a bit of practice with young boys. Poor little Uma, going to have all these big brothers to tell her what to do.”

The infant hearing her name, gurgled.

Her husband chuckled, and gave his wife a hug and his daughter a pat on the head before stepping back. “Still, don’t underestimate him. From what I’ve seen and been told, he’s a really big, confused and frightened boy, with all the strength and size of a man of thirty. You know how hard it is with the boys when they’re like that. Add a man’s strength to it. Between how strange he is, and what he can do, we need to stay alert. Part of me is wondering if I should have agreed to this at all.”

Nana looked up at her husband, touching his cheek, as she looked at the seriousness in his eyes. “Are you afraid?”

“Afraid?” He scratched his chin. “I don’t think that’s the right word. Anxious, maybe? I’m hoping the boys take to him. That might be the real key to everything working well. That’s one of the reasons the elders asked us, you know. The fact we have boys the age to play with...with this boy-man. Maybe I need to hope he takes to them as well.” He sighed. “At least they aren’t really leaving him alone with us until they’re sure how it’ll all work out.”

Nana started walking back to the house, and Kisoi followed. “I heard the kami told the village to take care of him. I’m sure he’ll be paying attention to what we do.” She stopped and turned to face him, her own face a serious mask. “I’m not so worried about Morio as about the other one. That’s where the trouble will come from, I bet.”

“You mean Chiya-sama?” Kisoi asked as they stepped back up on the veranda. “I’ve been thinking about that one, too.”

The woman paused. “Do...do you think they mean to keep her under the same roof as Morio?” she asked. “She has no patience with children as it is. I’ve seen her with her own children. How is she going to react with something like this?”

“I think,” Kisoi said, leaning on one of the verandah posts, “that it’s a good thing that there are two houses. It might mean more work for us, but having Chiya-sama under the same roof as Morio, and especially when Joben-sama is here might not be a good thing.” He moved next to his wife, and lifted her chin up. “Are we crazy agreeing to do this?”

“Maybe,” Nana replied. “I just hope the kami realizes we are doing this because it’s the right thing to do, not just because the elders chose to pay us.”

“Would we have done this for free?” he asked.

“Well...” Nana said, sighing. “Maybe not Chiya-sama. I just hope that she and Michio work things out soon.” She put her bucket down. “I get the impression she never really liked me.”

“I get the impression she never really liked anybody that much,” Kisoi said.  


A small knot of people were walking up to the house by the river, Tsuneo at the head.

He stopped for a moment. “So, Houshi-sama, I need to thank you for calming down our little trouble this morning,” the elder said, moving next to the monk. “Whatever power’s in that string of beads you put on his wrist seems to have already helped. I can’t believe he actually managed to make Amaya and Akina laugh.”

Miroku gave the elder a nod of agreement and a small smile.“I’m not sure if it was the rosary or the promises that Tameo-sama made to him.”

“He did seem rather pleased with the idea,” Tameo said, nodding. “But the look on his face when we had to tell him we would come back for him later - I think he’s looking forward as much to getting out of your house as you are of getting him out, Tsuneo.”

They started walking again. A crow sitting in the road saw them coming, startled and flew off squawking.

The old elder watched the bird, like it was a sign from the heavens.“We weren’t trying to make it harder on him than we had to,” the old elder said, his voice emphatic.

“Nobody was accusing you,” Tameo said, patting Tsuneo on the shoulder. “Who knows how to handle someone who’s gone through what he’s gone through? He may have been evil enough to deserve it when it happened, but now we have a small child in that body of his who doesn’t know what the hell’s going on. No wonder he’s been driving everybody crazy.”

Susumu, also in the knot of people, nodded. “I guess we never realized how frightened he really was. We were too busy being frightened by what he had become.”

“You can say that again,” Hiroki, Tsuneo’s nephew, said. He was carrying a large bundle on his back, and stopped for a moment to shift the weight. “What did Haha-ue put in this bundle? It weighs a ton.”  

“Enough to see them through the next few days,” Tsuneo said.  

Hiroki looked at his uncle. “She must expect them to eat like noblemen.”

“Bah, nephew,” Tsuneo said, a bit irritated. “Have you ever seen what you eat in a day?”

The young man ignored the jibe. “At least we’re getting him out. You don’t know how glad I’m going to be not to have to go chase him anymore.”

“I wouldn’t be counting on that just yet,” Tsuneo said, displeased with Hiroki’s attitude. “You’re in the rotation for helping Kisoi manage things. And to carry supplies up. And maybe to keep Chiya-chan distracted.”

“Better to be with Chiya-obasan than...” Hiroki stopped the thought, catching the look in Tsuneo’s eyes.

“I’m still wondering about that,” Susumu said, scratching the back of his head. “Are you sure it’s wise, keeping those two so close to each other?”

The elder shrugged. “I had to put her somewhere. At least there are two houses up here. Michio needs some time to decide what he wants to do, or at least to save some face. What was I supposed to do, turn her out of the village?”

The conversation fell silent for a moment. They neared the section of wood that marked the last turn they’d have before being able to see the place they were heading.

“Will this help Haname-obasan get better?” a girl’s voice asked.

Tsuneo turned around to look at Hana, his daughter-in-law’s sister, who also was carrying a bundle, but in her arms, not on her back.

“We can hope, Hana-chan,” he said. “Do you need some help with that? You’ve been carrying that all this time and haven’t complained once. It looks heavy. And are you sure about coming with us?”

“I’m fine,” the girl said. “I want to help. Anee-ue said I can help best if I’m there to take care of Chiya-obasan. If it makes Haname-obasan better, I don’t mind.”

“You’re a good girl,” Tsuneo said. “Chiya-chan’s going to be hard to be around for a while.”

Hana gave the elder a curious smile, then blushed and dropped her face. “Anee-ue told me it would be good practice for learning how to deal with an unhappy husband.”

Susumu guffawed at this. “It’d have to be a pretty bad husband to be as hard to deal with as Chiya in one of her moods.”

Tameo gave him a small punch, frowning at the younger man. “One day your tongue, son...”
“Don’t be too hard on Susumu about that,” Tsuneo said. “We all know it’s true.”

“I have never lived in any one village as long as I’ve lived in this one,” Miroku said, looking thoughtful at the men he was walking with. “I’m beginning to see that there’s a lot I’ve missed, growing up in a monastery.”

Susumu turned and looked at him. “Is it really that different?”

“A bit,” Miroku said, nodding. “We tended to kick out the ones who caused the most trouble. There’s gossip and scandal, but the noise is...well, lower.”

“Sometimes,” Tameo said, taking a deep breath, “it would be nice if it would be that easy here.”

“Bah,” Susumu said, still irritated by his father’s reprimand. “They’d just turn into bandits.”

“Some of ours did, too,” the monk said. He used his staff to kick a stone out of the road. It went skidding across the path. “But they tended to avoid attacking temples.”

“Shame they don’t feel that way about villages,” Susumu said, picking up the rock. He threw it into the field, where a pheasant flushed, flying away with a whirr of wings

“That’s why we have sharp tongued men like you who have good aim,” Tameo said, watching the bird fly off, disappearing into another section of field.

“Glad to know I’m good for something,” Susumu said.

“More than you know, son,” the headman said, draping his arm around his son. “More than you know.”