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The Advanced History of the Shikon no Tama:
The Shikon no Tama (Jewel of Four Souls) has a long and mysterious history, dating back hundreds of years before the feudal
era. There was once a priestess named Midoriko, who was also, a general in an army. Her job was to protect humans from youkai
(demons). She also had extraordinary powers of purity and was targeted frequently by youkai because they considered her a
threat.
One day a man fell in love with the powerful priestess/general and she too with him. The youkai noticed this weakness
and saw this has their chance to destroy her. They corrupted the man's heart, making him turn his love for Midoriko into hate.
He attacked Midoriko, which was the start of a war. The battled raged on for seven days and nights, the priestess/general
was almost killed. She gathered up all the power that was left and sealed the demons into her heart, causing a jewel to form
from her body, which became known as the Shikon no Tama. It is said that inside the jewel, the battle still rages on.
The jewel is balanced containing the power of both good and evil. The demons knew this and were attracted to the purple
jewel. If a demon obtained the jewel it would increase their power and make them invincible. Because of such a strong threat
and the jewel was passed down from generations to generations by the humans that had fought alongside Midoriko. It eventually
ended up in the hands of a youkai exterminator tribe called Taiji-ya Tribe. The tribe kept the jewel safe for many years until
the threat from the demons became too much to handle. It was decided that in order to keep the jewel safe, it had to be in
the hands of someone that could keep it pure and had strong spiritual powers, and so Kikyo was chosen to be it's protector.
Hundreds of years before the story of Inuaysha takes place, there was a priestess who spent her life fighting against
demons, and her name was Midoriko. When the nobles had all the power, for all the other people, it was just a cycle of war,
famine and death. So, to feed on all the bodies of the dead there were more demons. Many monks and warlords could exterminate
demons, but only one of them could extract a demon's soul and completely purify it, and that was the above mentioned Midoriko.
She was so powerful that she could destroy ten demons at once. In fact she could not only extract their demon souls but the
balance of four souls. According to the Shinto philosophy, all the world's creatures are made up of four souls (Shikon). The
four souls are known as arami-tama, nigimi-tama, kushimi-tama and sakimi-tama. Arami-tama resides over valor, nigimi-tama
over harmony, kushimi-tama over miracles and sakimi-tama over love. Together, all the souls are housed in a physical body
as the soul or "heart" (kokoro). A soul in which the four aspects are combined and balanced is called a naohi, which
means true spirit. For a person who as all the aspects balanced, it is easy to stay on the true path, but if a person commits
an evil deed, then the aspects become unbalanced and the soul is a magastuhi, or twisted spirit and that person would walk
the wrong path. To sum it up, it means that a soul can become either good or evil. Now, to get back to Midoriko, Midoriko
had the power to balance the four aspects and nullify the demon souls. Because of that the demons feared Midoriko, and wanted
her dead. But they knew that if they were to attack her outright, she would purify them and they would become nothing. So
the demons decided to make a wicked soul that was so powerful, it could stand up to Midoriko. To do this, they found a man
who secretly yearned after Midoriko and they all possessed him and became one. (This is actually the same thing that happened
with Naraku and Kikyo). When the demons and MIdoriko fought, the battle lasted for 7 days and 7 nights. But finally Midoriko
reached the end of her strength and the demon devoured her body. However, when her soul was about to be sucked out of her,
she used the last of her powers to steal the demon's soul and take it into her own and push it out of her body. Then both
the demon and Midoriko died, but they left behind a crystallized soul, which is called the Shikon-no-Tama. t is said that
inside the jewel Midoriko's soul and the demon's soul are still battling. So the jewel can be either good or evil. In the
hands of a demon, it becomes corrupted, but in the hands of a pure-soul it becomes purified. So, over the hundreds of years
it was passes between demons and humans of all different types until it finally made its way back to Sango's village where
it originated. The way this came about is, Sango's grandfather fought a terrible demon and killed it. When he did that, the
jewel came out of the demon's body. But it was horribly corrupted, so it was given to Kikyo to be purified. The jewel is surrounded
by a cycle of life and death. Kikyo brought the jewel with her into death trying to end the cycle, but it returned with Kagome.
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