日暮(ひぐらし)かごめ
Bio
A girl from modern-day Tokyo with a quest in the distant past. Kagome is generally gentle, kind, and optimistic, but it's best not to cross her. After releasing Inuyasha and accidentally shattering the Shikon no Tama, Kagome has travelled with him on a mission to reassemble and safeguard the pieces.
Background
Kagome Higurashi is an average middle school girl in modern-day Tokyo. Sure, her family runs an ancient Shinto shrine, and her grandfather is highly superstitious and always ranting about the origins and history of this and that, but that really doesn't have anything to do with her. At least, not until she's about to leave for school on her fifteenth birthday, when a mononoke suddenly appears from and pulls her into the covered well on the shrine, muttering something about the Shikon no Tama. In revulsion, Kagome pushes it away by some power unknown even to her, but finds herself in Japan's Sengoku era, hundreds of years in the past. After encountering Inuyasha, who is unconcious and pinned to a tree by an arrow, some local villagers capture her for tresspassing.
The village miko, Kaede notes that Kagome bears an uncanny resemblance to Kaede's long-dead older sister Kikyou, but the mononoke soon comes to attack again. The mononoke soon comes to attack again, and Kagome, realizing that it's targetting her, flees for the forest she came from, to protect the village. Her approach wakens Inuyasha, who remains stuck to the tree, but thinks from her scent and appearance that she's Kikyou. As the attack continues, the mononoke bites a chunk out of Kagome's side, freeing a small light violet orb that Kaede identifies as the Shikon no Tama. When the mononoke consumes the jewel and begins to grow even stronger, Kagome frees Inuyasha from his seal so he can fight it off.
He does so with ease, then demands that Kagome hand over the jewel or die. In the following chaos, Kaede spells a nenju onto Inuyasha's neck, and it combines with Kagome's mysterious power to forcefully slam Inuyasha into the ground whenever she says おすわり, as shown to the right. He stops threatening her life after that, for some reason, though he still has quite an attitude.
Kaede entrusts Kagome with protecting the Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha sticks around, hoping for a chance to steal it, and wanting to prevent anyone else from getting it first. Unfortunately, a crow youkai soon does just that. Kagome comes up with the notion of taking advantage of the jewel's regenerative powers, and ties one of the crow's feet, torn off in one of Inuyasha's attacks, to an arrow to make it homing. She successfully shoots down the crow with the modified arrow, but there's a puzzling blast of dazzling light along with the impact. It soon becoes clear that Kagome's arrow shattered the Shikon no Tama into countless pieces, now strewn all across the countryside... and she has to go collect them, with Inuyasha's help.
Kagome soon discovers that both she and Inuyasha can travel between the two eras using the well she arrived in. Kagome's family is much relieved to learn that she's okay, and after several visits and some time to adjust, they're surprisingly supportive of her ongoing quest. Kagome's mother, in particular, stays cheerful and frequently gives Kagome extra supplies to take back with her. Her grandfather takes it upon himself to come up with a variety of excuses for her prolonged absences from school, usually involving outlanding diseases, though she often wishes he wouldn't, considering the strange questions she gets from friends when she's home. Her little brother Souta, for his part, idolizes Inuyasha.
Kagome has a warm and bright personality, and gets along well with nearly everyone. She particularly close to Sango and Shippou, both of whom have lost their families and appreciate her support.
As the reincarnation of Kikyou, Kagome has similar spiritual powers. Her ability to quell Inuyasha seems to be a result of this. The other skill she often uses is the 破魔の矢 (はまのや), pictured at left, an arrow charged with purifying energy that can dispel harmful energies, obliterate lesser youkai, and harm more powerful ones. Over time, her aim has improved to expert level, and the power and area of effect of her arrows also seems to have increased. Kagome has shown signs of futher powers, such as repelling youkai with her bare hands and reflecting curses, but most of these seem to activate only by instinct and when she's desperate. Besides her active abilities, she has the largely passive ability to sense the presence of Shikon shards, youki, and other supernatural energies. The full extent of Kagome's miko powers remains unclear, and it's my opinion that she doesn't make use of them nearly enough. Especially since the way Kagome seized back her soul from Kikyou early on means that her powers may be even stronger than Kikyou's...
Kagome's romantic life is fairly complicated. She takes a liking to Inuyasha early on, and falls in love with him over time, but that's not to say he doesn't get on her nerves at times. Actually, her most common reason for おすわり-ing him is as retribution for the times when he does something particularly insensitive. Further complicating things are his refusal to be open with his feelings, his lingering attachment to Kikyou, and the fact that they come from eras that are about five centuries apart. Additionally, Inuyasha isn't the only one interested in Kagome. The wolf youkai Kouga seems convinced that she's already his, even though she's merely friendly towards him. In her own time, Houjou, a boy at her school, pursues her affections, frequently bringing gifts that are supposed to combat the ailments her grandfather keeps making up to excuse her from school. However, Kagome's friends have recently met Inuyasha and acknowledged him as Kagome's boyfriend. We have yet to see how Houjou takes the news, but he's not likely to be pleased.
Current status
Kagome travels with Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippou. Her primary goal is stopping Naraku, who has most of the Shikon no Tama, torments and kills innocent people for fun, and has repeatedly harassed and tried to kill her, Inuyasha, and the others. With all the schoolwork she's missing, she's likely to have academic problems, but Naraku is a bigger problem, and she'd rather be with Inuyasha than in class anyway.
Special powers, etc.
- It's not a special ability per se, but Kagome is the only one of the group familiar with any knowledge and discoveries (in science, technology, medicine, history, and so on) that's more recent than the 1500s or so, and the only one able to get modern products. I don't see anyone else using flammable hair spray and a candle as a makeshift flamethrower.
- 言霊 (ことだま) - Kagome's powers combined with the nenju around Inuyasha's neck let her make him kiss the ground, just by saying おすわり (which is how you tell a dog to 'sit'), whenever he steps too far out of line, or if he gets on her nerves, and occasionally even to protect him.
- 破魔の矢 (はまのや) - Kagome's arrows are infused with a spiritual energy that purifies youki and similar energies. Once she becomes skilled at using them, a single arrow can wipe out a small swarm of lesser youkai and substantially damage even powerful ones.
- A sixth sense, or something similar, allows Kagome to detect the presence of Shikon shards, among other things. Perhaps as a result, her gut feelings about a situation are usually, if not always, right, especially when it comes to noticing when something's wrong.
- Kagome appears to have a variety of other miko powers, much like Kikyou, but she never trains or otherwise attempts to investigate or develop them. As a result, these powers activate only by instinct or reflex and are unreliable, and she has only a vague idea of what she's capable of. In theory, she should be able to do anything Kikyou can, but don't expect to see it happen.
- Whether it's a mystical power or something else, Kagome brings out the best in Inuyasha.
Voice: 雪野五月
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