Kōryū

is Sōten's dragon servant.

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

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

Kōryū doesn'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 and abilities

 * Shapeshifting: Kōryū has the ablity to shapeshift into a thundercloud and back upon being struck in the head three times. It seems that Kōryū cannot transition forms without the trigger of being struck thrice on the head, as in the episode he converts back to a dragon from thundercloud form by hitting himself on the head thrice. It also appears that these are his only two forms.


 * Energy Arrows: In his thundercloud form, Kōryū can unleash a barrage of energy arrows at his enemies. However, the arrows are extremely weak to the point where they don't inflict damage at all. Kagome even testifies that the arrows feel good, and "...would feel great on my stiff shoulders". After Kōryū discharges an arrow, it maintains its shape until it pierces something, melting away into thin air after impact.


 * Flying: As he is a dragon, Kōryū can fly, although his version of flight is more like levitation, as he does not flap his wings very often.


 * Tricks and Traps: Kōryū uses tricks and traps rather than directly face his opponents, as is illustrated in the episode in which he appears. He uses a boulder to separate Shippō from his friends, incapacitates Kirara with smoke from a burning pile of catnip, and lures 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 did not realize it only works if the real Kagome gives the command.

Quotes
"It's hard being the bad guy all the time."

Trivia

 * Kōryū's name carries 2 pun meanings, they are "little dragon" and "baby dragon" respectively.
 * Kōryū made a dummy of Kagome with the exact 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.