InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 312

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


Chapter 312


Miroku made his way to InuYasha’s house, and was just about at the stream where InuYasha dipped his water. After all the chaos and stress of the morning, it felt good to be alone for a moment, and he sang as he walked, a tune keeping time to the rhythm of his staff and its jingling rings.

“Who can count
who can count
all the insects calling out
crying their love
shallow noise.

“But look at the firefly
flying in silence,
burning with their love
a fire in their bodies
deeper than all the others.

“Let me be a firefly,
proving in my silence - ”


A rather irritated voice interrupted him. “Silence would be good, Bouzu.  Better than monks singing love songs.”

Surprised,  Miroku stopped walking and  looked around to see where the speaker was.   “InuYasha?”

“You’re right, Bouzu.  This is a peaceful place.  I can understand why to keep coming over here to steal some of it.  More peaceful when you aren’t singing songs you learned in tea houses.  When did you pick that one up?”

“Uh...before I met you or Sango,” the monk said.  “Where are you?”

“Use your eyes, Baka.  That’s why you have them.”

The voice came from above him somewhere. Looking around he spied a flash of red in the branches of a large tree not far from the stream.

“Ah, I see you!” Miroku said.  “Interesting you picked that tree.  It’s the one I like to sit by when I come here to...as you say, steal some of your peace.” He rubbed the back of his neck, and a nervous smile crossed his face.  “But I will admit I am surprised to find you sitting there now.  Do you have some special reason?”

“Do I need a reason?” the hanyou asked.

Miroku walked closer to the tree and looked up. “Well, something’s going on.  You’re up there scowling at me like you used to right after I joined our quest.  It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you glare at me like that.  In fact, I haven’t seen you glare like that at all since Kagome-sama returned.   You’re scowling while talking about peaceful views. So don’t be surprised if I have questions.  Besides, I thought having an ill wife would have kept you busy enough not to be sitting in trees, no matter how peaceful the location was.  I was expecting to find you at home.”  

“You would have thought.”  The hanyou dropped down from the tree and landed with a graceful bend to his knees, landing next to his friend. “And that’s where I was until just a little bit ago.  Kaede-baaba’s with Kagome now.”

“And you’re not.  Why?” Miroku asked.

InuYasha took a deep breath, and crossing his arms, stuck his hands inside his sleeves. His scowl didn’t soften, either, although his right ear twitched. “It’s not because I don’t want to be.  Kaede told me to leave.”

The monk scratched the side of his head.  “Did she now?”

InuYasha’s frown deepened.  “She needed to examine her ki channels or something.  Miko stuff.  Said it would be easier for Kagome to relax and let her do it if I was out of the room.”  The hanyou picked up a rock and threw it hard into the forest.  There was a sound of breaking wood. “Said Kagome was paying more attention to me than to her.”

“Ah,” Miroku said, nodding. “She does do that.  Maybe Kaede thought she couldn’t judge how much discomfort she was in if Kagome-sama was trying to be strong for you.”  There was a sound, like a large branch falling from the direction InuYasha had thrown the rock. “Interesting technique you have there for chopping wood,” he said.

“Feh,” InuYasha leaned against the trunk of the tree he had been sitting in.  “Why is everybody telling me to stay away from Kagome today?  And why am I agreeing to it?”

“She has always done that, you know, pushing herself so you don’t think she’s weak,”  Miroku noted. His voice was soft, and not accusing, but it still irritated his friend.

“She shouldn’t be doing that.  I know she’s not weak.” InuYasha tapped his head against the tree trunk.

“Maybe it’s a habit she picked up a long time ago, when you used to complain about her being a weak human, back when we were all younger and stupid.”  Miroku shrugged.

InuYasha straightened up, and flashed a dagger look at his friend.  “Why are you doing this to me, Miroku?  Telling me what a baka I was then?  Don’t you think I know what an ass I used to be to her?”  He unfolded his arms, but clenched his fists.  “Should have stayed up in the tree.”

“I was just explaining why...” the monk said, holding his hands up in a sign of peace.  “I wasn’t trying to bring back bad memories.  We’ve all grown up a lot since then.”

“Feh.”  InuYasha looked at the ground and his right fist,  like he was thinking about punching the ground, but then sighed and unclinched his hands instead.  

“I take it by how wound up you are, that staying away is not what you wanted to do.” Miroku looked down at his own feet. “I’m sorry if I made it worse.”

“Would you want to stay away from Sango if she was in pain?” InuYasha asked.

Miroku shook his head.  “Not really.”

InuYasha looked up at the sky. “I wasn’t the one to get her to purify that stupid building before she had enough rest. I ought to be the one ready to kick your butt, but...” He shook his head, and looked back at his friend.   “It wouldn’t help her.  I’m out here trying to help her get better.”

“I appreciate that, InuYasha,”  Miroku  said, giving him a rather sheepish look.  “I’m sure Sango will appreciate not having to nurse me back to health as well.”

“She doesn’t deserve to have to do that, that’s for sure.”  InuYasha turned and took a step down the path.  “She doesn’t deserve to put up with a lot of your crap.” He looked back at the monk. “Let’s head back.  Maybe Kaede’s done with her examination now.  It shouldn’t take forever to check her out.”

The two of them began to walk to the house. “Can’t chop wood,” the hanyou said.  “Can’t go for a run. Noise is making her head hurt worse, and I need to be close.  All the things I usually do to calm down.  I just can’t do them.  Because I need to be there for her.”

“That’s impressive commitment, InuYasha.”

“Small stuff.”  He shrugged. “I jumped into a meidou once to rescue her.  I left her with her family because she needed it.  That was the big stuff.  This – this is like a fly buzzing my ears.”

“Ah,” Miroku replied.

 So that’s why I went to the stream,” InuYasha continued. “Close enough for me to keep an ear out in case Kaede called me.  You’re always talking about how peaceful it is there.  I thought it might help.”

“Did it?”

“Hells if I know.”  The hanyou sighed.  “I don’t know why what happened today happened.  I don’t know why Kagome is having a rough time.  I just want to punch something, and I can’t even do that.  Don’t think it would do any good anyway.” He looked at Miroku.  “Glad you showed up though.”

Considering how tense his friend was, that last comment startled the monk.“Why, if I might ask?  Miroku said.  “You sounded rather irritated with me.”

The look on Miroku’s face actually amused InuYasha and a small grin touched his lips. “Kaede wanted to talk to you about what happened. I told her what I know, but I wasn’t that close when Kagome blew down the wards at the house. And you can explain it better than I can.  What do I know about using spiritual powers? I was afraid I’d have to chase you down, and if Susumu saw me, then I’d have to figure out where that piece of crap Yoshimi got himself off to.  So you showing up was the first piece of good luck I’ve had today.”

“I’ll do my best,” the monk said.  He wasn’t sure if he liked the look of almost feral amusement in his friend’s eyes, and he swallowed.  “Although I’m not exactly sure what she did.”

They passed the last tree before they reached the clearing the house was in.

“Feh.” InuYasha said, unconvinced. “You were right there with her.  I watched you some.  It looked like you were telling her stuff to do.”

“I was merely trying to get her to sense what was there,” Miroku said. “It’s really fairly similar to what Kaede’s been teaching her to do when they’re examining a person, except it’s for things, not people.  Neither one of us felt any jyaki there, so we couldn’t rely on her normal purification powers, the type she does without even thinking about it.  I didn’t expect her to do anything but feel the building’s aura. Like taking a pulse.”

“If she felt something in need...” InuYasha said.  “I heard her talking about sadness and pain.”

“I kind of got that impression,” Miroku said.  “I thought we’d just get a sense of the building.  Sometimes, even buildings start to become youkai when enough bad happens to it.  I thought it might be residue from all the…Well, we knew what Seiji was doing.  And he had his house so well warded none of the anger and fear he generated could properly escape.”

“Keh,” InuYasha said. “That place saw a lot of bad.”

“No doubt.” Miroku nodded.  “But there was no trace of youki.  So I was pretty sure the building hadn’t had time to go down that path, praise Buddha.  It might have been easier on Kagome if it had been, because her skill at purifying youki magic.  Still, not all magic is jyaki.  Mountain sages, yamabushi, spiritual beings can all do magic, and it’s not all good.”

“True.  Had some run-ins with some of that crap,” InuYasha said.

Miroku nodded.  “I remember some of it.”

“So...” the hanyou said.

“I don’t know if there was something in the building that was reaching out to her or not, but suddenly, before I could stop her, she pumped a lighting bolt of her spiritual power into it,” the monk said.  “I’m not even sure what she was sensing.  Kagome-sama said something about there being so much pain there.  I was worried about it being a magical trap, and and tried to get her to stop.” He sighed.  “I even tried to lift her hands away.”

“Didn’t work, did it?” the hanyou said.

“Kagome-sama can be rather determined once her mind’s made up,” Miroku said. “I’m not sure exactly what happened. It might have been a trap she demolished.  And it did more than just blow off the wards.  Seiji had set up some sort of stone on his god shelf.  When I went back inside, it was  like a storm had stirred up the inside of the building.  And the stone that had been there was shattered.”  He fished inside of his pocket and pulled out a piece of white stone, and handed  it to the hanyou. “What do you make of this?”

InuYasha took the piece of rock and held it to his nose. “It has a weird scent.  I cant quite place it. Kind of like  fox, but not quite.” He handed it back. “It feels funny, like it’s giving off some sort of energy.”

“A good energy now,” Miroku said, tucking it back in his sleeve. “I would have sworn it was basalt the first time I saw it.  Dark, almost  black.”

“You think she might have let something loose?” the hanyou asked.  “Kazuo said the land kami was worried about something being trapped there.”

“If there was, it wasn’t malicious. I would have sensed it, I think,” the monk said. “Whatever happened, it took a lot out of her. She needs to stop doing that.  She needs more training.  And she needs to be more careful, to not barge ahead. It can be bad for her.”

“You describing me or Kagome?” InuYasha said.

“Well...” Miroku snorted.

“Still, you’re right. I believe that,” the hanyou said.  “I hope she believes it now, too.”