Subject: [KFFDISC] Flower Blooming in a Time of War [Angst]
    Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 23:25:30 EDT
    From: Ranma1517730129@aol.com
Reply-To: kffdisc@nabiki.com
      To: kffdisc@nabiki.com


Hello minna! This is my first fanfiction that I have ever posted after
writing...Oh well I guess I couldn't just let my friends listen to my
deranged ramblings forever huh? Well that aside I guess I should tell you
that Rurouni Kenshin isn't mine. I guess I should also say that I don't own
any of the characters. Is Kaoru's father's name ever mentioned? I made one up
for him cause I didn't know! Oh yeah...Spoilers for the Kyoto Arc, but not
many. I wanted to write a fic that would fit within the continuity of the
manga without disturbing anything. I hope I accomplished that. My friend said
this would be an excellent Doujin. I don't make any money at all from this or
anything for that matter...I'm a stay at home mommy after all. That being
said please don't sue me! My poor husband works hard enough to keep up with
my anime appetite
  ^ ^x


                      Flower Blooming in a Time of War

The Aoiya: Two weeks after the fight with Shishio

    Kamiya Kaoru lay in the garden at the half-rebuilt Aoiya. Stars wheeled
through the sky as she heard the faint din of a party. "Two weeks...You'd
think they'd have had enough by now." Kaoru felt the blush of sake on her
cheeks and the warm taste in her mouth. Her hands threaded through her long
hair and pillowwed her head comfortably. The party sounds reminded her of
home. People laughing, talking, drinking. "Well maybe too much
drinking...Especially Yahiko." Okina periodically burst into song making
Kaoru chuckle in spite of her true feelings. That was when she heard it.
"Kaoru?"
It was Yahiko.
"Kaoru!?"
Maybe if she just lay there he wouldn't see her. What if Kenshin's wounds had
gotten worse...Or...
"BUSU!!!"
He interrupted her thoughts just long enough to make the shihondai very
angry. "What do you want Yahiko-CHAN!" She tried not to let the venom sneak
in. Tonight was supposed to be different. It should be...

    "Hey Busu. Don't let me bug you! I was just worried...Besides Sano was
just gonna' tell us about his trip here from Tokyo to Kyoto, and you know how
much funnier his life is when he's dru...?!?" Yahiko stopped mid way through
his rant. His teacher was lying in the grass staring straight up. The moon
made her look pale as the dead. Her arms were lying behind her head and
Yahiko couldn't help but remember his mother after she had died. Her skin had
had the same rice paper quality his almost sister had in the light of the
moon. The sake was fuzzing up his brain and he felt tears welling up in his
eyes. "Kaoru..." He looked at the shihondai's rising and falling chest. She
would shudder from time to time as if in a sob. One of her hands untangled
from behind her head and wiped at her eyes. The unceremonious act awoke
Yahiko from his trance. "Kaoru...Is something wrong?"
"No."
Yahiko wasn't buying it. "Please, if you have been hurt I Myojin Yahiko the
Tokyo Samurai will take vengeance." She had looked over at Yahiko and he
could make out her red rimmed eyes, the arch in her eyebrows made it evident
that she didn't think he could help. "Please?" He knew that if he waited long
enough his shihondai was a sucker for her number one student...Well, her only
student, if you didn't count Yutaro.  Yahiko didn't.

    "Ok Yahiko...Come join me...I'll tell you a story." Kaoru didn't really
want to be alone anyway. Giving Yahiko a lesson would be just the thing. Her
eyes followed Yahiko until he sat beside her, then returned to the sky and
its twinkling. "Once," Kaoru began "when I was younger my father told me that
life is worth protecting because each life is connected. We are all woven
together in a great tapestry of love and hate, strength and weakness, revenge
and atonement. I had been so angry with him when he told me those words. Not
because of the words, but because of our lives, we..."
"Were you already a student at the time?" Yahiko interrupted
"Don't interrupt. Yes Yahiko I have been a student since I was very young.
However wonderful my father was to me, he just had no idea how to raise a
girl. So I became like his son, I was already tomboyish. I couldn't see any
point or reason in learning to sew, or cook, or do ikebana. It didn't suit
me. I had no mother, and I didn't know many women. There were so many men in
the house..."

    Kaoru's voice trailed off and Yahiko looked back toward the porch and
noticed the whole house had crept outside and was now listening to Kaoru's
story. Sano was apparently in charge of bringing the sake outside as he had
just set down six jugs in the center, keeping one for himself. He wondered
where Kenshin was. "He would probably want to hear."  Yahiko scanned the
garden with his eyes and noticed Misao sitting in a tree halfway between
listening and watching the room on the second floor with the light. "Aoshi's
room." Yahiko realized quickly. "Probably meditating. What does that girl see
in him...Even if she explained it to me I just know I would never get it."
Yahiko ventured. He then continued his search in the garden from his seat
next to Kaoru for the red haired rurouni. Not even a trace of him was evident
to Yahiko in the dark garden. "Oh well I guess he'll miss her story then."

"Yahiko are you listening?" Kaoru's voice reached into his brain and flipped
on the re-play button.

"Yeah, men in the house...sorry." He gave a lame smile.

    "Yahiko, it's okay if you don't want to hear..." Kaoru noticed his
disappointed look...As well as the faces of everyone gathered on the porch
and gave them the benefit of the doubt. "I guess I'll start the real story
then..."

Ten Years Ago: The Bakumatsu: Kamiya Dojo

    "Kaoru-chan?" Masuhiro had looked everywhere for his incorrigible
daughter. "Chibi...Please come out. I know you're mad...But I can finally
explain."

"Forget it!"

He heard Kaoru's falsetto reach him from under the dojo. "There you are." He
peeked his head under the dojo and his hand closed around her ankle. In the
next second a sputtering young Kaoru hung upside-down swinging balled up
fists in a very dirty informal kimono. An embarrassing position for any eight
year old, but more so for the young swords girl. That was when the young girl
began to register the cold draft where she would have known the kimono should
be and threw her hands straight up against her body to secure her clothes.

"Father!"

Kaoru blushed a deep red and attempted to look scandalized. Masuhiro laughed
at his sputtering daughter and placed her on the ground. Perhaps Ichido
sensei's wife was rubbing off on Kaoru after all, she had never been that
worried about her modesty before. "But then she was getting older." He
thought with a smile. "Now will you listen to me?" He asked out loud. He
couldn't help but smile. The eight-year-old was the very picture of adorable
anger. He could never say no to those eyes.

    She looked so much like her mother. Deep blue eyes, thin small frame, the
way her ears curved just so. Her hair hung long down her back. She had
refused to cut it from the day her mother died, vowing that she wouldn't do
so until the end of time. That was her spirit. The spirit that was very much
Masuhiro himself. Fiery, quick, and she could be ever so slightly violent.
Masuhiro hoped it was a phase...She beat up on her friends like a boy, she
would never be marriageable material at this rate. 'Miko' will never forgive
me when I see her again. Kaoru was all muscle, sweat, and swords. Masuhiro
was very proud of his daughter. She would be an excellent master of Kamiya
Kasshin Ryu one-day, if she could find a man that was willing to put up with
his little tomboy he would be worthy enough. She had her mother's ability to
see and bring out the good in anyone and any situation. She was unfailingly
kind, if not rough around the edges. The stubbornness he thought ruefully as
she pursed her lips at him, was definitely all him.

"Okay I'm listening Father. What kept you?"

"Dear god...Should I lie again? What would she think if I didn't." Masuhiro's
mind scrutinized over a formulated answer. "Now Kaoru-chan it isn't like I
was gone very long..." He could see her eyes misting with tears. "Kaoru...Our
sword is necessary. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is a sword that protects. I am
protecting in my own way." He hoped deep down that he wouldn't have to tell
her the truth...The fact that he was not in fact teaching at another
dojo...but...Kaoru was crying and her small hands wrung together. Hands,
Masuhiro realized that were covered in calluses. Calluses earned learning the
style he had just used as a shield for his behavior.
    Kaoru's young eyes were staring up at her father. He had missed her
birthday; he had missed her mother's birthday. She went and laid fresh
flowers at her grave alone. She cried alone asking her mother what was
happening to her family. Strange men moved about the dojo, the students had
whispered names like Hitokiri and Ishinshishi before they had all gone away.
Some of the village children had told Kaoru that their parents had forbidden
them to see her. Kaoru had smiled through it all...Until her room was taken
and she had to move in with her father. It had been months since her father
had seen his normal students. For all intents and purposes the dojo itself
was closed, but it was still a hub of activity for some reason. Some of the
men stayed for weeks, some days, others were like night ships that would only
come in and leave as if they had never come at all. They had all avoided
contact with Kaoru, but she had also had her hands full as a student. A
family friend, a doctor, and his wife had come to live with them days after
the dojo's final formal class so that her father could "travel". Ichido
sensei had moved his practice into her old room. Kaoru now slept with Ichido
sensei's wife Akari. She had, according to her father, moved in with them to
be her teacher. She had tried day after day to teach her Ikebana, but Kaoru
didn't much like flower arrangement. Akari was a good teacher she imagined,
and her father said that she had to learn everything Akari taught, because
even if she was a Master she would still one day also have to be a woman.
Laundry was boring, and her cooking was frightening. Akari had just sort of
let her loose in the kitchen one day. Kaoru thought of that day and frowned.
It was the only time Akari had slapped her. She thought that Kaoru had just
been obstinate and burned all the food neglectfully. When she ordered her to
go back the next day and the same thing happened Kaoru was banned from all
kitchen activity. The only thing that Kaoru enjoyed was writing, and
eventually found that she had excellent penmanship. Her father said it was
because of all the hours in practice. Akari had demanded that she wear a
kimono to classes every day for some reason or another she was convinced that
ladies didn't wear hakama. It was something that they argued...constantly.

    But right now Kamiya Kaoru didn't want to discuss hakama, or calluses, or
bruises. (Apparently, "real ladies" didn't have them.) Or muscles, (that
would go away, ("real ladies" didn't have these either) if she took better
care of her skin) or skin (which apparently would never be white enough
because of years of harsh treatment and neglect...Use Aloe...). Kamiya Kaoru
wanted in. The eight-year-old girl who stood atop the dojo ridgepole and
defeated the boy two classes ahead of her wanted to know the truth. She would
set her jaw and no one would dissuade her. Edo itself would crumble and be
rebuilt before she would budge. Her father would explain why. Why Ichido
sensei would be in what used to be her room all night and come out covered in
blood. Why she would hear curses and screams in the night. Why she would hear
and feel running feet, commands for food, clothing, and bandages. Why the
storage shed was full of weapons, food, clothing, medicine, and bandages. Why
food came and went...

The Aoiya: Ten years into the present

    "Hey Jo-chan...You musta' been pretty sheltered if you didn't understand
all that stuff..." Sanosuke gave his best "I'm adorable please don't hurt me"
look.

"Sano, baka, I am still a woman under all this shihondai. My father felt I
shouldn't be subjected. Besides Ichido sensei's wife told me that since
Ichido's practice was now in the Kamiya Dojo I would see a lot of sickness,
and perhaps death. It was a war out there after all. I just didn't know my
father's place in the war...And I didn't until that night." Kaoru's audience
was captive.

Kamiya Dojo: Ten years ago

    "Well?" she was always so stubborn, impossible, and frustratingly
mothering. How could an eight-year-old be mothering? "Kaoru-chan promise me
right now that you will follow your heart forever and I will tell you
everything." Masuhiro held out his pinky and Kaoru locked her pinky about her
father's larger one. "I will follow my heart forever father." A smile covered
his lips as he led her to the house. "Father...Why are we going into the
house?" Kaoru smiled through her question. "We need tea. All good stories
need refreshment."

Aoiya: The present


"Here, Here!!!"

"Shut up Sanosuke!"

"Ok Jo-chan." Smiling cringe.

Kamiya Dojo: Ten years ago

    Masuhiro smiled at his daughter. This would be harder than he thought. "I
have lied to you kitten." Kaoru's eyes got big and then settled down into her
tea. "Ah, she acts so grown up." He thought. "The men staying here aren't all
just patients of Ichido-san they are also soldiers. Ishin to be exact." His
eyes caught his daughter's shock.

"Ishinshishi? All of them? Father? Are you? Is that where you? Have you been
hurt?" Kaoru began checking her father for imagined wounds.

Masuhiro laughed in spite of the situation. "No Kaoru, I'm not hurt."

"Why did you lie?" Cold blue met his dark coal gray and he reconsidered
telling her.

"Why did you learn Kamiya Kasshin Ryu?" He questioned.


"Father?" Kaoru asked confused. "To protect the ones I love and those who are
not as strong as myself." She said aloud. "And so I don't get chained to a
kimono and a washtub." She added internally with a mental smirk imagining
Ichido sensei's wife in leg irons with a happy smile on her face while she
plunged her hands into soapy water.


"Correct" He looked at Kaoru the student. Thinking of her as his daughter now
would be devastating to his resolve. "I have been away on small missions,
sorties they're called. We deliver medicine, food, weapons, and we bring back
the wounded. I have seen only a little in the way of combat. I have seen much
in the way of death. I have allowed entire clans solace in our walls. I have
slept in the same room as hitokiri. I have carried bodies alive and dead..."

Kaoru's voice was quiet. "You've killed? But father...Our budo...Kamiya
Kasshin Ryu is a preventive style...No killing."

"Kaoru, a sword is a sword. It is what it is. I regret killing those men. You
must understand that I do this in the name of a time when you will teach our
budo in halls where the students speak of kenjutsu as a sword that protects
and never kills. I love you that much." His eyes were filled with remorse and
he looked older than his Thirty-two years.

"You missed seeing mother with me to stand in a field of slaughter? How could
you? I hate you!" Kaoru's words were like whips and her small eight-year-old
frame shook with tears of anger. "You've gone against your budo. You lied
again and again." Her eyes were smoldering.

    "You're right Chibi...I have done it. I protected those men with my
sword. So far, I have not died for them. Many have died for us. Both sides
feel the pang of death, but I have thrown in my lot with the cause I believe
in." Masuhiro was serious. His eyes held his young daughter in them; tears
gently flowed from her blue eyes that were so like her mothers.

"Why though?" she asked pleadingly.

"For your innocence, because you don't understand and I don't want you to."
His eyes were wet and tired. "I must leave again tomorrow. I told you that
already, the state of your kimono would tell the world that." Kaoru winced as
she looked down at the soiled kimono. "Ichido-san tells me that he always
knows I am leaving because you mess up your kimono and hide under the dojo.
Personal habits aside, now that you know where I go, do you feel better?" He
hoped that she would say yes. Her eyes held so much right now.

    "I'm coming with you." Kaoru looked at her father with determination. If
he were going to go out there and defend her, she would be with him.

"No" he said "No you're not. I have kept this from you for your own good. Now
that you know I will not let you do anything so foolish. If I die I have to
know that you will be safe and alive. The world I am helping to create is
worthless without you in it. The deception, the nights I was so far away and
dreaming of home...They would be in vain."

"How long will you be going then?" Kaoru's eyes looked pained.

Masuhiro tried to remember being so obstinate when he was younger. "I may be
gone only three days. After that...You may worry. I think you could handle
the dojo. The Ishin know better than to bother a grieving child. It would be
your decision to let them stay or not" His voice trailed off at his
daughter's strained look.

"Father, you are coming back...right?"

Masuhiro took a deep breath. "I hope I always come home to you Chibi. The
fighting worsens every day however. War is terrible, but I have to protect
the weak. I need to protect the people that can't defend themselves. Most of
all I need to protect those I love."

"But the Dojo is safe. We're safe here. We could stay here forever. No one
would ever dare fight us here, together...Together we could defend." Kaoru
said in a rush.

"Kaoru," he interrupted. "I must protect my loved ones." Masuhiro tried to
smile but found he couldn't. "Chibi, all life is worth protecting because
each life is connected. Yours to mine, mine to your mothers. We are all woven
together in a great tapestry of love and hate, strength and weakness, revenge
and atonement. I have to preserve your thread above all others because yours
is the most beautiful thread of kindness and innocence."

    "Kindness won't save us if the shogun comes to kill me when you're gone."
Kaoru was angry now. Why was he being so stubborn? Certainly she could take
care of herself. She understood what her father had just said, but she
couldn't lose them both.

"Kaoru-chan I'm not finished." This time he was stern and the usual ring in
his voice was dull and flat to her ears. "I can protect you in a way that I
could never protect your mother Makiko...My sword will protect you for now.
There was no enemy for me to fight against when she died. I won't allow you
to die." Masuhiro threw his arms around his daughter and they both found
themselves crying again.

"I won't leave you father! I won't die. I can't die! We are partners. If I
have to stay here, then I will protect this dojo. I will stay alive for
you...We will live for each other." Kaoru choked on the words and tears
stained her young face as she smiled up at her father and master. That was of
course when the world exploded around them.