Kōryū

was Sōten's dragon servant.

Personality
Kōryū was very loyal to his mistress, Sōten, and was proud to serve her and the Thunder Demon Tribe, of which Sōten was the last surviving member. Still, he was sometimes exasperated with Sōten and her pushy attitude, and would sometimes quip her shortcomings and try to remind her of her limits, only to get yelled at. He was somewhat more mature than her. Kōryū could be quite devious and underhanded, and was proud of his dragon heritage, snapping at anyone who called him a snake or a worm. He seemed to be proud of his "power", yelling enthusiastically when firing energy arrows from his thundercloud form and feeling insulted when Inuyasha called his projectiles pathetic.

He had a big mouth for his size, and goaded Inuyasha to strike him on the head thrice, which was needed for him to transform. Kōryū was still a bit of a coward, however, as he preferred to use tricks to get the better of his opponents.

Kōryū didn't seem to like always doing Sōten's dirty work, as he once stated "It's hard being the bad guy all the time."

Powers & Abilities

 * Shapeshifting: Kōryū had the ability to shapeshift into a thundercloud and back again upon being struck on the head three times. It seemed that Kōryū couldn't transition forms without the trigger of being struck thrice on the head. These seemed to be his only two forms. This alternate form protected Koryu from being directly attacked as Inuyasha's sword went right through him, and Koryu simply reformed his dispersed cloud body.
 * Energy Arrows: In his thundercloud form, Kōryū could unleash a barrage of energy arrows at his enemies. However, the arrows were extremely weak, to the point where they didn't inflict damage at all. Kagome even testified that the arrows felt good, and "...would feel great on my stiff shoulders". After Kōryū discharged an arrow, it maintained its shape until it pierced something, melting away into thin air upon impact.
 * Flying: As he was a dragon, Kōryū could fly, although his version of flight was more similar to levitation, as he did not flap his wings very often.
 * Tricks and Traps: Kōryū preferred to use tricks and traps rather than directly face his opponents. He used a boulder to separate Shippō from his friends, incapacitated Kirara with smoke from a burning pile of catnip, and lured Miroku and Sango into a pitfall trap using a dummy shaped like a maiden and some skillful ventriloquism from behind a bush. Kōryū also attempted to use a Kagome dummy to get Inuyasha to "sit", but didn't realize it only worked if the real Kagome gave the command.

Trivia

 * Kōryū's name carries 2 pun meanings, they are "little dragon" and "baby dragon" respectively.
 * Kōryū made a dummy of Kagome with exactly the same clothes, so he possibly observed Kagome form afar during Shippō's procrastinated journey to the mountain and copied her clothing's external appearance.
 * Despite the fact that Sōten used charcoal when drawing derogatory images of Shippō, Kōryū's dummy version of Kagome had pink cheeks and red lips.
 * When Sōten was telling Kōryū about Inuyasha and his friends, Kōryū stated that he already knew, as he was the one who did all the researching. This meant that Kōryū somehow spied on them. Kōryū knew about Miroku's Kazaana, but Miroku had not used it in that episode, meaning that he must have spied on them before the events of that episode.