InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 232

[ 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 231


Like InuYasha suspected, he met Kaede on the way down the hill. She was walking with Furume, and he heard the girl talking excitedly long before he spotted them. As they neared, InuYasha leapt into the branches of a tree near the path, not really wanting to deal with the young woman. As he watched, it seemed to the hanyou that although Kaede nodded at all the right places, the old miko looked a little irritated with the constant stream of chatter the girl was producing.

“Houshi-sama is such a brave man,” Furume said, her face animated with at least a small amount of hero worship. “He didn’t even wait. Soon as he spotted her, he jumped in.”

“Feh,” InuYasha muttered, too soft to be heard. “Acts before he thinks sometimes.”

“He swims so well,” the girl said. “I didn’t dare jump in myself. The last time I was in water up to my neck I almost drowned.”

“It does take some real practice,” Kaede said. “I never learned to swim properly myself.”

“Chichi-ue told me that farming girls don’t need to do that,” Furume continued. “That swimming was for samurai. But Houshi-sama, he was raised differently. He went straight for that poor woman.”

The old miko took a long breath and nodded. “He is a good man,” she said, shifting her medicine basket on her hip. “I hope they all are all right. I suspect the water was still quite cold.”

“It was,” the girl said, nodding. “I was cutting rushes when I spotted her.” She looked down at her bare feet, still muddy from her work by the stream bed. “If I knew my okaasan wouldn’t have come out to cut the rushes herself if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have been there. I barely could feel my feet while I was working. It must have been really cold in the deeper water. Even by the river bank it was cold.” Suddenly, the endless stream of nervous talk stopped, and she brought her hands up to her face, covering her mouth, and her eyes grew wide. “I just remembered. I left everything back by the river, the rushes and my knife, too. I hope my knife is still there. Chichi-ue will be very unhappy if that knife’s lost. I think it belongs to Tsuneo-sama. I don’t know what he’ll do if someone takes it.”

“Then, child, you should go check it. I can find my own way to Houshi-sama’s house,” Kaede said, patting her on the shoulder. “Go before someone finds it.”

The girl bowed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said, then turned and ran down the path.

Kaede watched her go, and sighed. She shook her head and looked up at the sky. “An auspicious day, eh? The gods are having a funny way to show us how auspiciousness works.”

There was a flash of red and silver behind her.

“Daitaro says it’s all how you look at things. Maeme choosing today to try to drown was auspicious because Miroku was there to save her,” InuYasha said. “I’m not sure if I agree with him.”

Kaede turned around to see the hanyou walking towards her.

“Ah, InuYasha,” Kaede said, taking him in as he moved closer. He seemed quite solemn. Although he tried to keep his face unreadable, the ghost of a scowl told her how unpleased he was by the current turn of events. She took a deep breath. “Sometimes, my cousin is right, although I’m not sure about today yet. You were there?”

He nodded. “I had to haul both of them out of the river. They were at the Willows. I was afraid they’d hit the Courtesan Spider’s rocks.”

“They were lucky, then, you were there. How are they?” She shifted her basket on her hip. It was filled with bags and packets of herbs, more than she usually brought, as if she wasn’t sure what she would need.

“Miroku’s all right,” the hanyou said. “He got wet and cold, but he’s all right. Kagome told me to tell you that Maeme is unconscious still.”

That made the miko frown. “Unconscious? Did she hit her head or swallow too much water?”

InuYasha shrugged. “The women think that maybe it’s just all been too much for her. Kagome’s upset though. I think...well, you’ll talk to her.” He took his own deep breath and his ear twitched. “From what she told me, Seiji’s handiwork on her was pretty obvious.”

The old miko closed her eye, and gave the hanyou a single nod. “I am not surprised to hear that. After the birth of their second child, he’s been trying to keep her away from visiting me. I have heard tell of men who do this to their women.” She looked back up at the hanyou. “Her story is sad.”

“Feh,” InuYasha said. He clenched the hilt of his sword, and his eyes dropped their mask a moment, revealing the depth of his anger. “More than sad. I’m going to the village. I need to tell Tameo about what happened.”

“Yes,” the miko said. “He needs to know, indeed. Perhaps with this, the elders will have to do something about Maeme’s husband, I think.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll see you later.” And with that, he headed down the road.

While InuYasha headed towards the headman’s house, Mariko walked into Daitaro’s house, looking for Chime, but the older woman wasn’t there. Heading back outside, she walked behind the main house, and heard voices coming out of the small building behind it.

“It’s not much,” she could hear Chime say. “Some people keep their farm workers in bigger.”

She could hear Hisa laugh. “Not many. I’m sure Shinjiro and Erime-chan will appreciate having their own space for at least a while.”

Mariko lifted the doormat, and walked in. Chime had a cleaning cloth in her hand, and she was standing in the middle of the room. Hisa, standing next to her, carried a basket with an arrangement of early spring flowers and greens, which she placed on a low table against the wall. Next to it were a jug, cups, and a tea pot.

“So, Okaasan, you’re getting them ready for whatever they want, to stay alert or to relax?” Mariko said.

“Or something,” Chime said, turning to her daughter-in-law. “You’re back, daughter. Did your husband and mine happen to follow you home?”

“Not yet,” Mariko said.

“It looks like a room at an inn,” Hisa said, smiling knowingly. “No cooking tools, but everything for tea...and bed.”

She was correct. Outside of the clothing chests pushed against one wall, the room was missing all those things that a real farmhouse had - no food or tools stashed. There was a water bucket with a bamboo ladle, a cradle for firewood, but none of those tools needed for meal preparation. Bedding had been laid out, waiting for the young couple, a red ground cloth spread over a straw pallet, and blue and white coverlets and new pillow rolls.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Chime said. This amused her. “Well, it does what an inn does - gives them a place to sleep. But I don’t think they really want to spend all their time here.”

“Well, maybe for a few days,” Hisa said. “At first. Who knows? Maybe they’ll ask you to bring them their meals?”

This brought laughter out of all three women.

“It’ll be perfect, Okaasan,” Mariko said.

Chime wiped her hands on the towel she had been carrying, and tucked it into her waistband, and began heading for the door. “So tell me, what was it that Furume was coming for? Someone fell in the river?”

Mariko nodded. “Houshi-sama and InuYasha managed to pull her out. Let’s not talk about it here. It seems the wrong place to talk about something like this. I don’t want to spoil the luck.”

“Good idea,” Chime said.

The three women stepped outside. “Let’s go to my place,” Mariko said. “I need to get lunch started, anyway.”

They headed that way.  

“So it was a woman?” Hisa asked as they walked to the second son’s house, built next to the main building. It was smaller than Daitaro’s place, but not by a lot, wooden planked and roofed, like the old man’s home, with boards and not with thatch. It was a little closer to the outbuilding where the miso was made and stored, and whiffs of it drifted on the air.

“It was,” Mariko said.  

Mariko lifted the door mat and the women entered. Shinjiro sat inside, babysitting his infant nephew, who sat on his lap. The moment the child saw his mother, though, there was an outcry, and Mariko went to pick him up.

“And he had been so good,” Shinjiro said. “What is it, I’m not good enough to hold him when Okaa’s around?”

“Probably more like you’re not good enough to feed him,” Mariko said. She went over to a cabinet and picked up a large white towel and threw it over her shoulder before loosening her top. “Food trumps ojisans every day.”

“So,” Hisa said, following her in, right after Chime, “Who was it they pulled out of the river?”

“It was Maeme,” Mariko said, picking up her son. Sitting down in her place, she began to nurse her son.

“Maeme?” Chime said. Her lips pulled into a sad, knowing frown.

Hisa took a long breath. “She didn’t fall in by accident, did she?”

Mariko shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Chime got up. “I’ll start the rice,” she said, moving to Mariko’s kitchen cabinet, where she found a large bowl.

“Where is she?” Hisa asked. “I hope...I hope they aren’t leaving her alone after this. Not with those two boys to look after. Not when...that...that...”

“She’s up at Houshi-sama’s,” Mariko said. “He’s not going to let Seiji get anywhere near her, at least for a while. Or so he says.”

Hisa nodded. “He’s a good man, for all of his odd ways,” the headman’s wife said. “And Sango-chan, she agrees?”

“She does. I think Maeme reminds her of someone she knew once,” Mariko said. “She was telling us about knowing a woman she knew who had lost everything, and gave up on wanting to live.”

“Houshi-sama’s wife has had an unusual life,” Shinjiro said. “Losing her entire village must have been hard. I hear she had the hardest time finding her brother afterwards.”

A light dawned in Mariko’s eyes, and she looked at her brother-in-law. “Do you think she was talking about herself?” she asked. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Maybe so,” Shinjiro said. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“No wonder she is so willing to help,” Mariko said, sighing. “She knows just what it must feel like.”

Chime scooped rice into the bowl, and then poured water on it.

“What bad luck. Poor Maeme,” Hisa said. “Her life has been one thing after another.”

“No, no,” Chime said, looking over at her friend. “It’s not bad luck on this auspicious day. She threw herself in the river, but she was rescued.” She stirred the grains of rice in the water, to clean them. “And she was rescued by someone who will try to help her beyond that. I would say that’s good luck. Far better than she had been having.”

“Okaasan, you sound just like Daitaro-Otousan,” Mariko said, almost amused by her mother-in-law’s reaction. “He said almost the same thing.”

Chime smiled as she began to pour the water into the slop bucket. “Daitaro-chan and I, we see a lot eye to eye.”

“But not to sake drinking,” Shinjiro said.

“Oh, we see eye to eye on his drinking,” his mother said, amused. “Just not his son’s drinking. Especially on his wedding day.”

“I think your brother taught them why,” Mariko commented, laughing a little. “Don’t you remember?”

He nodded, and returned her grin. “Probably a good idea,” the man said. “A very good idea.”