This wasn't how things were supposed to end. There was supposed to be a light at the end of the tunnel. The man of her dreams was supposed to return her feelings and they would ride off together into the sunset like any other modern day fairy tale. She wasn't meant to be left behind by everyone she had befriended and loved. She wanted to watch Shippo fall in love and get married. She wanted to see Sango and Miroku's children bashing each other's brains out. And she wanted Inuyasha to see her as Kagome and not just a reflection of her past self.

Three years had past since the day Kagome had fallen in the bone-eater's well. All of her eighteen years on life couldn't possibly begin to reflect the age permanently etched within her blue eyes. Not many girls can say she was a mother at fifteen. It may have taken Kagome some time to admit, but Shippo was her son. Granted he was her furry tailed son, but a son nonetheless. It was difficult at first to be responsible for someone else at such a young age. But Kagome had a lot of love to give and Shippo desperately needed someone. Living in the feudal era changed her own perspective on her modernized beliefs. In the era pre-dating women's lib, women younger than herself had their own flesh and blood children running around their feet. Although she wasn't quite ready to bear her own children, she was satisfied to call Shippo her son.

Time travel brought new meaning to the term jet lag. But for some reason, her exhaustion didn't stem from the travel itself. It was more or less caused by the slave-driver half-demon who was the self-proclaimed leader of her tiny, jewel-shard obsessed troupe.

The moment she saw Inuyasha pinned to the God tree she knew she loved him; from fuzzy ears to smelly feet her heart ached for his. Perhaps it was simply remnants of Kikyou's feelings that drove her to love the brash halfling with all her heart. Unfortunately, pinning her unrequited feelings on her past incarnation would be too easy for Kagome. It was bitter irony which lead Inuyasha to cling to the love he shared with the clay priestess, only to ignore the affections of the living priestess. What was more ironic was Kikyou's determination to kill Kagome. For in the end, wouldn't Kikyou eventually return to become Kagome? Or was it had returned to become Kagome and then rose from the dead to torment herself in a masochistic fury?

Kagome pitied the former priestess. Kikyou had suffered in life so much that her pain and suffering spilled over to torment her afterlife. Kikyou was forced to consume stray souls in order to manipulate her clay body into reenacting the motions of a priestess. Kikyou would never be able to experience the life of a normal woman as she had dreamed of having with a human Inuyasha. In a way she was grateful to the resurrection of her past self because it alleviated some of the pressure off her shoulders. If something were to go wrong, Kikyou would be able to correct her mistakes. After all, she was just a copy of a priestess and Kikyou was a copy complete with memories!

Shaking at the unforeseen direction her thoughts were going, she glanced at the corner of her bedroom where her school books were carelessly forgotten. Education had done nothing for her. Her real life lessons in the feudal era had surpassed her present day education in little ways that were much more important survival wise. Unfortunately, survival techniques evolved slightly beyond what she was accustomed to in 500 years. Dodging death threats from demons was no longer a sufficient source of income to put food on the table in the 21st century.

Everything was so different in the past. The feudal era was simply more alive. The people lived harder in their short lifetimes then modern people with their life extending drugs. The air was fresher without the putrid taint of pollution. The flowers seemed to possess far more vibrant colors without human interference on their genetic structures.

The adventure she had experienced in the past three years became much too addicting to a young teenage like Kagome. The death of Naraku brought an end to Kagome's life as she knew it. Her loyal and trusted companions were living their lives on the other side of the well while she was trapped within the futuristic technological pressures of life in the present. She often tried to find out what happened to her friends of the past. History books, ancestral scrolls, and human memories remembered nothing of her friends. Nothing remained to record the lives of Shippo, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku. It was funny to think that she would give up modern day comforts like running water for the chance to be eaten by some unknown demon.

The end of her adventure typically occurred on her eighteenth birthday. Exactly three years from the moment it all began. She cried for many reasons that night the well was sealed forever. She cried for her lost love from another lifetime who would never begin to see her as simply Kagome. She cried because Kikyou still possessed a sliver of her soul and she was afraid that she would never feel whole again. She cried for the memories of her dearest friends and how she would never see them grow old. She cried because all of it was all gone.


AN: I don't own Inuyasha … etc etc.

Revised: May 13, 2005