Life has its way of throwing little wrenches into the works. Kaori met Ryu. She found him intriguing and could not, for the life of her, figure him out. She had led a very sheltered life, after all. His distance made her want to pursue him. And in the meanwhile, she had the complication of Gai. She did find him very handsome, but every time she began to warm toward him, he would do or say something so obnoxious that she remembered why she wasn't warming to him.

Eventually he began to temper his behavior, and she began to feel confident of his presence in her life, however she was still intent on winning the mysterious Ryu. And then there was the butler. At first in the series he seemed to be merely that. He chauffered her everywhere, he directed where people were to put flowers in the house. He was always there. Then when Kaori was being terrorized with images and dreams of her own death, we learned that he had raised her, and taught her everything from how to be a lady, to how to fight with kendo, and it was he who wakened her to the fact that being afraid of dying did not mean she should lose all her courage. It was he who sent her out to join her teammates, and so she arrived just when she was needed, to save them all.

Eventually Ryu, trying to get her to leave him alone, told her about Rie. But Kaori wouldn't give up that easily. However, when she was kidnapped by a demon intent on sacrificing her to revive ancient gods, it was Gai who found her first. It was he who offered his own pain and blood to protect her, and that was when she realized that she loved him, regardless of her feelings for Ryu. Thus it was utterly bewildering when he wouldn't let her make him over as someone more respectable when she went to introduce him to her parents. It was even more confusing when he broke up with her. Rejection was an utterly new experience for her. Like Gai, she had never had anyone of the opposite sex refuse her. Not that she was egotistical, but her experiences were limited and she was extreme class and did not suffer from the Romeo/Juliet syndrome. Too sane.

She and Gai were just beginning to recover their relationship when Ryu went off the deep end because of Rie's death and took on Radiege all by his lonesome. With Gai facing Gure on his own Kaori, Lyta and Ako went to help Ryu. Kaori took a shot meant for Ryu, forcing him off the field of battle to both tend her and receive a lecture on his responsibility to humanity and Earth weighing more than personal revenge. Rie's ghost even came by to make the point. Ryu, strung out and vulnerable to both women, did indeed pull himself together, and with his teammates AND their mentor, together they destroyed Radiege, ending the Vyram threat.

Three years later, Ryu and Kaori got married. Yeah!