I do not own Inuyasha, I am borrowing the characters for this story. The inspiration for this comes from a tumblr image by Heavenin-hell, I thank her for the inspiration!
************* Chapter 1*************
"Damnit."
A quiet voice broke through the faint sounds of dirt being swept away. Kagome Higurashi sat back on her heels, internally chastising herself for breaking the artifact in front of her. Annoyed at herself, she brushed back the lock of hair that had worked its way out of her bun, the black strands taking on a blue tint in the lamp light she was working in. She looked around her, taking in the wealth of history around her. She had never expected that her professor, Dr. Totosai, would choose her to be part of his expedition team when he received his grant to excavate the Shrine that had recently been uncovered in an untouched forest in Japan. The shrine had been underground, as if its entrance had been buried in a landslide, but the puzzling thing is there were no mountains near the site.
From the looks of the artifacts around her, the shrine had not been used since the Sengoku period. She smiled, thinking to herself that their team could be the first people in 500 years to have been inside the shrine. Kagome stood up from her crouched position, rolling out her shoulder muscles before they could start to cramp. She had been trying to carefully remove centuries of soil and dust from a vessel near a wall. It had been nearly intact, she had almost uncovered it completely when that damn lock of hair fell in front of her eyes, startling her and making her move a little more sharply, pushing the small brush to hard into the vessel and cracking it. Kagome stretched her arms backward, looking at the statutes and pedestals around the shrine. They all towered over her, the statutes nearly reaching the ceiling of the room she was in. The shrine itself was unusual for any period of Japan's history, it had been built down into the rock below, rooms carved out of bedrock, columns reaching from the ceiling to the floor with the openings carved around it. All the statues were the same type of stone, which was another curiosity to her. She had never seen any shrine statute made from a similar material, in the lamplight the stone looked white, but it had the most curious silver shimmer, almost like moonstone.
Kagome shivered slightly, wishing she had brought a jacket with her. When she was asked to join the expedition, she did not have much time to pack before they were heading out. She did not realize that the rooms would have a slight chill, the sun never reaching the rooms to warm them. She heard the other members of the team in the hallway leading to the room she stood in. She knew she should have stayed with them, but something drew her into this room with is silent guardians lining the walls. She heard footsteps behind her, and turned to see Dr. Totosai approaching, carrying another lantern with him that shown on the silver white statues around the walls.
"Professor" Kagome said softly, looking at the statues as the features and designs became clearer with the increased light "have you ever seen a shrine that seemed dedicated to only one being?"
Dr. Totosai, raised his head, his small white beard making him look older than the mid 60's she knew him to be. As he stared at the statutes, he let out a breath.
"If you look closely Kagome, they aren't all the same being." He drew her closer to the statutes, letting his light shine more closely on the face. "Look at the markings on their faces, each has a different pattern."
Kagome followed Dr. Totosai's finger is he pointed, seeing the statute in front of her had two thin lines carved on each side of the face, with a crescent moon in the middle of his forehead.
She walked back to get her lantern, carrying it with her to take a closer look at the statutes on the other side of the room. One of the statutes had a similar appearance, but as she looked closer, she noticed that her professor was right, this statute had one line on the right cheek and three on the left, and the forehead was smooth. She looked back to what she believed was the main statue, its physical size dwarfing all the others at the very back of the room. Where the statues on the side all had hair flowing over their shoulders, this statue depicted a tall gentleman with his hair tied back off his face. His cheeks had lightening bolt markings carvings. The statue was an imposing figure, commanding attention, and demanding respect, she was awed by how lifelike the statute seemed, almost as if the figures were about to take a breath and move. She chuckled at the fanciful thoughts in her mind and raised the lantern for a closer look at the decorations and markings that surrounded the figure. The light, for a brief moment, reflected off the carved eyes, giving Kagome the fleeting impression of amber colored eyes looking back at her, causing her to catch her breath before it faded and she realized it was just the play of the light.
"Professor, over here, there's an inscription behind this statue." Kagome called out to her professor. She hurried to her bag of materials to grab a notepad and pencil, she had been studying Ancient Japanese since she was a child, drawn to the past and history which is what had led her to pursue a career in archeology, however she could only make out a portion of what was carved on the walls. She wrote down the characters of the inscription, then crossed back to her professor to see if they could decipher the text. "I can make out portions of this, does it say anything about who this shrine was for?"
She gave her notebook over to Totosai to mutter over, listening with half an ear as he debated multiple meanings for the Kanji on the wall. The entire room fascinated her. It did not have the usual elements she expected in a shrine, she could not identify any offering tray, there was no brazier for a fire to honor the god of the shrine. If she did not know that it was a shrine, she would have thought that it was a tomb, only there were no mausoleums, no burial chambers. The hallway and side rooms that the team were excavating had all been easily recognized as being a shrine, but this room, with its solid stone doors and statues of gods, it was something she had never seen, either in any of her classes or her archeology books.
She reached out to touch the walls, stopping out of curiosity when instead of the coolness of stone the walls themselves seemed to be warm, and she could swear she felt a pulse, almost like a heartbeat, embedded in the stone. The area under her hand began to glow, a subtle sheen of gold now rippling through the stone, blending with the haunting silvers and whites as if it had always been there. She pulled her hand away, startled, and the golden shimmer faded until it was only visible in the area her hand had physically touched. She looked over at her Professor to see if he had noticed what had just happened, but he was still bent over the notebook, working out the language to help them identify whose shrine they were honored to visit.
"I'VE GOT IT!" He cried out.
As his voice echoed in the chamber, the other four members of the team entered the chamber to join them. Kagome only knew one of the other members of the team, her roommate Sango, a tall athletic woman with long brown hair and hazel eyes. Sango was two years ahead of Kagome in her graduate studies, she was about to finish her Ph.D., preparing to defend her thesis, while Kagome was still identifying her research topic. As Sango's eyes met Kagome's she quirked a brow, looking for a hint. Kagome's chocolate eyes shown back her puzzlement, a soft shake of her head indicating to her best friend that she had no clue either.
"This is most unusual" Dr. Totosai muttered, his students and team straining to hear him. "Whoever heard of a shrine dedicated to dog demons?"
"What?" Sango said, puzzled, her voice showing her puzzlement. Her research was dedicated to using archeology to trace the origins of the yokai legends of Japan, with a concentration on how regionality impacted the legends. "There are no shrines just dedicated to dog demons, the Inu Yokai were feared, not worshiped. You must have the translation wrong."
"No." Dr. Totosai said definitively "this is a shrine dedicated to dog demons, and actually it's for one in particular, the Inu No Taisho, the most powerful of the dog demons."
"Well, now we know why it was underground" one of the other students said, looking around the room. "at this time period, wasn't it taboo to worship demons?"
"Not necessarily" Dr. Totosai stated, looking at the young man who had spoken. "It was rare, but there were shrines to guardian demons who protected lands, Jaken, however they usually were dedicated to several prominent Yokai in the region, not just one. The villagers nearby did not want to anger any of the yokai and made sure they were all represented. If one of the yokai came to attack the village, the villagers would bring them to the shrine to give them the offerings in their favor to appease it and plead with it to spare the village" Jaken tilted his head as he considered that information.
"Professor" Sango interjected "why is this not in any of the research or papers on shrines?"
Dr. Totosai chuckled "well, who wants to admit they worshiped demon's young lady? The practice was known, but as we have seen, history is essentially HIS STORY, and who wanted to be known as forsaking the gods to appeal to demons?" The team considered this as their professor turned and exited the chamber, looking back at them and nodding his head towards the entrance, indicating it was time to go.
As she passed under the frame of the stone door Kagome was suddenly struck by the need to look back, a compulsion she could not ignore for some reason. She still was not completely convinced that the statues were not going to suddenly awaken and follow them out of the shrine. She shook her head slightly before turning and following her team out of the room, her eyes not catching the golden glow pulsing along the walls, spreading with each beat. In the far back corner of the room, where none of the team had dared to look, a golden glint appeared, two amber eyes suddenly opening, tracking the dark-haired girl as she left the room.
Kagome and her team piled into the jeeps provided for the expedition, heading back to Tokyo University to discuss what they had found and catalogued that day. As soon as they were done, Kagome quickly made her way to the library to look up any references to inu yokai and the Inu no Taisho that Dr. Totosai had referenced. She had grown up fascinated by the legends of the yokai, but she did not know much about Inu's. Even the library failed her, the only references she was able to find spoke about the private and secluded nature of the Inu Yokai, with a passing reference to the Inu No Taisho as the most powerful, and most private of the known Inu's.
With the library failing her, Kagome returned to her dormitory, searching for information on the internet, she had learned early on that there were always individuals researching lesser known legends when academic papers and books shunned them. She printed out pages and pages of legends and theories to review, she wanted to start going through them to supplement their excavation project, but the excitement of the day was fading, taking with it her energy, leaving her with a bone deep exhaustion. She begrudgingly tore herself from her research to sleep, knowing she would need her strength in the field the next day. She let herself sing into sleep, her dreams haunted by a pair of golden eyes, eyes she had never seen yet somehow achingly familiar.