InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dogs in Tokyo ❯ Chapter 37 ( Chapter 37 )

Chapter 37

Souta woke up early the next morning and stretched luxuriously on his futon, kicking over some toys and searching about under his covers with his bare toes for something. Having found it, he rolled over on one side and toed the button on the top of the remote controller that was tucked underneath his covers and watched as a red light started flashing on the other side of his bedroom.

With a whirr and a muted clatter, the Gundam Robot that he had positioned the night before actuated and trundled forward, trailing a small cart upon which sat a box of imported cereal from America. The name was very hard to pronounce but it worked out to “fortunate bangles” or something like that. His mother would get a box for him every so often through a buyer’s club and he loved them. Behind the box sat a bowl, a spoon, and a small jar of hermetically-sealed soy milk. Souta grinned to himself and sat up, pushing the covers aside in a heap so he could pour out his breakfast rations. A little more powerful motor and a way of getting to the bathroom without having to get up out of the bed at all and maybe he would have something he could market to any schoolboy across the islands of Japan.

Having eaten most of the cereal and slurped most of the milk, he dumped the rest in his trash and carefully dried both the bowl and spoon, tucking them away in the top of his cereal box. Today was Culture Day, November third, and Souta stood up to slide aside his window screen and take a look at this day so famous for the past one hundred years for its brilliantly clear weather. Despite its being Culture Day, Souta didn’t have to go to school on account of the wedding and the result was that he was almost in an ecstasy of freedom. Not that Kagome’s wedding wasn’t going to take up most of the day anyway but that was all going to be a party, wasn’t it?

Thunder rolled ominously overhead as Souta stared out in surprise at the dank morning. The shrine grounds were shrouded in mist and the eaves of the house dripped dismally. It could’ve been a month ago for all he could tell, right smack in the center of typhoon season. He leaned his head out and could see the purplish-red of the mulberry trees among the gray buildings of the shrine and fancied he could see a break in the clouds to the east. Of course it would clear; today was Kagome’s wedding day and anything associated with either Inuyasha or Sesshoumaru seemed guaranteed to be both magical and interesting. Today would be fine.

Thus satisfied; he pulled his head in and padded out of his room to the head of the stairs where he could hear his grandfather’s voice echoing up from below complaining loudly about the weather and the likelihood of a downpour.

Jijii-Chan grunted a greeting as Souta cut through the kitchen on his way to the facilities. He was hanging over a large mug filled dangerously close to the brim with green tea. He had a folded blanket over his neck and shoulders and looked rather like a tortoise carefully sticking its neck out to feed.

Jukuryo sat to one side of the table eating a pile of toast imperturbably. He would take a spoonful of natto from one of those ubiquitous little Styrofoam boxes and spread it on the buttered toast before folding the bread in half and eating it in quick bites. He was holding a cell phone up to one ear and waved his slimy spoon abstractedly at the passing boy as he made sotto-voiced comments into the phone in response to his unseen caller.

Souta could hear, as he closed the bathroom door, Jijii-Chan taking up his complaints again, “Don’t you think you should be getting those two lay-a-bouts up, Daughter?”

Mama Higurashi was in the corner ladling pickles out of their plastic jar and onto a plate. She shrugged in response. “The kimono lady isn’t here yet. She had to stop off for the other dresser and the kimono. I’ll sort Inuyasha-Kun out myself, so they have half an hour or so. Kagome-Chan just seemed so tired last night that I let her go up to sleep as soon as she got home. I don’t think she realizes just what’s in store for her today.” Another ominous rumble sounded overhead. “Good thing we got those enclosure screens for the music hall repaired. Maybe, when people see how nicely things go off for Kagome-Chan’s wedding they’ll be more interested in renting the shrine halls for weddings. At least, we can hope so.”

Jijii-Chan slurped at his tea and blotted at the resulting spot on his front in a spirit of disagreement and glanced up as the sound of a car could be heard from the driveway behind the house.

Higurashi-San heard it too and went to open the back door as the kimono lady’s elderly gray Toyota pulled up close to the steps. Mama stepped out and waved a greeting as the engine cut off. “Ohayo gozaimasu. I hope we are not inconveniencing you by asking you to be here so early.”

“Oh, no, not at all.” Oshima-San replied briskly as she hopped out of the car. “Most families start early. And this is such an interesting assignment.” She rattled her keys in her fingers as she opened the trunk where the collapsed rack and the folded and re-bound Itsuitsu-ginu rested

Nakamura-San had swung her door open but sat uncertainly in the passenger’s seat, not setting so much as a toe on the ground. Jukuryo appeared in the open doorway of the kitchen and stepped out to walk around the front of the car and greet her courteously. She looked up in response and smiled but her face looked a little strained, “I’m not really sure I should be here.”

He gave her a sharp look from behind his spectacles and started feeling about inside his jacket, “Ah, I see, forgive me, I had not realized…”

Mama looked up at that moment and saw that her other visitor remained in the car, “Are you Nakamura-San?” she asked, stepping swiftly forward. “Please, enter my house. I hear your assistance has been invaluable.”

The moment she said that Nakamura-San hopped out of the car and made a bow that was rather deeper than normal, “Very pleased to assist, Higurashi-Sama! This dress and, if I may say so, this very wedding is one of great interest!”

Mama looked a little taken aback, but pleased, nevertheless, and smiled as she led the way into the house to get things set up in the living room. They would dress Kagome there. Souta had finished in the bathroom and was directed by his mother to the neatly folded hakama and haori waiting for him on top of the dryer. He put them on, managing the complicated knot himself with only a little fiddling. Mama nodded approval as he passed her on his way out the door, “Stay clean.” She said.

>>>>o<<<<

Jijii-Cha n and Jukuryo had left the kitchen, heading for the shrine offices, Jijii-Chan still with his blanket wrapped around his shoulders and pulled partway up over his head. The unpleasant turn in the weather and the late nights were beginning to tell on him and he rather thought he was coming down with a cold. Souta could hear his soft litany of complaints as he bit into a pastry he had swiped from the kitchen counter. It had stopped raining and the garden dripped with fat drops of rain water causing Souta to pick his way between the bushes at the corner of the house.

The caterers had already arrived. Their small van was pulled up onto the lawn as close to the wicket gate to the shrine grounds as it could get with the doors standing wide open. Souta could see trays on racks on the inside and noticed the glimmer of electric light in the large, old style, music hall through its opened screens. ’ They must be setting up in there for the reception.’ he thought and was just about to head through the gate and watch the work going forward when his eye caught a brief flash of color moving somewhere is the trees over to his left. He promptly veered off course to follow it.

He came upon a young woman wearing a flowered kimono of apricot silk the sleeves of which were clearly picking up more water than they deserved as she reached among his mother’s autumn flowers snapping off stalks of disheveled chrysanthemums to add to a bundle of cherry twigs she already held in one hand. Souta paused and watched her for a moment, chewing on the last bits of his pastry and brushing absently at the front of his haori.

“Do you think I should be doing this?” The young woman asked, turning around to face him.

Souta thought about it, staring at the way her straight, chestnut, waterfall of hair fell from a single clip on one side of her head. “Don’t know. Are you Rin-Chan?” The young woman’s face dimpled briefly and she nodded. “Then I guess it’s OK.”

The sound of a couple of male voices being raised in argument drew the attention of both of them to the side of the house where Sesshoumaru could clearly seen to be standing on the narrow purchase afforded by the lip of the blue-tiled roof below Kagome’s window. Inuyasha stuck his head out for a moment, the red of his suikan jacket startling against the darkness of the room behind him.

Sesshoumaru’s voice carried all the chill of a northern sea breeze, “You are not wearing that to the wedding.”

“No! I am not! I only pulled this on because…Oh, fuck it. Why are you here?”

“I intend to make sure you do not shame me.”

“Oh you do, do you?”

“Inuyasha, I can’t see past your sleeve.” An insistent hand was tugging at Inuyasha’s sleeve and his head pulled back in the window to be replaced by Kagome’s. She ignored Sesshoumaru’s lurch as he drew back in surprise and leaned far out, scanning the shrine grounds. She caught sight of Rin and waved an arm. “Ohayo! Rin-Chan, I just knew you would be here.” She started to wriggle out through the window to Sesshoumaru’s obvious shock.

“Oi, Kagome! Why do you have to be such a troublesome girl?” Kagome gave a squawk as Inuyasha suddenly re-appeared behind her and emerged straight through the window with Kagome tucked under one arm. Sesshoumaru watched them go as Inuyasha hopped down to the ground with Kagome in his arms and then took the opportunity to slip in through the open window behind them.

Inuyasha deposited Kagome on her feet and then spun on his heel with an infuriated “OI!” leaping back after his brother.

Kagome stared after him as he clambered precipitously back in through the window but could not bring herself to believe that either brother would allow an altercation to become violent in her small bedroom. She wrenched her eyes away to greet Rin and exclaimed over the beauty of her kimono, quite ignoring the wetness that marred Rin’s trailing sleeves and completely failing to notice the mud visible at the hem.

“What do you suppose Sesshoumaru could mean about Inuyasha shaming him?” She asked, finally returning to what was uppermost in her mind.

“Sesshoumaru-Sama intends to see that Inuyasha is properly dressed for the wedding.” Rin said as she wound a red ribbon around the stems of her bouquet of purloined flowers. Kagome reached over to help.

“Oh, Inuyasha already has an outfit made up.” She said airily, “He needn’t show up outside of my window so early in the morning for that.” Done with the bouquet she looked around and suddenly seemed to register the sight of Souta in all his finery. She paled and a hand crept up to her throat, “It’s today isn’t it? My wedding’s today. How could nobody tell me?!”

Souta went to her anxiously, “Kagome, I knew, that’s why they were replacing the rice straw rope yesterday from the front of the shrine. Weren’t you paying any attention?” Kagome stared at him, dark eyes wide in a white face.

Rin stepped forward and thrust her bouquet into Souta’s hands, “Kagome-Chan, please sit down and compose yourself. You will be fine.” In a moment Kagome found herself settled on the wet grass, Rin beside her, superbly heedless of the ruin of her kimono, “Now, take a deep breath and relax. You are already mated to Inuyasha so it is not such a big step to marry him. It’s just doing what people expect.”

Souta nodded vigorously, “You should see all the responses to Mama’s invitations. It seems like everyone related to us and most of the shrine families are all coming. There should be a real crowd.”

His intentions were good but Kagome just goggled at him and mouthed the words, “everyone is coming,” through white lips.

Rin tapped on her knee to draw her attention and plastered a smile onto her face, “I must tell you what Sesshoumaru-Sama said…”

Kagome rubbed her forehead and frowned at Rin, “Rin-Chan, If Sesshoumaru is your mate, I don’t think you need to keep calling him Sesshoumaru-Sama.”

Rin brushed some leaves off of her skirt and smiled composedly, “Oh, but he isn’t.” She could hardly have chosen something more calculated to bring Kagome out of her funk if she’d tried.

“He what? What happened? I was so sure!”

Rin widened her eyes at her, “You know, that was very much Sesshoumaru-Sama’s reaction. Well, his was much more understated but it was the same thing all over. He just pokered up and said, ‘I see.’” She said, demonstrating the action and dropping her voice to a chill growl. Kagome was torn between the need to giggle and the need to just fall over in shock. Rin dropped her shoulders and returned to her usual breathless tones, “He didn’t see at all, of course. He seemed so surprised that I almost took pity on him and told him I didn’t really mean it right then and there. But I held firm to my intention and he is here and going to help his brother as he should.” Rin nodded briskly and fell silent, taking her bundle of flowers back out of Souta’s lax grip.

Kagome sat watching her pick loosened petals off of the chrysanthemum heads, which weren’t standing up so well to being passed back and forth so much. After a moment she ventured, “Rin-Chan, just what is your intention?”

“Why, to teach him a lesson, of course. He needs one. Badly. And this is just the opportunity to do it.” She ignored Kagome’s whirr of dismay and continued on, taking on steam as she did it, “All this time I’ve worshipped at his boots, and who wouldn’t? But I can’t say that sort of thing has been very good for him. It’s true I was only twelve when we found the portal that Kagura had shown us and traveled through to this era but I’ve grown up a lot since then and had plenty of time to think about things.”

Kagome nodded in agreement and wondered how it had been for her new friend as an isolated child following a rootless youkai. She drew her attention back as Rin continued, “The thing is, you see, that I grew up and Sesshoumaru stayed the same. Remote, denying attachment to anyone, and always seeking power. After Naraku was gone, there was very little to rule over, so many youkai had been killed. I saw his loneliness and could do nothing as I was still a child.

She sighed and resumed picking petals off of her flowers, “Here, in this time, I grew up. Under a long series of private tutors. I’m past my twentieth year by any count. But Sesshoumaru, he could only see me as a child.” The flowers dropped unheeded to her lap. “So, I acted as a child. And then the accident happened and Sesshoumaru-Sama placed me in his daemon house for safe-keeping. Where I stayed until you woke me up. I still have to thank you for that.”

Kagome murmured something in response but then said, “What then?”

“Well,” Rin replied, hands going back to the denuded flowers and starting to twist at the cherry twigs, “then he told me about what and happened and where I was and about daemon houses. And how they could only be entered by someone who was either a blood relative with invitation, a possession or pet, prey or a mate. He said that he had not really considered it when he brought me in but the house supported me nonetheless and my lifetime was now tied to his. He said I had a choice and hoped I would be his mate.” Rin took a deep breath and sighed, “All I could see were the shadows on the walls and the spider webs In the rafters. If his house was his heart and his house was in this condition, then what of his heart? I told him I would be his pet, that I did not think he could love me and that I didn’t want to trap him in such a position.”

“Oh, Rin, no…”

“Oh, Rin, yes. Rin-Chan knows Sesshoumaru-Sama very well. But Sesshoumaru-Sama knows himself not at all. Maybe he will clean up his house and open his heart and start to see me as I really am. And if that happens…” Rin grinned.

Kagome laughed and started to say something when her mother appeared agitatedly around the corner of the house, “Kagome-Chan! Kagome-Chan, there you are! You must come and dress!” Kagome jumped guiltily and scrambled to her feet and both she and Souta gave Rin a hand up as the constricting folds of her wet kimono got in her way. Once up, the trio followed Higurashi-San back into the house leaving the wreckage of the bouquet behind in the grass.

>>>>o<<<<

“Now would you tell me why the fuck you are here?” Inuyasha had asked in an irritable tone as he re-entered Kagome’s window.

“Your wedding is today.” Sesshoumaru stated, looking as coldly dangerous and formal as ever he had.

Inuyasha barely suppressed a moan of annoyance and rolled an eye at his brother, “Your point?”

“You should already see my point. You, Inuyasha, are representing our family on the day of your marriage…”

“Why does no one think I can act right?”

“It’s not ‘acting right’ that is my concern! It’s being right that matters.”

“Oh, like you are right in all that you do!”

“Shut-up, you stupid whelp.” Sesshoumaru spoke deliberately and without real heat. “Let me see these wedding clothes you have.”

Caught slightly off guard by Sesshoumaru’s simply-stated request, Inuyasha went and got the outfit that the kamis of his house had made for him out of the cupboard over Kagome’s bed. His face was distrustful as he passed the clothes over and he stood in sullen silence with his arms folded over his chest as his brother picked up one item of clothing after another, looking them over. Inuyasha’s ears were firmly swiveled towards the voices that he could just catch from the garden, however, judging from the subject of conversation. It was just as well that while Sesshoumaru’s sense of smell was incomparable, Inuyasha won claws down on the subject of hearing. Or did he?

Sesshoumaru grunted as he studied the embroidery of the mons on the haori jacket and finally tossed it aside, “Fine, then, take it off.”

Inuyasha’s ears flicked and he stepped back a bit, “What?”

“You heard me, take it off!”

Inuyasha looked from Sesshoumaru’s determined face to the clothing on the bed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No. not at all. This Sesshoumaru never kids.”

“That Sesshoumaru is full of shit.”

“It would be a shame for that Inuyasha to show up at his own wedding missing his balls.”

“Fuck you.”

“Your choice.” Sesshoumaru said simply and grabbed for him.

>>>>o<<<<

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