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Dec 10, 2011 : Format fixed

Speech - Thoughts

Speech - Memories

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Hey people!

Chapter 12 is almost done, but I my life is kind of hectic lately, so since I don't know when I'll be able to post it (drop the weapons, drop the weapons!) I decided to give you all a little bonus chappie, as a kind of 100th review special. You can all thank jbramx2 for the idea. *pulls jbramx2 into the spotlight*. This chappie is dedicated to all of you. Without you, this story wouldn't be what it is.

Okay, here's the thing. Remember this?:

The three ladies looked at each other and burst out laughing. A miniature brawl and a one-way ticket to the Okashira's office followed that little episode. Double cleaning duties and training sessions for a week.

Well, jbramx2 wondered who might have won that one….. and then, I started wondering too. And I have to admit, I'm a very curious person, so… Enjoy!

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Bonus mini-chapter

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*19 years ago* (makes you realize just how old our Aoshi-sama is, ne?)

"I made it just for you!" Little 7-year-old Okon said enthusiastically, while placing a beautiful (in her opinion), tasty (again, in her opinion), perfect cake in front of the love of her life. The one she would marry someday, and would give her all the pretty things a wife should have, and whom she'd cook for, and… well, all that.

9 year old Aoshi looked at the… THING… in front of him. Then, he lifted his eyes to look at Okon's cheerful face. Eyes down again. Up again.

They were sitting in the Aoiya's back garden. It was a nice spring day, the birds were chirping and the wind blew gently. A perfectly romantic atmosphere, just like she had heard Michiko-neesan say were described in romance novels. Also, the fact that Hadako-neesan didn't let her near the kitchen after her try at cooking tagoyaki had something to do with their current location, but she decided to ignore the fact. Besides, she hadn't known the squid would spontaneously combust (or that it COULD, to begin with). *sigh* The dark mark on the tatami mat looked like a cute bunny, but would Hadako-neesan listen? Nooo!. Hump!. At least she was sure Aoshi would appreciate her cooking skills.

"What's this?" Aoshi managed to hide the queasiness from his voice, even if his face betrayed his distaste.

"Why, it's a cake silly!" Fortunately for him, Okon hadn't noticed, since she had been too busy planning their wedding (something he didn't know, and life was fine just like that, thank you) and had snapped out of her bubble at the question.

A cake. Uh-uh. A finger poked the brown surface. The movement revealed a twig inside the culinary delicacy, which he carefully pulled out and stared at.

"Well?" Okon said expectantly. She had worked hard to make that cake. The most difficult thing had been getting the soil from Okina's beloved garden. She had heard mud did wonders for one's skin. She couldn't wait for Aoshi-kun to look cuter!

Chibi-Aoshi gulped when she handed him a spoon. He somehow managed a little uneasy smile.

Okon beamed at that.

He cringed internally. Okina always said to treat girls nicely and that he should behave himself when near them. But he had certainly never mentioned committing suicide for them.

The cake was…. well… brown, for starters. It seemed to have more than one twig on it, and if you looked intently, you could spot the occasional leave or root. Aoshi leaned closer, and was greeted by a worm. Aoshi's eyes got huge, the worm just looked at him, and not finding him important, returned to the depths of the cake.

"…" He was trying, really, but words just refused to come out. So, there he was, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

Meanwhile, Okon got tired of waiting for him to do something. Of course, he must be excited that a pretty girl like her had made something so delicious for him and didn't have words to describe his feelings. *giggle* He was so shy! How cute!

Deciding he just needed a little shove in the right direction, she grabbed another spoon and in one swift movement feed him the cake.

Aoshi blinked, and made a supreme effort not to spit the thing out. Gosh! It tasted even worse than it looked!

"Did you like it?" Expectant face again. For Buddha, girls were just freaky! He nodded quickly, almost choking when the movement brought the reflex to swallow.

Okon went into dreamland at the response. Seeing this, Aoshi seized the opportunity, gathered his breath and turned around, before spitting the whole thing as far as it would go.

Which would have been pretty far away, if not for the presence of an obstacle on its way. A very angry obstacle, I may add.

Shiro angrily wiped the mud from his face and glared at Aoshi who was too busy gagging (silently, if that's even possible) and spitting at the ground.

"Shinomori!" Aoshi barely had time to blink before being roughly shoved from his place by a furious Shiro.

Okon was snapped out of her trance by the voice, and barely managed to get out of the way on time.

"What the…!" Aoshi said, falling on his behind. Upon seeing his agressor, he immediately jumped on his feet.

"You threw mud at me!"

"…. So what?" hey, he was a kid. A stubborn one, at that. He knew what he had done, but there was no way he would apologize. Besides, how was he supposed to know Shiro would be there?

Okon blinked at the statement. In front of her, the two boys started shoving each other. Both had recently began training, so their movements were slow and sloppy.

Aoshi kicked Shiro with the new technique Makimachi-san had taught him just the day before. Or tried to, as the kick was supposed to connect with his hip instead of his calf. *shrug* Oh well, whatever works.

With each shove, kick, punch or attempt of any of the before mentioned, Okon's eyes got bigger in understanding. She had liked Aoshi for two weeks now, and had thought she knew him well, but… for him to do such thing! Her eyes narrowed.

Love is a fleeting emotion. She resisted the urge to kick the boys rolling on the floor. Yes, boys. As in plural. How dare Shiro say it was just mud!

Instead, she settled for dumping the entire cake over them and stomping away around a corner.

"What is going on here!" Okon stopped on her tracks, returning to peek over the corner. She followed the sound of the voice and smiled. As if the gods had listened to her, she regarded Hadako-neesan, in all her angry glory, armed with a wooden spoon.

*TWACK* "Ouch!"

*TWACK* "Ow!"

Oh yes, Hadako-neesan was her favorite. She collapsed in a fit of giggles at seeing both boys being dragged towards the Aoiya, probably to the Okashira's office.

THAT would teach them not to appreciate pretty young girl's cooking skills.

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Aoshi tried to control the urge to shuffle his feet. He was in a place he knew well enough, although the circumstances were pretty different than the usual.

Makimachi Kojiro regarded the two muddy boys in front of him. He found himself resisting the urge to laugh at their current state. However, he could not give into it, for he was the Okashira, and he was supposed to discipline them. On the other side, maybe embarrassing them would teach them a lesson too. Nah, that would crush their little egos. Not to mention it would make Hadako-san angry beyond belief, and she was still holding that damned wooden spoon.

"Aoshi-kun, Shiro-kun" Two pairs of huge eyes were the response to his unspoken command. It was the only thing he could see among all that mud.

"Both of you will train two hours more every day for a week" well, that didn't sound so bad, did it?

"You will take over Hadako-san's and Michiko-san's cleaning duties, aside from yours" Now, THAT sounded bad. Both of them were nice and everything, but they had slave-driving tendencies.

Hadako smiled sweetly.

"And you'll spend the whole week together. Onniwabanshuu is a unity. I will not have any more quarrels amongst its members, understood?"

That was what made him a great leader. He had, in one sentence, both doomed the boys and given them his support.

Shiro and Aoshi nodded. They had just been called members of the Oniwabanshuu by the Okashira! Not just trainees, but members!

Then, they looked at each other.

And remembered they had to spend a whole week together training (which wasn't so bad) and cleaning (which was BAD, period)

They sighed in unison.

"Now go"

As soon as they left the room, Makimachi Kojiro, almighty Okashira of the Onniwabanshuu, dissolved into pearls of laughter.

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End of bonus mini-chapter

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Airen2: Rock-throwing will have a BIG part on chapter 12, I'm sure you'll like it.

Nanakilover/Brukaoru: About the flirting, well... it depends on you POV, and well... we all know how Aoshi's mind works... Personally, I think it wasn't OOC for Misao. I'd say she was being her usual friendly self, with the addition of all that was on her mind (chappie 2).

Mary-Ann: Glad you liked that! I have to admit whole leaning on each other's back thingy is based on something that happened to me. Including some of Misao's thoughts *sigh*. Okon, Omasu and Sae ARE evil, my dear. They are wicked, and that's exactly why I like them so much. Coincidences... well it depends on fate, and since I happen to be fate here...

Ice Demoness: You like the thought of killing me, ne? *sighs* versatile too, I'm wondering which will be your next homicide weapon, since this isn't exactly a chapter… *dodges arrows*. But next chapter is coming soon, I don't intend to stop. Besides, I don't wanna see you eventually take out a bazooka or anything...*runs away*

namiko the anime wizard: Thankies!

lil-battousai girl: Misao is a teen. Sure, she has adult's responsibilities and those were different times and all that... but teenagers are the same now as they were back then. Can you say PMS? *evil cackle*

Kitten kisses: Girl, you have given my ego the biggest boost ever! *hugs kitten Kisses*. I'm your what...? *wipes a tear* Thankies! I feel so loved!. Working on one story at the time is the best, your brain doesn't short-circuit and you avoid getting attacked by angry mobs or homicidal reviewers *points to a smiling Ice Demoness. Ice Demoness waves cheerfully*. As for this story, it's probably better you can't read it all the way through, because I have no idea as to what will happen next *smiles*

jbramx2: *blinks* well... I didn't consider it a cliffie, but now that you mention it, it kinda seems one... That's how Aoshi's thoughts are presented to me, a constant cliffhanger. Poor me. The evil trio didn't mention Saitou's being married for the same reason they included Okina and four dead guys on the list: They weren't trying to matchmake her (not yet, anyway), but studying subject Misao's behavioral patterns around men and it's relations with her childhood environment. Or something like that. Also, the reason Sano and Kenshin were mentioned (even if they met recently) it because they were simply listing all the men they knew Misao knew *scratches her head at the last statement*. And I suspect they got a little carried away while painting the spoons...

And I hope you liked my little answer to your question, I just HAD to write it *smiles*

VenusDeOmnipotent: Sou-chan won't escape from you again *gives you caged Soujiro plushie, complete with a leash, in case you wanna let him out*. Aoshi as a what...? *eyes get huge. verito-chan starts choking. dies laughing* oh...my...god that'd be a sight... You're truly evil, you know that? *eyes shine in admiration*

Menchi Pie: Direct to the point, uh? it's okay, that laughing face it's enough for me. Hope you liked this one!

Foxxie-Kitty: Aoshi-spoon is becoming a celebrity, hehe. And the fact it got the question mark may have been just a fluke *innocent face*. I have a fondness for those still moments that last little but mean a lot.

Lali1: Misao is suffering, I know I'm being evil, but I'm enjoying it so much... *sonrriso inocente* hehe. My first language is Spanish, as I'm Peruvian. Eu fico feliz de que você goste do meu fic. Obrigada pela review! (any mistakes in this last sentence due to the fact my Portuguese is not the best there is)

babyg2988: Sae wants to see a soap opera. Sadly for her, it's the Meiji era and soap operas don't exist yet, so she has to make her own. Guess who is the main character?. Hehe. As for how did I know you liked Sou-chan… who doesn't like the guy?

tesuka-chan: The spoon thing was inspired by those little figures they used to plan battle strategies in a movie I saw. Weird how it turned out... *shrugs* But Aoshi-spoon is cute and I'm keeping him. *hugs Aoshi-spoon*

lebleuphenix: That threesome is more than scary. And you're right, they didn't mention Soujiro... Hehe, actually... I forgot *sheepish face* but if I had remembered that scene would have been a lot more scarier, believe me. The flirting scene between Misao and Kuronami is the one that happened waaay back in chapter 2, remember?

Whisper*2*imaginary: Thanks! I don't mind you being weird, that means I'm not alone in the world!

Chibi Summanaro: Well, I have to admit the spoons thing was a little weird, but… Aaanyway, I hope you liked this little something. I didn't want to be without updating too long.

Nekonomiko: You're back! *hugs you to death* I missed you!. Now, gimme back my posters! *starts chasing you around* Haha. No prob sugar, I'm beginning to feel the stress of working too. Hey! Is that my poster of sleeping, drooling, wearing-only-boxers Sanosuke? *attacks you*

Youkogirl: Okies! I know this isn't exactly a chappie, but I'm working on it, I swear.

You liked? Review!

Verito-chan.