InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 307

[ 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 307

On the west side of the village, Haname and Chime entered the main room of the large farm house.  Akina had set up a table near Haname’s spinning wheel, where light poured through an open window and laid out several mats for the guests to sit on.  On the table were a plate with several chimaki and some of Haname’s famed daifuku rice cakes.

“Just you two?” Akina said, looking up.

“The men...well they have decided to stay out in the yard,” Haname said.  “I’m sure they’ll be sharing some of Daitaro’s sake before much longer.”

This made Chime chuckle a little.  “Still women have better talks when the men aren’t around.  It’s hard to really talk when they think they know what matters most.”

“That is true.”  Akina sat on one of the mats and began pouring tea into cups.  She handed one to Chime.  “I hope you like this.  It’s from my father’s cousin’s estate.”

“I am sure it will be lovely,” Chime said.

Haname opened the bundle that Chime had given her and took out three of the rice cakes Mariko had made for her.  They were a hard type of cake, and smelled sweetly of spice.  “Higashis?” she said.

Chime nodded.  “She knew there was no competition when it came to your mochi.  We all know that.”  Taking a sip of her tea, she smiled appreciatively.  “This is very good.”

Akina handed her mother-in-law a cup. Haname sipped the green liquid. “You chose the right tea for the occasion, daughter.  Thank you for being such a wise child.”
Akina blushed a little from the praise, then passed the tray to Chime.  “Please, take one.”

Chime beamed at the two women as she accepted one of Haname’s rice cakes.  “Now I am sure you both want to hear the details of Shinjiro and Erime’s wedding, but I get the distinct feeling you had something else in mind, Haname-chan, that you thought I might help you with.”

“Am I that transparent?” Haname asked, cupping her teacup in both hands.  She reached out and took one of the rice cakes that Mariko had sent over, and bit into it.  It was sweet and flavored with ginger. “Your daughter-in-law makes a good rice cake.”

“You’re too kind,” Chime said.  “I’ll be sure to tell her you said that.” She took a sip of her tea. “I don’t know if I’d call you transparent, Haname-chan, but I did get the impression that my husband and I interrupted something...well, not particularly pleasant,  and then the way you spoke to him when we came in here.  Is it about something that happened while you were ill?”

“Nobody can say that dear, sweet Chime doesn’t pay attention,” Haname said, nodding.  She patted the older woman’s hand.  “I was so ill they were trying to keep things from me.”

“It wasn’t that we were trying to hide anything out of malice, Okaa,” Akina said.  “We were so worried that we were going to lose you!  If Miko-sama hadn’t have come by with Kaede-sama...”

“I know, I know,” Haname said, smiling at her daughter-in-law. “You weren’t the only ones afraid of that. I could feel the lung fever starting, and I kept getting weaker and weaker.”  She sighed. “It’s not that I resent that.  It’s just…”

“This is about Chiya-chan, isn’t it?” Chime said. She took another swallow of her tea.

“See, Akina-chan, I told you Chime pays attention. And puts the pieces together well, too.”

Chime laughed at that. “If you had Daitaro for a husband, you’d learn that doing that is an important skill.”

Haname chuckled a little, but then grew serious, and dropped her head to stare into her tea cup. “You know I never really approved in my daughter’s choice of husband.  It’s not that I think Michio’s a bad man. He’s not. He’s done what he can to be a good husband to my daughter, and he’s an excellent father to their children. My daughter would be a handful to the strongest man out there, and poor Michio can only take so much. Chiya-chan can be, well, impetuous. Dramatic. Stiffling. And, alas, stupid.  Was it my being ill and then trying to keep her at arm’s length that triggered her stupidness this time?”

“I can’t say,” Chime said.

“All I want to do is talk to her. And I’m worried about where she is.” Haname sighed.  “Right before her...her...bad behavior, she had tried to come visit me. I was just to ill to put up with her trying to smother me, and too tired of her clinging to think about how it might affect her. And then she turned around and crashed Hisa-chan’s sewing party and insulted Houshi-sama’s wife, and attacked that husband of Kagome-sama’s. And publicly insulted her own husband so badly that he’s still afraid to be in the same place with her because of his anger and hurt pride. Does she have the wit to realize what a mess she created? I need to see her.”

“I understand,” Chime said.

“But Tsuneo is afraid I’ll make things worse. You know how it can be. Sometimes mothers and daughters...well there is a reason why it became custom for daughters to marry out of their village so often.” She swallowed the last of her tea. “She and I...”

“I was going down that way,” Chime said. “I have a gift for Kioshi and his family. You could walk with us, if you’d like. Perhaps if I and Daitaro are in the same room, it’ll make it easier to talk.”

“Maybe I will,” Haname said, nodding as she let Akina refill her tea cup.  “Maybe I should.  Maybe that’ll be enough to keep Tsuneo happy.”  She took another bite of her rice cake.  “For the moment, anyway.  Now tell me all about the wedding.  I hear Kagome-sama gave the blessing...”

 

                      
In the forest beyond the village, the  two groups of kami took to the air hovering above a clearing nearby.

Yoshimi sat on a piece of log. He was in the clearing he had met Kiyoko in yesterday.  There were scattered bits  of wood he had dropped on his way home yesterday on the ground.  He picked up on stick and  began to tap it into the ground.

Overhead, Shimame sighed.  “What wretchedness. Are you sure, cousin, that this is the one you want?”

“He doesn’t look like much, I’ll admit that,” Miyoko said, fanning herself.  “Still...one cannot only judge by a single glimpse.  It’s not just about him.  It’s about our Kiyoko. They have a destiny.”

“If you say so,” Yoshio said. “He definitely hasn’t prospered here.”

Yoshimi sighed loudly. “This is not the way it was supposed to be.”

“How did I let you get me into this mess, Anii-ue? Now everything is a perfect mess and I don’t know what to do and I’m supposed to mourn, I guess, but all I want to do is kick you like you kicked me last night.” He broke the piece of wood in half in his anger and threw it away, then covered his face with his hands. “Damn it, damn it, damn it. What do I do now?”

“Maybe Tadaki was right,” he said, standing up.  “I could go home and get my hoe and get to work.  I could go talk with Tameo-sama and make it clear what happened last night.  Maybe everything will settle down.  Maybe he won’t kick me out. I...”

“Too late for that,” Kazuo said. “I’m pretty sure Tameo is fed up with your nonsense.”

“I know I am,” Yoshio said.

“Ah,” Miyoko said, half covering her face with her fan. “Here comes the next event.”

There was a noise behind Yoshimi. He was so caught up in his own miseries that he didn’t notice, but Kiyoko stepped into the clearing from behind a tree, and walked towards him.

She reached out and almost touched him, but at the last minute when he didn’t react to her presence, she pulled her hand back. “I was hoping you’d be here,” she said softly. “I know I said tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait...”

He curled up into a tight ball. “Damn, damn, all the hells, damn.”

“Why is he reacting this way?” asked one of Miyoko’s kami. “I thought he wanted to be with her.”

“Just wait,” said Shimame. “He likes the dramatic gesture.”

“Yoshimi?” Kiyoko said. She walked around the log and knelt in front of him. He kept his head low, and turned it to one side, trying to keep her from seeing the shape he was in.

“Working with these humans,” Miyoko said.  “It’s almost like watching a play, is it not?”

Shimame, covering her face with her fan, stifled a little chuckle as Kazuo gave her a knowing look after how she had discussed all of the events she and the kami had done the night before in just those terms. Regaining her composure, she nodded at the other land kami. “You could say that. At least at times.”




While the kami watched their drama with Yoshimi unfold, Aki walked behind Kinjiro, his head bent down. hey had just passed the steps that lead up to the shrine. Kinjiro carried his hoe over his shoulder, planning on getting back to work in his fields when this one duty was over. Aki, on the other hand, carried a cloth bundle on his back and a basket in his hand. It was his moving day.

“You’re not going to your execution, boy,” Kinjiro said. “Don’t look like I’m feeding you to the wild dogs. You’ve known all along that you would be going to Daitaro’s today.”

“I know.” Aki kicked a rock in the path. “Do you think...He was so mad at me. Hiroki said he’d probably lock me up with his cows.”

“Maybe if you try to run away.” Kinjiro stopped and looked at the boy, studying him.  “But I know you learned better than to do that, right?”

“Didn’t do me much good,” the boy said, nodding. He still wouldn’t meet Kinjiro’s eyes. “They’’ll catch me if I try it again and I’ll still have to work.”

“That’s pretty much the way life goes. No matter what, we still have to do some sort of work, and in the long term, it’s good for us. And InuYasha lives right up the hill.  If you try to give Daitaro the slip, I doubt you could get far.” Kinjiro gave him a knowing look “You remember how he caught you the last time.”

Aki nodded. “Carried me back like I was a bag of rice. I don’t want to do that again.”

“And besides, I suspect Choujiro still wants you to help with the woodwork,” the farmer said. “And at Daitaro’s, you’re even closer to the work.”

That got Aki to look up, a hopeful look in his own eyes. “Do you think...do you think Daitaro-ojisan will let me?”  

“Oh, I expect he’ll be willing to share. He helped get Susumu through a rough patch when he was a boy. He likes to see people do well, and he knows how you and Choujiro are working well together and how the woodwork seems to be good for you.” Kinjiro started walking again. “But you also owe him.  You caused problems and spoiled his sake. And nobody takes sake as seriously as he does. So he’ll expect you to pay him back with work. You understand that, don’t you?”

Aki sighed. “I do.”

“You’ll like being there. Chime is a good cook, and will make sure you have enough to eat and a good place to sleep. And she acts like a good okaa to everybody. And it won’t be long before they let you visit you obaasan. You want her to be proud of you, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Is it true she’s really better now?” the young boy asked as they rounded the bend to head up the hill.

“That’s what I heard. Masu told me she was telling everybody what they ought to be doing by last night, just like before she got sick,” Kinjiro said. “Kagome-sama did a really good thing, using her skills like that.”

Aki dropped his head back down. “I was too mean to all of them. Will they really forgive me?”

Kinjiro patted the boy on the back. “If you keep doing the right thing. That’s all any of them want, really.”

They reached the path to Daitaro’s house. Genjo was standing there, along with Shinjiro and, surprisingly, Choujiro.

“Quite a crowd here,” Kinjiro said, walking up to the brothers. “Everybody here but Daitaro.”

“Oh, Haha-ue’s got him busy being her ox today, carrying the Second Day presents all over the village,” Genjo said. “We’ll be lucky if we see him before supper time.”

“And I’m here trying to set up a time where I can borrow my young friend there,” Choujiro said.

“And I’m here because my brother threatened me with dire punishments and teasing if I didn’t do some  weeding before Chichi-ue gets back,” Shinjiro said. “But he’s been wasting the morning away telling me everything I missed last night because I was busy with...other obligations.”

Kinjiro barked out a laugh. “I hope those obligations were worth missing all the excitement we had while you were busy.”

Shinjiro got a dreamy smile on his face. “Oh, I think so. Erime-chan said the same thing when we braved the outside world to beg breakfast from Mariko-chan. And then this one,” nodding at Genjo, “decided he could lay down the law on his older brother, just because our father said so.”

“Fathers have that way,” Kinjiro said. He nudged Aki towards the two brothers. “Aki-kun, I hope you have learned something these last few days. But don’t grow up to be like either one of these two bad examples. Genjo’s a pretty good worker, but...”

Whatever he was going to say got interrupted. Just then, InuYasha, still carrying Kagome walked  near where the men were standing. The young miko was holding her head in her hands and groaned slightly. “Is Kaede-baaba up at Miroku’s?” he asked. “She needs to take a look at Kagome. Right away.”