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InuYasha is a hanyo (half demon - 'yo' is derived from yokai, which also means demon) from the Japanese feudal era who was originally going to use the Jewel of Four Souls (Shikon no Tama) a.k.a. the Shikon Jewel to become a full yokai. The high priestess who guarded the jewel, Kikyo (Kikyo), whom InuYasha fell in love with, talked him into becoming human. Another hanyo, formerly a human known only as Onigumo, but now called Naraku, made them believe they betrayed each other. Because of Naraku's schemes, the couple's romance ended when InuYasha broke into Kikyo's village and stole the Shikon Jewel. In defense of the village, and to keep him from escaping with the jewel, Kikyo fired a magical arrow at InuYasha, sealing him to a tree in an eternal enchanted sleep. Moments afterward, KIkyo collapses from a wound she received from Naraku -- though at first the viewer is lead to believe that InuYasha wounded her -- and dies within a few short moments. Part of her final instructions to her sister Kaede was to have the jewel burned with her body so that yokai and evil men could never use it.
50 years later, InuYasha was released from the tree by Kagome, a young girl from the present who unknowingly carried the Jewel of Four Souls inside her body. Kagome accidentally shattered the jewel when shooting at a demon trying to flee with it, and the shards were scattered around Japan. InuYasha, Kagome, and their friends (InuYasha- tachi) then began the search for the shards of the Jewel of Four Souls (Shikon no Tama).
InuYasha is offended when someone calls him a dog or suggests that he is inferior to full yokai.
His only weakness is that a hanyo loses their power during a certain time period each month; InuYasha's time is the night of a new moonTraditionally, the lunar phase new moon begins with the first visible crescent of the Moon, after conjunction with the Sun. This takes place over the western horizon in a brief period between sunset and moonset. Therefore the time and even the day depend (when the moon is not visible). His hair turns black and he loses his dog ears, claws, fangs, etc. In this form, basically all of his yokai powers are gone; however, he returns back to normal at sunrise. He prefers to keep it a secret because on that night he is vulnerable, and only his group and a few others know his secret.