InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 261

[ 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 260


The men of the village guard, with Michio in tow, pushed into the crowd near the watch tower. Miroku was standing next to Yoshimi, holding him by the arm, while Hisako, being held back by Amaya and Yaya, who were trying to keep her from hitting him with her walking stick. Denjiro had Yoshimi by the other arm. Seiji’s brother was covered with scratches, and had a fresh hand print on his cheek.

“So what if I knew what Ane-ui was doing?” Yoshimi spat the words out at Hisako. “It’s my family. He’s the head of it. What do you think I was supposed to do?”

“And if he was robbing other people, would you have just taken your share and pretended he was an honest man?” Choujiro said.

“Let me loose!” Hisako said to the women who held her back. They let her free and she straightened her robes, then leaned forward, right into Yoshimi’s face. “Your otousan would be so disappointed in you. You were too young when he left us to learn the right way. He was always such a proper man. It’s a good thing he’s dead. The shame would have taken his life. I am ashamed to call you cousin. Ashamed that my uncle was your great-grandfather.”

“What’s going on here?” Susumu asked. “Houshi-sama?  Hisako-obaasan?”

“I was trying to find my sister-in-law,” Yoshimi said. “This...this...monk,” he said, spitting out the word like it was something foul, “told me some story about her being in the river and now she’s at his house and he’s not letting her go.”

“You’re right,” Miroku said, pulling himself up tall. “I claim life-debt. No woman deserves to be treated like that.”

Yoshimi spit. “To hell with your life-debt. You can’t take another man’s wife that way.”

“I’m not taking her away. I’m saving her life,” Miroku said. “Which, evidently, is more than you ever tried to do.” He looked at Susumu and Eiji. “I’m glad you arrived. Now I won’t be the one who has to take this piece of crap to Tameo-sama to make a complaint.”

“What?” Yoshimi said, surprised by the monk’s words.  

Susumu shook his head and sighed. “Let him go, Houshi-sama. We’ll take care of him.”

Denjiro and Miroku reluctantly let go. Yoshimi, trying to decide what to say, began straightening his shirt. “I want to see my brother. I bet he doesn’t know any of this. He’s going to be mad as everything when he hears that Maeme isn’t home.”

“Why?” Benika asked. “You’re going to try to get the headman to let him go so he can beat up on her some more?”

“Why weren’t you in such a hurry to tell Tameo-sama how badly he was hurting her?” Hisako said.

Benika turned to the group of village guards. “So, Susumu-sama, when are the elders going to do something? It’s not right that a man can push his wife into wanting to die.”

“The kami will desert us for sure,” Masu said.

Haruo pulled his wife aside. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”  

“How could I not be? Maeme-chan That monster...he’s...she’s all battered and scarred up from what he’s been doing to her. Houshi-sama told us all about it.” Teruko looked at Susumu. “Your otousan is the headman. Why isn’t he doing something about it?”

“He will, he will,” Susumu said.

“Why didn’t you at least tell the village guard?” Hisako’s voice was loud and angry. “You let your brother batter Maeme. You know he beat your nephews. Why weren’t you trying to protect your family’s honor? No, you just ran off to the woods to drink sake and avoid lifting a finger. We know all about how you’ve been spending your time.”

Yoshimi’s nostrils flared. “You don’t know anything, Babaa.”

This was too much for Hisako. She slapped him hard.

“I didn’t know Hisako-obaasan had that much strength,” Michio said, impressed.

For a moment, Yoshimi just stood there. He brought his hand up to his cheek, touching the reddened skin. He started to lunge for the woman, but Eiji and Denjiro grabbed him before he could reach her.

“I’m going to kill you, you old witch,” he said.

Eiji hit him with his club, not enough to knock him out, but enough to get his attention. “No, you’re not. You want to make things even worse?”

“Get him out of here,” Susumu said. “Tie him up and take him home. Make sure he stays there. I don’t care if you have to tie him to the roof beam. Just keep him away from the women.”

Eiji nodded. He took a length of rope, and with Denjiro’s help and ignoring all the curses coming from Yoshimi’s mouth, they managed to tie his hands.

“And all of you, you’re coming with me,” Susumu said.  

“Where?” Hisako asked.

“To talk to my father,” Susumu said. “This is beyond me. I’ll let Chichi-ue figure it out.”


Up on the hill, InuYasha and Kagome took a different route down to Daitaro’s than the main path. The road they walked on wasn’t much bigger than a deer trail, and it meandered close to the big rock outcropping to the east.

Kagome stopped a moment and looked up at the rock.  

“What’re you looking at?” InuYasha said, looking up himself. Even though they were walking to make sure there was nothing to whatever Kagome had sensed while she was bathing, neither of them had picked up anything, and their walk had become a relaxing amble, and there was no tension, only curiosity, in InuYasha’s question. The only thing he saw was a lone bird, some sort of hawk soaring in the skies overhead. There was nothing unusual in the air scents - the normal trees and small creatures, a whiff of boar scent from where one had passed earlier.

“The future,” Kagome replied, giving her husband a crooked little smile. “I was imagining the buildings I know that will be there in the future.”

“This is nicer,” he said, taking her hand. “Smells a lot better, too. I don’t know how you stood the smell or the noise.”

“I didn’t know any better, I guess,” she said. “That was home.”

A small shadow crossed her face as she said the word home, and InuYasha wrapped his arms around her. “Home, eh?”

“Was home,” Kagome said, resting her hands on his chest. She looked up at him, not really sad, but also curious about InuYasha’s reaction. “Was home. This is my home now, InuYasha.”

“It’s just that every time you mention it, you get this look in your eyes,” he said. “Sometimes your scent smells sad.”

Kagome shook her head. “I don’t miss the noise and things and smells.” She reached up and touched InuYasha’s cheek. “I do miss Mama, and Souta and Ji-chan.”  

InuYasha rested his hand over hers. “I’m sorry.” His voice was very soft, his eyes looking deeply at hers, trying to decide what she meant.

“Every bride does this, especially when they move away from home,” she said. “It’s normal. Hisa-obaasan, Chime-obaasan, and all the other women who moved into the village from elsewhere went through the same thing. It’s not that I don’t want to be here most of all. I do.”

She tiptoed up and gave him a small kiss on the lips. “No place I would rather be.”

“I...” he really didn’t have any reply so he pulled her into a hug. Just then, they heard the sound of a cow lowing.

Kagome pulled away. “We must be close to Daitaro’s, if I can hear his cows.”

“We are,” InuYasha said. He pointed. “If you look past those trees, you can see his fence line.”  

“Ready to see what a wedding is like these days?” Kagome asked, smiling.

“If you are.” He took her hand. “So, there are going to be pickles?”

“More maybe than even you can eat,” Kagome said, lacing her fingers in with his.

“Feh,” he said, as they started walking. “I like a good challenge.”



Near the watch tower, the group of villagers watched Eiji and Haruo walk a very unhappy Yoshimi back towards the river and his home.

“Susumu-sama,” Miroku said. He bowed slightly. “I am sorry to have troubled you this way.” His face was solemn, but his eyes unrepentant.  

“I know you didn’t start this situation,” the village guardian said, looking at Hisako, who stood there, standing tall and straight, the smallest smile on her lips as their eyes met. “I had a nice talk with Toshiro-sama right before I got here.”

“You can ask Houshi-sama about what happened to Maeme-chan,” Hisako said, not in the least intimidated by the younger man.

“I don’t need to, Obaasan. I was with InuYasha-sama when he told Chichi-ue,” Susumu said. “But that’s no reason to have a riot in the center of the village.”

“Bah. This wasn’t a riot,” she said, smirking. “The last real riot we had here was...oh, about fifty years ago, during one of the wars. Now that was something to see. Chased the stupid samurai out who were trying to raise our taxes. He thought he could cowl our men with just one soldier with him. We showed him a thing or two.” The old woman chuckled. "My otou, he was one of the ringleaders."

Susumu just rolled his eyes. “Let’s go. I don’t know if I’m man enough to tell you what to do, Obaasan, if even your own otousan can’t. Let’s see what Chichi-ue can do.”

Someone must have run ahead and told the headman the group was coming, because Tameo, now dressed in his wedding finery, Kinjiro, Jun and Koichi were standing in the courtyard as the motley group began filing in. Hisa and Riki, still the only women in the compound hovered back by the headman’s house, whispering together.

Tameo, his arms crossed, glared at Hisako as she walked up to him, leading the crowd, flanked by Susumu and Miroku. He took a deep breath, and walked up to the elderly woman, who was not the least repentant.

“Hisako-obasan,” he said, his voice solemn, but betraying no overt anger. “Are you still trying to cause trouble?”

“Trouble?” she asked, nodding her head towards the lockup. “That’s where your trouble is, Tameo-sama. I just want to see justice done.”

“You know we will be deciding that tomorrow,” the headman said. “We will listen to everybody’s say.”

“That’s what you said last time, after the bandit raid,” Masu said, from the back. His hand was on his daughter’s shoulder. “What changed since winter?”

“We’ve had enough,” Hisako said. “You may be the headman, but you have to listen to us!” She tapped her stick. “Look what happened last time! And what’s changed? The man runs through the street attacking his own son. And his wife...”

“We all know the details, Hisako-obasan,” Tameo said, looking solemn. “I promise...”

Koichi, deciding that the headman was in no immediate danger of being swarmed, walked up to the lockup. “You better hope I don’t open that door now,” he said. He looked very pleased at the turn of events.

“Fuck you,” Seiji croaked.

“All the men in that family are guilty,” Hisako continued. “You know Yoshimi knew what was going on.”

“I do believe Hisako-sama is correct on that point,” Miroku said. “I was going to bring him here myself, but Susumu chanced upon us first.”

“Yoshimi?” Tameo asked. “What’s he got to do with this?”

“I’ve heard him talk about Maeme-sama,” Masu said. “It wasn’t very good. He has no respect for her. You should have heard some of the names he called her when he thought he was in friendly company.” He frowned. “When that bastard that tried to kill Nahoi-chan got done in, I thought we all agreed we weren’t going to put up with men who hurt their women.”

There were murmurs in the crowd at this. “I remember what the elders said,” Benika said. “You heard them, too, didn’t you?”  

Denjiro nodded. “I was one of the ones that took his body and buried it out of town. I still spit on his grave every time I go that way.” He took a deep breath. “We don’t need monsters here. How is he any better than the youkai that threw shouki bombs at the village? Or that monster that tried to wipe out Haname’s family?”

Tameo took a deep breath. “I promise you. I have talked with the elders. After what happened to Maeme today, and what we discovered...” He looked up at Miroku. “You, Houshi-sama, and InuYasha. Your claims will be foremost on the list of things we’re going to consider.”

“What happened?” Seiji croaked. He stood up as much as he could in the lockup and grabbed the bars that closed off the window. “What happened to my woman?”

Hisako broke from the crowd, and headed over to the lockup. The women who were with her followed, much to Tameo’s displeasure.

“Maybe I should unlock the door,” Koichi said, gloating a little as he watched them walk towards the building. “I’d like to see you take on all of them at once.”

“You’re an asshole,” Seiji said.

“Not as big a one as you,” the farmhand replied.