--This story was co-written with my sister, Rosemary, whom you may contact at gohorses@yahoo.com.
--The story idea itself belongs to her, though I contributed to adding details to them. I was
--also the one who wrote the story, while she only made decisions. As a result, neither she nor
--I actually own Rurouni Kenshin. Heck, we don't even own Tsuyosa because we protray him along
--the elusive lines of Kaoru's father. We're not sure Tsuyosa is his real name even, but it's
--Japanese for strong and we thought it sounded pretty, so we decided to use it. Apoligies for
--any Out of Charactor you see, though we tried greatly to keep them out of that rut. Heck, we
--don't know how Tokio is supposed to act eithor, so we're not too sure about her . . .
--One final word: This story is slightly crossed over with Ranma 1/2. You don't need to be familar
--with it to be left in the dark, since I believe I explained everything in the story. However,
--it might be helpful for any inside jokes/puns I felt like tossing in. ^_^ C&C is ever so welcome.
--Please do not take and distribute this anywhere without my permission (dalimata@yahoo.com), or
--even run off with the idea. Thankyouverymuchos!
Kaoru came to by a damp cloth on her face. She stared up at the fuzzy vision of Kenshin. "I had
a nightmare," she said, sitting up. "I dreamed that my dead father was back, Saitou was my uncle,
and I was engaged to be married to my cousin."
Kenshin's face twisted, bloated outward, and then changed until he looked like Jiya with red
hair and bucked teeth. "Foolish girl! Muahahahaha—Hyuck!"
"AAAAAAHHH!!!" Kaoru sat up with a scream.
Then she grabbed Kenshin, who knelt by her head. She began to strangle him in a fit of panic.
"If you say hyuck, I'll beat you over the head with your sakaba!"
Soujirou, who had awakened a few moments before Kaoru had, choked as he saw his fiery-tempered
cousin strangle the infamous Hitokiri Battousai. Tsuyosa glanced at Tokio.
"She gets her temper from you," he reminded her. She sipped her tea, making it a point to not
acknowledge him. Kaoru jumped to her feet.
"I refuse to marry Soujirou!" she declared, tossing Kenshin aside as if he were a rag doll.
"Orrro!"
Tokio waved her hands in the air. "Kaoru! If you and your father—he is illegally alive, so he
can't own it—want to keep the dojo, then you must marry by your twentieth birthday. Otherwise,
this house, the dojo, and the property it sits upon all reverts to me and . . ." She stopped,
her eyes wide with implications. They quickly narrowed into a sly look. "Maybe," she began
slowly, "maybe we should wait on this marriage," she said finally.
Tsuyosa froze in mid-sip. "Wait a minute . . ." He looked thoughtful. "That doesn't sound too
right . . ."
Yahiko yawned suddenly, followed by Kenshin from the corner he had been tossed into.
"Hmmmm . . ." Tokio gave Yahiko a fond glance. "I think it's bedtime," she announced. She stood
up and looked down at her husband. "We still have to get my trunk from where it is sitting on
the front porch," she told him.
Tsuyosa paled. "Wait a minute . . . You mean to tell me you're going to stay here?"
Tokio gave him a superior look. "Until Kaoru is married," she said. Or until the house was fixed;
whichever came last. But her brother-in-law needn't know that! "Hajime, would you be a dear and
go outside to fetch my trunk for me?" She turned to Kaoru. "We'll need to make sleeping
arrangements. Everyone, follow me."
Kenshin sighed. He was in hell. He had to be. There was no other way to explain it!
He was so sure Tokio was out to get the man who was formally the Battousai. This wouldn't have
been so bad—in her eyes—but he had also tried to kill her husband on numerous accounts back in
the Meiji War, and he had the gall to live unchaperoned with her niece. This, above all other
things he had ever done to her, was the most unforgivable offense.
Tokio was a traditionalist in a few ways. She believed a young girl should be allowed to follow
her heart and marry the man she wanted, as long as her parents—who knew what was best—approved
of him. She also believed that said subject of women should be watched closely, lest she did
what Tokio did, and that was run off with the man she wanted and everyone else could be damned.
Of course, Tokio was happy with her choice in the end. He was everything she dreamed of, and
more, since such a man would rarely have the patience to put up with a woman such as herself.
She often wondered what he saw in her, but she never questioned it.
She was an overly protective woman, believing in guarding children just enough from the world
for them to retain a special innocence. Such a thing was attractive, and men liked a woman whom
they could nurture and protect lovingly. That was what galled her the most about Kenshin. Kaoru
was able to take care of her self, and with a man living in the house (it didn't matter if the
man did anything or not. Tokio considered any single man standing on the same carpet as any
single woman sinning), it was impossible for suitors to come around. They would think Kaoru was
already taken. Or stained.
And it was for this reason that he was sure he was stuck in the same room as Yahiko and Tsuyosa.
Speaking of Yahiko . . . Kenshin grunted as little cold feet prodded for warmth. They settled on
his warm back, somehow making their way past his gi. Kenshin sat upright and gave Yahiko a mock
glare before gently pushing him away. He settled back onto his mat, gathering his blankets close
around his form.
They disappeared with a shoop.
"Oro?"
Kenshin looked over his shoulder with large eyes to see a large ball of blankets—his, Yahiko's,
and Tsuyosa's. So that was why Yahiko had tried seeking warmth from Kenshin. Tsuyosa was tucked
deeply within the middle of the ball, his toes peeking out from one end and gray-streaked hair
tumbling out of the other end.
Kenshin shivered as cold feet made their way back to his back again.
Yes, he was in hell.
That was when Tsuyosa and Yahiko began to snore.
Check his earlier statement; -now- he was in hell.
Kenshin rolled onto his side, tucking his hands within his sleeves. He heard soft footfalls. His
eyes shifted over to the door. Having recognized them as being Kaoru's, he wondered what she was
doing out of the room she was sharing with Tokio.
Kaoru slipped into the room, her face thick with sleep but lit up with a beautiful inner light.
Kenshin stared at it for a brief moment before he noticed she had stumbled her way over to the
bundle of blankets that was her father, and fell to her knees at his feet. She slid her hands
into the opening, and impossibly wiggled her way into the center of the blankets where Tsuyosa
wrapped his arms around her and snuggled his face deeply into her hair.
"Mmmmm." Kaoru quickly fell asleep.
And began to snore too.
Kenshin sat upward, feeling this was far more than he could possibly take. He stood up and left
the room with a sigh. He padded down the hallway to the guestroom where Soujirou and Saitou where
sharing. He pondered whether it was safe to enter and sleep in the same room as the Mibu Wolf,
and decided it was. After all, Tokio had said earlier that evening that if there was going to be
any blood-shed, then it was going to be outside where she wouldn't have to do so much cleaning.
And Saitou listened to her . . . Most of the time at least . . . Er, right?
At any rate, it couldn't be any worse than Tokio waking up and finding Kaoru and Kenshin had
slept in the same room. She would excuse Tsuyosa, because he was Kaoru's father who was believed
to be dead for the past three years and who would NOT expect Kaoru to seek him out in the night,
just to make sure he really did exist? and Yahiko was only a little boy—too young to do anything
with his hormones yet.
He entered the room, and then poked Soujirou over to share the mat and his blanket. He laid
between him and Saitou.
Kenshin's eyes sprang wide open as he felt large hands roaming through his hair. "Hmmmm . . .
Tokio," Saitou whispered as he sleepingly pulled him closer.
"ORO!!"
Tokio awoke to smoke. "Ack!" She quickly jumped to her feet and ran to the kitchen. She was
unable to enter it though because of the thick smoke pouring from it and forming a large,
impregnable wall.
"Or—hackcough—o?" Tokio glanced around to see a bed-raggled Kenshin coughing as he stared at the
smoke in disbelief.
"What—hackhack—is going on?" she demanded. Kenshin shrugged as he tried to rub morning grit and
smoke from his eyes. Both of them jumped as Kaoru's head popped through the wall of smoke. She
appeared unaffected by it.
"Good morning Aunt Tokio, Kenshin!" she greeted them cheerfully just as Soujirou sleepingly
stumbled forward to stand beside his aunt. "Daddy and I are making breakfast!" Her head
disappeared into the wall of smoke. Soujirou turned an alarming white color.
"Um . . . You know, I just remembered something I left in Kyoto!" Soujirou turned and tried to
run away. Tokio grabbed the back of his gi. "Lemme go! I promise I'll be back within a month!"
Tokio dug her heels against the shining floor even as she was being pulled across it.
"Himura!" she snapped.
"Oro?"
"Sit on him! Right now!"
"Oro!"
"No! No!" I don't want to die!" Soujirou sobbed as he struggled to get out from beneath Tokio
and Kenshin. Though the two people on top of him were slight, Tokio had somehow winded up with
two of her very dangerous and oh so infamous knitting needles that was a terror to him back when
he was a small child. Kenshin looked slightly embarrassed to be where he was.
Saitou entered the room. "What's going on?" he asked just as he saw Kenshin. The two former
enemies looked away as their faces flooded with a red color.
Soujirou began to cry harder. "Uncle Tsuyosa and Kaoru are cooking! I don't want to die!"
"Hn." Saitou quickly turned around and grabbed his hat off the rack. "I have paper work to do at
the office, Tokio. Don't expect me back until after suppertime." He quickly shuffled out of the
dojo. Yahiko glanced quickly at the smoke, and then at the police officer.
"Hey!" he called, running after him. "Wait for me! I always wanted to know what it was like to
be a policeman!"
Soujirou glared after him. "Come back and suffer with the rest of us!" he yelled after them.
Tokio frowned. "Funny," she said to herself more than to the two rurounis, "he absolutely hates
paperwork and tried to avoid it at all cost." She patted Soujirou lightly on the head. "Don't
worry," she assured him, "it won't be so bad."
He sniffed. "But Kaoru's and Uncle Tsuyosa's cooking always seem to get much, much worse when
they cook together!"
A few moments later, Tsuyosa and Kaoru walked out of the kitchen, proudly carrying several
plates of what might have once been edible.
"Voila!" Tsuyosa said. The others gave him an odd look. "What? That's what a French cook aboard
one of those foreign ships used to tell me as he showed me how to make flambéed food! Which, by
the way, I have prepared for you this morning!"
Tokio rolled her eyes and then stood up. After years of eating Hana's cooking, his cooking, and
even the occasional kitchen disaster Hajime had the nerve to call food, she had acquired a
strong stomach. That didn't mean she had to enjoy the food, and rarely did.
"Hana," she muttered to herself, "if you were not dead, I'd have killed you."
They stared at the platter of black ash and the bowl of green glop that had been named, 'mystery
pudding.' Soujirou felt his stomach swimming as he peered at it. "Are you sure it's dead?" he
wondered. Tsuyosa gave him a look of offended pride. Kaoru kept her eyes steadily upon Kenshin,
who never failed to be nice and eat anything she cooked. The little rurouni gulped, knowing he
would be the first victim.
Tokio watched him closely as he reached out slowly witch his chopsticks, picked a large scoop of
ashes up, and brought it towards his slightly opened mouth. She was impressed at the way his
hand did not shake. Kenshin took a bite. His face turned six different shades of purple before
moving into eight different shades of blue.
He forced a somewhat pleased smile on his face as Tsuyosa and Kaoru leaned forward to see if he
would like it, and Soujirou did the same to see if Kenshin would keel over and die. Tears began
to shine in his eyes. "Unique!" he managed to cough out. As Kaoru and Tsuyosa smiled proudly, he
grabbed the pitcher of water and began to drink from it.
Soujirou turned whiter than before as he looked from Kenshin to the platter of ash. Then he
realized that Tsuyosa and Kaoru were leaning across the table to look at him, shoving the bowl
of green glop in front of him. He knew—he just knew!—that he would have to be the one to taste
it first. He glanced over at Aunt Tokio, hoping she would intervene with such words as, "Oh come
now! You can't poison him after he's been missing for ten years!" But she didn't. She calmly
sipped her tea as she watched him closely. He glanced over at Kenshin for support, but the other
rurouni was still drinking the water.
"Okay . . ." he sighed. He picked up his chopsticks and dubiously poked the green glop. Everyone
jumped back in surprise as the green glop snatched the chopsticks from his shaking hands and
began to fend him off with them.
Tsuyosa regarded it curiously. "You don't think we added a little too much curry powder, do you?"
he asked as Soujirou jumped to his feet.
"Bye!" he said quickly, making a wild dash for the door. Tokio tripped him up with a hand and
then hurriedly sat on him before he could run away.
Kaoru gingerly picked up the bowl of green glop, avoiding the chopsticks it was trying to stab
her with. "I think I will just toss this outside . . ."
--The story idea itself belongs to her, though I contributed to adding details to them. I was
--also the one who wrote the story, while she only made decisions. As a result, neither she nor
--I actually own Rurouni Kenshin. Heck, we don't even own Tsuyosa because we protray him along
--the elusive lines of Kaoru's father. We're not sure Tsuyosa is his real name even, but it's
--Japanese for strong and we thought it sounded pretty, so we decided to use it. Apoligies for
--any Out of Charactor you see, though we tried greatly to keep them out of that rut. Heck, we
--don't know how Tokio is supposed to act eithor, so we're not too sure about her . . .
--One final word: This story is slightly crossed over with Ranma 1/2. You don't need to be familar
--with it to be left in the dark, since I believe I explained everything in the story. However,
--it might be helpful for any inside jokes/puns I felt like tossing in. ^_^ C&C is ever so welcome.
--Please do not take and distribute this anywhere without my permission (dalimata@yahoo.com), or
--even run off with the idea. Thankyouverymuchos!
Kaoru came to by a damp cloth on her face. She stared up at the fuzzy vision of Kenshin. "I had
a nightmare," she said, sitting up. "I dreamed that my dead father was back, Saitou was my uncle,
and I was engaged to be married to my cousin."
Kenshin's face twisted, bloated outward, and then changed until he looked like Jiya with red
hair and bucked teeth. "Foolish girl! Muahahahaha—Hyuck!"
"AAAAAAHHH!!!" Kaoru sat up with a scream.
Then she grabbed Kenshin, who knelt by her head. She began to strangle him in a fit of panic.
"If you say hyuck, I'll beat you over the head with your sakaba!"
Soujirou, who had awakened a few moments before Kaoru had, choked as he saw his fiery-tempered
cousin strangle the infamous Hitokiri Battousai. Tsuyosa glanced at Tokio.
"She gets her temper from you," he reminded her. She sipped her tea, making it a point to not
acknowledge him. Kaoru jumped to her feet.
"I refuse to marry Soujirou!" she declared, tossing Kenshin aside as if he were a rag doll.
"Orrro!"
Tokio waved her hands in the air. "Kaoru! If you and your father—he is illegally alive, so he
can't own it—want to keep the dojo, then you must marry by your twentieth birthday. Otherwise,
this house, the dojo, and the property it sits upon all reverts to me and . . ." She stopped,
her eyes wide with implications. They quickly narrowed into a sly look. "Maybe," she began
slowly, "maybe we should wait on this marriage," she said finally.
Tsuyosa froze in mid-sip. "Wait a minute . . ." He looked thoughtful. "That doesn't sound too
right . . ."
Yahiko yawned suddenly, followed by Kenshin from the corner he had been tossed into.
"Hmmmm . . ." Tokio gave Yahiko a fond glance. "I think it's bedtime," she announced. She stood
up and looked down at her husband. "We still have to get my trunk from where it is sitting on
the front porch," she told him.
Tsuyosa paled. "Wait a minute . . . You mean to tell me you're going to stay here?"
Tokio gave him a superior look. "Until Kaoru is married," she said. Or until the house was fixed;
whichever came last. But her brother-in-law needn't know that! "Hajime, would you be a dear and
go outside to fetch my trunk for me?" She turned to Kaoru. "We'll need to make sleeping
arrangements. Everyone, follow me."
Kenshin sighed. He was in hell. He had to be. There was no other way to explain it!
He was so sure Tokio was out to get the man who was formally the Battousai. This wouldn't have
been so bad—in her eyes—but he had also tried to kill her husband on numerous accounts back in
the Meiji War, and he had the gall to live unchaperoned with her niece. This, above all other
things he had ever done to her, was the most unforgivable offense.
Tokio was a traditionalist in a few ways. She believed a young girl should be allowed to follow
her heart and marry the man she wanted, as long as her parents—who knew what was best—approved
of him. She also believed that said subject of women should be watched closely, lest she did
what Tokio did, and that was run off with the man she wanted and everyone else could be damned.
Of course, Tokio was happy with her choice in the end. He was everything she dreamed of, and
more, since such a man would rarely have the patience to put up with a woman such as herself.
She often wondered what he saw in her, but she never questioned it.
She was an overly protective woman, believing in guarding children just enough from the world
for them to retain a special innocence. Such a thing was attractive, and men liked a woman whom
they could nurture and protect lovingly. That was what galled her the most about Kenshin. Kaoru
was able to take care of her self, and with a man living in the house (it didn't matter if the
man did anything or not. Tokio considered any single man standing on the same carpet as any
single woman sinning), it was impossible for suitors to come around. They would think Kaoru was
already taken. Or stained.
And it was for this reason that he was sure he was stuck in the same room as Yahiko and Tsuyosa.
Speaking of Yahiko . . . Kenshin grunted as little cold feet prodded for warmth. They settled on
his warm back, somehow making their way past his gi. Kenshin sat upright and gave Yahiko a mock
glare before gently pushing him away. He settled back onto his mat, gathering his blankets close
around his form.
They disappeared with a shoop.
"Oro?"
Kenshin looked over his shoulder with large eyes to see a large ball of blankets—his, Yahiko's,
and Tsuyosa's. So that was why Yahiko had tried seeking warmth from Kenshin. Tsuyosa was tucked
deeply within the middle of the ball, his toes peeking out from one end and gray-streaked hair
tumbling out of the other end.
Kenshin shivered as cold feet made their way back to his back again.
Yes, he was in hell.
That was when Tsuyosa and Yahiko began to snore.
Check his earlier statement; -now- he was in hell.
Kenshin rolled onto his side, tucking his hands within his sleeves. He heard soft footfalls. His
eyes shifted over to the door. Having recognized them as being Kaoru's, he wondered what she was
doing out of the room she was sharing with Tokio.
Kaoru slipped into the room, her face thick with sleep but lit up with a beautiful inner light.
Kenshin stared at it for a brief moment before he noticed she had stumbled her way over to the
bundle of blankets that was her father, and fell to her knees at his feet. She slid her hands
into the opening, and impossibly wiggled her way into the center of the blankets where Tsuyosa
wrapped his arms around her and snuggled his face deeply into her hair.
"Mmmmm." Kaoru quickly fell asleep.
And began to snore too.
Kenshin sat upward, feeling this was far more than he could possibly take. He stood up and left
the room with a sigh. He padded down the hallway to the guestroom where Soujirou and Saitou where
sharing. He pondered whether it was safe to enter and sleep in the same room as the Mibu Wolf,
and decided it was. After all, Tokio had said earlier that evening that if there was going to be
any blood-shed, then it was going to be outside where she wouldn't have to do so much cleaning.
And Saitou listened to her . . . Most of the time at least . . . Er, right?
At any rate, it couldn't be any worse than Tokio waking up and finding Kaoru and Kenshin had
slept in the same room. She would excuse Tsuyosa, because he was Kaoru's father who was believed
to be dead for the past three years and who would NOT expect Kaoru to seek him out in the night,
just to make sure he really did exist? and Yahiko was only a little boy—too young to do anything
with his hormones yet.
He entered the room, and then poked Soujirou over to share the mat and his blanket. He laid
between him and Saitou.
Kenshin's eyes sprang wide open as he felt large hands roaming through his hair. "Hmmmm . . .
Tokio," Saitou whispered as he sleepingly pulled him closer.
"ORO!!"
Tokio awoke to smoke. "Ack!" She quickly jumped to her feet and ran to the kitchen. She was
unable to enter it though because of the thick smoke pouring from it and forming a large,
impregnable wall.
"Or—hackcough—o?" Tokio glanced around to see a bed-raggled Kenshin coughing as he stared at the
smoke in disbelief.
"What—hackhack—is going on?" she demanded. Kenshin shrugged as he tried to rub morning grit and
smoke from his eyes. Both of them jumped as Kaoru's head popped through the wall of smoke. She
appeared unaffected by it.
"Good morning Aunt Tokio, Kenshin!" she greeted them cheerfully just as Soujirou sleepingly
stumbled forward to stand beside his aunt. "Daddy and I are making breakfast!" Her head
disappeared into the wall of smoke. Soujirou turned an alarming white color.
"Um . . . You know, I just remembered something I left in Kyoto!" Soujirou turned and tried to
run away. Tokio grabbed the back of his gi. "Lemme go! I promise I'll be back within a month!"
Tokio dug her heels against the shining floor even as she was being pulled across it.
"Himura!" she snapped.
"Oro?"
"Sit on him! Right now!"
"Oro!"
"No! No!" I don't want to die!" Soujirou sobbed as he struggled to get out from beneath Tokio
and Kenshin. Though the two people on top of him were slight, Tokio had somehow winded up with
two of her very dangerous and oh so infamous knitting needles that was a terror to him back when
he was a small child. Kenshin looked slightly embarrassed to be where he was.
Saitou entered the room. "What's going on?" he asked just as he saw Kenshin. The two former
enemies looked away as their faces flooded with a red color.
Soujirou began to cry harder. "Uncle Tsuyosa and Kaoru are cooking! I don't want to die!"
"Hn." Saitou quickly turned around and grabbed his hat off the rack. "I have paper work to do at
the office, Tokio. Don't expect me back until after suppertime." He quickly shuffled out of the
dojo. Yahiko glanced quickly at the smoke, and then at the police officer.
"Hey!" he called, running after him. "Wait for me! I always wanted to know what it was like to
be a policeman!"
Soujirou glared after him. "Come back and suffer with the rest of us!" he yelled after them.
Tokio frowned. "Funny," she said to herself more than to the two rurounis, "he absolutely hates
paperwork and tried to avoid it at all cost." She patted Soujirou lightly on the head. "Don't
worry," she assured him, "it won't be so bad."
He sniffed. "But Kaoru's and Uncle Tsuyosa's cooking always seem to get much, much worse when
they cook together!"
A few moments later, Tsuyosa and Kaoru walked out of the kitchen, proudly carrying several
plates of what might have once been edible.
"Voila!" Tsuyosa said. The others gave him an odd look. "What? That's what a French cook aboard
one of those foreign ships used to tell me as he showed me how to make flambéed food! Which, by
the way, I have prepared for you this morning!"
Tokio rolled her eyes and then stood up. After years of eating Hana's cooking, his cooking, and
even the occasional kitchen disaster Hajime had the nerve to call food, she had acquired a
strong stomach. That didn't mean she had to enjoy the food, and rarely did.
"Hana," she muttered to herself, "if you were not dead, I'd have killed you."
They stared at the platter of black ash and the bowl of green glop that had been named, 'mystery
pudding.' Soujirou felt his stomach swimming as he peered at it. "Are you sure it's dead?" he
wondered. Tsuyosa gave him a look of offended pride. Kaoru kept her eyes steadily upon Kenshin,
who never failed to be nice and eat anything she cooked. The little rurouni gulped, knowing he
would be the first victim.
Tokio watched him closely as he reached out slowly witch his chopsticks, picked a large scoop of
ashes up, and brought it towards his slightly opened mouth. She was impressed at the way his
hand did not shake. Kenshin took a bite. His face turned six different shades of purple before
moving into eight different shades of blue.
He forced a somewhat pleased smile on his face as Tsuyosa and Kaoru leaned forward to see if he
would like it, and Soujirou did the same to see if Kenshin would keel over and die. Tears began
to shine in his eyes. "Unique!" he managed to cough out. As Kaoru and Tsuyosa smiled proudly, he
grabbed the pitcher of water and began to drink from it.
Soujirou turned whiter than before as he looked from Kenshin to the platter of ash. Then he
realized that Tsuyosa and Kaoru were leaning across the table to look at him, shoving the bowl
of green glop in front of him. He knew—he just knew!—that he would have to be the one to taste
it first. He glanced over at Aunt Tokio, hoping she would intervene with such words as, "Oh come
now! You can't poison him after he's been missing for ten years!" But she didn't. She calmly
sipped her tea as she watched him closely. He glanced over at Kenshin for support, but the other
rurouni was still drinking the water.
"Okay . . ." he sighed. He picked up his chopsticks and dubiously poked the green glop. Everyone
jumped back in surprise as the green glop snatched the chopsticks from his shaking hands and
began to fend him off with them.
Tsuyosa regarded it curiously. "You don't think we added a little too much curry powder, do you?"
he asked as Soujirou jumped to his feet.
"Bye!" he said quickly, making a wild dash for the door. Tokio tripped him up with a hand and
then hurriedly sat on him before he could run away.
Kaoru gingerly picked up the bowl of green glop, avoiding the chopsticks it was trying to stab
her with. "I think I will just toss this outside . . ."