Inuyasha

After exterminating a rather difficult demon, Kikyou senses a presence in the tree behind her. She calls out to it, asking if they are also after the Shikon no Tama. He does not seem to know what she is talking about, so she tells him to stay away from her unless he wants to be killed. Turning to leave, Kikyou collapses. He jumps down and kneels next to her, wondering who she is. He is quickly brought out of his thoughts when he hears people calling her name. Sometime later, he comes to meet Kikyou, and she recognizes him as the same person from that night. He tries to fight her, but Kikyou pins both of his sleeves to a tree, and draws another to kill him. She asks why he did not kill her then and he says he would never kill someone while they were sleeping. Kikyou laughs and then turns to leave. He demands to know why she is not going to kill him, but she just walks away. Somehow or another, he manages to get down and tries to attack Kikyou again later. She pins him to a tree again, except this time in four different places. Kikyou refers to him as “half-demon” and he tells her that his name is Inuyasha because he hates being called that. And so, Inuyasha and Kikyou formed a simple bond at this moment.

Kikyou is sitting in a field when she calls for Inuyasha to come down next to her. Inuyasha seems somewhat surprised, but he does as she asked. He sits a short distance away from her and looks at her apprehensively. The two end up talking and Kikyou asks him what he thinks of her. She says she cannot act human even though she is one, and that made the two of them alike. Kikyou could not bring herself kill Inuyasha for that reason. Inuyasha is thrown off guard by her spilling her thoughts out on him and gets up saying it is not her style to be like that. Kikyou smiles sadly and gets up to leave. I think she was probably a little disappointed at his reaction as well as wondering why she told him her feelings and troubles. At this point, Kikyou does not realize her developing feelings for the half-demon. Inuyasha looks after her and calls her name. She turns and he tells her that he wants her to meet him there the next day because he has something for her. Kikyou tells him that she will because she has something for him as well. Inuyasha gets excited thinking it is the jewel, but she tells him that is impossible and he sulks off. That night, Kikyou prepares a set of prayer beads that she planned on using to subdue Inuyasha. Kaede questions her motives and she simply says that it is for the best. Kikyou now thinks to herself that she is not afraid of death, rather than thinking she will never fall in love. She begins to realize her feelings for Inuyasha and does not care about Tsubaki’s curse enough to stop them.

The next day, Inuyasha hands her a small shell of red lipstick that was one of two mementos left by his mother. Kikyou is surprised that he gave her something so important, and questions him whether or not it is okay that he is giving it to her. Inuyasha says he has no use for it anyway, and wonders what she brought for him. Kikyou reaches inside her kimono for the prayer beads and hesitates. She then smiles and says she must have forgotten it, which causes Inuyasha to groan because he was looking forward to it. Kikyou smiles again at the little shell and then asks him one more time if it is okay that she has it. Obviously her feelings are blooming like crazy at this point because she decided not to use the prayer beads on him after all. Kikyou was incredibly happy that Inuyasha gave her something, even though it was only something small.

The following days made Kikyou happy, as Inuyasha spent most of his time watching her from a distance. She knew that he was no longer there just to find an opportunity to steal the Shikon no Tama, but rather, he was there just to be with her. She invites him down to play with her and some young children, but Inuyasha pretends to not want anything to do with it. Kikyou simply smiles and continues on her way, his eyes following her every move. When Kikyou traveled places, Inuyasha stayed by her side and made sure that she was safe. When the village is attacked by a bunch of demons, Inuyasha was already there trying to protect the villagers until Kikyou finally arrived. He helped her protect the people, showing that he has really changed from when they first met. Sure, Inuyasha is not the type of person to kill people for fun, but I am sure he was partly doing it for her as well. Kaede ends up losing her eye because Kikyou was not strong enough, and later Inuyasha tries to comfort her by saying it was not her fault, but she realizes it is. She pauses to think for a little while and then asks Inuyasha if he would consider becoming a human by using the Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha asks what would happen to her, and she said she would become a normal woman because the jewel would be gone. Inuyasha does not respond at first, and they are seen in a boat. Inuyasha gets off first, and Kikyou follows but trips over her bow. He catches her with the paddle, but then throws it down and embraces her. He calls himself crazy and tells her that he wants to become human and live with her. The two kiss with the sun setting behind them. They promise to meet the next day at sunrise and go their separate ways.

Kikyou rushes to their promised meeting place as she ends up being late. Looking around, she sees no sign of Inuyasha. Wondering if he overslept as well, Kikyou goes off to look for him. She stops, takes out the small shell of lipstick and smiles while putting some on her finger. Kikyou obviously wants to look nice for this important day with the guy she loves. Naraku, disguised as Inuyasha, comes up from behind her and fatally injures her. She falls to the ground in utter shock, and Naraku crushes the shell of lipstick saying it did not suit her anyway. Kikyou reaches for the Shikon no Tama, but Naraku steps on her hand saying he never planned to become human with her and it was all an act from the start. He takes the jewel and leaves, telling her he was going to go kill everyone in the village. Kikyou feels completely betrayed and hurt beyond all reason, and manages to make her way to the village.

Inuyasha makes his way to their promised spot only to find that Kikyou is not there. He then hears her; although it is really Naraku, call him a half-demon. Naraku then shoots some arrows at him saying that he never planned on giving Inuyasha the jewel and that it was just an act to catch him off guard. Inuyasha swears and easily gets away, heading for the village. He breaks into the shrine and takes the Shikon no Tama, preparing to become a full demon. Kikyou screams his name and fires her arrow at him while thinking she trusted him completely, and it hits him in the heart. Inuyasha wonders why this happened because he fully believed in her and is then sealed to the tree. As his vision fades out, he thinks that he still likes her despite all that just happened.

Inuyasha and Kikyou had a very strong bond. They both trusted and believed in each other completely, and Inuyasha would do anything in order to protect her. They brought out different sides of each other while being together. Kikyou was able to be herself, smiling and feel comfortable and at ease. She was not just the powerful shrine maiden that had the duty to protect the Shikon no Tama to him like she was to almost everyone else. He smiled at the real her, and that made her feel appreciated for something other than a woman that was destined to walk down the path of bloodshed. Inuyasha on the other hand, wanted to become a full demon. He wanted power, and that is all he really cared about. Meeting Kikyou changed him tremendously, and he knew it. He wanted to become human. Human. Inuyasha, who once wanted power, wanted to become human to live with Kikyou. She softened him and taught him there was more to life than fighting and power. I mean, who else could get away with telling Inuyasha he better be behaving himself and get away with it without protest from him? She was able to throw him off guard and get past his outer shell he built up from the years of being discriminated against for being a half-demon. Kikyou did not care he was a half-demon, and she loved him anyway. Naraku knew how strong their love and trust was, and that is partially why he ensnared them to taint the jewel with the blood of malice. Even though Kikyou could have wished to live, she saw no further point in living after being betrayed by the one person she thought she could trust. She decided to go to her death peacefully following after Inuyasha.

Though the two of them died still loving each other, when Inuyasha is awakened and Kikyou is resurrected, they were both extremely angry and went on rampages of sorts. Inuyasha tried to take the Shikon no Tama by force, as he still wished to become a full demon. Kikyou was revived on her hatred for Inuyasha, and therefore tried to kill him when she was able to move and function fully. She demands to know why he betrayed him, but he has no idea what she is talking about. Kikyou refuses to listen to him, and even though Inuyasha tries to save her from falling off the cliff, she uses her spiritual power to burn his arm. She hoped to bring him down with her, but she slipped out of his hand and fell down the cliff with a betrayed look once again. Inuyasha becomes very upset after this, as he has not stopped thinking about her since he awoke again. When they meet again, Inuyasha tells her that he could never find her disgusting and that even though she may hate him, he has not stopped thinking about her for a single day. Kikyou then tries to bring him to hell with her because she wants to be with him forever. But, there is a slight problem with that picture, and that is her reincarnation Kagome.

Inuyasha still loves Kikyou, but his feelings for Kagome develop rapidly after the amount of time he has spent with her. Kikyou realizes that he loves Kagome when he rushes to save her and seems to completely forget about her existence. She seems sad and wonders if Kagome is more precious to him than she is and leaves for the time being. Kaede tells Kikyou that Kagome is melting Inuyasha’s heart, and Kikyou knows that she would have been the one doing that if she were alive with him. Even though Kikyou is jealous, Inuyasha can never forget about her and his feelings for her. He thinks that if he had been able to trust her more, she never would have died, and therefore he cannot just simply be forgotten. So, even though he knows he loves Kagome as well, he cannot drop his love for Kikyou. Inuyasha does not seem to consider either of them “in the way”, though they both at one point or another see each other in the way. Though, Kagome really is not in the way of Inuyasha and Kikyou because Kikyou’s death really is. Yeah, Inuyasha cannot go and die with her yet because he wants to protect Kagome, but still. Kikyou knows that she could never be with Inuyasha with or without Kagome in the picture, and that is why I think she quickly drops the mad jealousy. Obviously Kikyou is still jealous that Kagome is with Inuyasha because she loves him too, but she is not enraged or anything about it. Kikyou and Inuyasha have accepted their fate.

Though Inuyasha’s encounters with Kikyou tend to leave him confused because he cannot tell what her feelings for him are, she really does still love him. The only reason she says his life belongs to her is because she does not want him to die before they can die together. She also looks out for him, often coming to his aid in tough situations (like in the second movie). Kikyou also ends up warning people like Tsubaki not to lay a hand on Inuyasha otherwise they will deal with consequences from her. She wants to look out for him, most likely in place of not being able to be with him at his side like she used to be. Inuyasha, of course, promises to protect her no matter what on numerous occasions and generally he keeps his promise. He gets insanely jealous when he finds out that Naraku has feelings for Kikyou because of Onigumo, and tells Kikyou that he cannot stomach the thought of Naraku seeing her or even hearing his voice. Talk about some intense feelings there. But of course he has those same feelings about Kouga and Kagome as well, so he is not purely devoted by any means. Regardless, he has made a vow to her and himself that he will destroy Naraku to get revenge for Kikyou and himself. Naraku ruined everything for her and killed their chance at a loving and peaceful relationship. Inuyasha will stop at nothing to destroy him. When he thinks that Naraku killed Kikyou at Mt. Hakurei, he is absolutely devastated. He does not understand why Kikyou did not wait for him to be there to protect her and why she had to take him on herself. He yet again blames himself for her death, but I think Inuyasha would blame himself no matter how Kikyou died. If he could not protect her from death, then it automatically becomes his fault. That is how Inuyasha feels about the people he loves.

When Kikyou is actually dying, Inuyasha cannot hold himself together. He carries her away from the group and holds her close to him. She asks him if he remembers their promise and he tells her there is no way he could ever forget that. He apologizes over and over that he could not do anything to save her and starts crying. Kikyou smiles and says that it does not matter to her since he came for her, and that was good enough. Inuyasha cannot take her words to heart because she was the first woman he ever loved from the moment he was born and he failed to save her. The two star-crossed lovers share their last kiss and embrace, and Kikyou begins to cry as well. But she is crying tears of happiness because even though she was dying, this time she had Inuyasha there with her. She was able to die knowing that Inuyasha has always loved her and her soul was able to finally move after being frozen in one moment of time. Kikyou’s soul circles around Inuyasha for a final goodbye and Inuyasha can at least take comfort in knowing that his love does not have to suffer any longer. Even though Kikyou and Inuyasha could never be together, he will never forget her for the rest of his life.

b a c k   .   c l e a r   .   f o r w a r d    Alterna and its contents are © Samantha, however Kikyou and the InuYasha series are © Takahashi Rumiko and other rightful owners. Stealing is absolutely not permitted, and your site will be shut down if caught. Alterna is a part of IRISBLADE.ORG.