Thank you all for the support and feedback! I thin that I'll stick with the idea I first had, but go about it differently. I really was trying to rush it too much, and if you guys like this version of a new beginning to the story, I'll change up the chapters to better match. Please give me your honest feedback, I'm nothing without your support. Thank you! Also, I personally like the idea of being in first person, but I can change it back to third person if you'd all like. ;D

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This wasn't how my life was suppose to go, not what I had planned for myself; I was suppose to finish school, become a school teacher, and marry a handsome doctor that I'd have three children with. Instead, I was five hundred years in the past and risking death without the ability to protect myself or those I loved. Actually, I was pretending to sleep in Kaede's hut having just heard Inuyasha leave to be with Kikyo. It should hurt, so everyone told me, but after so many years I just didn't feel anything romantic for the pup anymore.

'When did I start referring to him as a pup?'

Being in the past for so long really had started to change my thinking, just as my mother told me during the last visit. It was more than how I thought of things though, it was how I lived, existed; children were kits or pups, everyone I met was assessed for danger first, every animal was a potential food source. My mother had left the store embarrassed when I had started sniffing the meat to check for poisons. That realization was what kept me up tonight more than anything: my world wasn't mine anymore.

*** Flashback ***

"Kagome, dear, please have a seat. We need to talk."

Doing as I was bid, it wasn't difficult to figure out what was about to occur. My mother had stress lines around eyes that were red from crying, and she was wringing her hands furiously.

"Yes Mama?"

As she struggled to start talking, I wondered if I should make it easier on her this once. It wasn't her fault I wasn't the daughter she had raised and loved anymore.

"Mama, it's okay. I understand. I'll get my things and leave."

That, apparently, was the wrong thing to say as it brought upon a flood of tears.

'Didn't I use to know what to say to my own mother? Have I really changed so much?'

"I'm so sorry Kagome! It's just been so difficult never knowing what's going on, if you're going to come back alive. I love you so much, but how do I explain my daughter nearly shooting a dog with an arrow? I want to support you, but you don't even belong in this time anymore, and it's starting to rub off on your brother! He deserves to have a normal life."

Of course it was true, even I had noticed how odd Souta had been acting, and I knew I was the problem. There just wasn't anything I could do, not now anyway. Use to be I could figure it all out, the right way to talk to my mother, the right way to handle my brother, but it seemed the more time I spent in the past - broken - the less I was myself.

"It's okay mama. I love you too."

*** End Flashback ***

And here I was, well sealed off, not having confided in anyone, and I can only think about what I've lost. My family, my emotions, my future, and even my soul. Well, I should say I'm losing my soul, ever so slowly, piece by piece to Kikyo. Just as Inuyasha said, I'm no match for her, and every time she comes around she yanks another piece of my soul away. I've never told anyone, never let on that I'm dying slowly in severe agony, and no one's ever asked. Soon, I won't have enough left to keep me alive, and I'm not sure what'll happen then.

The only thing I'm clear about is that I'm in a life or death battle with Kikyo, and I'm losing. I need to get training, fast, and I need to take my soul back once and for all.