Character: Kamiya Kaoru

Kamiya Kaoru is a seventeen-year old dojo instructor and the first main character Kenshin meets. Kaoru is a teacher of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryuu style, a swords style used to protect people, and not harm others. Since her father was killed in the war, responsibility for running the family dojo fell to young Kaoru. After defending Kaoru from the fake Battousai and his allies, Kenshin is invited to live at the dojo. Kaoru quickly develops a crush on Kenshin, soon falling in love with him, although she tends to violently deny it. She recognizes that Kenshin, despite his violent past, is a gentle soul who only wants peace by atoning for the lives he stole during the revolution. Although, personality-wise, she is very different than Yukishiro Tomoe, Kenshin's first love, (i.e. Kaoru is loud, brash, insecure, and cannot cook anything tasty), Kenshin sees that she is also selfless, compassionate, and caring of others almost to a fault. Her understanding of his nature and wanting to help him find the peace he so desires also draws him to her. In the manga, he is able to find atonement (and Tomoe's smile) by protecting Kaoru's happiness as well as his new friends. At the end of the series, she and Kenshin marry and have a son together.