InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 222

[ 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 221


“Please, InuYasha-sama,” Amaya said, trying to keep the hanyou out of the room where Haname was busy talking with Tsuneo. Still holding onto his sleeve, she slid in front of him and squarely placed her body in front of the doorway. “You know how Haname feels. You know she’s asked us to keep you away from her. Please respect her feelings.”

The hanyou pulled his sleeve free from the woman. “Like hell is anybody going to keep me away from my wife. She's almost too tired to stand. Move, or I’ll move you.”

People behind them watched what was going on with interest. While Amaya blocked the doorway, Tadaki nudged his brother who had followed him to see what was going on.

“I don’t think anybody can stop him from doing very much,” Tadaki said. “What do you think?”

“It’d be like me trying to stop you, Ani-ue,” Hideo said, still irritated by the extra work he had to do that morning.

Tadaki ruffed his brother’s head, oblivious to his brother’s attitude. “Something like that.”

Michio, ignoring the young farm workers, tugged on Amaya in return. “Let him go, woman. His wife is involved with whatever happened. Don’t make him move you. If he thinks he needs to check on her, he has every right, no matter what Haname-okaasan thinks.”

With an unhappy sigh, Amaya looked at the two men. She had no doubt that if she didn’t do something soon, InuYasha would indeed pick her up and set her aside. She smoothed her sleeve, then crossed her arms glaring at the men. “On you own heads be it if it sets back Haname-obasan and she gets sicker.”

Tsuneo, watching the scene out of the corner of his eye, turned and nodded to Amaya. “Nobody will fault you, Amaya-chan. Today, now especially, it is all right. Come in, InuYasha-sama. My family owes you once again a debt, and you, as much as your woman, are welcome into my house.”

Bowing, Amaya stepped aside. With a curt nod of his head, InuYasha pushed into the room and went over to Kagome, who was looking tired but happy, standing up not far from Tsuneo and his wife.

“You didn’t have to make a fuss, InuYasha,” Kagome said. “There’s no danger here.”  

“I’ll be the judge of that. What was going on? Are you all right?” he asked. He looked down on her with a somber face and his amber eyes took in every bit of her, the smile at a job well done, the fatigue lines around her eyes, but as he looked, and as his nose and other senses let him know that she was indeed content, if a little tired, he too relaxed. “I didn’t know what to think when I heard Haname scream. You look like you’ve done too much. What were you doing?”

Kagome nodded. “It did take some effort. I haven’t used my powers that much in a while, and never this way. The amulet the yamabushi had Haname wear...it left something dark and nasty in her. It felt so much like jyaki.” She took his hand in hers. “I was able to help purify it. I’ve never done anything quite like I did with her.” InuYasha brushed a bit of bang out of her face as he spoke, but his seriousness began to melt as he grew more assured, and that pleased her as well. “But Haname screamed? Loud enough for you to hear it outside?”

“We all heard it,” he said, nodding.

“I was so busy with what I was doing, I didn’t even notice. I knew she was in pain for a moment, but I was more busy dislodging that shard of dark magic that I didn’t pay enough attention.”

“I’d say she screamed,” Akina said, turning from her mother-in-law to nod to the young couple. “I never heard anything quite like it. Okaasan hardly ever lets you know when she’s in pain.”

Haname, still standing next to her husband, leaned lightly against him and took a deep breath before looking at the hanyou. InuYasha was standing very close to his wife, pretty much like her own husband was doing. The hanyou, even though his fingers were tipped with deadly claws, was cupping his wife’s cheek gently, whispering soft words to her. The older woman tilted her head to the side and looked at the hanyou more carefully than she had ever looked at him before, getting past his uncanny eye color and silver hair. The caring husband she saw there was so different from the mental picture she had of him that something broke in her mind, dropping the blinders she had been wearing since he showed up four years ago, and for the first time, she really got a glimpse of who he was.

Tsuneo, about to nudge her to sit down, noticed what she was looking at. “What is it, Haname-chan? You look confused, wife. After what happened, I just could not let him come in.”

“I know, I know” she said. “So like, and so unalike that other one...” Her voice was quite low as she shook her head.  “I just never really looked...”

InuYasha’s ear flicked at the sound of her voice, but he didn’t leave his wife’s side. “You look tired, woman. You should sit down.”

“I think you’re right,” the miko replied. She sat, and then patted the ground next to her.

He turned to look at Haname before sitting himself. “What?” InuYasha said, uncomfortable at her gaze, especially with how there was no fear or malice, merely curiosity. She had never looked at him that way before.

“I was remembering someone who...who did me wrong many years ago, InuYasha-sama,” Haname said. “He looked much like you, but his eyes...he was so cruel, cruel beyond words. How can you look so much like him and be so different?”

“Feh,” the hanyou said. His ear flicked. He glanced at his wife who gave him a reassuring look. “Whatever that one did to you, it was him, not me. I’m me. Can’t help what I look like.” He turned to Kagome. “Are you tired? Do you want to go home?”

“It has been busy,” Kagome said as she squeezed his hand. “If Kaede is ready for us to call it a morning, I wouldn’t mind.” She looked at Kaede, who nodded.

“Perhaps,” said the old miko, “now would be a good time to leave. After all, lunch time is fast approaching, and Shinjiro’s wedding is this evening. There will be time to talk about all that has happened today more fully later.”

As InuYasha and Kagome were finishing up their business at Tsuneo’s house on a positive note, things at Tameo’s courtyard were not so pleasant.

Koichi, Tameo’s farm worker who got saddled with the job of keeping an eye on the lockup, paced back and forth across the courtyard. From time to time, he would stop and glance at the lockup. His looks were black and his body tense, as if expecting more unpleasant things to happen.

As he turned to cross the courtyard again, a voice chided him.

“You’re making me tired looking at you, man,” Jun, the other man Tameo had set to guard duty, said. He was sitting on the ground to the west of the lockup, leaning forward, with his elbows on his thighs, and his face supported by his hands. “Might as well sit down. We’re not going out in the fields today. We’re not even going to get to work in the out buildings or on the compost heap today.”  He sighed. “You know it’s one of those days when I’d rather be cleaning up after the oxen.”

“I feel like I ought to be doing something,” Koichi said. “I just can’t sit there like you. I need to be working.”

“So go grab some straw,” Jun said. “There’s plenty in the back, and there’s cord, too, in the storeroom. The way you’re pacing, you’re going to wear your sandals out. Might as well get started on a new pair. It’d kill the time.”

“Funny, funny,” the farmhand said. But he did lift his foot to check the status of his footwear. Deciding it was good enough, he squatted down and pulled on a weed that was growing there.

Jun shrugged. “You’re the one who said you needed to be working. That’s work.”

“I have plenty to do,” Koichi said, tossing the weed to the side. “What I need to be working on just isn’t here in this damned courtyard. Where’d Susumu get off to? He ought to be here. He’s captain of the guard. He should be babysitting this loudmouth.”

“You heard Tameo-sama sent him off. I think he went to check on the crazy man over by Tsuneo-sama’s place by the river. “Or maybe it was to check on something at Toshiro’s place. Whatever. I forgot, because it’s not my business,” Jun said. “He’ll be back.”

“After he’s talked everybody’s ear off,” Koichi said.  “Maybe we’ll see him after lunch.”  He plopped down on the ground, knees arched, leaning his weight on the palms of his hands stretched out behind him. “We deserve an extra something for today’s work, we do.”

“I’ll be sure to tell that to Tameo-sama,” Jun said, his voice clearly sarcastic, “when its time to write - ”

Suddenly, a loud and scratchy voice interrupted his line of thought.

“Tell me why your hem is wet,
why your back is wet
and it’s such a dry day.
Yoi, yoi,
you have straw in your hair.
yoi, yoi, yoiya.”

“I was hoping that after the women left, he might have gotten tired of this game,” Kochi said. “I guess we’re out of luck.” He looked up at the lockup building. “Shut up, Seiji. Why haven’t you lost your voice yet?”

“Fuck you, Koichi,” Seiji said. His voice was getting rough, but he was far from losing his ability to annoy the people near him. He continued his song:

“Did he push you down
to show you his tool
while it was still dewy?
Yoi, yoi,
you have straw in your hair,
yoi, yoi, yoiya.

“They say his tool
is so nice and thick.
Was it as good as mine?
Yoi, yoi,
you have straw in your hair,
yoi, yoi, yoiya.”

Koichi rose to his feet and threw a rock at the lock house window. “Shut the hells up, Seiji. We don’t need to hear anything more about your prick.”

“Jealous are you, Koichi?” Seiji said, his voice unrepentant. “I’ve heard the women gossip about how the kami cheated you.”

Koichi picked up another rock, when Jun, jumping up from the bit of grass he had been sitting on, grabbed him. “You know this is his way, man. Just let him be. Everybody knows he likes to push people until they do something that gives him an excuse to react. If you react, he’ll just dish out more.”

“Kuso, but I’m tired of him,” the farm worker said.

“I think the whole village is tired of him by now,” Jun said, patting his co-worker on the back. “Maybe even Toshiro-sama.”

“Damn you and the broodmare who gave you birth,” Seiji said. “Where’s my headache medicine?”

“Too late to get Hisa to make something for you, you stupid ass,” Koichi said. He bent down and picked up another small rock. “You should have thought about that before you chased her off. Maybe we can ask if Kaede might make something. Maybe she won’t want to, after how you acted yesterday.”

“Not drinking anything either of those witches make,” Seiji said. He kicked the door of the lockup, which reverberated, but the heavy door didn’t budge. “Where’s Sukeo?”

“Who knows? Maybe he couldn’t find your woman,” Jun said, shrugging. He looked around the grounds, and found a patch of grass that was getting some shade. “If she had any sense, she’d just take off and head out of town and not come back.” He walked over to the shaded grass and sat down. “You’ve scared your boys so much that they’d probably be too afraid to come tell you they couldn’t find her. You have to learn how to treat people better, Seiji. Chasing them away is a loser’s bet.”