The thing that held me back was brushed aside

The past I left is far behind

The future is waiting, so hurry up and let's go!

Heartache.

Nothing gets rid of heartache like a good cry, followed by talking to someone who just might know exactly what you mean.

Needless to say, when I had lunch with Kagome, she seemed to know exactly how I felt: even though she had LIVED one of the greatest legends ever, she knew where I was coming from.

She had also brought a friend, though at the time, her friend looked more like her grandmother. "This is Kaname Kururugi, Izayoi," she introduced me to this withered old lady. "Kaname showed up one day outside of the villiage, wearing her school uniform."

Oh WONDERFUL, another chunk of the Shikon no Tama story that I didn't know. But apparently this woman had shown up in the Sengoku Jidai, time traveled.

But as she told her story in a soft, creaky voice, I began to realize that here was someone who understood, who had felt it first hand to be in the shadow of Inuyasha and Kagome and somehow made her own story about it. I listened with undivided attention as she told me about the doll festival, her feelings of inadequacy, and finally coming into her own as she traveled with the others through the Sengoku Jidai, and finally won a small victory against the villain I'd read so much about: Naraku.

"And then," she said, "I returned here. To my normal life. I saw Kagome here once or twice, but my life went on just as any normal high school student's would. I grew up, had kids, and grew old. That one adventure was something I can never forget, but I don't think I'd like living that lifestyle like Kagome here…"

She settled back in her chair and sighed, and Kagome turned to me. "Before falling through the well, my life was boring and ordinary, too. I know I'm probably not one to talk, but it is rather easy to feel like just another face in the crowd here."

I glanced at my watch, and realized that it was time for class. I was going to be late. I jumped up, and Kagome and Kaname-san nodded, understanding my rush.

I left them, to talk about life on the other side and reminisce.

I rushed into class, out of breath. Professor Tezuka smiled warmly and asked, with a twinkle in his eyes, "how was lunch?"

I could only assume that he must have known Kaname-san as well (seeing as he had been there), but I still felt as if Kaname-san and Kagome had known exactly what I was feeling. I felt… relieved, almost.

Class went by uneventfully. No one else has the slightest clue that their slightly dumpy Lit Professor was actually a character straight out of a fairy tale book.

And even though I felt like an outside eavesdropper on some great secret, I felt comforted. Comforted in knowing that I wasn't the only one who felt the need to be something more than myself, and also in knowing that I knew what to write my paper on.

It was funny, almost, how quickly my emotions had changed. But isn't that the way emotions are, especially at this time in my life when I was still trying to figure out who I was and my own lot in life? And then I found that, while I was still sad, I felt… understood. Completely understood, and all it took was Japan's Number One Heroine telling me that even she felt inadequate and forgotten – even inferior.

Kaname-san had also conveyed to me what would probably remain with me the rest of my life: that being ordinary was okay. That I didn't have to be someone great and famous to be happy with my life.

I swallowed the lump building in the back of my throat, and when class was finished, Professor Tezuka beckoned me aside. "Is everything okay, Higurashi?" he asked, concern knitting his eyebrows together.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Got a topic yet?"

I nodded. "But you'll have to read the paper to find out."

The twinkle returned to his eyes, and for a moment I imagined that they were as green as they had been when I first saw the undisguised kitsune he really was.

"I can't wait to read it, then."

I bowed and quietly left the room, heading back to my dorm to write what I planned on being my magnum opus.

A word from Ryune:

Yes. I am going to write the paper. All of it.

But it will be a while before I get around to it, seeing as I'm putting off writing two of my own papers. College is tough, boys and girls. Things like fanfiction have to take the back burner.

But once I write Izayoi's paper, I'll definitely post it.

And I write some dang good college papers.