IZON SHŌ
Chapter L
Fiftieth session
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The sun would come up later every day, slowly lulling the earth to sleep as a new season was starting to arrive, InuYasha noted, despite often waking up once the day was well underway.
That morning, he decided to wake up a bit early, and take up his habit of going out for a run once again, something he had been meaning to do for a while, but given recent changes in his life, together with his new routine, made it hard to even think about resuming. He stroked the cat's back, there, sleeping on his bed, before heading down stairs without caring about the noise, knowing his mother would already be in the kitchen.
"Good morning." He heard her say just as he was zipping up his hoodie to go out.
"Good morning." His answer, and smile, was the usual as he got closer and left a kiss on the side of the woman's forehead, just by the root of her hair.
"I've made coffee." Her words were highlighted by the sip she took right after.
"Thanks. I'll have breakfast once I get back."
He went to the genkan, put his shoes on, then said his goodbyes before starting towards the route he'd planned the previous day. He knew Nakano, it as a small city or a big town, it could be defined in both ways, and so he knew it wasn't hard to reach the fields, and let his mind clear amidst the rurality in the sight of the further away homes. He also turned his music on, it had been a long time since he last listened to the playlist he made for specifically for running.
A few minutes later, he found himself on the edge of the most populated zone, from which he caught sight of the hill that doubled as divisor line between the two parts of the city. His steps took him forward, and across it after some effort, yet without an issue thanks to the well-made path. Also, just like he had planned yesterday, he passed near a farming field he found interesting from the point of view of his work, and a market of local products a bit forward, that was just beginning to set the store down. He had the idea he might be able to find some good quality vegetables there, and at a good price.
It didn't take long to find a woman who was selling her self-grown products, and reach a deal with her of passing by and buying some vegetables he chose for that day's cooking, before turning around and pressing play to let the music enter his ears again. He crossed the hill on his way back, and as he reached a certain height while doing so, the sight of the city laying in all its splendor in front of him, a certain song caught his attention. He didn't remember having added it to the play list, and couldn't but stop his run, suddenly breathless.
Where have you been? Do you know if you'll come back? We are too close to the stars. I've never met someone like you… falling just as fast, I prefer to lose someone, to use someone. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I see myself in you. I see my reflection on your eyes.
It was harder than expected to recover from the impact of such lyrics; he didn't want to listen to them, his fingers trembling above the pause button, but something inside him wasn't letting him do it. It was like catching a glimpse of his past through a lock… a glimpse that, after a while, he thought to be enough.
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It was already usual for InuYasha to arrive two hours earlier at the Izakaya he was running with Jinenji, and so get everything ready to open the kitchen by noon. It wasn't hard to put one in the place his friend used to use as a cellar, even if that meant to rent a small space in the near building to store their drinks. At noon, they would receive customers who worked near, and some not so near, since the good food was already attracting clients; InuYasha was good at what he knew, not aspiring to be a chef with high cuisine awards, yet his ramen and other dishes were appreciated by those who sought something healthy and affordable.
"Two chicken ones, and two vegetarians." Mentioned one of the two girls who worked as waitress during that shift. He prepared what was requested.
"We are closing." He warned, so that they would stop taking orders.
With Jinenji, he had reached a comfortable agreement; InuYasha worked throughout the morning and until the kitchen closed, and from there his friend's shift would begin, through the first afternoon hours and the bar at night, until closing time. InuYasha would return by dinner hours, and his shift would end there, albeit he would often stay with Jinenji, tending to the bar and help closing the place.
"This doesn't count for extra pay." He had said one day, after trying to send him home, or to have fun somewhere during the weekend.
"I know." Had been his answer, with a smile. He just didn't mind staying, given his lack of other plans or desires.
And he felt comfortable with the change. Most of the aspects of it were positive to him as well, leaving Tokyo helped him make some distance with the places he couldn't visit anymore, even the park near his apartment he used to go for a run in, was now unbearable to him.
Looking at the hour, he realized he'd gone past his working hours by ten minutes, and decided it was time to wrap things up as he gave the last dish the finishing touches.
"InuYasha, someone is asking for you on table ten." Said the waitress who took the order he had just finished.
"My shift ends now. Jinenji is at the bar, right?" He said, taking his apron of.
The girl shrugged before answering, "He is, but she said it had to be you."
InuYasha sighed, and left the apron and the cloth he usually wrapped around his head for hygiene reasons, aside. Then, he left the kitchen and found Jinenji, who stood there with his arms crossed.
"What's wrong?" He wanted to know, not really following why they would pull him out of the kitchen like that. It wasn't normal.
His friend pointed to the table, and then he saw the woman walking up to them. Kikyo smiled, slowly, a sight he became familiar with during his high school days.
"Uh." He commented to himself.
He took a few steps towards her, not in a hurry.
"Hi, InuYasha." She greeted him, in jovial joy. "I found out, a few weeks ago, that you've returned to Nakano."
"I have, yes. What can I say, I couldn't resist the pull of my roots." He tried to be cordial.
"I get it." She accepted. "I just wanted to say hi, and wish you good luck."
"Thanks." It was strange to see her there, so at ease in comparison with the stern and usually tense woman in his memories.
She looked back, then made a gesture to a man who was seating alone at a table.
"He is Bankotsu, my boyfriend." Her gaze returned to him. "I'd like to introduce you."
It was a unique situation, one he didn't imagine but that didn't make him feel uncomfortable either.
That fact, actually made him feel good.
"Of course." He accepted.
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He opened the door with ease. It would always surprise him to find the lock without a turn of the key, as if just closing the door was enough, and in fact it was. Nakano had issues, like most places, but they were often small, and fortunately, robbery wasn't among them.
Once inside, he took off his shoes, then went up the stairs in wide strides, two steps at a time, to find the cat waiting for him right by the door to his room.
"Hi, cat." He said, receiving a meow as an answer.
He crouched and stroked the cat's head, who answered by brushing the side of his body against his hand. InuYasha laughed, then stood up and entered his room, leaving his backpack on the chair to one side of his bed, in which he let himself fall.
That day's activity had left him tired.
He felt the cat jumping on the bed, then strolling from side to side of his body, stepping on here and there without the slightest care. He extended his hand, and the animal caressed itself against it again.
"Are you hungry?" He asked, his eyes closed, as he waited for the cat the answer with something that resembled a no, since he had no desire to go down the stairs to feed him. However, what he got was a long and intense meow, with which he understood the cat was waiting for someone to tend to his needs.
He sighed.
"I believe you've certaintly gotten used to this life." He told him, as he stood up to go down to the kitchen.
Once there, he found the box where they kept the cat's food, who his mother usually called Tora, since he looked like a small tiger. InuYasha would just call him cat though, and the animal would always answer. He filled the cat's plate with food, but after some smelling, the cat just let out a long meow while looking at the only human available.
"You've also become a gourmet." He reprimanded him, before bringing out a few small croquettes with a strong smell, that for the cat were like treats, and left him some with the rest of the food. The cat only needed a couple of sniffs before he started to eat. "Yep. Comfortable and a gourmet."
He stood there, looking at the scene of the cat eating, feeling a certain joy from seeing him well, and some nostalgia when he thought that they were keeping each other company, after all. He didn't, however, get to deepen in that thought, interrupted as he was by the sound of the doorbell ringing and his own steps that took him towards it. Once he opened, he found his friend Myoga on the other side.
"Come in. How has this afternoon been treating you? "It seemed that his own break time would be short, or void.
"As well as an old man like me can be." He complained, using that high-pitched tone he often used. He came in, and after taking his shoes off, said, "The question here is… how has the life of a young man, been treating you?"
The gaze that came along with that question left little room for doubt. Even so, InuYasha tried to avoid giving a clear answer, again, just like he'd been doing since he returned.
"Do you want tea?" He offered, and invited Myoga to the living room with a gesture of his hand.
"Hojicha, if you have some." He requested, as he entered a house he knew just as well as his own.
InuYasha began to prepare everything, as the cat constantly got in between his legs. Exasperated, he picked him up and left him on one of the couches.
"The izakaya is going well, Jinenji and I are pleased with it." InuYasha mentioned, knowing his friend expected some kind of answer.
"I'm glad. Is it what you expected?" He continued. InuYasha felt a bit more at ease upon seeing the conversation flowing towards a less thorny path.
"It is, alright. We've been able to adjust everything well, and despite the hard work, I feel relieved seeing the results and how our customers increase." Everything was true, and was too, all but the surface of his life.
"Yes, your mother has told me how much you work, and how late you return." Myoga received the cat as he jumped on his lap, and then began to stroke his back when the animal seemed to almost ask for it.
"Well, she says it's too much work." InuYasha shrugged. "But It's what I have to do if I want everything to do well."
He walked closer to pet the cat, resting on his friend.
"Does he have a name?" Myoga asked.
InuYasha recalled a similar question, and felt impaled by the hidden meaning in the answer he was about to give.
"Cat."
"You have a cat, named Cat." Myoga repeated, highlighting the evident.
"My mom calls him Tora." He used that as defense argument; the difficult part, was to need it.
"I see." The old man stroked the animal's back, who seemed to resting and asleep, albeit InuYasha knew he was awake due to how his ears would sporadically move. "How did you come to adopt him?"
There, InuYasha understood he was far from being safe from Myoga's curiosity, despite the time of truce the old man had given him since he arrived in Nakano. It was then when the water for the tea began to boil, which made him stand up without answering, as if he needed the excuse to shape an answer that didn't risk to expose him and his woes.
"Rather, I'd say he adopted me." It was an easy answer, almost a joke, which gave it an innocent air without anything to read between lines.
But of course, InuYasha was forgetting the tenacity his friend had.
"Did he have a home before you?" His nape hair bristled before the question.
Taking a deep breath, he proceeded to serve two cups of tea, letting the water fall slowly so that the herbs emulsified well.
"Something like that." Was the only answer he gave, without ever meeting the old man's gaze.
Myoga had been respectful towards his silence during the months he had been living there, in the same way his mother had been. Both of them thought InuYasha could use the change of air, and he didn't give any further details about his actions either. He understood that if he was working, and covering his spences, no one would need to question his decisions.
He was able to hear Myoga taking a deep breath, something he knew well; it was a way the elderly man had to focus and flow with the chain of events. He had mentioned it once, years ago, and InuYasha never forgot about it.
He walked up to him, the two cups of tea exuding vapor on a small tray, and left one on the small table by the couches.
"I guess it doesn't matter." The elderly man accepted, finally. He fixed his gaze on the cup, and smiled with that kindness InuYasha also knew of. "This arrived for you this morning."
He extended him a package that until then had been by the man, and that InuYasha had completely missed. It had to be about twenty centimeters long, and was wrapped in a light green colored paper. InuYasha didn't find it strange, however. He had given his mother's address so that they would send him anything that may had been left pending in Tokyo. What did surprise him, was the lack of a sender name, or address.
"That's weird." He mentioned under his breath.
"I thought so too." Myoga agreed, lifting his cup of tea.
The cat stretched on his lap, sniffed the air in the package direction, then jumped down. Both men stared at the cat as he strolled down the hallway.
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That night, work had been intense. It was already Thursday, and in some way InuYasha could feel the weekend approaching. As soon as he finished with the dinner shift, he stayed a bit longer preparing rations, snacks and the like for those who came to drink, to finally step into the bar. Jinenji placed a cold beer in front of him, which he drank slowly in order to let go of the hurry that working in the kitchen usually left him with.
"It's gone well!" His friend assured him, rising his voice so that he could hear him amidst the surrounding conversations.
InuYasha nodded, then chatted his beer away, talking about some details he'd like to adjust back at the kitchen, with Jinenji, once again, remarking how glad he was to have him as an associate. InuYasha accepted his words, then expressed the same feeling towards his friend.
The way home was made immersed in the silence of the streets, and the cold proper of the last days of October. He tightened his jacket around his neck, then thought about wearing a scarf next time.
As soon as he entered his home, he felt the warmth inside.
"InuYasha?" His mother asked, somewhere on the floor above.
"Yes, it's me." He clarified as he took his shoes off.
"I know you are coming from a kitchen, but there is some leftover stew in a pot if you want." His mother mentioned, her features sticking out from up the last steps of the stairs.
"Thanks." He smiled at her. "I'll eat some."
"Want some company?" She took a few steps down, and InuYasha managed to see she was already wearing her pajamas.
"Oh, don't. Don't worry." He tried to dissuade her. "I'll eat something then I'll go to bed."
He was tired, but even so he caught how his mother's expression changed into a more serious one.
"We'll have breakfast together tomorrow." He offered. It seemed right, since their daily routine left them little time to share.
"Alright." She accepted, her expression visibly at ease. "I'll prepare the coffee."
InuYasha nodded, then saw her figure disappearing upstairs. Next, he went to the kitchen, and left the stew to heat up, his gaze soon finding the package Myoga had left him, and that was still there, on the small table by the couches in the living room. It had totally slipped his mind, and as if to amend that, he picked it up and began to turn it around to better unfold the paper, the package feeling weighty in his hands, with a size he thought akin to a book, wrapped in a simple but delicate manner. He had a strange foreboding feeling as he pulled from one end of the paper, and forced himself to focus his thoughts and remain calm; it was most probably just a book he forgot he had ordered.
Beneath the green paper, there was the copy of a book which couldn't have more than two hundred pages. The cover was weirdly unsettling, for it was just a drawing made in black ink, showing a crack on a white stone; he'd never seen it before. It was titled Sisu, a short word with a deep meaning: extraordinary determination, courage and resolution against extreme adversity.
It looked interesting. It looked like something he knew for sure he hadn't ordered.
Upon opening it, and turning a couple of the first pages, he found a note. He would lie if he were to say he didn't immediately think about who could have sent that, or if he were to say his heart didn't began to pound before such thought, almost as if betraying him.
He unfolded the note. He had never read the calligraphy inside, but even so he knew immediately who it belonged to.
"This book is a collection of stories, all related to life situations, that those who wrote them, have overcome or are trying to do so. A few months ago, I learned of this contest and I decided to sent mine; now I want to share it with you. If this helps you understand even just a part of the whole, then it will fulfill its purpose.
I know I have no right to ask for anything, but even so I'm daring to ask that, if what you may read here tells you something; that you attend the Momiji celebration in Tokyo. I'll be there, in the afternoon, in front of the lake we both know.
Kagome."
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A/N
The song is: The Neighbourhood – Reflections.
Momiji, it's a celebration similar to watching the blooming of the cherry trees, but related to the color of the autumn leaves.
With this chapter, I'm just two away from finishing the story and I DON'T WANT TO!
I love this couple, more than anything because of the long road they've walked, by the hand of moments I loved to tell.
I hope you've liked the chapter, and that you tell me in the comments.
Kisses!
Anyara.
This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart