"Well then…I guess I'll begin with the story of my parents," sighed Kaoru.

Kiyoko, the second child of a successful and locally well known merchant, was a beautiful raven haired girl with deep blue eyes that never failed to twinkle whenever something interested her. She had a natural gift of attracting anything and everything to her. Animals adored her. Plants bloomed at her touch. Butterflies, an insect she had a forever growing fascination for, would begin to float around her in spring as if she was the most rare and luscious honeysuckle. And of course, she also attracted most boys in and out of town. Because Kiyoko never looked especially at a boy (even though many have tried to court her beginning at the tender age of 11!), her father arranged numerous marriage interviews with men that promised her a comfortable life. However, not one has passed the father's standards for they were all too old, too dismissive, too elaborate and pious, or just not right for his special daughter. After five years and Kiyoko was now sixteen, her father finally found someone most suited for Kiyoko. He was a twenty-five year old man named Katsu.

Katsu had been born into a rather wealthy family famous for their local chain of jewelry stores. Since he was the eldest, Katsu was treated as the heir to his father and was raised separately from his younger siblings. Because of this, he was arrogant, conceited, and self-righteous, but had developed a sense of great leadership and so as long as you didn't step on his heels, Katsu will treat you like a human being, especially if you are of some prestige. Therefore, he respected Kiyoko's father and showed the side of him the elder would find pleasing.

Although Kiyoko has never met Katsu before, the man has seen the girl run around town and explore every corner of it. He fell in love with her movements, so elegant and smooth unlike the rough, sharp voices of the oba-sans in the marketplace. Her dark, ebony hair glittered in the sun and the young man dreamed of running his hand through it. This desire for her grew and grew and eventually, Katsu became restless. Soon enough, he discovered that her father was a close friend of his father's and through that connection, met up with him and gained the approval.

Kiyoko's father arranged a meeting between the two at a nearby restaurant and Kiyoko and Katsu became fast friends. Over the course of the next several months, Katsu tried to win over Kiyoko's heart by bringing her into his home and showing off all of his great achievements and ideals. He drowned her in extravagant gifts and threw anything he considered womanly at her. Kiyoko thanked the man kindly every time and distributed the gifts to her friends and servants. She put up with his gloating and just smiled like a fool. It wasn't as if she didn't like Katsu, his ideals and theories interested her and so did stories about his various journeys, but his personality infuriated her. Kiyoko hated being looked at as a typical rich girl whose head is always floating in the clouds. However, she didn't dare wrong the man because she knew he was the son of her father's good friend. It would kill her to shame her father in any way, shape, or form.

But of course, Kiyoko has her limits and one day, she stormed out of his great mansion and ran to the bridge that hung over the river. She stood in the middle and cried until the sun rose over the horizon. There, was where Kaoru's parents met. Koshijiro was returning from his early morning run when he saw Kiyoko on the bridge. Raised by charitable parents whom help anyone in need, Koshijiro offered to help the girl. She got rather startled for she did not notice his presence and fell into the river. Luckily, it was tranquil in the mornings and Koshijiro was able to get her back to shore easily. From there, they walked back to his house to dry off and became fast friends over breakfast.

Soon enough, they fell in love after several meetings and Kiyoko asked her father to break off her engagement with Katsu. Although it was a little difficult at first, Kiyoko was finally free to marry Koshijiro, but a few weeks before their official engagement, the new couple ran into Katsu when they were strolling by the bank of the river.

Katsu had apparently lost most of his inheritance to his younger sibling who married first. Enraged, he wanted revenge against the couple. He demanded them to return his losses and even challenged Koshijiro to a match for Kiyoko. Koshijiro saw that Katsu had become delirious as his desires grew more and more absurd. Instead of fighting him in a bloody duel, the couple tried to verbally knock some sense into the man, but it was all in vain. Katsu no longer heard human voices and yielded to the devilish thoughts in his mind. He charged towards the couple with his sword at hand and cut Koshijiro's left forearm as he tried to protect Kiyoko. On one charge, Kiyoko fell down and Koshijiro was forced to draw his sword and suppress Katsu. Thankfully, Katsu's stamina had decreased during his fit and so his sword was easily knocked out of his hand when it collided with Koshijiro's.

The man fell to his knees, sweat streaming down both sides of his face. "Katsu-san…" said Kiyoko who had just finished attending to her lover's wounds, "Please come back to your senses. We are terribly sorry for your loss, but placing the blame on us will not make it right. If there's anything we can possibly do, we'll do our best to help."

The man threw himself backwards and cackled towards the sky. "The only thing that will help is for you to marry me. So will you now? Will you help me?" his eyes glowing eerily.

Kiyoko looked at him with wide, horrified eyes and hid herself in Koshijiro's shoulders, sobbing silently. The man will be forever broken.

After the incident, Katsu disappeared and his whereabouts remained unknown. There were rumors that he crossed the oceans, looking for adventure in the new world and more absurd ones such as he was kidnapped or murdered. Others claimed they saw him on a small boat going to Hokkaido, or was it Kyushu? Either way, all of them had no factual basis and he was soon forgotten by many of the townspeople. After all, he'd never been that popular with the common people.

Kaoru sighed, catching her breath; her eyes filled with conflicting emotions. "My parents never forgot him though. Or should I say, they couldn't. Every once in a while a messenger would come with a letter or someone would be outside our door, watching our every move. There was this one time when I saw a messenger giving the letter to my father. The messanger's hands were all shaky and he kept on glancing behind him. After Father finished reading, someone broke through our door and attacked him. As frightened as I was, my body moved on its own and somehow, I managed to get my father's sword to him. The invader lost and was jailed. Afterwards, we never received anything again… That's all I know."

Kenshin looked at her. He had never thought that such a strong-willed girl would have such a terrifying past. Noticing her shaking form, he placed his hand on top of hers and smiled gently when she looked up. "And now, he's back isn't he, Kaoru-dono." The girl nodded and leaned against Kenshin. He placed an arm around her shoulders and whispered into her ear, "I'll be right here if Kaoru-dono is in need of assistance. I won't let this hurt you any deeper than it has already."

"Thank you, Kenshin."

With that, they stared into the distance in silence, the fireflies twinkling around them.

Note: Back in the olden days… girls got married at an awfully young age thus the reason why Kiyoko is only a tween when people began to court her.

Oba-sans: old women

Iris: KJFSDBF I'm so sorry for not updating for so long! I mean I had 90% of this story written, but then life decided to throw some stuff at me and I couldn't dodge them quick enough! ()'' And school finals started so it might take another while for the next chapter to be up, but my plan is for it to be ready by next week or something. Hope you liked this chapter!

And I'd like to thank all my reviewers and readers! Thank you for taking the time to write reviews! I really appreciate each and every one of them! ^^