Powers

Kikyou is a powerful shrine maiden, and therefore has many different skills and powers. Anything in italics was pulled from the InuYasha Profiles book, and my insight and comments are below each section.

The basis of her skills is the spiritual power as a priestess to protect the Shikon no Tama. Kikyou has the ability to use her power in various different ways for direct or indirect attacks, defense, recovery, and so forth. She not only has the priestess’s fundamental skill of purifying the demonic, but also the ability to physically attack. Her spiritual power is very strong and the average demon is no match for her.

• SACRED ARROWS - the art of destroying demons by striking them with spiritual power-charged arrows. Even if they merely graze the enemy, they cause damage. If they strike directly, they have the power to smash them. Kikyou can control her spiritual power at will and is able to seal enemies without exterminating them; for example, by simply nailing her intended target to a tree.

Kikyou has extraordinary skill with a bow that almost everyone recognizes and acknowledges. She not only has the skill, but grace, and speed while targeting and hitting enemies as well. Her hit rate is also quite high, and she rarely misses unless something else is interfering. Kikyou can use and fire more than one arrow at a time to hit multiple enemies. She also can control whether she wants to destroy an enemy or use the arrow of the seal, to put her enemy in an eternal sleep like she did to Inuyasha. The only problem with arrows is that they are a mid to long range weapon, so if someone was close enough to her, she would not be able to do anything.

• SPIRITUAL POWER TO DESTROY THE DEMONIC - A technique in which the enemy is touched directly and destroyed with spiritual power. Kikyou can cast away the average demon with a single blow. If she is in close range, she can attack with spiritual power from her finger.

This, along with the sacred arrows, is one of Kikyou’s strongest skills. She is obviously very powerful to be able to smash part of the tree she trapped Kagome against to scare her to silence with just one of her fingers. Kikyou also used this power on Urasue when she was first resurrected. She destroyed Urasue just by grabbing onto her shoulders when she was not even fully conscious.

• HYPNOTISM - Kikyou seals enemies’ wills, words and actions with spiritual power. After that, enemies are at her mercy.

Kikyou does not do this very often, or at least it is not shown that she does. She uses it on Kagome by lightly touching her forehead to seal her movement and make it so she cannot be seen or heard. The most obvious case of usage would be when she hypnotizes Inuyasha in order to bring him to hell with her. This skill is not as powerful as others, as Kagome easily breaks it in both cases.

• RETURN THE CURSE - The art of returning an enemies’ released spiritual power back at them. If an enemy is less powerful than her, Kikyou is able to attack without using her own spiritual power. It is also effective against the Shikigami demon serpent or the spiritual power attack of ascetic monks.

There is not much of a big deal made out of this type of attack other than in the few episodes and chapters involving Tsubaki. Kikyou was attacked with Tsubaki’s spiritual power in the form of a demon serpent, and she reflected it back with her bow, causing it to repel into Tsubaki’s eye. Kikyou also does it when a monk tries to “save her soul” and reflects his power back at him, killing him.

• BARRIER - Under a barrier, she creates areas that neither humans nor demons can break into. When a human makes a barrier, even an ascetic monk must concentrate hard, but in Kikyou’s case, she can maintain a barrier in her sleep.

Since Kikyou needs to sleep and regenerate while souls are being collected numerous times, it is a good thing she is able to make such powerful barriers in her sleep. Miroku and the others are not able to pass through her barrier, but since Kagome has the same soul, she easily passes through it without realizing there was a barrier there in the first place. Kikyou is also able to break through Naraku’s barrier because her body was made from the soil saturated with Onigumo’s feelings.

• EXPEL DEMONIC AURA - By expelling errands from the afterworld or demons, she protects the lives of the sick or injured using her medical knowledge.

Kikyou is often seen helping wounded soldiers or sick people when she is traveling around. Combined with her impressive knowledge of medical herbs, her ability to expel demons from the underworld spreads rumors that she has some power to bring people back from the dead. Kikyou, however, simply calls herself an ordinary shrine maiden, but people do not take her word for it.

• PURIFICATION - She sends the evil of the unsaved to heaven with her spiritual power of a trained priestess, and also purifies impure things. She is helpful to those who ask for help, but she is a threat to evil demons.

Kikyou, like Kagome, has the power of purification. Any shards that get into her possession are immediately purified, but that is to be expected from the woman who spent a good portion of her life purifying the Shikon no Tama in the first place. Naraku tries to control her with a tainted jewel shard, but it has no effect because of her purification. She is also able to help souls that are not at rest because of her power and understanding, and is able to free Hakushin from his torment.

• KNOWLEDGE & INSIGHT - Besides for her spiritual powers, Kikyou also has high intelligence and strong insight. She generally can see right through plots of her enemies and analyze situations well. Even if she does get into a tight bind, her amount of knowledge is incredible, whether it be plants and herbs, or magical creatures and demons. Kikyou is also able to feel the presence of humans or demons and can judge if they are holy or demonic. She is also one of the two people who can see the jewel shards as well as barriers.

Overall, her powers and abilities make her a powerful force not to be messed with. Her spiritual powers weakened when she fell in love with Inuyasha because of the curse Tsubaki put on her, but even so she is quite powerful and a threat to Naraku. However, she is not immortal, and if her souls get taken from her, she is left defenseless and unable to move. Other than that, she really has no weakness unless her spiritual powers are useless against her enemy.

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.