InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 325

[ 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 325

InuYasha looked at the captain of the village guard standing there, staring at the river.  “Where did you come from?”

“I thought people couldn’t sneak up on you, InuYasha,” Susumu said.

“When the wind is right, sometimes, and I’m doing other things, I guess,” the hanyou admitted.  “Doesn’t happen often.  I’d have been dead by now if it did.”

“A strange day,” Susumu said, sitting down next to him.  “I was really expecting to see more people down here.”

“Eh, it’s not always crowded. Wasn’t very busy yesterday when we fished Maeme out of the water,” the hanyou said.  “Masu’s daughter cutting reeds,  a couple of people fishing, that was about it. ”

“Not even that many today,” Susumu said, resting his cheek on his hand. “But it’s not just here on this section.  I walked along the river from Maeme’s place to here.  There was nobody out. No women washing at the riverside.  No boys skipping rocks or bothering the ducks.  Not even Kouichi-ojiisan, and he gets out in his boat just about every day.”

InuYasha shrugged.  “Well, having a giant catfish kami manifest like that can make people think a thing or two before getting back into the water, I guess,” the hanyou said.  “But what an end.  And not even a body to put to rest.  It all feels...odd.”

“Don’t ask me anything about spiritual stuff.  I leave that to Houshi-sama and my dad and the yamabushi and priests,” Susumu said. “I guess I’m too tied to the world I can see.” He looked around the site.  “I wonder if Sukeo will want to put a memorial here?”

“Hard to think about anybody wanting to remember that piece of shit,” InuYasha said, tossing a pebble in the river.  “But then he wasn’t my otou or of my clan or family.  I’m not going to suggest it, though.  Miroku might.”

“He might.  Wouldn’t be surprised to see him doing seventh day prayers. One of his jobs is to make sure ghosts don’t walk and the dead can move on,” Susumu said, nodding. “But like you, I’m not going to nudge him about it.  There’s enough business for those of us who are still living to get through.”

The two fell silent for a few minutes and watched the water flow.   

Susumu sighed, and stood up.  “How’s my little cousin?  She wasn’t looking too good when you ran off with her.  Did Kaede-obaasan figure out what was wrong?”

“Did too much,” the hanyou said, getting up as well,  then crossing his arms, tucking his hands inside of his sleeves.  “Kaede dosed her up with some pain medicine that made her get sleepy.   Kagome told me to get out of the house so she could rest. I guess she thought I was antsy or something. Rin’s with her right now.”

“That sounds like a good call on her part. You probably were.  It’s hard when our women feel bad and we can’t fight what’s making them feel bad.  A good woman can pick up on that.”

“Yeah,” InuYasha said. He looked at his hands, flexing his claws toward his palms.  “Yeah.”


While InuYasha watched the river, Koume sprang her idea on the women gathered around her finishing their lunch.  

“I was thinking,” Koume said, as the lunch wound down, “that perhaps we could convince Maeme to come to my place tonight.”

“Oh?” said Kimi.  She picked up her bowl and drank the last of her soup.

“Houshi-sama and his wife have been so good to her,” Koume continued, “But they have a young family, and with everything that’s been going on recently, they probably need more private time instead of less.”

“You’re talking about Chiya, aren’t you?” Nahoi said.  She put her chopsticks down and covered her face.  “I am so sorry I ever let her get near me the day of the sewing party.  It seems like everything has been crazy since that day.”

“Oh, Nahoi,” Koume said.  “You didn’t do anything wrong that day.  It’s not your fault that Chiya was out to make a wreck of her life that day.”

“I know Houshi-sama checked her for magical influences that day, but there were none.  It was Chiya being on a self-destructive binge.  I feel sorry for her,” Kimi said.  “I’m still angry with what she did, especially that stunt about trying to kill herself in Tazu’s sleeping area, but I still feel sorry for her.”

Kimi was perhaps not the only one still angry about what Chiya had did.  Eiji put his bowl down hard, frowning. “Perhaps it’s time for me to get some fresh air,” he said, standing up. He nudged his twin brother with his foot. “You want to join me, Haruo?”

“What?  And miss the latest gossip from the aunties’ circle?” Haruo said.  His wife, Teruko, gave him a hard look at that one. Knowing when he was defeated, he swallowed down the last of his soup, and grabbed the last bite of onigiri off his tray, and gave into the inevitable.  “I think I’ll join you!”

The women watched as the two men headed out of the house.  Soon as the doormat clattered shut, Teruko broke out in a braying laugh, soon to be joined by Koume and Kimi.  

Nahoi looked at the others.  “That was funny?” Ever since her head injury, some things didn’t come to her as easily as to most people.

“Yes it was, daughter.  I’ll explain why we found it funny later,” Koume said.  “But for now, let’s focus on how we get Maeme down the hill.”

“It shouldn’t be that hard, should it?” Teruko asked.  “Why don’t we just all walk up there?”

“It might be that simple...if Maeme and Houshi-sama agree,” Kimi said.

“Why wouldn’t he?” Nahoi asked.

“Well, then,” Koume said, “Let’s finish eating, wash the dishes, and go for a walk.”


While the smith’s wife was out plotting how to get Maeme to the smith’s house for the night, the smith Fumio himself was trying to set up a more permanent situation for Maeme and her two sons.  After taking care of things at Sukeo’s house, he and the young man had walked over the family holdings and were now sitting in a garden near Toshiro’s house, ready to start his negotiations of what the boy and his family would need.  Asami, freed for the moment from nursemaiding Yasuo’s son Daiki, sat nearby with a brazier and the makings for tea and a tray of Nanami’s rice cakes.

“So,” Toshiro said, with an approving tone to his voice, “it sounds like you have gotten a good start on what needs to be done.”

“Well, I’ve scratched the surface here with my friend,” Fumio said, looking at the boy.

Sukeo took a deep breath.  His eyes were guarded; that was one thing living with Seiji had taught him, how to keep what was really going on in his head under wraps until it was safe to let it out, but nothing could hide the weariness and sadness in his look, and the way he was carrying himself.

“Houshi-sama and the young miko-sama chased away the dark in my house,” Sukeo said.  “I need to start staying in the house to take care of the animals and to work. I...I...I am not sure if it’s the right thing for my okaasan to be there alone right now.”

The tea made, Asami moved towards the men with the tray and cups.  She handed the first one to Toshiro, and then to Fumio, and finally Sukeo.  The boy looked down at the cup placed in his hands, almost uncertain what to do with it.

“She has had a hard time,” Toshiro said, nodding.

“Please have one of the cakes,” Asami said.  “Nanami will be unhappy if you don’t.”  

“Everybody knows how good Nanami’s cakes are,” Fumio said, taking one off of the tray. He gave the girl a smile, then turned his attention back to Toshiro. “We were wondering if you knew some young woman who could be spared for a time to stay at the house with her.”

“Someone to help keep my okaasan company, and maybe help with the work until she feels stronger,” Sukeo said.  “There’s too much work for me and Nakao to spend all our time with her.  And our house so so far away from where most of the people live.  I’m afraid…”

“You’re afraid she’ll need help getting back on her feet?” Toshiro asked.

Sukeo nodded.

“You bring up a good point.  Two boys and a woman.  Your uncle’s not around?”

Sukeo shook his head.

“We don’t know where he is.  He may have left the village,” Fumio said.  “There was a woman in Morimura we think...”

“Ah,” the older man said.  “Well, that may work for the best yet.  I’ve got Yasuo out looking for people to help with the farming. You will need one or two farm hands, at least to get through the rice planting, and a woman.  Someone like Asami here, perhaps.”

Asami looked up as her name was mentioned.  Her face went from shock to surprise to perhaps just a touch of hopefulness.  “Me, Toshiro-sama?”

“I’m not going to promise anything, Asami-chan,” Toshiro said, looking at the young woman. “I’m going to talk to Sayo-chan.  With a new baby in the household, I don’t know who she’ll be willing to let go.  Maybe we can bring in Isamu’s daughter to help out.  She’s the right age...and has some experience chasing boys like Daiki.”

Asami dropped her head, but it was easy to see how brightly she was smiling.


Not far from where the hanyou had been sitting, the armor and clothes that Seiji had stripped out of were piled neatly in a stack.  Someone had placed his old sword on top of it.  In the full sunlight it was easy to see how worn and useless they were for anything but a costume.  Time and a lack of maintenance had allowed rust to build up in the metal, and either disuse or lack of maintenance had worn the thread work.  The leather bits were dried and cracked.  One of the shoulder pieces had broken during the struggle when he was pinned down; it lay separated from the rest.  

Susumu toed it with his sandal. “I probably ought to take this to Sukeo.  It belongs to him now.  It’s about the only thing he has left of his otou.  I don’t know if he could salvage it.  It’s in pretty bad shape.”

“Keh. Like about everything in that man’s life.  Pretty bad shape,” InuYasha said, scowling.  “I wouldn’t give it to the boy right now.  Maybe you could take it to your place and have Tameo figure out what to do with it.”

Susumu nodded. “That’s what I was thinking,” he said.  “In fact, that’s why I came here in the first place.  I thought I’d bring it to Chichi-ue if nobody had taken it off by now.  I guess everybody was too nervous to even try.  Wasn’t looking for you, believe it or not. You just happened to be the good part of me being here.”

InuYasha’s ear flicked.  “You sure about that?”

“Oh, you moved out of the scary bakemono in the forest that the elders used to frighten bad children with to a real person we like a while back, InuYasha. You probably better get used to it.  Even some of the old folks who told those stories now tell stories about how you were there to keep the bad things out of the village.”

Susumu pulled a length of cloth he had tucked into his waistband and gave it a shake.  “Lots better to have a friend to talk to than worrying about the ghosts of people like Seiji. That’s a story in and of its own self, and a sad one.  He was my best friend when we were kids, got me into a whole lot of trouble, and turned into...well we know what he turned into.  You’re the opposite.  We grew up being told you were the evil who killed Kikyou-sama, and it turns out that instead of a monster, you were the good guy that helped keep the real monster from destroying the village and our world.  Much better company.”

The length of cloth Susumu was handling turned out to be a large bag.  He opened it up, and began putting the armor into it.  “I don’t know when Sukeo will be ready to see this.  He’s going to have enough to get over and get adjusted to.”

“I used to think he was a rude brat, maybe a chip off his dad’s shoulder,” the hanyou said.  “Usually, the only time I’d see him if he was fishing or chasing after his brother.  He was always trying to protect his worthless father’s honor.” InuYasha spit. “Honor.  Not a drop of it in that slime. But what I’ve seen of him the last two days, I think he’s got some solid good under the roughness.”  InuYasha bent over and handed him a piece of the armor that was just a bit far to reach.

“Like someone else I know,” Susumu said, putting the last of the equipment in the bag.  “Well, between Fumio and me, and you, I bet we can help him get that good out.  Want to come help me put this away?”

“Sure.  Why not? Don’t have anything else to do for the next couple of hours.  They’ll just chase me away if I go home too early.”

Together, the two men left the sadness of the riverbank and headed back into the village.