InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 180

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


Chapter 179

For a moment, Michio merely stood there, clasping and unclasping his fists, watching Seiji walk away. No one spoke for a moment. The only sound nearby was a dog barking as the big man passed by where the dog was tied up.  

“Shame that dog can’t get to him,“ Shinjiro said. “Deserves to have a bite take out of his leg. I don’t know what happened to him to make that bastard turn out that way.” He shook his head. “But whatever it was, it did a good job.  ”

“Eh,” Daitaro said, watching as well. “Just as well the dog’s tied up. Probably just poison the poor animal. He always was a stupid ass, even as a little boy.” He turned to his son. “I was always glad you didn’t like him. He got Susumu into enough trouble when they were younger.”

“He did that.”  Shinjiro nodded.  “Doesn’t treat his own children much better.”

The old farmer rubbed the back of his neck.“Sure came home from his soldiering days with a bad attitude. I hear he got hit in the head. That can do it to people sometimes.”

“Kuso,” Michio said. “He was like that the day he found out that Chiya was going to be my wife. He almost beat me to a pulp that day. Jealous bastard.”

“I remember,” Daitaro said, nodding. “Good thing he ran off not long afterwards. Might have gotten himself kicked out.”

“Should have done it anyway,” Arimasu said, moving closer to his son. “Especially after he tried to burn down our house. Good thing his father was already dead. He’d never have lived down the shame.”

Two children, a girl and a boy, peeked out from around the corner of the house.  The girl carried a bucket, which she was having trouble not spilling.  

“Otousan? Ojiisan?” the boy asked, looking at his father, and then his grandfather. “Did something bad happen? After you ran up here, Ojiisan...I know you said to stay back but...”

He was interrupted by his sister.“Was that Seiji-sama?” the girl asked, slopping a bit of water on her feet.  “He sounded really mean.  Haha-ue tells me to stay away from him.” She put the bucket down.

“She’s right,” Arimasu said, placing a hand on Michio’s shoulder. “Seiji is not a friend of ours.”

“He’s not much of a friend to anybody,” Michio said. “But he hates us. You should get back to your chores, Nori-chan, and you, too, Masato-kun. Everything’s all right.”

Nori picked up her bucket, and gave her father a hopeful look. “Can I go see Haha-ue today?”

Michio took a deep breath, and turned to his daughter, but before he could answer, Arimasu shook his head.

“Not today, Nori-chan.” Arimasu turned to look at his granddaughter, who was obviously disappointed. “There’s too much happening today, and we need you here to help Obasan. Go take the water inside, child, and see what she’d like you to do. We’ll find out soon enough when you can go help okaasan.”

Sighing, the girl took her bucket into the house.

“Ojiisan?” Masato asked.  

The old man patted his grandson on the back, and gave him a small smile to reassure the boy. It didn’t do much to relieve the youth. Arimasu sighed. “There’s nothing to be worried about, Grandson. He just stopped by to be rude. Now do me a favor and go back and finish filling the cart with the rice straw. When you’ve done that, we’ll go spread it out in the field. All right?” He handed the youth the pitch fork he was still holding.  

Masato, his brow still creased with some worry, nodded, and went back to work. Arimasu watched him walk off.  

“They’re holding up well,” the old man said. “I don’t know if everything’s sunk in yet. Masato-kun...well, he always was more sensitive to what was going on.”

Michio let out a long breath, meeting his father’s eyes. There was no blame or recrimination there, just concern. “I....” the younger man said, dropping his head.

“Destiny will have its way, son,” Arimasu said, resting a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Things will work out the way they are supposed to. We know how your wife is. Just take it a day at a time. This next ten day will tell you what to do.”

The younger man nodded, then turned around to look towards the river. “Do...do you think she’s going to be safe up at the river house?”

Daitaro scratched be back of his neck. “That’s a good question. Seiji’s not good with women. We’ve all seen what his wife has to put up with. Maybe we should go tell Tameo what happened.”

Shinjiro nodded, then took a step, wincing.  For a moment he stopped and shook his leg, then bent and rubbed his knee. “You’re determined to walk me everywhere today, aren’t you?”

“Well, you could go home and let your okaasan fuss over you,” Daitaro said.

“No, no,” Shinjiro said. “Let’s just see if we can catch Tameo at Tsuneo’s house. Maybe the kami will have some pity on me.”

“Or they’re trying to teach you not to trip over your own feet,” the old man said.

“Is that what happened?” Arimasu said. “I wondered about the bandage.”

“I rather not talk about it,” Shinjiro said. And with that, he started heading down the path to Tsuneo’s house.



InuYasha skirted around the edge of the village, cutting through the forest and heading north, Kagome in her miko garments securely on his back. He leapt up into a tree, bouncing off a branch, arcing up in a short flight to the next tree.  Kagome took it all in stride, laughing a bit in her enjoyment of the feeling of flight, lifting her head to let the wind sweep through her hair.

“We don’t do this enough,” she said.

“Keh,” the hanyou said. “Busy woman can’t go on runs. She’s too busy delivering babies and wrapping up wounded legs.”

She leaned forward a little, and waited for him to land on a large branch of a cypress tree and relaunching before replying.  

“It’s true. There’s so much to learn and do.” She readjusted the strap to her gathering basket she had draped over one shoulder. “But I want to do both. Run in the woods and work in the village.”

“Then don’t complain that we don’t get to do this enough, woman,” InuYasha said as he bounced off another branch, and leapt forward again.

“Bah,” she said, resting her chin on his shoulder. “I want it all.”

“You get it all,” he said. “Just not as much as you want. Any time you’re ready to give up being a village miko, let me know and we’ll move out into the woods. At least we wouldn’t have people interrupting us while we sleep.”

Kagome laughed. “At least I was smart enough to get us out of the house today.”

“Yeah,” the hanyou said. “Sounds like even you were ready to get away.”

She leaned forward and kissed the side of his neck, a light peck, then laid her cheek against it. “Probably not as much as you were.”

He barked a laugh. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to be around people as much as you. But...I think I’m beginning to like it.”  

Kagome looked at him surprised, and although he couldn’t see her look, he could feel her reaction by the way she sat up.

“Some of them. Some of the time.” He bounced off a pine tree. “At least they don’t all tease me the way Miroku does.”

“There is that,” Kagome said, and leaned her cheek back against her husband’s neck.

They were running out of trees. InuYasha leapt of the last available branch, and bending his knees to absorb the shock, landed lightly on the ground. “Want a break before we keep going?”

Nodding, Kagome slid off his back, took off her carry cloth and basket, and used the moment to stretch. “So here are we headed? You haven’t taken me this way before. Another hot spring?”

“Counts,” the hanyou said, spotting a large rock. He walked over it to sit down and watch his wife with appreciative eyes as she did her stretching.

“Counts on what?” Kagome said, bending forward, her arms at full stretch.

“Well, there’s a nice meadow not far from here if you really want to get some herbs,” InuYasha said, crossing his legs and resting them on the sun-warmed granite. “No hot spring, but there’s a nice stream on its edge. We’re in between villages here. Sometimes there’s a hunter, but it’s rare to find people this far from their village. Or we can go further. There’s a hot spring at the base of that mountain there,” he said, pointing to the north. “But if we go there, we probably will need to spend the night.”

“Remind me, I want to make a bag to carry my things in,” Kagome said, hands over head, bending to her left side. “Carry cloths are just not as comfortable.”

“If you want to walk, I can carry it for you,” the hanyou said. “You should talk to Kaede. That big yellow bag of yours is around. We put it in the shrine.”

“My bag is here and you didn’t tell me?” Kagome’s eyebrows rose.

InuYasha got a sheepish look and his ears went back a little. “Uh...I forgot?”

Seeing how he looked, just shy of cringing, Kagome laughed.


Rin pulled up a piece of lamb’s quarters out of the garden. “Rin thought you were going to help, Shippou-kun,” she said, adding it to the pile of weeds she had managed to pull.

“I am,” the kitsune said, sitting on the fence rail that marked the boundary of the garden. “If I pull weeds, I might pull the wrong ones, and then you’d fuss at me.”

The young girl moved down the row a bit, where she snagged another weed. It was obvious nobody had visited the garden for a few days by the number of young plants pushing up amid the cabbage and mustard.

“Rin is fussing at you anyway,” she said, sitting back on her heels, tossing the weed into the pile. “If you’re not going to help Rin pull, then at least you could go back and get Rin a basket.”

“A basket?” Shippou asked. He hopped off the fence. “What do you need a basket for?”

“We can eat some of this,” she said, holding up one of the weeds. “Kaede-obaasan likes to cook these in her soup.”

“You mean I’ve been eating them?” Shippou asked. “I didn’t know that.” He took the plant she was holding up, plucked a tiny leaf off of it and began chewing. “I recognize that taste.”

“It tastes better cooked,” Rin said. “Rin prefers her greens cooked with soya.”

Shippou shrugged. “They all taste good to me.” He ate more of the weed.

“That’s because you’ll eat everything,” the girl said, laughing.

“Not everything,” he replied, crossing his arms, tilting his chin up as if insulted.

“Well, if you don’t go get Rin a basket, you won’t get to eat any of these, Shippou-kun. There’s one hanging on the wall on the back side of Kaede-obaasan’s house. You don’t even have to wake her up if she’s still sleeping.”

The kitsune looked at Rin, and back at the greens, and then back at Rin. Frowning, he nodded, but grabbed one more of the weeds, and headed back towards the village. “I guess I’ll help,” he said. “But you better still be here when I get back!” With a loud pop he transformed into his pink balloon form and drifted back towards the miko’s house.

Laughing, she went back to work.

About ten minutes later, she had most of the weeds out of the strip of garden she was working on. Standing up, she dusted her hands off, brushed a lock of hair out of the way, and was about to move when suddenly she froze.

“Rin,” a voice behind her said. It was soft, but there was no mistaking it.

The girl whirled around to look up into a pair of golden eyes, regarding her solemnly.

She broke into a beautific smile. “Sesshoumaru-sama. Rin is very pleased to see you.”