InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 305

[ 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 305

Fumio and Sukeo walked into the compound at Seiji’s house.

The first to greet them was the rooster, still unnerved by everything that had been going on.  Seeing the family form of one of his family, the bird crept out of hiding and gave a short call.

“Oh, King of the Roosters,” Sukeo said, “You’re still here?  Nobody ran you off?” The bird strutted forward, pleased to see the young man. But he was not the only one to greet Sukeo. The rooster suddenly squawked and dashed to the side as a dog ran up from behind the house to jump up on the boy. The bird retreated back to the wheelbarrow.

“Oh, Haya-kun! So that’s where you’ve been? I’ve been worried about you!” he said to the dog,  kneeling down to pet him. The dog gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “I didn’t know what happened to you after all those people showed up by Houshi-sama’s house last night. What a good boy, to come home.” He wrapped his arms around the dog and gave him a big hug.

Fumio smiled down at the two and gave Sukeo a pat of his own. “He’s a smart dog,” the smith said.  “He knew where to go.”

“Smarter than some people,” the hanyou muttered. Kagome looked at him questioningly, but didn’t push it as Fumio headed toward them.

“My, my,” the smith said as he walked over. “Something certainly happened here since yesterday.  What’s all this trash around the house? It wasn’t here last night.”

“No it wasn’t,” Miroku said, walking to stand next to the hanyou and miko. “That just happened a few minutes ago.”

“It looks like we missed some excitement on the way here,” Fumio said. “Are you all right, Miko-sama?”

“A little tired,” Kagome said, slightly embarrassed to be found sitting in her husband’s lap. “But we got the house purified.  It should be safe for Maeme-chan to come home to. That’s the important thing.”

“There’s no ‘we’ there woman,” InuYasha said, giving her a small smile. He looked up at the smith. “She got the house purified herself. Nobody else had much to do with it.” There was pride in his voice and his face.

For some reason, this made Kagome a bit uncomfortable. “But Miroku - ” she said.

“Miroku just showed you where to begin, Kagome-sama,” the monk said, nodding at her, using his Serious Professional look. “I was lucky you were here. I’m not quite sure I could have done such a good job, or even have managed to lift the darkness fully out of it. It was your purification power that did the work this monk might not have been able to.”

“Keh,” InuYasha said. He brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “Don’t let anybody take that away from you, woman. It was hard, I can tell. Look how much it affected you. You did what you did to the house, and then you couldn’t even stand up. Took a lot out of you when you healed Haname, too.”

“A surprising display of power, which can be draining, especially when you’re using your powers in ways that are different than you’re used to. I know you purify jyaki or launch sacred arrows with no strain.  It comes naturally to you. But now, you’re learning to apply that power in ways your body and soul haven’t before,” Miroku said. “And it was a rather spectacular show as well. It knocked me off of my feet. I was rather impressed. After you get more training, it’ll be easier.”

Kagome, torn between embarrassment at the praise and just being exhausted from what she had done, blushed a little, and nodded, and then she groaned, as if the motion was painful,  lifting her hands to cradle the sides of her temples.

“Maybe we should go see Kaede,” InuYasha said.

“Give me a few minutes first,” she said. “Maybe it’ll pass.”

Susumu stepped up to take the attention away from the young miko. “So,” he asked Fumio, “what brings you two down here now? Did anything happen at Houshi-sama’s place? Did Haruo show up? Is Maeme all right?”

“Koume, Hisako-obasan and Yaya-chan are all up there, keeping her company, and Haruo is fretting for word that he can go home,” Fumio said.

“That sounds about right,” the village guard said, chuckling. “Women gathering together like that makes him nervous. I always wonder if he’s afraid he’ll say the wrong thing and word will get back to Teruko-chan.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why he’s worried. If his wife hasn’t left him after all the stunts he’s pulled by now, she’s not going to.”

Miroku coughed into his hand on that one.

Fumio joined him in a chuckle. “But all is well as it can be. When we left, the women were busy making Maeme a new kosode.”

“That’ll keep them busy for a while,” Susumu said.

“Do Maeme some good, too, I suspect,” Fumio said. “She needs to have women remind her she’s not alone.  I doubt it’s something men could do right now.”

Sukeo gave his dog one last hug and a pat, and stood up to join the rest of the group. “I  wanted to come with Fumio-ojisan because I needed to check on the animals,” he said. “And Haha-ue asked me to bring back a few things.” He suddenly noticed the changes to his house, looking  wide-eyed at the debris surrounding the building. “What happened to all the wards?” He bent down and picked up a bit of charred paper and an equally burned bit of wood. “They burned up? Did someone make a fire?”

“It happened when Kagome-sama did the purification,” Susumu said.  “They all fell off.”

“Blew off is more like it,” Miroku said. “Like her purification was fireworks.”

The teen studied the mess on the ground, frowning at first. He threw the burned wood as far as far as he could. “I never liked them there,” he said said, crumbling the burned paper in his hands, then letting the ash scatter. “Things got worse after Chichi-ue hung so many up. He had gone away for a month, came back and started putting them up. Right after InuYasha-sama woke up.”

“Feh,” the hanyou said, looking up from where he was sitting.  He was trying hard not to scowl.  Kagome reached up and touched his cheek, but he covered her hand with his and lowered it. “Don’t look at me, boy. I never did anything to him. Hells, I never much noticed him until he tried to keep me from trying to save those kids.”

“Seiji had his own troubles, InuYasha,” Susumu said, nodding. “Like with Haname-obasan. It had nothing to do with you.”

The boy’s voice grew distant, and as he talked, his face grew solemn and hard to read. “Chichi-ue put them everywhere he could think of, over every opening, all along the eves. He said he didn’t want anything at all to get through. He even put up a new god symbol on the kamidama shelf. Our land kami wasn’t good enough for him Said he met this yamabushi on the road who gave him the god symbol and some of the wards. Chichi-ue swore the man told him it would give him absolute protection and make his life wonderful.”  The teen looked down at the ground, and scuffed his toe in the dirt. “Didn’t seem to help us any. Nothing wonderful happened, either. He didn’t get any help from it at all. He just kept getting angrier and angrier. These last few years...everything just got worse and worse.”

Miroku tapped his staff, making the rings on it jingle. “Sometimes, when you overuse magic, or it’s the wrong type, it can work like that,” he said. “There needs to be openings for luck to get in and the bad things like anger and disappointment and unhappiness to get out. Even buildings can get soul sick and make the people who live there suffer with them.”

Sukeo looked up, taking in the monk’s words. “Is that what made him get worse?” the boy asked.  He put his hands behind his neck, obviously uncomfortable about this discussion, but pushed himself on.  “But why would he do that to himself? And to us?”

“I don’t know,” the monk said. He gave him a gentle touch on the shoulder. “Maybe his soul couldn’t deal with it. But it’ll be better now.  All the old wards are gone. I’m  just going to do one final blessing.  It’ll help keep your okaasan at peace and leave plenty of room for luck to come in and the bad to leave. And you’ll be able to come home sooner.”

Sukeo nodded. His jaw tightened, and he took a deep breath as if he were fighting his own feelings once again. The look he used around his father, the one that hid what he was really thinking, snapped into place. “I’m going to go check on the ox. I’m sure the water trough is empty.” Pulling away from the monk’s touch rather abruptly, he turned around and headed towards the back.

The men watched him move of the compound, his dog at his heels.

“That is a troubled boy,” Susumu said, softly.  “I hope we can help him get through all this.”

“He’s going to have some rough patches,” Fumio said, as Sukeo hurried to the back. The ox, sighting the boy, lowed a greeting call. “He’s been through an awful lot, and has a lot on his shoulders.”

“He has, hasn’t he?” Miroku said. He put the rock he had been carrying in his left hand in his sleeve. “But now he has people who are willing to help him get through it.  It’ll make a difference.  At least his family has a chance, now.  More than we could say the day before yesterday.”

Fumio crossed his arms and looked towards the back of the compound. Sure that Sukeo was out of easy earshot, he turned back to the monk. “So what comes next?” he asked. “Is it safe to bring  Maeme and the boys back?”

Miroku stared at the building, thinking. “I’m not sure if she should be left alone yet,” he said, rubbing his chin. “It’s so isolated here. Even the best blessing won’t remove the loneliness. She’ll need someone besides the boys to keep her from feeling abandoned.”

“Let me talk to Toshiro,” Fumio said. He began walking towards the front of the house. “Maybe I could borrow Asami-chan for a while. Or maybe there’s someone else. And I’m sure Koume will start the aunt patrol.”

“Asami might like a break from Daiki-kun,” Miroku said, chuckling. “But what’s the aunt patrol?”

Susumu wrapped an arm around the monk. “You don’t know about the aunt patrol?”

The monk shook his head. “Remember, I was raised at a monastery. I didn’t have a village childhood.”

“That’s true.  I forget that, sometimes.” Susumu let Miroku go. “You’ve seen it a little today. All the women showing up at your house to be with Maeme? That’s how it starts. Chime, Hisa, Koume, any of the older women might get it in their minds that someone needs extra care. Somehow or other, the next thing you know, you have company all the time. One woman will drop off rice cakes. Another will come by to offer some help, or bring a pot of stew or a basket of vegetables. You think they’re just being nice, and they are...but they’re there to make sure things go well.”

“Alas, Seiji was good at stopping them,” Fumio said, nodding. “But now there’s no Seiji to keep the aunts away.”

“Kwannon’s mercy,” Miroku said. “She can use it. I’m going to go bless the house now,” he  announced.  “I have a feeling that perhaps it might be nice to see what the aunt patrol is doing to my house while I’ve been busy.”

“I’ll go with you and watch. I heard Kisoi’s woman was really impressed when you blessed the house down by the river,” Fumio said.

The monk nodded, and the two headed inside.

Susumu turned to InuYasha. “So, cousin, I’m guessing that Yoshimi wasn’t in his house.  If he didn’t come out after all those fireworks, he has to be dead or missing.”

InuYasha nodded. “Nobody was in his house, and the scent trails there were from yesterday.”

The village guard sighed. “More work, more work. I guess I’ll need to round up Tadaki then.”

“He’s off in the forest, moping,” the hanyou said.

“That’s quite likely,” the guard said. “In fact that’s what I expected if he wasn’t home. How do you know?”

“Kazuo told me.”

This made Kagome’s eyebrow rise. “The kami was here?”

“Keh,” InuYasha said. “They were all here, one on the roof and two standing behind you.  Kazuo said they were keeping watch in case something happened.” He swallowed. “Kazuo said they didn’t know why the house was as bad as it was. They were afraid something nasty was inside.”

“I think,” Susumu said, “That I’d rather not see them do their work.”

“You and me both,” the hanyou said, nodding. “I’m getting kind of tired of it.”

“So what next?” Susumu asked.

“I guess - ” the hanyou started to say

“Let me get up now, InuYasha,” Kagome said, interrupting.  She looked up at him.  It was clear that she was still tired and in pain.  It showed in her eyes, but besides that, she had that hard stubborn look she would get when she was determined to do something. “That’s what’s next.”

InuYasha’s ear twitched. Her scent still seemed off to him, but he knew his wife when she got that look. “If you’re sure.”

“Let me try, at least.” She straightened up, and InuYasha helped her to her feet.

Kagome swayed for a moment, unsteady on her feet. “I think…” she said, leaning against her husband.   

“You think?” he asked.

Her face grew quite pale. “Maybe you should carry me.”

“To Kaede’s?” InuYasha wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up.

“No,” Kagome said.  “She’s probably at Miroku’s. Take me home.”

“Take her home, InuYasha,” Susumu said, nodding.  “Don’t worry about that ass Yoshimi. I’ll go bother Eiji after lunch if I need to.  Take care of our cousin.”

With a nod, InuYasha left.