Dear readers, yes this is like the story from Moulin Rouge, or at least the beginning is.  But as the story continues, it definitely has its differences.  I was mostly inspired to write this fic, because I wanted to give a point of view to everyone who read this about Kaoru.  Everyone sees her as one way, but I want to enhance that point of view, after all she is my favorite girl anime.  Please enjoy the story, and don't be harsh in your review.  I am sensitive person.  Please feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, or questions.  Thanks!  Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin series.  I wish I did but I don't. : (

The Meeting

Chapter two

               He was enthralled by her beauty, the way she carried about herself.  He knew just by looking at her, she carried something special, something-other women didn't possess in here.  He wished he could gather enough courage and go talk to her, to get to know her a little better.  He wondered what a beautiful woman like herself was doing in a dangerous place like this.  This was no place for a woman at all.  In here women were whores, men got what they wanted from them, and then left like it was nothing.  Kenshin vowed to never be like that.  Instead he wanted a good girl, a girl who can love him, despite his committed sins, and somehow by looking at this temptress that stood before him, and dared challenged him to a staring contest, captured his full undivided attention.  He could tell by just looking at her, she wasn't innocent, but she wasn't guilty of any crime either.  She was just a woman, no a beautiful goddess who had to find some way to live in this cruel world.                  

               Kenshin stared at the young beautiful woman; he was so caught entranced by her beauty, memorized by her features, that he never noticed his friend Sanosuke was at his side.

               "A temptress she is.  She seems to know how to charm a lot of men," said Sanosuke as he looked at his friend, admiring the fact that a woman did get his attention after all.  Sano looked at the young woman that Kenshin couldn't seem to take his eyes off of, and sighed.  He knew the young woman would be able to capture Kenshin.  There was never one man she couldn't charm.  She was a great actress, a woman who knew a lot about men's desires.  She knew exactly what they wanted, and she did it all for one dream. 

               Kenshin so entranced by the mysterious woman; finally he looked beside him, and saw his friend.  He couldn't believe that his friend caught him drooling over a beautiful woman.  Earlier he made a speech, saying he wanted a woman to love him as much as he loved her.  He wanted a good woman who he could share the rest of his life with.  But here he was now, falling for a woman he knew he could never have.  She was in a different world.  She didn't know what love was.  All she knew, was how to pleasure men and get what she wanted.  She knew how to act fairly well, and charm every man she came across.  Kenshin wondered why he was bothering himself with this woman.

               "To bad you can't have her though," replied Sano.  He saw his friend looked at him with a shock look on his face. Sano knew exactly what he was thinking at the precise moment and time.  Every man wanted her, but they could never have her, for she only belonged to one man.  If any man dared to lay one hand on her without permission, it will be the end of him.

               "What do you mean Sano?  Isn't she like the others?" asked Kenshin, as he glanced back at the mysterious woman.

               "Every single woman that you see inside here, are not ordinary.  They all have their talents, and all of them are cunning in their ways.  They know how to get what they want.  That is why they are known as Shishio's women."

               "Oh, I see."

               "You never know what'll they are going to do.  The woman whom you seem to be so interested in is one woman you should dare stay away from.  She isn't worth your want, because she's already taken.  She's belongs to another."

               "Sorry Sano, I didn't know that.  I think it's best if we leave then," said Kenshin, as he walked away from his friend and was heading outside in Kyoto streets.

               "Though I could see the main reason why you like her so."  Kenshin glanced over his shoulder to see if his friend was in his right state of mind.  First thing Sano was telling him to stay away from the girl, admonishing him not to mess with her.  The next, he was trying to prove his statement, as if though forgetting what he said earlier.

               "She's rare among his group.  Actually she's a rare one to find in Kyoto.  I will say that out all the women here, she carries something special that others don't carry.  That's why she's dangerous to mess with.  Shishio honors that woman, and will never share her with anyone else.  He wants her for himself.  He only uses her to make endless money, but without her that money will never come.  She has incredible talent, and knows how to make any man fall to her feet.  But I feel so sorry for her."

               "Why do you feel so sorry for her?" Kenshin questioned.  He wondered what Sano meant by his last statement.  Did Sano know something about this woman, others didn't know?  Did Sano mess with this woman, and that's why he's warning him to stay away from her?  Kenshin felt jealousy raged through him.  He bent his head, so that his bloody red bangs covered his now burning amber eyes.  He didn't want to startle Sano.  He wanted to hear everything and anything he can about this mysterious woman.

               Sano hesitated for a moment.  He didn't know whether he should continue or not.  Never did he share any information to anyone else.  Of course he knew the beautiful woman.  He was one of the fewest people she trusted, but it was because of him she suffered so much.

               "You see, she's different.  She will always be that way.   A hard woman to find, is one like her.  She acts the way she acts, because she has to live in a world, where the strongest survive, but deep down inside she isn't like that.  She's a woman with ideals, a person who can speak passionate words, and she's a woman with a heart of gold."

               Kenshin felt his amber eyes flared.  He should have known that Sano laid his hands on this young beautiful woman.  How else did he know her so intimately?  But besides feeling anger, he felt his heart jump when Sano mentioned the fact that she had a heart of gold.  Did that mean she knew how to love?  Did that mean she didn't have a stolid personality? 

               "Look I'm willing to tell information you about her, but just promise one thing," Sano replied as he looked at his friend seriously.  He never wanted him to get hurt, and to endure so much pain he will receive if he was caught being with her.

               "And what is that one thing Sano?"

               "That you'll be more careful when you are around her."

               "Okay got it."  Sano walked up to his friend.  And as they headed out towards Kyoto Street, he told everything to his friend.  The scene played right before his own eyes.

Flashback

               In the rainy dreary night, Sano walked the streets of Kyoto.  He did a job, and it took longer then expected.  This was the time of war, the time when people all over Japan begged and hoped for the war to soon be over.  People wanted their freedom, they wanted to move on with their lives, but the war still continued and every night more innocent people died.

               As Sano walked across the street, he headed towards an alleyway.  There he smelled fresh liquid of blood.  On the dirty, bloody ground laid a dead corpse.  Sano covered his nose.  He was used to seeing dead corpses but to smell the fresh blood, was something he could never get use to.  The man's tattered clothes were drenched in fresh blood, there were slash wounds on his chest and his throat.  His eyes were left wide open, lifeless, he must have died a painful death.  Before Sano could walk any further, he felt another aura, except this aura felt like it wouldn't pose any threat.  There was something special about the aura.  It had more of an affable feeling towards it, then a stoic kind.

               "Who's there?" he called as he scanned his surroundings.  The one place he didn't expect anything to be was where a shadow lurked.

               "It's a pity how he died.  An innocent doesn't deserve to die for nothing, but he did die because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time," said a voice gently.  Sano felt the impact of the voice and instantly he felt enthralled by it.  He wanted to listen to it forever, but he wouldn't act so submissively to it.

               "Who are you?  What do you want?" Sano asked the stranger.  Even though this shadow, which was woman looked harmless, he decided not to take her to lightly.

               "I ask of your assistance stranger.  I am looking for a place called Buccoo Reef."  The shadow came within a distance he could see.  He couldn't make out her face as yet, because the alleyway was dark.  With a few glimpses he was able to capture, he saw her womanly form perfectly.   He couldn't seem to take his light brown eyes away from the woman's figure so easily.

               "That is no place for a woman like yourself.  Plus you shouldn't even be out here in the streets at night.  Anything could happen to you.  Anyways why do you want to go to a place like Buccoo Reef?  A place like that is dangerous for you.   You don't know the type of people who lurk there."

               "You don't even know who I am, yet you worry about me?"  She walked closer to him, moving a few steps, as she clung at the ends of her kimono.

               Sano heard a rustle of clothing, and he felt himself grow nervous.  This woman abstruse him in so many different ways.  The way she carried about herself, ladylike yet an unpredictable woman made him more interested in getting to know her.

               "You are a woman, who's entering a dangerous place.  It's of my concern for your reasoning on why you are entering there alone without any protection."

               "Well that has nothing to do with your business good sir.  All I ask of you is to take me there at once."

               "And if Shishio finds you, he will surely have his fun pleasuring you, when you'll be safer at home."

               "My trip is one of business to see him, and that's all I'm going to tell you."

               "Are you willing to throw away your life so easily?  I know this is the time of war, and no one will ever know when this war is going to end, but it doesn't mean you should give up life so easily."

               The woman stopped approaching closer to Sano.  From where she was, he observed her well.  Even though he still couldn't see her face, he saw she wore a dark kimono embodied with flowers.  The kimono at the sides had slits, which stopped at her mid-thigh.  She wore a black, heavy wool shawl over her kimono to preserve some of her sanity.  With the remaining of her shawl, she covered her head as well, but the shawl did little justice to her body as her kimono did as well.  Sano admitted to himself, he found himself one heck of a woman and whatever made her want to do what she wanted, he would be there to protect her. 

               The woman bent her head, the shawl fell over covering her face more, making her even more mysterious then before.  Some strands of her beautiful silken raven hair fell to the sides of the shawl, blowing slight in the wind.  Her hands tightened her kimono at the side, hiding her creamy, pale flesh from the man's eyes before her.  Something told her she could trust him.  He didn't seem to be like the other men.  He just wanted to help in any way he can.  Yet something in her mind reminded her, that looks could be very deceiving.      

               However she hated the way she was always looking upon as being weak.  Her mother and father told her, if she ever wanted to be anything, it could come true as long as she kept on dreaming.  And that was something she never gave up on.  She will never abjure her own beliefs, for they were very sacred to her.  She believed she could be someone, not someone that can be judged upon as in gender, but as in the things she could or could not do.  She believed that she was someone, not a person who was looked upon as a possession, an object.  As long as any woman could ever feel, could ever do things on her own, what's the contrast between her and a man?  When being compared, a man is stronger physically, and maybe taller then a woman.  But that's all the difference.  A woman is desirable, she's cunning, beautiful, and has lethal uses of seductively when needed.  In basic terminology, both a man and a woman are equal. 

               Sano noticed the mysterious woman didn't make a move.  Instead she held her head low, her hands tightened at the fabric of her kimono, as though she tried to hide some of her sanity from him, and she acted bizarre more with aberration. He accosted the mysterious woman, and with a simple, gentle gesture, he put his left arm firmly on her shoulder.  What he saw next, astonished him.  He saw tears, no more like glittering jewels falling from her precious sapphire eyes.

               "Do you have any idea, what's like to be a woman?" she asked gently, her voice felt like fingertips playing gently across his skin.  Sano nodded his head dumbly, his brown eyes lost in her sapphire eyes.  The only factor that kept him straight were the tears, the sadness her voice held as she continued to talk from her heart.  "Do you have any idea what it's like to be an object, to be considered like property, when you are not?  Just because I'm woman, I'm considered weak, fragile, vulnerable, a sexual item, to adulterate so quickly, like I'm not human.  I went through things no one can ever comprehended.  I went through life one day at a time, and many times before I've considered about committing suicide, after all, what can a girl like me accomplish in such a place like Japan?  But then the war is almost over, and people carry so much grief in their hearts.  Eventually when the war is over, they are going to be looking for someone to put a smile on their faces.  They're going to be looking for entertainment, a way to forget their dreadful past and move on in the future.  I know it sounds abstract to comprehend, but I can give that to them.  I can bring out a side they never knew existed.  To aggregate their happiness, is for me to be aesthetic.  Don't you see?"

               Sano was awed by what he heard.  He rubbed his eyes, to see if the beauty who stood in front of him was real, or just an illusion.  Never before had he ever heard of someone who spoke with such passion, with such dulcet, that no one could ever conquer such divine emotion.       

               It was from that night he saw her differently from the person she looked on the inside, knowing the aesthetic beauty she carried inside.  Everything she said was never said with duplicity.  He helped her from that night.  After two months, the long war ended, and people looked for ways of entertainment, enjoying their newfound freedom.  The mysterious woman as people referred her, as Kaoru Kamiya became known as the best entertainer in Kyoto.  But she didn't stop from there.  Nope, indeed she didn't.  She wanted to be the best of the best, and would not stop until she reach the top of Japan, and only one man can change all that, the man who will decide her faith.

Present

               Sano finished told his story to Kenshin.  He looked into the clear starry night.  The streets of Kyoto were crowded tonight.  Many women were entertaining the man; carriages were by each corner.  Kyoto itself was not only known as heart of entertainment, the heart of Japan, but it was also becoming corrupted.  Many men were drunk, leaving it much easier to the women to easily control them.  Sano gave them a look of sorrow.  It was bad when a woman duped a man to her power, making him look like a jerk, while they looked like a queen.  But they can never out beat Kaoru, for she was the queen of duping men from their very own heels. 

               Kenshin struggled to keep up his strides with Sano.  Since his friend was taller then him by a few inches or maybe more then that, it left Kenshin at a great disadvantage to keep up with his friend.

                Sano stopped for a moment.  "One thing I admired about her, was the fact she never abased herself, as others thought.  Whatever she did, she did it honestly, truthfully, in order to get the good results that she is receiving."

               "What is her name?" Kenshin asked.  He couldn't seem to remember her name clearly.  From his knowledge, what Sano told him, they never really shared intimacy?  Instead they shared a relationship more like friendship.  But Kenshin knew there was something more to the story, there was something that Sano was hiding from him.  Why else did he admonished him to stay away from her?  Something happened, and no matter what, Kenshin was tenacious enough to find out the answer.

               "Her name is Kaoru Kamiya," Sano said, as he absconded in the darkness.