InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 253

[ 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 252



The area around Miroku’s house was finally almost normal, except for the presence of Maeme and Kaede. All the other visitors had left for the moment. She looked around the main room, still holding a basket of clothes she had taken off the clothesline and needed to put away. Overcome by the contrast to how normal it looked, verses how not normal it really ways, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Just...just,” she said sighing. “Maybe I feel like this because today’s still not settled. I think I’ll take my sewing outside. Maybe Miroku’s right. Being in the sunshine will help.”

She hurriedly put the clean clothes away in their proper drawers and chests, grabbed her sewing basket, and moved out of doors, leaving the sliding door open in case Kaede called for something.

The sight that greeted her was a pleasant one, and took a little of her tension away. Miroku sat under his favorite tree holding Yusuko. Noriko had finally fallen asleep, and was stretched out on a blanket next to him. Naoya lay in his basket cradle near his sister. Smiling in spite of the tension she felt, a real smile that reached her eyes, she walked across the yard and stood in front of her family.

“Do you have a place for me here?” she asked.

Miroku smiled back and lifted up a hand in welcome. “For you, Sango my dearest, there is always a place.”

Sango took it, giving it a little squeeze, and then settled down. She picked up her sewing, part of an undershirt she was making, and began to stitch.

“How is our houseguest doing?” Miroku asked. “I know that at least Sukeo’s going to try to come back tonight. He’s trying so hard to be a good son. Did you hear that he spent all of last night sleeping next to the lockup, so he could be there for that no-good father of his?”

That made Sango’s little bubble of peace break. “Kaede’s sitting with her.” She looked up at Miroku. “He did that? I...”

Running out of words, she shook her head and looked at her needlework. Almost if she could sense Sango’s mood, Chika, the calico cat that had once upon a time been a wicked bakeneko, walked out of the house to join them. She moved next to Sango, mewed once as she looked at the woman, rubbed her head against her leg, then circling, settled down to sleep next to her. For a moment, Sango put down her sewing and let her hand rest on the cat’s back briefly, then attacked her work with fresh vigor.

Miroku, holding a sleepy, but determined Yusuko, watched his wife. A thought came to mind; it seemed to both amuse and sadden the monk.

“I can tell,” he said, his lips twisting into a sad smile at the irony of his thought.

“Tell what?” she asked, stabbing through the fabric.

“I can tell when you wish your sewing needle was your sword, Sango my love.” He reached over and freed one of her hands.

She looked up at him, sucking on her lip, almost if she had been caught doing something naughty. “Is it that obvious?”

“It is when you stab the cloth that hard,” Miroku said. Yusuko nuzzled his shoulder, but her eyes were solidly closed, and her grip on her father’s robes had loosened. He stood up, then moved over to the blanket where Noriko slept, knelt down, and placed the girl next to her sister. Neither girl stirred.

“At least our girls can relax,” he said. “Sometimes innocence is a real blessing.” He sat back down in his place.

“I need to stab something,” Sango said. She reached out and touched Miroku’s arm. “It’s seeing what he’s done and how it’s affected so many people in such a bad way. He’s as bad as any youkai, worse than some. They at least are acting like what they are.”

“Chiya’s antics...they affect a lot of people, too,” he said, tilting his head to get a better look. His hand, freed from holding small girls, found its way around her waist.

“Chiya might have been trying to chase me off, but she never tried to physically hurt me to get his way. Poor Maeme...what was she going through lately? And her boys, too. You saw Nakao’s bruises. Sukeo has a scar on his forehead that I bet wasn’t just from him doing the things most boys do.”

“You’re right, Sango,” Miroku said. “And it’s not just lately, I’m sure.” He pulled her close. “Although, knowing that Michio had kicked Chiya out might have made Seiji even more harsh the last couple of days. You know he has something of an obsession over her.”

She nodded. “I’d heard a little talk.”

“A couple of times yesterday, he mentioned kicking out Maeme and taking Chiya off with him. Maybe she knew he was thinking of that if the opportunity happened.” The monk looked up through the branches of the tree overhead and sighed. “To put up with everything he had done and then to be thrown away like a used chimaki wrapper - that’s got to be a hard thing.”

“Or maybe he would have done worse,” Sango said. She fastened off the thread, cut it, and reached for her thread winder. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d try to do more than just throw her out.”

“That’s possible.” Miroku found himself making a fist, but then intentionally relaxed it. He took a deep breath, bringing his hands into a position he used when he meditated. “All I can say is that it is a good thing that today is Shinjiro’s wedding and everybody is trying to avoid bloodshed,” Miroku said.  

Sango looked up. “Do you think InuYasha might have...?”

“Him, Fumio, Koichi, Michio, even Koume. Tsuneo, maybe, after the way he acted yesterday.” He gave his wife a knowing look. “And right now, you. It would be quite a line to see who wanted to strike the first blow. We’d have to have a lottery.”

Sango unwound a long length of thread. “He’s certainly making no friends right now.”

“None.” Miroku stood up. “But that will have to wait. It’s time to think about what to do next. I may go to the temple and ask for a blessing that nothing else will disturb Shinjiro’s wedding. That family doesn’t deserve having this special day tarred with anything else.” Walking carefully, he went back into his house.


At InuYasha’s house, the hanyou and Kagome watched Fumio, his wife and Maeme’s two boys walk down the path that would lead them back to the village.

“That was...interesting,” Kagome said.

InuYasha crossed his arms. “I think Sukeo’s going to be doing some serious thinking the next few days.”

“Everything that’s happened...it’s got to be...” Kagome paused to find the right word.  

“Like he’s in a storm and his world got turned upside down,” the hanyou said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Kagome said. She leaned against InuYasha’s arm. “At least he’s got people who will try to make sure he doesn’t land upside down.”

He put his arm around her. “Yeah. Nothing like having everything fall apart and then find yourself all alone.”

Kagome looked up at her husband and saw the dark shadow pass across his face as he pulled up an old memory. Not wanting to let it come any further up to the surface, she changed the subject.“So what shall we do while we wait for the floor?”

“We could go for that walk,” he said.  

“Sounds good to me. Way better than standing here wondering about things we can’t do anything about,” she said. She caught one of his hands. “So what are we waiting for?”

They began walking deeper into the woods along the ridge that surrounded the north side of the village. It was all new to Kagome. She might have raced past some of it on InuYasha’s back, but this was the first time she really got to see it.

They stopped by a rock outcropping. Trees surrounded them, but she could just make out the top of the ridge. “I don’t think I’ve ever been here,” she said.

“You’re right, I think. Never was much of any reason to come up here,” the hanyou said. “Daitaro comes up here sometimes. I guess he’s looking for mushrooms or something.” He found a good place on the rock and sat down. “Not many other people go into the deep woods.”

“I think they’re afraid,” Kagome said, joining InuYasha. “They don’t have someone like you to keep them safe.”

“It’s pretty easy countryside, once you get to the top. Every now and then bandits find that out. Some of’em have tried to sneak over from the road north and get to the village that way. That’s one of the reasons Tameo built my house where it is, so I can keep an eye on things.”

“Has it worked?” Kagome asked.

“Maybe. Don’t know.” InuYasha shrugged. “Haven’t been any raids from this direction in a while. Sometimes I find some small youkai.” He pointed to the northwest. “There’s an old tanuki that lives over that way. Most of the bad things that lived near here got called up by Naraku. It’s pretty peaceful.”

There was a noise that sounded like a loud snorting, followed by something crash through the brush not that far from them, and InuYasha went on alert for a moment as Kagome jumped, then leaned in closer to her husband. “What’s that?”

InuYasha breathed deeply, and relaxed. “Deer. Must have heard us talking. We must have spooked it.”

“Deer?” Kagome asked, relaxing, but not quite letting go of InuYasha.

“Yeah. There are animals up here, you know. Nothing much that’s really bad. Haven’t found much up here except chipmunks, deer, sometimes a pig. Rabbits. Sometimes a dog that’s run off. Foxes. Otherwise, it’s pretty safe. Most of’em don’t want to run into people. No wolves. If it wasn’t like that...Well, we both know Daitaro comes up here for mushrooms. The way that he sits and drinks, he might have gotten eaten a long time ago if it was really dangerous.”

Kagome leaned into his shoulder. “Hard to believe what it’s going to look like in a few hundred years. So many buildings up here. The store I used to take you to sometimes.”

“People, people everywhere. I don’t know how all those people can stand it,” the hanyou said. “And the smells.”

Kagome took his hand and shrugged. “I never thought much about it when I lived there. When you’re raised around it, it just feels natural.”

“Feh,” InuYasha said, frowning. “Don’t think they’d know what natural was if it went up and bit’em.”

“Maybe not,” Kagome agreed. “This is much nicer.”

“Not perfect, but nicer,” the hanyou said, putting his cheek on her head.

Kagome took his hand. “What would be perfect?”

InuYasha was silent for a moment. “Not having to put up with stupid people who like to hurt other people,” he said at last.

“Like Seiji?” Kagome asked.

“Not just him,” InuYasha said. He flicked his ear and got a silly grin. “Now what else would make it perfect?  Hmmm...Not having to put up with Miroku’s bad jokes.”

Kagome laughed at that one. “They’re not all bad,” she said, lacing her fingers into his. “He makes me laugh sometimes.”

“They are after you’ve heard them over and over for nearly four years,” he said. “And he’s careful about the ones he tells around you. You should hear some of the ones he tells when you and Sango aren’t around.”

“Oh, I can imagine,” Kagome said, snickering. She looked up at him, and InuYasha was pleased at how much more happy and relaxed she looked. “Anything else?”  

He gave her hand a squeeze. “Not having to go back, because we have to get ready to go to Daitaro’s pretty soon.” Pulling her close he rested his chin on top of her head. “I can think of other things I’d rather do.” She pulled out of the hug, and the look in his eyes gave her no doubt to what he was thinking of. He sighed. “I don’t think we have enough time for that this afternoon.”

“There is that,” Kagome said, also looking a little disappointed. “It’d be a better way to spend the time. But with everything happening, and Choujiro working around the house...”

InuYasha brushed her cheek with his hand. “I thought you wanted to go to the wedding.”
“I did,” she said, giving him a small, nervous smile. “I do. Just a little performance anxiety.”

“I know you. You’ll do fine,” he said. “And even if you didn’t, they wouldn’t care. They like us.”

“They do, don’t they?” she said, smiling at him, a more honest smile this time.

“I don’t know why, but they do. Like we’re family,” InuYasha said. “We better get back.” He turned back the way they came.

“It’s nice to have family,” Kagome said as she followed.

“Never thought I’d have a reason to say that,” the hanyou replied, nodding, “but yeah, it is.” 

Clasping hands, they headed home.