Forever

Chapter 5: Kendou time

A fanfiction by Kyo

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Hello again people! Here is the fifth chapter. I was quite sad last chapter because only seven people reviewed it. That's why it took a while to get this chapter out. . . Hope you like it more than last chapter . . . then maybe you might review . . . I'm sad . . .

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Aoshi quickly slapped away every kick and punch thrown at him expertly. He silently admired how skilled and strong Misao had become over the years. The genki girl was not easily matched and he had some trouble blocking some of her kicks. But the thing that amazed Aoshi the most about her, was the way she could keep on talking despite the fact that they were fighting full speed, surely she would like to keep her air for that?

"Yes, Aoshi, and we will win in every category we can. Kaoru-chan and Himura will surely want to come too. I'm not so sure about rooster-head, though, since Megumi will not compete, he might want to stay behind with her. But maybe he can bring her too." Misao kept on rambling. Aoshi felt two familiar presence near. He knew Misao had felt it too by the slight shift of her attacks.

Only moments later, the near angry voice of Kaoru was heard over the admiring gasps of the children watching the fight. "Misao-chan, Aoshi, what do you two think you are doing?" She asked as she pushed her way nearer to her brother and her best friend, Kenshin just a stride behind her.

Misao smiled genkily and kept on with her assault. "I'm showing off." Misao said simply, which irritated Kaoru. Kenshin laughed gently in the background and Aoshi even smiled.

"Misao-chan, you could hurt one of the children with your showing off, could you at least wait till we get to the dojo?" She asked in her sweetest voice as she grabbed her ear and dragged her away.

"But Kaoru-chan! I was not finished yet!"

"For me, you are!" She countered.

The children retreated, disappointed. It had been the most amazing fight they had ever seen. The moves of the lithe girl with the braid had been lighting fast, almost too fast for the naked eye to see, and yet, the tall man with the eyes like ice had been able to block each and every move, hardly with any trouble, and he was not even breathing hard.

Kenshin approached the ever stoic Aoshi as the children moved away, knowing that the show was over.

"What was that about?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Misao want to go to a Martial Arts tournament in Kyoto. She was just reading that poster when she decided to show off." Aoshi explained. Kenshin blinked. That had been the longest sentence he had heard Aoshi utter. He finished blinking out his confusion and approached the poster. It read something like this:

Welcome all Martial Artists!

The First Annual Tournament of the Martial Arts is to be held in Kyoto.

The following categories are included.

And a long list of many different kinds of martial arts and weapons followed. Kenshin skimmed through it and discovered that all types of kenjutsu, as well as many kinds of ninjutsu were included.

"Misao wants to go?" Kenshin asked when he was finished reading. Aoshi nodded.

"It sounds like a good idea to me." Kenshin continued as he walked to the sports area of the school. He directed his steps to the largest building there was. Inside that building was a huge traditional dojo, where Kenshin and Kaoru taught their classes and also where Aoshi, Misao and Sano practiced their skills. There was where Kaoru and Misao directed their steps, too.

While Kaoru dragged Misao to the dojo, she told her everything she knew about the tournament. Kaoru was quite agreeable with the idea, and even suggested that they stay with a close friend of her deceased father, Dr. Genzai, who lived in Kyoto. She was also delighted with the idea of visiting Tomoe and meeting her boyfriend.

Kaoru was thinking about all of this, when she suddenly remembered something quite important. She was supposed to pick up Yahiko from school in two minutes.

"Misao-chan!" She suddenly cried out, startling the girl out of her wits. "I have to pick up Yahiko-chan from school!"

Misao sighed at her panicking friend. "No need to panic, Kaoru-chan. Seiji High is about two blocks away, no real deal. We can go walking, we don't even need to burrow Kenshin's or Aoshi-sama's car." This seemed to calm down the girl.

"You are right. Then let's get going!" With that said she turned around and dragged her friend with her again, but this time, walking to the exact opposite side.

Kenshin was startled to see the two girls walking to him and not from him. Everything was explained, though, when his best friend shouted over her shoulder: "We are going to pick up Yahiko-chan, see you in ten minutes." And they disappeared behind the gates.

Once they were outside, Kaoru remembered something she wanted to ask the other girl. "What was that you wanted to say me?"

Misao uttered a simple "Oh! Yes!" before becoming terribly flustered about something unknown. This worried Kaoru slightly. "What is it, Misao-chan?"

She fidgeted uncontrollably with her fingers before finally blurting out: "I wanted to talk to you about Aoshi!"

Kaoru was surprised but tried not to show it. "What about Aoshi, Misao-chan?"

"Well . . . just that . . . haven't you noticed him a little less er . . . icy?"

Kaoru toyed with the question for a moment before giving her answer. "Well . . . now that you mention it . . . I think so. For one thing, he is back to calling me Kaoru-chan, thing he had not done ever since our parents died. And he even offered to drive me to school. He also asked about how was everybody. Yes, he has been less icy lately, a lot less icy, actually." Kaoru finished, thoughtfully.

"Then I'm not imaging things . . ." Misao muttered under her breath, but not softly enough for Kaoru not to hear.

"Why do you ask, Misao-chan?" Kaoru asked, titling her head to one side.

"He is not as tongue-tied as before, Kaoru-chan. Ever since that they we made a sleepover at my house, he has been acting differently, and definitely more open."

"But that's a good thing, isn't it?" Kaoru asked, smiling. She was glad her brother had finally decided to open up a little, and she was even more glad to know that he was opening up to Misao. She admired Misao's patience greatly. Even though she could get almost every boy in Hisakata University, she preferred to wait for Aoshi.

Misao nodded happily just as they crossed the gates of Seiji High. The looked around for the familiar form of Yahiko. They didn't see him at first, but then it was almost impossible not to notice him. He was glaring fiercely to an older boy two heads taller than him and heavily built.

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Yahiko was patiently waiting for Kaoru to appear at the front gate, by the side of his very close-friend and yet-to-be girlfriend Tsubame, when the boy appeared. At first, Yahiko decided to ignore him, after all, he wasn't doing anything wrong. But everything changed when Kaoru and Misao appeared at the gates.

He stood where Yahiko could see him and hear him, and deliberately talked to him, trying to spite him.

"That's one good piece of meat, isn't she?" He commented, signaling to the gates with his chin. There was something in his voice that made Yahiko think of something crawly and slimy under the sink. He tried again to ignore him and tried to leave, but the other boy cut his path.

"She's so good I could just eat her. She's one good bitch." He murmured with the leer of a leech.

That was just too much for Yahiko. "Don't you ever talk about my sister that way!" Yahiko near screamed, his voice an angry hiss. Tsubame walked away a couple of steps, concern written on her face.

"Oh? Is she your sister? I didn't know." Something in his tone told Yahiko that he did know.

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Kaoru practically ran toward her brother. She knew very well that Yahiko was easy to anger, but she also knew that he was quite prudent when the situation called for it. She only prayed to get where the two boys were before Yahiko could hurt the other guy, or he would be in trouble, and that was something she did not need.

Misao was just behind her, only a step behind. She gasped when she saw Yahiko take out his training shinai from his pack and prepared to fight. When they arrived there, they were still talking.

"If Kenshin heard you, you would be nothing more than a smear on the wall right now." He muttered angrily, parting his feet to a fighting stance.

"Oh? Yeah? And who is this Kenshin you are talking about?"

"Her boyfriend. You might know him. They call him Battousai." He said firmly. He had already sensed Kaoru's presence, but he was not about to back off from this fight, even if Kaoru decided to ground him for the rest of his life.

The other boy gave a start. "Battousai is her boyfriend?" He asked unbelieving. Behind Yahiko, watching the fight, Kaoru blushed to the roots of her hair. She was about to whine and yell it was not true, more out of embarrassment than anything else. After all, she really wanted that to be the truth.

Yahiko nodded, a slow smirk forming on his face. "He wouldn't like what you said about her." He said mockingly. "And I might decide to tell him . . . You wouldn't like that, would you?"

The other boy shook his head frantically, taking an involuntary step backwards.

Yahiko relaxed his stance to the point where his shinai was supporting most of is weight. He laughed silently a few seconds, but then he turned serious and threatening.

"Apologize to her."

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Half an hour later Kaoru laughed silently when she remembered the expression of pure shock of the older boy. She had not known what he had said for Yahiko to get so worked up about it, but she had the distinct feeling she did not want to know. She changed into her training attire and exited the bathroom. When they had entered the dojo, Kenshin had been waiting for them, a look of concern on his handsome face. He had asked why they had taken so long, but Kaoru had shaken her head lightly and dismissed the question as if nothing.

When she arrived to the dojo, everybody else was already there, except for Kenshin.

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When Kenshin entered the dojo with blue gi, white hakama and sword strapped to his hip, he was thinking about everything that had happened. He wondered why Kaoru had dismissed his questions. He also wondered how was he going to tell her what he wanted to tell her. The gang had ruined his only opportunity back at Misao's place, and he didn't know how he was going to get another chance. Partly, he was grateful for the interruption. He was about to throw up from nervousness that time. He silently wondered and dreaded how was he going to tell her without that particular fact getting on the way. He couldn't help it, every time she looked at him with those clear eyes, his heart and insides melted, and he couldn't even think straight, least of all actually talk.

He sighed.

"Keep daydreaming Kenshin, and you just might walk into a wall." Kaoru told him seriously from her spot.

Kenshin was startled out of his reverie and looked at her with wide, dazed violet eyes. "Oro?"

Kaoru giggled. She was standing on one of the benches outside the dojo floor. He approached her with a mischievous smile on his face. He knew perfectly that Kaoru did not like to be lifted in the arms of anybody, she was kind of afraid of heights, but he just couldn't resist.

"You are laughing at me." He commenced.

She nodded, not noticing the impish grin.

"I'll have to punish you for that. Nobody laughs at Battousai." He walked to her, and stopped just in front of her. She looked down at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, really?" She asked, trying to hide her smile, not succeeding. She placed her arms on his shoulders as he looked at her.

He nodded seriously. "You know which will your punishment be?" He asked with equal seriousness. She had no time to answer, though, for she was already on his arms. She gasped a fraction of second afterwards, before screaming.

"Kenshin! No!" She said threatened as she clung to him for dear life. "Put me down, put me down, put me down." She muttered, hiding her face on the crook of his neck. He laughed but did not put her down.

"Kenshin!" She whined lightly into his ear when he started swirling around. Kenshin was having the time of his life (Kaoru not exactly) when he was interrupted by the voice of a very annoyed and irritated sophomore.

"Could you quit the flirting session and start class?" Yahiko asked rather rudely.

Kenshin stopped dead in his tracks and gulped. He prayed to Kami and Buddah and Christ and every other deity he knew that they were not staring. He prayed that the whole class was not staring. No such luck.

He turned around slowly, with Kaoru's face still buried far inside his gi and discovered, that, indeed, the whole class was staring. Even the six year-olds were giggling their little heads out and Kenshin was sooo sure his face matched the color of his hair. And yet, he had the sense to put Kaoru down gently, who was also blushing, hard.

Jus then, Sano and Megumi decided to make an appearance. They arched equally surprised eyebrows to the red couple and walked past them, ignoring them completely.

"Um . . . er . . ." Kenshin started. He didn't really know what he was supposed to say.

I'm sorry? Well, he wasn't exactly sorry, just a little, well, embarrassed.

I like you that's why a flirt all the time with you? He didn't think that was the right answer either, not that it was the right moment in the first place.

I love you? Even if that was the truth, he didn't have the courage. And even if he had, this would be the most unromantic place to do it. In case she did also love him the way he did, (which he highly doubted but hoped beyond hope) she would surely be angry at him for being such an unromantic, insensitive jerk. And that would be painful.

Just as Kenshin was debating with his brain and his tongue, a little boy of six, quite small for his age, approached the two stuttering teens with an innocent question.

"Kaoru-sensei, Kenshin-sensei, why are you so red?"

This made everybody in the room quite hilarious.

"Um . . . you see Tarou-chan . . . " Kaoru tried to explain, kneeling beside him to be at the same level. "I will explain it to you when you are older, right now, Kenshin-sensei and Kaoru-sensei are going to start class. You already have your shinai?" Tarou nodded enthusiastically and took his place on the dojo floor, taking out his cute little shinai.

"Okay class . . . we should get started." Kaoru started quite awkwardly. She could see Aoshi, Misao, Sano and Megumi laughing their heads off at them at the corner of her eyes. It made Kaoru quite self-conscious.

"Kaoru-sensei! Kaoru-sensei!" The same boy taht made the question interrupted.

"Er . . . yes, Tarou-chan?"

"You remember you promised that some time you would show us how to fight in a real duel with Kenshin-sensei?" The moment he said that the class seemed to remember too, and grow excited.

Kaoru looked at Kenshin uncertainly. She had no problems with a practice duel, but would Kenshin agree to it?

Kenshin looked backed at her, thinking of an answer.

He knew she was strong. She was the strongest woman he had ever met, and probably the strongest he would ever meet. But he knew that he was strong too. And perfectly capable of hurting her.

He would rather die than hurt her.

Would he agree, or would he not?

To be continued. . .

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Plz! Review! It makes me so happy when you do and so sad when you don't! And also, reviewing has its advantages, if many people review, I'm so happy I start writing right away, but if you don't I have to tell myself to sit in front of my computer and start typing. So if you review, I get chapters a lot faster, even two in the same day!

Anyway, see you next chapter!

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