AN: This is just a oneshot that popped into my head while watching the dub of the second season. David Wald does such a fantastic job as Kyouichi! SQUEE!!! I love the final episodes because it makes it so obvious that there are feelings between the Kyouichi and Aoi. Take that, Tatsuma/Aoi shippers! So enjoy!

Disclaimer—Don't own Tokyo Majin

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The thing about falling in love, is that it's so close to the feeling of irritation and annoyance, it's easy to confuse the two.

Really easy.

I never took shit from anybody. I stopped that when I was ten. I realized that the strongest survive and the weakest get walked on and beaten up. Better to be the wolf than the sheep. When my dad died, I stopped caring. I fought for fighting's sake. Violence was easier to deal with than life and I embraced it thoroughly. I never really considered what I was doing 'wrong.' I didn't attack innocents—the people I took down deserved it. They were bastards, every one of them.

I fought harder when my master left. He took me in, taught me everything he knew…and then he was gone one day. I was never able to beat him. He humiliated me—but the humiliation made me try harder. I consumed myself in violence, never stopping, never thinking, just fighting, searching for absolution. All I found was emptiness.

She changed all of that.

I'll never forget when I first saw her. I was in an alley, about to finish off a drug dealing bastard when I heard her voice.

"Please stop!" She cried out. Startled, I looked incredulously to see a girl my age with two ponytails running towards me.

"Huh?" I said confusedly—I'm not very articulate mid-fight.

"I'm not sure what's going on here, but you don't need to beat him so severely!" She said in a rush. I stared at her in shock. Did she even know who she was talking to?

"What?" I snapped, flinging the semi-conscious bastard away from me. He hit the alley wall with a sickening thump.

"This guy's a fucking pig who turns kids into junkies!" I told her acidly.

"That doesn't mean you—" She started to say but I interrupted her.

"This piece of shit gets kids hooked and then he pushes the hard stuff," I said shouldering my bokuto. "He has no reason to live. You know, killing him wouldn't even bother me." I looked at the trash coldly but my words pricked against me. I guess everyone reaches their breaking points—I was about to reach mine.

Till she stepped in.

She stepped towards me and I let out an annoyed, "What?"

She slapped me hard across the face.

No one had ever slapped me like that. No one dared to. I would've beaten the shit out of them if they tried. I couldn't believe she wasn't the least bit afraid or intimidated by me like most of the girls I knew. I looked at her dumb-founded.

"No matter what kind of person someone is, it doesn't mean their heart was corrupted from the start," She said trembling with anger. "Things happen to people. There are sad and difficult events in people's lives—and it crushes their hearts."

I stepped towards her without knowing quite why I was doing so. My eyes widened at her words.

"But no matter how corrupted they may become the true hearts that they were born with still lie somewhere beneath—and that's what I believe," She said still looking at me without the least bit of fear, this five foot nothing girl. "Please don't say things like 'killing him wouldn't bother me' so easily!"

"Enough of this shit!" I snarled. "Out of my way! You have no idea what goes on down here! Come on, move it!"

"No!" She shouted back at me, spreading her arms. What was she, the patron saint of drug dealers?

"What?" I growled.

"I won't move," She said.

"MOVE IT!" I bellowed.

"I won't move!" She shouted again.

"You little—" I was running out of patience. I could easily just shove her out of the way, maybe even knock her out with my weapon—I've done it before. But her eyes…I'd never seen anything like it. They were dark and sparkling, but filled with an inner strength I'd never been able to understand.

The same strength my master had. And my dad.

She's…

I couldn't do it. Defeated, I stepped away from her, shouldering my weapon again. She lowered her arms and seconds passed between us. I turned away from her, and started to walk home.

That was when I fell in love with her.

I didn't realize it till later. Much later. Much, much later. Tatsuma realized it before I did. He was always perceptive about stuff like that. I never told her, but she knew. She must've known. It was why I was such an asshole in the beginning about her trying to fight. It was why I never wanted her to fight, even when I got over myself and let her do her part. It was why I was so pissed off when I found out Kisaragi was going to kill her. It was why I stayed silent when I thought she had feelings for Tatsuma. It was why I wouldn't let her go to China with me to find him.

It was why I held her, the day of our graduation, when she ran to me, crying, begging to let her go with me. She'd done enough. I stroked her hair and gave her the sheathe to my bokuto, the thing that meant the most to me.

It was why I promised her I'd return.

And when she told me she'd be waiting, I knew I had something worth fighting for.