I was really disappointed with the way Kaoru was treated towards the end of the manga. I know it's Kenshin's story, but she's still a main character. She did practically nothing after her fight with Kamatari. Towards this end, I've decided to fix that by giving Kaoru a character arc. It starts right after they arrive back in Tokyo and will continue past the end of the manga (not the five years bit, the ending just before that). I'm not cutting Kenshin short, but rather giving Kaoru a chance to become a fully fleshed out character.

Please enjoy!


Kaoru thought over Megumi's words as the group travelled home. Every night before she fell asleep, she remembered the warning verbatim. When she thought over the days leading up to her leaving for Kyoto, she realized she did need to pull herself together. It wouldn't, couldn't, be for Kenshin though. Those words and her fight with the Juppon Gatana member had revealed more of the situation to her than she could have thought possible.

She looked over her hands, noting her callouses and wondering if they had changed since meeting Kenshin. She smiled and laughed with Kenshin, Yahiko, and Sano living with her, but she couldn't always keep it from fading when considering what they had done for her or in her place. The fight with Shishio had belonged to Kenshin, but she shouldn't have been so weak as to have to pass an opponent onto Yahiko alone. The boy had survived, but he was still only ten. Maybe if she'd not let up on her own training, trying to keep up with Yahiko's demands and being in awe of Kenshin's skill, she might have been able to go along with Kenshin to Kyoto in the first place. Well, perhaps not, but she would have followed after him sooner.

She had to go back to how she had regarded herself and her training before they had come to live with her. She needed her skills, and she needed to be prepared in case anything happened again. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu needed a full and proper master. The thought made her heart pound and brought a smile to her face. She enjoyed teaching Yahiko, but there always had been something a little more to improving her own skill. She could no longer put aside herself and her skills.

Kaoru woke up on their first day back in Tokyo earlier than she had in a while. She automatically went straight to her chores, working quickly and efficiently, not caring that Yahiko could help her if she waited until later. She mentally planned out making repairs to areas of the dojo as she cleaned. She almost began to make breakfast before realizing that Kenshin was probably better suited for it.

"You're up early," she heard Kenshin say.

"I've decided to get back into my old habits," she said with a smile. "Then I remembered that it was probably better that you cook."

"If you think so," he said as he joined her in the kitchen. She watched as his eyes flicked over her outfit and knew that he had noticed she wasn't in kimono. "Yahiko isn't up yet," he told her.

"I know, but that doesn't matter. I'm not up to teach him," she said with a shrug.

"Then what are you up for, if you don't mind me asking?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

"I think it's time for me to become a master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu," she said, watching him for his reaction.

He showed only the slightest hint of surprise. "You and Yahiko aren't the only swordsmen that live here," she said, not keeping all of the teasing out of her tone.

"No, we certainly aren't," he said before turning to begin breakfast.

Kaoru let him be and headed for the dojo. She pulled out a bokken and began a kata. She wanted to know she had everything down perfectly before she began moving on. She focused on her body as she performed each move. She had slowed, and some of the moves had lost their distinction. How had she made it through a battle when her kata came out like this? She allowed herself to accept her frustration and grunted. She placed her hands on her hips, bokken still in her hand, and waited for her frustration to pass and for some of her breath to return. All she had to do to fix this was to continue and get better.

"Oi, Ugly!" Yahiko called out.

Kaoru whirled around, irritation rising. She snapped, "What?"

"Breakfast," he said as if that were obvious.

"I'm coming," she told him.

He left immediately. She put away her bokken and headed over to the dining area and joined the rest of them at the table.

"Morning," she greeted as she sat down, receiving only nods from Kenshin and Sano. Kaoru ate with a healthy appetite, automatically watching Kenshin's intake like she had during his recovery in Kyoto.

"Hey, Kenshin," Yahiko piped up suddenly.

"Yes, Yahiko?" he asked, giving the boy his full attention.

"Will you train with me now?" he asked, looking hopeful.

For a second, Kaoru thought Kenshin looked like he would concede and agree to train with Yahiko. She interrupted before that could happen. "No," she said calmly, knowing with a sudden certainty that she needed to do this to keep with her decision.

"What!?" Yahiko said giving her a half surprised half angry look.

"I said no. In order to train with Kenshin, you'll need to get through me," she said firmly, finishing another bite of her meal.

"What for? I beat a member of the Juppon Gatana on my own. You'll be too easy," he complained.

"I beat one as well, remember? If you think it's so easy to beat me then you'll have to prove it," she said with the beginnings of a smirk. This had the makings of a good opportunity to bring down Yahiko's ego to normal levels. She also needed to make sure for herself that it indeed wasn't too easy to bring her down.

"Then let's do it now!" he said, slapping a hand down on the table and getting halfway to his feet.

"You'll wait until I'm done digesting," she told him sternly and ate another bite.

Yahiko growled but sat back down at the table. "I have not seen you fight, that I have not," Kenshin noted abruptly.

"Shouldn't be too much to see," Sano said with a shrug before gulping down more food.

"Hey!" Yahiko shouted angrily.

"You can be put next on the list," Kaoru warned him, pointing her chopsticks at Sano.

Sano laughed. "Looking forward to it."

Kaoru frowned, suddenly feeling like Sano hadn't respected her fighting skills. She remembered an old feeling and swallowed it down.

"Are you alright, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked, talking to her over Sano and Yahiko's bickering.

"I'm fine," she said, deciding she wasn't hungry any longer, "Be ready in twenty minutes Yahiko."

"I will be!" he told her before returning to his argument with Sano.

She left, heading back to the dojo to begin preparing. Yahiko joined her at the agreed upon time, equipped with his shinai and a determined look. Without a word, she entered a starting stance. Kenshin and Sano filed into the dojo silently as Yahiko quickly prepared to fight her.

"Let's do this," he said as soon as he was ready.

She let him make the first attack. She dodged his first few attacks, allowing him to set the pace. She began to block and counter, feeling her body react with old muscle memory as well as learning how Yahiko fought from a new perspective. She began to pick up the pace, taking the edge in the match. He had the basics, certainly, but she had much more than basics. She began to strike harder, scope out openings, and soon enough, she landed a hard hit to his shoulder.

He retreated several paces after the hit. She noticed that he was panting. She took the offense, striking at him whenever she thought she could break his defense, keeping him from attacking her in response. She was proud of him even when she landed a hit to his side. She stopped when she heard him gasping for breath as she'd knocked the wind out of him.

"I think that's enough to prove my point," she said, tucking her bokken into her belt.

"I'm not finished," he croaked out as soon as he had enough air to speak.

"It's enough for today, Yahiko. You won't beat me," she told him gently. "You did well."

"You're better than I thought," Sano said, looking her over and crossing his arms.

She looked at him warily, wondering if he meant insult. "Have you even seen me fight before this?"

He looked at her with wide eyes. "Now that you mention it, I don't think so."

"Then how could you have guessed how well I fight?" she asked, and watched as his gaze shifted directly to Kenshin. She held in a sigh. "Please leave so we can train. I think there are a few things Yahiko and I need to cover in light of recent events."

Sano stood first. "Let's go, Kenshin."

He placed a hand on the shorter man's shoulder, and they both left.

"What do we need to cover?" Yahiko asked once they were gone.

"I'm stepping up the rigor of our sparring," she announced to him, "Also, the times of our practicing may have to change."

"What, why?" he asked, giving her a lost look.

"I'm going to take up a job at the Akebeko. I need to start making more money than we spend if you and Kenshin are going to be living here. I also need my own time to train for becoming a master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu," she explained to him simply.

"You're going to become a master?" he asked; hope suddenly springing into his tone, "Does that mean I get to become adjutant master?"

"Yahiko, to be honest, I am impressed with your improvement and talent," she took a deep breath before continuing. "but I don't think you're ready to become an adjutant master yet. We need to talk about a lot of things before that can happen. There's a philosophy that goes along with this style."

"I know that," he said, a whine edging his words.

"Good, then let's get back to practicing," she said with a smile. "Time for katas."

"Yes," he bemoaned, taking up a stance and beginning.

Kaoru usually would watch him to make sure he was doing everything right and correct his mistakes, but she decided that he was good enough for her time to be more wisely spent. She distanced herself from him and began to practice the more advanced katas she hadn't fit in before breakfast. She told herself she would keep an eye on Yahiko as he practiced, but her entire focus went into performing the motions of her kata correctly. When she finished, she was breathing harder than she expected, disappointing herself.

"Woah," she heard Yahiko half whisper. "Am I going to learn to do that?"

"I know Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is no Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, but it does have something to it," she said, feeling better having said that. She then winced when she realized that she had compared the style her father had created to protect lives to the style created to kill many practically at once. Kenshin used it to protect, but that hadn't been what it had always been used for.

"Is that it for today?" he asked.

"Yes, for kendo. Do you want to come with me to visit the Akabeko?" she asked as she prepared to put her bokken away.

"Sure," he said, preparing to leave as well.

"Kenshin! Sano!" she called out as she left the dojo, "Yahiko and I are headed to the Akebeko!"

"Why? Are you getting food?" Sano asked, popping his head out from behind a screen.

"No, we're going to see if they have any jobs available," she said sourly, crossing her arms.

"Alright, good luck," he said, no longer interested now that he knew food wasn't involved.

"We'll be here, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin called to her from where he was doing laundry.

"See you later!" Yahiko called out as he joined Kaoru.

"Bye," she called out to the two men as they left, shutting the gate behind them.

"Think they'll really have a job for us?" Yahiko asked as they began walking.

"I don't know, but we'd better check before saying anything for sure," Kaoru said before taking the lead.

Yahiko secured his old job upon his return. Tae allowed Kaoru to have a waitress position, as well as washing dishes. She didn't mind the extra work even if she had to sit through Tae's lecture about looking like a woman. Kaoru could manage a change into the kimono uniform. She and Yahiko returned home in time for dinner.

"Welcome back," Kenshin greeted as they entered the dining area. Yahiko plodded in heavily, looking tired.

"What happened to you?" Sano asked, watching Yahiko with wary eyes.

"Nothing, let's eat, I'm hungry," he said, taking a seat at the table.

Kaoru took her usual seat, and Kenshin served, receiving the usual round of thanks. They ate with Sano and Yahiko providing most of the noise and chatter. Kaoru looked up from her food every once in a while to see that Kenshin was looking at her. She gave him a smile once when she caught him, and he gave her a small smile in return. She began cleaning up when their meal was finished, and then headed back to the dojo. She had done a lot that day, but she needed to do more to avoid reverting to how she had been before leaving for Kyoto.

She almost jumped when she heard the door slide open behind her, even if she could tell it was Kenshin. "Is something wrong, Kenshin?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"No, there's nothing wrong," he said, shutting the door behind himself, "I thought that if Kaoru-dono would not allow Yahiko to train with me, perhaps she would let me train with her."

"You want to train with me?" she asked, wondering what made him change his mind. "You told me you wouldn't."

"That I did, but you cannot go to Maekawa's dojo every day to become a master," he explained. "I thought it would be better if I let you train with me."

"Thank you, Kenshin," she said with a smile, grabbing her bokken. He picked up a bokken as well, but she refrained from asking him about it. She took a starting stance, trying not to feel too excited now that she was finally getting her chance to face Kenshin. It was one thing to see and another to face.

When he didn't begin an attack for several moments, she did. She could tell almost instantaneously that she would not win, in a manner starkly different than she had minutes before. Before, she had only seen what he could do, but now she had felt his strength when he blocked her attack. She decided to enjoy the opportunity anyways and fought against him with all her might.

She finished when the dojo became too dark, and she had no energy to carry on pretending she had the capacity of the ocean to wear down a cliff's face. Kenshin put away the bokken he had used, and she followed his lead. "That was good," she said to him as they left. "Reminded me of old times."

"Oro?" he said, confused, "Old times?"

"Yes, Yahiko's the first person I've ever really trained with who's been smaller than me," she said with a shrug.

"Who did you train with then?" he asked, keeping his polite tone even though he was prying a little more than usual.

"Older boys, sometimes men," she said with a shrug. "Even the ones my own age were bigger than me. Yahiko's the first student here to be significantly younger than me, too."

She glanced over at him to see his eyebrows raised. "Don't look so surprised, who else was I supposed to train with?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said with a nod in deference towards her "I know little of what this dojo was like before I arrived."

"It was mostly made up of people who knew and respected my father. The youngest were my age, children of my father's peers. Goodnight Kenshin," she said before turning away for her room.

She readied for bed quickly and fell asleep easily, feeling more content than she had in a while.


I really like Kaoru, and I think she's a really strong character. I also think that she could make a really great partner for Kenshin, and much of her personifies the themes of the series. However, she got a hell of a short stick from the series. She starts off prepared to fight and die for her dojo then ends up letting Kenshin, Sano, and Yahiko do it for her. Despite Watsuki's intentions, he turned her into a damsel. I'm very unhappy about that, and that it feels like she has the least amount of back story out of any major character. This story will hopefully fix that, and I genuinely think that this could turn out fantastically.

I've also decided to have Kenshin speak not in a polite Japanese manner, but a polite English manner. I know English isn't that polite of a language, but I'm writing in English. I'm going to try and cut out the Japanese as much as I can because really, I write in English. I hope this doesn't bother anyone. Names, nicknames, and titles all sort of get a pass though (and Kenshin's 'oro').

Please review!