"So, I'm going to go to Kaibara High?"

Kun-Loon paused as she made dinner, and turned to her daughter, surprised to hear her voice. She hadn't expected Kagome to have come downstairs yet, but she smiled easily at her oldest none-the-less.

"Yes dear, I got your acceptance letter in the mail this morning, I thought it would be a nice surprise to give it to you tonight. Soon you'll get to experience a change of scenery, meet new people...and Saki-chan goes there as well, and we haven't seen your cousin in a long time, so I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."

Kagome smiled very slightly, her mouth only quirking up at the edges as she looked at her mother, but it soon dropped into her regular mask of indifference as she thought about seeing her cousin again. They hadn't seen each other since her Oba-san and Oji-san and moved the family away before middle school had started, and, with one thing and another (mostly magical trips back in time), Kagome hadn't seen her family for a very long time.

Deciding her mother was right, she looked back at the concerned woman and made an attempt to smile at her, and while it didn't quite touch her eyes, she saw her mother visibly relax as she turned back to her work and Kagome drifted away. It would be nice, she decided, to see both her Oba-san and Oji-San, as well as Saki and Megumi too.

Kagome drifted back upstairs, unaware that her mother had come from the kitchen to watch her. Repressing a heavy sigh, she returned once more to finish their dinner, but her mind couldn't help but think over her daughter, and worry for her.

Kagome...she hadn't been herself since Inuyasha had deposited her back in the well house and they'd been separated from each other.

Every day, Kagome went back to the well house, and peered over it, waiting to feel the tell-tale breeze she could always feel from the field on the other side, but each time, there was nothing. Still, she'd been determined, and Kun-Loon had once found her dozing on the lip of the well after she'd gone to check on Kagome in her bedroom, and had found her missing.

It had been a scary time for Kun-Loon, as well as Souta and Jii-chan, and still they all worried for Kagome, but had tried to go on with their lives, both for her sake, and for themselves.

Kagome became lethargic, daydreaming most of the hours away, and they were all hesitant to do anything that might upset her. She'd sit at her window for hours, or under the Sacred Tree, and Kun-Loon had feared that Kagome would do something terrible to herself in the first months.

After it became clear, however, that there seemed to be no way of getting back to the Feudal Era, Kagome let herself grieve for what she had lost, and had wept in her mother's arms so often, that it was almost a normal part of their everyday lives.

Kagome, however, had never been one to wallow. As naturally optimistic as she was, she felt that she couldn't sit idly by and had thrown herself into the only thing she could do, and set her mind on assimilating back into modern life. She finished her school year out, worked hard during her summer break by taking extra classes so she wouldn't be behind, and started her first year of high school with her friends, and yet Kun-Loon could tell that Kagome's heart wasn't in it.

They didn't know how to help her, couldn't say anything to make her feel better, and Kun-Loon had prayed, for months, to make everything okay again. To bring Inuyasha back, to open the well again, and even Jii-chan had prayed over the well but nothing worked, and Kun-Loon had to watch Kagome suffer her heartache in silence.

Kun-Loon, however, seemed to have an idea to answer her prayers. She'd gotten a phone call from her Giri no ani, Hanajima Yoshiro, and as they talked, the idea began to form in Kun-Loon's head. Yoshiro had sent a few small gifts for Kagome's sixteenth birthday in the mail, and had wanted to know if they had made it safely. Kun-Loon said that they had and thanked him for Kagome, and as their conversation drifted, Yoshiro began to talk about how much Saki had been improving, much in part to her friendship with another young lady named Honda Tohru.

The idea struck her right away as Yoshiro spoke, and, right away, she asked for his help. She began to explain Kagome's lethargic nature, which sounded very much like how Saki had been, and she asked, well, almost pleaded,

"Yoshiro-kun, I think Kagome-chan would benefit if she were to go to school with Saki, farther away from her unhappy memories...do you think you could help me? I don't want to see her suffer, and I think a change of pace would be ideal...what do you think?"

It took some convincing for Yoshiro, admittedly, but then he agreed and asked,

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea. Would you mind if I took the liberty of registering her? She'll have to take the entrance exam, of course..."

He trailed off as Kun-Loon beamed. "Yes! Thank you Yoshiro-kun! I would be much obliged!"

With the matter settled, Kun-Loon began to gather the paper's they would need for the transfer, and sent them via fax to Yoshiro, and, all within two weeks, Kagome had been scheduled for the entrance exam.

Eager to please her mother, Kagome had studied hard, and passed with flying colors, and it was decided that she would transfer into class 2-D, alongside her cousin, Saki.

Kun-Loon had been overjoyed when she'd gotten the acceptance letter in the mail along with Kagome's school uniform, which she had hidden away as a surprise...only she had been undone by forgetting to hide the acceptance letter.

Sighing again over her thoughts of the last two weeks, she wondered, not for the first time, if this would really be okay for her Kagome as she finished preparing the vegetables and fish she'd gotten from the supermarket that morning.

Dicing the meat expertly, she put the whole concoction into the broth, covered it, washed her knife, cutting board, and her hands, and then proceeded to make herself a cup of tea...only to sit down at their dinner table and stare into its depths.

This just had to get Kagome out of the rut she was in. Kun-Loon wanted desperately for her daughter to smile again. Brightly and Happily. She wanted to hear her really laugh. She wanted Kagome to feel like she hadn't left herself back in the Warring States Era, never to return again.

This just HAD to work. It just had to.

/

Hello Everyone! I know! Shocking! An Update!

I do apologize, I've been absent for almost a year, but I've still been thinking of you all. Things have gotten really rough but they're looking better than ever now, and I'm determined, not only to update previously written chapters, but give you brand new ones as well. I've been editing and making notations for the last two weeks, and now I'm back!

Also, if you see any spelling errors, please message me, I do want this to be correct.

Side Note:

Giri no ani - "Older" Brother in Law

Jii-chan - Grandfather or Grandpa

Oba-san (Aunt)

Oji-San (Uncle)