InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Spring fertility festival ❯ chapter 2 the day of the festival ( Chapter 2 )

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

chapter 2


Note about chapter 1: Miroku and his yelling at Inu-yasha . . . That was the climax to more than a day's worth of arguing about it. And Miroku and Inu-yasha both had cases of cabin fever . . . (I had more of this scene in an early draft, but cut it.)

Author's note: I am not applying Puritan era, Victorian era, or modern era sex standards to this story. I am trying to apply pre-western, pre-1600 Japanese sexual mores. So, if you are offended by parts of this story, I am sorry. But you are warned. There are parts of this story that will offend, if you apply the above sex standards.

The day before the festival . . .

The weather cleared up in the late afternoon and became sunny, as Keade predicted, and a strong breeze started. This began to dry the mud in the village square. A large area of the village square is marked off. The villagers clear this area, scrap off some of the mud. They lay down some dried plants to absorb some of the water. Old matts are laid down as well. Tomorrow, just before the dances begin, they'll cover the area with clean blankets and other cloths. Pits are dug for the cooking of the feast. The village is decorated with various colored paper for the festival.

Kagome's mother sent some modern candy for the children, also a selection of modern fireworks. The day before the festival, Kagome spends that day putting the lights, wiring, and two video cameras up. She teaches a villager how to turn on, turn off and a how to do a few other things with the karaoke machine.

The day of the festival . . . early morning . . .

Sango and Miroku are in the woods outside the village.

"Why did you want me to follow you, lady Sango?"

Sango turns, grabs Miroku, picks him up and slams him against a tree. She holds him against the tree and growls out, "Tonight, Monk . . . is only tonight." She holds him up with only one hand. The other goes down to his crotch.

"If you think what you get to do tonight, gives you the right to do it again. You are wrong, monk." She squeezes, ungently, his balls. "If you attempt to repeat tonight, I will rip these off!" she finishes with a shout in his face. She drops him and she stalks back to the village.

Miroku, as he stands up, starts to call after her, but only opens his mouth soundlessly as he watches her leave. 'I might have made a mistake in volunteering.' He thinks as closes his mouth and his expression turns into a grimace.

'This wasn't what she dreamed about, obviously, nor is it, really, what I dreamed of. It was chance of a lifetime, though . . . and I took it before thinking about it.' He shakes his head. 'Can I make it up to her, somehow?' he sighs,

"Yes, Lady Sango, I promise that I will treat this as a special, singular, night, and no more than that." He says to the empty woods.

Kagome and Inu-yasha in the woods near the well.

"If you're going to the well, bitch . . . " Inu-yasha growls as he follows Kagome into the woods.

She turns and looking down at the ground, blushing slightly, she says, "Inu-yasha, please calm down. I'm not going to the well." And under her breath she says, "As much as I would like to." And then she continues in at a normal volume, "I just want to talk to you about tonight, Inu-yasha."

"You and Sango are going to do some kind of dance in front of the villagers. What's there to talk about?"

As she speaks, she starts to look around, anywhere but Inu-yasha. "Inu-yasha, I promised lady Keade that I would do this. The villagers are expecting me to do it, and I don't want to disappoint them. So, I'm going to do the dance. Now, Inu-yasha, I'm only going to do this tonight. I'm not going to do it again, Ok" She, now, looks at him. "So, no matter what happens tonight, just remember that I'm only doing it tonight.". He has a confused look on his face. He can't imagine what she would do in front of everybody that would cause this type of reaction.

'I need to tell him, everything, but . . . it's too embarrassing . . . ' she thinks.

"Please, Inu-yasha, promise me that, no matter what happens tonight, you won't hate me. Please . . . " She begs.

"Huh? Kagome?"

"Please say yes, Inu-yasha. I'll even promise to stay an extra week. Please . . . " Tears appears in her eyes.

"Ok, Kagome, but . . . no going back during that week, no matter what . . . "

Kagome jumps Inu-yasha and hugs him. "Thank you, Inu-yasha!" she breathes into his ear. Then, blushing, she releases him and heads back to the village.

Inu-yasha stares, a very confused expression on his face, after her. "Perhaps I need to promise not to hate her more often . . . Sigh. But she'd never love me, no matter what I do . . . " he shakes his head, a very confused half-demon.

During the day . . .

A wooden giant phallus is taken out of storage and placed near the stage. All during the day, parents and grandparents place small children of both sexes on top of it.

Kagome asks one of the mothers who is placing her, Rin's age, daughter on top, "Why?"

The woman replies, "This is to help the child become fertile when she grows up."

Also, passed around during the day is a large 30-35 centimeter iron phallus. It is passed around to the women of the village who are trying to conceive a child. They take it into the temple and lite incense over it, and pray to the gods, that it will help them conceive.

Keade, with Kagome by her side, is talking to a group of women as she brings the phallus out, "Long ago, a demon attacked young married couples. On the wedding night, it would appear and eat the husband's genitals. A blacksmith, one of my ancestors, made this iron phallus and married the local daimyo's daughter (who had already suffered the misfortunes of losing a couple of husbands to the demon). On the wedding night, the blacksmith, placed this in the correct position and . . . the demon shattered its jaws on it. The blacksmith, then used this as a club to kill the demon."

(The above is a real legend, I only modified the names, basically. I had planned on using this legend as basis for a Miroku, before he meets Inu-yasha, story, but. I still might, if I get enough requests.)

Beginning with Miroku, but later most of the men, pick up wooden phalluses. Then Miroku and the others go around and use the fake phalluses to prod various women in the village.

Miroku approaches Sango with the wooden phallus pointed toward her.

"Come one step closer, monk . . . " She growls, her fist white with fury and poised to strike.

"Please, Lady Exterminator," A nearby village woman, who was watching says, "Today, this was part of the festival and is allowed. It's part of the rites. Please allow it, the gods are watching." She pleads with Sango.

"You can touch me once, Monk. After that . . . what happens to you tomorrow, I will not be held accountable for . . . " Sango growls as Miroku approaches her.

Sango, after letting Miroku touch her, goes to the edge of the village. The feast is about to begin, and once it starts . . . 'Do I stay or go. I can take Kirara and leave . . . But. I promised Keade.' She grimaces, 'opening my big mouth . . . '

Laughter and joyous sounds begin to rise from the village behind her. 'The villagers expect me to do it tonight. But Miroku . . . Can I . . . ' Tears form in her eyes. 'It's not what I dreamed of. I... I should go. Somebody else can substitute for me. I'm sure Miroku wouldn't mind.'

She takes a deep breath, 'But . . . Kagome. Can I leave her . . . ' her eye's close, and she wipes the tears from her checks. She sighs, 'No. I cannot leave her tonight. Will she leave? No. She's made a promise and she does live up to her word.' She grimaces and says, "I will stay, I cannot leave Kagome nor will she leave me alone tonight." She turns around and goes back into the village.

Inu-yasha spends a lot of time around Kagome, preventing anybody from approaching her. He's not sure what's going on, but he's not liking it, not one little bit. After a while he picks her up, 'I'm leaving. I don't care if Keade wants my help tonight or not. I'm taking Kagome and we're leaving, now.' He thinks as he grabs her.

"Inu-yasha! Put me down!"

"We're leaving, Kagome! I don't like this!"

"Sit, boy!" Thump!

"Argg, I hate it when I say that in your arms . . . " Kagome groans as she wiggles out of his arms.

A very angry Kagome yells at Inu-yasha, "Sit, boy! Inu-yasha! Listen to me! I promised Keade that I would help tonight. The villagers expect me to be here tonight! Sit, boy! I will not disappoint them!" she calms down a little and continues, "And finally, Inu-yasha, I am not going to let Sango go through tonight alone. I'm staying! That's final! Sit, boy!" The subduing spells are to keep Inu-yasha down as she explains. She turns around and stalks off.

'It's just too embarrassing to say, plus if he knows, he'll do something really stupid and cause tonight's celebration to be canceled. And the villagers will never forgive me or him for that.' Kagome as she walks away.


A couple of villagers, who were watching this say to each other, "He does not know about tonight, does he?"

"Nope. Are you going to tell him?"

"No way. Anybody that tells him will spend weeks under Lady Keade's care."

"Yeah, if they live . . . "

(Authors' note: I'm going to get flamed over this scene, but the village children have to be addressed. What follows isn't my personal opinion. It is, I believe, what would have happened, in a small village in the middle of nowhere in pre-industrial Japan.)

Kagome, Shippo in her arms, walks up to Keade as the afternoon progresses. "Lady Keade, what does Shippo do tonight. I mean he can't watch me or Sango. That would be wrong."

"How things change . . . " Keade starts, as she shakes her head. "Kagome, dear, Tonight we honor and worship the gods, correct." Kagome nods.

"Good, If thy children, including Shippo, do not watch, how will they know about the rites, when it is their turn to honor the gods?"

Kagome eyes wide with shock tries start to say, "but, this . . . they . . . "

Keade, seeing that Kagome isn't going to form a real question, answers the question she believes Kagome is trying to form. "The youngest children will be placed in the care of the villagers that are too old to participate, and there are a few young women who's taboo (see below) time of the month is here, they will also watch them. The older children will watch, and if mature enough, take part in the rites." Keade stops as looks pointedly at Kagome, "If you're fertile, not to participate would offend the gods."
Kagome blushes....

Keade nods as Shippo and she says, "Young Shippo is too young to participate, but he is old enough to view, if he wishes to learn human rites, or he can go and play with the other children."


evening . . .


The feast is winding down, but the drinking on the other hand is just starting up. There are many songs and much merriment going around. The villagers only get to party a few days a year (the equinox days, new years, and maybe a couple more), so when they party, they party hard . . . (the rest of the year is basically dawn to dusk in the fields doing hard manual labor . . . )

In the area that was cleared of mud, the villagers are preparing a makeshift stage they have prepared. The stage is just some thicker, cleaner matts placed on the ground. They put up a lean-to tent up near one corner. They shove a fake tree, a stick with some cut off branches tied to it, into the ground near the tent.

Kagome and Sango go into Keade hut to change.

"We promised Lady Keade. The villagers are counting on us. And that's the only reasons we've doing this. Right? We're never going to do this again." Sango says in a hollow voice . . .

"Yes"

"Are you sure about that costume, Kagome?"

"The villagers want tonight to be special, Sango. Tonight... will be unique. I can promise you that."

Both of them come out of the hut with dark floor-length cloaks draped over them. They go over to the table with the sake on it and pick up the biggest cups they can find. "Tonight never happened" Kagome says as her toast.

"Yes, never." Sango agrees as she and Kagome gulps the sake down.

Everybody, including many of the children, in the village are gathered by stage. Most of the men are standing on one side. The women are standing on the other side of the stage.

Sango takes off her robe, revealing her fancy and shiny kimono. Glittery paper and shinny thread have been used to make it reflect the light. In the lights that Kagome brought and in the light of the torches, that have also been sent up, the kimono glows with a golden color. Sango goes to the middle of the stage. Three young girls from the village, in their best clothes, join her when she sits down. The girls have some spindles and other silk weaving tools.
"Why do I have to do this, old lady?" Inu-yasha growls at Keade.

"Because if I have to help her, So do you, Inu-yasha, or else." Kagome warns as she approaches. "It's not like you have to do much, just act normal."

Inu-yasha growls, but, knowing Kagome's temper the last few days, decides that eating dirt for the next few hours in not a good idea and cooperates. He goes over to the side of the stage and waits for Keade's signal.

Kagome, Keade and the villager Kagome has quickly trained are at the karaoke machine by the stage. Kagome hands Keade the microphone and the villager turns it on. The feedback squeal causes everybody to jump, but Kagome quickly fixes it. She nods at Keade to begin.

Keade's speech: "One day, Amaterasu, the sun goddess," Sango nods and takes the spindle from the girl.

"Was weaving the god's clothing in her sacred chamber, taking a momentary, peaceful respite from her worries about her brother, Susano-O." She gestures to Inu-yasha to get ready.

"That's when Susano-O decided to send a final message to his sister. Although he had tried to get Amaterasu to loosen up and shed her pretenses, she had always resisted him. Well, this should shake her up a little!"

Inu-yasha throws a paper-mache horse onto the stage. The horse shatters and candy spreads all over the stage. The children go out and quickly grab the candy and leave the stage.

"Susano-O, made a hole in the roof of the house, and threw a flayed dead piebald horse into her circle of weaving women. On the saddle of the dead horse was a note that read, 'Things are not always black and white as they seem.' This frightening event caused one of Amatarasu's oldest friends to fall dead at her feet, and Amatarasu, worn out by all the recent tempests, could only think of running away."

One of the village women, stands up and gives the village a death swoon to the giggles of her friends. Sango gets up, puts her sleeve of her kimono across her face and runs into the lean-to.

"She ran as far as she could to a rocky cave in a quiet corner of heaven and she blocked the entrance with a boulder. No more strife!"

Sango closes the flaps of the lean-to after her.

"The world was left in darkness and no one could entice Amaterasu out again."

Keade gestures for Inu-yasha to come to her and sit down near where she, Kagome and Miroku are it.

"And Amatersu sat a very, very long time in the cave, brooding over recent events. She began to fell that is was somehow all her fault. Perhaps she had failed her brother in some important way. Perhaps she lacked the ability to love. In her headlong flight to the cave, she had lost her ability to see clearly . . . her light was truly dimmed."

Kagome turns the lighting down on the lights she brought, thus making the stage shadowy and mysterious.

"But the darkness within the cave was nothing compared to the darkness outside the cave. The people had lost their radiant mother and sat huddled in their homes, listless and hopeless. Without her light in the kingdom, they could not see their own strength and so had lost the will to go on. The world began to wither and die."

The villagers began to moan and wail. "Amatersu, please come back!"

"When things had begun to look blacker than the very night itself, the eight hundred myriads of gods gathered together in the dry bed of a river to decide how to get Amatarasu back. They begged one of the gods to help them. Everyone knew the god Hoard-thoughts had good ideas if only he could be persuaded to tell."

Keade hands the microphone to Miroku and he continues the story.

"I advised the gods to collect cocks that could be relied upon to crow just before dawn. And so, cocks were collected."

Some of the villagers push some male chickens, and a couple of them have wooden phalluses tied to them, onto the stage. They wander around for a few minutes, then they leave the stage.

"I told the gods to hang a mirror with strands of jewels on the branches of the Sakaki tree, just at the entrance of Amaterasu's cave."

Villagers hang a mirror on the fake tree near the tent, and decorate the tree with bright banners. And everyone in the village starts to chant "Amaterasu"

Kagome takes a deep breath, shakes herself, and she mutters, "I promised. I will not back down now. I am not Kikyo . . . and I will not go down her path and I will do this . . . " She steps onto the stage and walks to the center. Keade and Miroku, quickly pull out some scroll seals and slap Inu-yasha with them.

"What the fu . . . " Inu-yasha starts, but Miroku's scroll covers his mouth. Keade's scroll has paralyzed Inu-yasha's body. He cannot move or talk. Anger blazes in his eyes.

Miroku whispers, "Watch Kagome . . . "


Kagome, takes a deep breath, puts on a stiff smile on her face, and drops the robe that was covering her. 'If I going to do a striptease in front of the Inu-yasha and the entire village . . . then let's do it . . . ' she thinks.

End ch two.

I decided to stop this chapter on this cliffhanger . . . my bad . . .

The festival activities during the day. The giant phallus, iron phallus and the wooden phalluses' scenes are all real Japanese festival activities. In recent years the festivals have been toned down, or stopped, but all the above was active until the 1950's at least.

An interesting site:

http://www.thoeny.com/peter/tagata/

Taboo time. During the monthly menstrual cycle, during the bleeding days, sex for women was taboo.



Keade's Speech is from this web-site (I did edit it a little).

http://www.lyricalworks.com/stories/amaterasu/amaterasu.h tm

As far as the actions of the villagers and such as they were putting on this play/act. Remember we are talking about amateurs with little chance to practice. (Lots of enthusiasm, but little acting skills, ok.) In addition they've all had more than a little sake to drink . . .

I am planning to have a large author's note/explanation at the end of the story. This note will go into more detail about what is fact, what I modified and what I made up. So, questions about which parts of this story are factual or not, will be answered then.

I should have chapter 3 Kagome's dance up in a week or so.

A question for my readers: Many, if not most, lemon-type fanfics tend to have something about Inu-yasha (or other demons) marking Kagome. I believe this to be only a fanfiction convention, with no basis in the manga or anime. IF it does have a basis in the manga or anime, please tell me where to find it. Tell me by review or by private e-mail at jws1@webtv.net Otherwise, I will assume I can use, modify or ignore the 'marking custom' as needed.


Author's note: I do have additional stories up on fanfiction and mediaminner. If you liked this, you might try some of those stories. (I'd really like to get more readers, esp. on "A Shard in Kyoto" story.)
Thank you for reading.
Jeff shelton