The following night,  Kenshin and Sanosuke entered the bar.  Immediately the woman serving in a thigh-high yet surprisingly low-cut red silk dress offered Kenshin a beer.  (And anything else he may see as well. ) Kenshin politely turned the offered down.  Meanwhile, Sanosuke sat in silent in shock.  When the woman left, Kenshin turned to Sano, "What did you see Kaoru-dono?"
 "No, I think I might have seen something a lot worse.  Kenshin, look at the table to the right, over by the stage.  Does she look familiar?"
 "A little." Kenshin hid a smile.
 "Excuse me, I want to see what this is all about." Sano said angrily as he rose from the table and marched to the woman offering her customers another drink.  Meanwhile, Kenshin scanned the crowd, looking for Kaoru-dono.   In the room at the moment were about thirty men ranging from old samurai to probably husbands.  There were eight women serving them, minus Megumi-dono.  Kenshin smiled at Sano's reaction.  If there was ever a man in jealous outrage, Sano definately was.  Kenshin's thoughts grew darker when he imagined Kaoru in this kind of place.  He'd scanned all the waitresses and none of them had that familiar sway that only Kaoru had.  She must be in the kitchen, he thought.  That would probably explain why she didn't want to tell anyone about it.  Her cooking wasn't always... edible.  Kenshin's thoughts were brightening when a young woman stepped onto the stage. Her face was whitened with rice powder, her eyes outlined in kohl and her lips were a ripe strawberry red.  Her hair was arranged artfully into curls pinned to the top of her head.  In the back, some of her hair flowed mid-back with a few tiny plaits that held beads to them.  She looked out in the crowd and smiled brilliantly before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, and began to sing. She had a beautiful soprano voice which clung to notes like sweet honey in the air.  Her purple kimono, made of silk, shimmered softly in the candlelight as she stepped off the stage and into the crowd.
      It was only a blink of the eye
      Because the sun was shining so brightly
      But even so--this is nonsense--
     As if I had been winked at--
     The pounding will not disappear from my heart

    It's not something that you'll understand even when you see it
    Why did I say that at a time like this?
    I let my chance slip away again today
    Even though this is not in a dream
    It's not love or anything like that
    Why is it then that I can't help but feel anxious about you?

    The person who gave me the love letter
    Is not you--I know that--
    Coolly, to the point of cruelty,
    I refused, saying, "I can't go out with you."

 As Kenshin waited for Sanosuke to return, he watched the woman entertain the crowd.  She's a very beautiful woman, Kenshin thought, feeling guilty that he would even think of any woman besides Kaoru.  He watched the woman glide closer to his table with slight apprehension.  The woman finished her first song and began the next.  She continued to walk through the audience, now and then sitting next to or on the lap of a near by man as she crooned a song about love and needing it desperately.  She finished this song at the table directly in front of Kenshin.
 Kenshin was mesmerized by her.  He knew he shouldn't be.  But when the woman turned towards him and her eyes met his, time stopped.  When he started breathing again, he didn't know.  But the woman looked as if she felt the same shock before a slightly confused look crossed her face.  Within seconds, the look was replaced by a rather playful one.  She began to sing a new song and crossed over to Kenshin.  She stood before him and  gently carressed his scarred cheek.
 
  "Before you.  My life was eternal darkness.
   Before you.  I had no reason to wake.
   But you came, and suddenly the sun woke me from
   my nightmare and I could live again."

 The woman sat next to Kenshin, carressing his hands.  She brought them to her face and kissed them softly before continuing her next verse.  Kenshin sat entranced as he allowed the woman to touch him.  He suddenly had no will to move and only looked deep into the woman's eyes as she sang.  Eyes that Kenshin could almost imagine WAS
Kaoru-dono's eyes.

  "But now, I cannot help myself.
   I must have you near me, always.
   I need you so much tonight,
              That I can barely breathe."

 The woman leaned to Kenshin's ear after the last line and blew gently into his ear.  Kenshin felt himself blush as blood began to singe through his body.  The woman, seeing this laughed huskily and went to the chorus.  She stood up and still holding Kenshin's hand in hers, sang directly to him.  She looked confident as she sang, yet a faint blush beneath the powder could be detected.
  "So now as I stand before you,
   Can you see me as I am?
   I truly want to love you, so please
   Touch me.
   Make me yours tonight.
   Love me.
   For the rest of your life.
   Hold me.
   And never let me go."
 
 The woman finished with tears in her eyes.  She bent and kissed Kenshin lightly and with longing on the lips before waving goodbye to him.  For the rest of her set, she never looked at him again.

     * * *