Kōryū

was Sōten's dragon servant.

History
Kōryū served Sōten of the Thunder Demon Tribe. After the death of the Thunder Brothers, Kōryū began gathering information on the kitsune Shippō and his friends in order to learn their weaknesses.

During the story
Kōryū, disguised as a cloud, delivered Sōten's written challenge to Shippō in the form of a lightning bolt. Kōryū returned to the Castle of the Thunder Brothers where Sōten resided. Kōryū announced his success in delivering the challenge, and pleaded for Sōten to succeed as the sole surviver of the Thunder Demon Tribe.

Sōten was devising a strategy on how to the defeat each of Shippō's friends. Kōryū initially thought that Sōten would fight them head on, but Sōten claimed that they were too dangerous to take on in a fair fight. Kōryū then suggested that they should forget the challenge, but Sōten immediately refuted that idea. Sōten ordered Kōryū to start the plan.

Kōryū's first task was to separate Shippō from his friends by dropping a large boulder off a cliff. He then captured Shippō with a net after he escaped the boulder. Kōryū brought Shippō to the castle and caged him in order to face Sōten.

When Sōten and Shippō first met, they were arguing about how each of them was nothing more than a child. Kōryū looked on with an expression of exhaustion and stated that both of them where childish. Sõten then ordered Kōryū to carry out the next phase of the plan.

Kōryū intoxicated Kirara by fanning the scent of burning catnip in the air. He then trapped Miroku and Sango into pit by pretending to be a pretty girl in distress. This lured Miroku closer to the pit, and Sango would follow him in order to stop him from falling into a trap. This failed, and both were trapped.

Kōryū tried to incapacitate Inuyasha by posing as Kagome while speaking the "sit" command in front of him. The plan failed, and Kōryū was captured by Inuyasha. Kōryū tricked Inuyasha into hitting him on the head three times so he could transform into his cloud form. He then attacked Inuyasha and Kagome with a barrage of his energy arrows, but they had no effect on them. Inuyasha then hit Kōryū another three times to change him back into a dragon.

Inuyasha forced Kōryū to take them to Sōten. When they arrived at the castle, Sōten was angry at Kōryū for his failure. Kōryū begged Sōten for forgiveness.

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

 * Storm Mimicry: Kōryū had the ability to shapeshift into a thundercloud and back upon being struck on the head three times. It seemed Kōryū couldn't transition forms without the trigger of being struck thrice on the head. This alternate form protected Kōryū from being directly attacked as Inuyasha's sword went right through him, and Kōryū 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 & 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.
 * Kōyrū has the same name as the that is rumored to be at the center of the universe. The difference it that Kōryū's name is spelled using the character for red (紅), while the Yellow Dragon's name is spelled using the character for yellow (黄).
 * His seiyū, Ikue Ōtani, also voiced Tsuyoshi Shinonome from Rumiko Takahashi's anthology series .