Our heroes are out in full force looking for the jewel shards. A monk by the name of Miroku hears about a girl & go off to see her. He's disappointed to find out she's not as pretty as he thought. Anywyas he later on exorcises a room & gets a jewel shard for his trouble after killing the demon. He also makes off with the lord of the manor's stuff! Anywyas after he happens upon a bathing Kagome he cooks up a plot to steal her shards by getting his friend/servant Hachi (a tanuki) to help. He steals it & he almost kidnaps her in the process. Inuyasah confronts him after tracking him to a local village& gets a taste of the mystical powers of Miroku's hand. Kagome prevents Inuyasha from being sucked up into Miroku's airvoid by launching herself into it & Miroku stops in time. Anyways He's just a perve who takes advantage of her good nature which gets him into some trouble with Inu after he asks her to bear his child. Anywyas he becomes somewhat a memeber of the gang at the end.

Note: Here we hear about Naraku's conection to Miroku: he's the one who cursed his family with the airvoid that will eventually kill them. We also get the sense that maybe Naraku was responsible for Inu & Kikyou's troubles too.