ORO?

Kenshin and the Washing Machine

By Shirou Shinjin.

Disclaimer: I have not, do not, and most likely will never own Rurouni Kenshin, or its characters. They belong to various evil corporations, and the wonderful Watsuki-sama. I'm just going to borrow them for a bit, k?

Also, in case you are wondering, yes SiriusFan13 asked me to post this...

Kenshin was upset. No, upset wasn't quite the right word for it. Incensed would be closer to the mark.

He had returned to the dojo after a long day in town buying groceries, ready to tackle some washing. Despite the view most men his age held of the chore, he enjoyed it immensely. It was so calming, and satisfying to be able to take something and make it clean and pure again.

And yet when he returned, he found the laundry basket oddly empty. Not a stitch of clothing—no yukata, no kimono, no gis... not even the fundoshi he was dead sure he put in there that very morning.

Puzzled, he wandered around the dojo grounds until he came to the storage shed. He could hear something inside, and went to investigate. As he entered, and his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see Kaoru standing in front of two large white boxes, which were making odd rumbling noises.

"Kaoru-dono," he began before being cut off by the exuberant kenjutsu instructor.

"Kenshin! I'm so glad you're home! Look at what we got today!" she exclaimed as she gestured to the two big... things.

"Um... what exactly... are they?" he asked with no small amount of trepidation.

"They're called a 'washing machine' and a 'dryer'."

Kenshin thought on this for a moment. "This wouldn't have something to do with this one's missing laundry, would it?"

"Of course it does, silly! With these gaijen machines," she said, sweeping her hand past them, "you won't ever have to do the washing again!" Clearly, Kaoru was under the mistaken belief that this was a good thing.

"This one won't... have to do washing again?" he asked, somewhat incredulously.

"No! Can you imagine Sano and Yahiko's faces when they find out they can't pick on you for that any more!" Kaoru was practically squealing with delight. She always did have a thing for gaijen inventions, but this was clearly going too far.

Before he could educate Kaoru on the evils of such things, the 'dryer', as Kaoru had called it, ceased its rumbling. "It's done! Come see, Kenshin."

With that, Kaoru opened the small door on the front of the machine and pulled out one of her yukata. With that, she fingered the fabric before putting it up to her face. "Mmm... its so warm and fluffy! Feel it, Kenshin!" she said as she shoved the yukata into his face.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been blushing profusely from having her undergarments pressed to his face, but he was a bit preoccupied. This machine had not just dried the clothes, but it had made them warm and fluffy, too!

'Well,' he thought, 'I could do that if I put the clothesline over a bonfire...' "It's very nice, Kaoru-dono, but this one thinks that..."

The 'washing machine' cut him off by stopping whatever it was doing. Of course, Kaoru immediately pounced on it, and pulled out one of her training gis. It was sopping wet, but obviously clean as a whistle.

Happily chattering on about the wonders of gaijen technology, Kaoru proceeded to show Kenshin how to take the load of clothes from the washing machine, and put them in the dryer, commenting on how this was so much faster and so much more convenient.

Kenshin, meanwhile, was completely at a loss. Washing was practically his hobby for crying out loud, and in one fell swoop, these... these... machines had taken it away from him!

"...and that way, you can spend more time with me—uh, us! More time with us! As in me and Yahiko. And Sano. And maybe Megumi... but not too much with Megumi." Kenshin had completely missed whatever it was she was talking about. That was no doubt going to become a problem later on. "Anyway, I'm going to go take a bath. Have fun, Kenshin!"

With that, she merrily skipped out of the storage shed.

Which brings us back to where we started. Kenshin is downright livid at this turn of events. He never had trusted gaijen contraptions, and this had only served to solidify his distaste for them.

None the less, Kaoru seemed exceedingly pleased with them, and probably wouldn't appreciate it if he, say, dou ryuu sen'ed them into a million tiny pieces. Sighing, he resigned himself to his washing-less fate.

As he walked from the shed, he turned to glare at the foul machines one last time. "You may have won this round, but the war is far from over."

As the days passed, Kenshin found that without his precious washing, he actually didn't seem to do all that much. He discovered that he had rather a lot of free time on his hands. Not having any other hobbies to occupy himself with, he found himself sitting on the engawa, simply thinking.

Which went something along these lines:

"Kaoru. Kaoru. Kaoru. My it's warm today. Kaoru. Kaoru. Kaoru. That's an unusual patch of grass. Kaoru. Kaoru. Kaoru. Kami-sama I'm bored. Maybe I should go see Kaoru. Kaoru. Kaoru..."

After about three days of this, Kenshin was about ready to scream. Not that he minding thinking about Kaoru all the time, but not having anything to do was driving him absolutely bonkers. He decided to do something about that.

Kenshin chose to take up Kaoru's suggestion to spend more time with "us"...

Of course, Kaoru practically fainted when he asked for her to accompany him to dinner the next night. When he asked her if he'd said something wrong, she'd fallen over backwards (quite literally) to assure him that no, he hadn't said anything wrong and yes, she would be happy to come with him.

Predictably, she spent most of the next day at the Akabeko, no doubt talking with Tae. Or perhaps "plotting" would have been more appropriate, but he really didn't mind. It was high time he had started courting her properly. And Kenshin, for his part, was on cloud nine that she had even accepted.

The only dampener on the day was when Kaoru had tried (unsuccessfully) to sneak one of her mother's silk Kimono into the hateful washing machine. Kenshin had only managed a brief glimpse of the garment, but what he saw made his blood boil. It was one of the finest, most beautiful kimono he had ever seen, and he subsequently spent the day fantasising about how she would look in it. He also tried very hard not to think about how, if it hadn't been for that infernal contraption, he would be the one washing it...

Later in the day, an hour or so after lunch time, Kaoru returned to the dojo. Studiously avoiding direct eye contact with Kenshin, she announced that she was going to the shed to put her Kimono in the dryer so she would be warm and fluffy for tonight... so that her KIMONO would be warm and fluffy...

Kenshin chose not to push it, and let her go on her way without saying anything. She was red enough as it was. Then he heard her scream.

Visions of armed men hiding in the shed, attacking his Kaoru-dono filled his mind as he rushed to her rescue. But it was not armed bandits he found, but a distraught Kaoru holding the tattered remains of her mother's silk kimono.

"It..." she began, vainly trying to hold back her tears, "it's ruined. Completely ruined. My mother gave me this kimono when I was four years old..." Throwing caution to the wind, Kenshin knelt down and held Kaoru in a gentle embrace, comforting her. "And now... and now I won't look nice for tonight," she said with a small hiccup.

Kenshin smiled an honest smile, and tilted her face up so he could look into her eyes. "Kaoru-dono, you always look beautiful to this one, no matter what you are wearing. Wearing a less ornate kimono could not possibly detract from your beauty." He tightened his hold on her slightly, and felt her snuggle against his chest as her sobs faded away.

It was a few minutes before Kenshin helped Kaoru stand up, and reverently placed the kimono off to the side. "Do not worry, Kaoru-dono; this one will save what he can, and make you some fine new hair ribbons so that you can keep hold of it."

Kaoru smiled brightly at him. "Thank you, Kenshin. Um... about tonight..."

"This one still intends to take you to dinner, even if it must be in your training gi."

Kaoru laughed. "No need for that... I have a few other... suitable Kimono. But first..." She turned to the machine responsible for the disaster. "Payback," she said as she cracked her knuckles.

"Indeed," Kenshin concurred, drawing his sakabatou. No one, no one, takes away his washing and gets away with it.

Needless to say, Kenshin went back to hand washing all the dojo's laundry from that day on. Especially Kaoru's finer clothes.

Owari

Author's Rambling

So, I was reading back through some of my favourite stories the other day, when I found SiriusFan13's ORO?. Back when I first read it, I suggested a few ideas for future chapters, and this was one of them. Well, kinda.

Anyway, because having to study does wonders for work ethic, I just had to scribble this down. Of course, I then made the mistake of sending it to SiriusFan13... and, here it is.

Anyway, I believe SiriusFan13 is working on a new chapter of ORO? at the moment, so watch out for that one. As for me, it's back to study sobs quietly in a corner

Until next time,

Ja, ne

–賜狼審神

26th October, 2005