THE IMPOSSIBLE By: Chiki Yumeshisa

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin…all original characters/ideas are mine to claim.

AN: Hi everyone. Sorry it took me so long to update this, I had to dig it out of my files before I could post it. I hope everyone had a fantastic new year and that you will enjoy this chapter.

Warnings: Attempted murder, and family situations.

Chapter 7:
Wishful Thinking Aside

It was a usual fight, something Kaoru was sick of seeing and hearing. But to see her mother's face with a purple bruise on its cheek, and her mother's hand holding a kitchen knife, was something all together different.

It had gotten worse; her father never before hit her mother. There had to be something terribly wrong. It was like a slow motion movie, as her mother lunged forward with that knife gripped in her hand like a dagger.

Her father, being a master of the Kasshin Ryu style, sidestepped. Kaoru rushed in. "Mother, Father! Stop this at once!" She was terrified, as her father turned to her mother and started swearing a blue streak.

"What are you trying to do?! I can report you in to the police for attempted murder!" He cried.

"I can report you in for abuse!" She retorted.

"You're both crazy!!" Kaoru screamed. She stamped her foot and cried, "You're both insane! What's wrong with you guys? Can't you stop fighting for once?!" In her anger, she slammed her fist down on the kitchen counter she was standing next to. "Do you know how much it hurts having to listen to you guys and argue? Why don't you care about anyone but yourselves?!"

Her father stopped and came over to her. "Kaoru-chan……."

Her mother pursed her lips, not saying anything. She looked away.

Kaoru bowed her head in her grief. "If it will make things better for us and for you, then, by all means, separate!!! I've had it!!!!!! I've had enough……."She buried her face in her father's robes, sobbing. There, she had said it.

And very soon, it happened as she asked.

8 months later, her father came home with an ashen face. He seemed to be in a world of his own.

He had lost the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu four months ago, due to some rumors that he was an abuser and taught students how to hurt others. Of course, none of this was true. They had been devastated, and it only made family matters worse. She wondered what could possibly have gone wrong now.

"Father?" She asked, worriedly. She followed him to the living room. "What's wrong?"

She held a sleeping Suzume in her arms. She had been very cranky that day, putting up such a howl, that the neighbors had come in asking if the child was alright. She had assured them everything was fine. After two hours, she had managed to lull the baby to sleep.

Her parents had gone out together that day, both in sullen moods. Her father was the only one to return. She had hoped that the situation between them would get better, but unfortunately, it didn't. It just got worse. Not a day passed without the two of them arguing. So much that the police had gotten involved when worried neighbors called.

It got so bad that the children were almost taken to custody under foster parents. Her parents had argued though, insisting that the problem would get settled.

"Your mother and I are getting a divorce."

And what a solution at that!

Kaoru couldn't believe her ears. She sat down, rather heavily on the couch nearby. Had she just heard right?

He saw how much the news had hurt her, so he moved forward, taking her hands in his. "Honey, I know it's hard for you…….but there really isn't any other way."
Kaoru couldn't help but glare at him. "There is a way, but you and mother don't even want to try and figure out a solution." She angrily pulled her hands out of his. Her eyes filled with tears. What was going to become of them now?

She had done everything she could do to stop her parents from arguing. She studied day in and day out, making sure that Yahiko did the same. That would stop their bickering over schooling. She tried to do all the chores so that the arguing over work would stop. She even went so far as to make sure she was the one taking care of the baby, so that the pointing fingers about who was responsible and who wasn't would cease.
All that never worked.

Well, apparently, since they were separating.

Maybe it was for the best – they would no longer have a reason to fight: they would both be far away from each other.

It tore at her heart though: Kaoru loved the both of them. It hadn't always been like that. Her mother and father used to be so loving to each other. What went wrong? She had no clue. She just wished things were back to the way they used to be.

Those good memories weren't easy to forget. If she had to choose between them, who would she go with? Her mother? Her father?

Thoughts spun in her head so fast that it made her sick. She heard her father saying something behind her, but she didn't know what. She didn't care. Her world was crashing.

She found herself in a courtroom, a couple of days later. She sat in the back, her siblings sitting beside her. Ayame was insisting she wanted to curl up on Kaoru's lap, so she tried her best to make room for her, cradling a wide eyed Suzume, who said the word 'Mama' every two seconds. Yahiko sat stone still beside her.

When he had heard the news, he had said nothing. He gave her no outward reaction. Maybe he was just tired of all the fighting too.

The judge came in, a big man, his head bald. He had a red face, and it made Kaoru wonder if he had run all the way to the courtroom. He sat down in his chair, and brought the gavel down with a solid thunk. Even Suzume fell silent.

The words went right past Kaoru, as she watched her parents, each sitting on the opposite ends of the room. No where near each other…….. she felt tears spring into her eyes again. Her mother stood up and presented their case, and explained that her father was not enough of a working man: he was jobless and could no longer provide for his family.

Her father objected: he had brought home more of the wages than she had ever done in their relationship. He had only to wait a couple more weeks before he got placed in the position he had applied for. And that was all it took for the insults to fly back and forth.

The gavel came down again, firmer this time. "What do you propose to do with the children?" He asked, sternly. "A single parent taking care of four children is a hard task."

They looked at each other. "If I am to take care of them, I will keep them all." Kaoru's father announced. "I wouldn't be able to part with any of them."

Her mother retorted, "You wouldn't be able to take care of any of them."

"A jobless man taking care of four children……" The judge began. But Kaoru's mother intervened.

"I will take two, and he will take the other two."

Kaoru froze. Not only was she going to be separated from her parents, but her siblings as well. She felt her arms tighten around both Suzume and Ayame. She would have hugged Yahiko to her too, but she had no more arms to spare. She cast him a worried glance, but he was staring straight ahead. She guessed he was in shock.

"……Kaoru and Suzume……" Her mother was saying.

"What about the other two? You would choose to forget about them?" Her father demanded.

Her mother clucked disdainfully. Before she could get a sour answer back, her father continued, "I am willing to raise them all. You'll see that a father can raise children just as well as a mother."

"Then take them!" Her mother snapped. "It's less of a burden on my part, anyway! And besides, they all remind me of you!"

The arguing continued for about 15 minutes, and Kaoru broke down completely. Her mother didn't care for any of them………it tore her heart into millions of pieces. Yahiko, seeing his sister cry for the first time, began to bawl too. His strong, courageous sister crying? It was too much for him to bear! He had been willing himself to be as strong as her, but that was swept away faster than he had been able to build it.

From then on, Kaoru regarded her mother as a stranger. Her mother left the house almost immediately, after the case was closed, taking with her the money she had earned. It forced Kamiya-san and his children to move.

Kaoru was not able to tell Katsu or any of her friends where she was going. That she was reduced to poverty……telling them that she was not able to go with them to high school after all. She took another exam, managing to get into Queen's High School without much difficulty. What a change for her in just a year.

They moved to the other side of town, in a smaller house. The house was rundown, and dirty. House insects infested it, and it took almost two weeks to get rid of every last one.

They moved in comfortably, but Kaoru could hardly bear the thought that her whole life had changed. She found comfort in her books and her studies, losing herself in all her textbooks.

She knew one thing for sure: she wanted to make sure that all her siblings were happy. Even if she was not happy, she'd make sure they all were.

It meant she had to work, and she had to get into the right university to get a well-paying job. She was determined to make loose ends meet.

When she turned 17 two years later, things were back to moving smoothly. Her father had gotten the job of a shipper in a small courier company. Though the pay wasn't the best, it was enough to get by on. They just made do with what they had.

She heard news that her mother had moved to England and met another man: Yukishiro Tetsuya. She heard that they were going to get married. Yukishiro Tetsuya had lost his wife and had fallen in love with Kaoru's mother. He already had two children: Yukishiro Tomoe and Yukishiro Enishi. She had moved on in her life.

And it was just as well with Kaoru: She would move on too.

She pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail, and made her way out to the living room, where her father was squatting on the ground next to her Suzume, who was trying to copy his fingers as he taught her how to count. She had grown into a child with bright blue eyes and chubby cheeks.

Her hair was a soft brown color, like her father's. She had inherited her eyes from her mother. Ayame was a pure Kamiya as they called her, with brown hair and brown eyes. Kaoru was a spitting image of her mother. Blue eyes and beautiful raven black hair while Yahiko was a mixture of both parents, with brown eyes and black hair.

Suzume was giggling, and looked up when Kaoru entered. Her small chubby face pushed up with a smile. "Hi, Kao-nee!"

Kaoru smiled back. "Hello." She cooed, helping the child off the floor. She addressed her father, "I've decided to switch schools."

Her father frowned. Queen's high School was an average high school that was close by and she was doing well in it last he checked.

"Are you having trouble with the one you're in now?" He asked.

Kaoru blinked. Trouble? "No." In fact, it was so easy, she was bored half the time during classes. Having spent 2 years without much she could call competition, she decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. She had been reading a newspaper and saw a flyer fall out. It was a pamphlet advertising a school KOJIMACHI PRIVATE INSTITUTE It consisted of its own elementary, high school, and even university. She read that it was highly competitive, but it was the best high school any student would want to get into, and the place where parents would love to send their children.

And it looked that way too – the facilities and faculty looked topnotch. The teachers were all professionals. She wasn't interested so much with the way the school looked – it was more on what it had to offer. If she could get into the best school, and graduate as the best, she would for sure get accepted into the university of her choice. And then she'd land the best job possible. So long as she could provide for her siblings.

"Then why would you want to switch?" He asked, confused.

"I want to go to Kojimachi Private High……" She began.

He instantly shook his head. "Kaoru, you know we don't have that type of money."

It was Kaoru's turn to shake her head. "No, father, I wasn't going to ask you to use your money."

"How do you propose to get in?" He demanded. "It takes money to get into a private institute like that."

"I will take the exam." She said casually. "It should be easy enough." She fingered Suzume's hair. "I want to do well……and get a good job. If I don't pass the exam, then at least I tried."

Her father seemed pensive. Finally he nodded, and his frown was replaced by a gentle smile. "I know you can do it then. You're a very bright girl, Kaoru, and I believe in you."

Happily, she got to her feet, swinging Suzume around. She knew her father would consent – he was always behind her all the way.

It wasn't likely that someone would switch suddenly in the middle of the school year, but she was determined to make it through.

She took the test that week, and sure enough, the results were what she was expecting. She got a 98 on the exam. She had to admit though; it had been a very difficult one – designed so that those who took it would most likely fail. It ticked her off that they did that so that they would get students who paid to get in instead.

She was accepted graciously, and she transferred the very next week. The uniform was simple: a black blazer, a black skirt, a white collared shirt and a red tie. Her text books her father had given to her as a present as his way of saying congratulations for passing the exam. She had just saved him $7000 entrance fee. $800 worth of textbooks was a small sum compared to that.

To go to Kojimachi was expensive. It was almost $3000 a month. But then again, the sons and daughters of rich companies, lawyers, doctors and other high class people went there. To them, it was nothing to really worry about.

And it was just Kaoru's luck, to bump into the son of the richest person in Japan on her first day of school.

And even worse…..she made enemies with him right away.

She could smell trouble.

Trouble she did not need.

His name?

His name was Himura Kenshin.

To be Continued…

AN: That's Kaoru's life story. Sorta. Divorce is a hard thing to talk about for some people, so if I have offended any of you, I'm very sorry. There's no cliffhanger here, so it's yet another prelude to WHEN THE WORLD REVOLVES AROUND YOU. For those of you who are reading that, I hope this answered some of your questions about Kaoru's past and her relationship with the Yukishiros.

Until next update, please review!