Kagome found the last shard at a flea market. It sat innocently in a jar or marbles and trinkets and she bought the whole thing just to be sure.
She kept it to herself for a while. Once the Jewel was completed... She didn't want to think about it.
But she couldn't drag this out for ever and there were... She was afraid she'd make a selfish wish once she eventually completed it.
And then she did.
One autumn evening, in her bedroom, with the last rays of sunlight streaming into her room and an upturned jar of marbles and trinkets on her floor, Kagome held all the pieces of the Shikon no Tama in her hands and made he wish.
She wished she wouldn't have to say goodbye...
Nothing impressive happened. The jewel flared warmth into her hands, but only briefly. The wind didn't stir. The sunlight didn't go dark. The earth didn't shake. She just sat on her floor, surrounded by worthless glass, with her fingers curled around a small ball of stone.
She sat like that until the sun went down and her mother knocked on her door. She didn't answer, but she got up, picked up the scattered marbles and went to bed.
There were a few extra fluffy toys in her bed that night. She needed them.
The next morning she awoke to the sound of her mother and grandfather bickering in the kitchen. Her grandfather's grumbling was very much as usual and her mother was only mildly frustrated with him.
"He's insisting one of us should exorcise him," her mother told her when Kagome took her seat at the table. Then she turned to her father and interrupted his monologue. "Demons don't cause indigestion. They've mostly caused headaches and insomnia in this house!"
Kagome breathed a sigh of relief.
She spent the rest of the morning trading barbs with her family about demons and headaches, before shoving some cookies in her bag to prevent her own half-demon from giving her a headache.
She jumped into the well, like she did hundreds of times over the years, expecting Inuyasha to wait for her on the other side with a complaint about her absence. She met the hard ground and a lot of pain.
She tried again a few hours later when the pain in her ankle subsided.
She tried again the next day and every day for weeks after.
Five years later, she still came by when her classes allowed to see her mother and try once more to say goodbye to her friends.