Kikyo
Kikyo is the one who was given the task (by the Taijya clan) of guarding and purifying the Shikon no Tama, aged seventeen. She strongly falls romantically in love with InuYasha and considers using the Sacred Shikon Jewel to turn him from a half-dog demon into a full human; this would cause the Shikon Jewel to vanish from the world, allowing her to live as an ordinary woman by his side. However, Naraku disguises himself as InuYasha to attack her village, leaving her seriously wounded. Fooled by Naraku, Kikyo believes InuYasha has betrayed her and uses her remaining strenght to seal InuYasha to the Sacred Tree, leaving him in a sleeping state for fifty years. Shortly before she dies, she orderd that the Shikon no Tama be burned along with her remains on her funeral pyre. The Shikon Jewel disappears and is apparently destroyed, but is reborn, along with Kikyo herself, five hundred years later in the body of fifteen year old Kagome Higurashi, her modern-day reincarnation.
After Kagome travels back through time and reappears fifty years after Kikyo's death, an evil demon sorceress named Urasue tries to pull her reincarnated soul into a clay body made with graveyard soil and Kikyo's bones and ashes. Kagome appears to suffer no permanent harm, but a small part of her soul detaches and reanimates the new body with Kikyo's memories, personality, and human appearance. Although Kikyo retains some of her original spiritual powers in this form, she remains "undead" and must absorb the souls of dead women in order to move. At first, she wants to vengefully drag InuYasha into Hell. However, Kikyo gradually returns to her former compassionate nature and when she learns that Naraku caused the real circumstances of her death, she also feels more free than when she was living as a shrine priestess as she was free to hate & love. Her strong romantic feelings for InuYasha are still true and deep throughout the series, which strains Kagome's relationship with InuYasha, since InuYasha reciprocates Kikyo's lingering romantic feelings. Naraku regards Kikyo as a threatening presence throughout the series, not only because of Kikyo's tremendously strong spiritual powers and knowledge, but also because he still retains the human heart/mind of the bandit Onigumo at his core and Onigumo still obsessively desires Kikyo above all else.
When Kikyo is attacked by Naraku at Mount Hakurei after he transforms his body and cast out Onigumo's human heart, she falls into a river of miasma, thinking of InuYasha as she falls in. InuYasha arrives shortly after and finds her broken longbow and believes that she was perished. However, Kikyo actually survived the attack and is inflicted with deep miasma wounds, which are purified and healed by Kagome, though the miasma wounds continue to have a lingering affect on Kikyo. When Naraku realizes that Kikyo intends to use Kohaku's purified Jewel shard to destroy him once the Shikon Jewel is complete, Naraku attempts to kill her again. Kikyo's wounds begin to spread throughout her body, obliging Kagome to go to Mount Azusa to retrieve a sacred longbow with special spiritual abilities of its own to heal Kikyo. However, Kikyo conceals the fact that she sent Kagome to Mount Asuza so that Kagome could rid herself of the miasma Naraku had tainted her with and that she knows that purifying arrow Kikyo instructs Kagome to shoot her with will end her life. Kikyo shares her last romantic moments and a final loving romantic kiss with InuYasha and finally dies in his arms peacefully. Her unusually strong willpower is then transferred into Naraku's shard showing a tiny speck of purity in the darkness. When Naraku kills Kohaku after he finally had the will to live after apologizing to Sango, Kikyo's light within the shard decided to save Kohaku's life instead. In the end, she left the task of purifying the Sacred Shikon Jewel to Kagome, leaving herself to finally be a "normal human" where her soul and spirit is finally freed.
Before Kikyo died, her soul came to her sister Kaede in a vision, apologizing for everything rhat happened. This shows that Kikyo truly loved her sister, and felt bad because she to grow up without her for 50 years.
After Kagome travels back through time and reappears fifty years after Kikyo's death, an evil demon sorceress named Urasue tries to pull her reincarnated soul into a clay body made with graveyard soil and Kikyo's bones and ashes. Kagome appears to suffer no permanent harm, but a small part of her soul detaches and reanimates the new body with Kikyo's memories, personality, and human appearance. Although Kikyo retains some of her original spiritual powers in this form, she remains "undead" and must absorb the souls of dead women in order to move. At first, she wants to vengefully drag InuYasha into Hell. However, Kikyo gradually returns to her former compassionate nature and when she learns that Naraku caused the real circumstances of her death, she also feels more free than when she was living as a shrine priestess as she was free to hate & love. Her strong romantic feelings for InuYasha are still true and deep throughout the series, which strains Kagome's relationship with InuYasha, since InuYasha reciprocates Kikyo's lingering romantic feelings. Naraku regards Kikyo as a threatening presence throughout the series, not only because of Kikyo's tremendously strong spiritual powers and knowledge, but also because he still retains the human heart/mind of the bandit Onigumo at his core and Onigumo still obsessively desires Kikyo above all else.
When Kikyo is attacked by Naraku at Mount Hakurei after he transforms his body and cast out Onigumo's human heart, she falls into a river of miasma, thinking of InuYasha as she falls in. InuYasha arrives shortly after and finds her broken longbow and believes that she was perished. However, Kikyo actually survived the attack and is inflicted with deep miasma wounds, which are purified and healed by Kagome, though the miasma wounds continue to have a lingering affect on Kikyo. When Naraku realizes that Kikyo intends to use Kohaku's purified Jewel shard to destroy him once the Shikon Jewel is complete, Naraku attempts to kill her again. Kikyo's wounds begin to spread throughout her body, obliging Kagome to go to Mount Azusa to retrieve a sacred longbow with special spiritual abilities of its own to heal Kikyo. However, Kikyo conceals the fact that she sent Kagome to Mount Asuza so that Kagome could rid herself of the miasma Naraku had tainted her with and that she knows that purifying arrow Kikyo instructs Kagome to shoot her with will end her life. Kikyo shares her last romantic moments and a final loving romantic kiss with InuYasha and finally dies in his arms peacefully. Her unusually strong willpower is then transferred into Naraku's shard showing a tiny speck of purity in the darkness. When Naraku kills Kohaku after he finally had the will to live after apologizing to Sango, Kikyo's light within the shard decided to save Kohaku's life instead. In the end, she left the task of purifying the Sacred Shikon Jewel to Kagome, leaving herself to finally be a "normal human" where her soul and spirit is finally freed.
Before Kikyo died, her soul came to her sister Kaede in a vision, apologizing for everything rhat happened. This shows that Kikyo truly loved her sister, and felt bad because she to grow up without her for 50 years.