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Name:Higurashi Kagome
Age: 15
Weapons: Bow and Arrow, Spiritual Powers
Kagome is the grand daughter of the keeper of Higurashi Shrine, a shinto shrine near Tokyo. On her fifteenth birthday, she is pulled into a well (The Bone Eater's Well) by a centipede yokai (demon), known as the Mudake Joro (Mistress Centipede), and is taken into feudal Japan, specifically the Sengoku period. In the past, she finds what seems to be a sleeping hanyo (half demon) who is pinned to a tree by an arrow. She is captured and taken into the nearby village and is confronted by Kaede, the shrine maiden of the village. Kaede at first thinks that Kagome is a yokai, due to her strange-looking modern clothing, but she changes her mind when she notices that Kagome bears an uncanny resemblance to her long dead sister, Kikyo.
That night, the centipede yokai attacks the village, and Kagome flees into the forest where Inuyasha is pinned. This time, however, he is awake and calls her "Kikyo". When the centipede yokai catches up to Kagome, the villagers unsuccessfully try to defeat it. When the centipede bites Kagome, the Shikon no Tama (The Jewel of the Four Souls) falls from her wound and is eaten by the centipede. Kaede realizes that Kagome is Kikyo's reincarnation, as the Shikon no Tama was burned with Kikyo's body 50 years ago. Inuyasha, the hanyo, then asks Kagome to remove the arrow so that he can slay the yokai and recover the Jewel for himself. She does so, and Inuyasha defeats the yokai, but then demands that she hand over the Jewel to him, for the Shikon no Tama has the power to grant anything that the user desires.
As Inuyasha advances on Kagome, Kaede magically summons kotodama no nenju (rosary beads; lit. "power of the spoken word" or "prayer beads, as some people call them) around his neck that binds him so that whenever Kagome says a certain command, Inuyasha is instantly forced to the ground. In the Japanese version the word is 'osuwari' , and in the English versions "sit" or "sit, boy" are used. This is an intentional joke as Inuyasha is an inugami, and 'osuwari' in Japanese is a command that is generally given to domesticated dogs to make them sit, so basically a running gag. However, it should be noted that, in some cases, she has used the command in order to save his life. She uses "Sit, boy!" more often in the anime, though.
The day after their chance meeting, a yokai-crow attacks and swallows the Jewel, forcing Kagome and Inuyasha to attempt to retrieve it together. During the battle, Kagome shoots an arrow at the crow, using a piece of its flesh (It's foot) to assure accuracy. The arrow strikes and shatters the Shikon no Tama into many shards ("Shikon no Kakera") that are scattered across Japan and even to worlds beyond.
Kagome then sets out with Inuyasha to recover the shards so that other yokai cannot use it for malice (though Inuyasha consistently claims his true intention has always been to become a yokai using the Jewel), occasionally returning to the modern era for supplies or because she and Inuyasha get angry at each other. On their journey they meet many people and pick up many friends and companions along the way.
The focus of the journeys of Kagome and her companions changes slightly as they learn about the presence of Naraku, an evil hanyo that has not only greatly disrupted the lives of each of Kagome's friends but also seeks the Shikon no Tama for himself.
When traveling to the past, and in general, Kagome is almost always seen in her school uniform, a traditional sailor fuku, albeit with a much shorter skirt than is typical. The first theatrical adaption of the series suggests this is intentional on her part, or perhaps the animators consider it her official costume.
On other rare occasions, Kagome wears a simple skirt and sweater combination. She has also once worn Inuyasha's haori (red cloak) as a dress. She once received a gift of shrine maiden clothes from Kaede, consisting of a red hakama and a white blouse. However, both Kagome and InuYasha disliked the clothes because they only strengthened her resemblance to Kikyo. To date, she has only worn them when she needed to. She is also seen wearing a pink dress during one of the later episodes, when doing a school play.
She is also seen in other clothes when at home in the modern era. It is most likely because she is not at school and all her uniforms are in the wash from getting dirty in the feudal era. She also once wore a different uniform called "civvies" (informal civilian clothing, distinguished from military uniforms) given to her by her friends when her uniform got stained with Inuyasha's blood.
Special attacks and abilities
- Purification/Miko Powers (Hama no reiryoku) - Anything she touches is purified. By gathering an enormous amount of concentrated powers into her right palm, she can direct it at her opponents. She only did this when the jewel was inside her body. This was used on the Mukade Joro and Urasue to some effect. She also uses this to purify the Jewel.
- Spiritual Powers - Can easily get through some barriers, spells, or illusions including those created by Kikyo (because she and Kikyo share one soul). Can sense evil auras and is unaffected by them and, if possible, is able to surround herself with her own spiritual powers to ward of any evil or make a giant spiritual orb that Kikyo once made.
- Jewel Detecting - Senses/feels and knows the exact location and how many shards of the Jewel there are in an area or direction. While other characters have shown a vague ability to see Shikon shards, only Kagome and Kikyo are able to sense the shards remotely.
- Time Travel - Can travel back and forth 500 years from the future. The circumstances in which this can be done differ in anime and manga. In the anime, at first it seems that she can only travel when she has a Shikon Jewel shard with her. Inuyasha isn't bound by this restriction and can travel back and forth without a Jewel shard. It is assumed that Kagome uses Midoriko's power to do this which is inside the Jewel just as Naraku and other demons use the power of the demons souls inside the Jewel to enhance their own powers.
In the manga, however, this restriction was never defined. Even when Kagome had no shards at all, she was able to travel back and forth. The anime seemed to have dropped the fabricated restriction later in its production.
Rosary/"SIT" (Osuwari) Power: The string of beads placed around Inuyasha's neck by Kaede is empowered to "subdue" him at a word from Kagome. The first word which came to mind was "Osuwari" - Japanese for "sit", the word one would use to tell a pet dog to sit down. Whenever Kagome says the word, the beads slam Inuyasha to the ground.
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