Plot overview
The story begins in Feudal Japan with InuYasha, a hanyo stealing the Shikon no Tama, a jewel that can increase anyone's powers enormously, from a village. He does not get far before Kikyo, the young miko of the village, shoots InuYasha with a sacred arrow, sealing him forever to Goshinboku, a tree in the nearby forest. Mortally wounded, Kikyo tells her younger sister, Kaede, to burn the jewel with her body to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
In modern Tokyo, a junior high-school girl named Kagome Higurashi is on her way to school. She stops in the well house of her family's Shinto shrine to retrieve her cat, Buyo, when a centipede demon bursts forth and pulls her into the Sengoku period of Japan.
Not knowing where she is, Kagome wanders around a forest near the well. She spots Goshinboku off in the distance and proceeds towards it. When she reaches the tree, she finds InuYasha, who is still sealed with an arrow to the tree, asleep. Villagers seize her and take her to the old miko, Kaede. Recognizing that Kagome is the re-incarnation of her sister Kikyo, Kaede tells the story of Kikyo and InuYasha.
The centipede attacks again, and Kagome is forced to release InuYasha to kill it. After defeating the centipede, in order to prevent InuYasha from taking the Jewel of Four Souls, Kaede casts magical prayer beads around InuYasha's neck so Kagome can subdue him.
Then the jewel attracts more demons. In a battle against a carrion crow demon, the jewel is shattered into numerous shards.
Kagome and InuYasha set out to collect the shards and restore the Jewel of Four Souls. Along the way they befriend Shippo, a fox demon, Miroku, a cursed monk, and Sango, a demon-slayer whose brother was tricked into slaughtering the rest of their village. The group often encounters: InuYasha's older half-brother, Sesshomaru; Naraku who tricked Kikyo and InuYasha into turning against each other; Kikyo who was brought back from the grave with part of Kagome's soul; and a wolf demon, Koga, who is in love with Kagome and wants to make her "his woman".
