Kanna

Overview
Kanna is Naraku's first detachment and Kagura's older sister, despite her younger looks and first appearance in both the manga and anime after Kagura. She is a young girl with expressionless dark eyes and long white hair adorned with white flowers, while her clothing consists of a simple white kimono with matching sandals.

Kanna is a yōkai (demon) formed from mu (無, む, "nothingness"), so she has neither yōki (yōkai energy) nor jaki (yōki aura) and a scarce physical presence (she also gives off no scent). Therefore, she cannot be detected by those who would otherwise be sensitive to her presence (such as Miroku or InuYasha). The reason for her all white appearance which in reality is a lack of colouring of any form is to represent that fact that she is nihility incarnate.

Kanna carries a mirror which is able to steal the soul of whomever gazes into it. With souls trapped in her mirror, Kanna can easily manipulate her victims or allow Kagura to control them with her Dance of the Dead. The mirror cracks after Kagome fires a Hama no Ya (spiritual purifying arrow) into it. Because the arrow's power came directly from Kagome's soul, it is absorbed by the mirror all at once, causing it to overflow and forcing Kanna to release the souls it had captured to prevent it from shattering. The mirror also serves as a means of reflecting any attack, physical or yōki-based, making Kanna one of Naraku's most powerful offspring. Also, she is useful as her mirror is an effective means of scrying or observing what is happening in the world.

Of all of Naraku's detachments, she is the first detachment and surprisingly lasted the longest. Kanna seems to be fully aware of the fact that she is only a slave to Naraku, but unlike her sister Kagura who openly hates Naraku, she doesn't care because she lacks any emotions.

It is interesting to note that out of all of Naraku's children, she is the only one who he always trusts with important information. She is the only detachment Naraku informs that the reason he has gone to Hakurei-Zan is to become a full yōkai, which is why she aided in giving orders to the Shichinintai; and the fact that Akago was carrying Naraku's heart. Also Naraku trusted Kanna with protecting his heart. What is even more astounding is the fact that she is hardly ever given a dangerous chore to perform; most of the time when her services are employed by Naraku, the situation seems to be fixed to ensure that Kanna remains alive.

In recent developments (q.v. Chapter 415 of the manga, "Senki"), however, Kanna appeared to have fled from Naraku and to have tried to seek refuge with Mōryōmaru. Chapter 416 of the manga, "Kinka and Ginka", confirmed that Kanna fled of her own free will after Akago reads her mind. However, it was later revealed that Kanna is still a loyal servant to Naraku, who purposely wanted Mōryōmaru to become stronger; it is unknown how Akago could not read this from Kanna's mind, but can be speculated that Kanna received some sort of upgrade from Naraku that allowed her to fool him. Alternatively, it is possible that, she being a made of mu, it is as impossible to read her mind as it is to detect her presence.

Name
Kan'na (神無) is an old Japanese word meaning "godless world". Kan'na is also another way of reading canna ("lily"), as in the flowers in Kan'na's hair. However, the kanji of her name do read as "godless world". Fans usually translate it to "nothingness," which is similar to "godless world."

First appearance
In the manga, Kanna first appears in volume 15, scroll 8 "The Mystery of the Wind Witch", page 152. There, Naraku tells Kagura "I have already sent your elder sister ... Kanna.". Then Kanna is seen walking with her mirror and some Saimyōshō towards a village, where she will steal the souls of the inhabitants and turn them against InuYasha and his friends.

Kanna's end
In recent chapters of InuYasha, Kanna becomes more dangerous than anyone expected. She battles the group using a glass demon that came from her mirror. The glass demon copies the power of Tessaiga, robbing it of nearly all of its powers, including the Kaze no Kizu, Crimson Tessaiga, the Dragon-Scale power, and the Kongosōha, leaving the real Tessaiga nothing more than an apparent shell. It also appears that if the glass demon is hurt, the injuries are inflicted on Kanna since a black mark appeared on her neck after Kagome's arrow struck the glass demon in the same place with no apparent effect on it, and the same thing occurred when InuYasha struck the glass demon's left shoulder, which turns the demon into a fighting voodoo doll.

When the group finds Kanna, she fires a ray of light from the sky down at InuYasha. He reflects it with Tessaiga back at the glass demon. Kanna continues to receive damage to herself and the Tessaiga cracks from all of the light blasts. Kagome deduces that Kanna was ordered by Naraku to sacrifice her life in order to break Tessaiga.

Because she continued to take most of the glass demon's damage, Kanna indirectly loses her left hand and right arm during the battle. In chapter 480, she commits suicide, as per Naraku's command, by shattering herself and the glass demon into hundreds of flying shards. A tiny shard manages to hit Kagome's right eye (superficial damage) and through the shard, Kanna communicates to her the secret to defeating Naraku.

Other than that, Kanna has never shown signs of betrayal to Naraku and was his most loyal, trustworthy detachment.

Naraku had commented upon Kanna's death that she had no thoughts and feelings; it was assumed she did not care about either being alive or dying. However, after Kanna had communicated with Kagome (in thought) just prior to her death, Kagome stated Kanna in fact did not want to die and perhaps had feelings of her own.