Kagura

Kagura was the first incarnation of Naraku to be battled but was not the first incarnation of Naraku to be created, she was third to last to die at the hands of Naraku.

Appearance
Though she appears as an attractive young human woman, Kagura has a few features that suggest she is something different.

Her eyes are strikingly red and her ears are pointed.

There were few times she was seen without her clothing, revealing she bears the same spider-shaped burn scar as her master Naraku.

She wears two white feathers in her hair that she pulls and casts upward as described in Plume Transportation below in order to escape or make a dramatic exit.

Personality
Being an incarnation, Kagura shares some similarities to Naraku.

She uses other people for her own purposes often, ironically her purpose being to kill Naraku himself.

This is seen various times when she lets Adam escape, keeping him alive in hope that he can kill Naraku at some point in the future.

She asks Sesshōmaru for help in slaying Naraku as well, and even steals Kōga's shards at one point with the intent of killing Naraku herself with the power of the shards to aid her.

In the story, she is mostly shown as inhospitable, calculating and shrewd.

She lets the events in the story occur towards her favor, not caring about other people's well-being, just rising towards her goal to destroy Naraku in order to be as "free as the wind".

She is a keen observer, and does not like to lose because of her confidence in her abilities, shown when Adam uses his Kaze no Kizu and temporarily defeats her.

However, she is generally fairly reasonable on a day-to-day basis, talking resonably with Kanna and Kohaku, and showing disgust with Goshinki on his aparently needlessly destructive behavior, and showing no ill will towards Jakken or Rin.

On the other hand, she is rather hot-tempered, shouting at Sesshomaru a demon she knows is far more powerful than her, and outright attacking both Naraku and Hakudoshi on separate occations.

She has a softer side however, as she shows to Kohaku.

She also appeared to have romantic feelings for Sesshomaru, being glad to have seen him one last time before she died.

Kagura does not like to be manipulated. When Naraku first sends her to kill Kōga's comrades and she's almost killed by Adam's Wind Scar, she is furious that he would deceive her in such a way.

Also, when Hakudōshi sends her to the gate guarded by Gozu and Mezu and is almost turned to stone, she attempts to kill him for playing with her life, to which Naraku responds by squeezing her heart.

Most of all, Kagura wishes to be free of Naraku's hold, to have her heart returned to her, and to be the wind.

Powers, Skills & Abilities

 * Aerokinesis: Kagura is one of Naraku's strongest detachments and is not to be taken lightly, with a versatile format of attacking that suits both long and short distance fighting. Because she controls the wind, any long-range or airborne attacks are rendered completely ineffective, and often back-fire on her opponents. Her attacks are swift, accurate, debilitating and deadly. She often fires off several of them in quick succession, forcing her challengers to concern themselves solely with dodging them if they want to escape injury and death. These long-range abilities keep her at a comfortable distance from her opponents from which she can toy with and mock them. However, as is revealed, her powers cannot penetrate Hakudōshi's barrier nor is she as versatile as Byakuya. Kagura can also travel short distances in a mini-cyclone.


 * Reanimation: Kagura possesses a certain degree of resurrection as she can revive fallen enemies as puppets for her to use in battle by swiping her fan to create a wind gust that flows into the corpses of fallen enemies to reanimate them.


 * Enhanced Agility & Reflexes: For those who do manage to come within striking-distance, a strike is not guaranteed, as she has proven quite nimble and light on her feet, capable of dodging swords and blows with relative ease.


 * Immortality: As long her heart exists outside of her body, Kagura can regenerate to a considerable degree and is unable to die by normal means for ordinary demons. This ability was best displayed when she healed from a non-fatal blow from Adam's Wind Scar and when she completely recovered from Goryōmaru's laser shot, which had punched a large hole all the way through her chest. Her healing capabilities would still exist if her heart was in her body; however even while Naraku held her heart her regeneration was extremely slow, and certainly could not act fast enough to counter a burst of his strongest miasma, which ultimately caused her death.


 * Enhanced Durability: Kagura is somewhat durable as she shown herself to be able to launch counterattacks even when she is damaged by enemy attacks such as when she was impaled by three of Naraku's tentacles and poisoned by his miasma, she managed to resist long enough to launch a wind blade at him though it was deflected by his barrier.


 * Immense Endurance: Kagura has great stamina as she manages to stay conscious and continue traveling on her enlarged plume and walking a considerable distance just after being impaled and poisoned by Naraku and his strongest miasma while her wounds remain open and bleeding profusely. Though because she lack the power overcome the miasma, Kagura ultimately died and her body disintegrated into nothing in front of Sesshōmaru.

Weapons

 * Traditional Dance Fan: Kagura does battle with a traditional fan both offensively and defensively, although her fighting style and powers border more so on the upfront-attacks. With her fan, she is able to call down a variety of wind-related powers, including and not limited to: summoning a large tornado, shooting out wind-blades, and resurrecting corpses as her personal puppets (Dance of the Dragon, Dance of Blades, and Dance of the Dead, respectively).


 * Dance of Blades: Waves her fan directly at the enemy, creating a wind gust that morphs as it travels through the air into a plethora of crescent-shaped blades that can pierce through virtually anything. This is her most common attack.


 * Dance of the Dragon: This move summons several tornadoes to attack her enemies. They can pick up and throw opponents into the air as well as ripping them to shreds with massive wind power. It is her strongest attack and seems to be slightly weaker than Inuyasha's Kaze no Kizu, however much weaker than his Bakuryūha, and was deflected by it on one or more occasions. In the manga, it is more simply called Dragon Dance.


 * Wind Gust: Waves her fan rapidly to create a simple strong gust of wind to blow her enemies away, good for defensive purposes or attacks.


 * Dance of the Dead: Able to control corpses as if they were puppets, to either attack or distract enemies, or protect her from harm by utilizing them as shields. Since her victims are already dead, they are practically invincible, there being few ways to destroy them: slicing them into many small pieces, burning (although this is never actually witnessed) and of course distracting or injuring Kagura as she would then flee and the Dance of the Dead would end. When her control on her victims is released, they foam at the mouth and collapse.


 * Feather Plume: Kagura possesses feather ornaments in her hair that she pulls out when aiming to travel quickly throughout the land and as hasty retreat tool because of its special abilities. For the abilities to remain active it seems Kagura has to be conscious seeing as how when she lost consciousness after being wounded by Goryōmaru, the feather she was riding shrank and she fell into the river below.


 * Enlargement: Using a feather ornament she wears in her hair, she can enlarge it to become large enough for her to climb on and then manipulate the wind to carry it (and her) wherever she pleases.


 * Transportation: It is her main form of transportation, as she does not have the power to teleport like Naraku. From this feather she can observe and follow both friend and foe, as well as attack and defend if need be. It is possible to fall off the feather, as demonstrated by Kohaku when he regained his memories and stepped too close to the edge and fell through it.

Family
None.

Voice Actress
Janyse Jaud.