A Validation of Worth by Arwyn

Dancing on the Cusp of Tomorrow

A/N:  The idea was adopted years ago from r0o. The original was closer to what she’d thought to do with it, but after almost 3yrs away from the story coming back and re-reading it I can see that it isn’t how I would have liked to start it; so with that said this is the re-write of Validation of Worth.

The core idea is still there but it will take a bit of time for it to come out in full, and as always this will be a S/K fic. 

Disclaimer: Only going to say this once. I do not own anything pertaining to InuYash: A Feudal Fairytale.

A Validation of Worth

Chapter 1:  Dancing on the Cusp of Tomorrow

 A wind that held a lingering bite of winter in it danced through the trees, playing with long strands of hair, causing Kagome to reach up and tuck the errant strand behind her ear. She was walking home with her friends from their graduation ceremony from high school. Kagome was idly listening to the other three girls talking about what they were going to do next.

Soon enough the question was brought to her, and she honestly didn’t know what to tell them. The original plan had been for her to return to the feudal era once she was done with her schooling, but when she’d passed the well house that morning she hadn’t felt the pull of magic that said the well had opened once more. “I don’t know just yet. I might take the rest of the spring and summer off to spend time with family and go to a University overseas.” Kagome said with a dainty lift of her shoulders. The others nodded sagely, knowing that their friend seemed to have had a falling out with her obnoxious boyfriend.

Eventually the group found themselves parting; as Kagome climbed the stairs to her family’s shrine she turned to watch her friends. A sense of finality washed over her, letting her know that she wouldn’t be seeing these particular friends again. She watched them for a moment longer before turning back to the task of climbing the stairs leading to her family’s shrine.

Eyes so blue they could rival the purest of sapphires gazed over the shrine and its grounds as she finally crested the last of the stairs. She smiled as she looked over at the god tree, knowing that the scar of InuYasha’s entrapment still marred the bark higher up. Kagome turned and looked over at the house that she’d grown up in; it was her home and always would be she knew this all the way down to the marrow in her bones.

Kagome moved past the well house and the seemingly now dormant Bone Eater’s Well. A sigh escaped her lips as she moved; she wouldn’t and couldn’t lie to herself that she missed the past and the friends she’d made there.

“Oh Kagome dear you’re home. I take it the ceremony went well?” Her mother asked.

“Yes Mama,” the young woman said a hint of her dejection over the well having remained closed slipping into her voice.

“I’m sorry Kagome, I know you wanted to go back, but maybe there’s a reason that the gods want you to remain in the present.” Her mother said.

“But what am I to do Mama?” the younger woman asked, “I didn’t put in any applications for universities here in Japan, not thinking that I would be going to them once school was done and they start on the first day of April; I don’t even have enough time.”

“Well you can always try to go to a university overseas,” the elder woman said with a small smile.

“I guess.” Kagome hedged not sure if she really wanted to leave her home for another country. It wasn’t like going to the past where she was in the same country and knew what would happen in 500 years.

“Think of it as another type of adventure sweetie, one that will give you more experiences in the world than just the ones that you’re used to now.”

“Yes mama.”

***

Applications littered Kagome’s desk as she looked out the window, pen tapping her bottom lip as she pondered her next words on the essay she was required to write for potential entrance into one of the numerous Universities that she’d printed off enrollment applications for from the library.

She was silently hoping to get into one of the smaller universities she’d filled out the paperwork for. Kagome had poured over the course of studies offered at the schools and nodded as she saw that they offered an undergraduate program in mythology and history. It was two things that she would enjoy; having lived first hand parts of her nation’s history and having seen demons that would fade over time into myths and legends.

With a stretch and a groan the young woman got back to her work of filling out applications for the schools she hoped to attend.

***

“Has anybody seen Kagome recently?” Eri asked of her friends. The other two girls shook their heads in the negative. Unlike their friend they’d chosen to go to a two year school and had started soon after their last day of high school.”

“Nope, but I think she’s still at her family’s shrine, and I saw her a few weeks ago at the library printing out applications for colleges over in Europe.”

“Oh wow, I didn’t think she would want to go that far, but I guess she’s trying to forget that two timing boyfriend of hers.”

The conversation continued in this vein for the remainder of their time together before one of them had to leave of classes.

***

The package in her hand weighed a scant amount but to her it felt like the weight of the world had descended upon her once more. Kagome turned the thick package over and with a trembling finger started to pull the lip of the envelope back.

Both her mother and grandfather watched with baited breath as she opened the package, glad that Souta was in school for the day, as his questions would have only added to the nerve wracking experience.

Finally the package was open and Kagome was holding a pile of papers with a letter sitting merrily on top of it all. She laid the paperwork down and read the letter aloud to her family members, tears collecting in her eyes. She’d been accepted to the University she’d chosen as the best for what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

“Oh Kagome that’s wonderful news,” her mother crooned as she got up and gathered her daughter close to her in a bone crushing hug.

“I’m going to England, mama, I didn’t think they would take me, but I guess they liked my paper.” Kagome babbled.

“I knew you could do it Kagome, you just needed the right spark of inspiration,” her grandfather said smiling at her, even though his glasses were fogging from the tear dancing in his eyes.

“I’m going to miss this place, you know.” The younger woman said as she pulled out of her mother’s grasp, “It’ll cost too much for me to come back on all my breaks, so I guess we’re going to have to figure out when I should come home for holidays.”

“Nonsense Kagome, you do what you need to do, it will be like when you were going to the past, only I can mail you care packages instead of waiting for you to return and we have phones and the internet as well young lady.”

Kagome nodded having forgotten those facts momentarily in her wonder at being accepted into a college so far away. A blush stained her cheeks as she spoke, “I forgot, I’m so used to traveling to the past I guess.”

“No need to worry sweetheart, it’s understandable.” The elder woman said with a smile. “But now we need to get to work on getting your things ready for you to travel to England.”