InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 324

[ 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 324

A moment of shock silenced the woman in the house by the river as she stared at her mother wide-eyed.

“Write him a letter?” Chiya said.  She looked at her mother with total surprise.  “Michio? Do you think he’d even read it?  As angry as he is, he’d probably just burn it without even looking at it.  What makes you think that writing him would do any good?”

“Letter writing,” Kazuo said, rubbing his eboshi hat back and forth over his head.  “I never even thought of that.”

“We might be able to work with that,” Yoshio said, although his voice was a bit doubtful.

“If we could get her to try.” Hitoshi floated down from the rafters, and stood behind Chiya.  He touched her lightly on the head, and for a second she glowed.  He floated back up.  “Don’t know if that’ll make a difference, but it won’t hurt.”

“Let’s watch and see,” Kazuo said.  “Things won’t grow if you don’t plant seeds.  Now if Haname doesn’t push it too far...”

“Sometimes words on paper do things that the words we speak can’t,” Haname told her daughter.  “Tell him how sorry you are, how you just let your fears step up ahead of your duty to him, write about the good things in your marriage.  Make him miss the good you.  Take the blame for all of it.”

“Blame?” Chiya said.  “My fault?”

Haname ignored her outburst. “And write your father-in-law.  Tell him how sorry you are for having forgotten to put the needs of the family first, for burdening Michio, him and his sister with the burden of picking up your duties, of letting your fears trump your obligations as a dutiful wife and daughter to the family.”

“My failures...burdening them like I planned it?” Chiya said, incredulous.

Haname continued. “And write his aunt, too, talking about how sad and embarrassed you are about having her having to step in and help with your children, and ask her forgiveness for putting this burden on her.  Also tell her about how much you miss your children.”

Yoshio rubbed his chin. “Writing the others...Now that has potential.”

“If we can get past the fireworks,” Hitoshi said.  He templed his fingers together.  “They are definitely building right now.  Chiya has to do her little volcano bit.  Will she wreck everything?”

“Haha, you expect me to grovel to them?” Chiya asked.  As Hitoshi suggested, her anger was beginning to rise at her mother’s suggestions.  “I thought you hated Michio and his father.  And now you want me to grovel?”

“I didn’t hate him.” Haname shook her head. “I was against your marriage because I didn’t think he was a strong enough man to cope with your character.  I have been proven right on this more than once.” Her tone was ruthlessly not feeding into Chiya’s games and coldly analytical.  “This is the fourth time he’s thrown you out.  But he wants you, nonetheless.  Another man would have sent you a letter of divorce after the first time.  You owe him something, just for that.”

“There,” Hitoshi said.  “She finally laid the stakes out to Chiya.  Will it make any difference?”

For the moment it didn’t seem to.  Chiya’s anger grew more visible, her face reddening. “So I owe it to him to grovel like what happened was all my fault?  Like Michio didn’t overreact and blow up?  It was all me?”

Haname sighed.  “If you want your life back, daughter, you’ll say that if you need to.  It’s time to stop this game of finding reasons for your bad choices. If you want to go back being Michio’s wife, mistress of your home, mother to your children, do what it takes to get them on your side.  And stop playing these games in your head about fault. It was mostly you, Chiya-chan. Who refused to apologize in public?  Who attacked her friend for being kind?  Who caused Michio to lose face in front of all those people?  Chiya-chan, until you show some repentance for choosing wrong, instead of weeping because you are now homeless, it’s going to be hard for Michio to lose that sense of how wronged he’s been, and if you keep pushing, he’ll forget why he doesn’t want to let you go.”

Chiya, both angry and frightened, shuddered.  “The last time I saw him, he said that if he stayed in the same place with me, he’d be like Seiji, and beat me.” She covered her face with her hands. “He kicked me out, even though he knew you were home sick, even though I didn’t have a place to go to.  That’s how much he hates me right now.  And I’m supposed to grovel on the chance he’ll take me back.”

“That’s not hate, Chiya-chan.”  Haname crossed her arms, almost if she needed to stop herself from shaking her daughter.  “That’s not hate at all.  He was trying to punish you, true, but he did it this way to protect you. He’s angry.  There’s a difference between anger and hate.  He doesn’t want to be another Seiji.  He’s not a strong man.  He’s never been strong.  He’s not as patient and slow to anger as your father.  And you, my daughter,  know just where to cut him.”

“Like mother, like daughter,” Yoshio murmured.

“But if you want your old life back, your home, your husband, your children, you are going to have to deal with that.  If you want a good life, to be happy like Chime and Daitaro, you are going to have to learn to be Michio’s strength, not his enemy.  And that might take  what you want to call groveling sometimes.  Think about that, daughter.  And write to him.  Ask Hiroki to help if you need to.  He writes a fine hand, and he’s definitely more diplomatic and more smooth talking than you.  He can help you find the right words, say the right things. Do it until you get an answer.”

Haname stood up.  “We will do what we can, your father and I.  Tsuneo and Michio have a friendship.  Perhaps, after you write him, we might be able to get him to think again.  We’ll try.”

The older woman moved towards the door.  “Be nice to Hana.  She’s a good child.  And if you need to talk to me or ask a question, send her over.”  She lifted the doormat.  “You never had to prove anything to me, daughter.  I’ve always cared for you.  I just...chose badly as well.  I’m sorry you suffered because of it.”

Stepping through the doorframe, she was gone.

“Now that was something,” Kazuo said. “I feel like I need a bath.”

Yoshio nodded. “I know this onsen in the August Fields near Benzaiten’s place,” Yoshio said. “Lovely bath attendants. Good sake. The Lucky Gods go there to recharge often.”

“Now that sounds heavily,” Kazuo said.  He picked up his hoe.  “You want to join us, Hitoshi?”

“I’ll catch up,” the kami said, letting his rush hat fall further over his eyes than usual.

 Kazuo’s face softened for a moment, and he nodded.  Turning to Yoshio, he grabbed the kami’s arm.  “Come on you, let’s go.  Tell me about the bath maidens...”

They disappeared, leaving only Hitoshi to watch the last act of this play.

Chiya looked at the four walls of her room, feeling the trap she was in, unable to accept the one way out her mother suggested, but near panic. Before she could settle, her father walked into the small house.

“I see you have been following my directions,” Tsuneo said. His tone was neutral as he could make it, but Chiya felt a touch of the sorrow he had for her in it.

Perhaps, because of that, she gave him a polite bow. “Yes, Chichi-ue.”  She looked down at her hands, not ready to meet his eyes.

“Your okaa says Hana-chan is doing a good job caring for your needs.  This is true?”

“Yes, Chichi-ue.”

Tsuneo ran out of words to say, and for a moment, the silence was heavy between them.

Suddenly Chiya looked up at him, her eyes bright and pleading. “When...when can I see my children, Chichi?”

He sighed, looking at her with a deep tender sorrow before he snapped his neutral mask back on. “We’re working on that.  If we push Michio wrong, the answer could be never.”   He folded his arms, as if he were trying to not wrap them around his daughter.  “He is still very, very angry.  Angrier than he was the last time you two had a falling out.”

“What do I do, Chichi?” she asked.

“Wait,” Tsuneo said. “Just wait.”

Having nothing more to give her, he walked over to the distraught woman, hugged her briefly, then walked out of the house.

The four adults began to walk away.  Chiya could hear their voices recede, her mother’s voice laughing at something one of the others had said.  Then there was silence, nothing but the sound of the breeze coming through the window.  Even Hiroki’s wood chopping was silent.

The silence became deafening, oppressive. Standing up, Chiya kicked the basket of spun threads over, scattering them across the floor.  She picked up a tea cup, and tossed it against the far wall, where it thudded, but surprisingly, did not break.

Falling to her knees, she screamed a wordless, grieving cry, then began to sob.  “Why? Why? Why?”

Hitoshi, who had watched all of this from the ceiling dropped down, and rested an unseen hand on her back as she beat her fists into the ground.  “Living with bad decisions is hard, little bird.  But until you stop blaming everybody else for your choices, life will be sad. Alas, even the kami who loves you cannot fix this thing.” He tapped his staff on the ground.  “Sleep.  Dream something useful, child.”

Chiya’s  sobs slowly subsided, and she fell asleep.  



After InuYasha saw off Yasuo, he headed down to his usual fishing spot along the river past the paddy fields and the few dry crop fields in that direction to the strip of trees and reeds, rocky places and one beachy area the villagers used – for fishing, clothes washing, launching boats and even for the reeds and rushes they made things with.  Usually by this time of day, there would be at least a half a dozen boys on the banks, trying to fish, and a boat or two in mid channel with adult men casting nets.  Sometimes, people would be cutting reeds not far from where he liked to fish, where a few trees overhung the bank, and on one stretch of water, where there were rocks along the shore at least a few women would be doing laundry.

But this day, nobody was there except for one old woman, who was evidently looking for something along the edge of the water.  She poked at things she saw, and even bent down to pick something up once, but unsatisfied, she let it go.  It was too late in the day to do laundry, so that didn’t surprise the hanyou, but the lack of boys really impressed him with how uncanny the river had become after the previous night’s events.

The lack of human activity didn’t bother the water birds who made a home there. The ducks on the water who would swim in the channel and head back to the reeds seemed as busy as ever in their spring activities. From time to time two or three of them would take flight, flying in long, lazy circles to disappear over the horizon or to come back and join the rest of the flock. Egrets worked along the shoreline.  A single gull followed the river, no doubt looking for the fishermen who would throw bits of fish into the water.  The gull flew on, unhappy at the pickings.

He moved on to the rocky outcrop that was one of the favorite places for the boys to go fishing. He wasn’t surprised, really to see it empty; this was the same location that Seiji had taken the river challenge the night before, the same location where so many of the villagers had seen the monstrous apparition of a giant catfish swallow the man whole.  The whole ground around the rock still showed signs of being trampled by the crowd, bits of trash like broken lampshades and broken sandals were scattered around, but of the people who had witnessed it, there was no sign.

InuYasha sat down.  As he watched, a heron flew upstream, while a group of three mallards set their wings and landed, as if nothing unusual had ever gone on here. As he watched, a fish broke out of the water and resubmerged with a splash. His lip curled into a small smirk. “Well Grandfather Catfish didn’t chase you all away,” he said.  “But he did a good job on the people.”

“It sure looks like he did,” said a voice behind him.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this place so deserted on a nice day.  I was a bit surprised to find anyone here, much less you.”

InuYasha turned around to see Susumu standing there with his arms crossed, staring at the water.