InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 295

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



Chapter 295



“My wife tells us last night was a very sad set of events.  Sad yes, but yesterday was a very strange set of events,”  Tameo said after Hisa closed the door.  He picked up his tea cup. “I don’t think any of us who saw what happened will forget it soon. I suspect the hand of the kami were involved in it, but don’t expect them to wave away the after effects. We are left, as usual, to take what they gave us and pick up the pieces.”

“They do that,” Tsuneo said, nodding.

“You have some first-hand experience on that issue, I know,” Arimasu said, patting the man on the shoulder.

Above them, unmanifested and unseen, Toshiro’s family kami, Yoshio watched the proceedings.  To his surprise, he was joined by Shimame-no-kami and Kazuo.

“So you came to watch?” the land kami said.  She was slightly less exquisite than usual.  A stray brushed across her forehead, and her robes were a little less perfectly arranged, as if she had made a hasty dash to join them.

“I decided that I had been too reliant on destiny,” Yoshio said, shrugging.  “After everything we had to do to take care of Seiji, I thought maybe I should be watching more carefully.”

“Small interventions are easier,” Kazuo said.  “It’s like weeding a garden.  The longer you wait, the harder it is.”

“They don’t seem very happy with us right now,” Shimame said. She covered her face with her fan. “Or is that with you, Kazuo?”

“It’s affected you, too.  How has Michio been holding up?” Tsuneo said.

“Complaining, but not drinking, at least for a day.”  Arimasu sighed.  

“A step in the right direction,” Tsuneo said.  “Give him time.  He and Chiya, well...”

Kazuo rubbed his eboshi hat back and forth.  “I’m not responsible for anything to do with Tsuneo’s daughter and her husband.  If anybody’s working with them, it should be you, Yoshio, and Hitoshi-no-kami, who has yet to join us.”

“I think Joben has been keeping him busy to the point of exhaustion,” Shimame noted.  “He’s always at the family altar.”

Fumio wrapped his hand around his tea cup, and stared into the green liquid. “ The kami do what the kami do.  We should do what we can do. What do we have to take care of first?”

“I like his attitude,” Yoshio said.

“A seed sprouting from well-prepared earth,” Kazuo said.

The land kami gave him a look that rivaled any look Hisa could give.

“Well he is one of my charges,” Kazuo said.

“Ah, Fumio, you are a smith, striking while the iron is not,” Toshiro said, nodding in approval. “How would you put it, Tameo? I know part of this is mostly my ko’s business, but it affected a lot of people.”

“Sukeo, Yoshimi, and the loss Seiji caused to Kioshi and Momoe seem the first things at hand,” Tameo said. “I think we can put the insult to the young miko to rest for the moment.  What happened to Seiji last night probably is enough to satisfy their, and the village’s honor.”

There were murmurs of agreement on this.

“Seems to me we don’t want to let Yoshimi to take over Seiji’s fields, just because Sukeo’s a few months from his formal coming of age,” Tameo said. “Especially after he was involved with letting his brother out of the lock up last night.  The boys and Maeme don’t deserve that.  He’s already not worth a damn when it comes to pulling his weight on their lands.”

“Are you sure the village kami at Morimura still want Yoshimi?” Shimame asked.

Yoshio nodded.  “I talked to them this morning.”

Toshiro looked at the elders around him.  “So who’s going to work his lands until Sukeo can take it over for himself?”  

“Maeme’s been doing a lot of it, more than she should.  And Sukeo does a good bit,” Tameo said.  He’s almost fifteen, and like his father, he’s going to be a big man. You know yourself neither Seiji or Yoshimi had been doing very much this last year.  Maybe we can get Denjiro or someone else who doesn’t have a lot of land pick up the slack?”

“Be nice if we could pry Koichi away from Tameo.  He’s a good worker,” Arimasu said.  He scratched under his chin while looking at the headman.

“Uh,” the headman said.  “He’s already busy helping with Tsuneo’s old house.  And you can’t have Jun.”

“And Kishoi’s busy, too.  I don’t want him very far away until we know how the situation with...that man...goes.” Tsuneo said.  “Maybe Tadaki could help some.  I know I hired Reiji some last season.  He might be willing to help, but I wouldn’t use him to supervise.”  He took a bite of one of Hisa’s cakes.

“Let’s be honest,” Tameo said. “He’s going to need a guardian, at least for a couple of years.  What do you think, Toshiro?  They’re part of your ko.”

Toshiro scratched the side of his head. “Someone who will respect the needs of our ko, even if he’s not a member of our ko.  I’m stretched too thin to do the day to day overseeing, or I’d handle it.”  He took a sip of his tea.  “Doesn’t have to be the person who actually does all the field work...he’s the one who will make sure the field work gets done, that the family isn’t taken advantage of, that the taxes get paid, and nobody uses this time as an opportunity to pry the land away from Sukeo.”

“Someone we can trust.  Who the rest of the elders will approve of.  Who the family will trust and can work with,” Tameo said.

“I was thinking about apprenticing Sukeo to learn smithing,” Fumio said.  “I was talking to him about it last night.”

All eyes turned to Fumio.

“Boy impressed me.  In spite of all the pressures he was under, he has a great determination to do the right thing. The right type of pigheadedness.  The willingness to put up with pain for something he knows is the right way to be. And we know how big his father was.  Sukeo’s getting that bigness.  All these are good traits for a smith.”

“How far are you willing to go to protect him?” Toshiro asked.

“So that’s your seed?” Shimame asked.

“Nothing I plotted,” Kazuo said.  “I just like to nurture the good ones along.  And look where it’s brought us. A good man who lost his only son years ago.  A boy full of good potential, who lost his father.  They might even think we planned it.”

“Especially after last night,” Yoshio said.

“But in this case, perhaps its more at destiny’s feet.  Or karma.”  Shimame flicked her fan once, and disappeared.

“Let’s go check on those brats of yours, Yoshio,” Kazuo said.

The kami nodded.  And they, too, were gone.



While the elders were talking, Kaede sat down by her firepit with a sigh,  and looked up at the two who had followed into her house.  She picked up her teacup and  took a sip, made a bit of a face at its coolness, but took another sip anyway. “Some mornings, children, are easier than others,” she said. “This so far has not been one of the easier ones for me.”  Giving the wood in the fire another poke, and adding a piece more, she reached over to the side and put her kettle back on the fire.

“Indeed,” said Miroku, nodding.  He rubbed the back of his neck. “I would not call it one of the easier ones for me, as well.”

While waiting for the water to heat, the old miko looked calmly at her apprentice and the monk.  “I do not think either of you  had enough rest last night. Both of you are showing fatigue in your auras.  I hope you’ve had enough for whatever today is going to bring.”

“I know you haven’t, either,  Kaede-obaachan.  It’s showing in more than your aura. You need to get some rest.”  Kagome sat down near her.  “What can I do to help you today so you can?”

Kaede sipped her tea once again.  “True, true, child.  I am tired.  Still, we both know we will do what needs to be done.  There are people depending on us, and we will do our best to be there for them,  but I’m not sure what you can do extra to help out. Some of this you haven’t learned yet.”

“Like with Maeme?” Kagome asked.  “I suspect she and her boys will be the most in need today.”

Kaede nodded. “Maeme will take some special care.  I’m not even sure if I know exactly what’s the right treatment for her fully.  But I do know some medicines that can help, perhaps.  And I’ll show you how to make them, maybe some time today.”  She took another sip of her cold tea.  “So, Houshi-sama, what is it you wished to speak to me about?”

“Maeme would like to return to her home,” he said.

“That is understandable, although perhaps too soon, unless someone is with her,” said the older miko, nodding.  “But I can see you are reluctant to let her go.”

“I would like to clear that house of as much negative influence as possible before she goes,” he said.  He sat down near the fire pit himself, the rings on his staff jingling as he laid it down across his lap.  “I’m not really certain she is ready to be alone, even in the best place, even with her sons to watch her.  And that house of Seiji’s is anything but the best.”

“A wise idea,” Kaede said. “The house had a very negative feeling to it when we were there to check on Nakao. It certainly can use a good blessing.”  She drank the last of her tea.  “I would consider removing the far too many wards and ofuda he had on the building. InuYasha’s youki flared just getting near it.  He never has trouble with the normal household protections.”

“I noticed that, too. You don’t think it was just him being nervous about Yoshimi trying to do something?” Kagome asked. “The closer we got to Seiji’s house, the tenser he got.”

Kaede shook her head.  “I think it was more than that.  All that warding can have negative effects.  It can become a magic bottle trapping whatever has been poured into it, and the kami know there was enough negative poured into that house over the years.  Some of what InuYasha may have been feeling was that radiating over the area.  All three of us felt it was a dark place.”

“That is true,’ the young miko said, nodding.   

“Perhaps Kagome-sama could come with me,” Miroku said.  “She has strong purification powers, and it might need that.”

“That is not a bad idea,” Kaede said, nodding as she stared at her water kettle, as if staring could bring it up to a boil faster.

“Do you think my spiritual powers could do some good when it’s mostly human magic?” Kagome asked.  “I don’t have much skill in that type of thing.”  She looked at the monk. “That’s more the type of thing Miroku knows about.”

Kaede added tea to her teapot.  “It might not be true jyaki yet, but either Seiji because of the wickedness in his soul, or Maeme as a result of the abuse she was suffering could have been moving down the road to where either one could have become a youkai.”  She sat the pot down and contemplated the kettle, trying to decide if the water was hot enough yet. Sighing, she gave her head a little shake, then turned to her apprentice. “Men like Seiji sometimes transform into oni  or other demonic youkai when their souls get too black, even before they die.”  

“Like Naraku did?” Kagome asked.

“Similarly,” Kaede said.   They don’t even have to invite other youkai to do it, like Onigumo did to become Naraku.  They just cross a threshold of evil and they transform.”

“I think...we met one or two like that on the quest,” the young miko said, nodding.  “They started out as human, at least.  But they were involved in magic.”

“That path can do it, sometimes,” Miroku said, nodding.  “Without good discipline or the right training...”

Kaede nodded. “And there are several types of youkai that abused women can turn into as well.  When the pain or the need or the desire for revenge gets too strong, sometimes you can end up with a yama uba, or a  kijo or other types.” The old miko turned to Kagome. “Your purification powers might help lift some of that almost jyaki.  Some sacred salt might be useful, as well.  You can charge that like you charge your arrows, and sprinkle it around, to keep the place pure.”

“That would be handy,” Kagome said, nodding.

“The more we can break the fear and grief in that place, the easier it will be for Maeme’s spirit. The more you can remove the negative,  the harder it will be for Seiji’s ghost to come back to stir trouble.” Kaede gave the two a small smile.  “Hopefully, that will be our last interesting thing to do for a few days.  At least Sayo and Daisuke are doing well.  And Haname.  I heard she was running circles around her household by yesterday evening.  I’ve wondered if anybody has told her about Chiya yet?”

“That’s a good question.” Kagome sucked on her bottom lip, and then looked up at Kaede, trying to suppress a wry smile, but failing. “Why do I expect there will be fireworks when she does?”

“Ah, with those two, there might be.”  In spite of herself, Kaede gave her apprentice a  smile in return as they both visualized what might happen. “They do have a history of sparking.”  Then she smoothed her face, thinking of the most serious thing  she needed to attend to. “Have you seen Maeme yet this morning?”

“No,” Kagome said, shaking her head.  “She was still sleeping when I stopped by.”

Miroku shifted a bit. “I spoke with her shortly before dawn.  Her soul is having trouble believing that she is free from that man.  I tried to reassure her, but...” He sighed.  “After that, she took another dose of the medicine you left and went back to sleep.”

“That is going to take some time.  I will head up there and see how she is doing. Now, children, let me get you a few supplies, and  you two can do what you think needs to be done.” She got up and moved to the cabinet where she stored some of her materials.  “My tea water is almost hot.  Then, after that, perhaps, this old woman can finally fix her breakfast.”