Short Summary: Like to watch those reality show? Well, how about if you're in it? Kaoru's firsthand experience teach her, that the show biz's not just about money...

THE EXTRAORDINARY JOE

Chapter I

" Atarashii doa akete shiranai basho e dete
shimatte mo watashi wa watashi da to ii kiru kara
soko ga donna basho demo ikinuite miseru yo
isshou ni ichido no tatakaiidomu tame.."

Signal – Ayumi Hamasaki

His hand flicked through the numerous photos, all professionally arranged within the black leather filing system.

"Rather hard to decide, isn't it?…", a female voice sounded amused.

"Hnn…"

A particular photo stood out from the rest, revealing beautiful features of a girl. Well, there was something about her that looked different…

Soon a number of photos were finally stashed out from the file. Turning them over, he concluded with authority, "I choose these..", the girl nodded, collecting the stashed out photos.

"This time around, the show will turn out to be very interesting…". He added, smirking.

Kamiya Residence

A dark-haired shadow was seen tip-toeing past the darkened rooms carefully, her eyes roamed freely across the rooms. Clad in her sleeping yukata, she let out a deep breath.

'Hmm.. everyone seems to have drifted to sleep… '

Her slender feet brought her in front of the study room. She was perky and wide-eyed at such a late hour, for a very good reason, and only she knew what the reason was. Sitting down in front of the old wooden desk that once belonged to her father, she opened one of the drawers slowly, taking out a crisp white envelope, her fingers fumbled with the glued side deftly. She extracted a piece of white paper from the envelope, and suddenly her heart beat pumped faster as she scanned the black-inked writing of neatly scribbled kanji characters. Her eyes widen as realization dawned on her.

Oh my goodness, all those incessant tries were not a waste of time after all!

She wanted to shout… yell.. heck, she wanted to leap off the chair and do a silly dance..

Instead, she found herself clamping her mouth shut and bit her bottom lip to prevent excited shrill from being poured out from her lips. She was wincing now due to the pressure as she bit her lip to tamp her excitement down. Re-reading the letter once more, she soon tucked it away into the trusty ol' drawer, and locked the drawer with a fateful click.

'Now, her mind whirled, let's work out how to break this news to the guys gently… gently, with a capital G'.

She couldn't sleep that night, turning around and tossing uncomfortably on top of her futon. The chilly autumn weather didn't make her want to snuggle up beneath the covers and closed her eyes. On the contrary, it was close to three a.m. in the morning, yet her azure orbs glinted with a renewed anticipation.

A few days later

"Oyy.. Busu, wake up! It's time for training! Jeez… you're really turning into a pig!", Yahiko yelled outside of kaoru's bedroom door.

No answer.

He frowned. "Busu… Kaoru.. wake up!", this time he knocked loudly.

Still no answer.

Hesitantly, the teenager slid open the shoji door, revealing a very empty room, only a neatly folded futon was in sight. "Oy, Kaoru..?"

His eyes bulged out, "Ka…o..ru!", and stepped into the room. "Drat! Kenshin has just gone out to get daily supplies, and Kaoru went missing!"

'Wait, she might be in the bath house', his mind reasoned. With that in mind, he spun around, but not before he noticed a small piece of paper propped on top of her desk. "Hmm… a note?".

"Kenshin, Yahiko… I'm sorry I wasn't able to tell you earlier, but I'll be gone for a little while… I'll be back in a few week's time. Don't worry, I take all the necessary safety precautions. And oh, while I'm away, please take care of the house. Love, Kaoru".

Yahiko paled at reading the note. What safety precautions? His sister, the tanuki, is well known for being such a sloppy, unorganized being!

'Drat, I better look for Kenshin, and quick!'

A/N: This was intended to be an entry for Shi-Sha's one-shot competition... but I finished it a little too late.. oh well.. please tell me what you think. This is the longest one shot I've ever written (that's why I decided to make it into 3-4 chapters..)