InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Ever After ❯ Chapter 343

[ 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 343

While InuYasha walked up the stairs to the shrine on the hill, Sukeo, looking all of fifteen and nervous, stepped back into the house that Koume and Fumio lived in. His brother Nakao was sitting next to his mother, who was sitting near the firepit, looking down at some sewing Koume had given her to do. Maeme glanced up as he walked into the room, her eyes still haunted, as if she saw the whole world as a strange and frightening place ready to strike her down, but as she recognized the young man, she smoothed the darkness out of her face for a time, and gave him a small smile.

"You're back? Everything's all right at the house?" she asked.

"Yes. I watered the cow and made sure the rooster hadn't gotten into everything," the youth said. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

"What, go home?" Maeme asked. "Everybody's been so kind, but it's time I get back to my own home."

"I bet your fingers are missing your loom, Maeme-chan," Naoi said, patting the troubled woman's hand. "I know mine do if I'm away too long."

Maeme looked at Nahoi, and nodded shyly. "It's true. Looking at your loom…"

Koume laughed lightly, a warm and friendly laugh. "Oh, I could tell, I could tell. If you weren't going back to your house, we'd have to move your loom here."

"But you'll have to come visit," Nahoi said. "You have to show me how to warp that beautiful cloth you make."

Fumio stepped in the house and stood behind Sukeo. "I am sure that you two, daughter, Maeme-chan, will be wearing a new path back and forth between our two houses before it's all over."

Maeme smiled, a fleeting, shy but real grin at Nahoi. "Yes, I will show you. It's complicated, but once I get the piece I'm working on done, that's what I'll put on next."

"So, are we ready to go to Toshiro's?" Fumio asked, resting a hand on the young man's shoulder.

Sukeo nodded and gestured to his brother. The younger boy gave his mother a sideways glance and sighed. "Me, too?" he asked.

"Yes. This involves you, too," Sukeo said. "You are one of the men in our family."

His voice let the younger boy know it was a command, not a suggestion. Frowning, Nakao got to his feet.

"It's all right if -" Koume started, but Fumio gave her a sign with his hand, and she let her words trail off.

Maeme looked at both boys, closed her eyes once, and took a very deep breath, and shuddered slightly. "I...I…" Nahoi reached over and took her hand. She nodded to her friend. "This is something I need to do," she whispered, then stood up. "My sons are good men, but they shouldn't act like this. I will go with you. Nakao needs me as much as I need him. You, too, Sukeo. So much has been thrust on you for me – but you are still my son, a son who needs his okaasan. All three of us will go and see what Toshiro is doing. Then you and I will go home."

"So brave," Nahoi whispered.

"Yes she is," Koume said. "Yes, she is."

 

Down by the river, Chiya toyed with the last of her breakfast. Her soup was almost too cool to drink, and she made a face as she sipped it. Hana was outside doing something. Through the open window she could hear her gossipping with Nana and Rikuyou. Off in the distance, children were playing, joined with the deeper voice of another man who Chiya knew to be the crazy man that her father had insisted being kept at the main house.

"As long as they keep him away from me," she muttered, swallowing one last sip of her soup. "If he had never come here, none the last week would have happened." Sighing deeply she pushed her tray away from her. "I want to go outside. I want to visit my okaasan. I want to do anything but spinning." She picked up a bundle of hemp and glanced at her spinning wheel. "What I did...was it bad enough to deserve all this?"

Wallowing in her own thoughts, she didn't notice the voices of the children outside grow hushed. She didn't hear Miroku talking in a soft voice, or Nana hushing the children, herding them inside. She began spinning, her head bowed down. The door mat opened up and soft footsteps walked to where she was sitting, but she didn't look up.

"You can take the tray, Hana-chan. I can't eat any more this morning," she said, pulling out a thread.

"Wife," a soft, male voice said.

She looked up, shocked. As it dawned on her it was Michio, her Michio standing before her. Her heart began to race. "Michio – did you come here to...to...to…"

He reached out, brushed her cheek gently with his hand. "I came here to take you home."

 

While Chiya was trying to digest what was going on with Michio, InuYasha stopped by the room at the shrine, totally unaware of all the dramas going on on the other side of the village. Instead, he picked up the old bag, gave it a heft to feel how full it was, inspected it quickly, and took the back way to his house on the hill.

By the time he got back, Kagome's laundry was all hung up and fluttering a little in the breeze, and she was sitting outside, sewing.

She looked a little bemused by what he was carrying. "Is that what I think it is?" she asked.

"That's what I went to talk to Kaede about. I told you I was going to get it today. We put it in the shrine for safekeeping after you left," he said, a little surprised at her reaction.

"I remember you told me that," Kagome said. "I just never thought about seeing it again."

Swinging it off his shoulder, InuYasha placed the huge yellow pack on the ground. Kagome looked at it, a range of emotions playing across her face as she touched the yellow fabric. It was basically whole and hearty; three years in storage hadn't done it any harm. She lifted it up by one of the straps and pulled it into her lap.

"It's not going to bite you, you know," InuYasha said.

"I know," Kagome said, nodding. "There's just a lot of memories wrapped up in this pack." She ran her fingers over a dark blotch. "That's a place where Shippou managed to get ink on it." Further down, there was a neat bit of sewing. "And that's where you managed to accidentally cut it when I caught you rummaging for some snacks."

"I keep telling you I was stupid back in those days." He grinned at her, a little sheepishly.

Kagome looked up at her husband and nodded. "And I didn't really understand how much you had to learn about living with people. I thought I knew, but not really."

"Feh," he said. "But you taught me. Might have been hard, but I did learn."

She reached over and kissed his cheek. "You did, and it was worth it."

There was a noise behind the house as Choujiro dropped something, a reminder that they weren't really alone out here in their yard.

Kagome glanced that way, and sucked on her bottom lip a moment. "Let's take the pack inside." "I don't really wanting to be spilling my memories out where others could here. And I don't exactly remember what I packed that morning."

"It was a crazy time," InuYasha said. "We were so wound up and the big battle was on us. Not surprised." And picking the pack up, he followed his wife into their house.

Kagome sat down towards the back of the room, where she would have plenty of room to spread out whatever was in her yellow bag, and InuYasha put the bag in front of her, sitting down next to her. Once again she ran her hand over the big yellow bag, a little dingy from wear, but still quite usable.

"So, you going to open it?" the hanyou asked. "It's not going to bite you."

She ignored that comment. "Did you ever open it up to see what I had in it?" she asked. "I really don't remember what I brought with me, except it's not textbooks. School was done, and I was going to be going to a new school, so I didn't bring any study stuff."

He shook his head. "Never did," the hanyou said.

"Why?" Kagome asked.

"I kept hoping you'd come back and get it, I guess." His right ear twitched as he met her eyes. "It...it was like a little promise for the future, maybe."

"I feel kind of odd opening this. It's almost like it belongs to another person," she said. "Is that silly of me?"

"Sort of," he said, shrugging. "It was only three years ago."

"A lifetime ago," she said, sucking on her lip again, something she sometimes did to build up her determination. "Well, let's see what it is. I don't really remember."

She unzipped the main compartment and stuck her hand in. It hit something that made a crinkling sound, and the first thing she pulled out was a bag of potato chips. "I don't know if these are any good any more. They get kind of nasty after a while, soft instead of crisp. "

He looked at the bag wistfully. "That's ok." Taking it from her hand, he put it to the side.

The next thing she pulled out was a cup of ramen. And another cup, and two more after that. "These should still be good."

His eyes lit up.

"Maybe we should take them with us on our trip," she said. "You remember how good a road food it is."

His ear flicked, as if he were a little disappointed it wasn't for immediate eating. "Yeah, good idea."

Reaching in again, she found her old first aid kit. "I'm sure some of this is still good," she said, and put it on the side.

"That sting-y stuff still good?" he asked.

She giggled a little. "Yes, I suspect it still is."

Digging deeper, she pulled out her old sleeping bag. "That might be nice to take with us. Maybe," she said, wiggling her eyebrows at him, "there's enough room for both of us."

The hanyou coughed. "Maybe we can use it as a futon, instead. I know you can open it up."

"That's probably a better idea," she replied.

There were two pair of her old socks, a spare pair of penny loafers, some underthings and sleep clothes, and down at the very bottom, an extra one of her old school uniforms.

"I don't know if those are good for anything any more except maybe to make rags out of," she said, shaking the old green skirt out.

"Don't throw it away," he said. "Can you still wear it?"

"I'm not sure," she said. "I am a little bigger than when I was fifteen. Why don't you want me to get rid of it?"

He blushed a little. "Memories. Daydreams."

"Oh," she said, and then she got a glint in her eye. It was hot and seductive, and InuYasha gulped. "Would you like to see if I can still wear it?"

Not saying anything, he gave her a nod, swallowing hard at how fast the air had gotten charged.

"Go sit out front while I do this," she said.

He slunk out of the house. "Let me know when I can come in."

A little later, her voice beckoned him inside. Instead of the modest housewife she usually dressed like at home, or the capable, sacred miko which were her work clothes, she was transformed into something that took his breath away as all the memories of seeing her in that outfit came rushing back to him. The skirt was shorter than he remembered, probably because she was actually a little taller, and her curves filled it out a little better. The top pulled across the top of her chest tighter than he remembered.

"You know, there's no way I'm wearing this out of the house," she said, smiling. "The skirt's too short any more. And the top's a little tight. " She moved her arms like she was pulling a bow. "I'd have trouble pulling my bow wearing this."

"I...I…" InuYasha swallowed. He walked up to her, and wrapped his arms around her. His hands slid under the back of her blouse "I don't want you wearing it where anybody but me can see you."

"Used to be everybody saw me dressed like this." She looked up at him, amused.

"That was then." One of his hands slid down and slipped beneath her skirt. He was not really surprised to find that his fingers touched the silky cloth of her underpants, something she never wore any more but that seemed rather important in a garment so short. "This is now." He pulled her tight against him, and his mouth found hers, hungrily.

Suddenly, from outside of the house, he heard Choujiro shout. "Ah, damn it! It's going to…" There was a loud thud as something hit the ground and the carpenter gave a loud yelp.

"Maybe we need to play with this later," Kagome said, a bit disappointed.

"Yeah." With a reluctant sigh, he let her go, a bit slowly, then headed out of the house to see what happened.