Kagome said it many times. Kagome is Kagome, and not anybody else. She may have inherited Kikyo's soul; but she also had something more. Her soul was larger and her powers greater (if totally uncontrollable). That is why I posed the question of which version of Kikyo's soul did she get. In the beginning, we assumed it was the soul that was released when Kikyo died and was cremated with the jewel.
But then we see Kikyo get part of her soul back, a very tiny part; and she augmented it with the souls of others (mostly haku, to keep her mobile). Finally Midoriko winds up in the mix; and Midoriko's soul had been split up into several pieces. Some of it stayed in the cave, and some of it went into the jewel, and maybe even more of it was dispersed into the Great Kami to be distributed to Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and maybe even Shippo. (I'll get to Kagome soon.) They each seemed to possess an abundance of one of the four souls that the jewel was named after.
Inuyasha was strong with the spirit of Ara, the violent, chaotic force responsible for creation of life.
Miroku was strong with Kushi, the spirit that was responsible for mystical power and desire to collect knowledge.
Sango was strong with Saki, the spirit responsible for production and fertility, and therefore associated with love.
Shippo also seemed to be strong with a combination of Kushi and Saki.
Then we come to Kagome, who was powerful with the spirit of Nigi, the force that calms and organizes energy. But she had also had the Shikon Jewel dissolved within her body for the first 15 years of life; and the jewel held Midoriko's soul. So she had been in contact with Midoriko's soul all that time. Could bonding have occurred? Was that one of the reasons her own soul had grown so large? I'll return to this in a moment.
Now Ara and Nigi are complementary souls. Nigi calms and organizes Ara, which creates a powerful form of life, a balanced being. I have read several Shinto priest's writings that claim Kushi and Saki are separately created spirits; but instead sprang from the union of Ara and Nigi, almost like children, but not quite. So knowledge and joy came from chaos and order, if you are willing to oversimplify. There you have two pairs of spirits that are mates for each other.
This means that both couples, Inuyasha and Kagome, and Miroku and Sango are soul-mates. However, Inuyasha and Kagome are the more basic spirits that represent Ara and Nigi, the sources of creation. Although it is never mentioned, the implication is that Inuyasha's soul is just as large as Kagome's. It just isn't obvious because he is half-demon; but even his nature as a half-demon implies both a large soul and the union of opposites, yin-yang, hot-cold, good-evil, just about everything that exists. That makes him truly the expression of Ara, the creative energy; but without Nigi to focus him, the result is chaos. That is where Kagome comes in.
Kagome is almost pure Nigi. She is the glue that attracts companions and holds them together. She is the focus that calms Inuyasha. She has said this many times. From this calmness comes happiness. That is why his strength and personality change so much when he is away from her.
Here is where Kikyo comes in. She did calm Inuyasha somewhat; but she also inhibited him and did nothing to increase his strength. She didn't have enough Nigi in her soul. That is why her relationship to Inuyasha was doomed from the start. She had quite a bit of Ara in her, hence the fighting ability that seemed so natural to her and that Kagome had such a hard time learning. She and Inuyasha possessed mated souls; but they had not fully developed yet. Their souls would be drawn together across time and space and they would almost always find each other in their lifetimes. But Kikyo was still incomplete. Kagome was the finished product. Inuyasha would have to wait for her because her soul was finally the perfect match to his.
So it isn't a question of whether Inuyasha wound up with Kikyo in the end; but more a question of him running across Kagome, or part of her, in the beginning.
One last thing. Going back to Midoriko, it is possible that she was able to create the jewel because she had a perfect balance of the four spirits in her soul. If so, that blend was broken in the creation of the jewel and each of the companions may have inherited one aspect of Midoriko's soul. That very fact may have drawn them together as parts of Midoriko attempting to unite to gather together the shards of the broken jewel that contained the rest of her soul. Of course, we know where the bit of her soul that stayed in the cave wound up; but that is a major spoiler.
However, it does explain the reason for my original question. Is part of Kagome's soul inherited from parts of Midoriko, and could the reincarnated soul she inherited include Kikyo Mark 2?
AdultSwim.com is part of Turner Entertainment Digital which is part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network.
