InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Dog Gods & Mortals (new version) ❯ Chapter 9

DISCLAIMER: I'll make this short and sweet. 'Inuyasha' and all characters involved belong to Rumiko Takahashi and not to me. Any questions? No? Good, now on with the story.

 

Author's Note: This chapter takes place mid autumn.

 

Warning: Sexual references in chapter though no lemons. F/M, M/M & M/F/M.

 

CHAPTER 9

 

The morning started out normal enough, Inuyasha supposed. He woke up alone unfortunately, Kagome having spent the night actually sleeping in her own bed. Not that Inuyasha was surprised, as he knew she was tired from both her temple duties and helping Kaede treat the large number of colds that had appeared in the village as a result of the recent bad weather. But still, he missed her even if all they did was sleep in each other's arms. On the bright side, the latest storm had passed during the night, and from the looks of things the weather might actually stay nice for a change, which might just mean that Kagome might be making her trips through the garden to his chambers more regularly soon. He could hope so anyway.

 

It was approaching time when breakfast should be arriving, and Inuyasha was about to go see if it was coming yet, when he felt it. That surge of foreign power that all Gods get when another God has entered one of their temples. Surprised that another God had decided to come and visit him at this time in the morning, and even more surprised when he recognised the power signature and realised just which God it was, Inuyasha decided to somewhat hurry out to the main chamber where he could tell the other God was.

 

Inuyasha wasn't really surprised by the scene that greeted him. Kohaku was standing nervously in the corner of the room, bowing to the strange God that had so suddenly appeared. The broom he was clenching anxiously in his hands told Inuyasha that the poor boy must have been sweeping when the new visitor surprised him by suddenly appearing out of thin air. Not appearing the least bit sorry for scaring Inuyasha's youngest priest half out of his wits, the Goddess in question was leaning insolently against a pillar and looking around the main hall in slight distaste, before turning her bright red eyes on Inuyasha.

 

“Of all of your temples on Earth, you had to choose a tiny little village temple to spend your ten years in exile.” Kagura said dryly. “You could have at least chosen a nice city temple with some more class, instead of this shack.”

 

“It's hardly a shack Kagura.” Inuyasha said dryly, a little annoyed that she was pocking fun of the temple he had called home for the last two and a half years, but not really surprised. “Besides, I like it here, it suits me.”

 

Kagura sniffed slightly. “Well, yes, you always did have lower tastes than other Gods. At least you're more refined than that fleabag Koga. He'd sleep in a cave on a bed of straw if given half a chance. But really, someone like your brother wouldn't be seen in a place like this, let alone live here for so long.”

 

“Since when have my brother and I ever had the same taste in anything, Kagura? What are you doing here anyway?” Kagura and Inuyasha had never been close. They weren't enemies or anything, but they simply didn't have enough in common to ever have reason to spend too much time together. Neither of them had any tolerance for fakes and they both hated slavery, but that was pretty much all they had in common. In all of his time on Earth, this was the first time Inuyasha had seen her in his temple.

 

“Straight to business as usual I see.” Kagura said as she absent-mindedly brushed non-existent dirt off her epaulet gown. “Well, that suits me fine, I want to get out of this shack and back to civilisation as soon as possible.” Kagura sighed dramatically before straightening up and looking Inuyasha straight in the eyes, suddenly far more serious.

 

“Your parents, the beloved King and Queen of the Gods have requested the presence of all Gods back in the heavens immediately for an important announcement. By the order of Queen Izayoi, I was dispatched to collect you and transport you to the heavens for the duration of the announcement. I am under strict orders not to return without you, and not to take no for an answer from you in regards to your accompanying me.” Kagura's voice was much more formal than usual as she said this, but then it was unusual for Taisho and Izayoi to call all of the Gods back for an gathering like this without prior warning. Inuyasha was surprised yet intrigued by it, and wondered what was so important that his parents would call him back from the exile they themselves imposed on him, even if it was just for however long this would take.

 

“Any idea what this is about?” Inuyasha asked, curious.

 

“Not a clue.” Kagura said with a slight snort. “No one else I've talked to so far knows either, although since this whole gathering was called I've only managed to talk to you, Sesshomaru and that annoying toad that posses as a God and follows your brother around like a lost puppy. I think my sister knows, but as usual she's not talking to anyone but your parents about the things she sees.”

 

Inuyasha nodded taking what Kagura said in. “Give me a couple of minutes to let my High Priestess know where I'll be so that she can take care of the masses of disappointed worshipers who are no doubt coming to see me soon, then we can go.”

 

Kagura looked a little annoyed that they couldn't just leave right then, but nodded. “Fine, while you do that I'm going to go see what the fuss is with this garden of yours I've heard Jinenji go on about. Find me out there when your done giving orders to your mortals.” Kagura didn't bother to wait for Inuyasha to reply, nor to use the door, as she simply teleported herself into the garden courtyard without another word.

 

Inuyasha sighed and tried not to be to upset with Kagura's bad manners; after all it wasn't like his own manners were all that great at times either. He let out another sigh before turning to look at his youngest priest, who was still standing in the middle of the hall with a shocked expression on his face and his mouth open.

 

“You might what to close that before something flies in there.” Inuyasha joked. Kohaku looked confused for a moment, apparently not having even realised that his mouth was open. Looking sheepish when it finally sunk in that he was standing there slack jawed in front of his God, he snapped it snap. Trying not to laugh at the poor boy, Inuyasha headed out via the hallway in search of Kaede, who with Miroku currently absent was in charge of all temple staff.

 

It was just Inuyasha's luck that Kagura happened to arrive during the priestess' bath time, and that it appeared that all three of them were still currently in the bathing room. After a brief moment of thought, Inuyasha decided he would just wait outside the room for them to come out. He would not interrupt his priestess' bath, he had too much respect for his priestess to violate their trust by entering on their private time. Besides, with the exception of Kagome he had no interest in seeing any of his priestess' naked, and he didn't need to interrupt her bath time for that.

 

As it turned out Inuyasha didn't have to wait very long anyway. He was standing outside the door to the bathing room not even a full minute when the door opened and out emerged Kagome. Inuyasha couldn't help but smile slightly, she smelled wonderful, all fresh and clean with just a hint of flowers from the lightly scented soap she had used, and as always she looked simply beautiful to the Dog God's eyes.

 

Although Kagome smiled back when she saw Inuyasha outside the door, she as always during the day maintained the role of his devoted priestess instead of his lover and bowed. “My lord, good morning, is there something I can do for you?”

 

Inuyasha mentally sighed, he really wished at times that they could be rid of this act and just let everyone know that the two of them were in love. Inuyasha didn't care who knew that he and Kagome were a couple, and didn't really understand why Kagome was upset about the idea of people knowing. As far as Inuyasha was concerned anyone who dared tried to put Kagome down because of it would suffer his wrath and that was that. But Kagome really wanted to keep their relationship secret for now, and as much as Inuyasha disliked the idea he would do as Kagome wished. It would no doubt come out into the open one day, but for now it would remain between them.

 

Anyway, he had other things to worry about right now, and seeing that Kagome was still waiting for his answer Inuyasha gave it too her. “Actually yes, is Kaede still in there? If she is, can you ask her to please get dressed and come out here, I have something I need to talk to her about.” Kagome nodded and once again entered the bathing room. A few minutes later she remerged with Kaede by her side, Kikyo also followed and remained standing in the door to hear what was going on. As had become the norm lately, Kikyo's expression was blank but her eyes held a quiet fury.

 

Kaede come forward and bowed low to her god. “My lord, you wished to speak to me?”

 

“Yeah, something's come up and I've been called back to the heavens today for some kind of announcement. This means that I won't be here for a while, probably the rest of the day at least. You might as well all take advantage of this and take the day off. There's no point opening the temple for offerings and everything else is running smoothly enough that the rest of the duties can be put on hold for twenty four hours.”

 

Kaede looked surprised by that by simply bowed her head in understanding of what Inuyasha said. Inuyasha was about to leave and go find Kagura when another voice spoke up and he felt a wave of undisguised fear coming off Kagome.

 

“You are coming back, aren't you, my lord?” Kagome asked, worriedly. When she heard Inuyasha say that he was leaving for the heavens she felt the urge to panic. What if he stayed there and she never saw him again? She didn't think she could handle that.

 

“Don't worry, I'll be back.” Inuyasha said calmly, wanting more than anything to hold Kagome in his arms to sooth her fears but he didn't know if she would want that seeing as she was the one who insisted they keep their relationship secret. “I don't know how long I'll be gone for, because I really don't know what this is about, but I'll definitely be back. I don't think what'll this is will be more than a couple of days at the most anyway, probably less than that actually.” Seeing and feeling that Kagome had now calmed down, Inuyasha once again set off in search of the Goddess of the Sky and Wind. He might as well go and get whatever this was over with, and besides Kagura got testy when she had to wait much like Inuyasha himself.

 

***

 

News that Inuyasha had been called back to the heavens for some unknown business but was still expected to return to Earth spread quickly through temple and then the village. There were more than a few worshipers who were disappointed by the God's absence. One merchant train actually got up and left, claiming they needed to get to the Southern Market and sell their goods too much to wait around for whenever the God of Protection returned, although they also stated they would return to Ergos on their journey home and hope that the God would be back by then.

 

For the temple staff, there was the question of what they were going to do with their unexpected day off. Kaede decided to take advantage of her sudden free time to catch up with some of her old friends in the village. Hojo at first tried to convince Kagome to spend the day with him, and after the priestess shot down that idea, he decided to return to his room and practice writing his poetry (the poor boy was probably the worst poet Ergos or anyone else in the surrounding lands had ever seen, but he kept trying).

 

Kikyo was probably the biggest surprise. Seeing the resentment the priestess had been showing towards Inuyasha and the rest of the temple staff lately, the others had figured she'd take the day off as an excuse to get as far away from the temple as she could for the day. Instead, Kikyo ignored what Inuyasha had said about taking the day off, and as soon as breakfast was over headed over to the temple library and carried on her duties there as if it was any other day. The others were confused about that, but decided that really it wasn't all that surprising when you thought about it. Kikyo had been acting almost like she had something to prove lately and figured that her working on her day off had something to do with that. Besides, it wasn't like she really had much else she could do with the day anyway. She had by now had no friends in the temple or village, everyone having long decided they had had enough of her attitude, and she didn't have any hobbies to speak of. The truth is Kikyo didn't really have a life outside of the temple any more, even if she had been acting as if she hated temple life. It was really anyone's guess what Kikyo would do if Inuyasha ever went through with his threat to remove her as his temple's priestess.

 

As for Kagome, she ended up getting together with Sango and the two of them decided that they would go and do some shopping in Ergos' some market place and see if anything grabbed them. Kohaku, somewhat is disbelief, ended up getting dragged along with his sister and Kagome and used to carry the girl's purchases. Kagome found herself enjoying her day, but part of her couldn't help but feel uneasy, as if something was coming and it wasn't good. She tried her best to put it out of her mind and enjoy her day, but no matter how much she tried that feeling was still there and she found herself hoping that Inuyasha would come back soon. She always felt safest when he was around.

 

***

 

Up in the heavens, Inuyasha was bored. Once arriving in the heavens, he had Kagura had gone to an over-the-top pavilion where most of the other Gods had gathered. There they sat down on the couches provided and waited for whatever they were called here for. So far he'd been sitting here for almost an hour and was bored out of his mind. He probably wouldn't have minded so much if his friends Jinenji or Shiori were here for him to talk to but for whatever reason they, along with his parents and Shiori's father Tsukuyomaru, were among the last to arrive. Inuyasha really hoped that they would get here soon so that he could find out what this was all about and go back to Earth already. He was more bored here than he got during offerings at the temple. At least then he had Kagome by his side, her presence making everything else that much more bearable.

 

With a sigh, Inuyasha tried to keep his mind occupied as he glanced around the room again to take in who was here so far. Kagura had left his side as soon as they got here and was currently sitting near Sesshomaru, trying to look disinterested in him. Inuyasha almost smirked at that; everyone in the heavens knew that Kagura had a crush on Sesshomaru but that the God of War was indifferent to her at best. You'd think that after about a thousand years of this one of them would give, but apparently not.

 

Sesshomaru was sitting on his couch wearing his usual silver armour, while his attention was mostly on the only mortal at the gathering who was sitting on the floor by the God's side happily chattering away about something or another. The girl switched topics so fast it would be something of a miracle if Sesshomaru was actually keeping up. So, this was the girl Sesshomaru had convinced Yura to return to life, Inuyasha mused. For someone who had died and then been brought back to life, she sure seemed cheerful. She also seemed to really like Sesshomaru too, which was surprising seeing as Sesshomaru wasn't really the easiest person to get along with even on his best days. Hell, their own brother was scared of him at times. The God of War didn't seem so scary right now though, and for whatever reason seemed to care about this Rin girl as much as she did about him.

 

Also sitting near Sesshomaru was the Toad God of Scribe and Record Keeping, Jaken, as always looking dwarfed by his oversized hooded cloak. The little green God was also watching Rin, but instead of the good-natured interest Sesshomaru was projecting, the Toad was looking at her with undisguised jealousy. This time Inuyasha did smirk; he knew what was wrong with the toad. Jaken had for as long as Inuyasha could remember idolised Sesshomaru. There would be times when he would follow him everywhere, offering to do him favours or take care of things for him. Why the little, weak, Toad God of Scribes would idolise the powerful Dog God of War, Inuyasha didn't think he'd ever understand. Shiori had suggested more than once in the past that maybe the Toad God had a crush on Sesshomaru like Kagura did, but that idea made Inuyasha almost want to gag. It wasn't that Inuyasha had anything against same sex couples or anything. As far as Inuyasha was concerned as long as both parties were consenting adults it was up to them what they did and no one else's business. But still the idea of Jaken and his brother together always registered in Inuyasha's mind as ewww.

 

Shaking his head to get rid of that image, Inuyasha looked around the room again, this time with his eyes landing on Yura. Inuyasha didn't see Yura very often as she rarely left the Underworld. Unless he went to the Underworld to ask for leniency for one of his favoured mortals, the only times he ever saw Yura were at the annual gatherings of the Gods during the Summer Solstice (which he was still required to attend even though he was now living on Earth). This was Yura's choice, as she wanted nothing more than to be left alone in the Underworld with her dead and her collection of hair. She was obsessed with both, which was fairly obvious to anyone who looked at her now as she sat there in her extremely short and provocative robe with a scull on her lap, lovingly brushing the hair still attached to it. Inuyasha shuttered slightly from the sight and looked away. Yura had always kind of freaked him out, and he knew he wasn't the only one. She was strange that one.

 

On the couch next to Yura was the one God that had never been put off by her, probably because he had his own obsession relating to death. The one God Inuyasha hated the most, Koga. That arrogant wolf bastard who had been making Inuyasha's life difficult since as long she he could remember. Annoying, arrogant and with a love of killing things, Koga was pretty much everything Inuyasha hated. After having fought with Sesshomaru for the position of God of War and lost, the Wolf God had taken up the role of God of the Hunt instead and went on hunts of his own in the mortal world everyday. While he tried to play these off as fulfilling his duty, most of the other Gods had long ago recognised this for what it really was, Koga's love of blood and death. Koga loved nothing more than to track down helpless prey and watch it squirm as he spilled its lifeblood. What really got to Inuyasha was how most of the other Gods didn't really see anything wrong with this, but Inuyasha figured that they didn't see killing deer and boars and such as anything worth paying that much attention too. Inuyasha on the other hand just wondered how long it would take before Koga would loose interest in killing beasts and turn to people instead. He had no doubt that that day was coming, and just hoped that when it got there he wouldn't be the only God standing in Koga's way. At Koga's feet sat his faithful Hunting Wolves, Ginta and Hakaku. Koga had made them out of sticks and leaves about five centuries ago after seeing how useful humans found hunting dogs and deciding he wanted something similar for himself. The damn things might be wolves, but they were every bit as loyal to Koga as the most faithful lapdog.

 

In another part of the pavilion Hiten and Manten sat on couches next to each other, laughing loudly about their latest conquests. The two thunder gods spent more time lusting after mortal women than they did fulfilling their duties as Gods, and were well known for boasting about all the woman they had been with to other Gods who really didn't want to know. Hiten, the slightly older of the two generally got more women than his younger brother, simply because he was by far more hansom than his younger brother, who resembled a lizard more than a man. Manten still got his share of women though, as there were many women out there more than willing to share their bed with a God. That, plus every now and then Hiten would somehow convince a woman to service both of them at the same time. How the Thunder God did that, Inuyasha frankly didn't want to know but he did. Inuyasha was often disgusted by the way the brothers treated mortal women. While Inuyasha had also bedded his fair share of mortal women before falling in love with Kagome, he had never treated them like the Thunder Brothers did. Inuyasha had always been a friend as well as a lover to the women he had bedded, while the thunder brothers often didn't even remember the names of the women they had been with by the next day. To them, women were simply things to be used, not real people with feelings and it made Inuyasha sick.

 

In the empty space in the middle of the room, Inuyasha's younger brother Shippo sat playing with his various toys, looking not the least bit upset that he had been forced to wait for so long. Not that Inuyasha was surprised by this, sometimes it seemed that the Fox God had no intention of every growing up. Oh well, at least for once it appeared he wasn't in the mood to play tricks on his elder brother. How Taisho, a Dog God, and Izayoi, a regular humanlike Goddess, ended up with a Fox God for their youngest son was anybody's guess but that was what had happened. All anyone knew was that after the red-tailed god had been born, life in the heavens had never been the same again. Just bursting with energy, and with none of the inherited seriousness of his parents, Shippo certainly had been making life more interesting for the rest of the Gods these last four hundred and fifty years.

 

Not too far away from Inuyasha himself sat two Gods that almost passed Shippo in sillyness, Totousai and Mushin. Totousai and Mushin were different than the rest of the Gods in that they looked older than the rest, but Totousai somehow managed to look every bit as old as fourteen hundred and fifty years. Aside from the original four gods, Totousai was the eldest of the Gods, and spend almost every minute of his life in his forge. He was very different from all the other Gods, who with exception of Koga (who preferred to dress in furs like one of the barbarians to the north) all wore rather attractive looking clothes made of fine materials, while the clothes Totousai wore looked like he had set them on fire, put them out, rolled them up into a ball, put them on, cleaned out a pig pen but not too well, slept there while still wearing them, and then came to see you still wearing the same clothes. Totousai often acted liked he was going senile, and none of the other Gods could tell if he really was or if he was playing a game with them. For all they knew it could be both. But whatever other flaws the Smith God had, Totousai was naturally the best smith who had ever or likely would ever live, and all respected his skills with his craft.

 

Mushin also looked older than most of the other Gods, though nowhere near as old as Totousai. He appeared about forty maybe, and was unique among the gods in that he was fat. As the God of Wine, he almost always appeared to be at least partly drunk, this being no exception, and could be quite a pain in the arse when he wanted to, being almost as big a practical joker as Shippo. In fact, Inuyasha had heard his father mutter on more than one occasion that he suspected Mushin as being the one who `corrupted' his youngest son. On the other hand, no other God could even hope to throw a party as well as Mushin, and his presence at one always brought it up to legendary status.

 

At the far end of the pavilion, sitting separate from all the other Gods, was the most mysterious of all the Gods and Goddesses, even more than Yura. Kanna, looking even paler than she already was in her pure white floor length gown and hooded cloak, sat calmly watching everyone else, her magical mirror as always in her hands. Kanna had always held herself apart from the other Gods. Her position as Goddess of Seers, and Seer of the Gods meant that she knew far more for the future than probably any other being in the entire universe, but she rarely spoke of what she saw to the other Gods. She told more to Taisho and Izayoi than the other Gods, but they themselves would not pass knowledge on unless they felt it was necessary, and even them Kanna did not tell everything. Possibly because of her knowledge of things to come, Kanna always held herself apart form the other Gods. She was a little closer to her sister, Kagura, but even Kagura did not know what she was thinking most of the time. Personally, Inuyasha found Kanna almost as disturbing as Yura.

 

It was just about this time that Taisho and Izayoi, finally, arrived with Tsukuyomaru, Jinenji and Shiori in tow.

 

Tsukuyomaru and his daughter Shiori looked a great deal alike, both with pure white hair, dark tans and violet eyes. Inuyasha figured that this was to be expected, seeing as Tsukuyomaru created Shiori out of his own blood. The God of Night was another Inuyasha rarely saw much of, but he at least didn't creep the Dog God out. The Bat God simply liked peace and quite, and didn't see that much need for meaningless socialising. He had always been a kind and gentle god and never did anything to hurt anyone unless he had no choice.

 

Shiori was also rather quiet and gentle by nature, but she also had a very warm and friendly personality and those people who knew her loved her. She had been a cute child, but as an adult she had bosomed into a stunning beauty. Her long white hair fell past her waist and her violet eyes practically glowed. It didn't surprise Inuyasha that Jinenji had ended up falling for Shiori over the years. In fact if anything he was surprised that he himself didn't. But then he wouldn't have been able to be with Kagome, so it was probably a good thing. Either way, he was happy that his friends were so happy with each other.

 

However, none of that was on Inuyasha's mind right now, All Inuyasha wanted to know, now that his parents and the last of the Gods had arrived, was what was going on that was so urgent that they all come here?

 

“Thank you all for coming.” Taisho said calmly after he and the other Gods who had just arrived found seats. “I'm sure you're all wondering why we asked you all to come here today.”

 

“Asked?” Koga repeated insolently. “You mean we had a choice?”

 

“No.” Taisho said, looking annoyed that he had been interrupted before continuing with, “earlier today, Jinenji and Shiori came to me and my dear Queen with a request which we were all too happy to agree to. And now that you are all here, I'm sure that Jinenji and Shiori themselves would like to tell you their news.”

 

Jinenji and Shiori looked rather embarrassed when the rest of the Gods turned to look at them. Jinenji started to say something a couple of times, shuttering badly, before he stopped and took a deep breath to calm his nerves and just blurted it out.

 

“Shiori and I are getting married!”

 

There were about two heartbeats of surprise silence before almost the whole pavilion spoke up in loud voice of congratulations.

 

***

 

Balasi sighed as he and his men waited by the side of the road for someone to come along. It was hard being a bandit around this area these days. A couple of years ago, this road was a bandit's dream, right on the main road from Lorinth to the Southern Market, lots of merchants who were too stingy to hire enough mercenaries coming through here. But when the God of Protection came to that little village not far from here, everything went down hill fast. With a God actually on Earth, those some merchants who had been too stingy to hire enough guards for their men were making the trips themselves so that they could stop and pray to the God of Protection, bringing very expensive offerings with them. This should have been a good thing, because it could have meant better goods coming through for Balasi and his men to steal. Only problem was, while those merchants might not want to hire enough guards for their men, they were far from willing to take the same risks with their own persons, and the average number of guards appearing with merchant trains doubled. It had been months since Balasi's men had managed to get their hands on anything truly valuable, and the bandit boss who was fast leaving his prime was wishing he had done as his brother had and moved his band to more another, more profitable location. As it was he might want to seriously reconsider it soon, because his men were starting to grumble somewhat mutinously when they thought he wasn't listening.

 

Balasi was brought out of his mussing when one of his scouts arrived back at camp to inform him that another merchant party was approaching the group's favourite ambush spot. Balasi heaved himself up with a sigh, time to go back to work, maybe luck would be on their side this time.

 

***

 

Inuyasha was having a good day, laughing with his friends at the impromptu party Mushin had decided to throw to celebrate Jinenji and Shiori's upcoming marriage. For being so last minute, Mushin had once again proven himself to truly be the King of Parties, and everyone was having a great time. Now if only Kagome was here, Inuyasha mussed, then this party would be just about perfect.

 

Inuyasha was talking with Jinenji and Shiori, Shiori just having told him that the wedding would take place early spring, when it suddenly hit him. The wave of panic so strong that it almost caused him to double over. Inuyasha knew it wasn't his own panic he was feeling, but the knowledge of whose it was almost made him panic anyway. Shit, this was bad!

 

“What's wrong?” Jinenji asked worriedly, seeing the sudden change in his best friend's attitude.

 

“I've got to get back to Earth, right now!” Inuyasha blurted out, his voice almost frantic. “Something's happening in Ergos!”

 

 

Author's Notes:

 

Coming soon, what is happening on Earth while Inuyasha is in the heavens? I originally wanted that to be part of this chapter, but I was afraid that that would be a bit much to take in all at once, so I spilt it up into two chapters. Besides, I wanted to get another chapter out before Christmas and I didn't think I could do that otherwise.

 

As you might have noticed, I've added another God who wasn't part of my original listing; Mushin, God of Wine. This is because writing this chapter I realized that I really wanted to have a god in here who in some way related to parties, and Mushin from the original series seemed to be the prefect fit for the God of Wine. I wasn't sure about using him because as you might have noticed I've tried to make Youkai from the series into Gods and humans into mortals, and to avoid half-gods all together (there is a reason for this, which you will learn if you keep reading). The two exceptions to this rule were Izayoi and Naraku. Mushin was human in the series and therefore if I keep to my own rule should be mortal now, but really who else would be able to fill the role so well?

 

PS, for all of you reading this on Mediaminer, you may or may not have realised that my temple map from my original version of this story is back. If you haven't read my original version of the story, just know that I have now included a fanart map of the temple.

 

Gods

 

Taisho: King of the Gods, God of Law; husband of Izayoi; father of Sesshomaru, Inuyasha and Shippo

Izayoi: Queen of the Gods, Goddess of Love and Marriage; wife of Taisho; mother of Sesshomaru, Inuyasha and Shippo

Sesshomaru: God of War; son of Taisho and Izayoi; elder brother of Inuyasha and Shippo

Inuyasha: God of Protection; son of Taisho and Izayoi; younger brother of Sesshomaru; elder brother of Shippo; Best Friend of Jinenji

Shippo: God of Mischief; son of Taisho and Izayoi; younger brother of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha

Koga: God of the Hunt

Ginta / Hakaku: Koga's tracking wolves

Jinenji: God of Gardening; Best Friend of Inuyasha

Jaken: God of Scribes and Record Keeping

Yura: Queen of the Underworld (aka, Goddess of the Dead)

Hiten: God of Lightening; slightly elder twin brother of Manten

Manten: God of Thunder; slightly younger twin brother of Hiten

Kagura: Goddess of the Sky and the Wind; elder sister of Kanna

Kanna: Goddess of Seers; younger sister of Kagura

Tsukuyomaru: God of the Night; father of Shiori

Shiori: Goddess of Weaving; daughter of Tsukuyomaru

Totousai: Smith of the Gods

Mushin: God of Wine