InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 171

[ 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 170


InuYasha, realizing someone was knocking, scowled in the direction of the door. He rolled out of the bed. “Damn,” he said, too softly for Kagome to hear. “If anybody wakes her up...”

Ignoring his feelings on the matter, someone knocked again. “InuYasha? Kagome?” It was a young voice.

The hanyou groaned, covering his face with his hand, knowing who that voice belonged to. Standing up in a flash, he headed for the door. Just before he opened it, he looked back at his sleeping wife longingly as she snuggled into the warm spot he had left behind, but steeled his shoulders and opened the mat door. Stepping out before his visitor could knock again, he dropped it quickly behind him to keep anybody from barging in.

InuYasha looked down to see a redheaded kitsune looking up at him wide-eyed with surprise.

“I woke you up?” Shippou asked, amazed at the sight of InuYasha standing there only wearing his kosode. “But you’re never asleep this time of day. You wake up before everybody.”

“Feh.” The hanyou’s ears focused in on the kit, and the loudness of his voice. He grabbed the boy by the tail and lifted him until he was nearly eye to eye. “Be quiet,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, but still close to a growl. “Kagome was up all night, and she’s still asleep. If you wake her up...”

Shippou frowned back in return. “You baka! How was I supposed to know that?” He glared back at the hanyou, but did drop the volume of his voice. “I just got back from my uncle’s place. First I went to Kaede’s house, but Rin wasn’t there and Kaede was asleep,” the kitsune said, trying to get loose. “And then when I started here, I ran into old Daitaro and another guy. They were talking at the bottom of the hill, and they asked me to hurry up to tell you they were coming. I could smell you were home, so I knocked, but nobody answered, and I knocked again. I was wondering if you were trying to ignore me.” Giving up the struggle to get loose, he crossed his arms, and sneered. “You might want to put your hakama on before they get here.”

“Damn it,” InuYasha said. He glanced down the path, but nobody was visible yet. “Now what’s up?”

“Don’t ask me,” the upside-down boy said. “Are you going to let me down? I was just trying to help.”

“Yeah, yeah.” InuYasha let go of Shippou’s tail, and the kitsune landed lightly on his feet.

As he smoothed out his clothes, the kitsune looked back up at InuYasha as a thought struck him. “Why’s everybody sleeping so late today, anyway?”

“Healer business. Sayo had her baby last night, and Kagome was helping Kaede,” InuYasha said, losing some of his scowl. “We didn’t get home until after sunrise.”

Shippou snorted.“No wonder you’re so crabby,” he said. “If I’d known that, I’d have let Daitaro wake you up himself.”

The hanyou lifted his hand and started to make a fist, but then thought better of it, and let his arm fall back down. “You’d have known what’s up if you had gone to Sango’s first.”

“But I was trying to be good,” Shippou said, his eyes reflecting the injustice he felt. “How was I supposed to know?”

“I guess,” InuYasha said, nodding. He sighed, and scratched the back of his head. “So who’s with Daitaro?”  

“That guy that lives on the other side of Toshiro’s place. He works for Tsuneo sometimes.” Shippou said. He jumped up on the hanyou’s shoulder.  “Cho...Cho...”

“Choujiro?” InuYasha asked.

“I guess,” Shippou said. He yelped as InuYasha picked him up and dropped him back to the ground. “Why’d you do that for?”

“You’re not coming in,” the hanyou said.  “Kagome’s sleep.”

“Oh, yeah,” Shippou said. “I forgot.” As InuYasha turned to go inside, he asked, “Do you think Rin’s at Sango’s?”

“That’s where she went last night,” the hanyou said, looking over his shoulder. “Why?”

“I have to go somewhere. Can’t stop at Kaede’s, and I can’t stop here. I guess I’ll go see Sango and Miroku. When Rin’s there, my tail is safer,” the kit said, walking away. “She keeps the twins busy enough that I have time to get away.”

InuYasha snorted at that tidbit, and went in to get dressed for his approaching company.


At the house by the river, Miroku put on his best professional monk face as he walked through the main room of the building. He had many eyes on him - most of the people he walked up the hill with, and all of Kisoi’s family, including an unimpressed Rikuyo, who watched him with a skeptical eye.

“Namo A-riya--valokite-s'vara-ya Bodhi-sattva-ya, maha-sattva-ya, maha--ka-runika-ya,” Miroku chanted as he walked round the room, his voice deep and sonorous.

“What’s he saying?” Susumu, standing off in a corner asked his father.

The older man shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I may be the headman, but I barely understand that old language we use in the prayers to the kami. This doesn’t sound anything like that.”

Tsuneo leaned in. “I think it’s a prayer to Kwannon.”

“How’d you know that?” Susumu asked, looking rather impressed.

“My wife,” Tsuneo said. “She likes his prayers. He’s come over a lot.”

Miroku ignored them and continued with his mantra as he made three circuits of the room then moved to the center, near the fire pit.  His eyes half-closed, he lifted his hand in a gesture of blessing. “Maha--bodhisattva, sarva sarva,” the monk intoned. “Mala mala. Mahi, mahi ridayam, Kuru, kuru karmam. Dhuru, dhuru vijayate.”

Suddenly, a warm wind stirred in the wind, a pleasant sensation that touched everybody.

“Huh,” Rikuyo said. Trying to hide her reaction, she pulled her youngest grandson close.

Hidaka, the oldest boy, had no such qualms. He pulled on his mother’s sleeve. “What’s he doing, Okaa? Where did that wind come from?”

Nana patted her son’s head. “Hush, son. Let him work.”

Miroku finished chanting and opened his eyes. “This house has a peaceful spirit,” the monk announced. “I don’t get to say that often.”

“I always told Chichi-ue that, but he didn’t want to believe me,” Tsuneo said, nodding. “I used to come up here a lot to get away from everything.”

“So that’s where you used to get off to,” Tameo replied, looking at the elder, a bit impressed. “I’ve seen Joben and Haname-chan go looking for you but I never knew where you got off to.”

“Sometimes,” the elder admitted. “I liked the calm here. I’d use the excuse of doing things like taking care of the roof or making sure the weeds didn’t get too bad.” He shrugged. “There were times it was better than what was home.”

The monk took a small blue cloth-covered amulet out of his sleeve. “Even though it’s peaceful, I’d like to make sure it stays this way.” He motioned to Kisoi. “I have one of these for each of the rooms. Tie this up near the door.”

Kisoi took the bag gingerly. “What’s it for?”

“For protection against bad spiritual forces,” Miroku replied. “Which room will be Morio’s?”  
While Kisoi tied the amulet on a peg near the front door, Nana pointed to a door at the back of the main room. “We thought we’d put him in the room on the left.”

Miroku nodded and hung another bag, this time of bright red fabric, over the entrance. “This is a special one for him.” He moved to the other two and placed blue bags over each of them. “It’s not that the house is under a dark shadow,” he explained while he worked, “but this should help keep things from being attracted to him. There’s something about his aura that’s off. That by itself can be something that attracts a hungry ghost or even a youkai, who might be curious.”

“See, daughter?” Rikuyo said, looking at Nana. “That man is a danger. And now you’re in the middle of it. I knew that this wasn’t a good idea.”

Nana sighed, exasperated. “Okaa,” she said. “We’ve been over this all morning. The kami said that the village was to take care of him. Do you think he would do that and not watch over him? Or us?”

“You have more faith than I do, daughter.” The old woman frowned. “But maybe you have a point. Still,” she said, looking at the elders and back at the monk, “I know who must be responsible if he doesn’t.”

Kisoi sighed.

Once again ignoring the banter, Miroku went back to the center of the room, and began to chant again. “Siddha-ya sva-ha,” he said. His voice grew more intense with each phrase. “Maha siddha-ya sva-ha. Siddha-yoge-s'varaya sva-ha. Narakindi sva-ha. Ma-ranara sva-ha.”  

With the last phrase, he clapped his hand together. Suddenly each of the little bags began to glow with a bright light. As he finished, and looked up, the light receded.

“Well, I guess he does know a thing or two,” Rikuyo said, obviously impressed by the monk’s show.

Seeing that his effort had made an impression, he nodded. “That’s done,” the monk said. “Now for the hard part - taking care of Chiya-sama’s house.”

“Morio will be easier to take care of than Chiya-sama?” Kisoi asked. “Do you really think so?”

“You have seen my daughter, right?” Tsuneo asked, a sad smile on his face. “You’ve lived here most of your life. What do you think?”

Miroku headed for the door. As the other men followed, Kisoi nodded. “You do have a point.”


On the other side of the village, InuYasha, moving as quietly as he could, slipped back into the house and grabbed his clothes.

As he stepped into his hakama, Kagome opened her eyes sleepily and gave him a warm but drowsy look. “Did I hear Shippou-chan?”

“Don’t worry about what you heard, woman. Go back to sleep,” InuYasha said, fastening the ties to his hakama. “You haven’t slept very long. I doubt we slept more than a couple of hours. That’s not enough rest for you.”

Kagome yawned, then shaking her head, sat up. “But I don’t want to sleep the day away. If I do, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.” She brushed her bangs out of her face. “Something must be up, or you would have come back to bed. And you didn’t tell answer me. Was that Shippou?”

InuYasha picked up his jacket and put his left arm into his sleeve. “Yeah. He just got back from his uncle’s. He stopped by to tell me Daitaro and Choujiro were on their way here.”

Kagome stood up and stretched. “I bet Daitaro’s really trying to stay out of the way with Shinjiro’s wedding tomorrow. I bet he’s looking for any excuse to get out. Choujiro, that’s the man who’s going to make the boards for the storage building?”  

InuYasha put his other sleeve on and walked over to Kagome, wrapping his arms around her. “Yeah. I guess I need to talk to him, or I’d go back to bed myself.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead. “I can think of a lot more than I’d rather do that talk about sheds right now.”

She reached up and kissed him on the chin in return, then smiled. “Me, too. Maybe starting with breakfast.” She pulled free, then bent over to pick up the coverlet to their bed to fold it.

“Breakfast might work,” the hanyou said, tucking in his jacket and fastening the ties.

Moving toward the cabinet where she stored the bedding, Kagome turned back to InuYasha. “You want to take the futon out to air?”

“Are you sure?” he said, bending down to lift it, then dropping it again. “Maybe I shouldn’t air this out this morning. Maybe we’ll get a break and get to take a nap.” The look he shot her promised more than just sleep.

“Just hang it up,” she said, putting away the coverlet. “If there’s going to be men working on those logs, making all sorts of noise, I probably won’t want to do anything until they’re done.”

InuYasha let out a slightly disappointed sigh. “You know, I think I’m ready for us to have another day off. Maybe two. Maybe a week.”

Kagome looked up at him and gave him a wistful smile. “That would be nice. Maybe I should talk to Kaede-obasan after she gets up.”

“Almost enough to wake her up for,” InuYasha said.  Grabbing the futon, he headed out of the door.

A/N: The words that Miroku chant are from a Buddhist work called the Nilakantha dharani or the Great Compassion Mantra. There’s a very good Wiki page that has it in complete form.  It’s often used for purification and protection.