Chapter 3: The Irascible Tomboy's Story


Weeks passed since that night, and chores became apart of my daily routine at the teahouse. I did the laundry and the cleaning, but I was kept out of the kitchen after they found out the hard way that I couldn't cook. Tomoe managed to keep me "innocent" in those weeks as I was ushered out into the room. She observed and, of course, being new at this, I made simple mistakes. The men found me somewhat attractive, but none has asked for my services and if they did, Tomoe pushed another woman his way. I continued my lessons with her, and occasionally, Megumi-san dropped by. She smiled sweetly, almost in pure delight, as I would act civil or apologize to her. And when Tomoe would rest or was too fatigued to be in charge of me, Megumi-san took command of me. I would just smile, biting my tongue, when she'd order me around. And as apart of my assessment, I supposedly was to be apart of the cleaning crew. One day, the kitchen ran out of food and obviously, I was asked to go grocery shopping.

"Tanuki! Get down here!" Megumi yelled obnoxiously.

I had found Megumi to be an irritating presence at the teahouse, yet she was apart of growing up as a person. I had learned to deal with Megumi through just being respectful no matter how rudely she treated me. I gnashed my teeth together before stopping my current task of hanging up the laundry on the line. With a sigh, I retreated back into the living quarters of the teahouse and upon entry, I saw Megumi's smug face ready to beckon me to another task. I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I had been outside in the sweltering heat in the early summer.

"Tanuki, you need to get some supplies and I've taken the liberty of having the staff use you as the errand girl." she said, one of the corners of her scarlet lips turned up, "They will give you a list. Try not to mess it up, ne?"

Brushing past me, I heard a low hum of satisfaction escape her lips. She was definitely a nuisance. After that, I did I was told. I took the list that the kitchen staff handed me and ran off to the market, my first time out since I came to live at the teahouse. I found it awkward walking among the crowds, but it should've been second nature. I had done it practically most of my life-with and without my father. Why was this any different? I had collected many foods in little boxes from the one stand they told me to buy from. The stall owner gave me great deals as the staff had commented, but I found my money gone by the end of my shopping. Taking a pause, I looked up at the sky. The sun was straight above. It was afternoon and I had to get back to the teahouse for lunch. I started back, the bulk of food in my arms, and no one to help me with them. It was then that my clumsiness caught me in a bind. My foot hit a rock, and I stumbled forward, being careful as not to loose the food. And that's when it happened. I bumped into a passerby, and we both fell to the ground. I heard a groan of discomfort muttered from the stranger and the scraping of his foot as he got to his feet.

Curiosity got the best of me. I looked up to see a shadowed figure standing before me. All I could see was the outline of the stranger in the bright sunlight.

"Miss? Do you need any help?" the baritone voice asked.

He bent down, and I finally got a good look at him. He was a young man, probably in his twenties as what I could make-out. He had gentle yet unusually-colored amethyst eyes with long auburn locks tied in a low tie at the base of his neck. He wore a dark blue gi(1) and white hakama(2), a very basic outfit. He was probably not of a rich family and looked to be fairly decent-looking compared to many men of his social status. There I was, on the ground, looking up at this handsome guy while he basically picked up all my belongings for me. He was very polite.

"Miss, are you okay?" he asked.

I snapped out of my stupor to just let a simple "yeah" slip out. He seemed concerned with the impact of our collision and offered a hand to me.

"Let me help you up." he said softly.

With firm hands, he hoisted me up to my feet gently, and our eyes met.

"I'm sorry,..."

"Kenshin Himura. And you are?"

"I'm Kaoru Sasaki."

"Well, Kaoru-san, please accept my apology. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Please forgive me! I was clumsy." I said whole-heartedly.

I was too loud, not realizing this, and he tilted his head to the side as if I were odd. I felt a feeling of chagrin wash over me, and a red hue stained my cheeks. He smiled as I stopped speaking, and I felt relieved-to say the least.

"Well, please be careful in the future, Kaoru-san." he said softly, and like that, Himura-san walked away.

He was so nice to me. If only he knew where I resided and then his impression would probably change. I suddenly felt this feeling of self-loathing. It didn't matter what I did. When I was back home, I often felt my lack of self-confidence strike me down in my finest hours. I was known as the tomboy who couldn't help her father in the least. An unrefined woman who could probably not get a husband, always stained with sweat and dirt. And now, here I was, an innocent whore who's clumsy and still can't help her father. I can't seem to fit in anywhere. It was so long ago that I met Aoshi Shinomori, the inception to the current lifestyle at the time.


* * *


The wind chime rung the late hour when I sat out on the porch of the old dojo I used to reside at. I had spent the whole day substituting classes for my father. He lay sick in bed while the sweat drenched my body with every stroke of my shinai(3) and felicitous commands I gave to the pupils. They were obedient, the few we did retain in our school, and their progress was better than I had hoped. With the day done, my body drained of energy, I relaxed in my gi and hakama, my usual wraps binding my chest since I found it annoying as I sparred.

I was seventeen and running out of time. The days and time grew quicker, my father got older, and I was still without a suitor. To make matters worse, my father's dojo wasn't making enough income and was rather run-down. Frustration and fear mounted upon me as I saw us slipping into pure poverty. We could barely afford to buy tofu with what little students we trained. And I felt myself slipping into the darkness of the far corners of my mind that night. I had decided then that I would find a way to help my father keep his dojo open. It was his intrinsic dream passed down from his father and his father before him. I, being the last of the Kamiya line, was the only hope. But being a woman was already a disadvantage. And in this time, that is when I met Aoshi.

He came traveling into my town, catching the eyes of all the townspeople. Adorned in a long, beige trench coat covering an all-black outfit, his boots scuffing across the dirt road. The atmosphere he gave off, sent me into shivers when we had first met. I was carrying tofu to the dojo in my little bucket when I bumped into a few of the teenagers my age. The girls looked down at me as I was dressed in a training gi and hakama, my complexion marred by dirt and sweat. The boys chuckled at my expense as I apologized.

"Kaoru, why on earth are you out here?" one girl asked.

"I'm fetching tofu for my father." I replied compliantly.

Another round of giggles were emitted from the girls as they looked me over again.

"So have you got anybody lined up as a wife?" a boy asked.

They laughed at me as I blushed with fury.

"Or has the tomboy actually found a feminine man?!" another chided.

Tears stung my eyes as they continued to openly mock me, laughing at every remark they made. I just stood there, my calloused hands grasping the bucket handle tightly. I wouldn't let them see me cry. I always promised myself that, but I found myself on the brink of releasing all of it. So I did what I was known for. I placed the bucket down and balled up my fist. They didn't notice this as they continued laughing, and they wouldn't notice until I landed a right hook on the guy in front of me. They gasped in shock as he fell to the ground behind him. With squeals and incredulous shouts, they ran to his side. A girl glared at me, probably his girlfriend. She was the only one standing with her dainty hands balled up in fists at her side.

"You'll never be married, Kaoru Kamiya! No man would want a tomboy like you! And your dojo will go down in shame with you!" she spat, spite evident in every accented word.

I didn't respond. As the injured boy attended to his hurt jaw, I picked up my bucket and walked away with as much grace as I could muster at this point. That was when I saw Aoshi. He stood a few ways off and had seen the whole thing. I just lifted up my nose, snubbing him, only to walk home to my shamed dojo. It wouldn't be a while before I was reunited with the mysterious figure I had seen that afternoon. At dinner that night, my father talked with me a bit.

"I heard you got in a fight yesterday and today. That is not becoming of a woman, Kaoru." he said in a stern tone.

I bowed my head in shame. I never intended to fight with another boy the previous day, but I felt I had to punish him for putting down my dojo. Then again, that what I did. I was always uncontrollable, always quick to fight. That's why I was undesirable in my town, plus the fact that my father's dojo wasn't much of an inheritance. It was more of a bother than a gift. To me, it was my everything. I had trained my whole life to inherit this dojo. It was my father's pride, and one day, it would become mine.

"Forgive me."

"You always say that, and you give me more trouble."

He paused, as if thinking, and sighed in exasperation. I felt my nerves suddenly go uneasy. I only got these when something bad would happen. My mother called it "woman's intuition". I swear I could've fainted in fear as he lifted his head a bit and inclined his head towards me.

"Kaoru, this is too much. I don't know what to do. I was thinking maybe of getting a family friend to marry you... But I have my mind set on this course of action: I don't want you to take over the dojo."

"What?"

"It's for your own good."

"How so?!" I cried in outrage.

"Don't snap at me, Kaoru!" he bellowed.

I shrunk in my seat, my eyes falling to my lap. I was scared. Maybe this would be the last straw.

"No one would allow a woman to live alone and teach a dojo. That's preposterous! We live in a society where women are beneath men, and to have you as a teacher...well, I don't think I could stand it."

I was shocked. My father had never told me these words. In all my life, I had never felt so inferior in his eyes.

"I wanted you to have your husband to take over the dojo."

"Why did you teach me your sword style then?"

My voice had cracked, but I wouldn't dare let him see my face.

"I lived in a delusion that you could replace the son I never had. But as I got older, I became practical and realized I had made a mistake. I should've prepared you for being a woman. And now, you are alone."

Back then, I didn't know how to act or what to do. I was so angry, so heart broken. I did the only thing I knew. I ran away.

"Excuse me, 'tou-san(4). I'll go to bed."

"Fine." he said gruffly, and I stood up with my thoughts jumbled over the previous conversation.

I had lost everything within a day by the fault of my own doing. For a few hours, I just sat in my room, leaned against the wall, listening to the sounds of the dojo. I heard my father clean-up after dinner, his footsteps venturing into his room, and when he blew out his candle before sleeping. The moon was bright in the night sky, and my spirit still unsettled with the thought of the up-coming mundane life I would have to endure. I was really alone, as my father put it. I did envy the other couples in our town, but I never really acknowledged it, seeing that there weren't any attractive males. I wanted more than my home could offer, but I wanted to help my father. I was stuck in a dilemma, and maybe a walk would calm me. That night, I sneaked out of my house, unprepared for the beginning of the death of Kaoru Kamiya, and the birth of Kaoru Sasaki. That was the night everything changed.


* * * * * *


"Tomoe-sensei, you seem distracted today." I said softly.

Her attention was on a bird on the windowsill. It was small, yet beautiful in every sense that a bird should be. It had a slender, yet short beak. The plumage took to a shiny, dark ebony color. It's eyes a beady black, as appropriately it should have. It basked in the sun's rays, making a tiny coo with its sweet voice. I found myself thinking it rather ordinary at the time, but for some reason, it meant a lot more to Tomoe.

"Tomoe-sensei?" I called again, louder than the first.

She snapped out of her gaze and turned to me, her eyes with their usual lack of luster.

"Forgive me. Continue."

"I was wondering about my clumsiness. I'm afraid that I need to work on it."

"Clumsiness?" she said almost in awe, "What clumsiness?"

"My tripping and lack of grace. I'm just not as refined as any of the women here."

"What on earth are you talking about, Kaoru?"

Her tone was more stern and looked at me incredulously. I was trying to find a time when I had an ungraceful moment around the teahouse, but surprisingly, I found myself out of luck. I was at a loss.

"I can't remember..." I muttered in shock.

"Kaoru, you worry too much. You do lack a certain familiarity of residing here, but that will come in time. As for your 'clumsiness', I have seen no sign of it in the duration of your stay. I would just suggest you work on the way you walk because you seem more flighty than mature."

"'flighty?'"

"Yes, flighty. You seem to much of a teenager. Men aren't looking for their daughters to please them. They're looking for a woman, not a child. Just observe the other women and the walk might come natural to you after a time."

"You're such a lenient teacher..."

"I'm sorry. I haven't had much experience with teaching. Megumi was my only student, and she was already seductive in her own way. She was self-taught. You're the only other student besides her. From then on, Megumi instructed the others."

"Megumi-san? You taught her?"

Tomoe nodded her head and started to pour herself tea. I was in awe at that moment, unsure of what to say.

"How long have you been here, Tomoe-san?" I asked.

She placed the cup in her hands, raising them to her lips. With a faint smile, she parted them slightly.

"That story is for another day, Kaoru. Another day..."


* * * * * *


After my meeting with Tomoe, she went off with Megumi. I went back to my room. Walking down the hall, I caught a glimpse of the tea house's bodyguard. He was a man I found myself occupying my thoughts more and more as I spent less and less time with him. After I began living at the teahouse, Tomoe, Megumi, and the kitchen staff made up the company I always had. I had not seen Kanryu since my first night there. I had only received words from Tomoe and Megumi. As for Aoshi, I only saw glimpses of him in the room as I entertained, but always felt his eyes on me. And for brief moments, we would lock eyes occasionally for I would find him watching over me with the duty he was given by Kanryu himself.

From time to time, I would hear the women talk about his loyalty to Kanryu, which intrigued me even more. Such a scum of a man, that I had heard then, and he managed to win the loyalty of everyone. Maybe it was because I hadn't really known Kanryu at the time, but it bothered me. What would the reason be for Aoshi, Megumi, and Tomoe to stay loyal to him? I simply needed money, but they had different stories. I knew that from the start. Little did I know, their stories ran deeper than just money problems.

"Aoshi-san..." I almost failed to say with his name dying on my lips.

He had caught it though and lifted his gaze upon my small form. He stopped in the middle of the hallway, hands in his coat pockets, as he scrutinized me with vague eyes.

"Hello, Kaoru-san." he said in his rich, deep voice, "Are you going to rest up for tonight?"

"Yes."

"Good."

His chiseled face was still indifferent as he spoke, nothing changed. I found myself scared to even speak, and maybe I feared him a little. Images of the night I met him haunted me as he walked past. His boots clamoring with deep, rhytmical beats of every step. But in my mind the steps turned into the sound of rocks scraping the area underneath his boots with every advance. It was the sound of the past awakening in my ears.


* * *


It was after I left the house that I decided to wander around my town. The walk was calming with the cool night air so crisp and the moonlight beaming upon my path. It was a perfect night for a stroll. My town was as peaceful as I described. It was a medium-sized town, not too big, not very small, but in the middle. And only a few crimes were ever heard of happening there. The few crimes were the usual like thievery and loans not repaid, so it never crossed my mind that some people were actually doing unfathomable sin in my part of town. The silence of the night was interrupted by a piercing scream for help. My senses awoke to it, and I walked further, my curiosity overcoming my own common sense. I stopped in my tracks as I came into a backway where blood overwhelmed me. It took up all of my senses, the smell, the thickness of it, staining the ground before me. Now that I remember it, that was the scent I smelled faintly on Aoshi that one night at the teahouse when he caught me looking into the mirth-filled room.

I was still in shock, my feet planted deeply in the moist ground. The figure cloaked in darkness panted in fatigue of the current struggle, but all I could see was the reflecting of the moon on the long blade he held in his hand. I tried to move, but only my lips parted as I trembled. I knew the men dead on the ground. There were three, all gamblers, known for their mounting debts. Their blood stained his blade, marring the lustrous surface. His foot took a step back, the coat brushing against his black pant-covered calf, and swiftly turned to see me. I involuntarily gasped and tried to run, but my legs had forbidden it. Deep blue eyes perused over my petite body, keeping me in my place. With celeritous strides, I found myself meeting the murderer face-to-face.

"Who are you?" a bass voice asked from the tall form.

I couldn't answer. Fear had shut down everything in my body, everything for response. His eyes showed irritation and he seized me by my arm, pulling me closer.

"Who are you?!" he demanded in a stern voice.

"K-Kaoru."

I stuttered, something unusual for me. He saw the fear in my eyes and cast me aside, against a wall. The impact was relieved by my hands as I braced myself. His breathing became hard as I had departed from his side to come to my place at the wall. He clutched his side with a hiss escaping his lips. He removed his hand to see the scarlet stain on his palm. I watched him as he examined the wound more only emitting slight grumbles at all the pain.

"Do you know how to wrap a wound?" he asked me almost inaudibly.

"I-."

"Well, do you?" he asked impatiently.

"Yes." I managed to utter.

I brought him to my house as quietly as possible as he had requested it with no room for denial. My father stayed asleep as I padded around the house, collecting the medicines and bandages I had while the murderer rested in my room. With as much ease, I tried to enter the room without seeming nervous, but when I saw him again, my body felt like there were icicles running through my veins, pricking inside my fingers that grasped the first aid kit. He looked at me with a gruff grunt as acknowledgement, and I walked towards him. I finally got a good look of him in the candlelight. His short black hair was neat even though he had been in a struggle, only managing to put a few of his bangs to go over his cool blue eyes. I looked at his coat and he obeyed by removing it, then lifting up his shirt.

"Why do you dress up like a man?" he asked brusquely.

I paled but kept my focus on the wound, never ceasing my ministration. His eyes watched my face pensively, expecting me to react. I was fully aware that I was still dressed in my training attire. I was not ashamed of the hard work I had been through that day.

"I am-I mean-was the shihondai of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu." I replied as I cleaned the blood from his side with a hot towel.

He clenched his teeth as I stopped, letting the cool air touch his exposed injury. I dipped the cloth in the bowl of hot water before continueing.

"A female teacher...very unusual." he commented and looked down to see what work I had done so far, "And what stopped you?"

"I am a woman."

"That should have prevented you of even touching a shinai in the first place."

"My father is the last of the male line of Kamiyas."

"So teach the daughter, is that it?"

"I suppose."

I touched it up a bit before discarding the cloth and going for the wrapping.

"So what will you do now?"

It was a simple question, but it sparked an interest in myself. What was I going to do then? Was I going to flirt shamelessly with every man in the village so that I could get myself hitched? Or would I be a spinster trying to keep up a dojo with not a student in sight? I paused a moment, relieving myself of wrapping his torso for a moment, to see the callouses on my hands. They weren't the hands of a woman, or an extraordinary person. They were my own, despicable, shameful hands. My patient looked up at me with confusion while I continued to just stare at thr rough skin. There was a silence that clung to the cool air of the night, and he was the one to cut through it with nonchalant words.

"Back in Kyoto, where I come from, women are desired. They are intangible creatures of the night. Over there, they make money by simply charming a man with their beauty. Business men, bureaucrats, fishermen-the whole lot of them-come to see the women. They are taught to be refined in every sense of the way."

His words echoed in my mind and I realized I had neglected his wound. Absentmindedly, I picked up the gauze and began to wrap again. He flinched as my fingers brushed his skin, but I was too much in a daze to actually realize it at the time. When I cut the material and began to tie it, that's when an idea popped in my head.

"I want to go to Kyoto..." I murmured in realization.

He looked up at me in surprise, but only his eyes showed this emotion.

"What did you say...?" he asked with uncertainty.

"I want to go to Kyoto." I said in a firm voice.

"Why?"

"You said that women make money there, right?"

"Yes, but-."

"And you said they'll teach me how to be a woman, right?"

"Yes, but Kyoto is very different from this small town life you live. The effect of culture shock would probably only hurt you rather than do what you wish to accomplish. Even though the women back home seem desirable and glamorous, their life is horrible. I didn't mean to make you think that is the path you should take after this. Forget I ever spoke those words."

"Please take me with you." I pleaded with my eyes glazed over in unshed tears and a sob I tried to choke back in mid-sentence.

He looked at me coldly and stood up, with his wound fully taken care of.

"If you tell a soul I was here, I will kill you."

His words were meant to keep me at a distance and forget everything. But the thoughts were too deep in my mind, reverberating back and forth from the deepest, darkest corners. It was my goal now. It was the only way. If I were to keep my father's dojo open without being shihondai, and if I were to ever prove the people wrong, that I could be coveted in any sense, I would give anything for that. And that stranger I met that night, the cool, deep pools of blue eyes, was Aoshi. He would change my life, and I knew it from that moment on. My heart controlled my body, tossing my mind aside of the logic of him finding me running after him. I was afraid he would actually kill me, but the yearning for a better life overcame me.

I looked to the door. It was open and a draft came into my room. So, without hesitance, I stood up, and my feet started walking, walking after the murderer. I ran as fast as my feet could carry me and pushed the dojo gate aside, letting it bang to a close behind me. I saw him, he had stopped and turned. Tears sprang from my eyes unknowingly. I stopped before him, panting from my sprint, and he only regarded me with angered eyes. My voice almost faltered as I spoke.

"You can't just leave me here after I saw what I saw tonight. You can't just abandon me after you heard how much of a failure I am. You can't go after saying those things and letting me take care of you. You can't! It's not right. You must have some pity for me at least. All I ask of you...is to take me with you to Kyoto."

"How do you know I'm heading there?" he asked brusquely.

"You called it your home."

He let out a quick breath of air and turned on his heel. He began to walk away, but I wouldn't let him. Words just kept spouting from my mouth, obvious attempts to flee from my home with him.

"You could just take me to that place and then, you can just disregard me and never see me again ever. All I want is to go there and make something of myself!"

"You want a misleading life, Miss Kamiya."

"I don't care..." I found myself saying very softly, but he still heard it.

I couldn't see his eyes until he turned around to see me again. He took a few steps forward, his eyes roamed my body with inspection, and he sighed.

"I could take you there. But how do you know I'm not some kind of pervert who'd probably rape you and throw you in the gutter half-way there?" he asked with a leer.

"I don't." I replied shortly.

"Then why go with me?"

"I'd rather die half-way there then spend my life alone and mocked constantly everyday."

He looked at me with a calm look and maybe I caught a glint of pity. I hadn't realized how pathetic and desperate I looked at that moment. I was almost in tears, obviously distraught, and my gi was disheveled by my run.

"You're that desperate, huh?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"Dress into a kimono. You look too much like a man in that get-up. And write your father a note, but don't tell him where you're going. He'll only go after you or be ashamed."

I wiped the tears from my eyes with the beck of my hand and managed a weak smile. I pivoted on my heel and began to run back, but I stopped. He had his hands in his pockets, looking very casual. I just had to ask my question.

"What's your name?"

He quirked an eyebrow at me, as if it was not expected of me to ask his name after all this.

"Well?" I asked impatiently with my hands on my hips.

"Aoshi Shinomori." he replied.

"Well, Shinomori-san," I tried to think of what to say and said the obvious thing a girl should say when given an opportunity in the unlikeliest person, "Thank you."


* * * * *


"Aoshi, you've been silent these past few weeks." Kanryu commented then downed the last of his cup of sake, "You're not starting to think about that girl again, are you? That one girl that used to live with you and your gang..."

Aoshi's grip on the armrest tightened and the squeaking of the leather could be heard. Kanryu turned to his right hand man in his own seat behind the desk. His hand lay itself upon the smooth wooden desktop and with a sweep of it, it formed a fist. Aoshi looked pensive as if his thoughts were going on what Kanryu had predicted.

"I can't help it. I don't know where she is, and of couse, I fear for her. I was in charge of watching over her when her guardian died. Now, only you know where she is, but I'm afraid you're not telling me the whole truth about her. You don't even tell me about her anymore. I can't help but feel insecure that you say that she's safe. For all I know, 'safe' could just be 'not dead'." Aoshi vented with a frustrated sigh.

"You worry too much, Aoshi. She is perfectly safe and she will continue to be in safe keeping if you stay loyal to me. That was our bargain, wasn't it?"

Aoshi hated this. It was never his intention to ever be put in that position of uncertainty. He really did care and not a day passed when he didn't think about the girl. For all he knew, she could've been on the streets, addicted to opium or laying in the gutter. And it scared him. He didn't even know if she was in Kyoto. Little did Aoshi know that she was in Kyoto, and she wasn't dead. But if he knew that, the information would be comforting compared to what her life was like then. The girl he worried about was put on the streets for prostitution.



Reference for Readers:

1 – gi – a broad-sleeved top

2 – hakama – a type of bottoms

3 – shinai – a wooden sword basically, it's usually used for kendo

4 – 'tou-san – father


Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It was written over different days since I've been working like a fiend. Anyway, I hope you liked it!


Marstanuki – well, I hope this chapter gives some insight on how Aoshi and Kaoru met. Also, this answers your Kenshin question. He won't be in it a lot. You'll see his part in the end of the story.


Angel5280 – than you for your review.


Kamorgana – The characters will be a little OOC-sometimes a lot-but I tried to stay a little true to them.