Work Text:
I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi
The old couple sat on a stone under a large and impressive pine tree right at the edge of the village boundary.
They looked down the road which led to the road to Odawara.
“Are you sure, husband, that today is the day?” the old woman asked her partner.
“That is what Shimame-hime told me to expect,” the old man answered. He patted her hand, a gesture both of his patience and his care for the woman at his side. “She’s seldom wrong about this sort of thing. I think she has connections with the others like her.”
The old woman pulled some sewing out of her basket. “The hime at Morimura wasn’t so certain. But then, she’s been a little off-balance since that man who married into her village came. Evidently she thought he would take to his new responsibilities quicker, and she hasn’t been paying as much attention to what goes on around the edges as well.”
“That can happen. Young people can be hard to settle down,” the old man said. “But Shimame-hime’s village seems to be settling down now, after such a wild spring.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” the old woman said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t do anything about that Yamabushi that visited.”
“Well, he didn’t come this way, did he, my sweet. We’d have known what he was up to at first sight, I believe. And we would have told everybody that matters.”
“True, true.” The old woman nodded. “It’s a shame what happened to the other guardians after that last bandit raid.”
“A sad fate, to be chopped into pieces like that.”
“Well the Dog General’s pup, he took good care of those who did it, I hear. That delightful child Koharu, she came by every day for a 10 day with flowers and sake to tell us all about it.”
He nodded. “That she did. And her man, Masu. Have you ever seen a couple so filled with thanks?”
“Still, the headman should see about his boundary. It’s not good to leave one side of the village unprotected like it is.” The old woman finger pressed a fold into the cloth she was sewing.
“Maybe we can get Kazuo to sit still long enough to mention it to him. But he’s been so busy this spring, he’s never been home when I tried to remind him.” He sighed.
“They’ll be coming soon,” she said. “Remember the first time we saw the silver-haired one?”
“Don’t I?” The old man shook his head. “He had been trailing around with the miko for days before he got here. And the trouble we, not he, got into! The look on Shimame-hime’s face when she came by to lecture us. And with Kazuo-sama, and even the Goshinboku Spirit there to give us a big lecture about destiny. I thought I’d crack into a thousand pieces.”
“I think the Goshinboku Spirit already knew what was coming for the poor boy,” she said. “I still remember the look he gave him. He treated him like a real son all those years, holding him like he did.” She continued her hemming.
“Well it’s turned out pretty well since they got rid of that nasty youkai that tried to destroy the village. He’s worked as hard as anyone to keep the village doing well.” The old man plucked a grass stem near his sandaled feet, and twirled it in his fingers. “The way he saved Masu-kun’s children last winter.”
“Well, it turned out to be a good thing they didn’t let us keep him out.” She took another stitch.
“Yes it has.”
“Well, some day maybe he and that woman of his will be as happy as you and I are,” she said, smiling up to her partner.”
Suddenly, there was a loud growl. “Bouzu, if you don’t stop singing that song? Does Sango know you sing things like that?”
They turned to look. A tall, unshaven monk dressed in black robes and a purple gasso was walking fully upright. He had a small satchel strapped across his chest, and although he tried to keep a solemn, professional look on his face, there was mischief in his eyes. Next to him was a rather irritated looking Inu-hanyou, his ears back in his irritation, bent over somewhat with the bundle he was carrying. It looked quite heavy.
“Oh, they’re almost here. Let’s get ready,” said the old man. His wife put away her sewing, packing it neatly in her basket. They both stood next to the rock where they had been sitting.
“Look, InuYasha, there’s the border stone. We’re almost home. You won’t have to put up with my singing much longer.”
He stopped by the rock where the old couple had been sitting, clapped his hands, and laid down a flower he had been holding, and touched the top of a standing stone next to it. On it were engraved the figure of an old man and woman. Someone, probably Kaede or Tameo, had marked it with a bit of sacred rope.
“Thank you, Dousojin, our Sae no Kami, for guarding our paths and protecting our village,” Miroku said. Clapping his hands again, he bowed.
“Yeah,” InuYasha said, nodding. “What he said.”
“It was our pleasure,” said a voice so thin, Miroku thought he might have imagined it.
“Did you say something, InuYasha?” the monk asked.
“Let’s just get home. Or do you want to carry Jizo home yourself?”
Miroku looked back at the boundary stone, shrugged and smiled. “Yes. Let’s.”
A/N Dōsojin ( road ancestor kami) is a generic name for a type of Shinto kami popularly worshipped in Kanto and neighboring areas in Japan where, as tuletary deities of borders and paths, they are believed to protect travellers, pilgrims, villages, and individuals in "transitional stages" from epidemics and evil spirits Also called Sae no kami or Sai no kami, Dōsojin are often represented as a human couple – source: Wikipedia
In case you haven’t read all of A Tale of Ever After, Shimame-hime is the land kami in this story universe for Kaede’s village, while Kazuo is the family kami of the headman’s family and has personally put InuYasha under his protection