Chapter 3
Ugh, great. School. Second day back. Five more days until
the weekend. My brain, it
hurts. Homework, I don't like it.
Kaoru. Doesn't like me. My heart, it's broken.
Today I saw
Kaoru holding hands, hugging, and having a good 'ol time with
Shinomori
Aoshi. I wonder if my fighting style's advanced
enough...
"Hello Kaoru. How are things?" I asked with a
voice hidden in the back of my head
telling me that things weren't
OK.
"Great," she replied with a slight hint of
compassionate anger hidden for me in her voice.
Well, at least it
sounded 'compassionate', "Come on, Aoshi." Aoshi! It just
hit me!
Shinomori Aoshi! I thought he was inseparable from Misao.
She never lets her lovely
Aoshi leave her sight. I guess she got
mad at him, again. Why Aoshi though? Why,
Kaoru? I don't like
him. Then again, I never really was buddy-buddy with him to
start
with. We've had our quarrels, of course, I'd win.
Knowing Misao, Kaoru and Aoshi
won't be together forever. I can
see it now, Misao jumping Kaoru out in the orchard
behind school
and me coming to her brave and valiant rescue with no more
obstacles
standing between our love any longer.
I would
gently hold her in my arms as the soft wind lightly blows cherry
blossoms
across her delicate face. Her radiant blue eyes would be
shut, hiding the love and joy she
has for life. Inside she is
anxiously awaiting her Prince Charming (that'd be me) to lean
down
and kiss--
Wham! I slammed into a large brick wall that was
apparently vibrant and noticeable to
the people going around it,
but to me it came out of no where and I fell down onto the
cold
hard concrete path that led in and out of what most people call a
learning facility. I
lay there stunned with my red hair no longer
held together by Kaoru's blue ribbon that she
gave to me that
one night I went out without permission to fight for her honor. Yeah,
I
wish. The ribbon really came from an old piece of my fighting
gi. The entire student body
is now laughing as I rise and make a
sad, but desperate attempt to regain composure and
any dignity
that might remain within my small body.
In the distance, I see
Kaoru smiling lightly, but with an "are you OK, my love?" look
in
her warm blue eyes. Then, out of a portal in the wall, a thick
dark shadow appears and
grabs my Kaoru. Without pondering the
consequences, I run and jump in landing on
cobblestone streets
with my sakabato attached to my waist. In the distance I hear
the
delicate voice screaming and I follow, once again without
thinking. When she comes into
sight, the dark shadow that held her
by the waist was a man who slightly resembled Saito
Hajime, the
school's security officer.
"Come along, Battosai, we've
all been waiting very anxiously for your arrival." I look
around
and there is no sign of any life forms. Then I see a quick shimmer of
a shining
object fly over me and then standing front of me. It is
a man with a sword on his waist as
well. As if I'm not
bewildered enough, the man now standing in front of me looked
like
me. No time to think about that now, though, Kaoru needs
saving.
I went around the corner and there were doors that
were twice the size of a normal
door. Cheers and clapping came
from behind the doors. It sounded like a large crowd.
Inside Kaoru
was standing on a platform with "Battosai" on one side glaring at
"Saito" on
the other side. In the background, two men are
fighting. Half of the crowd is screaming
"Han'nya" and half
is screaming "Swordsman Cho" Finally, the man with a hairstyle
that
greatly resembles a broom falls to the ground in utter
defeat. The crowd cheers and chants
proudly "Han'nya! Han'nya!
Han'nya!" The victor steps up to the platform and grabs
Kaoru's
arm and shouts, "Today she is mine! who will be my challenger!" A
prize? Is
that what this is all about? I prepare my sakaboto to
run into battle, and a hand lands on
my shoulder. I turn and it's
another Kaoru, but older and more mature looking than the
Kaoru I
know.
"For now there is nothing you can do. Come to my dojo
and I will answer your questions,
because I'm sure you have
many."