InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 341

[ 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 341

The small girl Asuka, freshly bathed and dressed, huddled in a corner of the house, hugging a stick doll. She rocked back and forth silently, her head bowed. Tracks from tears marked her face, although she made no sound.

Inishi, Michio's aunt, knelt down by her, holding up a small bowl. "Please, Little Flower, come drink your soup. You haven't had any breakfast today." Her voice was soft, kind, and a little pleading. "I put your favorite fish in it."

The little girl shook her head. The old woman sighed, and put the cup down. "Your otousan will be here soon. Maybe he can do something." She ran her hand over the girl's freshly combed hair. Asuka flinched slightly at the touch, but otherwise didn't react.

This drama was watched from across the room. Arimasu, Michio's father sat at the firepit with Miroku. He gave his head a sad shake, then turned back to the monk.

"Thank you, Houshi-sama, for finding her for us," he said. He looked at his granddaughter and sister with a thoughtful sadness. "I'll never understand what got her out of bed, but thanks to Kwannon you came by when you did. How many children have angry parents, or a missing one? You don't see them running off before sunrise, especially so young." He sighed deeply. "But Asuka-chan is, well, different. Fragile in a special way. And they know it. Those two, her parents...they are going to put me in an early grave worrying about my household. Poor Little Flower"

"She seems a very unhappy child," Miroku said, nodding in agreement. "But is it just missing her okaasan?" He reached in his sleeve and pulled out a rosary which he began fingering. "There's something in her aura. She's not quite like other children, is she?"

Arimasu poured the monk a cup of tea. "There is a story in my family," he said, as he poured it. "Long, long ago, there was a horrible famine in the area. First, the rains dried up and the barley failed and the rice withered. Then there was a kamikaze, a great storm that washed away the paddy dykes and water gates and many of the homes. Finally a great earthquake shook what was left down to the ground." The old man took a sip of his own tea.

Miroku picked up his cup. "And then, Arimasu-sama?"

"A wandering holy man said there was a dragon nearby who was angry at the whole district," Arimasu continued. "He offered some prayers, our ancestors gave him a little of the little left, and people got back to living their lives. Mostly. The crop next year was a good one, people rebuilt their houses, repaired the water gates and paddy fields. Life went on. Except for some folks. The light went out of their eyes, their dreams were filled with nightmares and more than one of them died by their own hands. They were called the Dragon's Fee."

Arimasu put his cup down. "Most of the families here forgot about that dark time. Most. I don't blame them. It was dark thing to live through, and may the Buddha and the kami keep such dark days from happening here again."

"But yours didn't?" Miroku asked.

The old man shook his head. "I don't know if we were particularly marked out, or if it's a feature of our bloodline, but from time to time, we produce a child who is different. Given to nightmares. Some times they see things the rest of us cannot see, as if touched by the spirits. Pulled by other things than the life and trials of merely being a farmer. We call them Dragon Touched in my family. Some got better, some became seers, but many collapsed under the weight of the touch."

Miroku studied the scene playing out in the corner and frowned. Something was happening that made his spiritual powers tingle. Unable to discern it, he turned back to the older man. "Couldn't anything be done?" Miroku asked. "Healing or training or discipline? Having spiritual gifts can be a heavy load. Mine took years of training."

"Some was tried, but remember we are just farming folk," Arimasu said. "Most of the time, there wasn't even a temple near, or a priest, just our local miko. People have called in holy men and healers. Some were called fox possessed, but seldom did any exorcism work. My father's younger brother was one. In the end, he couldn't stand it any more and drowned himself in the river." The old man sighed. "He too started out as a young child with nightmares."

Nori, Michio's oldest child, walked in, carrying a water bucket.

"Put that down, girl, and come over here and sit with your sister," Inishi said, getting up. "Try to get some food into her if you can."

Nori hurried over and pulled her sister into her lap. "There, Little Flower," she said, wrapping the girl in her arms. "Neesan has you safe today. None of your dream monsters will get you." She began to hum a wordless tune and rock the little girl. It didn't have much impact on the little child as she let herself be handled, but stared out into space instead of looking up at the person who was trying to cuddle her.

Inishi sighed, picked up the soup bowl and poured it back into the pot keeping warm in the fire pit. "I've never seen her this bad," she said. "Nori is almost always able to get her to respond. But I don't know if sitting over here telling fantasy stories is going to make things any better.

"I wouldn't call them fantasy stories, Inishi-chan," Arimasu said. "You remember Hiseo-ojisan."

"A sad man, who came to a sad end," the woman said. She stood up. "I've got laundry to take care of." And with that, she headed outside.

Arimasu sighed. "She was close to our uncle. It hurts her to talk about him."

The monk nodded. "Losing people we are close to, especially if we are young, can be a hard thing." He thought briefly of his own critical moment, sighed, then put on his own professional face to chase away his reaction. "And beyond everything that happened this morning, this is why you have worries about Azuka-chan," Miroku said. "Has this been going on for a while.

The old man nodded. "She already has the nightmares. Chiya seemed to be able to soothe the child, but still the dreams would come."

"When things have calmed down," Miroku said, pulling out the rosary in his hand, "I would like to examine her. I can't promise things right now, but perhaps we might find out why these things are happening, and if there's anything to make it easier for her. Until then, have her wear this rosary. It might calm down the dreams." He handed the string to the old man. "They had me wear one like this after my father passed on. He died rather...traumatically. It helped me sleep again."

Arimasu nodded, and was just about to say something, when the doormat lifted, and Michio dashed into the house.

"Where is...where is Asuka-chan?" he demanded.

The old man pointed to the corner. "Home where she ought to have been, thanks to Houshi-sama here."

Michio dashed across the room, and picked up the little girl and crushed her to his chest. "My Little Flower, you're safe. You're safe," he said as he held her close.

As if just waking up, Asuka looked into her father's face, reached out and touched his cheek. "I want Haha, Chichi. Can you take me there?"

Michio looked into his daughter's eyes, and took a deep breath. "You want your okaasan?"

The little girl nodded vigorously. For a moment, Michio chewed on his bottom lip, as if pondering what he experienced during the morning, the words his mother-in-law and father-in-law had said to him, and the knowledge of what he almost lost. He ruffed the top of his daughter's hair. "Then let's go get her, Little Flower. Let's go get her."

 

 

On the hill on the other side of the village, the people there had no idea of the drama playing out at Michio's house. At Daitaro's house, Shinjiro didn't have a hoe on his shoulder this morning, or an adze. Today he had a rake. Aki, who looked at him nervously trailed behind the farmer.

"Where's Daitaro-sama?" the boy asked. "He left right after breakfast. I thought he'd be working with us today."

"So did I," the older man said, and shrugged. "But then Isamu dropped by, and off Otousan went. Didn't tell me a thing. Not sure he told Genjo anything, either. So here we are, stuck working by ourselves today."

Aki sighed. "I thought at least we'd get to work in the beanfields or something."

The farmer shook his head. "No, we finally finished planting those. Now we get to straw the rice starting paddy." He lifted his rake out of the way and rubbed the back of his neck. "We'd have probably already had that done, but I believe the wedding has put us a few days behind schedule. So it's important to get it done today. The rice plants need to get started."

"I thought most people here got their starts from their ko leader, like Tameo or Tsuneo," Aki said, surprised.

"Ah," Shinjiro said, looking back at the boy. "This isn't just any rice. This is the rice Otousan raises for his sake. It's a special type, and we've been growing it for generations. Otou would be very unhappy if we didn't give it a good start."

"Special rice?" Aki asked.

"Blessed by the kami, that rice," a voice to their left said. The two of them turned to see Choujiro pushing his cart of tools. "It has to be, to make a sake that good."

"Otousan would agree with you," Shinjiro replied, "which is why he'll tan our hides if we don't get the crop in just right."

Aki looked at the woodworker longingly and sighed.

Choujiro noticed. "Work well for Shinjiro-sama this morning, boy. Maybe he'll let me pry you away from him this afternoon."

Shinjiro nodded. "If there's anything left of him to work, you can have it. Still working on InuYasha's shed?"

"Almost have the boards split out. Then the framework goes up. I'll be calling for you when that time comes. It takes many hands for that."

Shinjiro turned to Aki. "Well, boy, we better get to work. This spring has a lot for us to do."

With a wave the two walked off, and the woodworker continued up the hill. Not long after,Choujiro rolled his cart up to the hanyou's place. Kagome was in front of her house, directing InuYasha, who was carrying the laundry tub. The hanyou put it down where she pointed and went off to get the water buckets.

"Beautiful day," the woodworker said. "Taking the day off from doing miko work?"

"Ah, good morning, Choujiro-ojisan. Kaede-obaasan's orders," Kagome said, walking to the laundry tub with a basket full of clothes. "She told me to take a few days off to rest."

There was a snort behind her as InYasha arrived with the water bucket. "Feh, if you can call doing laundry taking a day off," he said, as he poured the water into the tub. "Is that enough, or do you want another?"

"One more," Kagome replied.

"Different work rests, my okaasan used to say," the woodworker said as he watched them for a moment. "I better be getting to my own work." He began rolling the cart back to his work area.

"She sounds like a wise woman," Kagome replied, as she started sorting through her clothes basket.

"Must be a woman's thing," the hanyou said, shaking his head. He went to fetch the other bucket.

As InuYasha walked back to where Kagome was working, he took a good look at his wife. This morning she looked like any other housewife in the village, in a blue kosode with tied back sleeves and a bright scarf tied around her head to keep her hair out of the way instead of a powerful miko who only the day before freed something uncanny from the house where Maeme and her sons lived. Her wrap skirt was already damp from the laundry water and she seemed perfectly contented with the change of roles. It never ceased to amaze him how she could be both the happy village woman and such a person of power – like him a person that was made up of two different types of beings. She was wringing out a towel, and he watched for a moment as she twisted the white cloth as free from water as she could, then moved to hang it up to dry. Laughing, she shook the wet cloth in his direction, which brought him back to the here and now. He grinned a moment and hurried over with the water bucket.

She stepped back as he poured the last bucket of water into the wash tub. "Off to chop some wood?" she asked.

"Not this morning. Gonna go talk to Kaede-baaba. I want to talk to her about something."

"Good," Kagome said, wiping the tip of her nose, where a drop of water had splashed it. "You can tell her not to bother coming over to check on me today. I know she didn't want me coming to her house today, and I have more than enough to do if we're going to go on our trip tomorrow."

"You sure you're feeling all right?" he asked, but he could tell from her scent and her look that she was back to normal.

She gave him a brilliant smile. "I thought I proved that last night."

He coughed, just a little. "If you need anything, Choujiro's right back there."

They both could hear the pounding of his mallet in the area behind the house.

Kagome started scrubbing the laundry in the tub. "I'll be fine, InuYasha. Go, and let me work."

He nodded, and headed down the hill.