Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the intellectual property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and is copyrighted to Sony International. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction and no copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 1: The arrival

Tokyo. Meiji 11.

It was a peaceful morning in the Kamiya dojo. Everything was in place and the inhabitants were doing their daily activities. Kenshin was doing the laundry, Sano was lounging again on the porch and Yahiko and Kaoru were training on the grounds.

"Move faster Yahiko!"

Yahiko attacked, Kaoru neatly evaded his attack and hit him on his back, making him fall face-flat on the ground.

Yahiko sat up dazedly, holding his head steady with his right hand. " Itai..." He shook his head to clear away the dizziness then growled at Kaoru. "I'll get you for that busu!"

Kaoru let the busu thing slide and instead taunted her pupil. "Try and get me, Yahiko-CHAN," she said, emphasizing on the -chan to get a rise out of him. A small smile spread on her face when she saw his reaction.

Yahiko tightened his grip at his shinai when he heard the -chan and growled once more. "Why you!" With renewed vigor, he quickly stood up and attacked Kaoru consecutively. The shihandai countered every attack he made, then side-stepped on one of his attacks and hit him on his hand. Yahiko dropped his shinai and held his injured hand. Yahiko glared at Kaoru and she dismissed it with a wave from her hand. "Sa, koi Yahiko!" Yahiko grabbed his shinai and attacked Kaoru again.

"Looks like Jou-chan's giving the brat a hard time" Sano said as he watched the two from his position. Kenshin agreed with him. He watched the two train and focused on the young shihandai.

"She's so beautiful, so innocent. How can I love someone like that? I can't stain her with my bloodstained hands which have killed hundreds of people mercilessly. She deserves someone better than me."

Kenshin's train of thoughts were cut down by a shrill scream. He focused himself on reality again and saw Kaoru slip off on a portion where water suds had fallen off from the washtub. Kenshin hurriedly stood up and tried to catch her but Kaoru accidentally pulled his sleeve sending them both crashing on the washtub.

"Oro..." the now swirly-eyed samurai said as he held a soaking and blushing Kaoru in his arms. Sano and Yahiko, having watched the whole incident were laughing their heads off. Kaoru gave them her patented death glare and tried to stand up but cannot do so because of Kenshin's hold on her.

"Ano... Kenshin, would you mind...?" she said quietly, embarrassed, but secretly liking her position.

Startled by her statement, he realized that he was indeed holding onto her. Kenshin turned a little red and quickly released her. Kaoru stood up and patted off some water from her gi. Kenshin couldn't help but notice the beautiful figure of Kaoru as the wet gi clung onto her like second skin. Kaoru noticed that he was staring at her, and couldn't help but blush and smile a little.

"Nani, Kenshin?"

Coming back to reality once again, Kenshin smiled sheepishly at her and scratched the back of his head. "S-suman de gozaru Kaoru-dono, sessha didn't mean to." Kaoru shook her head at him.

"Iya, I'm the one who should apologize anyway. I wasn't paying enough attention to my surroundings. You should get off that washtub before you catch a cold." She held out a hand to him, which Kenshin gratefully took and he stood up from the washtub.

"You should go change off your clothes, Kaoru-dono" Kaoru nodded, and smiled.

"I'm going to take a bath since I'm wet already" Kaoru then headed to her room to get her clothes.

Sano and Yahiko were still snickering when Kenshin passed them to go to his room. Sano hit him playfully on the shoulder and Yahiko was snickering loudly on the floor, ranting about how Kaoru looked awhile ago.

"Nice going Kenshin! I know you had it in you." Sano smiled widely at the embarrassed rurouni.

"Yeah, busu got her face like a ripe tomato!" Yahiko piped in. Sano and Yahiko looked at each other, and started laughing once more.

"Maa maa, it's nothing like that de gozaru!" Kenshin exclaimed trying to defend himself from the teasing of the two.

Sano wiped off the few tears of laughter that he got and stood from the porch, placing his hands inside his pockets. "Tonikaku, I'll be going now to try off my luck, ja na!" he said as he walked off from the dojo.

Yahiko pulled himself together and stood up as well. "I'm going to the Akabeko, I promised Tae that I would help them today." with that he ran out off the dojo, following in Sano's wake. Kenshin smiled at his friends' antics then went to his room to change his clothes so he could go to the bathhouse to prepare Kaoru's bath.

xoxoxoxoxo

"So you'll be my partner then?" Kurumi asked. Josh nodded. They were walking in the busy streets of Edo, dressed in a modern day Japanese high school uniform. People kept on looking at them and men were whistling at Kurumi. Kurumi would always give them a death glare. One man shouted at Kurumi and made her really pissed off. She was about to strangle the man when Josh held her back.

"Don't mind them, just keep going on." Kurumi scowled but continued to walk.

"Why are we wearing this kind of outfit? I mean. Hello! We're in old century Japan we should be wearing kimonos, not this!" Kurumi ranted, pointing down to her clothes for emphasis. Josh just sighed.

"To tell you the truth, I really don't know why this is the outfit given to us" Josh said in a low voice. They continued walking until they reach the part of town where hoodlums and gangsters stay. Kurumi scooted close to Josh. They turned a corner and were surprised to see four men dressed in black. The group saw them and grinned evilly.

"Look what we got here, a couple of gaijins" one of them leered, probably the leader. Josh stood in front of Kurumi keeping her behind him protectively. Kurumi craned her neck to see the men advancing on them. They were wearing loose fitting yukata, and she could see that all of them have some sort of blade tucked in their belts. From their flushed faces and the stagger in their walk, she realized that all of them were drunk. "This is not good..."

The slinky looking guy at the right end of the group looked Kurumi up and down and smiled lustily. "The girl's not bad boss, probably very tasty." Kurumi shot a glare at him and Josh gave out a low growl. The gangsters laughed.

"Look! The boy is trying to defend his girlfriend, like it would do something good!" One of the men shouted, and all of them went laughing again. Kurumi couldn't help the blush that crept up her cheeks even in their predicament. "He's not my boyfriend!" she thought. The men advanced further.

Josh looked at the group of men in front of them, assessing the situation carefully. "I can fend them off for a while. I need to make sure Kurumi's out of danger." He turned slightly to Kurumi and whispered hastily, "On the count of three, run as fast as you can, I'm gonna hold them back here," Kurumi's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"Are you crazy? You can't possibly beat all of them on your own. I'm not leaving you behind!" she hissed.

"Don't be stupid! Just do what I say and run!"

"But what about you?" Josh shook his head. The men were getting closer to them. They took a step backwards.

"I'll manage, now on the count of three, one, two" The men brought out their blades and were getting really close to them. They took another step backwards.

"THREE!" Josh pushed Kurumi aside and started fighting with the gangsters. He threw a punch to the nearest man to him, and it connected with a resounding sound of skin hitting skin. Kurumi shot a worried glance at her back as she ran as fast as she could, hoping to find some help. She turned a corner and saw someone walking in the street. She ran to person and grabbed his hand.

"Kuso, can't even win in dice. It's not my day, maybe I should drop by the Akabeko and try to get some food," Sano mumbled as he walked down the street. Obviously, he was in the gambling house trying his luck but to no avail failed. He was about to turn a corner when someone suddenly grabbed his hand. He stopped and looked back to find out a girl about 16 years old, panting.

"Onegai shimasu, tasukete!" Sano turned around took a better look at the girl and found out that she was a gaijin.

"Oi, what's the matter?" The girl looked at him, her face filled with worry.

"My friend's being attacked by a group of drunk men!" she said, panic laced in her voice. He nodded.

"Where are they?"

"Follow me" the girl ran through a couple of streets, Sano following her closely. "Man, what a day! First, I didn't even win one single dice and then this?" Sano thought. They continued to run a few more blocks and stopped at a dark alleyway. Sounds of someone getting beaten up could be heard. They entered the alleyway and saw a boy lying on the ground covered with blood. Four men were beating him up. The girl gasped at the sight and was about to cry. Sano cracked his knuckles and went to the men.

"One thing I really don't like is outnumbering their opponents, especially a kid!" Sano exclaimed as he grabbed and punched someone on the head. The others stopped beating the boy and turned to look at him.

"Kisama!" someone shouted then attacked with his dagger. Sano avoided him and kicked him on the gut. The guy let go of his dagger and doubled in pain. He then chopped at the back of his neck, effectively knocking him out. Sano smiled evilly at the remaining two.

"Sa, koi!"

The two remaining men attacked at once. While they were fighting, the girl ran to the boy's side. He was coughing up blood and some of his bones were sticking out. "Please hold on"

Sano finished them quickly and went to the girl. He saw that the boy was completely beaten up and was coughing up blood.

"Move aside, were taking him to a doctor." Sano picked up the boy.

"Arigato gozaimasu, mister"

"Un."

With the boy in his arms, he quickly made way to town followed by the foreign girl.

Author's Note: Whew! Chapter one is out, and there's also a bit of fluff between Kenshin and Kaoru ^_^ Now what will happen to the newcomers?

Glossary for the Japanese terms used in here (in order of appearance):

Itai - ouch
busu - ugly
-chan - a Japanese honorific attached to someone's name. according to wikipedia, in general, chan is used, but is not limited to, babies, young children, grandparents and teenage girls. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, any youthful woman, or even between friends. It can be used for males in some circumstances, but in general this use is rather condescending or intimate.
shihandai - assistant instructor
shinai - bamboo sword used in kendo
koi - come
nani - what
Suman - shortened form of sumanai which means sorry or excuse me
sessha - this unworthy one (Kenshin's way to refer himself)
iya - no (slang form of iie)
tonikaku - anyway
ja na - see you later
Onegai shimasu tasukete - please help
kisama - impolite way of saying you

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