Naraku/Onigumo

Fifty years before the story starts, Onigumo was a bandit that was friends with another named Rasetsu. Onigumo tells him of the Shikon no Tama that Kikyou is guarding, and cons him into going to kill her and steal it. Rasetsu almost succeeds, but Inuyasha grabs his arrow before it hits Kikyou and attacks him. Rasetsu loses his eye and returns to where Onigumo and his men were only to find them gone. Onigumo knew of Inuyasha, and had used the Shikon no Tama as a decoy while he took his men and horses. Rasetsu was enraged and chased after him, and when he finally found him, he exploded the building that Onigumo was in. He still managed to survive, though very badly burned, so Rasetsu wraps him in a blanket and throws him down near the cave where he almost killed Kikyou.

Though it is not shown, it is assumed that Kikyou found Onigumo and decided to keep him hidden in the cave. She went to his side daily, tending to his burns and feeding him. Onigumo did not really understand her kindness at first, but after each passing day, he developed base feelings for her. Onigumo tells Kaede one day when she was tending to him in Kikyou’s absence that he wants to see Kikyou panicked and upset because she is always so calm and pure. One can only assume he also had rather dirty thoughts of the pure shrine maiden as well, and Kaede automatically tells her sister when she returns. Kikyou just laughs it off because she knows that Onigumo will never be able to move again.

With Kikyou’s spiritual power weakening by the day, more demons passed through her barrier around the area. Onigumo, still in the cave with his emotions simmering inside of him became a prime target for the local demons. A spider demon that had been watching Inuyasha and Kikyou crawls on him sensing his emotions, and makes a deal with him. Onigumo lets the demon as well as hundreds of others devour his soul in exchange for having a human body and the power to make Kikyou his. Unfortunately, not everything really went according to plan.

The demons that devoured his soul wanted nothing but to kill Kikyou since she had the Shikon no Tama, and Onigumo’s consciousness was locked away within the new body that called himself Naraku. He overhears Kikyou and Inuyasha’s promise to meet the next morning to use the jewel and devises a plan to turn the two lovers against each other. Naraku changes his appearance to Inuyasha and attacks Kikyou from behind. He tells her that he never planned to become human with her and just wanted the jewel the whole time. Picking up the Shikon no Tama, Naraku leaves the heartbroken Kikyou to find Inuyasha. He changes his appearance to Kikyou and taunts Inuyasha, saying he would never give him the jewel. Inuyasha then goes on a rampage to steal the Shikon no Tama, and Kikyou seals him to the tree only to follow him in death. The jewel did not become tainted, and it slipped through Naraku’s hands when she died.

With Inuyasha’s awakening, Kagome traveling back in time, Naraku is pleasantly surprised that the Shikon no Tama is back in his grasp. Unfortunately for him, he is shocked to see that Kikyou is still alive, and even more displeased that he cannot seem to get his mind off of her. Once Kikyou learns of his existence and that he cannot touch her because of Onigumo’s heart, she becomes rather confident that he will never be able to kill her. Naraku becomes extremely frustrated that he cannot rid his feelings for her, and even ends up killing a retainer out of jealousy after seeing Inuyasha and Kikyou embracing. He makes up the excuse of keeping an eye on her just to go and meet her from time to time. Kikyou gives him her normal arrogant attitude and there is nothing he can do about it…for the time being.

Naraku decides to cast away his human heart in attempts to rid himself the feelings of Kikyou so he can kill her, and it takes the form of the faceless man who ends up calling himself Muso. The heart of Onigumo now has a body, but not his own memories. He raids villages and kills people to try and entertain himself, but is not able to shake off his feelings of being unsatisfied. On the way to destroy Kaede’s village because it “calls to him”, Muso meets Inuyasha. He hates Inuyasha’s face but does not remember why because he does not recall ever meeting him. Kagome arrives and Muso remembers a glimpse of Kikyou in the cave. He tries to kidnap Kagome thinking she is Kikyou, but is temporarily defeated by Inuyasha. Muso makes his way to the old cave that he stayed in and slowly begins to remember everything. All he wanted was a new body so he could live with Kikyou, but he could not control his new body at all and ended up killing her.

Naraku then decides he is going to absorb Muso back into himself because he still was not completely cut off from Onigumo’s heart. Onigumo is pissed off that Naraku killed Kikyou and tries to attack him. Naraku mentions that Kikyou is still alive in the same state as he is, and Muso runs off in order to find her. He ends up changing his mind and runs back in order to try and kill Naraku, but ends up getting absorbed anyway. Muso called for Kikyou the whole time he was being absorbed. It is actually quite a sad story, since all he wanted was to live with her. He never wanted to actually hurt Kikyou…he just loved her and chose the wrong path to try and get her. How many people let their soul get devoured by demons for someone that they did not love?

Regardless, Naraku is determined to kill Kikyou, so while hiding in Mt. Hakurei, he forms a new body…a new body that does not have a human heart at all. Naraku cast aside Onigumo’s heart in the form of thousands of babies. Which, I thought I would mention, is kind of creepy…I guess either Onigumo’s feelings were pretty intense or Naraku failed a ton of times to discard the heart. Either way, Naraku meets Kikyou in his new body and attacks her, not feeling a thing. He pushes her to her death off a cliff into a river of his miasma…or so he thought anyway.

Kikyou focuses in on her goal of killing Naraku because the Shikon no Tama is almost completely whole again. She is determined to destroy him no matter what the cost is. Though she is tainted by Naraku’s spider webs and obviously near death, Kikyou uses the last bit of her strength to challenge him by purifying the jewel. Her spiritual power and his miasma battle it out inside the Shikon no Tama, and even though she loses, a glimpse of light is still seen within the jewel. Naraku laughs that she has lost, but Kikyou thinks to herself that he will see who really lost once he is in hell. Kikyou then tells Kagome the rest is up to her, hoping that Kagome and Inuyasha will be able to carry on from where she finished to defeat her sworn enemy – Naraku, the person who stole everything from her.

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