InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ A Thimble of Rice ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter Seven: A Thimble of Rice

 

 

The biting wind nipped at Sesshoumaru's face as he flew over the water. His silver hair whipping behind him, he glided effortlessly on the swirling youki beneath his feet. In hues of blue and green, the hazy river below and the twisting branches above blended together in a streaking blur. It appeared almost surreal. As if the world was what was moving faster and he instead was the motionless observer. With a well-guarded smirk, he released a bit more youki. The air yielded instantly to his increasing speed and his glowing, white form shot forward.

 

With an occasional glance back at his slumbering and refreshingly quiet cargo, he scanned the area for any signs of the approaching capital. For several hours, only the river, which seemed more like a sea, greeted his golden eyes. His decision had been a wise one. The idea of rowing up such an endless expanse with a poorly-shaped rice bowl and thin chopsticks was a ridiculous notion at best. He was not at all surprised though. Who would think to do such a thing other than a human? Obviously it was meant to be a tale about courage, but in reality, the boy would be simply swept down river, his efforts wasted.

 

Slightly shifting his weight, he nimbly weaved through a clump of cattails. The tall wispy stalks with thick cylindrical spikes weren't the only plants slowly choking the river. Between the water lilies and lotus, the already gentle currents were stilled almost completely. Sesshoumaru frowned as he swiftly climbed higher to avoid any further tangles with the intertwining leaves. It was becoming more and more apparent that with the tame water, it was entirely possible to travel the distance in the bowl. It was only a matter of determination and time. He sighed softly, silently hoping that the story could be completed without the inane necessity of rowing, especially when flight worked just as well.

 

The glaring radiance of the sun poured down on the tiny travelers as the trees abruptly broke into an open valley. Square-shaped rice paddies littered the landscape with their deep viridian colors. The earthen banks of the river suddenly rose unnaturally high, broken in regular intervals with carefully dug trenches. The troughs lazily harvested the clean water, channeling them into the waiting fields.

 

The youkai lord warily eyed the dark silhouettes of various birds flying in the clear sky overhead. It was proven quite recently, that even though he may be invisible to their sharp vision, the woman was not. That particularly unlucky animal met its unlucky end at the hand of his poison whip, but its brethren may be more fortunate. Sesshoumaru looked back once again at the human nestled comfortably in his pelt. Happily ignorant of her peril, a bit of drool seeped from her parted lips, pooling on his fur. He briefly contemplated dropping her into the river for her impudence at soiling his pelt, but with a wave of the hand, dismissed the thought. How many times had Rin done the same? He never punished her for it, so to do it to this foolish woman would be pointless. If he Sesshoumaru found one thing to be truly disgraceful, it was pettiness.

 

“Tch,” the tai youkai said under his breath, thinking of the gap-toothed ward he indulged too frequently, “That girl is making me soft.”

 

Short dilapidated docks soon replaced the shallow aqueducts and the rice paddies blended into quaint clustered towns. They bustled with activity both on land and on water as the youkai lord found himself navigating now around huge lumbering wooden boats, steered by eager fisherman inspecting their catches. Swallowing up the air with ever increasing speed, he passed by without much difficulty save for a waywardly thrown net he easily dove through.

 

Peeking over the distant tree line, the first signs of the capital appeared as a towering series of temple and castle rooftops. Adorned in red and black clay tiles, they sloped gently, curling at the corners. Clumped around the stately buildings formed a sea of smaller structures. Varied in their size and shape, the marketplaces and homes swarmed with people selling their wares, their shouts easily heard by the tai youkai's sensitive ears as he neared.

 

Slowing down as he entered the city's port, Sesshoumaru alighted on a sturdy, if not well used dock and unceremoniously deposited the school girl onto a worn-smooth wooden plank.

 

“We have arrived,” he spoke loudly and with a subtle measure of annoyance.

 

“Really?” Kagome yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Seated casually on her knees, she stretched back lazily. That was quite possibly the best nap she had ever had and she pouted that it was already over. “I suppose we should get going.”

 

The youkai lord simply nodded, shaking his pelt until he was satisfied that all of the remnants of the woman's stay in his fur were thoroughly disposed of. Curling it once more around his shoulder, he quickly glanced around his person, searching for anything errant. Satisfied with the neatness, he began the long walk down the dock towards the burgeoning city.

 

Kagome watched him quietly, somewhat marveling at his fastidiousness. It was hard not to compare him to his less immaculate younger brother. Inuyasha could go all day with a ramen noodle stuck to his cheek and she knew half the time that the hanyou was aware of it being there. Sometimes, if there was a break in the evening, she'd do her best to groom him by the rich glow of fire pit. The amber light highlighted his white locks so well that she could easily pick out the darker twigs and leaves that he collected throughout a day of leaping through trees and bushes. His thick mane though, always seemed to be a tangled knotted mess and after a few pulled hairs, he'd usually storm off, cursing her for being too rough on him. Of course it was an excuse. He'd gladly take a burning hole through the stomach than have someone brush his hair. It meant a lot that he even let her do as much as she did.

 

Kagome's chest tightened at the unexpected pang of longing. The fact that it was for the place that usually caused her homesickness to begin with wasn't lost on her. Traveling with everyone in the Sengoku Jidai was what made the unending search for the Shikon shards worth it. Their warmth and mirth at her presence made her feel like she actually belonged hundreds of years in the past. She missed Sango's soft melodic singing and Miroku's occasional whispered limerick in her ear. She missed Shippo's tiny, soft padded feet perched happily on her shoulder and finally the rough, caustic curses from Inuyasha when he missed the darting game he flushed for their evening meal.

 

She looked up at the tall departing form of the youkai lord and wondered if he, Jaken and Rin enjoyed the same closeness that seemed to overflow in her group. If they did or not, she doubted he would say, leaving her only to imagine their dynamic. She pursed her lips into a frown. His two followers both referred to him as “Lord” and that didn't really ooze tenderness and love in her opinion. It was with that thought that Kagome felt her curiosity pique.

 

“Sesshoumaru?” she called out loudly, as she climbed over the coils of thick rope that littered the way between her and the tai youkai.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Are you really a lord?” she asked, her voice wavering with a bit of trepidation. It was a perfectly reasonable question, but that didn't mean he would interpret it that way. She could tell he was quite annoyed at her for asking about his father earlier, but then again everything she said seemed to irritate him.

 

Arching an eyebrow, Sesshoumaru suspiciously eyed the woman. Her insistence at referring to him without his title needled him every time she spoke his name. Was it out of malice or ignorance that she persisted with the insult? “You know that I am youkai nobility, why would my lordship be questionable?”

 

“I thought your followers called you lord, just because you seem narcissistic enough to demand that,” Kagome replied with a hesitant laugh. The color drained from her face as the corners of the tai youkai's mouth turned upwards slightly in a soft, but rich chuckle. She didn't know why, but it seemed almost unnatural to see the demon react in such an amused way, especially when she hadn't intended to be funny.

 

“I am the Lord of the Western Lands,” he said after a moment, “Only an insecure fool would insist on being called by an honorific that was not truly his.”

 

“Oh,” she said tapping her lip in thought, “So am I supposed to refer to you as Sesshoumaru-sama?”

 

“You may refer to me however you like; only now you may not plead ignorance when you insult me. Do you call a human lord simply by their name?”

 

“No.”

 

“Youkai lords are no different in that respect. If it seems simpler, think of it as acknowledging the importance of the lordship, not necessarily the importance of the one who retains the title.”

 

“That seems a little too humble an explanation for you.”

 

“There is merit in what you say. It was what my father told me before he died, when it was decided that I would take over his territory. I have yet to tailor the definition to suit my own tastes.” Kagome smiled at his remark, strangely happy that despite the new revelations, the demon was still as arrogant as she thought he was. She was quickly jostled from her contentment by his next remark. “In this same vein, do you wish for me to refer to you as miko?”

 

“Uh, well,” the school girl stuttered, “No one really calls me that.”

 

“Why do you allow them to disrespect your position?” Sesshoumaru said, quirking an eyebrow at her discomfort.

 

“I don't know. I just don't think of myself as a miko. I'm just a high school girl from the future who has purifying powers. Miko doesn't really cover all of that and it's not really part of my identity like it is for priestesses in this time anyway.”

 

“Hn.”

 

The two travelers returned to their usual silence as they made their way down the broad dock. Their careful steps avoiding the gaps between the planks that promised a less than pleasant fall into the deep water below. The heavy footfalls of the hustling merchants and fisherman didn't help as the loose planks shook hard, nearly vibrating the school girl off balance into the perilous cracks.

 

Finally reaching the end of the dock, Sesshoumaru bounded easily to the top of a crate of freshly caught fish and surveyed the best route to the castle. With a slight nod of satisfaction, he leapt down as easily as he had risen, landing next to Kagome, his step softer than a whisper.

 

“We will search for a cart delivering goods to the castle,” he stated firmly in case the woman decided to object to his logic. Without waiting for her approving nod, he strolled out onto the hard packed dirt of the sprawling marketplace. His ears strained for any mention of the castle amongst the incessant blathering of the merchants as they peddled their goods and argued over prices and favors. The idea of melting them all into a puddle of acidic slurry for their trivial banality briefly passed through the tai youkai's mind as he tried to filter the possibly informative discussions from the idle chitchat. Humans were such pointless creatures sometimes, wasting their limited breaths on shallow exchanges and deceitful practices. What was the point of monetary wealth when your life was a mere heartbeat in length compared to most youkai?

 

Kagome clambered to keep up with the focused youkai lord. He moved so quickly, a silvery blur covering meters in a matter of seconds. Soon he was nothing more than a white speck and then he disappeared all together, completely out of her line of sight. The school girl broke out into a run in the direction she last saw him, not so quietly cursing him under her breath for being just as inconsiderate as his rude half-brother tended to be.

 

A set of thundering pillars with toes suddenly halted her pursuit and the shadow of an approaching giant foot loomed over her head. As it came crushing down, she cleverly dove between the two thick wooden bars of the descending geta sandal. A thick cloud of dust swirled in its wake, choking her breath and she stood up to brush off the dirt she had landed in.

 

Satisfied, she looked up from patting her short green skirt into the doe brown eyes of a small boy. She let out a short scream of surprise at the sudden appearance of the child's puzzled face.

 

“Hello there, little…err, big boy,” Kagome said after a while, not sure what else to say to the child whose rapt attention she held. A grin spread across his smeary face at the thin sound of her voice and without warning he scooped the school girl up in his short grubby fingers. “Whoa, what are you doing? Put me down!”

 

The little boy stumbled off in delight with his new toy, jostling her around in his iron grip. In the brief lulls of peace as the child paused to figure out his direction, Kagome managed to part her tangled mop of ebony hair to see where she was. Nothing looked familiar and then all too quickly she was jolted forward once more.

 

“Mama!” the boy screamed in delight, his voice ringing in the school girl's ears, “Look what I found, Mama!”

 

“Hush child, you're hurting my ears,” a firm maternal voice commanded.

 

“But, it's a yousei, Mama!” the boy yelled plaintively at his mother's reprimand.

 

“A yousei? What are you talking about child?”

 

“Look!” His stubby fingers parted slightly revealing his cherished prize.

 

“That's not a fairy, child,” the woman said with a gasp at the dizzy and slightly smooshed form of the school girl, “That's just a… very small boy. Give him here my son.” The boy looked up at his mother, his lower lip quivering in a permanent pout as he considered unleashing the waterworks. “Now child!”

 

“Yes, Mama,” he said dejectedly, gently dropping the girl into his mother's open palm.

 

“Are you all right, young man?” the woman asked tenderly, holding Kagome up to her eye level.

 

“I will be,” the school girl replied, rubbing her sore neck and blinking away the spinning world around her.

 

“You must get that a lot, little one. Being so tiny, children must carry you off quite often.”

 

“I'm sure it won't be the last time,” Kagome replied with a smile, hoping to relax the worry etched into the woman's broad face. “Thank you for freeing me.”

 

“Please, I only wish he hadn't done it to begin with. It's just so difficult to look after him and watch our belongings at the same time. What is your name?”

 

“Um,” the school girl said, taking a moment to decide what would be the best response. “My name is Issunboshi.” Her vision clearing, she looked around unsteadily from the high vantage point of the kneeling woman's upraised hand. The boy had taken her far from the port, which lay far away along the distant horizon of low buildings and tents. The woman herself was seated against a long wall on a small woven rug, surrounded by various bundles and boxes. Further down were more people, sitting listlessly amongst their possessions, waving down anyone who ventured close enough.

 

Kagome looked back into the soft expression of the woman, suddenly noticing her hollowed out cheeks and pale skin. Her brittle hair was bundled back in a loose bun and her soiled clothing hung off her slender frame. “What happened to you?”

 

“Ah,” the woman replied with a slight smile of recognition at Kagome's startled tone, “It is an old story I don't wish to laden on you.”

 

“Please.”

 

“All right,” she said with a sigh, when it became clear she wasn't going to win this fight against the tiny visitor. “Several months ago, my family lived on a rice paddy not far from Kyoto. It was hard, but rewarding work and we did well for ourselves. The gods sought to reward our trust in them with our last harvest, the biggest we've ever managed.” The woman looked wistfully into the sky, her dark eyes beginning to water. “My husband, when he was returning from the market after selling our rice was attacked by a group of bandits. They killed him and took his money. Without him, we were unable to get the land ready for sowing for the next year and I had to sell it to provide food for myself and my son. Now we have nothing and must humble ourselves in hopes that those who can spare some food or money will be sympathetic to our plight.”

 

“Has everyone else here suffered from a similar fate?”

 

“Unfortunately, yes. The royalty does not see the bandits as their problem as long as the merchants are able to fill their storehouses with rice from other farms elsewhere in Japan.”

 

“Here,” Kagome said gently with a smile, holding out a huge cup shaped pot secured with a lid, a gift given to her by the elderly couple. “It's not much, but you and your son need this more than I.”

 

“What is it?” the woman said, holding the strange container between her thumb and forefinger in her other hand.

 

“It's just some rice. Again, not much, but hopefully it will help.”

 

“But, what will you eat, little one?”

 

“I'll manage. It doesn't take much to fill my belly, but I would be sad if your little boy didn't have enough to fill his.” Tears streamed down the tanned face of the woman as she placed the treasured package into a fold in her kimono.

 

“There you are,” a deep baritone voice called up to the school girl.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama?” Kagome exclaimed, wiping the tears away that now streaked her face too. The youkai lord peered up at the flesh platform, the girl stood upon, inwardly surprised by her use of his honorific and then doubly so at the wetness coating her cheeks.

 

“What is wrong, miko?”

 

“Nothing, nothing,” she said quickly, desperately using her sleeve to remove any more cause for him to question her. Turning on her heel, she faced the woman one more time. “Good mother, I, Issunboshi will find a way to help you and everyone else here who has suffered at the hands of the bandits and the heartless attitude of this country's nobility.”

 

“Wait, little one. You needn't do such a thing. You've given more than anyone like yourself ever should.”

 

“And somehow,” Kagome replied, her smile never quite fading, “To me, it's still not enough.”

 

Softly setting her hand down to the floor, the woman watched the delicate school girl step off her palm and stroll off into the crowded street, chattering seemingly to herself.

 

“What a strange young man, but maybe,” she said with a pause and a slight smile, “I will put my faith into him.”