The following morning was the usual day full of classes and Aoshi had English first. So by eight o'clock he was ready to go with his book bag in hand where the typical gray dress pants and white shirt with gray sweater vest without a wrinkle, unlike Soujiro whose sloppy uniform looked hurried and unruly. One of the consequences for not wanting an alarm clock.

"Aoshi you don't look like yourself," said Soujiro as they walked down the halls toward their classes. "Long night?"

It was true enough, the red lines around his eyes and the small headache beating at his temple did through off Aoshi's usual composure.

"No you squirt, I just drank a little more sake then usual…"

They stopped outside Aoshi's English room and waited for the bell.

"So what happened with you and Misao?" questioned Soujiro suggestively.

Aoshi glared at him, "Nothing."

Soujiro chortled, "Go figure. Aoshi, the iceman!"

Luckily the familiar ring of the bell saved Soujiro as he ran off to his tech class. Aoshi sighed and walked into his class and was the first to take his seat. As the desks started to fill up he took out his binder and various novels and texts and discreetly popped an Advil. Their professor walked in and set his briefcase on his wide desk and was followed by a student Aoshi had never seen in this class before.

Quickly the professor introduced the new student, "Class this is Makimachi Misao, she transferred into this class because she was excelling at a lower level English. Misao please take a seat."

Misao immediately noticed Aoshi right from the moment she walked into the room and now took the empty seat that was conveniently beside him as the class began with the professor scribbling on the blackboard.

"Hi Aoshi!" she whispered excitedly as she opened her notes.

Aoshi had already begun to write the note and looked straight at the blackboard. "Hi," he said in a indifferent tone.

Misao picked up on it and thought he must be joking around. He hadn't even looked at her since she sat down. "Aoshi, don't act like you don't know me."

But Aoshi remained silent and gave no notice to Misao thereafter.

What does he think he's doing giving me the cold shoulder! What did I do?

For the rest of the class Misao pouted but didn't say anything more to Aoshi until she caught up with him at the end of class in the hall.

"Aoshi!" she yelled. "Aoshi!"

He stopped and turned to see Misao struggle against the crowd to him.

"Aoshi? What's the matter with you?" she asked with a mix of concern and annoyance.

No answer.

Misao growled at him and started to shout. "Look would you stop acting so heartless and answer! Did something happen…Was it something that I did?"

Aoshi lowered his head and spoke in chilling tone, "Misao, last night was… a mistake."

Misao gasped and winced at these words.

He continued, "Misao, like you I don't drink often and that night I did have a few glasses of sake. If I hadn't drunk that night then you would probably have woken up on that couch alone. My judgement was clouded. I'm going to forget that anything happened last night."

"But we only kissed!" she protested. "I can't believe you're saying this, you didn't even seem drunk last night. You just seemed…sweet."

"I'm sorry if I gave you false ideas Misao. I wasn't exactly drunk, but I wasn't thinking straight."

Her vision became watery, "But at kendo… I thought you were flirting with me."

"Misao, I like you. You're a good person and kendo player, but I never hoped for us to be anything more than friends. If I could take back last night, I would."

Those last words cut through Misao like ice. Her voice quivered, "So everything last night…meant nothing."

Aoshi nodded and Misao choked as a sob escaped her.

"Get away from me!" pushed past Aoshi and ran down the hall with tears streaming down her face.

As the second bell rang signaling the start of the second class Aoshi sighed and slowly made his way to gym.

"Finally lunch," sighed Kenshin as he packed up his gym bag.

It was noon and Kenshin had just finished gym with Sanosuke and Aoshi, who seemed especially frigid and reserved today. He just shrugged it off as just an off day for Aoshi.

"I'm going to my room for lunch. Don't bother me."

Kenshin was about to ask Aoshi if anything was bothering him but Aoshi had walked out of the change room before he had a chance.

"Don't worry about it Kenshin," said Sano as he gave Kenshin a pat on the back. "Shinomori always has something up his ass."

It was a moment before Kenshin nodded his head and locked his stuff up in his gym locker and headed down to the cafeteria with Sano. They sat at a table with trays holding sandwiches and small cartons of milk.

"So Kenshin tell me about this girl you were talking about earlier," said Sanosuke as he took a large bite out of his ham and cheese.

Kenshin felt a tingling sensation inside at the thought of her. "Well her name is Kamiya Kaoru and she just transferred here not too long ago. She's the girl who started the girls kendo team."

"Wait a minute, I thought you were against girls kendo at the university?"

"I was, but Sano you have to see her fight. She's amazing, and funny, and cute…" Kenshin trailed off into a daydream.

Sano raised an eyebrow and snapped his fingers in his friend's face, "Stay with me lover boy. So you really think she's special eh? You just met her Kenshin."

Kenshin considered what Sano said. But she is special, Sano. I just can't put what I feel into words. "I don't know Sano, all I can say is sometimes you just can feel when something's right. Like there's nothing in the world you'd rather do then just see her smile beside you."

An uneasy looked passed Sano's face, "Whatever. But I'm warning you Kenshin, woman…they're a tricky business. Take it from me."

"As much as I appreciate your concern I don't think me and Kaoru will have any problems," said Kenshin as he sipped his milk through a straw.

"KENSHIN!"

The shout from across the cafeteria echoed throughout the room and ended with a deafening silence. Kenshin nearly had his milk come up his nose, fortunately it just sprayed out his mouth. He wiped his mouth in vain and looked up to face the person who was responsible.

"Kaoru?" he mouthed in open-mouthed wonder.

Kaoru marched up to Kenshin with a ready-to-kill look on her face and waved a broken bokken in his face. Sano along with the rest of the cafeteria looked on in silence and interest.

"HIMURA KENSHIN! Who the hell do you think you are! How could you do this? And I was so stupid as to trust you, ugh! I'm such a idiot!"

Kenshin attempted to calm Kaoru's raving. "Kaoru, please slow down. What's the matter?"

She looked at him; her eyes staring him down and clenching her teeth. "You jerk," she said slowly. "Don't you dare play the fool with me. You know exactly what you did."

Risking a woman's rage Kenshin spoke, "What did I do?"

Kaoru's face turned red and she was ready to burst until she took a breath and calmed herself. "Yes…perhaps you need to be reminded about what you did since you probably didn't even have the balls to do it yourself. Well Mr. Himura, you or whoever you managed to convince to do it for you, are responsible for snapping every last bokken the school had that my girls needed. There were messages in the girls change room written on the wall that were offensive and almost threatening to my team. And worst of all,"

Kaoru slammed a sheet of paper on the table and Kenshin's eyes widened as he held it up. On the sheet of paper illustrated in black ink was a cartooned Kaoru drooling from her mouth and a dumb expression holding a bokken that she was hitting upon her head with faceless onlookers laughing. In red ink at the bottom of the page there was a message, 'Kamiya Kaoru, captain of the girls kendo team. Girls Kendo…A Ken-DON'T'.

"This was hung outside the door of my room and the rooms of my team."

Kenshin was speechless and looked up to a flaming Kaoru. Did she really think he did this?

"This must have been done early this morning…or late last night," said Kaoru trying to control her tone. "And who else could have wanted to do this but the boys kendo team?"

She snatched her offensive comic from Kenshin's hands and stormed out of the cafeteria. Kenshin tripped up a little while trying to get his legs out from under the bench and ran after her. Kaoru pushed opened the doors and walked down the halls until Kenshin caught up with her and grabbed her by the arm.

"Get off of me!" she yelled as she jerked her arm out of his grip. Kenshin noticed the shimmer of tears pooling in her eyes.

"Kaoru, please you have to believe that I would never do this to you," he pleaded.

Kaoru gave a unnatural laugh, "Oh please shut up Kenshin." Tears started to run down her cheeks. "Take credit where credit is due. You played me like the idiot I was last night. Taking me out to lunch and you managed to be so charming that we carried on our little outing into the night while you orchestrated the collapse of my team."

"Collapse?"

Kaoru sniffled, "All the girls came to me and Misao this morning saying they don't want to risk public humiliation by being on my team. So now, pat yourself on the back Himura I have no team no. You succeeded in what you set out to do."

Kenshin shook his head cautiously and swallowed hard. "Kaoru…you have to believe me."

"You're wrong!" she yelled silencing him. "I don't have to believe anything."

Kaoru wiped the mess of tears from her face and continued down the hall. She took a moment and stopped and looked back to Kenshin, "I talked with Misao today. Tell Shinomori never to come near her again."

And with that Kaoru walked around the corner and left Kenshin standing there in a mess of confusion and frustration that shewould not believe his innocence. She thought he purposefully hurt her… He would find out who was responsible for hurting Kaoru and make them pay...

A/N: Hey guys, sorry that took a while to get out. I had to catch up in school and my internet connection kept disconnecting. Well I hope you liked the chapter and can't wait to see what you all have to say. I bet you're wondering who was responible for the naughty things that happened to Kaoru and her team, hehe! Well you'll find out later. So I'll be updating soon I hope so thanks for being so patient everyone. Toodles! Don't forget proper manners; read and review!