InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 332

[ 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 332

A/N  A reader mentioned how they were not sure about days in A Tale of Ever After.  So far, the story has covered 18 days of story time.   This story day opens at chapter 291, with Miroku waking up at about 4 in the morning. Today’s chapter has the evening coming on. The sky is growing cloudy with an approaching rainstorm, but it’s something like 5 o’clock in the afternoon.

Not too far from Benika’s house, Choujiro sat in his wood shop, a little shed near the house where he and his wife Yurime lived.   One wall was lined with racks of tools – chisels, saws, planes, hammers and the other tools of his trade.  Another wall had cradles for wood.  There was a table where he did some of his work, and one extra stool. As the sky grew darker with the approaching rain, the room was growing dimmer as less light pooled through the windows.

“Would you like me to light a lamp?” he asked.  He took the chisel he had been sharpening and put it on the table.
Aki, who he managed to liberate during the afternoon from Daitaro’s house, stood near the wall of woodworking tools, looking at them carefully.  He shook his head.  “You use all of these?” he asked.

“For different things,” Choujiro said.  “We’ve only used a few of them to make boards.  But when you put a building together, you have to make the posts and frames fit together nicely, and that takes things like this,” he said, holding up his chisel, “and saws.  When it’s done right,each piece fitted together helps the whole thing stand up straight and strong.  Kind of how a village is supposed to work.”

The boy sighed.

Choujiro smiled and standing up, wiped his chisel down with camellia oil and put it back in its place, then ruffed the boy’s head.  “It’s all right, Aki.  There’s a reason we build with joints instead of something like nails.  It allows things to flex, like when the wind blows or the earth shakes.  Villages have some flex, too.  Takes a lot to get them to fall apart.”

Just then, Yurime stepped into the workshop.

“Well, pretty woman, it’s a pleasure to see you step in here,” Choujiro said, smiling at his wife.  “You don’t grace me with your presence very often.”  She didn’t smile back, and tilted her head to the side, as if she were considering something.  In return, he frowned.  “Is something wrong?

“Have you talked to Denjiro today?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No.  We’ve been doing different things.  I spent my afternoon finishing up the bean patch until late, and then I went to get Aki.  Why?”

“I’m not sure.  Sora and Kou were at Benika’s all afternoon.  I’m just wondering…” Yurime pursed her lips together.

“Wondering what?” her husband asked.  He put away his bottle of camellia oil, placing it carefully up on the shelf.

“I’m just remembering last time, the trouble those three started.  I was wondering if Denjiro had heard anything from Sora.”

He frowned.  “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Sora’s asked me to babysit for a while tomorrow.  Said something about visiting Sayo and the new baby."

“You don’t think that’s the real reason?” Choujiro walked up to his wife, and slipped a finger under her chin.

“I think...I was going to the well and I heard someone talking about someone they thought was fox possessed.  I didn’t get to see who said it,” Yurime said.  “But it sounded like Benika."

Choujiro sighed.  “Maybe I’ll go visit Tsuneo tomorrow.  Or Michio.”  He turned to Aki.  “This is what I mean by flex. Sometimes we have to be able to shift a bit when things happen.”

“Like a roof joint  in a storm?” the boy asked.

“Exactly.”

While Choujiro and Yurime wondered what Benika was up to, up at the house on the hill, InuYasha was sitting next to his wife on their seats by the firepit. He pulled Kagome closer.  “You sure you’re feeling better?”

Kagome looked up to see how her husband’s amber eyes studied her face, filled with honest concern, how his nose flared just a little as he checked her over, and felt a momentary pang about worrying him so much.  She snuggled back into his chest and nodded.

“Yes, better,” she said with conviction.  “Better is the right word. I’m not quite back to my normal self yet, but I’m so much better than I was when you brought me home. I...I feel like I slept too much. My head...it was such a bad headache, but when I woke up, it was gone. Maybe just a twinge or two, but gone.”  She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “And I am really glad you got home.”  

Kagome looked up at him again, sincere in her pleasure at him being there, and then, as a thought struck her, she grew a little embarrassed. She sighed. “There’s more to being a village miko than just taking out monsters and purifying jyaki.  So much to learn.  Maybe I learned something today, about the need to listen to what people like Kaede-obaachan and Miroku are telling me even though I really want to do something.  I’ll keep that in mind for later. I don’t want to go through too many days like today.” She cupped InuYasha’s cheek. “How did your afternoon go?”

“Ran into Susumu,” he said, nuzzling the top of her head with his cheek.  “Ended up trying to track where Yoshimi went.  We tracked him halfway to Morimura, then came back.  Won’t have to worry about him, it looks like.”

Kagome gave him a contented sigh. “That’s one good thing for Maeme and her boys,” she said.  “It’s hard to wrap my head around what she and her boys have gone through.  Not all monsters are youkai.  Humans can be monsters just fine. No youki needed.”

“Yeah.” He pulled her closer to him, as if trying to keep all the evils away from her. “Now that that’s settled, maybe we can worry about you for a change.”

She tilted her head back.  “I’m not going to break, you know.  I just did too much in one day.  It’s kind of like pulling a muscle.  Kaede said I just need some rest.  Miroku said this type of thing used to happen to him all the time.  He told me that Mushin would laugh at him every time it happened, but look how he turned out.”

“That’s supposed to make me feel good?” he said, trying to look stern, but he was actually amused, and his stern look kept fading into a grin. “Look what he’s like! Maybe that’s what made him the way he is.”

Kagome giggled.  “Did you do anything else?”

He nodded. “Just what you told me to do.  I brought home a fish and some rabbit.  Getting rabbits was just luck; I wasn’t really out hunting them. They sort of jumped up and said, ‘Here I am!’ when I was walking back with Susumu and Eiji.”  He scooted behind her and  brought his hands  up to her neck and began to massage the tops of her shoulders gently.   Kagome obviously liked this  and  relaxed into his touch, which made him continue. “But I went to the river on my way back to fish.  Earlier today I went there, and nobody was around.  Grandfather Catfish had scared everybody off.  But right after I snagged this one, a couple of boys threw in their lines.  I guess they were waiting for a sign or something that it was safe to do it.”

“And so of course you getting the fish was the sign they were waiting for,” Kagome said  turning her head to look up at him. “But if you already had the rabbits, why did you bother to go fishing?”

“I didn’t know what you’d feel like tonight,” InuYasha said, shrugging.  “I wanted to let you have a choice.  I remember my mother’s headaches.  Sometimes she just couldn’t handle eating some things.”

She leaned her head against him.  “Either is really all right.”

“Well, now you get to pick.” He stopped his shoulder massage, and backed away a bit, getting ready to stand up.

“Hmm...how about we grill the fish tonight and cook the rabbit tomorrow?” Kagome said.  She used InuYasha’s moving away as an excuse to stand up herself, and  moved to the low table she used to prepare meals. “I guess it’s getting time to start thinking about dinner.”

InuYasha came over and grabbed the fish and the rabbits, to put them on the work table. “Are...are you sure you feel like cooking tonight?” the hanyou asked. “I’m not sure  how much effort you ought to be putting out after pushing yourself over the edge today.”

She looked at the fish on the work table, and considered things a moment. “Well, if you want, you can cook the fish,” she said.  “You make good grilled fish. But let me put on the rice first.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “You going to ever let me live that down?” he asked, handing her the bowl she washed the rice in.  “I’ve made rice before.  A lot of times.  There just was this one time when...I just was...well...distracted by this beautiful woman who wanted to play with my ears while I was setting it up, and I got the water measures mixed up.”

“Was that what happened?” Kagome said.  “But I love your ears.”  She reached up at touched the base of his left ear, and it flicked under her touch.  “And now that we’re married...”

He grabbed her hand, and brought her fingers to his lips, giving them a delicate kiss.  “As much as I love you touching them, I wouldn’t want to distract you from getting the rice on.”

Giving her forehead a little kiss, he moved out of the way to let her get to work.



The mood was not so contented in front of the house by the river.  Hiroki and Hana tensed up at their unexpected company.

“Benika-sama,” Hiroki said, standing up.  Hana picked up her sewing basket and joined him. “Surprised to see you here.”

“Surprised?” Benika asked.  She had a rush hat on her head and  her own basket on her arm. Pushing the hat back, she gave the two young people an icy smile.  “Why should my wanting to visit Chiya-chan be a surprise? She’s my best friend, after all.  Friends visit each other, especially when times are hard.  And Chiya’s time right now...”

The young man’s face was a stoic mask, unmoved by her call to friendship. “Why? Perhaps because Tsuneo-sama has put the word out that Chiya-obasan is to have no visitors until he allows it?” Hiroki said. “And friends respect the rules of the head of the family of their friends.”

Benika gave an exaggerated sigh.  “Is that still the rule? I told the other women who are Chiya’s friends that I would try to find out today, and I was hoping all that silliness was over after what happened to Maeme’s husband.  But why?  I’ve been her friend forever.  Do they think I’d do something to hurt her?”

“You need to ask Tsuneo-sama,” the young man said, crossing his arms.  “I just know what I was told to do.”

She walked up, too close to him, almost a seduction poise, a look that made Hiroki, much younger than her, tense even more. “Please, Hiroki-kun.  You know I’m her best friend,” Benika said.  Her voice was somewhere between a whine and a threat.  

“Chiya-obasan,” Hiroki said, accenting the obasan, even as he put a little space between the two of them. “You really need to go ask Tsuneo-sama.  That’s what he told me.”

“Chiya-chan!” Benika yelled.  “Your relatives won’t let me come see you!”  No noise came from within the little house.

Hana had grown angry watching this.  “Are you trying to get your friend in trouble?  What type of friend are you?” She raised her sewing basket, almost like she was getting ready to throw it at the woman.

Clasping her hands into fists, Benika took another step forward. “Let me through.”

Just as it seemed like she was going to push past the two teenagers, Nana and Kisoi walked down the path from the main house, carrying the pots they brought Chiya’s dinner in.  Benika sighed, frowned, then came to a decision.

“Here,” Benika said, handing the youth a basket.  “It’s too late to fight about it, and it’s getting ready to rain.  Give this to Chiya.  Tell her I’m working on something to get her out of there.”

Before he could respond, she spun on her heel and stomped off.

On the roof of the building, unseen by any of the three below them,  someone breathed an exasperated sigh.

“I’m glad you nudged Nana out early,” Yoshio said.  “I knew that woman was going to try to pull a stunt.  She’s the big fault the village almost came to blows the last time Chiya and Michio blew  up.”

“She’s always like this, isn’t she?” Shimame asked, tapping her fan to her chin.

“All the time,” Kazuo replied.

“Well, let’s get ready for tomorrow,” she said.  “I’m not sure what to do yet, but we’ll think of something.” With a click of her fan, the kami were gone.