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KIKYOU has trained longer as a miko with both
-spiritual power and
-bows and arrows.

She has more experience in combat, because she has:
-fought off demons all her life by herself
-with a soul pure enough to guard the Shikon no tama, (yes, Kagome has that too, but do you think she would have gotten it if she wasn't Kikyou's reincarnation?) whereas


KAGOME, no matter how much pluck you say she has,
-runs away most of the time and
-leaves the fighting to the others.

KAGOME also has strong spiritual power; however, is she as good at
-controlling it?
-aiming arrows?
-dodging? reflexes?

And she has also spent most of her life
-cooking,
-socializing and
-studying,
not fighting to keep her life and others.

I'm sure she has potential, and when its reallyreallyreally important she thinks its worth risking her life to shoot off an arrow, but wouldn't that be even more useful if she did that everyday?

Its not like she's not strong enough;
-she definitely has the power to, seeing what she can do to Naraku;
-she just doesn't have enough guts to, for whatever reason (perhaps modern day survival cowardism, perhaps her own fear), despite the fact that
-her friends are willing to stick out their necks for her everyday, at any given moment.

Contributing to this,
KIKYOU has the colder, stronger emotional set most useful when it comes to battle.
That's not to say she lacks a purpose; she definitely has one, (getting rid of Naraku; staying alive long enough to do so) which means she's
-guided in her mind and
-knows what she wants in her heart as well.

KAGOME has her strength in compassion, which is unfortunately useless when it comes to wanting to kill Kikyou because killing Kikyou
-only benefits herself
and probably doesn't involve
-protecting anyone except Naraku, and perhaps Kohaku,
but if Kagome wanted to kill Kikyou it would be because
-Inuyasha is still emotionally tied to Kikyou and thus has scruples about being with Kagome, regardless of whether or not Kikyou intends that (and she doesn't; she's said somewhere she knows her time with InuYasha is done. Inu's the one who still wants to run after her).

Due to this, KIKYOU would be able to focus and
-concentrate on dodging arrows/punches/kicks/whatever and
-aiming at and hitting Kagome's physical body,

while KAGOME would probably just
-be really fed-up and pissed off and
-aim with strong conviction at the idea of 'this woman in the way of being with Inuyasha',
-but not with a cool or focused mind.

KIKYOU is also stronger mentally when it comes to tactics and situations,
while KAGOME gets caught in traps easily even if she does manage to get out of every one of them.

KAGOME has good reasoning with situations too;
-she's just late usually, which unfortunately usually results in Inuyasha sacrificing a limb or two.
KAGOME is also physically clumsier,
while KIKYOU is alert of every move her body makes, a.k.a. precision.

KAGOME'S aim has gotten better; that doesn't mean its as good as KIKYOU'S, who has been training her whole life.