I was nervous. I haven't practiced any form of martial arts in years, most of my time focused on my studies. Sano surged ahead in this while I charged ahead in academics. Physical and brains. Yup, that explained us perfectly. Sano mastered the Futae no Kiwami in merely a few days; I finished high school and college pre-med courses in four years. We are a couple of wonder twins.

I took a deep breath and my grip on the strap of my exercise bag tightened. I then rocked on my heels for a second before gathering my courage and knocking on the door to the dojo. The dojo I had trained in was open to the public, its wide doors open for any who wished to join and allowing people to watch the students go through the motions of their katas. It was the way my father had wanted it, and I loved it that way. This dojo was placed in a gym, closed with air conditioner.

I waited for bated breath for what felt like hours, which was in reality a few seconds, before the door opened. Soujiro Seta was smiling genially at me, his blue eyes twinkling and his hair plastered onto his forehead. Obviously he had been practicing before I arrived. "Kaoru, I assume?"

I dry swallowed and nodded. I was uncomfortable around guys, especially ones I was looking to be my donor. I cringed internally at the thought; I was still unaccustomed to the fact that I was getting pregnant. I think I am allowed a freak out every now and then. I followed him into the impeccably clean dojo, my mouth agape. There were a few punching bags at the end of the room, tied up but they could be slid out to span the length of the room. A selection of bokken and shinai were resting in a corner of the room, and next to it were punching pads; a person would attach these onto their arms while her partner would kick or punch at the targets. Really and truly, it was no different than my dad's dojo but something about it screamed different.

Soujiro smiled over his shoulder at my nervous expression. "Don't worry, when I have newcomers I don't push them too hard."

I gave him a half smile. "I'm not worried about that, it's just been a while."

A dark eyebrow went into his hairline. "You've fought before?"

"I trained with my father for a few years."

He gave me a blinding smile. "Then I'll do a little assessment test to see where you're at."

I nodded before jerking my head in the direction of the bathrooms. "Can you give me a few minutes to change?" I gestured at my jeans and black strappy top (I had my Target button-down over it before, but that was too embarrassing to travel in). "I don't think I would be too comfortable training in this."

He smiled indulgently at me, which I took as an a-okay. I rushed to the bathrooms and changed quickly into a white work out top and loose black yoga pants. I saw that Soujiro was barefooted, so I left my shoes off. Just to be safe, I put on my boxing gloves. If I wasn't going to use them, it was no skin off my back to take them off.

When I emerged from the bathrooms, I saw that Soujiro had put on the arms pads and was looking at me expectantly. "Let's see your punch."

I nodded, and went into the stance I was taught-legs apart and steady, a bit more than shoulder width apart with my favored foot (my right foot) slightly behind me. I brought my hands to my chin level, and kept my gaze steady and inhaled. Exhaling sharply, I snapped my right arm out in a cross, immediately followed by a left hook and a right cross. Soujiro seemed impressed. I shook my shoulders to loosen them. I then did the same, but opposite arms; left cross, right hook and left cross again.

"Your form is great, but I think you're holding back on me." I grinned slightly, because he was right. He discarded the pads and put on his own boxing gloves. Then he too stood at a ready position, and with a friendly smile, urged me to attack.

What followed was a series of punches and kicks in combinations I haven't done in years. I was barely able to hit him, he was so fast, but he always did me the courtesy of not hitting me even when he had the chance. I brought my right foot up and snapped it out in a roundhouse kick, and he grabbed my leg. I wrenched it out of his grip and threw myself backwards to avoid his punch to my face. His fist grazed my right cheek and before his hand recoiled, I returned the punch. I felt myself grinning; I haven't felt so good and so alive in a while. I missed fighting.

After a minute of sparring, Soujiro held up a hand. My breath was coming in gasps and sweat was trickling down my face and into my eyes. I shook my head of the perspiration, a feral grin on my lips. "You need to slow down your movements, control them better. But otherwise, you're good." I was really getting tired of his ever-present smile. It was creeping me out. He waltzed over to the bokken and shinai, and tossed a wooden sword to me.

I watched it turn in the air and as it reached close enough, I grabbed it mid-air. Before I could even think, Soujiro was on top of me. If it was even possible, his speed with the sword was even greater than when we were fist fighting. I just had to continually thank my father for his defense-oriented teachings, as I'm sure without it I would have ended up with a few bruises. Ok, not a few, a lot. And possibly a couple broken bones.

Upward block, sweep into a side block, jump back. Walk cautiously in a circle before blocking a slash to the neck. Swinging my blade up and under his, and twist my wrist. Flick it as hard as I could, and his sword flew out his hand. Stand with the bokken poised in front of me, following his every move even though I disarmed him.

He gave me a puzzled look. "Why didn't you attack me?"

I shrugged, lowering my sword. "It wasn't what I was taught. I was taught to protect the weak, 'A sword that protects'. I don't believe in killing someone, or attacking an unarmed person."

His bewildered look was a little better than his over cheery smile. "But only the strong survive." As he said that, my blood went cold.

"Do you really believe that?" My voice was soft.

"Who wouldn't? It's the way of the world; survival of the fittest."

I ran my hands through my hair, a growl stuck in my throat. No way could he believe that. Yet his expression told me differently; from the confused look in his blue eyes, to the way he held himself proudly as he said it, the almost arrogant twist in his lips...he truly believed that the weak had no place in the world.

He took my silence as acceptance, and seemed to forget our disagreement. "The remainder of the class would be arriving in a few minutes. You're welcome to try the first class for free, and if you want to continue after today, just sign up and pay a deposit of $100 for the first month. Oh, and we usually train with music, if you don't mind."

I nodded, my head still reeling. I stumbled away from him, and went into the bathroom. I splashed my face with water and took a deep breath. I then took out my water bottle and took a few deep swallows of the miracle that is water.

I heard the sounds of people coming into the dojo and the sounds of friendly banter. I waited until I heard more people come and the music to start before I went to join them. I lost myself in the pounding of feet as we ran in a circle around the room.

Soujiro Seta was seeming promising, but no matter how I think about it in different points of view, I could not bring myself to agree with his mindset.

I mentally put a line through his name.

Only one more to go-Kenshin Himura. I hoped that he would be good enough, or else I would have to do this whole process again.

-x-

Megumi's face appeared on my phone watch as I closed the door to my house. I sighed before answering. "Yes, Megumi?"

"So what did you think of Seta? I want to meet with him next week, but I don't want to waste my time."

"Don't go. You'll be wasting your time."

Her face looked disappointed. "But he seemed so promising!"

I resisted the urge to scowl at her; it wasn't her fault I was angry. Ok, maybe. I was annoyed at her, but she didn't need to know that. "Yeah, he seemed perfect on paper. In person, he's pretty disgusting."

"Disgusting how? Like picking his nose in front of people and eating it disgusting?" I made a disgusted face.

"Ew, nothing as dramatic as that. Sheesh."

"Then disgusting how?"

I sat heavily on a floating sofa (yes, the thing floated, I loved how it bobbed as soon as I sat on it. I never got tired of the stomach-falling-feeling) and sighed gustily, blowing a strand of hair out of my face. "He and I didn't see eye to eye on an important topic."

"Which topic?" I gave her a sharp glance, and I saw her shrug her shoulders. "Sorry, I had to ask. Oh, I meant to tell you: Ken has a little sister who is having an eighteenth party at some club next week, and I got us on the guest list!"

"He has a sister?" I gave her a suspicious look.

She rolled her eyes. "Her name's Misao Mackimachi, and they're not blood related. Their father adopted the Kenshin in 2012 when he was three, and Misao in 2017 when she was four. Hiko let his kids keep their real names, which is weird."

"Wait, how do you know this? And how the heck did you get us invited?"

Megumi gave me a sly glance, and she giggled. "I have my methods." She said ominously before hanging up on me.

I growled at the blank screen before allowing my head to loll onto the back of my chair. "Damn her."

"Hey, once she keeps paying she could got to hell for all I care."

My head jerked up and I jumped slightly in my seat, making the thing bob up and down, jarring me even more. Sano was laughing uproariously at my scared crap-less expression, and my antics to calm the damn chair. I glared at him, swiping my sweaty hair out my eyes. That reminded me-I was in desperate need of a shower. I tried very hard to not smell myself to see if I stank or not.

"What do you want, Sano?"

He stopped laughing long enough to wipe his eyes. "I heard you talking to psycho doctor there, and I wanted to know what kind of party you're going to without me."

"Kenshin Himura's little sister's party."

He gave me a blank stare. "Is he some medical genius too?"

I gave him an incredulous look before laughing. I couldn't help it, the thought of that red-head being smart for some reason amused me greatly. It's not like he didn't look smart, he did, it's just that...not that smart. And he's not even out of college! Makes me wonder why I even considered him for a donor; but then again, most (if not all) of the donors Megumi chose were my age or a little older. I didn't pay much attention to the ages, but as I recall, Cho was the eldest at twenty-three. Hmm. Maybe she chose guys my age so I may better relate to them. Wow. She was even more thoughtful than I thought.

"No, no, he's not a doctor, or even studying to be one." I managed after I caught my breath. I had a stitch from laughing so hard, and I was clutching my side. "He's one of the guys Megumi chose to be my donor, but she wants me to choose."

"But...? I sense a but coming along."

"But I have to meet them first. I just came from a meeting with one of them."

"And he dumped a bucket of water over you. No wonder you turned him down."

"No, he is the assistant teacher in a dojo, so I went to one of his sessions."

"And how did that go for you?" His tone was mocking.

My voice was slightly incredulous when I answered. "It was fun. I missed fighting."

His eyebrows were high. "You do?"

I nodded my head and curled my feet under me. I put my elbow on my legs and propped my head on my hand. "Yeah. When I was sparring with Soujiro-that's his name-I had fun. It felt good to hit something."

Sano moved from his space to in front of me, his face turning from one of shock to anger. "That bastard bruised you!" He yelled, gently prodding my right cheek where he punched me. I jerked my head away from his course fingers.

"We sparred. People get hit in spars." I retorted.

Sano stood, his hands in fists at his sides. "That son-of-a-bitch is going to pay." His brown eyes blazed in fury. I stood up wearily, walked into my room, got my baseball bat and walked back outside. I took a swing at Sano's head and with a loud thwap, the bat connected with my brother's hard head.

"Ow, what the heck was that for?" He yelled at me, his hand rubbing the place where I hit him. His normally spiky hair was kinda flat in that area, and I had to suppress a grin. "You weren't listening to me! Don't go after him, or else…" I raised the bat threateningly.

Sano backed away from me, his hands raised in surrender. "Fine, I won't. Just...don't get hit next time."

I gave him an impish grin. "I don't plan to."

The fist fight I described is taken from personal experience...literally. My sensei was trying to teach me a lesson (I was going through the drill too fast and getting excited and I started actually hitting my partner when we were supposed to only be shadow boxing xp) and yes, I did get punched in the face. It was actually the corner of my eyes, and I barely dodged it. If I didn't move my head last second I would have had a worse black and blue eye :p

Any thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? Like it? Hate it? Love it?

R.e.v.i.e.w.

Please?

;]