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Once upon a time, Kagome didn't believe in fairy tales. Then she was pulled into a fairy tale past at the age of fifteen. Everything she experienced in those five years had been fantastical and terrifying, beautiful and deadly. The events she became a part of changed her drastically. She failed middle school, and highschool was out of the question. Not when so many lives were counting on her to piece back together a mythical jewel she had broken.

When all was said and done, Kagome wished upon the jewel at the age of twenty. Sango and Miroku had long since married and were finally expecting their first child. Inuyasha had kept his promise to Kikyo and gone to hell with her, leaving Tessaiga to his brother and his subjugation beads to the girl whose heart he'd broken nearly a thousand times over. Kagome reasoned with herself that she could live in this world. That she could stay in the Sengoku Jidai with her friends and find someone to love her. That she could grow old and die peacefully in the village of Edo. It was like a dream to her.

It was a dream.

The wish woke her from a month long coma in her era. No, she hadn't gone down the well. No, she wasn't some renowned war hero. No, she wasn't a twenty year old battle weary young woman. And no, according to everyone else, demons didn't exist. Kagome was fifteen again and stuck in a hospital bed due to being startled by her cat and falling in the old well on her family's property. It was as though everything she'd experienced never happened. It had become increasingly apparent to her family that they thought her brains had been scrambled a little from her accident and insisted on seeing a therapist. After weeks of trying to get them to understand, the former miko finally dropped the subject and pretended to resume "being herself" as everyone put it.

She began to see the truth, however, when she was cleaning some of the long dead get well flowers from her room. A satchel was swept from her desk and onto the floor, spilling the contents out. A string of pale blue prayer beads, a tiny pouch of odorless tastless powdered poison, a little red and green top, and a familiar subjugation necklace. It clicked then, as she gathered the mementos her feudal friends had given her. It HAD happened! The wish had eliminated her time, though, and treated it as though it had all been in her mind.

Kagome cried for hours that night.

The next morning, she'd thrown herself into her schooling and became withdrawn and subdued, rarely talking or even going out with her friends. The night she received her acceptance letter to her highschool, Kagome stepped out into town to get some fresh air. It wasn't long before she came across a teenaged couple in an argument. The boy was berating the girl, cutting her down to nothing with harsh words. The miko wasn't sure what came over her, but it reminded her of her poor excuse of a relationship

with Inuyasha and she saw red.

When she finally snapped out of her rage, she'd beaten the boy to a near comatose state.

"W-Why?" the girl asked, almost afraid of setting the younger girl off again. Kagome dusted herself off, absently noting that Miroku's prayer beads had spots of blood where they were wrapped around the knuckles on her left hand.

"Because no girl deserves to be talked down to like that. Like I was," Kagome answered after a moment, sending a tremulous smile at the girl before she hightailed it home.

That night changed her entire demeanor towards people. It also caused her to be thrown out of more highschools than she ever thought possible. She was a defender of those victimized by cruel abusive relationships.

Even her relationship with her dear Shippo was different. She'd practically run into him by accident, and he'd nearly killed her when she identified him. He didn't remember her, at first. Weeks of convincing and begging, and showing him the little top he'd once upon a time used had finally unlocked his memories. Sure, they corresponded through email, and occasionally calls, but they weren't as close as they used to be. Honestly, the miko was simply happy to have him in her life. It was concrete proof that she wasn't as insane as her therapist believed. She could only assume it would be the same with any of the other youkai friends/allies she'd made back then.

Slowly blinking her eyes, Kagome let out a yawn as she stretched and rolled out of bed. Grumbling under her breath, she scratched her head as she got ready for school. Once she was dressed and her hair was brushed, the miko looked in the mirror and sighed as she adjusted the collar on the blue blazer of Ouran's boys' uniform.

"Another day in hell." Glancing at her desk, she reached out and fingered the prayer beads she always kept close. "Keep me safe today guys."

"Kagome! You need to hurry or you'll be late!" Mama Higurashi called out. Making a decision, the miko wrapped the beads around her left wrist, readjusting her sleeve and blazer cuff over the priceless gift.

"Coming! I still don't want to go!" She had a feeling she was going to need the extra guidance today.

"I know, but think of all the doors opened to you if you graduate from Ouran," her mother countered.

Kagome snorted and rolled her eyes. Snagging her bag, she headed downstairs for another day at the elite Ouran Academy.

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Listening to Just A Dream by Carrie Underwood. Dunno why, but that song hit me hard and kept twirling around in my head the whole time I wrote out this chapter. Enjoy!