Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin ain't mine ta own y'all.

The Author in which that is writing this:

Yo! I've always been a fan of Sou 'n Misao so I decided ta write one. So here it is y'all! Hope y'all folks like 'em and hopefully remember ta review it.

Ai Kokoro Tamashii

By: Da Person in which dat is Writin' dis Fanfic

Episode One: Aoshi Obsession

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Kaoru Kamiya could not find this as nothing else but disgusting. This was the utmost sickest thing she'd ever saw in her life and it beats the time she saw her little brother, Yahiko, naked in the showers. What is this most gross, disgusting thing that could beat that experience for Kaoru? The image she viewed was her best friend, Misao Makimachi, drooling over the worst and not to mention, cruelest guy in the universe, Aoshi Shinomori. How she hated that man. She knew Misao very well and that the weasel was very hot tempered and wasn't always nice to everyone but when it comes to Aoshi, Misao would do anything for the guy. Even kissed the steps he walked on, bowed below him, and maybe even die for him. You can say that she's very obsessed with the man. What Kaoru did not like was why out of every male humans in the world, Misao would choose Aoshi. She knew that Aoshi always treated Misao as if it was gum stuck on the bottom of his shoe. She couldn't stand her friend being treated that way by the man who she crushes but she also did not want to stop Misao from what she loved. Of course Kaoru had complained many times but Misao was too love-stroked to take Kaoru's words seriously.

"Argh...Misao..." Kaoru groaned at her. They were in the dojo of Okina, Misao's grandfather. Earlier, Misao had invited Kaoru to come over and hang out at her house but when Kaoru came by she realized that her best friend wanted both of them to watch Aoshi train with Okina. Kaoru knew very well the fact that Aoshi was Okina's apprentice in the art of Ninjitsu, a Ninja's way of fighting. Ever since Misao was introduced to Aoshi Shinomori, it was always Aoshi this, Aoshi that, and Aoshi is so hot!

"Misao, I don't want to waste my Saturday watching this guy! ...and don't drool Misao! It's sickening...especially if it's at Aoshi." Kaoru snapped.

Misao snapped out of her long hours of gazing at her beloved Aoshi and stared mindlessly at her best friend. "Wha...?" A drop of drop fell out of her mouth.

"Snap out of it!" Kaoru yelled as she whacked Misao on head to awake the obsessive Misao.

Weasel girl came back to earth and wiped her drool but she still turned back to watch Aoshi train. Aoshi and Okina were sparring and Misao loved the way Aoshi moved. "Oi, Kaoru! Give a moment!"

Kaoru stared in disbelief. Usually Misao would yell or complain back to her when she smacks her but with Aoshi there, the girl was in a trance. "No way! I think this is enough. I'm leaving," she said as she turned to leave.

"Ok, wait! Hold on, Kaoru!" Misao snapped.

Kaoru stopped midway from the doorway and looked at what Misao was doing. Misao took five seconds more to look at Aoshi and then left with Kaoru out the dojo gates.

"I didn't think you would ever leave with Aoshi there," Kaoru complained.

Misao replied back, "Aw, come on. I didn't stare at him for that long so why are you complaining?"

TWO HOURS! Kaoru shouted in her mind. FOR TWO DAMN, STRAIGHT HOURS, I COULD HAVE BEEN AT THE MOVIES, OR MEETING WITH KENSHIN AND THE OTHERS! BUT NO! I WAS WATCHING THAT IDIOT, AOSHI, TRAINING. Kaoru didn't say anything out loud. She didn't even wanted to start on the topic of Aoshi or Misao would never get out of it. So she rolled her eyes and let Misao win this time.

"So. Where should we go on this lovely day." What Kaoru said was true. The sun was out and shinning and you could hear the birds chirping. Corny to say but it is nice. "And it can't be Aoshi related," Kaoru ended it firmly.

Misao stuck out her tongue. "You're just grumpy today." Then she thought for a minute. "Let's go meet Kenshin at Hiko's ice cream parlor."

"That's just what I had in mind!" Kaoru said happily and Misao wasn't surprised. She knew Kaoru had a denial crush for Kenshin ever since they were babies. They were practically childhood friends you can say. That was the reason why she picked the place, give Kaoru a little fun since she had her with Aoshi.

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Kenshin's ice cream parlor, Oro! Ice Cream, is owned by his uncle, Hiko. It wasn't a large stop, just a simple small place with counters and tables inside and also outside for the costumers to eat ice cream in the summer. It wasn't unsanitized like other shops and stores. It was fairly cleaned since Kenshin cleaned the shop everyday. Even the bathrooms were shiny. As you can see Kenshin is very dedicated to his work.

As the girls walked in talking, they saw a certain red hair boy behind the counter working on the register machine.

"Oh, there's Kenshin!" Kaoru said, pointing at him. "Let's go say hi."

Misao agreed and follow Kaoru where Kenshin was. Their red-hair friend saw them approaching and greeted them before they did. "Konnichiwa Kaoru-san, Misao-san! I was just finishing up my work here. This machine is broken somehow... I just go to fix it then I'm free."

"Hey Kenshin," Both of the girls greeted him.

Kaoru gazed at the register machine. "Well Kenshin, if it's broken then I don't think you can fix it."

"Well, you two can handle it while I go to the bathroom," Misao said. She had been drinking a can of juice and so she needed to empty her bladder. She left for the bathroom right away, leaving Kenshin and Kaoru at the counter.

"It was working fine this morning, I dunno what's wrong with it," Kenshin explained to Kaoru.

"Did you dropped it, maybe?" Kaoru asked him. He shook his head and said no.

The two continued to investigate the broken machine as a certain person overheard their conversation. He looked at the machine and wondered what was wrong and decided to help them.

"Excuse me, why don't you check if the batteries are in there." The person asked, interrupting Kenshin and Kaoru. The two looked at who it was. The person was a boy around his teens with brown hair with blue eyes. What caught their attention the most was his bright smile he gave them.

"Oro? The batteries?" Kenshin asked confusingly.

Kaoru looked at Kenshin and gave him a look to check for batteries and so he turned the machine around and checked. "Hey, you are right sir." Kenshin saw that the batteries were no where in there and wondered where they went. He smiled and sweat dropped at his stupidity. "Thank you very much sir. I guess my uncle took them out sometime ago."

Kaoru sweat dropped and turned to the man. "Thank you sir, my friend Kenshin is a bit of a moron sometimes." She said smiling.

"It's alright. Make sure to check batteries every time. It works most of the time when you're trying to figure out why something's not working properly." The boy said to them, still smiling. Kenshin and Kaoru gave a small laugh and thanked him again.

Curious to know who he is, Kaoru asked him. "What's your name? I haven't seen you around Oro! Ice cream ever and believe me, I hang out around this place practically everyday."

"Oh, um, my name is Soujiro. I just moved here from Kyoto. I love sweets and so when I saw this place, I wanted some ice cream." The boy now known as Soujiro talked to the two shyly but he still smiled.

Both Kenshin and Kaoru found Soujiro to be a friendly guy as they chatted with him a bit more. They both liked him and especially with his friendly smile.

"I should leave now. My folks are probably wondering why I went. It was nice meeting you Kenshin-san, Kaoru-san. You're a nice couple to talk to, bye!" Then he ran out the door before anyone could say anything, leaving both Kenshin and Kaoru blushing.

"I'm back Himura!" Misao shouted from behind Kenshin, which scared the heck out of him. "Oro..."

Kaoru sweat dropped and hope to forget what Soujiro said before he left, even though she liked thinking about it. Misao, of course, had no idea what was happening and acted towards Kenshin and Kaoru in her usual hyper self.

"So Kenshin! You and Kaoru fixed it yet?" Misao asked and also looking at the menu of ice cream on the counter.

"Oh yea. It seems that there was no batteries in it." Kenshin said with a sweat drop as he put in new batteries.

Misao sweat dropped and eyed him. "You are so stupid Himura!" Then she went to look at some ice creams in the display. "Wow! Hey look! That ice cream sundae looks like Aoshi-sama!"

Kaoru rolled her eyes at the 'sama' part. Misao was just over doing it like always. "No way, I think you're way obsessed with Aoshi that you're imagining ice cream looking like Aoshi." Kaoru said, walking over to take a look.

"Oro? Does it really? I want to see." Kenshin walked over to watch too.

"No really! Look at it! Right there, on the left!" Misao pointed at a sundae with melted chocolate fudge around vanilla ice cream.

The Aoshi-obsessed girl explained to them. "See the melted chocolate around the vanilla ice cream? It looks like Aoshi's hair! And there's two dots in the middle, like his eyes! The lines of chocolate sprinkles above the two dots makes him look serious and cool like his usual face. Don't ya think so?"

"Yes...I can see that! You are right Misao-san!" Kenshin said with amazement.

Kaoru sweat dropped. She couldn't believe the two. "Mou..." --;;

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It was 5:00 p.m. when Misao went home and the first thing she did was ran into the training dojo to see if Aoshi was still there training. She wanted to see if she didn't miss her chance to watch him train.

Misao's home is a middle class Japanese style home with a dojo in it. Her parents died when she was young and so she moved in with her grandpa, Okina, and her two cousins, Okon and Omasu. The rest of the money Misao's parents had after they died were given to her and her new family. That helped them a lot since Okina didn't have that much money when Misao first arrived and saw his home. With the money, Okina made some changes to the place and so things were better after.

She opened the door to the dojo and found no one there. She sighed to herself. Aoshi had already left. She closed the door and was about to turn around to leave.

"Right on time for dinner Misao!"

Misao jumped after hearing the voice and saw that it was Okina. "Jiya, ya scared me!"

Okina laughed. "You were looking for that boy, Aoshi! I knew it! Hahaha! He left a while ago."

A vein popped. "Yeah, I think I realized that Jiya. Anyways, where's dinner, I'm staved!" Misao cried. Even after eating his 'Aoshi-sama Sundae' and a couple other ice cream, she still had more room left in her stomach.

"Hahaha! I ate it all!" Okina said, laughing.

Misao couldn't believe it. "What?!" Then she ran to the kitchen.

"OKON, OMASU! WHY DID YOU LET JIYA EAT ALL OF THE FOOOOOD?!" Misao screamed as she smashed into the kitchen.

Okon and Omasu were sitting at the table with food uneaten. They stared at her with wide eyes and wondered if she went lu-lu. "..."

"Oh..." Misao blushed in embarrassment and gave a sweatdrop. She realized that they had been waiting for her all this time. Behind her, Okina pushed his granddaughter aside and walked in the kitchen. "Hahaha, just joking around Misao. Come eat." he said as he sat on the floor and began to eat.

Misao had made a fool of herself again and walked dumpily to her place at the table. She mumbled under her breath and started to eat.

Everyone ate silently. Misao wondered why. Everyday they ate, it was yelling and laughing...today however were different. "What's the matter with you guys? Start talking! I don't like the silent treatment you're giving me." Misao hollered to them.

Okon and Omasu stopped eating and stared at each other with concerned faces then stared back at Misao. Okina looked at his food.

Misao didn't like the silence bit at all. "WHAAAT?! I didn't do anything bad did I? If it's still about the toilet, I told you it was an accident! It was your fault for making me do the plumbing!" Misao stood up pointing at them.

"Misao...sit down," Okina said in his serious voice. "It's not about the toilet you broke."

Misao could tell by his voice that it's something serious. "What..is it?" Misao was now beginning to worry. "Tell me!"

"Tell her now." Omasu begged Okina. Misao looked straightly at Okina after hearing that.

"Tell me what, Jiya?"

Okina looked at her. "My good friend, Makoto Shishio, has moved here, to Tokyo, from Kyoto."

Misao gave a sigh of relief. And that was it...she thought it would be something worse than that. Much worse than that.

"But that's not all, Misao," Okina said and that caught Misao's attention again. This was probably what the main conflict comes in. Misao thought to herself as she readied herself for what's coming.

"You see, Makoto has a son...his name is Soujiro. He's eighteen years old, two years older than you, Misao. They've all come here and I had a talk with them not so long ago. A few days ago perhaps. And..." Okina tried to smile, Okon and Omasu looked away. "Makoto and me, we've arranged that Soujiro and you...would get married once both of you reached adulthood."

Misao dropped her chopsticks. The last sentence that came out of her grandfather's mouth hit her hard. Arranged...me to get married? Misao said those five words in her mind over and over and over. Okina, Okon, and Omasu stared at her. Food was falling out of Misao's opened mouth because of her shock. Misao started to tear. Her eyes covered with wetness.

Her two cousins were alarmed, seeing Misao was about to cry. Misao had never cried like this ever since she was little. The only time that she'd cry like this was when she found out that her parents had died.

The oldest cousin stood up and ran over and knelt down next to Misao. "Oh Misao, don't cry. I'm sure Soujiro is a nice boy...you'll see." She put her hand on Misao's shoulders for comfort but a second after it touched Misao, the girl shuddered away from it. She stood up with hard and heavy anger in her eyes. "YOU DECIDED TO TELL ME NOW?!" she cried out loudly. "WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE ALLOWED TO DECIDE WHO I CAN MARRY?!" She yelled at Okina.

Misao kicked the table in which they were dinning on. Everyone jumped out of the way. The plates and bowls smashed down on the tatami mat. Food flew and fell onto the ground also, staining the floor.

Okina knew that his granddaughter was mad but he could not allow the girl be this wild and so he yelled at her. "MISAO! YOU CANNOT KICK THE TAB-"

Before Okina could finished talking, the angry granddaughter of him stormed out of the room.

Misao's mind was racing with anger. She felt like she needed to kill someone right there and then. She was so mad and depressed at the same time that no words could describe the way she felt at that moment. The girl opened and slammed the door from her room and jumped on her bed and started to cry and curse all at the same time as she strangled her blanket. All she could say to herself was...Aoshi-sama...

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The Author in which that is writing this:

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