InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 258

[ 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 257


Kazuo sat on top of the watchtower in the center of the village, invisible to all else around him. Below him, Choujiro standing next to Masu, Denjiro and Isamu were talking to Hisako and Benika. A few other women were leaving the area by the well and heading their direction.  

“Almost ready,” the kami said.

A fragrant breeze blew up from the north, smelling richly of spices that did not grow in the area. Kazuo, recognizing the smell, looked up at the hill above the village, where the village shrine stood. A ball of light, not visible to the human eye, floated up, hovered over the shrine for a moment, then raced across the sky to towards the watch tower.

“Well, I’ll be,” the kami said. “I didn’t think anything would draw her out.”

The globe of light gently landed next to Kazuo, then dissipated, revealing a small, slender woman dressed in a shimmering array of silken robes.  Her head was covered with a veiled travel hat. Pulling the veil back, she smiled at him gently, almost shyly.

Rubbing his hat back and forth across his head a moment, the old kami bowed, a deep bow of high respect. “Ah, Shimame-hime, you grace us with your presence. What draws our beautiful land kami out of her shrine today?”

She opened and closed her fan. “Kazuo-no-kami, you are a trickster,” she said, her voice light and musical. “You know exactly how to catch my attention. What are you doing?”

“Merely putting some last touches on what needs to happen, Dono. Would you like to watch?”

Raising an eye brow, she gave a small nod and a flick of her fan to grant her assent.

As they watched, Seiji’s brother Yoshimi, walked up the path towards the center of town.

The land kami pointed her fan in his direction. “That one...he plans something to decrease the harmony here, does he not?  His spirit flashes such an ugly shade of red.”

“Very perceptive, Dono,” Kazuo said.

“I visited the monk today, the one you told me about,” she said. “He has an unusual light about him. I’m not sure what to think of him. He has good spiritual eyes.”

“Did you? Good for you. There’s more to making a strong village that making sure the crops come in. Heh, that’s putting what our monk is like in a nice way,” Kazuo said, grinning.  As he watched, Yaya and Teruko left the shelter by the well, and joined Hisako. Masu must have said something that irritated the old woman, because she tapped her walking stick in a way that showed her irritation.

“Hustler, women’s man, maybe a bit greedy - all the things people say about bad monks. But kind and powerful, too. And that little woman of his...he met his match in her, it looks like.” He laughed. “Wise, too. I’ve seen how she fights. I wouldn’t want to cross her if I were her husband.” He rubbed his hat back and forth over his head again, and took a breath. “No, I do believe he’s a strength here. Think what might have happened if he didn’t rescue that poor woman.”

Shimame closed her eyes a moment. “I see darkness. Even perhaps a feud. It’s still tricky, Kazuo-sama. I’m not very good at these things, you know. My sphere is the coolness of the earth, sunshine on rice growing in the summer. The birth of children. I try to keep the village whole.”

“I know, Dono. I know,” Kazuo said, nodding. “But look some more. Tell me what you see with these children of yours.”

She closed her eyes again, and smoothed her face, looking inward. After a moment, she looked up at the other kami. “You have closed many gaps the last week. But they’re freshly sealed and may not hold. Be sure you aren’t making a dike for a rice field that will leak soon as it’s filled with water. Are you sure you are going to get that last chasm bridged?”  

“I think so. Toshiro is busy reevaluating his promise.” Kazuo scratched his nose. “Sadayori was very persuasive.”

“Very annoying, you mean. You’re the only kami connected to the village who would put up with him.” She shook her head.

“He was right, though.” Kazuo looked at the crowd below him. “Look at the people there. They are here because of a mistake he made.”

“Just his mistake? What about that hanyou?” she asked. “So much of it is swirling around him. His heart is good, but he is a lightning rod. All those years he was pinned to the Goshinboku, he stirred people’s fears. I never understood why that kami held him so tenderly all that time.”

As they talked, Amaya, carrying a basket joined the group at the base of the watch tower. Behind her was Masu’s daughter, Furume.  

“Even then, it wasn’t his fault. You know what’s behind that story,” Kazuo said. “Better that he’s here. Look at Masu’s daughter. Your lightning rod is the reason she’s still here in the village.”

“He did make up for the damage that man caused,” Shimame acknowledged. “I can’t keep track of all these little feuds the villagers create. It’s hard enough making sure the land stays well. When they go off like that...”

“We all have our jobs,” Kazuo said. Another woman, carrying her buckets joined the small group. He pointed. “Look. There’s Momoe. You’re not to blame that Momoe’s son decided to turn bandit. Any more than you’re to blame that Seiji would have let him carry off Masu’s daughter. There is no field without weeds.”

“True, true,” the land kami said.

“Still,” Shimame said, resting her hands in her lap. She looked at her fan. “What will come of all this? One last chasm lays ahead. It could be a nasty one, pitting uncle and nephew against each other. Or worse - turning the brothers into outlaws who will just return after the rice harvest.”

“I have a plan,” the old farmer kami said. As he watched, Choujiro told a joke that made Masu double over. The women seemed less impressed. “There’s a woman...”

“A woman? Such a man’s answer. Isn’t there always?” the land kami said. Kazuo couldn’t tell if she was irritated or amused.

“It’s not for me. It’s for that stupid young one. She wants him. The village kami where she lives want him. Problem solved.” He rubbed his chin. “It’s more than he deserves. But she has a reputation for telling her man what to do. He doesn’t know it yet. He thinks he’ll be getting a meek, soft thing. But Kiyoko-chan has a will of iron.”

“So what is all of this?” the land kami asked. “The right woman can change the balance of things. Look what happened when that young miko returned. All this in less than a month.”

“She does seem to have had an impact,” Shimame acknowledged. “There’s even light in Tsuneo’s house, which is a new thing. So, if it’s all planned, Kazuo-sama, what is this little show about?”

“It’s time Yoshimi had a lesson in humility,” Kazuo said. “He’s going to need that once he goes off with Kiyoko. Might as well start today.” He pointed to the south. “And there he comes, our man of the moment.”

Yoshimi walked down the path towards the knot of people. Hisako was the first to spot him. Her cheerful face, still chuckling over of the joke Choujiro had told, but even more how Masu had reacted to it, fell, and her eyes hardened. Tapping her walking stick to the ground, she pushed Benika’s arm away and began to walk towards the young man.

“I would say Hisako is rather unhappy with that man,” Shimame said.

“You would say right,” Kazuo said. “Glad it’s him and not me.”

Isolated from all the events in the center of the village, the bathing room at Takeshi’s house was warm and steamy. Light streamed in through the small window, revealing one woman nearly neck deep in water, and another sitting on a bench, waiting for her.

“You can’t put off getting out of the water forever,” the dressed woman said.

“But it feels so good, Tama-chan. Haha-ue was right. This would help,” said the woman in the water. “Have I been driving everybody crazy today?”

“No more than I expected, Ane-ue,” Tama said. “I suspect I’ll be even worse when it’s my day. You know how nervous I get before something. I take after Chichi-ue that way. It’s like I see everything that could go wrong in my head, until we’re there. Funny how I dread all these things that never happen.”

“You’re not the only one who does that,” Erime said. She began to sit up, and grabbed the sides of the tub. “I think I’ll get out now.”

Tama stood up and picked up a towel for her sister. “Haha-ue’s had lots of practice with our father. That’s why she always knows what to do to help.”

“You’re probably right,” Erime said, standing up in the tub.  

Tama helped her sister get out of her bath, handing her the white cloth.

“So, Ane-ue, are you ready to start turning into a bride?” the younger woman asked. There was a bit of laughter in her eyes, and perhaps envy as well.

Erime began drying off. “I think so. It feels so strange to realize this day is really here, and it’s time to get ready.”

The younger girl laughed. “It seemed to take forever. I still don’t know why everybody waited this long for the wedding day.”

“Because they told us this was the most auspicious day for a wedding this spring,” Erime said, rubbing the towel over the top of her left shoulder. “And it’s before the barley harvest, but after the worst of the cold weather. And because Chime-okaasan said it was the day she wanted, and Shinjiro and I both thought those were all good reasons.”

“Shinjiro, maybe,” Tama said. She held up a white under kosode for her sister to step into. Erime shrugged the garment on, and tied the simple white belt for it closed. “I remember the day you came home with Haha-ue and Chichi-ue after meeting with Shinjiro’s family to set the date. I seem to remember a sister who complained and complained.”

“Well, later he convinced me,” Erime said, giving her sister a sheepish smile. Tama giggled, and picked up a soft blue kosode for her to wear over the white one.

“He seems to be good at that,” Tama said. “Good at convincing you, good at convincing Otousan, good at convincing Okaasan, ever since the first day he showed up after the last rice harvest.”

“And good at not convincing sisters?” Erime asked, laughing a little.

“Oh, I’m convinced. I’m convinced that you are going to be a bride today, and I will become one not long after the rice planting.” Tama said, straightening her sister’s obi. “I am convinced we are growing up. But it makes me nervous.”

“Me too,” Erime admitted. “I - ”

She was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Are you still in there?” It was a male voice, adult, but not very old. “There are other people who want to take a bath.”

“Yes, yes, we’re coming out. We’re through with the tub,” Tama said. Erime slipped on her sandals, and Tama slid the bathing room door open.

The open door revealed a young man who looked very much like the two sisters standing there with his arms crossed. “I was wondering if you were going to drown in there, Erime-chan,” the young man said.

“Did I complain on your wedding day, Ani-ue?” Erime said, smiling archly at her brother Masayo. He was still wearing his work clothes, and smelled of earth and barnyard. “I seem to remember you taking over an hour in the bath to get ready that day.”

He watched the girls walk across the beaten earth domo, take off their sandals, and step up on the wooden floor that made up the rest of the house. He snorted. “Complain? Yes you did, Erime. I remember quite distinctly you telling me to get out of the tub and get dressed so that you could get ready.”

“I didn’t!” she said. “Anyway, Ha-ha told me to go bathe first today.”

Tama laughed and went to a cabinet against one wall, and got out a comb. “I think you did, Ane-ue. But I joined you. He was going to make us all late with how he was primping for Sakami.”

“I was, huh?” He opened the door to the bathing room. “Well, if you want me to go to the wedding smelling like manure and old mud, I could just skip getting clean.”

“Only if you want Sakami to be mad at you,” Tama said. “You know how your wife is about that.” She sat behind her sister, and removed the scarf that had held her hair up while she was in the bath,  and began to comb her long dark tresses.

“I’d just tell her it was all your fault for emptying out the tub. Think she’d believe me first, or you?”

“Me,” Tama said as she picked up another tress of her sister’s hair. “She knows how you are.”

He shook his head. “Shows you what you know,” and stepping into the bathing room, he closed the door.

The two girls giggled a little, while Tama finished combing her sister’s hair.  

“Too bossy,” Tama said. “Be glad you’re going to be free of him after this evening.”

There was a splash of water from within the bathing room. “I can hear you, you know.” There was another splash.

“Just keep pouring buckets of water over your head,” Erime said. “That’ll drown us out.”

He mumbled something, but the girls couldn’t make out what he was saying.