If I had my way I would move to another lifetime

I’d quit my job, ride the train through the misty night-time

I’d be ready when my feet touch ground

Where ever I come down

And if the folks will have me,

Then they’ll have me

Riding to school with Yuka, Eri and Ayumi, Kagome’s mind drifted, as it often did, to her life in the past. The gentle swaying of the train lulled her into a contemplative daze and having ignored her chatty friends for the last 10 minutes, they’d given up trying to nudge Kagome’s post-graduation plans out in to the open for group discussion.

It was the last day of her senior year’s final exams and having had plenty of time to study last night, Kagome had little worry for her grade by this point in time. It really didn’t matter to her at all; she only went through the motions in this world for the sake of her family’s honor. Kagome’s heart still rode high with her friends in the past. After all that she had been through, all the death, pain and sadness that accompanied Naraku’s bid for dominion over all life with the corrupted Shikon no Tama, Kagome felt adrift in her modern world. She felt she no longer belonged – in fact, she wondered now if she ever really had. Chewing her lip in unconscious habit, Kagome wanted to remember what it felt like to belong, to be home.

Any world that I’m welcome to

Any world that I’m welcome to

Any world that I’m welcome to

Is better than the one I come from 

The real question was: what should she do once her obligations here were over? Kagome only knew that she needed to go back so badly her breath caught in her chest and tears stung her eyes just thinking about the passage through the old, dry well.

I can hear your words

When you speak of what you are and have seen

I can see your hand reaching out

Through a shining day-dream

Where the days and nights are not the same

Captured happy in a picture frame

Honey I will be there, yes I’ll be there 

Turning her head away from her oblivious modern friends, she allowed herself to remember her true companions, all as clearly as a snap-shot. She saw Sango’s deep, kind heart and hesitant smile, Miroku’s rakish grin and his sad eyes. Shippos’s shining face and Kaede’s gentle hands brought warmth to her heart that Kagome could feel radiating from her heart through her school’s jacket. As she allowed herself to finally see InuYasha’s determined face and under that, his great desire to know love and happiness – with her, just plain old Kagome and nobody else, she thought she was going to pull the brake line and bolt for home, her obligations to this now-fantasy world be damned!

But after closing her eyes and taking a long shaking breath, Kagome got herself under control and pushed what her heart desired into the broom closet of her soul once more. Today was a finals day, in more ways than one. She would complete this epic task too.

Any world that I’m welcome to

Any world will do

Any world that I’m welcome to

Any world that I’m welcome to

Is better than the one I come from 

I’ve got this thing inside me

That’s got to find a place to hide me

I only know I must obey

This feeling I can’t explain away 

Eri and Yuka figured she was fine. Kagome was a stable constant in their little bubble of a world, a girl who could handle anything except for trigonometry; even persevering through a year’s myriad of illnesses to be able to graduate on time with them. Ayumi wondered if maybe Kagome’s strength was something she was trying desperately to convince herself of and her quiet friend began to also think, not for the first time, what had happened to that guy at the shrine, the one Kagome kept denying really was nice.

Ayumi had read enough romance novels to place Kagome’s far-away looks: that guy seemed always on her mind, even when she was off daydreaming in another world, just as she was now. In the past three years, a small sliver of Kagome always seemed somewhere else. Ayumi alone figured if Kagome needed to talk about it, she would. Somehow, in her ailing year, Kagome appeared to have seen or done something so that now her world could never be the same size again.

 I think I’ll go to the park

Watch the children playing

Perhaps I’ll find in my head

What my heart is saying

A vision of a child returning

A kingdom where the sky is burning

Honey I will be there, yes I’ll be there

‘I want to be with InuYasha. I want to return to the world beyond the well, I want to return to my home!’ Narrowing her eyes at the rising red sun through the train’s smudged windows, Kagome straightened her back against the seat, made up her mind and felt hope bloom in her heart. One more small thing to accomplish in her life of tasks completed and then she could go home.

Any world that I’m welcome to

Any world that I’m welcome to

Any world that I’m welcome to

Is better than the one I come from 

Any world will do…

Any world will do… 

“Any World (That I’m Welcome To)”

Steely Dan, 1975