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is a fictional character in the manga and anime series InuYasha. Kikyo's name (Kikyo) means "Chinese bellflower" in Japanese, which symbolizes "Unchanging Love".
ng her life, Kikyo was a powerful priestess with a calm reserved manner. With her kindness, she had helped many people along her path. She was apparently very intelligent as well, and although she rarely smiled with joy, she showed her internal sadness at times.
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is a fictional character in the manga and anime series InuYasha. Kikyo's name (Kikyo) means "Chinese bellflower" in Japanese, which symbolizes "Unchanging Love".
Overview
During her life, Kikyo was a powerful priestess with a calm reserved manner. With her kindness, she had helped many people along her path. She was apparently very intelligent as well, and although she rarely smiled with joy, she showed her internal sadness at times. Her only wish was to become an ordinary woman. However, since she was a priestess with tremendous spiritual power, she felt that it would be inappropriate for her to express any personal emotions in front of anyone.
Kikyo was first introduced as the previous incarnation of Kagome, with whom InuYasha had once quarreled with in the events preceding the main story. However, it is later revealed that Kikyo and InuYasha were beginning to fall in love, but were tricked into betraying each other by Naraku. Kikyo was led to believe that InuYasha was leading her on to steal the sacred jewel at the time of her death.
When Kikyo was resurrected by the Urasue, she was consumed with hate and the desire for revenge on InuYasha, the person she considered directly responsible for her death. Initially, Kikyo's soul is full of only this dark desire for revenge on InuYasha, but later changed her focus to Naraku after learning it was his doing. She is often seen helping the needy and ill along her way while wondering if she'll ever find peace. She learns the whole story of InuYasha's betrayal when she asks Kaede to relay it to her. Though initially cold-hearted with a vengeance when she was resurrected, Kikyo learned new lessons every day, and still loved InuYasha even when her main goal in her new life was to kill Naraku in order to reclaim the Shikon jewel from Naraku's corruption.
Life
Kikyo was the Shinto priestess entrusted by the Yokai Taijiya (Demon Slayers) to guard and purify the fabled Jewel of the Four Souls (Shikon no Tama).
Kikyo had slain many yokai that tried to gain possession of the jewel; however, she could not force herself to kill InuYasha, a hanyo who is half-human and half-yokai. She felt as though InuYasha was isolated from his kind, as she was from hers. On several occasions she would immobilize InuYasha when he attempted to steal the jewel, and had brief conversations with him. InuYasha had followed her for a long period of time. Soon they spent more time together, and the two of them began to have feelings of love and compassion for each other. Kikyo told InuYasha that the Shikon Jewel could be used to make him completely human, as opposed to his original intention of becoming a full yokai. Kikyo speculated that if the jewel were used to turn InuYasha into a human, it would be purified and vanish, which would free Kikyo from her duty to protect the jewel and she could then live as a normal woman with InuYasha. He agreed, believing this was the better option.
The following day, Kikyo arrived at the area where they had agreed to meet, but InuYasha was not present. When she went out into a field to attempt to find him, she was attacked by Naraku, disguised as InuYasha. She collapsed to the ground as he escaped with the jewel, proclaiming that he had "absolutely no intention of becoming human" and that the jewel needed to "absorb even more bitter blood", thus effectively framing InuYasha for the evil deed. Kikyo limped back to the village in pain, only to find that the real InuYasha, who was also tricked by Naraku in thinking that Kikyo wanted to kill him, had attacked the village and was escaping with the Shikon jewel.
Drawing on her last strength, Kikyo fired a sealing arrow (Fuin no Ya) at InuYasha to seal him to the Sacred Time Tree. She collapsed the instant after InuYasha was sealed, and instructed her younger sister Kaede to burn the Shikon no Tama with her body to assure that none can exploit the terrible powers the jewel holds. With that, she died.
In the anime (but not in the manga), this tragic fate of Kikyo was foretold through a curse laid by Tsubaki, (a powerful Miko and Kikyo's rival) when she told Kikyo that "a priestess must abandon her heart to achieve power ... this includes love as well" and "You must extinguish love. You must never hold a man dear," or else she would "suffer an untimely death."
Reincarnation in Kagome
In present day Tokyo, the Higurashi family now resides in a shrine compound that houses the Tree of Ages and the ancient well. Kagome Higurashi, a middle school student who just turned 15, has to retrieve their family cat Buyo from the well. She was ready to leave the well with the cat when a centipede yokai Mistress Centipede (Mukade Joro) emerged from the well, dragging a very confused Kagome through the time slip and back to the Sengoku period (Feudal Era of Japan) approximately 500 years ago.
Kagome was proven to be Kikyo's reincarnation, not only from her distinct resemblance to Kikyo (this is more evident in the manga than the anime; the character designer for the anime chose to make Kikyo and Kagome different in appearance in order to emphasize they are not the same person), when the Shikon no Tama was revealed to be concealed within her body, due to the fact that Kikyo was burned with the jewel after she died, and that she was able to release InuYasha from the arrow Kikyo used to bind him to the Tree of Ages.
It has been seen more than once that Kagome is not an ordinary reincarnation. She possesses an unusually strong soul, which proved to be too much for Kanna's mirror to contain. Furthermore, Kagome was able to part with a tiny portion of her soul so that Kikyo could be sustained in the world of the living.
"Rebirth"
Kikyo had been dead for fifty years when the yokai Kijo Urasue attacked her village and stole Kikyo's ashes along with some burial soil from her grave. Using her powerful magic, Urasue re-created Kikyo's body in the hopes that Kikyo would find and retrieve the shards of the Shikon Jewel (which was accidentally shattered by Kagome) but, to the old yokai's dismay, Kikyo's soul did not return to her body.
Urasue was angry for a while, until Kagome and InuYasha, along with Shippo and Kaede, were attacked by Urasue's guards. With a quick attack, Urasue had Kikyo's reincarnated soul and eventually (with InuYasha's unknowing help) revived Kikyo, who immediately killed Urasue and went on to attack InuYasha. Most of the soul returned to Kagome's body after Kikyo's assault on InuYasha failed — he denied responsibility for her death and affirmed his continuing love for her (in the manga). Kikyo fled with only a tiny part of Kagome's soul within her, fueled by the bitter hatred and anger she felt for InuYasha at the moment of her death.
However, despite this hatred that she bears for him, the confused Kikyo cannot deny her feelings of love and well being for him, for it is her wish to die with him and descend into hell, where they can be together forever. Kikyo attempted to do this once, yet upon seeing Kagome trapped to a tree, InuYasha interrupted the process. Though at a later point in the series, InuYasha tells Kaede that he would " gladly leap into Hell with Kikyo, if that is her wish."
Kikyo's body is not made of flesh and blood; she only has a small bit of soul and strong, willful determination. As a result of this, she must find ways to sustain her life after death until she can kill Naraku. Kikyo fulfills this need by using Shinidamachu (dead soul insects, known as Soul Collectors in the dub of the anime) to collect the souls of deceased women, allowing her to move and continue her journey.
The Kikyo appearing after her death is very different from the one who had just died. At first, Kikyo no longer smiled and hardly showed any real emotion, except pain or panic when being attacked by an opponent. She killed a priest who was trying to save her soul by releasing her from her desire to live, thus ending her life. However, this changes as the story progresses and Kikyo adapts more and more to her new condition of existence. A lot of these changes can be attributed to the different characters she meets and the lessons she learns from them along the way.
Whenever she is not going after Naraku, she can be seen aiding the wounds of soldiers or taking care of children, helping to rebuild the villages destroyed by the war or monsters.
After Mt. Hakurei
After Mt. Hakurei collapses, Naraku nearly slays Kikyo again by infecting her with his powerful shoki ("miasma" in English), which neither Kikyo nor Kagome's holy powers were strong enough to purify. Because her body was made from sacred bones and soil, she survives the attack while still being infected by Naraku's shoki which was slowly killing her and later appears as the priestess Hijiri-sama (??, 'Her Holiness') with her two assistant shikigami, Kocho and Asuka. They soon ask Kagome to help save Kikyo. Kagome agrees, and Kikyo is able to survive Naraku's shoki and continue on; the shoki infection was stopped for a small amount of time, but later resurfaced since Naraku's demonic powers went beyond the spiritual powers of both Kagome and Kikyo.
Since Kikyo is made of graveyard soil and bone, in the manga she was able to visit Onigumo's grave and absorb some of the soil into her clay body. The soil in the cave had absorbed Onigumo's original love for Kikyo, and by empowering herself with it, she had effectively become untouchable by Naraku and his incarnations. When she first visited Naraku, and handed him a large portion of the Shikon Jewel, one of Naraku's incarnations escaped from her jar and touched Kikyo's legs; it was instantly destroyed by the new protection she had. However, this protection was gone after Naraku had become more powerful, as he was able to pierce her without being harmed since he had removed his human heart (which had feelings for her) from his body.
Nonetheless, Kikyo found another way to use Naraku's vulnerability to Onigumo's soil against him. She gives InuYasha an arrow coated with soil from Onigumo's cave for Kagome to use in the boundary between the living world and the netherworld against Naraku that almost destroys him, after which Hakudoshi is charged with her destruction until his betrayal of Naraku.
Despite this, Naraku's shoki still remains and gets worse even though Kagome had purified it. Kikyo uses her Shinidamachu to recover the rest of Midoriko's soul to help her overcome the poison. However, Kikyo states that she doesn't know how long Midoriko's strength will last, since even Midoriko is weaker than Naraku, who is constantly increasing his power by absorbing other yokai. By seeing to it that Naraku would possess the full Jewel, Kikyo could purify both the Jewel and Naraku at once, destroying them both. Kohaku, Sango's brother who was kept alive by a shard of the Jewel that was embedded in his back, joined her in her quest when he overheard Kikyo talking about how the Shikon Jewel needed to be complete in order to destroy Naraku.
Traveling with Kohaku
Naraku stated how the shard in Kohaku's back radiated such "dreadful purity" and if that shard were taken and combined with the nearly completed Shikon jewel, then both Naraku and the Shikon Jewel would be purified at once. It is for this reason that Naraku returned to Mount Hakurei to reclaim his negative heart as a countermeasure to Kikyo's plan.
Naraku uses his human heart's power to send webs after Kikyo that would corrupt her. Kikyo was eventually overpowered by Naraku's malice and, to protect Kohaku, she sent him away with Asuka and Kocho; however, they were easily dispatched as their powers proved useless against Byakuya. Sesshomaru interferes, however, and Byakuya is unable to capture Kohaku.
When InuYasha and Kagome arrive, Kikyo discovers Naraku has also corrupted Kagome with his webs in order to render them both unable to purify the Shikon Jewel and Kagome unable to purify Kikyo, as the girl had been able to do in the past. To rectify this, she sends Kagome to recover a sacred bow from Mt. Asuza that can be used to purify her shouki wound, but while Kagome and InuYasha are gone, Naraku reappears and captures Kikyo along with Koga, Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara. However, Kikyo notices that the Shikon shards in Koga's legs were purified as part of Midoriko's will, meaning that she could use his shards to purify the Shikon Jewel just as she had attempted to do so with Kohaku's shard.
Final Moments
At the end of chapter 462 of the manga, Kagome is shocked to find that the Jewel is now inside of Kikyo's body. In chapter 463, with the help of Kagome's sacred arrow, Kikyo purifies the Shikon Jewel, and fires the arrow out of her body and at Naraku. His miasma is only able to corrupt half of the Jewel, and Kikyo's spiritual power and Naraku's evil aura begin to battle within the jewel.
However, Naraku's darkness proves too powerful and overcomes Kikyo's power, completely corrupting the Jewel. Seeing that her resurrected life is practically over, Kikyo weakly tells Kagome that the rest is up to her, and that the bow from Mt. Asuza now belongs to Kagome. Shocked, Kagome asks what Kikyo means, but before the priestess can continue, Naraku claims that Kikyo has lost to his evil aura and he strikes out at her with one of his tentacles. InuYasha slashes through it before it reaches Kikyo and Kagome, but Naraku merely laughs and tells InuYasha that he'll need to start thinking of how to defeat him without Kikyo, and leaves.
Sesshomaru, in an overgrown field with Kohaku and Rin, comments that the scent on the wind has changed, and that it is too late. Kaede also notices some sort of change, noting that the sunset is the color of blood.
With Naraku gone, a crushed InuYasha holds the dying Kikyo in his arms. InuYasha then asks the others to leave them in private. Before leaving, Kagome has her face in her hands, attempting to hide her tears as she laments over being unable to save Kikyo. In thought, Kikyo wishes for Kagome not to cry, for she feels her soul has finally been saved.
Alone together, Kikyo asks InuYasha if he recalls her wish to become an ordinary woman when the Shikon Jewel had vanished. InuYasha replies that he does, as he had planned to use the Jewel to become fully human and spend his life with her. His eyes tearing up, InuYasha tells Kikyo that since his birth, she was his first love. As his tears fall on Kikyo's cheek, she comments that it is the first time she's seen him make such a face and cry.
This prompts InuYasha to cry out in lament that he was unable to save her. But Kikyo continues to soothe him, saying that he came for her and that his effort was good enough. As InuYasha gazes at Kikyo's face, he sees what is perhaps her first genuine smile since her tragic resurrection. Sharing one last kiss together, Kikyo calls out InuYasha's name in her thoughts as she takes a final tear-filled look at him.
Her soul finally at peace, Kikyo's body disappears into a bright cluster of souls and light, which the soul collectors swirl around as the light illuminates the group. Shippo says that it looks as if her soul is bidding farewell to them all, and Kagome notices a surprising warmth to it. The soul collectors then carry Kikyo's soul into the star-filled sky.
InuYasha is still saddened as he looks to the sky, but says that Kikyo is free of her suffering, and that her soul wouldn't want them to mourn her passing.
After Death
In Chapter 475 Naraku reveals that ever since Kikyo's death his near-complete Shikon Jewel has had a purified core that he has been unable to corrupt. He specifically blames Kikyo for this. Kagome believes this core is Kikyo's light. So far the light in the jewel has repurified Kohaku's shard when Naraku attempted to take it, thus causing Naraku to exclaim "Kikyo, so that is your trick.".
Also, the bow Kagome received at Mt. Asuza may be part of a plan as well. While Hitomiko had Kagome captured, she stated that Kagome had no real power and that the bow is what Naraku was after, thus leading Kagome to think "Kikyo?" to herself. In chapter 511 Kagome is told she has her powers being held back by an outside force, thus making her think it is Kikyo once again. In the following chapter, Kaede and InuYasha theorize that when Kikyo's body and the Jewel were burned together, her desire to seal its powers had unwittingly sealed Kagome's powers as well when the jewel was restored in her body. Later in the chapter, Kagome realizes, with help from InuYasha and her grandfather, that this is not the case: it is the Shikon Jewel itself, or rather its evil side (the demons within it) that has sealed her powers, trying to keep her from purifying it, for if she succeeds, the jewel will cease to exist.
In Chapter 529, Kikyo decides to take the light out of the jewel and instead use it to revive the recently deceased Kohaku, thus leaving the fight against Naraku up to the rest of the group.
Abilities and Techniques
Sacred arrow (Hama no Ya) : The magic arrow of a shrine maiden, though Kikyo is actually an exception — her purifying powers (like Midoriko's) are unique to her and Kagome (her reincarnation) — other mikos do not have the same extent of purifying ability to destroy demons. Kikyo can slay demons using her arrows enchanted with her spiritual powers. Usually demons are completely obliterated when struck.
Arrow of sealing (Fuin no Ya) : She used this arrow to seal InuYasha to the Sacred Tree (Goshinboku) after Naraku tricks her into believing that InuYasha attacked her.
Paralyze : With a simple touch is able to paralyze her victims (e.g. Kagome).
Pit of Hell : Kikyo once attempted to bring InuYasha to hell with her as her souls and soul collectors, were drawn into a hole that she was creating, possibly meaning she is connected with the afterlife by bringing enemies to hell, as she is a spirit.
Purification : Being the powerful shrine maiden that she is, Kikyo has the ability to purify anything she touches (i.e. the Shikon no Tama, minor yokai, or possibly spirits). In the case of minor yokai, Kikyo is capable of annihilating them with a touch, as shown in episode 15, Return of the Tragic Priestess, Kikyo. This ability is shown again later on in the series when she destroys an emissary of the afterlife who was crawling over a wounded soldier by touching it.
Shikigami: Kikyo created two girls named Kocho and Asuka. They usually hold her bow and arrows. She created these due to being weakened by Naraku's miasma. They also carry messages and perform other tasks. Another shikigami created by Kikyo was St. Hijiri, who served as a distraction for Naraku while Kikyo recovered from being poisoned by Naraku's miasma at Mt. Hakurai.
Mayose : A spell requiring enormous spiritual power; it lures and purifies (destroys) demons of a specified type. For example, Kikyo used a twig to channel her spiritual powers as she drew a pentagram and planted the twig inside of it. In a matter of seconds, the twig grew into a tree reaching the clouds. A horde of rat-demons were lured to it where they climbed to the top and were purified.
Miko Powers (Hama no reiryoku) : In the chapter where Kikyo is resurrected, she uses some type of power. It is different from the purification, as it is used as an attack. Kikyo killed Urasue and hurt InuYasha with this attack.
Spiritual barrier or shield (kekkai) : Kikyo is able to create a barrier, which aids her in hiding her aura. Sometimes in periods of weakness, e.g. when her life was being threatened by the miasma that Naraku inserted into her body back at Mount Hakurei, it erodes away to the point of exposing her even to those with little to no spiritual fortitude.
Reflection powers : Kikyo used these against the dark priestess Tsubaki. It bears a slight resemblance to InuYasha's backlash wave. Kikyo traps the opponent's power in a barrier created by her bow, and then sends their own demonic power back at them.
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