Disclaimer: Don't own Code Lyoko

Growth and Change

Yumi groaned as she stretched her back. The last Xana attack had been brutal and all she wanted to do was curl up in bed. She got close to her house and noticed a strange smell in the air, emergency vehicles everywhere and an eerie red glow in the evening sky. She got closer and the horror of what she saw dropped her to her knees. Her home was engulfed in flames. Her parents and brother stood outside with the emergency personnel.

"No…" tears fell unchecked down her face as she watched the fire rage on.

Hiroki looked back and noticed her.

"Mama… look"

"Yumi…"

They had been trying to reach her to tell her to stay at the school but her phone had somehow died. To at least spare her the horror of witnessing this, they hadn't been able to protect Hiroki as he had been with then at a dentist appointment when it started so he had been with them when they discovered it.

Yumi barely registered her mother's embrace.

"It will be okay" her mother whispered to her in Japanese.

"No, mama, how can it be okay? we have lost everything!"

Anything else her parents said was lost on her as she sobbed.

Hiroki was holding it together. He had his fit earlier, he wasn't sure what they would do but he trusted his parents.

A sedan pulled up and Jean-Pierre Delmas got out. When he had gotten the phone call that the Ishiyama house had burned he had gotten to work making phone calls and securing the funds to give Yumi and Hiroki room and board for free if they would need it.

"Mr. Delmas… what are you doing here?"

"I came as soon as I heard, Mr. Ishiyama." He said "I wanted to let you know I made some calls and I have secured the option of allowing Yumi and Hiroki to board at the school at no charge to you. I am sure the aid workers have told you that there are clothes and other necessities waiting for you to look through."

"Thank you, one of my coworkers said we could live with him but it is too far for them to walk to school and…"

"I have everything ready… they will both have roommates their own age."

They got some things and returned to the school. Hiroki seemed unsure about boarding, but he was okay when he realized his roommate was a friend of his.

Yumi rubbed her arms nervously. She didn't have many friends in her own grade so she had no idea who she could be rooming with. She said goodbye to her parents and went to her room to see her roommate reading a book with Japanese writing on the front. So he had been told her roommate's name was Bianca Kobayashi so the fact that she knew Japanese shouldn't have been as surprising as it was.

"Hi" she said awkwardly.

"Oh… oh I'm so sorry." A round face peeked out of the book.

Bianca stood and Yumi figured she was about the same height as Odd.

"Welcome… I heard what happened. I'm really sorry, if you need anything just let me know."

Yumi noticed Bianca had the same phone she did.

"Can I borrow your charger?"

"Of course, mine is fully charged."

Yumi plugged her phone in and sat on her new bed.

Bianca watched as Yumi sat awkwardly on the bed. She felt terrible for her, she couldn't imagine what it must feel like to have lost everything but it seemed she couldn't find the words to express her feelings.

"Do you need to work on homework or… want to grab a shower? I usually shower at night, you're more likely to have hot water. Mr. Delmas said they're working on upgrading the water heater to one of those tankless ones that give unlimited hot water but I'll believe it when I see it."

"Shower sounds good… but I didn't get any soap or shampoo."

"You can borrow mine."

"Thanks."

The shower felt good and Yumi was glad she had gotten such a generous roommate.

They returned to the room and Yumi was glad she hadn't run into Aelita or Sissy on the way. Aelita would be worried and she was in no mood for a verbal jousting match with Sissy.

They started on homework and Bianca groaned.

"Tomorrow is Wednesday, right?"

"Yeah… why?"

"I have tutoring tomorrow evening."

"Okay."

~*~

Meanwhile Ulrich was begging Jeremy to run a return to the past in the hope they could somehow save Yumi's house.

"It wasn't Xana… a return to the past will only mean she watches it burn again." Jeremy pointed out logically. "I know that you hate that she's going through this but there isn't anything we can do."

"From what I heard her new roommate Bianca Kobayashi. She's in Yumi's class so I don't know anything about her." Jeremy sighed

"Yeah… I guess you're right… Bianca is pretty cool from what I've seen. She's on the girls' soccer team."

"Okay… hopefully we can keep our secret."

~*~

The next day was uneventful and Yumi decided living on campus wasn't too bad. Doing her research project was going to be easy with the campus library so easy to access. She was just finishing up her paper on Bianca's computer (that she was told she could borrow) when Bianca came in from her tutoring. Instantly Yumi realized something was horribly wrong with Bianca. She seemed upset, her face was puffy and tearstained. She face planted into her bed.

"Are you okay?" Yumi asked though if someone asked her why she asked in Japanese she wouldn't have been able to answer them.

"I don't want to talk about it." She replied as she rolled over with her back to Yumi. "Shut down the computer when you're done."

Bianca didn't say anything else after that.

Yumi watched as Bianca seemingly fell asleep. She was worried about her. Something happened to her, usually, from what she had seen, Bianca was a rather cheerful person. She printed her work, shut the computer down and went to bed. She vaguely heard Bianca rummaging through her belongings and leave, she assumed to take a shower. She would have to keep an eye on Bianca, but she had a bad feeling she wasn't going to like what she found.

To Be Continued…