Kikyo

Kikyō (桔梗, "Chinese Bellflower") was a miko during the Sengoku jidai and, at one time, Inuyasha's main love interest. She was entrusted by the yōkai taijiya to guard and purify the Shikon no Tama. Along with her younger sister, Kaede, Kikyō dedicated her life to protecting the jewel, slaying many demons in the process and thus could not live a normal life like other girls. It was not long until she met the hanyō Inuyasha, who also desired the mystical Jewel to become a full-fledged yōkai. Somehow, she falls in love with him and desires to live a normal life with him. However, fate turns cruel against her when Naraku, a hanyō that coveted the Shikon no Tama, tricks them both into betraying each other. When she is led to believe that Inuyasha wanted nothing but the jewel, she seals him to the Goshinboku and dies a painful death. Before dying, she asks her younger sister, Kaede, to burn the jewel along with her body so that it would not fall into the hands of evil again.

Fifty years after the incident, she is resurrected by the demon ogress Urasue, using grave soil and the soul of her reincarnation, Kagome. Shortly after, Kagome calls her soul back and Kikyō is forced to rely on the souls of the dead, collected by her shinidamachū, to sustain her fake body. Though she was initially cold-hearted and harbored deep hatred towards Inuyasha, this hostility gradually disappears and her love for Inuyasha returns. As she is already dead, she resolves to not rekindle her relationship with Inuyasha and pours all of her resources into helping others, destroying Naraku and purging the Shikon no Tama from the world. In the end, however, Naraku's darkness proves too powerful and overcomes Kikyō's power, completely corrupting the jewel. He strikes her down, wounding her fatally. After sharing one last kiss together with Inuyasha, her soul finally finds peace and her body disappears into a bright cluster of souls and light. The shinidamachū then carries Kikyō's soul into the star-filled sky.

Personality
Kikyō was always known as a compassionate woman. Kind, caring, and considerate, she was very sympathetic toward everyone, even her enemies. This was seen when she tended to Onigumo's well-being despite him being a bandit. She also had compassion toward Kansuke, and sympathy toward Inuyasha. She poured out her soul to anyone in need of help, even after her resurrection. Kikyō was also very good with children during her lifetime; no matter what village she went to, the children were always fond of her. However, Kikyō, after her resurrection, was not always as kind as she once was. She had developed a new-found hatred that she never had when she was alive. At first, she wanted revenge on Inuyasha, believing him to be her murderer. However, she eventually found out the truth and turned her hatred toward Naraku. Slowly, she started to become more like her former self.

Kikyō was a very wise woman for her age, and quite deceptive. Kikyō devised cunning plans to destroy Naraku, although she went about it in strange ways. For a time, Kikyō seemed to be on Naraku's side since she handed him Kagome's Shikon jewel shards, to which this action caused Inuyasha to accuse Kikyō of betrayal. However, she explained that she gave him the shards to cast Naraku toward death and that she would never allow him to take Inuyasha's life. She wanted revenge just as much as he did and desired to end Naraku's life. She figured out that Naraku was a half-demon and that he still possessed Onigumo's heart, whose owner still had feelings for her. Kikyō found his feelings for her ironic and ludicrous, and felt much contempt toward him. As a Specter, Kikyō has shown more of a sadistic side of her than she was alive as she laughs at Naraku and taunting him, in regards to Naraku's possession of Onigumo's heart, whenever she gets the chance as Naraku spies on her. She was never intimidated by Naraku and was bold whenever she faced him.

After Kikyō's resurrection, she developed a strong attachment to life that she didn't have when she was alive. Refusing to die alone, she decided she would take Inuyasha with her to hell. However, this goal eventually faded as she learned more about the circumstances behind her death. Kikyō's feelings for Inuyasha were complex and strained. At first, Kikyō's pure love for him turned to deep hatred (although deep down, part of her still loved him). As the series progressed, Kikyō's hateful feelings toward Inuyasha disappeared. Although Kikyō and Inuyasha's feelings were mutual, their relationship was awkward and strained because of Kagome, her 20th century reincarnation. Kikyō was well aware of Kagome's love for Inuyasha (as well as his for Kagome), and the situation did not sit well with her. Because of this, Kikyō was jealous of Kagome, believing that she was replacing her, and as a result, was not very fond of her. Despite her hidden discomfort over this, Kikyō came to accept the fact that Kagome was taking her place in this world and in the anime, would go as far as to protect Kagome since Inuyasha would be heartbroken if she died.

History
During their youth, Kikyō and her younger sister Kaede (whose parents died when they were younger) traveled through villages as a part of their training to become priestesses, and killed many demons as a part of it. While on their journey, they met Tsubaki, who would later become a dark priestess. Kikyō's great spiritual power and purity became well-known, and thus the Shikon no Tama was entrusted to her, much to Tsubaki's dismay. It became Kikyō's duty to spend her life guarding the jewel, protecting it from the wicked humans and demons who sought it for their own selfish means. However, her duty as the jewel's protector also meant that she could not show any signs of weakness, lest demons or evil men should take advantage of her.

As a priestess, Kikyō spent her life fending off demons who attempted to steal the Shikon Jewel, as well as protecting the village from disease and famine. However, the one demon whom she refused to kill was Inuyasha because she sensed that he was only a hanyō (half-demon), and has lived an abnormal life of solitude, much like herself. She also tended to Onigumo, a paralyzed bandit with burn scars all over his body. Later on, Kikyō confronted Inuyasha and told him about how she had to hide her real self in order to protect the jewel, and Inuyasha sympathized with her. Eventually, Inuyasha and Kikyō fell in love. Sometime during this period, Tsubaki attempted to attack Kikyō, assuming that she was weaker after falling in love. However, Kikyō reflected the curse back at Tsubaki, and then ordered her to leave.

During her time with Inuyasha, Kikyō and Inuyasha had once sailed to an island that only appeared every fifty years. Kikyō suggested using the Shikon Jewel to turn Inuyasha into a human, an offer to which Inuyasha agreed. If this plan had in fact worked, it might have been possible for Kikyō to carry on the life of an ordinary woman alongside Inuyasha, and for him to finally feel like he belonged somewhere as a human. She promised to deliver the Shikon Jewel to Inuyasha on a certain day. However, the thief Onigumo, who desired both Kikyō and a corrupted jewel, decided to use that day to gain control of both. He offered his body to a horde of demons, and thus, the demon shape-shifter Naraku was born. Naraku disguised himself as Inuyasha and struck down Kikyō, and then attacked Inuyasha while disguised as Kikyō. He set the both of them against each other.

Thinking that Inuyasha had betrayed her, Kikyō summoned the last ounce of her strength and spiritual power to stop Inuyasha, who attacked the village for the Shikon Jewel. However, unable to kill the man she loved with her sacred arrow, Kikyō instead shot a sealing arrow at Inuyasha to pin him to the Goshinboku (the sacred tree or the Tree of Ages), where Inuyasha remained in slumber for fifty years. She then ordered her younger sister Kaede to burn her body along with the Shikon Jewel so that its immeasurable power would never be used for evil again. Because Kikyō was full of bitter hatred for Inuyasha at the time of her death, the Shikon Jewel became corrupted. However, because of her love, Kikyō wished to see Inuyasha again and the Shikon Jewel used this desire to return to the world through Kagome, Kikyō's reincarnation.

Fifty years later, an Oni witch named Urasue stole Kikyō's remains and some graveyard soil to create a new body for her out of clay and bones. However, Urasue was disturbed to find out that the body she created would not entirely animate without its spirit and soul. She quickly realized that it was because her spirit and soul had already been reincarnated into another body, and that Kagome's soul, being the reincarnation of Kikyō, was needed in order to completely animate Kikyō's clay body. When the lifeless body was infused with Kagome's soul, Kikyō was revived, immediately turning on Urasue and burning her to death. Having yet to discover what truly happened fifty years before, her immediate priority was to kill Inuyasha. She nearly succeeded in this task until Kagome's body began recalling the soul back to her own body, which effectively stopped Kikyō from completing her goal. Kikyō managed to retain a part of her soul though, and thus was able to escape into the mist, where she was pursued by Inuyasha. Quickly thereafter, Kikyō fell off a nearby cliff, presumed dead by the group.

Kikyō survived the fall and moved to a small village, tending to the wounded and curing the sick. She was loved by the children and the villagers respected her. However, she was faced with an internal struggle with what she had become, not a living woman, nor a dead person, but the walking dead. She wanted to live peacefully in the village, but was troubled by the thought that even such a simple existence may be forbidden. A curious monk sensed something abnormal about the resurrected priestess and intended to find out her true nature. He spotted her absorbing the souls of deceased women as a means to sustain her clay body, using her soul collectors (Shini-dama-chuu). The monk tried to lay her soul to rest by attacking her with one of his spiritual demons called the "Demon binding spell", but Kikyō used her spiritual power to blast the demon to pieces. The monk was killed by a piece of the demon that struck him in the neck. Before he died, the monk asked Kikyō why she continued to wander this earth as the walking dead. He told her that time continues for the living, but it does not continue for the dead, thus the dead do not belong in such a place, and such an existence is tragic. While Kikyō pondered on what the monk had said, she discovered that Sayo, a child who was very fond of Kikyō, had watched the entire scene and was now terrified of her. Saddened, Kikyō gave up on living in the village and left, apologizing to Sayo for scaring her.

After leaving the village, Kikyō tried to spend the night alone in a forest, placing a barrier around her to prevent being noticed. However, Kagome was able to cross Kikyō's barrier. Filled with jealousy towards her living reincarnation, Kikyō paralyzed Kagome with her touch and bound her to a tree so that Inuyasha could neither see nor hear Kagome when he arrived. When Kagome tried to explain to Kikyō the true circumstances of her death, Kikyō dismissed her, saying whoever caused her death is unimportant, as it cannot bring her back to life. A dead person like herself wished only to live again, which cannot be granted, so she instead wished not to be forgotten. This can be achieved through deepening bitterness, enabling the dead to live in the heart of the living. Before Kagome could convince Kikyō otherwise, Inuyasha arrived. Kikyō told Inuyasha he must despise her for collecting souls to drive her vengeance, but Inuyasha told her he could not stop loving her, even if she hates him. Moved, Kikyō kissed him and professed her love in his arms. Sensing that Kikyō's body lacks warmth, Inuyasha realized that he could not help her and wished time stopped, to which Kikyō responded by attempting to take him with her to the Netherworld. However, Kagome was able to reach Inuyasha with her voice in time, and Inuyasha left Kikyō to free Kagome from the tree. Kikyō, heart-broken, asked if Kagome was more important to him than herself, and left with her soul collectors, telling Inuyasha not to forget that her feelings when they kissed were true. Afterwards, she visited Kaede and learned that Naraku was responsible for her death and separation from Inuyasha.

Kikyō then moved to a temple, healing the wounds of soldiers. When men from the palace asked her to heal their master's disease, Kikyō unwillingly accompanied them to the palace, only to discover a dark aura around the castle. Kikyō was disturbed to find that the master of the castle was already dead from the neck and down. As it turned out, the master of the castle was the man who once called himself Onigumo before he was born as Naraku. Kikyō tried to leave the palace, but couldn't and thus, Naraku erected a barrier that prevented her Shikigami from accessing it, which rendered her powerless.

Under the assumption that he could control Kikyō, Naraku attached a corrupted fragment of the Shikon Jewel to a soul and placed it within the priestess before sending her after Kagome. The corrupted shard is not enough to control Kikyō, however, and she destroys Naraku's golem. When Kagome arrives, she is subdued by Kikyō's Shikigami. Kikyō tells Kagome that Naraku fears her and wished to control Kikyō and force her into fighting Kagome, but that she had not fallen so low that she, the keeper of the Jewel of Four Souls, would be controlled by a mere fragment. Kikyō then forcefully takes Kagome's Jewel shards, and pushes her down a hole onto the roots of the trees that reveals a person's darkest fears. Once Inuyasha arrived to save Kagome, she left while laughing at Inuyasha, as he could not fight a woman he still loved. Kikyō returns to Naraku's castle, breaking the barrier he had erected to keep Inuyasha away. She then mocks him, explaining to him that his petty feats of minor sorcery does not work on her, and willingly hands over the shards that she had stolen from Kagome, further mocking him by saying that he needs the power of the jewel shards more than anyone due to being a half demon. Kikyō, now finally feeling the freedom that she did not have in her past life, stated that once Naraku gained all of the shards of the sacred Shikon Jewel, she would purify him along with the Jewel and send his evil and corrupt spirit to the Netherworld.

When Naraku confronted Kikyō again and threatened to kill her, she announced that he could not kill her, as Naraku still had the heart of Onigumo and Onigumo loved her with all his wicked heart. Naraku sent a giant soul collector to steal the souls that Kikyō used to sustain herself in order to kill her indirectly, but Kikyō managed to escape, and Inuyasha found and saved her. When Kikyō told Inuyasha that Naraku still harbored feelings for her, a disgusted Inuyasha takes her into his arms and tells her he is the only one who could love and protect her. Though Kikyō pretended to comply, she later wielded a knife to his neck and left after telling Inuyasha that she would use Naraku's weak spot in order to purify him and the Shikon Jewel. Watching Inuyasha call after her, Kikyō thought to herself that the string of fate (with Inuyasha) could not be rejoined since it had already been cut, implying that she could no longer return to him.

Later, Naraku made a second attempt to kill Kikyō by prematurely getting rid of his human heart, but he stopped himself, realizing that he was much weaker without his human heart. Some time afterwards, Naraku left to Mount Hakurei in order to strengthen himself, and succeeded in both completely removing his human heart and becoming much stronger. He confronted Kikyō, and when she asked him what his true objective was, he responded by wounding her chest, belittling her inability to bleed, and pushed her into a river of his poisonous miasma, presumably killing her.

Much later, villagers told Inuyasha's group of a mysterious person known as Saint Hijiri who was rumored to be extremely powerful. Inuyasha encounters her with two Shikigami that had human form: Kochō and Asuka, who told him that Kikyō survived but her body was ravaged by miasma and her voice was lost. Kochō and Asuka assisted Kikyō by bringing Kagome to a waterfall, where Kikyō's severely injured and weakened body lay submerged under the water. They told Kagome that she was the only one able to save Kikyō, and stated that by rubbing some of the soil from Kikyō's grave site into her wounds, she would successfully save Kikyō's life. Kagome agreed to perform this task, and in doing so, witnessed in a dream the events that occurred between Inuyasha and Kikyō fifty years previously. She passed out during the process of purifying the wounds Naraku had inflicted upon Kikyō, but seemingly saved Kikyō by temporarily purifying the wounds in Kikyō's chest. Recovering, Kikyō had Kochō and Asuka bring Inuyasha to her, giving him an arrow covered in Onigumo's cave dirt to be used against Naraku. She would later be forced to create a Mayose spell to kill demon rats released by Hakudōshi to drive her out for Naraku once he realized she survived the attack at Mount Hakurei.

Kikyō gave her shikigami a lock of her hair to find Naraku's heart; they nearly succeeded, only for Kohaku to destroy them before they could reach the Infant. She saw his heart was his own, yet followed Naraku's orders. Questioning him, Kikyō came face-to-face with Naraku, who she couldn't sense approaching thanks to the Fuyōheki. She was nearly decapitated by Kohaku on Naraku's order, but Inuyasha's arrival forced him to retreat. Both she and Inuyasha exchanged intel about Naraku, and she left to find the Infant. She came across it and Kanna, realizing the Fuyōheki was the blue stone the Infant held. However, Mōryōmaru attacked her, and left with her targets. Kikyō would later come across Mōryōmaru again, when he was trying to take Kōga's shards (in the anime), firing an arrow that severed his lower body. When the demon took off, Kikyō noticed two things: Mōryōmaru seemed to have a soul now, and that she was exhausted after firing a single arrow. This meant something was wrong. Night, she was amazed to see two novice monks get past her barrier. She collapsed, realizing she didn't have much time.

In truth, Kagome's purification powers proved insufficient and Kikyō's wounds reopened. This drove Kikyō to fuse the soul of Midoriko, the all-powerful priestess who created the sacred Shikon jewel, into her own body to close her wounds and hold out the miasma until she could defeat Naraku before she died. Inuyasha arrived to witness the wounds in Kikyō's chest healing very quickly, and she explained to him that since Midoriko was also a priestess who died fighting yōkai, she would understand Kikyō's desire to defeat Naraku. She also told Inuyasha that Naraku could not be killed with the Tessaiga; the only way to completely destroy Naraku was by purifying both his soul and the Shikon Jewel the instant Naraku completes the entire jewel. Kohaku, arriving at the scene by Midoriko's will, overheard what Kikyō told Inuyasha and decided to follow Kikyō in order to aid Kikyō's plan to defeat Naraku. She left promptly saying she had no time hesitate, leaving Inuyasha to think to himself that Kikyō's plan involved removing Kohaku's life-sustaining shard, and that Kikyō could not be capable of doing such a thing.

Kohaku later offered Kikyō his shard to use against Naraku, and Kikyō allowed him to travel by her side, but wished to herself that they had met on different terms so that she could have nurtured his scarred soul and encouraged him to live. While traveling with Kohaku, she kept the Shikon Shard in Kohaku's neck extremely pure, rendering it untouchable to Naraku. During her journey, she saved Kōga and asked that he hand over his shards to her, telling him her plan to purify the Shikon Jewel once it is complete, but Kōga refused. She later encountered Sango and Kagome, who begged Kikyō not to take Kohaku's life and trust in Inuyasha, who was continually working to strengthen his sword, to defeat Naraku.

Naraku tried capturing her in spider webs, resorting to capturing an innocent child in them to force Kikyō to touch them. She sent Kohaku away with her shikigami to keep Naraku's contamination from defiling his shard. She attempted purifying the webs, but found herself unable to while being shown the day she died repeatedly. Meanwhile, Miroku and Inuyasha battled Naraku, during which Miroku opened his Wind tunnel and sucked in an enormous amount of miasma. Miroku was near death, but Kikyō saved him by absorbing and purifying the miasma in her body, although this greatly worsened her own body's condition.

Kikyō and Kohaku encountered Naraku's spiderwebs during their travels together. He used these spiderwebs as a way to contaminate and weaken Kikyō. However, Kikyō had already realized Naraku's plan and remained under her own incredibly strong and powerful spiritual barrier. However, she contaminated herself when she attempted to save a child from the webs. She summoned her Shikigami Kochō and Asuka to place a barrier over Kohaku in order to protect him from Naraku's reach, however, due to the fact that she was entangled in Naraku's spiderwebs, she became defiled and the barrier over Kohaku was broken by one of Naraku's incarnations, Byakuya and Kochō and Asuka is destroyed by Byakuya. She told Kagome, who had also been defiled by Naraku's webs, that the only way to save her life was by acquiring the longbow from the sacred Mount Azusa, but only if it was truly what she wished. Kagome traveled to Mount Azusa, where she was tested by an illusion cast upon her by the Spirit Guardian of the sacred mountain. After passing the test, Kagome and Inuyasha returned to find that Naraku had already captured Kikyō.

The strong connection between Kagome and Kikyō was shown when Kagome was successfully able to tell Kikyō's thoughts by shooting her with the longbow and arrow she had obtained from Mount Azusa at the right time. Kikyō, shot by the sacred longbow from Mount Azusa, fired the sacred arrow from her own body at Naraku. The Jewel was purified before it entered Naraku's body, but Naraku won against Kikyō's powers and successfully contaminated the Shikon Jewel, rendering Kikyō completely powerless and on the verge of death. Though Naraku declared his victory and Kikyō's defeat, Kikyō thinks to herself that Naraku will find out about that after he dies, as she had let a sliver of purifying light in the Shikon Jewel. While Kagome grieves that her powers were insufficient to save Kikyō, Kikyō told Kagome in her spirit that she was able to save her soul.

The wounds Kikyō sustained from saving Miroku from Naraku's miasma spread, and she lay in Inuyasha's arms until night fall. They talked about their past, and how Naraku poisoned their love for each other. She then saw something she had never seen before: Inuyasha was crying. Inuyasha told Kikyō she was the first person he ever cared for or loved, making him feel terrible for being unable to save her. However, Kikyō tells him that the fact he came is all that matters. They share a final kiss before she dies, turning into a luminous sphere of light. Rather than return to Kagome's body, Kikyō's spirit was gathered by her Soul Collectors and ascended to the twinkling stars, finally able to rest in peace.

The speck of purity Kikyō had left in the defiled Shikon Jewel remained after her death, and this prevented Naraku from taking the last shard out of Kohaku's neck, until Magatsuhi defiled it and sealed Kagome's spiritual powers, preventing her from purifying it again. He was possessed by this demon and left in order to give Naraku the last shard, meanwhile being forced to relive his painful past through an illusion in his sleep. In this illusion, one of Kikyō's soul-collectors lead Kohaku out of his past, to his sister, who asks for his help and encourages him. He was successfully brought out of this illusion and released from Magatsuhi's possession, and Kohaku gained the strength to stop running from his past and continue to live. However, after a struggle with Naraku, Kohaku has his shard removed, killing him. Naraku mocks Inuyasha's inability to prevent the deaths of both Kikyō and Kohaku, and Sango holds him in tears. At that moment, Kikyō decides to leave the task of defeating Naraku to Inuyasha's group and removes her speck of purity from the complete Shikon Jewel into Kohaku, so that he may live.