Menōmaru

Menomaru was a moth demon from the Asian continent who invaded Japan with his father Hyoga 200 years ago. They were opposed by the Inu no Taisho and, consequently, Hyoga's power and Menomaru both were sealed to the ancient Tree of Ages. When the Shikon no Tama was shattered, one of the shards revived Menomaru and he embarked on a quest to obtain his father's power. After discovering that one of the Great Dog Demon's swords, the Tenseiga, did not possess the destructive aura required to remove the seal on Hyoga, Menomaru and his servents planned to steal the other sword, the Tetsusaiga, which did have the power.

Upon discovering that the fang had a barrier which prevented demons from using it, Menomaru lured the sword's owner, Inuyasha, to his hide out under the Tree of Ages. In an effort to save Kagome Higurashi, Inuyasha was tricked into destroying his father's fang, breaking the seal on Hyoga's power. Menomaru then absorbed his father to become the new Lord Hyoga. Menomaru then began absorbing souls to complete his transformation. Despite his success, Menomaru was unable to destroy the half-demon and the priestess Kagome before he emerged from his chrysalis, and squared off against them for a final confrontation.

Invasion of Japan
200 years before the shattering of the Shikon no Tama, a large Mongol army crossed the sea from China and Korea to attack Japan. Far more foreboding was the horde of demons that followed the invasion fleet, led by Hyoga, Menomaru's father, who planned on stealing the souls of those who died in battle. Menomaru accompanied his father, along with his servents, Ruri and Hari. The Inu no Taisho, however, who was the Lord of the Western lands at that time, opposed him and a great battle ensued. The swirling demonic auras of both daiyokai created a massive storm that ended up destroying the Mongol invasion fleet altogether. Eventually, Hyoga was defeated and his power sealed by one of the Inu no Taisho's fangs, along with Menomaru himself, to the Tree of Ages.

Revival
Two centuries later, the Shikon no Tama was struck by a sacred arrow and shattered. Shards of the jewel flew in every direction, and one such shard landed in the Forest of No Return. The Sacred Jewel shard struck Menomaru in the chest, reversing the spell laid on him by the Inu no Taisho, awakening him. From his new base beneath the Tree of Ages, Menomaru recalled his agents Ruri and Hari and plotted to unlock his father's power by breaking the seal placed on it by the Great Dog Demon's fang. To this end he sought out one of the Dog Demon's famous swords, the Tenseiga, which was passed to the Dog Demon's eldest son, Sesshōmaru. He sent Ruri and Hari to ambush Sesshomaru and steal the Tenseiga.

Despite their skill, Menomaru's servants were no match for Sesshōmaru, and the two women were quickly dispatched by the dog demon's light whip. Menomaru observed the clash via his link with one of his small demon moths, and sensed that Sesshōmaru's sword lacked an aura of destruction. Menomaru therefore deduced that the Great Dog Demon's other sword, the Tetsusaiga, must have the power to break the seal on Hyoga.

Stealing Tetsusaiga
Menomaru eventually tracked the Tetsusaiga to the Great Dog Demon's hanyō son, Inuyasha. The half-demon was travelling with several companions and rather than fight them all at once, Menomaru decided to split them up and trap them. At some point Menomaru obtained a second Jewel shard and bequethed it to a giant scorpion summoned by Hari. The demon insect then set off to attack Inuyasha's group. Despite its size, the demon was defeated and the Jewel shard purified by Inuyasha's priestess companion, Kagome Higurashi. During the fight, however, the two-tailed demon cat Kirara was exposed to the insect's poison, which slowly put her under Hari's mind-control spell. As Menomaru had planned, Kirara ran off to find Hari and Ruri, forcing the monk Miroku and the demon-slayer Sango to run after her. This left Inuyasha open to attack.

While Sango and Miroku fell into Ruri and Hari's trap, Menomaru revealed himself to Inuyasha at the Sacred Tree. Menomaru immediately attacked Inuyasha and disarmed shortly thereafter. While Inuyasha attempted to continue fighting without his sword, he was soon stabbed through the chest by Menomaru's sword, rendering him unconscious. Menomaru was unable to take the Tetsusaiga however, for, as he soon discovered, it was surrounded by a barrier that prevented full-blooded demons from touching it. Menomaru became frustrated at this obstacle to his otherwise flawless plan. Deciding to spare Inuyasha's life for the moment, he abducted Kagome who had also been rendered unconscious, due to her inability as a human to resist the poison powder of his swarm of demon moths. Menomaru knew that Inuyasha's father had fallen in love with a human, and assumed that if he kidnapped Kagome, Inuyasha would follow him to his hide out in the Forest of No Return, where he could be tricked into breaking the seal on Hyoga's power.

Breaking the Seal
Menomaru returned to the Tree of Ages and linked back up with Ruri and Hari. The girls did not understand why Kagome would be sufficient to lure Inuyasha into Menomaru's trap, nor indeed why he needed to be lured to the hideout in general. Menomaru explained the barrier on Tetsusaiga and that Inuyasha's father had fallen in love with a human, and that it appeared Inuyasha had done so as well. Assuming this was true, in Menomaru's view, it would only be a matter of time before Inuyasha came to the Forest of No Return to rescue Kagome.

Menomaru had also thought of a way to get rid of Inuyasha altogether, by controlling Kagome's body and using her to attack and kill Inuyasha. To this end, Hari attempted to use one of the shells from her forehead which she used for her mind-control magic. In her attempt to put it on Kagome, however, it was rejected, and flew from her hands. Menomaru was just as surprised as his servants, though he was more intrigued than dismayed by this display of the girl's latent spiritual powers. To overcome them he gave Hari the Sacred Jewel shard which had revived him, tainting the shard with his blood to ensure it would not be purified by Kagome's presence. Although loathe to use it, after Menomaru explained that he had no need of it as his powers were already so advanced, Hari combined her shell with the Jewel and was then able to put it in Kagome's forehead. By doing so however, Kagome regained consciousness and broke free of the vines keeping her bound.

Enraged by Ruri and Hari's possession of Kirara, Kagome demanded that the two women release her, menacing them with a nearby bow and arrow that had lain as refuse on the floor of the hideout. Hari commanded the swarm of moths within the tree to attack Kagome, simply for her own amusement, though they were suddenly dispersed by the Hiraikotsu. Sango and Miroku had appeared, having followed Ruri and Hari back to the Tree of Ages to rescue Kirara. While Ruri and Hari engaged the monk and demon slayer, Kagome fired a shot at Menomaru, barely, but predictably, missing his head. Displeased that Kagome was not staying put like polite bait, Menomaru drew his sword and commanded Kagome to be more compliant. She came back, telling him rather immaturely, "Why don't you make me?" Menomaru, however, was all to happy to comply, and began charging her at top speed, surprising her with his speed. Just as he reached her though, Inuyasha fired off a blast of his Kaze no Kizu, which Menomaru was easily able to block.

With the target of his trap having arrived, Menomaru ignored Kagome and turned his attention completely to dueling Inuyasha, with the intention of tricking him into destroying the seal with the Wind Scar. During the course however, Menomaru was struck in the chest by the Wind Scar and fell to the ground dead. Naïvely, Inuyasha believed that this meant that he had one. However, the fight was nowhere near over, as Menomaru's body absorbed surplus energy from Hyoga, healing his wound instantly and bringing him back to life. Menomaru was, of course, aware that this would happen, and pleased by Inuyasha's shock and surprise, explaining to the half-demon that he was immortal. Inuyasha's vassal Myōga explained that Menomaru could use the virtually limitless power from his father to such ends. Menomaru casually noted his surprise that Myōga had not already run away in the face of danger. While Menomaru carefully positioned himself in front of the seal, Inuyasha defiantly claimed that he didn't care what kind of demonic powers Menomaru possessed, and that he would strike him down nonetheless. Allowing himself to be impressed by Inuyasha's audacity, he dared the hanyō to attempt such bold action. The more astute members of Inuyasha's group realized that Menomaru was up to something, the half-demon himself recklessly ignored his friends' warnings and attacked the moth demon with his Wind Scar. The attack hit Menomaru accurately, but carried him with it as it also hit the seal, greatly damaging it.

The seal was now too weak to contain the flow of demonic power coming from the gelatinous sphere, and shattered. With the seal undone, the Tree of Ages began to collapse, as Menomaru shouted triumphantly and Inuyasha's group fled the weakened structure. Eventually, the entire Tree of Ages fell over, uprooted, and Menomaru and his inheritance raised up on a single root. Menomaru cheekily thanked Inuyasha for undoing the seal and cut open the Hyoga clan's power sphere, beginning the clan succession ritual and descending into the ooze.

"Bring me your offerings"
After absorbing his father's power, Menomaru watched with amusement as a naïve Inuyasha continually tried to break through his chrysalis and attack him; a backflow of energy sending Inuyasha flying each time, without the moth demon lord so much as lifting a finger. Disappointed that Inuyasha was still clueless as to just how powerful Menomaru had become, he fired a massive blast of energy at the half-demon, sending both him and his friends flying several kilometers away.

Having dealt with the nuisances, Menomaru loudly proclaimed for all the world to kneel before him and bring him offerings of souls. He proceeded to create a larger, more powerful Tree of Ages; the trunk of the old one having fallen when Menomaru's power sphere ascended from beneath the tree's roots. Drawing on Menomaru's demonic power, the roots of the Tree of Ages expanded considerably and several rose together to for a new trunk, with countless branches reaching outward, new leaves sprouting instantaneously. The new tree, with Menomaru's power orb glowing brightly at the top, could be seen by many villages from miles away, due to its great height.

Menomaru would use this tree to absorb energy from future generations, stealing it with other tree of ages, such as the Sacred Tree, that it now controlled. This would allow him to further augment his power. However, to complete his transformation and become Lord Hyōga, Menomaru sent out swarms of demon moths in every direction, dispersing their poison powder and rendering human villages unconscious. In their weakened state, the humans' souls could not resist Menomaru's power, and their souls left their bodies to be absorbed by Menomaru. Menomaru rejoiced triumphantly as streams of souls poured into his chrysalis.

Manipulating Kagome
Despite his great successes thus far, Inuyasha and his friends were not dead, though they had been separated. Menomaru sensed Inuyasha's presence the next day, curious as to whether or not Inuyasha's persistence was a trait he inherited from his human blood. Menomaru decided to initiate the contingency Hari had helped him set up prior to the breaking of the seal. Pulling out a leaf, Menomaru used the Flute of Manipulation, blowing into the leaf and producing a high-pitched song audible only to Kagome. This activated the mind-control shell augmented by the Sacred Jewel shard that Hari had placed in the young priestess' forehead. Kagome's mind was now in Menomaru's hands, and he gave her special abilities beyond those of humans, and was able to levitate and produce poison. Her first victim was the old sage Kaede, though she quickly turned her sights on Inuyasha.

Kagome intercepted Inuyasha on a bridge, drawing him into a hug. While Kagome was able to force out a warning to Inuyasha, it was too late, and she stabbed through him with poison claws. Inuyasha tried to stop her from doing more harm, but several poison bolts had eaten through the ropes of the bridge, causing it, and Inuyasha, to fall into a river below. Kagome merely flew after him.

After eventually catching up to him, Kagome pinned Inuyasha to the Sacred Tree with her poison bolts, and transformed a leaf into a bow and arrow. Just as she was about to shoot, however, Sango cut a gash into Menomaru's chrysalis with her Hiraikotsu, breaking Menomaru's interference. Menomaru was once again impressed by the resistance put forth by Inuyasha's group despite his immense power, commenting on how strange he found humans. As it turned out, though, Menomaru did not need to face Sango or Miroku, as Hari and Ruri quickly came to oppose them, leaving Menomaru free to continue his tormenting of Inuyasha. With his concentration restored, he shot Inuyasha using the helpless Kagome. Shortly thereafter, due to Kagome's severe emotional distress, she broke through the mind-control spell, much to Menomaru's chagrin.

Personality
Menomaru is known to be intelligently deceiving, cynical, and overly proud of his abilities (much like Sesshomaru) as he claims that he has no need for the Shikon shard, despite the fact that it was the shard that brought him back to life. He even to have a distasteful view of humans as he claims them to be "disgusting creatures".

Power & Abilities
Being a type of moth demon, Menomaru has the following abilites:
 * Flight:
 * Speed:
 * Nature Manipulation:
 * Insect Control:
 * Self Resurrection:

Possessing Kagome

 * Poison Wave:
 * Poison Darts:
 * Poison Claws:
 * Flight:

Lord Hyoga

 * Strong Breath:
 * Enhanced Strength:
 * Strong Beam Attack:
 * Finger Extensions:
 * Demon Summoning:

Triva

 * Both Menomaru's and Kagome's seiyus, Tomokazu Seki and Satsuki Yukio, respectively, also voice Fullmetal Panic characters Sousuke Sagara and Kaname Chidori, respectively.