Himura Kaoru.

Well, you asked who I am, right?

I suppose, though, that if you’re going to get all deep about it, Himura Kaoru isn’t really the answer to that question at all. What you want to know is what makes me myself, and a simple telling of my name is far from that.

I am a swordswoman, first and foremost. I am the assistant master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu style of swordsmanship, the style which my father created and passed down to me. I was only a teenager when he died in battle and left me his only successor, but I have been trained in it since I was only a child. Despite not having quite fully completed my training at the time of my father’s death, I was still equipped to teach the style to the school’s dwindling number of students; however, I now teach only to a boy named Myojin Yahiko, my dojo’s last remaining student and the future of my family’s swordsmanship style.

I am also, recently, a wife. It’s a funny notion, isn’t it? I was told by countless people that being a tomboy was never going to get me a husband, that not having a mother growing up was going to ruin me as a wife, and yet here I am, a happily married woman, more so even than most ‘properly raised’ married women I’ve met. You want to know what’s even more amazing? The real reason I was led to believe I’d never get married is because the man I fell in love with had convinced himself that he didn’t deserve happiness. Isn’t that ridiculous? But it’s alright, I suppose, because eventually he came around. Miraculously, wonderfully oh I’m blushing writing all of this out Himura Kenshin, former Hitokiri Battousai and now reformed man, came to the conclusion that he does deserve a happy life. Well really, I don’t think he thinks he deserves happiness still, but I can at least keep trying to show him that he does So he went out finally got one. And here I am, Himura Kaoru, proud wife…

…and mother! Even funnier, right? This is even more recent than the wife thing (well, of course, I’m not some scarlet woman, you know!), and quite possibly even more exciting. My darling son Kenji was born little under a year ago, and in being so completed my dream of a family with Kenshin. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we make the best parents ever to have walked the earth, but we try our best, and even though I sometimes get so concerned at the way Kenji seems to favor me so much to his father I’m convinced that our son is going to turn out fine. Kenshin is never so sure, even though he’ll never say it—I think he’s afraid that he’s going to ruin him and his innocence and some days it makes me sad to watch him—

--oh my, I’m getting too lost in my own thoughts now. Sorry, sorry! You don’t need to be bothered by all of that, certainly.

What else am I? I guess if I were to describe myself, I’d say… well, generally, I think I’m a nice person! I don’t want to sound full of myself, but I think it is true, most of the time. I’ve got a kinda huge temper, though, so that gets in the way of the niceness sometimes, but over the years I’ve gotten better at controlling it… sort of… a little bit. Whatever! I’m calmer now, I swear, even if I do still occasionally explode at people. Aaaand oh, what else? I’m not a very good cook, that’s a pretty prominent trait. I’ve got stubbornness to contest a mule’s and am really bad handling it when people treat me like a helpless girl. I like to be able to protect myself, and I guess you could say that means I’ve got a lot of pride. I don’t think having pride is a bad thing though, because if I didn’t have pride and I just rolled over every time someone ever told me that I was less of a swordsman because I was a woman, or every time I lost a student at the dojo, or was made fun of, or if I always let others do my fighting for me, I wouldn’t be where I am today, would I? And to tell you the truth, I don’t know what I’d do if here wasn’t where I were.

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