Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. Pretty please, don't sue me? -/Guybrush Threepwood ripoff-

GAH. Sorry for all the edits. My brain is not functioning today.

.:Chapter 3:.

"Kenshin, will you please stop trying to wash the practice dummies, for heaven's sake?"

The spirit in question raised his eyes to meet her glare, a slightly confused expression on his face. With an exasperated sigh, Kaoru took hold of the rag dangling limply from his hand and tugged on it.

"What would you have me do?" he asked, tightening his grip on the cloth subconsciously.

"Well, for one thing, you could stop trying to clean anything that has a speck of dust on it. Honestly, I'd think you were allergic to dirt!" she groused, flinging her hands into the air. Kenshin regarded her coolly, eyes narrowed in thought.

"Hmm, I think I was told something of the sort when I was younger..." he mused, tapping a finger against his chin.

"Mou!"

"Oro!"

Both Kenshin and Kaoru blinked at each other, Kaoru's bokken still on the spirit's head from the whack she had just dispensed.

"...Did you just say 'oro'?"

Kenshin's eyes widened slightly, a faint blush dusting his cheeks.

"No."

"..."

"...Well, maybe," he conceded, a hand rising to touch the welt on his head. Kaoru stared after him for a moment before lowering her bokken and shaking her head slightly.

"Mou," Kaoru huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and turning from the red-headed spirit. Kenshin regarded her warily, uncertain of her mood or how to get back in good graces. He opted for the ever-popular choice of silence.

After a moment, Kaoru faced him again, head tilted as she considered the spirit in front of her.

"Why are you such a neat freak, anyway?" she asked childishly, rocking on her heels with her hands behind her back. Kenshin's expression turned distant as he reminisced.

"...Those in my position took a special oath of absolute purity. Any spirit that broke that oath had their citizenship in the Realm revoked," he stated after a moment.

Looking into his eyes, Kaoru whispered, "Like you?" The spirit didn't answer and returned silently to washing the straw practice dummy, eyes cold and shuttered.

"You know," Kaoru started, her tone conversational and nonchalant, "absolute purity is a pretty high goal." A hiss escaped Kenshin's lips as his eyes narrowed.

"My only purpose is to cleanse anything impure. Absolute purity is a necessity for those like me."

"But still, even the best of us make mistakes some times. I don't think there's anyone who is completely pure, in the Realm or on Earth," Kaoru ventured, glancing at Kenshin from the corner of her eye. His face was hidden beneath his bangs, the rag in his hand clutched in a white-knuckled grip. Suddenly, he spoke.

"I once knew someone with thoughts similar to yours. It was my duty to protect her, much like I am protecting you now. With her words in my head, I was not able to properly function. She is now deceased, because of my distractions," he said quietly, rigidly. "For your own safety, please do not speak of these things."

Kaoru stared into the yard, unseeing, as Kenshin brushed past her and headed for the kitchen.

'You poor soul.'

It was uncanny, he decided, how alike they were. How similar, and yet not.

Kaoru...and Tomoe.

Both had worldviews almost completely different from his own, both had a pair of eyes that saw more than it should, both soaked up information like sponges.

Both were under his protection.

Would he fail them both, as well?

A shudder ran down his spine as he shook his head vehemently, as though he could will the thought away.

But still it remained, festering in the back of his mind.

Would both of them suffer the same fate? Would this one die for him, too?

Would Kaoru die?

'Never,' he thought, 'will I allow that to happen again.'

And then there were her words in his mind, springing up unbidden.

'I don't think there's anyone who is completely pure, in the Realm or on Earth.'

Of course there was. He had been pure, completely and absolutely pure, until his fall.

'You know, Himura-san, you're awfully proud.'

His eyes widened as he recalled the words, spoken so innocently by his ward during one of their sessions.

Had he truly been proud? She was seldom wrong in such matters...

But his oath! His oath of absolute purity! Surely he would have fallen from the Realm long before her death if he had been so tainted.

Unless there really were no absolutely pure beings.

He silently cursed the innocuous words, so full of cheeky innocence that even his hardened heart took notice of them.

Sake would taste really great right now.

Kaoru emerged from the practice hall, sweat-soaked clothes clinging to her body uncomfortably, and stumbled upon a peculiar scene. Kenshin was glaring at the gate with burning amber eyes, and she got the distinct impression that if the gate had eyes of its own, it would be glaring right back at him.

Sighing, she plopped onto the engawa next to him

"I'll bite. What's eating at you?"

There were a few more moments of silent seething before he answered her. "Apparently, since I used energy from your dojo to fill in the cracks in my ki, your dojo considers me bound to it," he growled, narrowing his eyes even more as his glare intensified.

Kaoru stared at him, mystified.

"Bound?"

Sighing tiredly, Kenshin turned away from the gate and fixed his eyes on her, minus the glare.

"Basically, I can't leave."

"...And this is a bad thing?"

"Of course it is!" Kenshin snarled, returning his gaze to the gate. "Now I am forced to stay here, and you will be put in danger by those who are certain to seek me, and when you eventually grow old and die, I will still remain and become known as the ghost of the dojo or something!"

Kaoru snickered.

"It is not funny."

"Sorry."

"Your sympathy is overwhelming," he responded dryly, glancing sideways at her.

Ignoring the comment, Kaoru said, "Well, what if I went with you? I'm basically part of the dojo, after all." Kenshin stared at her for a long moment before grabbing her arm and practically dragging her out of gate. He glanced at the dirt road beneath his feet.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you were too busy glaring at the gate, Mr. Grumpy Pants."

"...What did you just call me?"

"Well they are! They're practically in tatters! Though I can guess why, seeing how hard you scrub things."

"We are not discussing my hakama."

"Good idea. How about you see if the dojo will allow you to let go of my arm, instead?"

The comment returned Kenshin's mind to more pressing matters, and he confidently opened his hand. Or tried to.

"It seems your dojo is rather clingy."

"Really? It looks to me as though you're the clingy one," an ancient voice put in lightly. Kaoru's face lit up immediately.

"Gensai-sensei!"

Kenshin turned towards the voice and was met with the visage of an aged man, stooped and wrinkled with frizzled gray hair and crinkles around his perpetually smiling eyes. But there was something else...

"Kamiya-san seems to attract the spiritual," he said, looking Gensai squarely in the eye. The elderly man blinked and stared at Kenshin curiously before a light of recognition dawned on his face and he shook his head back and forth, chuckling in amazement.

"That she does, whippersnapper. Actually, her entire family seems to. I've been looking after it for a long time, after all. I would know," he chortled, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Kaoru, however, looked thoroughly confused.

"Um, not all of us have the ability to read people's minds..."

"None of us do."

"Well excuse me! Can you just explain what's so funny?" she fumed, muttering a few choice words under her breath. Kenshin raised an eyebrow at the language before acquiescing.

"Gensai-sensei is what you would call a guardian angel. His kind are spirits from the Realm who are sent to Earth but retain their bond to the Realm, usually for protection of humans significant in the workings of the world. Why your family would have one I don't know," he admitted, glancing at Gensai from the corner of his eye.

"Kaoru-chan's family has been involved with the spiritual for many generations. I'm just here to make certain they don't use their ties for evil," Gensai said, nodding good-naturedly.

Kaoru smiled brightly, turning to usher her guests into the dojo yard, while Kenshin considered the guardian's comments with narrowed eyes.

Simply being "involved" with the spiritual would never merit having a spirit guardian. Something was being hidden from him.

But he would let it rest for now. He would confront Gensai-sensei about it some other time, when Kaoru was not present to witness the conversation.

Gensai-sensei had visited with his precious "Kaoru-chan" for an hour or two, congratulating her on the "disappearance" of Gohei and his slander, before declaring that he had to get back to his clinic lest his waiting room get too full. With an exuberant wave good-bye, Kaoru sent him off and returned to the practice hall, a spring in her step and a tune on her lips.

Kenshin, however, was left musing.

Life was getting more complicated by the day. His powers were gradually returning to him, as his repaired ki adapted to Earth's natural resources and drew from the large supply of energy in the dojo. However, being bound to the dojo was something he hadn't counted on. He'd assumed that he would stay until Kaoru had a handle on her talents and he had discovered a way to survive outside the reservoir of energy without resorting to killing things, and then he would leave. But now...

Now it looked like he'd be around until Kaoru had pretty darn well mastered her powers.

'I supremely dislike clingy dojo.'

He could almost feel the dojo sticking its tongue out at him.

The scent of soup cooking was what finally brought Kaoru out of the practice hall. Following her nose brought her to the kitchen, where Kenshin was absentmindedly heating miso soup to perfection using some sort of completely unfair power. An orange glow surrounded the pot, and if the amount of steam rising from it was any indication, the soup contained within was just about ready.

"You have got to teach me how to do that."

The comment snapped Kenshin from his reverie, and he glanced at Kaoru's awed expression with the barest hint of a smile on his face.

"You can cook dinner tomorrow night," he conceded, the smile growing slightly at her snort.

"Trust me, you don't want me cooking dinner," she said ruefully, gazing at the pot with a wistful longing. "It's been so long since I had edible food in my own house."

"Then the first thing I shall teach you will be how to cook edible food," he said dryly, dishing out the miso soup efficiently. Kaoru tasted it eagerly, a blissful smile appearing on her face.

"If my attempts come out half as well as these, I will die a happy woman," she chirped, shoveling soup into her mouth with her chopsticks. She paused suddenly when she noticed that Kenshin had hidden his eyes behind his bangs again. "Kenshin?"

Without another word, the red-head disappeared with a crinkling pop. Mystified, Kaoru stared at the spot he had occupied.

'...Was it something I said?'

Kenshin sat in the tree overhanging the koi pond in her yard, his mind consumed by one thought.

'...I will die a happy woman'

'No.'

He knew it was simply a figure of speech, but her choice of words brought to mind his earlier internal struggle and overrode his reason.

She would not die. She would live for many, many years--

'And then she'll die, leaving me behind.'

No! She wouldn't die. Couldn't die. She was his new anchor, his new hold on reality. Like Tomoe had been...

But Tomoe had died.

Tomoe had died because he couldn't protect her, because he hadn't taught her well enough to protect herself.

He would not, could not make the same mistake with his new ward. Resolve burned in his eyes as he leapt from the tree to seek out his pupil. It was time for her first lesson on ki.

--

Glossary:

Mou- Kaoru's favorite word of exasperation, kind of like "Geeze!"

Oro- Kenshin's ever-popular non-word, used in situations where he's either confused, surprised, or indignant. Kind of like a squeak. xD

Bokken- A wooden sword

Engawa- A veranda, or porch

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

Ki- One's life energy, or aura

Hakama- Basically samurai pants

Miso- A paste made of fermented soybeans or grains, which makes very good soup and very bad puns on Misao's name -coughMisaoshirucough-

--

AN: Huzzah, I updated.

My muse skittered away and died somewhere while Misaoshiru was away, so I had to wait until she came back to finish off the chapter, let alone get it beta'd. xD

Fortunately, that meant that the bizarre 'LET'S MAKE THIS FUNNY' streak that my muse had been sporting also died, so this piece can finally be serious again! Yay.

I'm toying with the idea of editing the first few chapters with very small flashbacks in between sections, or at the start of each chapter, so I don't have an entire flashback chapter. -hates flashback chapters- If I do, I'll let ya'll know so you can be sure to read the extra bits. C:

Feeding Jupe's muse reviews makes it happy. And remember, happy muses are active muses. :D