In inuyasha, why did kikyo seal inuyasha in the tree?!
Question: couldn't she have killed him instead?
Answers: couldn't she have killed him instead?
I agree that at the time that Kikyo sealed InuYusha to Goshinboku(the sacred tree) with her sacred arrow(s), she was confused and mortally wounded. Nuraku had turned them against each other by impersonating them to get the sacred jewel.
Unlike the other answers here, she in fact DID NOT miss when she shot him. In the series it states that she still had feelings for him and couldn't bring herself to take his life.
At the time she sealed him in the tree, she was badly injured and not at full strength. I think she tried to kill him, but wasn't powerful enough and missed his heart. Something like that.
She was badly injured at the time and she was in a stressful state. Inuyasha and Kikyo had both been tricked into thinking that they had betrayed each other. They had been tricked by the one and only sinister character Naraku.
So Kikyo, had gone into a rage and sealed him on the tree. It was her intentions to kill him but she missed him.
She could have if she wanted to, but deep down inside she still loved him. She didn't want him to die because she loves him too much. In the end she ends up dying. Lady Kaede thinks about the same thing later on in the series.