Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Perfect Life of Kamiya Kaoru ❯ Prologue Part 2 ( Chapter 3 )

Before I get started I want to say:

 

If hope dies: KEEP BREATHING!!! I truly do care about your health and I hope this next chapter meets your expectations. Your review left me feeling somewhat pressured so I hope you'll find it flattering that I dedicate this chapter to you; my first (and so far only) reviewer!!

 

Prologue Part 2

 

`Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't pan—WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!' Kaoru's intestines were positively lurching with discomfort now, and she hoped she would not get sick. Praying that there was no real cause behind the nausea, Kaoru glanced around the crowded hallway.

 

Spotting one of hers and Kenshin's friends, Seta Soujiro, she hurried over, unaware that her face was paling with every passing second.

 

The dark-haired boy watched Kaoru dash forward smiling his queer, ever-present smile.

 

“Where's the fire, Kaoru-chan?” he laughed. She tried to keep her voice calm and casual like his, but a slight tremor still escaped. `What is the matter with me?'

 

“Sou-kun, have you seen or heard from Kenshin since yesterday? I have a bad feeling…” she let the sentence trail off when she noticed Soujiro's confused brown eyes.

 

“Who?” Kaoru's stomach plummeted a few feet it seemed, and Soujiro must have seen it in her face.

“Do need me to take you to the nurse, Kao---”

 

“No! I just want to see Kenshin. I need to know that he's okay!”

 

“Kaoru,” he spoke patiently, as if lecturing an over-emotional toddler. “You're not making any sense. Who's Kenshin?” Kaoru didn't understand `What's wrong with him today?'

 

She felt her quick temper flare. How dare he act clueless, while Kaoru's own pride was the only thing keeping her on her feet, and not allowing her to double over in pain and fear. She felt as though someone was slowly turning her stomach inside out.

 

She manifested her fear as the only other emotion she felt at the moment. Anger, and - poor Soujiro - he was the only person to take it out on.

 

“Don't tell me you don't know HIMURA KENSHIN! We were all just hanging out the other day!” Soujiro still looked confused, and now just a little scared, and a touch angry at being yelled at for no apparent reason. However, creepy enough, his smile never faltered.

 

“I have no idea what you're talking about, now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for Japanese class,” he spoke with a clipped tone and departed whistling loudly, as if trying to reinforce his happy façade.

 

Kaoru watched him leave with mixed emotions and was so deep in her unpleasant thoughts that she was nearly late to her next class. She became intent on finding someone who could help her.

 

In English, she questioned several people including Tomoe herself. Kaoru had desperately believed that if anyone else remembered Kenshin, it would be Tomoe. So far, everyone's responses had been chillingly similar. “Kenshin who?”

 

“Tomoe-senpai, you haven't heard from Kenshin, have you?” The young woman in question, who was seated in the row before Kaoru's, didn't turn around. After a few more whispered pleas, Kaoru was obliged to tap her on the shoulder. Yukishiro Tomoe glanced behind her, intelligent eyes expressing surprise.

 

“Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were speaking to me. Hmmm… your name is … Kamiya-san?” Kaoru's mouth went dry. No recognition. None whatsoever in those deep, almost black, eyes.

 

Admitting defeat for while, Kaoru yielded to the twisting spasms of pain spiking through her abdomen now. Her breath came in short gasps even when she was sitting down and she doubted whether all the Midol in the world could make a fragment of her agony go away. It was like extreme menstrual cramps from hell.

 

Finally, her teacher barked at her to visit the clinic when she let a tiny moan escape her for the third time.

 

It suddenly hit her hard. She could go straight to the office and see the principal. `He HAS to at least be in their files!' Ignoring the ever-growing panic threatening to crush her chest, Kaoru wrote herself a pass and left eagerly.

 

Miss Sae in the office was chatting away on the phone happily when Kaoru came in, and took a minute to pay attention to the frantic, raven-haired teen.

 

“I talk to you later honey buns!—Yes, can I help you?” Kaoru steadied herself with a deep breath.

 

“I'm concerned about my friend Himura Kenshin. I know it's kind of unusual, but can you make sure he's marked absent for the day?” She barely kept her anticipation in check and tried to smother her doubt with it.

 

She didn't remember any of his teachers calling for him during attendance…

 

Miss Sae began to expertly rifle through student files and attendance slips. Suddenly, as Kaoru feared, she frowned.

 

“I'm sorry, there's no Himura Kenshin registered at this school.”

 

“Are you sure? Could you check again please? He's a senior; captain of the Kendo team for Christ's sake!” Kaoru blurted a little desperately.

 

Miss Sae's normally jovial face bristled at the insinuation that she hadn't done her job correctly.

 

“My son Akira is on the school's kendo team and I believe HE is the captain. Maybe you should see the principal…” She spoke in a much more brusque way than she had on the phone.

 

Kaoru nodded respectfully and traveled around the snippy secretary's desk toward the headmaster's office. This is where she had decided to go in the first place anyway.

 

Seijuro Hiko-sensei was a close friend of the Himura family.

 

Despite this encouraging thought, Kaoru felt a strange sense of foreboding hit her as she stood with her hand poised on the brass doorknob. It was the feeling you read about in books where the main character just knows beyond any doubt, that everything is about to come to a head.

 

It was in here that either Kaoru would finally be granted a bit of relief and her most-likely ally, or her world would come crashing around her ears.

 

She sighed, opened the door, and stepped inside.

 

~Half hour later~

 

“Will you please hear me out?!” Kaoru all but screamed at the infuriating school principal who only looked amused at her temper.

 

“I believe I've heard my fill, tanuki.” Kaoru's mouth worked furiously, but she couldn't think of anything to say that she hadn't already said. Persuasion was not her strength, so she settled for glaring in silent wrath.

 

She was beginning to tire. She only wanted to make sure Kenshin was okay. It seemed like everyone was trying their hardest to keep Kaoru away from the truth, and in all honestly, she was running out of gas. It was all so confusing and she was no closer to finding an answer than she had been that morning…

 

“There is no Himura Kenshin,” he said slowly and for the second time that day, Kaoru was spoken to as if she were a simpleton. “I don't know anyone by that name, and if you can't accept that, then you shouldn't be in my school, girl.”

 

“BUT THERE IS!!!” Her anger and confusion surged and once the adrenaline had worn off, Kaoru was left in shock. She had just blatantly DEFIED the principal and yelled in his face like a child during a temper tantrum.

 

Hiko stood there also; amusement gone from his expression, leaving behind a deadly calm. It came time for his hard-ass educator face.

 

“Say that again.” It was a command hidden in a request. Kaoru couldn't believe this was happening.

 

She parted her lips to speak defiantly, but no sounds came out. Instead, the entire day's stress literally erupted through her stomach and out of her mouth. She heaved her entire lunch and breakfast onto Hiko's desk.

 

Hiko watched the girl retch with a queer expression on his face. That is to say, more queer than the average man who watches a teenage girl throw up all over his desk.

 

This girl was absolutely serious about finding a boy who did not exist in his records. His records had yet to be wrong. He did the only thing he COULD do; he called the girl's family.

 

~Two days Later~

 

Like an automaton, Kaoru said goodbye to her father and hugged her sisters. In a last-ditch attempt to plead her case, Kaoru futilely tried to gain support on the subject of Kenshin from her family.

 

After twelve hours of work, Kaoru got nothing for her efforts save serious questioning of her mental sanity.

 

Her father made the best decision - in his point of view - that he could. 48 hours later, Kaoru's mind had simply gone blank. She was in shock; some would call it denial.

 

On her way to St. Mark's Institution for the Clinically Insane, Kaoru could only wonder how her life had gone from almost perfect to living hell in less than three days…

 

 

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R&R please!