Heights of Heaven

A Code: Lyoko fanfiction

"So?" asked Odd of Ulrich as they got out of class, Jeremie and Aelita also watching the taciturn boy intently.

"So what?" replied Ulrich.

"Who was that guy this morning?" asked Odd for Aelita and Jeremie as well.

"He's…an old friend. Back before I came here I practiced martial arts at the same school as him. He was the senior student…now he's the master."

"Wait," said Jeremie, butting in, "I thought you said that your master died."

"He did," replied Ulrich, "So Ker's been elevated from senior student to master. He's certainly good enough, even if he is only nineteen."

Odd's eyebrows raised and he whistled. "Wow…there weren't any older students?"

"There weren't ANY other students," replied Ulrich. "It's a fairly unknown discipline…especially considering its power."

"What language was he speaking?" asked Aelita. "I know it was an Asian language, but he doesn't look Asian."

"He was speaking Japanese…which might as well be his first language. He's fluent in English but doesn't like it, and he doesn't speak French."

Odd laughed. "So…wait…you mean all those times that Yumi's cursed at us in Japanese, you've known exactly what she was saying? All those times she just decided to speak in it just so we couldn't tell what she was saying, you knew?"

"Yeah…" said Ulrich, "But she knew that I knew."

"So," asked Jeremie, "How long is he staying?"

"I wouldn't think more than a couple of weeks," said Ulrich. "He's got things of his own to do. Look, I'm going to skip lunch…I've still got some catching up to do with him."

"TSIAH!"

Ulrich's face screwed up into a grimace as he took the same technique that he had accidentally landed on Odd that morning to the side of the chest…thankfully not on his centerline, where the penetrative force of the blow could have stopped his heart, or, had Ker manipulated the force another way, shattered his ribcage. Actually, the attack didn't do much damage to him, even as it sent him skidding backwards a few feet, a testament to his old friend's skill and control. "Ow. How the hell did you get this good?"

Ker took a new stance not unlike something out of the Wing Chun playbook, and Ulrich countered by assuming a very conservative defensive attitude. "I've not stopped my practice…I've been studying since you left…and I was better than you before. With you backsliding, is it really a surprise? Come on, Ulrich-kun…where's the talented kid I knew?"

"Coming at you!" Ulrich abandoned his defensive posture for a crescent kick at Ker's head…and only then realized what his friend had goaded him into as he felt more than saw Ker's hand's divert his attack, then spin him violently to the ground. "Ow again…I took that one hook, line, and sinker. Ah!"

Ker smirked down at where Ulrich had just rolled out of the way of a stomp kick aimed at his sternum. "An opponent in a real fight doesn't let up just because you're on the ground."

Ulrich rolled backwards and to his feet. "I could have sworn this was a spar." He threw a punch at the older boy, intending for it to be only the first part of a combo.

It never came to that, as Ker snatched his hand and forced him to the ground with a twirling series of joint locks that started at the wrist and went down to his shoulder. "And so it is. You'd either be out cold or dead by now if it was a fight by our definitions. I'm just reminding you of a few lessons that you seem to have forgotten." Ker's free fist rapped against Ulrich's exposed temple in reminder of what the classic finish to that move was…a hammerfist that killed or knocked out, and a stomp that shattered one of the opponent's feet.

Ulrich climbed to his feet and shook himself back out as Ker released him and backed off a bit. "Right…most of my fighting has been in Lyoko recently, and it's got some obscure rules that I guess have been getting to my head on the part of the monsters." The younger boy fixed his gaze on his opponent's solar plexus as he let his peripheral vision to go into soft focus, letting him have the best view of his opponent at any range.

"I wouldn't expect your opponents in the real world to show the same behavior. Mixed martial arts tournaments toss Marquis of Queensbury rules out the window…and you're going to see it even less from street punk. Do you at least remember defense?" Ker unloaded a flurry of punches that Ulrich did his best to block, though a number of the strikes seemed to flow through the guard to impact on Ulrich's centerline.

"Not as well as I thought," replied Ulrich, somewhat shakily as he retreated under the hail of punches. Suddenly, he thought he saw a flaw in Ker's routine and disrupted it…

"Wow," commented Odd, "Ulrich is getting himself thrashed. Wait! I think he got him! Go Ulrich!" he cheered as Ulrich threw Ker over his back and to the ground, where he spun and dropped to straddle his old friend while throwing a phoenix-eye punch at the long-haired boy's face.

Yumi was familiar with that move…in fact, she had used in a sparring match against Ulrich on the first day that Odd had come to Kadic. Of course, she had just held Ulrich down while staring at him and blushing, but that wasn't the point. The point was, Ker's fall looked WAY too controlled. "Maybe not…yeah, there he goes."

As Yumi said that, Ker's right arm drove his palm into Ulrich's chest as his legs did something the Japanese girl didn't quite catch. The upshot was that Ulrich was knocked off of the older boy and into the air a ways, where he landed on his front. The somber boy instantly tried to get up, but felt the gentle pressure of the elder's elbow against his neck.

Watching as the two of them got up and bowed to each other, she felt a rush of nostalgia for the days when she had been the one that sparred with Ulrich. As school and XANA had intensified, they had gotten less and less chances, eventually just stopping all together…she wondered what he would say if she brought up the idea of starting again?

"Too bad we can't get him to join us for Lyoko," mused Odd. "He'd rip through XANA's monsters like a blowtorch through butter."

"Don't you mean a hot knife, Odd?" asked Jeremie with a long-suffering tone.

"Nah, Einstein, a hot knife wouldn't be fast enough. I mean, we all know that Ulrich is one of, if not the best martial artist in the school. I still think he LET Yumi throw him around." He gave a big, 180-proof Odd smile.

Yumi flushed. "He did not! We trained seriously!"

Odd laughed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. But even if Ulrich wasn't using those spars as a excuse to get a little closer to Ms. Egyptian here, he's pretty damn good, isn't he?"

Jeremie frowned. "There's no denying that…"

Aelita glanced at Odd. "I thought Yumi was from Japan…"

"I am," she interjected.

"Well, Princess, I'm just thinking that she's living at least byde Nile, if not in it." He burst out laughing.

Yumi gave him an unamused look. "Odd, if we're talking rivers, you might want to keep in mind that I trained with Ulrich and back in Japan. That makes me more of an Amazon." She smirked evilly and advanced on him, clapping one fist into her open palm as she walked towards him.

Odd yelped jokingly and pretended to run away. Jeremie continued to regard the long-haired boy. "Well," the French boy meditated, "Even if he could stay here, could we trust him with the secret?"

Yumi looked over at him in surprise. "Ulrich does."

Jeremie's head snapped over to her. "What did you say!"

Yumi knew that she was going to regret having revealed that. Still, there was nothing she could do now. "Ulrich already told him…he had him swear to secrecy, Jeremie."

Her words didn't register with the blonde. Jeremie stormed off, obviously more than a little upset. Aelita, Odd, and Yumi looked incredulously at each other. What had gotten into Jeremie?

A/N: I feel somewhat sad. Nearly 55 hits and only two reviews? I know I don't beg for them, but they are helpful for figuring out what I'm doing wrong, and what I'm doing right. They let me make the story better…so help me out here…please? Just drop me a review…tell me what you like, and what you don't like. I'm not going to put a number of reviews I have to receive before I write another chapter, but please show me I'm not just getting a few clicks and less people actually reading this.