InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Feni's Snippets ❯ Seijinshiki ( Chapter 10 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

cstmphotos-en(dot).htm

 

Good old Wiki helped with the names of clothing items:

http(colon)(double slash)en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org(backslash)wiki(backslash)Kimono(pound)

Kimono_accessories_and_related_garments

 

Warnings: Rampant fluff. Keep your toothbrush handy.

 

 

Seijinshiki

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

“What are your plans today, Inuyasha?” Kaede asked, blowing on her cup of steaming tea.

 

The hanyou looked up from his bowl of rice porridge. “Patrol the perimeters, check the snares… track a deer,” he answered, then added with only a slight trace of bitterness, “what I always fucking do in the winter around here.”

 

The elderly miko merely nodded, careful to show no emotion that might be construed as pity. “Will you check on young Sango for me as well? I fear that this pregnancy is not agreeing with her.”

 

“If that damn monk would stop knocking her up every summer, she wouldn't be so ill all the time,” Inuyasha growled, putting down his half-filled bowl. “If he keeps this up, she'll be dead by next spring. Those kids need their mother, not a memory of one.” Kaede again nodded rather than speaking as he stood up, shook out his sleeves and shoved Tetsusaiga into place at his hip.

 

She moved to stand just inside the doorway of her hut and watched as the hanyou strode away through the snow, his robes as bright as spilled blood. I wonder how long it will be before he ceases to return here when the days grow shorter; already Shippo has made the choice to stay with his own kind. Letting the mat drop back into place, she heaved her old bones up onto the wooden platform and poked at the fire until the embers spat. Every year Inuyasha's temper becomes shorter and the darkness in his eyes deeper. What will become of him without you, Kagome?

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

“Grandfather brought in the kimono, Kagome, and I steamed it… are you ready to dress? The appointment with the photographer is in two hours.” Mrs. Higurashi stood in Kagome's doorway, shimmering silk cascading over her arm. The young woman slowly turned her head away from the window, where she had been watching the January wind rustling through the bare branches of the Goshinboku.

 

Smiling listlessly, Kagome murmured, “I guess so…”

 

Mrs. Higurashi sighed a little as she entered the room and laid the exquisite furisode kimono out on the bed. Her hands smoothed over the cool fabric, lightly tracing the hand-painted bouquets and clusters of loose petals trailing across the pale pink background, admiring the dramatic effect of the softly feminine shade turning first to smoky purple and then to deepest black around the hem. So delicate, and yet so strong… “I wore this the day your father proposed, you know,” she said, briefly lost in memory. “It was my Seijinshiki… did you remember to put on your slip?”

 

In reply, Kagome pulled back the hem of the purple under-kimono to reveal the modern full-body cotton garment protecting the precious silks. The unenthusiastic expression on the young woman's face had her mother crossing the room and catching hold of her chin. “It's your special day, my dear. Try to cheer up a little?” she suggested. “I'd like to see your pretty smile in the photographs…”

 

Kagome gave her mother a long, steady look, her eyes dark. “This isn't exactly the way I expected to celebrate my coming of age,” she stated sharply, pulling loose to again stare out the window.

 

“I know.” Mrs. Higurashi laid her hand on Kagome's shoulder. “You've worked so hard for the past four years, graduating from high school with honours, being accepted into university…” They stood quietly, looking out at the ancient tree, the sacred garland fluttering against a scar marring the gnarled bark. When the silence had stretched long enough to be uncomfortable, the older woman murmured, “I know you don't want to hear this, but isn't it time you let go of the past? It will be Setsubun soon… don't you think you should have a new beginning to go along with becoming an adult?”

 

Her daughter went perfectly rigid under her touch; Mrs. Higurashi waited patiently until Kagome ground out, “How long did it take you to get over Dad?”

 

Bowing her head in rebuke, her mother answered, “Point taken… but at least I had you and Sota to cushion my grief.”

 

They remained in silence for a while longer, until Kagome shook off her mother's hand and turned towards the gleaming kimono. “May I wear your tortoiseshell combs?” she asked, reluctantly conceding the importance of the day to her mother.

 

“Yes, of course… and Grandpa bought a new set of kanzashi as your gift.”

 

“Beats a dried-up kappa hand,” came the morose retort.

 

Kagome patiently cooperated while her mother laboured to fit the kimono to her slender frame, draping and folding and tugging the rich fabric until she was finally cinched into the elaborate, multi-layered green brocade obi, which was then secured in its turn by a braided pink cord. Once she was deemed acceptably dressed, she then suffered her shoulder-length hair to be pinned up.

 

“I wish you hadn't cut it,” Mrs. Higurashi chided gently around a mouthful of pins, meeting Kagome's eyes in the mirror.

 

“I was in mourning,” the young woman replied curtly, watching her mother carefully secure the elaborate kanzashi so that the delicate silk flowers spilled fetchingly down the side of her face. A light dusting of powder, a swipe of rosy lipstick, and Mrs. Higurashi paused to admire her handiwork.

 

“You look lovely; your father would be so proud if he could see you today,” she smiled. Gently squeezing Kagome's silken shoulder, she bustled off to chivvy Sota into his good clothes. The lanky teenager had earlier expressed his reluctance to don traditional wear, but she had reminded him that he could be wearing his new middle-school uniform and be sitting in geography class instead of enjoying a day of food and festivities, and he'd capitulated with surprising ease.

 

Kagome studied her reflection sombrely, noting that her resemblance to Kikyo had only increased over the last four years. Her thoughts inevitably turned to the silver-haired hanyou that had linked their lives, and a single tear trickled wetly down her powdered cheek.

 

“Inuyasha…”

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

“Kagome…” A vaporous puff held her name before him in the cold air as the hanyou stared down into the dank depths of the ancient well. No matter which direction he ventured when he left the village, he always seemed to end up here, the last place he had seen the young woman alive four long years before. The numbing loneliness he felt intensified to a dull ache, reminding him why he only returned in the winters `to look after the old hag'.

 

Miroku and Sango knew the real reason why he kept coming back, of course; they'd been the ones who restrained him when he'd almost lost control, so crazed with exhaustion after spending nearly a month continuously throwing himself into the well in hopes that this time it would open and allow him to reach Kagome. I should have gone with you… I shouldn't have let you go…

 

In the battle's aftermath, with the Jewel abruptly gone from this reality, and with the scent of Naraku's miasma clinging to their skin, he'd dared to kiss her on this very spot. Kagome had blushed so prettily, then stood on tip-toe to return the sweet caress. `Come with me,' she'd urged, holding his hand tightly, her eyes shining in her dirt-streaked face. `I want you to be there, too, to tell the story.' He'd promised to follow later, after doing a final check to make sure none of Naraku's long-suppressed demons remained, and kissed her again before handing her up onto the lip of the well. She'd gifted him with the most beautiful smile before stepping off the edge…

 

After a few months of enduring the daily hazards of living with a depressed and angry hanyou, Miroku had dared to suggest that perhaps the couple had been separated for a reason… because of their immaturity. When Inuyasha snarled back that Kagome was old enough to wed from both youkai and human perspectives, the monk had gently sighed. `You both have quick tempers, you are both too fast to lash out, either verbally or with a subduing spell… I'm trying to say that you may not have been able to live together without growing to despise each other. You have almost no experience of women…'

 

`Shut the fuck up, houshi,' he snarled dangerously, but Miroku fixed him with a fiery look.

 

`I'm not talking about sexual experience, baka! I meant that you are remarkably insensitive to the feelings of others; your mouth is your worst enemy because you say hurtful things before you consider the impact of your words!' he snapped. `You have some growing up to do before you can call yourself an adult!' Miroku's tone softened a little as he added, “The best way to honour Kagome-sama's memory is to conduct yourself as you know she would have wished.”

 

Inuyasha's first impulse was to gut the monk, but he held back. He told himself that he refrained because the pregnant slayer was hormonally deadly, but the real reason was that Miroku's words had struck home. When he left the village with Shippo that spring, he really tried to learn a new way of dealing with people, so that when he saw Kagome again he would be more… what was that word? Empathetic.

 

The first attempts were predictable; since he was practising tolerance on a kitsune that knew exactly which buttons to push, there were plenty of lumps, black eyes and shouted insults. However, as time passed, he found himself offering to help others because he wanted to reach out, not simply because Kagome would have expected it. He was often rejected with fear and disdain, but the infrequent acceptance, sometimes accompanied by thanks and praise, encouraged him to keep trying. In the second summer of wandering, he even fell half in love with a young woman whose smile lit up his heart, but he quickly realized that it was only an echo of Kagome's sunny expression that had attracted him, and so he moved on.

 

“Dammit!” His fist smashed into the venerable wood, driving slivers into his knuckles; the pain steadied him, like it always did. Licking away the blood, Inuyasha again contemplated a bleak and empty future without the one person who truly accepted him for himself. The lack of youkai in her time, once a source of comfort, now tormented him with the possibility that he wouldn't survive long enough to see her again.

 

Looking around furtively, he prepared to give it another try, the same ritual he performed every day of the months that he was resident in the village. Why do I fucking torture myself? It'll be the same this time as always; maybe I should just grow up and accept that I'll never see her again. Rolling over the rim, he dropped into the darkness, instinctively righting himself to land in a crouch. In the depths of his despair just after the well closed, he'd tried to break his neck and end the pain, but his youki refused to cooperate. Right… as if either of us could ever forget Kagome. Awaiting the expected impact, he was abruptly squeezed by tremendous pressure that left him on his knees, gasping painfully as he struggled to orient himself… and suddenly, shockingly realized that instead of open sky, there was a timbered roof far above his head.

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

“Where are we meeting the girls?” Mrs. Higurashi asked as she fussily adjusted the neckline of her peony-adorned homongi kimono while they organized themselves in the entry hall with fans in their obi, lipstick in their handbags and polished zori in hand.

 

“They want to have pictures taken in front of the old teahouse, and then the park with that pretty fountain, before we go to the ceremony at the civic centre…”

 

“Oh, how lovely! Was Hojo invited? Such a clever boy, on the dean's list…”

 

“I hope not,” Kagome replied flatly, fighting down the urge to lose her temper even though she knew her mother wasn't really trying to rub salt in the wound. Mrs. Higurashi had been sympathetic to her plight, but nevertheless hauled her sobbing daughter out of bed on the first day of high school, a scant two weeks after her middle school graduation and only a matter of days after the well closed.

 

`I won't have you breaking your neck by jumping into that well twenty times a day,' she'd declared, hand on hip and steel in her eye. `The girls will be here in half an hour, and you are going out that door with them to give yourself something constructive to do, if nothing else. You need to grow up and get on with it!' Her stern tone softened slightly as she added, `If Inuyasha arrives, I'll phone the school, all right?' However, the phone call never came, and Kagome only desisted from testing the well every day upon arriving home from class when she badly sprained her ankle a few months later, leading to her mother's worried threat to have the well blocked off to prevent further foolishness. Kagome had bowed to the inevitable, filling her days with school and nights with study, improving her grades enough for university entrance so that she could someday honour the past by practising traditional medicine.

 

Despite attending a prestigious all-boys high school on the other side of Tokyo and then entering an even more illustrious university, Hojo had continued to be a hopeful presence in her life, especially once Eri and Yuka decided that Kagome had been callously dumped by her boyfriend. However, Ayumi was more perceptive; she realized the girl's emotional wounds ran deeper than a simple lovers' spat. One day after a cram school session, several weeks into their first semester, she quietly asked about the silver-haired boy, then supplied the tissues as Kagome helplessly wept and told her a modified version of the truth. She had been a good friend over the last few years, fending off the other two and their endless suggestions for taking Kagome's mind off the young man she now referred to as `Sha Nishinu'.

 

Fat chance of forgetting Inuyasha… ever. Kagome started a little at her grandfather's voice. “You look absolutely exquisite, granddaughter,” the old man enthused, beaming. “I have another gift for you!” He proudly offered her a twist of silvery fur; even as she recoiled, Kagome recognized it as a fox stole, considered in some quarters to be an essential accessory on this day.

 

“I can't, Grandpa. I just can't wear… fox fur.” She tried to smile to take the sting out of the rejection, even as memories of bright green eyes and a mischievous grin danced through her mind. “I love the kanzashi, though; thanks very much!” Pressing a kiss to his withered cheek, she quickly slid open the door leading to the foyer, seeking escape from the sudden pain in her chest that had nothing to do with the tightly-bound silk encasing her ribs.

 

At that moment the outer door clattered open, and her heart, which had often felt like it was barely beating, seemed to stall before restarting with a palpable throb.

 

Staring at the silver-haired, red-robed man framed in the opening, her throat went dry even as she drank him in. For his part, Inuyasha had barely recovered from the shock of the well letting him through before he was again stunned by the sight of his Kagome attired like a vision of spring, her eyes as bright as her suddenly-blazing smile.

 

She was the first to break the stasis pinning them in place; heedless of her fine garments, she flung herself across the narrow room and into his arms. “Inuyasha! You're here!” she exclaimed, dropping everything to bury her face in his chest while seizing fistfuls of fire-rat.

 

The hanyou slowly brought up his hands to slide around her shoulders, to confirm what his nose and his eyes told him… that she was real and holding onto him like she was afraid he'd vanish if she let go. Ducking his head, he deeply inhaled her warm scent as he brushed his lips over the bared skin below her ear and was rewarded with a delicate shiver. “Kagome… it's really you… I'm not dreaming…” he murmured, tightening his arms to bring her closer.

 

“If we are dreaming, then I don't want to wake up,” she whispered fiercely. His gaze fastened on her smiling lips, but a polite cough had him snapping his attention to their audience.

 

“Welcome back, Inuyasha,” Mrs. Higurashi said graciously, while her son and her father-in-law gawked over her shoulders at the long-missing hanyou. “It's good to see you again; come in for some tea when you're reacquainted,” she offered before sliding the door closed to give the pair some privacy.

 

Kagome quickly shoved her feet into the dropped zori while maintaining a death grip on Inuyasha's suikan, then quickly pulled the hanyou away from the house. The couple ended up under the Goshinboku, their eyes only for each other. Inuyasha admired the kanzashi in her hair, then brushed the trailing blossoms away from her cheek with careful claws. “What's the occasion?” he asked, too bemused by everything that had happened in the last few minutes to be any more coherent.

 

“It's Seijinshiki,” she replied, nearly delirious with happiness as she gazed up at his dear face. At his cocked head and curious look, she elaborated, “I'm now of legal age… an adult in this time… I've grown up while we were apart.”

 

Her words struck a chord, but he grumbled anyways, “Keh. You were already old enough as far as I was concerned… so what?” Losing himself in her limpid grey eyes, he reluctantly conceded the point that perhaps the fates had done them a favour.

 

Kagome giggled at the random nature of their first conversation in years, but stifled the questions bubbling in her heart to say, “Well… I can now legally drink sake, so now I can get married…” The deep golden intensity of his expression caused her breath to hitch just as his fingertips tilted up her chin, his intentions plainly obvious. She rose up onto her toes to meet him half-way, her eyelashes fluttering shut in anticipation of the kiss; her sandals slipped a little on the paving stones, but his strong arms swept her safely into his embrace.

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

Sota and Grandpa Higurashi arrived back downstairs wearing identical Cheshire-cat grins just as Mrs. Higurashi finished arranging tea cups and mochi cakes on a tray. She shot them a considering look before asking, “What have you been up to?”

 

While Grandpa merely grinned wider, Sota couldn't contain himself. “Looks like Kagome will follow in your footsteps as a spring bride,” he burst out, “but I'll bet Dad didn't kiss you like that in public when you said `yes'!”