Summary:
Since Kenshin departed for his government mission, Kaoru tried to find an outlet to vent her disappointment at him. She found...Cotton Candy! ...And fell in love with it. Aoshi Shinomori, the green tea drinker, trench-coat wearer, Kodachi bearer and a totally reformed ice block was in Tokyo. Seemingly, since Misao grew out of her infatuation toward him, and went out with Seta, Aoshi doesn't want to drink green tea anymore, as it reminds him of Misao and her daily tea delivery at the temple. He's looking to find something to distract him from the memory of Misao, and here Kamiya showed up, offering him her cotton candy! O, the benefit of a cotton candy!
Kaoru was devastated, truly devastated.
So he left again this time. The 'atonement' burden on his shoulders were weighing her down these couple of months, and when they last spoke about the new government's secret mission, she had an odd feeling that he would get involved.
So, her prediction was true all along. This morning, she woke up to find his room slightly ajar, neat as usual, with a note propped up next to the vase on the table.
The neatly written letter in her hand was scrunched up into a little ball as she screamed out in fury. She didn't even have the desire to read it.
"Baka-no Kenshin!", and the letter was promptly thrown into the nearest rubbish bin.
The dojo was shaken quite a bit due to her shouting.
She didn't care anymore. If he doesn't realize that she has some feeling toward him up to now, then it's not worth her time to mop around and wait for him. Life goes on.
Hey, life's tough..but it's not like Kamiya Kaoru could not handle it.
So she finally made up her mind, pulled up her hair in a pony tail and went for a long, hot bath. Hopefully this bath will keep her sanity intact.
She did feel a lot fresher after the bath that got her skin turned rather prunish, a change of pastel-coloured yukata, and a breakfast, eventhough she kind of burnt the egg. If only Kenshin was here..
Damn….forget him! Do not mention his name anymore! She washed her dishes and went out, only to come face to face with a rack of freshly washed laundry on the backyard. My goodness…even he didn't neglect my laundry…he only neglected me! She grumbled. Ignore it, ignore it! Walking past it, she decided to go to town to grab a few supplies. At this time of day, Kamiya's residence is pretty quiet as Yahiko has gone off to help out at Akabeko. Now his presence there is quite highly demanded as Akabeko's business seems to be doing very well.
There should be something I could do, something…to help me get rid of this dark cloud of gloominess! She thought in distress. Staying home at the moment doesn't seem to be too wise of an idea as every house chore pretty much reminds her of her beloved Rurouni. Damn, now he's rurouni-ing again…
She swiftly walked out, locked the gate and tried to think about what to buy in town.
It seems that she let her mind wandered off too much that when she realized it, she had taken a wrong turn at some point in time, and found herself in a less familiar surroundings. Where is this, she pondered inwardly.
The district seems to be bustling with activities and people, as she tried to figure where she was. Until she spotted a big sign that flashed "Welcome to Gaikokujin District"
Huh? is there such thing? The literal meaning of the word finally dawned on her. She looked around her and noticed that many of these people are foreigners. She twitched her eyebrows in deep concentration while walking to one side of the road. People around her seem to be busy doing their own business and didn't notice a slightly lost Japanese girl in their midst. Her thinking process was suddenly cut off by a loud shout
"Welcome, Welcome to the Sweet Treats! Ladies and gents, boys and girls, try the very tempting sweets that will leave you wanting more!", a middle-aged man was cheerfully shouting, promoting his shop, which apparently, was the shop next to the wall where Kaoru was standing. She was busy contemplating of what to do next.
"Sweets are great to help rid of stress too!", the vendor said, still in his cheery voice.
For a gaijin, he sure could speak Japanese very fluently, was Kaoru's first impression. But when he said his last sentence, she promptly turned her head to look at him.
Relieve stress he said?
The sweet vendor noticed the beautiful Japanese girl who leaned against the wall nearby. He turned around when he felt a pair of eyes intently watching him. He smiled at her.
Kaoru blushed. Ah, it was rude for me to stare….but…
"Nn…is that true?", she said meekly.
"What is true, child?" He asked, trying to figure out what she meant.
"Well….you said..it could get rid of stress?", she repeated his words, now she was getting a bit fidgety. She always does that when she meets new people.
He smiled in understanding. That was why she stood there, with a slumped shoulders and a confused expression imprinted on her pretty face.
"I dare say it's true….why don't you come in and see for yourself?", he offered, with one open palm of his hand directed to his shop.
Kaoru just mumbled incoherently and looked down on the gravel sidewalk, weighing her decision. It mightjust bea scam..
She was reluctant, he could see that, so he just smiled once again. Soon he was promoting his shop once more, shouting to the mass of people walking about.
What am I trying to do? Get rid of stress? Sweets? Gee…it sounds so far-fetched…She thought….But, ah, what is there to lose? She reasoned against her initial reluctance. With that, she looked up and made the last five steps to enter the gaijin's shop.
The vendor nodded as she entered.
She was greeted with a sight she's never seen before. The humble little shop only portrayed very little of what's actually inside. The sight before her fascinated her so much. There were braids made of jellies and sugared candies hanging on the wall, countless of western confectionery called 'lollipop', some strange name, Kaoru thought, a beautiful display of something that Megumi is fond of, called 'chocolate' and 'truffles' in an assortment of shapes and flavours, sugared almonds, huge coloured swirl of hard candies, little pebbles called 'mints', some fruit-shaped jellies…and so on…
Kaoru's untrained eyes roamed around and took all the sight in with glee. She's never been this excited for a long time. She breathed in,
Hmmm…this shop smells very nice! What is this smell?
In the middle of the chocolate display, there was a lady in her forties, who looked at the passing customers with a smile on her face. She must be the vendor's wife, Kaoru thought. Hesitantly at first, she walked to her.
"Excuse me….this fragrant smell..what is it?", Kaoru asked rather sheepishly.
The lady's smile was not belittling her. "It's a mixture of strawberry, vanilla, cinammon, chocolate and other fruits…we have so many varieties of sweets here, I can't possibly name each one…", she said softly.
"Ah…I see…very nice smell", Kaoru admitted openly.
She was about to excuse herself to wander off and look for other things, when her eyes spotted something behind the lady. She halted her step completely.