Zero

Zero is the elder sister of Kirinmaru and a major antagonist of Hanyō no Yashahime who informed her brother of the prophecy the Shikon Jewel had predicted, that he would meet his demise at the hands of beings that are neither human nor demon and an impossible entity surpassing time itself.

As such, she is bent on ensuring the demise of Sesshōmaru and Rin's half-demon twin daughters, and Inuyasha and Kagome Higurashi's only quarter-demon daughter to prevent the fulfillment of the Jewel's additional prophecy, although her ultimate goal and motivation for such a feat still remains a mystery as of now. In reality, she desires to make Towa, Setsuna and Moroha suffer and bring about utter misery.

History
600 years ago in the, as Kirinmaru arrived back from the battle, Zero was surprised to see her niece Rion back, and thinks that the battle is terrible for her. As Riku was made, the bugs has arrived on his right arm and she ordered him to dispatched it at the Bone-Eater's Well.

A century later, at the palace of Sesshōmaru's mother's where they waited for Tōga and her little brother Kirinmaru as they're going to destroy the Grim Comet. It is unknown that Zero and Kirinmaru have the Shikon no Tama. In 1297 in the, she and Kirinmaru have heard from Kyūki and Konton that they reported that Tōga have been spotted in Kamakura as he has been escaped grave injuries from battling with Shishinki and Ryūkotsusei.

She was foretold by the Shikon Jewel that her younger brother would ultimately be felled by an existence that is neither human nor demon and an impossible entity surpassing time itself. Due to her unrequited romantic feelings for Tōga, upon learning he died, while protecting his human wife Izayoi and his newborn half-demon son Inuyasha, from her old guardsman samurai Takemaru of Setsuna at the her burning mansion, she shed a tear upon the Sacred Jewel, wishing for her emotions and all her demonic powers to be cast away, which brought upon the Rainbow Pearls containing all her emotions and demonic powers. Those pearls were then scattered throughout the lands to ensure that a supreme demonic power would never ever be used fully.

When Sesshōmaru sired half-demon twin daughters and Inuyasha was to have a quarter-demon child, she suspected they could be the prophesied ones to defeat Kirinmaru, therefore she ordered two of the three princesses to be destroyed. After the Grim Comet has been destroyed, Zero found Rin and forged a link in their life forces, preventing Sesshōmaru from killing Zero without killing Rin as well, by using the silver-scale curse to find half-demon twins. Zero eventually found the twins Towa and Setsuna four years later, having tasked Homura to burn the forest in which they were living to eradicate them with Sesshōmaru unable to intervene, lest he kill his beloved Rin in the process.

During the story
As Zero stole the strong spiritual ability of sealing from monk Miroku, she had found something quite interesting, as Moroha is one quarter-demon, after Kirinmaru mentioned that she become Beniyasha from applying Tōga's blood to her lips. She was talking about the half-demon, including Setsuna.

Two hundred and fourteen years later, Zero returns to the site of the Great Dog Demon's demise and looks down on his ashes that were still imbued with his immensely powerful demonic strength and abilities. Recalling Tōga's last words to her after he and Kirinmaru stopped the Grim Comet, she takes his statement of never stop being who she truly is to heart. She asks Riku as to what must be done to force Towa tap into her innermost demon self to judge the elder half-demon twin's latent demonic abilities for herself. She decides to take Riku's word for it of Towa being far too kind for her own; that she would never be capable of harnessing the destructive power Zero desired.

Since severing all of her sisterly ties with Kirinmaru, Zero has since sought refuge to enact her own long-cherished whims from within a castle with a pink bow adorning the roof and doors. She had since then easily retrieved her Orange, Silver, Gold and Red Rainbow Pearls and was ready to absorb all of her respective demonic powers into herself to finally eradicate the Half-Demon Princesses from the earthly plane of existence. She is not pleased with Riku's sudden reappearance, though she thanks him for giving back the Green Rainbow Pearl he had just retrieved from one of three demon brothers who where battling Setsuna.

Wanting to further taunt Riku, she uses him to inform Kirinmaru of his failure to keep her precious Rainbow Pearls from her. Seeing how confused Riku is as to how she is communing with Kirinmaru so easily, Zero informs the demon-pirate about his origins that neither Kirinmaru or the Four Perils had been "nice enough" to tell him: That he was originally one of Kirinmaru's own slanted horns that was cut off by none other than Tōga during one of the rival beast kings many intense battles, six centuries ago. She scornfully tells a slightly shocked Riku to never come to her again; otherwise she would kill him without a second thought.

Once alone, Zero prepared herself to absorb each Rainbow Pearl back into her eyes from which they came as tears for ultimately using Tōga, whom she had loved so, both to a mere mortal woman and then to death itself. While looking the orange Rainbow Pearl, she can see Tōtetsu eating monks and so glad. Recalling that her red Rainbow Pearl was entrusted to the late Tōkotsu of the Four Perils, she absorbed it back into her left eye. It was then that she saw certain memories that shocked and infuriated her; of Inuyasha and Kagome bequeathing the shell rouge that retained remnants of not only Tōga's demon blood but the residual essence of Izayoi as well. Once absorbing the golden Pearl, she then witnessed a memory of a cold Setsuna meeting Towa for the first time in the modern era. Enraged that even one memory of the Half-Demon Princesses was absorbed to join her immense demonic strength and abilities as an unforeseen side effect of the Rainbow Pearls, she deduces that the placing of her Gold and Silver Rainbow Pearls within the eyes of his newborn twin daughters' was all Sesshōmaru's own design from the very beginning, now coming to the shocking realization that Sesshōmaru had foreseen everything she had every accomplished up to this point. Zero leaves the temple with the crystal ball, as Rion visits her from the crystal ball.

Personality
Zero is a mysterious demon. She is quite calm whenever disaster and death is afoot, similar to Sesshōmaru whom she has a connection with. It seems that Zero is also loyal to her brother and is ready to ruthlessly destroy any threat in his way, even innocent children.

Zero had feelings for Tōga and cried upon learning of his death, weeping inconsolably and wishing the Shikon Jewel take her feelings away. It granted her wish and created the Rainbow Pearls as a result. She appeared to be somewhat amnesiac after this, as she didn’t seem to remember what she had done afterwards, but did not question her confusion further. Due to not being chosen by Tōga, Zero resents those who have inherited his blood, especially those who also are part human. She especially appears to resent the ones he was romantically close to.

At present time, Zero is cryptic, detached and unreadable. She doesn't seem to have much interest in anything, reacting to most things with apathy or even nihilism and at many times acting in a contradicting manner. Although concerned for Kirinmaru's safety as the demon princesses are a threat to him, she also willingly toys with them and even provokes them into exhibiting their true powers for seemingly unknown reasons.

Deep down, Zero has lost faith and desires to be terminated, although her motives to seek death are centered more on causing Rin's death as a result and thus bring immense pain to Sesshōmaru. In fact, the bulk of Zero's actions towards the Half-Demon Princesses seem to be more focused on inflicting as much misery as she can in her wake, although she gloats of this as simply "being herself".

She was extremely furious when she learned Riku was gathering the Rainbow Pearls to return them to her, but was more than willing to use them to destroy the girls for good. Although she found relief and joy when she was temporarily killed by Setsuna, even trading insults with Sesshōmaru's mother, she was enraged when the latter pointed out that Zero was acting on jealousy and thus behaving like a human. Additionally, she acts on her rage once more by looking for the Rainbow Pearls purely to make Tōga’s remaining family suffer. This could point to Zero being a person who mainly acts on her emotions (even though she ironically no longer possesses emotions).

According to Rin, the silver-scale curse is actually her lingering greif and regret.

Physical description
Zero appears as a beautiful, tall and slim woman. She has very pale skin with pointed ears, dark green eyes like Riku's, and a large volume of graphite hair. She has curved violet stripes beneath each eye, a magenta stripe on each eyelid, dark purple lipstick, and dark grey nails. Originally, the violet stripes surrounded her eyes. Her hair is bound up in the traditional Oriental style, typically worn by nobles, secured by multiple gold hair sticks. A similarly gold comb holds back her fringe while her hair at the back is folded up and secured with a blue, butterfly wing clip.

As for her clothing, she wears a black kimono that reveals her clavicles, and on the sides she has a couple of butterflies embroidered, underneath she has a navy blue dress and in front of the kimono she wears a somewhat large grayish purple ribbon (or bow) attached to her waist. Zero also wears a white hadagi undershirt, common tabi (socks), and black and blue geisha.

Powers & Abilities

 * Shapeshifting: Like her brother, it is unknown if Zero possesses a true yōkai form, like Tōga, Sesshōmaru, and his mother do. She is currently in humanoid form, as she had relinquished all of her various abilities into the seven Rainbow Pearls.
 * Longevity: As a demon, she is capable of living for many centuries and has remained unchanged between the two times the Grim Comet traveled close to Earth - which has 500 years of difference. Surprisingly, despite her demonic power having been removed from her, she was still able to live for many more years after Tōga's death with no change to her physical appearance, suggesting she used some kind of magic to prolong her life, though Sesshōmaru's mother was not surprised when she finally died, suggesting she would have died eventually anyway.
 * Kugutsu: When Zero approached Sesshōmaru, he cut her in half, revealing her to be a mere paper demon puppet.
 * Demonic Puppetry: Zero used a black swirling smoke to possess a demon puppet and since Sesshōmaru cut down, it came out and hearing her voice warning about the return of the Grim Comet after the lunar eclipse concluded.
 * Spiritual Power/Ability Stealing: When she encountered Miroku, she was able to easily drain him of the strong spiritual ability he had used to seal Setsuna's innermost true demonic self and abilities.
 * Levitation: She can hover motionlessly above the ground.
 * Azusa no Yumihari: A webbing-like ability that acts as a strong binding agent that not only restrains movement, but also links the very destiny/fate between said caster and target themselves with the ; namely young Rin in Episode 27 and, at one point, Towa. The thread is unbreakable, which even capable of withstanding Moroha's Crimson Backlash Wave.

Former Demonic Abilities
Upon the impulsively rash creation of the seven Rainbow Pearls from her tears to grant her wish to the Shikon Jewel, Zero's demonic power, along with her heart and grief, were stored away into the seven pearls. She even renounced her identity as a demon. Although just how powerful of a demon she was has not been stated, she was confident she could kill Towa, Moroha and Setsuna with her demonic powers restored and both Sesshōmaru and Kirinmaru would not allow her to use her respective demonic powers against them, suggesting she was an extremely powerful demon, especially as she was also a daiyōkai, though Kirinmaru seemed to still be incredibly strong, as he was able to confine all seven Rainbow Pearls and scatter them across various regions, despite Zero's presence capable of detecting and reclaiming her extraordinarily strong, respective demonic powers within each of them.

Weapon

 * Staff: Zero wields a staff that has a spider emblem on it. It can shoot spider webs and blasts of violet energy from it. It is what is later known as the Azusa no Yumihari.
 * Silver-Scale: Zero has a special scale called Silver-Scale that if put on others, it can inflict a curse call "Silver-Scale Curse" that will grow and cover victim's body, ultimately kill them. Zero uses this to curse Rin which can cause the third and final death for her (including that Kirinmaru tries to assassinate Kagome and Inuyasha). But she tells to Sesshōmaru in Episode 27, that if they give the location of their half-demon twins, the curse of the silver-scale will be broken so Rin will be free.
 * Nanahoshi's fan: Zero will use Nanahoshi's fan in Episode 37.

Relationships
Kirinmaru, lord of the eastern mainland is her younger brother. Once awakening him from his centuries slumber, she informs him about Sesshōmaru's decision to take a human as a bride just like Tōga married Izayoi, which naturally surprises and disgusts him. She then reminds her brother about a prophecy predicted by the Shikon Jewel before it was disintegrated that will bring about his inevitable demise at the hands of beings that are neither human nor demon, and an impossible entity that surpasses time itself. She appears very loyal to him, and appeared to have a good relationship in the past when Kirinmaru and Tōga destroyed the Grim Comet, but it is unknown what their true relationship is today or if Tōga had any impact on this.
 * Kirinmaru

At present Zero seems to be behind the bulk of Kirinmaru's actions being the central planner behind trying to get the Half-Demon Princesses killed, to which he responds with mild amusement at best. Kirinmaru is unnerved by Zero's malice and cannot stomach his sister's dishonor as she sinks to new lows ever since she made her wish, as she tries to spread misery. She subsequently disowns Kirinmaru after the latter easily dispersed her Rainbow Pearls across the regions of feudal Japan. Once managing to reclaim the Silver, Gold, Blue and Orange Pearls, ready to reabsorb her varied, strong demonic powers back into her body, she had used Riku to send her brother her cryptic message in doing so with ease, that she had easily foiled his plans in stopping her.

Zero and her niece Rion appeared to be quite close, Zero being quick to comfort Rion after she saw her father's first defeat and admonishing Kirinmaru for repeatedly bringing her into the battlefield. Even in the present, she seemed to still retain fondness for her niece, affectionately referring to her as her "dear niece" and admitting she was pleased to see her once again after she escaped Mount Musubi, along with stating she'll consider stopping Kirinmaru, even expressing some concern when she realized Rion will try to stop Kirinmaru.
 * Rion

In Episode 22, Tōga was a good friend of her's right after he and Kirinmaru destroyed the Grim Comet, stating Kirinmaru was lucky to have Zero for a sister. In Episode 15, Zero stated that she had strong feelings for Tōga, but the dog daiyōkai humiliated her, leading a massive revenge plot towards the Great Dog Demon's whole family, including Sesshōmaru, his half-demon daughters Towa and Setsuna, Inuyasha, and his quarter-demon daughter Moroha. When the Great Dog Demon lost his life that he fought Takemaru, Zero grieved deeply as she believed that they were meant to walk the path of eternity together; a destiny that the Shikon Jewel itself had prophesied. This is what caused her to seal away her emotions and demonic powers, although since she seemed to forget her actions after the deed was done, it is unknown if she fully remembers her history with Tōga. Due to her past feelings for him, Zero was naturally jealous of his former mate and possibly even Izayoi, which only further inspire her to take revenge on his family. In fact, her actions today still originate from the heartbreak Tōga caused her, and is forever resentful of him because of this. Sesshōmaru’s mother, after implying a sense of pity for her, comments that Zero is a woman who burns from love, further shedding light on Zero’s character and her feelings for Tōga.
 * Tōga

The two knew each other 500 years ago around the time Kirinmaru and Tōga worked together to stop the Grim Comet, with Sesshōmaru’s mother being Tōga’s mate at the time and Zero being Kirinmaru’s sister. Being in love with Tōga, Zero naturally felt envious of Sesshōmaru’s mother for having his affections, and as such the two had a mutual dislike of each other. Both of them seem to be aware of the other's feelings over Tōga's death, Zero noting she could tell Sesshōmaru's mother despite her haughty demeanor did feel some sadness and grief over it and felt bitterness towards Izayoi for both taking his heart and causing his death, which she didn't outright deny in the former regard and coldly stated she had no regard for humans for the latter regard, while Sesshōmaru's mother was also aware that Zero hunted down her granddaughters and sought to cause her son pain by linking her life to Rin so when she dies, so does her daughter-in-law, out of irrational jealousy. Clearly displeased with Zero when she revealed her sadistic glee at the idea of her son's suffering and having previously shown disapproval of Zero's relentless desire to kill her granddaughters, she proved to be able to affect Zero more than she affected her, sarcastically stating Zero was almost human-like for her jealousy and making her angry. At the same time, she seemed to have some pity towards Zero, calling her pitiful for being a "women who burns from love".
 * Sesshōmaru's mother

Zero has known the leader of the Ka Demon Tribe for centuries. She had asked for her aid in killing Sesshōmaru's newborn twin daughters to prevent the prophecy of Tōga's predicted by the Shikon Jewel from being fulfilled. Her arms were sliced off by Sesshōmaru's energy whip, and lost the Gold and Silver Rainbow Pearls to him, demanding that he give them back to her, claiming that they were the gems of her tribe.
 * Joka

Fourteen years later, she intended to take vengeance on him for taking the Pearls from her, but had failed when Setsuna had killed her.

It seems that she does not care about him much, thinking that he is an indolent person. She did not seem pleased that her brother had been leaving the situation in his hands, as she may be aware that Riku is after all seven Rainbow Pearls. However, it was revealed she cared for Riku in the past after Kirinmaru discarded him, so Riku appears to be highly devoted and loyal to her. She was angered when she learned he was gathering the Pearls for her, but nonetheless used this to her advantage.
 * Riku

Having sought refuge in a castle covered with a large bow on its outside, Zero expressed her disdain at his unexpected reappearance, even though he had returned the Green Rainbow Pearl to her. To taunt him further, she revealed the truth of how he had been brought into existence: That he was originally one of her brother's own horns atop his forehead that had been broken off by Tōga himself! And that because of him literally being nothing more than a crucial part of Kirinmaru's physical self, she could freely converse mentally with her brother through Riku's now human-like eyes and ears alone.

Zero's relationship with her younger brother's minions has not yet been explored. She heard the news from Kyūki and Konton that Tōga did battled with Shishinki and Ryūkotsusei. However, she seems to value them more than her brother, being displeased with his apathy towards the deaths of Tōkotsu (including his son Jakotsumaru) and Kyūki and refusal to engage the Half-Demon Princesses after they killed them.
 * The Four Perils

Many months later, she finally reclaimed her bright Orange Rainbow Pearl and thus was able to glimpse a brief memory of the last one to possess it; that being Tōtetsu. From taking back her own demonic abilities that the Red Rainbow Pearl contained within, Zero recalled that it had once been entrusted to the now late boar demon Tōkotsu. She was thoroughly shocked and infuriated to discover that her Red Pearl had only horded memories of what had befallen Moroha's parents but of her lifelong romantic rival, Izayoi as well.

Enemies
She mentions Tōga's youngest half-demon son upon her brother's awakening, and that he will become father to a quarter-demon daughter soon. She was more than pleased when Kirinmaru said that he would leave to slay Inuyasha, his human wife, and their newborn daughter all in one fell swoop.
 * Inuyasha

She naturally mentioned the reincarnation of the legendary priestess Kikyō because she is a mere human. She then informed her younger brother that Kagome, the girl who had surpassed time itself, would become a mother to a quarter-demon daughter who would ultimately bring about his destruction along with her twin cousins.
 * Kagome Higurashi

She has known Tōga's eldest son for many centuries. Finally aware of his decision to take a mere human woman as a bride, just as his father had, she eventually reappears before him and expressed her interest and disdain in siring half-demon twin daughters of all things. She had been searching for the twins who will bring about her brother's destruction for four years, and succeeds via the dream-gazing spell. She then orders Homura the mountain god of the northern mountains to burn the entire forest and destroy Sesshōmaru's daughters, making sure that he cannot intervene to save his young twin daughters from her or her younger brother's wrath. She later interacted with him again after being slain in battle with his twins, but Sesshōmaru revived her with Tenseiga afterwards. This was purely so as to prevent Sesshōmaru’s human wife Rin from dying, as Zero previously cast the silver-scale curse that tied her and Rin’s life together, so if Zero would die, Rin would go with her. Zero appeared happy in her final moments, knowing Sesshōmaru would lose somewhat he loved, implying a sense of hatred towards the daiyōkai (possibly due to his relation to Tōga), but this turned into immense anger towards him after her resurrection. This anger caused her to act by attempting to reclaim her demon power and destroy his twins, but was stopped by Kirinmaru, who scattered the Pearls across Japan once more. Sesshōmaru, realizing the danger Zero is and knowing that Rin would rather die than let any harm befall their daughters, sets off to kill Zero in order to prevent this from happening, even though this meant he would have to let Rin die in the process.
 * Sesshōmaru


 * Izayoi

The two have most likely never met before, although Zero knew of her, no doubt. She speaks of Izayoi in a disdainful manner when speaking with Sesshōmaru’s mother over her, implying and revealing a sense of hatred for Izayoi. Because Izayoi became Tōga's second wife, it is undoubtedly the sole reason why Zero would hate her so much, since she herself had feelings for Tōga and Izayoi inadvertently caused Tōga's death, since he died saving her in her burning mansion that he fought Izayoi's old guardsman Takemaru of Setsuna that she didn't know.

However, Zero does not give much thought to the human, and instead focuses her energy on ending the rest of Tōga’s bloodline, including Izayoi's own half-dog demon son that ultimately led to the birth of a daughter with twenty-five percent of the Great Dog Demon's pure demon blood flowing in her body, which further infuriated her aim to wipe out the longtime deceased mortal noblewoman's only remaining relatives: Her full-grown son and feisty teenage granddaughter.

Zero knew that Sesshōmaru is married to Rin and plotted to go after her, being the human mother of Sesshōmaru's twin daughters. Following the destruction of the Grim Comet, Zero appeared before Rin. Saying that she couldn't allow a human woman to be loved by a demon, she placed a silver-scale upon Rin's neck, therefore intertwining their fates.
 * Rin

To keep Rin from succumbing to the silver-scale curse, Rin was sealed within the Sacred Tree of Ages. However it is implied that if Zero is killed, Rin will also die with her. This was revealed to be true, as Zero was happy upon nearing death, since she knew that even though she would perish, Sesshōmaru would still lose someone he loved.

Zero is the one who wishes to end the lives of the three girls, out of fear of the Shikon Jewel's ominous prophecy coming to fulfillment. She undoes the seal that restrains Setsuna's demon blood by controlling Towa with the intention of giving Kirinmaru a reason to go at them at full power. She later asks Riku as to awakening Towa's hidden powers. She referred to Towa and Setsuna as "Half-Breed Pups."
 * Towa, Setsuna and Moroha

Trivia

 * In the second opening BURN, she is seen fighting against Setsuna with her powers.
 * As the Shikon Jewel tends to twist the wishes of its user, it's more likely it only sealed Zero's positive feelings within the Rainbow Pearls, as opposed to all of her various demonic abilities; explaining why she is so sadistic, spiteful, cruel and nihilistic (even by a daiyōkai's standards as Kirinmaru is polite to others he barely acknowledges).
 * She knows the contents of a prophecy that foretells the downfall of Kirinmaru, similar to the Fates reveals the future, from the 1997 film Hercules.
 * She is just like the character Hades.
 * Ironically had Zero just left Moroha, Towa and Setsuna alone, the prophecy she feared wouldn't be coming true; in fact the only reason they even go after Kirinmaru is because of Zero's actions with the Dream Butterfly that's connected to both of the daiyōkai along its victims Setsuna and Rin.
 * She shares some similarities with Naraku:
 * Both have a spider association.
 * They are capable of tying people together by Demon spider silk.
 * Both manipulated someone with a spiders web (Naraku with Kohaku and Zero with Towa).
 * Both use underhanded tactics and orchestrated schemes from the shadows.
 * Both used demon puppets.
 * Both targeted members of the Dog Demon clan.
 * Both have used the Shikon Jewel at one point.
 * Both have tormented others with the intention of fulfilling their own dark desires.
 * She shares both the same Japanese and English voice actresses with Ling Xiaoyu in the 2011 film Tekken: Blood Vengeance.
 * She shares similarities with Medea from Saint Seiya Omega
 * Both have a relation to the central antagonist of their respective series.
 * Both sought to unleash the main protagonists' hidden power.
 * Both are of a manipulative nature.
 * Zero is possibly not from Japan.

Media appearances
Zero Zero