InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 243

[ 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 242


While Tameo walked Toshiro away from the women who had confronted him, InuYasha stepped out of his house, then rounded the side of the building to spot Choujiro scrounging through the pile of trimmed off branches the hanyou had put aside for firewood. The hanyou watched for a moment as the woodworker found one to his satisfaction.  

“Now what’s he up to?” InuYasha said. While he watched, the woodworker began to strip the smaller branches off of it. It was the right size to use as a walking stick, or a lever, straight and stout, about twice the thickness of Miroku’s staff. With a shrug, InuYasha walked up to where the other man was working.

“You have a problem, Choujiro?” the hanyou said. “You don’t look like you’re needing any help.”

Choujiro, using his knife to smooth off the nub of a stick that had not broken cleanly, looked up and smiled at the silver haired man. With a small oomph, he cut the offending piece of wood off. “Ah, InuYasha-sama, you were home after all. I thought I was going to have to do this by myself. It’s my lucky day.” He looked back down and snapped off another twig.

InuYasha crossed his arms and frowned. “I think I’m getting tired of that word luck,” he said as he watched the man work. “That’s what everybody’s been saying today. And if there’s been extra luck, it’s showing in strange ways.”

Choujiro nodded. “More lucky for some than for others,” he said, chuckling. “I must not be included in the good luck side. Look over there.” He pointed with the wood he was working on to where the cut log sections were. The closest section had rolled off the cradle they had set it on earlier, and was laying on top of one of his wood splitting tools. “I guess you could say I was lucky that it didn’t hit my cart and roll over everything. It stopped in time, thank goodness. Carts are much harder to make than levers. I was going to try to nudge it enough with this stick to grab the handle of my tool there, but it’ll be much easier with a second pair of hands.”

“Keh,” the hanyou said. “That’s easy enough. It won’t even take the two of us.” He walked over to the log, and without much trouble, lifted the heavy piece of wood, and shoved the supports back into place. The look of pleased amazement in Choujiro’s face amused him, and felt much better than the look of fear that his using his strength often evoked. As Choujiro tossed the branch he had been working on back into the firewood pile, InuYasha dusted off his hands. “There you go.” He looked around, looked surprised, and raised an eyebrow. “I know something seemed wrong. You’re missing a helper.”

“You noticed that, did you?” Choujiro said, rescuing his tools and walking back to his cart to get his splitting wedges. “Maybe today’s not so lucky for Aki-kun, either,” he said as he hefted one of the heavy pieces out of the cart. “I made the mistake of stopping by the headman’s place. Kinjiro learned that Aki now wants to start chopping wood to build his strength. So he decided to put him to work this afternoon.”

“I wonder if Kinjiro’s decided to stay close to home this afternoon. He was pretty upset with what was going on when I left there earlier,” InuYasha said. As Choujiro began walking back to the log he was ready to work on, the hanyou followed him. Stopping to see what the woodworker had accomplished already, he nudged the stack of boards already made with his foot. “Looks like you and Aki got a lot done this morning.”

“We had a good start,” the woodworker said. He leaned on the block of wood. “You might be right about Kinjiro wanting to stay close. When I saw him when I broke for lunch, he was...well rather agitated. You must have just left. He told me about Sukeo-kun.”

“That ass Seiji,” InuYasha said. “He’s turned out to be more trouble than he’s worth.” He looked down at his fist. “I should have hit him harder yesterday.”

“Maybe they’ll have a better afternoon.” He gave InuYasha a grin, then got ready to work, looking for the right place to put his wedge. “Koichi told me he finally shouted his voice out, and can now do little more than croak like a frog. He didn’t say anything while I was there.”

“They’ll appreciate that. The stuff he was singing...” the hanyou said, shaking his head.  “Anybody ever tell him what happened to Maeme?”

“To be honest, InuYasha-sama, I don’t know,” the woodworker said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t. He’s been such a...a...”

“A useless piece of meat?” the hanyou suggested, once again crossing his arms and stuffing them in his sleeves.

“You could say that. Nobody wanted to talk to him except to shut him up. I know both Koichi and Jun were ready to beat him into a pulp.”

“I think if everybody who wanted to beat him up today showed up in one room, the place would be crowded,” InuYasha said. His ear flicked, but his frown began to move into a smirk at the mental picture.

“I suspect you’re correct,” Choujiro said, tapping his splitting wedge with a mallet. “I even think there’d be a few women in that group. I told Hisako-sama about it, and she looked like she was ready to beat him up with her walking stick.”

InuYasha chuckled. “That old woman can be scary when she’s angry. They ought to let her go first.”

“Well, the way these women talk, he might wish he had never come back here,” Choujiro said. “The meeting they have tomorrow is going to be interesting. And noisy.” He picked up his mallet, then looked over his shoulder towards the front of InuYasha’s house. “Speaking of women, what is yours doing?”

InuYasha turned around to see Kagome, out of her miko clothes and dressed in her beige kosode and blue wrap skirt, carrying out the wash stand. She had already moved the washtub out, and carefully put the wash stand on the ground next to it. “That’s a good question. I better go see.”

And with a wave, he headed to see what his wife was up to.

As InuYasha and Choujiro talked, Koume and Fumio made it to the front of Seiji’s house.

The rooster who guarded the grounds gave them a careful look as the couple headed to the front of the building. Ruffling its feathers, it decided they didn’t have food or harm, and the bird headed around the back to continue its patrol.

They stopped for a moment.  There was no movement around the grounds. The breeze ran through a wind chime, but that was the only noticeable sound.

“Mighty quiet here,” Fumio said.  “You think Nakao-kun’s still home?”

“Let’s hope so,” Koume said. “Wonder where that good-for-nothing Yoshimi’s at?”

“Laying low today, I suspect,” Fumio said. “I heard he had Ryota mad at him,” Fumio said. “Something about a gambling debt or something. With Seiji locked up, I suspect he decided the wood was safer.”

“The village is safer when Yoshimi’s not around,” Koume said. “He’s been hiding behind Seiji since he was small. What will he do if the elders decide to send him away?”

“Run with him if he’s smart.” Fumio shook his head. “Well, let’s get the boy.”

“Poor boy,” Koume said, and nodded.

They walked up to the door of the rather ramshackle house and knocked. For a moment, there was no sound. Fumio knocked again, louder. There was a faint groan from inside.

“Kaede-chan told me she had given him some medicine that would make him sleepy.” Koume said. “I bet he’s still sleeping it off.”

“I’ll knock again,” Fumio said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll go inside.”

As he knocked this time, Koume walked up to the door mat. “Nakao-kun? Come to the door, please,” she said.

There was a rustling sound, and some mumbled, drowsy words neither of the grownups could make out. Koume looked at her husband, who sighed.

“Nakao-kun,” he said in a strong voice. “We need to talk to you.”

Some more grumbling followed, but this time, they heard things shifting, followed by footsteps.

The doormat lifted, and Nakao, bruised of face and sleepy-eyed, peeked out. He might have been drowsy, but the look he gave them was wary, like he was being asked to break a rule.

“Fumio-sama? I’m sorry. Nobody’s home. My otousan doesn’t like people to come visit,” he said, bowing. He straightened up, and rubbed his eyes, and covered his mouth, hiding a yawn.

“We’re not here to see your otousan,” Fumio said. “We both know where he’s at.”

The boy shrugged. “I’m still not supposed to let people in. I’d ask Haha-ue, but she’s not home either. She went out to do her laundry, I guess,” the boy said. He started to back up, looking very uneasy. “I should go back in before I get in trouble. I’ve been in enough trouble lately.”

Koume stepped forward. “That’s why we’re here, Nakao-kun,” she said, reaching out to touch the boy. He looked at her hand, surprised. “Your okaasan...”

Nakao looked up, frowning, as he studied the faces of both adults. Although they were looking at him kindly, the looks on their faces bothered him as much as their being there did. They were somber, but not angry, more sad than worried. “Is something wrong? What about my okaasan? I don’t know where she does the laundry. It’s some place down by the river.”

“She was doing her laundry?” Koume asked. She looked at the boy, stepped back, and then into her husband’s eyes.

“That’s what she told me she was going to do,” Nakao said, looking up at them both, growing more nervous at their reaction.

Koume tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Fumio took a deep breath and rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “She fell in the river, son.”  

The boy’s face went pale. He said nothing for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around what they were saying. “Into the river? I don’t think she knows how to swim. Is...is...she...where is she?”

“Houshi-sama has her at his house,” Koume said. “He was the one who rescued her, with some help from InuYasha.”

Nakao’s eyes grew damp and he began to tremble. “Rescued? She’s...she’s alive?” His voice was as shaky as his body.  He swallowed, looking at Koume, and the Fumio. Koume clasped his hand.

“Yes, yes, she’s alive, son,” Fumio said. “We thought you’d like to go see her.”

Nakao nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Why didn’t you bring her home? She’d want to be home. Ha-ha...”

“She’s exhausted. Kaede-sama said she didn’t get really hurt, but she’s too tired to come back here tonight,” Koume said. She pulled the boy close to her. “She’s going to be all right, Nakao-kun. Your brother is with her already. Kaede-sama and Houshi-sama want her to stay there until she’s better.”

He looked up at her fearfully. “Chichi-ue’s not going to like that,” the boy said. His words sounded like a warning. “I bet he gets really mad.”

Koume pursed her lips and shook her head. “Frankly, son, I don’t think that anybody cares about what your otousan thinks about this right now.” She brushed his bangs out of his face. “First thing is to get you okaasan better, right?”

This seemed like an amazing idea to the boy. He looked at Fumio and then at Koume, and their certainty dazed him. “We can do that?” he asked. “Not care what Chichi-ue thinks? You can keep him from coming to take her home?”

“Oh yes,” Fumio said, nodding. He hefted the hammer he was still carrying over his shoulder. “And this time, it’s your otousan who’s going to have to listen.”

Shaking his head at these strange ideas, the boy followed the two grownups away from his house and up to the hill.