InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 267

I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi


Chapter 266

As the sun began to set across the village, things were for the moment, rather quiet at Tameo’s complex. A cat wandered between buildings, the walkways empty of the usual patter of people coming back from a day’s work. Something though, caught her attention, and she pausing to listen for a moment as ear flickered, catching a sound. Suddenly, as if she disapproved of what she heard, the cat scampered away to hide behind the headman’s house.

A rather pleased voice filled the air, moving towards the front of the farmstead.     

“Happy is the house
when the master is away.”

Jun, Tameo’s farmhand, full of dinner, and in a rather mellow mood, headed from the back kitchen, carrying a heavily loaded tray, moved to the front.

“Happy is the house
when the children are asleep.”

The tray he carried had rice balls heaped up on separate platters, and bowls of soup, and a fat little jug on it. He passed the headman’s house, and walked toward the lockup building.

“Happy is the house
when the foreman is gone.”

Koichi, sitting before a small fire he had made against the approaching gloom, looked up at his coworker. “That’s a funny song for you to be singing, man,” he said, grinning as his friend approached. “Especially since you do the foreman’s job around here.”

Chuckling, Jun stopped in front of the lockup, bent down, and slipped a plate of food through a slot in the door. “Eat, if you’re smart, Seiji.”

“Eat shit,” Seiji said. His voice was barely a croak.

“Ah, my woman serves better food than that,” Jun said, and walked over to join Koichi. “Hisa-sama says she’s the best cook in the household.”

 Putting the tray down with a flourish, he concluded his song:

“Bring out the food,
bring out the song,
cups, cups,
cups all around.”

“I don’t see any cups on that tray,” Koichi said.

“Ah,” Jun said, sitting down. “I thought we might just use the jug.  But you might want to eat something first. Better to do that before we get rid of its contents.”

“I know what I’d really like to get rid of,” Koichi said, looking at lockup building.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure that we’ll take care of that by tomorrow.” Jun picked up the jug. “We may not be able to go to the wedding, but there’s no reason for us to just sit and be gloomy. So eat and celebrate.” He took a swig from the jug. “Either to Shinjiro’s good fortune on marrying that girl of Takeshi’s, or what’ll happen tomorrow. Tomorrow - I’m looking forward to it. It’s got to be a damn sight better than today.”

“For us, anyway,” Koichi said. “Not so sure about our companion there.” He reached for his soup bowl. “To the hells with him. He’s earned it. Probably be just as noisy, though.” .

“I bet,” Jun said. “Especially if Hisako-obaasan shows back up with all her women. She can put up a real squawk when she’s aggravated. Must take after her otousan.”

The old farmhand smiled, and drank some of his soup. “She can indeed. Usually I run the other way when she’s in one of her moods. For someone her age, she can sure swing that stick of hers.” He rubbed his head, as if remembering a time or two when he had felt it himself. “For once, though, that’s a noise I’m looking forward to, I think.”

“Fuck it all,” Seiji croaked from within the lockup. “Fuck that old bitch and you, too.”

“Definitely looking forward to.” Koichi picked up a rice ball. “Morning can’t come quick enough.”


While Koichi ate his supper, Sadayori, the ghost of Seiji’s father, floated up to the branches of a tree by the river.

“So that’s where you got off to, son,” he said as he perched himself and stared down through the leaves. His voice was like a whisper of wind. Kagome might have heard it, or Miroku, but for the man he was talking to, it was just a touch of breeze running through the tree.

Below him, Sadayori’s younger son, Yoshimi, unaware that he was being watched, sat on a rock at the river bank, and for the moment, dangled his feet in the water. Oddly, this was this same place where Maeme washed her clothes, although there was no sign of her work, just a few large rocks at the edge of the riverbank. The sun was very low, almost setting, and it touched him with a honey-colored light where it broke through the evening shadows.  He showed the signs of a hard day, still bearing the scratches and dirt he had picked up after being roughly handled by both the family rooster and the mob earlier. None of this had helped his mood, his face frowning as he sat there, obviously in deep thought. He grabbed a pebble from the ground next to him, and tossed it into the water with a solid plunk.

The ghost looked at him with sorrow from his perch on the tree. “Ah, son. I wish, I wish...You were just too young when I passed on. Maybe if your mother had still been around,” he said. “It’s hard enough being a second son. I had hopes things would be different. But...but...”

Yoshimi picked up another pebble, a white stone. For a moment, he just looked at the rock in his hand. Closing his fingers over it, he began to hum, and then started to sing:

“The mountain snows are cold
the wind howls in the trees
and the Snow Woman dances
while I sit by the fire.
Will you travel that pass tonight?”

The ghost was joined by ball of light, unseeable to mere mortal eyes. With a quick pop, Kazuo leaned back against the tree trunk, steadying himself in his more solid body. The branch bent a little at the sudden input of his weight. Sadayori, having no weight, didn’t stir as the tree limb rebalanced.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, man,” the kami said. “Seiji was destined to be a handful. But the one thing you can say for him is he never turned on his younger brother, and he always made sure there was a place for him. He’s got at least that much good karma. And Yoshimi is young. He still has possibilities.”

“Bah,” Sadayori said. “Look what he’s turned out to be. A layabout, who hides behind his brother and uses him for a weapon.”

Yoshimi tossed the rock into the water.

“Perhaps I should step outside,
light the lamps to show you the way,
but the snow is so cold
and the fire is so warm -
Surely you can find your way.”

“I suspect that’s about to change,” the kami said, rubbing his hat over the top of his head. “That woman he’s going to marry...well, he’ll work off some of that karma with her. He might even become an elder one day himself, if he makes the right choices.”

“Choices,” the ghost said, sighing. “That’s the problem of being a ghost. You get to see all the mistakes your bad choices led to afterwards.”

“You should try being a kami,” Kazuo said. “You nudge and nudge, and get to see people make the same stupid choices over and over, generation after generation.”

Yoshimi tossed another rock.

“You looked so sad when you left
to travel that distant road,
bundled up in your straw cloak -
I hear the mountain wolf howl,
But I’m safe by the fire.”

Shaking his head, the young man took a drink out of a sake jug, the same one he had put back earlier in the day. “Damn you, Eiji. Stay home, he tells me,” he said. “Lay low. How am I supposed to lay low when Ani-ue is locked up like that? What am I supposed to do?”

Sadayori sighed again. It was a soft sound, like wind in the branches of a willow tree. “Yoshimi’s made a lot of bad choices,” the ghost said. “ Are you sure he’s going to make the one you’re expecting? And his brother...has he ever made a good one?”

“A few,” the kami said. “Seiji came home and fathered those grandsons of yours.”

“Maybe the only thing he did right,” Sadayori said, looking at his son. Yoshimi had stood up, and rested his hands on his head, looking woebegone at the water in front of him. “This one...I don’t know what to make of him.”

“He’s worried,” Kazuo said. “Maybe he takes after you that way. I’m hoping he’ll learn something before it’s all over. Choices will be made. I think he’ll make the ones we talked about. But even if he doesn’t, things will work out.”

“How can you be sure?” Sadayori asked.

“It’s an auspicious day,” Kazuo said. He smiled a little, a wry smile, not really mirthful. Once again he rubbed his hat over his head. “Besides, one of the luck gods owed me a favor. Things will work out.”

“Damn all of them,” Yoshimi said, then kicked a rock into the river. It was too big, and he stubbed his toe, and hopping, grabbed his foot from the pain.

The kami sighed. “Some way or the other.”


At Daitaro’s house, where nobody was contemplating the fate of Seiji or any of the dark moments of this strange day, the wedding party filtered into the main house following behind Shinjiro and Erime. Kagome and InuYasha, standing near the door, watched as Takeshi and his wife and family funneled themselves to the left side of the room, Masayo cracking a joke that made both of his sisters blush and his wife give him a playful nudge as they did so. Takeshi sat down next to his daughter, patting her hand encouragingly, while Daitaro sat himself next to his son. Tameo settled down next to his cousin. Just before she took her seat, Hisa called her sons to her, and surprisingly, Kinjiro and Susumu joined the bride’s side.

Kagome, watching all this as they stood at the entryway, grabbed InuYasha’s hand, her hand hidden by the draping fabric of his sleeve. He turned and looked at her. She sucked on her bottom lip as she watched the group settle down, and made no move to step into the room.

“What’s wrong?” the hanyou asked.    

She leaned into him a little. “I don’t know where to go,” she said, in a voice just barely above a whisper, but loud enough for her husband to hear. “In my time, the bride’s family sits on one side, and the groom’s family on the other, but we don’t belong to either. And why did Susumu go sit with Takeshi’s family?”

“Don’t ask me what to do,” InuYasha said, giving her hand a little squeeze. “Nobody ever wanted me at social things. But I bet Chime knows where she wants us.”

Almost as if she had been eavesdropping on the young couple, Chime stepped down onto the domo, walking to the doorway, and pulled gently on Kagome’s sleeve. “Still out here? Come in, children. We can’t get started until everybody’s seated. I have a place just for you two.”

InuYasha and Kagome followed the older woman in. There was a gap in the seating between Hisa, who was sitting next to her husband, and Mariko, who was sitting next to Genjo. “Hisa wanted to be able to watch when I bring out the pickles. She’s going to be the witness, you know,” Chime said, smiling at InuYasha. “All the women will want to know whose pickles you like best.”

“There’s some for everybody,” Mariko said, “But especially for you. I’m betting on Amaya’s pickles, myself. They’re very good.”

“I hope you’re hungry,” Genjo said as InuYasha settled down. “Okaasan’s been working on that pickle tray all afternoon.”

InuYasha looked up at his hostess, who was all smiles as she walked around the room one last time to make sure everything was ready to start. Her eyes met his, a touch of anticipatory triumph in them that made his ear flick. “Me too,” he replied. “Me too.”