The dripping of the leaky faucet normally was a comfort for her. The steady drumming of water droplets lulling her into a calm sense of meditation. But today they only served to aggravate her. The constant drip-drop reminded her of the ticking of a clock.
Drip drop... Tick tock ...
Time, it seemed couldnt give her peace no matter where she was. She was a woman, misplaced in time. The more time she spent in the past the more she felt like she didn't belong in the future.
Drip-drop, tick-tock...
She was born in the 20th century, but wanted a life in the 14th century. She was born into a life of rapidly evolving technology, but she yearned for a home that wouldn't even have electricity.
Drip-drop, tick-tock...
But even if she were to take the plunge, if she were to give it all up and make a life for herself in the past... What would be the point?
Drip-drop, tick-tock...
She would never be as good as Kikyo. Inuyasha had made it VERY clear over the years that, in his eyes, she simply didn't compare. Kikyo was powerful, skilled, beautiful, poised...
Kagome was loud, untrained, brash, and too educated for the men of that time to appreciate. She was an oddity no matter where she was. In the past, she was the oddly dressed Miko that knew too much and spoke strangely. In the future she was a liar who had everyone convinced she was disease ridden and an awful student.
Once, when she was a naive fifteen year old child, she thought that she would make a life with Inuyasha by her side. But as the years went by she learned that she could never hold his heart. He has given it away fifty years before she ever showed up in his life.
Drip-drop, tick-tock ...
She certainly couldn't make a life with anyone in her own time. The men of her era were dishonorable. They didn't take vows and promises seriously. They weren't interested in taking care of their families or simply enjoying life for what it was.
Not to mention, after years of running around with yokai, human men simply didn't do it for her anymore. They weren't attractive. On top of that, years of traveling back fourth had ruined any chance she might have had at a decent higher education. Without that, she couldn't very well survive in her era. She couldn't offer anything as a partner in a relationship aside from being a housewife who hoped to hold her husband's attention.
At least in the past she was a power miko, untrained as she may be. Still, it allotted her a semblance of respect that was expected for one of her standing. That she had standing in the past was another point. There, she was needed. She was smarter than everyone and secretly, she sometimes enjoyed being the smartest person in the room.
Really what other choice did she have besides staying in the past and starting a life on her own?
Koga? Being a shrine maiden?
Nope! No thank you!
But she couldn't make a life with Inuyasha either.
Would ... could she, be content to simply build a life, alone, in a time that wasn't hers?
Drip-drop, tick-tock...
She couldn't keep putting it off, she needed to make a decision. The Shikon Jewel was nearly complete and the final battle would most likely take place sometime in the next year. So she needed to choose.
Try to scrape together some semblance of a productive life in the future where she was born, getting a minimum wage job and living with her mother forever?
Or...
Start over in the past, using this time to start stocking up on things that would make her transition into life in the feudal era easier?
Drip-drop, tick-tock...