September 13

Last night, I sat on the back porch looking up at the stars thinking about how we would be leaving today. I missed our home and our friends but I was also kind of sad to leave. I guess I would miss basic things like electricity and malls but those were things I could live without. I knew I would miss my family more than anything.

The door opened and my mom came outside and sat next to me.

"Hey mom," I said.

"Do you have everything you need for tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"I know you're probably eager to get back."

"Yes, I miss everything there…but I'll miss all of you a lot too." Even as I spoke I felt my throat tighten.

She put her hand on mine. "I know. We're all going to miss you too."

"You were always so cool about me leaving all the time," I said as I thought back to all of our adventures with the jewel. "No matter how many days of school I missed or how many demons came through the well you were always okay with it. No mom is that cool."

She laughed a bit. "It's because I trusted you and I knew it was important to you. I also could tell how much you and Inuyasha cared about each other and how he was always so protective of you."

"But even when I left a few months ago...you had to have known I wouldn't come back."

"Yes, I understood that back then. And I do now. It'll be very difficult to say goodbye again. This time seems so much more final. But I also know that you've found so much happiness there. In those three years, it was clear as day that you weren't happy. I knew the well would reopen one day and you would want to go back so I prepared myself for that day."

"Mom…" I squeezed her hand. "I'm so sorry."

She lifted my chin. "Don't ever be sorry dear. My ultimate wish is that you are as happy as can be and if living in the Feudal Era with Inuyasha is what you want, then I one hundred percent support that."

I felt so grateful to have such an understanding mother. "Thank you, mom," I said as I rested my head on her shoulder.

"Look at the stars, Kagome. They're exactly the same in the past, aren't they?"

I nodded. "Yes, they are."

"Well whenever you see them, just remember that no matter how far apart we are we're still in the same world and we will always be connected."

I wiped a tear from my eye. "I promise I'll remember that."

This morning, Inuyasha and I changed back into our clothes from our era, gathered all of our things, and prepared to leave. My family went to the well with us and we said our goodbyes. It was just as hard, if not harder, to leave this time. But I remembered what my mom said last night. I had a wonderful husband and friends at home and my family would always be with me in spirit whether we could see each other or not.

Once we came through the well, we took all of our stuff home.

"Home sweet home," Inuyasha said when we got inside.

"I hope everyone else isn't too worried," I said. We had been gone for such a long time without anyone knowing, there was no telling what they thought.

"Well let's go find out. We can unpack all of this stuff later."

So we went to Miroku and Sango's house. They were outside hanging up laundry while the girls were playing with Shippo.

"Inuyasha! Kagome!" Shippo said when he saw us.

"Oh my god, you're back!" Sango came over and gave us both hugs. "We were so worried!"

"We were only gone for a few days," Inuyasha said.

"True, but the way that well is we thought you were never coming back," Miroku said.

"Well we decided to stay for a few days and have some fun there," I said.

We all sat in the grass and told everyone about what we'd done in my era (conveniently leaving out our lingerie shopping). Miroku was particularly interested in the museum. Sango thought the conversation we'd had with my friends was hilarious. Inuyasha dramatically told the story of Avengers: Endgame which got Shippo really excited.

"And now we've got tons of ramen to put away," I concluded.

"Inuyasha, you like ramen way too much," Shippo said.

"Keh, you can never have too much ramen!" Inuyasha said.

"If you had to choose, would you pick Kagome or ramen?"

"What kind of question is that?" Inuyasha said. He crossed his arms. "I'd pick Kagome with ramen." The look on his face became thoughtful and his face turned a bit red. I could only imagine what he was thinking right now.

Sango giggled and Miroku gave a nod of approval.

"Good choice, my friend," Miroku said.

I gave Inuyasha's ear a tug to break him out of his little fantasy. "Alright honey, simmer down."

A bit later we went home to unpack all of the stuff we'd brought back. We bought so much ramen that it wouldn't all fit in the kitchen so we put some of it in our storage shed outback. I put all of my new lingerie sets in a drawer in our bedroom, including the lavender nightgown I wore that first night. We'd also brought back some books which we put on the shelf in the living room and some board games which we planned to play with our friends at a later time. And I put our Yoshi and Pikachu doll on the dresser in our room.

There was one last thing I'd brought back which was a portrait of my family. I put the frame on my desk so that way I can think of them whenever I'm sitting here writing.