InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 226

[ 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 225

Down by the river, but a good bit upstream from where Miroku and Sango were walking, Sukeo pushed through the thick brush growing near the bank. He pulled a branch of willow away from his face and blew a bit of hair away from his eyes.

“Sukeo, you have to be as stupid as Chichi-ue says you are to wander around in the willows like this. You know Haha-ue uses a better path.” He stepped over a fallen tree limb, nearly as thick as his leg. “A rabbit must have made this trail. I wonder why I missed Haha-ue’s way?”

He broke out of the brush and found himself in a clearing, and he sucked on his lip, looking at the river. “Is this the right place? It looks like it, but I’ve only been here once.”

“Don’t be mad, Okaasan,” he said as he walked towards the bank, both relieved and nervous. “I know you use this place as a way to get away from all of this, but Otousan sent me. I wouldn’t have come otherwise.”  

No one replied, and the only sound he heard was the wind and the water.

“Where are you, Okaa?  Otousan needs you.” Worried for a moment that he might have picked the wrong location, he looked around, confused until he saw a large basket sitting near the water.

He recognized the basket. A large dark stain marked one side of the container, nearly black against the brown of the basket withies. As he walked towards it, Sukeo thought about the stain got there. His father had been in a foul mood that day, the day after the village elders had let the hanyou go after Masu’s kidnapped children. Okaasan was out at her laundry spot and Seiji was nursing a hangover from the night before, complaining about everything he and his brother were doing. Sukeo had sent his brother out to work in the fields, because his father almost never did more than yell at him. This day though, his father was worse than normal. Sukeo had been a little slow getting Seiji a cup of water, and his father roared at him. His mother had just come back with the laundry and was starting to hang it up when he ran out of the house. Seiji caught him and he stumbled, hitting the basket and scratching his forehead on a splinter. For a moment, Seiji looked at his son, and then his hand, and didn’t do anything. Maeme took that moment to hurry him away to go wash his head. As he worked to stop the bleeding, he could hear the cries of his mother taking a beating.

Sukeo shuddered at the memory.

Neither one of them had realized he had bled on the basket until later, and by that time, the color had set. He ran his finger over the markings. The basket was filled with wet clothes. At least he knew he was in the right spot.

“Okaa?” he said, looking around. “Otou wants some headache medicine.”

There was no answer. He stood up, and walked around the area. He could see wet spots on the ground near some of the bushes where she had hung some of the laundry up to dry, but neither she nor the laundry was there. “Okaa, why would you leave the laundry here if you’re not going to hang it up?”

Nobody answered. He walked around the site in circles, going deeper into the shrubs and poking around trees. “Where is she?” he asked. 

Confused, he went back to the river. He could see her footprints near the water. “I know you’ve been here, Okaasan,” he said, rubbing the top of his head. “Did someone come by?”

The only answer he got was the chattering of a squirrel in a tree.

“This is weird,” he said. He walked around the area a little more, but he didn’t find any sign of her. “Maybe she went home to check on Nakao,” he said. “If she took the right path, and not the rabbit track I came in on, I would have missed her.”

Not sure of what else to do, he picked up her basket, now heavy with the wet clothes, and headed back to the house. When he got there, all Sukeo found was his brother sleeping.  

Stalling for a moment, hoping his mother would show up, he hung the wet clothes up to dry on the clothesline, but soon the basket was empty.

“What do I tell Chichi-ue?” he said. “I can’t find Haha-ue anywhere.” Feeling like he was heading towards his own execution, he began walking as slowly as he dared towards the headman’s house.  


Someone else reached the headman’s house before Sukeo. Kinjiro wandered into his family’s courtyard, a hoe on his shoulder and mud on his knees. He looked around, saw no children in the courtyard, no laundry hanging up to dry, none of the usual activity. He did notice Jun and Koichi, sitting in the shade, looking like they were in pain. Curious, he started walking in their direction.

The source of their discomfort made itself clear as he crossed the courtyard.

“Women,” Seiji started to sing,
“touch them right there,
as juicy as sake,
hot and wet,
salty as the sea,
smelling like a - ”
“What the hell, Seiji,” Kinjiro said, interrupting as he walked up to the lockup. He banged on the wall. “You’re trying to get my okaasan out here to knock some sense into that empty head of yours? She can do it, too, and if she can’t do it by herself, I’d probably help.”

“He’s not going to listen,” Jun said, straightening up as he watched the headman’s son. The farmer worker sighed, a look of fatal resignation etched around his mouth.

“I wish she had done it,” Koichi said, standing up and dusting off. “That would have been worth seeing, but she’s not here. Just us to babysit the asshole.”

“I don’t blame her for leaving,” Jun said. “Not with the music he’s been filling the air with. She’s got too much dignity to put up with crap like that. Matsume-sama’s not here either. Your okaasan took her to go visit Sayo-sama. Neither is Emi. Or any of the girls. Fujime came over and took the whole lot of them, the girls and even the younger boys, to get away from this kuso-coated baka. My wife’s around towards the back if you came in to eat, but that’s about it. I suspect she’s pounding on pots to drown out the worst of it.”

“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Seiji groaned. “Where is that no good wife of mine? Damn this headache.  Her butt is going to ache worse when I get her alone. Stupid bitch keeping me waiting all this time.”

“You keep going on like that and more than your head will ache.” Kinjiro struck the little building again. “Your brains must be made of shit if you think this is going to get you out of there,” he said. He looked over at the two men. “He’s been doing this all morning?”

“Sometimes,” Koichi said, nodding.“Sometimes we’re lucky and he just pukes. Smells worse, but sounds better.”

“His voice is getting rougher, though,” Jun said. “We keep hoping that one more retch will do it. Haven’t been that lucky yet.”

“Sukeo!” Seiji yelled, his voice cracking. “Where the hells are you? Maeme, you lazy bitch, just you wait.”

Jun sighed, and doodled a little in the dust of the ground.

“All morning, eh?” Kinjiro asked. His scowl was deep. He dropped his hoe off his shoulder and began tapping the ground with it, as if trying to decide whether to use it as a tool or a weapon. It was a habit he had when he was irritated and trying to think.

“All morning,” Koichi said. “Since he woke up.”

“Where’s my otousan?” Kinjiro asked. His scowl got even deeper. “And my brother?”

“Susumu-sama’s running your otousan’s errands, but your otousan, I think he’s in the office,” Jun said. He stopped his doodling, his finger’s way blocked with a pebble. Picking it up, he tossed it away. “Hiding, like everybody else.”

“Except us,” Koichi said. He scratched his stomach. “We’ve gotten it all. Boy of his tried to let him out, so Tameo-sama had us keep watch.”

“Hmph,” Kinjiro said. “We’ve got more important things to do besides that.” He began stomping off towards his father’s refuge.

Jun watched Kinjiro trudge off, then looked up at the lockup, and smiled. It was a very satisfied grin, almost frightening. “You’re in real trouble now, Seiji,” he said. “You got Kinjiro white-hot mad at you.”

“Get fucked,” the man in the lockup croaked. “Not afraid of him any more than I’m afraid of the whole lot of you.”

Koichi leaned towards his companion. “I can see he doesn’t know what it’s like getting Kinjiro mad at you,” he said. “I much rather have Tameo-sama mad at me, or even Susumu-sama. Kinjiro...well, you know how he is.”

“He’ll learn,” Jun replied, chuckling darkly. “He’ll learn.”


Away from all this noise, InuYasha and Kagome were nearing the path they would turn to begin heading for the hill they lived on. One of the village women, Momoe’s daughter-in-law, was collecting herbs that grew along the paddy dykes. Looking up, the woman saw them and waved.

“Well, I can tell the news about what happened at Tsuneo’s hasn’t made its way here yet,” the hanyou said.

Kagome waved back, then gave her husband a look as the woman went back to her work.  

InuYasha’s ear flicked. “Don’t give me that look,” he said. “You know that Momoe wants you to come and give her house a blessing. I guess she thinks you’ll help her get her luck back. If she knew, she’d probably have the whole family looking for you.”

Kagome sucked on her bottom lip a moment. “I remember. I’ve been talking to Kaede about what to do. I’ve never done that before.”

“Probably won’t take much to make her happy,” the hanyou said, sticking his hands in his sleeves.  “But if she thought you might change her luck before, I bet she’ll really think that once she hears what happened.”

The young miko nodded. “I guess.” She stopped a moment, and bent down, picking a small early spring flower.

The hanyou’s eyes followed her as she moved, taking in how tired she seemed. “At least we have time to rest first. Let’s hope this evening will be different than today, “he said. “In a good way.”

“Yeah,” she replied, twirling the little yellow flower around in her fingers. “I can do without too many mornings like this.”

“Keh,” the hanyou said, nodding.

She brought the flower up to her nose, but was disappointed when it had no scent, then tucked it in her sleeve. “Where I grew up, people always drink too much at weddings,” Kagome said.  

“That’s what I hear,” InuYasha said. “People don’t normally ask me to come. It’s usually just family,” he said. “Only Daitaro’s crazy enough to claim me for family.”

Kagome tugged her husband’s arm free and took his hand. “What about Miroku and Sango?” she asked. “I know they consider us family.”

“They didn’t have any fancy wedding party,” he said. “A couple of days after the final battle, they went to Tameo and he registered them, and then they moved into an empty house behind Toshiro’s place until their house was built.”

“Oh,” she said. For a moment, neither said anything, but she broke the quiet. “So, who’s going to be first at drinking too much tonight?”

InuYasha stopped, and he scratched the side of his head while he thought for a moment. “Hmm...It won’t be Daitaro. I think that man can out drink every man in the village,” the hanyou said. “We’re all lightweights according to him. And it won’t be me.” He shook his head. “Who’s going to be there?”

“I know Tameo, Hisa, Susumu and I think his brother,” Kagome said. “I guess Kaede will be there, too. Takeshi’s family, you, me. Genjo and Mariko.”

He shook his head. “Can’t make up my mind. Susumu, maybe, or Genjo. Somehow, I don’t think Shinjiro wants to drink too much, not really. He’s got other business to take care of.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her which made her giggle.

She gave him a little shove, but still amused. “I suspect you’re right. If he does, that means he’s more nervous than he ought to be. I’m not sure of Takeshi. I don’t know him very well.”

“He’s pretty level-headed, compared to some we know,” the hanyou said. “I don’t think he likes to drink too much, although he might have trouble not doing it with Daitaro pushing the sake.”

They were almost to the intersection of the road they needed to take. Here the paddy lands ended and there was a small stand of trees that blocked the view. The way home was north. The road to the south led to the river. They had just about reached it, when suddenly InuYasha froze, tilting his head to the side. His ear flicked and homed in on a sound coming from the direction of the river.

“What’s up?” Kagome asked. She looked up at his face. He was concentrating hard, and his brows knit together, his expression growing more serious. “Is something wrong?”

“Not sure.  Something,” the hanyou said. His ear twitched as he focused in on the sound.  “I thought I heard...” he said. “Damn. It’s Sango. And it sounds like Miroku’s in trouble.”