~Prologue~

Fifteen.

It was a number Kagome felt somewhat connected to. After all, it was on her fifteenth birthday that she had first fallen through a magical well, and into a story that would defy all rationality, possiblity, and logic. Travel through time seemed the stuff of science fiction, of fantasy. This, though, was life, her life, strange as it had become. Running back and forth could drive her crazy, but the adventures she shared in the sengoku jidai were like nothing else in her world- she felt alive, real, strong. She had friends there, so different from those in this modern day and age, when science had ruled out magic, and youkai seemed to be a thing of folklore.

And, over time, she had fallen in love.

Demanding, tempermental, often rude, she somehow saw beneath a layer of roughness and found someone very different. Lonely, alone.

She knew she got irritated with him often, particularly in their earlier journeys. Three days was not enough time to study. Tests were becoming more and more a part of her life, and fighting youkai in the past was not a good excuse to tell the teacher when he wanted to know why the score of a girl who was usually so bright was nothing more than a lowly fifteen.

Fifteen.

Accepting the test back from her sensei's admonishing hand, she had quietly looked at the score on the top of her exam, etched in red ink. It stood starkly against the crisp white paper and the black ink of the questions, her penciled grey answers faded, almost as though ashamed to appear. Nothing came to mind- no shock, no frantic promises she would study harder, improve her grades. Math had always been her weak point, and if she worked harder, just a little harder, she could pass, if she just had one more chance. Just one more chance.

The paper was still in her hands, held tightly in her fists. She had responsibilities in the sengoku jidai. Naraku was in possession of the majority of the Shikon no Tama, and the fighting had been so intense lately. Studying had faded into the background, becoming nothingness.

Despite this, the terrifying feeling of numbess at her failing grade had worn away. She had work to do in the past, to correct things, to make them right.

But as she leapt into the well...

She couldn't help but wish...

That she never

had to fight at all...

Through A Mirror Darkly