InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 331

[ 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 331

The sun was slanting low when InuYasha returned home.  In his hands, he had the two hares he had caught on the way back with Susumu and Eiji, and one fish.  

The river was still mostly deserted, but a couple of the bravest boys, Jiro and Chikayo had been down there, trying to decide whether or not to fish.  After they had watched him tickle a fish out from near where Grandfather Catfish had appeared, with not even a stray ripple on the surface of the river, they had hailed him as the hero of fishing and eagerly cast their line.  Before he had gotten the fish on a stick to carry it home, Jiro got a bite.  InuYasha suspected that on the next day, the riverbank would be filled with boys and maybe a man or two trying to get their dinner.  Chikayo was known for spreading fishing tales far and wide.

Smiling at the thought of how fickle humans were about luck, InuYasha stepped into his house.  Surprising to him, when he got inside, he found the futon rolled up, Rin’s sewing basket neatly packed but no Kagome and Rin inside the little building.

“I know they’re somewhere around.  I can smell them,” he said.  

For a moment, he didn’t know if he should be anxious about them being out of the house or happy, but nothing in the scents he could make out signaled any sign of trouble, so relaxed won out.  

“First things first,” he said.

As he put the game in a big bowl and the fish on a platter,  his ears flicked searching for some sign of them.  Soon, as he washed his hands at the wash basin, he was rewarded with the sound of a light giggle.

“Giggling is a good sign,” he murmured as he dried his hands on the towel. “Time to find out what they’re giggling about.”



While InuYasha went to look for what was amusing Rin and Kagome, at the second son’s house down by the river, Hiroki, in a much less happy frame of mind, stacked the last piece of split wood onto its rick.  “That should be enough wood for the next week.”  He rolled his shoulders.  “Maybe Tsuneo-ojisan will let me go do something else tomorrow besides chop wood.”

“Be careful what you ask for,” Hana said.  She was sitting not too far from where he had been working. Tucking a stray bit of hair under her headscarf, she reached into her sewing basket and pulled out a length of dark blue cloth.  “You might find yourself digging in a new vegetable garden for the house here.”

Hiroki came and set down next to her.  “Even that would be better than splitting wood all day.”

“Are you sure?” the girl said, as she threaded her needle.  “I remember the last time you had to cut turf for a new garden.”

“I was young,” he said.  “Haname-obasan should have had Masu and Tadaki do it, not me. Okaasan was not happy about it.”

“But she was happy enough to plant in it afterwards,” she said. “Amaya-sama says she gets her best vegetables from it.”

“Not my doing, I’m sure,” Hiroki said.  He rubbed the back of his neck.  “At least it’s quiet now.  When Ojisan and Daitaro-sama were here, everybody was acting like it was a festival, almost.”

“That’s Chime-obasan, for you.  And they were happy that Haname-obasan was feeling so well,” Hana said, pulling her needle through the fabric.

“Chiya wasn’t all that happy about it. I don’t know what they told her, but it sure upset her.”

“I think Haname told her to act like a wife instead of a child,” Hana said.  “I really wasn’t close enough to hear it all.  She did mention you, though.  Obasan wants her to do something with her.  I couldn’t hear what.”

Hiroki sighed and began digging into his sleeve, where he pulled out a chimaki.  “That doesn’t make me feel good at all,” he said, unwinding the treat. “It’s always Hiroki do this.  Oh Hiroki, you’re just the person I need.  Hiroki, go run and do that.”  He took a bite out of his sweet.  “There are times I understand why Chichi-ue ran off.”

“You’re not thinking…” Hana said.

He shook his head.  “I’m not brave enough for that.  What would I do if I left?  Robbers or slavers would probably grab me before I got half way to anywhere.”  He took another bite.  “Is she still sleeping?”  

Hana nodded.  “I peeked in an hour ago, and made sure she was all right, but I wasn’t going to wake her up on purpose.”  She put the needle into the cloth and put the garment she was working on back into her basket.  “I’ve done that before.  She threw things at me.”

“She always was a grump when waking up,” he said.  “I don’t blame you for leaving her alone.”

“And now it looks like it’s going to storm,” Hana said.  “I hope Nana gets here with Chiya-san’s dinner so I can go home before that happens.”

“My, my,” said a voice, coming around the side of the building.  “Look who’s here?  Are you two still playing at being Chiya’s bodyguards?”

The two of them turned and looked at  the speaker.




Up on the hill, InuYasha walked to the side of the house. The sight he found pleased him, especially after the way he had left Kagome earlier in the day.  Rin and Kagome were over by Kagome’s vegetable patch, where the garden was now green with young plants.  Rin was kneeling on the ground, while Kagome hovered over her.

“This one is kotsuma.  You want to leave that to get bigger. But this one,” Rin said, pulling it up, “is akaza. That’s not one Kinjiro-sama planted. Still, they taste good when they’re little, so Kaede-sama taught Rin to save them, but they get big fast. When they’re big, they go into the compost.”  The girl added it to a basket next to her, then straightened up. “What a nice garden you have.  Rin thinks you’ll really like it later on when the little plants get bigger.” She looked over the garden bed in approval. “Kinjiro gave you a garden almost as good as Kaede-obaasan’s garden.”

“Ah!  The Rin mark of approval! But you’ll need to keep coming by and help me figure out which ones are weeds,” Kagome said.  She sighed. “I know what things are when they’re bigger, but I’m not used to knowing weeds from the ones we want when they’re so young.”

“Rin would like that,” the girl said, smiling.  “It’s kind of like learning to sew.  There’s a lot to learn at first and it’s nice to have someone to learn with.”

“Exactly,” Kagome said, nodding.

InuYasha, watched the two of them, happy to see the improvement in how his wife was feeling. Deciding to butt in, he  gave a little cough into his hand. Kagome turned and looked in InuYasha’s direction.  

“You’re back!” she said, giving him a big smile.  It didn’t hide the fact that she had been feeling bad, but it did show how much better she was feeling.  “I must have been really focused on learning all about weeds.  I usually know you’re near just from your youki.”  She gave him a sheepish look, and shrugged.

“You look a lot better than when I left  this morning,” he said, returning her smile.  “Rin must have taken good care of you.”

Rin beamed at the hanyou, and nodded her head.

Kagome patted the girl’s hand. “Rin is a good nursemaid,” she said.  “I do feel a bit better. My head’s not pounding any more.  I still feel a little woozy, but that might just be the medicine Kaede-obaasan gave me. Rin let me sleep while she sewed, and I woke up about a hour ago.  I felt better, the afternoon looked nice, and I was tired of being in bed, so we came outside.”

“Looks nice now, but it’s going to rain tonight,” he said, coming to stand near his wife.  “There’s a lot more clouds than there were than when I left.  It’s been building up.”

Kagome looked around her, and pinched the soil, which was beginning to feel rather dry. “It’ll be good for the garden,” Kagome said.  “Otherwise, I’m going to have to start watering it.”

“Kaede-obaasan saves our bathwater for that,” Rin said.  “Laundry water, too.”

“That’s a good use for it,” Kagome said.  She looked up at InuYasha.  “Maybe we should start thinking about doing that.”

“If you think so.  I don’t know much about garden stuff. But it’s going to be a wet night tonight, so we can probably figure that out later,” the hanyou said. He looked up at the sky one more time and took an extra sniff of the air. “I’m going to bring some extra wood inside in case we really get hammered. Kind of early in the year for a bad storm, but I don’t like making fires with damp wood.”

Kagome nodded. “Sounds like a good idea,” she said as he walked over to his wood pile.

“Maybe Rin should go home now.  Kaede-obaasan should have had a good nap by now, and it’ll be time to make dinner soon,” the young girl said. “She might want Rin to run to the garden for her.”

“I think Rin just likes to work in the garden,” Kagome said.

“Maybe,” Rin said smiling.

“Thank you for watching over me today, Rin-chan.  And be sure to tell Kaede-obaasan how much better I’m feeling,” Kagome said, getting up. “Let her know I’ll stop by tomorrow morning so she won’t have to come all the way up here.” She brushed off her skirt where a little bit of greenery had stuck and picked up the basket of weedy but edible plants she and Rin had pulled up and together, the two of them headed to her front door.

“Tomorrow, we’ll have our sewing lesson again, I hope,” Kagome told the girl as they went into the house.  “You’re getting so far ahead of me!”

“Sango-obasan told Rin that there’s always more things to sew!”

Kagome nodded. “She’s right.  Right now I’m working on a pretty kosode, a towel, a torn sleeve...”

InuYasha guffawed at that comment. “It’s not my fault if the birds and roofs tear my clothes,” he  said, following them in with a big armful of wood.

“No, it’s not,” Kagome said, agreeing with her husband.  “But still, they need to be sewn just as much as new kosode.”

“I guess,” he replied, stacking the wood up in its stand near the fire pit.

While he stacked wood, Rin picked up her things, and the pot that Sango had sent soup in. The three of them said their goodbyes, and for a time, InuYasha and Kagome watched her head down the hill. As they headed back into the house, it dawned on the hanyou that this was the first time in hours that he and his wife were alone, with no crisis, no real sickness happening, nowhere to go, no task for the village to do, and the whole house to themselves. InuYasha sat down at his place by the fire pit and gave a happy sigh of contentment.

“What’s that about?” Kagome asked, joining him and leaning her head against his shoulder. “Was this afternoon that bad?”

He wrapped an arm around her.  “Not really.  It’s just...it’s just good to be home.”