InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 198

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

Chapter 197


Tameo stood in front of the village lockup, rubbing the back of his neck as he peered through the one small window. He really couldn’t see anything, but the loud snores coming from within assured him that its occupant was alive, if not well.

“No, boy, leave Tameo-sama alone right now,” a voice behind him said. He turned around to see Riki, the wife of his handyman Jun pulling her little boy away and towards the big house. “We have to go help Hisa-sama make dinner. You want a rice cake, don’t you?”

While he watched, the boy nodded, and let his mother pull him away. The headman sighed. “If all our problems were so easily solved,” he said.  

“Well, InuYasha at least made it easy for us to deal with him today,” Susumu said, walking up next to his father. “He’s a lot easier to get into the lockup when he’s unconscious than when he’s drunk and all arms and feet.”

The snoring stopped for a moment, then began again evidently as the man rolled over in his sleep. “Is it wrong of me?” Susumu asked. “Every time he does that, a part of me wishes he wouldn’t start snoring again.”

“Probably,” Tameo said, turning towards his son. “It would solve some problems though. Still, I’m not going to ask the kami to take him in his sleep.” He shook his head, and tugged on his chin. “How’s his family?”

“Maeme’s stoic as usual,” Susumu said. “I don’t know...I’ve never understood how she deals with it.”

“Might be different if she had any other family here,” Hisa said, walking up to join her husband and her son. “What family does an orphan woman have behind her? She has no one to go home to, even if she tried. Even her brother is dead. Closest thing she has to family is a widowed sister-in-law.”  She looked at the lockup, and gave it her special look. Unfortunately, the wood of the building couldn’t react to its withering glare. “Are you sure she’s untouched?”

Susumu nodded. “She had been out in the fields when all this happened.”

“Doing his work for him, once again, no doubt,” Hisa said. She shook her head. “Perhaps it was for the best this time, though. What set him off this time?”

“Something about Chiya being kicked out,” Tameo said. He looked down on the ground, and kicked a pebble. “You know he’s never gave up on her. There are days I don’t know why we let him back in the village when he came back from Odawara.”

“As if Tsuneo would let him get anywhere near her,” Hisa said. “Who would want to let a monster like that near one of his daughters?”

“I wish we had known that before bringing in Maeme,” Tameo said. “Still, here we are.”

Hisa laid her hand gently on her husband’s arm, and gave him a sympathetic look. “How are the rest of them? I heard he chased one of his sons to Kaede’s.”

“Luckily, Eiji was around when he did it,” Susumu said. “The youngest is bruised, but he got away before much happened.”

“We’ll have to have a meeting soon, I think,” Tameo said. “Not today, with Toshiro being up all night.”

“I doubt,” Hisa said, nodding, “that anything less than the village being attacked would be a good reason to disturb him. Or even get him to waken. He was snoring as loudly as Seiji when I left his house.”

“He deserves it, I suspect, putting up with Michio all night,” Tameo said. “We can’t do anything tomorrow either.”

“It’s supposed to be a day of very good fortune,” Susumu said.

There was a yell from the house, as Jun’s youngest and Susumu’s son burst out of the main house, with Isao in hot pursuit. The older boy grabbed both of the younger ones and headed them back inside.

“Isao-kun seems to be a piece of good fortune of our own,” the guardsman said, watching approvingly.

“He does, doesn’t he?” Tameo said. “Still, no matter how auspicious tomorrow is supposed to be, I don’t think I’ll be ready to do anything with Seiji to sully it.” He rubbed his eboshi cap back and forth across the top of his head. “Besides, I think we’ll be busy.”

“Chime would not be happy if we brought any bad luck on Shinjiro’s wedding day,” Hisa said, nodding. “Even on an auspicious day, troubles like Seiji’s are a dark cloud.”

“True,” Susumu said. “Maybe we should keep him locked up until it’s over?”

“We’ll see,” Tameo said. “That might not be a bad idea.”


Kagome had tied her sleeves back and was putting the final touches on dusting off a cabinet.

“Soon as the floor’s dry, we’ll move it all in,” Chime said with a pleased look. “The beans are done, and when the men get back, we’ll start making the mochi, I think.”

“I wonder how the men are doing chasing Okuro,” Mariko said, walking out of the house. She too had her sleeves tied back, and carried a bucket of cleaning water, which she walked to the side of the house and dumped out. “I remember how hard he was to handle last spring when he got a notion in his head to go looking.”

“He’s getting a little old, but he still has that spark,” Chime said, nodding. “Very much like Daitaro-chan. Thinks he can go wherever he wants do, and do whatever he likes. Then later, he’s all tired and achy.”

“I hope everybody won’t be too tired to have a good time tomorrow evening,” Kagome said.

“This bunch? When there’s food and sake?” Mariko said, laughing a little. “Even if they spend all morning soaking in hot water, they’ll be ready for that.”

“So true,” Chime said.

“At least Shinjiro had the sense to go take a nap,” Mariko said. “Watching him fret is enough to make me nervous, and I’m not the one getting married.”

Chime walked to the verandah, and dropped her dusting cloth into an empty bucket. “Waiting is the hardest part. I hope we can keep him busy enough tomorrow, or he’s going to drive us all crazy.”

“Is the bridegroom ready?” Mariko began to sing, as she walked around the work area, picking up a small box and heading back to the verandah.  Her tone was light and amused.

“Yoi, yoi, yoi,
or is he frightened of the bride
with her shining eyes?

“Is the bride too shy,
yoi, yoi, yoi,
hiding there behind her fan
afraid to meet his eyes?

“Give the couple sake,
yoi, yoi, yoi,
three cups each,
then they’ll get along.”

“Don’t give him too much sake,” Chime said. “We want him to be in good shape for Erime-chan tomorrow night.”

Mariko laughed, and Kagome blushed. Chime looked at both women. “Well, it’s true.”

Kagome tried to think of something to say, but was rescued by InuYasha walking up.

“Ah, InuYasha,” Chime said. “Everything’s all right?”

“Keh,” the hanyou said, nodding. “Bull’s in the pasture with Momoe’s cow.” He turned to Kagome. “Ready to go home?”

“That was quick,” Mariko said. “How’d that happen? I thought everybody would be chasing him across the countryside.”

“Momoe saw him coming, and opened the gate,” the hanyou said. “Bull went straight in, and she shut it.”

“A good omen,” Chime said, smiling. “May tomorrow night go just as well.”


Miroku walked up to the temple, and looked up at the little building. The new roof was dark against the late afternoon sky. The ground around the structure was still a little trampled from the feet of the work party that had been there to do the roofing, but all the debris from the roofing itself had been picked up. Someone had been by to sweep the verandah and the pathway leading up to it as well.

“Well, I know it’s not Chiya,” Miroku muttered to himself as he headed up the path himself.  

He pushed the door to the building open. Inside, all was pristine and clean. There were lamps were lit in front of the small image of Kwannon he had enshrined in the building, freshly trimmed. The air was scented with incense. He walked inside, getting ready to offer incense himself when he heard a soft voice coming off to the side.

“Namu Kwannon Bosatsu,” it said. “Namu Kwannon Bosatsu. Namu Kwannon Bosatsu.”

Turning, he saw Kimi sitting in the shadows. Her head was bowed. Her hands were held up in the gesture of prayer. Off to the side, in the corner, were the broom and dustcloth she had used to clean the sanctuary earlier.

Not exactly wanting to distract her, he decided to give her some space, walked up to the incense burner and offered his own stick. The smoke curled whitely towards the roof of the building.  He recited a prayer, and began to move back towards the door. He was about to step outside when Kimi’s chanting stopped.

“Houshi-sama?” she said.

Miroku stopped, and watched as the small woman stood gracefully. Kimi retrieved her cleaning tools and headed towards the monk. “Yes, Kimi-sama?”

He watched her as she drew near. Her usually calm composure was disturbed, which troubled him, and she sucked on her bottom lip as she reached the front door.

“I....” she started to say, but hesitated.  

“Let’s step outside,” Miroku said.

She nodded and followed the monk out into the fresh air.

“You’ve been busy, Kimi-sama,” he said as they stepped off of the verandah.

“After Haha-ue came back home,” Kimi said, following him, “I decided to come here. I knew it was...well, Chiya-chan was not going to be doing the cleaning today.”

Miroku nodded. “She is...well, occupied.”

She let out a long breath. “I just thought...perhaps it would all make more sense here.”

“Did it help?” Miroku asked.

“The cleaning...” she said, taking a breath, then looked down and shook her head. “No, not really.”

Miroku nodded and folded his hands together. “I am not sure if things making sense is connected to a place as much as what’s in our own heads and hearts,” he said. His voice was soft, but his tone said he was repeating that as much for his benefit as hers. He headed to a tree not far from the little temple. “We carry much with us no matter where we go. This is about what happened with Chiya?”

Kimi nodded. “I...”

The monk sat down near the trunk of the tree. “I heard about what happened this morning. That must have been disturbing.”

The troubled woman nodded, and knelt down in the shade of the tree, but at a respectful distance. “I...I didn’t know what to do. If...if Eiji hadn’t been there...”

“But he was,” Miroku said. “And now she is safe in the house by the river. All is as it should be.”

She looked up at him. Her eyes were marked by uncertainty. “But why do I feel so guilty?”

The monk’s eyebrow lifted at that. “Guilty?” He shifted his staff from across his lap to his left side. “What...why would you feel guilty, Kimi-sama?”

“All this started when she saw me fixing InuYasha-sama’s shirt. Did...did I do wrong there?” she asked. “It didn’t feel wrong. All I was trying to do was fix his shirt.” She rubbed her forehead. “I...I was trying to be compassionate.”

“Did you do it for gain?” Miroku asked. “Or because you wanted people to speak well of you?”

“No, of course not. I did it because he had a ripped shirt,” Kimi said.  

“Then you were acting with perfect giving,” Miroku replied.

“But...but...but I was so angry with her this morning. I wanted to shake her. How dare she do that.” Kimi covered her face with her hands. “How compassionate is that?”

Miroku sighed. “I, too, am angry, Kimi-sama. Neither you nor I are Kwannon, alas.” He picked up his staff and stood up. “It is necessary, no doubt, to learn compassion to ourselves as much as to others. We aren’t perfect. We get angry. Sometimes,” he said, giving her a wry, bittersweet smile, “we just have to embrace that part of ourselves, like it is a friend in as much need of compassion as our enemy.”

Kimi stood. “It’s hard, isn’t it?”

“It is indeed. One of the hardest battles. But don’t feel guilty, Kimi-sama.” He started to walk off.

“I won’t if you won’t,” Kimi said, nodding. He stopped and returned her nod. “Thank you, Houshi-sama.” Taking her broom and bucket, she left.

“I will try,” Miroku said, as he watched her walk away. “I will try. Somehow, I think you will reach that place before me.”