Mōryōmaru

Mōryōmaru (魍魎丸) is a character in the manga and anime series "InuYasha".

Overview

Mōryōmaru is one of Naraku's enemies. At first, he is merely a haku (life force) puppet, the more refined of various such creations made from yōkai by Hakudōshi. As such, he had no true personality, soul or will. When InuYasha uses Adamant Barrage against him, Hakudōshi shields him with his own body, indicating how valuable he is. After a couple brief altercations alongside Hakudōshi against Koga and InuYasha's group, he is given to Kanna, who places Akago inside of him (giving the puppet a soul, Naraku's). He is able to absorb the yōki (yōkai "aura/smell") that all yōkai possess and exert (making attacks based solely on yōki energy useless) and convert it into a powerful blast of energy which he releases from his arms (a technique he "lent" to Goryomaru while he was attached to him, chapters 356-366 in the manga). As far as personal essences go, he is actually Akago, the physical embodiment of Naraku's heart, and his yōki cannot be detected due to the Fuyōheki, a stone which completely masks the presence of any yōki near it. He has given a bit of trouble to InuYasha and Sesshomaru, since their attacks (the Kaze no Kizu and blasts from the Tōkijin respectively) are based on yōki, and therefore far from harming him, result in making Mōryōmaru even stronger. Through further modifications of his body, he seems to lose this ability or possibly because Sesshomaru blew up the arm that had this ability.

Kohaku eventually attempts to kill Mōryōmaru after Kagura tells him Mōryōmaru is after the shard of the Shikon no Tama in his back since his goal is Naraku's destruction, but fails, enabling Mōryōmaru to nearly steal the shard until Sango comes to his rescue. This in turn enables Mōryōmaru to flee from InuYasha and company.

As the story progresses, Mōryōmaru begins to increase more and more in power as he absorbs different kinds of yōkai to gain their abilities. He seems to be more adept at this than even Naraku as he send pieces of his flesh out to gather demon parts. Once he sent his hand to kill a bunch of male dragon humanoid demons and then absorb them, which Koga witnessed. Here the main focus of the story begins to shift from finding and defeating Naraku, to stopping and destroying the growing Mōryōmaru. Mōryōmaru rarely appears before the group, instead he uses other powerful yōkai (whom he plans to devour later) he influences to fight them. But after he revives the corpse of Meiōjū (a turtle-like yōkai) and it regains its armored shell, Mōryōmaru manipulates the creature into battling InuYasha and letting him strike it with his Kongōsōha (Diamond Spear Blast) attack. He then absorbs the Meiōjū and the diamond shards, incorporating them into his body and thus gaining a powerful armored shell of his own. The diamond spears are no where near as effective when used by Inuyasha due to the lack of the Wind Scar. During the following battle, he nearly defeats an onslaught of most of Naraku's enemies which included Kikyo, Kohaku, Kagome, InuYasha, Miroku, Sango, Shippo and even Sesshomaru. During this battle he broke Sesshomaru's sword Tōkijin in the process. He only flees after nearly losing one of his shard of the Shikon no Tama. One might speculate that at this time Mōryōmaru had become even more powerful than Naraku as he was able to put up a fair fight against so many of his enemies which Naraku wasn't able to do even with the greatest portion of the Shikon Jewel in his possession. This difference in strength was also noted by Naraku himself in his conversation with Byakuya.

Later, after InuYasha gained the Senki from a Nikosen (for his Dragon-Scaled Tetsusaiga), Naraku sent Kanna to aid Mōryōmaru. He tried to absorb Ginka and Kinka, a pair of conjoined yōkai brothers (sharing an antagonistic relationship with each other not unlike that between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru), as their blood would bond his armored shell together and prevent InuYasha's sword from damaging it. Though he succeeds in devouring Ginka, Kinka allowed InuYasha to absorb him with the Dragon-Scaled Tetsusaiga. The result is that when InuYasha used Kinka's power against Mōryōmaru, Ginka's power struck back from within the shell. This greatly weakened Mōryōmaru, and he flees. Soon after, Miroku suggested that Mōryōmaru will discard Ginka's body (since it's become a weakness).

Some time later, Mōryōmaru became involved in a plot by Naraku, and tried to steal Kōga's jewel shards for himself. However, he found himself at a disadvantage when InuYasha and Kōga teamed up, with InuYasha using the Dragon-Scaled Tetsusaiga's new technique to weaken Mōryōmaru, then Kōga using his Goraishi to break the surface of the armored shell. Even rearranging himself with the diamond spears wasn't enough to save him. InuYasha broke through into Mōryōmaru's core and saw Akago. Before he could defeat the infant, InuYasha was flung out when Mōryōmaru grabbed an extra jewel shard from Kai, a younger yōkai-wolf who was also caught up in Naraku's plan. With the shard in hand, Mōryōmaru escaped again, and reaffirmed his plan; to prove that he is superior to Naraku, just as Hakudōshi had intended to do until his death. A few days later, Mōryōmaru was seen to have regenerated, and escaped both Koga and Kikyo, this time without fighting.

Later in chapter 440 of the manga, Naraku ends up absorbing the power of the Yōmeiju, a yōkai-tree. Later he ends up running right into Mōryōmaru, who finished recovering from his fight with InuYasha and Koga. The jyaki or evil energy emanating from these two god like beings was so strong that when they met the forest below them and all life in it was annihilated by a huge amount of miasma even though they were only headed for each other. Both exchange banter with Naraku saying that Mōryōmaru can't kill him as long as his heart is within Mōryōmaru, while Mōryōmaru says that Naraku can't kill him either due to the same reason.

Chapter 442 continues with Mōryōmaru continuously destroying Naraku's body with the "Kongōsōha" that he absorbed from InuYasha, while Naraku tries to absorb Mōryōmaru back into his flesh and reclaim his heart. Since Naraku can break through Mōryōmaru's armored shell, he continues to cover Mōryōmaru's body. When it all seemed finished, Mōryōmaru's tentacles pierced the flesh and instead Naraku's (surprised) face and his flesh are seen absorbed into Mōryōmaru instead. The chapter ends with Mōryōmaru, unharmed, saying "Naraku, I am the victor!", while the members of InuYasha's group look on in shock.

Chapter 445 shows that Naraku is still intact within Mōryōmaru, much to Akago's shock. In chapter 446 he absorbs Mōryōmaru from the inside, thus leading to Mōryōmaru's eventual death.

Abilities

Physical Attacks

*Attacks using tentacles (later on uses tentacles covered in Kongōsōha spears for protection)
*Has a right hand that acts as a gigantic tentacle made of Kongōsōha spears usually used to impale his opponents
*He seems to be able make spear-like formations on almost any part of his body

pecial Abilities

*Merging pieces of his flesh with other yōkai (and even humans such as Goryomaru), thus giving him control over them and increasing their regenerative abilities. He often sends pieces of his flesh abroad to scout for new yōkai for him to add into his body.
*Absorbing yōkai and making his body stronger (Later on he absorbs a yōkai named Meiojō and gains a nearly impenetrable armour)
*Absorbing his opponents yōki (supernatural energy) and reflecting it back at them or simply consuming it to use as his own.
*Kongōsōha spears (While both InuYasha and Mōryōmaru possess this ability, the strength of this attack depends on the users yōki. Since Mōryōmaru doesn't have the Kaze no Kizu (Wound of the Wind) his attack can possibly be weaker than InuYasha's. This attack can possibly penetrate all barriers, as not a single barrier in the series has been able to withstand its force.
*Shōki (poisonous miasma) Kongōsōha spears - after he absorbs Naraku, Mōryōmaru is able to upgrade his Kongōsōha attack by launching Kongōsōha spears with shōki infused in them. With the resulting damage increase he was once able to melt entire mountains in one strike.