After returning from a three-year-long injury break in March 2014, Maeda resumed working as a freelancer, before signing with the new Marvelous promotion in January 2015.

[3] After leaving AJW, Maeda began working for Japanese lucha libre promotion Universal Pro-Wrestling, now performing under her given name, stylized in all capital letters.

[1] Through Universal Pro, Kaoru also made appearances in Mexico for the Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) promotion, where she worked under a mask.

[3][11] Kaoru's first Gaea accomplishment took place on September 23, 1995, when she, Meiko Satomura and Tomoko Kuzumi won the Splash J & Running G tournament.

[14] On December 17, 1999, Kaoru turned on the Gaea Seikigun and joined forces with Aja Kong, Lioness Asuka and Sonoko Kato to form the DorA (Dead or Alive) stable.

[20] On May 13, 2001, Kaoru aligned herself with Ozaki and her male manager Police to form the D-Fix stable, with the three attacking and declaring a war on Aja Kong.

[21] On July 29, Kaoru and Ozaki defeated Dynamite Kansai and Toshiyo Yamada in the finals to win a one night tag team tournament.

[22] A month later on August 26, Kaoru defeated Meiko Satomura in the finals of a tournament to become the number one contender to the AAAW Single Championship.

[23] On April 7, 2002, Kaoru and Ozaki defeated Chikayo Nagashima and Sugar Sato to win the AAAW Tag Team Championship.

[28] However, Kaoru's return was short-lived as just five days later, she broke the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee and was again sidelined from in-ring competition.

[31] On September 1, 2006, Kaoru made her return to the United States to take part in the ChickFight VI tournament in San Francisco, California.

[35] In May 2009, Kaoru took part in the first Catch the Wave tournament, during which she also captured DDT Pro-Wrestling's Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, holding it less than a day on June 20.

[37] During the summer of 2009, Kaoru also made several appearances for Meiko Satomura's Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling promotion, where she mainly worked with Hiren.

[43][44] On December 11, 2013, it was announced that Kaoru would be returning to the ring and wrestling her first match in three years on March 22, 2014, at an independent event produced by Chigusa Nagayo.

[54] On October 26, Kaoru and Shimoda defeated Kyoko Inoue and Tomoko Watanabe to win Diana's WWWD World Tag Team Championship.

[62] On February 5, 2009, Kaoru and Ozaki lost the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship to Jungle Jack 21's Aja Kong and Hiroyo Matsumoto in their first defense.

[64] After a successful title defense against Akino and Ran Yu-Yu,[65] Kaoru and Ozaki lost the Tag Team Championship back to Nagashima and Kato on August 2.

[69] In order to reduce Ozaki-gun's numbers advantage over her, Kaoru began teaming with Jungle Jack 21 in 2010, though not officially joining the stable.

[84] She finished the tournament on September 13 with a record of three wins, one draw and one loss, failing to advance to the finals due to losing to Kairi Hojo in the head-to-head match.

[85] On October 16, 2016, Kaoru and Dash Chisako defeated Hikaru Shida and Syuri to win the vacant Sendai Girls World Tag Team Championship.