Hitomiko

Hitomiko was a priestess who was forced to kill Kagome Higurashi under Naraku's orders.

Fifteen years before the start of the series, Naraku, not wanting to have future problems with Hitomiko's spiritual powers, attempted to kill her. However, even at a young age, Hitomiko's powers were enough to not only protect her with a barrier but causes Naraku to flee. But before he did, Hitomiko watched her friends and master murdered before her very eyes by Naraku because she could only protect herself with the barrier. Before her master died, he told her about the growing threats that surrounded her and upcoming training she must have in order to protect her own life.

After fifteen years have passed, Naraku once again made an attempt on her life. Hitomiko, not knowing that the sick villager was a trap, attempted to help. However, just as she bent down to examine the sick villager, webs shot out from his mouth and captured her. Hitomiko was able to destroy most of the threads with her powers, but it was too late as one of the threads had attached to her back. This eventually weakened her. As Hitomiko layed in her death bed, she ordered the villagers to sever her head from her body and bury them separately to prevent anyone from tampering with her body. After she spoke those final words, she died. However, despite her dying wishes, the villagers did not sever her head because they thought it would be disrespectful, so they buried her whole.

A few days later Kagome spotted Naraku's spiderwebs from a distance and they rushed over to the location. There, they asked the villagers if anything strange had happened in the past few days. As they listened, Hitomiko's swift appearance interrupted the story, though Inuyasha informed them that her body was dead, it was just a corpse. After that comment, spiderwebs appeared out of nowhere and they were attached to Hitomiko's body. She told Kagome to leave the village or she would eventually take her life. Inuyasha attacked her with Tessaiga and severed some of the webs, but Hitomiko warned that they cannot destroy her by severing her webs, and disappeared.

After she disappeared, Hitomiko was tied in Naraku's webs. After he had said that she couldn't defeat him because he had the Sacred Shikon Jewal, he told her the only task that he wants her to do; steal Kagome's spiritual powers and kill her.

Hitomiko, after capturing Kagome, pondered on why Naraku wanted her to take Kagome's weak powers. Kagome shot an arrow at Naraku and only then did Hitomiko realize that Naraku's goal was for her to take the spiritual powers from Kagome's bow. She told Kagome how she was merely aiming and releasing, not properly using the bow's power. Secretly, she was telling Kagome that she was using the bow the wrong way. Hitomiko gave her a choice, to leave the bow and depart, but Naraku wrapped his webs around Hitomiko's neck and revealed the spider residing in Hitomiko's chest. Kagome was given two choices by Naraku: kill Hitomiko, knowing that Hitomiko would be sent to hell, and save herself, corrupting her heart in the process; or allow Hitomiko to kill her.

Naraku took over Hitomiko's body and she took Kagome to what she said was hell. There she continuously asked Kagome why she is called Kagome. Saying that if she couldn't understand that, then her fate was to be incinerated by the flames of hell. During this, Hitomiko's appearance became more demonic, she gained fangs and her hands became more like claws. When Kagome failed to give her an answer, she became angry and yelled at Kagome, asking her how she planned on saving her when she had no power. Kagome claimed that when Hitomiko was choking her, she could feel a strong emotion: deep sorrow.

Once Kagome realized her true powers and pierced Naraku with her arrow, Hitomiko was set free from his control, a light then enveloped her and the webs that once covered her shrine disappeared. Before she was able to die in peace, she told Kagome that something was sealing her powers. Her dying words to Kagome were about how she was a mysterious girl, particularly her name and her powers.



Appearance
Hitomiko had fair skin and brown eyes. Her dark brown hair was straight with bits of hair framed inward towards her face. Her widow's peak had a split in the middle and she let a streak of hair on each side frame her face in front of her shoulders.

Outfit
Hitomiko did not wear the traditional attire of a miko, instead she wore an outfit that looked like the costume for the main role in the Noh Play, "Hagoromo." It contained most of the atributes of that costume except she did not have head garments and her sleeves extended just past her wrist. Her attire also contains a necklace of beads and strings called muna-himo were attached to each lapel and tied in front to keep the garment closed.

Abilities

 * Barrier: Hitomiko's spiritual abilities were able to protect her by creating a barrier around her. This proved strong enough to prevent Naraku's miasma from killing her when she was young. After Naraku had killed her and she was under his control, her barriers were strong enough to prevent even the red Tessaiga from breaking through it. According to Hitomiko, a priestess can break another priestess's barrier. The bells that were attached to spiderwebs around the barrier were the ones that held the barrier together.


 * Bells: Hitomiko was seen using bells when she was young girl. The bells have been shown to work only when they have the blood of the victim. Kagome was cut with the spiritual powers that came out of them and formed a ring around her, preventing her from moving. Also, when the bells are intertwined with Naraku's webs, they use Kagome's blood to burn her when she steps close to them. If the bells could do these things before Naraku took control of her are unknown.


 * Spells: As a young girl Hitomiko was able to use a spell to make Naraku flee. With Kagome's blood, she was able to make flames that intensify whenever Kagome approached them.

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