None of these characters belong to me. They belong to Nobuhiro Waksuki.

The following chapters are meant to be short. They are a group of character driven one shots. Some parts will be shocking.

Ripple

Kaoru Kamiya

By Marie Nomad

It was a bright sunny day at the Kamiya Dojo as Kaoru was sweeping the front porch. Yahiko was practicing his katas. Kenshin was preparing some baked sweet potatoes and Sanosuke was just sleeping the day away.

A young teenage man with a shinai came up to the dojo and went up to Kenshin. "Excuse me, I am here to learn the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu. Are you the instructor? I had heard many good things about this place."

"That would be me!" Kaoru gushed as she ran up. She straightened herself out. "May I ask what is your fighting experience?"

The man stared at her.

"What?" Kaoru looked confused at him.

"You're a girl."

"So." Kaoru sweatdropped as she glared at him.

"I… I'm sorry. I gotta go!" He bowed and ran off.

Clouds of doom surrounded the young kendo instructor. She was used to rejections like this but she really wanted students besides Yahiko. Scenes like this happened since she came back from Kyoto.

"You chased off another one." Yahiko chuckled and then tensed up waiting for the retort.

The girl sighed as she sat down. "He looked like he had potential too."

"There will be others, Kaoru-dono." Kenshin supported as he held up a sweet potato. "You are a good teacher."

"I know. I know, but I just wish more people can take me seriously. Makes me think that I was a mistake."

"Oro!" Kenshin put down his potato and put both hands on Kaoru's shoulders. "Kaoru-dono! Your life is precious that it is!"

"I want to be born! I just think that things might be better if I was born a man." Kaoru sighed as she looked at her chest. "I bet that I would have more students if I didn't have these."

Kenshin blushed as he put down his hands. "I like the way you are. Women are strong in their own way, Kaoru-dono. I would not change a thing about you."

"Yeah, thinking about you as a guy would feel weird but… not that much of a stretch." Yahiko tried to picture Kaoru with a goatee.

"I know but still… oh well." Kaoru sat down. She didn't feel like cleaning any more. Maybe, if she was a son rather than a daughter, she would have been much stronger and Kenshin wouldn't be so overprotective of her. Her father's style would have a lot more students and things would have been a lot better. She lay down on the porch and closed her eyes.

To Be Continued…