Episode 33

Kikyo, in Naraku's castle, is kept separated from her soul collectors to prevent her powers from harming Naraku. He offers her a deal : she could escape this lifeless existence if only she can bring Kagome to Naraku. He gives her a corrupted shard of the Shikon Jewel to control her.

Inuyasha is acting weird since Kikyo has been abducted, and his friends call him on it, saying he shouldn't try to shoulder the burden of Kikyo's rescue all alone. When they see soul collectors, they try to follow them, but they are led to a strange fog, where Sango realize that they aren't soul collectors, but disguised Saimyosho. They all become separated. Inuyasha is led into a strange vision of him attacking the village fifty years ago, and Kikyo killing him. Miroku feels he is being pulled into his own Wind Tunnel. Shippo is left all alone and despairing, while Sango sees her brother Kohaku attack her after killing Inuyasha and Miroku.

Naraku enjoins their despair from afar, and wonders why Kagome alone is unaffected by the spell of the root-vines. He puts it to the Jewel shards in her possession. Kikyo, who was with him, suddenly destroys his body (which was a puppet), then attacks Kagome. She is left dangling over a deep hole in the ground. Kagome notices the shard in Kikyo's chest, but Kikyo mocks her, saying that she, a priestess, isn't controlled by a mere shard. To prove it, she purifies it on the spot, then takes Kagome's shards. Kagome is pulled down into the abyss by the strangle vines.

Inuyasha is swearing to protect Kikyo when he realises that he forgot Kagome, whom he must also protect, and then understand that it was all an illusion. He frees himself from the dark roots, then snaps Miroku out of it, too. He takes Kagome out of her hole, too, but she still seems under a shock. Upon seeing Kikyo provoking him, he understands that she is the one who attacked Kagome. She laughs at his indecision before leaving with Kagome's shards, saying she waits for the day when she and Inuyasha will embrace death together. Kagome has finally been put to the test of the vines, too, seeing an illusion of Inuyasha and Kikyo kissing, in love with each other.

Kikyo goes to Naraku, to taunt him about his weaknesses, such as his half-human blood and the memories of Onigumo, then she hands over to him the shards of the Jewel. She tells him flatly that if he needs her, he'll have to send a messenger, for she is free to do what she wants, and will neither flee nor hide herself. Once she left Naraku, she thinks of what she has done, reflecting that only when Naraku has completed the Jewel will she send him to hell. She is now free to hate, free to love, so much more free than when she was alive.