Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

Note: Possible OOCness ahead. This chapter told from Kenshin's POV.

Save Me From the Darkness

Chapter Four-The Welcoming Party

I'd spent the majority of the flight watching movies, playing Zelda, and listening to music on my CD player. Kamatari and I played cards and talked or read in between. We were doing the same things really.

Yes, I do like to act like a kid...occasionally. It's fun.

I think Kamatari gets a kick out of it, too.

Normally on flights, I stay awake for the majority of the journey, and sleep for maybe a few hours. This time was no exception. I had been sleeping for a few hours [I ended up sleeping through breakfast because of it] when I was awoken by an announcement over the PA system.

"Good Morning, everyone. This is your pilot speaking. We have begun our descent into Tokyo. We will be arriving at Narita International Airport in approximately 30 minutes. Thank you for flying Singapore Airlines. We hope you enjoyed your flight."

A few minutes later, there was another announcement

"Good morning, everyone. This is your cabin crew speaking. Flight attendants will be coming by to collect the headsets, and KrisWorld will be switched off. Please turn off all handheld electronic devices such as laptop computers and CD players for landing. We ask that you return your seats to their upright positions, and stow away tray tables and footrests. Thank you for flying Singapore Airlines, and we hope you enjoyed your flight."

And then there was another announcement in Chinese, then again in Japanese.

They do a lot of announcing. Seriously.

The landing was smooth and easy, and every minute my excitement was mounting. In just a little bit, I would be seeing my friends again for the first time in almost seven years.

The minute I got off of the plane and stepped into Narita International, I was bursting with energy.

Kamatari was in relatively the same state as I was. I could see it on his face: his eyes were glowing, and a big grin was plastered on his visage.

"Come on, Kenshin! Let's hurry up and head to the baggage claim, and get the hell out of here! I want to get to the apartment and take a shower!"

So we headed to baggage claim, got our bags, then headed to Immigration, and headed off to meet the welcoming parties that we were expecting.

As I wheeled my cart up the ramp, I could clearly make out the faces of people I had been dying to see for the past several years.

First up, there was Sanosuke; his tall yet muscular figure was leaning against the railing. He gave a whoop for joy when he saw me, and made several hand motions and shouts over his shoulder. From what I could tell, the group had put him to look-out for me, and now he was calling them forward.

When I got off the ramp, and turned toward my friends, I was greeted by several shouts and hugs.

There was Misao, her braid bouncing around behind her. She was still short for her age, but very pretty too. It was like she couldn't stop moving; she kept jumping up and down. Of course, Misao was always hyper; she could never stand still.

Then there was Aoshi. Misao's been in love with Aoshi for the longest time. He's the stoic, meditative type. For as long as I can remember, Aoshi thought everything through before he would make a decision on something. Oh, and everything means everything. Even when the group would get together to have some fun, he would weigh all the pros and cons and then decide if he wanted to join us in our activity. Since he's not much for physical contact, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an embrace from him.

Then there was Megumi, one of the brainiest women I know. From the very beginning, she wanted to be a doctor. And now she is. I believe she became a women's doctor, but she tends to treat little kids too. She gave me a warm welcoming embrace.

Soujiro, the eternally smiling boy, was standing next to Aoshi. He walked over and gave me a hug, his brown hair slightly falling into his face. Soujiro came from the slummier side of Tokyo, and didn't have a strong family background. He became our friend in our younger years when he transferred to our elementary school. And now look at him—he works as a TV news anchor.

And last but not least, there was Sano. Fighting enthusiast that he is, he ended up with a degree in computer science. God knows why he does odd jobs instead of working in some big computer company. He gave me a hug tight enough to pop a few stiff bones and muscles. Oh well, can't do anything about him now. Only a miracle can help him.

Wait a minute…Misao, Aoshi, Megumi, Soujiro, Sano…

"Hey guys? Where's Kaoru?" I asked.

"Oh Kenshin. She said something about an emergency at the restaurant, and she wasn't sure if she would be able to see you today, but that she would try to make it," Misao explained.

"Oh."

I was at a loss for words. Kaoru had not come to see me. Needless to say, I was greatly disappointed. It probably showed, too, because the next thing I knew Megumi was giving me a hug and saying it would be okay.

"Soujiro! It's so good to see you again!"

I looked up to see Kamatari embracing my smiley friend. Raising an eyebrow, I asked the question everyone seemed to have on their minds.

"You guys know each other?"

Yes, it's obvious, but I never cared before and I don't now.

"Of course we do! We're cousins after all!"

Well, that explained everything.

"Hey Kenshin, let's head to your guys' apartment, and then we can chill over there," Sanosuke suggested.

I nodded in agreement, as did most everyone else. Aoshi thought it over, and then agreed as well.

And so we headed from Narita to my apartment in Odaiba.

We arrived at the apartment building and went into the lobby. It was comfortable and tastefully done. Marble floors, pillars supporting a high ceiling, a few couches and armchairs in a corner around a fireplace, and sleek metal elevator doors.

I walked over to the reception desk and picked up the apartment key, reminding myself to go and make a copy of it by the middle of the week.

Kamatari and I were on the twelfth floor of the fourteen-floor building. Deciding to bring up our bags later, Kamatari, my friends, and I took the elevator up to our floor.

We got out of the elevator and followed the signs to the 620 to 630 area. Following the apartment numbers placed on brass plaques by each door, we found our way to mine.

"Here we are," I said as I unlocked the door to apartment 627.

I flicked on the light switch.

"SURPRISE!!!"

I almost fell over. What the hell?!

There we were standing in the doorway to my new apartment, staring at the large banner that decorated what I assumed was the living room.

Welcome Back Kenshin and Kamatari! the banner read.

To one side there was a table set up with snacks and drinks [I noticed that there was no liquor, thank Kami-sama], with everything from sushi to chips and dip to ice cream.

Sano pushed me forward with a big grin and I looked around at the place. There were a few more people in the living room that I had wanted to see.

"It's so great to see you again, Kenshin!" Sekihara Tae said while simultaneously giving me a hug.

Tae is the owner of the Akabeko, another popular restaurant in Tokyo. I remember when we were in high school, our group spent long hours there studying or just hanging out. Tae's father was really great; he'd let us have free food and total run of the back room. We furnished the back room with a TV, a couch and a few armchairs and beanbags, and made that one of our centers. Tae would be in and out of the place since she worked there as a waitress.

Ah, good times.

Okita Soushi came up to me next with a warm embrace and boisterous "Welcome back!".

I admire Soushi a lot. See, Soushi has a weak heart. He's unable to overexert himself, but he's still a sword master. Kami knows how he did it, but he became a skilled swordsman. I remember when we were kids, he and I would go against each other just to practice. We both have different styles of swordsmanship, but we liked to go against each other just for the fun of it.

But one day, he went to the hospital. I was at home when I found out. He was having trouble breathing and had been admitted to Tokyo Adventist. I'd asked Shishou to take me to the hospital so I could see him. I remember how frail he looked in that hospital bed, hooked up to a heart monitor and breathing through an oxygen mask. It was one of the few times I remember realizing that there is such a thing as suffering.

And then, I saw the person I had been dying to see for so many years. She looked like she might be in college still, but I knew better. Her figure was youthful, but her eyes seemed much older. They were still very happy, very joyful, sparkling sapphire eyes, but older somehow, as if they had seen things most people didn't really see. Her hair was longer; in school she always kept it no lower than her waist. Now it went down to mid-thigh, and was pulled back from her face in a low ponytail. She still had her bangs, though, and still looked just as sweet as she did in school.

Kaoru…

I must have been staring for at least half a minute when I was shaken out of my stupor due to a nudge at my ribs. Smiling so much I though my face was going to crack, I walked forward and reached into my pocket with my right hand, and pulled out a certain indigo ribbon.

Holding it out to her, I said, "When I left, you told me it was just a loan and that I had to bring it back with me when I came back. I believe now is the time to return it to you."

By now everyone had drifted away, mingling with each other or, in Sano's case, eating.

She held out her hand to me, and smiled. Her eyes shimmered in the light, and I saw unshed tears of joy.

"Okaeri nasai, Kenshin."

I took her hand with my right hand and placed the ribbon into her palm.

"Tadaima."

We hugged each other then. It felt so good to do so after so many years. Even when we were younger, we'd give each other hugs a lot. To us, it was just normal. Other people tended to get the misconception that we were more than friends, and then we had to explain that we weren't. But it was no problem; we didn't mind—most of the time. Occasionally, Kaoru would lose her temper and bite the person's head off.

We always had a great time together because we were so close. Since we knew each other from our sandbox days, we knew everything about each other.

Kaoru's story is really complicated. She grew up without a mother, so she and her father were really close. Kamiya-san taught her how to fight and defend herself and she loved him with all her heart, like all daughters do for their fathers. So when he died, Kaoru was horribly brokenhearted.

In his will, Kamiya-san gave Kaoru their house, which was also a dojo, but she couldn't own it until she was of legal age. Until then, she was put into the care of an old family friend. Unfortunately, the family friend didn't take a liking to Kaoru and kicked her out.

Stubborn as she was, Kaoru knew she needed to go to school and knew she couldn't do it living on the streets. So, reluctantly, she turned herself over to Social Services, and they put her into foster care. She had only two conditions with every foster family she stayed with [she had almost 15 foster homes], and they were that she be allowed to attend school wherever her friends went and allowed to continue practicing her kendo style.

Her foster families were okay sometimes, and other times they were horrible. Because of her unstable home life and the grief of her father's death, she ended up in a gang. It was called the Vicious Tigers or something like that. Along with gang violence, she got the strange notion that she was fat and so became anorexic. All of our friends and I tried to help her, but we weren't really able to get through to her. She'd blocked us out, and started hanging out more with her "other" friends. The girl who was called the "Kenjutsu Princess" was withering away.

And then one day, she fainted at school and was taken to the hospital. I remember sitting with her in the ambulance, watching paramedics mill around her stretcher.

"She has almost no body fat on her. It's like she's skin and bones!" one paramedic had said.

At the hospital, she was diagnosed with anorexia, and also had several bruises and scars around her ribs, as if she had been in fights. There were some unhealed cuts, and the white bandages she wore around her chest were stained with blood near the ribs as well.

Turns out Kaoru got into a lot of fights [as she told me later] against other gangs, but she never went against the rules of her ryu. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is known as "The Sword Which Protects"; one of the main rules is that you can't kill your opponent, since this sword style is based on katsujin-ken—"Swords that give Life."

But in her fights, she got herself hurt in the areas that she would never attack an opponent in.

I talked to Shishou that night when I got back home and told him Kaoru's situation. He talked to Social Services and gave them the name of a friend of his, a man everyone knew as Genzai-sensei. He was a middle-aged doctor with a heart of gold and two young granddaughters, Ayame and Suzume.

Social Services took Kaoru out of the care of the foster family she was in, and put her into Genzai-sensei's care. He was happy to take her in, and the girls became very attached to one another. Our circle of friends became close again. She and I became close again. Megumi and I helped Kaoru get her weight back up to what it should have been. Kaoru had finally begun to heal, body and soul. And unbeknownst to me, I'd started falling for her.

Two years later, after graduating from high school, Shishou and I left for California. Saying good-bye was especially hard for Kaoru and I. She'd come to see me as not only her best friend, but also her protector, her savior. And I had vowed to myself that I would always protect her, the way a best friend should. But I also trusted in her abilities to take care of herself. I was sure she would be fine. We promised to call, to email, to send pictures, videos, birthday and Christmas gifts.

And we each held up our side of the promise.

Now, almost seven years later, my friends, Kaoru and I were back together.

As all of us enjoyed the evening catching up with one another and stuffing our faces with junk food, I couldn't help but feel at peace.

I was finally home…

Ice Angel Kaoru: Well, how was it?

Kenshin: Sessha thinks it was very long.

Sano: I was hardly in it!

Megumi: Of course you were hardly in it. Roosters aren't important enough to be part of anything sometimes.

Ice Angel Kaoru: Both of you stop it before you say something to really hurt each others feelings.

Kaoru: Wow. I have a really hard life.

Yahiko: When am I going to be in here?

Ice Angel Kaoru: Er…I don't know yet, Yahiko. I guess we'll see.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I have been working on it for almost two weeks now. I wasn't able to just buckle down and write, because I was unsure about a few things, like how to take the story where I want.

Oh yes! I am in India visiting my family right now, and it's possible that when this chapter is posted it's possible that I will be back in the U.S. or that I am still in India, depending on whether I get Internet access here at some point. So please don't kill me for my slow updating habits.

That's all for now.

Love ya'll!

Click the button!

--Ice Angel Kaoru [Signing Out: 07/06/04-2:30 AM PST]