Does that girl mean more to you than I do?
Wait, Kikyo! Listen to me!!
Inuyasha, never forget the feel of my lips against yours. For it was real. Never forget.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
Kikyo, is it really you?
What ails you, Kaede? Do you fear your own sister?
You misunderstand. I heard ye had fallen from a cliff. I did not imagine ye would survive.
You are correct. I am dead. Yet something left undone in this world keeps me from moving on.
Do ye still hunger to take Inuyasha's life?
I have just met with Inuyasha moments ago and almost succeeded in stringing the life from him. Speak to me, Kaede. Tell me all you have to offer about this Naraku person.
Everything began with the evil desires of Onigumo. He called forth the demons' and was devoured by them. Thus was born the monster Naraku.
So it all began with Onigumo. That bandit.
That's right. He used to say that the Sacred Jewel grows in beauty when it is tainted with malice.
Kikyo (thinking): He fueled the hatred between Inuyasha and myself. And attempted to steal the Jewel that had been tainted in the process.
Inuyasha, had you heard of the Jewel's origins?
Not at all. When I learned of the Jewel of Four Souls, Kikyo had it in her protection. I had never given any thought as to where the Jewel came from or how it was created.
She has a Shikon Jewel shard in her back. I can see it.
No wonder. I could already tell she was badly inured from the smell of her blood.
Sango!
The Jewel shard was suppressing my pain!! Naraku!!
You really love to mess around with people's feelings, don't ya!? You creep!!
Are you thinking of Kikyo when you say that?
The fragments of the Sacred Jewel energize the power of evil. I still got a lot of pieces to collect before it's whole. (thinking) Everyone who comes in contact with the Jewel seems to end up unhappy. Just what is it exactly?
All right. Get your friends. You helped bury the dead. So I will tell how the Sacred Jewel came to be.
So, Sango, how do we get rid of this stupid cave barrier, anyway?
We need to know what incantation you villagers chant in order to break it.
There isn't any incantation.
Of course there is! How else would you do it!?
At first, my villagers thought the demons' had placed a curse on the entrance. But we eventually realized that she is the one who keeps intruders out.
And who is "she"?
The person whom the Sacred Jewel was born. Her spirit is full of sadness and regret, and it prevents others from entering. That's what I sense. It will be easier to understand once we go in. Go ahead, step through the barrier.
Uh, are you sure about this?
Countless people have been killed because of the Sacred Jewel's dark power. And it is the sympathy you show for the victims that leads me to believe she will allow you to enter the cave.
The demon has her in its jaws.
There was a time when demons, dragons and other monsters merged together to wage a battle. They fought against one powerful human.
There's a person inside the stalagmite.
Ancient armor. Is that an ancient warrior?
It's a woman. A priestess who lived many centuries ago.
Huh?
Look at the number of demons surrounding her. This priestess must've had immense spiritual power.
The court nobles controlled the country at that time. Wars and famine dragged on and on and countless people perished. Demons devoured the dead and the near dead and they were able to grow in great numbers. Many priests and warriors set out to slay them. But only one priestess, known as Midoriko, was able to purify demon souls and render them harmless. She was considered the most powerful human of her time.
She could purify and weaken the demons' souls?
In her world, animals, trees, and even stones were all created though the foul souls.
Kagome (thinking): That's right. "Shikon" means "four souls."
I've come across that philosophy in my readings. The four souls are called as aranitama, kushinitama, niginitama and sakinitama. When they're combined, they become the spirit of one person housed inside the heart. Aranitama is "courage", niginitama is 'friendship", kushinitama is "wisdom", sakinitama is "love."
When the four spirits work in harmony, it is called narobi, and the human heart is filled with goodness. Are you keeping up with me, Inuyasha?
Uh, not really, no.
This is way too deep for me.
When somebody does a bad deed, the four souls energize evil, and the human loses his way. In other words...
In other words, a soul can turn good or bad, and this transformation can happen within either a human soul or a demon soul.
Now you know why Midoriko was a formidable foe for the demons' because she was able to purify their souls and make them powerless.
So what!? She fought off an army of demons by turning them into a bunch of weaklings! Well, her power didn't last very long, did it? I'd say she's a pretty useless priestess now!
She hasn't lost the battle yet.
Kagome (thinking): What does she mean "not yet"? What's that?
After battling for seven days and seven nights, a demon got its fangs into Midoriko. With her last ounce of energy, she reached deep within her own body for strength, and seized the demon's soul. But in doing so, she forced out her own soul.
Tell me. Is the hole in her chest the spot where she forced out her own soul!?
What flew out of her was, in fact, the Shikon Jewel. She wasn't able to purify the demon's soul. All she could do was seize and imprison it along with herself. Although the flesh is gone, inside the Sacred Jewel, a battle still wages between Midoriko and the demons.' That is why the fight isn't over yet.
So a war between souls is still raging inside the Sacred Jewel.
It's not like this story complicates things. We just gotta go after Naraku hunting after the Jewel shards. I'm gonna take possession of the Sacred Jewel and use it to become a full-fledged demon, and then Midoriko can rest in peace!
(he is suddenly thrown out of the cave)
Looks like people who talk of the Sacred Jewel for selfish gain get thrown from the cave.
That must be Midoriko's version of "Sit!"
A priestess inside of a stalagmite!? Oh my! Tell me all the juicy details, Shippo!
The priestess thrust the sacred Shikon Jewel out of her body while the demon had her in its jaws. And the image of them is set in stone.
Hmm. They recovered in stalagmite, then several centuries must have passed since the battle, just like Sango said.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's InuYasha pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.