I watched Kagome when she returned from her latest trip down the well. She laughed with her friends, teased Souta, played with Buyo, and feigned exasperation at the diseases Jii-chan makes up.

But something was wrong.

She was looking at the shrine as though she wanted to place every detail firmly in her mind. She gazed at all of us with such a wistful look in her eyes, actually seeming to listen to Jii-chan's stories, which thrilled the old man. When Souta was particularly annoying, she just laughed instead of getting angry.

And she didn't study. At all. Didn't crack a single book. She hung out with her friends but blew off school entirely. It was as if she just didn't consider school important anymore.

That wasn't all, either. Before this last trip she had begun taking more and more bandages with her to the feudal world. I'd say that she had me buy enough to stock a hospital. And that scares me to death. That the people she cares about get hurt so badly and so often. How long would it be until it was Kagome who needed the bandages? And what if they aren't enough to save her? The bruises and scrapes she used to get every once in a while, they started appearing more severe and on a daily basis. Is it any wonder I worried?

For several months, Kagome had been having nightmares. I'd hear her on the way up to bed, crying out in her sleep. Sometimes it was Sango or Miroku she was crying out, Shippo was only a little more common. But, for the most part, two names seemed to pervade her dreams. And it's rather ironic because her feelings for those two names couldn't be more different. Inuyasha, whom she loved. Naraku, whom she loathed with a hatred that I had never heard before in my little girl's voice. The dreams had been coming more and more frequently. It's kind of pitiful that I learned more about Kagome and her life when she was asleep than when she was awake.

Something was definitely wrong.

I'm not stupid. I know that a lot more happened over there than just a simple jewel hunt. I know that my daughter and her friends have a terrible and deadly enemy.

I know that their battles are becoming more frequent and that the final showdown; the culmination of all of their work, their hopes, their dreams; I know that it's coming soon.

I just don't know whether I can allow Kagome to be there.

Souta said once that I only let her go because I had no way to stop her. That's not true. I know of a way to keep my daughter in her own time. I've just never been able to decide whether to do it or not. It's rather permanent, burning down the well.

I want to protect her more than anything. I want to destroy that well so that it can never, ever take my daughter away from me. I just want her to be safe.

So why do I hesitate? I suppose it's because I'm not certain that keeping her safe at such costs is what's best for her. I'd hate myself if I managed to save her body at the cost of her soul.

And I'm fairly certain that that's what it would cost. Her entire being is tied to that world. Her conscience, because she feels she has to make right the damage she unknowingly caused. That spirit of friendship that I admire in her, because the friends that really need her are there, not here. Her heart, because that is where the young man with the adorable ears belongs. She loves him so much that, even if there were no other reason for her to stay, she would, just to be with him. And that is all with her completely ignorant of the fact that he loves her just as much.

All parents are supposed to want there child to be happy. If I'd seen any hint that Kagome could really be happy here, that well house outback would be burning. But I'm too late. My daughter's spirit has already been completely immersed in that world.

So I'm left with a choice. Keep the shell that is my daughter's body and lose the spirit that is my daughter, or let them go down the well together and keep that little piece of her spirit in my heart.

I made my choice.

I supported her as best I could.

I tried to be there when she needed someone to cry on.

I tried to anticipate everything she'd need in that world.

I believed in her.

And when Inuyasha came to get her that last time,

I smiled, fighting back tears.

And I let her go.