Sorry this took so long! But it is here now, and I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about how Rikako got here in the first place. It's been so long I had to completely re-immerse myself in her character... that was fun.

As far as Rikako could tell, her plan had gone entirely as she'd hoped. Jeremy had used the book to save Aelita. She almost walked in on Jeremy and Aelita's shouting match, in which they decided they should go to Sector 5, which told her they had, fortunately, found their way past whatever trap Xana had set. Though she was aware that they had handled worse- and would continue to- without her help, she still found herself overly concerned with what they were doing.

In the meantime, her French had gotten better by the means of sink or swim, and she was able to hold half a reasonable conversation without too much trouble, though both her grammar and accent were absolutely atrocious still. William and Yumi continued to be godsends though as she struggled to understand what was third grade French at times.

"How have you managed to make it a month without knowing how to talk about eating?" William asked once after hearing her struggle through a French assignment.

"I make vague gestures at food, and I do know the words for breakfast, lunch and dinner... that's all that's really important."

"I can't believe you sometimes." William shook his head in disbelief. "Sometime soon I'm sitting you down and taking you through the food language."

"The what?"

"You know what I mean. You sound like you're two!" It was said with fond exasperation, and Rikako knew that William had, despite himself, become irreversibly attached. She could admit that she had, in her own way, done the same. She missed her older brother and found that William was like him, in some ways. It actually comforted her, in a strange way.

"Sorry I wasn't raised speaking French." She said, rolling her eyes. He responded by doing the same. "Thanks, as always, for the help."

"As always, no problem. You sure you don't want to hang out?"

"Nah, I've got something I need to do. I'll talk to you later." Rikako smiled, grabbing her bag and leaving with a smile. She dropped the smile when she exited the library, her mind on going somewhere, anywhere that could explain what had happened to her. So she headed back to the place she had appeared. She walked straight out the gates without much trouble. She was good at blending, at looking like she belonged. It was a useful, if occasionally distasteful skill, in her opinion. She nearly laughed at herself. She was nothing but an actress now, wasn't she? All she did was attempt to blend, pretend she was not quite who she was. She made her way to the Seine, which resided not too far from the school. The Seine ran all the way through France, if she was remembering correctly. It also contained the island on which the factory remained to this day- in this world, at least- not that she should care.

Here she was, at the place where it all began, a small area where water met shore. She remembered waking up like it was yesterday- wished it was only yesterday. The water had been cold, so cold, and there had been this shocking feeling running through her, an exhilaration that felt so out of place, something she still didn't understand. Despite the coldness, she had not been wet. She'd pushed herself up in confusion, and had been sitting in the water, miraculously dry. She'd stood up, swaying, feeling as though she'd been thrust through a dream.

She stood just before the water, as she had then, and she felt no closer to finding out what happened to her as when she had first emerged from it. She touched the water with the tip of her shoe, watching as water dripped off it. How had she come from this water dry? Perhaps it was a silly thing to focus on, but it was the first question that had popped into her mind.

"You sure do weird things. Don't you have to do something to get out of the school if you aren't a day student?"

"Probably. But most people leave you alone if you don't look scared of getting caught." She didn't bother to turn around, allowing herself to continue her examination of the place she'd arrived at. "Are you following me, Hiroki?"

"Nah," she could hear the dismissal in his voice, but she remembered him as not being above following people when he got curious. Sure enough his next words were "I was just wondering what you were doing, so I came to the same place you did." It tickled a laugh out of her, if only a small one.

"That could be defined as following, you know." She swore she could feel his shrug.

"What are you doing here?" he made his way towards her, and he was standing next to her, looking at her, and she debated, for a moment.

"This is where I... came here from, I guess. I woke up right here." She gestured to the water directly in front of her. "I just woke up here and it was like dropping from a dream into awareness, but I guess I just didn't wake up in the right place."

"Well maybe you were meant to wake here," he said. She looked over at him.

"Oh, what makes you think so?" she asked him, genuinely curious.

"Well, all that kind of stuff happens for a reason, right?" he looked over at her, and he seemed so innocent, so young. It figured she'd choose to confide in someone who wouldn't truly be able to comprehend her pain, beyond the most basic pieces.

"I don't know," she admitted, "but if there is a why, I want to know. This is happening. I don't think even my wildest nightmares would torture me so." She wrapped her arms around herself, hugged herself in an effort to ward off the pain.

"Could you tell the difference? When you got here could you tell it wasn't your world?" she couldn't help the humorless smile that appeared as he asked.

"Immediately. There are a lot of differences. The colors, the people, the very air is different here."

"Vraiment?"

"Yes, really. The colors are different where I come from. I suppose I'd say they were brighter than the colors here. And the people, they look... different. It's hard to explain, but it's an instantly recognizable sort of thing. Although I'm very happy that solar energy is becoming a big thing here. And that climate change is apparently not a thing. Two great things that do not match what was going on in my world, so hallelujah to that, at least." He giggled, and she couldn't help but smile a little more genuinely.

"Maybe there's something you have to do here. Maybe then you'll go home."

"Peut être," she agreed, though she didn't really believe it herself. God forbid she let that stop her from trying, though. "I should go" she said in stilted French (because this was where she was, for goodness sake, this was her reality now, wasn't it? And she needed to learn French, dammit).

"Well okay then," he said, ignoring her change in language. "I'll see you later nee-chan."

"Ciao." She turned and left, taking the same path she'd staggered a month or so before. Why had she taken this path? Was it fate, or destiny, or cruelty leading her on? Would she have found a story wherever she had ended up, or was it always meant to be Kadic?

More questions to which she had no answers.

She stopped just inside the gate of the school after she saw Odd get slapped, and the girl walking away in a huff. She walked toward him. "Bonjour, or maybe no for you." He turned to her, gave her a smile at her weird sounding French, then a shrug.

"Ce sont des choses qui arrivent" it took her a moment to translate that in her head to something like 'it happens'.

"Eh, c'est regrettable." She said, moving closer now. It had been building, this feeling of isolation, this feeling that no one could understand. Perhaps she could... perhaps he would... "I want... I mean, Je veux un baiser." His eyebrows shot up, and she couldn't blame him, she hadn't actually been thinking when she said that, and it was an abrupt and unusual request.

"Tu veut un baiser de moi?" he asked, tapping his lips and looking amused. She was probably blushing rather heavily, but yeah, actually, now that she'd asked, she did want that kiss.

"Oui. Je veux un baiser, pas un petit ami. Je veux le... er...proximity?" despite her confusion, he seemed to get what she meant. He looked at her for a moment, then gestured with his hand for her to follow him. She did. He led her to his and Ulrich's dorm for privacy. He sat her on his bed, then looked at her seriously.

"Tu es certain?" he asked, and she could do nothing but nod. He sat next to her, pulled her close for a moment, kissed her cheeks, her jaw, and then kissed her lips. It was not her first kiss, certainly not, a boy back home held that honor from her eighth grade social, but it had been a while. She clutched at him, trying her best not to lose control and accidently hurt him in her agitation. He turned that chaste kiss into a deeper, more intense kiss. She welcomed it, their bodies moving closer as he wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped hers around his back.

She didn't know how long they were there, losing herself in the feeling of someone being close to her, someone holding her, and she could imagine and pretend that it was someone who knew everything and loved her and wanted her around. She didn't notice the tears until they began to fall into their kisses. Odd pulled away and she just looked at him, still clutching onto him. They remained in each other's arms for a moment, before she detached herself.

"Thank you," the words were barely a whisper, but he heard them.

"You're welcome," he said in very accented English, and she smiled at him. "If you want... you may have another kiss tomorrow," he told her. She was surprised at herself and at him, but then she nodded.

"I'll think about it." She responded. She left the room, pleased that no one saw her leave. She didn't want to deal with the rumors that may have already started. It helped, that kiss. Put a balm on some of the pain. But it didn't cure it. She stumbled up to her room and sat on her bed, her thoughts a whirl. Why had she come here? What had brought her here?

She had never been this unsure before. She had always been content in her life, discounting the normal ups and downs of life on its own. She'd enjoyed her siblings, even if they could be annoying at times. She'd loved her family, had good friends if not great ones. She'd never been especially great. She'd known that. She was intelligent, but not overly so, good at most things but great at little. She liked to doodle on things and talk with her friends and read books. Nothing too amazing, nothing too flashy. Her life, as it had once been, had been soothingly normal.

And she had been fine with that. She had never been overly ambitious- as long as she would one day make an honest living, make her family proud- she was not concerned by what she would do, what she would be. That hadn't been true uncertainty, as she'd had vague ideas of what she'd do, of where she'd go. She'd thought of becoming a graphic designer, something she had some skill with, or perhaps an administrator, as she was good at managing things and rarely felt nervous about business phone calls.

She missed the simplicity of her old life, of knowing where to go and who to trust. She missed the relative safety that disappeared when you knew you were under constant threat of an evil computer virus. Rikako had not been and never would be a fighter. She had no interest in fighting, she hated adrenaline rushes, and she didn't like the uncertainty of this life. Yet she was already a part of it.

What was that phrase people had started using? Ah yes.

Fuck her life.

I decided to incorporate some 'translated' French because I won't be able to write entirely in French forever.