By: trekker
PROLOGUE
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(As Kikyo's corpse is being cremated…)
A high-pitched whine is heard from the Shikon no Tama. It shines brightly…and disappears…
(3 days before Kagome's birthday)
Kagome stared blankly out of her window. She hadn't gotten much sleep lately, and she didn't expect to get any anytime soon. She had not been able to get her mind off of her upcoming geometry test.
Damned geometry, she thought silently to herself. It had never been her best subject, and she doubted that would change. I'm losing sleep over a geometry test. I probably won't need it (the geometry) anytime soon, anyway. Why do I need a geometry test? Her only motivation for attending school (aside from appeasing her mother's damnable pestering "Get up! Get up! Get up!") was that she knew her friends would be there. It was 11:47 at night and she was more restless than she thought was possible. We don't even get decent vacations for crying out loud! She had heard all about 2-month vacations and one 3- 4-day weekend per month from her pen-pal, Michelle, in America, who attended a private school somewhere in California.
For now, Kagome felt she had tried everything to get some sleep, even the meditations in her meditations class, which she had always resented because she felt they were a waste of time. She only liked that class because she received minimal homework from her meditations teacher. Nothing had worked.
She had already noted the irony in worrying about her test caused her to lose sleep, and therefore gave her less time, enthusiasm, and patience to study while she was supposed to be awake. She couldn't study now because if she turned on her light, her grandfather would get ticked off, because he would be losing sleep. Kagome had no idea how her grandfather was so sensitive to light even when he was asleep. She tried studying at 4:00 AM, but lo, and behold, he woke up… and, except for a miracle, he would have awoken the entire household as well.
Suddenly, she saw a rainbow-colored dot appear in the sky and she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't hallucinating because of lost sleep. It wasn't her imagination that made it. The dot extended (or smeared itself; both terms work) into a line at least a meter long (!), and then evaporated. But as it disappeared, a star appeared where the dot/line had ended! The star seemed to move toward the left side of her field of vision before changing its direction, and started heading towards the top of her field of vision. She pinched herself again, though the pain did not change anything, except for how her face felt at that moment.
Oh my god! Oh my god! It must be some kind of wishing star. I can't tell anyone though; they'll insist I'm going insane from thinking about the test, which I probably am, but they'll make it worse by sending me to some useless psychiatric therapy. Well, if it is one of those stars, I'll just make my wish and get it over with, and if its not: I'm too tired to know the difference.
I wish I could have at least some time to stop thinking about the test and I wish I could get some sleep tonight. A little while later, she fell into a restless sleep.