Disclaimer: Money? You want money? So sorry, Jupe has no money. She also doesn't own Kenshin or Kaoru or anybody else from Rurouni Kenshin. We shall all worship Watsuki-sama for creating such loveable, stealable characters.

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.:Chapter 1:.

Kaoru hummed to herself as she strode towards her dojo, bokken resting on one shoulder.

It was an absolutely glorious day.

A crisp winter wind played with her hair before swirling through the air and tossing snowflakes around haphazardly, leaving a flurry of white powder in its wake. Lazy white clouds crawled through the impossibly blue sky above her, the brightly shining sun partially blocked by white puffs.

At times like these, when the world seemed so happy and perfect, she could almost forget that there was a bastard soiling her dojo's name with murder, that she was alone in the world except for the kind presence of doctor Gensai.

The thought quickly dampened her mood, and her humming stopped as she slouched over, wishing that life was different. Listlessly, she unlocked the dojo gate and stepped into the yard, closing the gate behind her.

Something was...off.

She could feel it, her years of kenjutsu study pricking the back of her mind as she scanned the dojo yard. Someone was here.

Her gaze settled on a flash of red sprawled across the ground, and she walked towards it quickly, bokken at the ready.

It was a man.

While there were no visible wounds on him except for an especially nasty looking scar on his left cheek, he seemed to be in deep pain. Dozens of questions sprang to her mind, but she pushed them aside and set about the task of dragging the man into the dojo, protective instincts kicking in.

He was surprisingly light. Too light. It was almost as though he weighed nothing at all. The thought had her eyes narrowing again, as did the sword he had tucked through his hakama ties.

So, he was a swordsman. Why was a swordsman so utterly exhausted and hurt, and why did he weigh next to nothing?

And where had he gotten that angry red scar?

She sighed. He was obviously in no condition to answer her questions just now. Placing him in front of the fireplace, she set about the task of making him comfortable and warm.

As she rummaged about in her closets for extra blankets and a spare futon, faint murmurs reached her ears.

"T-To...mo...e..."

Tomoe? A woman's name. Maybe he had a wife.

She wondered why the thought left her disappointed.

Shaking her head slightly, she turned towards the man again, her arms full of bedding, to discover him sitting straight up, burning amber eyes boring into her own.

He shifted slightly, breaking the spell, and she blinked rapidly as she tried to clear her thoughts. His gaze was fixed upon the blankets in her arms, and she began babbling in response to the unspoken question.

"I found you outside and you looked so cold and exhausted that I thought I'd prepare a futon for you and put you in front of the fire, since it's always a good idea to get warm when you're cold and blankets and a fire are really good for warmi-"

"Where am I?"

She blinked, the surprise of being cut off mid-ramble and the surprise of hearing his smooth, very male voice combining to leave her opening and closing her mouth like a fish.

"Where am I?" he asked again, locking gazes with her. Smoldering amber depths stole her breath and she found herself shaking her head from side to side slightly, though the reason for it eluded her.

"This building is saturated with pure spiritual energy. What kind of building is it? What happens here? Where am I?" he asked, gaze flickering around the room, looking for some kind of indication of where he might be.

Finding her voice, she straightened her back and replied, "This is the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu dojo, where the way of the sword that protects life is taught."

The corners of his mouth curled slightly as he considered the information.

"The sword that protects life, hmm? That explains the pure energy. I feel an exceptionally strong, pure ki from you. Who are you?" He tilted his head at an inquisitive angle.

"Kamiya Kaoru, the adjutant master," she said quickly, unsettled by the way he was speaking. Who was this man?

Nodding slightly, the man stood up, dusting off his white hakama and gi.

"I am not in need of those," he gestured to the futon and blankets, "but thank you for your concern. It is appreciated." He bowed before her, and proceeded to vanish.

Eyes wide, Kaoru stared at the place the red-headed man had been until a moment before.

'Who are you?'

Kenshin panted, leaning on a nearby tree as he tried to collect his thoughts and the tattered remnants of his ki.

Being torn from the Realm had not been pleasant.

The experience had been excruciatingly painful, his ki ripped from the sea of spiritual energy it had always floated in. Unless he could patch it together again, he would wither away and disappear.

Maybe he should have stayed at the dojo. The reserves of untainted spiritual energy would have been so useful in his endeavor.

But he couldn't burden the pure soul of the girl with his problems.

She would be targeted if he took refuge in her dojo. And then they would come, either corrupt spirits like the ones that had stolen Tomoe from him, or pure ones intent on eradicating his now tainted existence.

He sighed. When had simply surviving become so difficult? Closing his eyes in frustration, he was met with an image of Tomoe, dying in his arms, that painful smile on her face.

His tears froze when they hit the snow, his shuddering gasping breaths creating crystallized puffs in the air.

'Tomoe...'

Her bokken slashed through the air as she danced through her kata. But her mind was elsewhere.

Who was that man?

He had spoken so naturally about spiritual energy and ki. Perhaps he was a monk?

But he had a sword. Monks didn't have swords.

And then of course there was his little disappearing act.

She sighed in frustration, her swings becoming more violent as she pictured her invisible opponent as the mysterious man, her bokken smashing some sense into his head and some answers out of his mouth. A slow smile curved her lips at the mental image, and it steadily grew as the kata progressed.

A keen pang of disappointment shot through her when the kata was finished, and she was drawn from her mental torture of the red-headed stranger she'd discovered.

Maybe a walk would clear her mind and shed some light on her predicament.

Kenshin tensed when he felt another ki approaching where he lay on the ground, clutching at the snow. Memories of Tomoe had overwhelmed him, and he longed for the painful ache in his chest to disappear, no matter the cost. His tattered ki still clung to him in wisps, weaker than before, and his will to live was rapidly fading.

But still, he wouldn't allow another to find him like this. He attempted to push himself off the ground, and discovered, to his dismay, that his deprivation of spiritual energy had stolen his ability to move.

'By the Powers...' he grit his teeth and forced what little energy he had left into an illusion. Hopefully it would be strong enough to fool whoever was coming steadily down this path into believing he was just another clump of snow.

Something tingled.

It was an odd feeling, a prickling of ki against her mind that left her feeling slightly dazed.

'Someone's hiding,' the thought flitted through Kaoru's mind for an instant while she tried to pinpoint the source of the unusual feelings. Not there... no, not- there! She smiled in triumph as she observed the shimmering snow bank, the crystals shining just a bit too brightly.

'Someone's desperate,' she thought, striding confidently towards the snow bank.

A gentle prod of her foot and the illusion evaporated, revealing a very weak-looking redhead.

'Someone is so dead.'

His eyes opened slowly, the rhythmic pounding in his head attesting to his weakened state.

He was back in the dojo.

Suddenly nervous, he attempted to sit up only to discover that there was a very annoyed looking Kaoru sitting on his chest. His eyes widened as he took in her narrowed blue eyes, flashing dangerously.

"You were saying something earlier about how you didn't need my blankets and futon."

He swallowed nervously, eyes darting around the room.

"I think I have proven you wrong, since you've been lying here for three hours."

The tone of her voice forced him to look at her, the smoldering glare pinning him.

"You also said that my concern was appreciated. Is it still?" she asked, her words suddenly turning soft.

He nodded mutely, unable to find his voice. A victorious smile broke out across her features, and she lifted herself off of him.

"Good. Don't disappear on me. I'll be right back."

Breathing a sigh of relief, he relaxed against the futon, thoughts wandering to his predicament.

His ki was still shredded, the edges fraying even as he lay still.

And there was so much pure spiritual energy permeating the very air of this building...

Almost subconsciously, he began drawing from the energy embedded in the wood of the dojo walls and using it to smooth out his ki, melding it back together carefully.

When Kaoru returned, a tea tray in her hands, she found him lying very still on the futon, his amber eyes focused but vacant, the steady rise and fall of his chest the only thing that told her he was alive.

She coughed softly to get his attention.

Blinking slowly, he refocused his gaze on her and stared at her with an expression of annoyed confusion.

"I was in the middle of something important," he said curtly, eyes narrowing a fraction as he regained his lost confidence. Kaoru rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure it can wait. I want some answers."

He sighed. It was to be expected. And it was her home that was currently providing him with enough energy to heal...so he relented.

"What do you wish to know?" he asked, easily slipping into his overly polite façade.

"Well, first of all, what's your name?" she asked, cradling her chin in her hands.

"Himura Kenshin," he said softly, eyes turning distant as he remembered when that had not been his name.

"Okay then, Kenshin. So, what in heaven's name are you?" she asked bluntly.

A soft chuckle parted his lips, and his eyes twinkled as he looked at her.

"I am... was... a spirit guardian for the Realm. Recently I have been...demoted," he grimaced, a hand reaching up to finger his scar absently. She snorted.

"No duh. A three hour nap is a little much for healthy grown men," she quipped. Suddenly her eyes glittered with curiosity. "So you're a spirit guardian, ne? Why am I not surprised."

Kenshin's eyes widened as he stared at her in confusion.

"How do you know of these things?" he asked, bewildered. Kaoru chuckled dryly.

"My mother was a spirit. She withered away eventually simply because she was no longer part of the Realm. Kicked out for falling in love with a human, I think. She didn't talk about it much - from what I gather, the separation from the Realm isn't easy," she cast a sidelong glance at Kenshin's weakened form, noting the grimace that flickered across his face.

"Most assuredly not," he whispered, eyes cold and shuttered, pain locked away behind them. Something seemed to occur to him then, and he took a long look at her, seeing through her with his piercing gaze.

"So that is why your ki is so strong. You are half pure-spirit," he mused, chin resting on the backs of his hands. "I, also, am not surprised." Her eyes glinted mischievously.

"That's not what your face was saying a moment ago when you were gaping like a fish!" she teased. Cheeks reddening, he reached silently for the cup of now-cold tea resting on the tea tray.

"I was not gaping like a fish."

"Oh, so now you can see your face as you talk, too? You must be pretty powerful!"

"Do not mock this one. I still carry my Pure Sword," he warned, his eyes flashing amber.

Kaoru tilted her head inquisitively. "Pure Sword? I've never heard of one of those."

Kenshin reached for the katana tucked into his hakama ties and inched it out slightly. Bright, almost blinding light flashed from the inside of the sheath, only growing in intensity as he completely unsheathed the sword. Once her eyes adjusted, she could see that the blade was actually formed of what appeared to be solid light, shifting waves of blue and green iridescence swirling through it. He hefted the sword easily, as though it were made of nothing.

Which, technically, it was.

"This is a Pure Sword. It is made completely of Purity, and will slice only that which is impure or inanimate. It cannot destroy Purity - rather, it soaks up Purity and uses it to make itself stronger," he explained, turning the curious blade this way and that way. Kaoru reached for it tentatively, mesmerized by the swirls or color. Suddenly the sword was jerked away, out of her grasp.

Kenshin's cold voice reprimanded her, "You are a human - all humans have some impurity within them. Do not touch my sword, lest it burn you."

Kaoru simply stared for a moment, awed and overwhelmingly curious. When her gaze refocused and her head cleared, she discovered Kenshin sitting up on the futon, straight as a ramrod, with his eyes narrowed and pointed in the direction of the dojo entrance.

And then, someone began pounding furiously on the gate.

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Glossary:

Bokken- A wooden sword

Dojo- A school for training in Japanese arts of self-defense. In this fic, kenjutsu

Kenjutsu- The art of sword-play

Hakama- Basically samurai pants

Ki- One's life energy, or aura

Gi- The top that goes with the aforementioned samurai pants

Kata- a routine for practicing various forms of martial arts; in this fic, kendo

Ne- An affirmative ending to sentences, kind of like "right?"

AN: Hoorah, first chapter done. :D

Man, this plotbunny turned out weird.

The original Chapter 1 was tons different. But it rushed things way too much and sucked, so I ditched it and rewrote it. xD

And then I looked at it and you know what? It STILL rushed things way too much and sucked. So I rewrote that, too.

And then I got it beta'd. xD

I hereby ping luff at Misaoshiru. What would I ever do without my beta? -heart-