InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 291

[ 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 291

 

 

Miroku and InuYasha walked up to the hanyou's house quietly in the darkness, the monk's lantern casting a small pool of light around him.

"Looks like everybody got off the hill," InuYasha said.

The monk nodded.

"Wonder how late they'll stay at Daitaro's? I know Tameo and Susumu were heading there."

Miroku shrugged. "Until they leave."

InuYasha looked at his friend. Even in the darkness, he could see the shadow that the night's events had cast over the monk, a drawing in. The night's noises, the gentle wind in the trees, the sound of the rings of Miroku's staff, a owl calling in the distance were just the opposite of all the noise of earlier in the evening, and surprisingly, InuYasha found the silence heavy.

"You're too quiet, Bouzu," InuYasha said as they neared his home.

"Usually, my friend, you accuse me of talking too much," Miroku replied, not looking at his friend.

"Yeah. You usually do. It's just..." InuYasha's ear flicked, and he scowled.

"Just?" Miroku asked. He glanced at his partner.

"Well, nobody's going to forget the day Shinjiro got married." InuYasha took a breath. "I don't know if anybody remembered that he got married today, but they won't forget the other stuff. How many people were up here? Looked like half the village."

"You are probably correct." Miroku rubbed the back of his neck. "I hope nobody disturbed Shinjiro and Erime with the night's other…festivities. They deserve their first night undisturbed by everything else that went on."

"Didn't see him out in the crowd. Here's hoping. And at least Chime got to have her party before the madness started." He shook his head. "So much happened tonight that the wedding feels like it was a week ago. And it was just this evening. First a wedding and a pickle eating contest with Daitaro's youngest, and then a fire and a manhunt. And then Grandfather Catfish. I hope Emma-O adds that to the bastard's list of wrongs. Chime and Shinjiro and Erime didn't deserve that on their special day."

"Such a warped soul he had. Kwannon have mercy." Miroku stopped for a moment and looked at his friend. "We have chased and exorcised many evil monsters. It's that...I don't think I ever saw a man or youkai choose to die quite the way Seiji did. What's next, I wonder? And what about his family, and poor Momoe?"

"Don't know why you're asking me," the hanyou replied. "I don't know much about village things like this work. If I know Tameo, he's already plotting ways to bring people together to make it right, though."

"Nor I, my friend. Being raised in a temple among monks didn't prepare me for this. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. There will be many loose ends to tie up." He shook his head. "And the shadow over Maeme won't fade in a day. At least we won't have to worry about her husband beating her to death for the crime of being a victim of his anger."

"There's that," InuYasha said.

Miroku sighed. "This has been the oddest auspicious day ever."

Their conversation died out as they took the fork to InuYasha's house. They had almost reached the front door when Kagome, carrying a lamp, stepped outside.

"What are you doing outside?" InuYasha asked. "How's Maeme?"

"I felt your youki getting close, so I stepped out, " Kagome said. InuYasha could see in the glow of the lamps how how tired she was, but also how her eyes and mouth was set in determination and concern. "Maeme's sitting down staring at the fire. Sango's sitting with her. Daitaro's been telling Sukeo and her stories."

"Well that's something," the hanyou said. He wrapped an arm around his wife.

Kagome shook her head. "I don't know if she's really listening. She's horribly withdrawn. But what happened down there? I felt such a surge of spiritual energy. Is everybody all right?"

"Everybody but Seiji," InuYasha said. "He had an appointment with the river god."

"What?" she asked. "What does that mean? There's a kami in the river?"

InuYasha nodded. "There's at least one, and maybe another upstream. Could be the same one for all I know. People around here say that if a wicked man swims across the river, the river god will rise up and take him down into the depths. Seiji demanded to swim the river. It's a tradition. If he had made it across, it would have meant that the kami decided he was innocent. Damn fool thought we had wronged him by trying to save his wife's life. Tameo let him. Grandfather Catfish – that's what they call him - rose up and took care of him," the hanyou replied.

"The river god lit up the water so everybody there could see it," Miroku said. "There were many witnesses. Seiji was swallowed whole."

Kagome shuddered and leaned into InuYasha. "Eaten by a catfish? What an awful fate even for an awful man."

Daitaro stepped out of the building. He looked tired, but the night's events had sobered him up.

"You still here, old man?" InuYasha said.

"Wasn't leaving until you got back," Daitaro said. "I figured if you didn't skin me for doing that, my Chime would have. More scared of her skinning than yours." He scratched the back of his head. "So Grandfather Catfish grabbed him?"

Miroku tapped his staff once, and sighed. "It was a rather terrifying sight."

Daitaro sighed, started to lift up his sake jug, then shook his head and let it drop. "Funny, I took Shinjiro out fishing today earlier to kill some time before the wedding. This was before all the excitement with Maeme happened. We were talking about Grandfather Catfish. Didn't know he was going to pay us a visit."

Kagome looked at the door, her face reflecting sadness and sympathy. "Somebody needs to tell her," she said softly, then closed her eyes a moment and sighed. "Do you want me to? It might be easier from a woman."

Miroku stepped forward. "Maybe I -"

He didn't get a chance to finish. Maeme, as quiet as ever, stepped out of the house, with her son Sukeo standing right behind her. Her face was drawn, and her feelings masked, something she had learned well at the hand of her husband, but her eyes glistened in Kagome's lamplight.

"Please, take me to Nakao," she said. 'I think...I don't know what to think. But we all need to be together."

With a gentle nod of his head and a sad smile, Miroku said. "Of course, Maeme-sama. He should be still at my place."

"Chi-chi..." Sukeo, tall for his years, looked like a lost and frightened child. He took a deep breath. "Did I..."

Daitaro put his hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a solemn look. "You did the right thing. Don't let yourself doubt that. Now you have to be the man. Your okaasan will need you."

The boy nodded, fighting to stay in control, but a tear still trickled down his left eye. He swallowed hard and took his mother's hand. "I'll take care of you, Ha-ha. Let's go back to Houshi-sama's."

Sango joined them, and the group escorted Maeme down the hill.

 

 

After returning home with his wife, Miroku helped get Kaede and the still unconscious Yoshimi back to her house. Maeme had wanted to go home, but he and Sango both insisted that Maeme spend the night at his home instead of going back to her own before he could purify and bless it. By some blessing his children and Nakao and his children slept through it all, and looking at the slumbering form of her youngest son, she reluctantly agreed.

It took Maeme a long time to get to sleep.

Miroku himself didn't sleep well, with visions of Grandfather Catfish slipping into his dreams. aHe woke up shortly before sunrise, when the sky was just graying, and gave up on trying to sleep more. Instead, he moved quietly through the house. His wife and children, having reclaimed the sleeping room after their return, didn't stir as he dressed, used to him getting up to attend to his morning devotions.

Maeme and her two sons were sleeping in the back of the main room, partially hidden by a screen. He moved softly through the room, trying to make the least amount of noise as possible as he stirred the fire, building up enough of a flame to boil water.

"Monju Botsu, Boddhisatva of wisdom, cut through my ignorance and help me do the right thing today," he prayed softly, then filled the kettle up and put it over the heat.

Although he was trying not to make noise, by the time he had poured the water over the tea in the pot, Maeme began to stir. First light began to pour into the house, and as it touched her, she opened her eyes. Sitting up, she looked around the room as if uncertain where she was, and then she spotted her boys were they slept, and peeked around the screen to see the monk. Moving quietly herself, she came and sat closer to the fire pit.

"I was trying to be quiet," Miroku said. "I hope I didn't wake you, Maeme-sama."

She shook her head. "I know," Maeme said. "I think it was the light. I'm used to getting up very early. It was always easier to get things going before..."

Miroku studied her face. It was as hard to read as it was last night, as if raising barriers to hide her feelings was an art that she had learned so well from her husband's treatment of her that now that she was safe, she still couldn't let them out. "I'm used to getting up early, too, to do my morning devotions. Early rising is a hard habit to break, no matter when you go to sleep."

"You and your wife have been so kind to me," she said.

Miroku poured a cup of tea. "Would you like a cup?"

She took a cup from him, then looked down, staring into the green liquid. "Why? Why are you being so kind?"

"The kami sent you to me to help," Miroku said. "Who was I to tell them no?"

"My...my husband would drive everybody else the kami sent away. Everybody who wanted to help. Who just wanted to smile at me. And then….he'd act like I sent them. That it was my fault. I started trying to hide from everyone. Maybe even myself. If it hadn't been for my boys..." Maeme took a deep breath. "Is...is he really gone? The hair on the back of my neck tingles like it did when I knew he was getting ready to...when he'd be so angry..."

"Yes," Miroku replied. "The river god read his heart, like he read yours. You he let pass on to where I could find you. Your husband, he took down to the depths." He threw some wood onto the fire, building it up high enough to heat water. "The kami chose." He turned to face her, gave her a gentle smile. "You are free."

She put her tea down and covered her face with her hands. "Why do I still feel so afraid?"

"You've lived in fear a long time, Maeme-sama," Miroku said. "Now you have to unlearn that fear. Alas, it may be easier to say that than do it." He gave her a gentle smile. "But there are people here ready to help you do it."

 

 

Further up the hill, InuYasha, also up with the first light, stirred the fire in the firepit in his own home. He sat quietly, thinking, watching the wood he stirred tumble a bit and cast off sparks. Kagome, sitting up and stretching, slipped into her under kosode, fastened her obi, glancing at him from time to time as she got dressed. Although his ears flicked at the sound of her movements, he didn't move from his seat or say anything.

Quickly folding up their bedding, she went over to kneel behind him and wrap her arms around him.

"You're up early," he said.

"Couldn't sleep any more," she replied, resting her cheek on the top of one of his shoulders. Giving him a final squeeze, she got up and filled up the kettle with water, and put it over the fire.

"Me, either," the hanyou said.

Kagome measured rice out and poured water on it to wash it. "Yesterday was one hard day."

"Yeah," InuYasha said. "I'm not sure what to make of it."

"You looked like you were deep in thought about something," she said, getting her soup pot down from its shelf. "Want to talk about it?'

"I guess," he said, looking up at her."You know the land kami and Kazuo were involved in what happened last night."

"You sure about that?" Kagome swished the rice around in its bowl, then drained it carefully. "Although everything was so odd, I wouldn't be surprised if they were."

"She put a barrier around me until she got Seiji where she wanted him. Happened right before I caught up with you and Daitaro and Maeme. Sent Kazuo to me to keep me company and to let me know what was going on. I tried to cut through it but Red Tessaiga wouldn't touch it. And then later, someone who looked like Maeme showed up and egged on Seiji to swim the river. Looked like. Didn't smell like her, or even act that much like her. I bet that was the land kami, too."

"You don't hear about that type of thing very often," Kagome said. "Well that's interesting. Seems that even the local kami were tired of Seiji's behavior." She poured the clean rice into her rice pot. "I wonder why now?"

"Beats me. The way that monster had been treating his woman and kids wasn't anything new, but I don't always understand humans, much less kami. Glad he won't be a threat any more, but they shouldn't talk trash about how humans or youkai go after their prey. Kami can beat them all."

Using the ladle and the water bucket, Kagome measured water over the clean rice. "They see thing that humans and youkai can't. That might have something to do with it."

"Maybe. Maybe a good thing not to get on their bad sides. Morio. Seiji." InuYasha said, poking the fire again. "Might not act for years, but when they're ready..."

She put the lid on the rice pot. "Evidently."

InuYasha rubbed the back of his head. "I used to understand how things worked. Still works like that when I'm out of the village. I know what to expect and how to react." He turned his head to look at his wife. "Now everything is different. Kind of makes me feel off-balance how everything I used to know about life has been turned upside down. I get offered sake, invited to weddings, treated like I matter. Things go bad and it's a human who's blamed for being the bad guy, instead of it being my fault. They're not even blaming me for his bad luck. The ones who have tried have gotten taken down a few notches. The kami, even, are making sure whatever games they play don't come back to bite me. That's what Kazuo told me – he was making sure whatever happened to Seiji wouldn't get used by people who could cause trouble later." He sighed. "It's hard when everything you knew about life gets turned around like this.

Kagome got up and gave her husband a hug around the neck. "Do you like it?"

He ran his fingers in between hers, and gave the back of her right hand a little kiss. "Yeah," he said. "It's good, but scary. Never had a kami tell me they were on my side before. What am I supposed to do?"

"We'll need to stop by their shrines and thank them," Kagome said, untangling herself so she could put on the rice. "Kazuo in particular does seem to have taken a liking to you."

"Yeah." He tilted his head to watch her work on cooking. Unlike him, she seemed perfectly at ease. "You're acting mighty calm about all of this."

She shrugged. " To me, they're acting like they ought to, because of the person you really are. Now people are seeing the same good in you that Kaede and I know is there. And they like what they see. And they like you as you. It's not just me and Miroku and Sango and Kaede who know. It's Tameo and Daitaro and Tsuneo and all the others.. "

He gave her an odd little smile. "Yeah. Maybe. They sure stood with me when I was facing down Seiji last night. Shoulder to shoulder." He shook his head, then stood up. "It still feels weird."

"Miroku and Sango stand with you like that all the time," Kagome said.

"Yeah, that's true," he said. "But somehow this is different. I'm going to have to get used to it."

"Welcome to what it means to have a home," Kagome said. She wrapped her arms around him. "Evidently, for all our weirdness, we belong."

He gave her a small kiss. "I'm going to chop some wood while breakfast's cooking."

"To think?" she asked.

"Some, maybe. But mostly to work off some of those pickles last night. Didn't believe anybody could feed me more pickles than I could eat."

Leaving a giggling Kagome behind, he headed out to work.